Although we should always remember how the Lord called us and converted us, our challenge is to steadfastly abide in Him daily so that He can transform us more and more into His image.Dan Houghton and his wife, Karen, live in Fallbrook, California. Dan is president.

ASI 2014: Lift Him Up

<p>Although we should always remember how the Lord called us and converted us, our challenge is to steadfastly abide in Him daily so that He can transform us more and more into His image.Dan Houghton and his wife, Karen, live in Fallbrook, California. Dan is president.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

ASI 2014 Plenary Sessions

Chris Holland

Why Adventist? Why Now?

Vicki Griffin

Lessons on Loss

ASI Members In Action

Wes Youngberg

Genes, Health and Spirituality: What’s the Connection?

Daniel Jackson

Ted N.C. Wilson

Town Hall

Charissa Fong Torossian

This Testimony

Dan Houghton

Growing Up In Christ

Mark Finley

End Time Hope

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Don Mackintosh

James Rafferty

Lyndi Schwartz

Ed Zinke

Living and Sharing the Three Angels’ Message

Eric Walsh

Facing Fire

We've come to that time in our Sabbath morning experience where we are able to worship our God through study.

And I trust that all of You have been studying your Sabbath school lesson.

We're talking about the teachings of Jesus this quarter.

And as we begin, as my custom is in my home church of Fallbrook, California, whenever I teach, we always pause at the beginning and ask the presence of God to be with us, to invite His Holy Spirit to take control of everything that happens in this room.

And I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me right now.

Holy Father in heaven, we come to you just now, claiming the promise that wherever 2 or 3 are gathered together in your name, you will be among us.

And I pray right now that you would take control of my mind and my lips, my tongue.

May the words that I speak be your words.

And Lord, not only may the words that I speak be your words, but may each person that is here, that is watching on television as well, that your Holy Spirit would be with them each 1, that you, they may hear exactly what you have in mind for them, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Nicodemus was a man who could have been an ASI member.

He had become very successful in his business.

He had attained the success where he was able to spend time studying the scriptures.

He had become, if you will, a doctor of the Jewish law.

He had also been so well thought of that he had been elevated to a position within the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin.

Whenever he walked some place, people acknowledged his presence.

Within his society, he had already reached the top rung of the ladder that he could expect to reach.

But somehow, deep within his heart, there was still a dissatisfaction.

Have you ever felt like in your Christian walk, that there's something more out there that you just can't quite put your hands on.

Nicodemus was in that moment and as he was going through the process of going to the Sanhedrin meetings, as he would interact with the leaders of the nation, as he would have social gatherings with Pilate, the Roman proconsul, He would have this sense, there's got to be more than what I'm experiencing here.

Whenever the young Galilean teacher came along and began to show his presence in the temple and along the walkways through Jerusalem.

And as he observed that, he became quite concerned because he noted the way that the ruling scribes, his associates, actually looked upon this young Galilean.

And of course in his mind because he was a great scholar and a, a student of the Scriptures, He was well aware of how his ancestors had treated the prophets that had come.

A little uncomfortable with how that was working.

And then he couldn't help but notice that in a world where everybody seemed to be corrupted on the take, in some way self-dealing, that here was a man uncorrupted, strangely, mysteriously drawn to this man.

He also took note of the fact that this man, though uneducated within their system, had extreme authority when it came to certain matters.

He had been an observer of when Jesus cleansed the temple and turned over the money changers tables.

Something inside said I need to know this man, but yet the pride that was there refused to let him walk up to Jesus and begin to engage him in conversation.

I can only imagine that perhaps he went up to 1 of the disciples, maybe he sent a delegation to 1 of the disciples and said, listen I'd like to get a chance to talk with this man.

Can you arrange for us to have a little consult?

And by the way, could it be in some out of the way place and at night?

And Jesus being gracious, and I don't know, we don't know, Scripture does not record which 1 of the disciples, if there was 1 of the disciples, or how that took place.

But in John chapter 3, and if you have your Bibles I'd like to invite you to turn there with me.

In John chapter 3, we find the story of Nicodemus.

I'm going to begin reading in verse 2 of chapter 3.

This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.

For no 1 can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." See he had been paying attention.

Jesus recognizing that soul hunger that was being expressed in this unique way from this man, successful in all the ways of the world and even in the nation of Judah, Here he was cutting right to the chase, if you will.

Jesus cuts right to the chase in verse 3.

Jesus answered and said, and most assuredly I say to you, unless 1 is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

You see, What Nicodemus was really after was recognizing that he needed to continue to grow.

All that he had achieved had not satisfied.

And you know, that is the title of our lesson today, is Growing in Christ.

There is never a time where we come to a place where we have achieved in this life.

We must continually be on the growth track that the Holy Spirit has for each 1 of us individually.

And Jesus was helping Nicodemus to come face to face with what he was really after.

He says, you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again.

Now it's interesting that the word born again is actually, it had kind of a double meaning, if you will.

It was, let me see if I can find it here where the Greek word is in our lesson.

It's not jumping out at me, but it had 2 meanings.

And obviously if you're already born in this world, if you have been born of a woman as the scriptures refer to that, and now you're being told that you must be born from above.

The common way to understand that was to be born again.

If you've already been born once, you've got to be born again.

Nicodemus, not used to being as timid as he was in the presence of this great teacher, immediately begins to respond and he says in verse 4, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Now actually that was kind of a foolish defensive question on the part of Nicodemus because see, he was a student of Scripture.

He knew the Scriptures and obviously he knew that If he was talking about being born from above, he understood what that was all about because there had been many references to scripture.

We're going to come to that in just a moment.

In the scriptures, he knew what that was.

Jesus continues and says, most assuredly, I say to you, unless 1 is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Now do you think that Nicodemus was acquainted with being born of water?

How would he have been acquainted with being born of water?

John the Baptist ministry had, you know, even though they didn't have television in those days and they didn't even have the Jerusalem Times that I know of, The word had gotten around and impacted the entire nation.

That in fact, John the Baptist was out there in what looked like the form of 1 of the ancient prophets and he was baptizing with water.

But he also had said, 1 is coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and I am not even worthy to untie his shoelaces.

So when he says water, he knows what that is.

But the spirit, He senses that he may be right on the cusp of the most important thing in his life.

Even though he's had all these classes and he's done all these things and he's accomplished all these, he's on the verge of what is really important for his spiritual growth.

And I want to suggest that that very same thing applies to each 1 of us today.

We could all be in Nicodemus' shoes as we think in terms of seeking that additional element that brings the satisfaction to our lives that all of our hearts yearn for.

So he says, You must be born of water and of the Spirit.

Nicodemus continues the dialogue with him.

And it's interesting that Nicodemus only says a few more words in this context.

Jesus says in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not marvel that I said you must be born again.

See, when he's talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he uses the incredible example of the wind.

Anyone here ever been able to cause the wind to blow?

Isn't it interesting that Jesus took something that we all understand?

How many of you have ever been in a windstorm where you felt the wind blow?

I've actually been in a windstorm where, you know, your clothes are completely plastered to you and you lean into the wind, okay?

Jesus uses the example of the wind to illustrate the great principle of the power of the spirit baptism.

And he goes on to say, you do not, The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Now there's a couple of things I want to note when you look at the baptism of the water baptism and the baptism of the Spirit.

How many of you had anything to do with being born the first time?

Every 1 of us were born without our permission or our knowledge at something that happened in this life.

Series

ASI 2014 Plenary Sessions

Growing Up In Christ

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

An Unknown Evangelist - Ellen White

51m

Refreshing

39m

By the Grace of God I Will

39m

Talking Points, 3rd Quarter 2021: Rest in Christ

04 The Cost of Rest

28m

Talking Points, 3rd Quarter 2020: Making Friends for God

05-Spirit-Empowered Witnessing

30m

iShare 2012 Seminar: Cutting Edge 2 - The Sequel

Ellen White Outside Adventism. Honored Outside the Church

38m

Remodeling Your Life- God's Transforming Power

10- Faithful Abiding

28m

The Nature of the Word of God

48m

Talking Points, 3rd Quarter 2020: Making Friends for God

07-Making Friends for God

30m

Plenary

Eager to Preach

39m

GoTential

Die and Multiply

30m

Why We Believe: Exploring the Fundamental Beliefs of the Bible

06 The Holy Spirit

52m

Sound Doctrine