Foretold | Part 3

he had no problem making it weird. He he had no problem having that awkward conversation. Last week, we looked at the prophet Jeremiah,

and we saw how the message that he was to bring to the people, which all the prophets had to bring. They were mouthpieces, messengers bringing God's word. And usually it's really more like the parental word of God. So it had to come with a warning. Hey, you're not trusting me. You're going this way, so this is gonna happen. There's gonna be consequences. So a lot of their messages were tough messages.

And so Jeremiah, last week we saw he was called the weeping prophet, because he had that personality that it really broke his heart to have to bring this tough message, and then it broke his heart even more when the people didn't respond.

Well, Ezekiel, from what we understand in this study, he had no problem bringing the tough message. He actually was one of those prophets that how you imagine a prophet. He he had no problem punching throats. He he just didn't and matter of fact, he had a dramatic flare for it. If you ever read through the book of Ezekiel, whenever he did some of his prophecies,

he he he does a lot of weird stuff. For a while there, he only ate his food cooked over a fire made from his own dung, you know, stuff like that. He he was kinda weird.

And and one of the prophecies when he's trying to tell them that the main tough prophecy he had to bring in the first part of Ezekiel was he was a prophet to the exiles. That is the Judah had been exiled to Babylon. We saw that last week,

and it was kind of a time out from God. And he was called to bring them a message, and the first message that was weird that they didn't like was he needed to tell them Jerusalem is gonna be destroyed. The temple is gonna be destroyed. Because they were really struggling,

feeling like there's no hope, because they're the ones that got exiled, and a group got to stay behind, and they thought, well God loves them

and doesn't care about us, kind of an idea, because we're stuck over here. And the message he had to bring is, no. You need to trust God and stay faithful, because he's actually got a plan for you in doing something in your life. And by the way, you just gotta be prepared. You're gonna be here a while because Jerusalem

is gonna get wiped out. And one of the ones, he did he actually drew a giant outline of the city of Jerusalem on this big tablet, put it out in a main thoroughfare,

and would lay on the ground, and then start creeping up to it, and then pounce on it. That was his way of saying Jerusalem's gonna fall. He was kinda dramatic in the way he did stuff. He had no problem making it weird. Well, the people didn't like that message.

And you know why? Because we're all the same way. We all love truth, don't we? Until it punches us in the throat.

We like when truth punches someone else in the throat. But when the truth comes back and talks to us, we don't like it. So he had to set them up. They rejected it. They didn't listen. Well, then it came true. Jerusalem gets annihilated, and then God takes Ezekiel into a period of silence where he doesn't say anything.

But then he comes out of this period of silence, and that's recorded about chapter 33 of Ezekiel and the rest of Ezekiel. This prophet's message changes, and it becomes one of hope.

And that's why we've been looking at the prophets, because sometimes it's a scary part of the Bible, even if you've been to church, because there's these weird prophecies. There's these weird and it's kind of a tough message when God has to bring discipline

to to his people, but every one of the prophets always has hope. It always connects to hope. It always brings back to hope. There's always some sense of return to me, and I'll return to you, says the Lord. And so 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. The big idea I want to kind of express that we can see through this passage is simply this. God brings his hope to us, but also through us. And what we're gonna see is I'm gonna walk through this story,

and what you have to understand before I dive in is when it comes to these prophetic passages in the Old Testament,

there's what they call an already not yetness to them. And already means whenever he says, here's this thing that's gonna happen, here's what's going on, there was always a direct link to those people he's talking to. There there there's like a a small case, you know, letter of this prophecy, small p, it's gonna happen. Something's gonna happen. And in this story, we're gonna see they would have understood it as it's directly related to the nation of Israel.

That's what this prophecy is about. But now that we have the whole New Testament, you really can't understand the New Testament fully if you don't understand the Old Testament.

But you also can go back and really really draw a lot more out of the Old Testament once you have the New Testament. Because the New Testament is the fruition, the fulfillment of all this. So in the Old Testament, there's a lot of these stories. What God was doing with Israel, what God was doing in these stories was they were examples

of the bigger. There's the already kind of thing he's doing, but then there's this great big not yet that's coming later on. And it really is pointing to the ultimate hope, which is Jesus.

Matter of fact, I said last week when it comes to the Old Testament in Israel, there was three roles in the time in the people of Israel's life that are all pictures of who Jesus ultimately is. You had the prophet, the priest, and the king.

And and the prophet was to bring the word of God. Jesus is called the living, actual word of God. You have the priest, which offered the sacrifices on the part of the people. We know that Jesus came, and he was the lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice. They were just an illustration

of him to come. And then you had the king that led the people, and Jesus is called the king of kings and the lord of lords. So the already is there's these specifics that's gonna happen in this prophecy, but the not yet is the bigger plan of God.

And we get the privilege by having the New Testament. We get to see some of the the bigger plan. And what we're gonna see in this passage that applies to us is God brings his hope to us, but also through us. And we'll see that. So here we are. Set all up. 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.

He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. So this passage is called the prophecy about the valley of dry bones. Anyone ever heard this passage, read this passage before, studied this passage before?

Alright. Cool. Most of you don't read your Bibles. That's awesome. But I'm I'm just kidding. It's it's good. If everyone raised their hand, I'd be like, alright. Let's close in prayer and go baptize some more people. But okay. So what happens is he God takes them by his spirit and takes them to a place you wouldn't think God would take you to.

It's basically a valley where he what he's probably put him in is a valley that was like a great battle had been there, and probably the a valley very similar to where Israel's army got completely annihilated trying to stand against the Babylonians. And it's a place of death, It's a place of destruction,

and it's really a place of despair because these are bones that are they're they're dead bodies, but they've been bones for a long time. It says they're broken apart, which means animals have gotten to them. And now they've dried out, but it says very dry. That means they are bleached

by the sun. So this is a place that's had death and destruction for a long time. Just a hopeless, hopeless place. And then God asks asks him a question. And he asked me, son of man, can these bones become living people again? That's an interesting question.

If someone showed you a valley of bones that have been bones for a long time and said, can these be living again? In all of my practical knowledge, I would probably say, I don't see that how that's possible.

But Ezekiel was with the Lord, he had faith in the Lord. So how he answers is a very faith filled thing is is he says, oh sovereign Lord. Notice he calls him sovereign. All powerful Lord. I replied, you alone know the answer to that.

So what he's saying is, and I can't see how it's possible, but since you asked me the question, I'm pretty sure you have a different answer than what I think. I am pretty confident your answer is gonna be different. What he's really saying is, without you, no, they can't. But you could probably do it.

You can do it if you want to, is really what he's saying. Only you know, if you want to bring them to life, there's life again, is what he says. Well then it says so then look what he says. So then verse four. Then he said to me, speak a prophetic message to these bones.

So what he says is, do you think I can these these bones can have life again? Well, you only know. And you know what he tells them to do? I want you to preach to this valley of dry bones. I want you to preach the word of God to a bunch of dry bones. You As a pastor, I understand what Ezekiel is asked to do here.

I mean, there's a lot of Seahawks fans in this room.

It's not this service, it's more like the 08:30 or the one over I tell every service it's the other service. No, it's true. It's very symbolic that we are called to preach the word of God to people that are dead. Oh, we might have biological life, but our souls are dead. And so he calls him

to preach the word of God to these dry bones. And instead of saying that seems ridiculous and hopeless, he does it. But he tells them what to say. He says, say this, dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says. Look, I'm gonna put breath into you and make you live again.

I will put flesh and muscle on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you and you will come to life, and then you will know that I am the Lord. So he says, preach the word, then that word that he tells them to preach is, God is the one that's gonna bring life to you.

You can't bring life to yourself. You can't. You're dead. And and that's it. But God is going to bring you back to life.

And it says, 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.

Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. That's kind of like a reverse, like, you know, time lapsed. They kind of came back to life. That would have been weird. And it says, they were full bodies,

but they had no breath of life in them.

Now I think that's you think that that means it's a dead body sitting there. If we know what happens next, I think it's using a play on the word breath. When it comes to wind. That means the spirit of God. It's gonna lose back to the the Old Testament creation where God created Adam and Eve, and it's really saying they probably biologically

was a body that was alive and probably breathing. The lungs, everything was probably working, but they didn't have any soul or spirit. They weren't truly alive yet. They were just a biologically functioning body, but they needed the spirit of God to bring life into them.

And so then he tells them to do something else. So he says, preach the word to the dead bones.

And then he said to me, speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, is what the sovereign Lord says, come o breath from the four winds breathe into the dead body so they may live again. Now this is not some mystical four winded. What he's talking about is it's it's their way of explaining, speak to the Spirit of God.

That's the whole word for the the breath, the the word, and and and speak that the spirit of God will now animate the bodies to real life. So what did you tell them to do? There's this valley of dry bones that are hopelessly lost. Preach the word, and then pray for the spirit to bring them back to life.

That's what we're called to do. And you think and what's interesting is is he said to preach the word, they came to life as bodies. They heard the word of God, and but they still weren't alive. They weren't alive until the spirit of God empowered that. See, that's really true still today.

We can come to church. You could be coming to church, and you could hear the words of God, and you can know all about God. You could take copious notes and understand what the Bible's all about and all this stuff and still not have life.

Because you're not really have life until the spirit of God has breathed life in you. In in in cemetery, I mean seminary, the New Testament describes this process as illumination. That you can hear the word of God and understand it,

but it hasn't changed you until the Holy Spirit illuminates the word and it and it brings true life into you. And that's what it's describing. So you can go to church, you can know the words of God, and not really know God until it's been illuminated and the Holy Spirit has brought you that life.

And we're gonna see how that works when we look in the New Testament in a minute. So what he's really saying is, I'm gonna bring life back. I'm gonna bring life back. And after he does that, it says, so I spoke the message as he commanded me,

and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet a great army. So now they're alive, truly alive.

And 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. They are they are saying we have become old dry bones. All hope is gone. Our nation is finished. Therefore, prophesy to them and say, this is what the sovereign Lord says, oh my people, I'll open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I'll bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, oh my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken. I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken.

So he just explained what it was. The already to them was he was talking about them as the nation of Israel. They've been exiled. They've been wiped out. The nation of Israel no longer exists at all. He's saying, you're gonna come back. I'm gonna bring this death of this nation back from nowhere. And it happens.

Seventy years after they go into exile, they come back. If you're a doubter of the Bible, go study how that all plays out. Because in the Bible, it's predicted.

Prophesied. And the Bible is not all written down at the same time. It's a bunch of different books, different times. We know for a fact that the prophecy that says Israel will come back was written a hundred years or more several hundred years before it actually happens. And it names the king that would let them go free, and it was not a common name because it's a whole different empire that came out of nowhere that a Jew would not have known those names.

Name's Cyrus. Happens exactly, so I throw that in for free. If you're a skeptic, you should really go study some stuff, because it'll blow you away. And and and so this happens. They come back. Do you know how many times in history a nation has completely been annihilated and its people scattered to the wind,

and it's ever become a nation again? It's happened twice. Both times, it's Israel. Both times, the Bible it predicted this one a couple hundred years. It predicted the second one thousands of years ago.

See, God brought new life to Israel. You know why? He had a bigger plan for Israel. He wanted to bring them back hope because hope was supposed to come through them, not just to them. Jesus, Messiah, the ultimate, the only true hope was to be born through Israel. Israel was brought into existence.

He gave hope to them as a people because he was gonna bring hope to the world through them.

And so he brought Israel back. Jesus is born. Jesus lives. He dies. He sacrificed for us. He raises from the dead. Just like it says here, I've done it, and when I do this, you're gonna see that I am who I say am. Jesus' resurrection, nothing to research and stuff. It's it's crazy.

And he came back to life just like he said he could. He brought the ultimate hope to us. But then in 8070, after they rebelled against Rome one more time, Rome came in, wiped him out, knocked out the the temple. The temple's still not rebuilt and

wiped out, and Israel went into non existence again and didn't exist for almost two thousand years. But the Bible said thousands of years ago, they'll come back. And in 1948, after a holocaust, after God's people managed

to still have a culture for thousands of years being spread all over the world, they go through a holocaust and through all that horror, where you think the enemy of the world would say, I'm attacking God's people. I'm attacking this thing. It's good. The horror of that is what led in 1948 to bam. Israel's back, baby.

Figure that one out.

It's crazy. So that's what they would have known this. That's the already. It was about the name. But we know that when Israel comes back again, there's the ultimate idea that God was gonna bring hope to the whole world through them, not just to them.

And and and so what I wanna look at is is this idea of 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.

And in Ephesians chapter two, we Paul, the apostle Paul is talking to his church in Ephesus about what does it mean to have this new life. What does it mean for our dry bones to be brought back to life? And it says this, once you were dead, starting verse one, you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.

See, we're dead in our sin, and Romans says it over and over again. See, we're born in a world where we're broken and we're dead. We are not mistakers that are actually good. We are sinners who occasionally do good because of the goodness and the image of God still in us, but marred.

And what it means to be a sinner is it means I try to go around God. I try to make life work on my own. I take a path that seems right to me, but the Bible says it leans to death.

And he explains a little bit more. He says, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at the work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. Isn't it interesting that when we refuse to obey God, a lot of people come to church and hear a sermon and say, we should really trust God. I don't want be a Jesus freak.

I mean, I I want my marriage to work. I want my kids to be nice, but I don't really want to trust Jesus all the way. That's just that's weird. That's they're to manipulate. They're turning this is like they're they're brainwashing you into some weird thing. I'm I'm gonna think for myself.

You realize that the word of God is true. It just said, we are following a spirit one way or the other. You're either gonna follow the Holy Spirit

or you're gonna follow the spirit of Satan. And the spirit of Satan was he rebelled against God, and basically pride said, I'm gonna be God. I wanna be God. So when we ignore God, we're saying I'm my own God, and that's what it means. It says we're either gonna follow that spirit or his spirit,

and that spirit leads to the valley of dry bones. Death, despair, and destruction, but the Holy Spirit leads to life.

He says all of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. The word all, you know what it means to everyone? All of us. Do you know what all means? Spent a lot of money in seminary to learn this. You know what that word all means? All means all, and that's all all means.

You're like, wow, you went to a terrible seminary. All means all. It means every one of us is in this situation. Every one of us has gone to the valley of dry bones. We are all the valley of dry bones. And he says, by our very nature, we were subject to God's anger just like everyone else. But

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. It's only by God's grace that you have been saved.

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us as shown in all he has done for us,

who are united with Christ Jesus. Did you notice the qualifier on all that? It's for those who are united with Christ Jesus. It's those that have embraced a faith in Christ, and the life giving power of the Holy Spirit has illuminated God word in you and brought you back to life. He's spoken life to your dry dead bones.

That's what it's saying. And 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.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so no one can boast about it. He says he saved you when you believe. The only thing we're supposed to do is believe. It's not the good things we do that save us. Now he ends with talking about the good things we're gonna do,

but it's not the good things we do to get saved. We don't do good for God's love. We're called to do good from God's love. But what's interesting is how do you get saved? Simply by believing. But here's the problem. In the in the words of the great anigo theologian, Anigo Montoya from The Prince's Bride,

I don't think you know what that word means. It doesn't mean what you think it means. The word believe to us means intellectual assent. I accept that as a truth. Here's the problem with the word believe. We can believe lots of things that don't change anything. For example,

I bet everyone in this room has a very high level of understanding of diet and exercise. I'll stop with that. Case point proven. That word for believed in the Greek, it means to embrace. It implies surrender to. It's not just an intellectual,

I accept that intellectually, now I'm gonna go on with my life. It means I have embraced this as the only way, as my only hope that I am saved because of what Jesus did for me, and that's it. And I have not just said, okay, I believe it.

I've grabbed it and hugged it. Does that make sense? And he says, when I embrace that, that's when I'm saved. That's the only thing I can do. I can't brag. I can't do it. All I can do is embrace it. 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. So now he gets bound to doing things. It starts with, it's not what you do that saves you.

But once I've saved you, there's some things I have for you to do. And and and that's the keys. And that's why I said that we this hope, that God wants to bring his hope to us, but also through us as well. Once we've been saved, we are sent. We need to be saved and sent.

You do realize. And and and I think some of the issue is, some of us, you are Christian. You've been saved. You know what it means to embrace the hope that's found in Christ. You say, I believe in his death, burial, resurrection. That's what saved me and and rescued me. That's what baptism we just did symbolizes.

It's the symbolic act of representing that valley of dry bones coming to life. You go down under the water where it's death, burial, you're dead in your sins, but then when you come out of the water just like Jesus rose from the dead, it's the dead bones coming back to life. You're made new.

But it doesn't stop there. See, a lot of us, the reason you may be a believer, but your life still seems dry to you, there's some hopelessness in you, there's some things that doesn't work, and you're like you're having the same problems over and over again that all your non Christian friends are, the same marriage problems, the sameness, and you're just so dry in life. Can I just I've

been in a pastor since I was 19? That's thirty years I've been doing this. And I gotta tell you, nine times out of 10, when I am dealing with someone who's been saved for a long time that just can't get unstuck in life, nine times out of 10 is because they just go to church, but they refuse to ever be the church. I'm

just telling you. I know that's not the answer you want to hear, and I'm gonna make it weird, but some of you, the reason your life isn't working is because you're saved, but you're resisting being sent. You'll go to church, but you won't be the church. You won't embrace the mission.

You won't embrace I'm gonna give, I'm gonna serve, I'm gonna share my faith, I'm gonna go on mission with God. Because that's what we're saved for. We're not just saved for being saved, we're we're we're saved from something, death, but we're also saved for something.

The good things God has planned. He's put us on a mission to be the church, to join something that's bigger than ourselves, and we have to embrace that. Otherwise, you'll just sit

and soak. If I sit and just soak up, so then your faith all becomes, I like that song, didn't like song. I like that sermon point, I didn't like that one. If you're not serving, you don't like this one right now. Because like I said, you like truth until it punches you in the face. And so then it's like and this is over. And you if you just sit and soak, you'll eventually sour.

Because your faith isn't gonna change anything. It's just something you go to. It's not something you are. And you know what? Both of these passages

express that very clearly. Did you know that? The last phrase of Ephesians two says, you're not saved by your works, but after you're saved, he created us anew, made new in Christ Jesus. So there's a so. So we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. God has a mission for you.

And it's not just to go to church. God did not save us to go to church. He saved us to be the church. Because God always wanted to bring his hope to us, but he always planned to bring his hope through us.

And you can even see that in the Ezekiel passage. You probably didn't catch it when we read right by it. In verse 10 as well, it says after he speaks this message, and the breath came into these bodies by the power of the holy spirit, they come alive. It says, they all came to life and stood up on their feet as a bunch of individuals that showed up when they had a problem, where there wasn't something else going on, and they soaked and they no. That's what does it say they became? A

great army.

If you're in the army, if you join the army, don't you join a mission? Can you join an army and stay army of one? Anybody having served in the military in this room? First of all, side note, thank you for your service.

When you joined, they sent you to boot camp, right? Where they needed to train you. You needed to be equipped and prepared for the mission, right? None of you, unless you've spent some time in Leavenworth, went and said, you know what, I don't like training. It's just too hard.

It's getting in the way of my other things in my schedule. I don't wanna train. And if you did do that, the drill sergeant probably had other ideas. Right? And the drill sergeant would yell at you, wouldn't he? And he would get loud, and he'd start saying, you need to listen to me, son. And he would get all up in your face. Would you, when this drill sergeant starts getting in your face because you're not wanting to do the training, would you step back and say,

who are you to tell me what to do? Who called you to stand in front of me and holler at me about doing this? You would never say that.

You know why? Because if you knew what you knew when you joined the military, you joined the mission. And also, if you have 2¢ in your brain, you know the reason he's drilling you is why. What does he want for you? When you go into combat, he wants you to not die. He wants you to have life and victory.

And if you join the military, you know that. But if you didn't really, if you tried to join the military without the mission, that guy's just yelling at you and making you uncomfortable. And you're like, I don't I need a safe place.

Are you picking up on who's the drill sergeant in this scenario? I was raised by a sergeant, so that's where I learned a lot of this. My dad actually taught, when you join the military, you join a mission.

You wouldn't go and not accept the training and listen to the drill, and then judge the drill sergeant who's actually trying to save your life.

And then could you imagine and sitting there go, you know what, don't wanna do all that, but you know what, I have medical benefits. Right? So who do I call? I called, the doctor didn't come. I have a problem. You need to fix my problem. When do I get paid?

Would you do that in the military? Would you go to a church and sit and refuse to train, refuse to join the mission, and then get offended when you had a problem and they didn't come running to fix your problem?

Well, he snuck that throat punch in there, didn't he?

My dad taught me this. It was the same with being in a family. My dad says, you join this family. You were born into this family, like being born again. You were born in this family.

You have the grace, the love, the here's what you get from this family, but you have a responsibility. There's a mission for this family. Bushes do hard things. And you know what? Some of you kids listen to me. Parents, go for it. You're gonna hate me now. I had jobs I had to do in my family, and I didn't get paid for it.

I only got in trouble, I only lost privileges if I didn't do it.

And I would complain. All my friends get allowance for the jobs they do. He goes, you join this family. You join this mission. You're gonna do this because you're part of the family. That's what we do. That's what it means to be in this family. So when we got a pool, I was so excited to get a pool when I was eight years old. But guess who cleaned the pool till he was 18 and moved out?

It was supposed to be my sister and I. Somehow she weaseled out of it. It became me.

And you know what? I go off to college. I came back for one semester. And while was gone, my dad, you know, all the kids were all moved out. He paid a pool guy and a lawn guy. I moved back in, he said, welcome home, son, gave me a hug. The very second sentence was, do you want the lawn or the pool?

I was like, but you pay a lawn guy and a pool guy. Why do I he goes, why would I pay both of them when you're back? Because you're part of this family. You joined the mission. Some of you are struggling with dryness in your life because you are saved, but you keep fighting being sent.

You won't send your money into the mission. You won't send your time into the mission. You won't send your own story into saying that your goal is to spread the hope of Jesus to those who don't have it. It's not to isolate,

circle the wagons, and soak up all this truth so you can feel better about yourself and judge everyone else. That's not what it's about. What would happen? How would this community be different if we didn't Facebook argue over politics and sit in church and soak. But if just this room,

everyone in this room who's a Christian, literally joined the mission of this church. You all gave. You all served. You all shared your faith. You want the world to look different?

Just do that and see what happens. Queen Creek would be different in the years to come if just us in this room did that. Look what God did with 11 men who were kind of stupid. They had twelve, one of them didn't even make it, but the other 11, they're just like human. They weren't too bright, to be honest,

and it turned the world upside down. We got a lot more of them in here. What would happen if you chose to be sent? If you said, hey, I didn't just go to church, I joined a body. And when you join, you could join the mission as well.

How could that change your life? And you know what's weird is? It happens all the time. It is crazy how many times when they go after the mission God asked for them, ironically they go, my marriage got better. My relationship with my kids got better.

Now prosperity gospel, I got rich. No. It might happen. And if that happens to you, I hate you. But Jesus loves you. Unless you join the mission. Then he gave you some of the money so we can push the mission along. That would be great. So when when I'm hollering at us, if you caught the illustration, I want life for you.

I don't want you to get killed in the combat out there. I want us to be at the top of the hill raising the flag of victory because we were saved in order to be sent, and we chose to. We chose to. That's what it's all about. So which one are you? Because see, before I go

if you're someone who's struggling with this, okay, need to be sent, I need be sent, I'll give you a simple first step. Next week, we're having the sneak peek volunteer tour. Sounds so nice, isn't it? I wanted to call it the voluntold tour, but that's a drill sergeant speaking there. But

the sneak peek is basically we want to help you in this at least this one step. Help you find a place to connect and serve. And there's a lot of ways to connect and serve that you would never imagine. You realize there are ways you can serve in the children's ministry, and you don't even have to like kids?

You won't even have to touch them or be near them.

You you can you can be isolated from them, and still there are so many ways to serve. And so what this is, it's our opportunity to help show you some of the opportunity, and maybe that God will speak to your heart, go, you know, I think I think I'd like to jump in there. I think I could do that. I think I I think I can serve. When we say serve, it doesn't mean give up your whole life. It's just everybody serve a little bit.

And and so the best thing you do is go on rockpoint.io and sign up for that.

And you do it before the service, just go around, you get to meet some people, talk about what's the needs are and what they're going on, and you might find a place. That's our way of trying to help you. Help you get connected. Help you start joining the mission. Joining. But here's what I wanna say. Some of us,

you need to get saved before you do that. See this happens. Every time I push this, there's there's first of all, those of you with the spiritual gift of service, you just get felt convicted, and you're gonna sign up for two more things. I'm not talking to you.

I'm talking to the one that's just sitting and not serving at all. There's also another group of people that might sign up for something.

The Holy Spirit is talking to you. You've been in church, you're like, I wanna do something for the Lord. I do feel good. I feel this life. I feel like but you've never really accepted Jesus. You're not born again, so you're gonna do this opposite thing. It's legalism.

You're gonna out of that good intention in your heart, you're gonna sign up for something because then now look what I'm doing for God. You're gonna do what he says. You can't brag about it. And the problem is if you just start serving but you've never been saved, you're just gonna get overwhelmed.

And then you're gonna burn out, and then you're gonna say, well, this church thing doesn't work. You need to know Jesus. It's we serve in the mission from his love, because we have his power, his grace, his love that drives it.

Not the other way around. So I'm gonna do right now is I'm just gonna stop the sermon right now, and I'm gonna pray. And I think there's some of us in this room, some of you in this room, need to surrender your heart to Jesus right now.

You need to become a Christian. It's what the Bible talks about as being born again. You need to take your faith and not put it in you and doing good, and put it in what Jesus did for you. Does that make sense? And you just need to have that moment that you decide.

Some of you feel this pulling. You feel this weird tell you, like, I'm I'm feeling a little bit awkward. Like, this guy's looking at me right now. That's the Holy Spirit. That's the four winds wanting to breathe life into you right now. Let them. Let them. So let's pray. It's this simple. If you've never

put your faith, embraced what it says, Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Simple. You just surrender. So you can pray a prayer. I'll I'll walk us through a prayer, but make it your own words and pray it in your heart. It's not a magic incantation, but just pray something like this. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you

did what you said you were gonna do. You came to this earth, you lived a perfect life, and then you chose to die for my sin, for my rebellion, for my brokenness. So I want to turn from that and turn to you right now. Thank you for forgiving me. And in this moment, in the best way I know how,

I embrace you and your love and your grace and your mercy and put my faith in you. Help me to go from here and understand what that means each and every day. And help me to understand what it means to be sent now that I've been saved. But Lord, thank you for bringing hope to me.

Help me to grow in what it means to bring hope through me. Thank you and I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.