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YES HE CAN!

Ezekiel 37:1-10

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out ^[^a^]by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. ²He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. ³He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord ^[^b^]God, You know.” ⁴Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ ⁵Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause ^[^c^]breath to enter you that you may come to life. ⁶I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’”

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a ^[^d^]noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, 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 come to life.”’” ¹⁰So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

In his day, hope had become a rare commodity. Ezekiel must have felt as desolate and useless as the piles of bones that he had seen in a startling vision.

As the prophet sat in the middle of a valley, he knew that only a miracle could bring together his decimated and scattered people. Yet as Ezekiel watched, a miracle of life took place. Where before only dry bones had littered the landscape, the Lord added muscles, tendons, and tissue. And into those restored, silent bodies, God breathed new life.

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Realizing Revival: Attitude Check

Hebrews 4:12(NASB)

12For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, "What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for 10 shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on this job." But the third said, "I'm helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London's greatest cathedrals."

As we progress in revival, we must examine ourselves as God examines us. All of the outward trappings mean very little to God, He examines us from the inside out. God spends some time figuring out the “why” of what we do, and not just the “what”.

Having a poor attitude can hinder our spiritual development even we appear to be doing all the right things. It is sometimes possible to do the right things, and have the wrong motivations, and therefore our “right things” become sinful.

Sometimes our attitude just stinks! I told the church council as much last Tuesday. I asked them to pray for me because my attitude that night was just awful. Unfortunately for me, it just got worse throughout the week. As the week progressed one thing after another went wrong, everyone in the house was sick, a 15 minute meeting with another pastor turned into a 3 hour ordeal, my daughter discovered her driver’s license was expired the day before she was to board the plane to New York City, and then to cap it all off I discovered that someone in Herndon, VA had helped themselves to all the money in my bank account so I spent all day Friday filing police reports and closing accounts. Needless to say, my attitude wasn’t the model that you need to be emulating!

Satan doesn’t want us to talk about attitude. He’s perfectly happy when we are angry, or confused, or discouraged. Satan likes for us to be nit-picking with one another and on each other’s backs. He likes for us to doubt God’s word, and be weak in our faith. It fits his agenda and pleases him greatly.

When we begin to adjust our thoughts, and bring our attitudes into compliance with God’s plan then Satan loses ground. When we have our attitude in tune with God, Satan no longer has a lever to use against us, he loses his purchase.

God pays attention to attitude! If we are to truly realize revival, we are going to have to examine our attitudes and make sure we are on the same page that God is on.

We Must Have The Right Attitude Toward Sin

Calvin Coolidge was known as a man of few words. Returning from worship services one day, his wife asked him what did the preacher preach on. “Sin,” he replied. “Well, what did he say about it,” she continued. “He was agin it!” Coolidge answered.

Folks I’m telling you this morning that we need to be “agin it”. We must oppose, and flee sin in all of its forms.

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Pushing To Success

Exodus 17:8-16 (King James Version)

⁸Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

⁹And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

¹²But Moses hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

¹³And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

¹⁵And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi:

¹⁶For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

During World War II a Marine was serving in the South Pacific. His platoon was under fire and they were trying to signal their comrades that they had taken a certain hill. Their sergeant issued an order for a man to take the American flag and raise it up on a pole to let other units know they had taken this ground. As he grabbed the flag and ran off to raise it up, he was shot by a sniper. Another man was sent to retrieve the flag and raise it up. He too was shot. Finally, a young private spoke up and said, “Sergeant, in just a few minutes it will be four o’clock. If you will let me wait until then, I will take that flag, I will raise it up on that pole.” The sergeant thought for a moment and said, “All right son.” At four o’clock, that private jumped out of his foxhole, ran over and picked up the flag, and then he ran to that pole and raised it up. He then turned and ran back to his foxhole and jumped in without so much as a scratch. The men cheered and the sergeant asked him why he wanted to wait until four o’clock to do what he did. The private replied, “Well sir, its four o’clock here, but it’s 6am back home in Kansas. My mother loves Jesus and she told me that every morning at 6am she would be on her knees praying for my safety. I knew that I would be safe while mama touched heaven for me.”