Dead Serious - Seriously Seeking (Iain Neill, Week 1)

Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and everything begins to make sense, not because all their questions disappear, but because Jesus is alive. Luke says they get up at once and return to Jerusalem. Same road, but they're not carrying the same thing anymore. They walked away with disappointment. Now they're walking away with hope. Because when Jesus becomes real, you don't just think differently. You return. When Jesus becomes real, they move. You move. It's right there in the word return. Turn again. Turn the other way. Return. [00:28:15] (45 seconds)  #RecognizeAndReturn

Because for some of us, the danger isn't rejecting Jesus. It's managing managing them managing them like a slightly inconvenient life coach. The danger isn't that Jesus is absent. It's that he's present, but we're ignoring him. And we've learned how to ignore him, and he's helpful as long as he agrees with us. The moment he doesn't, I'm in a season of processing, isn't it? And soon that season becomes processing, it soon becomes a postcode where nothing happens. But delayed obedience with worship playlist in the background is still disobedience. [00:19:44] (40 seconds)  #StopManagingJesus

But you see, Christianity is not just advice. It's not advice, actually. It's a claim that Jesus died, died for us, rose again on the third day, and walked out of that tomb. And if he rose, that means he is Lord, not just inspiring, not just helpful. And if that's true, a faith that never moves towards surrender isn't the Christianity that Jesus preached. It might look like it, but it isn't. And if you're a Christian, if you're not a Christian, you don't have to fake certainty today, but don't ignore what you might be sensing either. [00:03:27] (47 seconds)  #ResurrectionMeansLord

And before lunch, Easter becomes something we did, not something that is actually doing something in us. So the question I posed to you today is this, and it's easy because I'm a simple guy. So I'm gonna keep it simple for you this morning. What would it look like to live like people who actually believe in the resurrection? Not theoretically, but like on a Tuesday at 10AM when your last nerve has been tried and you're trying to be Christ like and employed because HR doesn't recognize, righteous anger as a category. I've checked, and flipping a desk is unprofessional. [00:02:09] (46 seconds)  #LiveResurrectionDaily

And if we're honest, we don't usually avoid the Bible because it's because we don't believe it. We avoid it because it we're worried it might be right. And if it's right, it's probably not gonna leave the furniture where we put it, which is awkward because we got the cushions just right. Sometimes it's as simple as this. Open the Bible even if it's a paragraph. Sit with it and ask, Jesus, what are you saying to me? And then actually respond. [00:25:22] (33 seconds)  #OpenScriptureRespond

And when Jesus speaks through scripture, it isn't just information. He ignites something in you, doesn't he? Like a bonfire catching, quiet at first, and then some big lad with a ranger's top fires a pallet on it and shouts, yo. Suddenly, the whole thing changes. The fire changes the atmosphere because Jesus isn't offering perspective. He's revealing truth. And the gap they thought that meant it was over becomes the place where Jesus was working all along, which means the gap in your life might not just be the end of the story just yet. [00:23:48] (40 seconds)  #ScriptureIgnitesLife

And you know what? Sometimes obedience ends up on that list, the delay list, the someday list, the the drawer that never gets sorted. And it's handy because delay sounds much less dramatic than rebellion. Doesn't it? Delay feels kinda harmless. It's harmless. But some of us have been saying later to Jesus for so long that later has become no just with better branding. That's what it is. And deep down, you already know what that is because the holy spirit is not vague. We are. The holy spirit is not vague. We are. That conversation, that habit, that part of your life where Jesus is welcome, but just not in charge. [00:29:54] (53 seconds)  #DelayIsDisobedience

Faith can feel a bit hard. Aeroplane mode, everything looks connected, but nothing's coming through. Nothing's happening. And in these moments, faith often starts the same way starts again the same way it started in the first place, which is asking a question of yourself. Jesus, I don't have this figured out, but you know what? I'm open. And if you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, and that's as far as you'd go right now, that's okay, but stay honest. Don't call it open if he can't interrupt you. [00:05:59] (35 seconds)  #StayOpenToJesus