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The God Who Says: I Will · Messiah in Life

0:18
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Messiah in Life, hosted by Bishop Justin D.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Elwell of Messiah, Congregation and Restoration Fellowship International.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Once again, due to his wife's ongoing cancer treatments and the time needed for recovery, we were unable to continue our study through Ephesians this week.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Instead, we're bringing you a special message Justin shared on Shabbat just before Yom Kippur at Messiah Congregation.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: The message is entitled, The God Who Says I Will.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: It is a message of hope, reminding us that when we come to the end of our own strength, we can trust in the God who cleanses, forgives, renews, restores, and gives life.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: And now, here is Bishop Justin.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: During this week, I kept going in my mind to Ezekiel.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 37.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: So I'll begin reading there in verse 1.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: It was full of bones, and he led me around among them, and behold, there were many, and very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.
1:51
SPEAKER_01: And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?
1:55
SPEAKER_01: And I answered, O Lord, O Lord God, you know.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Thus says the Lord God to the bones Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: 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 was sea news upon them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are indeed cut off.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: Therefore prophesy, say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, pay attention to this, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and rise you from your graves, O my people.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: And I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall know that I am the Lord, I have spoken, I will do it, declares the Lord.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: This is God's word.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: The God who says, I will.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: If you were to read Ezekiel 36 and 37, what you will continually see is the Lord or hear is the Lord saying, I will.
4:40
SPEAKER_01: We have a response to that.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: But what the Lord will do is not conditioned upon our response.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Our response is obedience, or call to obey.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: He says, You shall, you shall.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Not you will, but you shall, you shall do this.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: But here we are in a condition where we're dried up.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we're dead.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: This was at a point in Israel's history where in exile hope had been lost, hope was gone.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: The promise of the Davidic house was extinct, and here they were in a valley, in exile, dead.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: Was there hope?
5:23
SPEAKER_01: So Ezekiel begins to speak of that hope.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: He prophesies to that hope as the Lord would lead him.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: So beautifully we see him at the beginning of his exile, this priest of Israel, singing.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: And of course, the psalmist asks, Can we sing the song of the Lord when in a foreign land?
5:44
SPEAKER_01: And Ezekiel answers that.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Says, of course we can.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: So while we are in a condition in a valley of death, dried up, lifeless, seemingly beyond rescue, the Lord begins to speak.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: And as we look into the conclusion of chapter 37, we have the beautiful imagery of the two sticks that represent, of course, the reunification of the house of Israel.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: The Lord beginning to bring together his promise that would come through the house of David, specifically that of Judah, and also to the house of Ephraim, which would carry the promise of Joseph.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: And we see what man could never achieve coming together.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Only what the Lord could do, not what we could do by any sort of plan or scheme, but rather what he will do because of his grace and his mercy.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not trying to make this a Yom Kippur text, because it's not.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: But I think it speaks to the hope that Yom Kippur gives to us and reminds us of.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: As you'll hear tomorrow night, Rabbi Jonathan Sachs said so beautifully, Yom Kippur, particularly the repentance that it is a call to, reminds us that we can be changed.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be who we had been.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: We can walk as a new creation.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: We can be a new creation because of what the Lord will do in our life.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, we hold on to that hope, that reminder.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're not looking to Yom Kippur as some sort of substitute for the work of Yeshua, but rather it's a time when we come together as the Lord commanded to walk in a season of repentance, to walk in a season of focused attention on the areas and the things that are in our life that are in need of change.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: But it's not a change we can bring.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: It's what he begins to work into us and work through us.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: But we are open to that change.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: We want him as the potter to continually mold the clay.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: We want, as Ezekiel says in the beginning of his prophecy, the hand of the Lord was upon me.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't say that he was then filled with great delight.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: I think he was rather dreadful of what the Lord was about to speak through him.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: He's seeing a vision he doesn't quite understand, and he's seeing a result that he can't accomplish.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: He can't give any type of plan to the children of Israel to say, this is how you do this.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: So as we come before the Lord on Yom Kippur, we're reminded of the need for atonement, for forgiveness, for cleansing, for mercy, for reconciliation.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: We come regretting our failures, we come regretting sin.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: It is a reminder of the needfulness of atonement, the forgiveness of sin, that sin is real, that sin has consequence.
9:13
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, our hope rests not in our own strength or in our own strength of repentance, but it rests fully in the character and the mercy of God.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: Fully in his hands, fully in his doing.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: These are the things that make Ezekiel 37 so beautiful.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: The Lord speaks to a people who have experienced judgment, exile, and it seems that hope is lost, hope is gone.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: There is no more hope.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: He begins to speak not primarily to what they will do, but again to what he will do.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: He says so beautifully, I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: I will sprinkle clean water on you.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: That clean water will cleanse you, will wash you, it will refresh you, it will renew you, it will make you clean.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: And it's in the first person, if you look in the Hebrew, it's in the first person.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: I will sprinkle you.
10:29
SPEAKER_01: Because it's he who cleanses us.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who cleanses, he is the one who changes, he is the one that brings reformation.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: It is from his initiative, his motion toward us.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: As we have said so many times over the years, we're simply responding to his love.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: We are responding to his grace, we're responding to his mercy.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: As we look to that beautiful hymn based on the Psalms, as the deer pants for the water, my soul longs for you.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: And I've often said that the water wanted the deer more than the deer wanted the water.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: The Lord wants us more than we want Him.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: He says so beautifully, a new heart I will give you, a new spirit I will put in you.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: Again, we have this I will, I will give.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: That expression, it ten, I will give, I will do this.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: He's not commanding his people to create a new heart.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: He's not telling us that we have to figure out how to put a new heart inside of us.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying that.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: If we try harder, if we pray harder, if we meditate more, if we fast more, you fill in the blank, if we do that more, then we will generate a spiritual life.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: A spiritual life is a relationship with him, personal.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: And he promises to put that new spirit, that new life in us.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And then he commands something, he says something even more beautiful, more remarkable.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: I will put my spirit within you.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: As I've said, based on the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the Holy Spirit is what is enlivening this flesh.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is who is keeping this flesh alive, the very presence of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, dwelling in us.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: It's not the old nature, it's not the old man who is keeping this flesh alive, but it is the Holy Spirit Himself, God in you, tabernacling in you.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: And it's based upon this promise that I will give you.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: And then what does that cause us to do?
13:14
SPEAKER_01: To walk in his statutes, to be careful, to be obedient, to pay attention to what he has spoken.
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SPEAKER_01: I will do this, I will give this.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: Not because you merit it, not because I think you're the best out of all of them.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: I will do this because of my grace, my mercy.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: This is grace speaking.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: Everything in Ezekiel 37 is the grace of God speaking.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: But I don't mean to say that repentance is unnecessary.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean to overlook obedience.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean we have no responsibility before him because we do.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: But it tells us where our salvation, where our transformation ultimately originates.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: The Lord does not sit at some distance waiting for you to merit being drawn closer to him.
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SPEAKER_01: He doesn't tell broken people to repair themselves.
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SPEAKER_01: It's his presence in us and with us that does this.
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SPEAKER_01: This is grace.
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SPEAKER_01: He enters into the work of restoration.
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SPEAKER_01: That's who he is.
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SPEAKER_01: His presence restores, his presence brings hope.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: And Ezekiel 37 takes one of the most powerful visions, gives us one of the most powerful visions that we find in Scripture.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: The prophet is brought into that dry, deep valley.
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SPEAKER_01: He set me down in the middle of the valley.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Think about this.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: He sets us in a valley and it's filled with bones.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: It's filled with death.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: It's filled with extinct things, with things that have no life in them.
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SPEAKER_01: There is no life to speak of in this valley.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: And this prophet is spoke is is set there.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Can these bones live?
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Can these bones live?
15:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord, you know.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: And that is what Ezekiel is saying.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Only you know whether or not these bones will live.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Because they're dead.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: The beautiful thing is Ezekiel doesn't stand there and say, I know what to do, Lord.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: Trust me.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't offer the program of rehabilitation.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say, get me some water, and I'll start to water these dry bones until they come to life.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say that.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: These are not people who are simply weak.
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SPEAKER_01: They're dead.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: Hope is dead.
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SPEAKER_01: Everything is dead.
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SPEAKER_01: They're not sick people who need treatment.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: They're not wounded people who need assistance.
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SPEAKER_01: They're just dead.
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SPEAKER_01: Can these bones live?
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SPEAKER_01: Lord, you know.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: And it's a recreation.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: It draws us back, of course, to Genesis chapter two.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: As we see bone to its bone, flesh coming alive, flesh overcoming or taking on shape.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: Skin covered them.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: But yet there was no breath.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: They were reminded of how the Lord molded Adam out of dirt.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Everything he needed to be alive was there, except breath.
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SPEAKER_01: Breath can't come out of dirt.
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SPEAKER_01: Breath comes from the Lord.
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SPEAKER_01: I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: God will do, dear friends, God will do what death and the dead cannot do for themselves.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: Give them breath.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: After the bones come together, the bodies are formed, the Lord says, I will put my spirit within you and you shall live.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you my spirit within you and you shall live.
17:49
SPEAKER_01: The same Lord who says, I will cleanse you, I will give you a new heart, I will put my spirit within you, I will cause you to live, I will bring you to life.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: That same Lord who brought them into judgment, the same Lord who brought them into exile, the same Lord who watched their decline and watched them dry into dust.
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SPEAKER_01: Says, I will renew you.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: I will do a work that you cannot do.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to leave a little bit of your old life so that you can in some way imagine that you renewed yourself.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to wait until you are well past dead.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: And that's the hope that speaks to us on Yom Kippur.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: The hope that speaks to us that in spite of our condition, in spite of our death, he will give us life.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: See, apart from Messiah, we, dear friends, we were not just struggling.
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SPEAKER_01: We weren't just struggling, we were dead.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: As Paul tells us, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.
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SPEAKER_01: The gospel gives us the remedy.
19:24
SPEAKER_01: The gospel has its own I will.
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SPEAKER_01: As Paul says, we were dead in trespasses and sin.
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SPEAKER_01: That language is Ezekiel's valley.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: That language is exactly where Ezekiel stood.
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SPEAKER_01: And it's what the Lord gives us a glimpse of to see just where we were and where others are.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: See, the Lord might send you to be in Ezekiel to someone's valley.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: And what do you go to do but to speak life?
20:04
SPEAKER_01: To speak life into that valley.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: See, friends, death is the problem.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: We're constantly trying to enliven ourselves.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: But dead people cannot resurrect themselves.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Paul gives us two of the most beautiful words that we see in all scripture.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: I've highlighted one of the most beautiful visions, but now I highlight two of the most beautiful words, but God.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah.
20:45
SPEAKER_01: Even though we were dead, past tense, in our trespasses, he's made us alive.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: And who did this?
20:54
SPEAKER_01: God.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: This is the great I will of the gospel.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: We were dead, but he says, I will give you life.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: We were unclean, but he says, I will cleanse you.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: We were guilty, he says, I will forgive you.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts were hardened, but he says, I will give you a new heart.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: We were spiritually powerless, but he says, I will put my spirit within you.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: We were separated from him, but he says, You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: See, the gospel is not in any wise a testimony of good people who have climbed their way to heaven.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: It's a story of how the Lord reaches down to us.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: That's why grace is so amazing.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Grace doesn't meet us when we are doing well.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: Grace meets us when we have absolutely nothing to offer.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: Mercy doesn't wait for For us to be worthy.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Mercy is extended precisely because we are not worthy.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: Love does not come to us because we've successfully made ourselves lovable.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: God shows his love for us, and while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: Yom Kippur, dear brothers and sisters, brings us face to face with our need.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: It brings us face to face with our need, but the gospel brings us face to face with the Lord's provision, with what he has done.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: We need cleansing.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Messiah cleanses us.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: As John writes, the blood of Yeshua, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: We need forgiveness in Messiah.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: We need reconciliation.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: God was in Messiah, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
22:57
SPEAKER_01: We need transformation in Messiah.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: If anyone is in Messiah, Paul says he is a new creation.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: We need life.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: And Paul tells us the same spirit that raised Messiah from the dead dwells in us and will give us, give life to our mortal bodies.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: That is the gospel.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: This is why our confidence cannot ultimately be in ourselves.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: Our confidence will continually let us down.
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SPEAKER_01: It will fall short because it has not the power to transform us.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is not in somehow becoming good enough to be received by Him.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is that the Lord is merciful enough to save us.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is not that we have successfully repaired every broken place in our life.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is that the Lord is the restorer.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is not to have the power to resurrect ourselves.
24:10
SPEAKER_01: Can anything change?
24:13
SPEAKER_01: Can we change?
24:14
SPEAKER_01: We look at those dry places, we look at the things in our life that are seemingly immovable.
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SPEAKER_01: Can we change?
24:25
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel, in this vision that I've shared with you, doesn't say to the bones, try harder.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Try harder.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: He never says that.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: The answer is the Lord will bring life to what is dead.
24:46
SPEAKER_01: Again, this doesn't remove our responsibility to repent.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: It gives us hope that repentance is not an exercise in despair.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: We turn toward him because he already extended his mercy toward us.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: We confess because he is faithful and just to forgive.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: We surrender because he's able to transform us.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: We cannot transform ourselves.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: We cannot change ourselves.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: We cannot change others.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: We trust because he has promised to do what we cannot do for ourselves.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: We need to get that into our hearts.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: We need to take hold of that.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: Even when we are in a valley that is seemingly dry, seemingly surrounded by death.
25:52
SPEAKER_01: The promise of scripture is he is with us.
25:56
SPEAKER_01: That's why we will not fear.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Because he's with us.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't left us because we found ourselves in a place of dryness, in a place of sorrow, in a place of pain.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: He hasn't done that.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: He won't do that.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: It would go against his word.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: And I will say this with love and affection because of where my wife and I presently are.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: We haven't lost hope.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: I love my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, but sometimes I just want to reach through the text and give you a little strangle.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm tired of being rebuked because I didn't say the right response when you asked me how things were going.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: I ask you up front, do you want the Christian answer or do you want my answer?
26:54
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you the Christian one.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: But don't tell me to try harder.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell me to believe harder, believe more.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: That's not how the Lord works.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: You will never convince me otherwise from Scripture.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: You'll convince me from your own point of view, sure, but not from Scripture.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Only the light of the Lord can bring life to any situation.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not rebuking anybody, I'm just giving a pleasant reminder.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Jose, I love you.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: And this is where Messiah stands at the center of our hope.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: I haven't forgotten that he walked out of the grave.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: I haven't forgotten that.
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SPEAKER_01: Nor will I.
27:48
SPEAKER_01: As I've said so many times in the last few weeks, though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: If Job can say that without the revelation of Messiah, certainly we can.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: See, all of the promises of the Lord and Messiah are found in Messiah.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: He is the yes, he is the amen.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: He's the cleansing that we need, he is the forgiveness that we need, he's the reconciliation that we need.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: He's the new creation that we need when we are found in him.
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SPEAKER_01: He is the spirit that gives life to us because of the grace of God, the salvation we could never accomplish, he has accomplished.
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SPEAKER_01: Son Yom Kippur, I pray that our boasting is not in our righteousness.
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SPEAKER_01: We have none to bring to him save for his own.
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SPEAKER_01: We come trusting in his mercy.
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SPEAKER_01: As we walk in his mercy, we walk in his grace.
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SPEAKER_01: That even when this valley is too deep and too tight to navigate without being pressed even more, we know that he's with us there.
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SPEAKER_01: We do not come pretending that we do not need forgiveness.
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SPEAKER_01: We come before a Lord who forgives, before a Lord who is merciful, before a Lord who is just.
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SPEAKER_01: We don't come pretending that our hearts are already perfect.
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SPEAKER_01: Anybody here have a perfect heart apart from Him?
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SPEAKER_01: We come to God who gives us a new heart, who opens our heart, who breaks our heart in order to restore our heart.
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SPEAKER_01: We come because we come believing that we can raise, but let us not come believing that we can raise ourselves from the valley of death.
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SPEAKER_01: We can't.
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SPEAKER_01: We cannot generate enough faith to light a single light bulb.
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SPEAKER_01: How do we think we could raise ourselves from the valley of death?
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SPEAKER_01: We come to the Lord who says, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
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SPEAKER_01: It's not what you will do.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: It's what he will do.
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SPEAKER_01: I will do this.
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SPEAKER_01: See, there's something deeply comforting about those two little words, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: And let me give you a few examples.
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SPEAKER_01: When our strength fails, he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: When our righteousness fails, he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: When our hearts fail, he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: When our hope fails, he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: When everything appears dead and dry, he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: All throughout Ezekiel 36 and 37, we see that I will.
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SPEAKER_01: I will open, I will do, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: He will do what is impossible.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
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SPEAKER_01: And we come to the end of ourselves.
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SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been there?
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SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met the yourself at the end of yourself?
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SPEAKER_01: It ain't the prettiest side of you.
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SPEAKER_01: When we meet ourselves at the end of ourselves, we come to the end of ourselves, we discover that the end of ourselves is not the end of the story.
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SPEAKER_01: It's not the end of your story.
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SPEAKER_01: And aren't we happy for that?
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SPEAKER_01: The Lord, in that place, when we find, when we think we've found the end, when we think we can go no deeper, we can be pressed no further, the Lord, there's a Lord who is rich in mercy.
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SPEAKER_01: There's a Lord whose love is greater than our sin.
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SPEAKER_01: There's a Lord who forgives, there's a Lord who cleanses, there's a Lord who restores, there's a Lord who will give a new heart, there's a Lord who will give a new spirit, there's a Lord who raises the dead, and there's a Messiah through whom every promise of redemption finds its fulfillment.
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SPEAKER_01: We sang songs today about the living God, about the risen Lord.
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SPEAKER_01: And we worshiped in spirit and in truth.
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SPEAKER_01: We received those promises.
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SPEAKER_01: We've heard the testimony of those promises.
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SPEAKER_01: I haven't given up hope.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: I hear Michael walking 39 years of sobriety.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: That gives me hope.
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SPEAKER_01: Jay being healed of, I'm not going to do that math, but you know, you can figure it out.
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SPEAKER_01: Being healed.
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SPEAKER_01: That gives me hope.
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SPEAKER_01: That we continue to join together, that gives me hope.
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SPEAKER_01: But not hope in you.
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SPEAKER_01: God love you.
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SPEAKER_01: Not hope in me.
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SPEAKER_01: Hope in him.
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SPEAKER_01: So perhaps the most appropriate posture as we enter Yom Kippur tomorrow night is not despair.
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SPEAKER_01: We're not coming before him on Yom Kippur in despair, but in humility.
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SPEAKER_01: Not self-righteousness, but repentance.
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SPEAKER_01: Not confidence in ourselves, but confidence in him.
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SPEAKER_01: We need to be reminded of that.
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SPEAKER_01: We come with empty hands, and he says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: We come unclean.
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SPEAKER_01: And he says, I will cleanse you.
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SPEAKER_01: We come broken, and he says, I will restore you.
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SPEAKER_01: These are the promises that he's given to this valley of dry bones.
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SPEAKER_01: And no, we're not misappropriating them because we see in this the fullness of what the gospel is.
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SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 37 is the beginning of the restoration.
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SPEAKER_01: It's the beginning of the gospel going forth into the world.
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SPEAKER_01: And it's the beginning of that one new man that only the Lord can accomplish.
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SPEAKER_01: That only the Lord can do.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: What does he say in verse 26?
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SPEAKER_01: I will make a covenant of peace with them.
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SPEAKER_01: With who?
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SPEAKER_01: The two houses.
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SPEAKER_01: With all of those who come before the Messiah, I will make a covenant of peace with them.
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SPEAKER_01: It shall be a short-lived covenant with them, no, an everlasting covenant.
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SPEAKER_01: And I will set them in their land and multiply them.
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SPEAKER_01: Again, we're seeing Genesis imagery back to Genesis 1, back to Genesis 2 and 3.
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SPEAKER_01: I will multiply them, I will set my sanctuary in their midst forever.
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SPEAKER_01: My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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SPEAKER_01: Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.
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SPEAKER_01: When we come with our hearts that need to be changed, the Lord said, I'll give you a new one.
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SPEAKER_01: Don't we need that from time to time?
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SPEAKER_01: We come spiritually dead, and the Lord said, I'll put my spirit within you, and you shall live.
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SPEAKER_01: See, friends, this is our hope.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: We're reading of our hope.
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SPEAKER_01: I know there's nothing revelatory here.
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SPEAKER_01: We don't need revelation.
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SPEAKER_01: Every week, week after week.
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SPEAKER_01: Tell me something I don't know.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, live what you do know, and we'll move on from there.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: This is our hope.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I I need hope.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: It's not what I can do, it's not what you can do, but what he will do.
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SPEAKER_01: It's not my righteousness, it's his mercy.
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SPEAKER_01: It's not my strength, it's his grace.
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SPEAKER_01: It's not my ability or your ability to save yourself or ourselves, it's his salvation.
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SPEAKER_01: And again, it's not, I will try harder to be better.
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SPEAKER_01: Try harder to be more faithful, try harder to believe more.
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SPEAKER_01: But it's that glorious declaration of the Lord who saves and who says, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: We pray all the time that his will be done until it hurts.
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SPEAKER_01: When his will is done, I have news for you, dear friends, it's going to hurt.
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SPEAKER_01: The more he involves himself in your life, whether you're inviting him in or not, it will hurt.
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SPEAKER_01: But we're listening to the one who said, I will.
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SPEAKER_01: I will do this.
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SPEAKER_01: I will raise up these dry bones.
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SPEAKER_01: I will bring life where there was no life.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
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SPEAKER_01: I will.
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SPEAKER_01: And the beautiful thing is that he brings us along with him in that.
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SPEAKER_01: We experience the beauty of it, the fullness of it, but we also stand back and admire what he's doing in other people's lives.
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SPEAKER_01: And how his will and his desire to do, his desire to give changes, reforms us.
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SPEAKER_01: So this is the God who says, I will, speaking to a valley of dry bones.
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SPEAKER_01: And the beautiful thing is, is you can look and see in the world today those who came out of that valley.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who were dead and who are now brought to life.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who were wandering and are now in peace.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who needed hope and they received it.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who needed healing and received it.
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SPEAKER_01: Those who needed salvation and received it.
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SPEAKER_01: There we are, there we see, there we behold the fullness of what the Lord is doing.
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SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage you today, no matter what your valley might be called, be faithful in it, just trust him in it, and know that he will.
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SPEAKER_01: He will.
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SPEAKER_01: You're not going to walk out of that valley because you were good enough.
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SPEAKER_01: You're going to walk out because he's leading you out.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: Let's rely on the grace that the Lord has given to us.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's live and walk in that.
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SPEAKER_01: Even though it's painful, even though it's difficult, even though it's challenging.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's share that grace with each other.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's hold on to that.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's be charitable.
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SPEAKER_01: Let's hope the best for each other.
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SPEAKER_01: The best of what his will will do.
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SPEAKER_01: That's my message for you today.
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SPEAKER_01: As we prepare our hearts for this Yom Kippur season.
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unknown: Amen.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for studying with us.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you all in the mighty name of Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: Amen.