Valley of Dry Bones – Missed Connections Series

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Do you ever find yourself searching for something bigger than you? For a community to be a part of? A place founded on truth and love. A place to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and the Son of God. Welcome to Founded in Truth, where we're more than just a fellowship. We're a family, so welcome home. Shabbat shalom, everyone. We are excited to come back together to jump into the Word today. And we have received some overwhelming feedback concerning this series that we're in, the Missed Connection series. And if you're just joining us, it's a series exploring the connections that the New Testament authors make with the story of the Old Testament.

For example, we explored the Good Shepherd discourse between Yeshua and the Pharisees in John 10, and how Yeshua was not only quoting the book of Numbers and the Torah, but also Ezekiel 34 and 37. Many times when we read the New Testament, we simply take the New Testament authors at face value. And when we do that, we sometimes miss the connections they are making between the story of Yeshua, the story of Jesus, and the story of the Hebrew Bible, right? The Old Testament. Hence, the Missed Connection series.

Exploring the Connections

And so, before we get into today's message, I want to recommend two Christian scholars who do a great job with this topic. One is Professor Gary Manning. He has an amazing little book called Echoes of the Prophet, as well as Dr. Michael Heiser, who has a series of books and podcasts dealing with this topic and many like it. And so these are great resources, so make sure you check them out.

In the last message, we touched on how John uses texts from the book of Ezekiel to show Yeshua as the good shepherd that Ezekiel speaks about. But not only that, in doing so he also makes this audacious claim that Yeshua is playing the role of Yahweh as described by the prophet, as well as the prophetic fulfillment of the messianic Davidic king that was to come and gather the flocks of Israel—the scattered flocks—together. And that's why the Pharisees flipped out in John's account. They wanted to stone Yeshua. Why? They said it was because of blasphemy, because he claims to be God before them. And so this week, I wanted to carry on with John's use of texts from the prophet Ezekiel. And there was some interest in the last message concerning further exploring Ezekiel 37, so we're going to do that today.

The Valley of Dry Bones

So turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 37, and I can only assume that most of you are already very familiar with this chapter. It's the chapter of the Valley of Dry Bones, along with the imagery of the two sticks being made one in the hands of the prophet. It's an amazing chapter with just a weird vision. It's like something out of a horror movie or something. You have all these bones rising up, and then sinews and flesh start growing over them. And then you have all these lifeless bodies just like zombies until the breath of life is given to them. And it's a very compelling vision that Ezekiel has. So let's just go ahead and jump in and read it.

And everybody loves the Bible, right? Nod your head if you love the Bible. Awesome. Of course we do. So let's go ahead and read a good chunk of it. We're going to read verses 1 through 14 of Ezekiel 37. So join me in that, starting in verse 1. That's unclean. And behold, they were very dry. They'd been there a while. And he said to me, So I prophesied, As I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound and behold, a rattling, rattling, and the bones came together bone to its bone. And I looked and behold, there were sinews on them growing over them and the flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them—lifeless zombie people.

Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath. That's an interesting verse. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath. Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, oh breath, and breathe on these slain so they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and they stood on their feet an exceedingly great army.

So here's the explanation, right? And it's the key to understanding this fantastic vision, okay? I mean, this is a really weird vision. Like, I know sometimes we like to spiritualize it and we read it and it's just like, oh yeah, it's bones coming to life. But imagine being there and seeing what Ezekiel saw, right? It would make you a tad bit uncomfortable. I mean, it's literally something out of some kind of horror movie. Just bones coming together and linking up. And then sinews and muscle and flesh growing over them. And then you've got these lifeless cadavers lying everywhere until this breath enters them, and you can almost see their pupils opening as they rise up, becoming not just people, but an army. So you have this powerful imagery of them holding swords and shields, this people that had died—it's chilling in the most fantastic way.

The Meaning of the Vision

So the key to this is right here in verse 11, and that's where it explains what he saw. Let me take a little break from the passage here to explain. He's speaking of the context of exile, which we're about to touch on. But these are the people who have lost hope, saying we've dried up. There's no life left in us. And so Ezekiel is prophesying to this people who have been scattered everywhere. And he continues here: "...therefore prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel.

And you shall know that I am Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord." So that's powerful, right? And again, what's the context here? And this is really important. We explored Ezekiel 34 in the past weeks—I think last time, right? The Good Shepherd. And it speaks about the bad shepherds that led the people down the wrong path. Where did they lead the people? Into exile. But God himself is going to be the Good Shepherd and gather his people back.

From where? The scattering that happened because of the exile. And he will raise up a Davidic king to rule over them, to shepherd them. We also went over Ezekiel 36, which addresses the same thing. That's the context of these chapters in Ezekiel, about how God is going to gather and restore Israel back to him. He's going to sprinkle them with clean water, washing their sins away, purifying them. Not only that, he's going to be the master surgeon. This is where God is going to perform surgery on his people, and he's going to perform heart surgery to remove the heart of stone from them and give them a transplant—the beating heart of flesh.

And not only is he going to do heart surgery, he's going to put a new spirit, a new ruach, a new breath within them. And this spirit, it's going to actualize everything Torah was meant to guide them into, to be the image bearers and co-rulers over creation, that his image would be displayed to the world, that his people would actually be his image bearers, the ambassadors and representatives of his kingdom. And that's the Genesis 1 vocation to mankind.

Restoring the Kingdom

And so this is the context of the chapters leading up to Ezekiel 37. So when we turn to Ezekiel 37, what do you think the context is? It's the same thing. How God is going to gather up all of the exiles of Israel, all of the tribes of Israel that are scattered, his kingdom that was scattered. How he's going to reconstitute what and who his kingdom is by ending the exile and revitalizing who his people are. Remember: before the exile, how many tribes were there? Twelve tribes, right? There was a northern kingdom of Israel—roughly twelve tribes—that were carried away into exile by the Assyrians. Then, about 200 years later, the southern kingdom, made up of two and a half tribes, was carried away into exile by Babylon.

This is the context and the timeline of Ezekiel's writings. God here is making a promise that the exile will not be the end of his kingdom, of his people. He will send a shepherd. He will be the shepherd. He will regather them. He will fix the thing that caused them to rebel in the first place, which was their hearts. And now in Ezekiel 37, the imagery here is he's going to raise up the dead bones from the ground and breathe into them. New creation, right? It's new creation. Genesis 2—breathing his spirit, his breath into his people so that they would become living souls. And that they will rise up like a phoenix, if you will—and yes, it's pagan—but you get the imagery.

A very climactic vision, and we're dealing with exilic texts prophesying an end to the exile. It's very important. Sometimes we don't realize just how significant the exile was to Judea and greater Israel. And that's a big theme. The promises of the exilic prophets, such as Malachi, Ezekiel, and Isaiah, all of those prophecies dealt with God's promises to not only end the exile, but restore his kingdom with a king.

Yeshua Fulfills the Promises

And these are the promises that Yeshua comes onto the scene and says, "You know what, I'm here to fulfill these." I've said it before: without Yeshua in the New Testament, God is a God that doesn't keep his promises. That's how the Old Testament ends, at least in the Christian Bible, with Malachi—these promises coming forth, and then you turn the page and here is the King who has come to fulfill these promises and fill those roles.

John's Hyperlinks to Ezekiel

And so John intentionally hyperlinks back to the dry bones in several places in his account of the story of Yeshua. He makes several allusions, and one way to find these is to look at the Greek words that John uses—which we're going to do—and then go back to the Septuagint. And if you're unfamiliar with what the Septuagint is, the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, that was prominent in the first century and prominently used in first-century Judaism. When the New Testament authors referred back to and quoted from the Old Testament, they generally quoted and referenced the Greek translation of the Old Testament. I point that out because I know several people who have issues with that.

There are a lot of people out there who want to exalt the Hebrew language in a way that not only is not historical, but is unbiblical. In the first century, Greek was the common language. It was the language of education in all regards, which is why the Septuagint existed in the first place. But regardless, sometimes we don't want to acknowledge how common Greek was in Judaism. In Caesarea, we know that when they held synagogue service, they said the Shema in Greek, not Hebrew.

Spiritual and Literal Resurrection

So one place where John references Ezekiel 37 is John 5, specifically in verses 25 and 28. And I'll show you. Verse 25: "Verily I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live." And verse 28 speaks to a similar resurrection theme. These are, of course, clear references that recall verses such as Ezekiel 37, 4, 9, and 12. And I'll put those up on the screen here. You can see the language right there. "Prophesy, speak to these bones and say to them, hear the word of the Lord. Prophesy to the breath, prophesy to it." So these are clear connections that John is alluding to. And what's interesting is in verse 25, we see that it's speaking about not just literally dead people, but spiritually dead people coming back to life. He says, right—"and has now come." It's now. It's now, right now. And the dead will hear the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Son of God, and live. But then in verse 28, it speaks of a literal resurrection in the future. The graves will be awakened with life.

The Two Sticks Made One

Remember last time in the message, we spoke about the two sticks being brought together as one. This image is, of course, in the second half of Ezekiel 37 from the last message. And we see John referencing and emphasizing this in John 11. John references Ezekiel so many times, and it's so easy to miss. Remember in John 11, it describes the high priest having a vision about Yeshua, right? And let me read John 11, verse 51. It says: "He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for the nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them what? Make them one, just like the two sticks, right?" So John's use of the vision or oracle of the dry bones indicates that John wanted to retell his experience with Yeshua through the lens of Jesus as the fulfillment of Ezekiel's expectation of this new creation and new life for the people of God.

The Hebrew Word Ruach

Now, I want you to check out verse 9 in Ezekiel 37. I want to analyze these verses because they're really interesting. I want to break down the Hebrew language based on what it emphasizes. And here we have Ezekiel 37, verse 9. He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath"—I don't always picture things correctly—but "prophesy to the breath." How do you prophesy? How do you prophesy to the breath, right? What's the Hebrew word for breath? And some of you may know this. It's the same word in Hebrew for wind or spirit. It's ruach, right? Ruach. And I want you to see how much emphasis Ezekiel puts on the ruach here.

When he said to me, "Prophesy to the ruach"—it's the Spirit that goes in and revitalizes life, right? Why is that significant in the New Testament? Why is John wanting to emphasize this? Because Yeshua fulfills this oracle in John's account, in John's mind, and that's what he's writing us, Do you remember—does anyone remember a time when Yeshua did this? When did Yeshua breathe his breath on other people, giving them a new life, a new vocation, a new calling, equipping them to be an army, if you will?

Yeshua Breathing Out the Spirit

Yeah. Let's go over to John chapter 20, verse 22. This is, of course, after the crucifixion and the resurrection, and Yeshua presents himself to his disciples in John's account. And starting in verse 19, he says, "In Hebrew, shalom, y'all. Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and side, and the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Verse 21: "Again, Jesus said, peace be with you. Shalom, guys. As the Father has sent me, I am now going to send you out." That's important. And with that, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Ruach." Do you see it? Do you see how John is reframing the event with Yeshua? So John here is presenting Yeshua as fulfilling that role in Ezekiel 37. Not just the good shepherd, right? Last time we discussed that, but also the role of Ezekiel as the Son of Man. It's the title that references both Ezekiel and the messianic figure in Daniel 7. And it's the most frequently used title for Yeshua and used by Yeshua in the New Testament. Son of Man.

The Greek Word Emphazoi

So John's trying to pull that together. And here's where it gets really neat—and we're about to get a bit nerdy. What's really neat in John 20 is the specific Greek word John chooses for "breathed" when he says, "He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit." And the Greek word there is emphazoi—from which we get emphazema. And what's so special about this Greek word is it only appears six times in the entire Septuagint. Six times in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and only one time in the entire New Testament, right here. And of course, in the Old Testament, one of those six times is in Ezekiel 37, naturally.

So we can assume with confidence that John is looking at Ezekiel 37 and seeing Jesus as the one breathing the Spirit into the dry bones, giving them life. And this is John's theme in his entire account of Yeshua in the book of John.

In Him Was Life

How does John start his account of Yeshua in John 1? By reframing the Genesis creation account around Yeshua. And what does John 1:3 say about Yeshua? It's a bold statement. In him was what? What does Yeshua bring with him? What is Yeshua the giver of? What manifests out of Yeshua organically because of who he is? "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." According to John's vision, Yeshua is the life breather of the Old Testament. And I would expect everyone to say ecstatically right now, "Amen!" Because that's awesome.

The Life Breather Throughout Scripture

He is the life breather of Ezekiel 37. He is the life breather of Genesis 2, right? Genesis 2 is another place where that unique Greek word is used, except there it is Yahweh breathing the Ruach into mankind, and they become a living soul. They are filled with life. Another place where the word appears is in the story of Elijah and the widow's dead child—in 1 Kings 17, where Elijah breathes life back into the child. That's the theme that John is hoping you're going to catch on to, right? In John 20, verse 22, when Yeshua breathes life and gives the ruach—God breathing life into mankind, life being breathed into the dry bones of Ezekiel, life being breathed into the dead child of the widow— and here in John, Yeshua breathes life. He breathes the life-giving spirit into his disciples, and then he sends them out.

From Pentecost to the Nations

And then they go out. And the next instance of this is at Pentecost in Acts 2, right? And the thing about Pentecost is who was represented at Pentecost in Acts 2? Let's read it. Acts 2, verse 5: "Now there were staying in Jerusalem for Pentecost, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven."

So think about what Luke is writing here. Why is he emphasizing this? Why is this such a big deal in Luke's mind? Luke goes on to name all the specific names where the Jews came from. But here in verse 5, he sums it up by saying, "Jews from every nation under heaven," or "Jews from every nation in the world." There's another way you can rephrase that. And why is that significant? What's the theme of Ezekiel? What's the theme of Yeshua fulfillment? Where was Israel scattered? And here Yeshua tells his disciples, I'm going up. You stay here in John 20, and you go to Jerusalem and you wait. And I'm going to dump my spirit, my life-giving spirit, and it will drown the earth.

Right? Why Pentecost? Why Pentecost? Because that is when all the Judeans came back from where they were scattered, right? To Jerusalem, to Zion, to the land. It's a story of the exile ending, if you will. They become believers, and then what happens? Well, they go back home. Home where? Back to the nations. Out of Zion will go forth, right? So it's starting here, and it's like a reversal of the exile. The nations came in and brought the Israelites out. And here the Israelites received the newfound life-giving Ruach, breath, the Holy Spirit, and then they go out to the nations to reclaim the nations as God's kingdom, as God's possession.

The Jewish converts become what Dr. Michael Heiser calls the seed of reclaiming the Gentile populations in the places where those Jews lived. So it's the providential outcome and usage of the exile that is being used here as a mechanism to bring not only people from the nations back into his family, but also Jews, which are his own, right? It's a profound picture of the dynamic that's taking place here.

The Dwelling Place

And what happens? What happens if we continue reading Ezekiel chapter 37? Things get kind of neat here. I get geeked out by it. Verse 27, read it with me. Ezekiel . My dwelling place will be with them, I will be their God and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, make Israel holy when my sanctuary is among them forever. Now we're going to stick a pin in John here and just kind of pin him up for a minute. Now let's jump into the larger scope of what the New Testament authors thought of the impact of Yeshua when he was here. So this verse right here, verse 27, should sound familiar to you.

It's quoted many times in the entire Bible, but it seems to actually be a combination of two different verses in the Torah. The first verse is Exodus . And here's where we get the first part of the verse. I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel, and I will be their God. And the second part of this quote comes from Leviticus , when he says, I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. Now, what's the context? We know the context of Exodus 29. What's the context of Leviticus 26? I know some of you already know, and some of you are going, wow, right now, because it is the same context of Ezekiel 37.

The Promise of Return

Leviticus 26 is a prophecy of God telling Israel that they are going to fail when they go into the land. They're going to take it, it's going to be great, and it's going to fluster everything up. They're going to mess everything up, and they're going to stink so bad at being His image bearers that they're going to be exiled. It says that the land will vomit them out, right? And that's exactly what happens. The exile. The exile was written about all the way back in the Torah. The whole story of the Hebrew Bible is about a people that were called to be God's image bearers, that walked with God, but instead choose to worship God by determining good and evil for themselves without the wisdom of God, right?

It's the story of the garden. It's the story of Israel. Even though they had the Torah given to them, spoken to them by the mouth of God, which they wouldn't accept, they still went on to fail, even though they had the Torah. And that's the whole story of the Old Testament: How is God going to fix this problem, not with the Torah, but with the human heart, right? And so Leviticus 26 is prophesying this happening. But Leviticus 26 goes on to say, one day they will return. Their hearts... Remember, that's Ezekiel's theme of the restoration of a new heart, right? And Leviticus 26 speaks about their hearts will be humbled and they will come back to God.

The exile will end in this manner with the changing of the heart. And so we find this verse in Ezekiel 37 because Ezekiel is prophesying about Leviticus 26, and it's happening before their very eyes. And Paul is the New Testament author who really picks up on this. Paul actually quotes this verse when he's speaking to the Corinthians. He says it here in Corinthians . So he's speaking about the temple of God, which Exodus had to do with, right? So Paul is taking the Exodus 29 language and the Leviticus 26 language, and he's taking the actual quote from Ezekiel 37 language to tell the Corinthians that God's temple is them.

Fulfillment in Yeshua

The very place where heaven and earth meet is within the community of God that orbits the person of Yeshua. Let's repeat that. The very place where heaven and earth meet is within the community of God that orbits the very person of Yeshua. And Paul is saying like, yeah, don't forget, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people. He's saying that is an actualized reality now. Right now this is what Yeshua has done. This is the impact. This is the result of the crater of what Yeshua has done here in creation. He has fulfilled this. All of the tribes of Israel have been repopulated around him: 12 tribes, 12 disciples, right? This regathered kingdom of God is manifest only around the person of Yeshua, and that's pretty good news, right? Gospel news. It's pretty good news that God's kingdom has come and is being manifest and inaugurated by this King Yeshua. That God is not a liar. That God made promises and they are fulfilled in and through the person of Yeshua.

The Spirit's Work Throughout John

And now the Spirit, the giving of the Holy Spirit, the Ruach, fulfills the expectations that are raised within the Gospel of John from the beginning of Jesus' ministry. And Yeshua was the one in whom the Spirit permanently remained, which would allow him to baptize others with the Holy Spirit, right? Thus, Yeshua says, receive the Holy Spirit. The reader is supposed to be triggered to think of everything John has already said about Yeshua and the Spirit up to this point. Remember in John 3:3, what is he saying? Here we go. Jesus said, "Truly, verily, verily, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again.

How can someone be born when they are old?" And remember the story of Nicodemus. He asked, "Surely, we cannot enter a second time into our mother's womb?" And Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they're born of the water and of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit." Right? The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound, but you cannot tell where it's coming from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. So John, from the very beginning in chapter 3, has been building up this idea of something about the Spirit, this breath, this wind of God, life-giving wind of God is coming.

The Spirit brings new birth, right? What about John ? He's moving on with this motif throughout his entire book. This is the Spirit that not only brings life and a new birth, but it also brings true worship. How about John ? Right? John says, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives in you and will be in you. And I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live, and you will also live."

It's that same trigger language in Ezekiel. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you, right? John has been building up this theme of a spirit coming and equipping us with this life, this really weird kind of cryptic language that's throughout the scriptures. And here in John , we have this ultimate fulfillment that triggers our minds back to Ezekiel 37. It gives life to who? The dead. And they rise up renewed, right? You know, along with John -15 as well, this is the Spirit that brings life and a life-giving communion with the Father and the Son.

Already but Not Yet

And I know sometimes we want to make prophecy something that only takes place in the future, far from now, but not right now. And that's not what the Bible displays. That's not what the Bible tends to indicate at all. The New Testament authors tend to think that the exile has ended in Yeshua, but there's still a coming reality where that is going to be fully displayed. Eternal life that Yeshua talks about, it starts now, but it also transcends death into eternity. The regathering of all of the tribes of Israel under King Yeshua begins. Done. It's happened. And you are a part, you are a testament of that.

But there's still a grander display that is coming, right? Among Christian academia, you'll hear the phrase "here but not yet" used a lot. And it's used to try to explain this actualized reality that Yeshua has brought, but that we're also furthering towards. That's why we live our faith out. We're not meant to just sit here and wait on the future prophecies to come. We're supposed to live them out. According to the author of Hebrews, our faith is the substance, the actual tangible substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, right? Faith is not some metaphysical goopy fairy dust that just means the same thing as believing.

No, faith in English is the root of faithfulness. You live it out. So the new creation that Paul says has come in Christ is here now. The new creation that Isaiah spoke about, a new heavens and a new earth, is here now. And it has been here since Yeshua ushered in a new creation account on the first day of the week when he walked out of the tomb holding the head of death in his hands victorious. It is now. The kingdom of God is now. Eternal life is felt and experienced now. Forgiveness that can only come from God is now. Justice that can only be measured as a divine intervention happens now. A love that is so deep that it would swallow the depths of hell itself is outpouring itself now, and it is through the regathered people of God.

We are the ambassadors of that reality now. The world feels the love of Yeshua through us. That's what Paul says. We are the soldiers in Christ. We are the ambassadors of the King. When people see us, they should see him. When people see us, they should feel him. They should hear him when we speak.

We Are the Ambassadors

And I know some of us would say, but Matt, when I look outside, the world is on fire with the flames of hell before our very eyes. Heaven is not here. Yeah, it is. Heaven is conquering this world with the army of God that has been raised up with the life-giving breath breathed into their lungs. That is why Hebrews 11, 1, it does say, faith is a substance of things hoped for. It's the substance of our hope. It's the substance now of what is hoped for, of what we know is coming. It's tangible—what you have hope in that is coming. We know heaven will engulf this world around us. We know the time will come where the suffocating love of God will engulf all of creation.

Our hope is in our King that reigns. Our faith is the substance of that hope now. It is the evidence of what is not seen. It's the evidence that we produce now. People all around us are waiting to see heaven and we're supposed to be the ones that are eyewitnesses. We're the ones that are supposed to testify of the reality of heaven in our own lives now. We're supposed to give others a glimpse of that. Here's the substance, exactly what Yeshua taught us to do. But heaven isn't here. Yes, it is. It is found in the community of God that orbits King Yeshua. That is the whole point of the life-giving spirit being poured out onto the dead, lifeless bones so that they would raise up and overtake the world with the power, the peace, the love, the justice, and humility of our God.

That's what makes Ezekiel 37 so exciting. When John starts hyperlinking back that he seems to think Yeshua is that fulfillment now.

Eyes Fixed on Hope

And so I don't know where you're at today. Of course, this is a much deeper study. Continue to dig into it. It's amazing. Check out the resources that I gave at the beginning of the message. But I don't know where you're at today. But I hope, listen to me, I hope your eyes are fixed on the hope that Yeshua gives us and not on the secular world around us and what hopelessness they allegedly are promoting. As the people of God, we are above that. We are above the ways of this world. Those tricks of the devil, fear, false allegiance, sensationalism of secular means, conspiracy at every corner, those things are beneath the people of God because our king reigns over Caesar and he has empowered us to live out as mighty warriors the kingdom of God.

Live out the hope. Live out the life given. Live out the tangible evidence of what is coming and what is already here within us. That's the message of the gospel—that the kingdom of God is near. Heaven meets earth every time Yeshua walked, talked, or touched anybody. And then he looks at us, breathes, and says, "I'm now gonna send you out." To do what? To conquer the flames of hell that have overtaken this world. Conquer the flames of hell with the reality of heaven. And we do that with the testimony of what Yeshua has done here with a new heart.

Closing Prayer

Our Father, our King, Father, we thank you for this time together that we can dive into your word. We thank you for this time together that you would open our eyes to the reality of not simply the scriptures, but what the scriptures testify of. The thing that is greater than the scriptures themselves, and that is the reality of your presence manifest in the person of Yeshua, our King. We ask that your spirit that you have given to us to revitalize our hearts and our being would continue to convict, continue to mold us, continue to evolve us into the soldiers of Yeshua that you would want us to be, but not only that, to evolve us into the life-giving image bearers that have the testimony of your kingdom. We thank you, Father, in the name of Yeshua we pray.

Amen. Shalom. I'm Matthew Vanderells, and I hope you enjoyed this message. Founded in Truth exists to build a community that bears the image of God and lives the redeemed life only Yeshua gives. If this message impacted you or if this ministry has been a blessing to you, we invite you to take part in making sure the message of Yeshua and the truth of God's word continues to reach others. To make

foundedintruth.com/give or by texting any amount to 704-275-0752. Don't forget to like and subscribe for new content every single week. And we thank you for your continued support. And we look forward to seeing you next time. Shalom.