The Valley of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14:

1. The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord; and he set me in the midst of a certain plain. It was very full, covered in bones. 2. And he caused me to pass over them, all around; and I beheld the bones were very many upon the plain and they were very dry! 3. And he said to me, “Human, can these bones live?” And I said, “Lord GOD, only you know.” 4. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of GOD; 5. this is what the Lord GOD says to you dry bones: See! I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. 6. And I will lay sinews and flesh upon you and I will spread skin upon you, and I will put breath-spirit into you and you will live again. Then you will know that I am GOD’.”

7. So I prophesied as he had commanded me; as I prophesied, there was a noise , and I beheld a rattling and the bones came together bone to bone. 8. And I looked again, and I saw sinews upon them and flesh had come upon them and he has covered them with skin, but there was no breath in them. 9. And he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath-spirit. Prophesy, human, and say to the breath-spirit, “Thus says the Lord GOD: come from the four winds, O breath-spirit, and breathe into these who were slain and they shall live.” 10. And I prophesied as he had commanded me. And the breath-spirit came into them and they lived. And they stood up on their feet, a very great army.

11. And he said to me, “Human, these bones are all the house of Israel. See! They are saying, ‘our bones are dried up and our hope is lost, for we are cut off.’ 12. Therefore, prophesy to them and say, “Thus says the Lord GOD: See! I have opened your graves and I will raise you from your graves, my people; Then I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13. And you will know that I am GOD, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. 14. And I will put my breath-spirit within you and you shall live. Then I will place you in your land and you will know that I GOD have spoken and have done it, says the Lord.”

Ezekiel was an exile in Babylon. And the passage begins, “The hand of the Lord was upon me.” This is an idiomatic expression for a trance-like state where God showed him the vision. In this vision, he is transported to a wide, full plain. Bones cover the ground for as far as the eye can see. And the prophet probably thought, God, why have you brought me to this unclean place? (A dead body is unclean and contact with one would make the person unclean.) Then God causes him to pass over them. The Hebrew translated around about is literally around, around. This gives the sense of a whirlwind, like Elijah, who was taken up in the whirlwind and a fiery chariot. As he cycles his way around this vast plain, he discovers two things about the bones: 1-- they are very many and 2-- they are very dry!

Then, God speaks. “Human. . .” “Can these bones live?” God is quick to remind Ezekiel of his role as creation. Ezekiel is pretty sharp, so he turns the question back on God. “God, only you knows." God isn’t about to let Ezekiel off that easily; he replies, Human, prophesy! “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord: this is what the Lord GOD says to you dry bones: See! I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. 6. And I will lay sinews and flesh upon you and I will spread skin upon you, and I will put breath-spirit into you and you will live again. Then you will know that I am GOD’.”

So Ezekiel prophesied. I looked up the word prophesy, and I made an interesting discovery. While it can mean the act of a prophet in word or vision, it can also mean anyone who speaks the word of the Lord. As he began to declare the words of the Lord, there was a noise -- a rattling -- a shaking -- and the bones came together BONE TO BONE! Can you see Ezekiel still spinning 35’ up in the air around the valley and suddenly the whole ground seems to heave? As he looks down, there is row after row of perfect skeletons. The foot bones are at the leg bones the leg bones connected to the knee bone . . . Have any of you ever sung that song? “The knee bones connected to the ______ bone, . . . them bones, them bones, them dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord.” And he looks again. Maybe he blinked, but suddenly the skeletons are covered with tendons and muscles and skin. As he looks, he makes this observation: there was no (ruah) in them. The Hebrew word ruah is translated as breath, wind, or spirit. The valley was full of perfectly formed bodies that lacked the breath of God that gives us life. If the vision stopped right here, those bodies would have decayed, the bones would have again been scattered, covering the ground, but God wasn’t through with them yet! Aren’t you glad that God finishes his work?

So God said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to the ruah.” It came upon them, and they lived. And they stood up on their feet - a great army! This is all the house of Israel. But, there was still a problem. They were saying about themselves, “our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” So God says, “Speak to them and tell them I am raising them up from a pile of bones to a great army and I will bring them back into the Land of Promise!”

I want to quote this to you, because it sheds some light on this passage and I can’t say it any better than he did:

“The promises of their restoration and deliverance, which we have here in the latter part of the book, are for the encouraging of a humble faith. God had assured them that he would gather the house of Israel, even all of it, and return them to their own land; but there were two things that rendered this very unlikely:— I. That they were so dispersed among their enemies, and so dispirited likewise in their own minds; they are here, in vision, compared to a valley full of the dry bones of dead men. . . II. That they were so divided among themselves, too much of the old enmity between Judah and Ephraim remaining even in their captivity.” -Matthew Henry

If you're a student of the Old Testament, you know who Ephraim and Judah are. Judah was Israel’s second oldest son who was made the son of inheritance after Israel wrote Reuben out of that part of the will, and Ephraim was the oldest son of Joseph (Israel’s favorite son). Yet despite all the obstacles, God restored Israel.

What does this passage have to say to us? I’ve been in pastoral ministry for almost ten years. In that time, I’ve heard some say, “It’s dry times. We just don’t have the numbers we used to. Maybe it’s just time to close down.” I’ve heard others say, “We don’t seem to be gaining ground, our hope is gone.” I want to echo the words of my God--We aren’t heading for a pile of dry bones, but an exceedingly great army! But like the children of Israel, we are so divided among our enemies, so dispirited, and so divided among ourselves that we fail to live as the body of Christ in the larger context of the world. Often there is a long way to go from piles of bones we find to the great army God sees. So what does Ezekiel tell us about how to get there?

First, before anything else happened, the vision came. Without a vision the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18a) What does God want to do here?

Second, someone has to begin to speak what God has said. We need to understand the power of the tongue. We need to be confessing over ourselves what God has shown us; that “God is restoring the years the locust have eaten.” “People are lining up to hear the word preached at Adamsville United Methodist Church.” Speak it with faith!

Once we have the vision and the faith, the restoration can begin. I see four steps that the passage lays out, and they show us the way to restoration.

1. Bone to bone. Eph. 3:16 says we are to be jointly fitted together. Look at the person sitting on either side of you. How well do you know them? What are they going through? What part of the body are they--what are their spiritual gifts? Bone to bone speaks of unity in the body of Christ. We need to come together to accomplish the ministries God has for us.

2. Sinews and Flesh. This is the ability to move--muscles and tendons. It speaks of our doing the work of the kingdom. As God shows us ways to reach outside the church to the community, it will take people willing to do the work. Not salvation through work, but our faith brings about our work.

3. Skin. The skin layer is an amazing thing. First, it protects us from the physical wear and tear that our bodies endure. Have you ever had a bruise? That is your skin protecting the organs, sinews and flesh of your body. The second thing that our skin does is it protects us from all the airborne germs and viruses. Most of these maladies are stopped before they ever have a chance to affect our bodies because of our skin. (We also look a lot better with skin. A person without it would be pretty ugly). In the body of Christ, the skin layer is our prayer covering. We need to continually pray for each other. As we begin to move ahead in the work of the church, we can expect the enemy to try to thwart our effort with spiritual attacks. If we don’t pray, we’ll become prey for the enemy.

4. Ruah. On Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the third person of the Trinity. We need to allow his spirit to be Lord and to empower us. Jesus told his disciples that they were to wait until they had the power...ruah.

There is an order to the restoration. One comes before _____, two comes before _________, . . . There is an order to restoration. Step one needs to come first. I’ve seen churches where the congregation can’t get along well enough to sit on the same side of the church, but they continually pray for the ruah to empower them. If the bones come after the skin, the body won’t be formed correctly; if the breath comes before the body is complete, it can not live.

So as we conclude, I want to ask you, “Can our church live?” Only you know, GOD. He says to us, “Prophesy - Speak my word, find your place in the body, exercise your faith and the talents I’ve placed within you, pray for one another, and allow my Spirit to breathe new life into you.” We are a great army waiting to happen. Are you ready to rise up and be restored?

The Hand of God, the Face of God

As we begin this morning, I’d like to share a verse of scripture that we studied in some detail during our National Day of Prayer Bible Study. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, called by my name (that’s us as Christians) will humble themselves and pray, and will seek my face, and turn from their sin. . .” This morning, I spend some time looking at the face of God.

Ex. 33.7-11: What an awesome scripture. We begin with the image of the Tent of Meeting, which was a place consecrated for divine communication. Look with me again at verse 10. When God showed up, people worshipped. And get this -- Moses talked to God face to face. We often talk about the presence of God, but we can only experience the presence when we are seeking the face of God.

During the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced. When Douglas finished, Lincoln got up and began his rebuttal. “My opponent has accused me of being two-faced; but you’d think if I had another one, do you think I’d be wearing this one?”

We often say we see the hand of God at work around us, but how often do we see the FACE of God? This morning I’d like to share with you five principles about God’s face.

1. As Christians, we are called to seek the face of God, not just his hand (i.e., not just what he does for us or gives to us, but who he is.) It’s his face that truly matters! David wrote “you fill me with joy in your presence” (Ps. 16.11) and “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Think about our own language for a minute. Have you ever looked at something at face-value or put a good face on a situation? Faces reveal the nature of a person or a thing.

Without the face of God, we can not know his unique nature. In Deut. 4, Moses asks “Has there ever been a God like this?” I love the great cathedrals. When I was in Rome, I remember standing in the Sistine Chapel and looking up at that marvelous ceiling; it was so massive, so wonderful, and I was so small. That is how they were built -- to resize us and help us see how big and awesome our God is and how insignificant we are in relation. And that is precisely how we feel when we get into the presence of God -- when we seek his face, he has a way of overwhelming us. God shows us our worth and worthlessness, and yet it’s OK, because there is a peace and a rightness; despite who I am, God still loves me.

2. God’s face is beautiful. A few years ago, I spent a week in Atlanta with Pastor Williams. You know, nothing made me miss my wife more than waking up every morning to be greeted by his ugly mug. He cleans up nice, but he looks rough in the morning! How many of you remember when you first met you sweetheart. I remember our first date -- walking hand-in-hand down the midway at the county fair and being captivated by her. And I remember that hot June day when I was standing in the front of a church and watched the most beautiful woman in the world walk down that aisle with her grandfather, and I could not take my eyes off her. . .I was so captivated by her beauty. When we see the face of God, we’ll be captivated by his beauty. And his face will keep us from sin. The hand of God doesn’t keep us from sin, but his face does. You see, I don’t want to do anything that will bring pain to the face of God; I don’t want to do anything to put tears in his eyes or make him turn his face from me. I pray that God never has to turn his face from me!

3. Faces speak. Only when we begin to seek the face of God can he begin to speak to us. Hands don’t talk, they only do. The sign of ordination in the OT was that God spoke to that person. In the NT, we are all priests and ministers, and therefore, to be effective in the charge that Christ has given to us, we must hear the voice of God.

4. Faces smile, hands don’t smile. Only when we seek God’s face can we see how much pleasure God takes in us. And that smile is the favor of God. There was a story some time back about a man who was deep in debt, struggling to pay all the bills, and one night, while trying to do the figures, his son came up with his piggy bank in hand and said, “Dad will this help?” And the father, with tears in his eyes could only smile. We don’t do anything or have anything to offer for that favor; God just gives it to us.

5. Faces laugh, hands don’t laugh. We need to get rid of some of the rigidness and pomp in the church and realize that God has a sense of humor (he made us, didn’t he) and that God laughs. We tend to take ourselves so seriously. When was the last time you just loosened up and laughed? Laughter is contagious. And if we want to reach the lost, we need to show them the laughter of God, not just the judgment.

Look with me one more time at the passage in Exodus. When we find God’s face and meet with him in his presence -- the neighborhood will take notice. When we begin to love God, we’ll love people and they can meet God. How do we start? It’s really very simple. Get on you face before God and begin to pray. Prayer is the antidote for self-sufficiency, and when we realize our need for God and press in during our times of prayer, we will begin to experience God’s face.

I want to close where I began. If my people, called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and will seek my face, and turn from their sins, then I will hear in heaven, I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land. America needs God’s forgiveness and God’s healing, but it will only happen when his people begin to turn from their own sins and seek the face of God. Can that move of God begin in you today?

Lessons from Ruth (Sermon)

As we celebrate Mother's Day, I wondered: how do we live a life to leave a legacy for our children and grandchildren? To answer that question, let us examine the story of Ruth, to see what it has to teach us about this important question.

Ruth 1:1-17

The book begins with a tragic story. Naomi and her husband leave Israel because of a famine, along with their two sons. When Naomi’s husband dies, the two boys marry two Moabite girls. In the course of time, the two sons also die, leaving Naomi alone with her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth.

Finally, news came that the famine was over. Naomi returned home, but bade her daughters to stay. She knew the persecution that they would face as foreigners. Orpah listened to Naomi’s pleas and returned home, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi.

Life for the poor and widowed in Israel was hard. Ruth went to the fields to glean barley behind the reapers. The law said that whatever dropped to the ground when the grain was gathered was to be left for the poor. Ruth was fortunate to begin her gleaning in the fields of Boaz. Ruth did not know that he was a kinsman, nor that he was a kind and godly man. When Boaz saw Ruth gleaning in his fields, he enquired about her. He asked her to only glean in his fields, so that he could protect her from being accosted. He also instructed the reapers to allow a little extra to fall so that Ruth could provide for Naomi. Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz through the barley and wheat season.

As the harvest drew to a close, Naomi noticed that Ruth was smitten with Boaz. So she instructed her daughter-in-law in how to make her intentions known. Though Boaz returned her feelings, he also knew he was not her nearest kinsman. So Boaz went to the city gate and greeted the man who was the nearest kinsman.

Boaz: Did you hear that Naomi has returned?
Kinsman: Yes. I had heard.
Boaz: Well, I wondered if you were going to buy her fields. You are a nearer kinsman than I am, so you have the first right to them.
Kinsman: Yes, of course I want the land. I’ll go buy the land immediately.
Boaz: You know, of course, that with the land comes the hand of the Moabite woman, Ruth. You’ll have to marry her to continue the family’s line.
Kinsman: I can’t do that. Why don’t you go buy the land, Boaz?

And so Boaz redeemed Ruth. Ruth 4:13-17. Ruth became the great grandmother of King David. What lessons do we learn from the story of Ruth? There are three:

1. Earthy Spirituality: Ruth had a faith that directly impacted her everyday life and how she lived. Through Naomi, Ruth had learned enough to say “Your God will be my God.” We often fail to react to the ordinary, everyday events of life in light of the Love of God and what we believe? The two have become separated, so that what we believe and how we live don’t have to be related. It should not be this way. Instead, we need to look at our faith through practical eyes and ask ourselves how what we believe should impact how we live.

2.Obedience. The pattern of obedience we find in Ruth’s example is embodied in the statement, “All that you tell me I will do.” Such unswerving obedience is a model of faith for every Christian. What would our church be like if we could make the same statement to God? How great could we become?

Our society has become obsessed with greatness. But what is greatness? How do we define it? Greatness does not mean that we are great people; instead, greatness is found by being obedient to a God who is great. To be great, we only need to be obedient. If we are obedient, we appear great because the greatness of God shines through us. The spiritual giants we look up to are the same. The are simply obedient to God.

3. Love your neighbor. Jesus was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Boaz looked at a foreign woman whose people were sworn enemies of Israel, and he said, she is my neighbor. And he didn’t just say this. He showed it through simple acts of kindness

William Wordsworth said, “The best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and love.”

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what doest the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

God does not look for big, external displays. What is required? Slow down and look at the list again: To do Justice . . . To love kindness. . . . and to walk humbly with your God. Period.

Ruth teaches us that we need to have a practical theology, that we need to be obedient, and that above all, we need to love our neighbor in tangible ways, through simple acts of kindness. If we do, we also will leave a legacy that will have a lasting impact.

Church vs. Soccer on Sunday Morning

The newspaper was just full of good stuff today. My wife pointed out this column, which is just one more piece of the puzzle when it comes to reaching this generation of youth.

By BETSY HART
Scripps Howard News Service
2007-05-03 00:00:00

Now that it's getting warm, look for church attendance to drop even more.

That's the implication of an article in the current issue of the Baptist Press. Why? Because as Erin Roach reports, sports and other activities for families often trump church time for families, even for those who "regularly" attend church. The trend is most pronounced when it comes to church activities during the week. But as anyone who has driven past a busy soccer field on a Sunday morning knows, the trend affects the fullness of the pews on that day, too.

The Baptist Press looked at a survey of almost 500 pastors done for Leadership Magazine, a publication of Christianity Today. It found that family commitments and kids' activities are definitely bringing down church attendance. It seems that families are looking for more time together. But, ironically, on the menu of things to choose from, church is becoming one more option, even for Christian families. It's an "option" they often find is just not as relevant to them as sports or other events.

Pastors and other church leaders rightly bemoan the trend. I feel their pain, especially when I have to tell my kids they can't go to a Sunday-morning birthday party or Saturday-night sleepover, for instance.

But having watched this trend for some time, I also think the church too often enables parents. As at least one church leader and many parents noted in the Baptist Press piece, too often churches themselves split families up when they come in the door: kids here, adults there, teens in that program around the corner.

Youth programs are great, but historically families worshipped together on Sunday mornings. The age-divided worship programs (versus Sunday school after a church service, for instance) are new to the last half century. Interestingly, in his book "Intergenerational Religious Education," James White reports on studies showing that children who attend worship with their parents are more likely to regularly worship as adults than children who exclusively attend "children's church."

If families want together time, and they don't get it at church, that's one less reason to go. There's evidence, though, that the pendulum on segregating families may be swinging back again, as more and more churches seem to be realizing that as wonderful as their kids programs are, they've got to find ways to build on that and get families worshipping together, so that church becomes a family activity.

But I don't think even that vision will help reverse the trend toward lower church attendance by families if another trend not mentioned in the Baptist Press isn't addressed: Too often today, when it comes to the religious education of their kids, parents seem to think it's up to the "church experts" to handle it, and the church too often enables parents in their thinking.

When it comes to our kids, we are an expert-obsessed culture. We'll hire or find or read or rely on experts for almost every aspect of our kids' lives. Parents may too often think, "I'll let the church handle my child's religious life and give them what they need in that one hour a week."

But parents, by design, are the ones who have the time and intimacy with a child, over time, which is most likely to impact them with religious values. One hour a week, no matter how devoted the teachers. can do little if the parents aren't leading the way. Few people know this better than children's-ministry workers, who typically report that one of their biggest frustrations is that parents aren't more involved in the child's religious upbringing.

If churches communicated to moms and dads (the biblical pattern) that parents are the ones primarily responsible for their child's religious education and growth, might that refill those pews on Sunday mornings? I'm not sure. But I do know that if the church doesn't communicate that message, the church has little chance of winning families to worship before today's generation of youngsters are taking their own kids to soccer practice on Sunday morning.

(Betsy Hart hosts the "It Takes a Parent" radio show on WYLL-AM 1160 in Chicago. She can be reached at www.BetsyHart.net.)

Dear Abby - Is this for real?

For any of you with small children in the home, this letter to "Abby" is absolutely hilarious as well as disturbing. It is no wonder that our society is having problems dealing with children and violence. Read on.

DEAR ABBY: I have a 4-year-old who tends to act up from time to time. I have tried "time-outs" and even soft spanking and have taken his privileges away. Nothing seems to work. However, I have found that smashing one of his small toys with a hammer works well. Do you see any danger in this form of punishment? -- YOUNG MOM IN OKLAHOMA

OK, dry your eyes, quit laughing, and stop saying, "Do I see a DANGER?!" It is sad that she had to write a columnist to get an answer to this question. While I often have a problem with Abby's liberal viewpoint, she is right on this time.

DEAR YOUNG MOM: I certainly do. Smashing a child's toy with a hammer carries the same message that an abusive husband delivers when he smashes his fist through a wall. It implies, "You're next!" If you continue punishing your child in this way, he could begin modeling his behavior after yours and destroy other people's property -- including yours -- when he's angry.

Take the toy away if that's the only way to get through to your son. Tell him that it will be given to a child who has no toys to play with. But do not destroy the toy in front of your child.

The Keys of the Kingdom

Mt. 16: 13-19

Today’s text opens with a familiar scene: Jesus is walking with his disciples, and he asks them, “Who do men say that I am?” John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah -- Positive, but erroneous, or positively wrong! Jesus was pointing out that the culture was misinformed about who he was.

Then, Jesus changed the question. And this is important, look carefully at the question – Who do all of you say that I am? The question is addressed to all of them, but Peter, as the unofficial leader, answers. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Wow! Then Christ defines the church. This is the only place in Gospels where the church is defined. You are Peter, a stone, on this rock I will build my church.

Not on a stone (Petro –piece of rock), but upon the larger rock (Petra, a mass of rocks). The Greek distinguishes between these two. The word rock can also mean a collection of stones that have been cobbled together to form a larger rock as a foundation. (in 1Pe. 2:5 – we are called living stones, and in Eph 2:20 – the church is said to be built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles.) The Old Testament heroes and the 12 apostles were the foundation of the church, and you and I are the building blocks God uses to build his eternal Kingdom.

What does this mean today? First, the church can not be what God wants it to be unless we come together (cobbled together by God) to fulfill God’s purpose. It is that process of stones (petro) being turned into rocks (petra). Now notice what the rest of the text says, “Christ will build upon it, and the gates of Hell can not overcome it.” Gates of Hell . . . a gate was a symbol of authority or power. Look carefully this morning; Hell is trying to stop us, not the other way around. WE (the church) are SUPPOSED TO BE ON the OFFENSIVE! We waste far too much time in the church trying to react to Hell, when we are supposed to be building up the Kingdom. If we are building the Kingdom, then Hell’s kingdom will dwindle.

And we’re not talking about God verses the Devil. That battle has already been fought, and it didn’t last long. The battle today is between Satan and God’s Church, or to put it another way, between the Gates of hell and the Church. Eph. 6 tells us that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” Battle is between the fallen angels and man.

Angels are spiritual beings. Their primary task was to reflect back to God his nature. There were three Archangels. They were the only angels named in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer’s job was to lead all of the universe in praise to God, but Lucifer had an ego problem. He wanted the praise for himself. What he wanted was to become like God – not answering to anybody. So he created his own kingdom, leading a third of the angels in rebellion. Problem: how do you overthrow God? He was quickly caught and tried for treason. Judgment was passed, but then God shocked everyone and declared that the judgment would be delayed. You see, the rebellion created an opportunity for God to be glorified. How? (Ps. 8, Heb 2:6,7) He created man a little lower than the angels, that is, constitutionally inferior, and he gave us Lucifer’s job. We are told in Luke 10:18 Satan was cast down to earth, and the earth was flooded. He was no longer called Lucifer, but Satan, which means deceiver. God changes names to reflect character. Why did God do this? To show he could do more with less, and be glorified by our dependence upon him as we do even greater things (see John 14:12).

That’s why the Bible opens with a garbage dump. The earth is dark and lifeless, with the Holy Spirit hovering over the deep. Then, God begins the first extreme-home-makeover for man. He created a beautiful garden and placed man in it. And here’s the great part – there was only one rule – don’t mess with the tree in the middle. In that rule, Man was given God’s word. We all know what happened. Satan twisted, distorted, dismissed and diluted that word, because Satan is powerless against the word. He said, “"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman, "for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 1:4b-5) Satan, that deceiver, twisted the word. What he didn’t tell them was that all they got out of the fruit was evil. They already knew what was good.

So, how come Satan is loose? Well, God gave mankind the keys to the earth, the authority to manage it, and that included our enemy. He can’t overcome the word in us, but when we cross the word or allow it to be twisted, diluted, or distorted, Satan wins. When Adam sinned, he forfeited the keys, but when Christ died on the cross, he took back the keys and gave them to the church.

Here is the simple truth of the keys of the Kingdom: If we keep God’s word, we win. If we don’t keep God’s word, we’ll lose. Are we prevailing today? Is the Kingdom of God tearing down the kingdom of darkness in such a way that it is impacting the day to day life of those who have yet to realize what’s going on? The sad reality is, we are not. And we must ask ourselves what can stop hell from winning?

In verse 19, Christ says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom.” (This is in the future tense, because Christ had not yet died.) They are not the church’s keys. They’re heaven’s keys. Notice the keys are plural, and that’s because the gates of verse 18 are plural. You see the gates are the obstacles that Satan raises up against what God is trying to do through the church. The keys are God’s divine response to those gates, so we can lock the door. The problem is that we are not using the keys because we’ve misplaced the keys. Have you ever been in a hurry and can’t find your car keys? What do you do? Panic! Search frantically, and the reality is you’re going no where until they are found! We need to find the keys. We aren’t seeking God’s divine response to the problems that we are facing and as a result, we are powerless to stop the enemy. When is the last time in an council meeting that a problem was addressed with, “Let’s pray and see what God would have us do.”?

There is another problem -- the keys are God’s divine response, but often, we twist and dilute it. We mix our own brand of theology and religion, which cancels out the power of the key. When you mix the human with the divine, the divine is canceled. How do we apply the key? Pray. For “whatever you bind on earth – what ever you loose on earth.”

The church does not exist for itself. It exists for the sake of the Kingdom of God. The church is supposed to house the kingdom values so that they can be translated into the community and into the culture outside the church. I’ve read that the US Embassy, or any country’s embassy, is a little bit of that country a long way from home. Embassies operate under the values and laws of their own country Is our church like that? Are we a little piece of heaven a long way from home? Do our families operate on Kingdom principles or on the cultural norms of the society we find ourselves in?

Church, I want to go back to the scripture, as we close. Christ said, “upon this Rock I will build my church.” Are we willing to stand firm and prevail against the gates of hell? What obstacles have you been facing? Are we willing to pray for God’s divine response? In what ways can we begin to build the Kingdom this week?

One Day Silence

In Remembrance