Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000097
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00:02 ♪ (Theme Song) ♪ ♪ Jesus is worthy ♪
00:06 ♪ oh yes, he's worthy ♪ ♪ worthy of all... ♪ 00:12 ♪ all the praise ♪ Pastor Byrd: If you would 00:20 take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Ezekiel. 00:23 Ezekiel 37, a very familiar passage of Scripture. 00:28 Ezekiel 37. 00:30 We're going to read from this passage 00:35 these first 14 verses. 00:37 Ezekiel 37:1. 00:38 If you have it let me hear you say Amen. 00:45 The Word of God says: "The hand of the Lord 00:51 was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, 00:54 and set me down in the midst of the valley 00:58 which was full of bones. 01:00 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, 01:03 there were very many in the open valley; 01:05 and, lo, they were very" what, everybody? 01:08 They were very what, everybody? 01:10 "Dry. 01:11 And he said unto me, Son of man, 01:16 can these bones live? 01:22 And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 01:27 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, 01:30 and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word 01:32 of the Lord. 01:33 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; 01:36 Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, 01:38 and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, 01:41 and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, 01:44 and put breath in you, and ye shall live; 01:47 and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 01:53 So I prophesied as I was commanded: 01:55 and as I prophesied, there was a noise, 01:57 and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, 01:59 bone to his bone. 02:00 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh 02:03 came up upon them, and the skin covered them 02:06 above: but there was no breath in them. 02:11 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, 02:14 prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, 02:17 Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds. 02:21 O breath, and breathe upon these slain, 02:23 that they may live. 02:24 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into 02:27 them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, 02:30 an exceeding great army. 02:32 Then he said unto me, Son of man, 02:35 these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, 02:39 Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: 02:44 we are cut off for our parts. 02:46 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; 02:49 Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you 02:54 to come up out of your graves, and bring you into 02:56 the land of Israel. 02:57 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, 03:03 when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you 03:07 up out of your graves. 03:08 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall 03:12 place you in your own land: then shall ye know that 03:16 I the Lord have spoke it, and performed it, 03:24 saith the Lord." 03:25 We need a revival. 03:26 God, right now, breath in Oakwood Church, 03:30 breath in the airways that transmit this message, 03:39 and, God, we give you the praise, the honor, 03:41 the glory for what you're going to do. 03:43 Forgive us of our sins. 03:44 Hide me behind your cross. 03:45 And when the appeal is made, God, may your people come 03:48 running to Thee. 03:50 In the name of Jesus. 03:51 Amen. 03:54 We need a revival. 03:58 The first 14 verses of Ezekiel as recorded in Chapter 37 04:04 can be divided into two parts. 04:07 Verses 1 through 10 record the vision Ezekiel sees, 04:11 and verse 11 through 14 provide its interpretation. 04:16 Now let's be clear from the outset, 04:18 Ezekiel doesn't have a dream, but Ezekiel sees a vision. 04:26 There's a difference between a dream and a vision. 04:31 A dream is a series of thoughts, images 04:34 and sensations that occur in a person's mind 04:36 when they're asleep. 04:37 But a vision is a supernatural appearance that conveys 04:42 a revelation. 04:43 Which means Ezekiel is not just seeing something in his sleep. 04:49 Ezekiel is receiving a message from God to be revealed 04:52 to God's people. 04:54 Now, what Ezekiel sees in the text is the nation 04:58 of Israel as described in verses 1 through 10 05:01 as dead, dry and in the valley. 05:05 There had been a fall in the Israeli encampment. 05:09 Israel's temple had been burned. 05:11 The Israelites had been slaughtered. 05:14 Israel's nobles had been banished. 05:16 And Israel's life was now extinct. 05:20 And to speak of returning success to the nation of Israel 05:24 was like talking of the restoration of vitality 05:28 to dead, dry bones lying in a valley. 05:32 Now, to be dead is to be no longer alive. 05:36 Extinguished. 05:38 Lacking luster and movement. 05:41 To be dry is without moisture. 05:44 It's to be cold, unfriendly and uninteresting. 05:47 To be in a valley is to be in a low place. 05:50 Israel was no longer alive. 05:53 It was extinguished, lacking luster, cold, unfriendly, 05:57 all in a low area. 05:59 Its economy was destitute. 06:02 Its people were indigent. 06:04 Its spirit was lifeless. 06:07 Its nationalism was non-existent. 06:10 Its socialism was decadent. 06:13 And its spirituality was absent. 06:16 The Israelites have become the living dead. 06:20 Ezekiel's job now is to communicate the need for 06:24 spiritual renewal and revival in Israel so that the glory 06:29 of God could return. 06:30 Ezekiel was to interpret the misinterpretations 06:33 that had rested in the hearts and minds of 06:37 the Hebrew people. 06:39 For understand, the Hebrew people, they had 06:42 misunderstandings about God. 06:44 You see, they thought God was limited to one place. 06:49 They thought God was restricted. 06:51 They thought God was localized. 06:54 That God wasn't omnipresent. 06:56 And because they had been exiled into Babylon 06:58 they thought God had abandoned them. 07:01 But not only that, they had a misunderstanding of who 07:04 God was. 07:05 They thought that God wouldn't allow any military forces to 07:09 uproot them from their land and relocate them 07:12 somewhere else. 07:13 In other words, in our plain English, they didn't think God 07:16 would let them get beat up and pushed around 07:19 by their enemies. 07:21 But somebody knows in this place today that sometimes God 07:24 allows you to go through the fire 07:27 so that you might come out as pure gold. 07:30 In this life I'm learning you don't win every battle, 07:34 but with God you do win the war. 07:36 And so the image of Ezekiel 37 is a depiction 07:39 of the reanimation of life granted to us by 07:42 the spirit of God. 07:44 That the spirit of God breathes life back into tired lives, 07:50 renews, restores and even revives that which was once 07:54 alive, but is now dead. 07:57 But then, how could revival of a fallen nation be possible 08:02 when its spiritual life was diseased, decadent, distressing 08:05 and deteriorating? 08:06 For when you are weak spiritually everything else 08:12 is going to be weak. 08:13 So how can one move, how can one grow, how can one have life 08:18 when one is unresponsive to God's call, unmoved 08:23 by God's claim and unchanged by God's character? 08:27 Are we, people who come Sabbath after Sabbath, dead, dry 08:37 and in the valley? 08:38 In the church, but spiritually dead? 08:42 For it's one thing to be in church, 08:45 but it's another thing to be in Christ. 08:47 It's one thing to be in the building, 08:49 but another thing to be in the body. 08:51 One thing to be in the sanctuary, but another thing to 08:53 be in the spirit. 08:54 Everybody that's in church is not in God. 08:58 Everybody that knows the Bible does not know Jesus. 09:02 Everybody that has religion does not have faith. 09:04 And everybody talking about heaven ain't going to heaven. 09:08 Ezekiel says the hand of the Lord carried him 09:13 to a valley of dry, dead bones. 09:17 Now, let me stop right here for a minute. 09:19 Understand, the text says that the hand of the Lord 09:23 carried Ezekiel. 09:24 Let me try to say that one more time. 09:26 The text says that the hand of the Lord carried Ezekiel. 09:31 Which means God called Ezekiel to ministry. 09:35 Ezekiel didn't just stumble upon the valley. 09:39 The hand of the Lord took him to the valley. 09:44 If God had not called him, he would have never 09:47 found himself in the valley in the first place. 09:50 I hear people say all the time, especially here in Huntsville, 09:53 the Lord called me to ministry. 09:57 I've been called to ministry. 09:58 But I dare to ask you, have you? 10:03 Are you sure it was God's voice and not somebody else's? 10:07 Are you sure it was God's hand and not somebody else's? 10:10 The devil speaks, too. 10:11 The devil leads, too. 10:15 Ezekiel says, yes to God's call and to what God tells you 10:19 to do, let me tell you, can be the hardest decision 10:22 you make in the world, because when you say 10:24 yes to God, what you're really saying it no to the devil 10:27 and then the devil makes it his mission to get you to deny God 10:31 and take your yes back from God. 10:33 Anybody who has ever lived, you know, I have a birthday 10:37 this month, I'm getting a little older. 10:39 Come on, say Amen. 10:40 Anyone who has surrendered their life to the Lord knows 10:45 that if you know Jesus 10 years, 10 months, 10 weeks, 10:50 or 10 days the devil has picked you out 10:54 to pick on you. 10:56 And if the devil isn't messing with you, I dare to say that 11:00 you and the devil must be running in the same direction. 11:03 Ezekiel surveyed the valley of dead, dry bones, but these 11:12 bones were not merely bones. 11:15 These were the skeletal remains of people who had children, who 11:20 had family, who had names, who had legacies, who had 11:23 histories, he saw many bones. 11:26 The number of bones seemed to indicate some kind 11:29 of mass catastrophe. 11:31 And as many bones as he saw, that's how many despairs 11:34 he witnessed. 11:36 The valley was full of bones. 11:37 The bones were not only dead bones, but the bones were also 11:41 dry bones. 11:43 Everybody say dry bones. 11:45 The dry condition of these bones suggests that these 11:49 people had been dead a long time, that these were people 11:52 who did not receive a burial, the sun had bleached them 11:56 white, the sands kept them clean. 12:00 Understand, Ezekiel knew that if God wanted to, God could 12:04 bring the dead back to life. 12:07 But there was no hint of hope, no suggestion of possibility, 12:12 no indication of probability, and so God asked 12:16 that infamous question. 12:18 He says, Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? 12:31 Now, Ezekiel doesn't answer too quickly for on the surface this 12:36 seems like a ludicrous question, for why would 12:39 an all creator, all knowing, all sovereign God 12:42 ask Ezekiel such a question in the first place? 12:47 But let's take this question and let's move it 12:51 from sixth century B.C. 12:53 and let's move this question to 21st century A.D. 12:58 Can these bones live? 13:05 Everyone at some time or another has been 13:08 in the valley of dead, dry bones. 13:11 For someone it was a divorce. 13:12 For another individual it was a loss of a child. 13:16 To someone else it was failing a class and then having to 13:18 repeat the same class by the same teacher. 13:21 For somebody else it was learning you had cancer 13:24 or you had HIV or some other debilitating disease. 13:27 For somebody else it was the satanic stronghold 13:30 of alcohol or illicit drugs or the ungodly soul 13:33 ties of a relationship that you thought was a match 13:36 made in heaven only to later learn it was a nightmare 13:39 on Elm Street. 13:41 Everybody has a valley. 13:46 So the question is asked again, can these bones live? 13:54 But let's take the question a step further. 13:56 Let's move that question from our personal, 13:58 individual lives to the collective life 14:01 of the church, and let's look at the people 14:04 who sit in the pews every week, and let's ask 14:07 the same question. 14:08 Can these people that look alive, but are no more 14:13 than dead cadavers, can these bones live? 14:19 Can our churches that used to be alive and well, packed 14:24 and full, citadels of hope, bastions of energy, now dying, 14:29 decaying and deteriorating, can these bones live? 14:33 Can our churches who are still performing 8-track ministry 14:37 in a DVD society, can these bones live? 14:43 Can our churches who spend countless hours of debate over 14:49 women's ordination, drums and guitars in worship, 14:53 church policy and procedure and attendance at church board 14:57 meeting, instead of countless hours in prayer, 15:00 in Bible study, church worship, attendance at revival, 15:03 can these bones live? 15:05 Can our churches that have the three angels' messages 15:10 of Revelation 14, the prophecies of Daniel 15:13 and the Revelation, the commandments of Exodus, 15:16 Chapter 20, the life, the liberty and love 15:19 of Jesus in the Gospel, can these churches who 15:23 know all this stuff, but refuse to live this stuff, wake up 15:28 and realize the times in which we live, that we have 15:30 just seen a new Jesuit pope, war in Syria, imminent war 15:35 with North Korea, same-sex marriage legislation 15:38 on the horizon, gun control out of control, 15:42 and a continually declining economy, 15:44 can these bones live? 15:52 And the only correct answer that I can come up with 15:55 is the same answer that Ezekiel came up with. 16:01 O, Lord God, only thou knowest. 16:06 Notice, his answer was not God, these bones can live if you 16:13 bring them to life. 16:16 But his answer is rather an answer of faith. 16:20 Faith does not assume anything about the answer 16:23 to the question, but faith simply affirms 16:25 that God knows the answer regardless of what the answer 16:28 actually is, because it isn't the answer that really matters. 16:32 What matters is that God who knows is a God who 16:35 can be trusted. 16:37 So the answer of faith says, God, only thou knowest. 16:48 So now, Ezekiel repeats what God told him to do. 16:54 Prophesy upon these bones. 16:56 Preach onto these bones. 16:59 And oh, dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. 17:04 Now, I must confess, when you stand up here to preach, 17:08 be it here or anywhere else, preaching is not easy, 17:11 because when you stand in audiences and congregations 17:14 week after week, preaching is not easy. 17:16 Everybody expects you to hit a home run. 17:19 You have to have logos, ethos, pathos and stamina 17:23 all at the same time. 17:24 You have to be logical, emotional and credible all 17:28 at the same time. 17:29 And it's hard enough to preach to those that move and stir 17:34 around, but to preach to that which is dead and dry, 17:40 I'm preaching today, is an awful thing. 17:46 My travels have taken me to some dry, dead audiences. 17:52 Has there ever been a pitiful view of Christians who are 17:56 unmoved by the power of God's Word? 17:59 Is there yet a sight of church folk who resemble dead, 18:03 dry bones in the valley and can't get excited when I 18:06 think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me? 18:09 Is there yet a glimpse of dead, dry bones who sit in the pews 18:14 week after week and are unaltered by 18:16 the call of God? 18:20 I hope not. 18:21 But I'm here to tell you that it's tough to preach 18:24 to Christians who are like wheelbarrows, 18:27 no good unless pushed. 18:30 It's tough to preach to Christians like canoes, 18:35 where they have to be paddled. 18:37 It's tough to preach to kittens when they're only content 18:40 when they're petted. 18:42 Then there are some Christians like footballs, 18:44 you don't know which way they will bounce next. 18:46 Some are like balloons, full of wind, ready to blow up. 18:50 Some are like trailers, they have to be pulled. 18:53 And then there are some, friends of mine, like lights, 18:56 they keep going on and off. 19:02 It becomes a tough assignment. 19:05 But yet, that's often what God deals with. 19:08 The unusual, the uncanny, the unique, the impossible, 19:13 and God says, if this is your ministry, 19:16 I call you to preach the Word, preach the Word even if they 19:21 are dead, dry and in the valley. 19:23 Speak the Word of God to them and say to them all, 19:29 hear the Word of the Lord. 19:31 Ezekiel was assigned by God to preach to these dry, 19:35 dead bones, but as Ezekiel begins to preach 19:40 something begins to happen. 19:42 As Ezekiel begins to speak, revival begins to take place. 19:49 As Ezekiel begins to speak, reanimation begins 19:53 to take place. 19:54 As Ezekiel begins to preach, reassembling begins 19:59 to take place. 20:00 But it's not just enough to reanimate and reassemble 20:03 life, but there also has to be a reunion of life. 20:07 And so at that moment God begins to reverse the process 20:10 of decomposition. 20:11 He says preach the Word. 20:14 And as Ezekiel begins to preach the Word decomposition reverses 20:17 itself, breath enters the body, tendons steel the bones, flesh 20:23 comes upon the tendons, and then skin comes up 20:27 upon the flesh. 20:28 But that's the reversal of the process of decomposition 20:32 because when a man dies the normal process of death 20:35 is breath leaves the body, the flesh deteriorates, 20:39 the skin and flesh decompose, tendons disintegrate, 20:43 and then there's nothing left but bare skeletal remains. 20:46 But I serve a God who can do the impossible. 20:53 I serve a God who can reverse the decomposition process. 21:01 God can quicken the dead. 21:03 God can raise life among the dead. 21:06 God is the resurrection and the life. 21:09 God is the Alpha and the Omega. 21:10 God is the first and the last. 21:11 God is the beginning and the end. 21:15 And so God says to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, preach the Word. 21:24 And don't preach this cotton candy preaching 21:26 either, where it's sweet on the outside and hollow 21:29 and empty on the inside. 21:31 Preach the Word. 21:32 It is our duty to preach to all men. 21:35 We are to preach beside all waters. 21:37 We are to preach in season and out. 21:39 When it's two people we are to preach just as hard 21:41 as we would to two thousand. 21:42 God said, where there are two or three gathered in my name 21:44 I shall be in the midst. 21:46 All we've go to do is preach God's truth and God's strength, 21:49 God will quicken whom he will, when he will, where he will, 21:53 how he will. 21:55 Ezekiel began to preach and revival began to take place 21:59 in the valley. 22:00 Somebody knows what happens when revival happens. 22:03 Somebody knows what happens when revival gets good, 22:06 the preacher gets to preaching, the choir gets to singing, 22:11 the organist gets to playing, the Holy Ghost gets to moving, 22:15 the saints get to shouting, souls stop sinning, 22:19 gossipers stop gossiping, complainers stop complaining, 22:23 and prayer warriors start praying when revival 22:26 takes place. 22:27 Ezekiel begins to preach to the dry, dead bones, 22:32 and the bones, the Bible says, 22:34 begin to fit together. 22:37 Now Ezekiel gets a little happy. 22:40 Now Ezekiel begins to raise his voice a little bit. 22:44 Now Ezekiel begins to clap his hands a little bit. 22:47 Now Ezekiel bends down like this and begins to stamp 22:50 his feet a little bit. 22:51 Now Ezekiel begins to whoop and hum a little bit, 22:53 because he's thanking God for his dry bones. 22:58 His valley let him see God perform orthopedic surgery 23:01 that lets the ankle bone be connected to the leg bone, 23:06 the leg bone be connected to the knee bone, 23:09 the knee bone be connected to the hip bone, the hip bone 23:12 be connected to the backbone, the backbone be connected 23:16 to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone be connected 23:19 to the neck bone, the neck bone be connected to the head bone, 23:25 and O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. 23:30 I'm a witness today that preaching the Word of God 23:34 will wake up dry, dead bones. 23:38 I said, preaching the Word of God will wake up 23:42 dry, dead bones. 23:44 Thank God for the Word. 23:46 I said, thank God for the Word. 23:48 God's Word sharper than any two-edged sword. 23:52 God's Word is a lamp unto to my feet and a light unto my path. 23:56 God's Word have I hid in my heart that I 23:58 might not sin against thee. 24:01 I asked myself all the time, how can people come to church, 24:04 hear the Word, and leave the same way they came? 24:10 It's because, according to the text, they got 24:13 the reanimation and they got the reassembly, 24:17 but that's not the end of the process. 24:19 Because when you read the Word of God in verse 8, it says that 24:22 these people, although they now had shape and form, they still 24:25 had no breath in them. 24:26 Which means Ezekiel had a measure of success 24:32 in preaching to the bones and a wonderful success 24:34 it appeared to be. 24:35 The bones came together, bone to bone, 24:37 but the Bible says there was no breath in them. 24:39 Ezekiel had done, yes, his work in preaching, but there was 24:42 still something else that was needed. 24:44 And that's just like many of us. 24:48 We preach and we think we've done something, we clap, 24:54 we stomp, we shout, and people pat us on the back 24:59 and we think we've done something. 25:02 But, friends of mine, if it's void of the breath, if it's 25:06 void of the Holy Spirit, if it's void 25:09 of the anointing, all it is is sounding brass 25:13 and tinkling cymbals. 25:14 Life can only come from God's spirit. 25:20 The best preaching cannot create life. 25:23 The best singing cannot create life. 25:25 The best testimonies cannot create life. 25:29 Only God can give life. 25:31 Only God can wake you up this morning. 25:34 The alarm clock didn't do it, God did it. 25:37 Only God can sustain your life. 25:40 The doctor didn't do it, God did it. 25:43 God is life. 25:45 All life begins in God and flows from God. 25:48 God is the life of life. 25:50 God is the giver of life. 25:51 God is the sustainer of life. 25:53 God is the way to life. 25:54 God is the way in life. 25:56 God is the way for life. 25:57 God is the way of life. 25:58 And God is a joy in my life. 26:02 So now, Ezekiel must prophesy to the wind, to the Holy Ghost, 26:09 to breath on dry, dead bones. 26:12 PB: Thank you very much for tuning in and watching 26:15 Breath of Life today. 26:17 We do hope that you were blessed by our ministry 26:20 and that we gave a healing word in a hurting world. 26:24 In order for Breath of Life to continue ministry, 26:27 we need you. 26:28 We need your prayers, we need your support. 26:31 We want you to know that any and all donations, small 26:34 or great, they are sincerely welcome and appreciated. 26:38 To contact us or to make your donation, please feel free to 26:41 give us a call at 877-BOL-OFFER. 26:46 That's 877-BOL-OFFER. 26:52 Or you may write to us at Breath of Life, P.O. Box 340, 27:03 Newbury Park, California 91319. 27:05 P.O. Box 340, Newbury Park, California 91319. 27:08 Or log onto our web site at www.breathoflife.tv. 27:13 >: It's an age old question, what happens to us 27:16 after we die? 27:17 The Breath of Life gift offer this week is "What the Bible 27:20 Says about Death." This little book peels back the theories 27:23 the world has on the afterlife and carefully explains what's 27:27 accurate based on a source we can really rely on, God's Word. 27:32 Discover what the Bible says about the soul, human nature, 27:35 talking to the dead, the coming millennium, the resurrection, 27:39 and hell. 27:40 "What the Bible Says about Death" is yours for a gift 27:42 of $5 or more. 27:43 Just call our toll free number 877-BOL-OFFER. 27:50 That's 877-265-6333. 27:52 Please have your credit ready when you call. 27:54 Or you may write us to request your copy. 27:57 Just send your check to: Breath of Life, 27:59 P.O. Box 340, Newbury Park, California 91319. 28:04 Find comfort in what's to come after we pass from this world 28:08 to the next. 28:09 Get your copy of "What the Bible Says about Death" today. 28:13 PB: Can these churches who know all this stuff, but refuse 28:20 to live this stuff, wake up and realize the time 28:23 in which we live, can these bones live? |
Revised 2015-02-06