BE REVIVED IN '25: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

We are quickly approaching Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of the Lent season.  This parallels Jesus’s fasting 40 days in the wilderness.  Lent is the Latin word for “lengthen.” The goal of Lent is not only to parallel the fasting of Jesus but it also is to lengthen the light of Jesus in our hearts and lives.  Our study Goliath Must Fall will enable the light of Christ to grow in your soul!  Be sure to become part of a Lent small group during this season.  You will find sign-up sheet in the entrance to the sanctuary and you can also sign up online at sjpcjax.org. We come to an end of our series Be Revived in ’25.  We return to the scripture at the start of this series, Ezekiel 37:7-14.  This is the moment in which God commands the prophet Ezekiel to prophesy to the wind that it may enter into these lifeless bodies to bring them to life!  It is a powerful moment! This message was not just for the children of Israel that had been exiled to Babylon, but it is spoken to every heart that is living in despair, to every soul in the tomb of brokenness, to every spirit that is struggling to live again.  Life can be difficult and draining.  The last sermon in this series is  What Have We Learned?  How will these words continue to help us come alive in 2025?  There are 313 days or 44 weeks and 5 days!    God wants us to continue to hear these words as we go through the rest of the year.  He wants to resurrect our hope, our strength, and our joy every day that we live.  This sounds too good to be true, but we serve a living and mighty God who wants to fill our cup to overflowing so that we can praise him forever!  Our prayer for you is earnest and sincere that as you read the Word of the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel, it will make you come alive in God’s presence! 

Ezekiel 37:7-14:So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet– a vast army. ¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” (NIV)