Will These Bones Live? | A Sermon on Hope in Desolate Places

What do you do when a situation—personal, communal, or even global—feels beyond repair?

In this sermon, Will These Bones Live?, Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lapsley reflects on Ezekiel's haunting vision of the valley of dry bones and the deeply human question it asks: Is new life still possible here?

Preached on January 11, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, this message draws from Ezekiel 37:1–14 and Ephesians 2:1–10 to explore how God's Spirit meets us not in mild discouragement, but in places of real loss, exhaustion, and devastation.

This sermon invites you to consider:

• Where you may have stopped expecting renewal

• What it means to tell the truth about how dry things really are

• How God's breath brings life in ways we cannot manufacture or control

• Why hope is not denial, but a form of courage

If you are carrying grief, weariness, or a sense that something in your life or in the world is beyond saving, this sermon offers a steady, honest, and deeply hopeful word: God is still at work, even here.