F4F | Jabin Chavez and What to Do in a Valley

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So one of the things that we've covered a few times here at Fighting for the

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Faith is all the different miserable ways in which people botch Ezekiel 37, the

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Valley of the Dry Bones. Today we're going to be heading down to Hillsong. If you've ever heard of Hillsong, go ahead and hit the like the video, hit the subscribe button, ring the bell, you know all that kind of stuff.

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And we're gonna be listening to special guest speaker and his name is Jabin Chavez and he's from a growing megachurch in the

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Las Vegas area and he's going to read out Ezekiel 37, at least the

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Valley of the Dry Bones portion of it, from the message. By the way, we are firm believers in no

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MSG. No MSG in a sermon. You don't want that. So the message is not a translation.

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It is a really bad and I mean really, really awful paraphrase. Pastors should not be preaching from the message.

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But I'll say this, based upon what Jabin does with Ezekiel 37, this is just a litany of absurd buzz phrases.

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Even if he were preaching from a good translation, the NASB, the ESV, the New King James even is a fine text.

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Even if he were to preach from any of these, it wouldn't help because he has no clue how to rightly handle

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God's Word and this is so evident based on what he does here. So grab some popcorn.

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This is just gonna be painful. So let's head over to Hillsong. Here's Jabin Chavez and what to do in a valley.

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I can't even say the name of the sermon without cracking up. What to do in a valley.

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Here we go. But let's get a foundational scripture in our heart and then we'll pray.

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This is Ezekiel 37 verse 1. God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain covered in bones.

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And he led me around and among them a lot of bones. There were bones all over the plain.

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Dry bones bleached by the sun. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live?

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And I said, master God, only you know that. And he said to me, prophesy over these bones.

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Speak to the bones. Dry bones, listen to the message of God. God the master told the dry bones, watch this.

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I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin and breathe life into you.

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You will come alive and realize that I am God. So I prophesied just as I'd been commanded.

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In other words, Ezekiel saying, so I said what God said. And as I prophesied there was a sound.

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Oh the rustling. The bones moved and came together bone to bone. And I kept watching sinews formed and then muscles on the bones and then skin stretched over them.

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But they had no breath in them. So he said, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man.

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Tell the breath, God the master says, come from the four winds. Come and breathe. Breathe on these slain bodies.

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Breathe life. So I commanded, excuse me, so I prophesied just as he commanded me.

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And the breath entered them and they came alive and they stood up on their feet. A huge army.

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Can you say amen to God's Word? Yeah, so there's your problem right there.

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He stopped at verse 10. Now, like I said, even if he was using a good translation, it wouldn't help.

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So I'm not gonna reread from the ESV. I think you get the point of what's going on.

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So I'll pick up at verse 9 of Ezekiel chapter 37 and keep reading so you can kind of see what's going on, because the question is, what is this text about?

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I've taught on it before, but man, this is a standard text for people to botch up. So then he said to me, the

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Lord said to me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, thus says Yahweh Elohim, come from the four winds.

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Oh breath, breathe on these slain so that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

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Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

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Behold, they say our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are indeed cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says

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Yahweh Elohim, behold I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people.

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I will bring you into the land of Israel and you shall know that I am Yahweh when

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I open your graves and raise you from your graves, oh my people. And I will put my spirit within you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land.

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Then you shall know that I am Yahweh, I have spoken, I will do it, declares the Lord. So what's going on here is

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Ezekiel 37 is a prophecy about the resurrection of the dead, the great last day when

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Jesus returns. He will raise everybody from the dead and everybody who is in Israel, you see

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Gentiles are grafted into Israel, everybody who's part of Israel, he will raise from the grave and give them eternal life.

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This is a prophecy of the general resurrection, the resurrection of the dead at the last day.

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God himself gives you the interpretation of what's with the Valley of the Dry Bones. Like I said, we've covered this before.

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So all that being said, do you think for a second that Jabin Chavez at Hillsong in Sydney, Australia is going to tell everybody about, you know, the fact that this text is about the resurrection of, the actual resurrection of the dead on the last day?

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No, no, that's not what he's gonna do. What follows now is just going to be the litany of pseudo profundity of buzzword nonsense.

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None of it has anything to do with what this text is really about, should we expect anything less or even more from Hillsong.

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That's all I gotta say. Let's continue. Like I said, I hope you're sitting down, grab some popcorn, you're gonna need it, cuz this is gonna get really weird really quick.

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I want to preach from the subject tonight, what to do in a valley, what to do in a valley.

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Father in the name of Jesus. Let's forget the fact that the dead people in the valley weren't doing nothing, you know, cuz them bones were pretty dry.

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I don't know. Nothing. That's what dry bones do. So how could this be a practical application sermon about what to do in a valley?

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Jesus, speak now. I thank you for your word. I thank you. Your word is powerful. Thank you that your word never returns unto you void, but it always accomplishes everything you set it out to do.

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So accomplish your word in this place. I pray for a tailor -made word, the perfect word for every person in the room.

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Tailor -made word. Wow. God's making tailor -made words. Who knew? Kind of like the Emperor's New Clothes.

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Yeah, put this tailor -made word on and parade yourself around. I'm sure the Naples will point and laugh.

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Go beyond what I can do and speak individually to your people. One phrase, one sentence, one verse, one idea, one thought that could change our lives forever.

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That we would leave this room in just a few moments saying, I heard from God and I'll never be the same again in Jesus' name.

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That's my prayer. Lots of platitudes there. And if that's your prayer, everyone say amen.

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And amen. What to do in a valley? Well, I wish I could tell you, receive Jesus Christ as the

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Lord, pray this prayer, have enough faith, and you'll never go through a valley. I wish I could. What kind of valley is this?

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Jesus is gonna kill us and have our dry bones scattered in a valley? How are you getting this?

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I could tell you that, but life is not valley free. Life comes with valleys.

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Do tell. Come on, tell me some more. But I've learned to be encouraged by the valleys because I've learned that there is no fruit on the mountaintop.

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There is only fruit in the valley. Really? Yeah, there's only fruit in the valley, man.

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How fruity is your valley? And I believe God wants to do so.

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So in Ezekiel 37, how much fruit was in that valley? I'm curious. Something incredible through all of us, so he first must do something very deep in us.

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And God develops us in the valley. He changes us in the desert.

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He speaks to us in the wilderness. He does a deep work in us before he does a great work through us, or at least we should pray he does.

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And this is what God wants to do. So what was the work exactly that was being done in the valley?

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And what are you talking about? So I've learned to embrace the valley. I've learned to celebrate.

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Do you hug your valley? Those moments in my life where it's a little bit uncomfortable because I don't know, being dead and having my bones dried out sounds a little more than uncomfortable to me.

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Puts me on my knees. It puts me on my face. It reminds me. Well, the people that were in that valley didn't have any knees.

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Mm -hmm. Yeah, they just had bones. I need God and every time I come out of the valley, because you don't live in the valley forever, you're not gonna die in the valley.

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Well, they did. They were stone -cold dead, dude.

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Dried out. There wasn't even any morrow in them bones. They flat -out were, they died and perished in that valley.

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And when you come out, you're gonna come out bigger. When you come out, you're gonna come out stronger and better. You're gonna come out thinking more clear.

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You're gonna come out bigger and better. And I'm... You could tell he's really working the crowd there, man.

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Oh, this is best stuff. It's just, oh, and the whole thing is just absurd.

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I'm telling you, when you're in the valley, you hate it. When you come out of it, you thank

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God for it. Are we talking about death here?

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What are we talking about? Because God does his greatest work in the valley. What do we... Absolutely empty platitudes, nonsensical buzz phrases.

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This is not exegesis. This is just stupid Jesus. What I do in the valley, number one, you could write this down if you're taking notes.

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If you don't... People are taking notes on this? Write this down, man.

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This is gonna be deep. It's gonna be so deep, it's unfathomable. Yeah, yeah. Take notes. Go ahead and write this down as well.

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Okay, I'm gonna write this down. Know that God is with you in the valley. You got to try really hard to be this absurd.

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The valley has a way of screaming at us that we're all alone. Why would the valley say anything to those dead bones?

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They're dead. It can make us feel like God has forsaken us.

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Circumstances will lie to you and say that God has left you. But friend, you are not alone in the valley.

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No, no, no. You're just totally... God apparently in the valley.

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He's there, man. God is with you in the valley. He said it like this. God grabbed me.

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Verse 1. Who's the me there? That would be Ezekiel. What about all the dead guys in the valley?

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What about them? In the valley. Can I just tell you that when you run from God, he will chase you down.

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When you hide from God, he will find you. What? What? So verse 1.

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The hand of Yahweh was upon me and he brought me out in the spirit of Yahweh and set me down in the middle of a valley.

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See, that means that God's with you, man, when you're in your valley. You gotta work really hard, really, really, really hard to miss the meaning of this text that badly.

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Oh, man. And when you let go of God, God will not let go of you.

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I love it. The King James says the hand of the Lord was upon me, but I kind of like the grit of the

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Message Bible. God grabbed me. Yeah, that gritty stuff in the MSGs. Uh -huh.

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That's what you're talking about has nothing to do with what verse 1 is talking about.

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God didn't let me go, and I just want to tell you, I know it may not feel like it right now, but the hand of the Lord is upon you.

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Oh, this is total manipulation. Total. God's got his hand upon your life.

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God is not letting go of you in the valley. You are not alone in the valley. God is doing something in you in the valley, and I will take a valley with Jesus over a mountaintop without God.

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Oh, you're so brave, man. Oh, wow. So I could choose to have a valley with Jesus or a mountaintop without God.

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This is nonsense! Because I would rather have him than anything. Oh, man,

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I'm sorry. I'm already yelling. We've known each other for two minutes, and I'm already... Help me, Lord. I may be in a valley of dry bones right now.

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I may feel like I'm surrounded by death. It may look like a graveyard, but God is with me.

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It may look like a graveyard. The whole point of the vision is that it's actually about the graveyard that we all have waiting for us.

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You know, Jesus is gonna call us out of that one, you know. In the valley, and I refuse to let the circumstance discourage me.

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I refuse to let... How discouraged was Ezekiel, man? How discouraged were those dry bones, dude?

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I'm just curious. Resistance break me down. I've learned to actually be encouraged by resistance.

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How do we get to resistance? Dead bones don't resist nothing. Because every time

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I seem to come up against resistance, there's always an incredible breakthrough on the other side. Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

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I mean, we're off -roading at this point. We're gonna careen over a cliff.

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And if you're hitting resistance, if it feels like all of hell is against you, what that is is it's the gates of hell.

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What does that have to do with Ezekiel 37? And you're coming up against the gates of hell, but here's the good news about...

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The good news is that Christ died for our sins? The gates of hell. Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the church, and you are...

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Well, you let the gate open. The gates of hell are prevailing all up there at Hillsong, because you're not preaching the word correctly.

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You're filling these people's heads with utter nonsense. ...the church, and so every time you feel resistance, don't pull back.

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Lean in. That's some practical advice right there.

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So if you're feeling some resistance, don't go whoa. No, no, no. Lean in. And how does one do that?

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Don't run from the house. Get more involved in the house. Don't be discouraged. Be encouraged.

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Don't run from community. Run to community, because... Run to community? What does this have to do with Ezekiel 37?

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Because on the other side of the resistance is a great breakthrough. I've learned to celebrate the uncomfortable seasons of my life.

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I'm going through a really uncomfortable season listening to this stupid sermon. Because I know

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God is doing something amazing in me. It's in the valley that God changes me.

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And I love this in Nehemiah 13 too. It says, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

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Which curse is that? God can turn anything around in your life.

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God can turn any attack around in your life. You do know that the wages of sin is death, and that there is a resurrection coming for everybody.

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Either resurrection to eternal life, or resurrection to eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

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You are aware of that, right? God can flip any plane of the enemy on its head, and turn it around for your good.

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I don't know what you're going through, but I just want to tell somebody God's with you. Now granted,

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Christ is with his Christians. This is most certainly true. That's not the point of Ezekiel 37.

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You feel all alone. You're in a room with thousands of people, and you feel all alone. You're at your campus right now, and you feel all alone.

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You are not alone. God is with you. The hand of God is upon you. God is holding on to you, and he is not letting you go.

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God is with me in the valley. Number two, look for the possibility.

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Miserable. So in Ezekiel 37, what possibilities was

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Ezekiel looking for there? Not a lot of possibilities when it comes to dry bones, you know.

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Hey Ezekiel, verse 3, can these bones live? See, God was just trying to get

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Ezekiel to engage in possibility thinking. Who knew? Can you see this the way

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I see this? Friend, God was not asking the question because he didn't know the answer.

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He knew the answer. He needed Ezekiel to level up. So God needed

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Ezekiel to level up in his thinking, huh? Really. To where God was.

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He said, Ezekiel, can you see this how I see this? I know to you it's dry bones, but to me it's possibility.

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I know to you it's very dry bones, but to me it's a miracle in the making. Can you see this differently than the way you've been seeing it?

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Oh friend, it takes no faith to just say what you see, but it takes no faith to say what you see.

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Well, I see a Bible twister here. No faith necessary for that, just a little bit of biblical discernment.

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It takes faith to say what God said. Ezekiel, can these bones live?

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Can you, can you choose to see that I'm working in your life even in the valley?

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Can you, can you choose? Oh, this is just horrifying.

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So if you know anyone that attends Jabin Chavez's church in Las Vegas or if you know anybody that attends

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Hillsong, get them out. If this is completely absurd,

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I can't even go on. If this is, this is just one jaw -dropping, head -banging, face -palming, empty, bizarre, nonsensical, off -point platitude after another after another.

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The text is about the resurrection of the dead. God himself interprets the whole point of the vision of the

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Valley of Dry Bones. Yeah. Sadly, this will not be the last sermon that we look at or sample on this text.

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Like I said, this is a standard text that pretty much every evangelical who thinks the Bible's about them, yeah, the narcissists out there, it's about Jesus, not you, not me, and they are incapable of actually sound exegesis.

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They haven't studied, shown themselves approved, they do not exegete, they narcegete. Sadly, there's so many sermons out there that are like this, you just never know what's gonna be said next, but this is just the latest example of jaw -dropping, dumb stupidity that has nothing to do with what

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Ezekiel 37 is about. Pray for these people, that God would open their eyes so that they would recognize that they are saying nothing!

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Nothing! This is another example of a waterless rain cloud. So if you found this helpful, all the information on how to share the video is down below, and of course,

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Fighting for the Faith, Empire Christian Media, we are supported by the people we serve. That's you! So if you don't already support us financially, all the information on how to support us is down below by either joining our crew, becoming a patron on Patreon, or a one -time contribution, because we truly cannot do what we are doing here without your support, and let me thank you for those of you who are supporting us.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.