Shoreline Church

I’m reading a book right now by Kyle Idleman called “The End of Me.” In this book he quotes sociologist, Brene’ Brown. Here is what he says:
We are those people. The truth is…we are the
others. Most of us are one paycheck, one divorce,
one drug-addicted kid, one mental health diagnosis,
one serious illness, one sexual assault, one drinking
binge, one night of unprotected sex, or one affair
from being “those” people – the ones we don’t
trust, the ones we pity, the ones we don’t let our
children play with, the ones bad things happen to,
the ones we don’t living next door.”

That quote has reminded me of the Compassion and Kindness that we as believers need in order for a culture of hurting people to hear us – to hear us share the living Hope that is found in Jesus.

As I preach this morning, please keep in mind that Jesus is our ONLY HOPE. (PERIOD) – He’s all we got. We must embrace it. We must accept this truth because the people we walk around on a daily basis are not simply “broken.” According to God’s word today, they are DEAD.

I want to preach on this subject today:
Observations from a Graveyard

#1 – There’s Dead People (1)

This verse speaks of “a real and present death”

Think about dead people for a minute:
· He is not sick. He is dead
· Unable to understand and appreciate anything
· Unable to respond to your voice
· His physical faculties are not functioning
· The only way they could function is if life is put back in body
· Dead bodies are in different states of decay
· He cannot be resuscitated. He has to be resurrected.



This is man’s condition
This is the condition of those who do know Christ
This used to be your spiritual condition before you met Jesus
“The most vital part of man’s personality – the spirit – is dead to the most important factor in life – God.” (Wood)
· Unable to understand and appreciate spiritual things
· Unable to respond to spiritual things
· His spiritual faculties are not functioning
· They cannot and will not function unless life is put back in body
· He is not sick. He’s not broken. He is dead
· Their appeared brokenness is simply different states of decay
· He cannot be resuscitated. He has to be resurrected.

We need to recognize that our world is a vast graveyard, filled with people who are dead while they live
· There is no one that is apart from Christ that is not dead
· Col. 2:13, “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.”

A few thoughts about this:
1. Many of us, as believers, we look back on our former lives and we see that we didn’t have life at all. What we thought was life was, in actuality, death. This is the point Paul is expressing, “Remember what you used to be like?”

Remember that you used to be DEAD.

2. The Death and resurrection of Christ was the turning point of history.
“If Christ’s resurrection introduces the life of the age to come ahead of time, then one’s state state prior to participation in that resurrection life must be viewed as death.” – Andrew Lincoln

3. You used to be dead, but now you’re are alive.
Ephesians 1:19-21
The same power that was at work in raising Jesus from the dead is the same power that is at work in you (and the same power that will raise the spiritually dead to life)

4. The tragic situation is that those who are not in a living relationship with God through Christ are dead
Romans 6:13, “Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
The greater tragedy is that that there are dead people everywhere and we who have this this power at work within us (Ephes. 3:20) continue to remain silent about it.


#2 – There’s a Reason why they’re dead (1b-3)

Because of your disobedience and sin
· Wrong steps
· Missing the mark
· Not isolated acts but a way of life

Romans 6:23
Death means separation
· Physically: your spirit from your body
· Spiritually: your spirit from God (More important and more tragic)
· The person that is lost is controlled by the values and attitudes of this world.
· They can’t fix it. They are dead.
· Dead people act like dead people.

There are three forces that encourage man in his disobedience
#1 - The World
- Romans 12:2
- The course of this world, the direction this world is going (Rip Tide)
- The present world order: The world’s system puts pressure on each person to get him to conform

Illustration:
VBS Ecuador
§ Creation – God created a world that he said was “good”
§ The Fall – Because of sin, the world has twisted it into a continuous evil influence on the people who live in it
§ The Cross – The cross was necessary to appease the righteous judgment of God on sinful humanity
§ Salvation – We get Grace (Ephes. 2:8-9)

John 12:31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. (Power over the world’s system)

#2 -The Devil
- “The prince of the power of the air”
§ The spirit realm
- Eph. 2:2 describes the devil as “the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.”
- This does not mean that he is personally at work in the life of each individual person. (Satan is not omnipresent - He can’t be in all places at one time - He is a created being that is limited by space)
- He has help
§ Ephes. 6:11-12, “Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Some of his goals
· He wants to make people “children of disobedience”
· He wants people to believe his lies
- He’s a Liar
- John 8:44
- The reason why people are spiritually dead is because they believe the lies of Satan
· He wants people to follow his example. He was disobedient to God.
- When a person believes and practices a lie, they become a child of disobedience
- Disobedience: man’s own choice

#3 - The Flesh
· This refers to the fallen nature we are born with that wants to control the mind and body and cause us to be disobedient to God
- The whole personality apart from the spirit

Illustration:
“Why your Dog does what it does”
- It’s his nature
- Psalm 51:5, “For I was born a sinner--yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.”
- Psalm 58:3, “These wicked people are born sinners; even from birth they have lied and gone their own way.

This desire to do evil makes us children of wrath
· The unsaved person has no hope of being obedient apart from outside intervention
· Why? Because he’s dead.
· Just like a dead man has no hope of being alive apart from someone else resurrecting him

We must stop expected dead people to live like those who are alive.
But, we cannot stop expecting those who are alive in Christ to act like it.

#3 – Dead People can’t do anything about their condition (3)

A Dead person cannot do anything.
He’s Dead!

Here’s what this means:
The lost sinner lives only to please the “desires of the flesh and the wishes of the mind” (That used to be us)
· His actions are sinful
· His appetites are sinful
· His motives are selfish
· He is incapable of doing good

Just like a dead person can’t do anything about their deadness, a lost person cannot do anything about their lostness.

Man is, by nature, children of wrath.
John 3:18, “"There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son.
· The sentence has been sent down from the judge
· Revelation 20:15, “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Man cannot do anything about His condition.
So what can be done?
The answer is found in the first 2 words of verse 4.
“But God..”
· John 3:16
· 1 John 2:2, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.