THE PROBLEM OF SPIRITUAL “DRYNESS”
Ezekiel 37:1-3,11

Intro:
Good evening.
I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Ezekiel chapter 37. There I’m going to read verses one through three and then verse 11 as we begin our thoughts this evening. Ezekiel 37:1-3,11 - “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. 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. And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?'' So I answered, "O Lord God, You know.''” Now verse 11: “Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!'”[NKJ]
The book of Ezekiel is very dramatic. It challenges our mental facilities with word pictures over and over again. There’s much to be seen in the book of Ezekiel. Here we are seeing a valley that is full of bones—full of human, skeletal remains. What I want us to see is not the physical valley that was full of dry bones, but the emphasis that is given to the lesson. The emphasis is upon what Israel is thinking: Our bones are dry and our hope is lost. Here are people in the throes of the depths of spiritual depression. Here are people who are about as low spiritually as one can get. It is not a good feeling, but it is a feeling that can be experienced by any child of God.
I know that human nature suggests and experience proves that there are going to be those ups and downs in our lives. The kind of feeling about which I am speaking here is not the usual ups and downs. The feeling that is described here is that time in our life and our experience when the wind is gone from our sails, spiritually speaking. That feeling, my friends, is the feeling of spiritual dryness…

I. WHAT MIGHT THE CAUSES BE? As we think about spiritual dryness, even as we think about the situation of Israel, I wonder; what is the cause of such feeling as this? Our bones are dry. Our hope is gone.
A. Perhaps there has not been adequate spiritual maintenance. There was a story about a man who died & when they were winding up his estate it was discovered that in his will he wanted his estate left to the devil! Since the estate involved a property the executors of the will were at a loss as to how they would leave real estate to the devil. After some discussion his lawyers decided that the best way to honor their client’s request would be to simply let the property lie idle & do nothing to it. They figured that w/ the passing of time it would simply run down & fall into a state of disrepair & ruin.
1. It may be that we’re driving on fumes without replenishing the fuel that is needed for spiritual strength.
2. A number of things suggest themselves. For example, we may no longer be praying as we should. There may not be adequate communion with the word of God. No time in our lives for meditation on things spiritual, Biblical and Godly. Perhaps worship has become just a kind of - rote exercise.
3. We are here, physically present, but there’s so much more going on in our lives we’re not really sure why we’re here. We did the things we’ve done, but did we do them with thought?
B. If these things are in disrepair, they might actually be contributed to by other problems which themselves contribute to spiritual dryness.
1. For example, we may have a problem with a long term physical illness in the family. Under the best of circumstances that’s a very emotional and draining situation, but if we’ve not been keeping our spiritual strength repaired and maintained, then it becomes something that contributes to spiritual dryness.
2. Marital difficulties—oh, my how they contribute to a time when we’re low spiritually. Tension, arguments, ugliness can become so much a part of our lives that we soon forget who we are and whose we are.
3. Money problems—anybody have money problems? I have a strong suspicion that if we have money trouble, we have already discovered that those can become preoccupying. They can become absorbing such that we lose sight of what really is the most important thing in life.
C. With these problems change begins to creep into our priorities. We lose the real emphasis on spiritual things. We’ve put the emphasis were it doesn’t belong.
1. Even problems we have with our children—conflicts, heartaches, embarrassment and, yes, tension. These are the kinds of things that can cause spiritual dryness or depression.
2. Then the problem of involvement with sin—sin has a tendency to take us away from the Lord. Sin produces guilt in Godly people, and when the guilt comes two things can happen.
i. Either the guilt can drive us back to the Lord in penitence.
ii. Or, this is the sad thing about the problem of guilt; it can drive us in directions that we should not be going—away from the Lord.
D. These are just some of the things that contribute to the spiritual depression, spiritual dryness. Our bones are dry! Our hope is lost. Why? Because we’ve not been maintaining our spiritual vitality as we should. These things that come to all people and the things that I’ve mentioned are not unique to just some people. They’re things that are common to many people.
E. When these things happen, if spiritual maintenance has not been ongoing, they can undo us. That’s reality.
II. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS OF SPIRITUAL “DRYNESS”? I think of the cause and then I wonder, ok, how are we to know, to recognize, if we are in the throes of this problem of spiritual depression or dryness? I think there are two particular arenas into which I would go by reason of experience of my own and with others over the years.
A. There is the arena of the church building, if I may use that expression. What happens when we are spiritually dry? When things are not going well for us spiritually?
1. One thing that happens is the assemblies of the Lord’s church begin to be very sporadic. We are no longer as faithful in our determination to be at every worship assembly, every Bible class, every gospel meeting. Little by little the faithfulness begins to taper off. It isn’t long until we only occasionally add to the number posted on the board.
2. Something else that can happen, we change where we sit in the assembly of the Lord’s church. What I mean by that is, not those people who kind of change around to meet people around them. I’m talking about folks like me, who you would believe have an assigned seat. Then you might see them beginning to move back a little bit, away from the focus of the activity and it isn’t long until they are sitting on that back row.
3. Perhaps as soon as the amen is said to the last prayer, we are out of here like a shot. We arrive, barely on time to get a seat in back, and then we rush for the door when the amen is said, we don’t take the time to stop and visit with old Christian friends. It’s uncomfortable for us to visit with those folks or visit with the preacher because we are afraid that someone might say something like: You know we’ve missed you lately. By the way, I’m not picking on folks sitting on the back seat so don’t feel like this is directed particularly at you. But it is a phenomenon that occurs when people are going into this spiritual dry spell.
4. The truth is you see, there’s this withdrawing thing that happens. It is a symptom. It’s one of the symptoms that happen around the church building. We should be aware of this if it happens in our lives. Think about the opportunities we have to do things in service to the Lord and we can’t if we end up as the missing people.
B. The other arena is that of personal life.
1. What happens when we’re a period of spiritual dryness is that it is easier than ever to choose the secular over the spiritual. We have the opportunity to recharge our spiritual battery. We have the opportunity to engage in something with people who are deeply concerned spiritually about not only their own welfare but ours. Yet it’s easier to say we have another appointment. We have another place we have to be. It’s a symptom.
2. Prayer becomes less frequent. It’s hasty. It’s often the rote prayer. It’s maybe an afterthought.
3. The reading of the Word of God is on the wane in the life of a person who is a position of spiritual dryness.
i. Certainly, the problem may be that it was never what it should have been in the first place. We’ve not been feeding ourselves and it’s just so easy to ignore that nourishment when the troubles come, as they’re going to.
ii. We read less and less of God’s word and finally it’s not just a minimum thing it’s a zero thing in our lives.
4. Even our family relationships may not be as pleasant to us as once they were. I’m talking about families that are families of faithful Christians—parents, spouses, children, uncles and aunts, whatever it may be. The family has been faithful in its activity for the Lord for so long and here we are drifting away and it’s not fun anymore for us to be with those people who have this wonderful spiritual emphasis to their lives and ours has become secular. It’s not fun anymore.
5. We may find ourselves using language that’s not a part of our former pattern of life. Do we ever hear words come out of our mouths that do not belong in our mouth? It may be that that is a symptom, a signal that spiritual problems are coming into our lives.
6. We may even find ourselves establishing relationships which would never have been part of our past life—a life in which spiritual strength existed. Now our relationships are with worldly people. They are not folks that are Godly. They are not folks that are going to encourage our spiritual strength. They are folks that are going to take us away from that. It’s symptomatic of the valley of the dry bones. Our bones are very dry. Our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts.
7. We may even find ourselves making moral and ethical decisions that we would have never thought to make previously. The symptoms, these and others, are symptoms of spiritual dryness—spiritual problems. It is easy to talk about the cause. It’s easy to talk about the symptoms. What we really need is the cure.
III. I want to suggest a few things this evening which seems to me are very much a part of the cure for the problem of spiritual dryness.
A. I suggest to you that there must be repentance. You may ask me why. Why repent? Why do we have to repent? I’ll tell you. Spiritual dryness invariably is the result of spiritual neglect.
1. That neglect can lead to our spiritual ruin; therefore, we need to repent of the neglect that has let us go into this spiral of spiritual depression leading to spiritual dryness.
2. I would like to take a look at a passage from the book of Revelation. I want us to turn back there for a minute. Revelation 3:1-3 – and here’s what I read: “"And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. "Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.”
B. Secondly, I would suggest to you that there must be fervent prayer. There must be prayers for forgiveness, prayers for renewal, and prayers for wisdom. I would encourage you to read the book of Psalms in its entirety. I would encourage you to read the book of Lamentations. Not just for an exercise in reading, but rather reading with an emphasis on the prayers you’re going to find in these two remarkable books. In these prayers you’re going to discover that here are people who understand things like spiritual depression, who may have experienced it themselves and who have fought their way out of it. One of the weapons that they’ve used to fight their way out, has been prayer.
1. If you’ll turn with me to the book of Lamentations 5:21 – “Turn us back to You, O Lord, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old,” This is the prayer of Jerimiah. Turn us to you and renew our days, a prayer for renewal.
2. Or in the book of James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” One of the things about this verse that I dearly love is that expression “without reproach”. God is not going to beat us over the head with a club if we pray to him for renewal. If we pray to him for help out of this spiritual pit in which we find ourselves. He’s not going to criticize us.
3. We pray to Him for wisdom and He’ll give liberally. There’s a wonderful promise there. In finding the cure this spiritual depression prayer has to be an immediate part of the process.
C. Third, I suggest to you that there must be resolution, resolve. Because spiritual dryness is not a condition that is going to go away on its own. It’s just not. We need to make some irrevocable decisions. We have to be determined we are going to change. We are going to do something different from the way we are currently doing things. Life needs to be better than this and we’ve got to find the better way. We must purpose in our hearts as scripture uses that expression, making a decision, to get ourselves out of this mess we find ourselves in.
1. In Philippians 3:13-14 - “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” I don’t suggest here that the apostle Paul finds himself in the mess of spiritual dryness, but these are words that can help us. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward toward the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
2. The decision that there is nothing more important than getting past our spiritual dryness must be made because if we don’t - we’re just going to continue to go through the motions. Then finally, we may drift away completely from the Lord Jesus and His church.
D. Fourth, I would also suggest there must be reading of the Word of God. I mentioned to you the book of Psalms. I recommend this book as our “go to” book whenever we have a moment. When you are sitting alone, be it in the evening, a quiet time of day or if you are traveling and have stopped for the night take out your Bible and read from the book of Psalms. When there are difficulties going on in your life then in those difficulties turn to the book of Psalms. I’ll tell you what, folks, the strength that can be derived from the reading of the Psalms is magnificent.
1. Yet, there are so many other places to read—the New Testament letters. Often we read them for encouragement. The wonderful book of Philippians is where we hear over and over again “rejoice and again I say rejoice”. The words joy and rejoice are found in the book of Philippians so often. We will find when we are reading, that here’s the challenge to us; there isn’t any pleasure in spiritual depression. We are challenged by the Word of God to find joy and the peace of God which passes understanding. We will realize that through prayer and the laying of things before God, we will find joy.
2. Joy comes from reading the Bible and receiving the assurance that is found in the Word of God. Every time I study the Bible I find joy in my increase of the knowledge of God’s word.
3. I recognize that the other things we might read are not written by people inspired by God like the scriptures. Yet, if those people are faithful Christians, they may have insights into some of the difficulties we experience, whether they are financial or physical or whatever they may be. The wisdom they impart can help us as we realize that here are very real human beings who have had the same kinds of problem that we have had. Look how they’ve survived these things. I need that kind of assurance.
4. In First Timothy 4:13 - the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy these few words: “Till I come, give attendance to reading...” Folks, to you this evening I would say if we are in this spiritual dry spell leading to so many problems in our spiritual life, give attendance to reading -- especially the Word of God. I read frequently. I read in the scriptures. I read in other sources. I’ll tell you this because I’ve had times in my life that as soon as I let my reading diminish, I begin to feel dull and dry. I don’t let that feeling last very long.
E. Fifth: There needs to be a seeking of opportunity to serve. You know spiritual dryness can be so self-absorbing and self-consuming. As we seek the opportunity to serve someone else, what we’re doing is getting the focus off ourselves and that can be very important.
1. The other thing I mentioned, “joy”, is that we will, in serving others, discover that service is such a wonderful joy giver. There’s not any joy in spiritual depression for the righteous. Remember Titus 2:14 - “who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works”
2. Or Galatians 5:13 – “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” So many people need to be served. There are so many opportunities to reach out to other people.
IV. Spiritual dryness is very consuming we tend draw into our selves. All we’re able to see is our own troubles, our own problems, when it would be helpful to us to reach out to someone else and help them. Over in the 20th chapter of the book of Acts the apostle Paul reminded the folks of Ephesus about these words of the Lord: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. I believe that’s true in the matter of service as much or more as in the matter of giving gifts or money. The greatest happiness comes when we reach out to others.
V. Last, but certainly not least, there must be assembling for worship. If we withdraw ourselves from the assemblies of the Lord’s church, we are depriving ourselves of wonderful opportunities to be encouraged, to be admonished, and to be joyous. I often wonder, I have to confess, on a Lord’s Day evening such as this, what brought you here.
A. What brought us here? Has the habit of worship brought us here? That’s good, but is it enough?
B. Are we here to praise God, who loves us? When we came this morning did we come here to remember that Jesus Christ died at Calvary to give us life? In taking that unleavened bread and drinking that fruit of the vine, we are declaring, we are memorializing, our interest in His death, His body, His blood, His sacrifice. Is that why we came today?
C. I hope our reason for being here is deeper than, “It’s just 10 o’clock on Sunday morning or its 6 pm on Sunday evening and this is where I usually am at this time”. I hope that we won’t withdraw ourselves ever. No matter how spiritually destitute we may become, we must never withdraw ourselves from the assembly of the Lord’s people because we do so at the peril to our own soul. Not just because we are commanded to assemble, but because we are leaving our support group and we’re going into a world that just does not care about our spiritual life. It just doesn’t care at all.
D. Let us look together in Hebrews 10:23ff – Familiar words really: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
1. Do we know to whom the writer wrote these words? It isn’t to the saints that are on top of the world, it is to saints who are wondering—“is it worth it to keep on keeping on?” It is written to discouraged saints. It is written to saints who are experiencing what you and I might call spiritual dryness.
2. These are words of advice, spiritual advice, given by the inspiration of the Spirit of God to keep on assembling. Keep on being encouraged by the saints around us. Keep on loving. Keep on doing good works. Staying strong.

CONCLUSION:

In that wonderful book of Isaiah 40:28-31 – we read: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” As I sat writing the notes for this lesson, I wondered, how would I conclude the lesson and then I remembered this passage. Isn’t that really the answer? They that wait upon the Lord, those who maintain their spiritual connection to God in worship, in praise, in service—they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. There’s the answer, folks, to spiritual dryness.

We are about to be led in the invitation song which was announced and as we sing it perhaps we’re thinking that this lesson wasn’t something to inspire me to respond and maybe not. Yet, there may be those in the assembly this evening that have never begun their discipleship and service to the Lord by being baptized into Christ. So the spiritual connection has never been made. I encourage you this evening as we sing to decide that you want to be a child of God. Decide, I want to be baptized into Christ. I want to have all of my sins forgiven. I want the guilt to be gone and it will be. I want to serve God. If you do, then you need to come and say I want to be a Christian. I want to be baptized into Christ.

I am thinking especially of folks who may be here this evening who are in the throes of spiritual dryness. Do you need the prayers of brothers and sisters? This is one of the wonderful things about the Lord’s church. We are not strangers. We are family. If we cannot, among our family members, confess our needs and ask for earnest prayers, where can we? If you need those prayers this evening to help you out of spiritual depression which can be so debilitating you may come and simply say I need the prayers of my brothers and sisters.
If there is any way, this evening, that we can assist you, serve you, we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

# 593 – Free Waters

Reference Sermon by
Cecil Hutson