Raising the Dead — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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It has been a marvelous day here in this house, all day today. And I thank God for it. The Word is penetrating, convicting, encouraging, but deepening, challenging. And I feel personally that my heart has been more challenged to believe God for the impossible than ever before.

The Call to Believe God for the Impossible

The Holy Spirit's been speaking this to me for some time now. He's been drawing my heart to some of the truths that I'm going to be sharing with you tonight. And I pray that somehow, I shared with Pastor Dave earlier tonight, I feel like David when Jonathan said to him, the arrow is beyond you.

I feel like the depth of what I'm about to speak is yet still beyond me. But I have set my heart to it. I want it with all my heart. My wife and I had a very, very good and long talk this week together.

And we want to live for Christ all the days of our lives, no matter what that means. There's an old song that goes, whether pleasure or in pain or my life, I give you rain. Father, glorify yourself in me.

I believe in my heart that should the Lord tarry and should I live, there is a day coming when the gospel is going to be extremely unpopular to preach. It could even be illegal in some parts of the world as we know it.

Turning Away from Sin and Ungodly Media

And the Lord is speaking and calling now many to, you've got to get out of sin. If you're living in sin, you've got to get out or you're not going to make it. You've got to turn off the entertainment, the media.

You have to turn it off. You have no choice now if you want to make it. There's such an uncleanness. It is a sewer. It's a sewer. I was up on my rooftop praying last night and looking at all the high rises all through Manhattan that I could see from that vantage point.

And you see this eerie blue light in almost every window, every second window. And you realize that the sewage of hell is being pumped into the homes in America. And I was praying to God, how long, how long before this nation becomes so incredibly wicked, the incredible filth that is now being pumped into people's homes.

Homes are porno centers, just like God gave to Pastor Dave to prophesy many years ago. Their homes are porno centers now. It's not optional to turn away from it now. Or if you don't, you'll be swept away with the flood of deception that is coming.

The unrighteous are going to be deceived in the house of God. The unrighteous in the house of God will be deceived. They will be swept away by another Christ, another gospel for your soul's sake. That's not what my message is about tonight.

But for your soul's sake, you have to turn it off now. You've got to get away from it. Most of the gospel that is now on the airways, not all of it, not all of it, but much of it is absolute trash. It is a disgrace to Jesus Christ.

Greedy, absolutely unregenerate man standing, saying, as Jesus said, they're standing and saying, I am Christ. They're saying, if you look at me, you look at Christ. This is the way of God. And it's such a disgrace.

Whenever you hear something, I want you to picture the Savior. Picture him on a cross. Picture him on Calvary. Picture yourself standing at the foot and looking at the foot of this cross and looking at this Savior that came from heaven and became a man.

And then put this gospel you're hearing or this preacher beside him. Do it and see if the two match. See if the Christ on Calvary is the Christ that this person is telling you is alive and sits at the right hand of almighty God.

You don't even have to be discerning to see it now. Beloved, I beg you in Christ's name to get away from ungodly media now. Get in your Bible, get in your prayer closet. It's the only protection you have for the coming days.

The Pastor's Prayer for God's Anointing

Father, I stand before you. I am completely dependent on you. If you don't animate me, I can't even begin. I can't scratch the surface of this that you've given me to speak. Lord, I never want to stand and just speak empty words.

There's no point to it. There's no purpose to it. I'm asking that you would anoint these words, that you would anoint my mind and heart, that you would anoint the hearers in the house tonight and that your kingdom would come.

That's all I ask. Your kingdom come. That your truth be understood, embraced and loved. And that your heart become the heart of your people. Lord, we want to put aside those things that are not like you.

And we want to embrace you and become your beloved bride on this side of eternity. Let that be our portion, O God. Father, I thank you for this from the very depths of my heart. In Jesus' name. You don't have to open your Bibles yet.

Amos and the Warning to Prosperous Israel

We'll get there momentarily. Now, beloved, it's hard to believe that a land can become so evil and the ways of God's people so intertwined with it that the voice of God is in danger of no longer being heard in the nation.

Now, this is exactly what happened to Israel. And the Bible says that the things that happened to them are written as types or shadows or lessons, rather, admonitions for those of us upon whom the ends of the earth have come.

Now, Amos, the prophet, prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel in the mid-eighth century before Christ. And it was at a time of a parallel territorial expansion and national prosperity. The nation was prospering.

They were conquering. And in the midst of all the prosperity and the conquering, this God raised up. Now, Amos was not the only voice, but he was one of some or a few that God raised up to begin to warn that the nation was heading in a direction that was going to bring it into destruction and captivity.

Not a very popular message in a time of prosperity. In a time when a nation thought that it could not be conquered, Israel in its own sight, perhaps many thought they were the most powerful people on the face of the earth at that time.

Or at least in that known geographical. Of course, they didn't have a reference, a global reference like we do today. Basically, their concept of the world was things they had heard, places they had traveled, known geographical locations, most in the at least reasonable proximity to where they were living.

But God raised up a man and you'll find this all throughout Israel's history that began to warn that the good times are over. Something is coming your way and you've got to be prepared for it. Chapter three, verse seven, Amos said it this way.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants, the prophets. And now in verse eight, he says something very telling. He says the lion has roared and who will not fear?

In other words, if we were walking down Manhattan tonight and turn a corner and you heard a very definitive roar of a very real lion, there would be a fear struck in your heart. There's no doubt in my mind about it.

There would be a fear in mine for sure. I'm not going to stand here and say that I'd be full of bravado in the face of an escaped lion. And Amos says the lion has roared. Who will not fear? Then he says the Lord God has spoken.

But who can prophesy? You see, now this was a rhetorical question. He says, God, the lion has roared. And who will not be afraid to hear that voice? But God has spoken. But who can prophesy? The word prophesy in the Hebrew is Navad means to speak the message of God to God's people under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

And so Amos is saying God has spoken. And it's a very definitive voice and it's warning of something. But who's left around to speak for God? Amazing. Who can speak under the influence of his spirit? Oh, yes.

There were people standing and speaking and they were speaking even in the name of God. And there always will be a rise of the false right before judgment. But Amos says, who is actually speaking for God?

Who is actually under the influence of the Holy Ghost? Who is speaking what is in God's heart? Who's warning the people of the coming days? Who's preparing them for the calamity that's at the doorstep?

Or who's warning them or trying to tell them that it can be averted? If there were a genuine, heartfelt, national turning back to God again. Now in Amos chapter 2, I'm just going to read this to you for time's sake, if you don't mind.

Amos chapter 2, verses 10 to 16. Here's what the Lord says. I brought you up from the land of Egypt and I led you 40 years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up your sons for prophets and your young men for Nazarites.

Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel, says the Lord. Now God says, now Israel, let's look at our history. I brought you out of captivity. I put my spirit, just as I said I would, upon your sons.

I gave them the power to speak for me to you. And I set apart young people among you with a Nazarite vow. Now, of course, the Nazarite vow is a vow of separation to God. I think the two are synonymous.

I set apart young men who were in your midst or young people who were in your midst, who separated themselves from the evil ways of the land. And I gave them my spirit to speak to you. In other words, God saying there was no reason why you could not hear my voice.

He says, but you gave the Nazarites wine to drink. In other words, you turn to those that were separated to me. Now, he's talking to the people. And I'm speaking a history lesson. I'm not reproving anybody in this house.

So please don't misunderstand me. At least I'm not doing it intentionally. He said, I gave you separated vessels, but you came to them and you said, no, make us happy. Talk about good times. We don't want anything that does not minister, make us feel good.

And you said you gave your Nazarites wine to drink. You made them foolish and you commanded the prophets saying, prophesy not. And the Lord says an amazing thing. He says, behold, I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.

Now, God's saying it this way. My voice is under the weight of your pursuits. My voice is still there. But you you piled on to the top of my voice, all of these pursuits and all of these ungodly things.

The sheaves are supposed to be a harvest. We sing the song bringing in the sheaves. We talk about the song that says the one that goes out weeping will come doubtless again, bringing his sheaves with him.

We quite often use it in the context of bringing in a harvest of lost souls into the kingdom of God. But he says, now you've headed out and you are pursuing things that have oppressed my voice underneath them.

I can't speak to you because your pursuits and mine are no longer the same. We're on a different path, a different wavelength, and I'm there. But my voice is muffled under all these pursuits and all these ambitions that are going on.

Then he goes on to say it this way. He says, therefore, the flight will perish from the swift and the strong will not strengthen his force and neither shall the mighty deliver himself. Neither shall he stand that handles the bow, and he that is swift to foot shall not deliver himself.

Neither shall he that rides the horse deliver himself. And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked. In that day, says the Lord. And God says to Israel, he said, you pushed my voice away from you.

And because you pushed my voice away, when your calamity comes, there'll be none with strength. There'll be so few left that have any strength to stand because you're not aware of the degree of the adversity that is going to come your way.

Ezekiel 22 and the Loss of Holiness

Now, go with me to the book of Ezekiel, please. Chapter 22. Ezekiel. Now, we're going to be I'm speaking tonight about raising the dead. Ezekiel, chapter 22, chapter 22, verse 26. Ezekiel now is speaking about the spiritual condition that brought about the destruction of God's people.

In verse 26, he said her priests have violated my law and they have profaned my holy things and they put no difference between the holy and the profane. And neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my Sabbath.

And I am profaned among them. So here here are the conditions that led to the downfall of the nation. He said the priests, those that are supposed to be speaking for me are full of mixture and they put no difference between the holy and the unholy.

I think of today in America and Canada and other parts of the Western world where people come to the house of God and all they hear is a good time gospel. And all they hear is about how much they're loved and how much.

And then it's true. They are loved. People are loved by God. But God is a holy God. God is a just God. Sin will not dwell in his presence. You remember the apostle Paul said, don't be deceived. No idolaters, no fornicators, no effeminate, no abusers of themselves with mankind.

No, none of these things. None of these people will inherit the kingdom of God. Paul says, don't be deceived. You cannot live in sin and go into the kingdom of heaven. It is an impossibility. It just is not going to happen.

And sadly to say, there are many people who even sit and listen to gospels across the nation who are not going to understand their condition until they one day stand before the throne of God. How tragic it is.

If I were not preaching the gospel, I would travel the length and breadth of the nation to find a house where the pastor or pastors who stand in that pulpit bring me a word of God that divides my heart.

That divides from soul, which is flesh and that which is spirit. That shows me the condition of my heart. Yes, brings me into grace, but I cannot even appreciate grace until I've seen the condition of my heart.

I have to see it to be able to run to grace. I would do anything to get in a house where the word of God is opened and rightly divided and the full counsel of God is preached to my heart. He said her princes, verse 27, in the midst are like wolves ravening to pray, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

Here are the leaders are full of greed, seeking dishonest gain. He says your prophets, verse 28, have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity. Now, the word vanity in the Hebrew means empty, foolish things, which which disappoint the hope that is set on them.

So your prophets are become foolish and the divining lies and saying to them, thus saith the Lord of God, when the Lord has not spoken. We are living in a time of false prophetic. It's tragic. All of the gibberish and foolishness that goes on in the name of the Lord.

I think the prophet Jeremiah said it the best. He said, if that man or woman had stood in my presence, they would have shown my people their sins and turn them from their iniquity. That's the mark of a man or woman of God.

I don't want you to go to hell. I want you to be in heaven with me. None of the pastors here want you to lose your soul. We love you enough to speak the truth of God to you. God help us if we ever stood in this pulpit to entertain you or stood in this pulpit to make you feel good in your sin, are comfortable in some kind of a spiritual illusion that you're going to heaven.

God help us. We'd have to stand before the Lord and give an account. And because of it all, he says, verse 29, the people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and evicts the poor and needy.

They have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. In other words, because of this mixture, because of the greed, because of the empty, foolish speaking of those that are supposed to be turning the people to God, the people now are living for themselves.

They view humanity as an opportunity for gain. That's exactly what's happening today. It's what the whole of society is like. And tragically, I would assume tonight I wish to God I was wrong. But I would assume tonight that there are many who profess Christ who are no different than those in the world.

They view humanity as an opportunity for gain, looking at a person not as an eternal soul. But what can I get from this person? How can they build my self image? How can they further my objectives? How can I achieve my destiny through them?

And it's tragic. It's absolutely tragic because these are not the eyes of Christ. This isn't the heart of Christ. Jesus looks at every soul in this world as a man or woman created in the image of God for fellowship with God, created for eternal purposes to rule and reign with Christ for all of eternity.

And when Christ came to this world to die on the cross, he didn't come to get gain from you or I. Thanks be to God. He came to give his life as a ransom for my sin and for yours. And then he goes on to something very incredible.

Standing in the Gap for the Land

In verse 30, he says,. And I sought for a man. The word man means a soldier in the Hebrew. I sought for somebody who was willing to fight. For the good of the larger group and perhaps is not for himself.

I sought for somebody who actually the word means manliness. It doesn't exclude women, obviously. And please, when I say man, you understand that we always make that definition here. But I sought for somebody who was manly.

God says, I sought for somebody among them, this crowd who would stand up and just move away from the crowd and say, listen, enough mixture. I'm going to walk it with God now. I'm going to do this right.

As we heard this afternoon, who saw the horridness of sin, who saw and understood the ravages of sin, who who understands why Christ came and went to a cross on Calvary two thousand years ago. Somehow, by God's grace, opts into the heart of God, steps out of the crowd, not not not for the sake of fame or being different, but steps out because that man and woman has now the compassion of God burning in their hearts.

They say, oh, God, forgive me for the mixture. God, forgive me for these things that I've allowed into my life that have taken away your voice. God, forgive me for taking your voice away from the people.

Oh, would be to God to be a cry among the ministry in our generation. There'd be a cry. God, forgive me for every time I've stood before your people and not spoken for you, not come with a word from the throne of heaven.

He said, I sought for somebody who was not full of greed, looking to the people for what they can get from them, whether it be finances or personal recognition. I sought for somebody who was beyond that.

I, I, I sought for somebody who would have weight in what they have to say because they've been with me. I sought for somebody who did not use the people for their own gain. I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it.

But I found none. That's an amazing thing. I, I sought for a man. I sought for somebody. God, the word of God says his eyes are always looking to and fro through the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are towards him.

I sought for a man. I sought for a man. I believe that's the word of God tonight for you in your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your home. I sought for somebody that could stand in the gap and make up the hedge and stop the gap.

It really refers to a place in the wall that has been breached. I look for somebody who was had courage. I look for somebody who was at least determined to do something, to stand in that place and to take the sword of God and and stop the influx or inflighting of the enemy in among the people of God.

I sought for somebody in this entire crowd. God says to Ezekiel, I couldn't find one. I couldn't find one. God says I didn't want to destroy the land. If you read that really in it, as it's written, he said, I sought for a man to stand in the gap that I should not destroy the land.

But I found none. Amazing. Do you realize that your life can stop destruction? It can stop destruction in your marriage. Your marriage might be being trampled over by the devil as I speak. But God says I'm looking and seeking for somebody that will stand up, give of themselves to hear my word and then act upon it.

I sought for a man, perhaps looking in our homes, at our own children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, should the Lord tarry. I sought for somebody who could stop the flood of destruction.

Somebody who would just stand up and make the break. Oh, there are families here today that there is a legacy of destruction, a legacy of broken marriages and broken homes and broken children, broken lives.

And God knows and sees where your legacy started. He sees how far back iniquity got a hold. Could be a thousand years ago. Iniquity got a hold of somebody and there's been this legacy of iniquity and addiction and selfishness.

And the Lord looks at it and says, I sought for a man to stand up and stop the whole procedure of evil. I sought for somebody to stand up. And that's you, sir. That's you, madam. God says I'm looking at you.

And if you will just stand up, if you will just even form the intent to make a difference in your home, in your community. I'm looking for somebody who will just stand up. You see, he couldn't find anybody.

Ezekiel in Captivity and Hope for the Future

And then finally, the nation goes into captivity and in captivity. God has a man called Ezekiel. There were others, obviously. But I'm talking about this man, Ezekiel, tonight. He is living in Babylon.

He's been taken away. He's about, I think, 30 years old at this time. He hasn't been spared. The nation backslid. And he's been swept along with all of the captives. I believe it's the second captivity, the second.

There were three attacks against the southern kingdom. He gets taken out with a bunch of exiles in the second one. He ends up in Babylon. God's still looking for a man, even if it's too late for the nation.

It's never too late for individual souls. Never. It's sometimes too late to go back and do something about the past. It's over. Babylon has come. The second captivity is gone. There's a third one coming.

Jerusalem is about to be sacked and the temple is going to be destroyed. Ezekiel. God speaks to Ezekiel. He knows it's coming. He begins to tell the people to settle down in the place they are and understand why they've gone into captivity.

And where is God going to take it from here? Sometimes it's too late to go back. And we don't have to go back. We cannot recapture some of the things that have been lost. And that's obvious. But the Lord says it's never too late for the future and for today.

Even if you are suffering because of a situation, perhaps it's not even your fault. Perhaps Ezekiel was living righteously. I'm assuming he was, but still is swept away. There are people here today that you can say, well, Pastor, it's not my fault.

I was born into a wicked home. I've tried to do right, but I was swept away by the flood of evil. There are people here who can say, it's not my fault. I was loyal to my marriage vows. I wanted it to work, and I've been swept away by a situation that was so far beyond my control.

But God says even in the midst of that, you can still rise up now and make a difference. Ezekiel was a suffering man. Nobody can tell me it wasn't a suffering time. Those forced exodus marches into Babylon were often cruel.

People died of thirst and starvation along the way. The wounded were left on the side of the road. There were often people taken in order to keep everybody in line. There'd be horrible examples made of them.

I'm talking about killing and maiming and such like. Don't think for a moment that these invading armies were kind and gentle with the people. They weren't. And I'm sure there was suffering, and Ezekiel is in the midst of suffering.

And he finds himself in this place of captivity, and now God begins to speak to him. And even in captivity, he starts bringing a man into his innermost thoughts about the future. God said it this way to Jeremiah.

He said, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to bring you into an expected end. Now go to Ezekiel chapter 37. Now firstly, the Lord brings Ezekiel into an impossible place.

The Valley of Dry Bones and the Impossibility of Restoration

Impossible. We heard it this morning. Oh, beloved, I'm hearing what the Holy Spirit is speaking. There is an incredible call being given to this church. To my heart, to yours. Individually and corporately as a body, the Holy Spirit is calling to us for our generation.

And he says, the hand of the Lord in chapter 37 was upon me, and he 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 he caused me to pass by them round about and behold, there were very many in the open valley and low.

They were very, very dry. He brings him into this place of impossibility. Now, this is a spiritual transaction that's going on between God Almighty and Ezekiel. And he's showing him the things that he's about to do.

Because Ezekiel's name, I believe, means God gives strength or God strengthens. And he brings him into this place and Ezekiel himself in chapter six and verse five tells us that all these people had died before their idols and their bones were scattered around their altars.

They had formed a false pursuit and the false pursuit had led them to a false God, irrespective of whether or not his name was Jehovah or not, it was still a false God to them as their form of worship.

And all of their bones, because of this falseness of worship, was scattered all around their altars. And in this place of impossibility, he looks and he agrees with God. There are very many and they're very dry.

It's like you and I going out Friday at 2 .30 and going on 50th and watch all the kids come from high school and watch them walk down the street and listen to the cursing, the profanity, the vulgarity.

It's literally curl your hair, the girls, the things that they're speaking. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. And it's just like God took Ezekiel there and you look and yeah, I agree, God, there are very many and they are very dry.

In other words, there is no moisture of God in them at all. There's no living water. There's nothing of the life of God in them. They have altars. They're living at these altars. It could be altars of violent rap music, altars of rebellion, altars of hopelessness, altars of false theology, whatever it is that they've embraced or been taught.

And here they are around these altars. And there are very many and they're very dry. And it looks like an impossibility when you look at it. And he brings him into this place and he says, do you agree with me?

He just shows it to him. And Ezekiel has no problem. Yes, I see it. There are very many of them and they're very dry all around. And then he asks him an incredible question. And it's a question which seems to the natural mind to be an impossibility.

He said to me, son of man, can these bones live? Can they live? In other words, can they? Actually, I believe the word live means can they be caused? Can they be quickened? Can they come alive? Can they live?

And Ezekiel answers just the way you and I do in our generation. And I answered, oh, Lord God, thou knowest. Now, it really seems to be it's you can even try to get something spiritual out of the answer.

But I don't believe there's anything spiritual in it. He basically says, I don't know. I really don't know. Isn't it incredible? We are often like this. We can correctly assess the causes of spiritual death.

We have no trouble believing the judgment will come to the careless and hypocritical. No problem at all. I'm telling you, I can open this Bible and I can believe it before it even happens. I can look in the word of God and say, if you do this, this will happen.

You do this. This will happen. I have no problem. Ezekiel was among those that perhaps in his youth was warning the people. This is what's coming. This is where we're going. No problem believing it at all.

If you don't give this up, you're going to die around your alters. God says he's going to scatter your bones and believes it. Absolutely believes everything that the Holy Spirit is speaking to him. No trouble believing the judgment will come to the careless and hypocritical.

But yet we are so slow, so often to believe and agree with God about restoration. Especially those that are closest to us. Think, now listen to me. We have no problem believing sometimes for Jamaica. We're going to go to Trenchtown.

There's a hundred thousand people living there. Seventy percent of the crime. Godlessness abounds. And we're going to see a mighty revival. And we can pray and we have no problem believing until we go home and walk in our apartment.

And there's our son or our daughter or our husband or our wife or our cousin or aunt or whatever it is. And we walk in and we're just so familiar with the dead bones. And God says, can these bones live?

Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Oh, God. I don't know. You see, much of our religion is like this. We're Mary and Martha quoting scripture with hearts full of unbelief. Concerning a dead brother that's in our midst.

Oh, we know how it could have been avoided. Oh, yes. We're experts. If you had been here, it wouldn't have happened, Lord. Oh, we know exactly how he died. We can document it. I remember it was Tuesday, six o 'clock.

He began to cough. Seven, he started to turn a little pale. We document the death. We know exactly how it happened. We can give it detail for detail. And then Jesus comes, says, yes, I agree. He's dead.

But do you believe he can be changed? But all of a sudden there's this incredible silence. Well, on the last day in the resurrection. But Jesus says, do you believe it can be changed now? You see, I want you to notice how tenderly God deals with what I believe I can argue is momentary unbelief in Ezekiel.

And again, he says to me in verse four, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh, you dry bones. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, he says, Ezekiel. I invite you to speak what I'm thinking about these people.

I invite you to say that again. I invite you to speak what I am thinking about these people. Ezekiel, I don't want you looking at the bones anymore. Look away from the bones. Now look to me. I'm thinking some thoughts about these people.

And I invite you now to become one in heart with me. And I'm inviting you to be my voice. I mean, God could send an angel. He doesn't need Ezekiel. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need you. He could send a chorus of angels.

He could send a hundred thousand angels to New York City and preach the gospel. But in his mercy, he has chosen to use us. And in all of our frailty, in all of our spiritual bravado, that's quite often laced with a heart that's full of unbelief, God says, I invite you in, even in your frailty, and I want you to speak now to these bones what I'm thinking about.

I'm thinking something, and I'm inviting you in to speak it. Amazing when you think of it. He says, remember, Ezekiel, that I've been tender with your failure. And I believe that if I were to if I had any, if I had three points to this message, that would be point number one.

Speaking God’s Promise of New Life

Remember that God is tender with your failure and mine. He's tender. We need to we need to minister in the measure that God has ministered to us. So many people come to the house of God and appropriate such tenderness, come to the altar and weep hot tears and go home.

And there's there's Junior sitting with his headphones and his rap music on. And I've just been recipients of such incredible tenderness in our spiritual ignorance and walk into somebody else who's dying around their altar.

And all of a sudden the tenderness is gone. Out comes the pointing finger and the lashing tongue with all of the all of the pregame analysis as it is. That's what's going to happen. You're going to die.

You're going to go to hell if you keep listening to that kind of stuff. All the tenderness of God is gone. He says, Ezekiel, I'm I'm inviting you to speak something into their lives. Then he goes on in verse five and six.

He says, now here's the word I want you to tell them. Now, we often stop in verse four. Oh, dry bones, hear the word and then take it off with whatever we feel the word should be. But if you want to read it in context, here is the word.

This is what I'm thinking. God says, Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live. Now, the word breath is raw. You've heard it before in Hebrew.