Visualize Your Resurrec

TITLE: Visualize Your Resurrection 04-28-2014

Read Romans 6:1-11 in in its entirety as the service begins

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 11:1 1Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

Romans 6:1-11 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

I. DR. EVIL AND MINI-ME

A. Here’s a blast –from-the-past. Now I know none of you actually saw this movie cuz Mom said it was way too trashy.

1. It was a James Bond spoof called Austin Powers, yeah, there were a couple of them. But in the movie, since none of us saw, there was a villain called Dr. Evil.

2. Dr. Evil’s chief concern in life was he had no one suitable to pass his evil empire on to since his son, also named “Scott”, was raised in a dysfunctional home, was struggling with emotional issues which left him unable to cope with the stress of being the boss over all things evil.

3. So Dr. Evil, though terribly, emotionally broken over the whole ordeal because of his heartfelt love for his son, was forced to clone himself so he could begin to train his replacement.

4. the fly in the ointment was, it seemed the science of cloning back in the day was not as perfected as it is now and certain aspects of this project failed. The product of this cloning was not the master-mind over all things evil as the bad Dr. had envisioned. No, no! The product was an impish little person who was a great bit more obnoxious than evil.

5. But Dr. Evil still had hope that this obnoxiousness would one day turn into a great evilness which would threaten the entire world. Of course you do not know the name of this little person is “Mini-Me” since you did not see the movie

II. BE IMITATORS

A. All of this came to me as I was brushing my teeth one morning.

1. I’m a little embarrassed to tell you God gives me visions. I’m embarrassed because when I say it sounds like I’m trying to present myself as some sort of hyper spiritual person, or that my Christian experience is something a little higher than you could ever hope to enjoy. Anyone who knows me thinks such sentiments are laughable. But visions are what they are. Many times the visions God gives me have a good dose of humor.

2. As I was brushing, God was speaking and He was showing me some mental images you wouldn’t ordinarily put together with the voice of God.

3. He was showing me this image of Mini-Me and speaking these words of the Apostle Paul to me at the same time. 1 Corinthians 11: 1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

4. I’ve been accused of having a warped mind. But then again, others have told me secretly, “I’ve thought the very same thing, I was just too smart to admit I thought it.”

5. So here it goes: I started thinking, I am supposed to imitate Paul (that’s a stretch) who is an imitator of Christ (that’s seems like less of a stretch). Therefore, I am to be an imitator of Christ (in a lot of areas of my life, that’s down right laughable).

6. Then I remembered all I’ve heard about “Self-Love” lately. I ought to be fair to myself. So I say back to the Holy Spirit, “You know, there are a lot of areas of my life where I have indeed become like Christ. But then I chuckled again spitting toothpaste on the mirror. I’m like Christ sort of like Mini-Me was an exact replica of Dr. Evil.” (During this, it might be cool to have a picture of Jesus, then flip to a picture of me with my pinky to the side of my mouth, photo-shopped bald).