We have a story here I'm going to read a little bit more than I
normally would read on a Sunday morning or not on any service,
not just a Sunday morning, but just a little bit, a little bit
longer passage here because I want to, I want to give you the
entire context of this passage here and let you understand
exactly what's going on. Because you know, the, the
Christian life is the best life by far.
There is no better life than than living the life of a
Christian. But that does not mean that it's
a life that's without burdens. It doesn't mean that it's a life
without trials. It doesn't mean that there won't
be seasons where we spend time in a valley.
And for a child of God, for somebody who knows Christ is
their savior. Revival is not contingent on our
circumstances. It's not contingent on our
current life situation. General Dwight D Eisenhower said
there are there are no victories at discounted prices.
And I think that's the same thing when it comes to our
Christian life as well, our Christian walk.
There's no victory at a discounted price.
Sometimes you have to go through the valley to understand how
important the victory is. And here in Ezekiel chapter 37,
I think this is probably a story that you've read before or a
passage that you've read before. But God asked Ezekiel to go into
a valley. And this is a prophecy about the
nation of Israel, but I think it fits in other ways as well.
And so we pick it up there in Ezekiel chapter 37 and verse #1
The hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel saying, and carried
me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the
midst of the valley, which was full of bones.
It caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there
were very many in the open valley.
And lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophecy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and you shall live.
I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh 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.
So I prophesied as I was commanded.
And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold the shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld lo, the sinews in the flesh came up upon them,
and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.
Then said He unto me, Prophecy unto the wind, prophecy, son of
man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, come from
the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that
they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
up upon their feet, and exceeding great army.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
House of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts.
Therefore prophecy in saying to them, Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to
come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of
Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
When I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up
out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and you
shall live, and I shall place you in your own land.
Then shall you know that I, the Lord have spoken it and
performed it, saith the Lord. Now to, to not take this out of
context, I want to give you a little bit of an understanding
of what this is talking about. These, these bones that are
coming together. We're seeing that exact same
thing happened with Israel right now.
The, the population of Israel in the last ten, 1520 years has
just exploded. They, they became a nation.
And obviously once they became a nation, so many people from all
different parts of the world started moving back to Israel
and they're coming together. But it's just dry bones, right?
It's empty because God is God's spirit is not there.
They've not repented of their sin.
They don't they, they have not acknowledged Jesus Christ as the
Messiah. They're never going to have that
life until the Spirit of God comes in.
And he says that that I shall put my spirit in you and you
shall live and I shall place you in your own land.
And that's that's going to happen in the future.
But I think the important thing here is this.
We understand that sometimes we end up in a valley and sometimes
it's just it's a valley of dry bones and it's a difficult spot
to be in. And whether it be that sometimes
we spend time in the mountaintop or whether we're deep down in a
very low valley, we can experience personal revival and
blessings that come from that revival.
Regardless of what our circumstance is, regardless of
what our situation is. Even a valley full of dead, dry,
divided bones, when God's Spirit is there, they can be
transformed into an army for God.
There can be victory even in the valley, and that's what I want
to preach to you about this morning for a few minutes.
Victory in the midst of the valley.
How can we experience victory? How can we experience revival
even in the midst of the valley? Let's pray and then we'll take a
few minutes to talk about this this morning.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
We thank you for allowing us to be here together today.
We don't want to be here without your power.
We don't want to be here without your presence.
So God, I ask that you would, that, that you would give me the
powers I preached this morning that you give us ears that will
listen, hearts that will be soft and tender to what you have for
us this morning. And God, may you speak to our
hearts today. We thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. Put a ribbon, if you will, or a
bookmark something in there. We're going to jump around to a
few different passages, but I'm going to come back to Ezekiel
chapter 37 several different times because there's three
things that we need to realize this morning when it comes to
having victory in the midst of the valley.
And the very first thing is this.
We have to realize the Providence of God brought us to
that valley. Realize that it was the
Providence of God that brought you to that valley.
Look what the Bible says there in Ezekiel chapter 37 and verse
#1 The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the
spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley,
which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round
about. And behold, there were very many
in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry.
Ezekiel found himself in the valley, as we all will from time
to time in our lives, but he didn't happen to find himself
there an accident. The Bible reveals to us that it
was God who positioned him in the middle of that valley.
He didn't end up there because of anything other than the fact
that God had a purpose for him being in that valley.
Sometimes the circumstances in life lead us to that valley and
God certainly knows about those circumstances and what you're
going through. And sometimes those, those
circumstances are things that we have no control over.
Obviously Brother Todd passed away.
It's a valley and I, it's a, it's a much deeper valley for,
for Miss Tawana and for Trey and for Miss Barber and for
everybody else in the family that's going through.
That's a difficult valley. It's a valley for all of us.
It's a hard thing to, to, to cope with.
It's a hard thing to understand. Those are things though that we
have no control over, right? There's sometimes when we end up
in a financial situation where maybe it wasn't necessarily our
doing. It's just something happened in
and we found ourselves in this valley or family problems.
There's, there's so many different things that happened
in our lives where we find ourselves in the middle of this
valley where we didn't really choose it.
Nobody would choose a valley, but where we didn't, where we
didn't 'cause it maybe would be a better way to say it, but we
find ourselves there anyway. Sometimes we walk into the
middle of that valley ourselves. Spiritual apathy, we allow that
to creep in, but it's still a valley of supernatural
appointment. God knows that you're heading
that direction. And I think, I think maybe
that's more of the direction that we're aiming at this
morning. You find yourself in a valley,
but a lot of times it's a valley that you walked into yourself,
right? Sometimes you can't help it, but
other times you're walking toward that valley and God puts
stop signs in there and says, hey, you're going the wrong
direction. You're going to find yourself in
a place that you don't want to be.
You're going to find yourself in this spot of spiritual apathy
where you disallow everything to, to, to, to not be fervent
the way that it should be. Where you find yourself in this
valley of spiritual apathy where you've decided, you know what?
I'm just not really into living for the Lord the way that I
should. And then, and then you allow
those little things to get in there.
And the more that the, the more those things just get in and,
and, and start to dig inside. Instead of allowing those,
instead of allowing God to use those things to push you back to
him, you allow it to drive you further away from him.
And God knows that you're heading toward that valley and
he allows you to keep walking because you ignore the signs
you're not there. An accident.
God knows that that's exactly what you need to help you get
out of that situation and help you get away from that spiritual
apathy. God knows that's where you're
heading, and sometimes He lets you get there.
But I want you to understand this.
In the valleys of life, be encouraged by remembering that
God's Providence is at work. You did not end up in that
situation by accident. God knew you were going there.
Whether you walked into the valley yourself or whether He
allowed the circumstances to happen that put you there, He
knows that you're there and his Providence is at work.
Turn over, if you will, to Jeremiah chapter 29.
God has a purpose for allowing you to be in that valley.
And I use these verses quite often because they're what I
would consider to be my life versus if somebody asked me to
sign their Bible, I would always sign it with Jeremiah chapter
29. God brought these verses to my
attention when I was in the middle of a valley and they
changed my perspective. They changed everything about my
view of life and about my view of why God allows the things to
happen in our lives. And to give you just a little
bit of context about Jeremiah 29, this is the the nation of
Israel that God had warned. Hey, you continue on the path
that you're going on. You're going to find yourselves
in captivity in Babylon. That seems like a valley to me,
huh? Who wants to find themselves in
captivity, away from everything that they know, away from being
able to have the freedom that you want to have to do the
things that you want to do. But God said, hey, you keep
going down that direction. You're going to be in a valley.
And they said, whatever, if that happens, that happens.
And sure enough, that's where they found themselves.
They didn't listen. And God allowed them to be
carried off into captivity. And he said, listen, you're
going to be there for 70 years, you might as well make the best
of it. You might as well get married.
You might as well build houses, you might as well plant gardens.
You're going to be here for 70 years.
You might as well just start over.
And the Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse #11 in the middle of that
valley, in the middle of those difficult things, here's what
God said to them. For I know the thoughts that I
think towards you, say at the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end.
Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray unto me,
and I will hearken unto you, and you shall seek me and find me,
when you shall search for me with all your heart.
What do you notice about the top of a beautiful mountain?
You see the rocks, you see the snow, you see all those things.
It's a beautiful place. But what doesn't happen on the
top of a mountain? I'll tell you growth.
You don't see anything growing on the top of a mountain.
Oh, it's beautiful up there. It's a great view.
But you don't really grow on the top of a mountain.
There's only growth in the valley, and sometimes when you
find yourself there, be, listen, it'd be great to live on the top
of the mountain, but sometimes God has to bring us low to teach
us and to train us and to temper us and to tweak us so that we
can actually be useful in his service.
And isn't that what we want? I don't, I don't know.
I'm not. I'm not saying you ought to hope
that you go into a valley. You ought to want to go there.
Nobody wants to go there. But when you find yourself
there, it's an opportunity for God to work.
It's an opportunity for you to get things right with God.
It's an opportunity for you to say God not why am I here?
But what do you want to accomplish while I'm here?
That's what God wants us to ask him.
And you have to understand that sometimes when we find ourselves
in those valleys, we have to realize that it was the
Providence of God that brought you to that valley.
But here's a very encouraging truth back over in Ezekiel
chapter 37, we saw first of all, and we must realize first of all
that the Providence of God brought you to that valley, but
realized second of all that the presidents of presence of God is
with you in that valley. The presence of God is with you
in that valley. Verse #4 of Ezekiel 37 And he
said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest again he said unto me,
prophecy upon these bones, and saying to them, O ye dry bones,
here the word of the Lord. The prophet Ezekiel is in this
valley, but who find out that he's not alone there.
God was with him in that valley. The preacher is carrying on a
conversation in the midst of the valley.
The same God that had brought him to it was with him in it.
Turn over to Psalm 30. Psalm 23.
I know that all of you are very familiar with that passage.
It's probably one of the most well known passages in all of
the Bible. Psalm 23 but in the valley,
realize the presence of God that is with you there.
I don't know anyone that's not familiar with these verses, but
verse #4 the Bible says this. Yeah.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
I'm not here to tell you that the Christian life is all roses
and sunshine. It's a great, it's great living
the Christian life. The Christian life is a
wonderful life, but it doesn't mean that everything's just
going to go perfectly for you. Doesn't mean that because you
accept Christ as your savior that all of your problems go
away. It doesn't mean that you're
never going to struggle financially.
It doesn't mean that you're not going to have issues with your
family. Doesn't mean that there's not
going to be any problems with who knows what else.
You're going to face problems in your Christian life.
Yeah. And all that will live godly
shall suffer persecution. If you happen to make it through
all of those things, then the world is going to be the one
that persecutes you on top of it.
So I'm not trying to tell you that that everything is perfect
in the Christian life. And I'm not going to pretend
that there's no tough days as a Christian.
And I'm not trying to convince you that you can always feel the
warmth of God's love, because sometimes, sometimes you can't
feel that. When you're in the middle of the
valley and it's dark and the wind is blowing a little bit and
the hair and the back of your neck is standing up, it's not a
warm feeling. Ever been in that situation?
Maybe as a kid, especially, your parents make you go out and do
something in the dark at night, and you feel like somebody's
standing right behind you, right?
You might be a little ways away from the house and you start
walking faster. The next thing you know, you're
at a dead Sprint. All the hair on the back of your
neck is standing up. And you get in the house and you
slam the door and you're like, man, I'm glad I got away from
whatever that was behind me. All right?
You've all been there. Sometimes that's the way that it
feels when you're going through your Christian life.
I don't know what that is, but something's there and I'm
running for my life. Sometimes that's what the valley
feels like. It's not always a wonderful
feeling. Sometimes you'll feel like
you're alone because of the shadows in the valley.
But make no mistake, if God's going to lead you to a valley,
he's going to be walking in that valley with you.
There's an old Native American ritual for training their young
Braves. And on the the day that they
turned 13 years old, he was brought out into a very dense
forest, blindfolded and brought out into a place where he didn't
really know where he was at. And then he'd be left there.
And his job as a 13 year old boy was basically to face all of his
fears. Whatever came, he was supposed
to face him. If it was wild animals, he was
supposed to face him. If he was, whatever it was he
was, that was that was that was him becoming a man.
It was his opportunity and he would go out into those woods
and they would drop him there. And as the night fell around
him, I'm sure as any 13 year old boy would, he started to hear
the noises in the forest, wondering if it's a wolf that's
ready to attack him or whether wondering if it's something else
that's out there. And every, every time he heard
the wind blow, he wondered what kind of noises was were being
masked. But he would spend the night out
there in the woods by himself alone.
And he wakes up in the morning. You can just imagine the, the,
the thrill of knowing that the morning was finally there.
But as he starts to look around, he can see the outline of the
trees and he starts to see the outline of the path and the
flowers and everything else as the sun begins to rise.
And then to his utter astonishment, he would see a
figure standing just a few feet away from him.
And he realizes that's his father standing there with a bow
and arrow, standing there all night protecting him in case
something were to happen. Now, you can't see it in the
middle of the night. You can't see it when you hear
those noises. You can't see it when when
everything around you is scaring you.
But his father was there all along.
If anything were to happen, he was there protecting him.
Nothing could happen to him because his father was there.
And that's exactly the way that it is in our lives.
So it's a lesson for these young Braves in independence.
I'm becoming a man. I'm becoming my own person.
I'm becoming something that I was always meant to be.
But it's also a lesson in dependence.
You aren't alone. Even when you're lonely, you're
not alone. The Bible says in Hebrews
chapter 13 and verse five, I will never leave thee nor
forsake thee. Isn't that such a comforting
thought? Oh, sometimes we find ourselves
in those valleys, but we have to realize that the presence of God
is with us in those valleys. If you know Jesus Christ as your
Savior, he's not leaving you. It might feel like it.
It might be dark. You might see shadows.
You might even see the shadows of death.
But he's with you. Sometimes it might feel like
we've been abandoned. Sometimes it feels like the
Israelites said, God, did you just bring us out into this
wilderness to, to abandon us and let us die out here in the
wilderness. I'd rather been in Egypt where I
had food and where I had shelter and where I had protection.
You brought us out into this wilderness just to let us die.
Oh, we, we're looking at it from a, from a, an upper level
perspective. And we can read in the passage,
God never left them. He was with them all along.
He was there the entire time. They just felt like He had
abandoned them because they didn't see a way out.
They didn't know how they were going to get out of that
wilderness. And sometimes we don't know how
we're going to get out of that valley.
And so it feels like we're being left alone.
But make no mistake, if God LED you into that valley, He is not
far away. His presence is with you in that
valley. Turn back over to Ezekiel
chapter 37. Ezekiel chapter 37, not only
should we realize the Providence of God that brought you to the
valley, but realize the presence of God is with you in that
valley and I want you to understand this.
Lastly, you have to realize that the provision of God is
available for you in the valley. The provision of God is
available for you in the valley. Verse #5 Thus saith the Lord God
unto these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and ye shall live, and I will lay sinews upon
you, and I will bring up flesh 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. See, as Ezekiel is in this
valley, he's given orders from the Lord.
It's encouraging to see that phrase.
I will, I will, I will, I will. God's going to do it.
We don't have to. Do it for ourselves.
God asked Ezekiel to do something while he was in that
valley, but God very quickly revealed to Ezekiel that it
would be him that would perform that task.
Turn over to Second Chronicles chapter 16.
Everything that Ezekiel would need, God would provide.
And the same thing is true with us.
Well, I think sometimes we get into those valleys, whether it's
a valley that we chose or whether it's a valley that we
didn't choose, we end up in those valleys.
And God wants to do something, but we don't have to do it on
our own. God will do that for us.
Second Chronicles, chapter 16, speaking to King ASA.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart
is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly,
Therefore from henceforth thou shall have wars.
This was a king who had the opportunity to allow God to
work, and he decided he didn't want it.
The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth
to show himself strong, and the behalf of them whose heart is
perfect toward him. Psalm 34 and verse 15.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are
open unto their cry. I think it's very interesting to
go back a chapter here in Ezekiel and I had you turn away.
But if you go back to Ezekiel chapter 37 and then go a page
back to Ezekiel 36, I think it's very interesting to see what God
said He would do. And Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse
#22 Therefore say unto the House of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O House
of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have
profaned among the heathen. Whither do you went?
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.
And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord
God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out
of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean
from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I
cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
And I will take away the Stony heart out of your flesh, and
will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.
And ye shall keep my judgments and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your Father's.
And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
I will also save you from all your uncleanness.
And I will call for the corn, and we'll increase it, and lay
no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of
the tree and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no
more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then shall you remember your own evil ways, and your doings that
were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for
your iniquities and for your abominations.
Not for your sakes do I. This saith the Lord God, Be it
known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O
House of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God.
And the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your
iniquities, I will cause you to dwell in the cities.
And the wastes shall be builded, and the desolate land shall be
tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed
by. And they shall say, This land
that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the
waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and
are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left
around about you shall know that I the Lord, build the ruined
places, and plant that that was desolate.
I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.
Thus saith the Lord God. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the House of Israel. To do it for them.
I will increase them with men like a flock as the holy flock,
as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast, so shall the waste
cities be filled with the flocks of men.
And they shall know that I am the Lord.
Now that's such an interesting passage.
A new heart, a new spirit, a renewed understanding of how
wicked their sin was, a renewed view of who God was.
And I'll tell you this, you will never, you will never come to
the end of yourself and get things right with God until you
understand just who God is, until you get a new view of the
holiness of God. When you see God in His
Holiness, you cannot help but loathe yourself.
You cannot help but look at the condition of your life and hate
the condition of your life and want to change to be what God
wants you to be. What an encouragement.
That's what revival is though. That's the definition of
revival. It's not.
It's not for our own sake, but so that we can bring glory to
God through it. And I think that's one of the
problems with with so many churches today is that they want
to see revival because they want people to see what their church
is doing. They want to see revival so they
can be lifted up and look at how big our church is becoming.
We saw revival. It's not for us, it's for God's
sake so that we can bring glory to Him and so that He can be
lifted up. Revival is not something that
you want to have so that you can say look what we have.
Look at. Look at the revival that's
taking place. In fact, when you really see
revival, most of the people who are going through revival don't
even realize that that's exactly what it is.
They just want to please the Lord above everything.
They want Him to be pleased. People on the outside are the
ones looking at it and saying they're experiencing a revival.
I just want to lift up the name of Christ.
I just want God to be glorified. That's what revival is.
And when you want more than anything else for His name to be
lifted up and for Him to be glorified in your life, then you
will see revival because you seek Him for who He is.
You'll see yourself for who you really are, and it'll make you
want to change so much so that you will actually change for His
sake, so He can be lifted up, so that He can be exalted.
Isn't that the entire purpose and the entire point of our
lives anyway? What we need more than anything
America, in America right now is revival in our churches.
But so often we pray for revival in our churches, but we don't
want revival in our own lives. God send revival to our church,
but let me live my life the way that I'm living it right now.
God send revival to America, but let me just be content to live
my life the way that I want to live it.
I'm happy with where I'm at. I'm content living in just the
little bit of sin that I'm living in.
I'm content living in just the little bit of apathy that I'm
living in. God's not going to send revival
to America if we don't see revival in the church, and God's
not going to see revival in the church.
God's not going to send revival to the church unless we see
revival in the individuals in the church.
The sad news is that if we don't see it in our lives, we don't
see it in the church. And we are the church.
It's not just all those other churches.
It's not just America needs revival, it's I need revival.
Our church needs revival. It's not.
It's not a message specifically about revival, but I wish it
was. But we can see that in the
middle of the valley if we're willing to let God do that work.
I've been reading a book again that it touched my life.
It's called Why Revival Terry's by Leonard Ravenhill.
He's written several books. In fact, I think that would be a
book that will will get in, get into the bookstore and make some
copies of that available. It's a challenging book.
But Leonard Ravenhill said this. If we do God's work in God's way
at God's time, with God's power, we shall have God's blessing.
Oh, that believers would become eternity conscious if we would
live every moment of every day under the eye of God.
If we did every act in the light of the judgment seat.
If we sold every article in the light of the judgment seat.
If we prayed every prayer in the light of the judgment seat.
If we tied all our possessions in the light of the judgment
seat. If we preachers prepared every
sermon with one eye on on damned humanity and the other eye on
the judgement seat, then we would have a Holy Ghost revival
that would shake this earth and that in no time at all would
liberate millions of precious souls.
And before we can be clean and ready for Him to control self
seeking, self glory, self-interest, self pity, self
righteousness, self importance, self promotion, self
satisfaction, and who whatever else there be of self must die.
That's the need of the hour. James Gilmore, he was an old
missionary to Mongolia. He said this.
Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh?
Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old?
Do not the eyes of the Lord still run to and fro throughout
the whole earth to show him, show himself strong on behalf of
those who put their trust in him?
Oh, that God would give me more practical faith in him.
Where is now the Lord God of Elijah?
He's waiting for Elijah to call on him.
I want to point out one last thing before we close back in
Ezekiel chapter 36, notice what God said after He listed all the
things that He was going to do for them.
We read that entire list. We started back at verse 22.
We read through all of those things.
God said, I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll give
you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within
you. I'll put my spirit within you.
I'll do all of these things, but in Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse
#36 he says, I, the Lord have spoken it and I will do it.
Verse 37 Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be
inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them.
God was already working, but He wanted them to pray and ask him
for it. Isn't that interesting?
God said, I'm going to do all of these things, but they have to
come ask me for it. I will yet be inquired of them
for this. What a powerful truth prayer is
how we're going to see it all get done.
You want to see God do something in your life.
It's only going to be through prayer.
If you're not, if you're not in the habit of praying, prayer
ought to be something that you do constantly throughout the
day. You ought to have your prayer in
the morning and you ought to, you ought to take some time to
pray together as your with your family and everything else, but
you ought to be having a continuous conversation with God
throughout the entire day. That's what pray without ceasing
means. Don't expect that anything in
your life is going to change if you're not in prayer.
And I'll tell you what happens. One of the first things to go is
prayer. Because when you allow sin to
come into your life, number one, if I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me.
And most of you know that. So you just why should I pray?
I know that I've got these things there, but if you think
that God's going to send revival to your life, if you think that
you're going to learn something in the middle of that valley
that you're going through and you're not even talking to him,
you're not going to find that victory that you want to have.
You're not going to see that revival that you need unless
you're in prayer with him. For this sin hungry age that
we're living in. We need a prayer.
Hungry Church revival is not going to happen because we want
it to. It's not going to happen because
we hope it's going to happen. It's not going to happen because
we know God can send it. It's going to happen when we get
on our knees and beg God to send it.
Sometimes when you find yourself in the middle of that valley,
it's a valley that you've allowed because of spiritual
apathy. The only way that you're going
to get out of that spiritual apathy is to get on your knees
and beg God to revive you till we find ourselves drawn into the
valley for the purpose of God bringing us low so that we might
groan and travail for God's power.
It's not going to happen until we find ourselves utterly
helpless and utterly hopeless apart from God.
It's not going to happen until we learn that God brought us
into that valley, that God is leading us through that valley
like a shepherd leading his sheep for the sake of for the
sake of showing us who he is. Only then will we see revival.
Turn over to Romans chapter 8. See.
When God brings you low and travail over the souls of lost
men, rejoice. When God brings you down into
the valley of dry bones, rejoice.
When God burdens your heart for this nation, rejoice.
When God burdens your heart for your family, rejoice.
When God burdens your own soul for the condition of your own
apathetic soul, rejoice, because that only means that God has
brought you there to show you what He's capable of.
He's only brought you there to show you that He's given you a
chance to throw your all upon Him so that He might show
Himself mighty in your life and that He might be glorified
through your life. Romans chapter 8 and verse #37
says nay and all these things. We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. We are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. We like to take these little
Christian phrases. I'm a conqueror, I can do all
things. No, it's through him.
It's through him. Yes, I am a conqueror through
him. Yes, I can do all things through
Christ. It's only when we all, it's only
when we come to the end of ourselves and we're going to
understand the power that God has to get us to where He wants
us to be. This is a song that I heard many
years ago now, and I've sung it before.
I would like to do it again, and I probably will, but here's what
the words of that song say. When I'm low in spirit, I cry.
Lord, lift me up. I want to go higher with Thee.
The Lord knows I can't live on the mountain, so He picked out a
valley for me. He leads me besides still waters
somewhere in the valley below. He draws me aside to be tested
and tried, but in the valley he restoreth my soul.
The second verse of that song says, When it's dark as a
dungeon and the sun seldom shines, I question Lord, why
must this be? Then he tells me there's
strength in those sorrows, and there's victory in trials for
me. He leads me beside the still
waters, somewhere in the valley below.
He draws me aside to be tested and tried.
But in the valley, it restoreth my soul.
These are times that seem to have driven us into turmoil,
times that make us aware that we're in a valley.
The world that we're living in today is just a it's a difficult
place to live as a Christian. Even this country, it's a
difficult place to live as a Christian because the world is
going so opposite of the way of Christ.
But it's in the valley that you can realize the Providence that
God brought you there. It's in the valley that we must
realize that God's presence is there with us in that valley.
And it's there in the valley that you can realize the
provision of God is available for you in that valley.
See, God, God needs us to be serious.
God needs us to to set aside the petty worldly things that we so
often get sidetracked by money. I mean, we get so wrapped up in
money, we get so wrapped up in things.
We get so wrapped up in all this stuff.
Those things are not going to count for anything.
But listen, He desires for us as Christians to get back to the
spirituality that He wants us to have.
He desires for us as Christians to have that relationship with
Him that we ought to have. It's in the valley that we can
grow if we allow God to do His work.
Some of those valleys you don't have any say in.
You find yourself there. Nothing that you did on your
own. You just ended up in that
valley. It's a dark place.
God's there and He's doing something.
He just, you just have to allow Him to do it.
Sometimes it's a valley that you created for yourself because you
just let yourself get away from the Lord.
If you're not closer to God today than you ever have been in
your life, then you're backslidden.
I'm not. If you're not closer to God
today than you ever have been, you're not where you are.
You slid back. We don't like to think about it
that way. We don't like to look at
ourselves like that, but where are you in your spiritual life?
Sometimes it's a value created for yourself because of that
spiritual apathy that you've allowed yourself to fall into.
But God's there too, and God still works there too.
And God can still do great things.
But he's trying to get you to the point where you understand
it's not about me, it's about Him.
It's about bringing Him glory. What can He do through my life
if I give Him the opportunity to do it?
Victory in the midst of the valley.
We can have it. We can have it.
You got to realize that you were there by a divine appointment
and that God wants to do something in you and through
you. Won't you let Him do it?
It's hard to be specific on things like this because there's
so many different things that you end up in.
And if I don't point out your specific spiritual apathy, then
you think you're fine. If I don't point out your
specific problem, then you think you're fine.
If I don't point out your specific thing that you're
dealing with, then he's not talking to me this morning.
I'm leaving it broad on purpose because there's as many people
as there are in here. There's probably that many
different things that you can go through in your life, but it's
still a valley. And God wants to help you out of
it. And He will if you let Him.
Let Him convict you of the things that you need to be
convicted of. Let Him do the work in your
life. Let Him change you into what He
wants you to be. And you'll come out on the other
side, not just like gold, but you'll come out on the other
side glorifying God through your life.
And that's what it's all about. We can have victory in the midst
of the valley, but we have to be looking at the right place and
that's to him. Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
We thank you for the opportunity we have to be here this morning.
We know each heart, you know each situation.
God, may you use the message in our hearts and the way that only
the Holy Spirit can. Thank you for all you do for us.
In Jesus name, Amen.