Game Changer

 Read John 3

For those of you who are here every Sunday and wonder what happened to Chapter 40 of Genesis, I preached it at the first service.

On most Sundays, I preach about our discipleship—our response to God’s grace that we know in Christ Jesus.  That’s what we need on most Sundays.  How will I respond to this wonderful gift of life, life abundant, and life eternal?

This morning, following a week of our Vacation Bible School, I will talk to you about salvation. I am also going to use a theological term.

If I tell you that I am going to use a church term or theological term, you usually know that I am a little tongue-in-cheek and will say something like cool beans or that dog don’t hunt.

This morning I will give you a real term.  It’s regeneration.  Regeneration is preceded by repentance.  It includes reconciliation. It brings us to redemption.

We were dead in our sins but we are not only revived, we are reborn.

This morning, I am talking about being born again.  If you read the part that precedes this morning’s scripture selection, you find Jesus and Nicodemus—a Pharisee who is curious about Jesus—in a discussion about being born again.  Jesus does most of the talking.

Nicodemus cannot get his mind wrapped around being born again.  What do I do?  Do I try to crawl back into my mother’s womb?  You ask the impossible.

Jesus is a little terse.  And you call yourself Israel’s teacher?

We have all been born in the flesh.  Jesus tells us that there is more.  There is a lot more!

We are to be born of God’s Spirit.  Do you remember the story of God making Adam out of the earth—the humus and then breathing life into him making him a living being? We are of this earth and we are of God.

We have all been born of the flesh.  We must also be born of the Spirit if we are to fully live this life and have life eternal.  We must be born again.

We must be made new!  How do we do this? The is no complicated formula or ritual.

We must believe in the One whom God sent—Jesus Christ.  We must believe that God raised him from the dead.  In that belief, we declare, Jesus is Lord!

Jesus is Lord!

In this single profession, we have passed from death to life.  We will live.  Even though these bodies will wear out, stop working because of an automobile accident, or explode if we get hit by a meteor or a trampoline doing 90 mph through town; we will live.

And from that moment forward, we will never make another mistake or have any more problems.  Not exactly.

Having trouble is part of living in this world.  Making mistakes is just being human.  But once we have declared JESUS IS LORD, we take on his yoke and learn from him.

There will still be trouble in the world.  We will still make mistakes, but they fall under this umbrella that we know as grace.

We get to grow and learn and serve in God’s grace. Grace is this umbrella of unmerited mercy and forgiveness and blessing that comes from God not because of what we have or have not done, but because of who God is.  He is love.

What’s that mean?  God will never kick us to the curb.  His grace goes beyond all of our sins.  We are not the sum of our past mistakes.  We have been born again.

Paul would say that we are a new creature—a new creation. The old is gone. The new is here. We are made new.  You don’t have to get a new driver’s license photo but you are made anew.

We want to do the best that we can.  We want to bring glory to God.  We want to be thankful people.  We want to be known by our love.

We understand that we will miss the mark time and again, but God is faithful to forgive every time that we confess.  He has promised his forgiveness.

The God who is holy and righteous and sovereign is most of all love.  God is love and God loves you.

Most of you know this.  Most of you have professed JESUS IS LORD!  If you have not, I challenge you to remain under the death curse of sin no longer.  Come to know the one true God by professing belief in his Son, Christ Jesus.

Do not profess Jesus out of the fear of an eternity in hell.  Those who do that often think they have reached the finish line. Game over. I win.  I’ll just sit out the rest of my life until Jesus comes to get me.

Profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior because you believe in a God of love. When you do this, you will have eyes to see that you are only in the starting blocks of life. 

Life is all ahead of you.  Live to the full now and live in the loving presence of God forever. Respond to the grace of God in everything you do.

This response to the grace of God is our discipleship. As I mentioned when we began, that is the substance of most of my messages as I preach mostly to the saved.  But what about those who are not?

Your human mind—your human understanding—will try to convince you not to do this.  This can’t be true.  This is just church nonsense.  I just refuse to believe it. It just seems too easy.

Receiving the gift is easy.  Living in response to the gift of salvation might take some work, but that work is not debilitating.

But for those who will take the faith that God has granted each of us and take a single step in faith, life awaits you.  We are saved by grace through faith.

We all come out of disobedience to receive this gift of life by faith. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All come out of disobedience to receive this gift of life by faith

Will you still have trouble?  Sure.  That’s part of life. Life involves struggle.

Will you still make mistakes? Only if you are human.

So, what will I gain?  Life, life abundant, and life eternal.  Sin and death will have no more power over you. Sin will try to mess with your abundant life but it will have no power over your eternal destination.

But, but, but, I’m doing ok now doing things my own way.  I like my Frank Sinatra theology.  I did it my way.

What good is it to gain the whole world yet lose your soul? You might think that life is good doing things your way—the world’s way.  If that’s true, how much better is it to do things God’s way—to follow the instructions of the Designer himself.

You will still have trials and temptations but you will never face them alone.  Everything that happens to those who believe in God through Christ Jesus will one day see how God used everything that happened to you for the good.

This is our VBS Sunday.  I hope we made a difference in the lives of many young people, but I am also speaking to those who may have gone through life and never professed Jesus as Lord. 

Many have read the Bible and have verses that they like, but have never professed Jesus as Lord.  Lord is a tough word to say in our time.  We are independent.  We can make it on our own.  I’m not surrendering to anyone. And we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us for we have all fallen short of the glory of God.

Do not remain a prisoner of sin and death.  For all who have not professed Jesus as Lord, death is your preexisting condition.  That condition does not disqualify you from what the Lord has in store for you.

The kids this week might just call that a GAME CHANGER.

If you have never professed Jesus as Lord, turn away from the sinful ways of the world—the church word here is repent—and receive the life that God promises in Christ Jesus.  Make a wholesale exchange of your mind, body, soul, and spirit for the ways of God. Receive the Spirit of God to live within you. 

Come and be saved.

Amen.