From Dead to Life | Rev. Nolan Carpenter

thank you come on can we give that handclap to the lord tonight hallelujah while you're standing hallelujah let's lift our voices up to heaven one more time god we thank you for your word god we thank you for what we felt in this place lord god we thank you for the lives that you have changed tonight already god in the hearts that you've touched but lord i believe tonight in faith that you are not done yet this is only the beginning god that you are going to do a great and a mighty work tonight if you believe that would you clap your hands in this place thank you lord thank you jesus thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord it is an honor to stand before you tonight i do understand the time but if i did not feel that uh god had something else for us tonight then i would i would have begged dad for sister grider to keep singing that song tonight amen amen if you would turn in the word of the lord with me to ezekiel 37 and hopefully this all will make sense i do believe this service is very much in order and i do want to tell you that i don't think we're done doing spiritual warfare yet how many would like to help me tonight do a little bit more spiritual warfare i believe we are on the right track amen i give honor to where honor is due i give honor to our pastor and first lady i love them more just about more than anything and that would lead me to my next thing i love my wife more than absolutely anything in this world i give her tremendous honor and all my family and we we are i am so blessed to be in the family that i am in um i love them very very much uh ezekiel 37 37-1 says the hand of the lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the lord and this and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about and behold there there were very many in the open valley and lo they were very dry and he said unto me son of man can these bones live and i answered o lord god thou knowest what a story what a story of faith that we see here in the book of ezekiel i there's two themes so far in this service that i've noticed we've we've sang about something being resurrected we've sang about but we've sang about people our city our our families our church being resurrected i believe god moved in that but then also a few minutes ago we rose up like an army and we marched around we did spirit we did warfare here because this is an army but i believe this story just fits perfect with the theme of what is going on tonight i want to preach for just a few moments with the help of the lord on going from dead to life from death to life if you put your bibles down you lift your hands in your heart and let's lift our voices up to heaven god we thank you lord god for what we have felt in this place god i believe something good is going to happen in this house lord god i pray the spirit of faith will rise up in this place god i pray that you would do a mighty work today god i pray that a valley full of dry bones lord god whatever this dry bone would be in someone's life tonight lord i pray you would do a a great work god would you resurrect it in the name of jesus if you believe something good is going to happen can we clap our hands in this place god we love you jesus we praise you we believe you're going to do something great if you believe that would you shout amen amen you may be seated it's an honor to stand before you tonight ezekiel was carried out by the spirit of god to a valley that was full of bones the bible gives a description of this boneyard it was an open valley as far as you could see there would be one common thing in your sight and that would be just a bunch of bones there was no signs of life these bones had been there quite a while because it not only says they were dry but they were very dry god then looks down to ezekiel and says son of man can these bones live i believe that ezekiel kind of played it safe and said oh lord god only thou knowest uh thou knowest to these bombs i'm gonna play a little bit on the safe side uh only thou knowest god said okay ezekiel if you believe that these bones can live again then prophesy and that's where our spiritual warfare comes in tonight prophesy prophesy thus saith the lord i will cause bread to enter into you and ye shall live i will lay sinews upon you and so ezekiel did as he was commanded he began to prophesy to a lifeless valley full of bones then the bible records that there was a great noise and behold bones began to shake and come together what a sight that must have been to see that day that a leg bone over on that side of the valley come connected to that bone over there and then the arm bone over on this side had to join up with the body what a sight that was to see the valley full of bones begin to shake bones started connecting together and skin began to cover the bones and ezekiel noticed that the word of the lord had not been fulfilled yet because god said in the beginning i will cause breath in to enter into them and the word of the lord came into ezekiel again and said prophesy again prophesy to the wind and tell the wind to enter into these bones and and prophesy that breath would come into them and so he began to prophesy to the wind he began to prophesy and when he began to prophesy to the wind something awesome something awesome happened that valley that was full of dry bones was now a great army before ezekiel what's was dead disconnected bones from bones from one another and it just looked like an awful lifeless mess with a little bit of believing a whole lot of faith and the willingness to prophesy now stands before ezekiel a great army then god gave the interpretation to ezekiel he says son of man these bones are the whole house of israel the bones are dried and our hope is lost but i will open your graves and cause you to come out of the grave and i will bring you into the land of israel but that's not all he says i'm going to cause you to live and i will put my spirit in you and you shall live now something interesting in studying this story i've heard this story this story of faith preached many times it's one of my favorite stories in the bible but studying this out i realized that ezekiel being a a priest being a man of god being a absolute man of god when he looked across a valley full of dry bones he understood that these bones did not have a proper burial there were rules for how a pr a priest would deal with dead things and we read this story and we realized yeah just a bunch of bones were not buried but to ezekiel he saw a disgraced group of people who did not have a proper burial if something was not buried and put away properly it meant that someone else wouldn't take care of them or this this person was a disgraced person and i find it very interesting that god put ezekiel right in the midst of a bunch of disgraced bones a bunch of people who didn't have loved ones maybe to come and bury them i don't i don't know we can we can surmise but what we do know is these bones were disgraced ezekiel typifies those who are full of hope and full of faith still serving god and these bones typify those who have lost hope maybe those who have drifted away from the the group of israel they are disgraced people and they are those who attempted to fight the good fight but lost their fight god put ezekiel right in the middle of these bones and he asked him a question he said can these disgraced bones can these disgraced bones these bones that someone didn't care enough to come bury him and take care of him i want to know you man of god do you think that these disgraced bones can live again you know as as the man of god and being around dead disgraced things you shouldn't even really be in this scene but ezekiel i want to know can these disgraced bones live again i want to declare that these bones actually had hope they had hope because they were dead you might be asking how does that make sense but if you can ask any prodigal probably any prodigal in this place tonight that they found hope when they reached their rock bottom when they didn't have anywhere else to go they realized god there is still hope for me the church still loves me the church still is drawing after me they had hope even though they were in their lowest of lows they didn't have anywhere to go but that's the moment that they realized there was hope through jesus christ that's what the prodigals when if you ask anybody they'll say when did you when did you come to yourself well i came when i was at my lowest of lows we can see this in the bible with a prodigal son he was in the pigs pen he was in the lowest of lows he had spent everything he had he had wasted everything he had spent all his morals he had run his character this was absolutely rock bottom and as he's over there laying with a bunch of pigs just a disgraced person the bible says that he came to himself when he was at the lowest of lows with everything that had been run in his life a disgraced person that used to be the person that everybody wanted to be a disgraced man was in the pit of despair and at his rock bottom the bible records that he came to himself and he realized in his pit he realized how many servants in my house have more enough bread to spare but i sit here and die of starvation i wonder tonight at a prodigals in a lost world being out there i wonder in their pit of despair when they are at rock bottom ezekiel has asked a question can these disgraced bones live again it's the answer of the church to say yes these bones can live yes the drug addict can come home yes the prodigal can come home the prodigal son that had wasted everything the prodigal son that is threw his life away he threw his character away he threw his morals away he caused a disgrace to his mama and his daddy but he realized that there was hope in his pit can these bones re live first as a church we must realize that disgraced people can find the grace of god that is that that's that's the goal of the church we must realize that disgraced people can find the grace of god we look at the valley full of bones a valley full of broken people a valley full of of those who have dried out those who have lost hope those don't know who they are those that are disconnected and i'm asking us the church can these bones live again can our prodigals come back to church can our drug addicts come back to church do we have the faith to look at something dead look at our lost prodigals and prophesy to them that you can live again i know you're disgraced i know you're broken i know you're searching for who you are but i want to prophesy right now that our loved ones can come home i want to prophesy right now that our lost loved ones can come home hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i believe that disgraced people can find the grace of god if we don't believe this let's ask jesus christ himself if disgraced people can find the grace of god in john 8 and 4 they said unto him master this woman was taken in the act that was taken in adultery in the very act now i know this this pulpit is no place to be crude or anything like that i want to respect this pulpit but do we understand what this means this woman was pulled from adultery the very act they went in there and ripped the woman out you think how disgraced that woman felt you think that that woman was so embarrassed what a picture there when when when when someone come in the act of sin and pulled them out obviously we know they didn't have good intentions but they threw her in her disgraced situation in her embarrassed mess they threw her at the feet of jesus we need to go out there and get all the embarrassed people out get all the disgraced people out and let's throw them at the feet of jesus because nothing else in this world can save them nothing else in this world can heal the embarrassment of what they've been through besides at the feet of jesus now we have to understand this is a disgraced woman this is an embarrassing talk about someone who is absolutely embarrassed caught in the very act of adultery they dragged her from her sin and put her before jesus and they said now moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou this this they said tempting jesus that they might have to accuse him but jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the on the ground as though he heard them not and so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him cast a stone at her and again he stooped down and roped into the ground and they they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even to the last and jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst and when jesus had lifted himself and saw none but the woman he said woman where are thine accusers have no man condemn thee she said no man lord and jesus said unto her neither do i condemn thee go in sin no more i want to ask the church and this is just a simple message tonight do we believe that a disgraced world a world that is a world that is struggling to to decide what gender they are a world that they believe that the more that the bible says that they they would call evil good and the somebody who calls wickedness good that's what they long for do we believe that a disgraced world can find the grace of god do we believe that someone who is embarrassed someone who is struggling someone who is who the the world would obviously have its way he would die in the midst of their sin we must remember in first corinthians 6 11 and this humble me humbles me so much and such were some of you but ye were washed ye are sanctified but you are justified in the name of the lord jesus and by the spirit of our god if we don't think a lost world can come back to the grace of god we've got to realize that there we are without the grace of god tonight if you go out to eat and you can look at the bar and you could say that alcoholic right there that is me without the grace of god i can look at a drug addict that's just putting everything inside of this body and i could look down at that drug addict and sure i could get a little pharisee-ism and just throw them out but i could look down at a lost uh a lost soul and look at someone who is struggling they are hurting deep inside and i can look at them square the eyes and say there i am without the grace of god i want to declare to someone tonight that you have lost loved ones in your family they don't serve this truth and they don't come to this church i want to prophesy to you that in their disgraced situation that in their embarrassment they bring embarrassment to the family name i want to prophesy to them that they can live once again they can live once again that these bones can live again if you believe that would you clap your hands in this place thank you lord hallelujah hallelujah you may be seated the difference between the disgraced people and the people standing before me tonight is someone believed that you could live again someone i'm glad someone i'm glad someone didn't lose hope for me i'm glad there was always a mama and a daddy praying for me i'm glad that someone didn't say man he's gone too far he's made too many mistakes yeah i slipped and fell once or twice but someone said you know what i see value in that person and if you're sitting on the sound of my voice tonight i want to tell you under the authority of the holy ghost that you have not gone too far you have not made too many mistakes there's not enough disgraced mess in your life that the grace of god can't clean you up tonight you can leave different than you came you might have walked out in the in your car maybe an alcohol bottle but i want to tell you under the authority of the holy ghost tonight that you can find the grace of god you can find the grace of god in your life come on you're looking you're hurting you're searching you're searching what what what good is my life i want to tell you that it's time for you to join the army of christ it's time for you to find the grace of god hallelujah you may be seated be going from dead to life and death to life is not a foreign concept for a believer let's consider lazarus with us just the simple words of jesus christ but when he said lazarus come forth he went from being dead to being alive let's consider the story of the daughter of jarrius jerius ran to the feet of jesus and he said hey i need you to come to my house my daughter is on her deathbed i need you right now lord and i i think this story is so so interesting because it was on the way to jairus house that a woman came and fell at the feet of jesus now picture this picture this in your mind with me dave jerius has already said jesus hey i need you to come come to my house let's come over i need you to do something for my daughter she's on her deathbed we've got to hurry quick and it was as they were going to the house of jairus that a woman came and fell at the feet of jesus it's very interesting that that's the same way that jerius came to jesus he fell at the feet of jesus just like the woman with the issue of blood then it's very intriguing too that the woman with the issue of blood had this issue for 12 years all in jarius's mind he has a daughter at home that's 12 years old when when she touched the hymn of the garment of jesus you know jesus says who touched me and then the disciples said well jesus what are you talking about you're in a group of people he said no i felt virtue go for me and and jesus and the woman with the issue of blood finally identified herself and said hey it was me and he turned her and said daughter be of good comfort thy faith has made me whole that is the only time you will see someone you will see jesus referred to someone as daughter that's all why jarius is saying jesus i need you to come heal my daughter it was almost like jarius jesus was trying to elevate the faith of jairus he was trying to get him to realize i can do this with someone who worships the same as you i can do this with someone who is 12 years in this issue and your daughter is 12 years old i'll call her daughter all while you need to touch for your daughter but in the midst of this someone came running and said hey let's go ahead and call it off it's it's too late it's too late it's it's she's already dead and jesus looks to him and says hey don't don't don't doubt there's not i need you just to believe only and then they went to the house of jairus and of course we know the story jesus kicks everybody out of the house besides a couple of disciples and jarius and the uh the mother and then of course the little lady there and then jesus says no she's just sleeping let's give her some food and let her live again i want to tell some parent tonight i want to sell tell someone that you have a son or a daughter that does not come to church with you that they no longer serve this truth i want to tell someone with the gift of faith tonight just like jarius did don't lose hope don't lose faith believe that your son and your daughter can come back believe i don't care how far they go i don't care how disgraced they are i don't care what kind of embarrassment you pull them out of i want to prophesy right now that your prodigals are coming home that your sons and your daughters are coming home that needle in their arm will be pulled out and soon they'll be able to lift their voice and to lift their hands and begin to pray and worship the almighty god hallelujah i'm glad that jerius didn't lose hope i'm glad to jairus and say jesus you were too busy looking out at this family and that family but i came to you first jesus but you forgot about me i was saying hey jesus over here my need is urgent but jesus was saying chariots don't have any doubt just keep on believing i keep on believing if you would ask the daughter after she was raised from the dead i know she was thankful that her father did not lose faith and did not lose hope and when your sons and your daughters and i prophesy right now that they are coming home when they get on the pews and they worship right beside you every service they're going to look to you and say mama daddy i'm so glad you never stopped praying i'm so glad you didn't lose hope i'm so glad you think i was too disgraced i was too dysfunctional i was too much of an embarrassment to you but i'm so glad that you did not lose hope i'm so glad did not lose hope ephesians 2 and 1 ephesians 2 and 1 says and you hath he quickened who were dead and trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walk according to the course of this world according to the prince and of the power of the air the spirit now worketh in the children of the disobedience among whom uh also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but god i love this scripture outstarts you can have all those dysfunctions if you want to you can have a testimony if you want to but i'm so thankful the next verse says but god who is rich in mercy yeah they they're a disgrace pete you don't understand jesus you don't understand god my prodigal is disgraced they would never come back but god who is rich in mercy for his great love with he loved us yeah your sons and your daughters not may not be here but god yeah my son and my daughter is struggling with their gender identity but god who is great in mercy i want to build someone's faith tonight to tell you in your 41st day your prodigal is coming home but in that 41st day until then do not lose hope do not lose faith do not stop believing that your prodigals can come home yeah they may disgrace be disgraced but god yeah they may be struggling with who they are but god they may have a needle in their arm but god they may be an embarrassment in a pig pen of sin but god who is rich in mercy i don't know about you but god brought me out and i want to go take this word to every person i can and say i don't care what you're going through i don't care what you're struggling with but god who is rich in mercy mercy is so strong that it can conquer anything that you are going through hallelujah i do believe you may be seated i do believe that there's going to be a miracle in this place and i don't know about a physical miracle because we'll get all those physical miracles when we when we walk on the streets of gold that's that's the encouraging thing i can't promise you that your cancer is going to be healed i can't promise you that you know your eyes will be open from blindness i can't promise you that until we all get to heaven but the greatest miracle of all could happen tonight someone can receive the grace and mercy of god someone that is the greatest miracle of all and if we ever lose sight of the greatest miracle of all we are what jesus fought against they were looking for works they were looking for miracles but god said i am on a mission to come to this world i'm not i i yeah i did heal yeah i did open some blinded eyes yeah i called lazarus out of the grave but my mission for being here is to seek and to save that which is lost and i want to tell someone tonight the greatest miracle in your life can happen if you would come to this altar and begin to open up your life and say yeah yeah i'm disgraced yeah i'm dysfunctional i can't have a conversation with somebody but the bible says but god who is rich in mercy but god who is rich in mercy yeah yeah your alcohol problem is powerful but god who is rich in mercy yeah your addiction your pornography addiction is powerful but god who is rich in mercy but god who is rich in mercy you may be seated my message today tonight is simple it's time for your valley of dry bones to come to life i want to preach to someone that your life is full of dry bones and just like the bible says they are very very dry you've been dry for so long you feel disconnected you can't tell where everything's out you can't feel god and maybe through the process disgrace has come over your life you don't know who you are you can't say the last time you knelt down to pray to god and felt anything you cannot feel god in the state that you are in the first thing and i i know there's a there's a erroneous doctrine that talks about blab it and grab it that is so unbiblical but what is biblical is looking at our valley of dry bones the first thing is believing that they can live again that is very very biblical and if you believe that's the first step if you believe that they can live again you've got to have the faith to prophesy to something dead you have to have the faith to square your shoulders back and to prophesy to something that is dead and say you are going to live again i don't look the bible says that we walk by faith and not by sight i don't look at my valley full of dry bones i walk by knowing that god can take something dead and bring it back to life i know that our god can bring something back to life john 5 and 24 says verily verily i say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life fairly verily i say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of god and they that hear shall live so it it this week studying this this this passage of scripture it intrigued me it's i've always wondered who were the bones in the in the valley here who were the the who were they had they just couldn't show up there it had to be some it had to be we know it was a great army but then of course going back and reading scripture it talks about it says the bible says in ezekiel 37 11 then he said to me son of man these bones are the whole house of israel the whole entire house the backslidden israel it's the whole house of israel the 12 tribes were of israel were in those dead bones the 12 tribes were there which means what pastor preached this morning ephraim means our fruitfulness is in the dead bones judah which means praise was in the dead bones levi which means your calling was in the dead bones this is simply a backslidden israel and i love this who are these bones they're the whole house of israel behold they say our bones are dried our hope is lost we were cut off from our parts therefore prophesy say unto them thus saith the lord god behold o my people i will open up your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you into the land of israel you know what we are prophesying to a backslidden israel we are prophesying to the end they should live and go back to where they're supposed to be so i want to tell someone tonight if you've lost your fruitfulness i want to prophesy to you it's time for you to live again judah if you're still in there in the valley full of bones if someone has lost your praise it's time for your praise to erupt again levi if you've lost your calling you walked away from god you felt like god called you to do great things well levi was in the group of the dead bones and we prophesied to this backslidden israel that not only are you going to live again but you're going to go back to where you should be you should go back to praising just like you did before you backslid you should go back to being fruitful just like you did when you before your backslid you should go back to your calling just like you did before you were dead i'm telling someone tonight it's time to go back to where you belong it's time to get your fruitfulness back it's time to get your praise back it's time to get your calling back first if you don't remember anything about this message just i want you to believe these couple of things first we have to believe and then we have to have the faith to prophesy first we have to believe and second we have to have the boldness to prophesy to something dead god spoke to ezekiel and said okay if you believe then you should prophesy prophecy means to speak to nothing as if it was something or speak or speak as though it was think about that he had the audacity the faith to prophesy to a bunch of dead bones and in the spirit realm the spiritual warfare there was a great and mighty army before them i want us all to stand and i i felt like i felt like earlier this week that we were going to praise we were going to worship but i just want to know i i feel like god is shifting this service i want to know if there's anybody tonight that has a prodigal at home if there's anybody tonight that you don't have your son or daughter with you listen to the holy ghost right now i i this is going to take a little bit of faith right now and sister erickson sing whatever y'all want to but i want to know if you have a prodigal at home and if you believe if you believe that they can come back to church in the 41st day i believe it's time to prophesy to our prodigals i believe it's time to prophesy to lost loved one i believe it's time to prophesy to our lost family first if you believe i want you to make your way forward to this altar i want you to make your way forward then believing that your son and your daughter can come home yeah mama and daddy they are disgraced yeah mommy and daddy they made some mistakes they've caused some embarrassment to you but if we believe if we believe that our prodigals can come home now it's time to prophesy now it's time to say to our our prodigals the backslidden israel those that used to be used of god those that used to worship with you those that used to be worshippers in the house of the lord now it's time to prophesy come on i want you to prophesy to your son and your daughter i want you to prophesy to that backslidden boy and fx litton girl at first we have to believe we cannot lose hope don't lose faith jerrius don't lose hope it's not too late your son and your daughter can live again your son and your daughter can go from debt to life but you can't lose hope don't doubt believe only and if we believe now it's time to prophesy prophesy to your sons and your daughters prophesy to your son my boy is going to live again my boy is going to preach again my boy is going to worship you again yeah he's disgraced yeah he's just a bunch of dry bones but right now i prophesy i prophesy come on if you don't have anybody to pray for just find someone and let's lay hands on those who need it if you'd feel comfortable doing that come on cause there's some people here tonight that they don't come bring their family to the house of the lord come on let's believe we got to believe we got to have faith don't give up i know you've been praying for years for your southern hotter but they are going to join the mighty armies we we need some more army to come in this church we need some more army to come in this house come on prophesied i prophesied my son of prophecy yeah they're deep in sin but god who is rich in mercy but god who is rich and first we have to believe we have to believe that they can live again and not prophesy in the name yeah of you may have lost hope in the 40 days but on your 30th 41st day your sons and your daughters are coming home you got to keep prophesying i don't know when they're coming back but don't lose the spirit of prophecy don't lose the spirit of faith don't lose the spirit of hope they are coming back hallelujah