Nicodemus: Uncertainty's Secret | "They Are Us" Sermon Series | Ps. Robert Madu

[Music] so we've been in a series called they are okay like three of y'all okay cool cool they they are us if you missed it all the sermons on our youtube page mysterious call they are us they are us fact would you just say that say they are us not toys r us they are us the idea behind this series is that all of us have a they everybody has a they somebody that you can look at from a distance say oh i can't believe they think like that i cannot believe they walk like that i can't believe they dress like that i can't believe they vote like that all of us have they and it's easy to be separate from your day it's easy to criticize your day especially if you're distant from your day because distance always creates distortion it's easy to criticize your that the reality is that god is called especially social to have diversity but also unity that means we're gonna have all kinds but in fact just look around look around you look around you look at all kinds it's all kinds of different people in here it's old people in here there's young people in here it's all kinds of people in here and the challenge of having unity and diversity is that all of us have a they and if you want to ever learn if you ever want to have unity and diversity you've got to close the gap between you and your they and when you do close the gap you realize they are us you are not much different than i am we have more in common than we have in separate and so that's that's kind of the thesis of this series today and we've been looking at different characters whose names actually end with us so last week was lazar lazarus and so we're gonna look at another person today go with me to john chapter 3 john chapter 3 in fact i know it feels like it's spiritual aerobics would you stand up to honor god's word because some of y'all did not have coffee today i can tell it in your face john chapter three and i want to look at verses one through nine the gospel of john chapter three we'll start at verse one land at verse number nine when you're ready to read it say yeah if you're not ready say hold up all right somebody said hold up i'm awake i'm awake we have a big old electronic bible behind me in case you didn't bring yours to john chapter three starting in verse number one it says now there was a man of the pharisees named nicodem a ruler of the jews this man came to jesus by night he said to him rabbi 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 and jesus answered him truly truly i say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of god nicodemus said to him uh how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born and jesus answered truly truly i say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god verse 6 that which is born of flesh is flesh that which is born of spirit is spirit do not marvel that i said to you you must be born again 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 nicodem said to him how can these things be translation i don't understand the words that are coming out of your mouth jesus why are you talking in cold this this makes me laugh this whole conversation makes me laugh because nicodemus who is a scholar who is a teacher who is brilliant he comes to jesus with a statement a definite statement but he leads jesus with a question because anytime you come to jesus with the statement i know i'm sure i promise you he will make you leave with a question you ought to come to jesus with a question because you also could leave with a statement nicodem us nicodemus is going to teach us today the title of my message uncertainties secret uncertainties secret would you look at a person that looks like they're kind of friendly and uh just look at them and their face in their personal space get as close as they will let you get close and just say neighbor come on don't be afraid to talk to your neighbor at social this is social church not anti-social come on look at him say neighbor oh you need to know about uncertainties secret look at the other person you completely ignored come on say other neighbor i'm telling you your life would change if you knew uncertainties secret uncertainty secret what you don't know about what you don't know balcony how y'all feeling up there i'm talking about let's pray a long prayer and then you can sit down god you are awesome please speak today amen you may be seated presence of the lord uncertainties secret ladies and gentlemen i am proud to announce and glad to say the movie theaters are finally back open come on somebody [Applause] okay all right okay okay the 15 of y'all that clapped the 15 of y'all that clap we got to go to the movies together okay we going to a movie whatever we're gonna play on a date and we're gonna go to movies together to the rest of y'all that just sat there y'all get on my nerves okay y'all are those netflix hulu watching people that want to stay inside the house to watch a movie but the people that clap y'all are my people because y'all are movie people y'all are glad that the movie theaters are back open because you understand that it's all about the experience going to the movies i hope they never shut movie theaters down i need the experience i'm a for real movie aficionado because i show up before the previews that's the test right there those y'all don't care about movies those y'all that didn't clap y'all come in all late yo i hate going to the movies with y'all yeah like it's just that previews what you mean is just the previews it's what i came to see the only thing better to see a movie is seeing a movie you're going to see next while you're seeing a movie i want to see the previous go in early to see the previews because i am a movie fanatic i love watching movies and i've been back to the movies now that they're open back up because i am waiting for a specific genre of movie to come to the theater okay i don't watch any kind of movies i have a specific genre of movie that is my favorite oh i love suspense thriller those are my jam come on i have to see a suspense dealer that if we were only allowed to pick one genre movie to watch for the rest of our lives give me suspense thrillers okay you can keep the comedies you can keep all of the romantic films you can keep the docu-series you can keep all their marvel movies you can watch them to infinity y'all can keep wakanda forever but for me i need suspense i love suspense thrillers when i'm watching a movie it's all about the mystery for me it's about the uncertainty i need a murder to solve i need attention to resolve i need a serial killer to find out i love watching movies if i'm watching a movie here's my test you got to make me be on the verge of a heart attack when i'm watching a movie that's how i know you did your job as a screenwriter i think that a good movie should be like a good sermon it needs to elicit verbal response come on you know like when you're preaching a good sermon somebody's preaching a good sermon irrespective of your personality if they're preaching real good it will make you stand up and say you better preach make the constipated face i think a movie should do the same thing it needs to elicit a verbal response to where you stand up in the movie and just go don't you go back in the house you're gonna die that is my favorite i love the suspense i need it and it's affecting our marriage i know i have a problem it's affecting our marriage because even at home even at home when taylor and i are watching tv the oddity that we get at night where we don't have to watch disney plus yes no elsa no honor no mohanna like we get to watch what we want to watch and all the parents up in the room know what i'm talking about can i get a shout out here did you ever just that moment you get to watch what you want to watch it becomes a fight it becomes a fight because taylor wants to watch stuff like this is us and grey's anatomy and all this snow i'm trying to watch stuff that's gonna help us in real life okay stuff like cold case files first 48 forensic files this this is what i need to watch because i love the suspense if the movie or the show does not have suspense if it doesn't have mystery if it doesn't have uncertainty then i lose interest i am uninterested if there is no uncertainty because there's something in the mystery there's something in the tension about watching a movie and going i don't know if we are going to make it through this what's funny is the mystery and the uncertainty that i love in my movies i hate in my life i know it sounds like i'm being a hypocrite but can i be honest when it comes to my movie give me the mystery give me the uncertainty but when it comes to my life i want to know i want to know when it comes to life please do not give me uncertainty somebody let me know i am five on the enneagram that is investigator the reason we investigate is because we want to know i want if you gonna betray me let me know if you ain't gonna be faithful let me know if you talking about behind my back let me know if you don't like me just tell me that's the season of life i mean i wanna know i don't want surprises when it comes to life i don't like uncertainty i'll never forget when my beautiful wife threw me a surprise birthday party 30th threw me a surprise oh and she got me good she got me so good i came out the house in gym shorts i was the worst dressed person at my surprise party and i walked in she got me so good everybody's like surprised [Music] what didn't you tell me had like six outfits i was waiting to wear so i hate the uncertainty and i know today's message is for everybody i know it's for everybody because i don't care who you are under the sound of my voice i promise you there's something in your life right now that you're uncertain about some of you can't even pay attention to this message right now because of the thing in your mind now you don't know how it's gonna turn out uncertainty is something that is ubiquitous everybody deals with uncertainty everybody has something in their life that you're going how is this gonna turn out and i'm telling you uncertainty can drive you crazy uncertainty can bring anxiety and certainty can bring this angst this this gnawing of not knowing can make you lose your mind what do you do with the uncertainty of life what do you do with the things that you don't know about it's interesting that you really don't even need theology to talk about uncertainty actually just look at neurology neurology will tell you about uncertainty because every single person in here our brains are actually wired for certainty your brain is pre-wired in condition for certainty because whenever you go through life you're actually since the time you were born you're constantly taking in information you're storing that information as memories and the way you do things is you predict things in your brain you predict what's going to happen by combining what you've seen with what you're seeing now it is wired in your brain to have certainty to predict things in fact prediction is not just something that your brain does it is actually the core function of your neocortex i googled it yes it is the foundation of intelligence to be able to predict things that's what your brain does so in other words you don't just hear things you hear what should come next you don't just see things you see what should come next you don't just predict things you predict what should come see if you said anything other than next you would have lost your mind you know why because your brain is conditioned to fill in the blanks we crave certainty as a matter of fact the pleasure part of your brain actually gets stimulus from certainty not even on a high level even a low level something as low as a walking did you know that that every time you walk your brain is actually getting pleasure from certainty because with each step you take you're knowing that solid ground yeah i can walk been doing this since i was two years old and each time your foot hits a solid place did you know this your brain is actually getting pleasure from the solidarity of each step like yeah i got this until until you trip until you trip and all of a sudden you're like what in the world have you be honest be honest have you ever tripped in public and then looked at the ground like it did something like and then looked around to see did anybody yeah we saw we saw oh anything funny you will spend at least three seconds trying to figure out how in the world did i i knew it what is of water see somebody said y'all need to get your water somebody spill you will stand there and analyze the step that you missed why because you are used to the certainty of each step but anytime you trip it makes you stop and analyze how in the world did that happen i think that's how life works i think you go through life don't you with certainty this my boo we gonna be married forever oh yeah this is my soul mate who us yeah we gonna be married forever and then i want a divorce you spend sometimes years trying to figure out how that came if you didn't see that coming parents do it all the time that's why i don't talk about nobody's kids i'm for real oh cause the story's still being written oh yeah yeah my kids will praise lift up their hands but their story is still being written i've seen incredible parents raise their kids in the house of god my child gonna be a preacher oh they knew scriptures by the time they were five and they have such certainty until they found out their child is on drugs and addicted and don't know what to do that is life and what will trip you up is that you'll spend years sometimes trying to figure out how did this happen because i wasn't expecting it the uncertainty can drive you crazy crazy ladies and gentlemen can i be honest that's all i know how to be this is why i didn't want to be a preacher i did not want to preach this was not my option he picked this i want to be in movies okay i'm supposed to be in the suspense thrillers okay that was my original plan okay i don't want to be a preacher you know why because i don't know of any other profession where you are forced to give certainty to things that people don't know you go to a dinner party you're a dentist all you don't get asked is man i have this toothache in the back you think they need to pull this thing you a chiropractor all they gonna ask you is about your back man my back has been hurting ain't gonna ask you about your teeth if you say you're a preacher get ready for the question why do bad things happen to good people and what about those people who never hear the gospel are god gonna send them to hell too and what about this conundrums that you don't know i'm like can i eat the hummus like can we just chill cause i don't know no this is why i talk even in preaching like even in preaching the bible don't get me wrong i study i study a whole lot but i don't know everything in this bible but people assume that you do and they'll hit you up after service too they're like oh pastor robert i really love that sermon that was great but i was actually reading in the book of revelation and i was wondering uh what is your eschatological view on the end times are you post-trib are you pre-trib i'm paying trib homie okay i think it's all gonna pan out if you just chillax a little bit quit reading revelation go to the gospels or something i don't know i don't know i don't know i literally don't know i'll never forget when god took the pressure off of me j-dan took the pressure off to be cool with that phrase i don't know oh there's power in what you do not know there is power people will want you to know things that god is silent about in the bible i don't if he would have wanted us to know he would have told us but i'm going to try to explain god and that is a challenge when you need certainty and you serve god who is a mystery that is the tension of walking with him is that our brains crave certainty and yet our god is a mystery deuteronomy says that it is our god's glory to conceal things that god says i actually have a glory in the stuff you don't know what do you do with the uncertainty and some of y'all need to take the pressure just like i took off the pressure and get comfortable with this phrase right here it'll change your life i don't know what's your 10-year plan i don't know trying to make it through the next 10 minutes right now play okay i don't know can you say that with me i think it'll be cathartic for you would you say that say i don't no come on say it again i don't know say like you had some coffee this morning ah somebody got blessed just from that phrase right there i don't know and now i'm not gonna spend my life trying to answer questions that are beyond me i don't know you wanna know what my favorite emoticon to send to people is it ain't the left out loud ain't the cross smile face it's my favorite emote of condescending people right here i will send that to you real quick especially in this season of church planting i'm just like i don't know because there's power in what you don't know in fact i think the people that know are the people that have the humility to admit they don't know and generally the people that have to be sure that they don't know one hip-hop theologian said if you don't know don't finish it [Applause] because it's true if you don't know now you're actually open to know my text today we're dealing with nicodemus and nicodemus problem is he knows he knows a lot i'm intrigued by how little the bible tells us about nicodemus but even in the little it gives us it tells us a whole lot first thing it tells us that nicodemus is a man they have a preach he's a man because you understand that chapter titles and verses came later and i actually think that you have to back up into john chapter 2 towards the end to really get the power of the set up for the conversation with jesus and nicodemus because jesus is doing miracles and immediately people are believing in him because of the miracles that he's doing the bible says something interesting it says that jesus did not commit himself to them the people because he knew what was in man he was like i know y'all and then right after that it says there was a man named nicodemus it's the setup about humanity that god knows us he know not the pretense not the fake you he knows you so nicodemus thinks he's coming to interview jesus but the problem with interviewing jesus is that if you come to jesus to interview him he will flip it and do an interview i'm here for an interview he's like cool i'm interviewing you right now and i can see everything on the inside of you and we see it in this conversation between jesus and nicodemus nicodemus is a man nicodemus is a jew we get his ethnicity say that i'll come back to that later and then it says that he's a pharisee he is a pharisee he is a ruler of the jews but he's a pharisee would you just say pharisee say it one more time because i'm really thirsty say pharisee he's a pharisee quick survey raise your hand if you think pharisees are horrible people ain't about like you can participate you think how many like okay how many you want to be a pharisee you might think pharisees are how many think they're good people okay how many are just like i'm not gonna lift up my hand either way no this is for real how many you say hello how many of you think y'all tripped me out how many do you think raise your hand if you think pharisees are bad people okay how many of you think that they're good people how are you still not going to participate even after i clowned you for not participating i don't know ah there we go i don't know i love it it's interesting when people read the bible they typecast people don't we and i think for years the pharisees have been typecast as these horrible people i mean come on they're the ones that caused jesus the most problems they're the ones that got him on the cross there's the ones that got him crucified the pharisees are horrible but you don't know you don't know how the pharisees initially got started now i know you don't know because i didn't know i didn't know that there were about 6 000 pharisees when jesus was on earth but the pharisees inception started after the children of israel were in captivity from babylon and they were in captivity because of their idolatry because god knows how to get your attention if you refuse to listen to him he'll let life do it sometimes the children of israel refused to obey and they were in captivity they finally get out of captivity and there was a group of people who said we never want to go through that again we never want to go back god you got our attention have you ever been there before god i'm for real now i will never text them again jesus i'm for real this was the last time i'm walking up in there they said we never want to go through that again that's how it started the pharisees were a called out group of people who made a decision in their heart they said we're going to make jesus jehovah yahweh our true and living god we're not going to worship any other god before him we want to do what's right we are not to be in the world we're supposed to be in the world but not of the world we want to be separate we want to be called out that's how it started that was the genesis of the pharisees but in it crazy about life that the way things start are not always the way that they end up do you know you can start something with a pure motive and it can be so pure when it began but all of a sudden the way it began is not as what it's become come on that happens all the time that nobody starts a church or a ministry it says i think i'm gonna have a scandal about 15 years into this yeah yeah that's why i think i want to have an affair and steal money and just jack up the witness of g yeah that's why i got in the game nobody says that i've never met anybody like that no everybody starts with the pure motive like i want to be right the pharisees were not bad people it became something that it wasn't what it was when it originally started what became as a group of people who just wanted to uphold the law all of a sudden became the law police that started adding to the law and it became legalism so let's just get this typecast out of our minds that the pharisees are bad people they were not bad people they didn't start as bad people they started off as people that just wanted to honor jehovah they wanted to do what was right that's how it started but how it started is not what it became it became something worse in fact it's interesting if you look at the behavior of pharisees even when jesus was walking on the earth and you look at the behavior of jesus i promise you that if you just looked at their behavior there are moments in the bible that you would actually say jesus is the bad person and the pharisees are the good person i'm trying to i'm going somewhere no i'm for real okay let's go back to the movies you ever seen a movie where like you're watching a movie and you're like oh that's the bad person uh-uh stay away from that character they are evil oh i like that character right there she good and then by the end of the movie they flipped it or you're like oh no that's the good person i promise you the bible is like that if you looked at just the behavior of the pharisees i promise you you would say the pharisees are the good people and jesus is the bad people can i go deeper i'll just give it to you in the gospel of john let's look at the behavior of jesus in the gospel of john up until what we just read what has he done he's at a wedding they are not sick not lame not blind running out of wine your god my savior his first miracle on earth not to say lazarus come forth his first miracle is like you know what i can't let them stop this party hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up hold up dj keep playing y'all go fill that with water real quick we've got to turn up he turns water to what that's his behavior now they don't send me on here while he was non-alcoholic okay all right that's his first miracle that's behavior what does he do after that he walks up into the church and sees them selling stuff and making it difficult actually for people to worship and he makes a whip and starts whipping people and turning the whole merch table over that was his behavior can you imagine today imagine today if i walked up in social with a big old glass of wine and i'm just up here preaching saying what up social and i go back there to the merch table i started flipping it over and i started whipping y'all saying get out of here get out of here you would think that i lost my mind what's wrong with you robert you're trying to be like jesus i don't know about you that's his behavior that's his behavior what is the pharisees behavior what is their behavior they've got genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deuteronomy memorize 5 300 verses to memory you still skip leviticus in your one year reading bible plan don't sit up here and look at me like that they've got the first five books of the old testament memorized y'all they fast twice a week they pray every single day they worship they give to the poor that's their behavior meanwhile your savior is flipping tables and turning water into why but if you just looked at behavior you would go the pharisees or the good guys so that means christianity must not be about behavior modification there it must be something deeper than just changing my behavior it must be something deeper than just doing the right thing it must be something deeper than just checking all the boxes and making sure my behavior is good it must be something deeper than behavior modification it must be true transformation something that is different something that you cannot earn something that is grace something that has to be given to you something that you have to see the price that jesus paid for you and it actually produces [Applause] a life of righteousness not about behavior modification anybody can look holy for five minutes anybody can look holy when there's going to be a consequence there's some people the only reason they don't steal is because they're going to go to jail so it's not about behavior it must be something deeper nicodemus is not a bad dude nicodemus represents those of us who want to get it right say god i just want to get it right and he wants to get it right so bad that he comes to jesus at night i want to get it right so i'ma come see the savior at night when i first preached this message i hope it's not on youtube i titled it nick at night preacher jokes i titled nick at night and my emphasis young people i was preaching to young people my emphasis was that nick edemas came at night came to see jesus at night i did what all kinds of preachers do i tore nicodemus up say y'all like nicodemus you want to come to jesus at night but you don't want to see him in the daytime i got real churchy with it too especially if i have an organ you know i can get churchy with i said some of y'all are like nicodemus you don't want to see jesus in the daytime but you want to have a nighttime rendezvous with jesus that's your problem right now you want a part-time savior and you just want to seek him at night because you afraid about what other people don't think about you but god is looking for somebody who don't care what other people think and say god i serve you in the night and god i served you in the morning and god i'll serve you in the afternoon i won't reduce you tonight that ain't right but i'm gonna sink preached it hard preached it with passion you messed up nicodemus why are you seeking jesus at night only problem with that line of thought is i don't know and you don't know you don't know that he came to jesus at night because he was ashamed you don't know you don't know that he came to jesus at night because he was afraid to be seen which you there's nowhere in the bible you can prove it in fact i could prove opposite because he's a pharisee and there's actually a saying within the pharisees that whenever you wanted to study the torah the law the word who jesus was they would say study at night when all distractions are gone and put a candle and study the scrolls at night because at night you are void of distractions what if he came at night because he actually wanted to get his attention what if he came tonight because he knew that the crowds would be there in the daytime and he said i know there's something real about this savior i know there's something real that i'm gonna seek him at night i want some one-on-one time with him so i'm gonna come at night so i can spend time with my savior see this is actually the problem with the church today because i've seen the church for years judge how people come to jesus i can't believe they were coming to church with that outfit i can't believe they were coming here smelling like that why are you judging the way people came instead of celebrating the fact that they just came in the first place oh god thank you jesus that he came i don't care that he came at night i'm just glad that he came somebody give god some praise in this place today if you believe it [Applause] thank god that he came oh i'll declare it over social church i'm just glad you came oh i'm telling you if you think i'm corny while i'm preaching right now that's cool i'm glad you came if you don't even believe in god i'm glad you came if you didn't like the worship i'm still glad that you just came don't judge somebody off how they came or the timing in which they can't at least he came he came at night thank god he came at night because i've learned that god will always birth something new in your life at night be careful when you ask god to do something new in your life because it will generally occur in the night season god does new at night he always burst something new at night i can take you to genesis in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness cover the face of the deep why is there darkness because he's about to create a whole new world and god always does something new at night oh can i preach this thing maybe that's why even john begins his gospel by saying in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god all things were made by him without him was not anything made that has been made and the light shined in the darkness because god always doesn't know at night no wonder he came at night when god is going to do something new in your life it generally will start at night news starts at night you don't believe it look at a seed when you plant a seed in the ground it is covered in dirt it cannot see the sunlight but if you keep watering that seed if you keep putting that seed in the right soil and fertilizing that seed all of a sudden it will break through the darkness and you will see something spread out but you didn't see it when they put the scene in the group because the news starts and now you still don't believe me check your clock tonight at midnight at midnight and help me know not at 1201 or 1202 but a nanosecond after midnight how many know it is a brand new day but it's still dark outside but it has nothing to do with the darkness on the outside the clock will tell you that it is a brand new day irrespective of the night because god does anew at night some of y'all old school you remember this this new generation just takes pictures and you see the picture originally any old school people remember when you took a picture you didn't see that picture immediately you had to drive to walgreens you didn't even know if you had good pictures and you had to drop it off and they say come back in about an hour and while you were at chick-fil-a they were in there in a dark room taking your negatives and putting some solution on your negatives in a dark place and because your photos were in a dark place you could come back and see the picture clearly not because they exposed it to light but because it was in darkness i'm trying to tell somebody in here today if you are in a dark season if you're in the night season that's not time to get depressed it's time to start praising god saying i must be getting ready to step into something new because new starts at night i wish i had some radical people that would get up on your feet and give god the best praise that you got let you know that your god will birth new things at night he'll give you new dreams at night he'll give you a new hope at night oh don't despise the night don't despise the dark seasons don't lose your mind just because you're in the dark god brings new things into your life oh i feel his presence at night new happens at night no wonder he's about to talk about birth no wonder he's about to talk about being born again because every single baby that has ever been born started off in the darkness started off in a restricted place where it was dark new always starts at night every person that has ever been born no wonder he's about to say you got to be born again because a new birth starts at night conception doesn't happen in light conception happens in darkness conception happens in a place you can't see no wonder he's about to tell him you got to be born again he's about to burst something new in him and anytime you're on the verge of something new you'll start off in a womb a womb a womb would you say wall yeah all of us have wounds all of us were born in wombs literally but i also think that we have wounds spiritually because an infant how many remember your birth anybody remember it i'm about to wait to see who's a liar you don't remember it but let me jog your memory when you were in your mother's womb you thought that womb was the world you could hear sounds hear voices but if you asked an infant to describe the world they'd be like oh restricted dark a lot of fluid because of the infant the womb is their world that's all they know it is not until they are pushed out that they realize the world is bigger than the womb i was in all of us have wounds what is a womb you know what a woman is to me it is a world of my beliefs that's what a woman is a womb is a world of my belief this is this is the way it is this is the way this is the way i see it what if the way you see it it's not the way it is what if you don't know what if what you're calling the world is just your womb it's just your world of belief and it's not until that paradigm is shattered that you realize oh i didn't know what if your womb is not a reality can i really preach it like i feel it i am amazed by the arrogance in our generation of people who think they know your belief is now fact your opinion is fact now or is that your womb is that your world of belief this week this week i posted three of my little humans and i said three reasons for me not to lose hope against injustice hashtag dante wright should still be alive that's what i posted often i get an inbox several inboxes from somebody this wasn't about race i said he should be alive it wasn't about race to which i replied karen how do you know how do you know okay don't don't leave yet i'm not assuming i know but what i said is he should be alive that i do know i do know that every human life matters every i know that what am i raised and whether you're black whether you're white whether you're latin whoever you are i promise you you have someone some world of belief that you might think is the world but it's not the world it's your womb and you've got to have an encounter with jesus and with people who are different than you so that you can have an experience as uncomfortable as it might be contractions hurt you got to have an experience with jesus and with people who are different than you to go oh this is the world i thought it was the womb this will happen on every level fellas you don't think there's a disparity in the workplace between us and women talk to a woman because you're in the womb that's why sometimes preachers are the worst people for the gospel because they only hang out with preachers get out of your womb talk to somebody that doesn't even believe in your god wolves are the world of my belief he's trying to get nicodemus out of his womb because this is a man who thinks that he has the right to have relationship with god by what his birth i was born a jew we have a covenant with abraham i'm justified and jesus is like yo you don't know but he thought he did this is the message of nicodemus is that it is a danger to come to jesus sure of what you know because it will block you from receiving a deeper revelation of the world he's trying to birth you into can i prove it in the text as the worship team comes i'll tell you his problem was that he knew let me show you put up john chapter 3 verse number two i want you to see the first words out of nicodemus mouth there's a man of the pharisees named nicodemus ruler of the jews this man came to jesus by night and said to him first words out of his mouth rabbi we first thing he said we know no you don't you can't even say i know you don't even have autonomy of thought from the community that you spent your whole life with we know no you know we know what 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 that's what you know what do you know nicodemus 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 that's essentially a compliment it's like yo yo we know you're the man jesus bypasses the compliment you got to be born again oh wait come on somebody came up to you like man we know you good you say i appreciate it you need to be born again interview you know rabbi we know rabbi means teacher so he's saying teacher we know you're a teacher teacher we know you're a teacher you read the rest of the conversation after jesus lets him know you don't know he actually kind of clowns him it says you're the teacher of israel and you don't know these things so the teacher says to jesus teacher we know you're a teacher teacher i'm a teacher i can spot one when i see one and as a teacher i want to let you know teacher that we know you're a teacher come from god that's the way i see it because i know that's your problem nicodemus you think you're having a conversation with a teacher you think this nighttime conversation is a conversation from teacher to teacher as long as you see jesus as a teacher you can't be born again because if you see him as a teacher like some of us do you will only see him as somebody that comes to add something to your life if i see jesus as a teacher think about your teacher you ain't talk to your first grade teacher in a long time no you did what she told you why not because you liked them you could have hated your teacher but they got behavior modification didn't they you did what they said why because you were trying to get to the next level you did what they said you were obedient because you were just trying to get to the next grade you were just trying to walk across the stage and i shudder to think of the people who approach jesus as a teacher and you want him to be an addition to your life just so you can get what you need to go to the next level so yeah i'll worship you i'm trying to get a house i've seen my credit score so yeah i'll come to church i got to interview next week i need this job the challenges he sees them as the teacher can you play it'll make this sound real spiritual nicodemus this is not a conversation from teacher to teacher this is a conversation between a teacher and a savior [Music] and nicodemus with all your pedigree with all your scriptures with all your birthright of being born a jew none of that negates the fact that you need a savior if you see me as a teacher you've got to start over nicodemus you keep trying to try harder but christianity is not about trying harder it's about starting over you must be born again your womb your world of belief has to be exposed to a new belief of a salvation in the kingdom that can only be received by grace not your performance not your works you must be born again you see me as a teacher i am your savior [Music] nicodemus didn't get it that night but he got it later because at the end of the conversation are y'all okay at the end of the conversation jesus makes a weird old testament reference he says to nicodemus just as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness so shall the son of man be lifted up jesus why are you quoting old testament but do you remember that story in numbers chapter 21 when the children of israel watched this were out of egypt not in the promised land they were in the wilderness aka uncertainty we're not where we were we're not where we're going this is uncertainty moses what are you doing you know stuff comes out of you when you're uncertain why are we here they said take us back to slavery at least that's certainty do you realize that's how bad people crave certainty they wanted to go back to slavery that's how much we crave certainty in the same way you will go back to a relationship that is toxic to a person that abuses you to a person that doesn't see your value and your worth not because you know it's wrong but because it's certain it's scary in the wilderness that's where they were and they started complaining which is a sin by the way and serpents sent by god came into the wilderness and they stopped complaining then i bet they did i'm gonna let you know right now i don't do snakes all to take was one complaint soon as i saw the first one oh jesus i'm sorry thank you thank you that you just got us out they were poisoned by the snake and what did moses do [Music] he fashioned a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and as they looked up to the serpent they were healed why is jesus bringing out that reference to nicodemus because he knows he's going to get it later nicodemus is the one john chapter 19 that takes the body of jesus with joseph of arimathea and he pays the highest price for jesus body to be wrapped in precious spices nobody was willing to pay that money is because on that cross when he saw him lifted up i think he was reminded of the conversation that he had with him at night and he looked up he said wait a minute he's more than a teacher this is the savior of the world he is up there for me he is paying the price for me and when he looked up he realized he is more than a teacher yes he teaches but he is a savior and my pedigree won't save me my status won't save me my scriptures that i can quote won't save me there is only one thing that can save me there is only thing that can wash away my stem and it's the blood that he's pouring out right now i see it now that i need you you're more than my teacher you are my savior that's why i pay whatever price i don't care what it costs me because i see you as savior oh that's when your life will change social when you see him as your savior [Music] [Applause] you see this beautiful jesus as your savior and not your teacher i promise you you will experience a new birth [Music] he will do something new in you when he is not an addition to your life but he is your life he saw him as savior so no wonder he paid whatever price he paid whatever price for his burial because that's what this relationship with jesus is about some of you see him as a dictator so you're trying to obey cause you're afraid he's gonna knock you upside the head if you don't when you see him as savior [Music] when you see him as living the life you're supposed to live and dying to death you're supposed to die [Music] and yes you worship it's not out of religion it's out of a thank you jesus for saving me [Music] yes you read the word but it's not out of religious like i want to know more about you if you are this word and this word is you i got to get it in me do you see the difference you can be doing all the stuff nicodemus if you see him as teacher it's religion you see him as savior's relationship [Music]

Channel: Social Dallas

Views: 21,230

Rating: 4.9319148 out of 5

Keywords: social dallas, robert madu, robert madu sermons, church online, they are us

Id: v9uwqdl2u5A

Length: 56min 46sec (3406 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021