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Foretold | Part 3 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Bill Bush · Oct 7, 2019 · 59 min watch · 3 min read

Foretold | Part 3

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Ezekiel 37
Ezekiel 37:1
Ezekiel 37:4
Ezekiel 37:7
Ezekiel 37:11
Ephesians 2

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

God brings His hope to us, but He also intends to bring His hope through us.

Drawing from Ezekiel 37's valley of dry bones and Ephesians 2, Pastor Bill Bush argues that every human being is spiritually dead in sin, yet God — through His Word and His Spirit — breathes new life into dead souls. That salvation, received by faith alone, is not the finish line but the starting point. Those who have been saved are called to be sent: to give, serve, and share the hope of Jesus so that God's life-giving mission flows not just to them but through them into the world.

Key points

1
1God leads Ezekiel into a valley of hopelessly dry bones to illustrate the spiritual deadness of His people — and of all humanity.
2
2God commands Ezekiel to preach His Word to the dead bones, showing that the proclamation of God's Word is the instrument He uses to bring the spiritually dead to life.
3
3True life comes only when the Holy Spirit breathes into a person — hearing the Word alone is not enough; the Spirit must illuminate it and bring genuine new birth.
4
4The already-fulfillment of this prophecy was God restoring the nation of Israel from exile, pointing forward to the ultimate hope — the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.
5
5Every person is spiritually dead in sin, but God — rich in mercy — raises us to new life by grace through faith in Christ, not by our own works.
6
6Believing in Jesus means more than intellectual agreement — it means fully embracing and surrendering to Him as the only hope for salvation.
7
7Those who have been saved are God's masterpiece, created anew to join His mission — saved people are meant to be sent people, serving and sharing the hope of Jesus.

God brings his hope to us, but also through us

We all love truth, don't we? Until it punches us in the throat

A story from life

Pastor Bill's bowling-league story about debating whether to ask a fellow bowler if he was a one-year BYU pitcher or someone exonerated of homicides

Application

Pastor Bill's call to action moves in two directions. First, if you have never truly surrendered to Jesus — not just agreed with facts about Him, but embraced Him as your only hope — now is the moment to do that. Let the Holy Spirit breathe life into you. Second, if you are already a believer but feel stuck, dry, or like faith isn't working, the honest question is whether you have been going to church without being the church. God saves us for a mission: to give generously, serve faithfully, and share the hope of Jesus with people around us. That mission is not a burden; it is the very thing God designed to bring life and fruitfulness. A simple next step is to show up for the volunteer sneak peek tour, ask where you fit, and take one step toward being sent.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“I want to look at the most one of the most famous passages of hope in Ezekiel. It's in Ezekiel chapter 37. And here's what we're gonna unpackage in this passage today”
From the transcript
“Here we are in Ezekiel chapter 37. It starts off with this. The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones”
From the transcript
“so then look what he says. So then verse four. Then he said to me, speak a prophetic message to these bones”
From the transcript
“so I spoke this message in verse seven, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons”
From the transcript
“if you keep reading, says verse 11, he now explains. This is the already this is what he meant by this to these people at that time. He says this, when he said to me, son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel”
From the transcript
“let me skip over now to a New Testament passage that that kind of explains this illustration in the not yet part. What was the ultimate expression of what God's doing when he says, I'm gonna bring life out of death? And it's found in Ephesians chapter two”
From the transcript
“it says this, once you were dead, starting verse one, you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins”
From the transcript
“but man, this is one of the best buts in the Bible right there. Verse four. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead”
From the transcript
“then it gets even more it explains it deeper here in verse eight. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God”
From the transcript
“And verse 10 says, for we are God's masterpiece, he has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the things he has planned for us long ago”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

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Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

There is something deeply honest about the image God shows Ezekiel at the opening of this vision. He doesn't lead the prophet to a place of quiet beauty or easy hope. He sets him down in the middle of a valley full of dry bones — bleached, scattered, hopelessly dead. And then He asks what feels like an almost cruel question: 'Can these bones live?' Ezekiel, to his credit, doesn't pretend. He answers, essentially, 'Only You know.' That is not defeat — that is the beginning of wisdom. Before God does anything new in us, He tends to be honest with us about what we are working with. The valley is not a place of shame; it is a place of starting over. If you have ever felt spiritually hollow — going through the motions, finding that faith feels dry and distant — this image was written for you. God did not show Ezekiel the valley to condemn it. He showed it to him because He was about to do something only He could do. The condition of those bones was not the final word. It was the setup for a miracle. Whatever feels dry in your life right now, God sees it clearly — and He is not discouraged by what He sees.

For reflection

Where in your spiritual life do you feel the most like those dry bones — distant, stuck, or going through the motions?

Pray

Pray for honesty before God about the areas of your heart that feel dry or distant from Him.

The instruction God gives Ezekiel next is striking in its simplicity: preach to the bones. Not fix them. Not strategize over them. Speak God's Word to them. There is something almost absurd about it — a man talking to a field of scattered skeletons. And yet that is exactly what God commands, and exactly what works. Pastor Bill pointed to this moment to show that the proclamation of God's Word is the instrument God has chosen to bring the spiritually dead to life. The Word goes out and something begins to happen — rattling, movement, bones coming together. Transformation starts before there is even breath. This is worth sitting with: God uses ordinary, sometimes awkward, sometimes imperfect proclamation of His truth to begin the work of new life in people. You do not have to have all the answers to share what God has done for you. You do not have to be a theologian to speak hope into a dry place. God's Word carries its own power. Your job — like Ezekiel's — is simply to be willing to say it out loud. That willingness, offered faithfully over time, is one of the most significant things a person can do with the life they've been given.

For reflection

Is there someone in your life who might need to hear a simple, honest word about the hope you've found — and what has held you back from saying it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to speak about Jesus naturally and honestly with the people already around you.

Something important happens between the bones coming together and the bodies actually standing up. There is a moment in the vision where the assembled bodies lie there — formed, joined, but still lifeless. The structure is right, but there is no breath. And so God tells Ezekiel to call out to the wind, the breath, the Spirit, and ask it to breathe life into what has been assembled. This is the part no one can manufacture. You can build a community. You can learn theology. You can attend every service and serve on every team. But only the Holy Spirit can breathe genuine new life into a soul. Pastor Bill was careful to make this distinction: hearing the Word is not the same as receiving the life the Word points to. Real transformation — real new birth — is something God does in a person, not something a person achieves by trying harder. That does not make our part meaningless; it makes it dependent. The posture this vision invites is one of openness — coming to God not with a list of accomplishments but with a willingness to receive what only He can give. The Spirit breathes where He will. Our part is to keep showing up with our hearts open.

For reflection

In what ways might you be relying on spiritual routines or effort rather than genuinely asking the Holy Spirit to work in you?

Pray

Pray for an open and receptive heart — asking the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do in the places you've been trying to manage on your own.

By the time God explains the vision to Ezekiel, it becomes clear this is about more than one prophet's strange experience. God says these bones represent His people — exiled, cut off, saying 'our hope is gone.' He promises to open their graves, restore them to their land, and put His Spirit in them. The immediate fulfillment of this was Israel's return from Babylonian exile. But Pastor Bill drew the line further forward: this promise points ultimately to Jesus — to the death that looked like the end and the resurrection that proved it wasn't. Every time God restores what looks finished, He is foreshadowing the main event. The resurrection of Jesus is the hinge of history, the moment that makes every other promise credible. Whatever exile you find yourself in — relational, emotional, spiritual — the resurrection says that endings are not always what they appear to be. God is a God who opens graves. He does not merely improve situations; He raises the dead. The hope Ezekiel carried into that valley is the same hope that walked out of the tomb on the third day. That is not a distant theological fact — it is the ground on which your daily life can stand.

For reflection

How does the resurrection of Jesus change the way you think about a situation in your life that currently feels hopeless?

Pray

Pray for faith to trust God's promises even when circumstances feel like a valley — naming before Him the specific thing that feels like an ending.

Paul's language in Ephesians 2 is not gentle: dead in sin, following the ways of this world, by nature deserving of judgment. It is the same image Ezekiel stood in — the valley — now explained theologically. This is the human condition apart from God. Not just struggling, not just imperfect, but spiritually lifeless. And then two of the most important words in the Bible arrive: 'But God.' Rich in mercy. Great in love. The turn is not gradual. It is decisive. God acts, and the dead are made alive. The resurrection language is deliberate — Paul says we are raised with Christ, seated with Him. This is not just forgiveness for past mistakes; it is a whole new kind of existence. And the engine of it all is grace, received through faith — not earned, not maintained by performance, not contingent on our consistency. This passage is worth reading slowly, not just to understand it but to feel the weight of it. The fact that God stepped into your deadness — not because of what you brought but because of who He is — is worth more than a quick nod. Sit here today and let the mercy of it land.

For reflection

What does it mean for you personally that your standing before God is based entirely on His grace and not on your own spiritual performance?

Pray

Pray for a fresh sense of gratitude for grace — ask God to make the 'But God' of your own story feel real and personal today.

Pastor Bill drew a careful distinction at this point in the sermon — one that is easy to miss. He said that believing in Jesus is not simply agreeing that the facts about Jesus are true. Even that kind of agreement leaves a person standing at a distance. Real faith, the kind Paul describes here, is a full embrace. A surrender. It is the difference between knowing about a lifeboat and actually climbing into it because you've accepted that you cannot swim to shore on your own. That posture of surrender is what it means to receive salvation by grace through faith. The 'not by works' part is not a footnote — it is the whole architecture of the good news. If there were anything you could do to earn standing before God, then grace would not be grace. But it also means there is nothing you've done that puts you beyond it. The playing field is completely level. Every person comes to Jesus the same way — empty-handed, dependent, trusting. If you have never moved from knowing about Jesus to genuinely placing your weight on Him, today is a good day to do that. Not as a transaction, but as the most honest thing a person can do.

For reflection

If you're honest with yourself, are you trusting Jesus — fully, surrendered — or are you still holding on to some version of earning your place before God?

Pray

Pray for the humility to come to Jesus empty-handed — or, if you've never done that before, to do it right now in your own words.

Looking back across the whole passage — and across this whole week — the arc is unmistakable. Dead. Raised. Sent. Ephesians 2:10 closes the chapter with a word that reframes everything before it: we are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works He prepared in advance for us to walk in. Salvation is not the destination. It is the doorway. Pastor Bill was direct about this: saved people are sent people. The life God breathes into us is not meant to stay inside us. It is meant to flow outward — through generosity, through faithful service, through honest conversations about hope with the people already in your life. This is not a burden added onto salvation. It is what salvation looks like when it is fully alive. If this week has surfaced anything — a sense of dryness, a desire for more, a conviction that you've been going to church without yet being the church — that is worth acting on. One conversation, one step of service, one open hand. That is how the valley fills with breath. Not all at once, but one person, one act of obedience, one life given away at a time. You were not just raised to live — you were raised to be sent.

For reflection

Looking at your time, your gifts, and your relationships, where is God most clearly inviting you to take one step outward — to live as someone who has been sent?

Pray

Pray for a willing and expectant heart — asking God to show you clearly where He is sending you, and for the courage to take one concrete step this week.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message takes us into one of the strangest scenes in all of Scripture — a valley full of dry bones — and asks what God might be doing there. As we dig in together, we're looking at what it actually means to go from dead to alive.

Discussion questions

1
In Ezekiel 37:1-3, God brings Ezekiel into a valley of bones described as 'very dry' and asks him, 'Can these bones live?' What do you think God is doing by asking that question — what does it reveal about the situation, and about Ezekiel?
2
In Ezekiel 37:4-10, God tells Ezekiel to preach to the bones, and something begins to happen — but it isn't complete until the breath comes. What does the two-step process here — Word first, then Spirit — suggest about how God brings people to life?
3
Ephesians 2:8-9 says salvation is 'by grace through faith' and 'not a result of your own efforts.' Pastor Bill drew a distinction between intellectually agreeing with facts about Jesus and actually surrendering to Him as your only hope. What does that distinction look like in practice — how might we describe the difference to someone who asked us?
4
Ephesians 2:10 calls believers God's 'masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.' What does it change about how we think of serving and sharing our faith if we read it as something we were created for, rather than something expected of us?
5
Pastor Bill described a person who goes to church without being the church — present, but not yet sent. What do you think keeps people stuck in that place, and what might it look like for a community like ours to help each other move from receiving to participating?
6
Looking across both Ezekiel 37 and Ephesians 2, what picture of God emerges — what does He seem most determined to do, and for whom?

Pray together

Ask God to breathe life where things feel dry — in our own hearts, in our community, and in the people around us He is calling us toward.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Foretold

Week 3 · 3 messages

Where these passages are preached

Ezekiel 37 Ephesians 2

Explore related topics

God's Mission New Life in Christ Salvation by Faith Spiritual Rebirth The Holy Spirit

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