Good morning. Good morning. Maybe it's me today, but I just feel a stirring in my heart today. I feel a stirring. I don't know what God's going to do and what God's going to say to you individually, but I think He's got some things to say. With this Tuesday being the election day, I figured I would preach Christ today. And that way, I don't think I can go wrong in any of that aspect as well, too.

So, we actually get to John chapter 3 today. And in John chapter 3, in our series, we meet a guy named Nicodemus. And the temptation is to title this sermon, Nic at Night, because that's what everyone knows, and it's kind of somewhat clever. But I'm really not that clever, and so I figured I'd stay away from Nic at Night.

But instead of that, I thought I would choose some of the words that Jesus spoke specifically to Nicodemus in his encounter with him that are paramount for us today.

And that is, you must be born again. You must be born again. There's a tenderness in that, isn't there? There's a huge command in that, and there's a weightiness to it as well, too.

When we meet this guy named Nicodemus, and the one thing you have to say about this guy is he heard the truth straight from Jesus' mouth, didn't he?

I mean, there's something to be said for that. I'm going to provide a little bit of a profile for you on Nicodemus, because I think that's important for us to understand the gravity of what's going on.

But Nicodemus, he was a rabbi, and he was a well-respected teacher of Israel.

Nicodemus would have known the Old Testament Scriptures extremely well. He would have been very versed.

He was a Pharisee. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was very influential. He was very intelligent.

And it would seem that Nicodemus had a solid grasp on his relationship with God, that is, until he met Jesus.

Until he met Jesus. And a late-night conversation turned into a monumental conversion.

A late-night conversation turned into a monumental conversion.

And the words of Jesus that he spoke to him is,

You must be born again. You must be born again.

And those words, they just must have thundered into his ears.

And must have let a wise man, okay, who thought he knew God,

but he realized, in hearing these words, that he had actually met God in the flesh.

And we'll take a quick look at Nicodemus.

But Nicodemus comes to meet Jesus at night.

And he hears the phrase, that you must be born again.

And I have to say, the first time I remember, I remember for me personally, hearing that phrase,

I mean, it had serious meaning for me.

And when it fell on my ears, I thought it was a perfect description of what had happened to me

when I came to really know and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's what it felt like.

And it perfectly captured the transformation that occurred in my life.

I felt like I'd been given a whole new life.

Anybody with me on that?

And so, in this passage that we're going to look at this morning,

we're going to tackle the first eight verses of chapter 3 in John 3 today.

And it's really the dialogue part of the conversation.

Next week we'll get into the discourse, you know, where Jesus does most of the talking.

But there's three different levels of this conversation,

three different conditions, if you will, that I want to unfold for us this morning.

The first is there was a curiosity.

There was a spiritual curiosity taking place right here

that drives Nicodemus to even want to meet Jesus.

A spiritual curiosity.

Look in chapter 3, beginning in verse 1.

There are three words in here that really describe

who Nicodemus was.

He was religious, he was a ruler, and he was rich.

Nicodemus is a Greek name.

Although he's a Jew, he has a Greek name which would not be uncommon.

But his name literally means ruler or victor over the people.

Okay?

One who rules.

to bring to bring to the tomb of Jesus when they bury him. He was a wealthy man. He was a Pharisee. History also tells us that Nicodemus, it was Nicodemus' son who later on is going to negotiate with the Romans the terms of the Jewish surrender in 70 A.D. before the destruction of the city. So Nicodemus, you have to understand, is a very, very famous man. All right? Spiritually, according to verse 1, he was a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee. Okay?

That was the ultra-Orthodox group of Jewish people. There were only about 6,000 at the time of Christ. And they were very strict and they were very serious about keeping the law. In fact, they belonged to a group called the Habura, meaning the Brotherhood. And the Brotherhood were the group of Pharisees that entered into this solemn pledge that had to be witnessed by three other witnesses where it was a pledge that you would keep

all of your life the law. All of your life. You're vowing to keep the law. And now when we hear the term the law, we think usually of the five books of Moses, right? And so of the Bible, the Torah, the law. But to a Pharisee, they had added regulations and rituals called the Oral Law with that as well too.

And just an example. Okay? In the Bible, in the Scriptures itself, there are really only three paragraphs that talk about the Sabbath day, the law. Okay? That's Saturday. What to do, what not to do. But there's something called the Mishnah.

And the Mishnah, it was added. And this was the codified scribal law. All right? And 24 chapters within the Mishnah were devoted to just keeping the Sabbath. Okay? And then there was something called the Talmud. All right? And these were the rabbinical commentaries on the Mishnah. That came later on.

And one of the longest of the two Talmuds was called the Babylonian Talmud. 156 portfolio-sized, double-sided pages. All right? This is massive. On just regulations on keeping the Sabbath.

So it wasn't enough just to say, hey, don't work on the Sabbath. Don't carry a burden on the Sabbath. They needed to have all these other things specified.

I'm not going to bog you down, but I want to give you just an example of this. And I want you to understand who Nicodemus was. Okay? The example is, they said that you couldn't carry a burden on the Sabbath. Okay? That's what they would say. So what's a burden? What's a burden?

So the rabbis got together and they said, food equal in weight to a dried fig. If you carry food more than that, equal to that, that was a burden.

Enough wine for mixing in a goblet. Enough milk for one swallow. Enough honey to put on a wound. Enough oil to anoint a small member of your body.

Enough water to moisten the eye salve. Enough paper to write a customs house notice upon.

Or enough ink to write two letters of the alphabet.

I mean, you can see this is going crazy, right? It's going crazy.

And if you did that, you would be bearing a burden and you would be breaking the Sabbath law.

And they would have these endless discussions and arguments.

Can you lift a lamp on the Sabbath? Is that a burden? Is it work? Whatever.

Can you carry your child on the Sabbath? Is that work? Okay?

Can you wear, I mean, this is serious.

Can you wear your artificial teeth on the Sabbath? Is that a burden?

So all that stuff, they would write all this stuff.

And then they would have this, there was a discussion that was actually written about,

this whole discussion about, what about if your hen, if your hen lays an egg on the Sabbath?

No, I'm not making this up.

In the law, you could not eat that egg because the hen worked, okay, to make that egg.

So what could you do with that egg?

You could take that egg and sell it to the Gentiles and make money because they don't count for anything.

Or you could eat the egg if you knew you were going to kill the,

if you were committed to kill the chicken the next day because the chicken had not, had broken the law.

I mean, these people had lost their minds, okay?

That was the group of Pharisees.

They were sworn to kill the king.

And the Greek word is archon. And it designates a special class of a 70-member ruling council known as the Sanhedrin, okay? This guy, Nicodemus was a big dog, okay, in Jerusalem. He was an important guy, one of the chief leaders of the nation. The third thing that describes him is that he was a teacher. Later on in verse 10, Jesus is going to say, are you the teacher? Aren't you the teacher?

He's the teacher in Israel, right? But notice he says, the teacher. In verse 10, he doesn't say a teacher. In other words, you are in that special class.

And history tells us that Nicodemus was one of the most famous sought-after lecturers of the law in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem. This is who he is. So here's a guy who's from Jerusalem, paying a visit on Jesus. And it says in verse 2 that he came at night.

Henceforth, Nicodemus, right? Well, why did he come at night? Why did he come at night? You know, I don't know how much speculation people write about this and why he came at night.

Some say he came out of fear at night. It's possible. Others say that he had some sort of secret sin. And so that's why he came at night, maybe.

But it doesn't say why. And it just says that he came at night. And so, for me, I don't think I would make a huge big deal out of it.

I really don't. I tend to think that he came at night because he wants some quality time.

And most of the rabbis during this day, they said that the best time to discuss and debate the Torah was at night.

Okay? Because you're not distracted.

Jesus had crowds of people around him during the day, didn't he?

And Nicodemus had all these responsibilities to keep all these religious responsibilities during the day.

Remember, this is the time of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So, Nick's a busy guy right now. And Jesus is drawing all these crowds.

So, he comes at night to spend some quality time undisturbed from all these crowds for an interview.

And really, the important thing is not that he came to Jesus at night.

The important thing is that he came at all.

He came at all.

I spent a great deal of time letting you know how important and powerful this man is.

But he comes to Jesus at night.

And it's funny, even today, how people want to get down on who would come to Jesus for what we call the wrong motivations.

Oh, you came to Jesus because you're down on your luck.

You came to Jesus because you just went through this huge, nasty divorce.

Oh, you're coming to Jesus because you're really fearful.

You're in physical pain.

And you're at the end of your rope.

Who cares?

At least they're coming to Jesus.

But many of us have that mindset even today.

I'm just glad that they come.

We can work out all the other stuff later.

Just come to Jesus.

And so, it just so happens that when you're in a great deal of pain, you're distressed, or you're lonely,

you are more aware at that time that you need help more than any other time in your life.

You realize you need somebody other greater than yourself to help you out of the chocolate mess that you're in.

Again, you come to Jesus when things are messed.

That's okay.

It's okay.

I'm just glad.

I'm glad Nicodemus came.

But notice that Nicodemus calls Jesus rabbi.

He calls him rabbi.

That's a term of politeness.

In fact, it's a term of equality in there.

And what he's saying is that I recognize you as somebody who's on my level.

Rabbi.

And now he was wrong about that, of course, because Jesus was far more than a rabbi.

He was certainly not equal to Nicodemus.

He was far greater than Nicodemus.

But Nicodemus doesn't know that yet.

So he says rabbi.

And notice that he uses the plural pronoun here.

He says, we know.

We know.

We know.

Okay?

Now, who's we?

He doesn't have a mouse in his pocket, right?

So who's the we that he's talking about?

I bet you he's not representing the entire council of the 70 Sanhedrin elders when he says we.

He's probably talking about himself and a handful of other people who have been talking.

Maybe even Joseph of Arimathea who's.

is with him. Now there's where he is very wrong. Nicodemus is very wrong. Jesus was not a. He wasn't a teacher. Come from God. Moses was a teacher. Come from God. Isaiah was a teacher. Come from God. Jeremiah was a teacher. Come from God. Jesus was far more than a teacher. Come from God. He was God who came to teach. He was God who came to teach.

But again, he doesn't know that yet, okay?

But this illustrates how a lot of people even today deal with Jesus.

They will recognize him in this manner.

And their description of Jesus falls short of his true identity.

Who is Jesus to you?

He was a great guy.

He was a great teacher.

He was a prophet.

He was a good man.

You know what?

He was a good example.

Absolutely true, okay?

But he's far more than that.

He was and he is God Almighty.

That's who Jesus is.

That's who Jesus was.

And Nicodemus will be leading toward that in this conversation.

Now with that in mind, why does he come to Jesus?

He's thinking like all the other Pharisees.

All the other Pharisees thought about the kingdom all the time.

So he's spiritually curious.

Isn't that how all of us, there was something that drew us, there was something that drew us at one point in our life.

We were spiritually curious about this church thing, this God thing, this Jesus thing.

However you want to phrase it.

It was a spiritual curiosity.

And remember, okay, it had been, Jesus had been in Jerusalem all week long.

It was Passover.

It was the Feast of Unliving Bread.

And he was doing all these signs and these miracles.

Everybody knew about him.

Nicodemus had heard about him.

Maybe even Nicodemus saw a couple of the miracles.

We don't know.

Maybe he even heard Jesus teach.

But he was attracted by it.

He was drawn.

This schooled, learned, cultured leader of the Jews was watching and listening to Jesus.

And he heard truth like that and saw things that he had never seen before.

And it was like water that was being poured on a dry and parched soul.

And it was coming alive.

It was coming alive in Nicodemus.

So he came.

He came.

Curiosity brought him.

Curiosity brings a lot of people to Jesus.

Okay?

Curiosity draws Nicodemus in.

That's the first stage.

That's the first level.

Spiritual curiosity.

And the second thing, though, I want you to see is eternal necessity.

The eternal necessity.

Notice this in verse 3.

Jesus answered him,

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now, notice Jesus doesn't waste any time with formalities here.

Okay?

You know, Nicodemus comes.

He's polite.

You know, he calls him rabbi.

We know that you're a teacher, come from God, and you do all these miracles.

Jesus doesn't sit there and say, oh, you like those miracles?

Those are pretty cool, aren't they?

Those are pretty amazing stuff.

You know, I've heard a lot of good things about you, too, Nicodemus.

I've heard a lot of people talking about it.

No, just right off the bat, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,

he cannot see the kingdom of God.

It sounds like they're not even talking in the same conversation, doesn't it?

It's like Jesus is talking about something totally different, okay?

But what is, you know, Nicodemus saying have anything to do with the kingdom of God?

When you look at this, it's because Jesus is, listen, he's answering the question that Nicodemus never asked with his mouth,

but he asked with his heart, and this is completely in context to what we talked about last week,

and it makes perfect sense when you look at it all in context,

because we just read last week that they said Jesus knew the thoughts and the hearts of men,

and he didn't need anybody to testify about man, because he knew what was in them.

He knew what was in them.

So here comes Nicodemus.

Jesus knows what's in him.

He's thinking about the kingdom, and he comes, and he says some nice things about Nicodemus,

and he says, hey, I know that you're a teacher, and you come here and all this,

but what you really want to know from me is that you're not going to be a teacher.

born again. And by the way, when he says truly, truly, that is meant to get his attention. It's like grabbing him and saying, look at my baby blues. I'm telling you something you don't want to miss. You need to hear this. It is important because Nicodemus' destiny will hang on how he listens to what Jesus has to say, and how he will respond to it.

There is a response that's needed in hearing truth. Born again. Born again. Born again. What exactly does that mean? Born again. Well, first of all, I want you to push aside all the cultural baggage that we've carried around for the last 20, 30 years on what that means.

Again, when that phrase hit my ears for the first time years ago, born again, it was pregnant with possibility. It was alive, okay? Born again. It was like a whole new life, like a second chance.

A second chance. But it's become quite cliche in our culture, and I've seen it today.

Today, as a lot of people see it today, it's just another Protestant sect. You've got the Baptists over here, you've got the Methodists over there, you've got the Presbyterians over there, you've got the Catholics back there, you've got this group, and this group, and this group, and then you've got the born again people.

Then you've got all those born again believers, right?

You know, I've been, I've, I've, I've been poor, I've been with people before, sharing my heart, sharing this, sharing that, and they look at me and go, oh, you're one of those born again, born again Christians.

What other Christian is there?

What other, what other sect is there?

Oh, you're one of those born again guys, you know?

Jesus says you will never see the kingdom of heaven unless you are born again, okay?

It is absolutely essential.

It is a prerequisite.

The Greek construction of the two words born again is genethe anothen, anothen.

And it could, I mean, one of two things.

It could either mean to be born from above, okay, or to be born a second time.

And that's, to be born a second time is how Nicodemus interprets it because of what he says in the very next verse.

Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Now, why does Jesus speak of this second birth?

Listen carefully.

Nicodemus, Nicodemus, this ruler of the Jews, this Pharisee, Nicodemus, this religious guy,

and all of his other fellow Jews believed that the only thing necessary for entrance into the kingdom of heaven was their first birth.

Their first birth.

If you were born Jewish, born a descendant of Abraham, and moreover, if you kept the law with all of your heart,

that guaranteed you entrance into the kingdom of God.

And when Jesus is saying, you've got to do it all over again, you've got to do it all over again,

you've got to start all over again, it was a crushing blow to Nicodemus' legalism.

It was a crushing blow to all of his religion, all of his good works, all of his sincerity.

He's saying it's not enough.

It's not enough.

You need to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.

It's a new birth because it's an entrance into a new life.

That's why it's a new birth.

And the only reason why you have life is because of a birth, right?

And so you had a birth.

You have to have birth.

And so to have new life, you need a new birth.

And that's the reason why we need a new birth, is because all of us arrived spiritually dead.

We were DOA.

We were dead on arrival.

Ephesians 2.1 tells us, and you, has he made alive, okay?

That's the new birth, okay?

Who were dead in trespasses and sins.

And guess who that covers?

Every blessed one of us.

He made alive.

And you may not know this, you may not know this, but in Judaism, 2,000 years ago,

if you were a member of another faith, and you proselytized,

this ruler of the Jews who knew that, who thought his physical birth was enough to guarantee

him entrance into the kingdom of God. And he finds out it's not. He thought he had 50

yard line seats reserved at the kingdom and he realizes he ain't even in the game. This

is crushing to him. What do you mean? All this was for naught? There's a lot of people

today who have the same mindset, have the same ideas. You know, I'm a church goer. I've

gone to church my whole life. I can't. You have not gone to church your whole life. Let

me just say stop saying that for you. Those of you who might say that, oh, I grew up and

you didn't grow up in church. I know what you're saying, but what you're saying is not right.

OK, well, my mom and dad took me to church. Well, great. If your mom and daddy sat you

in the garage for the next four months, would you turn into a car? If you sit at McDonald's

for the next three months and not move, does that make you a Big Mac? No. Thank you. Yeah.

You know, I've been a church goer all my life, man. I believe in God. I believe in God. You

know, I'm sincere and I'm politically conservative. I've got to go to the kingdom of heaven. No.

Guess what? You must be born again. You must be born again. And he presses it further

after the question. And Nicodemus asked about the method of this new birth. Look at this

again. Verse four. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he

enter a second time to his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered him. Truly, truly, I

say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of

heaven. Wow. Now I'm not going to bore you. There are six different, I found this past week,

six different interpretations of what that means to be born of water and spirit. There's

a lot of things out there. Six different interpretations, different views on what it means. Let me tell you

what it does not mean. All right. Let me tell you what it doesn't. It has nothing to do

with Jesus teaching baptismal regeneration. Nothing to do with that, that you have to be

baptized in the water to be saved. Why, why could it not mean that? Simply, simple reason

because Nicodemus wouldn't have understood this. He wouldn't have understood it. Baptism

didn't, didn't exist yet. So Nicodemus couldn't go, Oh, I get it. You know, he wouldn't have

gotten it. The second reason that it couldn't mean baptism is that if, if it meant baptism,

then why didn't Jesus go places baptizing people? The Bible specifically says that he baptized

nobody and he'd be baptizing people. It was a prerequisite for the kingdom of God. It could

mean one of two things being born of the, of the water and of the spirit. It could simply

mean a spiritual cleansing because of those two, because those two terms of being born

of the water or the use of water and the spirit were an old Testament description of being

spiritually cleansed. All right. I'm just going to give you one example. It's in Ezekiel

chapter 36. You can look at it later on when God promises his people this, he says, I will

sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away and you

will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart and a new and right desire.

And I will put my spirit capital S within you. I will take out your old, your, out your stony

heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you so that you will

obey my laws and do whatever I command. All right. Ezekiel 36. It could be that, that Jesus

had this passage in mind and certainly Nicodemus would have understood that passage. It would

be familiar to him. So it could mean a spiritual cleansing. Another possible way to look at

it. When Jesus spoke of being born of the, of the water and the spirit, he, he simply could,

simply could be talking about physical birth followed by spiritual birth. And that's because

the ancient peoples used to refer to anybody being born as far as a physical birth. They called

it. The ancient peoples called it being born of water.

for physical life, so too the second birth is necessary for spiritual life. And that would make a lot of sense, okay, because in the very next verse, in verse six says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, right? So it means one of those two things, I believe. Okay, you can grab one of those other six interpretations and throw them at me, email them to me later on this week, and that's fine, we'll talk about it. But let's look at this third level and kind of bring this to a close.

I want you to see the observable activity. I want you to see the observable activity. What I'm calling the observable activity. Jesus ends this dialogue part. Well, almost. Nicodemus has one more question, and we'll get to that next time.

But he's given us an example of what he's talking about, and he uses the wind as an example. This is one of my favorite, favorite passages as well, too. Do not, do not marvel that I said to you that, said to you, you must be born again.

Now, why does Jesus say that, don't marvel? Before we get into that? Remember, he tells him that he has to be born again. I think he said, don't marvel, because Nicodemus' eyebrows were probably here at the top of his forehead. What? You must be born again. What? Can I crawl back in my mama's womb and be born a second time? No, unless you're born of the water and spirit.

What? What? So I think he's calming. He's taking him, calming him, telling him to get off the fence. Do not marvel. Do not marvel at this.

And Nicodemus was probably thinking, this is impossible for me to start all over again? You mean I've got to start all over again in this religious thing?

After all I've invested in my belief system? I've put my whole faith in this thing right here.

Why do you think, why do you think, people, why do you think, people, that there was a foreshadowing of the whole sacrificial system in the Old Testament?

Knowing that there had to be a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, foreshadowing all this stuff.

The Passover comes along and celebrates it, right?

And then Jesus comes and the veil is torn, ripped in two.

Has there ever been another sacrifice since that day?

No.

Why do you think this thing wasn't reinstituted?

Because it's tetelestai.

It is finished.

It's paid in full.

There's nothing, nothing else needs to be or can be added.

It's done.

Everything, every, all of your systems should have been pointing to me.

Everything that we do here as a community church should be pointing to the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything that you do within whatever denomination you fall within, that you hold dear to,

if it's not pointing to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's heresy.

It's pointing to man.

Where were we?

Do not marvel, Ramon Community Church, that I said to you, you must be born again.

Then, words added by Curtis Gary, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit.

He's like, Nicodemus, it's like the wind.

And can't you just picture, it's in the evening time, and they're out there talking, and right about then, the wind just blows.

And Jesus takes something in the natural and uses a great illustration.

Hey, where did that wind come from, Nicodemus?

I don't know.

Where's it going?

What are you talking about?

Being born again is much like that.

You don't know where it's coming from or where it's going, but you see the evidence.

You see the evidence of the work of the Spirit, don't you?

You see the trees, the branches moving?

Did that tree just start going?

No, the wind did it.

The wind did it.

The wind moved it.

It's the evidence of it.

You know, Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, there are some things that are real that you can't see.

And just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that it's not real.

Just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean that it's not real.

They're going to look the same on the x-ray. Right? There's not going to be any change. But you can certainly see the changes of occurrence in one's life. Can't you? The fruit. You act different. You talk different. And you love different. You are different. What has happened to you? I've been born again. I have been born again.

It is not of me. It is of the Lord. Because if I act out of me, I'm going to be selfish. I'm going to be conniving. I'm going to be manipulative. I'm going to be all these things. I know how to play the game. I know how to get this, that, and the other to get what I want.

But now I have a kingdom mindset. And because I have a kingdom mindset, I live differently. I love differently. I see things differently.

That's the awakening of the church today. There's so much going on in our lives, in our cultures, in our communities that we should be paying attention to.

But the biggest thing is, listen guys, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. And we are called to be about a different kingdom.

That doesn't mean we put our heads in the sand like that insurance guy, the ostrich thing.

You know, he's trying to show them the volleyball thing, whatever that is. Yeah.

You with me? You with me on that?

We don't put our heads in the sand.

But our focus, this is not our home.

If you fall in love with this place, you'll never chase after him.

And it's kind of interesting that what he says here in the Greek is actually a play on words.

The word for wind in that verse and the word for spirit are the same identical words.

It's the word pneuma, pneuma, where we get our term pneumatic tools or pneumatic drills or things like that.

But he means air, breath, wind, spirit.

It's a play on words.

The pneuma operates like the pneuma.

That's what he's saying.

And Nicodemus goes, now his eyebrows have calmed down.

The spirit operates like the wind.

It's very, very powerful activity.

Very, very observable activity.

And here's the point.

When a person has been born again, you can see the changes in their life.

And you can see the changes that have occurred in their life.

And you can see the fruit of the spirit that's coming from that person's life, right?

You see that.

And go back to verse 7 because I don't want you to miss this.

And we failed to mention this as we close here this morning.

And we really are closing.

But it's the word must.

Must.

Do not marvel that I said to you that you must be born again.

I mean, notice Jesus is not leaving a lot of wiggle room in there.

All right?

He doesn't say, you know, Nicodemus, it's been my opinion that there's many options and many roads.

All roads lead to God.

They all lead to God.

This born again thing is one of those many roads in there.

No, he's like, you've got to do this, man.

You've got to do this.

This is essential that you are born again.

The Amplified Bible puts it this way.

He says, I assure you most solemnly, I tell you, unless a man is born again, he cannot even see, know, be acquainted with, or experience the kingdom of God.

Bam!

Well, I think that's pretty exclusive.

It's his kingdom!

Is it your kingdom?

Your kingdom's right here.

Are you building a kingdom here?

Or are you sending treasures?

Are you building a kingdom here?

Or are you sending treasures?

You know, one of the colonial preachers, George Whitefield, back in the day, he used to always preach on this text of being born again, born again.

And somebody went to Whitefield and said, why are you always preaching on being born again?

You always go to this text over and over.

Being born again, being born again.

And Whitefield says, it's because Jesus said, you must.

person who believed that his religion was going to save him. He believed that his good

works was going to save him. He believed that his status was going to save him. He believed

that his conservatism was going to save him. And he says, no, you must be born again. Twice

born. You know, there's a simple formula. You've heard it before, but it sums it all

up. If you're born once, you'll die twice. If you're born once, you will die twice. But

if you are born twice, you will only die once. If you are only born once, that's physically

and not spiritually, then you will die physically and you will die spiritually. But if you are

born twice, physically and spiritually, you will only die once. Maybe not even that.

Maybe the Lord will come back today, right now.

Come on.

We don't even have to put up with next week's mess.

Come on, Jesus.

I mean, what else do we got to accomplish here?

What else?

I want to finish my house again, get in my house.

I hear you, but come on.

I want to see my son graduate from college.

I hear you, but come on.

I want to one day see my grandchildren.

I know, I know, but come on.

What kingdom are we building?

What kingdom are we building?

I'm not saying those things don't matter.

I'm saying there's something that takes precedence.

There has to be an urgency to our lives, an urgency to our mission, our urgency.

I mean, look at the persecuted church we just showed up here.

Holy cow.

And we're mad as a hornet if a song goes too long.

And we're all sideways when Pastor Curtis preached three sermons within the one sermon.

And those people, those people have one page of scripture and they fall in love with Jesus 900 times a moment.

Wow.

Lord have mercy on us.

Amen.

That wasn't what I was going to talk about.

And just so you know, you know, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

We talked about this whole, you know, if you're only born once, you die twice kind of thing.

I'm not the sharpest, but my math shows me that for every person that's born, you're going to die.

Just so we know, that's the record.

That's what I've seen.

That's the record, okay?

And if that's it, if that's the record, then, you know, you die, you have your service, your body will decay,

but your spirit will immediately be with the Lord.

Presence of the Lord.

Hallelujah.

You know, it reminds me of the story of a businessman who owned this large warehouse and he wanted to sell it.

And it sat vacant for 15 years.

He couldn't sell it for nothing.

And over those 15 years, people have vandalized it.

They broke windows.

They broke the doors down.

They trashed the place.

And so no one went, no one wanted it.

No one wanted it.

Finally, this guy, he had a prospective buyer.

And the prospective buyer came and he said, he's looking at the place.

And the seller of the place said, hey, man, look, I got it priced right, man, for what it is.

But look, if you buy it, if you buy it, I'm fixing the windows.

I'll replace the doors.

And I'm going to make it nice on the inside.

I'm going to make it nice on the inside.

And the prospective buyer said, he says, no, if I buy this, I'm leveling the whole place.

I don't want the place.

I just want the site.

I'm going to put something, I'm going to build something new.

I'm not wanting the building.

I just want the site.

And that's how it is when you and I come to Jesus.

That's how it is.

Everything that you've used in the past to say, I'm saved because of this, because of that, that, that.

You don't come to Christ and he reforms you.

You come to Christ and he transforms you.

He doesn't want the building.

He just wants the site.

All this stuff that you've built up that you think is valuable and this, that, and the other

is filthy rags in the presence of a holy God.

Some of you are going to be glad when we're out of John, aren't you?

We're only in chapter 3.

We're going to be glad that you had to respect that God.

Thank you.

All things have passed away, and behold, all things become new! Man, how many of you in this room, there's been times in your life, can raise your hand like me and say, I have desperately wanted a do-over. Yeah, a fresh start. A fresh start. Man, I was the king of do-overs.

I don't want to get into it. But, what time is it? We're good. We're way late. We're already late. Do-overs. I mean, everybody, you all, guys, you understand that? Anybody ever play basketball? At all? Yeah. Okay, yeah. And you, when you're out there practicing, what do you do? It's a game situation. All right, again, seven seconds left on the clock. Down by one. Curtis has

the ball. He makes the ball. He makes the move. He shoots! Oh, but he was fouled. He was fouled. I get to go to the line. He makes the first. The second one. Brick! Someone, late violation. You get to do over until the outcome is right. Right? Until, I did it! I won the game! Jesus gives you the greatest do-over. It's the greatest fresh start.

And I don't care if you walk with Jesus for 30 years or 30 seconds. All of us, at some point in our life, love the renewing power and strength of the Spirit of God. Because a lot of us need to be reminded of that renewing life that God gives us. It's energizing, isn't it? But it's not to be kept to ourselves. It's to overflow and to bless Jenny. To bless Brad. To bless Rob, Michelle, Matt.

To be a blessing. Jesus just wants the permission to build on your site. Let Him clean the building and let Him build.

And if you say yes, and allow Jesus to do the construction, you are in for the ride of your life.

You're in for the life of your life.

I don't even know if that makes sense, but I said it.

The life of your life.

But, please, understand this today, friends.

Understand this on good authority, on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, which means that if you have not experienced this new birth, okay?

To be born again, which means to be born, which means that you recognize that you are a sinner.

And you turn from that, and you turn to Him, and He, by an act of sovereign grace, saves you and creates something new.

If that has never happened in your life, you will never, ever, ever see the kingdom of heaven.

That's powerful.

That's weighty.

That's Christ.

But the invitation to the Lord Jesus is very simple.

As the worship team comes up, and Jesus just simply says that you must be born again.

You must.

Not you should.

Not you ought to be.

Must in the Greek doesn't mean ought to be.

So, let's stand.

Let's stand.

We talked about a lot of weighty things today.

But I pray that you hear the heart of Christ in all of this.

And let me tell you how the Lord...

I'm not trying to...

I'm not trying to embarrass anyone today.

And Jill always reminds me not to say people's names.

But, so please forgive me, because I'm going to say someone's name.

Here's Warren.

But it was a blessing to me.

And she's wise for telling me that, because sometimes I don't know when to shut up.

Obviously, right now.

But this is how a regenerated, a transformed life works.

Let's pray.

Yes, I can say. I'm not. Oh, it was on the group me. Oh, I'm so sorry. Go on the church group me. I'm so sorry. Uh, Tina, Matt, I'm very sorry. Um, I was blessed. I was blessed. Okay. So with that being said, Curtis has said enough. I apologize.

I love you immensely. And I pray that the Spirit of God will continue to rise up in your hearts and in your lives. And I pray that you too will experience and transform life and be a blessing to others. For God has not saved you to build your own kingdom, but to build His kingdom. Amen? Build His. So let's, let's get busy to build His kingdom. We've got a lot of work to do. A lot of work to do. And He's entrusted us with a lot of really cool things.

So Jesus, we just give thanks and praise today. Beautiful name and your beautiful sacrifice.