Lift your voice and just worship Him, your life is in His hands, no matter what may come your way, with Jesus with you in the journey of life, you will make it. Thank Him for being in His presence this morning, thank Him for His mighty works in your life, thank Him for the grace that He released lavishly upon you, thank Him for what He’s done in time past, what He’s doing today and what He will do in days to come, glorify His name, thank You Father, in Jesus name we prayed.
Everlasting Father we bless Your name for this morning, we honor You, we give You praise because forever You are the King, You are the Lord of lords, You are the King of kings, no one is like You, You say yes, no one says no, You say no, no one says yes, You are the unquestionable God, the irreversible reversal, the incomparable God, the only living God, the wise God, omnipotent God, omniscience God, omnipresent God, thank You Lord for who You are, our life is complete in You, be thou lifted and glorified in the name of Jesus.
This morning we have come before You not before any man to pour out our soul and to receive of Your Spirit, Daddy let heavens be open and pour Your Spirit upon our life in the name of Jesus. As the word comes forth let it produce salvation, let it produce deliverance, let it produce freedom for those that are bound in the name of Jesus. At the end, oh Lord, let Your name alone be glorified, thank You mighty Jehovah, in Jesus name we prayed.
I want to give God the praise and glory for the privilege to be the one to share the word this glorious morning; I want to thank the pastorate beginning with our daddy in the Lord, the APICR, I want to bless the Lord for the pastorate also have been very wonderful, I want to bless the Lord for you that are privileged to be present in the church, the Lord will bless you in Jesus name. My prayer for you is that none of us will go back the way we came in Jesus name, the word that will come forth this morning will do you good in Jesus mighty name.
This is our month of renewal, a month of renewal and our anchor scripture is taken from Romans 12: 2, it says and be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. The title of my message this morning is The New Birth in Christ and the Bible text is taken from John 3 1-7.
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from heaven: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.
The second scripture, just one verse, is from John 3:16, we all know it, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Praise the living Jesus!
Christian denominations all over the world particularly Pentecostals believe in the doctrine of the new birth, what you call ‘born again’, and it is derived from Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus in John 3 where Jesus told him unless or except you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God, and except you are born of water and of Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God, so Pentecostals, evangelicals all over the world believe in the concept of born again, that is the new birth.
The new birth is used interchangeably by different people to mean regeneration; some call it spiritual renewal, others call it all kinds of name, simply put, some call it salvation. The narrative or the story is built around the same thing, how Jesus came into the world to reconcile us, the sinful man to God through faith in Him, praise the living Jesus! That’s just what it’s about. In some translation, to be born again is seen as to be born of the Spirit, to be born of God, to be born from heaven, all these point to one and the same thing, as Jesus was having His interaction with Nicodemus, remember He was a teacher or a ruler of the Jews, Jesus stating plainly, there is only one way to make it into the kingdom of God and that is if you are born again.
What then does it mean to experience or to have the new birth? We hear born again, is it everyone that says he or she is born again that is truly born again? The answer is no, the Bible says in Matthew 7 that by their fruit we shall know them. In the Book of Acts of the Apostles 11:26, when Jesus had departed and the apostles were moving around and trying to congregate together in homes and in corners, people saw them and said these ones carried the nature and the character and the attitude of Christ, it was unbelievers that saw them, noticed them and called them Christians. Praise the Lord!
So those that are born again don’t carry it on their head, those that are born again don’t announce it, it is your action and your character, your conduct that make people say whether you are born again or not. The new birth in Christ is a spiritual experience, it’s not physical, is a spiritual experience that transforms a person from the kingdom of darkness where sin has dominion to the kingdom of light, that is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of His dear Son. It is saying you Felix, but something happens in your life that moves you from where you were to a new dimension is a spiritual experience, is a spiritual event that takes place in your heart. Praise the living Jesus!
Colossians 1:13 says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, that experience moves you or shifts you from where you were, the kingdom of darkness where sin and death prevail to the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God, where you have liberty and freedom and you share in the inheritance of Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Son of God. It involves a radical shift from a state of spiritual death and separation from God to a state of spiritual life and union with God.
Let me mention here that if you come from the beginning, there are three phases of a man’s life; man was originally generated because Bible says God said let us make man in our image, Genesis 1:26-27, and Bible says after His image, make He them male and female. So at that point you were generated, you were born originally in the image of God, that was generation. However, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 committed sin and that fellowship was severed. Praise the living Jesus!.
And so when the fellowship was severed, there was a separation between man and God. Isaiah 59:1 & 2 talks that God’s hands are not short that He cannot deliver, God’s ears are not heavy that He cannot hear you, but your sin and my sin has separated us from God. From that moment Adam and Eve committed sin by disobeying God and by eating that forbidden fruit, from that moment man lost fellowship and so man degenerated.
But a time came when God said He needed man back again, He needed that fellowship, He needed to connect back with man and the only way – of course before them, men were offering sacrifices, they were doing all manner of things but God was no longer interested in the blood of bulls and rams, and He needed to come down in the form of man to offer Himself through Jesus once and for all that through the shedding of His blood our sins may be wiped away so that everyone that would accept Him as Lord and Savior will receive eternal life, that’s why you and I are privileged to be in His presence this morning.
At that point we become generated when we connect with Jesus Christ, accepting Him, believing in Him as the Son of God and accepting Him as our Lord and Savior. At that moment we become born again and so we become regenerated. Praise the living Jesus!
John 5:24 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Romans 6:11 says, “Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus our Lord.” When I was preparing, this song was coming, it was singing in my heart, ‘I’m no longer a slave to sin because I’m now a child of God’, before we leave here this morning, many of us will be singing that song in the mighty name of Jesus. The power of God will come down and separate you from the prison yard of sin and put you in the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus.
Although the new birth experience is a spiritual one orchestrated by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it has physical manifestation; even though being born again happens in your heart in the spiritual realm, it physically manifests. Bible says those who are born of God do not commit sin, 1st John 5:4, those that are born of God, they overcome the world, and in Galatians 5:22 & 23, those that are born of God bear the fruit of the Spirit who brought them to God.
So when you get born again, your conviction, your speech, your actions, your reactions, everything about you change, we are going to see it as we proceed, something must happen when you get born again. If you get born again, all your friends are still with you, you are still going to the places where you used to go, you are still wearing what you used to wear, you are still doing everything you used to do, check it again. Once you get born again certain things become inconveniencing, naturally speaking, how many have had that experience before?
Once you are born again, see the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God, something in you will tell you ‘I’m now a child of God’. Those that have experienced regeneration or the new birth through faith in Christ manifest the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law, this is because they no longer live according to the law of the flesh, they now live according to the law of the Spirit of God, if you read that Galatians 5 from 16 downward, you have a better understanding.
There are some important points that we need to note regarding the new birth in Christ: number one, it is a spiritual birth, a spiritual regeneration or renewal which changes a sinner to a saint and a slave to a child of God. It changes that experience or event, changes a sinner to a saint.
Remember Apostle Paul, until the encounter with Christ in Acts 9, he was a murderer, he was going to destroy the church at Jerusalem, he had the authority and he was going with all energy, ready to destroy, ready to kill, but he encountered Jesus on the way, and from that moment he never went back again the same. May I pray for somebody that because you are here this morning, the experience and encounter you will have with Christ this morning will change your story permanently in the name of Jesus.
Galatians 4:7, (New Living Translation) says, now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child, when you get born again in the Spirit, you are no longer a slave, sin no longer have dominion over your mortal body because another law, the law of God begins to rule your life, and since you are His child, God has made you His heir, an inheritor of His kingdom, a part of His kingdom.
Romans 12:2a says (New Living Translation) don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Colossians 3:9-10 says, “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man (when you are born again, the old man is gone, there’s a great change since I met the Lord) with his deeds; 10and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.
Number two, the new birth is obtained through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Romans 10: 9-10 (New Living Translation), if ye openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (very simple). 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. Acts 3:19 (King James Version) says, repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of God.
Number three, it is not a physical or religious event, it’s not a physical or religious encounter, it’s not something like coming to take Holy Communion. Holy Communion is just synonymous with born again, even water baptism is more synonymous with born again, it is the next process, when you’ve gotten born again you can now go for water baptism. Praise the living Jesus.
So if you are baptized without giving your heart to Jesus, you have just done nothing, you just went to bath so to speak, you just went to wash, that is nothing, that activity is physical but salvation, the born again or the new birth is a spiritual thing, it’s not the same as laying of hands or donation, you can be a bishop and you are not born again. Praise the living Jesus.
Because it’s a personal encounter with God and His Spirit, it is a personal spiritual encounter of a person with God and a deliberate and intentional decision to start a new life in Christ, it’s not what somebody can force you to do, it’s not what somebody can coerce you to do, it’s not what somebody can cajole you to do, is not responding to emotional issues, it is something you think through and it’s something that comes from your heart, that is why you get born again with your heart not with your head. Praise the Lord.
So when we are talking you are saying give your heart not your head to Jesus, He needs your heart not your head, He needs your heart not just your show, the Lord will cause us to freely release our heart to Him in the name of Jesus.
Number four, the new birth experience is a long time promise of the Father. Even in the Old Testament, God has promised that a day of refreshing will come, that a time will come when He will change the heart of man and take away the heart of stone and give man the heart of flesh. Let’s see Deuteronomy 30:6, it says, and the Lord said thy God will (circumcision of the heart is like purging you and cleansing you of your sin), circumcise your heart. and the heart of thy seed, to love thy Lord God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Let’s see Ezekiel 36: 26- 27, a new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, I will give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and you will do them. These were written in the Old Testament pointing to the experience you and I are having or we have even this morning, so it’s a long time promise of the Father.
Number five, the new birth is obtained by the mercy and grace of God and not by any work of righteousness or any good deed. You remember the experience of Cornelius in Acts 10, Bible says Cornelius was a good man, he was known in the church for alms giving, he was known for his good deeds, he was so good in church that God had to send Peter to go and minister salvation to him. Praise the living Jesus.
His good works, his popularity, his fame, his alms-giving could not save him, he needed a man of God, he needed someone to come and minister Christ to him and the moment he had that encounter with Peter, he and his household became saved. May you have that encounter this morning with the saving grace of God in the name of Jesus.
Let’s see Titus 3:5 & 6, it says, “Not by work of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” 1 Peter 1:3 (New Living Translation), it says all praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by His great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation. God raised Him from the dead, connected us to Him and so we are very positive in all that we do because we know if we die today, we have a portion in the kingdom of God, may that be your story in the name of Jesus.
Next point, those that are born again manifest the nature of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; all things are become new.” Matthew 7:16 says, “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? The answer is no. Romans 8:29, talking about the character and the nature of Jesus, it says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
When God calls you into His kingdom, He makes you to begin to conform with the image of His dear Son, that is why in Romans 12:2, it says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If you are born again, you are still doing what you were doing, confessing what you were confessing, talking the way you were talking, reacting the way you were reacting, check your salvation, check you born again, something must have been wrong somewhere, once you are born again, there must be a great change, may you begin to experience that change from this morning in the name of Jesus.
It produces a complete change in individual and gives him a newness of life. I’ve mentioned to us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, the change will be visible in every aspect of your life – your lifestyle, your relationship, your affection, your confession, your conduct, your character, your actions and reaction to things and man will just change, like is it not this person again, what happened? Not because you are not that person, but because the Spirit of God in you now has crucified the flesh, what would have happened and you’ll say I will slap you, it’s no longer convenient for you to say, if by mistake you say it, your heart hits you and you begin to struggle, something just tells you something is wrong, but those that are sinners, Bible says in Romans1 that because they will not accept God in their hearts, that God gave them to a reprobate man, they become hardened in the spirit, nothing shakes them anymore, but when you are born again, the Spirit of God shakes you.
The last point, the new birth is a free gift of God, you don’t buy it with money. Some will say come and give money, come and fill form, I will give you salvation, lie, no man can give no man salvation, not even by laying of hands, salvation is a thing of personal conviction by the Holy Spirit and it happens internally. ‘I made him born again’ is a lie, no one can make you born again, only Jesus, the Son of the living God can make you born again when He releases His Spirit and the Spirit moves you and convince you of the world of sin, then you can decide to become a part of His kingdom.
It’s a free gift of God which is made available to everyone who is tired of living a life of guilt and sin. For you to take that decision, you must understand something is wrong with the life you are living now, you must be hungry for a change, and you know when you are in sin everything about you just goes wrong, you may enjoy pleasure and abundance temporarily, Bible say let’s not be envious of the prosperity of the wicked because it just lasts for a moment. Praise the Lord.
What will it profit you if you gain the whole world and you lose your life? Why not sow your seed into God’s eternal treasure where you will reap and harvest till this life and the life to come, why invest in things that is a mirage that will fade away very soon, no matter how much or how big or how great you are in the best of it you are an ordinary man, and Bible says it is given unto man once to die, so every man will die but when you die what will you give as account for your soul? That becomes the important question.
So you must be willing to encounter or experience that transformative power of God and the freedom that Jesus offers you. Ephesians 2: 8-9 says for by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9not of works, lest any man should boast; nobody should tell you if I didn’t meet you, you will not be born again, even if GO meets you and you’ve not been convinced by the Holy Spirit, you will not be born again. Praise the Lord. So it’s not about who met you, it’s about who God led to expunge His word into your heart and the decision is yours, not mine. The Lord will bless you in Jesus name.
In conclusion, I want to go back again to John 3:16 that says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe in him will not perish but have everlasting life, why would you want to perish when there’s already a window of opportunity offered to you freely, free of charge that you may connect, move from the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of death to the kingdom of light and the kingdom of eternal life, the kingdom of God, it costs you nothing, it takes nothing away from you.
Beloved, John 1:12 says that as many that received him, he gave power, (all you need to do is to receive Him as your Lord and Savior, period) to become sons of God, even to them that believes in His name. What we ask you to do this morning is to know that the new birth experience is real, God has given you His Son to redeem you from your sin, all you need to do is recognize Him as such, as the Son of God, acknowledge Him as your Lord and personal Savior and make up your mind to live a new life which He offers you this morning, won’t you rather take that decision today?
You know many times we like – I personally got born again, went back, got born again, went back like three times because we were in school. When you born again in school, we were in Deeper Life Campus Fellowship then, then when you get home and see your friends you reborn again, you unwind, when you go to school again you do those two things; when you are stressed, sometime when there’s no money you are just trying to find a way to cope because social life in school could be very expensive for the big men children, so you use the born again thing to – when you get home again you meet your friends and you move again, until I decided on my own that it is now time to belong there and since then God has been faithful. Praise the Lord.
So it’s a decision that you need to make, we all in one way or the other may have experienced what I’m talking about, that turbulence, that argument, but the question is, now is the accepted time, you keep saying tomorrow, tomorrow, what if tomorrow never comes? Nobody plans to die but there are a lot of people that just slept last week or so, around the office circle two people died, one was at home, went out to buy something, since then around 9:00 p.m. in Ijebu-ode, they didn’t see him again till now. The other one was at home, came back from church, sat down, had lunch, said let me go and sleep, it became the sleep of death, may that not be your portion in the name of Jesus.
Rise on your feet everybody, what if tomorrow never come? Now is the accepted time. Lift your voice and say Father, I thank You Lord for this morning, I worship Your name for the privilege You’ve given to me, for the gift of eternal life given to me through Christ Your Son, thank You Lord for the word that has come.
[Altar call]
Lift your hands and say Father, in the name of Jesus, Father, release Your grace upon my life. The same grace that brought me to Christ, cause it to sustain me from now till the end of my life; give me grace to follow, give me grace to remain consistent in Your vineyard, give me grace, oh Lord, to follow You even until the end of my life.
I need Your grace, much more grace more than when I believed in the name of Jesus. The grace to weather the storm, the grace to overcome temptation, the grace to rise never to fall again, the grace not to be ashamed to be called a child of God, Father give me that grace in the name of Jesus. Thank You Father, in Jesus name we prayed.
In Mark 16: 15 downward, Bible says these signs shall follow them that believe. Listen, the disciples began to cast out demons and heal the sick and raise the dead before they got baptized in the Holy Ghost, they were born again but they were not baptized in the Holy Ghost, but God gave them power and it says these signs shall follow them that believe in my name.
So because you are born again you are going to pray, say Father in the name of Jesus, because I believe in You, let every sign of Your kingdom and the power thereof begin to manifest in every area of my life beginning from today in the mighty name of Jesus.
Why not lift your voice and begin to cry to God, these signs shall follow them that believe. Bible says without signs and wonder, these people will not believe; let signs and wonders begin to follow me everywhere I go in the name of Jesus. I know I am saved to save others, use me as an agent of salvation to bring much men to Your kingdom in the mighty name of Jesus. Do not allow me to go empty-handed, rather, put men to my credit in the name of Jesus. Make me that tree that bears fruit, make me that tree that bears fruit for You, for the work of Your kingdom. Use me oh Lord in the mighty name of Jesus; thank You Father, in Jesus name we prayed.
Father we thank You Lord for the word that have come, thank You Lord because of the way You’ve delivered it, thank You for the conviction in the heart of men, thank You Lord for those that it has lifted up. Thank you for those that it reminded that they need to remain connected to you, thank You for those that made up their mind to give their heart to Jesus, thank You for those that are born again even this morning, accept our praise in Jesus name.
Daddy we ask oh Lord the same grace that You gave us when we got born again, increase and multiply on our life as we continue in this journey with You till Your kingdom come in Jesus name. Thank You Father, in Jesus name we prayed.
