Born Again (From Sunday's Talk)
- Our identity is a really big deal to us. We spend lots of energy and resources attempting to become "somebody".
- When we become Christians, our dilemma is how to blend who we are (our identity) w/ who God wants us to be. The simple answer is: We don't.
- God wants to give us a completely NEW identity. He encourages us to use our talents and education to pursue big dreams, but those dreams are NOT our identity. Our identity is that we are a child of God!
- In John 3, Jesus has an encounter w/ a wealthy, influential and highly religious man named Nicodemus. Nick is impressed w/ Jesus because he can do miracles and is a great teacher.
- Jesus is very direct in how he talks w/ Nick. It's obvious that He doesn't want to be known as a "good teacher" or "miracle worker". His purpose is to give NEW LIFE and NEW PURPOSE and NEW IDENTITY! Jesus tells Nick that he must be born again.
- "Born again" is a creepy term, but it is a great metaphor to experiencing new life.
- Every person who opened their hearts to Jesus, in Scripture, were born again and experienced new life. This ALWAYS resulted in life change!
- Every Christ Follower should take the time to reflect and think about how their life is different because of Jesus!
- If you're a Christ Follower, but have areas of your life that you don't WANT to change (don't want to forgive, don't want to become more generous, don't want to stop being selfish, etc)... why would you want to be BORN AGAIN? Being born again means experiencing new life!
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 says to "Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine..." This is easy to do. Simply ask, "How am I different because of Jesus?"
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