May 11, 2010 Great Promises 12

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Good Schools day morning to you, my dear brothers and sisters. This morning Dolores and I are heading to The Bridges for a sing-a-long. Our flock just loves to sing and when we go it is most always all the old hymns of the church. Two weeks ago we even sang Christmas Carols, and if you know me, you know I like Christmas Music. Here it is mid-May and we still have our Christmas tree up, and in fact we have decided after all these years we are not taking it down anymore.

Great Promises 12: John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 4 "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'" (NIV)

Are you one of those "Born Again Christian" types? Gosh, I hope and pray you are, for if you are not a "Born Again" Christian, you are not a Christian, and you are not going to get into heaven and there is only one other place to go. Those two words scare a lot of people, and why, in my opinion they just do not understand it. I think sometimes people think of "Born Again" as we who jump and shout for the Lord.

So today you might ask, how do I become "Born Again"? Well, some might want to make a big issue out of it, but it is really simple, for our Lord Jesus paid the price for us to be born again. We really just need to accept what Jesus did, we need to believe and we need to have faith.

We need to live our lives in REVERENT FEAR. We need to live knowing and understanding that we are not saved by things that perish like gold, silver, money, but we are saved by the very blood of our Lord Jesus which still flows today. We need to believe that Jesus did die for us but was risen from the dead by God who glorified Him. We need to be purified by obeying the truth so that you have really sincere love for your brothers and sisters regardless of their sins, their skin color, or even their religion. We need to love them all. We also need to hate their sins. And listen to this, we need to repent from our sins.

Let me say this, you cannot truly walk with Jesus and also walk in your past sinful life. You want to be born again, and again I say to get started it is not hard for Jesus died for us, but after we are born again things change, we change. I changed, you change, or will, when you become born again. You cannot be born again and stay as you were before that happened. If you have not changed, then you, without me judging, just might not be Born Again and if you are not born again you are not getting into Heaven for THAT IS A PROMISE OF GOD.

Maybe this makes it easy... When a baby is born they are pure, they come out of the womb naked and wanting to eat, they are looking for the pure clean milk of their mother. Once we become born again, our sins our washed away and we should be looking for the pure clean way of living as in following Jesus. We need to rid ourselves of hate against others, we need to honor all promises we make, as in paying our bills, etc., we need to never slander others and we need to crave spiritual milk. We need to do all these things so we can grow up and grow closer to our Lord Jesus.

Would you like to renew or take the first step today in being born again? It is confessing our faith in God? I take the scriptures from Romans 10: 9/10:

Romans 10: 9/10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (NIV)

So let's do it and tomorrow we will look even deeper into being "Born Again".

Dear Father in Heaven, I confess today that I love Jesus and I do believe that Jesus is Lord and I believe that You raised Him from the dead and I trust that You will save me in the end through the dead and the risen Savior. Clean me this day, dear Father, and help me repent. In the name of Jesus, I pray... Amen.

Done in faith, you are Born Again... and now, and NOW we need to get living for Jesus and that is not always easy, but if we work together, if we stay in the word, and if we hang out with other believers it makes it better than it was. I am telling you if when you were Born Again or Saved as we also call "Coming to Jesus", we will change. You cannot trick God, He knows if you came in faith or if you are "putting on the dog". More tomorrow...

Now go forth and share those blessings, something you will do better and better once you are born again... and know this today, Jesus loves you, loves you enough that He died for You, for me. I love ya, also see you tomorrow on Salvation Wednesday... Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
Phones Home 717 691 8200 Pastor's Cell 717 991 0754 Dolores' Cell 717 991 0763
icarrythelight4God@msn.com
carrythelight4Jesus.blogspot.com