Born Again

Ecclesiastes 1:2-4, 8-9, 14

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.

All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

Everything we see, everything in our lives and in nature is wasting away. This world and these bodies are in a constant state of decay, destined to death. Everything that is under the sun, is worthless and temporary. If you're living for this world, if you're living for this life, if you're living for yourself, it is all a waste. It's meaningless. What profit is there in this world? People live for money, for a relationship, for a job, for recognition, for the weekend, for the TV, whatever it may be. Most people are only concerned with themselves. Where is the benefit in that? Our lives are nothing. We are dust. We are here for a few years, and then we go into the ground, then the next generation follows our footsteps, and after that we're forgotten. What is the point of all this?

Our only purpose in this life is to find God. Without Him, this life is a complete waste. 

Isaiah 40:6-8 All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

Our lives are vanity. Anything we do that is outside of God, will fade away and perish. While seemingly beautiful, our lives here are finite, like the life cycle of a flower, fleeting as a vapor. We're here for a moment and we're gone in the next like a puff of smoke. 

James 4:13-14 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

It doesn’t matter what job you have or how much you make. You can make it big or not make it at all, and it won't make a bit of difference at the end. I see my friends and my family go to work every day, earning their wages, investing all of their time in their jobs, then they go home, they watch TV, they eat food, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again on repeat the next day and the next day and the next day. We spend all our time, accumulating money, working our lives away, when it's all going to go to someone else. Once you die that's it. Everything outside of The Lord will be forgotten, and you'll realize your entire life was spent in vain. Now we wonder why we struggle with depression, and anxiety, and divorce, and heartbreak, and drunkenness, and addiction, and drug abuse, and suicide. This world is Godless, and if you chase after the things of the world, you will lose your soul. Without God, you'll always be miserable, chasing after the wind, running to fill that void, where nothing ever will. 

Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

Before I found Jesus, there was a void in my life. While I was trying to fill it with fun times, friends, partying, work, sports, sex, drugs, entertainment....you name it, nothing would satisfy me. Everyone has that same void within them, all of us are struggling to fill it our own way…and it’s there for a reason. We are all missing the most important ingredient to life. And that is a relationship with the one who gives life! God is the only one who can fill the void. Your soul is real, and it longs to be reunited with its Creator. Without Him, we’ll always feel that emptiness and that void within. He is the Light, and it is only He who can bring you out from the darkness. 

Who has ascended into heaven, and descended from Proverbs 30? Who's body never decayed in Psalm 16? Who is the Almighty God that became a man in Isaiah 9? Or the Messiah that was killed in Daniel 9? Or the King mounted on a colt in Zechariah 9? Who is The LORD Himself who was pierced in Zechariah 12? 

His name is Jesus. Hundreds of these prophecies were written of Him thousands of years in advance of His coming, so that there would be no question of His identity. Jesus is your Creator. He is our God who descended from heaven and became a man. He is The Son who was sacrificed by His Father, like Isaac in Genesis 22. He is the Servant who bares our grief, who carries our sorrow, who took on all the sins of the world, and was crushed as a substitute for the death and punishment that we deserve in Isaiah 53. He was crucified in Psalm 22 so that he could redeem us from Hell in Psalm 49. He was buried in a rich man's tomb according to these scriptures, and He resurrected on the third day as it was written of the prophet Jonah. 

Every man is subjected to the hopelessness of death. But there is hope in the one who overcame death. Jesus died, was buried, and He rose from the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a historic fact. This man came to this earth and raised from the dead. And there were eye witnesses-hundreds of them that testified of this truth. And they believed it to such a degree that they even died for that truth. I feel the same way, I would die for this truth because I know it to be a 100% certainty. There is hope in The One who overcame death and now lives forever. He is the way. He paved the path. There is no other savior. There is no other messiah. There is no other sacrifice for sins. It is only Jesus who can cleanse you and me of our sin. And it is only He that can give you eternal life by the same Holy Spirit. You must not only believe, but you must receive the Holy Spirit to be saved. 

So how do you receive The Holy Spirit? 

John 3:3-7

While Jesus of Nazareth was walking the earth in the flesh, there was a man He knew named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee (a religious class in Jerusalem) and ruler of that class. He was one of the only religious leaders that recognized Jesus’ authenticity as a true prophet.

In these verses, Nicodemus approaches Jesus in the night (not wanting to expose himself as a sympathizer yet). He acknowledges Him as a special man of God, yet Jesus abruptly cuts him off and dives right into what he needs to hear. He tells Nicodemus that unless he becomes born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is confused…he questions Jesus asking if he needs to crawl back in his mother’s womb to physically be reborn. Jesus further explains that when we become born in the flesh (physical birth), we must be reborn in the spirit (spiritual birth) to enter God's Kingdom. In verse 7 he concludes that you must become born again.

This is the problem with religion. Religion does not teach this. Religion teaches their own rituals, rules, and traditions; but they do not incite you to become born of God, because they can't control that process! Most of these religions and cults are systems of control that abuse God's word for their own financial gain. But the Gospel is the opposite of religion! Jesus was broke when He was on the earth. The early church gave away all they had, they did not enrich themselves like the religions of the world! Why do you think Jesus came and was so viscerally against those scribes and pharisees who operated in hypocrisy, and was righteously angry with the religious leaders of the time? It's no different in the churches today. It is not religion that saves you-it's Jesus Christ who saves you. And it is only by placing your faith in Him fully, that you can be born again.

Even Nicodemus, who was actually a righteous religious leader, and was open to the Gospel, and would have been called a good man of God by his community, even he had to be born again to receive eternal life. How much more do we?

Jeremiah 29:12-13

Everyone who calls upon the name of Jesus will be saved, you must do so genuinely. God says that when we call upon Him, through prayer, we must seek Him with the fullness of our hearts. This cannot be a prayer uttered in vain repetition. You must bear your soul and take that leap of faith with every fiber of your being, surrendering yourself to Him completely.

Ezekiel 36:26-27

If you seek The Lord by faith, He will change you. I experienced this change immediately and drastically within my own heart. Others may experience it slowly over time or more calmly in the moment. Regardless of your personal encounter, the truth remains. Once you reach out to Jesus in prayer, seeking Him with all your strength, asking Him to forgive you and to save you, The Holy Spirit will enter and completely transform you. He will cleanse you of all your sins, changing your hardened heart into one that is now soft and filled with love. He will take out your heart of stone and exchange it for a living heart of flesh.

This is not a figure or a metaphor or an allegory. What is described in Ezekiel literally takes place in the heart of the born again believer. Their heart, their mind, their attitude, their lives, everything about them is completely transformed. They become a new person. They have new desires. Everyone who born again has a burning desire and passion for others to be saved. They have a fervent compulsion to preach the gospel. When you receive the Holy Spirit, He places these desires within you, and if you do not have that desire and passion for others to be saved, you can be absolutely sure that you're not saved.

Psalm 51:7-12

Remember, we are all dirty in the eye's of God. We are sinful creatures that have rebelled against Him and His ways. We are guilty of violating His commands, and therefore, we stand condemned before Him. The Holy Spirit is the only cleaning solution for the soul. There is no amount of soap, or bleach, or good deeds that can take away the filth in your heart; the filth of lust, the filth of hatred, the filth of lying, the filth of pride. Accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the only way our guilt can be forgiven, and only by the shedding of His blood can our sins be washed away forever.

It’s as if you’re standing in a courtroom and you are on trial for a crime that you committed. The Judge is rightfully sentencing you to the death penalty…but before you’re taken away to prison, an innocent man stands up before everyone, and he says, "No Your Honor, it wasn't Nick who committed that crime...It was Me." He takes the punishment for you, and you get to walk free. That’s Jesus. And every one of us is on trial before God. Once we accept His sacrifice, we are then covered by His righteousness, and He becomes your defense attorney. When we receive the Holy Spirit, God no longer sees the filth that was in our hearts, but He sees a new heart that has been made clean. We are then eternally cleansed, so long as we abide in Christ (John 15:3-7).

God loves you so much that He died for you. He took the punishment of sin upon Himself so that you wouldn't have to. He desires you to receive Him and to embrace Him with the fulness your heart so that He can save you from the punishment of Hell. But you have to take the first step. You have to humble yourself, you have to turn away from sin, you have to place your faith in Jesus with your entire being, and ask Him to forgive you. When you do this, you will be changed. And if you don’t experience that change immediately, get back down on your knees, ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit, and don’t stop seeking Him until you do (Deuteronomy 4:29).

Genesis 32:24-30

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

I know I’m sending a lot your way right now. I know there is much here that needs to be considered and thought through. But wrestling with God, wrestling with His Word and with eternity is the most important thing you can do (Genesis 32:24). Every human being at some point in their life has these questions; Where did we come from? Why are we here? And where are we going? I happened to stumble into the answer through my own personal suffering, and I am here to share this Truth with you.

Don’t stop wrestling with God until you see him face to face (Genesis 32:30). Don’t let go of Jesus until you receive His blessing (Genesis 32:26). Whether it takes a night of prayer, a week, a month, or six months. Whatever it takes…whatever the cost, it’s worth it. Everything under the sun will pass away, but your soul is eternal, worth more than all the riches in the world (Mark 8:36). Seek not the things that are under the sun, but seek The One who has ascended above the sun. You know what you have to do and now you know how to do it. But it's up to you to take that first step. In order for you to be saved, the very same Spirit which raised Jesus from the grave, must be planted within-you. It is only by receiving the Holy Spirit that you can be given eternal life. If you are not born again, if you do not undergo a spiritual rebirth, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Turn away from your sin, turn to Christ, be forgiven, and receive the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God Bless,

Nick