Based On Self. Series

**Well… I just wanna welcome everyone here to Embrace…

At all of our campuses…

and wherever you’re joining us from.

My name is Adam… I’m one of the pastors here…

and as always… we are so excited…

that you are with us.

Just so thrilled that you are here.

**And today… you are in luck…

because we’re starting up a brand new series…

and with Easter coming up…

which is a wonderful time… of the year…

we were looking for an upbeat name… to call this series…

just an encouraging… upbeat name… for Easter…

and well… we settled on the title…

from death.

This series is called… from death…

which is so encouraging right?

I can just feel the excitement…

And everyone… is just dying to hear this message…

(drums)

No but seriously though…

This year… in the Weber household…

we actually had 2 deaths… in our immediate family.

And one death… was our chicken named Mocha….

And the other was our chicken named… Lady.

And I just gotta say… that they were both just… great chickens… ya know

Well behaved… and they laid good eggs…

I don’t know what else… you can say about a chicken.

But with Mocha… we’re not for sure… that she died…

Unless she was raptured…we just kinda assumed it

because one day… she just disappeared.

And it was most likely… a chicken hawk…

But with Lady…

One day she just wasn’t looking good…

And over a few days… she just got worse…

Until finally she died…

And when we did… I wasn’t sure what to do with her…

I mean… do you bury a dead chicken…

in the middle of town?

And so I said a prayer for her… and put her in the trash can.

And well…. when I came into the house…

A question from my kids… that I wasn’t prepared to answer…

was dad, where did you bury Lady?

And I was so frazzled that I lied…

and I said… somewhere in the backyard…

And well… ever since then… my kids… they’ve been trying to find where Lady is at.

And no kidding… earlier this week… my daughter said:

Dad… I think I found Lady.

All I could think… is that… unless you went to the city dump…

That’s pretty much impossible.

Hashtag… worst parent ever.

No but really though… when it comes to death…

death is one of those things… that is strange to talk about…

And yet…

unless Jesus comes back sometime soon…

a physical death… is something that will happen to all of us… right?

But for today…

We’re not talking about physical death …

Instead we’re talking about… a spiritual death…

Like the death of our insides…

The death of our soul…

I mean… internally… have you ever just felt like…

you’re barely surviving?

And have you ever just felt… like you’re anxious about everything…

And you’re just struggling to sleep at night…

Like you’re carrying…

the weight of the world on your shoulders…

Like nothing really satisfies you…

and you just go from one thing to the next…

I mean… have you ever felt… like you’re spiritually dead…

In here?

Well… this right here…

is exactly what we’re gonna talk about…

in this series… called… from death.

**Now at one point in the Bible…

A guy named Paul… is writing a letter to a group of Christians…

In the city of Rome…

And in the Bible… it’s called the book of Romans.

And so if we have a Bible with us today…

I’d encourage us to open it up…

And use the Bible on our phone…

Again… open up to the book of Romans…

But once more… Paul’s writing this letter… to these Christians…

And he’s explaining to them… the basics of the faith…

The core of what followers of Jesus… believe.

And half way through this letter… in chapter 8…

He begins to talk with them… about the clear difference…

between living for ourselves…

and living for God…

And He’s just trying to show the clear contrast…

when we focus on ourselves…

and when we focus on God…

And starting in verse 5… here is what Paul says…

(READ)

People whose lives…

**Once again… Paul is trying to explain…

that there are 2 very different ways… that we can live…

And first off… he’s saying…

That we can live a life based on selfishness…

And this can also translate as the word flesh.

And he’s basically saying… that when we live a life based on selfishness…

we live for themselves…

And we do… what we want to do…

And we do… what we think is right…

And we do… what we think will make us happy.

Again… we can live a life based on selfishness…

And when we do… we think about selfish things.

and we think solely… about ourselves…