0:02 Good afternoon, NCCF family. So good to see everyone again. I wanted to share a little bit on the topic of being born again. Back in February, our brother Jeremy had shared a wonderful message on what it means to be born again. And he 0:16 had a really fun illustration with the kids to illustrate that point. And I thought today that I could perhaps re-emphasize some of the points which brother Jeremy had shared with us. And there's two reasons for this. One is 0:31 that this is a very foundational message. And as we have a new generation of children growing up and as we have new visitors and new members joining our church, I think it's important to reemphasize some of these key foundational uh teachings. So that's 0:46 number one. But the second thing and reason is because I've noticed in my personal life that it's one thing to be born again, but it's another thing to be a healthy Christian. And when we talk about born again, the image that Jesus 1:01 uses is like a baby that's born into this this world. And most of the time, babies are healthy. But at the same time, there are some babies that are born into the world and they're sick and they need medicine and they need to go 1:13 back to the hospital. And I've noticed in my Christian life that it's possible to be like that where I can say yes, I believe in Jesus, but as I look back in my life, I felt like a very sickly Christian. And I wanted to share a few 1:27 things that I've learned in that journey so that others can have a healthy Christian life. So that's the purpose of today's sharing. So for perhaps we could first start off with talking about being born again. What does it mean and why is 1:40 it so important? So if you could turn with me to John chapter 3 and verse three. Let's start there. John chapter 3 and verse three. This is the story of Nicodemus coming to to Jesus. Nicodemus was one of the the leaders of of the 1:58 Jews. John chapter 3 and verse three. And this is what Jesus says to him. He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And we see this phrase that Jesus uses, "Truly, truly." 2:16 And we know that everything that Jesus says is important. But when Jesus says truly, truly, it's almost as if he's saying, "This is really important. I really want you to pay attention to the statement that I'm going to say." And if 2:28 you look at the living Bible, the translation of this in the living Bible for verse three, it says, "With all the earnestness I possess, I tell you this." And then he talks about the importance of being born again. And so Jesus talks 2:40 about born again in verse three. And also the same thing in verse 5. Jesus says, "Truly, truly again, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And I want to focus on that 2:54 last phrase. he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And I thought perhaps just to illustrate that point, I wanted to show a a little video that we did in in Sunday school. This is from Pilgrim's Progress. And in this video, we can see 3:08 what happens when Christian and hopeful come to the the pearly gates of of heaven. And also there's another fellow called ignorance that comes along with them. So tech team, if you don't mind, could you uh play that video? The three 3:22 pilgrims soon reach the gates of the celestial city. Hello pilgrim. Welcome to the celestial city. Please show me your wonderful. I'll take you to the seat. Please stand here. What about you little pilgrim? Where is 3:39 your role? What role? I never received any role. How could you come without a role? You should have followed the king's instructions exactly. Guards, buy this fool's program and take her [Music] 4:00 away. Welcome to the Celestial City. Please follow [Music] me. Okay. Okay. So that's the that's the 4:19 clip. And so the question is where do we get the scroll from? Okay. So this is a little scroll that we made in in Sunday school class. But this is I know just a video. But there is a spiritual reality to this that one day all of us are going 4:34 to go to the celestial city and the question is going to be hey where's your scroll? So it's really important for us to know what does the scroll represent and more importantly where do we get the scroll? And that's what I want to share 4:45 on on briefly today. And the short answer is that the scroll is a it's like a passport. You know, when you visit a country, you need a passport to get into a country. This the scroll is like that. And it represents an assurance of our 4:58 salvation. And so, how do we know that we're born again or how do we know that we're received? And there's two basic steps into that. The first is repentance and the second is faith. And I really want to stress today the importance of 5:11 repentance because I grew up in a church outside of of NCCF. And for most of my Christian life, what I heard was in order for you to be born again, you just simply have to believe. And repentance was hardly ever mentioned. And for me, 5:25 that was one of the key reasons for why my Christian life wasn't so healthy in those early days. So importance is repentance is a really important thing. So what is it? And so if you look at repentance, the word repentance in a 5:37 like a Bible concordance, this is the definition. It means having another mind or having a change of mind. That is what repentance is. And so it means that we need to have another mind or a change of mind especially towards sin. And the 5:53 question that we can ask ourselves is do we want to sin? That is the key question. Do we want to sin? Not will we sin. Okay? But do you want to sin? Because even as as Christians we might sometimes uh slip but the question is 6:09 not whether we slip but the question is do we want to sin or not and if we say we don't want to sin then that is a good indication that we have a heart that's repentant. Now we can say we are not going to sin but then what are we going 6:23 to do? Well repentance is a means we're going to change our minds and thoughts towards something else. And so instead of thinking about sin and how to sin, now the difference is now we're going to think about God. And if you look at the 6:35 way Jesus talks about repentance, please turn with me to uh Mark 1, let me show you how Jesus preaches the gospel. Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 verse1 15. This is the way Jesus preaches. He says, "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is 6:52 at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." So we see here how repentance and belief are tied together. It's not separated. And then Jesus mentions here the kingdom of God is at hand. So when we repent, it's turning away from sin. 7:07 But what do we turn towards? It turns towards the kingdom of God. In other words, that God must be the king of my heart. So in other words, all my thoughts and all my actions should be governed by God's principles. That's the 7:21 what it means to have the kingdom of God in our hearts. Now, I remember talking to someone about Christianity and this person said to me, you know, Wenhai, being a Christian is so restrictive. You can't do this, you can't do that. It's 7:33 so boring. Why? Why do you want to be a Christian? And I remember hearing that comment and I think to myself, I have never been more free in my entire life than when I took my Christianity seriously. Because if you think about 7:44 the people in the world who they do drugs, they they go drink, they watch pornography, do you think those people are actually happy? No, they're not. They're actually slaves of those of those sins. But ever since um God 7:57 brought me to this church and helped me to start take Christianity seriously, I've experienced the freedom in my life. So I can definitely say that having God's kingdom in my heart, having God be the king of my heart has been the best 8:10 thing that has ever happened to me. And so that is what repentance is. Is turning away from our sins and turning towards God and saying, "God, you must be the king of of my heart." Now the other thing that Jesus mentions here is 8:23 to believe and it's not only important to repent but we also must believe. So the question is what does it mean to believe in Jesus? And before I came to this church I often thought belief was just knowing that Jesus is the the son 8:37 of God. But I really like the way John the Apostle John describes what belief is. So if you could turn with me to John in chapter 1. John chapter 1. In verse 12, the Gospel of John chapter 1 and verse 12, this is the way the 8:55 Apostle John describes what belief means. It says this, "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name." So you notice in the very first part of this verse, he 9:11 says, "As many as received him," and that is the same as what's as what we know as belief. So salia receive and believe are tied together here in this verse. And that's what I like to think of believing in Jesus is. It means to 9:25 receive him into our hearts. It's like if I had a house and I were to receive you, I'd say, "Hey, why don't you come over? Let's have dinner. Let's spend some time together. Let's get to know each other." That's what it means to 9:35 receive someone into your heart. Now, the one thing I would say is that when it comes to receiving Jesus into hearts, the way I've typically heard uh this being mentioned in Christian circles is it's like if my heart were a house, it's 9:49 as if I were the owner of this house and I'm doing Jesus a favor to say, "Jesus, why don't you come into my house as a guest? I'm doing you a favor by opening a door." That's typically how I've I've heard the gospel preached. But that's 10:01 not exactly uh scriptural because if you look at what the Bible says, the Bible says that Jesus purchased us at a price. And then the Bible also says that God created us for him that we might live for him. So in other words, this 10:15 illustration of a house, it's almost as if the better way to say it is this house actually belongs to God. God purchased this house and I'm living in this house unrighteously and I've been living in this house unrighteously all 10:26 these years. And what I'm really doing is saying, "Jesus, when I open a door, this house, Jesus, belongs to you. I shouldn't have lived in this house doing my own thing for so many years. This belongs to you. You are the rightful 10:37 owner of this house. Please come on in." That is what it means, I believe, to receive the Lord. To say, "Lord, you are the rightful owner of this house. Please come in." And so if we have repentance and we have faith receiving Jesus like 10:52 that, then the Lord can do a work in our hearts to cause us to be born again. And this idea of being born again, it's a very real thing. It's not simply a theory, but it's a very real thing. I remember when I started coming to NCCF 11:07 and God started changing my heart, the people who knew me at the time said, "When I there's something very different about you." There's someone who said, "Hey, you're like a different person altogether." together and I said, "Yeah, 11:17 that's true." Cuz God had mercy on me and he did something in my heart. So I want to encourage everyone here that if you haven't sought this already, seek to be born again, seek for repentance, seek for faith, and God can do a heart, a 11:29 work in your heart that can change you to a different person. Now that is what I would say is the the basics of being um born again. There's a really good article on the CFC India website called a clear gospel message which explains 11:41 this in much better detail than what I've just said. Um, but this is a summary of what it means to be born again. Now, back to what I was saying earlier. Let's say you are born again and now you're like a baby that has come 11:53 into this world. Now, how do we make sure that this baby is is healthy? Okay, that's also a very important thing. It's not good enough to simply be born again, but how do you make sure that this baby is is healthy and thriving and growing? 12:06 And as I look back on my my life, especially the early uh years when I first came to NCCF, there were a few things that I found really helpful for me and that I thought I could share and so that others hopefully can have a a 12:17 healthy Christian life as well. And so a couple things I'll say briefly that has helped me a lot. Uh the first is to seek for humility. That's the key thing to have a a healthy Christian life. And so please turn with me to Matthew chapter 12:32 18. Matthew chapter 18. And in the context of this verse, Matthew 18:3, the context of this verse is that the disciples are saying to Jesus, "Hey, who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And then Jesus calls 12:44 a child and said to the disciples in verse three, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." So notice what we read in John earlier was that if you're not born 12:58 again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. in the same phrases you hear and what Jesus is saying is that unless you're like a child in what sense? In a sense of humility, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So, it tells me 13:10 something that in heaven there's no proud people in heaven. There's only humble people. And so, if I want to get to heaven, that's one of the things I must seek for is is humility. And I've noticed that it's very easy to have 13:22 pride creep into our lives. Like I remember doing some ministries at a church and as soon as you do something and people recognize you for it, you think, "Hey, I'm I'm somebody now." And so all these ways in which pride can 13:33 creep into our life, we have to be very careful for. And um I really love a gift that I got from uh someone in the church last year. It was a miniature toilet. I got a miniature toilet as a gift last year and it was a reminder for me. this 13:48 is my role in the church, a a toilet cleaner. And that's the that's the way I want to go uh my my entire life. Um because that's what allows me to have a Christian a healthy Christian life. So that's the first thing, seek for 14:00 humility. Seek for humility. Um the second thing is restitution or repaying the the things that we owe to to other people. There was a study that some scientists had had done once and what they did was they looked at these 14:14 long-distance runners and they said, "Hey, if I just add 100 gram of weight to this runner's shoes, what would be the difference in their time?" Okay, so 100 grams like this like the weight of an apple. Okay, so if you add like the 14:27 weight of an apple to someone's shoes and have them run, what would the difference in their time be? And when they did the analysis for it, it turned out for a marathon runner, it could have made a difference between like, you 14:38 know, 50 seconds or so, which is a big difference when you think about a marathon, right? 50 seconds could really determine a race. And that's how much difference 100 g makes. Now, that's just for a marathon race. But think about the 14:49 Christian life where we have to run this race until the end of our lives. How much would a little weight, a little incumbrance hinder us from our entire lives? And one of those things I wanted to talk about is restitution. and maybe 15:02 we've taken something from somebody or some government or some company. It's really important to return those things early on in our lives. Uh just to give a practical example, let's say you work at a company and you maybe take the pens or 15:16 the paper from the the company, the right thing to do, I believe, is to return the paper and the pens to the company. Now, if you talk to anyone in the company about it, okay, they're say, "Look, we don't really care." Okay? But 15:27 as a Christian, I really believe that God looks at these little things like that. And if we're faithful in these little things, being restoring the things that we don't owe to we owe to other people, God takes notice of these 15:39 things. And then long-term, this makes a big difference in the way we can run this this Christian life. So restitution is also a very a very important thing. A third thing that really helped me uh in the early days especially was the study 15:51 of the the word of of God. And so we know this um this phrase or this verse in in Peter. I'll just read it real quick. It talks about how we're supposed to desire the the milk of the word. This is in 1 Peter chapter uh 2:2. First Peter chapter 2 verse 2. And 16:11 it says that like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. Now, this verse I've heard before, but it became a bit more personal to me uh recently with the birth of our of our 16:25 son. Um when our our son was born, he was he was pretty healthy, but after the first couple days, his weight started dropping and some of the the numbers and the blood tests weren't looking so good. So, it got to a point where we actually 16:36 had to go back to the hospital to to get him checked out. So, thankfully, he's fine now. No, no, no worries. He's he's fine now. But the reason why his weight had dropped so much was because he wasn't getting enough milk. Okay. And so 16:49 for me that was something that stood out to me. It's like wow this word of the Lord. If it's like milk then if I don't have enough of it it's like it's like a life or death situation especially for a newborn. So it just reminded me this is 17:01 so important especially in the early days to to study the word of God and to have that um in our in our in our hearts so that we can grow. And the beautiful thing about being in this church is there's so many wonderful resources 17:13 where we can study the word of God. You guys know the CFC India website. There's things like through the Bible, the verse by verse studies. Absolutely fantastic. So, if there's ever questions about how do I study the word of God, those are so 17:24 many resources that we can use to help explain passages. And that's really important. Study the word of God. That'll help a lot with um with our Christian growth. The fourth thing I want to say is to don't go back to old 17:38 sins. Okay? Don't go back to old sins. And when the Lord takes a hold of our lives and he changes us, um it's quite likely that some of the old sins which had trapped us in the past, he frees us from. But as we go along the the 17:53 Christian journey, there can be these temptations to come back and say, "Hey, what if I go back to that old sin just for a little bit? Okay, what if I go back to that old website and just just for a little bit? What would happen?" 18:03 And those thoughts have come into my mind. But I was reminded of what um Peter has told us. If you turn a couple pages over, second Peter 2. It's a very, very dangerous thing to go back. It's a very, very dangerous thing to go back. 18:16 Second Peter chapter 2 20. And I I hope this I'm I'm saying this lovingly. I hope this will put a a healthy fear in our hearts of going back to old ways. 2 Peter 2 uh verse 20. Chapter 2, 20. For if after they have escaped the 18:32 defilements of the word of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and our savior Jesus Christ and here's the part and they are again entangled in them and are overcome the last state has become worse for them than in the first. And so that 18:46 principle was something that really scared me to say if I ever go back to that old website or that old sin again than my current condition especially after all God has done for me here it's going to be much worse than what I was 18:57 was before. And so that really put a healthy fear in me and say, "Look, I I don't want to ever go back. I don't ever want to turn back. Lord, I I must I must walk forward." So that's the fourth thing I would say. Don't go back to old 19:07 sins because it's going to make it worse than it was before. And then the last thing I want to say that was so helpful for me uh in the early days of NCF was um that I had a home. I had a spiritual home here. Previously, I had gone to 19:21 different churches and in those churches I was kind of like a visitor. I was into ministry even like doing music and stuff for them. But I always was a visitor. I'd come and I'd go. But when I came to NCCF, this is one of the few times in my 19:34 life where I felt, hey, I finally have a spiritual home. And that's what NCCF is is for me. It's a spiritual home. And it's kept me uh safe so many years. And just like a baby needs a a good home to to grow. In the same way um spiritually, 19:48 we also need a home. And so my encouragement is to anyone who wants to seek to be born again, don't just live the Christian life by yourself, but seek to be part of a family, seek to be part of a church, a spiritual home, because 19:59 that is how we can grow. So these are some practical things I hope will be helpful to people because as I look back in my early days, I found where things were that were helpful for me. And so I want to end uh my sharing today with um 20:12 a word of of hope. Okay? So um if we could look at our memory verse from a couple weeks ago. This is from Jeremiah chapter 33. Okay verse three. I want to share a message of of hope. Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse three. And our memory verse says call to 20:31 me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know. So the question is one, what was happening in Jerusalem at the time of this verse? And then secondly, what is this great and mighty thing that 20:47 Jeremiah is talking about? Okay, so one, what is the context of this verse? What was happening in Jerusalem? And secondly, what is this great and mighty thing? So the tech team, if you could pull up the first picture, please. So this is what was happening in 21:03 Jerusalem at the time. It was in the middle of a siege. Okay? And what happens in a siege is that the enemy surrounds your your city. They have the their soldiers and all their weapons around the city and they cut off the 21:15 food supply into the city. So then now you in the city, you have nothing to eat. And slowly over time, you start to starve. And when the people get weak enough, the enemy comes in. And this is how the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem. 21:27 And so when Jeremiah spoke this verse, you can see in verse four, they said, "Hey, this is happening in the time of a siege." But what I really like about this chapter is that it's the message of hope that the Lord provides in this 21:40 situation. And the reason I'm sharing this is I'm talking about being born again. And when I think about this picture, I think of the loved ones in my life who might be under siege, so to speak. Uh it might be our children. Uh 21:52 it might be our parents, the ones we love, who we really want to be born again. Um and you could use this illustration in other areas in life as well, I'm sure. But when I think about their situation, I'm like, this is hopeless. I don't see them coming to the 22:05 Lord anytime time soon. That's what it looks like. But what I see here is what the Lord is saying is that there's going to be a hope for them. The Lord hasn't given up on them. For example, I really like what they what the Lord says here 22:17 um in in verse 6, chapter 33:6, end of verse 6, he says this, I will reveal reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. It's such a beautiful verse. Imagine hearing this at a city that's starving, is literally starving to 22:33 death. And not only is the Lord going to restore them physically, but spiritually, they're going to have an abundance of peace and truth. And then in verse 11, the city will have a voice of joy and a voice of gladness, the 22:44 voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the voice of those who say, "Give thanks to the Lord, for the Lord is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting." And so, this is something I want to claim in in faith that we can 22:57 call on the Lord. We can pray for our loved ones and the ones who are not yet born again because the Lord has not given up hope on them and I don't want to give up hope on them. I know the Lord is working on our behalf um to bring 23:09 them into salvation. And so that was something that has encouraged me as it comes as it relates to um the salvation of our loved ones. We saw a little video earlier about pilgrim's progress and I thought perhaps we could end on on that 23:23 note as well. And so if you go to the next picture to the text team, thank you guys. This is another picture from Pilgrim's Progress. So earlier we saw Christian and Hopeful come to the the gates and they got through the gates and 23:36 now this is what happens at the end. And in this picture, what I really love is the expression on their faces. So this is when they finally see Jesus and you see how happy they are. Christian hopeful. They're so happy and you see 23:49 the Lord Jesus open his arms and so happy to to welcome them. Why? because they've been faithful. And so this picture is also another reality that all of us will have to face one day. But the question is what's going to be the 24:01 expression on our faces when we see Jesus? Will it be a smile? Will it be a a sadness? And a lot of this has to do with how we live our Christian lives. It's not simply again being born again, but are we a healthy, thriving 24:14 Christian? Are we faithful to the Lord? And if so, this can be our reality. And this is something that motivates me to continue to follow the Lord.
