Your worship is a celebration of God’s work in your life!

Ezekiel 37:11-14 MEV
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Pay attention, 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. Then 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 I shall put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and performed it, says the Lord.”

Colossians 2:13-15 NCV
When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross. God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 The Message
I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!

Breath in his promises, breath out his praises!

Your worship is a celebration of God’s work in your life!

So, if God’s not done anything in your life, I totally understand you standing there or sitting there and not engaging in musical worship.

However, if you have accepted Jesus Christ, and you’ve received his gift of salvation, the forgiveness of your sins, redemption from an eternity in Hell without God, and a new life and purpose to live for today…and you stand there with your hands in your pockets, or sit there like a bump on a log when we sing words as “Up from the ashes hope will arise, death is defeated and the King is alive.” There’s something wrong! There’s something broken inside your soul.

This is also what Ezekiel 37:11-1

These were God’s chosen people, the ones whom God had done amazing things for and through:

Parted the Red Sea
Sent manna from Heaven
Water from a rock
Flattened the walls of Jericho
God gave them prophet after prophet
God saved them time and time again…

BUT, they began to pursue other things more than they pursued God. They stop pursuing their purpose from God, and started slowly dying on the inside till there was nothing left, but a valley of dried up broken bones! Last week we watched as God unfolded the vision before Ezekiel. (Ezekiel 37:3-11) And as Ezekiel obeyed on commanded the bones to come to life again the bones began to stir, they began to rattle and came back to life. And God took that which was dead and lifeless and without hope and made it live again.

The bones represented all of the failures and disobedience of the people of Israel, and we equated it last week to our personal failures and disappointments. But then, here at the end God switches the metaphor from a valley of bones, to sealed up graves. And I believe that as the bones represent our failed external actions, that the graves represent our internal fears that hold us back.

- - - Grave of Emptiness
    - Grave of Defeat
    - Grave of Depression
    - Grave of Anxiety
    - Grave of Worry
    - Grave of Loneliness
    - Grave of Insignificance!

All of those internal fears that act like tentacles wrapping around our faith, and our desire to step out and live in God’s purpose. But, these fears have slowly strangled the purpose of God right out of you!

Instead of pursuing God’s purpose, you’ve become trapped in your grave. Instead of speaking his promises, you’ve been listening to the doubts telling you it’s not worth it, it won’t turn out the way you want, you’re going to fail, no one will join you, everyone will make fun of you…so you sit in your grave!

But God has opened your grave! You aren’t trapped any longer, you are free, but you’ve got to come out! It’s time to come out of that grave, to embrace your calling and purpose from God, to celebrate the work he has done in your life. To breath out his praise, because our worship is a celebration of God’s work

If Jesus died for your victory why are you living in defeat?
If your sin was buried with him in the tomb, why are you still carrying your sin this morning?
If he rose from the grave, why are you still hanging out in the tomb!
You need to get up, step out, and live again!

I know it’s scary! I know all of those negative, angry, and disruptive thoughts keep chirping at you, and you’re not even sure how to get out of that pattern your in, or even if it’s possible to truly live in God’s freedom instead of the crippling fears that are feasting on your faith.

You might be thinking, “How am I supposed to worship again, and celebrate the work God’s done in my life, when what I’m feeling right now is so overwhelming that I can’t even begin to focus on the good work he’s done in me?”

Well, let me remind you of something:you are in a grave. What goes in a grave? Dead Things
And, what can dead things do? Nothing

The only thing you can do, is to let God do his thing in you! Ezekiel 36: 25-27

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