We continue this morning with our transcript from Sunday morning’s sermon entitled, “You’re Part Of the Conspiracy” If you have missed either of our previous portions they can be found HERE.

Here is part three of our sermon discussion:

If we determine to be the church that will fulfill God’s plans in these last days we must individually respond in at least one of four ways depending on our position in the church ( Little child, young man or elder SEE PART TWO FOR A REFRESHER)

Today I want to start speaking to the little children.

“Little Children”, in order to answer the call we must come to know God’s Son, Jesus Christ. God wants to involve us all in His plan but before we can even be a part of the plan we must be a part of the church. I am not talking about joining church membership  through some class taught by the church. Being a part of the church involves a step before that. The church is not those who have gone through church membership class. The church in Scripture is defined as those who have been born again and who have been given eternal life.

In John Chapter 3, Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth truth, unless you are born again,^a you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”4“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”5Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.^b 6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.^c 7So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You^d must be born again.’

You see, when humans are born we are born as living beings. Our flesh, heart, lungs and stomachs are alive and our souls, our mind, will and emotions are alive; But humans are triune beings. We are body, soul and spirit. Jesus and Paul explained this in their teachings that when children are born their bodies and souls are alive but because of sin, which is now part of the DNA makeup their spirits, the part  that connects to God and Heaven is dead.

Without living spirits we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven or be part of the plan of God. So being born again or having a second birth a spiritual birth is necessary. That is done by putting our faith in Jesus’ death on the cross and in His resurrection from the dead and by making Him the only God of our lives. When we do that Jesus forgives our sins and resurrects our spirits to life.

Here are some Scriptural proofs for these assertions:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned,but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Rom. 3:23

 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[a]Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 6:23

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Rom. 10:9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:8-10

Little Lamb! Little Lamb! Who hath made thee?

This is part three of our sermon series Dust Kiddies. If you missed parts 1 and 2 they can be found at the links below.

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/09/dust-kiddies-pt-1/

https://josephelonlillie.com/2014/09/10/dust-kiddies-pt-2/

Now let’s get on with today’s portion of the study:

We have established in the two previous posts that spiritually we are totally unable to help or save ourselves but that God wants to help us if we will just admit our need of Him.

God wants to help us in two ways. Today let’s discuss the first.

God  wants to help us overcome our weakness and our proclivity towards sin.

Dillon Burroughs writes, “The solution to our human frailty is not to try harder, but to turn Godward.”

― Dillon Burroughs, Hunger No More: A 1-Year Devotional Journey Through the Psalms

The truth is, that while your weakness may have defined who you are up to this present time it does not have to define you anymore.  The GOOD NEWS of Christianity is that we can be born again! We used to sing a song when I first became a Christian that went something like,

” There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born. There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born. There’s been a great great change since I’ve been born again.”

Jesus himself  said that the process of becoming a Christian is literally being “BORN AGAIN”

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again,^[a] you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

⁵ Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.^{[b] 6} Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.^{[c] 7} So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You^[d] must be born again.’ John 3:3-7 NLT

In the end of the matter, we are set free from our lives of weakness not by trying harder but being born again and we are born again when the Spirit of God comes into our hearts by our prayerful invitation.

Let’s pray together now:

Father God I realize I cannot help myself or work my way out of a life of sin. Only you can help me. I admit that. So Lord come into my life right now. Cause me to be born again. Forgive all my sin and give me a new start a new life birthed by the Spirit of God. I believe it is possible through Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Hey if you prayed that prayer with me for the first time would you drop me a comment to let me know?