Rick & Bubba Bible Study Live - October 2, 2019

port thank you so much for being with us today if you are new to the Bible study we do this every Wednesday at at noon central one o'clock Eastern very few Wednesdays will we not be here and you can go back to Burgess ministries.com if you're joining us for the first time and you're you're saying oh man I'd like to go back and look at some of the other things you guys have taught we're currently going through the Gospel of John you can certainly do that if it's within the last year it'll probably be here on this YouTube channel if you go to playlist and you'll see the men's Bible study you can click there also our podcast channel they've archived pretty good for the last year if you want to find something you know beyond that then you would want to go to Burgess ministries comm and click on listen so we're going through part five of the Gospel of John so if you want to catch up you can go back and see part one two three and four a couple of things that we want to talk about today so that you'll know if you're going to be in and around the Birmingham area I am honored to be with hunter Street Baptist Church tomorrow night I'll be addressing their men they're getting ready to restart their men's ministry and implement a new new strategy that will be part of the man church strategy so I'll be kicking that off tomorrow night and anybody who wants to come is welcome to come you can find those details at Rick and Bubba calm under upcoming events next Wednesday I'll be in Tuscaloosa fields of faith now the FCA is putting that on but you do not have to be an athlete or involved in FCA to be there anybody who wants to come rich Wingo who had hip surgery yesterday is recovering today I've told him please don't make me have to baby you next Wednesday so I expect him to have be fully recovered before them so he'll be there with me we'll be speaking and he told me to say that they'll provide dinner for you until they run out so anybody's welcome to be at fields of faith that'll be at Hillcrest High School there at the stadium coming up on Wednesday then October the 20th headed over to Woodstock Georgia Woodstock Baptist Church a man church should be starting there too and where they've been to a man church but it'll be their latest man Church and I'll be honored to be speaking there you can find any of this by going to Rick and Bubba comm and look into under upcoming events for other markets around the country you can also find all the speaking dates for 2020 if if we've got it you know all the details done and the contract signed they'll already be there at Rick and Bubba calm for all of 2020 so that's gonna be your source for speaking engagements things involving ministry go to burgess ministries comm if you don't already know how to do that we've got a couple of things I want to pray about today I mentioned rich Wingo had hip surgery yesterday he's recovering Scot Gorski who's a member of has been a member of our church and is a dear friend of mine had a massive spinal surgery in New York six hours worth of surgery two hours worth of putting everything back where it was and closing him up and he is recovering and has eaten food today which is very gross keylight so let's pray that he makes a full recovery and hopefully this will relieve some of the excruciating pain that he's been struggling with and also I asked for you guys to pray for me today after we finish up I'll be traveling back to where I'm from and I'll be talking with my brother and sister-in-law her father my brother's father-in-law happy to report that I was fortunate enough to be with him when he gave his life to Christ five years ago during a very difficult situation involving his daughter who was who was dying and sadly he's been told by doctors that that he has gone home to die and he has asked that I come by and see him today for us to have one more conversation before that he is gonna be standing in the presence of the Lord and Savior that redeemed him so that is getting close for him he's been through a lot of tough stuff he's 82 years old and when his cancer kind of returned they told him that in his health and his age that it there really was nothing they could do for him so we certainly pray if the Lord wants to keep him here as long as that's completely up to the Lord but there's a very important conversation thankfully it's not about his salvation because I was there when that took place and he has shown the fruit of that over the last five years and he loves Jesus but you know it's one thing to have that happen thirty years ago five years ago you want to sit down and have a little recap before you step into attorneys turn to D so pray for that conversation today and I'm honored to be able to spend that time with him before he gets to go to his real life and that's his eternal life so let's pray over these things and I know there's many things in the room here too prayer over you I'll pray that God reveals himself to us today through the Apostle John lord thank you for this time together thank you for the men that have made this a priority today we do take Tommy Davis and we lay them at your feet and we celebrate his redemption Lord we've seen in his life the presence of a new life but Lord as we get down to the end of this earthly life we you know there's anxiety that comes with that because we're not afraid to die but the process of dying sometimes can can be difficult and obviously it can bring anxiety and I pray today Lord you just put a special calm over him and and Lord I pray that you'll give me the words to say to him today as his brother in Christ Lord we also pray for Scott Gorsky I know this is a difficult recovery that has begun today I pray that you'll see him through that I pray that the surgeons were able to take away and relieve some of the pain that he's been in we pray for our brother rich wingo that he'll make a full recovery with with the hip surgery as well and Lord there's so many situations that we could stand here and pray literally for hours that are going on within the room that we're connected to and I know people watching this and listening to this I pray that you be near them and whatever situation they're in that they find that when they're on the other side of it they find themselves closer to you and I pray Lord today as we unpack the Gospel of John and we talk about being born again and and complete regeneration of the person we once were by the power provided by you Lord through Jesus Christ I pray that you'll never let us forget what we're going to study today in the name of Jesus we pray amen so if you have your Bible or something with your Bible on it we start in in the book of John and we are now in chapter 3 now this is when Jesus is going to encounter Nicodemus so let's look this is one thing I want to tell you before we jump into this because I think it's important Jesus Christ his earthly ministry God is a man 100% God 100% man he had a three-year ministry now y'all realize that's a pretty tight window lot there's a lot to do in three years and and and I mean Jesus it doesn't take long before there's a lot of people pulling at him you know now he's beginning up a celebrity status he's certainly meeting opposition already so what I want you to stand today that speaks to every one of us in this room is that Jesus Christ even though he's the Lord of lords he's the king of kings and he certainly had every right to say I don't have a lot of time so give me big crowds of big crowds only I don't have time to get involved in everybody's individual stuff I got a lot to do I got to get the word out there I'm gonna turn this over to the church and then I'm gonna go prepare a place for you then I'm gonna come back but you know we find out today that Jesus Christ would meet with you individually so so so understand that Jesus Christ would come into this room and he certainly would speak to us but you know he wouldn't be afraid to do either say hey you got something won't talk to me about for we leave and you know what he would do he'd go back and talk to you I mean that's amazing that God would come to us in such an intimate individual way not just in masses now you certainly did both so so the three-year ministry that he had he's showing us that he takes time to privately minister to individuals and you know what we better follow that example you know what you know why he's doing this certainly because he loves Nicodemus but you know why to show us how to do it you know remember everything he's doing is he's saying look I'm gonna start the church age remember we talked about what Mary said back at the wedding hey do whatever he says do whatever he says think about this and I just heard Steve Farrar teaching on this this week when Peter is there for the the Transfiguration and you see this moment when you see Jesus with Moses and Elijah what did God the Father say in the middle of all this this is my son do what he says hey hey do what he says so so if you really want to know what it means to to be a follower of Jesus is what we don't we don't do some of what Jesus says we don't say I'll tell you what Jesus I've seen the things you thrown out here I say I'll take this right here I'm not real crazy about that don't like you standard on that no we're supposed to do is say we belong to you we follow you and you know what we say we'll do whatever you say so here's another example he says yes you should talk to people in big numbers yes you should get an opportunity to have a platform but let me tell you what you should never neglect meeting with people privately and talking to them one on one I assure you if the Lord of lords can do it it's not above you and me doing it so so now we're talking his conversation with Nicodemus let's talk let's look at this and then we'll well unpack this a little bit now there was a man of the pharisees this is verse one named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews this man came to Jesus by night and said to him rabbi we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him all right so let's unpack that a minute Nicodemus was a Pharisee we've got that he's a member of a sect which carefully observed every letter of the law in all the traditions of the Jewish elders and we know that he belonged to the Jewish Council called the Sanhedrin so this was a pretty big deal but there's some interesting things that we see here this conversation that's about to take place was effective now how do we know that well we know and what you know the thing about John and going through these when you start talking about what's going to happen most of it is in the Gospel of John so really we're gonna we're going to come back to a lot of these things as we get deeper you go out remember that time we were talking about John chapter 3 and and now we're in John chapter 7 this is what Rick was talking about but I think it's important because you'll see that this next conversation is effective when we get to the chapter 7 late in Chapter 7 we're going to see this part where Nicodemus actually defends Jesus there's a situation when when the the the leaders the people of the part of what he's you know the Sanhedrin the Pharisees and they're trying to catch Jesus and condemn him and Nicodemus is gonna jump up in verse 51 it says he's gonna say this hey does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he's actually doing so do we just condemn people in our law without them even having a say to try to defend themselves so why else would Nicodemus stand up and defend him if there wasn't something that had taken place between Jesus and Nicodemus and then what do we find at the end after crucifixion we see Nicodemus he comes up and he says hey I'm here with Joseph of arimathea that's a tough word for me they both go and ask for permission what for Jesus's body so Nicodemus is there again for that so it's important to make a note of that as you as you look at this conversation as a matter of fact we see when we get after the crucifixion that it was actually Nicodemus that brought all the myrrh and the alloys for his body and the Bible tells us he brought a lot of it so so he was paying great respect for Jesus Christ even after the crucifixion so here's here's what he says first he says look I'm really pursuing the truth here now a lot of the commentary I read said the reason why you know that this is since satus since this is sincere on Nicodemus apart is because he is coming to him and he says I acknowledge that you must be from God I'm acknowledging that I've seen the signs I've heard about the signs and there's no way you could have done that unless you had come from God so first of all you you see that Nicodemus does not have a posture at all that he's here to attack Jesus he seems to be truly seeking Jesus saying now I need to figure out exactly what you're doing and who you are and why you're here I'm not here to condemn you I'm not here to question you like like where do you I just want to know exactly what you're doing and and we think that that is sincere about the things that we're seeing here in Scripture then the next thing we know is that he went out to see him and it says he went to see him by night so we went to see him by night why is he going to see him at night now some commentary which honestly looking at this and the rest of the conversation I don't tend to go this way I tend to go the other way which you know that's worth about a nickel to you on my opinion of it but but I think but I think Scripture remember we talked about and we had a conversation about this the other day I was taught by my pastor you know we were looking at Scripture don't try to force things on scripture let things rise from Scripture okay we don't take an opinion this is sometimes when which is some of the poor attempts at men's ministry when we bring a football coach in and he's trying so hard to make this football story he's telling go to scripture why don't you just let the football story rise out of Scripture and if it doesn't maybe we they'd tie two together you know I mean I'm trying to force this point on Scripture when it's really not there but but one of the theories is he was he was afraid so he wanted to meet with Jesus at night because he didn't want anybody know he's meeting with him I mean that certainly has some merit but I think the other theory has more merit and he really was meeting with him at night because he could then have his attention it was a private meeting not to be afraid it was a private meeting because I want hey think about it if you come in here and you say hey I wanted a Rick I need to talk to you man I wouldn't come in here between 6:00 and 10:00 because you can't really get my attention what you would say is what hey when's the time I can meet with you that you're not being pulled in to me in directions and in this case I want to meet with you can I meet you tonight when you're done with everything you got to do you know the samples quit then I asked you a bunch of questions you're not you know have you know how to worry about what you're going to eat for dinner let's finish everything up be done with the day and I'll be done with all the stuff I got to do and let's meet where we can have a conversation one-on-one and I tend to think that's that because of the way he's talking to him there doesn't say he's Nicodemus he's part of the Sanhedrin I mean they're all trying to question him anyway all he'd have to say if they got mad about it was hey man I'm trying to get to the bottom of this I think he was truly seeking the truth so he wanted to meet with Jesus so he could have his attention so we know he's acknowledged the signs of Jesus he's acknowledging that he sent by God that's in - and and then let's talk about what Jesus says now in verse 3 because not now now everything's about to get it's about to get intense now jesus answered to him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God so Jesus starts out by saying look I'm gonna go ahead and cut to the chase there's nobody you've got to be born again and only those that are born again are ever gonna have the ability to see the kingdom of God so Nicodemus is a little confused by this comment and looking looking for he says Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born so first of all we see here's Nicodemus he's a Pharisee he's part of the Sanhedrin he which means what I'm supposed to know a lot I should know a lot about prophecy I should know a lot about Redemption I should know a lot about baptism a lot of this I should know but you know what we see that the Bible tells us he didn't get it he's confused he doesn't understand this statement that Jesus has made to him and and that's the thing that we I think we have to really take away from this too is I go back to the the writer of Hebrews again when the writer of Hebrews is frustrated when he comes in and he says a lot of you should be teaching by now and I keep having to come back to you and go over the basic Oracles of God again you know your children your infants of the faith and I and I have to keep giving you what what only children can eat and that's milk what I really would like to see you do is to mature so I can move you on to solid food and what it means we've got to get to the point where there's nothing that Jesus Christ is ever gonna reveal to you or reveal to me until we're ready for it I mean right have you have you ever have you ever done that before and you've been wanting to move on with something maybe you've been in a coaching situation in a teaching situation and you realize I can't move on because y'all don't understand how to do this yet I can't even get to the next thing so we see that we need to be prepared to be sensitive to what Jesus is saying but Jesus says after this question truly truly I say to you to truely's there by the way unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is the spirit and then he goes on to say do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again all right so let's get to there so we know that Nicodemus is confused we know that Jesus now takes it and he explains it to him and listen with the next thing he says don't-don't-don't marvel at this then look at 8 the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it come from or where it goes so now so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit now this explanation still I look I was not a good student I know what it's like to be sitting in class and go walk walk walk walk I got no idea what this teacher is talking about and you know whoever wrote that in the Charlie Brown thing they were spot-on that's the way teacher sounded to me all the time walk walk walk walk walk walk and so Nicodemus is like you know this is a and then he just looks at him and he says Nicodemus and 9 and Nicodemus said to him how can this be I I don't follow I don't follow this so let's let's unpack this a little bit so to be born again if you have your Bible or something your Bible own let's go to Genesis 2:7 now keep in mind this is something that Nicodemus is aware of so we go to Genesis 2:7 and here's what we find about God creating mankind look at 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature now if you look at the Hebrew word that's used here for breath nish ma what that means is the very breath of God I Got News for you you can you can take us and and we can be formed out of the ground to be formed out of whatever but nobody becomes a living creature until the Lord God Almighty takes his essence and he breathes himself into you because he is life what did you just say about himself I am the way the truth and the life I am life I found this interesting I don't know how many of you know David Barton David Barton who he goes out he is that he's a Christian but he's really involved in in the judeo-christian principles of our country and our founding fathers and and I thought he said something one time that was really really profound he said if you're ever out there voting if you're a person of faith be using your wondering about how you need to vote he said remember this anybody that can't get life right they don't get anything else right either if they if they don't have where life begins right you'll find that they'll the things the legislation that they produce the things they vote for the things they advance they'll get everything else wrong too because you can't get life right - you can't get anything right and that's why this issue is before us again to the country but that is another another message and it will take longer so anyway so let's talk about that he's talking about the very breath of life now we know in Psalms 139 if you have that let's go there Psalms 139 13 through 16 this has been a very important verse and we talked about this and verses in chapter 4 my wife and I dealing with the earthly death of our youngest son this is one of the places where we went to find you know great comfort and great hope and we realized that on earth our son had lived a very short life but according to God it was the number of days that God knew when he wove him together and my wife's womb so here it says again for you formed my inward parts this is in verse 13 you knitted me together and my mother's womb I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them so again here's the Bible talking about that God is the author of life and God has has breathed life and so that's what Jesus is talking about when he's saying about us being born again because in Genesis 3 when God breathed his life into man and he became a living creature but then when the man decided to reject God and go after sin and reject God now what happens what was perfect life that was perfect now becomes life that is imperfect so now sin has entered the equation and so now instead of us being purely like God we have become rebellious to God because God cannot be part of sin so what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus this has got to take place again Genesis 2:7 has got to take place again you must be born again you have to be regenerated you know if you look at our hopeless condition if you have your Bible you know that in Ephesians 2:1 through three let's look at that Ephesians 2:1 through three this is exactly what Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to understand that because of sin and what happened in Genesis chapter three and Jesus is here to redeem a terrible situation we now find ourselves in look at 2 1 through 3 and you were dead that's why this is important you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prints of of the power of the air the spirit that is that is now at work in the sons of disobedience in the look at 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we're by nature children of Wrath like the rest of mankind but God being rich in mercy because of great love with which he loved us even though we were dead in our trespasses here it comes makes us alive again in Christ born again your life starts over you are dead you do have to have a rebirth we're dead and our sin and that's what Jesus is trying to get Nicodemus to understand look look at mark 7 I want to be sure we made this point really good today look at mark 7 we're talking about what happened after the fall and March 7 21 through 23 you see the condition that we're in now - all of this is making sense now if you understand what Jesus is trying to say now we had access to this that Nicodemus didn't have but he still this is what Jesus is about to explain to him so here's what mark 7 21 through 23 says about the condition that we now find ourselves and he and this is Jesus talk about what comes out of a person so he says this what comes out of a person is what defiles him from within out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and they defile a person so here's what the Bible is telling us and this is what he is trying to tell Nicodemus if I don't come and regenerate you if I don't give you a new birth you are dude and you are dead in your trespasses and if you don't believe that just look how people act and - unless unless we change your spirit unless that spirit is going from dead to alive all you're going to produce are these things that mark just listed and what Paul was telling the church at Ephesus you were dead in your trespasses and and God because of his great mercy even though we were dead God came and made us alive and who do you make us alive in Jesus and what did Jesus do I'm here to redeem you I'm here to regenerate you you know what he's saying back to Genesis 2:7 get ready for this I'm here to bring to breathe the breath of God Almighty your Creator and we're going back to Genesis 2:7 and it's a new day and we're gonna breathe that life back into you again and you're gonna be you're gonna be a new creation gonna be alive again it is truly it's a rebirth yes well let me ask you this is that what you look like I mean honestly does it look like that your life started over or is it just kind of a better version of what it's always been maybe a little better now we're talking about a regeneration I will tell you this honestly because I've done it both ways I've been a cultural Christian and my I did not experience a rebirth I be not as but most of my behavior was based on being afraid of my mom and dad as opposed to trying to be to love God and you guess what happened when they weren't around everything changed so I had not been reborn I believed in Jesus as James talks about the demonic faith but there was no evidence of a rebirth because I was just like everybody else to some degree or not but there was anything radical about it well let me tell you something when God grabbed ahold of me and I submitted to his authority and I experienced a new birth I ain't never been the same no that's not that's not because of me that's because he gave me the ability to be this new creation I had no power to do that you know how many times have you ever tried with that Jesus girl I got to do better that works out does until things get hard you know what I found that I could do really well at things that weren't hard you ever notice that it's just like now you have people what we're very vocal about sins we don't struggle with now we get to those things that we struggle with and we don't have a whole lot to say do it yeah did you see it all the time I said I talked about this the other day let's take sexual sin you look around and say parents are say of course it's getting that way even if it's homosexual sin they don't care but at one time you'll see people that are very sanctimonious about the sanctimonious about homosexual sin and all these kids and all this going on and then you look on their kids social media and I said well I guess heterosexual sounds fine apparently they don't care about you know fornication which is any sex before marriage they don't care about lewdness you know because I Got News for you if your kid is down here jumping in out of bed with with the opposite sex that's no different than them being in bed with the same sex that sexual sin that's sexual immorality and you can't just care about some of it we're supposed to care about all of it because because I got news for you that when you look at the list of those that will not inherit the kingdom of heaven both are on the list drunks are on the list liars are on the list so there has to be a whole regeneration now know just stay with me we're gonna get it's gonna get a little deep here for just a minute for people like me some of you are advanced beyond me so won't get you as much as it does me so let's go back to Ezekiel 36 and we won't read all this I'm gonna kind of tell you what went on here so in Ezekiel 36 25 through 27 now this is pre Jesus but it's pointing to Jesus in Ezekiel is saying that God will put his spirit in you and he's gonna cleanse you there it is so here's Ezekiel saying let me tell you what's coming there's gonna be an ability that's coming just like what happened at Genesis 2:7 and and there's gonna be an opportunity that's coming he's talking about Jesus where God is going to set it up where he can breathe his life into you again and cleanse you from all unrighteousness somebody say him into that and then we get to chapter 37 1 through 10 making oh did I give you the other one Ezekiel 36 25 through 27 is the part about his spirit and you and cleansing you now write down Ezekiel 37 1 through 10 and y'all know this story this is the dry bones this is the dry bones so how were the dry bones made alive again the breath of God the breath of God is it says that by regeneration done by the Spirit of God those bones became an army dry bones made alive by the regeneration power of the Spirit or the Hebrew word the breath of God see the Father Son and Holy Spirit they've always been around okay one God three persons these three persons have always been this one God and they get different assignments as we go and that's why Jesus is saying the game changers coming the game changers come in Peter's afraid of little girls by the fire before Pentecost after Pentecost after he's watched his wife be crucified if you look if you look at the history of the martyrs they crucified Peter's wife and made him watch it and you know his response was to that crucified me upside down I'm not even worried they'd be crucified by Jesus now what happened to the guy by the fire that that to try to convince a little girl that he went with Jesus he was willing to start cussing like he used to before he was with Jesus like the old fisherman old Peter I'm gonna prove to you that I could be with Jesus listening foul-mouth but now now he's dug in we see this start in Acts chapter 4 we're really seeing started Pentecost but a few chapters after Pentecost we've done you know we talked about this and I really feel God calling me I'm gonna try to put together with God's guidance I think this is something's got to be talked about and we've talked about in here for four years we've gotta stop settling this regeneration solo there's a lot of people out there claiming they've been regenerated they don't let you have much impact on them and you know what we said in here for four years that'll say much about Jesus does it say the power of the Holy Spirit when it when the when the breath of God was given to the church game-changer so if the breath of God hadn't changed you it's not because of its inability to do so something's wrong with your relationship with Jesus Christ if it hasn't changed because he has the ability for us to truly be born again so so when when God breathed that breath into Adam and then he breathed it upon those dry bones anything you ready for this here we go when God breathes on anything it now has life in it now has been given by the breath of God and when I saw this when the commentaries it blew me away when God breathed on anything he doesn't just give it a life he gives every element of a good life even in the present he's given you the ability to overcome a sin right now right now remember any sin that is still prevalent in my life not a stumble will always stumble with this because perfection is only gonna be achieved and we're standing in the presence of God but you know what should be achieved progress if I ever hear another man tell me I'm just a work in progress and I've said to many of them like it had to be said to me at one time you must not know what progress means I'm gonna be in trouble with this I use this analogy because it's a good one and I don't mean any harm to anybody who's upset about this we've seen the signs by the construction site the construction site that's been going on now for eight years and what does it say pardon our progress but I don't see it what I mean what I don't what am i pardoning I mean you're still here if there was progress you would be gone by now so I think a lot of times we don't understand the word progress look perfection is one thing but let me tell you something the power of Jesus Christ provides the progress and we should be being sanctified and we should be maturing from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity because Jesus and the Holy Spirit they really are that powerful so that's what he's talking about so so when he's using this analogy and in John 3:8 when he's talking to Nicodemus he's speaking about the breath of God now what he says born of water and of the Spirit water it don't don't overcomplicate water I know there's been people come out shut up this is what shows you baptism water baptism part of salvation no what Jesus talking about is those that are born of water that's a natural birth the water breaks you're born that should that's your that's your natural birth okay and what in and what he's saying then because he if you don't believe that look what he says next he goes look that birth flesh gives birth to flesh that first birth the natural birth the water breaks a sinful woman gives birth to another sinful person flesh just gives birth to flesh but but but I want you to think about this the spirit gives birth to the spirit so he's trying to show Nicodemus I'm not talking about a natural birth I'm talking about a spiritual birth and he's saying so you were born one time by water and that was flesh giving birth to flesh what I'm presenting and what I'm about to accomplish is the new birth the regeneration will now be my holy spirit will now give birth to a new spirit that's a new birth that's a new beginning and so then he talks about the kingdom of God and I know I used to be confused by this too if you see that he's talking about that if we don't have this new birth then we can never see the kingdom of God the kingdom of God to simplify it it is complicated but to simplify it that is God's reign over our life now an eternity once you become a new creation you now enter the kingdom of God right now and then of course it will be completed in perfection for eternity God now reigns over your life and God God's reign now exist in your life and it will always exist there for the rest of eternity and I like when he uses the word see he says those that are born again will see the kingdom of God now the greek word here you know what that means to attain sight don't miss that that's bigger than just you know what he's saying is if you've never been born again you can't see the kingdom of God you got no concept what it is he said part of this spiritual rebirth is now gonna allow you you were now and you attained insight about the kingdom of God do you remember when you were lost did you have any idea what the kingdom of God was did you really have any idea of the basic concepts of of really who God was and and what was going on I mean you might know a Bible story here there but you didn't know much about him you know what this is beautiful about the rebirth we've now been given a spiritual birth and because of that spiritual insight we're now able to know things about God that we couldn't know before remember anybody ever remember what it's like to read the Bible before you were saved that was an uphill climb wasn't it and so and so that think about how how much different if you have experienced that the rebirth I hope everybody in here has if you've experienced that rebirth I promise you even though you think you understand the scriptures today if you continue to pursue Jesus Christ you'll continue to be sanctified and grow you ain't seen nothing yet remember back to the very beginning when he's talking to Nathanael so you think it's a big deal that I knew you were over there under the fig tree oh you ain't seen nothing yet and and I'm telling you so as we as we become sanctified this insight is now allowed ly aloud to us by God right we are saved by grace through faith but that faith is in action and we're moving forward the other thing he says he uses the word in in a moment he says those that have been have been born again will then enter the kingdom of God and that's a different Greek word it's not the same thing the first one is will attain insight to the kingdom of God this second word in greek means the enjoyment of the kingdom of god kenny by say him into that did i hope you had that supernatural peace is there anything better than to know that you're now part of the kingdom of god you know you know you know we saved my house a lot in light of eternity is this a big deal hey man - rough day today yeah it is but we kind of know this ain't the deal don't we this is not it I look forward to talking about that today with this man that's about to die is earthly death hey man it's just beginning as a matter of fact you about to put off a lot of a lot of garbage man you know where you're going people don't get cancer anymore where you're going people don't feel 82 anymore you know that you know how great it felt to be redeemed you're about to stand in the presence of Jesus you ain't say nothing yet and that's that but but see you see how that in this room you could feel the rise of Joey could you that's what is talking about he said now I've given you not only the insight to the kingdom of God I'm giving you the ability to experience the enjoyment of the kingdom of God God who can say being born against a big deal so Christ allows us the insight and the enjoyment of the kingdom of God now a Living Hope there's a Living Hope for us at the consummation that is to come and the revelation of the glorious and tangible kingdom of our God king of kings and Lord of lords so not only are we getting a taste of inside of it now we begin to anticipate the consummation of it all and its perfection and its glory to come we belong to the kingdom of the king of kings and the Lord of lords we are co-heirs with Christ that's big hey I'm from Calhoun County and I'm a co heir of the Lord of lords and the king of kings that's big only Jesus could do that so if you really want to think about this moment because Jesus is and and Jesus you know he can he can be very merciful he'd be very gracious what he's really saying in response to what Jesus said when Nicodemus said how can this be look at Jesus's response this is now getting in verse 10 are you the teacher of Israel 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've seen but you do not receive our testimony if I told you earthly things and 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 talked about himself the Son of Man and now he gives him something and let me tell what this means this next verse to Nicodemus now you missed it you missed it because you know what happened with Moses and as Moses Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of Man be lifted up whoever believes in Him may have eternal life write this down Jesus is talking to Nicodemus the Pharisee part of the Sanhedrin a teacher numbers 21 4 through 9 now if you're familiar with this this document in the Bible in numbers 21 4 through 9 that the children of Israel have been wandering in the desert they were rebellious therefore God allowed them because of their rebellion to be bitten by snakes so they were bitten by snakes many died when the others who were dying from their snake bites started to get the message and God loves us enough to discipline us they finally begin to repent and they they acknowledge their sin and God then directed Moses to make a bronze Serpent and set it up on a high pole so that it would be possible for all to see it and those who looked up would live and so what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus that's telling you about me you know how the children of Israel you know about this you know that the children of Israel were rebellious and in sin and so what God did is he told Moses to make this bronze serpent and to put it high up on a pole and those who repented and acknowledge their sins and look to that would be forgiven and they would live that's me the son of man who has come from heaven will be crucified and when I'm crucified Nicodemus those who look up and see me paying the debt for their sin even though they are dying due to the poisonous sin in their life because of me they're gonna live I'll be up where everybody can see me and I will say it is finished and I will take the poison of sin that is killing you and I'll wipe it away Nicodemus you missed it that's what I'm talking about that's the rebirth that I'm talking about now verse 15 for the first time and we're gonna hear it again when we go on further you see 15 that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life eternal life is being used for the first time here eternal life and what John is documenting as Jesus is telling Nicodemus he said I am the author of the rebirth I'm the one who says that if you want to turn the life I have provided it a rebirth if you have your Bible or something with your Bible on it go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and we'll get ready to close here in a minute for today 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 look at verse 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the mission of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation the call to us is 20 who have had a rebirth therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God so this is exactly what Paul is talking about and I want us to understand something because I know in my own process of sanctification one of the things that we need to be sure that we do as we go forth at regeneration and we cry out yes I want the rebirth part of the rebirth isn't just moving you know toward Christ it's also moving away from your old self you can't you can't have two births one of those births has to end and that's the ol birth now you become part of the new birth you can't exist in both places you can't say I continue to exist in the original flesh gave birth to flesh you know I was born of water and I want to hang on to that sinful nature but I'll also go over here and do a rebirth know the rebirth cancels the old birth it's a new birth it's a new creation and let me tell you something you will never experience reconciliation and regeneration if you continue to keep one foot in that old self and then try to see if you can place a toe in the new self it doesn't work sin and redemption just don't stay together doesn't mean you won't struggle with it but it's impossible for you to feel comfortable with it again you know when do you know that your sinning because in the new birth that new spirit is alive and it then gives conviction when it sees the flesh try to raise this again and then the second part of what Paul's making clear if we have experienced this this new birth if we've been reconciled back to God then he says now he has given us the message of reconciliation do you realize this this this moment I hope this hits you you know what Paul says he's now making his plea to a dying world through us ambassadors for Christ and what I've noticed is that men and women men seem to always be an ambassador for something so what are you an ambassador for oh I'll find something that I like I do spend time with you and I'll learn pretty quick that you might be an ambassador for your kids certainly you think we're real what's wrong with that well can I tell you there's nothing wrong with you loving your kids but if you love your kids you'll be an ambassador for Christ you can't be a true ambassador for your kids if you're not first an ambassador for Christ because that's what you need to give them but but yet what I see is a lot of times a lot of men they want to give me the stats of their kids when I just met them at a travel ball tournament I don't even know you why are you telling me and bragging on your kid to me you know there was a time that was considered bad form you know I know people always struggle with it with worshiping their children now parents just blatantly worship them you know III I've talked about this before the difference can you imagine I think about my dad any dad standing around and you coming up to the kid a little league game and your kids on the team and that dad looks out there and says that's my kid right there at shortstop you'll run hey he's fastest kid on the team you know I mean he's probably played college ball one day and he's got this right batting average is 450 and and you know something they feel just let him pitch I mean he can throw the ball harden him by us on the team and there's other teams that want him you know and he decided he played with this team so you know I'm just thinking to myself we don't even know you see that's an ambassador for the wrong thing because I Got News for that dad when your son stands before Jesus Christ how hard he could throw the baseball how fast he can run hang on mean nothing what's gonna what's gonna mean something is did that son follow his dad and be an ambassador for Jesus I really believe there's a lot of dads right now that would rather their kid be good at something even if that compromises Jesus look why don't you simplify all this you end up being disappointed anyway the world always disappoints at some at some moment all this glorious moment of you living vicariously through your kid is going to be over so why don't you give them Jesus and you know what you can think seriously if you can go to bed at night and say my children have been given the gift of Jesus and they've received it and they've been redeemed and now the time that I spend with them is giving them advice and maybe talking over scripture and praying over them and we're and I'm watching them grow spiritually and you know what your kids are probably like to hear hey man just get that ride and daddy's proud of you this other stuff I mean it's not that it's okay and if we put in the right place it's fine but that's not your identity to me your identity to me is to be a follower of Jesus I told I told one of my sons just this week we're talking about something about trying to try to give some help about something financial and I said this is real simple real simple don't fell number one be a devout follower of Jesus and don't fail out of school I said if you want me to help you at school then you be a devout follower of Jesus and you don't fail out of school you do those two things and I'll take care of you I said no you said if I start hearing you acting like a fool down there and you start compromising Jesus then I ain't going to send you anything because if you're gonna be rebellious against Jesus you have to finance that yourself who are these parents that I like your kids holding you hostage I had that happen that I've had people come to me say my kids had like an idiot near college I just don't know what to do you know once they go to college I'm what can you do I said here's what you knew karma off cut them off do they pay their own way and if they do then then I guess you got a point but if they don't pay their own way kick them out of the apartment shut down the tuition cut off the mill ticket and say if you're gonna rebel against Jesus financed it yourself you know if you love them you know you're willing to do things like that just like God loved me enough to crush me they didn't do that cuz he was mean he didn't do that because he was unreasonable he did that because that was the what that was what was gonna take to get my attention but I Got News for you if you keep allowing people to roll through life and blaspheme God and never pay a price for it you're setting them up for a terrible terrible situation so so ambassadors for Christ but if we're gonna be an ambassador for something what is what else do we have to be able to do tell you it's about you have you have you ever had somebody who can tell that they were they've been deemed an ambassador for something they really weren't into you've had somebody do that for you for so hey we need you to kind of do this whatever your kind of yeah why why cuz if you don't believe in it and you don't really think it was any value it's really difficult to fake it right so I think one of the problems we have a lot of times we got people out there mouthing that they're an ambassador for Christ but when they go out there that what the message they sin doesn't really draw anybody to it because they see what people who have claimed have been reborn been given a new life had God breathed life back into them again and it doesn't appear that anything changed I'm gonna tell you the biggest message you can send think about what Nicodemus said to Jesus when he first walked up now I know that nobody can do what you're doing so you I don't know what you are but you're definitely from God well did you know the version of that in our life is when people see us respond to things differently than the rest of the world you know most everybody would have done this but you did I know those testimonies I know there's testimony people said I know we didn't any attention and you didn't think we were watching but we watched you you didn't do what the rest of us did we didn't want any part of that at the time but we got to circle back around the vet again now that we're getting a little older and we're starting thinking about hmm what's gonna happen to me when I die when something happens I promise you ambassadors of Christ when we go through adversity first Peter 1 6 & 7 and when the testing of the genius of our faith happens everybody's watching everybody's watching and if you're if you have been given the message of reconciliation God making his appeal through you and me well then God's appeal is always perfect the only thing that we keep it from from from reaching the person needs to hear it would be us and that's clouding that message in them them looking at us and saying that we claim one thing but we live another so as we get ready to close and you think about you and me as ambassadors of this regeneration I love when Jesus is simply telling Nicodemus no one is going to see the kingdom of God no one is going to enter the kingdom of God unless they have been completely born-again the breath of Jesus Christ is the breath of God if you have seen me you have seen the father and he says to Nicodemus start showing him things around him about the wind and all this he says you can't really explain that getting you such as the breath of the God you can see it but you know it's there so if somebody looks into your life and they look into my life do they see that God Almighty through the redemption found in Jesus Christ has his breath the Holy Spirit that comes through Jesus when I reconciled to him has that new breath truly been breathed upon your life let's pray lord thank you for this time together thank you for the message that you've given us and thank you Lord for the fact that you offer us a brand new life so many times I can just I'm thinking about in my mind Lord this childlike example of neighborhood sports when it just wouldn't come together and somebody would scream do-over let's just start over well you've offered this the ultimate opportunity to begin again as you have said that we have an opportunity to go back to this point in our life and say I need to start over Lord I need you to breathe a new life in me will you please take my life and breathe life back into it it's dead if you're watching this on YouTube or you're listening to one of our archives and you're thinking to yourself my life doesn't feel like it's ever been made new well look as we've already said that's not because of God's inability to do it why don't you just right now as best you know how to say Lord I submit to you completely I'm ready to be regenerated I'm ready to be made from from dead in my trespasses to alive through Redemption Lord Jesus will you reconcile me back to you may I experienced please Lord that new life that I've just heard John talking about I want to be born again the Bible tells us if you're sincere in your heart and you repent of your sins and you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he paid the price for sin on the cross and then he walked out of the tomb on the third day to now offer eternal life to all who want to be redeemed that if you're sincere that he will redeem you and you've just been born again and then once that happens what now you're like a baby he's been born again but what do you need now you need to be taught how to live we're all standing by ready to help you as will now start the process of making you a disciple of Jesus Christ if I can help you in any way Rick at Ricky and Bubba calm I'm certainly willing to be here for you and there's men all over this room that'll be there for you too you're not alone and God loves you enough to to push out every other voice all around the world millions and millions of people and he'll push all that out and he'll listen specifically to you he loves you that much so he's gonna record how much he loves you now the real question is do you love him and Jesus said if you love me then you obey my commands well it's impossible for us to obey commands that we've never heard before so let's start with the new birth by confessing your sins and crying out for Jesus to save you I pray that's taking place somewhere right now we lay these decisions now Lord at your feet and we praise your holy name for the redemption that is all over this room the testimony after testimony that what you say is true and in the name of Jesus we pray amen thanks guys

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Length: 58min 43sec (3523 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019