Dead or Alive // Discover Your Destiny, Part 13

When we make a change – a real change for the better in our lives, it involves in effect dying to the old things and living in the new things.  But try as we will, sometimes we can still be wrapped up in the old.

I don't know if you've ever watched one of those old black and white westerns on TV, I grew up with them. There were the baddies and the goodies and then there was that ubiquitous wanted poster, you know the one that said “Wanted. Dead or Alive."

Now if we really want to live life to the full, to live out our destiny, to be the me we were meant to be then we have to figure out what we're alive to and what we're dead to because so often, things that look like they'll bring us life end up poisoning us and the things that we think are too much trouble, too hard, they're the ones that bring us life. It's true in sport, it's true in work, it's true in life itself.

When I was age 36, about 12 years ago now, I knew I wasn't being the ‘me’ I was meant to be. I had a lot of potential but somehow never seemed to fulfil it, always it seemed to allude my grasp. I was running an Information Technology Consulting business and we had some really clever people, we were really good at what we did. But the business never quite seemed to blossom the way it should have. It did eventually after I gave my life to Jesus.

In that process of change, letting go of my old ways and taking hold of the new ones, I had to figure out that I was going to be dead to some old things and alive to some new ones. I had to believe what God had to say about me and take hold of his new life that he'd given me. I had to die to some things. To sin. In Romans chapter 6, verse 2 it says:

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace might increase? By no means! We are dead to sin, how can we live in it any longer. The past. If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, old things have passed away and look, everything is new.

I had to die to myself and my selfishness. For we know that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that our sin might be done away with so that we're no longer slaves to sin because anyone who has died is freed from sin, to the law, the whole rule based attitude to religion. For sin shall not be a master because you aren't bound by the law anymore but you're walking in God’s grace. So my brothers you are dead to the law through the body of Christ and dead to be dead to the devil. Now I don't know whether you believe the devil exists, I do because Jesus did but I'm dead to him because God has rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me to the kingdom of light.

We have to start believing what God has to say about all this stuff, about sin, about dying to the past, about dying to ourselves, about doing away with rule based religion, about dying to the devil. I had so much sin in my life, there was so much stuff there I didn't know where to begin. Self, I was so full of myself, an ego the size of a small planet and my past was full of so many hurts and mistakes. And I was so prone to sort of a dreary, legalistic, rule bound approach to religion. You know we have been transferred. Jesus paid a huge price.

A great story told by Nicky Gumble who does the Alpha course. (If you've ever been involved, it's a great course to do.) And Nicky Gumble talks about the European footballers. You know when they get transferred from one team to another team a huge amount of money changes hands in transfer fees, millions of pounds are paid to transfer a footballer from one team to another team. But once the footballers gone to the new team, he plays for them. He wears their colours. He goes to their training sessions. If the old coach from the old team rang him up and said, "Where are you for training?" He would say, "Well, I've transferred to a new team. I go to the new team’s training now."

When we make a change – a real change for the better in our lives, it involves in effect dying to the old things and living in the new things.  But try as we will, sometimes we can still be wrapped up in the old.

And it's the same thing what Jesus did for you and me on the cross. We've been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We don't play with the old team anymore. We don't train with the old team anymore. We don't wear it's colours anymore. We're on His team and He paid for all. He laid his life down so that you and I would be forgiven and have a clean start in the kingdom of light.

Wondering why I can't be the me I'm meant to be? Wondering why it's not working for me? How come my life is not going where I want it to go? Well, are we dead to this old stuff? Have we said, “I'm on a new team; I'm playing for a new team. I'm not going to this old stuff anymore. I'm alive to some new things, I'm alive to Christ”?

I've been crucified with Christ and it's no longer 'I live' but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

I'm alive to the Holy Spirit because through Christ Jesus, the spirit of life, has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8)

I'm alive to God the Father. Jesus said:

If anyone loves me they'll obey my commandments and my Dad and I will love them and we will come and make our home with them. (John 14)

I'm alive to grace and truth. Jesus became a man and dwelt among us and we've seen his glory, the glory as of the only one of the Father full of grace and truth.

We're alive to righteousness, peace and joy. The word isn't about food or drink or physical things, it's about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It's like this, you know, if you have two dogs, a big black one, a Doberman and a small little white one, the question is, which one is going to grow up stronger? And the answer is, the one you end up feeding. You know it doesn't matter what area of life, if we want to achieve something we have to give some things up. It's normally about giving up short term gratification for longer term gain.

When I was a kid growing up, my parents made me learn the piano. To tell you the truth a lot of the time when I was young I just hated having to go to practice, it drove me nuts. Today? Today I can sit down at the piano and make it sing and it brings me such enormous delight to sit down at the grand piano my Mum gave me and to play it and to worship God and to enjoy it.

Whether it's dieting or exercise or saving or learning all of those things, good things cost us something. You want to lose weight you have to die to the chocolate bar and come alive to some healthy foods and exercise. You want to save up for a deposit for a house; you have to go without some things today that you'd like in order to have the money to pay the deposit on the house. You'd like to study and get a degree; you have to give up some money and some leisure time now to get there.

You want to live an amazing life, an abundant life? You want to be the me you were meant to be? It's time to die to some things. There are some things in our lives that stop us from being the “me” we were meant to be. Maybe it's anger, maybe it's a sense of unforgiveness, maybe, maybe it's a nasty attitude, maybe it's a selfish attitude. I mean, there are so many things they're like, they're like grave clothes that we’re wrapped in. Jesus came to give us this new life but we're not living it because we've still got one foot in the grave.

Maybe this isn't the message you wanted to hear today but deep in your heart you're going, “You know something, I think God might be talking to me today. I think God might be putting His finger on exactly what it is that's stopping me from being the me I was meant to be.”

God has a plan, He designed you, He dreamt you up, He hand crafted you, you are His workmanship. He has a plan. He has a whole bunch of good things for you to walk into but it's not going to happen while we've got one foot in the grave.