John: The Lord Jesus Christ Wants You to Know “You Ain’t All That”Discover the relationship with eternal benefits.
Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES An Online Christian Church Teaching the Word of God Verse-by-Verse
RORY CLARK Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
I’m Pastor Rory Clark welcoming you to a Bible lesson with Barah Ministries, an intimate online Christian community committed to learning the Word of God verse-by-verse. I’m happy to teach the Word to those who want a deep, intimate and personal relationship with the Savior of the world and the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON The Lord Jesus Christ Wants You to Know “You Ain’t All That”
LESSON INTRODUCTION
A dear friend of mine recently asked me to participate in a serious conversation. She had something to tell me. In the conversation, the most profound thing she said is, “You know Rory…you ain’t all that.” The urban dictionary says if “you ain’t all that,” you’re not as impressive, or attractive, or important, or special as you think.
I really appreciated the feedback, especially because I know it probably took her three years to get up the courage to say this to me.
The funny thing is, I have a Bible verse staring me in the face every day on my desk. Galatians, Chapter 6, Verse 3… GALATIANS 6:3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
As I walk out the door of my home office multiple times per day, the first page of two divorce decrees is framed and hanging on the wall for me to see. It’s a reminder of two failed marriages. Paul’s words in Romans, Chapter 12, Verse 3 are a constant motivation…
ROMANS 12:3a …I (Paul) say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think...
As successful as I’ve been in my life, and as successful as I may seem to others, I have never thought of myself as special. Anything special about me has the Lord Jesus Christ’s fingerprints all over it. He is the source of my blessings, whether adversity or prosperity. But when people don’t bother to get to know me, they can easily think I have a big ego that expresses itself as arrogance.
My friend’s feedback led to a great conversation. Unfortunately for my friend, every time we talk now, I refer to myself as “Mr. You-Ain’t All-That!”
In today’s lesson, as we begin our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 3…we will meet a man who IS “all that” … the Pharisee Nicodemus. After a conversation with the Lord, Nicodemus had a very different impression of himself. It’s a message for those who think they’re special because of their accomplishments.
And as we do regularly, honoring the Lord’s command, we’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper today. Get your bread and your wine…settle in…and join us.
OPENING SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s hear some music! One of the frequent taunts of unbelievers to believers in Christ is, “You’re not one of those ‘born agains’ are you?” Oh yes! We are! Here’s June Murphy to sing about us in her song…BORN AGAIN.
MUSIC - OPENING SONG Let’s Hear the Singing of the Lord’s Praises
BORN AGAIN June Murphy
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful to You Heavenly Father for providing us with the absolute truth of the Word of God…
Father…thank you for reminding us through our study of the Word of God that we “aren’t all that” … and thank you for making us “all that” because we have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for imputing Your righteousness to us at the moment of our salvation as our admission ticket to heaven…and thank you for providing us with God the Holy Spirit who edits out of us all the things that keep us from being our best…
…as we learn today, and as we celebrate what Your Son did for us at the Cross, help us to sear into our consciousness the perspective that we are special because of having the entire Godhead indwelling us, and not because of our own merit…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON The Lord Jesus Christ Wants You to Know “You Ain’t All That”
LESSON PART ONE
Today we continue our study of the Gospel of the apostle John at Chapter 3.
As believers in Christ, it’s a pleasure and a privilege to study this gospel because we’re getting to know our best friend and our biggest benefactor, the Lord Jesus Christ.
John drills into our heads and our hearts, through this gospel, that Jesus Christ is God. The decision to have a relationship with Him is the best thing anyone can do in this life.
During our lifetime all of us have met people that make us feel small. We have words to describe them…arrogant, egotistic, condescending, pompous and demeaning are just a few of these words.
I graduated from Northwestern University which is one of the best schools in the world. It’s a place where a lot of “old money” people send their offspring. During numerous events at the university, I have experienced people who question why I am attending events as if the events are an exclusive club. It’s really distasteful to be around people who act like this.
I grew up in a ghetto in Chicago, Illinois, so I can’t even pretend to be special. At thirty-eight years old, my Mom had four children under eleven years old, two of them under two years old, with two divorces under her belt, supporting us on fourteen thousand dollars a year. Her income in the best year of her life was twenty thousand dollars. Such a background hardly gives me a chance to boast.
Initially being around pompous people made me feel inferior. Even today, I experience people who communicate they think they are better than me because of the color of my skin. If I told you what I experience regularly in this regard, you’d be certain I’m lying. I am not.
Where my mind goes when I experience these situations is to the spiritual life. What makes me special is my relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For all those who are uber-wealthy and supremely accomplished, I always wonder what their spiritual life is like.
Do people like Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX), or Jeff Bezos (Amazon), or Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), or Bill Gates (Microsoft), or Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) have relationships with the Lord Jesus Christ? I know for a fact that most of them openly admit they do not.
For example, Warren Buffett is not a Christian. He describes himself as a “true agnostic.” While he grew up in a religious household and was baptized in the Presbyterian church, he has stated that he does not know whether an unseen divinity exists and prefers to rely on logic and numbers rather than religious faith.
A person who is agnostic believes that nothing is known or can be known about the existence of God or the supernatural..
Warren Buffett knows everything about making money and nothing about God. He researched incessantly how to be wealthy, yet I’d bet he spends no time researching God. Sad.
People who think they are special because of wealth or credentials often get a rude awakening when they close their eyes in this life. They discover that life was more than money and fame. An eternity in the Lake of Fire for their self-neglect is a tough price to pay.
In the first passage of John, Chapter 3 we get to eavesdrop on a conversation between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Pharisee Nicodemus. Imagine having a conversation with the Lord! We talk to God in prayer, but it’s monologue. We can’t hear Him talk back.
Nicodemus was given a chance to have a dialogue with the Lord. Let’s hear the first passage of John Chapter 3, Verses 1 to 12…
JOHN 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews…
JOHN 3:2 …this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher…for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
JOHN 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
JOHN 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
JOHN 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
JOHN 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” JOHN 3:7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
JOHN 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going…so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
JOHN 3:9 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
JOHN 3:10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”
JOHN 3:11 “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.”
JOHN 3:12 “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
Before we study this passage verse-by-verse, let’s meet Nicodemus so we understand the one with whom the Lord is conversing. Nicodemus is “Mr. All That!” John, Chapter 3, Verse 1…
JOHN 3:1 Now there was A MAN of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews…
Nicodemus was member of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish lawmaking body and the highest court in ancient Jerusalem. It had about seventy members, led by a president and a high priest.
These Jewish scholars and elders judged major legal, religious, and political matters. They conducted trials, they investigated heresy, they wrote laws, and they interacted with Roman authorities. However, they had restricted power. They could not impose the death penalty.
John Chapter 3 contains a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, who is a sinner in God’s eyes. As an unbelieving Pharisee, Nicodemus is the same as all of us from physical birth. He was born physically alive and spiritually dead and is set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire.
As an unbeliever, Nicodemus’ pedigree as a Pharisee doesn’t matter at all. That’s a warning to the uber-wealthy. Career accomplishment and monetary wealth is not spiritual wealth. Spiritual wealth can’t be bought.
We glorify wealth. All of us, at some point during the struggles of life, especially financial struggles, are convinced that wealth would solve all of our problems. It doesn’t. Wealth certainly doesn’t solve the problem of where we will spend eternity when we close our eyes in this life.
No one who is wealthy has ever been able to take wealth with them when they die. No one who is socially prominent has been able to use this prominence to get into heaven. We all wish we had just a portion of the wealth of business founders and athletes. The amount of money athletes are getting paid to play a sport is astonishing.
John makes it clear in Chapter 3, Verse 1 that Nicodemus, while he may have credentials, is A MAN, no different than any other man in the eyes of God.
Nicodemus is a Greek name…it means “one who conquers the people.” He was educated, ethical, and moral…all the things you would least like in a friend 😊
The Pharisees were some of the Lord Jesus Christ’s favorite whipping boys (Check Matthew 23). He accused them of being hypocrites because He knew who they really were in their hearts. They said one thing and did another. But in the Jewish society of the day, they were revered and well-respected.
The Pharisees were a brotherhood. They were serious about the Mosaic Law, they were conservative, and they were students of the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch) … the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). They were rigidly religious. They interpreted the Mosaic Law literally, almost to a fault. Nicodemus was a member of the brotherhood.
Nicodemus was likely from a well know and socially prominent family. He was pious. Like many of the Pharisees, Nicodemus did his share of acting overly holy and righteous to impress others. But as we get to know him in later chapters of the Gospel of John, he showed himself to be thoughtful and fair in assessing situations. His interaction with Jesus had a profound effect on his life.
Nicodemus was a spiritual failure. Despite all of his study, and all of his pedigree, he had no relationship with God. He was spiritually blind. He reminds us of the apostle Paul in that respect.
As we study the first passage of John, Chapter 3, we’ll get to know Nicodemus better. He provides us with an example of how Jesus handles socially prominent people, just as Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John, Chapter 4 gives us an example of how Jesus deals with the rest of us. We’ll begin our verse-by-verse study of this first passage in Chapter 3 next week.
In the meantime, let’s not forget the source of our specialness. You may be a nobody, but your relationship with the Lord makes you somebody. You don’t need a resume to get to heaven. You need a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we return from the break, we’ll request an offering, and then we’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
FIVE-MINUTE BREAK NOBODY Casting Crowns
TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON The Lord Jesus Christ Wants You to Know “You Ain’t All That”
OFFERING INTRODUCTION
When we give the gospel message to unbelievers, they give to us by listening attentively. It’s one of the most gratifying experiences in life when an unbeliever really wants to hear the gospel message. The gift of listening is the gift of intimacy. Luke, Chapter 8, Verse 8 exhorts…
LUKE 8:8 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what God the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches.” When you give to Barah Ministries, you make it possible for us to give the gospel message to people all over the world through the Internet. People are listening! Thank you for supporting this ministry with your generosity. Your unselfish giving is a reflection of our God, and it gives people around the world a chance to respond positively to an eternal-life-giving gospel message…the salvation offer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with one of his always inspiring offering messages.
THE OFFERING Deacon Denny Goodall
OFFERING VERSE
JOHN 1:4 In Jesus was the resurrection life...and the resurrection life was the Light of men.
OFFERING VERSE
JOHN 1:5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
OFFERING SONG THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU Instrumental Version
THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ Made Possible Our Regeneration
Welcome to the Lord’s Supper Celebration!
As we remember the Lord, let’s enjoy recalling the things the Lord has done for us, especially His work on the Cross on our behalf. The Lord’s Supper gives us a chance to direct our focus to the Lord alone. Concerning the Lord’s Supper, our God commands us in Luke, Chapter 22, Verse 19 to…
LUKE 22:19c “…keep on doing this Lord’s Supper Celebration in remembrance of Me.”
In celebrating the Lord’s Supper, the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to make time to think about everything special in our lives, especially the most important relationship in our lives…whether we are believers in Christ or even unbelievers… the relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. A relationship with the Lord is eternally important.
Yet the Lord’s Supper Celebration is for the born-again ones…for spiritually alive believers in Christ who were placed into union with Christ through the baptism of God the Holy Spirit at the moment of their salvation. God the Holy Spirit turned us into eternal companions of Christ.
It is not wise to celebrate The Lord’s Supper on the move. The Lord’s Supper is a chance to be still and to reflect on the blessings the Lord directs to us. So get your bread and wine and join us for the feast.
At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ made possible everyone’s REGENERATION.
What is regeneration?
REGENERATION Also known as THE NEW BIRTH, it is a sovereign and miraculous act by which the Lord Jesus Christ changes spiritually dead hearts into spiritually alive hearts through the baptism of God the Holy Spirit.
When believers in Christ experience the new birth, we are “born again” … the spiritual birth. With the new birth the Lord Jesus Christ renovates us. This renovation is not an improvement of the old self, which is a typical renovation. It’s a complete change. Second Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17 describes it…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 5:17 …if anyone is in union with Christ…and all believers in Christ are…there is a new creation…the old things passed away (they died) … behold, new things have come.
Believers in Christ are made a new creation by the Lord.
What are some of the gifts that come with the gift of REGENERATION? Three come to mind…SPIRITUAL EYES…A NEW SOURCE OF POWER…A NEW TASTE.
First, regeneration from the Lord gives us SPIRITUAL EYES. We go from being blind to being able to see. There is a line from the song Amazing Grace that highlights this gift.
A LINE FROM AMAZING GRACE
I once was lost But now I’m found Was blind but now I see
Second Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 4 reveals the problem we had as unbelievers…
SECOND CORINTHIANS 4:4 …the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the glory and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ…this Jesus who is the image of God the Father.
As unbelievers, not only could we not see…we would not see. Romans, Chapter 3, Verse 11…
ROMANS 3:11 There is no (unbelieving) creature who understands God (or any divine thing) and there is no (unbelieving) creature who seeks for relationship with God…
At the moment of our regeneration, THE NEW BIRTH, God says to us “let there be light” … and then we can see.
Sin smudges our vision…it’s like bird shit on a car windshield. First Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verse 12 says…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:12 For now, we see the plan of God in a mirror dimly (not so clearly) … but in the future we see His plan face-to-face (not through any intermediary) … now I know in part…but then I will know fully…just as I have been fully known by God (from eternity past…until now…and for all eternity).
The legacy of the believer in Christ is being known by the Sovereign God of the Universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. We all want what David asks for in Psalm 27, Verse 4…
PSALM 27:4 One thing I have asked from the Lord….and this I shall seek…that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.
To behold the beauty of the Lord! The NEW BIRTH gives us new ability to see.
Second, regeneration gives us A NEW SOURCE OF POWER. We move from the desert of human power to the oasis of divine power.
The foolishness of unbelief is described in Jeremiah, Chapter 2, Verse 13…
JEREMIAH 2:13 “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me…the fountain of living waters…instead they hew for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
As unbelievers we have no capacity for power, so we think construction our own power plant using human power is a good idea, thus the reference to a cistern. What is a cistern?
CISTERN A waterproof reservoir used to store liquids, most commonly rainwater collected from roofs or other surfaces.
When we were unbelievers, we preferred to create our own sources of security, happiness, and survival instead of counting on the Lord. That’s pointless.
With our cisterns we captured undrinkable water. With the Lord Jesus Christ as our source, we can drink from the Lord’s living waters that always quench our thirst. What did the Lord say to the Samaritan woman at the well in John, Chapter 4, Verse 10?
JOHN 4:10 Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God the Father, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked and He would have given you living water.”
Living waters is the Lord’s divine power. John, Chapter 1, Verse 16…
JOHN 1:16 From the fullness of Jesus’ grace (as our source of blessings) … all of us believers in Christ have received one blessing after another (grace upon grace).
When the Lord is the source of our power it opens the floodgates of success in our lives.
Finally, regeneration gives us A NEW TASTE for things. We go from the desire for things that are total depraved to things that are abundant in blessing. It’s the equivalent of going from sour to sweet.
How does God see the unbeliever? To God, the unbeliever is depraved!
DEPRAVED Morally corrupt to an extreme…wicked…profoundly evil…and perverted
The unbeliever hates everything related to God and has an intense desire for those things that are perverted.
Those of us who have experienced the new birth have a distaste for depravity. We enjoy sweetness and distain fruitlessness. As believers in Christ, our hunger and thirst is for the Lord. It haunts us when we ignore it.
THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION Enjoying the Elements
Bread and wine.
The Lord gave us these things to remember Him. We will enjoy the elements together in a few moments as we listen to The Lord’s Supper Song.
Matthew, Chapter 26, Verses 26 to 28 tells us the reason the Lord wants us to celebrate this meal together…
MATTHEW 26:26 While the apostles were eating, Jesus took some bread…and after a blessing…He broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take…eat…this is My body which is being broken for you.”
MATTHEW 26:27 And when Jesus had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it…all of you…”
MATTHEW 26:28 “…for this is My blood…the blood of a new covenant…My blood…poured out for WHOSOEVER…for the forgiveness of sins.”
We celebrate to REMEMBER that Jesus Christ died as our sin substitute…that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead to prove His Deity…that Jesus Christ loves us unconditionally…that Jesus Christ forgives us once and for all time through His work on the Cross…that Jesus Christ’s BLOOD paid for our sins…that Jesus Christ saved us from the wrath of God the Father…that Jesus Christ will come again to gather us unto Himself.
As believers in Christ, we celebrate through this Lord’s Supper and we are grateful that His work on the Cross gives us hope...the assurance of an amazing future.
Enjoy the elements as we listen to June Murphy sing about how the Lord pursued us when we were unbelievers in her song YOU RAN AFTER ME.
THE LORD’S SUPPER SONG
YOU RAN AFTER ME June Murphy
THE GOSPEL MESSAGE The Good News of Jesus Christ’s Salvation Offer to the Human Race
The closing moments of this lesson could be the ten most important minutes of your life. You’ll be introduced to the good news concerning how you can spend all eternity in heaven when you close your eyes in this life. We want you to know that…
GOD WANTS YOU! He Wants You to Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life
…and what He wants for you is that you make the most important decision of your life.
Even if you don’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you still matter to God. He created you…you’re one of His creatures…and He wants the highest and best for you. Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9 says…
SECOND PETER 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of... instead, He is patient toward unbelievers…not wishing for any to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all to come to repentance (a voluntary change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).
The bad news is that everyone is born in a state of unrighteousness, including you. You were born physically alive and spiritually dead as an ungodly, unrighteous unbeliever. You were born on Satan’s team. In God’s eyes, you were born a sinner and you need a Savior.
It’s not your fault you were born this way, but it is your circumstance.
In First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22, the Bible says…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human being who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…
To God’s enemy, Satan…the ruler of this world…you don’t matter at all. First Peter, Chapter 5, Verse 8 says…
FIRST PETER 5:8 Be of sober spirit…be on the alert! Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
You are the “someone” on Satan’s list.
Satan despises you so much he doesn't want you to be saved. He doesn't want you to be with God in heaven when you close your eyes in this life. Instead, he wants you to be with him in the Lake of Fire, and he wants you so badly that he sends false teachers with false teachings to deceive you. In Matthew, Chapter 7, Verse 15…the Lord Himself warns about this…
MATTHEW 7:15 “Beware of the false teachers…who come to you in sheep’s clothing…but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
When an animal is ravenous it has an insatiable desire to tear you apart. So it is with false teachers who pretend to be for you, yet truly they want you to be twice the sons of hell that they are.
This gospel message offers GOOD NEWS to rescue you from the kingdom of death and darkness you were born into, inviting you to be born again to the spiritual life available in God’s kingdom of light. You can choose to be on God’s team. John, Chapter 3, Verses 16 and 17 highlight Jesus’ mission concerning you…
JOHN 3:16 “For God the Father loved the world unconditionally…and He loved the world so much…that He gave His uniquely born Son (the God-man…the Lord Jesus Christ…to be crucified on a Cross) … so that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish, but has eternal life.”
JOHN 3:17 For God the Father did not send God the Son (the Lord) into the world to judge the world…but the Father sent the Son into the world that the world might be saved through Him.
God wants you to respond positively to the good news of this gospel message so He can save you!
Who is this God who saves you? The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ…in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3 For I (the apostle Paul) delivered to you as of primary importance the gospel message I also received from God…that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Old Testament Scriptures…
FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 …and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Old Testament Scriptures…
If a gospel message makes it sound like you have to work to get to heaven, it’s a false gospel message from a false teacher. Romans, Chapter 11, Verse 6 says you don’t have to work to be saved…
ROMANS 11:6 …if salvation is by grace (a free gift from God) … and of course it is…it is no longer on the basis of your works…otherwise, grace (as a free gift) is no longer grace (it is not free).
Romans, Chapter 4, Verse 4 says you CAN'T work for salvation…
ROMANS 4:4 Now to the one who works for salvation, his wage for his work is not credited to his account as a favor from the grace of God, but his wage is credited as what is due for the work.
Your hardest work is not perfect enough to earn you a spot in heaven. So relax! You can get to heaven when you close your eyes in this life free of charge. Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31 says…
ACTS 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved by God, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”
John, Chapter 3, Verse 36 warns you and invites you…
JOHN 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment…but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.” If you choose, you can spend eternity with God's enemy, Satan, in the Lake of Fire…OR…you can have the free gift of eternal life right this minute! RIGHT WHERE YOU SIT, RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS MOMENT God can save you if you let Him. You can tell God the Father that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is the moment of eternal life for you.
Romans, Chapter 10, Verses 9 and 10 exhort you…
ROMANS 10:9 …if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord (that He is God) … and if you believe in your heart that God the Father raised Him from the dead… you will be saved…
ROMANS 10:10 …for with the heart a person believes…resulting in the imputation of absolute righteousness by God (your admission ticket to heaven) … and with the mouth a person confesses (admitting faith in Christ alone) resulting in salvation.
There is a consequence for rejecting a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 12, the Lord says…
MATTHEW 8:12 “…the sons of (Satan’s) kingdom (unbelievers) will be cast out into the outer darkness…in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Many parents are false teachers leading their children to an eternity in the Lake of Fire. Do you want to know if you’re a good parent? Just ask yourself a simple question…are you influencing your children to have a relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Sovereign God of the Universe?
He is the ONLY WAY to get to heaven according to John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…
JOHN 14:6 Jesus said to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation), and I am the truth (through the gospel message…the Word of God), and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”
There’s no time to waste! God wants you. If you want to go to heaven when you close your eyes in this life, simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved! Take His word for it concerning salvation, and the resurrection life is yours free of charge!
THE GOSPEL MESSAGE The Good News of Jesus Christ’s Salvation Offer to the Human Race
CLOSING SONG INTRODUCTION
Let’s close with music! People use a lot of different terms to describe their identity… “I’m a perfectionist” … “I’m black” … “I’m gay” … “I’m a coach” …it can be a way of thinking or a race or a sexual preference or a job title or the latest can of worms…gender.
The best identity is described by Chuckey Ellis in his song BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN.
MUSIC - CLOSING SONG Let’s Hear the Singing of the Lord’s Praises
BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN Chuckey Ellis
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
Almighty God and Father…
…thank you for letting us know how to be special…we’re somebodies when we have a relationship with Your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…thank you for the Word which teaches us how to share the reason we are special with others as a testimony to what the Lord is capable of…thank you for the Lord’s Supper which gives us time to reflect on the Lord’s sacrifice at the Cross…and thank you for God the Holy Spirit’s direction as we learn…
…Father I pray for those who call Barah Ministries home, that You bless them and keep them…that You make Your face to shine upon them…and that You grant them the peace that surpasses comprehension…remind them that all their challenges are temporary, and that You consider their problems to be Your responsibility…and we pray for all those who have left Barah Ministries, making themselves enemies…remind them that all believers in Christ are in unity whether we are together or not…bless them and help them flourish, especially in the knowledge of the Godhead’s members…
…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.
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