Let's pray together, and will you join me as we pray for our city and ourselves this
morning?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, great and glorious God, what a privilege it is to worship you this morning,
to align our hearts to truth, and to declare your wonder and your praises.
Father, you are the one true and everlasting God.
You are the creator of all that exists in heaven and on earth.
Everything that is visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities,
all things were created through you and for you.
And we've come to declare that truth this morning, to remind our hearts of it, to be washed in
your goodness and your grace.
Father God, thank you for the truth contained in your scriptures, that those of us in Christ,
that our sins are like scarlet, you wash us white as new.
That our sin is red as crimson, you, God, wash us whiter than will.
God, in that place, in that we place our hope and our confidence.
It is on this truth that we stand, in that confidence we come before your throne to pray
and to worship and to honor you this morning.
Father God, this morning we pray for the families in Hong Kong.
We know, God, that so many families in our city are hurting, God.
Marriages are taking strain.
Parents are under pressure to give their kids the very best they can.
Kids feel the pressure to perform from such a young age.
God, we bring this area of our city's life before you and we ask for the redeeming power
of the gospel to be at work.
Lord, we pray for our own marriages and our own parenting.
That though, God, we are still sinners, will you let the gospel shape our hearts, God?
That we will be better husbands and wives, better mothers and fathers.
Father, we pray too that as followers of Jesus, we will be salt and light in this area in Hong Kong.
Help us to know how to come alongside and encourage and strengthen those whose lives are struggling.
Father, we pray especially for your amazing anointing to rest upon Kristen and Sylvie this week
as they start the parenting course.
God, may your truth ring out with power and transform our parenting.
May we see it for what it is.
May we see what it is that you've called us to.
May we know what it means and what it looks like to shape and guide our children's hearts, God,
not just their behavior.
Help us, we pray.
Father, this morning we want to pray for the Bridge Church, for Eric and Justine.
We pray for your special anointing and grace to rest upon them.
We ask, Lord, that you anoint their ministry there.
Pray for Eric's preaching, for him to preach with power and authority.
Pray for their leading of the bridge, God.
We ask, God, that you blow the wind of the Spirit through the church and cause men and women to love you freshly,
to see their need for the gospel, to confess sin and run to you.
We pray, God, for a wave of gospel renewal to take place as your word is opened and taught at the Bridge, Lord.
And finally, Lord, we pray for ourselves as well.
Oh, God, come and let the Spirit breathe upon us, God.
Cause new spiritual life to take place in our own hearts.
Lord, we confess that often our hearts grow cold and hard towards you.
Oh, God, come and revive our hearts, we pray.
Open our spiritual eyes to see you.
Father, we pray that you will awaken our hearts to you again
and cause spiritual life and power to change us and empower us for mission.
May we be great ambassadors in our city.
May we be salt and light.
May we take the word of the gospel to our city because you, God, have taken a hold of us.
Come and do this in our midst, we pray.
In your wonderful name, amen.
Amen.
Great.
Jefferson's going to come and read God's word to us.
And so let's listen to that.
The scripture reading comes from Ezekiel chapter 37.
Please follow along in your bulletins or on the screen.
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.
It was full of bones, and he led me around them.
And behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley.
And behold, they were very dry.
And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, O Lord God, you know.
Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
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.
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 were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them.
But there was no breath in them.
Then 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 may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and a breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
Behold, they say, our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost.
We are indeed cut off.
Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, 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 raise you from the graves, O my people.
And I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.
This is the word of God.
All right.
Thank you, Jefferson.
Great.
Well, if you're new here this morning, my name is Kevin, and wonderful to bring God's word to us.
If you are not new, you will know that as a church, we've been working our way through Matthew's gospel.
And when we got to the Sermon on the Mount, we got to the part where Jesus talks about his followers being like salt and light,
that he sends out into the world as his representatives.
And when we got there, we decided to pause there for a couple of weeks and to consider this theme of mission and evangelism.
What does it mean to be Christ's ambassadors, Christ's representatives in the world?
And so two weeks ago, Chris spoke from Matthew chapter 9 and 10, how Jesus says he's like the shepherd that sees the people that are like lost sheep,
and his heart breaks them.
And so he sends his disciples out and says, go and call back these people that don't know me any longer.
And then last week, we looked from 2 Corinthians 5 at how God sends us out as his ambassadors to speak his message on his behalf.
And it talks about how we implore those that don't know Christ, be reconciled to God.
And so we are working our way through and considering this theme.
Now today, we get to our final passage of Scripture in this sub-theme on what does it mean to be salt and light into our city.
And then next week, we're going to pick up again in the Sermon on the Mount,
and Justin Ma is going to be preaching next Sunday.
And so we're looking forward to that.
So today, we get to Ezekiel chapter 37.
And the context of the passage is in Ezekiel is about how the nation of Israel, God's chosen people, have lost their way.
They have walked away from God in their rebellion and their sin.
And the consequence is that things are not going well for Israel.
Just like Adam and Eve, they are cut off from God.
Life has become difficult, and the ramifications for their sin and their rebellion are playing out in the whole nation, in every area of life.
And so that's what most of the book of Ezekiel is about.
But God has not abandoned them.
He has not forgotten them.
And so in his grace and his mercy, he reaches out to them and he calls them back to himself.
And he promises to restore them.
But it's not a simplistic restoration.
He's not just restoring their religious observation or their religious duties.
It's nothing short of an entire makeover.
God has got to revolutionize their hearts.
And it's a restoration that will include them coming back from slavery to the land, the promised land.
It is a restoration that includes justice and righteousness in the nation.
And in short, God promises to restore them in a way that will touch every area of national life.
Politically, economically, socially, justice-wise, spiritually, relationally.
Every area of life is going to be touched as God moves in on them.
And what is God's motivation for this?
Well, he tells us throughout the book of Ezekiel, but in chapter 36, the one just before, God says,
I will take your heart of stone and I will give you a new heart.
I will give you a heart of flesh.
And then he says this.
He says, I will do this not just for your sake, O Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my name, says God.
Because you have profaned it and I will vindicate it for my own glory, says God.
And so God promises this complete revival and making new his people.
And he ends off with chapter 36 saying, and then all the earth will know that I am God.
And that brings us to chapter 37, our passage today.
Now, as we look at this passage through the lens of the gospel in our own hearts and mission evangelism,
we're going to see four things.
We're going to see what does this passage tell us about our own hearts?
What does it tell us as we seek to be missionaries into our city?
What hope does it give us for our own hearts?
And what hope does it give us as we try to take this message out into the city?
So we're going to look at this passage through these two lenses, our own lives and this call of God to be his ambassadors into the city.
And we're going to constantly interchange between these two applications.
Does that make sense?
Okay.
So let's dive in.
The first thing we're going to look at is a hopeless situation.
A hopeless situation.
Look at this passage, how it starts off.
Ezekiel gets a vision from God.
And in this vision, God takes him to a valley.
And it's a plain valley.
But it's not a beautiful scenic valley between, you know, snow-capped mountains.
It's a horrific sight.
Because in front of Ezekiel, he sees this valley is filled, covered with human skeletons.
And God takes Ezekiel down into this valley to walk amongst them.
And two things grab Ezekiel's attention straight away.
The first one is that there are not just a few bones scattered here and there.
The valley is completely covered with them.
Look at verse 2.
It says,
He led me amongst them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley.
Everywhere he looks.
This isn't just, you know, an animal that died in the wilderness or some unfortunate man that ran out of water in the desert.
This is millions of people and their remains.
The valley is completely covered with these skeletons.
The second thing you notice is how exceedingly dry they are.
These are not the bones of someone that's recently died.
They are bleached white by the sun.
There is not a single remnant of life or sinew or meat that's left on them.
The vultures and the scavengers have licked these bones dry.
And these bones have been here for a long time.
They have been bleached dry by the sun, and there is no hint of any life left on them.
They are bone dry, as it were.
Excuse the pun.
Now, this may seem like a strange vision to us, but as you read the book of Ezekiel, you'll actually know exactly what's going on.
And Ezekiel knows exactly what's going on.
This is the nation of Israel, and it's a picture of Israel's condition.
This is how God sees them.
Now, this is not how they see themselves.
They think of themselves as doing quite all right.
I mean, they're not perfect.
They know they've sinned a bit.
I guess they could have been a little more committed.
They're in exile.
But they think of themselves as we're not all that bad, especially compared to the nations around us.
I mean, those guys are really bad.
We're not perfect, but not as bad as them.
And they go to the temple every now and then.
They offer some sacrifices.
They maybe lead a CG.
They serve in the kids' ministry.
They bring their offering to God, except it's a false security.
Because when God looks at their condition, this is how He sees them.
When God looks at their heart, they're not just a little bit off color.
They haven't just lost their way or a little bit under the weather.
When God looks at the state of their heart, He sees that they are spiritually dead.
He's dead.
And friends, the Bible tells us that this isn't only the condition of Israel 600 BC.
This is in fact the condition of humanity.
This is all of our condition.
The natural state of human beings is that we are spiritually dead to God.
And that includes yourself and includes myself.
That's all of us.
It's the very best human being you can think of.
The very worst human being you can think of.
In our natural state, apart from God working in us, our natural spiritual condition is that we are dead to the God who made us for relationship with Him.
Now, what does this mean to be dead to God?
Well, it means a couple of things.
The first thing is what theologians describe our state as being totally depraved.
And what that means is that as humans, we are not as bad as we could be.
But what it means is that every area of our lives has been affected by the pollution and the infection of sin.
There is not an area of our lives or our consciousness or our humanity that is not affected or tainted by the brokenness of sin.
You think of the way we approach relationships, our sexuality, our work, our careers, our leisure, our friendships, even the way we approach religion.
All of these are affected and tainted and damaged by sin.
All of life is affected by our sinfulness.
Secondly, it means that there is no spiritual good inside of us.
And that is, there is no good in relation to God in our natural state.
There is nothing inside of us that we can point to or rely on that will help us draw closer to God.
Now, that doesn't mean that human beings can't do anything good.
Of course, we can.
Even people that don't believe in God can do good.
You can raise money for the poor and serve in shelters.
You can do good things.
But what it means is there is nothing fundamentally inside of us that makes us turn away from the love of self towards the love of God.
And then the third thing that it means is that it means we are utterly unable to save and rescue ourselves.
Think of somebody that is dead.
Can they take themselves to the hospital?
Can they administer CPR on themselves or phone 911?
I need an ambulance quickly.
I'm already dead.
No, someone that's dead is completely at the mercy of some great physician.
If you're dead, you cannot save or rescue yourself.
You cannot take yourself to the emergency room.
And that's true of all of us spiritually.
There's nothing inside of us that we can do to rescue ourselves.
We cannot go on some pilgrimage or raise some money or give a donation to the poor.
Sometimes people come to me and they say,
I really want to get closer to God, but let me just work on myself spiritually.
And then when I'm feeling closer to God, then I'll come back to church.
Or sometimes people say to me,
Kevin, I want to do this Christianity thing.
Let me just work on me.
Let me just get a bit better, remove some sin, improve my life,
and then I'll come and receive God's grace.
No, you can't do that.
There's nothing we can do, nothing inside ourselves that draws us closer to God.
We need to be revived before we can draw near.
Think of how Paul writes about this in the New Testament.
In 1 Corinthians, he says,
No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.
They are foolishness to him.
He cannot understand them.
They are spiritually discerned.
Or Romans chapter 8, Paul says,
The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
It does not submit to God's laws.
Indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And the reason why this is the case is actually given to us in the passage.
Because think about, before we get there, think about in Hong Kong,
what do we love to do?
Or what do we do for our family members that have passed away?
What do we do at their burial sites?
We go and sweep them.
We go and clean them up.
Every now and then we take flowers.
We make sure they're well arranged.
And we look after the burial sites of our ancestors.
Don't we?
Well, in the ancient Near East culture,
the burial of the dead was even more important to them than it is to us in modern day Hong Kong.
And the reason is not just for the grieving family members behind,
but for the person that had passed away, a decent burial was very important.
Because it symbolized that they would get peace in the afterlife.
If somebody was left unburied or just left to the elements and to the animals,
it was the sign of an ultimate insult, the ultimate curse.
It was a sign that everlasting suffering into the afterlife.
What's happening here?
As Ezekiel walks amongst these bones, God's sending a message.
He's telling us that these bones are the remains of somebody,
not just that died in battle or not just that died in famine.
The reason these bones are here is because of some curse,
is because of divine judgment.
And friends, that's what the Bible tells us is our problem.
The result of our sin and our rebellion against God is not just that life is difficult,
is that we are under a divine judgment.
And the result is that we are left spiritually dead.
Dead to God, dead to ourselves, dead to the life that God created us for,
and we have no hope of saving or rescuing ourselves.
Ephesians chapter 2 puts it like this.
He says,
As for you, as for me, we were dead in our trespasses and our sins,
in which we once walked, following the curse of this world,
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body,
and being by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
Our situation is hopeless.
Second point is an impossible assignment.
Now let's think about this.
Jesus comes to us and he says,
outside of Christ, people are spiritually dead,
unable to save themselves,
unable to rescue themselves,
and now I want you, Watermark,
to go as my ambassadors and to speak to them
and to tell them the wonderful message of Jesus.
Go into all the world and baptizing them,
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.
Jesus sends us out as his ambassadors,
his representatives,
and he says,
go and take my message and tell people to respond.
Now here's the question.
How well do dead people respond to messages or instructions?
I don't know about you,
but I don't think they respond very well.
If I were to die here on stage right now,
what would happen?
Well, I hope somebody would call an ambulance.
I hope somebody would try CPR,
would take me up to Queen Mary.
Claire might run up and say,
please don't die on me now,
or something like that.
But I'll tell you what you probably wouldn't do.
You probably wouldn't come and say,
Kevin, now this is not a very convenient time to die on us.
You're in the middle of your sermon.
I want you to go to the bathroom,
wash your face,
sort yourself out,
and then come back here.
We're all waiting for you.
Why wouldn't you say that?
Because dead people don't listen to instructions,
right?
Well, why not?
Because when we're dead,
that's how it works.
Well, friends, in many ways,
what this means is that the tasks of mission and evangelism
is an impossible one.
Jesus sends us out and says,
go and take my message to people
who are spiritually dead and unable to hear
the word of the gospel.
In many ways, Jesus is sending us out
and he's asking us to preach to a graveyard.
Imagine you go to a graveyard
and standing in front of you are tombstones
and you say, right,
this morning's message comes from Matthew chapter 4.
And Jesus says, follow me
and I will make you fishers of men.
Now, who would like to respond?
Just raise your hand, anybody here,
and I'll love to pray for you.
It's not going to happen.
And Ezekiel knows this.
Look at what he says in verse 3.
God asks him a question
and he says, Ezekiel,
can these bones live?
And Ezekiel answers very cleverly.
He says, oh God, you alone know.
Which is kind of his way of saying,
God, it's impossible,
but because you are God,
I'm not going to say it's impossible,
so I'm just going to sit on the fence.
And so he says, God, I don't know.
You alone know these things.
And then God gives him an impossible assignment
because he asks him to speak to the dead bones
and to tell them to live.
An impossible assignment.
Point number three.
Our only hope.
Now, let's look at what happens here.
God tells Ezekiel to do this ridiculous thing.
He tells him to speak to the dead bones.
But he tells him not just to say anything.
He says, speak my word.
Look what he says here.
He says, prophesy over these bones.
Now, to prophesy isn't to tell the future.
To prophesy is to speak God's word
or to speak on behalf of God,
God's message using your own words.
And so God says, Ezekiel prophesy,
speak my message on behalf of me to these dead bones.
And so look at what Ezekiel does.
Verse four.
He says, oh, dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord.
Just by the way,
that's one of the reasons why as a church,
we preach through books of the Bible.
We preach expositionally.
Because our job is to bring God's word,
not my word.
You don't want to hear my word.
That doesn't do anything.
Who cares what Kevin or Chris' opinion is?
We want to bring God's word
because God's word breathes life.
And so Ezekiel says,
hear the word of the Lord.
This is what the Lord says.
Behold, I will cause my breath to enter into you
and you shall live.
I will lay sinews upon you
and cause flesh to come upon you
and I will cover you with skin
and I'll put breath into you
and you shall live.
And you will know that I am the Lord.
Now, just on a side note,
in Hebrew,
as far as I understand,
the word for breath
and the word for spirit
as in God's Holy Spirit
is the same word.
It's the word ruah.
And so in a sense,
there's a play on words here.
God says,
I will put my breath in you
but at the same time,
he's saying,
I'll put my Holy Spirit in you.
I'll put my spirit which causes life.
And so Ezekiel,
look what he does.
Verse seven.
He says,
so I prophesied as God commanded me.
And what happens?
As I spoke God's word
to these lifeless bones,
there was a sound
and behold,
there was a rattling
and the bones came together,
bone to its bone.
And as I looked,
there were sinews on them
and flesh had come upon them
and skin covered them.
As these bones come together
and a body starts to form
and sinew and muscle
and flesh and skin
and suddenly they start to look
like a great army
but there's still something missing.
Verse eight.
There was still no breath,
no spirit inside of them.
There's no life in them.
They may look like human beings,
they may look like an army
but they're just corpses.
There's nothing there.
Then God said to me,
prophesy to the breath,
to the spirit
and so I prophesied
as he commanded
and the breath came into them
and they lived
and they stood on their feet
an exceedingly great army.
And friends,
this actually is a picture
of the essence of salvation.
This is what it means
to be a Christian.
This is,
to be a Christian
is to have new spiritual life
breathed into our hearts
and our souls,
into our spiritual being
such that where we were once dead
we are now given new life.
To be a Christian
is not somebody
who intellectually agrees
with the world view
or even intellectually agrees
with everything that's in the Bible,
though it is true.
Serving God
and being involved in ministry
or leading a CG
or serving in the kids ministry,
that doesn't make you a Christian.
Friends,
a Christian is someone
who's been saved,
who's been converted,
who's had spiritual life
implanted into their souls
so that their dead spirit
is now made alive
and they are now a new creation
as we heard last week.
Someone who was once
unable to reach out to God
and love and serve Him
is now,
his heart has been made new
because God breathes
His Spirit upon them.
There's a wonderful story
of a man by the name
of William Haslam
in England
in the 1850s.
And William Haslam,
I think we've got a picture of him,
Uncle Will,
was a preacher.
He was a pastor
and he lived in the town
of Cornwall
in England
in the 1850s.
But even though
he was a pastor,
he actually wasn't a Christian.
He thought he was a Christian
but later on in life
he realized
that he wasn't.
And his heart was cold,
his heart was hard
towards God
and towards others
and he was very judgmental
and everybody in the town
knew it.
The whole town knew
Haslam was a hard,
judgmental man.
But what happened was
one day his gardener
went to go
and visit another church
and he became a Christian.
And his life changed.
His whole life changed.
And then some people
in William Haslam's church
went to go hear this preacher
and they got converted.
And their lives got full
of life and joy
and William Haslam
saw something change
in his gardener.
And he was very perplexed
by it and challenged by it.
And he realized
that his gardener
now had something
that he didn't.
And so he went to go
see another pastor
on the outskirts
of Cornwall town.
And this pastor said to him,
if I was dying
on my deathbed,
I wouldn't call for you
for you are not converted.
And William Haslam
was greatly troubled.
And so the next Sunday morning
at church,
he didn't feel like preaching
and so he thought,
I will just read
a few passages of scripture
from the New Testament.
I will say a few kind words
and then I'll go home.
And so he stands up
and he reads from the gospel
and he reads a passage
about how Jesus
is speaking to the Pharisees.
And he says a few kind words
but he's not in the mood.
And while he's speaking,
while he's preaching,
he hears this voice
in his own head.
And the voice says to him,
Haslam,
you don't believe
that Jesus can save you
just like the Pharisees.
And in that moment,
while he's preaching,
he says this.
Let me,
find it for me,
sorry.
He says,
I do not remember
at all what I said
but I felt a wonderful light
and joy coming into my soul.
And I was beginning to see
for the first time
what the Pharisees could not.
And so he gets saved
by his own message.
While he's preaching,
he gets converted,
he gets born again.
But what happened was
the congregation saw it.
They saw something
changing inside of him.
And there was a visiting preacher
in the congregation that day.
And so the preacher stands up
and says,
the preacher's just got converted.
He's just got converted.
Hallelujah.
And the whole church
breaks into outro and singing
and the meeting,
there's an outro
and things are not the same.
And what actually happened
after that
is Haslam goes on
and there's a revival
that comes through Cornwall.
His whole life changed
and he started preaching
the gospel
for the first time
and people were getting
saved everywhere.
But the point is this.
The point is, friends,
you can be a preacher.
You can be an elder
in your previous church.
You can be an elder
in this church.
You can be a CG leader.
You can serve in kids ministry.
You can be very involved
in doing Christian things
and still not be born again
because the Spirit of God
has not come upon you.
R.C. Sproul said it like this.
God doesn't just throw
a life preserver
to a drowning man.
He goes to the bottom
of the sea
and he pulls a dead corpse
from the bottom of the ocean.
He lifts him up
onto the bank
and then he breathes
into him
the breath of life
and he makes him
a new person.
And so Ephesians chapter 2,
we read it earlier,
goes on like this.
He says,
As for us,
we were dead
in our trespasses and sins.
Any hope for us?
No hope whatsoever
but for God.
We were dead
in our sins.
No chance of living.
But God,
who is rich in mercy
because of his great love
with which he loved us?
Friends,
just think about that.
Why does God save us?
Well,
Ezekiel 36 tells us
for the praise of his name,
for his own glory.
But secondly,
because of the great love
with which he loved us.
Because of God's
incessant,
overarching love for us.
When we were dead
in our sins,
God made us alive
together with Christ.
And he raised us up with him
and he seated us with him
in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus.
It is by grace
that you have been saved.
Not through works.
This is not your own doing.
It is a gift of God
so that no one may boast.
And so remember
in Matthew chapter 19,
Jesus is talking
to his disciples
about the impossibility
of somebody getting saved
on their own works.
And the disciples say,
Well,
then who can get saved?
And Jesus says,
With man,
this is impossible.
But with God,
all things are impossible.
Ezekiel,
can these dry bones live?
Friend,
can you get saved?
With man,
this is impossible.
But with God,
all things are possible.
Friends,
the only hope
that you and I have
of ever getting saved,
getting born again,
getting made new,
of having our sins forgiven,
of having new life
inside of us,
is if God comes
and performs divine CPR on us,
if God comes
and breathes
the breath of his spirit
into us,
and causes us
to be made new again.
And that leads us
to our fourth point,
which is our only confidence
in missions.
You see,
the last three weeks
we've been speaking
about how Jesus
sends us out
as salt and light.
Jesus sends us out
as his ambassadors.
Jesus sends us out
to go and call
the people that don't know him
to come and know him
and give them the hope
of the gospel.
And at first impression,
we might ask,
Well,
why speak?
If this is an impossible task,
why witness?
Why evangelize?
We cannot give
spiritual life to the dead.
What's the use
in preaching
to a graveyard?
Except if God
does give life
to the dead.
Except,
friends,
if our only confidence
is that the God
who sends us out
as ambassadors
is the same God
who works miracles
to give life
to the dead.
And the way
that he's chosen
to do that
is through the simplicity
of preaching the gospel
and witnessing
to the wonder
of who Jesus is.
I remember
hearing a story
a few years ago
of a man,
I think he was
an American man,
that felt like God
was calling him
to be a missionary
into Pakistan.
Now,
if you know Pakistan,
it's one of the most
hostile countries
in the world
for Christians
to live in.
Christians are constantly
being killed
and hung
and slaughtered.
And even more so
if they try and witness,
if they try and share
the gospel with others,
you are writing
your own death sentence.
And so as this man
spoke to his family
and his friends,
they're all saying,
why would you do that?
Surely there are
other places
that are less hostile,
less threatening,
more accepting.
Why not go somewhere else
where they'll be more
receptive to the gospel?
And his answer was this,
because it is God
who gives life
to the dead.
And if God has chosen
to give life to the dead,
there is no one
and nothing
that can stop
his plans.
Friends,
you and I may look
at our circumstances
and our friends
and you may think,
God,
they'll never become Christians.
They'll never admit
that their sin is
in need of God.
And to be honest,
I often think like that
in my humanness.
Sometimes I think,
oh God,
that person's never
going to believe it.
But friends,
at the heart of the gospel
is the truth
that God saves sinners.
Billy Graham
doesn't save anyone.
Tim Keller
doesn't save anyone.
You and I
don't save anyone.
God saves people
and therefore
we can be full of faith
that in the most
difficult circumstances,
in the most trying
circumstances,
in the hardest places
of our city
and our nation
and our world,
in the most unlikely
territories on the planet,
God is calling people
to himself.
He's breathing fresh
life and spirit
into their bones.
And what this means
is two things.
Two very simple applications.
One,
don't get discouraged.
Don't get discouraged.
Sometimes you may feel like,
God,
I've tried to share the gospel
with my spouse
or my sister
or some family member
for 20 years
and they're not hearing it.
Don't give up on them
because it's not you
that saves them.
It's not how well
you articulate it.
It's not your perfect reasoning.
It's God who takes
your simple words
and breathes life
into their spirit.
And one day,
out of the blue,
they may just come to you
and say,
I believe.
Don't get discouraged.
Don't give up.
Keep on sharing
the wonder of Jesus.
Second application is this.
As a church together
and as individuals,
we need to be those
who pray
and who pray
and who pray.
J.R. Packer
says it like this.
Every time we pray,
we confess our impotence.
That means our inability
and God's sovereignty.
And prayer is both
the highest privilege
and the highest duty
of the Christians.
It's a privilege
because it allows us
to partner
with the sovereign God.
the miracles
that God wants to do.
He invites us
into His miracle
and it's a privilege
to partner with Him
with His dealings
and His workings.
But it's also
the highest duty
because it aligns us
with the truth.
It reminds us
that we are completely
and utterly unable
to effect a change
in purple's lives.
And yet,
God does give life
to the dead.
And it's the highest privilege
because it reminds us
of that truth
that we are not able
but God is able.
Chris reminded me this week,
remember,
in the book of Acts,
the disciples
are going around
telling everyone
around Jesus.
They're getting in trouble
for it.
They're getting thrown
into jail.
They're getting persecuted.
Some of them
have been killed.
What do they do?
Do they back off?
No.
They pray.
And what do they pray?
They pray,
God give us boldness.
God give us courage
not to step.
Stop.
But the second thing
they pray
is God let your power
be upon us.
Do miracles,
we pray.
God do what only
you can do.
Let your power
come upon us
that will change
people's lives.
Friends,
if we're going to be
a church that's obedient
to Jesus
and fill Hong Kong
with the message
of Jesus,
if we're going to be
faithful to this task,
how we need to become
a church that prays?
See, friends,
the same theological
conviction
that drives us
to believe
that confidence
before men,
that God
by His sovereign spirit
changes people,
is the same conviction
that ought to make us
humble and persistent
before God
because it's God
that changes lives.
And therefore,
we need to become
men and women
that pray.
Pray in your CGs.
Pray every day
on the way to work.
Pray while you're
making dinner
for your family.
Pray while you're
in the shower.
Pray for people
that don't know God.
Pray for your own heart.
Pray, pray, pray.
O Ezekiel,
can these bones live?
Watermark,
can this city be saved?
O Hong Kong,
can you come to know
the wonder of Jesus?
Can God breathe in you
and power in His spirit
and save marriages
and families
and deliver addicts?
Soften hearts,
hear the word of the Lord.
Behold,
I will cause my spirit
to enter you
and you shall live
and then you will know
that I am the Lord
your God.
Let's pray together.
Can I maybe ask you
to stand with me
and
I want to encourage us
to close our eyes
and let's pray together.
O Lord God,
we
we come before you God
because
you alone
change lives,
God.
God,
we know where the power lies.
It lies in you.
It lies in the power
of your spirit.
God,
as we heard this morning
in Adrian's life
and so many of us
can testify,
God,
when you saved us,
you caused us
to be born again.
You put new life in us,
God.
We were dead in our sins
but you,
Christ,
have raised us up again.
And for that,
we praise you
and we rejoice,
God.
God,
I pray that we will be
a church that rejoices.
I pray put deep joy
in our heart,
God.
May we celebrate
the gospel.
friends,
I want to pray for
some of us maybe
that are not Christians.
Maybe you're not saved.
You may have thought
you were a Christian.
You may have served
in many areas,
in many ways.
But maybe it's just been
religious duty.
It's been dead works.
Maybe your life
has never been made new.
Your heart has never
come to know
the wonder of Jesus.
Like Haslam,
you've never experienced
the life and joy
of serving him.
Friends,
this morning,
why don't you come to him?
Why don't you confess
your sin?
Confess that you have
no hope apart from
Jesus forgiving you.
Confess that there's
nothing you can do
to save yourself.
And then surrender.
Come to him and say,
Jesus,
please come and
breathe life into me.
Come and forgive me
of my sins
and make me new.
Father God,
come and do that.
Come and save us,
Lord,
we pray.
I pray,
God,
this morning
that some people
will be born again
for the very first time.
God,
come and put a life
and a joy
in our hearts
as the Spirit of God
takes hold of us,
we pray,
God.
And then,
friends,
I want to pray for us,
maybe some of us
who just feel like
we've been dry
for a long time.
Maybe we are Christians,
but that joy,
that spark,
that life of the Holy Spirit,
it's been a long time
since we felt that.
We feel like
we are embers
that are dying
out in a fire
and we want
the wind of God
to come and blow
and freshly cause
our hearts
to be a flame
for God.
Friends,
if that's you,
why don't you cry to God
and ask him
to come and do that?
Ask him to come
and blow
the wind of the Spirit
and to freshly cause
spiritual life
to take hold
of your heart.
Oh God,
come and do this.
Oh God,
come and do this.