SEP 1 2019 | Dive Into Life S1E3 | Light of the Living Dead

Sea Change Church · Dive Into Life · "Light of the Living Dead" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · September 1, 2019
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. I am Jen Frazier and my hubby is Jeremy and we are small group hosts. We have the Linda Vista group that meets on Tuesdays at 7 o'clock. It's co-hosted with the Fromms. So come join us. We'd love to see you there. A reading from Luke 24, 1 through 12. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee, The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.

Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

The word of the Lord. Thanks, Jen. Left the mic on this time. Second time's a charm, right? She ghosted me last time with the mic, so... Good to see you. Thanks for doing that. Her and Jeremy are amazing. Get to know them. Doing some great... I think they mentioned your small group, so we're excited about that. We're going to be doing some adventure stuff as well. I'm kind of starting an adventure small group here. So you want to do fun stuff, hike, snowboard, stuff like that, you'll hear about it.

And I get to do it at work, so that's fun. For me, so let me just pray for this sermon. Lord Jesus, we love you. We love the power of your word. Your word is powerful. We want to feast on your word, God, like honey to our lips, Lord God. We want to plug into Jesus. We believe in the power of the cross. And I pray that the power of the cross will bring inspiration to the spirit of God and power from heaven on high to bring practical change in our lives this week through this word, through these very scriptures that we read, believing in the righteousness of God, that we are made righteous through you.

So God, use any gifting that you've given me to share this word with this congregation and bring life change and life on this corner. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. Amen. 1968. Night of the Living Dead came out. Now, did you see what I did with my sermon? Did you see the cool little title I got? Light of the Living Dead playing on words there. Taking some risk. Taking some risk. Not a very good movie.

I think it might have been the first of the zombie movies. I'm not a horror movie guy. I don't really get it. I don't get the whole genre. And I definitely don't get zombies. You know, I don't really understand zombies. Like, how does it all work? Like, and I apologize. I know it's not Halloween or anything like that. But like, so they have to eat like live people to stay alive. So they can't be alive, right? Unless they like eat live.

I know, I'm sorry. Okay, I won't go much further in this, right? So how do they get it to become alive in the first place? Because if they have to do that, where's their genesis come from? So who created zombies is what I want to know. And where do they come from? It doesn't work, okay? The other thing is they have to continue to consume, right? In order to live. But the people that they're eating are dead, right? Hi, Zach.

You want to preach today? All right, buddy. Might want to go on the back next time. Take a seat, buddy. All right, take a seat. Thank you, my friend, Zach. Right up in the front row. Lucky me. All right. You're all good, dude. I love you, man. So I don't really understand how the whole thing works, you know? This whole zombie thing and the infatuation, I think, with death. If you look at our culture, you're going to see a lot of dead things being promoted in the culture.

You just see it everywhere you go. So what's so interesting is I believe that probably, you know, there are no new stories. And this idea of zombies in this whole thing, actually, I think you can take it back to Scripture. I think you can take everything back to Jesus. Because Jesus makes this radical statement, right, in the Gospels, where he says, if you want to follow me, you must what? Eat my flesh and drink my blood.

He actually says that in the Bible. It's like there's some things I wish Jesus wouldn't have said. I don't know if anybody else is like me. And there were things that his handlers of the day, these disciples, Jesus would say stuff, and they'd be like, bro, this isn't working, you know? Or he would immediately disappear when everybody was looking for him, and he wouldn't be where they were looking to find him. This idea that Jesus understood, though, is this, that life only comes from God when you are in God and through Jesus Christ.

And this is one of the most radical things that Jesus says. What I believe the world is fascinated with is biological life. They will sell you biological reaction as life. I believe the Scripture wants you to live beyond your biology. It doesn't promise you an experience, although it doesn't promise you to experience God. It doesn't promise you a satiated biological experience that you can call life. And the more of those that you can string together, the more alive you are.

This is the message of the culture that I see. Now, I could be wrong, but what I see is over and over again being told, if you can take this trip, if you can find that next lover, if you can find that next drink, if you can find that next experience, jump off the next cliff, do the next thing, then this is how you know that you are alive. And it is all based on biology. But like the zombie movies that can't show me where the genesis of a zombie comes from, the world cannot also, at the same time, show me how do I live when the biology or the experiences aren't working anymore.

When the biology tells me that I have a disease. When the experience is that lover leaves and finds a better version of you. Or when your job doesn't work or the finances don't work. How do you live beyond biology? And it's very interesting because as you look at the scripture, obviously we experience life in our biology. God has made us living, feeling, emotive, physical creatures. But at the same time, the genesis of what we experience in these life experiences has to come from something deeper.

It has to come from another place. And this is the practical point of the day. And it's the practical point for the last 2,000 years and before that, since God has made himself known to humankind. God is that life comes in him and in him only. And only when you are tapped into the source of true life will you actually experience life as it should be. This is not in your notes. But what I did write this morning, I added in that everyone is in a fight for their life.

Everyone is in a fight to experience life. Now, some people are actually literally fighting for their physical life. But all of us are in a fight to live something beyond existence. Oscar Wilde, who's not one of my favorite playwrights or authors, actually he's probably one of my least favorite, actually had something really, really good to say on this. And he had a quote, and I do want to use this quote. He wrote, To live is the rarest thing in the world.

Most people exist. That is all. Wow. Wow. Let me just read that again. Powerful, powerful word. And something that I see is true. And just because it sparkles doesn't mean it's alive. And just because the Instagram post shows a lot of bling doesn't mean that these people are alive, or what they are presenting is true. Where are you looking? Once again, it says, To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist.

That is all. So, a great question is, How's your life going? Not just are you alive, but are you experiencing life beyond biology? Are you experiencing something, are you experiencing life when you shouldn't be experiencing, when the biology isn't going right, or perhaps the experiences aren't going right? Do you find that? And we find it here in Scripture. Now, as you look into the Scripture, you want to tear this Scripture apart.

This is awesome. I was just in Israel in May, and I got to go to one of the many tombs that they say is possibly the place, for sure, possibly the place, where Jesus might have been within 12 miles of here. There's a good reason why that Jesus might have been here. And so I went there. And I went to the garden tomb. I didn't go to the Holy Sepulcher. I went to the garden tomb, and they told us why and whatever. And I went, and I looked into this little tiny tomb.

These are little tiny spaces. They're not giant or big, most of them. And here, two angels ask one of the best questions of the Bible. Now, there's a lot of, I mean, I ask questions regularly in my sermons. You'll notice that. I will ask you questions. Why do this? When was the last time you did this? You'll probably notice that I do that. It's because the Bible asks so many questions. And I love the questions that the Bible asks.

Pilate says to Jesus, let me know what Pilate asked Jesus. What is life? He asked him, what is truth? Excuse me. What is truth? You know, Jesus, God asked in the garden, where are you? Great question. Maybe he's asking you that right now. You know, where did your name go? Great questions. Look for the questions of the Bible. But here's one of the best, and it's from the mouth of angels. Not the mouth of Jesus, but the mouth of angels, and angels have some pretty good stuff to say on occasion.

Why, in verse five, why do you look for the living among the dead? That's a great question. Why do you look for the living among the dead? It's one thing I know about tombs. Now, if you go to the garden tomb in Israel, and I think we're planning another trip to Israel here next year. It's in the works. If you end up going to the garden tomb with us, and not the holy sepulcher, it's a little bit of a safer area is why we went there.

One of the things you're going to see about tombs, and funeral homes, or not funeral homes, but cemeteries, is a lot of times they're beautiful. They're full of flowers, and people are leaving things, and the grass is always cut really nice, and there's fountains. I mean, it's just amazing. It's amazing the work we go to to make beautiful places for people that are dead. The angels understood that just because something is beautiful, or just because something looks like it might be alive, to ask the question, why are you looking for the living among the dead?

And the question to you now is this. Where have you been looking for life? And have you been like me? Because I really struggle with this. I really struggle with not looking for life in dead places. Not that these places can't have life, but they are not the genesis of life. So for instance, when things get difficult, where do you go to find life? Most all of us have our go-tos. Most all of us have our thing. Is it looking for the next date on Tinder?

Is it looking for the next bottle? Is it looking for the next great restaurant? The next great vacation? Is it looking for the next argument you can get into? Because some people are enamored with having conflict. That is their life. That gives them a purpose. It lets them to be the center of attention. I've been doing a lot of study on narcissism and people that are passive aggressive recently. I've been doing a ton of study.

I actually posted something on the church's website to realize that there are a lot of go-tos in life that give people a sense of power, that give people a sense of life, that give people a sense of purpose. Now back to you. Where are you going? And what would it look like if you changed the track? My dad had an eight track in our Commander RV. It was like a 29-foot Commander. Did anybody have a boxy Commander as a kid?

Anybody have that? No one had that in Motorhome? One of the originals? Not like the big cool things they have now. And he had an eight track. And we had Henry Mancini going and Herb Alpert and Elvis eight track tapes. Now if you're under 40, an eight track is... No, sorry. I won't do that. You press the button and it changes the track. And it changed the track. And I always wanted to hear... You know, we had some today.

Actually, one of the songs today that was playing was in my dad's RV. We'd go to Palm Springs and hear that. Maybe it's time for you to change the track. Where are you going for life? You know where you go for life. What would it look like if you changed the way that you did things? This week, I made a commitment to not go to my go-tos. Very difficult. One of the things I love, I love my computer. I don't love my phone.

I don't really look at my phone too much. But I love my computer. Love to just run around and look at trips I'm not gonna take and property I can't afford. Somebody else does that, obviously. Where can we go? Google Flights. Bing. Where do you want... There's a thing on there you can just like... You put your price in and it'll just tell you where you can go for that price. It's like, yeah, Phuket. I want to go to Phuket.

I don't have anything to do in Phuket, but I want to go there. So I told myself, what would it look like if I started doing what Jesus says in this scripture of looking for life where he says you can find it? And so what I found, it's incredibly difficult. It is really hard to change your diet. It is really hard because for me, I'm a food guy too. I would say if I spent... Probably the... I know it. It's already true.

Besides rent, the highest line item in our entire budget is going out to eat. We don't have any debt, so it's going out to eat. I love going out to eat. You go to Isla Pizza, you get a, you know, here on Girard, $6 happy hour pizza. Great. Best pizza in town for $6. I'll tell you that much. Boom. I want to go there. All the reason I tell you this is because I was having a really good week. I probably had 36 really good hours.

I mean, I was just winning, you know. And then the pushback. Then the resistance. And I made it through a couple. I'm going to do this. And pretty soon, by, you know, at hour 48, I was weighed down. And I'm thinking, I got to go away. I got to get a trip. I got to get me some food. I need a really strong coffee. I need to go, you know, binge, you know, some movie. I need, whatever. I did, all of a sudden, all the go-tos showed up.

And I thought, what would it look like if I didn't do that? I got to say, living the Christian life and actually going for the things that are healthy, that will bring you life, is so hard. God, distraction can be part of life, but distraction is not the genesis of life. Where do you go to? And so, I did pretty well at first. I did end up making it to Isla Pizza and got my pizza. But I told myself, one week, no go-tos, even if there's nothing wrong with the go-tos, one week, what would it look like?

So we got to do some struggle and I pulled my wife aside and what I wanted to say is let's go out to dinner because that's always fun. And I said, let's pray. And I was like, ah, I don't want to pray. I want to go eat some really good food. So we went into the study and we prayed. And I felt absolutely nothing. Like nothing. Like no God moment. It didn't make things better. I'm sure it did make things better. I just couldn't see it.

But I just want you to know that every time I pray, unicorns don't show up, you know? It's like, just because I'm a pastor, I pray and like a unicorn in a marching band comes out with Jesus leading it. Hey, we're here. You prayed, Pastor Adam. We're here to do what you need. I got Michael, the archangel, juggling. No, it got harder. Life got harder and harder until I finally just went to Isola Pizza and got my pizza and gave up.

But what I will say, what I will say is this, because I did make a really, I did make a concerted effort and it was incredibly difficult, that life showed up a few more times than I would have expected it. Life showed up in a conversation with my wife, in some time with my kids. Actually, my kid came up, my one daughter came up and just gave me a hug before she left on the trip. And there was so much life and that physical intimacy and that hug.

And I realized that I was able to see things and I had moments even yesterday afternoon. I walked into the church. I love it here from 3 till 6 p.m. when the light's here. And I just sat in the building and I thought, it is beautiful. This is a great place to call work, which I don't think it is. And I sat there and let the light come into this beautiful campus that has been prayed about and over for 100 years and life showed up.

And what I realized is I fought an incredible battle this week. I mean, granted, I mean, I wasn't in war, but it was a form of spiritual war that was very difficult. And if you're gonna follow Christ, it's not easy, but you will begin to experience life. And this is what it's about. So the first question is, are you looking for something alive amongst the dead? And do you need to start going to living places? Or are you satisfied with your results?

It's funny. We're satisfied with the momentary results, but we're unsatisfied with how our life, with the overall results often. But we continue to do things the same way. Look at the question of the day in verse three. It says, when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. Now, I wrote, Jesus is rarely found where you look for him. And I think that's kind of true. If you go look for him in the word of God, you're gonna find him.

And so I wanna be careful with what I put there. But the reason I wrote that down is because in the Bible over and over again, Jesus shows up and they're not expecting to find him. They're looking for Jesus. They're on a life following Jesus, but they're on a road to Emmaus and Jesus shows up and they don't recognize him. And then he has a meal with him and he finally breaks the bread in front of him and then all of a sudden it's like presto chango.

Their eyes are open, they can see him and there's Jesus in the midst of them. You know, on the Sea of Tiberias, they're there and after Jesus had died and rose and again and there's somebody on the beach asking them questions and they don't recognize him and they're out fishing. They went back to the dead place because Jesus says you're not gonna do this anymore. Fishing for them is a great activity and it's fun. You can go fishing and enjoy life there.

But for them, that was a dead place. God said this is a dead place and that's why they weren't catching anything. And then all of a sudden John says, it's the Lord. And then they bring up this huge catch of fish and so God can touch these places. These distractions can become very alive. I know a guy who just passed away. Their son, you might have seen him in the La Jolla Light, he passed away. Garrett Bowman was in the La Jolla Light this week and his parents were here earlier and he had autism but he was a gamer and he was in the online gaming world and if you know anything about the gaming world, there can be some very dark corners to the gaming world and that whole deal.

At the end, they went into his account and they told all of his friends that he had passed away and all these gamers from, he had this incredible network of gamers who he had shared Christ with as an autistic kid playing these games and they said there was, you know, dozens if not up to a hundred responses of people from all over the gaming world saying, hey, you changed my life, you never doubted your faith. They were telling him because he had a crippling disease, these kids had told him, hey, why don't you just kill yourself?

They were telling him this online and they came back and said to his parents or wrote back to him after his parents said he had passed away, I asked forgiveness, I shouldn't have said those things, Garrett never doubted his faith, he loved us. This place that could have been seen as a distraction for him was a missions field. So I'm not telling you that we're starting a new temperance move in here, that you have to deny everything that you do, but what I'm saying is don't go to that place for life, you go to that place with life.

There's a big difference there between going to that place to find life and going to that place with the offer of life. And so that's one of the things that Garrett did. If you haven't seen the La Jolla Light this week, read it. You can read about Garrett and the Bowmans and they are awesome. Jesus is rarely found where you look for him and he rarely lingers in dead places. Jesus will go to dead places. He will go to the depths of your darkness.

He will go to the gates of hell that you might be found and pull you out. But Jesus doesn't like death and death cannot hold Jesus. The scripture says that. And when Jesus died it tried to consume him but the author of life could not be held and you can imagine Jesus beginning to quake as death tried to hold on to him and he broke forth from that. Jesus doesn't want to linger in dead places. Jesus will wait for you. He will go to those dead places and God protected me years and years when I was going to dead places to find life and he's willing to be there.

But he doesn't like dead places because he is the author of life and he would rather not hang out with you in dead places unless he tells you to go to dead places and you follow him there as a co-pilot in the work of the gospel. Jesus is calling us all to get our fruit to market like I said last week and we have to be tuned in to Jesus to find him. So where are you looking for Jesus? And if you go to your distraction without looking for Jesus in the midst of it it might be a problem.

I know when I go to a distraction and I'm hoping Jesus doesn't join me. I'm hoping he ain't there when I get there. Maybe you know what I'm talking about. But you want to have a distraction that if you have a distraction you are bringing Christ into that and he often isn't where you find him but if you plug into him if you seek him you will be found. Now my daughters and I used to play hide and seek. I loved it. The purpose for an adult when you play hide and seek is what?

To hide. That's right Chris. Good answer. A plus. The purpose for a three year old when you play hide and seek is what? To be found. Have you ever played with a three year old? I'd get playing I'd say now go hide. 30 seconds in hee hee hee hee hee ha ha ha daddy daddy hee hee hee hee and I'm like no no and I'd go and I'd tell them the point of the game is to hide. Who said? Who said? Who made up the rules? Does anybody have the original handbook of hide and seek?

Because kids seem to have a very different understanding when they're young. It's all about being found. But there is a purpose of the game in its relationship. God wants to be found. He's not a great Houdini that wants to disappear from you. He wants to be found. But he wants to be found on his terms. He wants to be found in the places maybe you don't expect it. Sometimes you will go to a place and he will be there.

But he will be found. The question is are you even looking? Are we on a search for God on a regular basis? How can I find you? Are we tuning in? One of the best ways and the easiest ways is to read the Bible in the morning. My brother who's here gave me an example in high school where he would spend an hour when he accepted Christ when he was I think 15 or something like that. 14. He began immediately an hour a day in his room with the door closed doing his devotional time and read the Bible an hour every single day I think for all of high school all the way through.

Wanted to go to Christian High. My dad wouldn't pay for Christian High because I wasn't Catholic so my brother went and got a job at Coco's and paid his own way as a busboy so he could go to Christian High and he wanted to go there. Are you hungry for the gospel? And those are things that I as a younger brother I was watching my brother use a machete to cut through the gunk of this life to show that he created a path that I could follow.

That's how you get there. Became the president of our youth group voted the most friendly amiable welcoming kid at all of Christian High. That doesn't just happen. That happens because you go for it now he's in social work working with the poorest of the poor in London and now working with people with Alzheimer's throughout West London. You don't just get that. This is basic and Jesus says it comes from a core of doing the basics.

I tell you I want to go back to the basics of following Jesus. It comes from getting in the morning and reading the Bible and praying and sitting with God worshiping and just doing the basics. I want a 14 year old faith. That's what I want. I got to tell you it is so easy for me to come to a place where life exists and to think that I'm sourcing life from it. Now life happens here at the church. Life happens here. It's on the I think it's actually on the banner at the moment for the sermon series.

Life happens here. But I can't tell you how many days I skip my time with God because it's difficult because the Bible doesn't just call me immediately to jump into it. And because I know there's life here and ministry here I will come here and use that as life. But it's not the pure source. It's a source. And God blesses me. But I've got to find life and bring life to the game. See I show up empty handed too often to a place full of life.

And I really as a pastor want to be going back to the basics and sourcing these early things that Christ says. Where are you sourcing life? And when you show up to your day do you have anything to offer other than what you watched on TV last night? Do you have anything to offer than the last Instapot recipe that you got? You know? What do you have? This world needs more than advice. This world needs people that are plugged into the source like Jesus said here who have gone to living places.

Jesus says I am the vine. You are the branches. Plug into him. And to bring that to the table. Let's get our fruit to market. The Bible is all about life. Look at your notes. Life is a premier value of Christ following and the foundation of all its other values. Genesis 2-7 we start Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils. What? The breath of life. Life doesn't come from biology.

Life comes from something beyond biology. Even science has not proven where life comes from. They cannot prove where they origin. They have just as much faith in their theory as we are supposed to have in the idea of a God. Science cannot prove where life comes from. And so science is based on faith. FYI. I don't know if you know that. They feel it's more tactile but our faith becomes a substance it says in the book of Hebrews.

And we believe that God breathed into the dust of the ground into the nostrils the breath of life and man became what? A living being. Life comes from God. If you want life we have to go back to the basics and get tapped in. Once again where are you looking for life and are you fighting for it? All of you are in a fight for your life and people around you as you can see in our society today are fighting for life and now they're beginning because the biological life that we've been promised is not working and so now we're taking our own lives and we're taking the lives of others and our streets are running red with the blood of each other and I don't know if you see that and I don't bring a lot of outside in to the church because I believe this is a place of sourcing it but we need more than advice.

We need to bring true life and we need to tap in because this world I believe I do believe revival is coming. I believe God has called me and to do his will rather than mine. I don't know if you have that issue. I like doing God's will as long as it lines up with mine but I believe God says I want more prayer I want more revival I want to pray rock the streets I want more fasting I want more repentance I want to go back to the things that bring revival and not just grow church.

You can grow church and never have revival FYI. So God and I are having a little fight on what that's going to mean for my time and my energy and my life so we're having a little fight you can pray for me on that what that's going to mean but I want the real stuff and the world needs it. I mean people can be very impressed at what we do here as a church we're growing we're growing quickly and God's making a move at this church you can see it life is here it's awesome it's fun we can have a lot of fun and see the world perish at our feet.

We want to have the gospel and that's just a little off notes thing that God is talking about. Light John 1.4 coming in for a landing in him was life and that life was what? The light of all mankind. Abundant life John 10.10 the thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full or the Greek word I believe means like abundance or a super abundance an actual overflowing where you are so alive it's living beyond your biology.

People are taking shade in the excess of your life and the resources of your life. We have hard seasons and once again remember when we talk about the tree of life we've talked two days about trees two weeks in a row about trees there are seasons so if you're in a season of rest and fallow you can't always produce fruit. Somebody came to me one of the former elders came to me this week and they said you know I've never gotten the understanding that you don't always produce fruit.

Sometimes I have to rest and I'm like yeah so there are seasons but one of the things is we want to have lives that have enough for other people to sustain them. Part of the purpose of the church is to give fruit and shade and sustenance and life and all these things that the world is dying for because we obviously are not doing a good enough job offering it because if we were we wouldn't be able to have any seats in this building.

We'd have standing room only. We have to get better at offering this and this is the purpose of the church. We do this in our missions. We do this as we care for the poor for the orphan for the broken the lost. The purpose of the church is not just caring for ourselves which I can build a whole spiritual life around me. I don't know if you're really good at that but I can build a really comfortable spiritual life but as a church we want to get serious as people bringing life that when you're out you have extra.

Why do you have extra? Because you've tapped into an eternal God who gives you more than just surviving. Now once again no guilt if you're surviving. There are seasons of survival. That is part of the scripture. That is part of the walk from God. But if you can't remember a moment where you were harvesting extra life out of what God has for you and what he has given you and people are being nourished around you and their lives are being encouraged and inspired because of the excess and abundance and overflow like you saw with Job who was blessed twice as much in the second half of his life than the first then we are missing out and we need to change the track.

We need to start looking for other life. It's simple to find. It's in the word of God. It's in worship. It's in thanksgiving. It's in a change of attitude. Verse six where do we find it? Well not in a dead place because in verse six they said he's not here. He is what? Risen. Risen. When you rise where do you look? Up. Scripture says when you see these negative things happening in society around you put your head down and be bummed about it and think oh this is a bummer.

No. It says look up for it says your hope is near. It says look up to heaven. Christ didn't descend and stay descended. Christ rose from the dead and we want to look up. I want to say where are you looking for life? One of the places you're not going to find life is in the news. Now I'm not crushing the media. Okay. I think there's some great I wanted to be a journalist so I love journalism and journalism whatever that word is.

Made it up. But I got to say when I look at the news I don't find life there. John Stott said if you're going to read if you're going to read the news a lot read it with your Bible in your hand and let the Bible translate the news. But one of the things I find is if I am fixated on the news of the world it is not news of life it is news of death. Not saying there's not good intentioned people there. I'm not bashing the news media.

I think people have different purposes for what they do but what I will say is this. Let's not take our cues from the culture and from the news that has no other understanding of life other than looking for it where death exists. And peddling death for a dollar. That's one thing I do struggle with with journalism. I see death peddled for money. And people are fixated and we love death. I don't know why. I talked to my 12 year old yesterday.

I said you know some of these shows you're watching they're all about death. Some of the things you're talking about we're talking about she said they were her and her friend were talking and she said oh what would happen if they committed a mass genocide? I'm like you're 12. I didn't know what mass genocide was when I was 12. How do you know what that is? She goes well it was in this show I was watching. And I said okay.

And I said well but why are all the shows about death? She goes dad who wants to watch something about life? I said bingo. Exactly. Why are we so driven towards death? What is it? Jesus came to give you life and it says the thief comes to steal that life. John 10.10. Once again sorry to use you again Albie. Albie my brother gave me a poster for my apartment. My first apartment I moved out when I was 18. And I was there and he gave me this cool poster.

And then one day I had some pretty shady friends. I realized that this framed poster was gone. I didn't even know when it got taken. One of my friends climbed up over the balcony and I realized there was a whole bunch of stuff that was stolen. I finally eventually found out where it was and who took it. But the thing was I didn't even realize it was stolen. You know what Satan he rarely is going to come in like a bandito okay with you know six guns you know make you get on the ground everybody you know like a Clint Eastwood movie and take your stuff.

He might do that if he can. But what he's going to try to do is steal it and he wants you to basically give it to him. He wants to make deals with you. He wants to make bargains with you and the whole time you're just giving your life away. You're giving a pound of flesh each time away but you're being promised life. But each time it's a pound of flesh over and over again until we are just withered. Jesus wants to restore that.

Devil comes to steal. Christ came to give you life. Now finally the world sees this as foolishness. And I realize that the world today sees what I'm talking about and the things that I believe in as being complete foolishness. foolishness. I would go and say that the thing there is no philosophy in the world that is not based on faith. There's not one philosophy. There's not one scientific thing that eventually goes back even the origins of science.

Everything is based on faith. I can over and over again speak through that. So I think we all have faith. I'm going to put my faith in what I've seen has been working. But it is foolishness to the world. My atheist friends always love to yeah you love leprechauns and yeah I know I know the whole thing. Leprechauns and unicorns and the whole deal. But what I have found in this foolishness personally is the power of God.

The power to rescue and to save me and I realize that I would not be alive if I were to continue to pursue the things because I was really good at pursuing death. Some of you are slow on that throttle. You're more measured in how you pursue death. And it won't catch you until you're 70 or 80 until your body maybe finally just decays because you haven't taken care of it pursuing all these addictions and things. But not me.

I would have knocked it out in 18 months. I practically did. Had a heart attack all these times. I've told these stories before. But I have found Christ's power to redeem me from that place and I have found the world because I went after it. There was nothing in the world that I didn't go after. I found it wanting. It had nothing to offer me. Nothing that would make me want to go back. And when I visualize what it would look if I went back to that all I see is death.

This is foolishness to the world. Look here at the verse. It says in verse 12 but they did not believe the women. This life this new life of these angels they didn't believe the women and once again women were the first people that Jesus revealed himself to after the resurrection. And I believe scripture points to the curse that was put over women during the fall which they would be completely under man and all these things.

I had a whole sermon on this. This was part of their reconciliation to remove the curse to bring women back to a full standing of equal partnership with men. I believe I can prove that in scripture over and over again and it's something that this particular denomination has been good at but they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Bunch of foolish women but those women had seen the power of the resurrection and had talked to Christ and he came to them first.

But Peter rose I love Peter. I like me some Peter. I identify with that cat. Rose and ran to the tomb stooping and looking in and he saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. Once again a great question. When was the last time you marveled? I marveled this week. I marveled this week when I sat with the Bowmans up at their house after their son had died and they began to read about all these kids that throughout the world he was in his bed.

He couldn't barely get out of bed. He was wearing diapers. Had a tracheotomy. He only had one eye. He could see 20% in at this point. I went and visited him three times before he passed away. It was not good. And in the midst of that he was reaching all over the world through a little one. He had a computer he could look and he had a phone and he would reach out from that place and I marveled at what God did to this kid who was autistic who never gave up his faith.

He was so autistic he never gave Jesus up. I tell you I would have doubted if you would have seen him he weighed less than 100 pounds in a diaper when I went there and saw him. They'd have 15 years of that or 12 years of having to deal with their son like that as he slowly passed away and then he died two weeks ago. Read about it in La Jolla Light. I marveled. When was the last time you marveled? When you were around life and around people that are alive you will marvel.

One of the ways you will know you were alive is that all of a sudden you are focusing on different things you are feeling alive and life will show up and you will marvel and say wow what just happened. That's one of the ways you know you are alive. Finally final verse 1 Corinthians 1.18 1.18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to whom? Those that are perishing. God forbid they perish. I want to get to them with the message of the cross.

I want to show up to Pete's Coffee with something to offer more than a recipe. More than my next trip. I want to have something to offer. I want to come fully loaded with the power of God to bring the fruit of God to market. When they look at you and say excuse me but where the hell did you get all that joy? Why are you so happy? You must be a fool. You ever seen anybody who's happy? If you right now if people say how are things going and you say amazing I think the world's awesome and I'm just really enjoying life and life's great right now if you say that right now people are going to trip on you.

Seriously because you keep getting told if you tell people things are horrible long enough becomes people's reality. When I get away and I'm going to teach this in my next sermon on creation when I get away and I get time with God all of a sudden I'm like whoa there's something more going on than headlines? God's alive. The power of God is alive but it's foolishness to the world. For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

Well it's up for God to frustrate them not me but I want life. I want life and I want to fight for it. You are in a fight for your life. Jesus is offering you now as we stand together communion. If you've not received Christ all you have to say is Jesus and if he's speaking to you you will know it. You say in your heart Jesus I want to follow you. I don't know what that crazy guy is saying up front but I sense it. You will know if God is speaking to you right now.

You will know if you need to change tracks. You say I want to follow you. You come forward you take communion and this will be your first communion with us. Then you come to me afterwards and you say hey pastor I want you to know I'm going to follow Jesus. If you've never followed Jesus you if he is if he is I remember the day if he is if he is talking to you right now you know it. It's beyond me. You will know it. Ask Jesus.

Say God I believe you. I don't understand you. I believe. I want to follow you because you are God. You come take communion with us. Otherwise hang out come back next week. Keep chewing on this message. J-Man.