WEBVTT 00:00:00.201 --> 00:00:00.562 to come. 00:00:00.562 --> 00:00:11.891 We're going to be in John, chapter 3, and we are starting a brand new series today entitled Conversations how to have conversations that change lives. 00:00:11.891 --> 00:00:17.568 Now, typically, when you think about people, you kind of have a couple different types of people. 00:00:17.568 --> 00:00:28.224 You have people that are more extroverted extroverts and then you have people that are a little bit more introverted. 00:00:28.224 --> 00:00:34.234 In fact, I'm just curious how many of you would say I am an extrovert? 00:00:34.234 --> 00:00:37.424 Yes, double hands. 00:00:37.424 --> 00:00:40.673 How many of you would say I am an introvert? 00:00:40.673 --> 00:00:45.930 Some introverts were so introverted you wouldn't even raise your hand at that time. 00:00:45.930 --> 00:00:50.345 How many of you would say I'm an ambivert? 00:00:50.345 --> 00:00:51.930 I'm kind of extrovert, kind of introvert? 00:00:51.930 --> 00:00:54.024 Okay, oh, wow, okay, quite a bit. 00:00:54.024 --> 00:00:56.091 Okay, how many of you are like I'm still trying to figure it out. 00:00:56.091 --> 00:01:01.406 I don't really know quite what's going on, whether you're an extrovert or introvert, or ambivert. 00:01:01.406 --> 00:01:03.109 This is what we're going to see over the next couple of weeks. 00:01:03.109 --> 00:01:24.993 We're going to see how you can have conversations with people that change their lives, because what it takes to have conversations with people that change lives is well two things grace and truth, and conversations that change lives are conversations that are filled with grace and truth. 00:01:24.993 --> 00:01:27.525 Here's what we're going to do over the next couple of weeks. 00:01:27.525 --> 00:01:52.236 We're going to be in John, chapter 3 today and John 4 next week, and we're going to look at two different conversations that Jesus had with two completely different people with two complete different backgrounds, and how he had these conversations that ended up changing people's lives because, well, they were filled with grace and truth. 00:01:54.140 --> 00:02:05.049 Now, I'm really excited about this little mini series that we're doing because it leads us up to Easter Sunday, which is our community Easter celebration, and over the next two weeks, we all have an opportunity. 00:02:05.049 --> 00:02:07.524 You have an opportunity. 00:02:07.524 --> 00:02:08.826 Here's what our opportunity is. 00:02:08.826 --> 00:02:17.001 Our opportunity is to have conversations with people over the next couple weeks to let people know about what Easter is all about. 00:02:17.001 --> 00:02:21.931 How many of you know that Easter is not about the bunny Right? 00:02:21.931 --> 00:02:23.943 Somebody tell me what is Easter about? 00:02:23.943 --> 00:02:27.742 Easter is about the that's right resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:02:27.742 --> 00:02:33.784 So we have opportunities to have conversations with people about the resurrection of Jesus. 00:02:33.784 --> 00:02:35.588 So how do we do this? 00:02:35.588 --> 00:02:36.349 Well, this is what we do. 00:02:36.951 --> 00:02:45.593 We look at how Jesus talked to people, and this takes us to John, chapter number three, and we meet a man named Nicodemus. 00:02:45.593 --> 00:02:49.790 Everybody say Nicodemus, ready Nicodemus. 00:02:49.790 --> 00:02:52.106 Now we know some things about Nicodemus. 00:02:52.106 --> 00:02:57.712 In fact, thankfully for us, verse number one of chapter three doesn't cause us to wonder. 00:02:57.712 --> 00:02:59.026 It's very clear who he was. 00:02:59.026 --> 00:03:04.444 In John three, verse one, it says this it says there was a man from the. 00:03:04.786 --> 00:03:09.173 Oh, he was a Pharisee. 00:03:09.173 --> 00:03:14.884 Well, some of us know what Pharisees are. 00:03:14.884 --> 00:03:16.210 Some of us don't know what Pharisees are. 00:03:16.210 --> 00:03:18.343 Some of us have called people Pharisees. 00:03:18.343 --> 00:03:25.266 You know, the easiest way to spot a Pharisee is well, by people that call other people Pharisees. 00:03:25.266 --> 00:03:26.288 But that's another conversation. 00:03:26.288 --> 00:03:28.052 Oh, I heard it. 00:03:28.219 --> 00:03:29.586 Oh, this is a Pharisee story. 00:03:29.586 --> 00:03:44.430 They were a group of people that were super, super religious and what they did is they kept all 613 rules, laws of the Old Testament, or at least they thought they kept all 613. 00:03:44.430 --> 00:03:50.727 Old Testament, or at least they thought they kept all 613. 00:03:50.727 --> 00:03:52.872 And if that wasn't enough, what these Pharisees did is they made up additional rules to keep. 00:03:52.872 --> 00:03:54.014 So they kept all those. 00:03:54.014 --> 00:04:00.111 They made up additional ones and they thought that everybody else should keep the ones that they made up. 00:04:00.111 --> 00:04:03.203 And if you didn't keep the ones that they made up, then you were a problem. 00:04:03.203 --> 00:04:07.686 This is who Nicodemus was. 00:04:07.686 --> 00:04:08.727 He was a Pharisee. 00:04:08.727 --> 00:04:09.987 He was also. 00:04:09.987 --> 00:04:13.551 It says he was a ruler of the Jews. 00:04:13.551 --> 00:04:15.252 Everybody say ruler ready. 00:04:15.252 --> 00:04:16.853 This is what he was. 00:04:16.853 --> 00:04:19.257 He was a ruler, he was in charge. 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:28.644 If you've ever watched the Chosen series, this story of Nicodemus, this conversation is depicted in this picture. 00:04:28.644 --> 00:04:32.290 You have Nicodemus on the right and Jesus on the left. 00:04:32.290 --> 00:04:34.514 Nicodemus was a Pharisee. 00:04:34.514 --> 00:04:35.362 He was a ruler. 00:04:35.362 --> 00:04:36.264 What do you mean? 00:04:36.264 --> 00:04:36.904 He was a ruler. 00:04:36.904 --> 00:04:41.961 He was a part of something called the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrin. 00:04:41.961 --> 00:04:44.267 Who has ever heard of the Sanhedrin before? 00:04:44.267 --> 00:04:45.189 If you have, raise your hand. 00:04:45.189 --> 00:04:46.052 Okay, some of you have. 00:04:46.052 --> 00:04:46.692 Most of you haven't. 00:04:46.692 --> 00:04:48.425 This is what the Sanhedrin was. 00:04:48.425 --> 00:04:51.348 They were the governing council of Israel. 00:04:51.348 --> 00:04:59.149 They were the ones that had authority and they were under the authority of the Romans. 00:04:59.149 --> 00:05:04.949 There was about 70 members and these were kind of like our Supreme Court. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:15.869 Nicodemus, pharisee, nicodemus, a part of the Sanhedrin. 00:05:15.869 --> 00:05:21.610 Do you have a picture of the type of person that Nicodemus was? 00:05:21.610 --> 00:05:25.860 This is who he is, of person that Nicodemus was? 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:26.261 This is who he is. 00:05:26.261 --> 00:05:30.302 And in verse 2, this type of person, nicodemus, he came to him. 00:05:30.302 --> 00:05:32.084 He came to him at night. 00:05:32.084 --> 00:05:50.851 Verse number 2, he came to Jesus at night and he said Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs. 00:05:51.872 --> 00:05:54.793 Now, last week we saw the first miracle of Jesus. 00:05:54.793 --> 00:06:01.396 Can somebody in the balcony tell the rest of us? 00:06:01.396 --> 00:06:05.119 Last week we looked at the first miracle of Jesus, the first sign in John 2. 00:06:05.119 --> 00:06:12.903 What was the first miracle of Jesus? 00:06:12.903 --> 00:06:13.607 Let's go Turning water into wine. 00:06:13.607 --> 00:06:14.370 Let's give Chris a round of applause. 00:06:14.370 --> 00:06:14.571 He got it. 00:06:14.571 --> 00:06:15.153 I was a little nervous. 00:06:15.153 --> 00:06:17.000 I was a little nervous for a second, but I doubted you. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:19.504 This was the first sign. 00:06:19.684 --> 00:06:24.529 After Jesus did this sign in John 2, he ended up going to Jerusalem and did a bunch of other signs. 00:06:24.529 --> 00:06:39.360 So now this guy, nicodemus, sees all the signs that Jesus did and Nicodemus is like who are you Like? 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:46.653 Nobody could perform the signs that you're doing, apart from like God's got to be with you. 00:06:46.653 --> 00:06:56.334 So you would think Jesus would respond by telling him maybe some more about the signs. 00:06:56.334 --> 00:07:02.002 Maybe Jesus shares some pleasantries with him about like, oh, nicodemus, tell me about more about your story. 00:07:02.002 --> 00:07:03.386 What was your upbringing? 00:07:03.386 --> 00:07:05.351 Nope, jesus does none of that. 00:07:06.339 --> 00:07:07.285 Jesus says this. 00:07:07.285 --> 00:07:16.947 He says in verse 3, truly, I tell you, unless someone is born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:07:16.947 --> 00:07:21.869 Jesus, are you sure Nicodemus was ready for all that? 00:07:21.869 --> 00:07:25.468 How many of you guys played baseball growing up? 00:07:25.468 --> 00:07:26.959 How many of you guys played baseball growing up? 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:28.019 Have you guys played baseball growing up? 00:07:28.019 --> 00:07:29.723 So you play baseball growing up. 00:07:29.723 --> 00:07:36.404 You know if somebody's hitting or you're hitting, what they'll do is they'll throw you some warm-up pitches, like you know, just so you can get used to it. 00:07:36.404 --> 00:07:39.829 Jesus, in this conversation he didn't do any warm-up pitches. 00:07:39.829 --> 00:07:43.963 He's like a 90-mile-an-hour fastball right at you you. 00:07:43.963 --> 00:07:45.425 He's like a 90 mile an hour fastball right at you. 00:07:45.425 --> 00:07:48.187 You must be born again. 00:07:48.187 --> 00:08:00.992 He went right, like right to the heart of this thing, and he says if you're not born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. 00:08:02.495 --> 00:08:05.389 The kingdom of God, what's that even mean? 00:08:05.389 --> 00:08:07.062 Here's what the kingdom of God is. 00:08:07.062 --> 00:08:12.694 The kingdom of God is God's reign, god's rule and God's purposes. 00:08:12.694 --> 00:08:16.809 God's reign, god's rule and God's purposes. 00:08:16.809 --> 00:08:17.702 So you remember Jesus. 00:08:17.702 --> 00:08:21.202 He would teach and he would say things like in the kingdom. 00:08:21.202 --> 00:08:23.971 It's like this what is he saying? 00:08:23.971 --> 00:08:34.586 In the places where God is reigning, this is what it's gonna look like, whether that's on earth, or whether that's in a church, or whether that's in a family, or whether that's in a relationship. 00:08:34.586 --> 00:08:36.823 This is what it's gonna look like In the kingdom. 00:08:36.823 --> 00:08:37.166 What is that? 00:08:37.166 --> 00:08:39.248 The place where God has rule and reign. 00:08:40.961 --> 00:08:46.140 In Matthew, chapter six, jesus went on, he was teaching and he was saying, hey. 00:08:46.140 --> 00:08:48.894 In Matthew chapter six, jesus went on, he was teaching and he was saying, hey, if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. 00:08:48.894 --> 00:08:49.495 What is he saying? 00:08:49.495 --> 00:08:56.686 If you will seek God's purposes first, he's gonna take care of all that other stuff that we all worry about half the time. 00:08:56.686 --> 00:08:59.806 Right, that's what the kingdom is. 00:08:59.806 --> 00:09:07.392 And the kingdom will be fully experienced one day when we're in heaven with the Lord and he has complete reign and complete rule. 00:09:07.392 --> 00:09:09.447 And, guys, that's going to be a glorious day. 00:09:10.921 --> 00:09:18.293 And Jesus tells Nicodemus you will not see the kingdom of God unless you're born again. 00:09:18.293 --> 00:09:25.926 Nicodemus keeps all the rules. 00:09:25.926 --> 00:09:30.059 Nicodemus had books of the Bible memorized. 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:32.688 Nicodemus was a Pharisee. 00:09:32.688 --> 00:09:33.764 This is what the Pharisees would do. 00:09:33.764 --> 00:09:41.048 Pharisees would say God, I'm so thankful that I'm not like those sinners over there, I'm holy. 00:09:41.048 --> 00:09:43.849 Jesus says none of that matters. 00:09:43.849 --> 00:09:46.589 You must be born again. 00:09:46.589 --> 00:09:48.114 You must be born again. 00:09:48.114 --> 00:09:53.788 And, like you, nicodemus has some questions like what does this mean? 00:09:54.812 --> 00:10:00.945 In verse 4, nicodemus asks a very fair question how can someone be born when he is old? 00:10:00.945 --> 00:10:02.948 I think that's fair. 00:10:02.948 --> 00:10:19.456 Can he enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born and be born Right. 00:10:19.456 --> 00:10:20.157 How is this possible? 00:10:20.157 --> 00:10:27.567 And what Jesus is about to do is he's about to explain in the rest of these verses what it means to be born again. 00:10:27.567 --> 00:10:40.495 He takes it from this term that we haven't heard of to really make it practical and say this is what it means to be born again, and he gives some analogies along the way to help Nicodemus understand what this means. 00:10:40.495 --> 00:10:55.339 And here's my heart and my prayer for us this morning is that one if you've never been born again, today you will understand what it actually means and how your life is changed when you're born again, when you trust Christ to be your Savior and for others of us. 00:10:55.339 --> 00:11:06.238 I want us to observe along the way how Jesus has this conversation and how the components of these conversations will allow you to have this type of conversation with somebody else. 00:11:06.238 --> 00:11:11.817 So Jesus is about to say okay, I'm going to explain what this means. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:20.147 Jesus answered in verse 5, and he tells him unless someone's born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:11:20.147 --> 00:11:23.000 Whatever's born of the flesh is flesh. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:24.706 Whatever's born of the Spirit is Spirit. 00:11:24.706 --> 00:11:28.302 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 00:11:28.302 --> 00:11:31.456 Like don't be shocked about this, nicodemus. 00:11:31.456 --> 00:11:39.846 The wind blows where it pleases and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. 00:11:39.846 --> 00:11:47.903 Like you hear the wind but you don't really know, like, where it came from, where it's going. 00:11:49.316 --> 00:12:16.235 So it is with everyone born of the Spirit, everyone that's born again, that this is a work of the Holy Spirit in somebody's life and you can't really understand everything about it, but you can see and hear the results of it, because the results are somebody's life being changed. 00:12:16.235 --> 00:12:21.207 The results are the fruit of the Spirit coming out in somebody's life. 00:12:21.207 --> 00:12:33.259 And somebody that is not born again is going to see somebody's life that's being changed and fruit of the Spirit coming out in their life and they're going to be like dude, like what happened to you, bro? 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:37.606 Like how come you don't want to go get wasted and drunk with us, man? 00:12:37.606 --> 00:12:38.469 Like that's what we did. 00:12:38.469 --> 00:12:52.061 Like how come you want to like go to church on Sunday morning and hear that short, stubby guy talk real loud, like why do you want to? 00:12:52.061 --> 00:13:01.889 You're serving on a serve team. 00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:03.095 It's a volunteer role. 00:13:03.095 --> 00:13:07.937 They don't pay you for that they're not going to understand. 00:13:08.758 --> 00:13:09.918 This is what Paul says about this. 00:13:09.918 --> 00:13:25.966 Paul says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2, he says but the person without the Spirit, without the Holy Spirit because when we are born again, when we trust Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit this person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God's Spirit because it's foolishness to him. 00:13:25.966 --> 00:13:30.486 He's not able to understand it, since it is evaluated spiritually. 00:13:30.486 --> 00:13:41.243 Since it is evaluated spiritually, some of us, we're kind of frustrated because we've trusted Christ to be our Savior. 00:13:41.243 --> 00:13:47.822 God's changing our life and it's like our friends and family don't understand and in some ways they're hostile to what we're doing. 00:13:47.822 --> 00:13:56.837 Can I just say that's normal and in your mind, if you're trying to reckon it, you're like I'm doing so much better, like I have this peace in my life. 00:13:56.837 --> 00:13:57.721 Why don't you support me? 00:13:57.721 --> 00:13:58.764 What this is? 00:13:58.764 --> 00:13:58.985 Why? 00:13:58.985 --> 00:14:01.760 Because they don't have the Spirit. 00:14:01.760 --> 00:14:03.841 They're not able to understand it. 00:14:03.841 --> 00:14:06.563 It is foolishness to him. 00:14:08.336 --> 00:14:14.706 And what Nicodemus is told by Jesus is that being born again is a work of the Spirit. 00:14:14.706 --> 00:14:18.403 Nicodemus still doesn't understand. 00:14:18.403 --> 00:14:22.845 In verse number 9, he's very honest and I love it. 00:14:22.845 --> 00:14:25.244 He's like how can these things be? 00:14:25.244 --> 00:14:30.746 Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things. 00:14:30.746 --> 00:14:31.548 Jesus replied. 00:14:31.548 --> 00:14:33.298 I wonder when? 00:14:33.298 --> 00:14:48.902 Jesus, when he replied back to Nicodemus, I wonder if Jesus had like a little snarky tone, I know I would have I'd have been like, hey, man, like you say you're a teacher, you're a Pharisee Like what do you mean? 00:14:48.902 --> 00:14:49.903 You don't know these things. 00:14:49.903 --> 00:15:02.041 So Jesus says let me tell you Truly. 00:15:02.041 --> 00:15:06.428 I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you don't accept our testimony. 00:15:06.428 --> 00:15:11.764 Jesus says if I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 00:15:11.764 --> 00:15:19.248 Fair question no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of man. 00:15:19.248 --> 00:15:22.283 And Jesus was the Son of man. 00:15:25.855 --> 00:15:31.587 Now Jesus gets to verse 14, and he starts talking about snakes. 00:15:31.587 --> 00:15:37.246 He says just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. 00:15:37.246 --> 00:15:41.162 Now how many of you are like me and you don't like snakes? 00:15:41.162 --> 00:15:47.325 Nope, how many of you are like me and you think the only good snake is a dead snake? 00:15:47.325 --> 00:15:49.250 Okay, some of you. 00:15:49.250 --> 00:15:50.333 It's in the Bible. 00:15:50.333 --> 00:15:52.577 I haven't found that verse yet, but I think it's in there somewhere. 00:15:52.577 --> 00:15:55.503 Those of my reptile lovers in the room. 00:15:55.503 --> 00:15:56.725 I love you, I really do. 00:15:56.725 --> 00:15:59.215 I love you, I pray for you. 00:15:59.215 --> 00:15:59.875 I pray for you. 00:16:01.620 --> 00:16:06.897 Jesus starts talking about snakes and, like a casual reading, you might be like what does this even mean? 00:16:06.897 --> 00:16:09.000 Has Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness? 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:15.958 What Jesus is doing is he's referring to an Old Testament story that Nicodemus would have been very, very, very familiar with. 00:16:15.958 --> 00:16:21.879 It happened in Numbers, chapter 21, where Nicodemus would have even no doubt taught about this. 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:30.576 He had the passage memorized where the children of Israel, they were going into the promised land where God wanted them to go, but they forgot about the goodness of God. 00:16:30.576 --> 00:16:32.440 Like we sang about a few moments ago. 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:34.884 A few minutes ago, they forgot about who God was. 00:16:34.884 --> 00:16:38.434 And this is what the children of Israel decided to do Rebel. 00:16:38.434 --> 00:16:43.504 They're like we're tired of following God, like life is kind of difficult right now. 00:16:43.504 --> 00:16:45.129 Can we be honest? 00:16:45.129 --> 00:16:51.272 Sometimes, when life is difficult, isn't it kind of easier to like not follow than follow? 00:16:51.272 --> 00:16:52.900 Yeah, that's where they were. 00:16:52.900 --> 00:16:53.835 They were like we don't really want to follow. 00:16:53.835 --> 00:16:55.782 We're like we're kind of done with this. 00:16:57.916 --> 00:17:04.903 So God said okay, I'm going to put some snakes, some venomous snakes, in your camp. 00:17:04.903 --> 00:17:12.903 Does anybody have any guesses what the venomous snakes in the children of Israel's camp did to the children of Israel. 00:17:12.903 --> 00:17:13.755 Anybody did to the children of Israel. 00:17:13.755 --> 00:17:15.839 Anybody have any guesses what they did? 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:19.327 They bit them. 00:17:19.327 --> 00:17:25.105 How many of you have ever been bit by a snake before? 00:17:25.105 --> 00:17:26.316 It's not. 00:17:26.316 --> 00:17:27.599 Oh man, we got some people. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:28.884 It's all Duggans. 00:17:28.884 --> 00:17:30.402 All three of the Duggans raised their hands. 00:17:30.402 --> 00:17:33.159 This must have been a family thing, because Joey has a snake right. 00:17:33.159 --> 00:17:34.503 We're praying for Joey. 00:17:34.503 --> 00:17:34.964 Love you, bro. 00:17:37.236 --> 00:17:42.803 And these snakes, these venomous snakes, bit the children of Israel and this is what God did in his mercy and grace. 00:17:42.803 --> 00:18:04.867 God said Moses, who was the leader, if you will make a bronze snake and you will lift it up, if the people will look to the snake as a sign of repentance from their sin and belief in God and faith in God, then they'll be healed, and every single one of them that looked were healed. 00:18:04.867 --> 00:18:07.578 Nicodemus knows this story. 00:18:07.578 --> 00:18:09.103 So what does Jesus say? 00:18:09.103 --> 00:18:13.855 He uses this story to help Nicodemus understand what it means to be born again. 00:18:14.517 --> 00:18:31.823 So, just like the snake was lifted up, if the son of man, who is him, is lifted up verse 15, it says so everyone who believes in him, jesus will have eternal life, will have eternal life. 00:18:31.823 --> 00:18:32.542 Do you know who? 00:18:32.542 --> 00:18:33.324 Everyone is? 00:18:33.324 --> 00:18:35.625 Everyone. 00:18:35.625 --> 00:18:42.310 You walked in here and you're like Pastor Nate, you don't know my story, you don't know my background. 00:18:42.310 --> 00:18:44.192 God does not want me, bro. 00:18:44.192 --> 00:18:51.136 You are part of the everyone. 00:18:51.136 --> 00:18:51.960 God does want you, pastor Nate. 00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:54.086 If you know what I did last night or last week or two years ago, you would just know. 00:18:54.086 --> 00:18:55.432 This ain't for me no friend. 00:18:55.432 --> 00:19:01.826 Everyone who believes God will accept you just as you are if you will come to him just as you are. 00:19:01.826 --> 00:19:07.646 Anyone who believes will have eternal life. 00:19:07.646 --> 00:19:23.067 For God, verse 16, world's most famous verse, for God so loved the world in this way that he gave his one and only son so that everyone who what's that word? 00:19:23.067 --> 00:19:30.640 Everyone who In him that's Jesus will not perish. 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:41.871 Will not perish those are the words of Jesus, but have eternal life, belief in Jesus. 00:20:01.115 --> 00:20:03.602 Now, a lot of times when we think of belief, what we think of is like intellectual understanding, like. 00:20:03.602 --> 00:20:03.942 I believe this. 00:20:03.942 --> 00:20:06.711 I believe that Chipotle is the best fast, casual restaurant in the US of A, let's go, we got some God's people. 00:20:06.711 --> 00:20:15.492 Some of y'all are staring bullets through me, okay, yeah, I believe that one of God's greatest gifts to humanity is ice cream. 00:20:15.492 --> 00:20:16.756 Can I get an amen in the room? 00:20:16.756 --> 00:20:18.278 Yes, let's go. 00:20:18.278 --> 00:20:20.761 Okay, I believe those things. 00:20:20.761 --> 00:20:31.759 I believe that one day the Sacramento Kings are going to win the NBA finals. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:32.864 Anyways, okay, I got to stop. 00:20:33.365 --> 00:20:36.383 Sorry, 1115 service, I'm kind of going off kilter a little bit. 00:20:36.383 --> 00:20:42.480 There's a difference between believing and trusting in our hearts. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:50.381 When he says belief, he's not talking about head knowledge, he's talking about hearts Trusting. 00:20:50.381 --> 00:21:00.779 Let me illustrate it this way and I'm going to try not to break any of this sound equipment back here, this musical stuff, because there's I don't even know what's back here, but I just know it sounds good on Sunday morning, amen. 00:21:00.779 --> 00:21:16.861 If this bench represents Jesus, I could say oh yeah, I believe, like that's good, like I believe that's strong, like I believe like that's good, like I believe that's strong, like I believe that could hold me up, like I'm going through a tough time. 00:21:16.861 --> 00:21:38.145 Let me lean on Jesus, let me turn on a worship song, let me have some spiritual experience Believing, believing in him, believing in Jesus is I'm transferring my trust from everything else and I'm putting it in Christ alone. 00:21:40.576 --> 00:21:49.665 This is what it means to be born again, that I'm not trusting anything else, I'm only trusting in Christ alone for my salvation. 00:21:49.665 --> 00:21:55.719 But, pastor Nate, I had an emotional experience back in the day and I was just crying and crying and crying. 00:21:55.719 --> 00:21:58.426 I was like in a church service and it was that's wonderful. 00:21:58.426 --> 00:22:06.559 Being born again, trusting Christ, can be an emotional experience, but an emotional experience alone is not what it means to be born again. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:12.295 Pastor Nate, when I was a kid I got baptized. 00:22:12.295 --> 00:22:15.087 Pastor Nate, when I was a kid, I got baptized. 00:22:15.087 --> 00:22:19.096 I got baptized and because I got baptized I'm good. 00:22:19.096 --> 00:22:21.760 Baptism is an expression of being born again. 00:22:21.760 --> 00:22:25.145 It's an expression of my faith in Christ. 00:22:25.145 --> 00:22:34.323 But baptism alone doesn't mean that you're born again, just like I could put on a wedding ring and that doesn't mean that I'm married, but wearing a wedding ring would be an expression of a marriage. 00:22:34.934 --> 00:22:41.765 Being born again is a time when you realize that you need Christ and you trust in him as your Lord and Savior. 00:22:41.765 --> 00:22:50.397 And here's my question to every person in the room, no matter what your story is, no matter what your background is have you been born again? 00:22:50.397 --> 00:22:52.143 Have you been born again? 00:22:52.143 --> 00:22:59.659 Have you trusted in Christ alone for your salvation? 00:22:59.659 --> 00:23:08.357 Because Jesus says if you do this, you won't perish but have eternal life. 00:23:10.346 --> 00:23:11.652 In fact he went on in verse 17,. 00:23:11.652 --> 00:23:15.315 He says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world? 00:23:15.315 --> 00:23:16.906 But to what's that word? 00:23:16.906 --> 00:23:21.115 But to Save the world through your good works. 00:23:21.115 --> 00:23:22.758 Is that what it says? 00:23:22.758 --> 00:23:28.750 Through your good works, save the world through your church attendance. 00:23:28.750 --> 00:23:32.205 Save the world because you're a better person than the person down the street, that you're a better person than your crazy family member that you have. 00:23:32.205 --> 00:23:35.531 No, you're saved through him. 00:23:35.531 --> 00:23:36.815 Verse 18,. 00:23:36.815 --> 00:23:46.394 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God. 00:23:47.685 --> 00:23:51.873 You realize that the gospel being born again is good news because of the bad news. 00:23:51.873 --> 00:23:56.596 The bad news is that we're all sinners apart from Christ. 00:23:56.596 --> 00:24:01.375 Y'all realize that the reason why this world is so jacked up is because of sin. 00:24:01.375 --> 00:24:13.068 Like a good theology of suffering is looking around and going back to Genesis, chapter 3, and realizing that sin and the effects of sin are why we're living in the brokenness and despair of this world right now. 00:24:13.068 --> 00:24:22.134 That's where it starts and, by the way, you're going to really struggle through suffering if you don't have a good theological understanding of how to go through it. 00:24:22.576 --> 00:24:27.093 I'm telling you, it's real, I get it, and because of sin. 00:24:27.093 --> 00:24:32.608 We experience suffering, we experience the difficulty, despair, all these things in life. 00:24:32.608 --> 00:24:48.674 But it's not just reserved for the world as a whole, but sin comes right here in our hearts, because Jesus says that sin comes from our hearts because Adam Romans, chapter five sin passed on us from our common ancestor, adam. 00:24:48.674 --> 00:24:57.555 So now we're separated from God for all eternity and we have the wrath of God on us unless we put our faith and trust in Jesus. 00:24:57.555 --> 00:25:01.736 This is why the gospel is good news, because without Jesus we're completely hopeless. 00:25:01.736 --> 00:25:06.954 We have the wrath of God on us, we are separated from God for all eternity in a place called hell. 00:25:06.954 --> 00:25:15.688 And I know that's not pop culture, that's not what the pastor of America, which is Oprah, is going to tell you, but the reality is is that Jesus is the only way. 00:25:15.688 --> 00:25:34.255 And the reason why the gospel really excites me and I can get all fired up and yell and shout about it, is because it's amazing news, because without this we are lost and you can try to live life on your own and you can try to work your way to heaven, but it does not work because Jesus says you have to believe in him. 00:25:34.255 --> 00:25:37.469 Yep, yep. 00:25:37.469 --> 00:25:50.060 And John 3, 36, the one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son does not see life. 00:25:50.060 --> 00:25:50.964 Instead, the wrath of God remains on him. 00:25:51.924 --> 00:25:53.228 We look at this conversation I don't even need my notes. 00:25:53.228 --> 00:25:57.617 We look at this conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus and it brings up a couple of questions in my mind. 00:25:57.617 --> 00:26:00.167 One have we been born again? 00:26:00.167 --> 00:26:16.031 But second of all, as I observe it, I think there's things about the life of Nicodemus and about this conversation that Jesus had that, if we'll understand it, will allow us to have a better gospel conversations with people. 00:26:16.031 --> 00:26:30.227 Sometimes, what we think and I've had some of you have told me and your hearts are great, but you're wrong when you say this, you say, hey, I just need to bring my friends and family to church and let them hear you preach and it'll be great. 00:26:30.227 --> 00:26:35.597 And I'm like, honestly, nah, not that good. 00:26:35.597 --> 00:26:37.105 Honestly, nah, not that good. 00:26:37.105 --> 00:26:54.602 What you gotta understand is that if you're a follower of Jesus, that you're an ambassador for him and that you have been given the Holy Spirit, and that God wants to use you not just me and God wants to use you outside of the walls of the church. 00:26:54.602 --> 00:27:04.448 And when we do this, here's what we need to understand. 00:27:04.448 --> 00:27:05.210 Okay, just like we see in this text. 00:27:05.230 --> 00:27:09.179 When we have these conversations, we can't expect people to have an understanding of Christian terms. 00:27:09.179 --> 00:27:11.866 Number one in the text, jesus said you must be born again. 00:27:11.866 --> 00:27:13.368 Nicodemus is like what does that even mean? 00:27:13.368 --> 00:27:24.857 Sometimes we use terms with people like saved, like gospel, like born again different terms and people don't understand what those terms mean. 00:27:24.857 --> 00:27:31.909 So we have to understand that if we're going to have conversations with people, we need to explain the terms that we're talking about. 00:27:31.909 --> 00:27:33.152 What's the gospel? 00:27:33.152 --> 00:27:35.987 It's the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:27:35.987 --> 00:27:37.549 That's what the gospel is. 00:27:37.549 --> 00:27:39.835 What does it mean to be saved? 00:27:39.835 --> 00:27:42.439 Being saved means we are saved from the wrath of God. 00:27:42.439 --> 00:27:44.169 We are delivered from that. 00:27:44.169 --> 00:27:50.692 We are saved from our sins, and we can't expect people to have an understanding of Christian terms. 00:27:50.692 --> 00:27:56.809 Number two is we need to resource people with information to help answer their questions. 00:27:56.809 --> 00:27:59.656 Verses 5 through 19,. 00:27:59.656 --> 00:28:00.465 This is what Jesus did. 00:28:00.465 --> 00:28:03.814 He just explained exactly what it meant to be born again. 00:28:05.457 --> 00:28:10.998 But there's times where somebody might ask you a question and you don't have an answer for it. 00:28:10.998 --> 00:28:17.231 You know, there are times where people ask me a question about Scripture or something I don't have an answer for it. 00:28:17.231 --> 00:28:20.536 I'm like that's a really good question. 00:28:20.536 --> 00:28:22.318 I don't know. 00:28:22.318 --> 00:28:23.621 Let me look it up. 00:28:23.621 --> 00:28:29.913 And when we have conversations with people, we want to resource them. 00:28:29.913 --> 00:28:30.777 So how do we do this? 00:28:30.797 --> 00:28:32.250 I want to give you guys a couple tools. 00:28:32.250 --> 00:28:36.547 One is gotquestionsorg and two is the YouVersion Bible app. 00:28:36.547 --> 00:28:38.252 This is what I'll do. 00:28:38.252 --> 00:28:48.029 If somebody asks me a question, even if it's a question that I kind of talk through with somebody, I ask them hey, can I send you an article about this and it might better help you understand that. 00:28:48.029 --> 00:28:49.976 And then we can follow back up and talk about it. 00:28:49.976 --> 00:28:53.895 And then I'll send it to them and they'll check it out, and then we'll have a conversation about it. 00:28:53.895 --> 00:28:55.477 And and then we'll have a conversation about it. 00:28:55.477 --> 00:29:07.335 And, guys, here's the thing you can do this, like you can have conversations with people, but you have to resource people, you have to help explain truth to people, just like Jesus did to Nicodemus. 00:29:08.425 --> 00:29:16.797 And then, lastly and we're done when we observe this conversation, I wanna encourage you to not shy away from the truth. 00:29:16.797 --> 00:29:24.667 To encourage you to not shy away from the truth. 00:29:24.667 --> 00:29:25.750 Jesus said you must be born again. 00:29:25.750 --> 00:29:27.575 Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:29:27.575 --> 00:29:34.934 Now, we live in a world right now where a lot of us are like dang, I don't want to make people feel some type of way. 00:29:34.934 --> 00:29:37.875 So I really need to be careful of what I say and how I say it, because I don't want to make people feel some type of way. 00:29:37.875 --> 00:29:41.773 So I really need to be like careful of like what I say and how I say it, because you know, like I don't want to offend people. 00:29:43.125 --> 00:29:58.579 And while, yes, it's important that we want to be loving, because truth without love destroys, it's also important that we share the truth, because love without truth deceives. 00:29:58.579 --> 00:30:03.413 So truth without love destroys. 00:30:03.413 --> 00:30:08.633 You ever met somebody that's just like I'm going to tell you the truth because you don't need to hear it. 00:30:08.633 --> 00:30:14.512 Okay, that destroys, but love without truth deceives. 00:30:14.512 --> 00:30:20.249 And something that I've learned is this is often it's not what we say, but it's how we say it. 00:30:20.249 --> 00:30:24.896 It's how we communicate truth to people. 00:30:24.896 --> 00:30:39.898 And what we're going to see next week is Jesus had this ability it's in John, chapter 4, to look at somebody with love and compassion and care in his eyes, and he did it in such a way where people received the truth that he was saying. 00:30:39.898 --> 00:30:41.487 And friends. 00:30:41.487 --> 00:30:44.692 We can do that, friends. 00:30:44.692 --> 00:30:51.032 We can help people know Jesus and we can change lives by sharing the gospel with others. 00:30:51.032 --> 00:30:52.096 I want to end this way. 00:30:54.404 --> 00:30:57.756 Nicodemus we read about him in John chapter three. 00:30:57.756 --> 00:31:08.858 We read about him again I believe it's John chapter seven and then it's like he disappears Until something happened. 00:31:08.858 --> 00:31:13.550 It was a dark time. 00:31:13.550 --> 00:31:19.933 Everybody had kind of scattered. 00:31:19.933 --> 00:31:27.217 Jesus had these apostles, you know, peter, james and John, mighty men of the faith. 00:31:27.217 --> 00:31:28.971 They were all gone. 00:31:28.971 --> 00:31:44.413 What happened was Jesus had been executed and all of his apostles, all of them. 00:31:44.413 --> 00:31:51.034 They forsook him, they denied him, they betrayed him, they abandoned him. 00:31:51.034 --> 00:31:59.471 Jesus, the hero, the healer, he's dead, he's gone. 00:31:59.471 --> 00:32:02.393 The apostles okay, we're done, we're out. 00:32:11.446 --> 00:32:36.215 And Jesus lay hanging on a cross, his dead body to be seen not just by everybody, but for the animals to have their way with this dead body, because nobody wanted anything to do with him anymore. 00:32:36.215 --> 00:32:44.365 Because nobody wanted anything to do with him anymore. 00:32:44.365 --> 00:32:50.489 And all of a sudden, nicodemus comes back on the scene. 00:32:50.489 --> 00:32:56.435 All of a sudden, nicodemus, who seems like disappeared from Scripture. 00:32:56.435 --> 00:32:58.459 We have no idea what happened to him. 00:32:58.459 --> 00:32:59.861 We had no idea where he went. 00:32:59.861 --> 00:33:06.493 He pops up on the scene and in John 19,. 00:33:06.493 --> 00:33:09.849 This is what Nicodemus did, if we can get the. 00:33:09.849 --> 00:33:20.749 Nicodemus who had previously come to him, at night also came bringing a mixture of about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes. 00:33:20.749 --> 00:33:21.289 They took Jesus's body. 00:33:21.289 --> 00:33:22.271 It's Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. 00:33:22.271 --> 00:33:29.936 They took his body and they wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 00:33:34.905 --> 00:33:51.696 When everybody else forsook Jesus, when Jesus was literally hanging on a cross and he was done and he was forgotten about, nicodemus says, okay, everybody else forsook him, but that was the man that showed me grace and truth. 00:33:51.696 --> 00:33:56.335 That was the man that told me what it meant to be born again. 00:33:56.335 --> 00:34:01.317 That was the man that changed his life, and I would never let animals have their way with his body. 00:34:01.317 --> 00:34:04.047 I would never let criminals have their way with his body. 00:34:04.047 --> 00:34:15.409 No, if Peter forsakes him and Nathaniel forsakes him and Judas forsakes him, I'm not going to, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to take his body off of that cruel cross after the Romans destroyed him. 00:34:15.409 --> 00:34:27.896 I can't even recognize him, but I'm going to carefully take him off of this cross, me and Joseph of Arimathea, and we're going to prepare his body for burial and we're going to give him a respectable and honorable way to bury him. 00:34:27.896 --> 00:34:30.434 If nobody else will, I will. 00:34:37.327 --> 00:34:52.005 And in the time when all forsook, nicodemus said nah, I've trusted, I've been born again, I'm not forsaken. 00:34:54.168 --> 00:35:18.952 And I wonder in the room this morning if there's some Nicodemuses in your life, some conversations that you can have with some people over the next couple weeks, that their life can be changed because you had a conversation filled with truth and grace, and some people that a year from now are in this room, that right now they're as far as can be from this room. 00:35:18.952 --> 00:35:23.871 But because you said I'm gonna have a conversation with them, god used you in their lives. 00:35:23.871 --> 00:35:34.090 We're gonna have a time of prayer in just a moment, so I'm gonna invite you to do to pray to the Lord and say Lord, would you help me to have conversations with people filled with truth and grace? 00:35:34.090 --> 00:35:38.815 If you're in the room and you've never yet been born again, you've never trusted Christ to be your Lord and Savior. 00:35:38.815 --> 00:35:40.251 I had somebody after the 10 o'clock service. 00:35:40.251 --> 00:35:42.849 They came to me and they said Pastor Nate, I wanna be saved. 00:35:42.849 --> 00:35:49.074 Maybe today is the day of your salvation, where you trust Christ to be your Lord and your Savior. 00:35:49.074 --> 00:35:51.335 Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.