Step Out!
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:16:34
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Christ is Risen
He is still risen!
This morning I want to look at a verse that I have overlooked in the past
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?
As I read this verse, it got me thinking about where I go to find life?
how often do we try to find life among the dead?
or, to say it another way: how often do we try to fulfill the desires of our heart from the things of this world?
Many people are stuck in death and darkness, but are seeking life and the light
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
This morning, the good news is that Jesus made us alive!
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
This morning, hope is found in this: Christ came (Immanuel, God with us), Christ died, and Christ rose!
Unfortunately, many people find themselves in darkness and despair. Even those who have been Christians a long time
Maybe, some of us feel stuck in darkness and despair. If we feel dead, we need to turn to the life and receive the hope and joy that Jesus has to offer.
Maybe, some of us, for the first time, need to step out of the grave and into a new life…
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Life is not found in darkness…
Jesus overcame the darkness, and is still overcoming it in our lives…
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.
So, this morning, if you are struggling with fear, anxiety, worry, stress, darkness…
Come to the light…the giver of life!
Jesus conquered death, so that we may live!
Some of us sometimes fail to remember what Jesus has done!
We step back into the tomb and darkness..and forget that we have life living inside of us!
In John chapter 4, Jesus meets with a woman at a well and asks her for a drink…she doesn’t understand why He, being a Jew, would ask her, a samaritan for a drink
Jesus responds in this way…
John 4:10 (NIV)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God…
Romans 6:23 (NIV)
…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
She still doesn’t understand…
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus says that He gives eternal life…a spring of water welling up to eternal life…
The problem is, sometimes we walk away from the giver of eternal life…
We lose focus…and darkness comes
We need to return to the well, the giver of life!
When we believe in God, He gives us His Holy Spirit…
This well, this eternal life water lives inside of us!
11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
We have received a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance…
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
We have recieved the deposit of our inheritance by the Holy Spirit….
We are co-heirs with Christ, so that His inheritance is ours as well!
The inheritance that Christ received was the kingdom of heaven!
All of the things of the kingdom that were afforded to Christ, are afforded to us as well!
And this is why, we set our minds on the things above, not the things below!
This Easter Sunday, let us focus on what Christ has done!
He stepped out of the grave, and into life!
Some of us have maybe never stepped out of the grave, we are still dead in our sins….
This morning is a chance to come alive in Jesus!
If you believe in who He is, that Christ lived, that Christ died, and the Christ rose, you too can have eternal life!
Just confess that is He Lord, make Him Lord of your life! And believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…
And you receive the Holy Spirit the deposit guaranteeing your inheritance in the kingdom!
Some of us have been saved, but fallen back into darkness…
You feel lost and broken, but Christ is still out of the grave!
Turn back to Him!
Receive his life!
Cast all those things upon Him!