BE REVIVED IN '25: RESURRECT

We are quickly moving into the New Year.  We hope you are sensing the possibilities and potential of 2025!  We also pray that you are being directly impacted by our New Year sermon series: Be Revived in ’25.  One of the important factors of any new beginning is our energy, engagement, and enthusiasm.  It is easy to lose any of these things because there are so many things that can continue to drain us and distract us from what is truly important.  The power of our spirituality is to “enthuse” our hearts for the things that will make a difference in our lives, and in the lives of those around us.  It is so difficult to go through our days without the motivation or hope that things will change for the better.  We return this week to Ezekiel 37 and this vision of the dry bones coming to life.  As God spoke to Ezekiel, he divided this vision into two steps.  In the first part, the bones come together and flesh appears on them but they are not alive, just a shell of a human.  We can understand this part of the vision because at times we feel hollow and empty.  In verses 7-14, Ezekiel is commanded to speak to the Spirit to enter these shells and they become a vast army.  God wants to fill us today and help us move beyond our hollow existence, but this requires the work of the Spirit.  The Word of the Lord given to Ezekiel still speaks to those who are longing to be filled, and who desire to overcome emptiness in their hearts.  As believers, we need to allow the wind of the Spirit to fill our hearts with energy, engagement, and enthusiasm, that moves us to a sense of God’s presence even in the difficulty of our lives. If you are tired of going through the motions, then Ezekiel can help you and every believer to find the strength to bear the fruit of God’s Kingdom and sense the love, joy, and peace that God wants to produce in our hearts.  We pray that you will be filled with the Spirit as you read Ezekiel 37:7-14:

⁷ 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)