Proving Our Faith: The Power of Being Born Again

1. "We started by asking the question, how do you know that you know God? And we started by getting from the text questions that we can ask ourselves to prove to ourselves if we know God. Are you loving your neighbor? Are you growing strong? Are you loving your neighbor? Are you loving your neighbor? Spiritually, are you obeying God's commands? Are you not loving the world? Are you not believing lies? And are you abiding in Christ?" [01:27] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "If you have been born of God, then you certainly believe in God, because God doesn't give his divine spirit to someone who doesn't believe in him. And so if you have God's spirit, then that's proof that you do believe in God, that you are born of God. But how can we tell? How can we know for sure? Well, this text that we read, chapter 5, 1 through 5, gives us three proofs, proofs to be able to ask and look at ourselves to prove whether or not we believe in God, whether or not we've been born of God." [12:10] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "To believe that Jesus is the Christ, according to the Bible, is to believe that Jesus is the Christ, according to scripture, is a supernatural thing. It's not something people can really come to on their own and grasp. It takes the spirit of God to reveal that to them, that Jesus is the Christ. Everyone who believes, verse 1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." [13:51] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Simply put, it's being born of God is receiving the gift of new life and the renewal of our old nature. It's receiving new life, and it's a renewal of our old nature. You see the two, how they work together? First off, it's the gift of new life. It is us inheriting new life, like 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new, a new creature, a new creation. Behold, the old has passed, and the new has come." [15:34] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "When we are born again, it's just as radical because we actually go from death to life. Not hidden life, suppressed life to life. From death to life. This rebirth doesn't just reform our old nature, it makes us completely new. It doesn't take a decent person and make them a good person. It doesn't take a good heart and turn it into a great heart. It takes a dead heart and makes it come alive. It breathes life into it." [18:44] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "If you want to absolutely know that you are a child of God, ask yourself, am I obeying his commands? Here's a pop quiz for you. True or false? Does God place a high, emphasis on obedience in scripture? It's kind of a trick question. It actually depends on where you're at, whether the Old Testament or the New Testament. Would you guys be shocked to know that at least in regards to the Old Testament, which was primarily written in Hebrew, there is not a Hebrew word for obedience the way that we understand obedience." [22:11] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "In the Hebrew understanding, obedience followed the hearing. There was no distinction. To hear God meant and implied obey God. There was no hearing apart from obeying. Now, this is very different from our Western Christianity, that we have, where we can sit in church for years and hear and hear and hear and hear and never do. The Hebrew mind would never have understood that because to truly hear is to do. If you don't do, you did not hear." [23:57] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "When we overcome the world, it's not actually us overcoming the world. It's Christ doing it through us. That's who is overcoming. Look at verse 4. For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Why is it important to overcome the world? I know you guys know this, because there's a lot of stuff in this world we need to overcome. A lot of things. Suffering, murder, disease, war, accidents, corruption, hate, bitterness, immorality, destroyed families, arguments, pride, arrogance, hunger, homelessness, wickedness, addiction, envy, pain, hurt, selfishness, greed." [27:04] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "We are going to live forever with Jesus or apart from him. We are going to live forever with Jesus or apart from him. We are going to live forever from Jesus. That's a guarantee. We can choose now to die to ourselves so that when all of us reach physical death, we are immediately in the presence of Jesus for an eternal life with him in glory." [28:29] (22 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )

10. "Has something so amazing happened in your life that the only way to describe it is to say you have been born again? Have you been brought from death to life? If you haven't experienced that, why not experience that today? Why not just nail that down today? We want to make it as, not easy for you, because that's not an easy decision. But we want to make it as simple of a process that we can for you." [31:48] (34 seconds) (Making raw clip | Making vertical clip | )