Week 2: Dead or Alive?

Title: Live the new life

I’m going to ask a weird question, are you ready? Look to your neighbor and say are you read?

Has anyone in here ever died? (Tell story of when I was 11 years old I died.)

We are in this series on Ephesians, and last week Pastor Jeremy kicked us off and discussed who we are in Christ, and now we have a new identity.

This week, I want to focus on on this reality of being alive in Christ and no longer dead.

Paul in Ephesians 4:17-24 lays out for us this new life in Christ.

Ephesians 4:17–24 NIV

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Do you know that every person born into this earth is automatically dead spiritually until their new birth in Christ? It’s wild to think about, but because of the first sin, we are dead.

I want to make this claim as well, that I believe its fully possible to be a church attending Christian and be dead. How do I know this, because I have personally experienced it. Most of my early life, I would go to church and go through the motions of religion, and I was dead on the inside.

See when we confess and believe in Jesus, there should be evidence on our life of the goodness of God. Friends, we are living in a day that requires Christians to live in a manner worthy of the call on our life. Where people see the “Glow of Christ and smell the sweet aroma on our life.”

Look to your neighbor and ask, “How do I look and smell?”

One and only point: In Christ, we are made alive to live a life fully alive.

So how do we do this? What does it look like to be alive?

1.) Being alive makes noise in our life.

-Different types of funerals (African American funeral.)

-Dead bodies don’t make noise, why because they are dead.

-Alive bodies make noise in the world.

-Paul would say it like this in Ephesians 5:18-20

Ephesians 5:18–20 NIV

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2.) Being alive means to walk in wisdom.

-Lucius Lactantius says this, “The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second, to know that which is true.”

-Paul says in Ephesians 5:15-17

Ephesians 5:15–17 NIV

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

3.) Being alive means living like Christ.

-Living like Christ does not mean perfection, it just simply means I’m going to listen and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.

-A pastor friend of mine once said, “The greatest spiritual discipline you can learn is listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will direct your ways and help you to live a life worthy of the call of Christ.”

Paul says in Romans 6:6

Romans 6:6 NIV

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

-How we live, determines if we are alive or dead? Our lifestyle matters. Can I say it again for the people in the back, our lifestyle matters!!!

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Close:

I want to you encourage you and uplift you, that Jesus has so much life for you!! Stop living dead, and live alive in Christ.

In college, I had a professor who modeled what it looked like to be fully alive, and he led me to a book called “Practicing the presence of God by Brother Lawerence.” This book changed my life, because I realized to be fully alive, meant I had to practice being with God.

Quote from Brother Lawerence “The holiest and most necessary practice in the spiritual life is that of the presence of God.”

Activation for this week:

-Practice the presence of God daily by doing two things.

1.) Write down three things you are thankful for and give God worship.

2.) Spend 30min in worship and listening.