Nicodemus

Whitten Baptist Church iconWhitten Baptist Church

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John chapter 3, I'd like all of you to help me to take mankind, everyone who thinks they have goodness.
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How about, there we go. John chapter 3, John chapter 3. I'm going to tell y 'all a little story about Nick today.
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Not Nick Douglas, but a guy named Nicodemus. And I'm going to ask you to please utilize your
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Bible, slash scripture, slash phone, whatever you kids use.
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But I'm going to ask you not to just listen to me. Guys, understand, I'm a fat, bald guy.
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I'm a high school drug dropout. And I'm a drug addict.
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I should say delivered drug addict. I'm an idiot. I'm nothing special.
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I'm a big, fat, stupid idiot. The only thing that you need to follow is the
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Word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit as it's revealed through the Word of God. It's not preachers.
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It's not churches. It is the Holy Spirit of God that will actually lead you in the way you should go.
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So, please use your Bibles today. So let's read John 3 .1
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-3. And we will go through 16 because the Southern Baptist Commission demands it.
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But we will start in John 3 .1. Now, there was a man of the
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Pharisees 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 these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Who was Nic? I'm going to call him Nic. Who was Nicodemus? Who was this Nic? Well, we know from this passage of Scripture, we know that he was a
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Jew. But he had a Greek name. He was probably part of the
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Hellenist movement, or his parents were, part of that Hellenist movement. Basically what that is, it were
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Jews that embraced Greek culture. Because Greek culture was all the rage, you know.
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It's kind of weird today, but you know, I don't know how young girls follow
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Hollywood chicks, you know. I was about to say Madonna, that's probably a little old.
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Who's like a smoking hot, cool, fresh fire, savage, dripping chick in the movies today?
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Come on y 'all, it's not a trick question. Huh? I don't know who that one is.
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But I guarantee you, I guarantee you, she has influence over a certain number of people.
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You know that they're actually people, they pay people now to be on, I forget what it's called, an app, but they're called influencers.
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Did y 'all know that? They actually pay people to influence you. Guys, seriously,
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I know some of y 'all in this room are like into that. I'm sorry you didn't make the football team.
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I'm sorry your daddy didn't buy you a dog. I'm sorry whatever it is that caused you to be that insecure and that idiotic.
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But you need to stop following culture to find a value to your life because it's going to continue to lead you in places that you cannot cash the emotional checks that that lifestyle is going to demand of you, okay?
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You understand what I'm saying? So, Nicodemus' parents were kind of like that. They were kind of in the world, but said they were
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Christian. And so they gave this Jewish guy a Greek name. Now, we also know that he was a
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Pharisee. Now, think of the Pharisees and Sadducees, think of them as Republicans and Democrats, and they would elect 70 guys, plus the high priests from all over Israel, to come to Jerusalem and they were a part of something called the
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Sanhedrin. Now, the Sanhedrin was kind of like the Congress of the Jewish people.
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They were the church police. They would walk around and if they saw you out doing something on the
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Sabbath, you know, like, let's say you picked up your dog's leash, you could be fined and punished for working on the
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Sabbath. They were highly legalistic people that were more worried about what people looked at on the outside rather than where their hearts were on the inside.
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Kind of like most churches today. As long as you don't cuss, smoke, drink, or have tattoos, you're acceptable. But you can go straight to hell in a handbasket, no one cares as long as you don't rock the boat.
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Well, that's who this Nicodemus cat was. We also know that he was very wealthy. We'll see that in John chapter 19.
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But he was extremely wealthy as well. So, that's who Nicodemus was.
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Let's look at Nicodemus' problem. He comes to Jesus. Now, look what it says here in verse 2.
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It says, This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we...
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Let's just look at that for a second. There were, I don't know how many... Is anybody from the funeral yesterday?
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Here today? Who? Now, I ain't talking about church members. I'm talking about the vast heathens that are out here.
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No? No one? Darn it. Alright. Well, yesterday we had about 50 people in here.
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Keep praying for Miss Vicki. Her brother passed away. We had a funeral here. And it was funny.
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Mike Burkett came up to me and goes like, Man, these are my family, man. I know these people, you know? I'm like, yeah,
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Mike, they fit good here. In other words, they were the kind of folks like we get, like I am, or I used to be.
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Like you get a contact buzz giving them a hug. You know what I'm saying? Are you with me? Hello? Okay.
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And these kind of folks are the folks that need the gospel of Jesus Christ, but they don't need it any more than some of the rich suburbanites sitting out on Houston levee in churches right now.
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See, it's the same thing. Well, the Jews did not understand that. You see,
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Jesus, if you go back to chapter 2, the last two weeks we've talked about this, He healed a woman with an issue of blood.
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Then He made water into wine. Then He raised a guy's daughter from the dead.
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And all these signs are going on and people are going, Dude, who is this? Well, Nicodemus saw this.
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But he couldn't openly follow Jesus, so he came to Jesus at night so no one else will see.
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It was amazing, that group of people that I was preaching to yesterday, how many of them grew legs on their rear ends.
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I don't understand. Well, when I'm preaching the gospel and I'm preaching it kind of hard, it's funny to watch people sitting in their seats.
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Because they'll usually start doing something like this. You know, I'll say something like, You think you're a
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Christian, but you're probably not. They'll start doing this. And then, you know, they'll move like this, and then they'll move like this.
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And the more they're convicted, the more that they'll actually start moving in their seats. Now it comes to a point where you have to publicly profess
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Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord, and they don't want to give it up. They don't want to give up the comfort, the lifestyle, and the thin veneer of security and value that they think the world is giving their life.
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And so, like Nicodemus, they try to be a part -time Christian. Let me tell you something. Part -time obedience is total rebellion.
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Total rebellion. You cannot be a part -time Christian. That is an oxymoron.
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For you Fraser folks, that means it ain't true. Alright? It ain't happening. Nicodemus is trying to do that.
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But notice what else he does. Notice the pronoun usage. It says, well, we know, we know, that you have to be from God since you are doing all these miracles.
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Do you have a mouse in your pocket, Nicodemus? Who's we? You came to Jesus at night.
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And then you use the word we. Here's something else. Let me tell y 'all something. Misery loves company.
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Losers love to be around other losers. They hate being around winners because it is a reflection of their own failures.
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And they'll nitpick and try to find every little thing to try to bring you down. Some of you, especially since we have such a large congregation of younger folk, you run with people that you know you shouldn't be run with.
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Little girls out there, does he really love you? Are you sure? Does he want something other than sex?
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If he doesn't, he don't love you. I don't care how good he says it. I don't care how much
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Anheuser -Busch is helping him. He does not love you. He is using you like a $3 cheap throw rug.
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And you allow him. Because misery loves company. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and he says this question to Him.
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He actually gets to a point where he says, we know that you must be from God.
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Now, I want you to just wrap your head around that for a second. Here is a man who is a pastor, a religious leader, someone respected in the community, and he comes face to face with the
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Son of God and he validates Him. Hey, buddy, I know you're probably from God.
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Because, wow, no one can raise people from the dead unless they're from God. Really, Skippy?
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How long did it take to figure that out? But notice what else he says here. In verse 2, he actually calls him this.
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Read with me, if you will. Rabbi. Rabbi. Teacher.
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Not Lord. Not Master. Just simply Rabbi. You see, Nick had a problem.
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Nick was afraid because he loved the culture and the respect in his ego being stroked by the religious world.
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He was scared of his contemporaries and he was keeping one foot in the world and trying to keep one foot with God.
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He comes face to face with Jesus Christ, but he's ashamed of the conviction and he's ashamed of what the
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Holy Spirit's doing in him. And so he comes at night and he gives Jesus a paltry respect.
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Does that resonate with anyone in here? You probably don't know what
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I mean. In other words, Wednesday morning, you're here.
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On the last ticket, you voted straight Republican because you were conservative.
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And Christianity and conservative just walk hand in hand all the time, right? I heard someone say,
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Donald Trump's the most conservative president we've had in a long time. That dude's mouth and actions, especially towards women, is disgusting.
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If that's what you're trying to emulate, my friends, you need to get out of politics and back into the Word of God.
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Guys, do you give God, do you give Jesus a partial respect?
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Is your morals and your church membership more of a mark in your mind of your
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Christianity than your submissive life to His Word? Guys, where are you at?
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I'm not fussing at you. I'm not yelling. Everyone, I'm asking you to think for a second. Has anything changed in your life since you've become a
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Christian? If not, you might have a problem. So Nick's problem was, is that he wanted to be with other miserable people.
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He was scared, so he came at night, and he didn't really know to whom he was speaking, and he gave
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Jesus a respect that he deserved more of. Now, I just want to bring this one little side note here, and we're going to talk about it for a second.
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Go to chapter 2, just a few verses up. Go to chapter 2, starting in verse 22,
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I mean, sorry, in verse 23. Now, watch this. Now, when He was in Jerusalem, guys, this is a scary passage of Scripture.
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Now, when He, being Jesus, was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, now listen, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing.
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Verse 24, but Jesus, on His part, did not entrust
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Himself to them, because He knows all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
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Watch this. Jesus does not believe in your paltry faith that you think you actually have in Him.
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That's a scary thing. And it fits real nicely in a harmonetical context with Matthew 7.
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Many will come unto Me that day saying, Lord, Lord, Jesus, say, who are You? O Lord, I fed the poor,
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I healed the sick, I cast out demons in Your name. Jesus will look at them and say, depart from Me, you worker of iniquity.
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Listen, for I never knew you. You see, the faith that sometimes we put in, what we call faith, we have a mental belief in Jesus.
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We have a mental acquiescing to there is a God and Jesus was
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His name and He died on a cross and He rose up again. And the Easter bunny follows
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Jesus everywhere He goes. That's the height of your spiritual understanding.
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My dear friends, may I say this to you, that is not salvation. You see, the
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Greek word episteion literally means a submission to. Some people in this room are more convinced and saved by what
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Jesus was than what Jesus is. You see, you want to have Jesus the
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Savior. You want to have the Jesus of peace. You want to have the Jesus coming out of the grave, but you don't want to have the lordship of who
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He is right now in your life. You're a was Christian instead of an is
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Christian. That's what chapter 2 is talking about. Those people believed in Jesus because of what they saw.
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They truly did not trust in Him. And I'm going to be real honest with you guys, I could end this sermon right here and now, because I promise you there are about 30, 35, 40 people in this room that you know
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I'm talking to you. I don't know it, but y 'all are doing the butt thing. You're doing the eyeball thing.
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You're doing the head thing. You're being convicted right now. But here's your problem.
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You can't be like Nicodemus and get your life right. You can't come to Jesus at night. You can't have a group meeting or your husband or your wife in some codependent relationship coming to Jesus.
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It has to be you. Now watch what Jesus says. Jesus comes to that part and He's looking at Nicodemus, and I want to share with you the hope that Nicodemus has.
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The first thing is right here in verse 10, Jesus is not very nice. He's just not very nice.
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My wife always says to me, Jeff, you're not being nice. Jeff, you're not being nice. When we are at a restaurant or we're out somewhere and somebody's being a particular jerk,
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I can't hold it in. I just can't. It just comes out of me like, well, that was inappropriate, you punk.
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Hey, tough guy, why don't you go there? Jeff, you're not being nice. And I can't help it.
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I hate injustice and I hate people being bullies. I always love saying, hey, tough guy, come be a tough guy over here instead of talking to that woman that way.
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But Jesus was doing the same thing here. Jesus was not being nice. Watch this. Jesus told
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Nicodemus, He said, I truly tell you this, someone's got to be born again. And Nicodemus didn't say anything, but he had this look on his face like, do what,
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Willis? What? And so Jesus explains it again. So Jesus explains, hey, everyone's got to be born of the blood, of the water,
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I'm sorry, and the blood. In other words, you've got to have a physical birth and a spiritual rebirth.
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And I don't want to get into the doctrine of regeneration, but y 'all write on your paper somewhere to look it up, doctrine of regeneration.
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Actually, go beyond the third grade of Southern Baptist Church. The doctrine of regeneration, because that's how truly someone starts the salvation process.
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And it is all on God's part. God will regenerate you. In other words, show you the need for you that you need to be saved.
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But what's even cooler is He will give you the faith for you to believe. Everything's from God. Everything.
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All you've got to do is submit. But here's Jesus, and He looks at Nicodemus when He asks another question.
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In verse 10 He says this to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and you don't know these things? That's not nice.
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I mean, seriously. He looks at Nicodemus and He basically says this to him, You're a pastor and you don't know what
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I'm talking about? You cannot be that dumb. Well, that was kind of harsh.
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How is that hope? Listen, some of you in this room keep looking for a feeling.
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You keep looking for a moment to be saved. You keep looking for that right song and that right sermon that will cater to your emotional needs so then you can submit to that emotion and find a peace that you haven't had.
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Let me ask you a question. How long does that peace last? And if it doesn't last, if that joy doesn't last, if that strength and that drive and the
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Holy Spirit of God doesn't last in your life, let me help you with something. It was a feeling.
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It was gas. It was something. It was not the Holy Spirit of the Creator of the universe splitting your soul open and making you alive for the first time in your life.
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That's a pretty epic event. Okay? Well, I prayed and asked
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Jesus in my heart and a preacher man says, I'm saved now. Really?
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That's what happened? If you can get more fired up at the Philadelphia Eagles stealing the division championship and being in the
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Super Bowl, well, if you get more excited about that than you can Jesus, you might have an issue.
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Here's Jesus sitting here going, hey, Nicodemus, let me give you a reality check. What you think you know, you don't know and what you should know, you still don't know.
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Notice this. He says this starting in verse 15. And this is what
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I'm telling y 'all this morning. Listen to me. There is a hope for old Nic. The old hope is this.
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You don't know what you need to know, but let me show you what you can know. Whosoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.
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Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only
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Son of God. Everybody loves that verse 16. What's funny is no one really understands it.
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It's really ridiculous. Oh, no, I do, Pastor. I understand it, really. You got a kid?
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You ever willingly killed him for someone else to live? You don't understand.
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I don't understand. But that's the type of love that Nic should have hope in.
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Guys, for whosoever. God, I love that part. Don't you?
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Like, if you're an adulterous whore in this place, if you're a drug addict scumbag, if you are a preppy little nerd, if you are whatever.
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Dare I say, if you're a child molester in the past. If you're one now, my boys want to talk to you.
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But in the past, if you've done whatever horrible things you've done, guess what?
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Whosoever is you. That's you. That's you. And then it says this, whosoever joins the local
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Baptist church and ties his money to the pastor so he can get better suits and bigger cars.
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You know the only requirement? Is to believe. But watch this. Listen to the wording. Whosoever believes in Him.
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Pastor, I believe Jesus. But do you believe in Him? I don't understand the difference.
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Well, you're probably an Alabama fan, but let me try to explain it. I believe in the tensile strength and the welding of this chair.
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I do. Yes, I'm using EE. I believe in it. I believe this chair right here.
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I am 200 pounds. I'm 280. I've gained some weight back,
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Bill. I'm 280. Now, I'm not a structural engineer, but I know things.
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I don't remember standing in this chair or being in this chair. But I believe this chair can hold me up.
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I really do. I really, really do. And that's where some of y 'all are every week when you come to church.
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You 100 % believe. But you're still not saved.
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See, because you're still standing on your own power. You're still trying to be in control of your life.
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And that's why you don't have the peace of God that passes all understanding. See, until you...
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Is anybody nervous? Until you believe in Him.
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Now, this is what I used to think salvation was. See, believing in Him.
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But here's the problem. What's the problem with this analogy? I'm still standing.
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I'm the one doing it. Here's what's even cooler. You see, Jesus didn't just die for your sins.
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Old Billy Graham used to say salvation's like a man drowning in the ocean. And he finally lifts his hand up for the last time and says, save me.
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That's not scriptural. You're dead. If you keep reading what we just read, it says whoever does not believe is condemned already.
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It says total depravity. Watch this. I was going to the nursery this morning and DJ...
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Jackie was holding DJ in the nursery. And he's so fat. And he's so cute.
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And he's a boy. So that's like strange to me that I didn't know you could have babies that were boys according to my family.
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But anyways... Come on, Aisha. Seriously, man. Come on, baby. But Jackie was holding
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DJ. And he was sitting right there. And the cuteness just overcame me a little bit, okay?
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And so I went, I took... There's DJ right there. I took one step towards DJ and this is what he did.
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And I felt like fat, ugly, gross.
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I felt like a monster or something. It's like, the fat man. What is it, Jake? Mommy, mommy, the rhino's getting too close to the car.
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That's what I felt like, you know? It's kind of sad. He's so cute though.
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But you know that he's totally depraved? Watch. I know this is weird for some of y 'all because y 'all have listened to Baptist churches too long.
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Listen to me. You're not a sinner because you've sinned. You sinned because you were born a sinner.
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The sin is the result of the causality of your depravity from conception. You're screwed from the word go.
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Okay? Listen. You have no hope. You can't climb onto Jesus.
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You can't go, save me. That's not the way it works. You don't even realize you need to be saved until the
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Holy Spirit of God starts going, hey, boy, I'm talking to you. That's a gift of God.
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For you to even recognize that you need a Jesus is a gift from God. You should praise
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God. Listen, if you don't have any conviction, that's when you've got a massive problem.
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We sometimes sit there and go, well, I don't like conviction. Well, the Bible says, God chases those whom
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He loves. In other words, He puts that paddle to you. By the way, you younger generation,
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God puts paddles to people, okay? Trust me, I can tell you a whole bunch of stories.
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But anyways, guys, I didn't stand in the chair. I was laying dead on the floor in my sin.
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My God picked me up and placed me in the chair. You see, I am in Christ.
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Now, here's the good thing about it. Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
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Do you know what eternal life is? People always get this wrong. They think eternal life is forever. Watch this.
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There is no forever in eternity. It's an oxymoron again. I mean, some of y 'all,
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I can see you glazing over. So, Burnettes, help the blondes out here. Paul, help Cindy. Guys, eternity is the absence of time.
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God is not in time. I always love it when scientists finally catch up.
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A few years back, they said, our universe is expanding. It started at a central point, and it's expanding out now.
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We just figured that out. In the beginning time, God created the heavens, space, and earth.
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You cannot have, without those three concepts, anything. There is matter, space, and time.
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But here's what's really cool. God is outside of time. Once again, atheists always say, well, when did
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God start? Time is a constructed, invented, created thing.
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It is one day going to cease for us believers. The greatest thing about heaven, for me, is the absence of the laws of physics that govern my body now.
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In other words, all of this used to be up here, but through the entropic nature and a lot of pizza, it's all slid down here, right?
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Those issues will no longer plague my life. I will never have to watch
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Robert Vinson die again. I will get to see him face to face, and we're going four -wheeling, right?
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I will always be able to see Vernon Bowen again, and Stephanie. I will be able to talk with them, not in some angelic mist with little butterfly where you don't turn into an angel when you die.
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It won't be like that. It will be like the Garden of Eden, except on steroids.
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That is eternal life. Do you have that hope? Do you know what I'm talking about?
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Do you have any idea? Here's what you're probably thinking in your mind.
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Well, I did pray to receive Jesus as my Savior and Lord back in 1983 at VBS camp.
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Has anything changed in your life? Well, not really. John 2 verse 23, 24, and 25.
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You believe Jesus because of things you have seen. Your parents' affirmation. Your friend walking down the aisle.
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The music played a certain note that tugged at your emotional heart string. You believed because of what you experienced.
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What God's asking, what God's telling Nicodemus is this. Feel nothing and choose to follow
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Me. Here's the point, guys. I want to tell you in these last two verses,
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I want to tell you what Nicodemus did. John chapter 7.
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And I think, I don't know, I didn't write them down for you, so turn with me to John chapter 7. We're almost done.
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John chapter 7 verse 45. John chapter 7 verse 45. Nicodemus, old
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Nick, came to Jesus at night by himself. That was his problem. But I want to tell you how sometimes people have to take a journey.
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Some of y 'all may be on this one right now. Every Sunday you come here, you feel convicted, and you get to a place where you know you need to make a commitment, you need to change your world, but it ain't happening?
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Hmm. Well, you might be a little Nicodemus today. They're all sitting there and they're seeing
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Jesus doing all these things in the Sanhedrin. All the religious rulers get together and say, man, we've got to take this guy out.
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He's affecting our power. He's affecting our reputation. And he's affecting our money.
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Jesus has got to go. And look what Nicodemus does. He does what I call a mouse fight.
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He sits there and he goes, well, you know, guys, starting verse 45, the officers and chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, why did you not bring him?
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They sent to arrest him and they came back and said, we didn't arrest him. And they go, why not?
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In verse 46, the officers answered, no one had ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered and said, have you also been deceived?
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Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.
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Nicodemus, now notice the parenthetical expression here. Nicodemus, who had gone into him before and was one of them.
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That is a powerful statement right there. This is many, many months.
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So actually, yes, many months later, Nicodemus is sitting there. They send the church police out to arrest
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Jesus. Church police come back and said, man, we ain't touching that dude. Dude, he is a stud.
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And they go, what are you talking about? We are the Pharisees. We are the
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Southern Baptist Convention, blessed be the name. Man, you got to do what we tell you to do.
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And then watch this. Nicodemus goes, well, you want to come to church with me
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Sunday? Dear Lord, good bread, good meat, good
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God, let's eat. You are trying. You are taking a little step.
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A little step. You haven't gone full bold yet. Nicodemus says to them, hey guys, let's talk the law here because I'm scared to tell you about what's changing in my life, so I'm going to try to hide behind the law.
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Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he says? Look at verse 52.
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Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.
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They use a straw man argument, a logical fallacy. They sit there and say, what?
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You're quoting back truthful Mosaic law that we can't arrest this guy and charge him unless there's actually been a crime committed?
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They go, who are you? Go look at Scripture. Where does it say that Mosaic came out of Galilee?
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It says he came out of Bethlehem. And so they're using a straw man fallacy. Nicodemus stops talking.
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Then lastly, this. This is so cool. This is when Nicodemus finally does stop talking.
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In John chapter 19. It's really cool. Jesus is dead. He's in the grave.
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Well, he's not in the grave. He's hanging like a chunk of beef on a stake on Golgotha.
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He's sitting there. Now, all of his disciples, all of his disciples have done this.
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They've taken off. They're running. They're scared. They're flying.
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Peter actually says this. Dude, I'm going back to my old job. I'm going back fishing.
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A lot of the guys are like, sounds good, let's go. Nicodemus stops finally talking.
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John chapter 19 verse 39. Nicodemus also. Watch this. Parenthetical.
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Who had early also come to Jesus by night. It's like, okay, I get it. I was a coward. But it says came to Jesus by night.
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Came bringing a mixture of myrrh and alloys. About 75 pounds. This was like tens of thousands of dollars in weight.
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So they took the body of Jesus and bound it with linen cloths with the spices as is the burial of the
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Jews. Here is Jesus Christ hanging on a cross. Nicodemus actually goes to Pontius Pilate and says, hey, can
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I take his body down and bury him? Now, you have to understand the magnitude of this.
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You see, in the Old Testament law, a priest was not allowed to touch a dead person.
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Was not allowed. And if you did, you were unclean. In other words, you was unemployed.
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But not only that, he ain't worried about the we no more. You see, he came to a point where he sat there and said,
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I'm done talking. I'm going to make a choice based on action. You see, for the first time,
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Nicodemus had faith. Now watch this. He had faith in a dead body.
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A dead body. Not a resurrected Jesus. Nicodemus, by his actions, condemned himself without a job.
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Condemned himself by his peers. You know one of the things I hear people all the time say, oh, I want to be a
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Christian, but I don't want to lose my friends. You're not ready to have Jesus as your Lord yet.
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Because see, being Lord means you've got to lose all that. Right? Well, pastor, that's not...
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I mean, can't we just like relax and be seeker friendly and kind of just... No, you can't.
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There's this little thing called the Word of God. It doesn't go like this. Oh, that's how you feel?
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It's an absolute. You've got to believe in Him. Nicodemus came and he took the body of Jesus down, wrapped it in linen, and gave all the money he had, gave up the friends that he had, gave up the job that he had, and decided that day to follow
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Jesus. Now you say, pastor, how do you know that? After this moment, the
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Bible, the Sanhedrin meeting notes, there is no other mention.
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He was a great teacher in Israel. You never see his name again.
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Ever. Anywhere. Anywhere. He also gave up this, the ego and pride to my name, to be known and to be admired and respected.
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Let me ask you this. Where are you at today? Where are you at today? Now, we're going to have an invitation time.
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I have purposefully made this sermon very teaching, not exhorting.
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In other words, I haven't been yelling and jumping around and doing all that. Because here's why. I want some of you to make a decision based upon faith.
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I don't want you to get talked into anything. I don't want you to be motivated by a fiery sermon.
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I want you to be motivated by actually submitting to what the Holy Spirit is telling you in your heart right now.
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You have heard the Word of God. There's a choice to be made. And if you've got to listen to Rocky Balboa music,
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I have the tiger to get motivated to work out, you're going to be as fat as I am for the rest of your life. I'm not here to motivate you.
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That's not what I do. I'm here to share with you the Word of God. Now, if God has spoken to your heart, if God has spoken to your heart sometime during this sermon, in other words, you know you're one of them people that probably ain't saved,
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I want you to make a choice. Choose this day whom you will serve.
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If the Holy Spirit is convicting you, then He is also giving you the power at that moment to make a choice by faith to give it all up and follow
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Him. Maybe some of you are in relationships that are ungodly and it's holding you back. Let go.
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Be like Nicodemus. I don't care what else I lose anymore. I'm choosing today to follow
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Christ. Maybe some of you in this room, maybe it's drugs or alcohol or whatever it is.
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You know what I'm saying. I want you to make a non -emotional choice. It may become emotional, but I want you to make a choice based on faith, not feelings, to cement yourself.
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Now, here's the last one. Some of you in this room, you are believers, but your growth got stunted a long time ago.
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In other words, you have no idea what the doctrine of regeneration is. You have no idea what justification is.
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You have no idea of the power of God that could be in your life because you actually think punching a time clock and accruing money or fame or whatever or just trying to get from one holiday to another to give yourself some sort of value and something to do is the height of your life.
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You have been sucked in taking that blue pill and you're just walking around like in the rat race.
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Christian, you were created for more than that. You were created to actually impact and affect people's lives.
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You are a warrior of God's kingdom and you're acting like a part -time wuss.
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It's time to man up some of y 'all. Some of you in the chick version too. It's time to man up.
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Well, pastor, I know I've said this a thousand times. I went to LifeWay bookstore and got that little prayer journal and the little fuzzy pencil that says,
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God's the light of the world. And I got a little place in my room or in the kitchen where I put up my little coffee cup, you know, and I was going to do my devotions every day.
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It lasted 72 hours. You haven't thought about it in years. Can I say this to you for a second? Forget your devotions.
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Please stop using that as a mark of your maturity in Christ. Start using your every day.
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Where are you at? You know the height of Christian salvation is how you love your fellow believers.
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That's the height of it, man. How are you serving God's people? How are you serving?
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What are you doing? You think attending church is really like the height of it?
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Man, you must be dead inside. I'm telling you. You want to get addicted to something?
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Get addicted to this right here. Watch this. You ready? Oh! Man, I'm addicted to that.
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Addicted to it. You mean... Yeah, man!
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Isn't it cool? What do you think? I mean, that's awesome, right? And you know what never happens?
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Never happens when I'm preaching. But it does happen when God's Word is being heard.
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Guys, where are you at today? That's coughed, calm, antithetical.
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Just as I am without one plea.
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Are you ready? I'm going to ask some music dudes and dudettes to come up. If you need to be a
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Christian, come forward. If you don't know what that means, come forward. If you are a
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Christian, you're living like a wuss, and you need some accountability in your life, that's why God invented the church.
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Come forward. If you need to join a church, quit playing games and come forward. In other words, don't just stand there.
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Let actions define what you really believe in. If you are a believer in here, here's a room full of people for you to minister to.
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Wherever you are, I'm going to ask you to stand this morning, and as God speaks to you, you come this morning as God leads.