March 15, 2026 - Born Again (John 3:1-21 - John Shearhart)

I was reading this. God sends this prophet to to David because David thought he got away with it. The prophet comes to him and he says, you know, God knows what you did. You're the man. I know what you've done. And David says, I have sinned against the Lord. That's not a very long sentence. It's not hard to say, I have sinned against the Lord. That was the hammer that broke my heart. That heart of stone. He struck me right where I needed to be struck. I'm in trouble. I realized I'm in big trouble with God, because I have a mountain of sin, and there's nothing I can do. What am I gonna do? The next thing that David says is, I have sinned against the Lord, and the prophet replies, the Lord has put away your sin. You are not going to die. [01:04:33] (69 seconds)  #RepentantHeart

And when he went to the cross, God took all of my sins. If I believe by faith, as as silly as it may sound, like looking at a serpent on a pole to cure a snake bite. If you will believe that I am who I say I am, and that I did what I said that I did, if you believe that I did it for you, and if you come to me and call me Lord, and you follow me the rest of your life, I will save you. Are you there right now? Maybe you've been walking this walk for a while and you're kinda like me, you know, you're feeling a little bit far away sometimes. [01:06:17] (37 seconds)  #FaithInChristSaves

You're dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. That's kinda funny. Did anybody catch that? You're dead while walking? You're a dead man walking? A dead woman walking? You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. And so what he's calling it is to be spiritually dead is to be a sinner. It's to be someone who commits sin against God and owes a debt of blood that you can never fully pay. And it's to be in very, very serious trouble with the maker of all creation. It goes back to [00:42:01] (38 seconds)  #DeadInSin

And where I'm struggling with this or where I'm finding the most comfort from this is I go through seasons where I don't feel very close to God. Even as a pastor, I know that's you're not supposed to do that as a pastor. Maybe you could take it out of my paycheck or something. But I do feel it. I go through seasons where I don't feel close to God, and I go through seasons where I'm disobedient. And I find myself striving to try and, okay, I gotta make God happy. I gotta please God. And I'm reminded of this, that you can never on your own. It's always by faith in Jesus Christ, which is my next point, by the way. [00:55:19] (41 seconds)  #GraceNotPerformance

You can live a life that's pleasing to God. You have to start over with a new birth, and you have to trust what Jesus said and what he's done, and then finally, you have to do the good works that you were made to do. Look at verse 19. And this is the judgment. That word means verdict, by the way. This is the verdict. The light has come into the world. Jesus is the light. We read that already in John. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. Forever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. [01:07:07] (47 seconds)  #LiveInTheLight

If you will trust my word, and if you will believe that the things that I say to you are true, and if you will obey my commands, even when they make no sense to you, I will save you. The son of God has come the the son of man has come down to earth to reveal the things of heaven to us, and the son of God has gone to the cross to die in our place because he's the only perfect sacrifice who will do. Because God is he's just. And it doesn't even have anything to do with his emotion. It has to do with just the truth that the punishment for sin must be blood. [01:03:17] (46 seconds)  #TrustAndObey

Kinda feels like a weird way to end it. Right? I mean, he's like, you gotta be reborn, and you gotta believe in me, and you gotta come to the light. Why? To show that your good works are in God. Nicodemus, your works, you're hiding your evil under your good works. You're hiding it there. You you know, you have you have a lot of sin in your life. You have lusted before. You have lied before. You have hated people before. You have you have broken my commandments before. You can't say that you've come in here perfect because you haven't. And I know you're trying so hard to do it right, but all you're doing is refusing to come to the light and acknowledge the truth that I am the only way, the only truth, the only life that you will ever have. [01:07:54] (54 seconds)  #NoMoreHiddenSin

I can tell you the truth about eternal life if you will receive what I'm saying to you. And that's the hard part is that people don't always wanna believe what Jesus says. Because sometimes what Jesus says contradicts the things that I wanna hear. You read the bible, sometimes, you know, I kinda joke around. I say, you know, I don't like this part about the bible or I change it. The truth is, if you were God, you'd keep everything exactly like it is because it's all perfect like it is. But there are verses that it would not it would it would be easier to talk about things if I didn't have to say that too, you know. [00:59:49] (35 seconds)  #BibleTruthsChallenge