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.

Already Dead

 Read John 3:36

John 5:24

Most of the time when you hear me talk, I talk about God’s love.  We are to love God and love one another as the mainstay of our discipleship. God is love.

Sure, there are other things that we should do.  You will find most to be rooted in love.

Jesus told us that we are wise to put his words into practice.  In fact, he compared those who practice what he taught as to one who built their house on solid rock instead of shifting sand, the latter would wash away in the storm.

Today, I want to talk to you about life and death.  It’s sort of a heavy subject—life and death.  It’s an important topic.

We know life, though few live it fully.  We sometimes sleep through much of life.  I’m not talking about restful sleep that we all need.  I mean being in a slumber when we should be fully awake. I didn’t say woke.

Being woke—and that’s not what we are here to talk about is like building your house on shifting and sinking sand.  It seems right for a while, but then it comes crashing down.  Again, that’s not our topic for right now.

We are talking about life and death. 

You know what death is too.  Most of you have lost a loved one at some point.  Maybe you were too young to remember much.

Most of you have lost a pet to death.  You live in Oklahoma.  You have seen road kill.  I would bet to say that you have seen more dead armadillos than live ones.

I had to go see the doctor in Elk City last Thursday.  That was a three-skunk Thursday. That drive took on an atmosphere of its own.

We have seen death.  Do you know what the Bible says?

It says that you are already dead.  How can that be?  I’m sitting here breathing and wanting to be on my phone.  I can’t be dead.  Listen to the words of Jesus

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

If you truly believe in the Son—that’s Jesus—then you have life now and for eternity.  But if you don’t believe, you are already dead. When your body wears out or you get struck by lightning or snake bit and die, it’s GAME OVER!

And you have no reset button.

Who has heard that the wages of sin is death? You were dead in your sin and all have sinned.

Do you know the second half of that verse?

But the gift of God is eternal life.

There is a discussion to be had about the innocence of the young, but we must know that sin has touched us all, even the child.  Why do you think the counsel to parents is to bring up a child in the way he should go?

If you can understand what I am saying, the innocence excuse is not valid for you.  We have all missed the target at some point. You are accountable for your life.

So what am I getting at?  Life and death.  They are real.  You have seen death.  While we can celebrate the death of a believer for only this physical body has perished; the same cannot be said of the one who rejects God.

They are dead already!

In some congregations, maybe you have gone to some of them, the preacher wants to scare you into walking the aisle and professing Jesus as Lord out of fear.

There is nothing wrong with the fear of the Lord.  In fact we are counseled that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. It’s a good place to start.

What I am talking about is the fear of hell.  Hell is real.  You don’t want to go there.  It’s not where God designed you to go.  It is not your predestination, but you can get there by rejecting God.

Don’t profess Jesus is Lord because you fear hell.  Profess Jesus is Lord because you seek God.  You want to know God.  You want to know the life and eternal life that God has in store for you.

Profess Jesus is Lord because you believe that God is love.  It’s ok to fear the Lord.  You can fear hell if you want to, but if that is how you live your life, you are missing out on the living part.

You might think that there is no difference in professing Jesus is Lord out of fear and out of love.  There is!

For those who profess Jesus is Lord out of the fear of hell, you think that you reached the finish line.  You think, I’ve won.  I’m not going to hell.

You think it’s game over and you have won.  You just have to wait out the rest of your life to get to heaven.

For the one who receives Jesus as Lord out of the love of God over the love of the world, you realize that you are just in the starting blocks.

Life—real life, abundant life—begins now.  It’s time to really live.  What does the Bible say?

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

When does eternal life begin?  It begins now when you have professed Jesus is Lord.  There is a better part to come, but eternal life begins in the moment you truly believe in God through his son Christ Jesus.

You have passed from death to life!

Remember that salvation is the free gift of God, but you must receive it.  Here’s a good Bible word—Woe.  Woe to those who reject it.  Death remains upon them.  You are already dead!

But you can live now and forever in Christ Jesus.  The moment you truly believe, you pass from death to life.

But how do I know that I really believe?

That’s an excellent question.  It is an essential question.  How do you know?

You will know when you are ready to give up the sinful ways of the world and receive the ways of the Lord.

It is called repentance.  You must not only turn away from the ways of the world, but leave all of that worldly baggage behind so you are free to take the yoke of your Master—that’s Jesus—and learn from him.

You will be ready to put his words into practice.  The word is practice.  You might not get everything right the first time or the first thousand times, but you have committed to following Jesus.

You have passed from death to life.

Amen.