Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Birth and Infancy Survival Basics │ Msg 416 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Birth and Infancy Survival Basics │ Msg 416 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: I love the story of a little boy in Sunday
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  Speaker 1: School who, when asked by his teacher if he knew
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  Speaker 1: how to explain the Trinity, replied with great enthusiasm, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that's easy. The Father, the Son, and the Holy smoke.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you love that well?
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  Speaker 1: Sadly, when it comes to serious issues of our faith,
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  Speaker 1: many people have to stumble through thick holy smoke to
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  Speaker 1: find their way to truth. In few matters of great
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  Speaker 1: importance suffer more from the billowing of theological smog than
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  Speaker 1: the issues of the new birth how one actually becomes
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  Speaker 1: a Christian. In my series Growing Up in God's Family,
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  Speaker 1: we're allowing the scriptures to clear away the confusion and
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  Speaker 1: speak plainly and compellingly about what it means to be
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  Speaker 1: a child of God, how to begin a relationship with Him,
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  Speaker 1: and the importance of growing up in His family. Do
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  Speaker 1: you know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that you
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  Speaker 1: are in God's family today?
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  Speaker 3: By his grace?
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  Speaker 1: I want to begin to remove the smoke from your
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  Speaker 1: eyes and offer you a clear path toward helping you
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  Speaker 1: answer that question with certainty and with understanding. After all,
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  Speaker 1: your eternal destiny may be at stake. Join with me
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  Speaker 1: as we together look into the words of First Peter
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one. That's where I invite you to turn. If
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  Speaker 1: you have your Bible First Peter Chapter one, I'll begin
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  Speaker 1: reading at verse three down through verse seven from the
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  Speaker 1: New Living Translation. Peter writes in verse three of chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: all praise to God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: It is by his great mercy that we have been
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  Speaker 1: born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
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  Speaker 1: Now we live with great expectation, and we have a
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  Speaker 1: priceless inheritance, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you,
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  Speaker 1: pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
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  Speaker 1: And through your faith, God is protecting you by his
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  Speaker 1: power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to
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  Speaker 1: be revealed on the last Day for all to see.
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  Speaker 1: So be truly glad. There's wonderful joy ahead, even though
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  Speaker 1: you must endure many trials for a little while. These
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  Speaker 1: trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is
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  Speaker 1: being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. Though your
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  Speaker 1: faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when
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  Speaker 1: your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring
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  Speaker 1: you much praise and glory and honor on the day
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  Speaker 1: when Jesus Christ is revealed to.
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  Speaker 3: The whole world. Ministry never gets too far from obstetrics
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  Speaker 3: and pediatrics. Spiritually speaking, I suppose we could say that
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  Speaker 3: the church is.
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  Speaker 2: Really in the baby business.
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  Speaker 3: Our first concern is for a good, healthy birth, assisting
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  Speaker 3: people as they come into the family of God, and
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  Speaker 3: immediately on the heels of that, our second major concern
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  Speaker 3: is a consistent and balanced growth that follows, which never ends.
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  Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, it goes right on through
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  Speaker 3: time into eternity. Just this past week I read people
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  Speaker 3: like trees must grow or they die. There's no standing still.
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  Speaker 3: A tree dies when its roots become blocked. Psychologists and
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  Speaker 3: sociologists spend their lives trying to patch up individuals and
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  Speaker 3: institutions that have stopped growing. Let me ask you a direct,
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  Speaker 3: and quite frankly, a personal question. Have you stopped growing?
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  Speaker 3: Looking back over the last two, three, perhaps as far
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  Speaker 3: as five years, can you see any measurable growth.
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  Speaker 2: In your life?
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  Speaker 3: Now?
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  Speaker 2: I don't misunderstand.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not talking about producing great, massive amounts of fruit
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  Speaker 3: every week of your life, because we all go through
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  Speaker 3: periods which we do not produce a great amount of fruit,
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  Speaker 3: but we grow some of you looking back just a
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  Speaker 3: few months, would have to say, these days have been
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  Speaker 3: some of the toughest days of my life. But looking back,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know when I have grown more. I'm talking
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  Speaker 3: about growth, not the production of fruit. I'm talking about
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  Speaker 3: continually moving on from infancy to maturity. I suppose we
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  Speaker 3: could best illustrate it with the use of a little
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  Speaker 3: snail shell. In fact, if you have your outline handy
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  Speaker 3: that you were handed as you came in inside the bulletin,
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  Speaker 3: you will notice I had placed on the opposite side
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  Speaker 3: of the outline a diagram a little drawing of a
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  Speaker 3: snail shell. I say snailshell as an illustration of this
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  Speaker 3: because it begins at a single point and.
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  Speaker 2: It enlarges with each increasing curve.
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  Speaker 3: Also, there's a rhythm to it, there is a cycle
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  Speaker 3: about it. It doesn't move from one sudden stair step
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  Speaker 3: to a giant step and then another giant step. It's
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  Speaker 3: a quiet, ever enlarging, ever moving, ever increasing circle like life.
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  Speaker 3: And it's yet all one unit, this little shell. Think
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  Speaker 3: of it like that as we consider the thought of
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  Speaker 3: growing all the way from birth to death, through four
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  Speaker 3: special stages, and by the way. Each one of these
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  Speaker 3: stages has a distinct message and a distinct focus. For example,
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  Speaker 3: the statement of infancy is simply help me. The focus,
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  Speaker 3: of course is surviving. If you will help me, I
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  Speaker 3: can survive. If you don't help me, I will die.
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  Speaker 3: That's what the infant would say.
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  Speaker 2: Help me eat, help me.
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  Speaker 3: Be clean, help me learn about danger. Help me as
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  Speaker 3: I grow toward becoming an adult man or an adult woman,
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  Speaker 3: help me. The focus is surviving. As we continue growing
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  Speaker 3: on for who knows how long. For some people it
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  Speaker 3: takes months, for others it takes years, we move into
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  Speaker 3: the realm of childhood. The statement of childhood is different
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  Speaker 3: in infancy, the statement will help me. Now that we
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  Speaker 3: become children have become children, our statement is tell me,
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  Speaker 3: tell me what I need to hear. This is an
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  Speaker 3: era of discovery. I need to learn about life from you.
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  Speaker 3: Tell me where I am going, Tell me how to
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  Speaker 3: interpret what is happening, Tell me about my world, Tell
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  Speaker 3: me about myself. I'm only a child, but I can learn.
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  Speaker 3: The focus of being a child is on learning, not
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  Speaker 3: simply surviving. Because now I have picked up some techniques
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  Speaker 3: that will help me keep myself alive. By now I've
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  Speaker 3: learned to feed myself. I've learned to talk. I have
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  Speaker 3: begun to walk. I am able to get about. And
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  Speaker 3: the older I get, the more I can dress myself
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  Speaker 3: and carry on life. I can carry my own books,
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  Speaker 3: I can read them, and I can learn from them.
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  Speaker 3: It's an entire era of learning, this era of childhood,
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  Speaker 3: which leads into that third mysterious era of adolescence. The
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  Speaker 3: focus of adolescence is challenging. The adolescent does not say
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  Speaker 3: help me, certainly does not say tell me. The adolescent
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  Speaker 3: of our day says, show me, as if to say,
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  Speaker 3: prove it to me. You show me if it's real,
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  Speaker 3: You demonstrate for me. If there's something to it, Just
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  Speaker 3: show me and leave.
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  Speaker 2: It to me.
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  Speaker 3: I'll decide the focus again, I repeat, is a challenging.
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  Speaker 2: That's a safe word, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know that we should connect the word immaturity
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  Speaker 3: with adolescents as I have done. Perhaps we should simply
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  Speaker 3: call it irresponsibility, as if that's better. Psychoanalyst Aaron Stern
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  Speaker 3: brilliantly writes a book Me the Narcissistic American. In it,
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  Speaker 3: he says, to attain emotional maturity, each of us must
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  Speaker 3: learn to develop two critical capacities, one the ability to
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  Speaker 3: live with uncertainty, two the ability to delay immediate gratification
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  Speaker 3: in favor of long range goals. He continues, adolescence is
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  Speaker 3: a time of maximum resistance to further growth. It is
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  Speaker 3: a time characterized by the teenager's ingenious efforts to maintain
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  Speaker 3: the privileges of childhood while at the same time demanding
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  Speaker 3: the rights of adulthood. If he had stopped there, it
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  Speaker 3: would have been tough enough. But he adds this sentence,
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  Speaker 3: it is a point beyond which most human beings do
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  Speaker 3: not pass emotionally. Ever met an adolest adult, an honest
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  Speaker 3: answer would have to be every day of my life.
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  Speaker 3: You can often tell that they are adolescents by the
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  Speaker 3: way they drive, by the way they refuse to shoulder
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  Speaker 3: their part of the load, by their inability and lack
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  Speaker 3: of concern for listening, by their determination to have their way,
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  Speaker 3: thank you, by their unwillingness to change for the good
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  Speaker 3: of someone else. See, it isn't that all of that
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  Speaker 3: is wrong. It's a process. We go through that process
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  Speaker 3: becoming adults, and if you will allow me, it takes
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  Speaker 3: that process to learn how to do it. You have
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  Speaker 3: to discover the emptiness of serving yourself before you begin
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  Speaker 3: to appreciate the value of helping others. No one jumps
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  Speaker 3: from childhood to adulthood in any healthy sense of the
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  Speaker 3: word without going through some adolescence. The tragedy is when
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  Speaker 3: you find people thirty and forty years old still adolescence.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, they are the major problem people of
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  Speaker 3: a church. They have grown up bodies, but they have
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  Speaker 3: adolescent emotions and adolescent minds. Now there's a fourth step,
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  Speaker 3: and it's the one to which we all would wish
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  Speaker 3: to attain. It's the step of adulthood or maturity. This
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  Speaker 3: adulthood stage is saying follow me. That's the message of adulthood.
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  Speaker 3: As an infant, I said help me. As a child,
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  Speaker 3: I said tell me. As an adolescent, I demanded show me.
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  Speaker 3: But as an adult, I'm willing to say follow me.
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  Speaker 3: Not that I'm perfect, but I have been down the
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  Speaker 3: pike far enough to know the value of serving others.
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  Speaker 3: And I think I can model for you what this
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  Speaker 3: life is about. And I don't say out of pride.
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  Speaker 3: I simply say, with a sense of assurance, you can
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  Speaker 3: follow me. I want to lead you. I say that
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  Speaker 3: as a parent to my children. I say that as
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  Speaker 3: a pastor to a flock. I want to say that
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  Speaker 3: as a man to fellow men, and I want you
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  Speaker 3: to say that as well. I'm not sure we say
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  Speaker 3: that every day of our lives. In fact, i'm sure
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  Speaker 3: I don't, but I want to. And of course the
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  Speaker 3: focus of adulthood is serving. How rare it is to
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  Speaker 3: find an adult whose life is committed to serving. How rare,
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  Speaker 3: certainly serving with the right intention. Now it's with all
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  Speaker 3: of that in mind, even the little diagram idea about
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  Speaker 3: a snailshell. I'd like to invite you to turn with
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  Speaker 3: me to the letter Peter wrote the apostle the Fisherman
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  Speaker 3: Disciple Peter his first letter, and I want to look
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  Speaker 3: at several things that have to do with obstetrics and pediatrics.
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  Speaker 3: I want to talk a little about birth, and then
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  Speaker 3: I want to talk a little about growth. They work
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  Speaker 3: hand in hand, you know. As soon as the obstetricians
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  Speaker 3: hands are off the baby, the pediatrician's hands are on them.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as.
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  Speaker 3: The doctor walks away and says good birth, the pediatrician
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  Speaker 3: walks in and says, let me see the child, Let
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  Speaker 3: me look at the infant.
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  Speaker 2: Let me do some tests, let me study.
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  Speaker 3: So first let's think about birth. And I want us
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  Speaker 3: to return to some absolute basic pieces of information and
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  Speaker 3: this moment, some of you hearing these words think that
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  Speaker 3: you are a member of the family of God, but
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  Speaker 3: you're not. You see, one of the major desires on
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  Speaker 3: my heart is that you find yourself on this diagram.
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  Speaker 3: Several months ago, Cynthia and I went down to a
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  Speaker 3: large shopping mall. We took our time getting there. We
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  Speaker 3: talked about some things we wanted to buy. We knew
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  Speaker 3: a couple of the stores and where to find them,
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  Speaker 3: but one particular store we weren't sure of. We knew
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  Speaker 3: it was in the mall under that enormous single roof,
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  Speaker 3: but we didn't know where.
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  Speaker 2: So we found our way to.
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  Speaker 3: A big glass encased diagram of the mall and we
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  Speaker 3: looked alphabetically under the name of the store that's it,
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  Speaker 3: And we found that it was located on this level
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  Speaker 3: and at this location, and we put our finger on
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  Speaker 3: it and there it was. But it didn't help us
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  Speaker 3: until we found a little red X that had a big.
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  Speaker 2: Arrow pointing to it, saying you are here. See, it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't help to know where you're going.
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  Speaker 3: If you don't know to start with where you are,
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  Speaker 3: I want you to find where you are during this series.
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  Speaker 2: I want you to put.
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  Speaker 3: Your finger on the place where you spend most of
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  Speaker 3: your time. We are never at one place all the time.
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  Speaker 3: Life is of course much too complicated for that. But
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  Speaker 3: we spend most of our adult emotional days at one
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  Speaker 3: particular level. And only you know where you are. Only
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  Speaker 3: you can put your finger on it with the help
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  Speaker 3: of God. Some of you think you are a child,
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  Speaker 3: or you are adolescence, and maybe even think you are adult,
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  Speaker 3: when in fact you may not have even been born.
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  Speaker 3: That is a great surprise for some folks. First Peter one,
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  Speaker 3: verse three. First Peter one, verse three. Blessed be the
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  Speaker 3: God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according
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  Speaker 3: to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again.
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  Speaker 3: Or if you will allow me born from above to
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  Speaker 3: a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
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  Speaker 3: the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and
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  Speaker 3: undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
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  Speaker 3: who are protected by the power of God through faith
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  Speaker 3: for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Now,
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  Speaker 3: lest you be confused, understand, Peter is writing to people
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  Speaker 3: who are indeed in the family. That's why it's a
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  Speaker 3: completed fact. He states it as it is a fact.
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  Speaker 3: I'm writing to you who have been born again. But
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  Speaker 3: today I speak to some who are not quite honestly say,
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  Speaker 3: in all candor, you may not be born again, though
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  Speaker 3: you thought you were when I began this talk. Let
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  Speaker 3: me give you four musts, if I could be that pedantic.
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  Speaker 3: Four must issues that have to do with birth. First,
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  Speaker 3: you must be born from above. In order to be
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  Speaker 3: in God's family, you must be born from above. Peter
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  Speaker 3: mentions this twice in the first chapter, verse three, he
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  Speaker 3: has caused us to be born again and verse twenty three.
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  Speaker 2: For you have been born again, not.
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  Speaker 3: Of seed, which is perishable, he repeats, but imperishable, that is,
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  Speaker 3: through the living and abiding word of God. They had
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  Speaker 3: salvation verse nine. There were obedient children verse fourteen. They
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  Speaker 3: in fact had been redeemed verses eighteen and nineteen. Look
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  Speaker 3: at those verses eighteen and nineteen, knowing that you were
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  Speaker 3: not redeemed.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting term. It is a word that has in mind the.
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  Speaker 3: Idea of being purchased in a slave market. Since we
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  Speaker 3: do not live in days of slavery now, though they
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  Speaker 3: once did. Certainly in the era of Rome, it was
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  Speaker 3: very common Rome and all its glory, slaves were placed
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  Speaker 3: on a block and sold like pieces of meat. Slaves
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  Speaker 3: became simply tools in the hands of their owners. And
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  Speaker 3: owners would walk into a slave market and they would
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  Speaker 3: walk the slave up on the block, totally naked. The
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  Speaker 3: slave would stand there in all humiliation, and the owner
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  Speaker 3: would look to determine if that individual was muscular enough
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  Speaker 3: to take the rigors of his work, strong enough, stable enough,
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  Speaker 3: if there were any imperfections, scars, or any crippling problems,
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  Speaker 3: and then the owner would pay his money, and a
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  Speaker 3: certain paltry amount of money would buy a slave from
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  Speaker 3: the block, and the slave was said to have.
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  Speaker 2: Been redeemed.
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  Speaker 3: Only when the owner bought the slave and set him free.
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  Speaker 3: That's what Christ does for the lost person. He comes
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  Speaker 3: to the slave market, and he finds us on the block,
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  Speaker 3: and he.
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  Speaker 2: Looks at us in all of our need.
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  Speaker 3: He pays the price at the cross, which is a
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  Speaker 3: complete payment for our sins, and he sets us free
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  Speaker 3: to live.
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  Speaker 2: For him.
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  Speaker 3: We have been redeemed by what verse eighteen, with perishable
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  Speaker 3: things like silver and gold, from our futile way of life,
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  Speaker 3: inherited from our father's No, not by that we have
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  Speaker 3: been redeemed by precious blood, from the lamb that is
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  Speaker 3: unblemished and spotless, even the blood of Christ. When you
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  Speaker 3: have been born from above, you have been purchased from
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  Speaker 3: the slave market and set free. Now hold your place
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  Speaker 3: here and go to John chapter three, the fourth Gospel
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  Speaker 3: of the New Testament, the third chapter. I want to
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  Speaker 3: turn to the most familiar, the most popular discussion and
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  Speaker 3: dialogue Jesus ever had. It is with a man who
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  Speaker 3: was very religious. His name was Nicodemus. John three, verse one.
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  Speaker 3: Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
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  Speaker 3: a ruler of the Jews.
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  Speaker 2: This man came to.
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  Speaker 3: Him by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know
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  Speaker 3: that you have come from God as a teacher. For
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  Speaker 3: no one can do these signs that you do unless
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  Speaker 3: God is with him. Jesus cuts right through. I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: nicodemus opening lines were not finished. Jesus interrupts and puts
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  Speaker 3: the thing on the bottom shelf. Jesus answered and said, truly, truly,
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  Speaker 3: I say to you, unless one is born from above,
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  Speaker 3: he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus is blown away.
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  Speaker 3: This educated, well respected man responds verse four, How can
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  Speaker 3: a man be born when he is old?
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  Speaker 2: He cannot enter a second.
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  Speaker 3: Time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?
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  Speaker 3: That's not meant to be clever. He's not making a joke.
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  Speaker 3: He's absolutely totally confused. You're talking revolutionary stuff. Jesus, I
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  Speaker 3: am a rabbi. My world is the Torah. I know
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  Speaker 3: it by heart, I teach it regularly. You're telling me
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  Speaker 3: about something that is foreign to my teaching. How can
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  Speaker 3: I curl up in my mother's womb and be born again?
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  Speaker 3: What do you mean by that? By the way, one
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  Speaker 3: of the major enemies of simple faith is traditional religion.
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  Speaker 3: The most difficult kind of person to reach with the
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  Speaker 3: Gospel of Christ is the religionist who has been in
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  Speaker 3: church as long as he or she can remember. That's Nicodemus. Well,
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  Speaker 3: what do you mean Verse six. Jesus's answer, That which
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  Speaker 3: is born of flesh is flesh. Now, that's physical birth, Nicodemus.
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  Speaker 3: But that which is born of the spirit is a
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  Speaker 3: spiritual birth. I'm talking about a spiritual birth. Do not
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  Speaker 3: marvel that I said to you, you must be born
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  Speaker 3: from above.
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  Speaker 2: The wind blows where it wishes.
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  Speaker 3: And you hear the sound of it, but do not
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: know where it comes from or where it is going.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: it's a deep thing. It's in fact an invisible thing,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: as invisible as the wind.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: But its effect everyone can tell.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be?
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: He's still confused. I especially appreciate the definite article in
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: the next verse. Jesus answered and said to him, are
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: you the teacher? Now that's significant, implying the most significant,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: the most often quoted, the most powerful and influential teacher
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: in all Israel. And you do not understand these things.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: The late Baptist scholar at Robertson says something very wise,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: and I quote the well known or the authorized teacher
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: of the Israel of God, note both definite articles. After
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: being told by Jesus his pharisaic theology had made him
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: almost proof against spiritual apprehension, it was outside of his groove,
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: wrote rot Rot the three terrible rs of mere traditionalism.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: I like that wrote rot rot. If your faith goes
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: back to the deep and profound liturgy of the Church.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: If you find that you get most of your information
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: from tradition, history, the color of the stained glass, the
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: great sounds of the hymns, the beautifully stated, eloquent creeds
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: of the Church, you're lost. You're lost. If that is
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: the basis of your faith, You're no more saved than
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: Nicodemus was as a rabbi of Israel. As a matter
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: of fact, chances are good that you are so sophisticated
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: you even resist this kind of direct statement. But I
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: have long since been unintimidated by sophisticated people, because if
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: you're lost, what good does it do? If you're educated,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: What good is it if you get another degree, even
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: in church history? If you've never been born from above tradition.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: I almost want to sing it when I say that,
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: from that line out of Fiddler on the Roof Tradition,
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: I just sing it.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: You just.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Go back to tradition, and that's where you hang your hat. Well, friend,
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: you're lost. If that's where you go back to. You
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: have to go to the cross like a little child
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: who reaches out to his daddy and says, save me.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: I'm drowning. Help me make it possible for me to survive.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: I need to be born, Oh God, I need to
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: be born from above.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: While we're at it.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Your birth must be biblical. That's the second must, meaning
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: your birth must be as outlined in the scriptures. It
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: must be according to God's way, not man's way. Man
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: will throw you a curve and lead you down a
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: lost path. It must be based on what Christ has done,
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: not what you have done. Not by works of righteousness
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: which we have done, but according to His mercy He
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: saved us.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Charlotte Elliott eighteen thirty four.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Put it in words that could not be improved. Just
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: was shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: By eighteen forty nine, William Bradbury had put it into music,
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: and the church has been singing it ever since.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Grand old hymn that still says it best. Just as
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: I am.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: I come your way God, not by way of tradition,
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: not by good works, not by what I give to
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: the church, not by benevolent deeds or great acts of morality,
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: not by cleaning up my life or living good or
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: stopping smoking, stopping drinking, and stopping chewing, and stop going
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: with girls that do those things. It's not any of that, God.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I simply come as a little baby. I come like
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: a child, and I ask you to take me just
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: as I am, without any other plea. That's the way
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I come. Unless you come like that, you're lost. Listen
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: to that, You're lost. Third, must your birth must be personal.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: The you is singular.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: You cannot get away from the individual emphasis of the Gospel.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: You alone, not you and your fan family. Are you
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: because of your father? Are you because of your mother?
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: Are you because of a large circle of Christian friends?
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Are you because you're in a great church? It's you alone,
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: as if there were no other person on the planet
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: called Earth. I got this thought this past week. It's
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: an original one. I don't get many of those, so
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: I was very encouraged. No twins are ever born into
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: God's family. There's no such thing as multiple births. All
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: of the people born into God's family are single birth people.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: You say, well, I've been to a crusade, Chuck, where
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: there were several thousand that flooded into an aisle, and
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: several hundred of those people came to no Christ.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: There were several hundred independent births, not one twin, not
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: one set of twins. Several thousand cannot be born at
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: the same time. It's got to be personal. Looking back
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: in your history over the last number of years. If
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: you cannot, if you cannot find the place without knowing
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: the date or time, necessarily, but if you can't pinpoint
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: in your mind when you came to.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Know Christ, you're lost. You're lost. You've not been born again.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: So stop the activity, stop the all of the religiosity
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: and the pseudo spirituality of your life, stop and deal
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: with that. You must be born from above. It must
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: be biblical, it must be personal. And while I'm at it,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: it must be authentic.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: That's the fourth one.
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: It must be authentic, not merely saying words or mouthing
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: a prayer or reciting lines from a booklet.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Have you seen that happen? It scares me.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: The lines are placed in front of the face of
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: an individual.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: I understand that I'm a sinner, that I am.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Lost, separated from God by birth, by choice, by will.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Today I acknowledge that I'm a sinner, and today I
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: receive Jesus as my savior because he died in the
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: cross for my sins. Don't tell that person he's saved.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: Tell that person he reads well. Just reading words never
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: saved a soul.
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Booklets scare me. Pamphlets scare me not because they're not accurate.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: It's that they leave an individual with the impression if
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: I read words the right way and I say a
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: few things after it, I'm born again. Wait a minute,
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: We're talking birth, not reading something from a book. We're
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: talking transformation, change, life and altered course, an obedient way
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: that follows birth, fruit that follows the root.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: See what I mean.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: You may have just read words, Nicodemus, you must be
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: born from above, But I'm a team I don't care
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: how much you've taught.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: You need to be.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: Bought from the slave market and set free so you
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: can live in grace. A few stories of salvation ever
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: moved me more than Chuck Colson's story. I want to
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: read it in two parts, part of it now and
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: part of it at the end of this message. Chuck
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Colson hatchetman for the President, Yale, graduate officer in the
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: Marine Corps, personal confidante of the President. Tough minded Chuck
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Colson seems hard to believe that, but back then it
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: was said there wasn't anything he wouldn't do to get
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: the president reelected. And then came that awful Watergate and
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: all the things that resulted in the backwash of that event. Well,
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: listen to his story from his book Born Again. Outside
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: in the darkness, the iron grip i'd kept on my
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: emotions began to relax. Tears welled up in my eyes
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: as I groped in the darkness for the right key
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: to start my car. Angrily, I brushed them away and
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: started the engine. What kind of weakness is this, I
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: said to nobody. The tears spilled over, and suddenly I
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: knew I had to go back into the house and
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: pray with Tom. I turned off the motor, got out
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: of the car. As I did, the kitchen light went out,
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: and then the light in the dining room. Through the
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: hall window, I saw Tom stand aside as Gert started
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: up the stairs ahead of him. Now the hall was
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: in darkness. It was too late. I stood for a moment,
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: staring at the darkened house, only one light burning now
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: in the upstairs bedroom. Why hadn't I prayed when he
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: gave me the chance I wanted to so badly. Now
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: I was alone, really alone. As I drove out of
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: Tom's driveway, the tears were flowing uncontrollably. There were no
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: street lights, no moonlight. The car headlights were flooding illumination
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: before my eyes. But I was crying so hard it
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: was like trying to swim underwater. I pulled the side
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: of the road not more than one hundred yards from
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: the entrance to Tom's driveway, the tires sinking into soft
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: mounds of pine needles. I remembered hoping that Tom and
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: Gert wouldn't hear my sobbing, the only other sound than
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: the chirping of crickets that penetrated the still of the night.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: With my face cupped in my hands, head leaning forward
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: against the wheel, I forgot about my cheese mow, about pretenses,
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: about fears of being weak, and as I did, I
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: began to experience a wonderful feeling of being released. Now
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: listen to this. Then came the strange sensation that water
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: was not only running down my cheeks, but surging through
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: my whole body as well, cleansing and cooling as it went.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: They weren't tears of sadness, and remorse, nor of joy,
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: but somehow tears of relief. And then I prayed my
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: first real prayer that's authentic.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Then I prayed my first real prayer.
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: God. I don't know how to find you, but I'm
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: going to try. I'm not much the way I am now,
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: but somehow I want to give myself to you. I
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: didn't know how to say more, so I repeated over
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: and over the words take me, take me, take me,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: take me, take me. I had not accepted Christ. I
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: still didn't know who he was. My mind told me
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: it was important to find that out first, to be
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: sure that I knew what I was doing, that I
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: meant it and would stay with it. Only that night,
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: something inside me was urging me to surrender to what
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: or to whom I did not know. I stayed there
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: in the car, wet eyed, praying, thinking, for perhaps half
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: an hour, perhaps longer, alone in the quiet of the
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: dark night. Yet for the first time in my life,
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: I was not alone.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Put that on hold.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Okay, some of you have come that far. You're not
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: sure what's in front of you, but you know what's
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: behind you, and you don't like what's inside you, and
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: you can't seem to get out by your own help.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: You've tried all the operation bootstraps you can, and none
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: of them work. You know you can't save yourself. You're
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: too much a sinner. No one else around you can
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: save you. They're sinners too. You've heard talk about the
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Cross and truth about the Resurrection. You've been to Easter
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: services enough to know that he's no longer in the grave.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: He's alive.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: But somehow you're distant from him, and you want to
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: be near. You need to be born from above. You
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: need to lean on him, rely on him, trust in
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: his finished work at the cross, personally, humbly, like a child.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Nothing in my hands. I bring simply.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: To the cross, I claim, just as I am without
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: another plea. Now, many of you have come that far.
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: Your birth is something you're sure of. There have been
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: too many evidences of God at work in your life,
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: even though you're not perfect. I repeat, You've come a
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: long ways. You've seen growth, You've begun to see fruit.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: Now you're crying out to our Lord saying, help me,
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: just help me survive. I'm just a little infant. Go
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: back to Peter with me, just for a moment or two. First, Peter,
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: let me give you some hatteus of those first early
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: steps of growth.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: We talked about some musts. You must be born from above.
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: That birth must be biblical, it must be personal, it
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: must be authentic. What are some how tos of growth?
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: Now that I've been born into God's family? Well, let's
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: boil it down to some basics. And if we had time,
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I'd choose forty. You'll be happy to know I've only
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: chosen four, and that will be where we'll stop. In fact,
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: my fourth one I'll have to develop next time. But
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: look at the first one. The first how as a
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: child is the importance of trust. I'll call it how
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: to obey? How to obey? Did you notice the times
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: that I read verse fourteen that it referred to obedient
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: children in the first chapter one Peter one fourteen. Interesting,
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: Peter refers to these people as children, but already tags
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: them with obedient children.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: You know what that tells me?
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: That tells me that even in their infant stage, they
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: learned obedience, They learned to obey. They had learned already
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: though young, that God's no meant no, His don't meant don't,
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: his stop meant stop. Look at verse fourteen as obedient children,
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: don't don't be conformed to the former lusts which were
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: yours in your ignorance.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: Now pause there for a moment. Who is ignorant?
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: The lost person, the individual without Christ, is ignorant of
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: God's power and unconcerned with God's standard. Without Christ, I
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: couldn't care less. I don't talk to the lost person
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: about cleaning up his act.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: A lost person.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Can't be obedient mockery. The only way an act can
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: be cleaned up is to be born into God's family,
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: and early as a child, As an infant, I learn
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: to get my act together, to fear my God, to
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: fear his discipline. If I go on my own way,
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: don't be conformed to the former lusts which were yours
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: in your ignorance. When I am born again, I come
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: to a line of demarcation, and I'm able to look
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: back at a life that was marked by sin and
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: the constancy of the flesh, and I'm able to say,
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: I don't want that anymore. Something in me may crave it,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: but down inside, where God lives, I.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Don't want that.
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be compelled by those habits as
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: I once was.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: I want to be clean and pure.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: In fact, that's what he goes on to say, do
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: not be conformed to the former lust verse fifteen. But
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: like the Holy One who called you in all your behavior,
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Why says the child, Because says God, it is written
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: you shall be holy, for I am holy, and I
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: know it's best for you. I'm gonna say it straight.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: You cannot live like hell in your bedroom and act
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: like your life is clean in the living room. You
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: cannot run wild morally and think grace covers it because
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: you have a security with the Father. You hurt the
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: church when you do that, You hurt the family. You
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: break the heart of God when you refuse to live
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: in a holy manner, say well, I need help. Oh,
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: the help is available. But you've just not taken his
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: nose seriously. That's why he's That's why he's disciplining you
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: as he is. William Ward has said, every great person
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: has learned how to obey, whom to obey, and when
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: to obey, and some obedient acts aren't to be discussed.
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: As my children were very small and we were near
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: a busy street and they got over the curb, I'd
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: say get back, get back, and they wouldn't say, could
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: we talk about that for a while. I'd like to
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: discuss that with you. I mean, I like it out
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: here in the traffic. You know what they had learned
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: by then to get their buns back over the curb
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: and to get back on the sidewalk where their daddy
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: was or they got it. They were told, and then
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: if they didn't obey, they were disciplined so that they
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: learned no means no, get away means get away, stop
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: me stop. It's part of infant training. I think of
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: another song, trust and obey, for there's no other way
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: to be happy in Jesus. You know what, if you
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: didn't learn to be obedient as an infant, you're a
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: problem child in the family. You hurt the family, you're
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: hard to lead. If you're a disobedient adolescent in an
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: adult body with a child's behavior, see how it all
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: ties together. It's awfully hard to learn to obey as
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: an adolescent if you weren't sufficiently disciplined as a little child,
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: isn't it. Some husbands are left with adolescent wives. Some
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: wives are left with childlike husband. It is dreadful now
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: not only how to obey, but second is how to
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: eat the importance of nourishment. If trust is important, then
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: nourishment goes right along with it. Look at verse one
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: of chapter two, same book one. Peter therefore putting aside
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and slander.
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: That's a mouthful right there. Like newborn babies long for
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: the pure milk of the word, that by it you
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: may grow in respect to salvation.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: That's a great verse.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: Isn't it amazing how quickly babies learn to hold their
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: own bottles? I mean, have you ever tried to get
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: a bottle away from a sucking baby?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: They have got a.
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: Missing link lock on that and you're not going to
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: get it away from them. And rather quickly they learn
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: how to get that nipple in their mouth, and can
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: they suck.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: Down?
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: It goes.
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: That's the way it is with a newborn baby. They're
• 47:17
  Speaker 3: nourishing themselves in the good milk. By the way, the
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: milk has to be good. Can't be bad, or the
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: baby gets diseased. You don't know this, so I will
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: inform you. In our home there is a large saltwater aquarium.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: The saltwater aquarium is full of salt water fish, all of.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Which are expensive. I know that.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: We had a tragedy strike yesterday for fish dyed for
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: expensive fish die as soon as we call the place
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: where we purchased the fish, one by one month after
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: a month, as soon as we call them and talk
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: to them, because we have a rather involved relationship now.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: They asked one question.
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: We'd like to see the food.
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  Speaker 3: Could you bring it by interesting? Huh?
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: Bad food.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: Kills fish, Bad food kills kids. How's your food?
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: As newborn babes long for.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: The right food, do you long for it? You're feeding yourself? Well,
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: he say, well, listen, Chuck, I'm really going through a
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: tough time, man. I mean, the bottom's dropped out. Listen
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: to Job's words. He knows the way that I take.
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  Speaker 3: When he has tried me, I shall come forth his gold.
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: My foot has held his steps his way. Have I
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: kept and not declined? Neither have I gone back from
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: the command of his lips. That's obedience, Job twenty three twelve.
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: I have esteemed the words of.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: His mouth more than my necessary food. When you are
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: going through the valley is when you really need the food.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: When the bottom has dropped out of your life.
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: That's when you need the good food, food from his book,
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: fed to yourself with your own hands, not just food
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: prepared by someone else.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: This is maybe talk learning how to eat, learning how
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: to feed yourself with a good diet. Obedience and nourishment
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: are inseparable links in the same chain. Third how to talk.
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: If obedience is important, if nourishment is important, I'll guarantee
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: you prayer is important. Chapter four of one Peter, Verse seven,
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: great Verse.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: The end of all things is at hand.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: Therefore be of sound judgment and sober spirit. Why for
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: the purpose of prayer? For the purpose of prayer. Babies
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: who begin to frame their words are hilarious. There's only
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: one little baby in our home right now. He's a
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: grand baby. Did I tell you about my grandson lately? Well,
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: they were over the other day, little Ryan and his
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: mom uh and Debbie was talking to him, and he
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: was talking to her. She answered, Chelah, So I thought
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: I'd get in.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: I said, Shova. He said.
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: She could talk to him, and I couldn't talk to him.
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: Why because she's the mama, and mama's understand that kind
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: of stuff. Granddad's it's a little shaky.
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: Moms know him.
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: Well, you ever heard a new Christian pray. That's one
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: of the most refreshing sounds in the world. I'm sorry
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: we leave it and get sophisticated. There aren't any vain,
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: repetitious words. There's no cliche here or they are tossed in.
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: There's no interest in impressing. There's just survival talk. There's
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: just honest to goodness God talk. It makes you want
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: to get in their skin and do it like they
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: do it again.
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: Just talk to the Father. Do you talk to him?
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: And finally, how to walk. It's the whole subject of
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: the spirit filled life. And we'll look at that next time.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: The importance of the spirit. Nothing is more important when
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: it comes to serving Christ than the spirit of God motivating.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: You into the action. But it's a whole technique.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: I've never seen a baby born one day step down
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: on the floor the next day and take off.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: I've never even seen it happen in six months.
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: Some babies walk before a year, but we had a
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: one or two that didn't take some while to learn
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: how to walk. And it's just the process of learning
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: how to trust one leg in front of the other one,
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: and in the process you fall down so much more
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: often than you stand up. You think you'll never do it,
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: But isn't an interesting few babies get frustrated because they
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: can't walk. They just fall down. They get back up again,
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: they fall down, they get back up again, they fall down,
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: they get back up again. Mom and dads go get up,
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: get up, get up, fall back down again, all part
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: of learn how to do it. Until finally, one afternoon
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: they take off, run around the block and get lost.
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Whatever seems to me. We need an obstetric response and
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: we need a pediatric response to two questions. First, have
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: you ever been born from above? Don't give me a
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: lot of religious gobbledegook, have you ever been born from above? Second?
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: Have you mastered the steps of babyhood? You won't become
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: a healthy child until you've mastered the steps of babyhood.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: I close with Chuck Colson's remarks just listen and so
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: early on Friday morning, while I sat alone staring at
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: the sea, I love. Words I had not been certain
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: I could understand or say, now fell naturally from my lips.
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I accept you.
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: Please come into my life.
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: I commit it to you.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: With these few words.
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: That morning, while the briany sea churned. Came a sureness
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: of mind that matched the depth of feeling in my heart.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: There came something more strength, strength, and serenity, a wonderful
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: new assurance about life. In the process, I felt old fears, tensions,
• 55:28
  Speaker 3: and animosities draining away. I was coming alive to things
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: I had never seen before, as if God was filling
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: the barren void I had known for so many months,
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: filling it to the brim with a whole new kind
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: of awareness. We never get too far from obstetrics and pediatrics.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: De we please bow with me in a few moments
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: of quietness, as you were listening to these things and
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: find that you want to be born again. Well, that's
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: why Christ's life is available to you. His perfect righteousness
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: can be yours as you put your trust in Him
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: in his finished work on the cross, his death at Calvary.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: As the hymn writer once declared, Jesus paid it all all,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: not in part, but all. You bring nothing. Simply give
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: your life to Christ. Now you may weep or you
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: may not. You may experience a flood of emotion like
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: great joy, as did my friend Chuck Colson on the
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: shoulder of some dark roads ahead or you. That may
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: not be your experience, but you do need to be
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: born from above. That's how new life begins, That's how
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: you become part of God's family. So trust in Christ,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: even as I pray, our dear Father, break all of
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: us free from the brittle shell of veneer called religion
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: that steals the joy of authentic Christianity and brings us
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: back to the womb, back to the crib, back to
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: that very place which is life. Indeed, and as we come,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: may we hold nothing back. May we not resist anything
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: until we have brought our lives before you and allow
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: you to clean us up. For all we can do
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: today is simply come, just as we are. Father, without
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: one plea, we come these things. I pray in the
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: all sufficient and Powerful name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: Amen. The preceding message, Birth and Infancy Survival Basics, was
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: copyrighted in nineteen eighty five and the sound recording was
• 58:22
  Speaker 3: copyrighted in twenty sixteen by Charles Rswindall, Inc.
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: All rights are reserved worldwide.