The Walking Dead Have Taken Over Real Life

What a great Sunday at Real Life to kick off October AND our new message series, Walking Dead!  Had a great morning of music finished off by four baptisms and learned about how Daniel was walking dead because he chose to die to sin and selfishness so that he could live, completely to God.  And that is what this walking dead series is all about!  The truth is we are all walking dead.  In a literal sense we are all headed for death, if you're reading this you haven't died yet, but you and I and everyone else will one day die.  We're walking dead in a spiritual sense in two ways:  First, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) so without Jesus we're dead in our sins.  But as believers in Jesus we should die to sin and selfishness.  So you are either walking dead IN sin or walking dead TO sin.

The myth is that if we remove the obstacle (God we suppose) to happiness and life-the-way-we-want-it then we will truly be able to live.  But the reality of our lives is that without God nothing really makes sense.  We can pretend it does and talk about morality and doing good to others, but without a God that determines what is moral and good those things become arbitrary and meaningless.  I know a young man who talked about how God probably wants a good moral person who "does no harm" over a Christian who lives at times like a hypocrite.  In this view, he justifies not needing a Savior because he lives his life trying to "do no harm" to others.  The problem with his view is this; while he is kind to most people he can be horribly mean, verbally abusive and physically aggressive toward members of his own family.  So he doesn't even live up to his OWN moral code.

When we live for ourselves based on our own system or code of what life is all about we most often fail and wind up controlled by something that we thought we had control over.  Live your life for yourself, on your own terms and you'll end up looking for something more down the road, something that satisfies your hunger for meaning and passion for life.

Paul, in Titus  chapter 3 gives this testimony, [God] gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God's gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there's more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.

Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus (Romans 6:23 MSG).

If you want to really live you've got to give up your life - I know it sounds backward but it  isn't, it's how it works.  Try to save your life and live for yourself and you'll get trapped by the very things you chose to do to prove your independence!  But give up your life to Jesus and let Him lead you and you'll discover what it's like to truly live.  To be free.  To be more than you though possible.

Welcome, to the walking dead.

Here's a picture of my family taken last Sunday at Real Life Christian Church Worship Center to promote the walking dead series on social media sites.