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Sermon Transcript

Are you awake this morning? Isn’t it great to be in a place where there is life and there are people who are awake to the Spirit and the power of God? I trust that is true of you!

There are so many great things happening at Harvest Bible Chapel! There is such a wave of momentum happening right now! How many of you were involved in Vacation Bible School? Over three-hundred kids, which was only possible because there were a-hundred-and-fifty-volunteers keeping them from setting the place on fire! We had a great week last week!

You’ve heard about the great things God is doing, in adding to our staff. Jamie Maxim is now our campus pastor for Berrien County, which launches in twelve weeks—be in prayer for that. You’ve been introduced to Nick Smith, new worship leader on our staff. We’re excited about Nick joining our team. And I want you to know, we’re not done yet!

If you were at Fresh Encounter prayer meeting a couple of weeks ago, you got to meet a young couple, Tyler and Janelle Holder. Tyler is going to be coming and joining our staff as well, as an adult ministries director, and specifically giving leadership to our newly-launching college ministry. Over twenty-five-thousand college students are in our community—did you know that? And we want to task a great team, led by Tyler, to go and make disciples among that college community. Can you get excited about that?

So, Tyler and Janelle will be on staff here in just a few weeks. They currently are in Lynchburg, Virginia. Tyler has spent the last decade of his life in college ministry—either studying in college or working on staff at Liberty University, and he’s going to be joining our staff. We’re so excited about all the great things God is doing!

Now, having said that, I have a warning for you. By the way, get your Bible open to John, chapter 2. Do you know, with all the great things that are going on at Harvest, there is a danger that you could come and ride that wave of momentum – and enjoy the incredible music, be encouraged by the teaching, be loved and known and cared for in the culture of an uncommon community that’s making disciples, and yet, not be born again! Over the next two weeks, we’re going to talk about an imperative that Jesus gave in John chapter 3, that simply is this: You must be born again!

I don’t know about you; I continually read surveys and research that’s done about Christians. Every so often the Barna Study or the Pew Research Team will publish a study that says, “You know, people who call themselves Christians are just not all that different from people who don’t.” Did you know that four out of five Americans actually call themselves “born again Christians?” And yet, less than half of those people are involved in a church. Less than half of those people believe the Bible is true; about half of them say that they’ve had a personal relationship, started by a commitment to Jesus Christ, and they expect to go to Heaven when they die. And yet, their lifestyle is almost indistinguishable from people who don’t say they’ve made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.

Many believe that their good works will somehow get them into Heaven. Many believe that Jesus committed sins while He was on the earth. Some of them don’t actually believe there is a devil. And they say, “You see, Christians just aren’t all that different.” I have a different conclusion when I read those studies, and it’s this: There are a lot of people claiming to be Christians who, in reality, have never been born again. And I don’t want you to come in here, and ride the momentum at this church, without looking you in the eye and saying, “You—personally—must be born again!” Have you been born again?

You might not even know what that means. That may be a new term for you. For a lot of people, that’s not a new term—it’s an old term. And, just because it’s an old term doesn’t lessen the intensity to consider whether or not you have been born again. I want you to open your heart and your ears to what God’s Word has to say to us this morning, as we dive into it.

Here’s the first thing I want you to understand from this text:

 

  • The possibility of religious deception: (2:23-3:3)

 

I want you to see that here from John chapter 2, last couple of verses beginning in verse 23: “Now when he [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.” So this was the biggest celebration; this was the big Christmas/Easter celebration in the Jewish culture. All the people gathered together, coming from long distances.

And Jesus was introducing His public ministry. He was teaching, He was healing, He was meeting people’s needs. He was feeding the hungry; He was doing all kinds of things that you could not possibly explain by natural circumstance. Jesus was doing supernatural things, and the Bible tells us that they “believed”. They believed in His Name.

But, what we’re going to learn from this passage is, there is a kind of belief that does not save. Notice the next verse, verse 24: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” [ESV] I don’t know everybody here, but Jesus does. I don’t know what you’ve been into, or what’s gotten into you—but Jesus does. You may feel very anonymous, but do you understand that every hurt, every pain, every doubt, every fear that is in you right now…Jesus knows about it. And He knows what is keeping you from genuinely being born again.

What do you think was in these men that prevented Jesus from entrusting Himself to them? Well, apparently Jesus knew that even though they had this superficial belief on the outside, there was still something in them that was corrupt, that was selfish, that kept them holding back. Because Jesus knew, when things got tough, when it wasn’t so popular to follow Jesus, when there was going to be opposition and persecution and a price to pay for following Jesus, this crowd was going to disappear! Jesus knew that about them.

And so, even though they believed in Jesus, Jesus didn’t believe in them. Even though they had trusted Jesus, Jesus didn’t entrust Himself to them. Do you know what the problem was? They were deceived by their superficial religious activity. So, this was happening out in the open, this was happening during the day—and there was a large group of people.

The story goes right into John chapter 3, and we’re introduced to something that happened at night with a single individual. Let’s begin reading in verse 1 of chapter 3:   “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” Now, you talk about a religious guy. Nicodemus was that guy! This is a guy who had committed his whole life to studying Scripture. His greatest desire was to be in the kingdom of God—and as a Pharisee, this was a guy who had the greatest access—and spent the most time—in the religious places, reading the religious books, doing the religious activity.

And verse 2 says, “This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi [or teacher], we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’” So, Nicodemus was drawn by the signs, the crowds were drawn by the signs (the things that were going on externally), and then in verse 3, Jesus answered Nicodemus and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Now, there are a lot of things you can see without being born again. You can see a lot of superficial religious activity; you can see the inside of a church; you can see the inside of a Bible. But Jesus said you will never see the inside of the kingdom of God unless you are born again!

It’s Father’s Day—let’s talk about the Fatherhood of God. He is a perfect Father, but He is not the Father of all men. We’re all creations of God, we all bear the image of God, but we are not all children of God. There are only two kinds of people in this room: people who know God as their Father—because they have been born again into His family, and people who have not. People who are spiritually alive because they’ve had a spiritual birth, and people who are spiritually dead because they have not.

Jesus introduces this analogy—it’s a wonderful word picture. How many of you fathers can remember the birthing room? Do you remember this? Did they let you in there? You were there, and your wife is doing all the work. And you’re really grateful that it’s not you. And yet, you get to be the beneficiary of all the work that your wife has done. And, finally, there comes the moment where they place this precious child in your hands and you sense the weight of responsibility, and you sense how fragile this wonderful image-bearer of God is, and you know there is a brand-new life that has come into the world, that is a gift of God.

Do you understand that Jesus uses that analogy—that God, as a father produces spiritual children by a new birth. My question to you this morning is this: Do you have a spiritual birthday? If I ask you when your natural birthday is—your physical birthday—you could tell me, right? On the count of “three,” everybody tell me your physical birthday. One, two, three! Now, that wasn’t hard for you, was it?

I had a birthday this week. My birthday was Thursday, June 17, 1967, I was born! I remember it quite clearly. There I was, minding my own business—and all of the sudden there’s this bright light and some pressure, and BOOM! And there’s people spanking me, and I’m crying and struggling for breath, and I’m a mess. Remember that? No! You don’t remember that. As a matter of fact, none of you actually knew your physical birthday until somebody told you.

Now listen. You don’t have to know the day and the hour and the moment that you were born again. But you have to know that you were born. If nobody ever told me my physical birthday, I would still know that I was born. “Well, Trent, how do you really know?” I’m breathing; there are signs of life. You may not know the day and the hour you were born again, but my question is: Are there any signs of spiritual life in you, that give you confidence to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that, “I have spiritual life?”

Some of you would say, “Well, Trent, I go to church.” Listen, I have told you this before. Going to church does not make you a Christian any more than going to MacDonald’s makes you a hamburger. Do you understand? Just going to a place where Christians gather doesn’t mean that you are a Christian.

Other people say, “I remember. I got baptized!” Listen, we have talked about this before. The waters of baptism do not wash away sin. That is a religious ceremony that’s very significant, that points back to the moment that we are born again. It’s a sign of spiritual death, that’s why it’s a water burial—but you get new life, so we you raise you to walk in the newness of life, and it ties in so nicely to having been born again—spiritual life. If you’ve been baptized and gone through the motions, yet you’ve never been born again, you must be born again!

Other people say, “But I’ve read the Bible, and I believe in God.” Congratulations! So do Muslims and Mormons and Satanists. And Satan himself believes in God. That’s not a big accomplishment for you. Have you been born again?

Some of you say, “Well, I remember, I went forward – I remember there was this youth camp,” or “there was vacation Bible school, and there was this big emotional moment—and I came forward, and I was crying and I was slinging snot everywhere. I shook a hand of a pastor and we prayed a little prayer.” Do you have any signs of life? Did anything change in that moment?

I actually remember when I was born again. It was August 28, 1982. There was a big evangelistic rally going on in our city. There was a Sunday School teacher that loved me and was reaching out to me and trying to minister the gospel to me. He called me and said, “I’m coming by—I’m picking you up—you’re going to the rally with me.” I wanted to be onboard, so I actually called a friend and said, “I think you need to come to this, too.” So, my friend and I went with my Sunday School teacher to this rally.

It was the last night of the rally. The preacher preached the message. It was on the second coming of Jesus Christ. By the end of that message, I was convinced that I was going to be left behind if I was not born again! So, at that end of the message I responded to the invitation. I left my seat, I walked down the aisle and I stood in front of that guy until he was finished preaching. I was paired up with a counselor, and in that moment I prayed and confessed that I’m a sinner worthy of God’s judgment, and I embraced Jesus Christ as the substitution for my sin—as He paid for my sin on that cross.

I was fifteen years old. The direction of my life changed completely. My friend, who came with me, he listened to the same message, he responded to the same invitation. He came and stood right beside me, he got paired up with a counselor—he prayed the same prayer. His life didn’t change at all! How can two people hear the same message, go to the same church, be in the same Sunday School class, respond to the same invitation, pray the same prayer, and yet one life is dramatically altered and the other stays the same? One is born again—and one is not.

I wasn’t with you last weekend. Andrea and I were in Charlotte, North Carolina. We led a FamilyLife Weekend to Remember marriage getaway down there – going down there, rescuing marriages. It was a wonderful conference. A thousand married couples came and we got to minister to them. I was really excited about going, because it was in Charlotte, North Carolina, where my favorite movie of all time was filmed! Cars! The animated Disney movie. . .it was filmed in Charlotte.

So, you have to understand this about me. If you’ve been coming here, you know this about me: I love NASCAR! Am I the only [one]? You wouldn’t admit it! Anyway, so I love NASCAR—and Charlotte, North Carolina is the home of NASCAR! And so, after the conference was over, Andrea begged me to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in downtown Charlotte. I wanted to be a good husband, so I took her down there.

The best part about the NASCAR Hall of Fame is that they have these NASCAR simulators, okay? So these are actual cars that have been raced on the track—and built by race teams—and they’ve brought these things into the museum. But they’ve taken the motor out and taken the insides out, and they’ve filled them full of technology and screens. You can get in the car, and everything about the simulator looks and feels like the real thing.

So, Andrea and I, we had unlimited passes on the NASCAR simulator, and so we stayed there for a couple of hours. I’ve gotta tell you, Andrea beat me three out of the four races! And that was not worst part. When she was finished with each race, where she won, she was trash talkin’ me – just like they do at the track, you know? And she was all proud and boasting about her ability to race this simulator. And I had to take her by her cute little cheeks and look at her and say, “It’s not real! It’s a simulation! At best, you are a simulated champion, okay? If we get in the real thing, I’m gonna win that race!”

Now, do you understand why I tell you this? You can put yourself in the context of something that looks very real and yet, at best, you may be a simulated Christian. Have you been born again, so that there’s real life and real power in your life?

The reason why Andrea beat me was because I was racing aggressive—and I got going a little too fast. You simulate the wreck, and you simulate the death that you die when you wreck really bad in these cars. And yet, the best thing about the whole thing was—on the steering wheel there was this big red button—and you just had to push the button, and miraculously, you were born again! And you could live to race another day.

Do you understand what Jesus is offering you this morning? He is offering you something real. No matter how bad you have wrecked your life, there is an opportunity for you to be born again—a fresh start, a new beginning for all those who will humble themselves and say, “You know what? I am not satisfied with religious activity, I‘m not satisfied with simulated Christianity. I want what’s real! I want real life, I want a fresh start, and I want a new beginning!

Have you been born again? Unless you are born again, do you understand that you are spiritually dead? You say, “Well, I have always been a really good person.” You may be a really good, religiously-deceived person, but you are spiritually dead.

Please understand, secondly:

 

  • The tragedy of spiritual death. (3:4-8)

 

Look here in John 3:4: “Nicodemus said to [Jesus], ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Um, gross! Question: Do you think Nicodemus is tracking with Jesus at this point? Do you understand that a spiritually dead person cannot even carry on a spiritual conversation? When somebody starts talking about spiritual things, if you are spiritually dead you have no comprehension. It is as if someone is speaking a foreign language. Some of you that are spiritually dead, you don’t get it. You don’t even understand what I’m saying right now, until the Spirit of God gives you the ability to understand and discern spiritual things. Nicodemus hadn’t quite gotten there yet, so he’s not tracking with Jesus.

In verse 5, Jesus answered [him], ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [For] that which is born of the flesh is flesh…” Everybody here has been born of flesh, and like produces like. Because you have been born physically, you have the potential to produce another physical life. But Jesus said this, That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The things that we are talking about are not of his world. You have to have a force from the outside—the Spirit of God; something that transcends this physical world in another dimension to come and connect with your dead spirit, making your dead spirit come alive.

John 3:7, “Do not marvel that I [say] to you, ‘You must be born again.’” I think Nicodemus, at this point, was kind of reviewing his resume. “Really? Me? I mean, nobody’s perfect, but I’m about as close to perfect as you can come. I’ve got the right pedigree, I know the Bible—I’ve studied it; I know ancient Hebrew history, my family’s good, I’m a good father. I’ve been a good son, I’m a good husband. I’m faithful, I believe in God; I want to see the kingdom of God. Isn’t that enough?” And Jesus says, “You are marveling that someone as good as you still must be born again!”

There are two things that keep people from comprehending that they personally need to be born again. First of all, some of you think that you’re too good that you would need to be born again. Then, there are others of us that think you’re so bad, you can’t be born again.

I’m praying that God would overcome those two obstacles. Before this message is over, I’m going to invite you to do what I did on August 28, 1982—to respond in faith and repentance to the message of the gospel. To come and stand right here and say, “I want this new life! I have been spiritually dead—I haven’t had the ability to comprehend spiritual things—but I want to be born again!”

Jesus gives this illustration in verse 8, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit [born again].” Again, Jesus is trying to help Nicodemus understand spiritual things using a physical illustration. The illustration is wind.

Do you understand that wind changes things? I am from Oklahoma. We understand something about wind in Oklahoma. Sometimes the wind comes very concentrated and swirls around, and when there is a tornado, it makes a huge impact! Do you know what Jesus is saying? If there’s never been a change in your life, you’ve never experienced “the wind.”

How can a person know that he’s truly been born again? You see the effects of the Spirit of God changing you. Has God changed your appetites? Has God changed things that you once loved, that were sinful—and now you hate those things? The things that you once hated—like church and Bible and holy things—you detested those things. The “wind” has now turned you in a direction where those are the things you now love—not just tolerate, but you love those things. And your appetite is for more of those things. That’s how you can know that you’ve truly been born again.

The wind blows, and you can’t explain how or why, but you’re different. Things have changed in your life. Listen, if there’s been no change, there’s been no “wind.” If there’s been no wind, there is no spiritual life. And there is no spiritual life because there’s never been a spiritual birth. Do you have a spiritual birthday? Things can change, but not until you understand the tragedy of your spiritual death.

If you’ve come to Harvest for any time at all, you’ve probably heard me accuse you of being a “dirty, rotten sinner.” How many of you have heard me accuse you of that? That is a summary term for everything the Bible says you are as a spiritually lifeless person. Do you understand what the Scripture says? Let me just tell you what the Scripture says about you, until you are born again.

First of all, you are dead in trespasses and sins, according to Ephesians 2:1-3, 12. You follow the course of this world, which is going in the opposite direction of God. You are controlled by what the Bible calls “the prince of the power of the air.” There is a demonic influence that has deceived you and is controlling you, unless you are born again. You are addicted to the passions of your flesh. You are, by nature, the Bible says, “children of wrath.”  God is not your Father; God’s wrath is your father. The Bible says that you separated from Christ, you’re strangers to the covenants of His promise. You are “[without] hope and you are without God in this world.”

John chapter 3 goes on to say you are “a hater of light and a lover of darkness.” Romans 3:10-18 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God…[Our] mouth is full of curses and bitterness…[Our] feet are swift to shed [innocent] blood; [our] paths are ruin and misery…There is no fear of God before [our] eyes.” Genesis 8:21 tells us, “every inclination of [our] hearts is evil continually, from the start.

In other words, you are a “dirty rotten sinner,” and you have not just made a few mistakes; it’s not just that you have some regrets you wish you could go back and change. You are dead to the things of God, and you must be born again. And you have to understand, as a dead person, you don’t even have any ability to do anything about it yourself!

There’s a cemetery I pass every time I come from church to my house, and every time I look over there, they’re still dead. Dead people can’t do anything about their deadness. And yet, Jesus says, “You must be born again.” Something from the outside has to come and create a resurrection in your heart. It’s the Spirit of God.

Again, this past weekend in Charlotte, as we were ministering to married couples—trying to fix marriages and rescue marriages—there was a guy who came up to me during one of the breaks, and he said, “I’m not a religious person.” You see, he’d figured it out: this marriage conference was a trick – to get people under the teaching of the gospel. And so, in the middle of the marriage conference, this guy understood. He said, “I am not a religious person. I came here to get my marriage fixed. But what I’m beginning to hear you say is, I don’t have any power to fix my relationship with my spouse until I first fix my relationship with God!” That’s it! You don’t have any spiritual life, to do anything about anything horizontal in your life until you first have resurrection life that comes vertically from God. He was beginning to figure it out. He was beginning to understand that his relationship with God was a priority over his relationship with his spouse.

But I told him, “If you are spiritually dead, you’re never going to have the power to make the change in your marriage life, so it gets where it needs to be.” And the same is true for you. Even if you are able to have a happy marriage throughout the course of your lifetime, do you understand the tragedy it would be to have a happy marriage over the decades of your life—and then die and spend an eternity in hell? What a tragedy! Spiritual death is a reality. You must be born again!

And then, finally, this:

 

  • The necessity of spiritual conversion. (3:9-15)

 

Look here in John 3:9, “Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’” He wanted to know how. “How can I be born again? I want to know! How can I be born again? How can these things be?” So, in verse 10, “Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen…’” Do you think Jesus had seen more things than Nicodemus? Yeah. He was trying to tell him about what’s on the inside of the kingdom of God.

Jesus says to him, “…but you do not receive our testimony. I have told you earthly things and you do not believe…” That’s what keeps you spiritually dead! You do not believe! “…How can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”

Do you know what the problem is with the human heart? We are deceived into thinking that if we try harder—if we just really get on our best behavior—we can climb the ladder out of our spiritual death, improve ourselves, create a “Trent 2.0,” learn some things, get rid of some bad habits, clean up some language, treat my family better—be a better dad—and we somehow think we can ascend the ladder into Heaven. And Jesus said, “Nicodemus, nobody has ascended into Heaven. You can’t climb the ladder with your religious good behavior. What’s necessary for you to be born again is that God has to descend from Heaven to come and rescue you out of your spiritual death. Nobody ascends.”

And yet, that’s what human religion is all about—trying to clean you up and better your behavior and improve your morals—and that is the trappings of religious deception. Look at verse 14: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” So, this is an old story in the Old Testament. One day, the people of God were being defeated; it was a terrible situation—they were about to experience God’s wrath, and God says, “I want you to put a snake on a stick and hold it up. Everybody who looks to the snake will be saved.” Kind of a creepy way, in the Old Testament, to get out of a bad situation, but what God was doing was, illustrating what it looks like to be born again.

And Jesus said, “One day, I will be lifted up.” Not a snake on a stick, but Christ on the cross. And if you will stop looking at yourself, and looking at other means of escape, and looking for other means to better yourself, and if you will focus your eyes on what Jesus did on that cross – that on that cross, God treated Him as if He had committed every sin of every person who would ever believe, and if you would understand that what Christ did on that cross was payment for your sin, you can be born again!

That’s what Jesus says in John 3:15, “Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Do you want to be born again? Then, what’s necessary? What do you have to do? Well, again, dead people can’t do anything. But if, this morning, you’re sensing that God is stirring your heart and drawing you to Himself, then what it will look like for you is this. Two things—belief and repentance.

Do you believe? Do you believe that what Jesus did on that cross was not just some ancient, historical thing that happened in Jerusalem long ago—but that, what Jesus did was for your sin? Do you believe that? And do you believe that His life was sufficient, and do you believe that His death was sufficient payment? And that all the wrath and all of the judgment that you deserve was poured out on Jesus. Do you believe that?

And then, secondly, repentance. Repentance means to turn, to change; the wind blows you in a different direction, and all of a sudden you’re heading away from the things that you once loved—and you’re heading toward things that you now love, that you used to hate. That is repentance. Have you been born again? This morning, will you choose to believe and choose to repent?

What happens when a person is born again? Three things:

 

  • We are made clean.

 

According to Ezekiel chapter 36:25, the first thing that happens is that I am made clean. God says, “I will sprinkle clean water on you. . .” Do you remember when Jesus said you must be born of water? He knew you were a dirty rotten sinner; you need to be made clean. The filth of sin in your heart can be made clean, as God “sprinkle[s] clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.” That’s not physical water; Jesus is talking about things of the Spirit, how the Spirit of God reaches in and cleanses and cleans a heart that is filthy from sin.

Not only will we be made clean:

 

  • We will be given a new heart.

Verse 26, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” A heart that’s tender and moldable and teachable, and not hard and cold and dead to the things of God.

Thirdly:

 

  • We are given a new spirit.

 

God says, “I will give you a new Spirit.” [Verse 27]: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” You say, “I don’t like rules!” Nobody likes rules. And, to be honest with you, we all hate God’s rules! So why do we obey God’s rules? Because God’s causing you to obey God’s rules. For every believer, we now love the things that we used to hate because God has caused it. He’s put a new Spirit in us—a new engine in the simulator—so it can be real. Have you been born again?

I want you to bow your heads. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. We’re going to be out of here in just a few minutes. But I’ve been praying all week, there have been dozens of people praying all week, for every person in this room—that as you have heard the gospel message go out, you would see yourself as Nicodemus. Maybe a very good person, a very moral person (compared to some other people you know—even to people who call themselves Christians, you compare very favorably). Maybe you’ve grown up in a Christian home, you’ve gone to a Christian school. You know all the right things. You spend so much time at church—you volunteer at VBS, you’ve taught Sunday School, you’ve led a small group. Jesus would say to you, “You must be born again!” Do you have a spiritual birthday? Can you point to a season in your life where God began to change things for you?

There was a new spirit, a new heart, that was born in you, and you’re experiencing the signs of life. Are all those things true of you? If not, today can be your spiritual birthday. We’re going to turn this room into a labor and delivery room for you. With heads bowed and eyes closed, how many of you would be willing and honest enough to say, “I need to be born again! I’m tired of being a simulated Christian. Pray for me; I want to be born again.” Would you just lift your hand if that’s true of you? Just keep it there for a second. “I need to be born again.” Thank you.

Are there others? I’m not going to come to you, I’m not going to embarrass you. “I need a spiritual birthday. I understand that I am spiritually dead. That’s why my heart is cold—I’ve been bored at church, I don’t have an appetite for God’s Word. I need to be born again!” Just lift your hand in the air, just let me see that; I want to pray for you. Are there others? Hold it up there. Thank you.

In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to pray—those of you who just lifted your hand, those of you who need to be born again. I’m going to ask you to express your belief in the cross of Jesus Christ—that that payment that was made was for you, and to express to the heart of God, “I’m tired of going my own way. I’m tired of ignoring You!” Would you just pray, “Lord Jesus, I need You! I acknowledge in my heart right now, there is no capacity even to understand spiritual things, because I’m spiritually dead.” Tell Him that. “I’ve ignored You, I’ve been angry with You, I’ve tried to use religion to ascend to Heaven, and for the first time—by faith—I believe that what You did on that cross was sufficient for me! I turn from my sin. I’m going to follow You the rest of my life. Help me never to be ashamed of You.”

Did you pray that prayer? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. This is what’s going to happen. In just a few seconds, I’m going to ask everyone in this room to stand; Micah’s going to lead us in a song. As soon as you stand to your feet, if you need to be born again—if you just prayed that prayer—or if you have questions, you’re like, “I need some more answers; I need some help with this. I’d like to talk to someone.”—this is what I’m going to ask you to do. As soon as we stand to our feet, I don’t want you just to stand, I want you to stand and step, and keep taking another step down that aisle and come and stand right in front of me, at the front of this platform – for all those who need to be born again. I’m going to pray. As soon as I say, “amen,” I want you to stand, I want you to step, I want you to come and stand in front of me if you need to be born again.

Father, thank You for Your Spirit, and I pray that You would be at work right now. We want to rejoice that there are spiritual newborns being born into this delivery room—all for Your glory. Give courage to those who need to stand and step out, even for some who didn’t raise their hand. They’re under conviction, they feel the pressure, their heart’s beating, their seat’s hot, their hands are sweating—all signs that You’re drawing them into Your Kingdom. Give them courage today, to step out by faith. We pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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