Life In The Graveyard

"Life in the Graveyard"

Matthew 6: 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

The Easter season is upon us. As a Christian, when we think about Easter, we think about the Resurrection of Jesus.

We think about Jesus, who died upon the cross for our sins. He did no wrong; He never did one thing to deserve what happened to Him.

Jesus was placed upon the cross because He loved you and me.

Jesus was placed in a tomb; you could say that He was in the graveyard.

Whenever we think graveyard, from the human part ,we think final, unless we’re Christians.

Remember Ezekiel 37, the hand of the Lord came upon Ezekiel.

The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and sets him in a valley of dry bones.

What Ezekiel sees looks hopeless. Do we ever look at a situation and it looks hopeless?

The Disciples of Jesus saw Jesus die upon the cross and now they see their hope placed in a tomb.

Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones and I’m sure what He saw with the physical eye looked hopeless.

The Lord asks Ezekiel “son of man, can these bones live?”

God is asking Ezekiel if Israel can live.

Ezekiel answered the Lord “you know.”

What we need to understand is that the Lord knows what we don’t know.

Whenever I go through a situation and it looks hopeless, God knows what I am going through.

God knows every thing about you. You see a hopeless situation but God sees a place that He can step in to help.

The Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy to these dry bones, tell those dry bones to hear the Word of the Lord.

Ezekiel had the Word at the graveyard.

Do we know anyone who is dead in their life?

Maybe it is someone who has backslidden and they need to hear the Word of the Lord.

Maybe it’s time to prophesy to them to hear the Word of the Lord.

Jerry had a dream the other night; he dreamed that he was in a graveyard with his Bible.

I believe the Lord is saying that it is time that we preach the Word to those who are dead in Christ.

It is time to see life in those very old dry bones.

I’ve entitled this, this morning “Life in the Graveyard”.

The disciples and the followers of Jesus are now discouraged; their hope is all but gone.

Their final hope is all but gone in their eyes; Jesus was dead and placed in a tomb.

Did they not pay attention to what Jesus said?

Mathew 20: 17-19

17. Now Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the 12 disciples aside on the road and said to

them,

18. Behold we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be betrayed to the

Chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,

19. And deliver Him to the gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third

Day He will rise again.

Jesus had already let His disciples know that He was going to die; He already let them know that in 3 days He would raise from the dead.

Jesus is the Word that was in the beginning with God.

Jesus is the one who gave life back to Israel! Jesus is the speaking voice of God.

The reason that I preached this, this morning:

Dream 3-18-07

I dreamed that I was at my aunt’s house (where I was raised as a child.) I was in my old bedroom (blue) at first I was like preaching to two people who were with me, under my breath. They now leave. I put my hands in the air and the power of God literally comes upon me in a big time way. It was like His presence was going to take me under. I said out loud thank you Jesus as I woke up.

Interpretation

At my aunt’s-(foundation for the things of God, training)

I was like preaching to people under my breath-(the way we live our lives does a lot of our talking)

I put my hands in the air and the power of God literally comes upon me in a big time way. (We are literally in the presence of God) God wants us to give our all, (He wants us to come back to life in Him)

(Back to the basics of our teaching)

Do you think that it is time to listen to the Word of the Lord?

Don’t you think that it is time for us to get up out of that graveyard and really live for Him?

Easter is about the resurrection of Christ.