[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/walking_dead-state_of_church.mp3[/podcast] It’s 2016. Welcome to a brand new year, with brand new excitement awaiting us. In January, Americans resolve to cut the carbs, hit the gym and get right with God. When Americans make New Years resolutions, a better relationship with God ranks almost as high as better health, Nashville-based LifeWay Research finds. Overall, 57 percent of Americans report making health-related New Years resolutions in the past, while 52 percent say theyve addressed their relationship with God. Those are the top two responses in a LifeWay Research survey of 1,000 Americans. We dont hear a lot of talk about it, but a relationship with God is still something people want, said Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research. This year, I want to talk more about God, and our relationship with God. We dont talk about it enough, which makes me think, that we dont have enough of a relationship with God to talk about. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:1 – and you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Ephesians 2:1-3) This series in January, Im titling it, The Walking Dead. We are seriously walking dead people, walking like zombies in life without a real relationship with God that we can boast about. We are dead and just walking around. I watched this show on and off the last few years, but honestly, it was too emotional for me and I couldnt really enjoy it like I would enjoy other TV programs, but heres what I noticed while watching the showthe people who are alive, are really alive and in touch with every single moment of their existence. But us, the people in the real world, were walking around like zombies on the street? Have you seen me at the train station? Have you seen a train station, nobody is looking around, people are all staring down at their feet because theres something glowing in their hands. But thats just the example. In the 21st century, we are able to do what no other generation before us could have doneask google to help us carry out our sinful, wrathful desires and give us instantaneous access to disobedience to God. There was a story out of Sweeden about a blonde girl who wanted to watch ISIS youtube videos and then when her mother bothered her, she used what she learned from YouTube on her mother. It was an ISIS technique. When the police arrived, she was still watching the youtube videos and pointed in a despondent manner toward where she left her mothers dead corpse. If I wasnt a product of this generation I would be amazed, but Im not amazed because this is our norm. It is normal to be dead and roaming the world these days. In the news this past week was a story about a teenager in Brooklyn, she was 15 years old and decided she would kill her mother and mothers boyfriend while she went out to Times Square to party and ring in the new year. Heres the motive: she didnt want to be bothered Talk about passion. She was so passionless, that this girl became passionate about the ability to be passionless. Perhaps were not psychopaths, but isnt this our motive? Isnt that us? We get so passionate about having the ability to be unbothered that allow ourselves to be controlled and moved by our desires and unleash wrath around the people closest to us? Maybe we dont go out killing people. But honestly, we shut the people around us out. We close the doors. We close our minds. We block out God and allow just the glimpses of things that go viral into our minds. This is the state of the 21st century church. We are no different than the dead walking around us. We log as many hours wasting our lives away trying to soothe our sinful needs. I dont know how else to get that across to you all. I dont want 2016 to end and us be walking dead. [From Simpsons pic to walking dead pic]. I dont want this to be our reality, because when you really look at the world, this is what it looks like. I want this church to grow and come alive in 2016. Are you tired of being a powerless small group? I am. We need to be an empowered group alive undoing the wrath in our world. I want this church to do something in the name of Jesus like we havent done before. I want this to be the year where you can say your lives have changed. Lets continue reading in verse 4. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christby grace you have been saved 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10) In 2016, I want you to come back to this passage over and over. We are alive together in Christ. We are alive. We are not dead, we are alive with Christ. Christ is alive, this is what we believe. When we believe Christ is alive, our lives are changed. We are empowered to have immeasurable riches. We didnt do anything to deserve it either. We are given life as a gift from God. Thats the type of God we serve. He gives gifts that are beyond expectations and greater than the worth we bring or possess. I want to make one last point before I close the sermon, lets look at verse 10. I think this is brilliant. I want you to underline it or circle or do something with it, like write it down on a piece of paper and put it in your wallet or something. The apostle Paul says that we are Gods workmanship. This means that when we look at ourselves, all of ourselves, brokenness, scars, life perdictament and all, thats Gods work. Everything that is who we are, that was Gods work. I know that some of us will say that weve been through some hard times and that the incredible evil that weve been through cannot be from God and its not, its from other people who are walking dead; but Im here to tell you that the person that stood through that evil and is here to tell me that God cannot be at work, created you in a way that allowed you to live through itthat is Gods work. Now look at the second part of this sentencewe, despite that was inflicted on us, were created for good works in Christ. When the Apostle Paul is talking about good works hes not talking about just ordinary good. He is talking about GOOD like God is GOOD type of good works. That means, there is something extraordinary that is beyond normal good that God prepared for us, that despite all the walking dead trying to inflict on us, is set aside for this time so that we can do those God works because we have faith in Jesus Christ. Give me an Amen. This is your life, it has been set aside for right now for Good works. The last part of this verse is even more profoundGod prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them. This good works, all we have to do is take a stroll and go into it. Why arent we going into it? Why is it that we refuse to take hold of the good works that are waiting for us? Why is it that we insist on walking dead? In the book of Jeremiah, God says, I knew you before you were still in the womb and have set aside for you work that only you can do. That is exactly what the Apostle Paul is reminding this church in Ephesus. It may look like our lives are ordinary but thats only because were not walking in the good works that were set aside for us in Christ before time began for us. We need to start walking in them. What does that mean? That means now is the time for you to go and start embarking on that journey of faith that you were always afraid of takinggoing back to school, applying for jobs, taking risks that puts yourself out there for people all for the sake that people can see that you are doing this that are beyond your ordinary and can only be attributed to your great faith in Christ Jesus. This is the good works that Paul is talking about that we all have and need to take a hold of so that we can come to life in Christ Jesus, who is our savior. Can we go into Galatians for a moment, chapter 1. 10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ . 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it . 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles . 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. 24 And they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1:10, 13, 15-16, 22-24) You see, the Apostle Paul started to walk in the destiny God had set apart for him, and his past didnt matter, everything that he accomplished or didnt accomplish didnt matter. What mattered was that God called and he answered. We need to awaken our lives, we need to be that catalyst in our families and in our church. That means 2016 will be a year like we have never seen before. It would be a year that would surpass any previous year. Can you imagine a year with greater resources? Replacing scarcity with abundance would be a game changer. Can you imagine a year with greater unity? Moving from division to understanding would positively change our culture. Can you imagine a year with greater love? Relationships would be healed and restored. Can you imagine a year with greater commitment? So much would finally get done that has not gotten done. This is walking in the good works that were set aside for us. You can have faith God set aside for you good works to accomplish greater things than you could imagine in your life this year. You can believe this in spite of impossible circumstances. 2016 is not going to be a great year. It is going to be a greater year. Believe it and start walking in the good works today.
Comments are closed