The Divine Crash

The other day I was honored to have the privilege to lead worship for about 30 local United Methodist pastors. It was an amazing time.  Here is the audio sermon and my notes.  Enjoy!

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The Lord’s power overcame Ezekiel

- Ever experienced that? Ever felt that? It leads you to do some very weird things.

- Sometimes it calls you to be a missionary, or a teacher, or sometimes it calls you to pack up all your belongings, sell your house, give up an awesome career, and become a United Methodist pastor.

- But for some reason every time the Lord’s Power shows up we do things we wouldn’t normally do, like preach to dry bones.

God tells Ezekiel to speak to some bones.

- These weren’t just freshly dead, they were “dry” meaning they had been there awhile. some suggest that in the exile the Hebrew people walked by them.

- Ezekiel is walking around the dry bones. This would have been a very unclean act, but Ezekiel has learned that when God says do something you do it.

- God asks a rhetorical question: “Can these bones live?”

- Ezekiel gives a typical pastor answer “O Lord God, you know.”

- I picture a little twinge of sarcasm in the answer. “O God, come on…you are God you know this answer.

But Ezekiel listened to God. Ezekiel spoke and said: “The Lord God proclaims to these bones: I am about to put breath in you, and you will live again. I will put sinews on you, place flesh on you, and cover you with skin. When I put breath in you and you come to life, you will know that I am the Lord.”

You can almost sense Ezekiel’s doubt melt away with the rattling of bones.  We hear the rattling of new life starting, slowly.

but the new life isn’t actually alive yet. They had no “Breath” in them.

Breath in Hebrew is “Ruach” means wind, breath, or spirit.

Which makes it interesting that God next tells Ezekiel to preach to the wind.

- Ezekiel is not stupid and so he does as he is told and says “Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

- When Ezekiel does it the bones come to life a “Vast multitude”

Then God says to Ezekiel that these people are God’s chosen people. They are the nation that God has called out. That God’s chosen people are like dried bones. Hopeless, lost, and cut off completely.  Then God has Ezekiel prophesy again.

“I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O My people, and I will bring you back to the Land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act says the Lord.”

Sometimes as pastors we feel like Ezekiel.  We stand up on Sunday morning and we look at the congregation and our heart sinks.  We see the remnants of a mighty army that was making disciples and bringing the whole world closer to Christ and now they appear hopeless, cut off, lost, dead and dried up.

We know we were called to speak to them but the only response to our calling is “Come on God!! Really…dead people?” We just aren’t sure what God is doing because we don’t need more lifeless people in our churches.  We need more lives saved.

We look out at our attendance that has been dwindling to nothing but people who are just tired of fighting and sick of trying to do something and nothing getting done and we wonder if they will ever live again.

It can be absolutely exhausting walking around all the death we see in our own church. Right?

It becomes easy to burn out and simply lay down and die with your congregation that has already done that. We give in to the death that is all around us.

Some of you have already laid down and died and you came here today to tell George to move you or you are quitting all of ministry because there is just so much death.

I would suggest that you need a new word spoken to you too. That you need to hear a fresh word from God so that you can have life again too.

May this be your fresh word today.  May today be the day you hear the word of the Lord and come to new life.

Look at Ezekiel who was transplanted into a place of death.  God’s power came over him and suddenly he is in a valley of death.

- Ezekiel was itinerant too?

- Ezekiel went where God called him.  He didn’t always like it, it wasn’t fun, and in a Jewish world it was even disgraceful to be amongst so many unburied corpses. If even their shadow would have touched him he would have been unclean.

It was because Ezekiel knew God planted him there that he was able to do what God called him.

- You are called to your current appointment.  God has a specific plan for you and your current appointment.

- Sometimes that is a plan for the church, so you can teach them something about God.

- Sometimes it is a plan for you. So that they can teach you something about God.

- May your fresh word be a comfort that God has you exactly where you are for a reason.

Because Ezekiel trusted in God he spoke what God told him.

- God has given you a message to speak to your people and sometimes we don’t speak it.

- Whether it is fear, revenge, or hurt we don’t speak our God-given message.

- I would suggest that sometimes there are amazing messages from God we don’t speak so that we can get revenge on our congregation because they hurt us. And so we hold back the truth of God as a passive aggressive way of getting back at them.

- May your fresh word today be that God has given you a message.

But Ezekiel didn’t wonder if he would get hurt, or how the message would be interpreted. He simply started speaking what God had given him.

- He didn’t blast the people for being lazy.  He didn’t hit them over the head with verses about being lukewarm, or dead in Christ, or anything like that. He simply spoke the message God gave him.

- May your fresh word be that as Methodists you can’t be fired for giving a sermon people don’t want to hear even though they desperately need to hear it.

It wasn’t until Ezekiel started speaking that the bones started to rattle.

- God could have raised the dead by having circus animals jump through burning hula-hoops but instead God choose to use Ezekiel. God called him with a plan and a vision.

- God could use your congregation to become a mega church and reach the world for Christ in any way God wants but instead God chose to use you.

- May your fresh word be that You are God’s plan to breathe life into your congregation

God called the dry bones his chosen people.

- You may hate your congregation.  You may be absolutely furious with them and the actions they have done. And you can’t wait to get away from them.

- they are sheep. and sheep have teeth and sometimes they use them. and it hurts.

- But they are still God’s chosen people.  They are moving on toward perfection and they aren’t there yet.  Just like you.

- Maybe you need a vacation.  You all have at least 4 weeks paid vacation but the average Methodist pastor uses less than 2.

- Maybe you need to take your days off. The discipline says you get 2 per week. When was the last time you took one?

- Pastor friend of mine in New York called me, he was miserable, burned out, and ready to quit. He was angry with his people and wanted to run away.  He told me he takes 1 and a half days off. but spend over half of that thinking about church stuff.  No wonder he is exhausted. There is no such thing as a half day off and to spend it all thinking about church is not a half day.

- If you are tired, frazzled, or exhausted then no one wants to hear about Jesus who sets you free, gives you rest, and lets you relax in his presence.

- It is when you are the most exhausted that comments about typos in bulletins will get you down.

- If you are tired and exhausted then your meeting with the self-appointed committee on doctrinal holiness and scriptural integrity will not reflect Jesus.

- May your fresh word be that these beautiful, amazing, messed up, imperfect, disorganized, uncommitted, Christians are your congregation and need you to be at your best so you NEED to take a day off.

So then, are your people dead? speak to them. Start talking the message God has given you.  It isn’t about whether or not they like it., it is about the message God gave you for that specific congregation. Then start listening for the rattling of bones. When you hear the rattle let it fuel you to keep going. Do not be afraid of the bones this is exactly what God has in mind for your church. That they come back to life and become an army but it only happens if you speak God’s message.

So then, are you dead? Are you ready to call it quits, give up, throw in the towel? Don’t! Shut up and listen to what God telling you.  Slow down, take a day (or 2) off and just listen to God. And hear a fresh word today. that you are a chosen people. A royal priesthood, saved SO THAT you may speak of God’s wonderful acts.

Sermon Audio

 

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