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Village SDA Church

Education Reformation

Ron Kelly

Education Reformation: Inexcusable Ignorance

Education Reformation: The Prophet and the Professor

Education Reformation: Cancer on Christian Education

We've been blessed in song and reading and giving.

Now Lord, may our hearts be impressible by your Spirit.

May we walk in your path and know the joy you intended.

This morning I'm going to tell the story surrounding the most famous verse in the Bible.

So if you don't know it, take a Bible out of the pews and let's turn to it together.

Many have committed this to memory, and this morning, we're gonna look at how it came into being.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now this nation is peculiarly a religious nation, And that tone or that culture is under siege.

I have an article here up from The Independent in the United Kingdom, and it's entitled Almost Half of U.S.

Millennials don't know, believe, or care if God exists, the study finds.

More than 4 in 10 millennials in the United States do not know, believe, or care if God exists, according to Arizona Christian University research.

A report produced by the University's Cultural Research Center concluded that the generation of Americans currently between 18 and 36 are threatening to reshape the nation's parameters beyond recognition with 43% either atheist or apathetic towards the existence of God.

Now if I was a member of that nation, if this was my culture that was being talked about, I'd have to ask myself What value does the presence of God bring to benefiting society?

I know just the other day, actually yesterday, as I was pulling away from a department store, I watched probably 2 or 3 cars go through the intersection when the light was clearly red.

Now I want to tell you, law abiding is a beautiful thing.

And I want to tell you graciousness in the people you deal with.

I was standing in a line and somebody asked me if I'd like to go in front of them because all I had was 1 item.

I can tell you there are cultures, atheistic cultures in this world, places I have been, where the only value that's operative is me first.

And it's as simple as standing in a queue to get a ticket to go on a train or an airplane, everybody crowding and having no qualms of conscience about cutting you off, etc.

What does it mean to you to live in a society where the attributes of God as evidenced in the 10 Commandments matter?

Now it's not hard for a society to lose its way.

As a matter of fact, if you tinker with education and you remove the presence of God from the character building, you're left with minds that are powerful, but with hearts that are untouched by the conscience, untouched by the sense of goodness and things that ought to be done for the betterment of man, not for money, not for personal gain.

When it comes to the element of education, if you could change the way the parents are parenting, and if you could change the way the parents are parenting, and if you could change the way the teachers are teaching, within a generation or 2, you could change the whole culture.

And this is exactly what's gone on in our country over the last 50 years.

And as Jordan Peterson will mention, a life without responsibility is a life without meaning.

The problem is, is that we've become wealthier and more educated with more opportunity, and we've lost the sense of our humanity, of our flawedness.

We've lost the sense of our carnal nature which is naturally bad.

And we found a generation that isn't very aware.

There's a basic vacuum of calm reflection and thinking in our society and consequently people are moving on not aware that they're lost in a need of a Savior and seeing God and religion is in the way of progress.

I want to take you into the Bible, into a story of a man who saw himself in somewhat of the same way.

If you're in John chapter 3, we're going to look at the story of a very intelligent man by the name of Nicodemus, a member of the ruling class of the Jews in the day of Jesus, a 1 who did not see himself in need of the presence of the Messiah that was upon the face of the earth at that time, and yet indeed his need would be brought to his attention.

John chapter 3, looking at verse 1, the New Testament gospel of John, fourth book of the New Testament.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of The Jews.

The Pharisees were a group of people that were in charge of making sure the society of the nation kept the law.

This man came to Jesus by night, and he said to him, Rabbi, we know that you've come from God As a teacher, for no 1 can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and he said to him, Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless 1 is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus 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 unto you, unless 1 is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that Which is born of the Spirit of Spirit do not be amazed that I said to you you must be born again The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it But you do not know where it comes from and where it's going So is everyone who is born of the Spirit and Nicodemus said to him?

How can these things be And Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher in Israel, and you do not understand these things?

Truly, truly, I say unto you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we've seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No 1 is ascended to heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." That's a reference to Jesus.

"'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

These next 2 verses are very important, and they relate specifically to the article I mentioned of 43% of our millennials not caring, knowing, or believing in the existence of God.

For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

But he who does not believe has been judged already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is judgment, that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil.

Now let me make sure you understand what we just read.

You have a very intelligent man who believes he's not lost.

You have a prophet who has no professional education or training.

You have a poor man who's come from heaven.

He spoke the cosmos into existence, and the billions and trillions of stars began sparkling.

He's sitting there in a poor man's garb on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem, and a very well-to-do, well-informed, well-educated man, too embarrassed to be seen with Jesus in the middle of the day, finds him in the dark of night.

He comes with a compliment for Jesus and Jesus immediately tells him we can't have this kind of conversation Because Nicodemus you don't understand who I am and you're not acknowledging your need a need only I can fulfill Jesus tells him unless you're born again.

Nicodemus has been in the mindset of looking at things with the wrong set of glasses.

In our scripture this morning, we saw that spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

Now, Nicodemus has an interest in understanding Jesus.

Jesus has cleansed the temple in the last part of John chapter 2.

He drove the merchandisers out of the temple precincts.

And Nicodemus was under the same conviction that much was going wrong in the church, but he was not under the conviction that much was wrong in his own life.

And so when he compliments Jesus as a teacher, Jesus says in effect, I'm much more than a teacher, unless you're born again, you'll never go to heaven.

And for Nicodemus, this is a very alien thought because he's born of Abraham, and he thinks he's got an automatic pass into the heavenly courts.

It's not your lineage, it's not your parents, it's not the promises made to other people, it's the relationship you have with Me.

And Nicodemus, you're a sinner, and you need what I've come to bring, and you've got to be born again.

Now, it's not a storyline of physical rebirth.

It's the selfish carnal nature that is able to be remade into the beautiful nature of Jesus.

Nicodemus doesn't really understand this, and that's why Jesus is able to say to him, you mean you don't understand that the carnal nature has to die and a new nature has to be reborn?

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Education Reformation

Education Reformation: The Prophet and the Professor

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