Dry Bones – God, Blow on Us

Pastor George Dronen

Midland SDA Church

August 24, 2013

Opening Hymn—Praise Him! Praise Him! # 249

Text – Ezekiel 37:3-6

Closing – Tell Me the Old, Old Story #196

Ver. 3-6  It seemed an idle thing to prophesy to dry bones; and it appears equally useless to preach to unregenerate sinners: but it is ours to do as God bids us, and leave the result to him.

Until we know the Lord and until we receive the breath of the Lord we do not know who we are and the reason for our existence.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 finds its parallel passage in Revelation 3:14-20.

Ezekiel 37 is a message to God’s last day church.

God is saying to us, “we are a valley of dry bones.”

Now what would make us dry?

What caused the bones to dry up?

What caused the bones to be disconnected?

Might we become acquainted with our spiritual condition and depend on God to breath on us.

The only hope for the valley of dry bones is for the breath of God to blow on them.

Genesis 1 and 2. Creation story.

Adam and Eve where nothing more than some cleverly arranged clay or particles of dirt if you please. But they were just there nothing more nothing less. Until God breathed life into them.

So our church is here nothing more nothing less unless God breathes into us the breath of life.

No how does He propose to breath into us life.

First before we can have life breathed into us we must come together.

God isn’t going to breath life into disconnected parts.

God wants His body to come together so He can breathe into us life.

That is a challenge.

I don’t want to be the tail, I want to be the head.

I don’t like being the toe, I want to be the ankle.

Is the toes important? Sure is, how do we feel if the toe hurts. Say we have an ingrown toenail. Does it hurt? Sure, do we take care of it or do we cut it off? Dumb question?

What about if our hands develops an infection? Say it got into something that it shouldn’t have. Do we cut the hand off? Or do we minister to it.

The leg makes the wrong move and it is broken, what do we do with it? Do we cut it off or do we put it in a cast and give it special attention? We nurture it until it is healed.

Do I need to make it any plainer?

We have hurting people in our churches? We have hurting people in our society. What do we do with a member of our body that hurts? We give it special attention?

Our body, the whole human race is in need of special attention. We are here to minister. To give God our hands and our feet, our mind so He can use our members to minister to the body that is hurting.

This is what it is all about. We have a hurting society and they are crying out, “DOES ANYONE CARE?” WE HAVE HURTING CHURCH MEMBERS WHO ARE CRYING OUT, “DOES ANYONE CARE.”

WE ARE TOLD IF WE WOULD BE KIND, THOUGHTFUL AND COMPASSIONATE, CONSIDERATE, AND HUMBLE THERE WOULD BE 100 CONVERSIONS WHERE NOW THERE IS ONE.

People God loves us. He proved it by giving us His Son.

Do we realize what that says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave.” Gave what? Gave His only Son, the One who was with Him from eternity. He gave Him to the human race not for 30 some years but forever. God identifies with us. What more can He say. He has given all. He emptied heaven for us. And He wants us to tell the world. Tell the world that a Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. What more can I say?

Jesus walked and talked with Peter after the resurrection.

Jesus gave Peter the identifying marks of what love is?

Jesus said to Peter if you love Me feed My lambs, feed My sheep.

That is what love is all about.

If you love Him today what are you going to do about it?

"Heart Test"

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class 
on the very first day of school, she told the
children an untruth.. Like most teachers, she
looked at her students and said that she
loved them all the same. However, that was
impossible, because there in the front row,
slumped in his seat, was a little boy named
Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year
before and noticed that he did not play well
with the other children, that his clothes were
messy and that he constantly needed a bath.
In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant.
It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson
would actually take delight in marking his
papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's
and then putting a big "F" at the top of his
papers. At the school where Mrs. Thompson
taught, she was required to review each child's
past records and she put Teddy's off until last.
However, when she reviewed his file, she
was in for a surprise.

Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is
a bright child with a ready laugh. He does
his work neatly and has good manners....
he is a joy to be around.."
His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an
excellent student, well liked by his classmates,
but he is troubled because his mother has a
terminal illness and life at home must be a
struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's
death has been hard on him. He tries to do
his best, but his father doesn't show much
interest and his home life will soon affect
him if some steps aren't taken."
Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy
is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest
In school. He doesn't have many friends and
he sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem
and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even
worse when her students brought her
Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful
ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's.

His present was clumsily wrapped in the
heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery
bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it
in the middle of the other presents. Some
of the children started to laugh when she
found a rhinestone bracelet with some of
the stones missing, and a bottle that was
one-quarter full of perfume... But she stifled
the children's laughter when she exclaimed
how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on,
and dabbing some of the perfume on her
wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school
that day just long enough to say, "Mrs.
Thompson, today you smelled just like my
Mom used to." After the children left, she
cried for at least an hour.

On that very day, she quit teaching reading,
writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began
to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid
particular attention to Teddy. As she worked
with him, his mind seemed to come alive.
The more she encouraged him, the faster he
responded. By the end of the year, Teddy
had become one of the smartest children in
the class and, despite her lie that she would
love all the children the same, Teddy became
one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door,
from Teddy, telling her that she was still the
best teacher he ever had in his whole life.
Six years went by before she got another note
from Teddy. He then wrote that he had
finished high school, third in his class, and
she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.

Four years after that, she got another letter,
saying that while things had been tough at
times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it,
and would soon graduate from college with
the highest of honors. He assured Mrs.
Thompson that she was still the best and
favorite teacher he had ever had in his
whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another
letter came. This time he explained that after
he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go
a little further. The letter explained that she
was still the best and favorite teacher he ever
had. But now his name was a little longer....
The letter was signed,
Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story does not end there. You see, there
was yet another letter that Spring. Teddy said  
he had met this girl and was going to be married.
He explained that his father had died a couple
of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs.
Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding
in the place that was usually reserved for the
mother of the groom.

Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess
what? She wore that bracelet, the one with
several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she
made sure she was wearing the perfume that
Teddy remembered his mother wearing on
their last Christmas together.
They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard
whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank
you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me.
Thank you so much for making me feel
important and showing me that I could
make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes,
whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have
it all wrong. You were the one who taught
me that I could make a difference. I didn't
know how to teach until I met you! ."

(For those of you who don't know, Teddy
Stoddard is the Dr. at Iowa Methodist in Des
Moines that has the Stoddard Cancer Wing.)

Warm someone's heart today. . . pass this along.
I love this story so very much, I cry every time
I read it.. Just try to make a difference in

someone's life today? tomorrow? just "do it ".

Random acts of kindness, I think they call it?

"Believe in Angels, then return the favor"

I believe that friends are quiet angels who lift

us to our feet when our wings have trouble

remembering how to fly.