HOW TO EXPERIENCE LIFE?

The Bible tells us that we are dead in our sin. So, a valid question is this: If someone is spiritually dead, how does that person experience real life? If we were to listen to the various social engineers around us today in the academic, professional, and political worlds; we would conclude that what people need today are the four E's: Example, Encouragement, Environment, and Education. Our nation is spending billions of dollars on programs to implement these ideas. Let's see how far they get us.

We are talking about how to experience life in Christ - about bringing dead people back to life. So let's suppose we had a dead man we are trying to bring back to life. How are we going to raise him from the dead?

A. How about EXAMPLE? Would it do any good to bring someone in and say, "If you are dead, what you need to know is how to live. So, I am going to show you how a person acts when they are alive." Show them how to do 10 push-ups or all the things a living person does. Do you think a person's example is going to raise a dead man? No, that won't do it. As powerful as EXAMPLE is - Example cannot bring a dead man to life.

B. So, let's try ENCOURAGEMENT. Bring in the best motivational speaker. No, bring them all in. Line them all up as Cheerleaders. Even get all the successful pastors together to cheer the dead man on. "Come on, you can do it. Get up and walk."

Sounds silly, doesn't it? You can't encourage a dead man back to life.

You see, we treat spiritual death like a cold wrongly thinking: it will go away. Death doesn't go away - it leaves its condition on everything it touches.

C. How about changing a person's ENVIRONMENT? Maybe that's the answer. Suppose we take that dead person and put them in a room full of living people. Just get him in the right environment - that would give them life, won't it? No way. Being in a church with living people doesn't make you alive - just like being in a garage with a car doesn't make you a car.

Environment is not the answer - but there are people in this world who never seem to learn that. I would remind you that Adam and Eve got in trouble in the only perfect environment earth has ever known = the Garden of Eden. You couldn't have a better environment than that. Environment is not the answer.

D. Let's try the fourth E, EDUCATION. Maybe that dead person just doesn't understand the difference between life and death. Get them a book, and we will try educating them. We'll show them what life involves and how the body is supposed to function. Then they will know how to live, and they will certainly come back to life.

You see, no one else in history ever claimed to offer the power of Resurrection Life - they claim revolution - BUT only JESUS gives Resurrection. The four E's are not the answer. A dead person can only find one way to find life - the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, God is calling us to face all the dead areas in our lives. And just like Jesus did to Lazarus (while he was in the grave), He is calling us to Come Forth. Jesus calls us to walk out of death and into life.

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