Maybe you’ve read this before, but I love it.  It was written by an African pastor right before he gave up his life for the Gospel.

  I am part of the “Fellowship of the Unashamed.”  I have Holy Spirit power.  The die has been cast.  I’ve stepped over the line.  The decision has been made.  I am a disciple of His.  I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.  I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

  I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.
  I now live by his presence, lean by faith, love by patience, live by prayer, and labor by power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear.
  I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

  I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or slow up ’til I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ.

  I am a disciple of Jesus.  I must go ’til He comes, give ’til I drop, preach ’til all know, and work ’til He stops.  And when He comes to get His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing me-my colors will be clear.

 

44 years ago today I was born.  I can’t believe I am 44 years old…my mind still thinks I’m 22—that is until my eyes break out the can of reality!  44 years ago I was born—I left my mother’s womb and I entered this world.  Almost 25 years ago I was born again!  I left the death of this world and entered new life.  I have never been the same.

        For years I thought I was saved, but my life simply did not bear the fruit of that confession.  As I think about it I think God turned the switch on for me when I was five or six, but true salvation did not take place until a few days shy of my 19^th birthday. 

        I’ve written a lot about being born again this week, but I’d like to close with some marks of the new birth that I found some time ago.  Read them and do some soul searching.  Make sure the Gospel you claim to believe in is actually the Gospel.

        This new birth is experiential—you are born from above and when that happens to you, you “see the kingdom of God.”  The word “see” speaks of your experience, your participation, and your encounter.  God moves in your life and you experience Him—you can’t help but do it because you have been brought from flesh to spirit. 

        The new birth is also evidential.  He moves upon us with the gift of faith and because we can see into the spiritual realm our life is now changed.  We often sing, “You ask me how I know He lives—He lives within my heart.”  We experience Him and we experience His saving work and our changed lives are evidence of His work. 

        Have you been born again?  Have you entered into the realm of the Spirit?  Does He live within you?  I want to close with five marks of a person who has been born again.  Turn over to 1 John and let’s look at the marks.

1 John 3:9, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”  1 John 5:18, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who has been born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

        The first mark of a person who has been born again does not habitually commit sin—he or she does not sin with their whole heart and will because they hate sin.

1 John 5:1, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.”

        The second mark of a person who has been born again is that they trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for the salvation.  Their salvation is not be works, but it is by grace through faith.  1 John 2:29, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.”

        The third mark is righteous living.  Are you a new creation?  Are you different from the world?  John Newton said, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be and by the grace of God I am what I am.” 

1 John 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.  Whoever does not love abides in death.”

        The fourth mark is love—especially love for your brothers and sisters in Christ.   How can you love them if you never hang out with them or worship with them or minister to them?

1 John 5:4, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

        The fifth mark of a person who is born again is victory over sin and over the things of the world.  We are not governed by the way the world things and we are not bound by the things the world loves.  We love Him.

Yesterday we saw that only God can open our eyes and only God can change our hearts.  I read a great quote from Bono who is the lead singer of U2 and one of the most recognizable rock stars in our world today.  Someone asked him about religion and he broke all religions down to two things—grace and karma.  Karma he said is the idea that what comes around goes around and that we ultimately get what we deserve.  That is what every religion in the world teaches, but Christianity is not about karma—it is about grace.  Bono said, “I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge.  It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for grace.  I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross…It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.”  Do you know how the secular journalist responded to the Gospel?  He said, “The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world…it’s close to lunacy, in my view.” 

It’s foolishness to those who are lost, but to those of us who have been born again it is the power of God.  Nic couldn’t understand, but Jesus answers it for him. In verses 14-15 Jesus gives Nic the heart of the Gospel and the way we can be born again.  He tells us that spiritual birth is only possible through the sacrifice of the Son of Man.  Only through the cross is the new birth possible.  In Num 21 the people were grumbling and God sent fiery serpents into the camp.  The people finally saw that it was because of their sin so they cried out to Moses who cried out to God.  God told him to make a snake and to put it on a pole and anyone who would look up at the snake could be healed.  To look up at the snake meant—1) you confessed your sin, 2) you couldn’t heal yourself, and 3) only God could heal you.  You were throwing yourself upon the mercy and grace of God. 

Nic though he was the one holding up the stake for a world of sinners, but Jesus showed him that he was among the sinners and in need of outside help.  The snake on the stick foreshadowed Jesus on the cross.  “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.”  The sacrifice of Jesus is the cause of our new birth. There are two musts in this passage—you must be born again and so must the Son of Man be lifted up…this is the cause, but lets go to one of the most famous passages of scripture and see the reason for our new birth.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  The cause of the new birth was the sacrifice, but reason for the sacrifice was the love of the Father.  The only reason we can be born again, the only reason we can have eternal life, the only reason our sins can be forgiven is that God so loved the world.  We aren’t a loveable bunch, but we are loved.   IN Genesis 6:5 we find God looking at mankind and the Bible says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  A lot of people talk about man evolving, but when you read the Bible you find we are devolving.  We continually grow more and more sinful and further and further from God and yet He loved us enough to send Jesus!

JI Packer said, “The measure of love is how much it gives and the measure of the love of God is the gift of His only Son to be made man, and to die for sins, and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God.  No wonder Paul speaks of God’s love as ‘great’ and passing knowledge!”

What does this tells us?  It tells us that there is hope for anyone.  Why is there hope for a Bin Laden or a John Thweatt?  Because God loved.  Why can we have new life?  Because God loves and enables us to believe in Him. 

So we see the cause—the sacrifice.  We see the reason—the love.  But let’s close by seeing the means…the Holy Spirit shines the light though God’s Word.  Peter said, “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.” (1 P 1:23) Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what I mine and declare it to you.”  (J 16:13-15)  What does the Spirit declare to us?  He declares the things of God and they are found in the Word of God.

Before we close I have to point you to two verses in chapter one, verse one, “IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  And verse 4, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”  Phillips pointed out, “Nic had questions; Jesus not only has answers but is himself the Answer.”  To be born again is to see the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 C 4:6)  There is nothing you face today that cannot be met in Jesus!

For the last few days we have been talking about what it means to be born again.  Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus and said, “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.”  Jesus skipped over his comment and got to the core of Nic’s heart, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless on is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jesus told Nic that “which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” and after He finished His comments Nic asked, “How can these things be?”  Nic couldn’t understand what Jesus was saying, but I want you to see why he couldn’t understand Him.  It wasn’t because Nic wasn’t intelligent—he was extremely intelligent.  It wasn’t because he didn’t know the Bible—he was a lifelong student of God’s word.  The reason Nic couldn’t understand what Jesus was saying about the spiritual new birth is that he didn’t believe in Jesus.  His ignorance was due to his unbelief.  Look at verses 11-12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”  Verse 12 tells us the reason he would not receive in verse 11—he did not believe.

Spiritual things are not understood from the fleshly side.  Go back to verses 3 and 5—you can’t see the kingdom or the things of the kingdom until you are regenerated and you can’t enter the kingdom of God until you have been born of water and the Spirit—that is the Word and the Spirit.  Nic could not find the answers he was looking for until he was born again.  The great problem in humanity is our ignorance of the heavenly things.  Spiritual growth begins with a confession of our lack of ability to understand the heavenly and with a pleading for God to show us the heavenly.

Why can’t we understand it on our own?  Jesus tells us in verse 11, we have no access to the information.  Notice something—Nic comes to Jesus and says, “Rabbi, we know that you are teacher come from God.”  The “we” in that group is referring to the religious leaders—the in crowd of theology, but Jesus responds to his “we” with a “we” of His own.  Don’t miss this—Jesus said, “We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen…”  Who is Jesus referring to with His “we?”  Some have suggested that Jesus is talking about the Disciples, but I think this is a reference to the Trinity.  In other words—you are among a group who speculates, but I am of a group that created all that you see and I don’t speculate because I actually came from heaven.  Nic and his peers had no way of knowing and neither do we—we have no access to the heavenly realm except by way of revelation from One who is in that realm.

This is where the Bible comes in—God has revealed all that we need to know about Him in His book.  I didn’t say He has revealed all that there is about Him, but I said, all that we need to know.  Have you ever noticed how the prophets and apostles wrote?  Did they say, “I’ve been thinking about these things and it occurs to me…?”  Did they say, “I have some ideas that I want to share with you…”  No, they said, “Thus says the Lord.”  The Bible must be taught and shared because it is the revelation of God from God.  Peter said, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.  For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 P 1:20-21)  I’ll go back to what I said Sunday night—if we aren’t teaching the Word of God in our small groups we are wasting out time because that is what we are supposed to be teaching—God’s Word. 

Jesus told Nic he didn’t understand because first, he didn’t have access to the info and we know that the solution is to teach the Bible, but He gave him another reason.  He didn’t understand because he was fallen and still in the flesh.  “That which is born of the flesh is flesh…”  Think about it—Jesus was the incarnate word, but did people understand Him?  He told the woman at the well that he could give her living water—did she understand what He meant?  He told his listeners that He was the bread of life—did they understand Him?  They had His teachings and yet were unable to grasp it.

Even the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Explain the parables to us…”  Jesus messes with Nic a little in verse 10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things.”  I am sure He really got under his skin when he talked about earthly things and heavenly things—Nic thought he taught heavenly things, but in reality they were earthly.  Here is what we learn—without the regenerating work of the Spirit of God we cannot understand the Word of God.  That is why you’ll hear of people who read the Bible and said, “I didn’t understand it…”  You can’t understand it unless the Spirit enables you.

It’s not that the Bible isn’t clear or difficult or accessible—it is that the Bible, even in English, is another language—it is heavenly language and to understand it you’ll need someone to explain it to you.  Lost people will never receive the truth of God’s Word until they believe in Jesus.  As long as they refuse to believe it will remain unacceptable to them. Eph 4:18 speaks of the unregenerate like this, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of heart.”  Until the heart is changed they will remain ignorant and even hostile to the truth of God’s Word.  Now, who changes the heart?  Only the Spirit of God can change our heart.

I want to continue our discussion of the Gospel from John 3.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  This isn’t a reference to heaven…this means we must be born again to even see the things of God.  The flesh is flesh and the spirit is spirit and until the flesh becomes spirit—the things of God are foolishness.  God has to move in our flesh so that we can see the truth of the Gospel. If He doesn’t move in us so that we can see—we will never see.  How can we?  We are dead in our sin. 

Being born again is a supernatural experience that is the sole work of a supernatural God.  In John 6:63 we find these words, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”  In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth, and the life.”  The Spirit gives life to us and Jesus is that life.  In other words—the way we are brought from death to life is through the Spirit giving us Jesus Christ. 

New life comes by being connected with Jesus and that connection is done by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ unites us to Himself.  The question is how does that happen?  If a person is dead in their sin and unable to respond to God how do they come to the place of being able to respond?  Let me take you to a couple of passages:

John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  And I will raise him up on the last day.” 

John 6:65, “And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’” 

Acts 16:14, “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.  The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” 

We could go on and on, but these three scriptures show us that our placing faith in Jesus is the direct result of the previous work of the Father through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t muster up our faith so that we can believe in Him—God moves in our lives and we respond to Him through His gift of faith.  Eph 2:1 speaks of our being dead in sin, but then verse 4 says, “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Do you see the connection?  Do you see the way we are born again?  We are dead in our sins, we are under the wrath of God, but God in His mercy and grace regenerates us so that we can see the truth of the Gospel and believe in Him.  Without the move of God we would still be hopelessly lost.

That regenerating work of God is often not something we see.  Jesus tells Nic, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  You can’t see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind.  You see the trees moving, you hear it rustling through the leaves—just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.  God moves in our lives and when He does our lives are changed!

Have you ever seen a child that is born but still lives like it was still in the womb?  When you are born you grow into your new world—when you are born again you begin to grow in the Kingdom.  If you don’t grow—something is wrong.  Being born again changes everything about you.  I love the illustration I read a while back.  A man was converted and came back to church.  He told one of the elders, “I can’t believe how much this church has changed within the last few weeks.  The hymns are so lively now.  The worship is so wonderfully meaningful.  Why, even the preaching is better!”  What changed?  He changed—he had been born again and everything changed in terms of his likes and his hates.  That is what the Spirit does in us.

A while back I read a book by David Wells called The Courage to be Protestant.  In that book he gives several quotes from George Barna.  In 2007 Barna reported that while 38% of Americans considered themselves born again, only 8% met his doctrinal criteria for being an evangelical.  (For Barna born again is a title for those not so serious about the faith and evangelical is a term for those who are serious.)  In 2006 45% claimed to be born again, but 21% of them were unchurched. 

        Barna found that there is very little difference between those who were born again and those who were not in their understanding of holiness and of those claiming to be born again, only 35% believe that God expects them to be holy.  72% said they made a commitment to Christ, 71% said their faith was important to them, 60% said they were deeply spiritual, and yet only 16% said their faith was their highest priority.  Barna said, most Americans like the security of thinking of themselves as Christian, but most reject the biblical responsibilities that go along with that claim.  Of those who attend church regularly, only 15% say their relationship to God is their first priority.

        Something is wrong in the church today—if you look at the Barna stats you would have to conclude one of two things.  First, you might say that those who made professions of faith are born again and since they are just as worldly as those who have not made professions of faith being born again does not radically change people.  If you looked around most churches today and really believed what their membership statistics say you will have to come to that conclusion or you can look at it another way.  The second alternative is to approach this from the Bible.  The Bible starts with this fact—being born again radically changes people and many professing Christians are not radically changed; therefore, many who are professing to be born again are not born again. 

        The question on which I want to spend some time is this—what does it mean to be born again?  I can’t think of a better place to start than out text.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and does a couple of surprising things—first he calls Him Rabbi.  The reason this is surprising is Nic was a Pharisee and they didn’t have a high view of Jesus or anyone one else who wasn’t just like them.  Second, he acknowledged that Jesus was a “teacher from God.”  Many of them would later say he was of the devil.  And finally he acknowledged  that he was in awe of all that he had been doing—“No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 

        He said the right things, but Jesus wasn’t impressed by his statement and we can get a good understanding of that if we go back to chapter John 2:23-25.  “Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he himself knew what was in them.”  Literally the Bible says, “They were believing in his name, but Jesus did not believe in them.”  Jesus knew what was in Nic’s heart so He just jumps right in and says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

        Notice, Nic was very religious, but Jesus didn’t say, “you need a new religion.”  Far too many people claim to be born again, but they live exactly like the world.  They have an appearance of being religious, but Jesus has become an add-on to their way of life.  He isn’t a radically transforming power.  Jesus knew Nic was religious.  He knew he kept the law.  He knew he fasted, and prayed, and tithed, but He also knew the greatest need of his heart—he needed to be born again.

        He needed to be regenerated.  Spurgeon had a great illustration of what it means to be born again—I want to take his story and put it into our context.  What if Congress passed a law that says you cannot enjoy the benefits of our great country unless you have been born in America.  You can’t enjoy the programs; you can’t have the rights to our court systems, our hospitals, or any other privilege that comes from living in our great country unless you have been born here.

        Now suppose a man comes to America from Africa and wants to enjoy our citizenship.  Were you born in America?  No, I was born in Africa.  Well you can’t be a citizen.  Suppose he sets out to earn his citizenship—he starts with changing his name.  He takes an American name and he learns English and he changes the way he dresses and the way he lives.  He becomes a model citizen, but when he shows up at the authorities door—they will still ask, were you born in America?

        You can look like a Christian, you can attend church, you can do the right things, you can know the right things, but if you have never been born again you will never know the joy of being a child of God.  You must be born again. 

        Jesus paints us into a corner here—he does not leave any wiggle room.  He simply says, “You must be born again.”  He goes on to say, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  The nature of the Christian life is spiritual.  1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”  You cannot understand the things of God until you have been born again.  Jesus said, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

        For years I always assumed that Jesus was saying, you can’t get to heaven unless you are born again and while that is true it goes beyond that.  Jesus taught that the kingdom wasn’t just something that we look forward to—He taught the Kingdom as something that was present because He was present.  Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”  The kingdom is a matter of spiritual things which are only discerned by those who have been born again.  Why don’t more people respond to the Gospel? Why don’t more people get saved?  Paul said in 1 C 1:18 and 23-24 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  In 1 C 2:10 Paul said the things of God are “revealed to us through the Spirit.  For the Spirit searches everything, even the depth of God.” 

        The nature of the Christian life is spiritual, but let me show you one of the reason we don’t experience the Spiritual Realm—we have way too high a view of ourselves and because of that we have far too low a view of God.  We are not good people in need of a savior—we are dead people in need of life.

        “You must be born again.”  Nic is in one realm and Jesus is in another realm.  Nic is in the realm of flesh because that is all that the flesh can bring about.  He looks religious, he sounds religious, but Jesus knows he is dead and in need of new birth so He tells him if you want to get to my realm you will have to have something happen to you.

        Being dead in our sin does not mean you and I are as bad as we could be.  We could all be more evil is we wanted to be—being dead in sin doesn’t mean we are as bad as we could be, but it does mean every part of our life is affected by sin.  Our thinking, our attitudes, and our actions are impacted by sin and if someone does not act upon us or within us we will never get out of the flesh.

        When Jesus said, “Unless one is born again,” He actually said, “Unless one is born from above.”  The word for born is in the passive voice which means someone has to act upon us.  Think about it from the biological realm—how much did you have to do with your physical birth?  Did you choose to be born in America?  Did you choose the day you would be born?  Did you have anything to do with it?  No, you were the result of the actions of two people and of the hand of God moving within them. 

        How much more should we see that as it applies to our spiritual birth?  Spurgeon said, “In the salvation of every person there is an actual putting forth of the divine power, whereby the dead sinner is quickened, the unwilling sinner is made willing, the desperately hard sinner has his conscience made tender; and he who rejected God and despised Christ, is brought to cast himself down at the feet of Jesus.”  If you are saved it is because God acted upon you—there was a miraculous operation of the Spirit that caused you to be born again.  Being born again is something that can happen only as the result of God’s grace.

A few years ago I preached through Paul’s letter to the Galatians.  Each week we started the sermon with this statement, “It is essential that we get the Gospel right because if we get the Gospel wrong two horrible things happen—1) Lost people are not saved and even worse than that, 2) God is not glorified.

The great battle for the Church today is the battle for the Gospel.  We must get it right!  While we were in Kenya one of our men shared with a man who came through the medical clinic.  He said he was a Christian, but he was a member of a denomination that was very ‘works centered.’  My friend asked for permission to share the Gospel with the man and after he finished the Kenyan man said, “If that is the Gospel, I’m not saved.”  He went on to talk to him about Jesus and the man said something amazing—he said, “While you were sharing with me God changed my heart.  I’ve been born again!” 

We must wrestle with the question—“What is the Gospel?”  We can’t afford to get it wrong because we have far too many people who think they are saved, but they have responded to something that isn’t the true Gospel.  What does it mean to be saved?  What does it mean to follow Jesus?

The Gospel is God’s story—it is the good news of what He has done to save us from our sin.  Salvation is an historical event that comes with a present reality which leads to an unbelievable future.  It isn’t something that is just done in the past—it is something going on now and it is something that will go on for eternity IF you are saved. 

Over the next few days I want to take you to John 3 and I want us try to understand the true nature of the Gospel.  In this passage we see Nicodemus coming to Christ.  For today, let me tell you a little about this man—first, he was a ruler of the Jews.  He was a member of the Sanhedrin.  He was one of the 70 rulers who led God’s people. Secondly, he was a teacher, but not just any teacher—Jesus said, “Are you the teacher of Israel…”  Notice He didn’t say, a teacher of Israel-He said THE teacher.  Nicodemus was a scholar, he was learned, and to top it off he was a Pharisee which means he was theologically and culturally as conservative as you can be.  He knew his Bible, but he didn’t have a relationship with God—he was empty.  He was religious, but he wasn’t saved—he was spiritually blind.  This tells us something—you can be a great teacher, you can know all about the Bible, and you can be as religious as Moses and be as lost as a demon.  Jesus wasn’t impressed with Nicodemus’ resume and He isn’t impressed with ours—With one short sentence Jesus dismisses every credential of Nicodemus and goes right to the heart of the matter, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 

We Must Be Born Again.  Tomorrow we will begin to see what that means.

I’ll be taking a break from blogging this week.   Just got back from Kenya last night, have to go to SC for Kim’s grandmother’s funeral, and I’m looking foward to the Men’s Weekend at Crosspoint this weekend.  I think 20 men from FBC have signed up, but we still have tickets–please come by the office and get a ticket.

I will leave you with a few funny statements from Kenya:

I knew it was going to be one of those weeks when one of our own Pell City educated young ladies asked me, “Pastor John, does the sun still rise in the east and set in the west over here?”

On Tuesday morning one of our nurses said, “I know I’m tired, I just said good moring to a goat!”

And finally on the ride over to the clinic on Tuesday, right after the good moring to the goat statement, one of our ladies called out to a group of children what she thought was “God bless you.”  The word for God is Mungu, but she used the word the children call when they see us–Mazongu which is “white man.”  I looked at her and said, “You just said, “White man bless you!”

I wonder what those children must have thought!

Have a great week and please pray for me tomorrow as I preach the funeral and for Kim as she sings.  See you Sunday!

This blog will post at 6:30 AM and when it posts it will be 4:30 PM in Kenya.  By the time you read this blog we will have finished our last day of ministry on Mt Elgon and tomorrow morning, that is tonight for you, we will leave the Mountain and head to a game park for a one day safari.

I covet your prayers as we travel down the mountain, but more than anything I covet your prayers for the people we will leave behind.  I am sure that many will have received Christ by the time you read this and the local churches will have much to do in terms of discipleship.  Please pray that they will make disciples!

You never know what might happen on a trip like this, but I do know this…I would rather die in the Mountians of Kenya with a spear through my heart, the Bible in my hand, and Jesus on my lips than to rust out here in America with a golf club in my hand and a stock quote on my lips. 

I fully expect to come home to my beautiful wife and my four beautiful daughters, but if something does happen just know this–I’m more alive than I have ever been.  If God doesn’t grace me with a trip Home than you need to know that I am more tired than I have ever been and I need your prayers!

On Monday we celebrated the birthdate of Dr. Martin Luther King, but there was another bithday that was celebrated that day. His name has been removed because many people wrongly associate him with racism, but he was not a racist and was in fact a profoundly deep follower of Jesus Christ. The man I am talking about, Robert E Lee said,

So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that Slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interest of the South. So fully am I satisfied of this that I would have cheerfully lost all that I have lost by the war, and have suffered all that I have suffered to have this object attained.

Recently I read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara and gained a new respect for the stuggle Lee and Longstreet had over fighting against the Union armies.  They had the faults, as we all do, but Lee was indeed a war hero long before the Civil War and a man to respect and a man for whom we can show respect.

He was offered the command of the Union Army, but turned it down because his home state was seceding.  He said this about his decision to stay with his home state,

With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword…

Let me close with one more quote from Lee that we would all do well to remember,

We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.