Revived Again

Thank you, Jesus, that the grave is empty and you're living inside of us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whoa. Come on, sing it out. God, I know that what you promised, yeah, will be better than I thought, yeah. When you finish what you started, yeah. Resurrection is who you are. It's who you are. We're not three days away from an empty grave. Another stone is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling, rolling, rolling. Yeah. Jesus, come and prove it now. Yeah. Miracles are what you do. What you do. If you said it. Come on. If you said it, I accept it. It's an easy thing for you. It's easy for you. Come on, sing it out. Yeah. We're not three days away from an empty grave. Another stone is rolling in the room right now.

Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the room right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the room right now. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. It's long gone. No, I'm not the same. If you're looking for the stone, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. It's long gone. It's long gone. It's long gone. Another stone is rolling in the river right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now?

Another stone is rolling in the river right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the river right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling in the river right now. Is it you right now? Are you right now? Another stone is rolling. Rolling. Oh, oh, oh. You. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh. Don't worry about it. You're going to believe this. Come on, sing it out. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. Come on, sing it out. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me.

The grave is still empty. The grave is still empty. The Savior lives in me. The Savior lives in me. If you're looking for the stone. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. No, I'm not insane. If you're looking for the soul, it was thrown away. If you're looking for the old me, it's long gone. We're not three days away from an empty grave. Another soul is holy. Give Him praise. Amen, church. We sing to His faithful God. Do we believe that today? Amen. Let's sing this together. Yes, we call on the God of Jacob. I'm calling on the God of Jacob. As love enters through generations, I know that You will keep me confident. I'm calling on the God of Moses, the one who opened up the ocean. I need You now to do the same thing for me. Come on, lift your voice today. Sing, oh God. Oh God, oh God, I need You. Oh God, my God, I need You now. How I need You now. Oh rock, oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on Your faithfulness. On Your faithfulness. Sing it out, I'm calling on the God of Mary. I'm calling on the God of Mary. Whose faith, whose faith rests upon the Lord. Yes, I know. I know with You all things are possible. Come on, declare it in this house. I'm calling on the God of Jacob.

You've made a shepherd boy from angels. I may not face Goliath, but I've got my own giants. Oh God, my God, I need You. Oh God, my God, I need You now. How I need You now. Oh rock, oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on Your faithfulness. On Your faithfulness. Oh God, my God, I need You. Oh God, my God, I need You now. How I need You now. Oh rock of ages, oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on Your faithfulness. On Your faithfulness. Have you ever just kind of stood and said like, God, I need You. And you hear the stories of what God is doing in other people's lives and go, I need that God. And you see the God of Scripture that heals the blind and that parts the seas. And you go, I need that God. This song talks about that. It's that we all have access to the same God. That God has never changed. That the God who split the ocean is the same God who cares about your current circumstance. I'm going to invite our prayer team to come forward right now. And if you're here this morning and you need that God, You need the God who shows up and touches the leper. Because they just needed a touch more than they needed healing. And they got both. You need the God that's going to show up in your circumstance and bring hope. Hope and healing and comfort. I'm gonna invite you to come forward. Our team would love to pray with you. They'd love to stand with you. They'd love to stand in the gap. Don't worry about the people next to you.

I know it's crowded. Just tap on the shoulder. We'll make room for you this morning, but I invite you to come forward because we can call upon this God who cares so deeply for you and has proven time and time and time and time and time again that he can do it if we call upon him, when we call upon him. And maybe you're here and you don't even have the words to say. You're just going through it. They've got the words that they'd love to share with you. But if you don't need specific prayer, we get to stand in the gap for each other. And so I'm gonna pray for a handful of prayer requests that you guys trust us with, representative of the many. If you're comfortable, would you just extend a hand in agreement as we pray for and with each other? God, we come before you, believing you are the same God and saying we just need you because you are the only one who can do it because it's safest in your hands because your faithfulness is enough for us to just say, God, please, I need you to take this from me. I need you to carry this burden, not because I can't necessarily take it, but because it's better when you take care of it, God.

And so we come alongside Manuel, who's gotten a diagnosis of cancer that just feels too big and too heavy, believing that the name of Jesus will bring hope and healing over his body, believing that he will walk out of that doctor's office with a clean bill of health and that you will get glory and praise for what you are doing in his life. God, we pray that you show up in that circumstance. We pray alongside Diane right now, who's asking for healing physically and mentally and spiritually, who's fighting things in the natural and fighting things in the supernatural. We pray that your angels would show up in both, Jesus. We pray you're healing over her body. We pray you're healing over her mind. We pray you're healing over her heart and her spirit, Jesus, believing that you want her to live in the fullness of who you have for her to be. And when all of them feel like they are down, God, you can lift her up, Lord. We pray that you show up in her circumstance. We pray alongside Riley, who's just saying, I just don't know how to get better connected to you. But your word tells us that all we have to do is turn and that you are there, that you have never left us. You will never forsake us.

So we believe alongside Riley that you will show up in their circumstance, that you will reveal yourself, Lord. We pray against any work of the enemy that is trying to speak illness over her mind and her heart, believing against anything that the enemy is doing to keep them separated for you because you have a plan and purpose for their life, believing that they will step into it. Thank you, Jesus, that you will show up. Thank you that you are the same God that shows up in those circumstances. We pray for the people in this room right now, the burden spoken and unspoken, God, the worries that are keeping us up at night, Lord. We pray over the diagnoses that feel too big to heavy, too big to bear. We pray for the decisions that feel unsure. We pray for the people saying, God, where are you? Where are you, God, that God's just showing up in my neighbor's life, that God's just showing up in my friend's life. God, I need that, God. I pray that you would reveal your face to them right now, that they would hear your word, that they would experience your spirit, Lord, that your love would be so overwhelming that all that they could do is say, thank you, Jesus, for meeting me here. Thank you, Lord, that you meet us here.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are in this room and we come to you saying that you are the same God. I need you. I love you. I believe you. Thank you for showing up. We call upon you right now, praising you because you are so worthy. So you're going to be praying. Amen and amen. You heard your children now. You hear your children now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You answered prayers back then and you will answer now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You were providing then and you're providing now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You moved in power then. God move in power now. You are the same God. Yes you are. Oh you're a healer. You are a healer then. You are a healer now. You are the same God.

You are the same God. You were a savior then. You are a savior now. Yes you're the same God. You are the same God. Oh God my God I need you. Oh God my God I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock of ages. Oh rock, oh rock of ages. I'm standing on your faithful. ♪ All your faithfulness, all your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ How I need you now, for all the ages, for all the ages ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness, all your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ All your faithfulness, all your faithfulness ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ You're a good God, you're worthy of praise ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now, my God, I need you now ♪ Come on, if he's a faithful God, give him praise in this house. We thank you, Lord. A worthy Jesus of all praise. There's no one like you. ♪ I am an instrument of exaltation ♪ ♪ And I was born to lift the name of heaven ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation ♪ ♪ But there's a song of praise that only I can bring ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪

♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one, only you Jesus, you are worthy ♪ ♪ You are the infinite God of the angels ♪ ♪ Yet you chose to make my heart with revenue ♪ ♪ You healed my brokenness, showed me your glory ♪ ♪ So I have songs of thanks, not even angels ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one, only you Jesus, you are worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one, only you Jesus, you are worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one, only you Jesus, you are worthy ♪ ♪ Only you Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh worthy Lord, oh worthy Lord, we lift your name on high, we roar at your throne. ♪ ♪ You are holy Lord, there is none like you. ♪ ♪ Oh holy Lord, oh holy Lord, we lift your name on high, we roar at your throne. ♪ ♪ There we got anointed one, who was and is and is to come. ♪ ♪ He's seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one who shed his blood. ♪ ♪ Holy Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come. ♪ ♪ He's seated on the throne above. Holy, holy, righteous one who shed his blood. ♪ ♪ True to us, the Father's blood. Jesus, the Son of God. ♪ ♪ Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Only you, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, there is no one ♪ ♪ Only you Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, there is no one ♪ ♪ Only you Jesus, there is no one, only you Jesus ♪ Come on give a praise church, you are worthy Lord.

But you join me in prayer. Jesus, there's no one like you. You see us in all of our imperfections. You love us, you invite us into your family, you give us your spirit, you meet with us, you hear our prayers, God you're so worthy. We're so grateful that we get to spend this time. Thank you for your presence. Thank you that you're with us right now. Lord I pray in your time together with us God that you would open up our eyes to see how good you are. That our hearts would be ready to receive the word that will give us life today. That you would strengthen our bones and our feet. That you would give us faith beyond what we could imagine God to see you do the impossible, the miraculous. There's no one like you Lord. And we're so grateful that we're your children. I pray today that you would breathe on us. You would speak life to what is dead. You would do what only you can do God, we are ready. We receive whatever it is you have. That your will would be done on earth. In this place, in our lives, in this church, in our families, as it is in heaven. We thank you Jesus. We pray all these things in your name and all the people of God who love him, believe him said. Amen, amen. Come on church, he's worthy.

I'm grateful, I'm grateful for his presence with us today. You may have a seat. If giving is part of your worship today, I wanna say thank you so much for your generosity. We're gonna share something a little bit later today of that we get the opportunity to do, to come alongside a bunch of moms who said yes. But that's just part of what we do because of the generosity. You don't just give to a church, you give through a church. Our children, they get to learn about Jesus on their level. Our students, they get to go to summer camp. There's a bake sale today. So if you wanna send a kid to camp, be generous, give 20 bucks, grab a brownie or not. But if you've come prepared to give as part of your worship to tell God you're so worthy, we're so grateful, there are several ways you could do so. Our service guides, they're gonna be passing down some buckets so you can give that way. We have a giving kiosk out in the lobby, some boxes in the back. But the most important thing, the Bible says to give from a cheerful heart. So no pressure today. Don't give out of guilt, don't give out of because something's going by me right now. The Bible says that we are to give out of the overflow of our gratitude for God. Is anyone grateful for who he is and for what he's doing? Man, I'm so grateful.

I wanna welcome you to the perfect place for imperfect people to experience the presence of God. I'm Eric and if you're new with us today, let me share a little bit about me. I love Jesus, I love my family, and I have made a lot of poor decisions when it comes to leftovers in my life. Leftover food to be specific. The other day, I'm not making this up, literally a few weeks ago, I go to my fridge to grab some leftovers and not just any leftovers. They were Korean leftovers, those Korean barbecue. And so I had short ribs and sticky rice and stir-fried sweet potato noodles with vegetables. My mouth was watering because I remembered how good it tasted over a week ago. I know, but it was calling out to me. So I had one of those moments, you probably had the moment where you're thinking like, this is a bad idea, I shouldn't do this, whatever, I'm gonna do it anyway. I popped in the microwave, pulled it out, put it in my mouth, and it tasted like pennies, copper and penicillin, it was disgusting. I was trying. to bring something that was dead, long gone, back to life, and it didn't work. And so what did I do? I tossed it out. That's what we tend to do when something is no longer good,

when something is dead and gone. Well, I brought this today. If you don't know what this bowl is, this is kintsugi. Say kintsugi. Kintsugi is a Japanese art form where they take broken pottery, and instead of seeing it as an opportunity to toss it out, they see it as an opportunity for beauty. They put it back together again. They don't, I don't know if you can tell, but there's a lot of cracks in this, and they don't try to hide the cracks. They highlight the cracks. They fuse what was broken together again with gold so that the final product is actually worth far more than what you had to begin with. Can I tell you, this is a picture of what God does. When things are broken, God doesn't say, it's over. God says, now, now I'm about to make something beautiful out of this brokenness. Are you grateful that we serve a God who doesn't throw things away? Turn to your neighbor, tell him he's the God of again. That's the title of today's teaching, and over the next several weeks, we're gonna be looking at this one passage in scripture that shows us who God is, not just once, but shows us who God is over and over again. Psalm 71, verses 20 and 21. We're gonna talk about this over the next several weeks.

It says, you who have made me see many troubles and calamities, you will revive me again. From the depths of the earth, you will bring me up again. You will increase greatness and comfort me again. Now, notice that word again right off the rip. It says again three times. What that word again means is that this wasn't the first time. The Bible is reminding us that if God moved back then, God will do it again. That if God had strength for us, at some point in our life, he has strength for us again. If he was faithful then, he will be faithful again, amen? And I wanna show us what this looks like, not just a promise from scripture, but a picture from scripture. Why don't you turn your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 37. You can follow along here and at home. Ezekiel 37, it's a moment where everything looks dry, where everything looks dead, where it looks like it can't come back. And God asks this question. He says, can this live again? Ezekiel 37, verses one through three. The hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel said, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. And he led me among them. Behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley.

Behold, they were very dry, verse three. And he said to me, God said to me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, oh Lord God, you know. That's the question. Can this live again? Can my joy live again? Can my hope live again? Can this relationship, this opportunity, this situation, this calling live again? Ezekiel says, God knows. But what I love about this passage is God answers. God tells us what he does when things look broken beyond repair. There are three things I wanna share today. I wanna encourage you to write these three things down so you can remember them again and again. And when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, which one of those is for you, I want you to believe that he can bring and produce power in and through it for your life. The first thing I want us to understand when something looks dead and gone is that God revives what's worn out. God revives what's worn out. Ezekiel, he's speaking to the people of God, the people of Israel in one of the most lowest seasons of their history. They've been exiled to Babylon, Jerusalem. Their capital has been destroyed.

The temple is gone. And everything that reminded them of God's promises, of God's presence, of their identity as his people, all of that has been stripped away. So when God gives Ezekiel this vision of this valley of dry bones, this is the actual state of the people of that time. Again, verse one, the hand of the Lord was upon me, he said, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley that was full of bones. And he led me among them. Behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley. And behold, he says, they were what? Very dry. Not just dead bones, very dry bones. That means this wasn't recent. They've been dead for some time. This is the state of the people. They were scattered. They were disconnected. Spiritually, they were drained. Physically. They were displaced. They were carrying disappointment for such a long time that it actually turned into something deeper in them. The Bible says that they were worn out. They were worn out. You ever been worn out? I'm preaching to myself today.

I think this is where a lot of us, we find ourselves when things get difficult. We're not necessarily rebellious. We're not running away from God. We feel worn out from weariness. The problem with weariness, it's not a feeling you can simply shake off easily. It affects our whole entire system. Researchers in psychology, they talk about decision fatigue. That when you have the responsibility to carry a lot of decisions, when you carry a lot of weight on your shoulders, over time, these decisions become more difficult to make. Your ability to think clearly and choose wisely starts to decline when you feel all this pressure. And that's why when you're tired, things feel more difficult than they actually are. Little situations feel bigger. Simple things feel overwhelming. We've all been there. There's also what's called emotional exhaustion, which is a key part of burnout for every single person. I've been there. I've been emotionally exhausted. It's when you're emotionally depleted, you become more reactive instead of proactive. You lose motivation to do anything, and you begin to detach from things that you once deeply cared about. Now, again, it doesn't mean you stop showing up. You continue to show up. You continue to do what you know to do, except you're disconnected. Your heart is far from it. You're there physically, but something inside of you is checked out. And spiritually, this shows up in very subtle ways. Prayer begins to feel like an effort instead of a connection with God. Worship feels quiet instead of alive. Faith feels like it's distant instead of strengthening who you are.

This is what makes weariness so dangerous. It doesn't just affect our strength. Weariness affects our perspective. We're going to see that these people, they've been walking worn out for so long. They've lost their energy that eventually it turned into them losing their expectancy in God. But here's what I love about this passage. You may not like this, but here's what I love about it. When he shows them this valley of dead, dry bones, God doesn't pull Ezekiel out. God doesn't make him walk around. God puts him right in the middle of it and walks with him through it. Verse one again. The hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel said, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord, and he set me down in the middle of the valley. The reason this matters is because so many of us, we're telling God, God, get me out. I don't want to be here. I don't want to deal with this. Get me out. And so often God says, no, this is where I'm going to begin again. The very place that robbed us, the very place where we felt emotionally drained, God says, this is where I want to begin again. Amen. I know we don't like that. I don't like that. But I want you to notice,

even though he put him in the middle of the valley, he said, the hand of the Lord was upon me. God was with him. God walked with him. I know the valley may be uncomfortable, but it's not without God. And if God is with you there, get ready, because God is going to do something there. Because God doesn't show up to watch, right? God shows up to work things together for our good. I want you to write this down. God restores strength before he restores circumstances. We have to understand that. He restores strength before he restores our circumstances. Before he changes things around us, he loves us so much, he wants to change something within us. And this is so important, because too many of us, we're tired in a way that sleep can't fix. We've taken the day off, but the weight is still there. We've rested our bodies, but we still feel burdened. Our soul still feels exhausted. The reason, because it's not external. It's something deeper. But here's the good news. This is what I've learned in my walk with him, is that he doesn't require my strength to revive me. He supplies the strength to revive me. He doesn't require my effort. to do more. He gives the strength. Isaiah 40, 29-31. Several weeks ago we talked about what it means to weight train, to train while we're waiting. And we read

this passage. I want to read it again. It says, He gives power to the faint. And to him who has no mind, what does he do? He increases strength. Even youth shall be faint and weary and young men shall fall exhausted. But those who wait on the Lord's, they shall renew. They shall have strength again. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. It's not flapping their wings like turkeys. Soaring like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. If you are tired, there's nothing wrong with you. Life has a tendency of doing things that are far more significant than we expected. If you're tired, there's nothing wrong with you. But you don't have to stay that way while you wait. He will strengthen you. God revives what is worn out. Amen. Second thing I want you to understand is that God breathes on what's dried up. When things look dead and gone, God breathes on what is dried up. There's a difference between worn out and dried up. When you are worn out, you are drained. When you are dried up, you're disconnected. Being weary is like, I need to take a nap. Being dry is like, I took a nap and I don't care. There's seasons of my life where I've been so dry. Where the things I was once passionate about, I stopped caring about. Where my kids and my wife would talk to me and they'd tell me things. I'd be like, wow, that's crazy. But I didn't hear a single word that they said because I was disconnected. Psychologists, they call this emotional numbing. You're so numb to everything around you. If you've been there, listen to what God says through Ezekiel, verse 4. He said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. He says, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. Notice what he tells Ezekiel to do. He tells Ezekiel to speak to things who cannot hear and to call life into something that has no life. Why would God tell him to do that? Because God's word doesn't just simply describe reality. God's word creates reality. God's word has a way of bringing life to something that has no life. Do you remember the beginning? Genesis 1, in the beginning God said it and it was. His words create realities. They bring life to places that are lifeless. And if we're honest, a lot of us are in that place. We feel lifeless right now. Maybe it's not everything's falling apart. Maybe it's not everything is in complete chaos right now. Maybe you just feel dry. Your relationship feels dry. Your prayer feels dry. Your service to God feels dry. Your passion feels dry. You're doing all the right

things but you're just dry inside. And being dry is very dangerous. Again, because it's so subtle. You can be dry and still show up. You can be dry and still serve God. You can be dry and everyone thinks on the outside everything's okay with you. But inside there's something that no longer has life. And what do we tend to do in dry seasons? We don't focus on the interior. We focus on the exterior. I'm going to change things. I'm going to change my surrounding. I'm going to change my environment. I'm going to add something new. I'm going to take away something old hoping that it will spark new life. But what does God do? God doesn't change his circumstance. God doesn't put him in a new situation. What does God do? He sends his breath. Behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. That word breath is a Hebrew word ruach. I'm saying it wrong. You're supposed to spit at the end. I can't do it. So ruach is that word. And that word is defined in the Hebrew as wind, as breath, but more commonly as spirit. So when God says I will breathe on you, what he's saying is is I will give you my helper. I will give you my Holy Spirit. I want you to understand, this isn't about us trying harder. When you are dry, the answer isn't do more. Get in the game, get your head out of it. This isn't about us trying harder. This is about us receiving something that we can't produce on our own. What feels lifeless in you doesn't need more effort on your part, it needs the Holy Spirit of God. Verse seven, so I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone, and I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. This is what it looks like.

You can look good, you can have systems, you can have structure, you can have routine, but still have no strength because the Spirit of God is not in you. You can have discipline and consistency and still feel dry on the insides. They came together, but there was no breath. Verse nine, then he said to me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, say to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, come from everywhere, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. Church, when the breath of God comes, when the Spirit of God comes, there's life. They didn't understand it, they couldn't fix it themselves. God, breathe on them. Talk to somebody. Put together a plan. But more than that, we don't need more information. We need impartation. We need the presence of God. It's not just about rearranging things in our life, it's about the Spirit of God breathing on us to give us life. How do we position ourselves for that? What does God tell Ezekiel again and again and again? He said, prophesy over these bones. I know when we talk about prophecy in the church, some of you, you pucker up. Like, oh no, what are we gonna talk about?

When God tells Ezekiel to prophesy, hear this carefully. He's not telling him to predict the future. This isn't Miss Cleo, let me tell you what's gonna happen. Prophecy in Scripture, primarily, most of the time, is not foretelling, it is forth-telling. Ezekiel wasn't saying something that he saw that may or may not happen. He spoke what God said to a dead situation before there was life. There's a difference. When God tells us to prophesy, it's not what we think we see. When we prophesy, it's what God said. Do you understand that? It's his spoken word to us. In other words, speak what God said, even when things around you don't look alive. Declare the promises that he's already given in his word into your life again and again and again. And again and again. If it's his word, he said it, it's truth that will set us free. So speak it, speak his words. Because what I found is that if we're not careful, we'll begin to speak what we feel instead of what he said. And what we speak shapes the way that we see things. Proverbs 18, 21. This passage has been taken out of context so many times. It says,

death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruits. This is not talking about speaking things into existence like we have magical power. We don't do that. Our words don't create reality. God's words do. We can't speak things into existence. He does that. Again, our words don't create reality, but they do shape ours. What we speak out loud, our brain begins to believe. Therefore, we start seeing that. in our lives. That's what the context of this passage is about. The context of it is how to handle conflict. How we use our words in relationships. And it's reminding us that we need to understand that our words shape our direction. Meaning what we consistently speak is what we eventually will see. Psychologists, they understand this. And you do as well. If you stand up and you look in the mirror every morning, you say, man, I'm such a loser. God, nobody loves me. What a failure I am. You're gonna continue to live that way because you're telling your brain and your brain is believing it.

But if you wake up every morning and you declare God's word, what he's already promised over your life, greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world. He's not giving me a spirit of fear, but a spirit of adoption where I can call him father. He has great plans and a hope for my future, not to destroy me. He's with me always. You start speaking God's word, you're gonna start believing God's words. If life and death are in the power of the tongue, why do we keep on speaking death over what God wants to breathe life into? So how do we position ourselves for this? Here's a practice. Speak life even when you don't feel it. Speak his truth every day. Speak God's promises over your situation. I know what you feel feels real, but it's not God's truth that will set you free. So speak his truth over your emotions. Speak a word of faith from his word over your lifeless situations. That part of you that feels distant, that part of you that feels disconnected and dry, God is not done with. He wants to breathe life onto it, amen? God revives what's worn out. God breathes on what's dried up.

Third thing is God restores the hope that I ruled out. Weirdness drains you. Dryness, again, it numbs you. But lost hope that changes how you see everything. And hope doesn't disappear typically all at once. It fades slowly over time. We talked about since last teaching series. It fades slowly over time, over disappointment from delays in our prayer. And God, why hasn't it happened yet? And for most of us, we keep on believing and we keep on praying and we keep on trusting and we keep on expecting. But when enough time passes and nothing changes, something in us begins to shift. And again, for most of us, it's not that we turn away from God, we just stop expecting him to move in that area. We start praying prayers out of habit instead of out of faith. Thanks for the food, God. Pray for my kids, pray for my wife, pray for the church. Thank you, amen. We don't believe that he can actually do what we're asking him. We stop believing for more. We simply settle for what is right now. Can I tell you that's not life? John 10, 10, Jesus says, I've come to give them life and life abundantly.

That's not abundant, overflowing life that comes from him. Verse 11, but he said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. But they say that our bones are dried up and our hope is lost and indeed we are cut off. Again, this is the place that the people of God are in right now. They say, our hope is gone, we're cut off. We're no longer part of his family, we're no longer his people. They weren't just dry, they weren't just tired, they had lost hope. And that's the deepest part of this dangerous condition because when you lose hope, everything else begins to follow. When you lose hope in your life, you stop believing that God can do anything. And then like the Israelites, eventually you get to a point where you think to yourself or even say out loud, I don't have any more hope. I'm hopeless. I've been there. But what I love about God is he didn't agree with my conclusion. He doesn't agree with what the people of Israel are saying. We're hopeless, our hope is gone. No, verse 12, he says, therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, I want you to see this. I will open your graves and raise you from your graves. Oh, my people.

They said, we're cut off. He says, no, you're still my people. They said, there's no hope, everything is dead and gone. He says, I'm not done. I'm about to bring you up. I'm about to give you new life. I'm about. to revive you again. He's the God of again. And this is a tension that we live in as his followers. Every day we live in this tension that what we feel and what we think doesn't always line up with what he said. Our emotions will tell us it's done. It can't be repaired. It's finished. It's over. But God says, no. I'm gonna make it beautiful in its time. It's not done. I don't toss it out. I see it as an opportunity to bring it back together. There's still hope. There's always hope. Write this down. Hope is not based on what you see. Hope is based on who he is. If we look with our eyes, oh my gosh. Is there hope? Is there hope for my car to have cheap gas again?

Is there hope for the kielbasa to be under $3 instead of $6.59? Is there hope for our country? It's not based on what we see. It's based on who he is. Romans 15 tells us that he is the God of hope. That what we've ruled out, he's able to restore because that's who he is. So listen, how do we experience this in our lives? God didn't tell him, I want you to get up. He didn't say, try to fix it. No, he says, I will open it. I will do it. There are things in our life that we can't change on our own. There are things in our life that we are powerless to bring any sort of transformation to. Whatever those things are, give it to God. What you've already given up on, give it to God. Lay it down at his feet, hand it over to him and see what only he can do in that situation. Stop trying to control it. Stop trying to fix it. Stop trying to force it. Give it back to God and see what God can do with it because the same God who spoke to these dry bones is the same God who spoke to these people and the same God who spoke to these dry bones is the same God who opened up their graves. And if God can open up their graves,

God can restore to us the hope that we've ruled out saying, there's no possibility of it ever happening again. Do you realize this is literally what we celebrated last weekend? Jesus came back again. He stepped into the grave on our behalf and then he walked out again three days later. He brought life again. It's resurrection. And what too many mistake is that we just celebrate that once a year. No, we celebrate it every day. Why? Because Jesus is the God of again. He brings mercies every morning again and again. He has hope and peace in every circumstance, every day again and again. And he said that when we surrender in his name, we can have life again. That when we pray in his name, his promises will come to pass again. He did it before, he'll do it again. And when we speak his name, dry bones will have life again. This isn't about what God did back then. This isn't even about what God did last week. This is about what God wants to do again today. Jesus is the God of again. And today, whatever feels dry, whatever feels weary and tired,

or if you're in a place where you're saying, I have no hope anymore, he's here again to revive us again and again and again. I wanna ask you to stand to your feet right now. There are so many things that we can't do on our own. We try to force it, we try to fix it. Surrender to God, give it to God. Whatever that is right now in your mind, I believe the Holy Spirit is speaking to us and he's putting something on our mind. Would you just lift up your hands? Don't think too much about it. Don't think about that thing, how is it gonna happen? How is God gonna do it? It's not yours to deal with. Surrender, give to him right now. Name the thing and give it up to him. The place that is tired and weary, He wants to revive again. The place that is dry and disconnected, He wants to revive it again. The hope that you have lost, He wants to revive it again, right now. So give to Him. Father, thank you that you sent your Son Jesus to give us life again. And right now, Lord, we are a week from your resurrection. And some of us, we need hope again. We need help again. We need your breath again, God. We're so far and so tired and so dry. And we need you to breathe on us again right now, Lord. We give it to you. We give you our burdens. We give you our brokenness, Lord. And we ask that you would make it beautiful again. You are the God of again. Jesus, we know that your name is above every name. We know that your name is above our brokenness. Your name is above our anxiety. Your name is above our fear and our failures. So we speak that name of Jesus over our circumstances, over our situation. It's a name above every name. It's a name that brings life. It's the

name that brings hope and healing. So we give you our problems, and we pray all of them in faith, in the name of Jesus, we pray. And all the people of God who believe them said, amen and amen. Come on, church. We talked about that name. We prayed to that name. Let's sing about the name of the God of again. I know a name that can silence roaring waves. And I know a name that can empty out a grave. And I know a name. It's the only name that saves. And it's worthy of all praise. And I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you healer. Risen and reigning in power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. And every time I call your name. I have a key. With dominion over death. He holds the keys. In his holiness garden. He is the healer. Yes. That has crushed the serpent's head. Our resurrecting great I am. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you healer. Risen and reigning in power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus, I call you, I call you Savior. Worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call your name. Chains break. Troubles break. Every time I call your name. The gates of hell shake. Every time I call your name. Chains break. Troubles break. Every time I call your name. The gates of hell shake. Every time I call your name. Oh. Every time I call your name. Sing it out, where, O death, is your sting? Where, O death, is now your sting? And where, O grave, your victory? And where, O death, is now your sting? And where, O grave, your victory? And where, O death, is now your sting? And where, O grave, your victory? Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive.

Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you, leader. Radiant, radiant in power. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call you Jesus. I call you, I call you, savior. Worthy of glory forever. Something comes out of the grave. Every time I call your name. Chains break. Tribals wake. Every time I call your name. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive. Death easily comes alive in the name of Jesus. Give a praise!