Life & Death

In: 1. Logan did a great job telling us the Easter story

a. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James going to the tomb of Jesus

b. The angel asks them a question in Luke 24:5 Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

2. Spring- Morel, Turkeys, spring cleaing

a. Big trash day- trucks come around “shopping”

b. Dumpster Diving at Walmart

c. Curb shopping, trash picking or street scavenging

d. Looking for unused or discarded items that may be deemed useful to the picker

e. The term "Dumpster" itself comes from the Dempster Dumpster, a brand of bins manufactured by Dempster Brothers beginning in 1937

f. TV shows like Storage wars

3 .Garbologist

a. Sift through this human debris using archeological techniques to help us understand everything from people's health and food choices to the workings of secretive political regimes

4. Private and government investigators will pick through garbage for evidence

a. People use it as a means to collect information for identity theft

b. This is why we created Paper shredders

c. Now we have laws to make it illegal

5. At some point our kids have tried to use the rational that their friends or the place they want to go isn’t “all bad”. There are a “few” good reasons to be there… to which mom says, “There’s good food in the garbage, but you don’t want to eat it”

6. It’s sort of the same question, Why are you looking for the living among the dead?

Ts: I want to ask you three questions

I. WHERE are you looking at?

* Why are you looking for the living among the DEAD?

A. Where do we try to find life?

1. Johnny Lee- Looking for love in all the wrong places

2. Famous author Jack Higgens was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer was: ‘That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.’

3. What is it that we keep telling yourself “If I had/did this, I would find contentment”?

4. Those things end, not eternal, they die can’t take it with you

5. We are going to die… then what. That’s the message of the resurrection, there is more

B. We look in a lot of wrong places

1. People, relationships

a. Not fair to put that burden on another person, they aren’t God

2. Money, homes, toys, clothing, things – they don’t last

3. Accomplishment, status, education, degree’s, respect, popularity, position

4. Nothing outside can fix the problem we have on the inside

C. Will it really bring us fulfillment?

1. As Americans, we have more money, more food, nicer amenities than 95% of the world

2. About 130 million Americans, swallow, inject, inhale, infuse, spray, and pat on prescribed medication every month.

3. We buy much more medicine per person than any other country in the world to the tune of 3.5 billion prescriptions per year

4. We have stuff to wake us up, put us to sleep, stimulate our attention span, calm our nerves, strengthen our bones and weaken our pain- yet we work more, sleep less and our medicine cabinet keeps growing bigger and bigger

5. Solomon had it all and said in Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before me, and my wisdom never failed me. 10 Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. 11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere

6. All of it ends. There has to be something more

* We will never find life among things that bring death

II. WHAT are you looking for?

* Why are you looking for the LIVING among the dead?

A. We are looking for life

1. The meaning of life, purpose for being here

a. A lady in Biloxi, Mississippi jumped off a bridge intending to kill herself. A fishermen below saw her hit the water and jumped in to save her. In his excitement he forgot that he couldn't swim. As he was flailing and screaming for help the girl that jumped into the water saw him and rescued him. Both were taken to the hospital and survived. A newspaper reporter later said, "The man did not save the girl, purpose saved the girl."

2. There has to be more than maturing, working, loving, collecting, retiring, dying

a. There must be some purpose to this lie

b. There has to be more than checking the boxes

1) Everything looks like a box

c. We feel like we are stuck in a box

B. Jesus offers us life

1. John 1:4 Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone

a. Life in the dark is dangerous and no fun

b. Jesus turns the lights on

2. Jesus offers Hope- things can change, be different

3. Jesus offers Joy- happiness, anticipation, satisfaction something internal consistent

4. Jesus offers Peace- contentment, rest, accomplishment

* What we are looking for is beyond this world, only Jesus offers it

III. WHY are you looking?

* WHY are you looking for the living among the dead?

A. Why are we incomplete?

1. What is it inside of us that drives us to keep looking, that makes us feel discontented, empty, lost?

2. St Augustine- You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are rest-less till they find their rest in you

3. The Famous philosopher and mathematician Pascal - The God-shaped hole in the human heart is in fact an infinite and terrifying abyss, which I try to cover over with all sorts of false facades.

4. We all have a God-shaped hole in our lives, only Jesus can fill it

a. In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish High Priest with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin

b. Shin- Shaddai the name of God- (Pics- shin imprint)

c. God has put His imprint inside of us

5. We are eternal being and only the eternal can satisfy us

a. We are like a kite. We want to cut the strings and be free and do our own thing, but we don’t work unless we are connected to our creator

B. We were created to have a relationship with our creator

1. John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (abundant life)

2. John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life

3. Luke 9:24 Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it

a. The only way to find real life is to GIVE our life to Jesus

4. He came looking for us

a. Luke 19:10 He came to seek and to save that which was lost

b John 4- He had to go to Samaria, Woman at the well, left her waterpot after she met Jesus

c. We’ve been going to a lot of wells looking for life giving water

Cn: 1. Why do we keep going to dead things to try to find life?

2. John D. Rockefeller had become the world's first billionaire. But he was a miserable man who couldn't sleep, who was unloved, and who needed bodyguards. Then at age 53 he was stricken with a rare disease. He lost all his hair, and his body became shrunken. He was given a year or so to live. Rockefeller started thinking about eternal issues, and suddenly he began to change. He gave away his money to help churches and the poor. He established the Rockefeller Foundation, which has underwritten critical health research. His health improved, and contrary to the doctor's prediction, he lived to be 98.

3. Psalm 121:1-2 I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth

4. Stop looking for the living among the dead

5. What have you been using to try to fil the void in your life?

6. You are eternal and only something eternal can fulfill you

7. Jesus stands at the door knocking, but you have to open the door

Al: 1. Salvation- give your life to Jesus, open the door, put down your waterpot