What is the Meaning of Being Born Again?

“The truth is we all need forgiveness, we all need to repent, and we all need to surrender our lives to God if we intend to go to heaven,” says Dr. Stanley. In this message, he brings clarity to the mystical concept of spiritual rebirth. For many of us, salvation can seem like too abstract an idea to comprehend, but the fact of the matter is it’s the cornerstone of our faith. Learn the simple truth of the gospel: what it means to be born again. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch

God is saying to you today:
“Get ready to soar. If you wait on Me, l’ll renew your strength. You will smile again. You and your family will be just fine. I have a plan. Trust Me.
———-

The title of this message is what is the meaning of being born again?
Lots of people have different ideas and attitudes about it. But what does the word of God say?
What matters is God’s attitude, what he means by that term?
And it’s effect on all of us because the truth is God wants all of us to be born again, to be prepared to go to heaven.
So somebody says, well, what, what difference does it make? I’ll tell you what difference it makes.
The Bible says, it’s a pointed and the man wants to die.
And after this, the judgment, it makes a difference what you and I believe.
And God has given us this awesome passage of scripture in a conversation between Jesus and the very outstanding Jewish pharisee, a pharisee who had been listening to Jesus and watching him more than likely because he came to see him in the evening, in the night.
The Bible says, and so therefore he was either very busy or he was afraid that his fellow Pharisees would see him or hear that he’d been visiting some Nazar who was talking about ideas that were foreign to them.
So I want us to read this passage scripture and then I wanna be sure that when this message is over, you know what it means to be born again, how that can take place in your life and the importance of it for your whole eternity.
So if you will turn to the uh third chapter of John.
And uh let’s start with the first verse.
The scripture says, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
He had a high office. This man came to Jesus one night and said to him, rabbi, we know that you’ve come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that you have unless God is with him, which says He’d been watching, he’d been listening.
In fact, in the seventh chapter, Nicodemus is found defending Jesus in a situation where his fellow rabbis and so forth were criticizing him.
And then of course, he shows up at the garden tomb.
And so Jesus said to him immediately, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And Nico said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?
He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?
Can he Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God, that, which is one of the flesh is flesh, that which is one of the spirit is spirit.
Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. Then he gives him an illustration.
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but do not know where it comes from and you don’t know where it’s headed.
So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.
Nima said to him, how can these things be?
Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel? And do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we’ve seen and you do not accept our testimony if I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe.
How would you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
No one who’s ascended into heaven, but he who has descended from heaven, the Son of God.
Now think about this Jewish leader slipping around in the evening, probably does not want to be seen or maybe he was too busy one of the two and uh asking Jesus about what he was talking about.
And so the process of doing so uh n and they must learn something.
And uh he immediately says to Jesus, I know that your man come from God.
Now, he may have heard a few things Jesus said, but he said, I know that your man come from God because nobody could do what I’ve seen you doing unless God is with Him.
Now, you would have thought Jesus would have said, thank you very much or something like that.
But Jesus immediately answers and says, truly, truly, I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And so naturally, Nicodemus responds by saying, how can, how, how can this be, how can you be born twice?
How can you, how can you be born a second time from your mother’s womb?
And so he begins to answer it.
So I want us to think about the fact of what Jesus said, except a man be born again.
He cannot see the kingdom of God that if you intend to go to heaven, you’d better be born again.
That’s the only way you’re going to get there.
And so Jesus sets for his time with him to explain to him what it means.
So I wanna give you a simple definition of being born again, being born again is the act of God by which he imparts eternal life to those who are dead in their trespasses and sins.
And when we accept Him as our savior, that’s when the change takes place.
All of us need to be born again.
When he talks about the kingdom of God, he’s referring to the sovereign rule of our God over all of creation.
So he answers some questions rather quickly.
And when he says, I’m telling you, unless you’re born again, you’ll never see the kingdom of God.
You won’t understand it and you won’t see it. So immediately he has Nicodemus mind and heart.
And if I were you, I would listen very carefully because what Jesus said to Nicodemo, he says to everyone who is willing and wise enough to listen because except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
He will not understand it nor will he enter into it.
Very, very important to understand the truth of this message.
And so when he said, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
But the implication was that uh Nicodemus with all of your education, all of your popularity, all of your power, uh you’re not gonna be there unless there’s a change in your life, which had to be a humbling event for Nicodemus for this itinerant preacher to tell him he wasn’t going to heaven, but think about it except a man be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
He will not enter into heaven, which means that every single one of us need to understand what that means.
If we intend to go to heaven. Remember this, you will not get there by your good works.
You will not get there by believing in some religious idea or believing in some religious person only through a new birth.
Experience because you wouldn’t be fit for heaven, living in sin and die and go to holy heaven, which God has prepared for his Children.
So Nicodemus asked him for an explanation. What do you mean by this?
And so the explanation of the phrase being born again is real simple.
He says the word being born again translates to mean being born from above.
You know, all about the law, you know, all about the synagogue. You know, all about these things.
We’re talking about something that’s from above and the truth is you and I need a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby whatever is going on in our life, we are prepared to live it wisely and we are prepared to die and know exactly where we’re going.
And I wonder how many people who are listening, who are sitting right here, believe in your heart that you know where you’re going when you die because you see that’s not a choice.
It’s an inevitable experience. All of us are going to face. The question is, are you willing to face it?
Now, Jesus said, unless you’re born again, you’re not ready.
You said, I don’t know whether I believe that or not listen to me, whether you believe it or not does not make it true or false.
The Bible says it, God says it, it is the truth.
Something has to happen in the human heart in order to prepare us to go to heaven.
So the explanation Jesus talks about being born again.
So he’s heard Jesus talk before, but now this is something that he doesn’t understand.
So he asked the question, how can a man be born a second time in his mother’s womb?
And so Jesus says to him, he says, unless a man is born of water and of the spirit.
Now, there are people who believe that verse means to, to be baptized, Baptism does not save you.
It is what we do because we have been saved.
And so when Jesus speaks here, being born of water, of the spirit, what is he talking about?
Talking about birth? So a woman understands the water at birth.
And so he says, it’s not enough that you have been born physically.
And even though you’re a Jew and all the education and all that you have to brag about none of that is it.
And the truth is not a single person has anything that they’ve ever accomplished in life or ever desired in life that takes the place of the experience of being born again.
So what he had to do immediately was to bring Nicodemus, this trained learned pharisee to the realization.
Nothing he knew nothing he had nothing he’d ever done or nothing he would ever do would make it possible for him to get to heaven.
That was an experience that he desperately needed and was hungering for, looking for longing for and didn’t know it so he could say to him, accept a man be born again.
He cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, what did that do?
It said to this awesome man of education.
It challenged him to the point that he was saying to him, you’re a bankrupt man.
You don’t have anything that’s gonna get you to heaven. Something else needs to happen in your life.
You can’t do anything at this point to go to heaven.
And if you’re trusting in your schooling, your teaching or your living, it won’t work.
And I would say that to you, it doesn’t make a difference what you’ve done, how many churches you’ve been to, you may even be a pastor.
The only way you and I go to heaven is for the same way Nick and was going to go and that is to be born again.
We understand the first birth, but Jesus put it in a way that’s unmistakably clear.
He could have said unless you do this, that and the other.
And so we would have attempted to do this that and ever, but he said born again, there must be a transformation within your heart and your life.
That is so absolutely crystal clear that you will know without a shadow of a doubt that you’ve experienced this or not.
And so for his entire life, for example, he had been taught, it was good works following the law and they were so meticulous about following the, it was all about what they did, not who they were on the inside.
And I’m afraid that there are a lot of people today who fall in the same category.
You go to church, maybe you’ve been baptized, sprinkling and knowing it on.
You give a lot of money or a little bit of money.
You try to be good, you defend your life and you say, I don’t have to go to church all the time.
I don’t have to belong to this. I don’t have to belong to that. I live a good life.
And why wouldn’t God accept me? Because you don’t go to heaven by being good.
You’re not nearly as good as you think you are.
Because if you were, you would have accepted Jesus Christ long ago, you would have been born again already.
And so he’s saying to Nicodemus, I know who you are.
I recognize what you’ve done, but none of that’s going to work, which was a terrible blast to Nicodemus pride and to his learning and to his life.
I don’t question the fact that Nicodemus was a good man. Good. Think about this.
He’d already watched Jesus from a distance and he’d heard him watch this now.
Probably most of those Pharisees had at some time or the other slipped in on the outer circle of a group who were listening to this man who was healing, healing the blind, the sick, I mean everything.
And so they were curious, watch this, they listened, they watched, they walked away.
Jesus spoke the truth. Nicodemus listened, watched and decided he’d find out.
Is this the truth or is it not the truth?
There are many people who listen, think about it.
Walk away more than likely you have listened to some and some pastor speaking and you’ve turned it off.
Walked away. The most horrible thing Nicodemus could have done this night was to say born again, forget it and walk away.
But he listened to Jesus, he knew there was something about him.
And so he took a risk, a reputational risk to show up to talk to this nazar, this itinerant preacher, this person who was so popular that people everywhere were listening to him.
And so Jesus didn’t answer his question, answered his question and he did so in a way that he fully understood his entire life, he believed just like many people today all their life, they’ve been told you’ve been good.
You’re nice. You’re sweet this, that and the other and so forth.
And your parents have told you, you go to church, you got baptized. Well, son, you’re all right.
None of us have been all right. All of us have sinned against God.
And the only thing that makes a difference between us and the sinner is not that we are better than, it’s the fact that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal savior.
We’ve been born again. By the blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. That’s what makes the difference.
And so Jesus begins to explain it to him and he tells him, he says, all of your life, all that you’ve done that has not equipped you to go to heaven.
So what’s the nature of this? What is the nature?
What, what is the whole idea about being born again? What is this experience? We said, what?
You can’t be born physically twice? It is a spiritual experience. And so Jesus begins to explain it.
He says, it’s a spiritual experience. It’s something the spirit of God does in a person’s life. Think about this.
Many of you who were saved have been saved. The Holy Spirit.
First of all convicted you of your sin, the Holy Spirit began to help you understand that God loved you in spite of your sin.
The Holy Spirit began to help you understand that your good works.
What you were trying to do wasn’t sufficient, wasn’t adequate to make you fit for heaven.
And finally, the Holy Spirit brought you to the place of showing you helping you understand what it meant to confess your sin, to repent of your sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
And what he was saying is this, it is a definite experience.
And people say, well, I think I’m saved. I, I think I’m ok.
But what makes you think you are well?
And they tell me all the things they don’t do or they’ll tell me some of the things they do.
And I like to think about it this way when I think about when I was saved and a Pentecostal holding the church on my knees at the altar at the age of 12, weeping.
Now I’ve been going to church for years, but on this Sunday morning, the spirit of God wouldn’t let me sit in my pew any longer.
I got out. I was scared to death.
I went to the altar, fell on my knees and began to weep and ask God to save me.
It’s a definite experience. It is an experience in which we can, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
That’s one of his primary jobs, convict us of our sin and show us that the Lord Jesus Christ’s death at Calvary paid our sin debt in full.
Made it possible for us to ask for forgiveness, repent of our sin, turn away from it and be accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, well, that’s simple enough. Well, that is simple enough if you’re willing.
And he says, give us eternal life, which means we’ll never perish.
So maybe you’ve been going to church for years, maybe all of your life, maybe as you look at your life, you think, well, uh never have done anything really bad from your perspective.
And so you look at all the good things about your life.
I don’t question that Nicodemus had a long list of good things he’d been doing.
And Jesus said to him, except a man be born again. Something radical has to take place in your life.
If it doesn’t take place in your life, you’re not going to heaven.
You say, well, when you were 12 years old was that radical? It was radical for me.
And what was radical was I suddenly realized I needed, I needed my sins forgiven.
And if I died without Christ, I felt that I would be lost at 12.
Whatever the issue was, God spoke to my heart and showed me I needed to have a change in my life that would radically change me.
That hadn’t changed. Think about this, we come from every type of religion in the world and every place in the world.
But when it comes to going to heaven one door, one message one way, one confession.
And that is the only way that’s Jesus.
There are many, many religions in many, many ways that people tell you you’ll be all right.
But there’s only one way that’ll make you fit for heaven.
That is confession and repentance of sin and surrendering your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he says, when we do that, we’ll never perish.
So when I look at Nicodemus and see what an awesome guy he was and think about people today who could give you the same kind of look at their life on the outside.
Everything looks right. God knows the inside.
The truth is all of us have sinned against God over and over and over and over again.
And so what we do is we look at our sin and look at what we’ve done and what we’ve done religiously about it.
The Lord Jesus Christ, then uh the word of God comes along and when we face ourselves against the word of God, things change.
The truth is we all need forgiveness. We all need to repent.
We all need to surrender our life to God.
And if you, if you intend to go to heaven, so ask yourself the question today just the way you are.
Do you think God would accept you into heaven? Just the way you are you.
So I’m not planning on going yet. Well, you may not plan on it, but something may happen.
You may have to. The question is this, would you watch this carefully?
Would you be ready on? What basis do you believe that you are ready?
I can read your mind.
You started thinking about all the good things you’ve done all the money you’ve given all the people.
You may have helped all the kind of life you’ve lived and you’ve never been in jail.
And um you’ve never done all of these things, but that’s not the basis of acceptance into heaven.
It’s not what we’ve done. It wasn’t what had done.
He says, unless you’re born again unless there is a spiritual experience whereby you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
Because he, the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your sin and made you realize you’re not ready to meet the Lord.
We are either ready or not ready.
The only thing that makes us ready is our relationship to Jesus Christ.
Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about our good works not by works of righteousness which we’ve done, but according to his mercy, he saves us.
And so he says, the Nicodemus, except a man be born again. He can never see the Kingdom of God.
And so I, I think about this simple illustration that Jesus gave Nicodemus says, well, how can that be true?
And so Jesus being sympathetic with him, he said, well, for example, you don’t understand that.
Do you understand the wind blowing? Well, sure, I do. Can you see it? No.
How do you know it’s wind? Where’s it going? Where did it come from? Nicodemus?
There are many things humanly speaking. We don’t understand.
But what I’m talking about is a personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus, through me, Jesus was saying to him.
And so when people ask you, well, how do you know you’re ready to meet the Lord?
There is only one experience that makes you ready.
And that is at a time in your life when the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your sin, convicted you that you are separated from God by your sin and that you need the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
At some point, you made a decision to surrender your life to Him, yield your life to Him and to walk for Him.
God intends for us to live a holy life, a life of obedience and surrendered to Him, a life of love to the Lord God for all He does for us.
Well, listen, there needs to be evidence in our life on the outside that something’s happened.
And so when he said to him, accept a man be born again, he cannot sing the Kingdom of God.
You don’t understand the wind. You may not fully understand this.
And I can tell you at 12 years of age, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody talk about being born again.
In fact, there was a lady preaching. I don’t know what she said. Watch this.
This is, this is the evidence of the awesome love and power of God.
Here sits a 12 year old kid on the second row who doesn’t know anything theologically.
I have a Bible, but I couldn’t quote you a bunch of scripture.
And I’m sitting there and all of a sudden I have this feeling that something’s wrong and I need to get right and the time to do it is right now.
And so I fell at the by myself and I was scared and five of my Sunday school buddies came down the aisle.
He got around me and began to pray me. And as they would say, they prayed me into heaven.
Well, I trusted Jesus as my savior.
It’s an experience that you can have seating right here or wherever you’re seated.
It’s just the fact that you have to realize you’re not nearly as good as you think you are and you’re not good enough to go to heaven living in your sin.
You may have told God many times. I’m sorry.
Listen carefully telling God that you’re sorry does not make you right. Many people are sorry.
Jesus didn’t say the Nicodemus except you be sorry. He said, except you be born again.
That means a radical change in your life.
Think about this, you can’t be good enough or the cross was a horrible mistake by Almighty God.
The cross of Jesus Christ was God’s expression of love for us.
And what he was saying is this, your sin is unacceptable and there’s no work that you can do.
That’ll take care of that sin only by the blood of my son Jesus.
Only by the life of the Son of God. Can you be forgiven of your sin?
So the cross is all about the price God paid and sending forth his son Jesus into the world.
He paid the price. We don’t pay the price, we don’t work it up. We don’t save ourselves.
We yield to Jesus Christ as Savior. Lord and master.
And when we accept Him as our savior, that’s when the change takes place, there’s a mean, you’ll be perfect, but it means that you have realized that there’s something within you that has to be dealt with.
It’s that old sinful nature has to be dealt with.
And God is willing to forgive you to cleanse you, write your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life and make you a child of God.
But it’s a decision, it’s a decision that you have to make.
And when that happens, it’ll be very evident. So what are the results?
For example, in a person’s life when they say yes, I’m asking you, Lord, I want to be born again.
I’m trusting you as my savior. I’m asking you to forgive me of my sin.
I want this radical change in my life.
So, first of all, there that means there’s a change in my relationship.
Watch this, haven’t you heard people say, well, God’s my friend, he’s my buddy. No, he’s not.
He’s not your friend, he’s not your buddy.
He’s not your anything until you trust his son, Jesus as your savior.
It’s one thing to sort of pal around with. You can’t pal around with holiness, righteousness.
You can’t pal around with that.
We’re talking about receiving the person of Jesus Christ as your personal savior is an act of faith.
I am accepting Christ as my savior. So, it’s a change in your relationship to God.
Your relationship to God before you’re born again is your enemy of the faith because you’re living a different kind of life.
You’re not for God. You, you, you can either you gotta be for Him or against him.
If you’re living in sin, you’re against the Kingdom of God, against God.
Well, I will never be against God by your thoughts. Maybe you think that.
But the truth is if you’re not on his side, whose side are you on? There is no neutral road.
I’m either walking down his road.
I’m walking down the road of the world and we look around today and see exactly what happens to a nation.
When so many people have turned away from Jesus, away from the church and what’s happening, it’s affecting everything about us.
So it’s a definite relationship. Secondly, there’s a change in our position before or separated from God, separated from Christ.
But when you are born again, that separation is over, that is you’re a part of the Kingdom of God.
Your name is written in the lamb’s book of life.
You’re a child of God, not for a season of time, but forever. You don’t lose your salvation.
You may cloud it up with sin.
But one thing for certain, you sin against God after you saved the Holy Spirit living inside of you to convict us of sin, show us the truth, make us miserable in order to get us back to God So there’s a change in your position with Christ.
Now you’re in Christ. Somebody says, what does that mean? It means I’ve been saved. I’ve been born again.
I’ve surrender my life to Christ and now Christ is living his life in and through me, through the Holy Spirit and I am living each day for him.
I’m in Christ. Change the relationship, change in my position. Then there’s a change in attitude.
You can’t be saved and then have no change in attitude. Something happens when you are born again here.
What happens? Watch this. The Holy Spirit of God who convicted you of your sin, who showed you where you are, who showed you what needed to be done and who gave you the wisdom to know how to pray and ask Him to save you.
The Holy Spirit of God working in your life is doing what change your attitude.
Now watch this when you’re saved the person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.
He’s on the inside of you living out the life of Christ, convicting you of sin, assuring you encouraging you, helping you in every way possible.
He he the Bible says, he sealed you once you uh once you trust that Christ is your savior, he says the Holy Spirit seas, you.
So what’s the difference in all of us sitting here? That real ultimate differences?
Some of us are by the Holy Spirit sealed by the spirit of God.
Name is written in the lamb’s book of Life.
We may not always live it like we ought to, but we are a child of God.
There are those seated here. Never trust that Christ is your savior. Been to church.
Maybe all your life you’ve been poured upon, you’ve been anointed, you’ve been baptized, but you’ve never yielded yourself to Christ.
Been born again, confess your sins, surrendered your life to God. And so what happens?
You’re not saved, you’re not born again. There’s a definite attitude when you are born again.
Then one other thing I think is necessary. There’s a change in your destination.
Listen, the closer you get to your destination, the more sure you better be because listen on what he says in the fifth chapter.
Uh and the 24th verse of John, he says, for example, I say to you, he who hears my word like you’re hearing this morning, believes Him who sent me that is believes God has eternal life and does not come into judgment that has passed from death unto life.
Think about this when you know that you’re born again, one thing you don’t have to worry about, you don’t have to worry about getting lost.
And people can tell you well, if you do this or if you do that, you’re gonna be lost. No.
Remember this. If this is why it’s so important for you to mark verses, Mark versus you’ve been sealed by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise sealed as a child of God.
That is. Think about how wonderful God is.
Not only has He saved you, not only have you been born again, but God says, and I want you to be sure all the rest of your life, I’m gonna sealed you with the third person of the Trinity.
God has sealed you with his presence within you so that you don’t ever have to wonder about if you can be saved and be lost.
If you’re living in sin and no conviction, more than likely, you’ve never been saved.
I’ll tell you why the Holy Spirit is what He’s the Holy Spirit. He is in dwelling you.
He sealed you as a child of God.
Therefore, when you sin against God, he, the Holy Spirit living within you is going to convict you.
You may live a long time with sin in your life and keep hearing this voice, this little quietness.
But what about this? What about that? What about this in your life?
And after a while, you may dull it down to a point, but you will never dull him down out because He sealed you as a child of God.
You’re forever a child of God.
And the one thing you don’t want to happen is to live your life and sin against Him, sin against him, sin against him and feel less and less and less conviction about it because you’re becoming hardened in your heart.
The spirit of God was placed in your heart to seal you, to assure you and to give you wisdom and guidance and direction, how to live the Christian life.
That’s what it’s all about. So think about it for a moment.
Has there ever been a time in your life when you know, at that particular point, you ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin, you may have used the word repentance or not, but you were asking Him to forgive you and you were surrendering your life to him.
Watch this. There. A lot of people would say, well, I’ve asked God to forgive me.
Well, just asking for forgiveness. First of all, doesn’t amount to anything.
If you are not saved, you can say forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, confessing your sin without being a child of God doesn’t go anywhere because if you’re not praying as a child of God, whose name is written in the lamb’s book of life who has repented of your sin.
If you’re not praying to him, talking to him from that basis, just confession won’t cut it. That’s not it.
You can confess anything. There have been lots and lots of people who have confessed and confessed and confessed but have never surrendered themselves to Him.
Can you point to a time in your life when you genuinely yielded your life to him?
I talked to a lot of people over the years who’ve said not now now is always the time to get right with God.
Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month because you don’t know what that prolonged time of your disobedience.
You don’t know where that’s gonna lead you.
I’ll tell you what it’s gonna lead, you lead you to make decisions. You’re gonna regret, make decisions.
You can’t get out of make decisions that bring heartache troubles, trial, disappointment in your life when you refuse to do what is so clearly a command of the Lord God, there is a penalty and penalty after penalty, after penalty.
So I wanna challenge you this morning because I care about you because I love you.
I don’t even know some of you, but I care about what you understand about the word of God.
And I’m gonna pray with you in just a few moments and I pray that you’ll be honest.
Can’t fool God. It doesn’t make any difference. What anybody else thinks.
What matters is that you know, that you are ready to die today and meet the Lord.
You may get home today. You may not.
So don’t try to scare me if I could scare you into the kingdom of God, I would do it.
That’s not my purpose. The issue is, are you ready to meet him?
Because watch this. That’s not a single one of us who can say I’ll live a long time and it, I, I I’ll do that later.
None of us can say that.
So I’m gonna have a prayer and I want you to pray part of this prayer with me.
If you listen, if you know that you’ve never been born again, if you just think you have and not sure whatever it might be, settle that issue today right now.
It’s nobody else’s business. It’s you and God, nobody else matters at this moment.
You and your eternal relationship with God is the only thing that matters.
And you’re the only one who can determine what that’ll be. You’ve heard the truth.
It’s a matter of praying.
I yield myself to you in a new fresh way lord today and you want to be sure because watch this.
If you don’t have the assurance that you’ve been born again, you have no assurance about anything in life.
Nothing. So let’s pray.
Father, we love your word.
Thank you for making it simple and plain to us.
Now, we ask that your Holy Spirit who always works in times of confession and repentance being born again.
I pray right now that the Holy Spirit would convict every single person here who has never been born again, convict them not of a bunch of sins, but of that most important decision to ask you to not only forgive them of their sin, but to change their eternal destiny, to give them the gift of eternal life.
I pray that the prayer would be simple and that it would be sincere.
So sincere and so simple that it would never be forgotten.
And lord, I pray for somebody here who’s not sure as well as those who know for certain they’ve never been born again, but as they prayed to believe in their heart, that you will do exactly what you promised to do and that they can walk out of here with absolute certainty, not because of what they’ve done, but because of what they believe that you have brought about in your life.
So I pray, Father, give them the grace to pray this prayer in whatever way they choose to do.
So. Heavenly Father today, I wanna be sure about my relationship to you and some of you would pray.
I know that I have never been born again today.
I’m asking you in the confession of my sin in my repentant heart.
I’m asking you to bring about that new birth in my life to save me, to give me the gift of a new birth.
I’m receiving the work of the Holy Spirit right now in my life, sealing me as a child of God and enabling me to live the life that you’ve called me to live.
And I will trust you lord daily to give me the strength to walk the path of righteousness, to live a godly life.
And I know that if when I falter and fail, you’ll forgive me, but you’ll never cast me aside, never throw me out for I am eternally secure in you.
And I pray this prayer in jesus’ name now for somebody you know, in your heart that you have been born again, but you’ve really blown it.
You’ve messed it up, you sinned against God. You keep on confessing the same old sin.
Would you be willing to pray this prayer? Father?
Forgive me for my slothfulness, spiritually, forgive me for lying to you trying to impress you that I’m doing good.
And I know in my heart that I’m living a sinful life today, I want to make a change in my life.
I’m asking the same holy spirit that saved me to enable me.
And I wanna make a full surrender of my life, a fresh and a new today that I can live a godly life, a holy life.
One that’s pleasing and honorable to you and one that will bring you joy and one that will enable me to share this awesome message with others.
And I pray this in Jesus name.
Hey man.