260405 Easter - Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

I don't know where you're today, but I want you to know the tomb is empty whether you believe it or not. It's empty. Come on. And everything changes. The resurrection is not just God's great miracle. Look what he did. No. It is a verdict. It is a verdict being declared that although you are sinful and you deserve judgment and you deserve condemnation, God has stepped in for your sin. God has stepped in for your punishment through Jesus Christ, and it's paid in full. [00:42:00] (43 seconds)  #TombEmptyPaidInFull

And so you have two choices. You can reject it and keep trying to build your life on your own and still live with the same quiet disappointment. And you can try to get bigger, badder, faster and try to hush that voice that's gonna stay there. Or with the power of the Holy Spirit, you can just say yes. Yes, I believe. And yes, by your spirit, I will trust in you. And I will believe that what you have done is not just history, it's not just for somebody else, but it's for me. That's your choice today. [01:02:55] (46 seconds)  #ChooseResurrection

Jesus is not asking you to go find him somewhere out there. He's here now. You have heard it. You have received it in his word. The same voice that says he's not here, he is risen is speaking to you and calling to you. Not for you to go manage your life, to fix yourself, to try harder, but to simply trust him. Believe in him. Rest in him. [01:00:59] (32 seconds)  #JesusIsHereNow

So let me say this carefully. Some of the things you're attached to that you go back to don't even look sinful. They look responsible. They even look successful. And yes, some look incredibly spiritual. But if they are where you're looking for life, they still leave you empty. So you can build a great career and still feel hollow. You can raise a good family and still feel restless. You can serve in a church and still feel spiritually dry. [00:29:11] (52 seconds)  #NotYourSource

Now don't miss that's the moment. Not when it's obviously broken, but when life looks full and yet it still isn't. It's in that exact moment where you are tired, but you are attached to what doesn't work that God speaks. Not to shame, not to crush you, not to wave a figure at you, but to wake up your soul. And he says, why are you seeking the living among the dead? [00:33:46] (57 seconds)  #SeekingLivingAmongTheDead

See God see we don't just sin by doing wrong things. We sin by trusting the wrong things. We ask the created things that give us what only the creator can give. And anything you look for in life apart from Christ for to give you life, that is your God. And the news you already know, I need to tell you is that God can't save you. At most, it has a little light of relief that leads right to death. [00:39:50] (46 seconds)  #CreatedCantSave

It's like someone who's been sleeping in a broken down house, and a new home has already been given to them, but they keep going back, checking out the old place, sitting in the old chair, living like nothing's changed. And Easter says, you have a new address. Stop going back. You have a new identity in Christ. Stop going back. [00:49:18] (41 seconds)  #StopGoingBack

See, Jesus number six did not raise rise to be your backup plan. He rose to be your Lord. See, the resurrection is not an option to consider. It's not an option on the buffet of life and just one of the things that you can you can just consume and move on and just go consume other things. No. It it is a is a thing that confronts us and says there is no other options. [00:49:59] (32 seconds)  #ResurrectionIsNotOptional

And to stop going back to what cannot live. Stop searching where life cannot be found. Stop keeping your backup just in case, savior. See, Jesus didn't rise to be your backup plan and you're just in case. He rose to be your Lord. For as the Lord, he speaks, he calls, he forgives, he gives life. [01:01:31] (34 seconds)  #JesusIsLordNotBackup

Well, if we just get to this level, we just get here, then we'll feel secure. And all we do is the higher we go, the more insecure we feel. And the comfort that doesn't heal us. And so we double down for more discomfort, for more luxury, thinking if we just have more of it, then we will finally heal. It's the American answer. More, better, bigger, faster. It will work this time. [00:37:28] (32 seconds)  #MoreIsntEnough

And we get on the hamster wheel and we're just running in place after one thing and another and we are exhausted because it's disappointment upon disappointment upon disappointment, loss upon loss. And so be honest. What is it that you keep going back for? Where are you still thinking maybe this time maybe this time will be different? And here's what the extraordinary thing is. God doesn't ignore this. He confronts it. [00:38:01] (47 seconds)  #GodConfrontsTheCycle

He's saying, look, don't go back because if you go back, if you even look back and you give a a place in your heart, you let your eyes see it and let you get into your heart, that little thing that you keep around, that pet stuff that you keep turning back to, it is dangerous. It is poison to you. It is death, and it will lead you down destruction, any death, not just physical, but eternal. [00:52:40] (25 seconds)  #IdolsLeadToDeath

For anything you look at for life apart from Christ will eventually ask you to carry it. In other words, the thing that you turn to, the things that gives you that relief, that gives you that control, that power, the thing that you think that you rule over eventually will rule over you, and it will enslave you. And it will take you down darker roads that you'd never ever wanna go to. But your heart was just open, it takes you. [00:53:17] (44 seconds)  #IdolBecomesMaster

See, we don't just return to what doesn't work. We return to what we wish would work. We so desperately want the world to work for us. Because if the world would work for us, then what does that mean? We get to be in charge. We get to be in control. We get to decide what is right and what is good. You get to do you. [00:33:11] (34 seconds)  #ControlIsAnIllusion

some of you walked in here today carrying more than you expected. Not on the outside, but the inside. Fatigue, disappointment, that quiet sense that something in life isn't delivering the way you thought it would. And if we're honest, you've been trying to make it work. Hoping maybe this time will be different. But here's the tension. Deep down, we know, we already know. Some of the things we keep going back to actually don't give life. [00:21:16] (75 seconds)  #QuietDisappointment

We keep plugging into things that have already proven they cannot give life. And what's crazier is we don't abandon the dead things. We revisit them. We manage them. We organize them. We even label them. Like somehow better organization will bring them back to life. [00:31:54] (27 seconds)  #WeMaintainDeadThings

And so you try again and you twist it and you hold it at an angle and move around and sometimes you you hold it and you're like, you don't even breathe because you're afraid of messing up. And for a second, it like charges. You see the light and you go, look, see see, it works, it works, it works. And then it goes out and it dies again. See, whether you are 25 or you're 75, that's what we all do spiritually. [00:31:23] (31 seconds)  #TemporaryFixesFail

See, it's like that drawer in our house. You know that one, the junk drawer. You open it and it's full of cords, chargers from phones you don't even own anymore. Some of those go back to the flip phone. And some are like, yeah, I still have one of those just in case. Right? None of them work, but you don't throw them away. Why? Because somewhere in the back of your mind, you say, maybe, maybe this one will still work. [00:30:37] (46 seconds)  #KeepingDeadStuffJustInCase

You're not saved because you figured it all out. You're not saved because you let go of these other idols perfectly. You are saved because Christ walked out of that tomb. Amen. See, the same resurrection that confronts you and hits you in the face with of your pride is the same resurrection that carries you in forgiveness. And that changes how we live. This is not just candy and games and hide and seek. [00:42:53] (54 seconds)  #SavedByChristNotWorks

And perhaps there's some doubt and perhaps fear and maybe perhaps shame because we just don't think we're worthy of it. And we're like Peter. We see it, we marvel at it, and then we just go home. We just go back to normal. But the good news is Jesus loves the way you are but he loves you enough not to leave you there. And he comes to you. [00:55:52] (42 seconds)  #GospelIsPersonal