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Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Vultures and Cacti

I had the very unusual experience happen to me a couple days ago.

And so I go to this lady, and she's a Cambodian lady, wonderful lady, very sweet.

She cuts my hair exactly the way I like it, short and messy.

And when she was about to cut my hair, it happened.

She was right behind me, and I could see her in the mirror, and she stopped and she looked And she said, have you ever thought about dying your hair?

I dyed it when I was younger, different colors.

And she said, no, just how about dying it now?

And I said, oh, and she started laughing and I go, it's not necessary.

I said, wow, the time has finally come when people are starting to recognize I have gray hair.

But what's interesting is, regardless of the fact that I have gray hair there is a very special promise found in Isaiah chapter 46 and I found this promise 1 day when I did look in the mirror and I said wow I Lord I am getting older and I went right to my Bible and opened to Isaiah 46 and this is so remarkable it happened just right after I said that.

Isaiah 46 and look what it says in verse 4, even to your old age I am he, even to your gray hairs I will carry you.

Even to our gray hairs, God will carry us.

Well, why don't we start with a word of prayer?

Let's ask Jesus to bless us with the Holy Spirit.

I don't know about you, but I am thirsty for the Spirit of God.

Father in heaven, thank you so much again for this time.

Thank you, Lord, for Sabbath mornings and the excitement we have when we open up your word.

Jesus, we acknowledge that we are living in very unusual times.

We just pray and ask that you would make this message productive of good.

And we pray and ask that every person who walks out, Lord, will know that the Spirit of God has ministered directly to their heart.

Amen Just want to remind you if you might not have heard already there is going to be a 24-hour prayer vigil the next weekend and it Starts Friday night at 7 o'clock and we'll go all the way till Saturday 7 o'clock and the reason why we need to pray is because God wants to do some big things Amen, and there's some big things we need to pray about we need to pray number 1 for God to pour upon us his Holy Spirit and if we're not a praying church, we are a dying church Amen, and 1 thing that what that really was simple or you can say was the mark of the early church was the fact that they pray they didn't just pray over their food they really prayed amen they prayed without ceasing the second thing is we want to pray for a huge sin ministry We want to pray and ask that God would continue to open doors because he is the only 1 that can lead us into that city.

I don't know if you heard, just this last week, there was a double homicide there.

Folks, what's interesting about that is that our Bob worker had just hit up that area.

But we need to pray and ask that God would open more doors.

And if you've got an extra little bit of time while you're driving home, feel free to stop in Houston.

And stop at 1 of the restaurants, off Sabbath hours, of course.

Stop at 1 of the restaurants, get to know the people.

There's a very wonderful group of individuals there, but get to know the people in Houston.

Start letting them know about what our desires are and what God is doing.

Because folks, you're going to be very surprised when you find out that a lot of people are hungering for the truth.

The third thing we need to pray for is our church budget.

We are definitely in the red, and only God himself can provide.

I am extremely thirsty these things are really small too okay very good we're gonna be taking a good look at a very interesting passage in the Bible.

Early on in the week I was praying and I was saying, Lord, what is the message for the church this Sabbath?

My prayer was that God would give us something so special He would revive our hearts.

And so we're gonna be taking a good look at Ezekiel chapter 37 Ezekiel chapter 37 that's page 841 in the seminar Bibles if you need to find the page number but we're looking at Ezekiel chapter 37 Ezekiel chapter 37 if you're there go ahead and say amen amen all right now Why don't we go ahead and start with verse 1 verse 1?

The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me into The spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of what?

Bones and then he caused me to pass by them all around and behold there were very many in the open valley, and indeed, they were very dry." So here's Ezekiel.

He gets taken up in vision, and he's placed right into this valley.

And he begins to notice all around him there are bones.

Now when you see a lot of bones, it usually indicates 2 things.

Number 1, the absence of life and the presence of death.

So you can imagine here, Ezekiel is brought to this desert-like area.

And you can imagine the outcroppings of the rocky mountains that are right there.

And he's looking and he's just seeing all these bones.

And you can just imagine in your mind, probably there are vultures going around in the sky.

And probably some cactuses and some scorpions.

And he's looking and he's seeing all these bones that are just scattered there.

The Bible says he noticed bones, but then when he actually touched down he noticed there was very many bones.

I mean the whole place was just a boneyard.

Now watch what happens next, It's very interesting.

He said to me, Son of man, can these bones, what's that next word?

Ezekiel gets asked a very interesting question by his angel, and that question is, Hey Ezekiel, can these bones live, these dry, bleached bones?

Now when you see bones, what comes to your mind?

When you see bones, what comes to your mind?

Well, obviously death, but you begin to think to yourself, if you're like me, how did this thing die?

You know, when I begin to look at this message of Ezekiel chapter 37, I was not so much concerned about what happens next, but I was concerned about how did you start off with the valley of bones?

You come to find out that these value of this valley of bones bones represents the house of Israel God's people Apparently there's been a great massacre of some kind there is death in the valley and And the angel begins to ask Ezekiel and says, wait a minute, can these bones live?

The muscle, the tissue, the skin has all worn away, and all there is is just death.

There's just bones there It's very interesting as you begin to ponder this question.

Which as just being represented by a dry bone valley.

Now it's very interesting, take your Bible, go to Proverbs chapter 17.

I'm going to show you something very interesting.

Proverbs chapter 17, and when you're there go ahead and say Amen.

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Vultures and Cacti

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