Amen. Ooh. Thought I was going to do that in the dark for a second. So, 2,000 years ago, in the city of Jerusalem, late, late one night, this conversation happened between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a really prominent religious man in his day. And this conversation completely changed the way that Nicodemus saw God. Nicodemus thought he had God figured out, like a lot of people do, and then Jesus came along and sort of broke his box that he had put God in. And he didn't like that very much. He didn't like having his whole world turned upside down, but he went to Jesus to deal with Jesus. He went to Jesus to ask him questions. He went to Jesus to find out if Jesus was for real. And that's actually really commendable. So many people hear about Jesus, maybe they're perplexed, maybe they don't get it, and they sort of toss him aside before they just go to him and deal with him. When you deal with him, you get to deal with him. And he is love and he is goodness and he is amazing and he is Jesus. Nicodemus was really wise in that he went to Jesus. And the result of him going to Jesus was this conversation that took place. It's a conversation that we can read about in John chapter 3 of the Bible. And it's the most important conversation that's ever happened. Because it's in this one conversation that Jesus just lays it out. He tells us who he really is. He tells us who God is, he tells us what God values, he tells us what motivates God. He tells us how we can begin a relationship with God. He tells us how we can grow in that relationship with God. It's all in this one conversation. And so if we want to be people who get God, if we want to get him and understand what he's about to the best of our ability as people, we need to get this conversation. It's really important. If you've been here for the last few weeks, we've been moving at a pretty slow pace. Three weeks in, we got through 2.5 verses, right? So less than a verse a week. And if you're new to the whole Bible thing, a verse is like a sentence, okay? So we're going really, really slow. And I've been promising for weeks that we're going to pick the pace up, and that happens today. Today we're going through four entire verses. So just hold on to your hats, alright? We are going to spend two weeks in these four verses, but still, still, alright? It's, it's, it's the average is going up. That's all I'm going to say. We're going to start in John chapter 3, starting in verse 3. These are the first words that Jesus says to Nicodemus once Nicodemus comes to him. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you mean? exclaimed Nicodemus. How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? And he's being sarcastic. Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can produce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. When Jesus says be born of water, he's not talking about baptism. He's talking about physical birth. Like when someone's water breaks. He says, You need to be born again. You need a spiritual birth. Your physical birth wasn't enough. It's in this moment of this conversation that Jesus introduces the world to the concept of being born again. That's one of the foundational concepts of our faith. And so it might be really easy in this moment to be like, oh, we're talking about being born again. Yeah, I've checked that box off. I did that. I got it. I'm good. And it's amazing to me how often in my own life I get off track in my thinking. I get off track in the way I'm living, because maybe I've lost sight of the most basic things. And what I need most is to stop and to step back and to examine and remember the basics. Because this whole concept of being born again, it's the game changer. It's what literally changes who we are. And it's completely different than anything else that our world can offer us. Anyone hear a car person? Like you're into cars? Good. You guys are much more proud of that. The first service there were people like doing this. I'm like, it's cars. Cars aren't a bad thing. I don't know if they thought they were about to be trapped or something like that. I'm not asking you to come work on my car or anything like that. If you're a car person, it means you see a car is more than just transportation, right? It's more than a utility to get from point A to point B. It means you probably take care of your car. You probably know how cars work to a certain degree. You probably wash it. You probably clean the inside. You might even have rules for food and drink in your car. Your car probably smells like a car should. And that's not my life, but that's good. Good for you. If you took one look at my car, you would know that I am not a car person. Okay? This is my car. It's a classic. All right. You can't tell what the make is because the emblem on the front fell off like three years ago, and I have no idea where it is. It's not important. What's important is that it's it's paid off. Like that's paid off, so it's beautiful, right? Yeah. It's got some issues, it's got some opportunities. When I turn the AC on, it makes this horrific screeching sound. It's so loud and it lasts for like 20 seconds, and everyone in a parking lot will look at me in judgment, right? And I can just roll my window down and say, it's paid off. It's paid off. This noise reminds me that I don't make any payments on this anymore. So I'm happy with my car. It's been pretty reliable, but there are some cosmetic issues. There's some things that, you know, have happened to the car. If you nick my car or put a dent in it, I'm not gonna notice. I'm not gonna notice. The most annoying, slightly cosmetic, slightly utilitarian issue, though, is a mirror that is on the side of my car. My passenger side mirror uh fell off. I was backing out of the garage one day. And uh that's a pretty difficult driving maneuver. Just right? It's harder than going into the garage. I was coming out of the garage, didn't really pay attention, and I just knocked it off. But it was okay because I had some glue and and I glued it on, and it was I was really proud. It's like the first thing with a car I've ever fixed before. I knocked this mirror off and I glued it back on, and it was good. I fixed my car. And then I left my car outside one day, and there was a storm, and the storm blew our basketball goal in our driveway over and it landed directly on that mirror again. It was like it was like an axe just cutting the mirror off. And it broke it in such a way that glue, not gonna do it. Glue, glue, it is not glueable anymore. There's nothing for the glue to grab a hold of, but it's okay. I still drive around, I still have it attached to my car because I have duct tape, right? And so this is how I've been driving for months. This is why you don't know this church misuses finances. It does not. This is what I drive, okay? This is my baby. I love this car, and I don't mind the duct tape. The duct tape is what keeps that thing hanging on, keeps it going, makes it manageable. I like the duct tape. And I don't show you this hoping that out there there's someone who, you know, wants to take on a car project or anything like that. Maybe you're in the mood for a fixer-upper, if you are, you know to find me. But uh, I share this with you because as I was thinking about this whole concept of being born again this week, and as I was praying about it, God just sort of reminded me that the way that I go about fixing things with duct tape is very similar to the way that this world goes about handling all its issues. It's very different than the way Jesus goes about things. See, duct tape doesn't actually fix anything. That mirror on my car, it is every bit as broken with the duct tape on as it is with no duct tape. It's still broken. It's still broken. The duct tape doesn't fix the problem, the duct tape just alleviates the symptom of the problem, the symptom being that it falls off my car. It's a big symptom, granted. But I have not fixed my car with duct tape. That duct tape's gonna wear out. And I'm gonna know it wears out because one day the mirror won't be there, and I'll have to get more duct tape and put it on there, or I don't know, fix it or something like that. But the duct tape doesn't solve anything, it just alleviates the symptom that's caused by the problem. And that is the way that our world goes about dealing with problems. Failing to address the core issue behind the problem, instead just coming up with a new form of duct tape. Something, some solution that alleviates the symptom. Some program, some solution, some idea that minimizes the symptom of the problem, but doesn't actually address the problem itself. Duct tape's a good thing. I love duct tape. And duct tape has its place. But if you want to solve something, you've got to address the core problem. And when Jesus talks to us about being born again, when he has this conversation with Nicodemus and he says, hey, Nicodemus, you need to be born again. All the religion in your life, all the traditions that you follow, all the stuff that you think makes you good, Nicodemus, that stuff's just duct tape. And religion isn't even good duct tape. That's like off-brand duct tape, okay? He's saying, You need you need total transformation. You need something to happen to you inside of you, you need something to change you. You need an entire new identity, you need a new birth. You need to be born again. That's what Jesus is doing. He's actually dealing with the core issue. See, there's this concept that's at the basis of our faith. It's the whole reason that Jesus came to deal with this issue called sin. And there's a concept called original sin, which just means that from the moment we're born, we are born flawed. That we're born fundamentally broken in some way. And that's a concept that's not very popular in our world today. A lot of people like to take that and intensify it and make it seem like that means that we're all horrible human beings and we're all just awful and terrible. And that's not what it means at all. We're awesome. God made us. God doesn't make bad things. But we're born flawed. The Bible says it in many different places. In Psalm 51 5, David wrote, For I was born a sinner. Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me, I was born a sinner. Just meaning I miss the mark. I don't meet the standard. I mess up. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. Paul's kind of explaining the whole process of getting to know Jesus and what it changes. He said, Once you were dead, and he's talking about spiritual death, once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that we have been saved. Here, Paul introduces this idea of a sinful nature. Same thing that we see with Psalm 51. I was born this way. I have a nature. Naturally, naturally, I will sabotage myself. Naturally, I will be selfish. It's not a conscious choice, it's my nature. Because I was born fundamentally broken. That doesn't mean that as a child I wasn't innocent. Children are innocent. I have a son that's three months old, Judah. He's our third child, and he's amazing, and he's he's adorable, and he's sweet. He's just he's awesome. He's so innocent, but he will not stay that way. No matter how well we parent him, he will not stay that way. There's never gonna be a moment in his life where I have to pull him aside and say, Judah, let me give you a tip. Let's say you do something that you know you shouldn't do and you you feel like someone's gonna catch you, just make up a story that isn't true. That's called a lie. Just tell a lie, blame it. I'll believe that your older brother or sister did it. I'll totally buy that, right? So just blame it on them and they'll get in trouble instead of you. Just do that. I'm not gonna have to explain to him the concept of lying. He's gonna figure that out on his own. And it's not gonna take him very long. I'll have to work really hard with him to value telling the truth, even when that means that he might get in trouble. He's gonna watch children's programs, galore, that have songs about telling the truth that make telling the truth sound like a lot of fun, but it's not gonna work. He's gonna lie, it's gonna happen. Because we're born with something off. Just something's out of whack in us. And it affects us in very, very deep ways. So much so that all the great things that we can do, because we are we are meant for greatness. Original sin, fundamental brokenness, it doesn't mean that we're not incredible. God made us and he says that we're good. He created us in his image, he created us to be like him. That means we can create things, that means that we can solve major problems, that means that we can meet needs, that means that we can do unbelievable things, but in order to do unbelievable things, we've got to overcome ourselves, don't we? I mean, so often we are our own worst enemy. Even the things we're best at, our best qualities, oftentimes sabotage us the most. From the time I can remember, I've talked a lot. I've always been a talker. And I've liked talking, and I'm pretty good at talking. I enjoy talking. You know what gets me in more trouble than anything else in my life? Talking. It's I I'm very passionate about talking about Jesus. But anytime I start becoming passionate about talking more than Jesus, I get in a lot of trouble. A lot of trouble. It's it's a strength that becomes sabotage for me. My daughter. I love my daughter so much. My daughter's two years old. This is Lily, it's my beautiful girl. She's amazing. She's very photogenic, she's got a good smile. This is the face, though, I see more often than not. This is her normal face. Okay? And like, that's just like a teenager in a two-year-old's body, isn't it? It's not a face that that gives you an idea of of anger, but it's basically like she's saying with her face at all times, excuse me, who are you? Like, that's that's the face that I live with. And this beautiful little girl, that's my daughter. Lily is the most particular human being I've ever met. And she's only two. She she is, it doesn't make sense how particular she is about things. She has to have things a very specific way. She has to. So, for example, and this is before she was two years old. We had a nativity scene last Christmas that we put on our coffee table. We've done this for 10 years, as long as we've been married, 11 years. We've had this same nativity set. And Lily decided that for some reason everyone in the nativity set needed to be laying down at all times. And so this was our nativity set this year. I took a picture. That's a picture I took back at Christmas. We would set it up every single day. We would put them back where they needed to be. We'd set them all up straight up, sitting, standing. And then Lily would come in and just put them all upside down. It wasn't like rage. She didn't knock them over, she just turned them over. It's like something really bad happened right after Jesus was born. Like that's what it looks like. It's like Jesus was born, and then something went down. And Joseph's passed out, and Mary's the sheep is dead. The sheep is just flat out dead. Something, something bad happened that night. And no matter how many times we stood this thing up, she had to put it down because she's particular. She has to have things a certain way. I brought this with me, and this is dangerous that I even have this. There's a fairly good chance that she is freaking out right now. This is Pink Night Night. Show this to you guys. Pink night night. It's a blanket, but we don't call it blankets. She calls it a night night because she's particular. If you call it a blanket, she says no, it's a night night. She's convinced, right? And we have like 30 night nights at home, but they don't matter. This one matters. This is pink night night. And if she goes to bed, if she goes anywhere, pink night night comes. And those of us who have had kids, I'm sure that we've had similar experiences. But let me explain how particular she gets. On Pink Night Night, let me try to find this. Here we go. There are two spaces, two spots that are on this one edge. You can't really see it, but I'm pointing to it here. This is a seam. You know, it's where the sewing comes together. It's a seam. There's one here, and there's another seam right here. They're on the same edge. Lily has to have a seam in each of her hands at all times while she holds Pink Night Knight. So if you put her to bed, it's not enough just to give her Pink Night Knight. It's not enough to put Pink Night Knight on her. You have to put Pink Night Knight on her, and then you have to hand her one of the spots. She calls them spots. She goes, she just goes, spot. And like, when you have kids, you'll do anything to get them to go to sleep. Like, you are totally, you don't care. You're like, my shame is out the window. What do you need? And so I put this spot in her hand and she takes it, she puts it to her mouth, and then she holds up with other hand and she goes, spot. I put the other spot in her hand. And let's say she tosses and turns at night, and Pink Night Knight gets jostled, and she wakes up at 3 a.m. like she did last night and can't find the spots. She just brings Pink Night Night in our bedroom and screams at the top of her lungs at 3 in the morning. She just screams, Spot! As loud as she can. This happens every day in my life. Okay? Because she is particular. Now, I'm not upset at how particular she is. I love it. In fact, it's like one of my favorite things about her. Because if I can teach her the right values, if I can teach her to care about the right things, she's gonna be that particular with boys. And I'm gonna love that. Like I'm gonna love it. You know how dads think about the conversation they might have the first time a boy comes to date their daughter, dads with daughters, right? Some of you guys I'm looking at there, I know some of you guys like Tab, you've thought of that, right? You've you've those. So here's how it's gonna go for me. Like you might, you're a big guy, Tab. You have muscles and stuff. You might be thinking physical intimidation. That might be your approach, and it'll probably work. Um I'm not gonna go that route. I can't, number one. But number two, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna sit this little 13-year-old boy down, or whatever he is. He's gonna look 13 no matter how old he is. And I'm gonna say, here's the deal, son. You think I'm your problem. I'm not. The chances of me ever seeing you again are slim. Because you're gonna say something or do something tonight, and she's never gonna want to talk to you again. And so I'm praying for you. I'll probably never see you again. Have a nice life. That's the conversation I'm gonna have. Because if I can just if I can just get her to care about the right things and be that particular, the boy that actually makes it through all the filters, he's gonna be a keeper. I'm gonna be like, wow, son, I'm so proud of you. You've you're amazing. You're amazing. Please be in our family. Please stay. That's what I'm gonna do. She is so particular, and it's a good thing. I like it. It's one of her best qualities. She's not gonna be an easy person to push around or influence. I love that about her. But one day, that great quality in her will sabotage her. One day she's gonna be particular about something that isn't important, or she's gonna be particular about the wrong thing. She's gonna make a choice out of that that's gonna hurt her or hurt other people because she's a human being. And we have this fatal flaw that exists within us, and it causes the best parts of us to hurt us. That's why Jesus says we need to be born again. Something inside of us needs to change. Now, when he says this to Nicodemus, it doesn't make any sense to Nicodemus. In his time, your birth was really important, even more important than it is now. Like, for example, raise your hand if you don't mind participating. Raise your hand if you know your great-grandfather's first name. Okay? Keep your hand raised if you know your great-great-grandfather's first name. Nicodemus could have named his lineage five, six, seven hundred years. Nicodemus could have told you every single person in his family, as far as his direct relatives, all the way back to his original ancestor Abraham. Because in Nicodemus' day, your lineage was everything. Who you were born from, your birth, that meant the world. And in his mind, and in the mind of his people, he was born Jewish. And to the Jewish people in Jesus' time, if you were born Jewish, you were born right. You're good. Not only was he born Jewish, but he was he was from good stock. His family was very influential. We talked about that a few weeks ago. His family was important. So to Nicodemus, hearing these words, you need to be born again, he's like, What are you talking about? I I'm I'm a Jewish man that was born from an important family. Why would I need to be born again? I can think of a lot of other people, whole groups of people that need to be born again, but I I got a good birth. And Jesus says, No, no, no, that stuff's duct tape, man. None of that stuff changes the problem inside of you. That was hard for Nicodemus to hear. It's really hard for our culture to hear. I mean, honestly, this statement that Jesus makes, you must be born again, it's a very offensive statement in our world today. It's very countercultural. Jesus is always countercultural. The number one philosophy that that really dictates the way that our culture, the one we live in right now, operates, is this philosophy called secular humanism. Okay, I won't get into all the details, but this governs our government, this governs our school systems, really everything. And secular humanism is really simple. It states that we do not need God or a belief in God to have everything we need. For life and fulfillment. We have everything we need inside of us. As human beings, we have all that we need to be fulfilled, to be healthy, to be happy, to be whole. So we don't need God. We don't need to believe in God. And you see that play out in our world, right? Anytime there's a problem in our government, anytime there's a problem in our society, no one is gonna get up there and say, you know what we need to do, people? We we need God. We need to pray about this. Did you remember that Abraham Lincoln called the entire nation to pray? It was a presidential order. The whole country needs to pray. Like that would never happen now. I grew up in school and I was taught all these things I needed to be successful in life. And none of it had to do with God at all. I was taught that I have everything inside of me, in myself, I have everything I need to be happy. I just need to be myself. That's what I was taught. And so that idea, that philosophy, when you put that up against Jesus saying, you need to be born again. You don't have everything you need. You need total transformation, you need something brand new to happen inside of you, that doesn't agree. That's why it's so important that we go to Jesus and not our culture, because our culture cannot help us if our culture will not even acknowledge the problem that exists. How can our world give us the solutions that we need when our world won't even admit the problem? Because it won't do it. If we have everything we need inside of ourselves to be happy and whole and fulfilled, then why aren't we all happy and whole and fulfilled all the time? Why do so many people in our world struggle with depression? Why do so many people in our world struggle with anxiety? Why don't we wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and be like, oh, it's you. You're amazing. I forgot how awesome you looked in those last eight hours. I mean, why don't we why don't we walk around with unbelievable confidence in who we are? When life gets hard and problems present themselves, why don't we just go, I got this, no biggie. Why do we freak out? If we have everything we need inside of ourselves as we are, to be whole and to be happy and to be healthy, then why are so many people in our culture so miserable? Why? It's because we don't have everything we need within ourselves to be whole. We don't. And our culture might ignore the basic problem inside of us, but our culture cannot ignore the symptoms because the symptoms are obvious. We have cultural symptoms, we have racism in our country, we have injustice, we have we have all kinds of injustice. We have social injustice, we have economic injustice. There's prejudice, it's everywhere. And our culture won't address the real problem. Our culture won't call sin what it is, but our culture will come up with an infinite amount of duct tape to alleviate the symptoms. Right? A new governmental program will come out that's supposed to make this better. Some new cause, some new campaign's gonna come out, but it's all duct tape. It's all meant to address the symptom of the problem. Even look at our culture right now, being so politically correct. I've grown up in that. And it's amazing because what our culture's told us is hey, don't say what you're thinking. Don't say any of the hateful things that you're thinking, but our culture doesn't say, hey, address maybe why you think the hateful things to begin with. No, our culture doesn't care about that. Just don't say it. So you can't solve a problem you won't admit is there. It's not just cultural problems, it's personal problems, right? We can't ignore the symptoms of our fundamental brokenness. We cannot ignore them. They're everywhere. We have more at our disposal than practically any group of people that have ever lived in history. We have more food, we have more money, we have more security, we have more safety, and yet we're worried out of our minds. Right? I mean, anxiety is something that so many of us deal with. We're so worried with so little to worry about. Why? We're lonely, even though apparently we have thousands of friends on Facebook. Right? Thousands of people who we call friends, but I don't have anyone I can talk to. That's a symptom of a deep problem. We're bored out of our minds when we have more to do and more entertainment at our fingertips than we could even imagine, but we're bored. And so if we have everything we need inside of us to just be whole and happy, what gives? See, we can't ignore the symptoms, and so there's a lot of duct tape out there that you can use to make the symptoms manageable, to hang on. That's what duct tape does, right? And there's pills and there's self-help books and there's therapy and there's all kinds of things. And hey, don't get me wrong, duct tape is awesome. I need it. My mirror's fallen off without it. I use duct tape. I there's there are things in my life that are totally duct tape that I like, distractions. Every once in a while, I need some mindless entertainment just to unwind. Totally need that every once in a while. Don't need it as much as I act like I need it, but I need it every once in a while. I go to counseling every single week, and I have for five years, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I love it. It's awesome duct tape. It's like the best duct tape in the world. A person helps me deal with my problems. It's awesome. And they have to. They have to listen to me talk. Like, at least you guys can get up and leave. If you want to, you can. And I can't say anything. It's so you imagine how awkward that would be if someone gets up and I'm like, hey, where are you going? Come back. Like, you can't do that. My counselor, he just has to nod his head, and it's awesome. It's good duct tape. Duct tape has its place. So I'm not saying that, hey, we shouldn't take medication if we need medication. I'm not saying that we shouldn't get help. I'm not saying that there aren't great books out there to read that can help us get through life. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, let's call that what it is. That's duct tape. It doesn't solve the problem. And we have to ask ourselves a very important question. Is manageable and hanging on? Is that what we're going for? Is that the dream that you have for your life? Do you dream of hanging on? When Jesus showed up and said this in John 10, 10, when he said, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full, was that Jesus saying, Hey, good news, I brought more duct tape? Now, now you have another way to deal with the symptoms of your problem. But see, that's the way oftentimes the church treats Jesus, like he's the best duct tape. You've tried these things, you've tried this, you've tried that. Hey, Jesus is better than all those things. Well, yeah, but it's not because he's a new solution to the symptom, it's because Jesus is gonna do what nothing else can. Jesus is gonna deal with the problem itself. Jesus can fundamentally change what is fundamentally broken. And only he can do that. Only he can do that. And he does it through this process he calls being born again. What does that mean? It means that we admit that there's a problem. And isn't it nice to be able to do that? If you're new to his hands, you need to know how messed up we all are. Because in church, you can go to church and you can pretend that you're great. But how exhausting is that? I'm so glad that we don't have to do that here. I'm so glad that we don't have to walk in here and wear our best clothes. And when someone says, How's it going? We have to let me tell you how good it's going. Man, wow, what a week. I just can't even wait to go to work tomorrow. I I love my children. You know how we say that about our kids? I love my kids. I love them. You want, do you want them for a day? You want them? I mean, they're that good, right? We don't have to do that here. We actually have the freedom to be able to say, yeah, stuff's not going that great. I've got some issues, I don't know what's wrong. I can't seem to break through this one issue that I'm having. We get to actually admit that we've got issues. That's a good thing. Because that actually opens up the door for God to come in and deal with that thing. Because he doesn't force his way in. And when we're willing to admit that there's a problem, God can come in and solve the problem. Being born again means you're one of the few people in the world brave enough to admit you have a problem. Because the world will tell you it's definitely not you. Your problem is definitely not you. You just be you. But when our world says you just be you, it does not mean be honest with yourself, take stock and evaluate yourself and determine what needs to change. That's not what the world means. See, if we will admit that we have a problem, it opens this incredible opportunity up for God to get involved with our problem. Can you can you stop and consider the fact that God loves you so much? He wants your problems? He's the God of the universe, he can do whatever he wants. And if if any sane human being was God, they'd be like, no, thank you, humanity. Don't need your problems. But God loves you so much that He's like, hey, can I can I please can I can I please solve your problem? Can I please help you? Can I please, can I please heal you? You know, something someone says something to you 25 years ago that further broke what was already broken. I want to deal with that. I want to fix that. I want to heal you. I want to make you whole. God loves you that much. And when we invite him into our lives and we say, hey, God, I need to be born again. I need a total transformation, I need something to change, and I believe that you're the only one that can give that to me. A process begins for us. A process of change. It's a change that he calls being born again. 2 Corinthians 5.17 puts it this way. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, and a new life has begun. This is God fulfilling, yeah, absolutely. This is God fulfilling a promise he made in Ezekiel 36 when he said, I will give you a new heart, I'll put a new spirit in you, I'll take out the stony, stubborn heart, and I'll give you a tender, responsive heart. I'll put my spirit in you so that you can follow my decrees and obey my regulations. God is saying, look, I don't expect you to do it on your own. That would be cruel. I want to do it for you. I want to do it with you. Just let me in. Think about what it means to be born. Not physiologically. I've seen that three times. I'm good. But like, when you're born physically, you're born into a family, right? And you weren't in control of the family you were born into. Some of you would be like, had I known before, had they shown me like which family would you like to be in? You're like, I chose a different family. You didn't have any choice. And your family didn't have any choice that they got you either. So just think about that, right? But you were born into a family, and that means you have to deal with that family. You have to deal with all the shortcomings, you have to deal with all the frustrations. When you're born again, you are born into the family of God. The Bible says that when you give your life to Jesus, when you commit your life to him, that he adopts you as his literal son or daughter. It's not that in God's eyes you're like a son or daughter, you are his son or daughter when you accept him. So you're born into a new family. When you were born the first time, you're born physically, you were born into an inheritance. It may not feel like much of one, but you you actually were born inheriting something. You inherited whatever your family had. Right? Some of you had a family that maybe had a lot, and so your inheritance was great, and you had a nice home, and you lived in a nice place, and maybe that inheritance is even gonna stick around for you, and it's gonna be something you can leave to your children. Some of us had a pretty, pretty small inheritance. What we were given because of the family we were born into wasn't much, but see, when you are born again, you are born into an inheritance. And the inheritance is what Jesus said it's the kingdom of God. God has everything, there's nothing that God lacks. And God can bless us with everything we need. His inheritance is endless, and when you're born again, you're part of that family. The Bible actually calls you an heir. You're an heir as part of God's family. You're born into that when you accept Jesus. You inherit the kingdom of God, and that's more than just heaven. That means a life this side of heaven where the joy and the passion and the love and the fulfillment of heaven is with you everywhere you go. You get that inheritance when you're born again. When you're born the first time, you get a nature, right? And that nature just so happens, inconvenient as it may be, to be very much tied to the people you were born from. That's why all of us have a moment in our life where we go, oh no, what I just did is my father. Or like what just came out of my mouth, that I just I just heard my mother speak in my voice, and it freaked me out. Right? We have a nature, and our nature is very much influenced and determined whoever it is that we came from. When you're born again, you get a new nature. And that new nature, it's God's nature. There's gonna be a moment where you're gonna do something, and instead of you freaking out, going, like, oh no, I sound like my father, you're gonna be like, oh my goodness, I I sound like my father. Like I. That's what it means. You're gonna start to desire things that God desires. You're gonna say things that build people up. You're gonna see things in a way that's full of wisdom that did not come from you. It's a new nature. That's what you get when you're born again. The problem gets dealt with. And so if you're here this morning and you've never been born again, you maybe even come into church, maybe you've been avoiding church. Church is not the answer. Jesus is. And he wants to come into your life and he wants to change you. But not because he doesn't love you, it's the opposite. It's not judgment, it's mercy. He wants to change you because he alone knows who you could be. And it is not too late for you. I don't care what stage of life you're in, it is not too late for you to be the person you were born to be. But you have to be born again to be the person you were born to be. And it just means going, Jesus, I accept you. I admit that I have a problem. And I'm willing to admit that maybe the problem is me. And other people have brought their sin into my life and it's hurt me even more. And I need, I need help, I need healing, I need to be made whole, I need you, I cannot do this anymore, and I'm sick and tired of duct tape. I want a solution, right? And it happens. The moment you do that, it happens. And it's it's not some ritual. You can do that right now in your heart. That could have happened this very second. It's just a prayer between you and God, and when you make it, just go with it. Celebrate it. You can say, hey, today I was born again. I made a decision today to have Jesus in my life, and I'm a new person. On your way out, sign up to get baptized, just go the whole distance. Right? And as we wrap up, because I promise that's coming, I see the clock. I think it might be fast. I don't know. I want to leave on this though, because this is really important. This is why we're actually spending two weeks on this section of verses. But our average is still way up. Seriously, it really is. There might be a lot of us here saying, I've been born again, I don't feel different. Like I've been following Jesus, but why do I still struggle with these temptations? Why do I still think these thoughts? I've been born again, why don't I feel like the problem is gone? And I just I want to do two things. I want to encourage you and suggest something to you. Number one, I want to encourage you that it's a process. It's a process. 2 Corinthians 5.17 said, a new life has begun. God can change things instantaneously, and he does. But more often than not, it's a process of growth that we come into. The good news for you is that God always finishes what he starts. Always. And so if you've accepted Jesus and you don't feel like things are changing, you feel like you're like, I'm depressed, and I'm I'm upset and I'm struggling with this, and I've made this mistake, and I'm a Christian, I'm not supposed to do this. No, it's it's a process. Just be in process. Be willing to be in process. But the suggestion, that's the encouragement, just be in process and know that God's gonna finish it. The suggestion is this there's a difference between spiritual birth and spiritual maturity. And sometimes we have to decide to be more than babies. We get born again, and it's amazing. And God's like, oh, my child, but he doesn't want us to stay spiritual babies. He wants us to grow, he wants us to mature. Jesus called it being born of the Spirit. He wants us to mature in the Spirit of God. And there are things we can do in our lives to grow us. There are whole parts of my life where I'll just be honest, I am a spiritual baby. And I struggle. And I go to God and I go, why, why, why, why can't I get past this? Why can't I shut up? And God's really honest with me, and He reminds me, you need to grow, Justin, you need to mature. You're not done yet. And what a relief that is. There's a difference between spiritual birth and spiritual maturity. Next week we're gonna talk about what it means to grow and mature spiritually. Because we are in process, and God will finish it. But there's things we can do that help. This week, though, let's remember the family we're we've been born into. And let's enjoy the inheritance that we have. And let's let's live in relationship with a Father that's adopted us. And let's start paying attention to that new nature that He's put within us. And let's start saying yes to what that nature desires. And let's live this life and let's enjoy it. Will you pray with me? Jesus, thank you so much for being a lot more than duct tape. Thank you for offering us an actual solution to the real problem that exists within us. You do something for us that our culture and our world refuses to do. You actually help us deal with what's really broken. Instead of just excusing it away or offering us some super temporary fix that's only gonna last a while, God. We want to be changed, we want to be new, we want to live the life that we were created to live, and we won't settle for duct tape when we can have the real solution. We love you, Jesus. Your love is everything to us, and it's just an honor to know you. Please bless us this week. And again, be with our high school students as they leave tomorrow. Bless them and show up in a big way on their trip, Lord. We ask all this in your name. Amen.