Compelled

Good morning. The title of today's message is compelled the DNA of a disciple of Christ. Today is March 29th and it is the beginning of what? It is Paul Sunday which is the beginning of Holy Week, right?

So this week today Christ is coming through the gates of Jerusalem and everybody's waving palm branches and welcoming of his king. And they very mistakenly think he's coming to take the kingdom away from the Romans and away from the Jewish leaders. And in fact, he is, but not by the means everybody was hoping for. He's coming to suffer violence at the hands of leaders there and the worst thing yet, he's going to suffer the betrayal of his closest friends, his followers, the disciples.

That all happens this week. If you haven't watched the series that chosen, it would be a great time to tune it up and watch it. Magnificent, Michelle and I just got done watching season five which breaks up in the first part of Holy Week. I want to see the rest.

But anyways, earlier we had baptism and we saw people come up and Chris prayed and Chris in the name of Christ plunged them into the water and then he brought them up out. And that is a symbol of what had already happened to them earlier where they had been plunged into Christ's death with him, buried with him and then they were brought up out of the water, they were raised with him. That's what that symbolized. And I thought that was more to this for our message today because we're going to talk about this need for being born again, the need to be born again.

I want to first lay out our journey where we will go today. We're going to look at what Christ said. We must be born again. We're going to look at the why.

Why? Why must we be born again? We're going to ask ourselves in a couple of different ways have I been born again. Okay?

I'm going to talk about from the scriptures what happened on the cross that my old man was crucified on the cross and I'm going to talk about what happens when we believe. We get a brand spanking new set of DNA. Come on. Nothing like new DNA.

Who wants new DNA? Me too. Then we're going to say, well, how can I know? And then maybe what must I do in response?

Okay? Is that fair? Is that good? All right.

So let's begin our journey by reading our key text from John chapter three. Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Make a demon 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. Here is that truly, truly, truly I say to you unless one is born of the water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. Now why would Jesus say do not be amazed? Nicodemus was taken back by Jesus word. Now Nicodemus is a teacher of the law.

He should know. Don't you think he would know as a teacher of the law? He shouldn't be. What Jesus is saying is why are you surprised by my words Nicodemus?

Do you not know the scriptures? Apparently not. All right. I want to look at three phrases here.

I want to look at this reason of why we must be born again. First of all, without being born again, it says we cannot see the kingdom of God. We cannot see the kingdom. Well, what is the kingdom of God?

Let's define that. First of all, it's not heaven. It's not where you go after this life. It's not a place contrary to what Aggies believe it's not called a station.

That's where my friend Travis who is not here today. It's not a place and it's not the afterlife. The word kingdom here means the domain of, the dominion of, the rule of. It is a sphere under the authority of another.

That is what the kingdom of God is. Why does Jesus say that we cannot see the kingdom without being born again? Who believes that Jesus knows what he's talking about? Okay, me too.

All right. I want to talk about this thing about seeing. I want to give you an illustration. The year was 2008.

I was coming down the stairs from Intercession at our old church in Houston. There were two mutual friends at the bottom of the stairs. Jamie Wilson looks up at me and goes, Mark Visera, what are you going to date Michelle Stokes? I said, when God says so?

And Becky was right by her. She goes, what a great answer. And Jamie Wilson never forget these words. I think Michelle Stokes is so beautiful.

And I go, Michelle Stokes is beautiful. Till that moment, I had never thought about Michelle like that. She was not in my view. She was not on my radar.

She was not in my frame. I had never thought about Michelle like that until Jamie said those words. I could see Michelle and I could see her in my life. My vision changed.

I was awakened to this possibility. My heart had been changed by the words of our friend Jamie. It's the same with the kingdom. There has to be a perception of Jesus Christ as King.

You have to see Him as King, reigning in ruling, and Him saying, come, follow me. Jesus is saying, come and follow me. You have to see that. But Jesus says, unless you're born again, you cannot.

You cannot. You cannot because you're unable to. He goes on to say, cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You cannot enter because we don't want to.

Our hearts, we don't want a Lord. We don't want a King. We don't want someone ordering us around and telling us what to do. Look at man, I'm my own man.

I call the shots. I do it. I do it my way. It says, Frank, but Jesus says, unless you're born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You cannot because you don't want to. You're unable to. Something's going on inside of here. And that's why Jesus said, you must be born again.

It's not optional. It's not a feature. It is mandatory. Every one of us must respond to God's demand that we repent and believe the gospel.

No one is exempt from this call. God is very plain. The ones that are going to join him in the afterlife are the ones who have said, yes to Jesus today. Today.

Okay? So, but what is this being born again like? I'll tell you what is a really great analogy or picture that God gives us in nature. Monarch butterflies.

Monarch butterflies. So when we first see them, we find them in chrysalis form. They're like these green things hanging from a branch. They can't see.

They can't fly. They can't eat. They can't walk. They can't do nothing.

Okay? And then something happens. They emerge out of their chrysalises and we begin to see a new form take place. Something happens.

They change and do something completely different. Utterly and totally different. This is what it's like to be born again. We become something completely different than what we were before.

Completely different. Not the same kind. Not the same kind. So finally, that butterfly gets wings and that butterfly can fly.

That butterfly can see. That butterfly can fulfill its destiny, its purpose. The reason why it was made, but not until it's born again. So let's ask ourselves a question.

Why? Why must we be born again? In Jeremiah 17 we read, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

Deceful above all things, desperately wicked. In Ephesians 2 we read, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom. This is getting tough isn't it? In the whole whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.

By nature. That's God's testimony about us. We were by nature children of wrath. So you see, we've got a big problem here.

We've got a big problem right here. That's what God says. There's a problem right there. So in John 2 we read this, and this hurts me every time I read it.

This is during Passover, this is during that Holy Week. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs, which he was doing. You know, people come and they see the signs in the wonders and they believe in Jesus. But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men.

Did you know that Jesus knows you? Jesus knows you. He knows you. And because he did not need anyone to testify concerning that, for he himself knew what was in man.

There's something in here that needs replacing. There's something in here that's got to be dealt with. How many of you would like for Christ to trust you? How many of you would like to receive entrustments from him?

Assignments, projects, new relationships of significance. He's ready to give these to you when once you are born again. Not till then. Okay.

So let's ask the question, have I been born again? The answer to that question is not I was baptized as an infant. I was so delighted to hear Joanne's testimony. So delighted to hear that.

Who here has heard of the Roman Catholic doctrine, baptismal regeneration by show of hands? You've heard of that doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church teaches, if you ask a priest, that when they baptize a baby, that child is regenerated. That child is born again at baptism.

Now other churches believe the same thing. The Lutherans believe that. Episcopanians believe that. That's why they baptize their kids.

The Bible doesn't say that. At grace we believe in believers, baptism, because that is the pattern we see in Christ and in the apostles, in the New Testament. I'm not going to get into why they believe that. There are reasons why they believe that.

I mean, there are, you know, anyways, I'm not going to get into it because that would be a big rabbit trail. If you've only been, but let me just say this clearly. If you've only been baptized as a baby Catholic and you have since believed in Christ and left the Catholic Church, you need to be baptized. You need to obey God and be baptized.

Now we have another one coming up on May 24th. And Chris Kates will get you signed up for class when it's signed. But if you've not been baptized as a believer, you need to be baptized. I want to make that very clear.

That is the position of this church and our network. Okay, the answer is not, well, I did my first communion when I was 12. No, that's not the answer. Are you born again?

It's not, I've attended churches. I was a kid, which is very commendable. You might have been doing that to escape the business end of Dad's belt. Okay?

It's possible. Okay. Well, I prayed a prayer at summer camp or BBS, right? I prayed a prayer.

I don't know. You know, we're going to get some tests about what it means, but that's not enough. We're going to get to that in a second. It's not, I've always lived a good life.

You know, I haven't robbed a bank. I haven't murdered my neighbor. You know, I haven't stolen gems from the jewelry store. I've lived a good life.

No. Who defines what is good? God defines what is good. Jesus said, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.

That is how God defines good. A good life is one spent following Jesus closely with passion, with fervor, with deliberateness, without hypocrisy, with sincerity, sincerely following Jesus Christ. That is the definition of what is good. Okay?

We don't get to define good. God defines good. So rather, here would be a great answer. I now see what Jesus being my Lord means.

I have surrendered to him. I am a new creation with a new heart. I love Jesus and I love his word. See, that's the profession of a born-again person.

That's what it sounds like. Can you see the difference? Can you see the difference? Being born-again means I accept and believe what Christ did for me on his cross.

All right? Well, what happened on the cross? Here's what happened. That man was crucified with Christ.

In Romans 6, we read this. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, knowing this that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. That is the purpose of the cross.

That is the reason for the cross of Jesus. That I might no longer be a slave to sin. This is really incredible news. This is some great news for us.

The kingdom of God is impossible without our being born-again. That old man must die, and he did. 1,994 years ago. Yeah, I did my homework.

And he finished the work entirely, completely. What were those words he said on the cross? It is finished. It is finished.

There was nothing more that needed to be done after he did that. It's complete. He finished it for you. He finished it for me.

He finished it for us. He finished this work. He declared it is finished. God, I'll leave, man.

That's some great news. That is the truth, by the way, that baptism, that is what it talks about, that it tells us. Dead, buried, raised the life. Dead and buried and raised the life.

Hallelujah. I've been raised from the dead. I'm a new creation. In Galatians 2, 20, we read, I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh. That's today. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, who loved me, who loved me, the love of Jesus and gave himself for me.

This is what he did. This is what he did. He loved me. And he said, I'll take that guy.

I'll take him. I'll take him with me up there. And I'll take him down there and we'll come out of the grave together. I'll do that.

I love that guy. I'm going to do that for him. It's a miracle. What happened on the cross?

An absolute miracle. And all that God asks us to do is believe. How does that work? The believing brings the power and the effectiveness of the cross into our lives, just believing.

God, there's nothing else on the planet. That's a heck of a deal. What kind of a deal is that? Come on.

How can simple faith do that? It's amazing. So what happens when we're born again is this. There's that word compelling, new forces.

Work inside of me. Oh man. You know, I find a new spring moving things in a different way inside of here. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Ooh. You know, there's like an insatiable hunger for God, for his word, for growth, for doing the right thing when no one is watching. There's a hunger for it. There's a thirst.

I've got to have it. It's thirst for this. I long for this. I'm no longer motivated by pursuing sinful desires and sinful pleasures, a waste that dissipated life.

In Hebrews 1214, here's another force working within me. Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. I find myself wanting to be rid of those impurities inside of me. I don't want that stuff operational in me.

I want that stuff dealt with. I don't want sexual sin. I don't want greed. I don't want selfishness.

I want that stuff out of me. I want to be pure and holy. That's what happens when we're born again. Another thing that happens, we find a set Corinthians.

We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him. Our aim, what we're aiming for. Now, look, it's about having a direction called a trajectory of one's life. Where am I going?

Where am I headed? To be well pleasing to Christ, that's my trajectory. That's my aim. Okay?

So, let's now take a look at what the DNA of a disciple of Jesus is. Okay? In 2 Corinthians 514, we read this. For the love of Christ controls us.

Here's one aspect. I don't know what you call them on the strand of the DNA. But here's one of those things that define what the DNA is. The love of Christ controls us.

That word controls is also translated compelled, arrest, constrains, or be taken with. We're no longer controlled by hate or indifference or complaining, poutiness, revenge, controlled by love. Sacrificial love, forgiving all people, self-denying love, patient love. This is what is part of our DNA as disciples.

In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul said this. If I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of. For I am under compulsion. For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

This word compulsion means needful, necessary, constraint, distressed, obliged hardship. And then woe means woe is me. Here's what Paul said. He got to get some of the emotions the guy's writing with.

Okay. It's not like woe is me. That's not Paul's emotions. Woe is me.

Unless I preach, unless I'm consistently witnessing for Christ. It's a new emotional state that's a part of the DNA. You get a new set of emotions operating inside of you. You see that?

It's part of the DNA. New set of emotional states start to come to the fore. Okay. Another.

Here's another aspect. Psalm 40, I delight to do your will. Oh my God, your law is within my heart. His commandments are no longer burdensome.

So here's a telltale. If doing good, if doing the right thing, if being obedient to Christ is hard for you, a burden, you might need to be born again. It could also be a place you need new surrender in your life. You need a point of new surrender.

You've got to give that up. You've got to you've got to yield to God. Quit being your own boss. Let Christ be your boss.

Okay. That's what we're talking about. So here they're not burdensome. We find a great pleasure.

So I have new DNA and I'm compelled by Christ. But how can I know? Can I know? Well, let's see what the Scriptures say in 2 Corinthians 13, we read this.

Examine yourselves as to whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? That's not a suggestion.

That's a command. That's an imperative. Every one of us are commanded to examine ourselves, to test ourselves. Listen, by the way, it's just the normal part of the Christian life.

It's just the normal part of being a Christian to examine yourself and say, you know, what is that about? Why am I doing that? You have to call yourself into account. That's what he's telling.

He's saying examine yourselves. Call yourself into account. Get in front of the mirror and talk to that guy in the mirror. Yo, we ought to talk about that.

I'm not sure that's Christ's life. Are you getting it? Yeah. I forgot my prop.

I was going to hold my mirror up and start talking to the guy in the mirror because this message is mainly for me. Okay. So how can I know? I'm going to give us six tests.

They're not exhaustive, but these are six tests that we can all use to know if we are born again. Okay. The first test is the most important test. And it says this in John 5.

I say to you, he who hears my word and believes. You hear the word and you believe him. It's the first test. Today you've heard the word.

Do you believe? Do you believe the word? Okay. That's a test.

If you're not believing the word, you might need to be born again. Okay. Another test is love. In first John 3, we read this.

We know that we have passed out of death in the life because we love our Christian family. Sometimes that Christian family is translated because we love the brethren. How many of you actually use the word brethren in your everyday language? Yeah, I mean either.

So that's our Christian family. The church, our local body that we belong to. Do you love them? Is love operational?

Are you doing acts of service and kindness such as you're able to with your local Christian family? Okay. If we're born again, we want to hang out with them. We find ourselves not wanting to hang out with the old crowd.

We party with, hung out with, you know, we find ourselves saying, you know, I don't really want to do that. I really don't want to do that. I really want to, you know, I wonder what Chris Gates is doing. I don't give Chris Gates gong over his house.

Okay. Maybe not Chris. You call me up. You call me up.

You call me up. The third test is this in Proverbs. Oh man. By the way, this chapter is where wisdom is speaking.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth. I hate. That's what God says.

Do you hate pride, arrogance, the evil way and the perverted mouth? That's a test. If you don't find yourself hating that, by the way, talk about what's inside here. I'm talking about you.

Not those people out there doing all that stuff. We're talking about you hating your pride, your arrogance, your evil way, your perverted mouth. Talk about that person in the mirror. Don't forget.

Go take a look at that conversation with that person. Okay. If you can find yourself in agreement with what God says here, you might be born again. Fair enough.

A fourth test. Ooh boy. This one's kind of like the third one. Found in Hebrews 12.

You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. Whoa. Listen, are you in full battle array against your own sin? Are you mounted up and charging hard after your own sin?

Are you getting your hands around that thing and choking it? It's an attitude. It's an attitude. It's a disposition.

It's something in your heart that comes out of your heart and you know it. You go, I hate that. I hate that. I hate that.

I hate it. I hate it. God help me. I don't want to do that again.

God help me. God help me. I'm going to stop being short with Michelle and I'm going to start patiently listening to my dear bride. I hate that.

I hate that short, angry, snotty kid that talks to me and to my wife. We're going to deal with that. Okay. So you got to find yourself completely committed and fervently attacking sin.

Okay. Here's the fifth one. Put off the old man and put on the new man. Kind of like what I just said, is your life a trail of little mini altar calls along the way where you said, oh man, I'm going to stop doing that and I'm going to start doing this.

Little altar is all along the trail of your life where you said, Lord, that was wrong. I'm sorry, God. I don't want to do that again. God help me change.

I'm going to put on meekness. I said that prideful tongue. I want to put on meekness. You should have a whole trail full of markers of places where you said, I'm going to put that off and I'll put that on.

Okay. That's a sign that shows you're born again. Okay. We're testing ourselves, right?

And then finally, this is but again, not exhaustive, but this is my final one today. For if these qualities, which are godly character traits and practices, are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor fruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you're writing this down, please go to 2 Peter 1 verses 3 through 9 to see what I'm talking about. I didn't do the whole list today.

But it's a ladder of character qualities and traits, one building upon the other. Peter says, these better be yours and increasing. All right. If you're doing this, you're probably born again.

But let's be really super clear about something. We are not talking about perfection. Impossible in this life. Impossible.

Impossible. Ain't it going to happen? But you better be in the fight. You better be in the ring.

You better have some rounds in your favor. You better have some rounds. You better have some Ws. You better.

Because you can. I'm talking from personal experience, having overcome significant character defects. I'm just being as plain as I can. And behavioral defects, sinful behavioral defects.

I can say, I see the victory of Christ in my life. I can say it. We can all say it. We can all get to the end of our days and look back and remember that trail of altars where I put something off and I put something on?

We've got a nice trail back there. That doesn't get you to heaven by the way. That does not get you to heaven. It's just proof you already are in heaven.

Does that make sense? All it is is proof that you already are there. Because we enter the kingdom today. We enter under his authority today.

That's a settled fact. We don't earn our way to the kingdom. We just say, yes, Jesus. And boom, we're in the kingdom.

Just like that. There's no working up to it, et cetera. So let's do a recap. Can we?

So we have a problem, right? We looked at the problem that we have. We've got a bad heart. It's a bad heart, Lord.

We've got to do something about it. And Jesus said, OK, tell you what. I'll take that thing up with me on the cross. We'll kill it off.

And you can have my heart instead. You can Christ. I will come to live in you, Mark. I will come to live in you, Karen.

I will come to live in you, Philip. I will come to live in you, Ashley. And we're going to go that way for now on. And the result of that is that we now have the DNA of a disciple.

Ain't that cool? It's a great exchange. It's a great exchange. All it takes is surrender.

We can be born again and we must be born again and we can tell. We can test ourselves and we must. So the question is, what do we do next? For those of you who know that you're born again, it could be a day of surrender for you.

It could be a God might be talking to you about something that he wants you to yield to him about. This is not like a day of entry. You're in the kingdom. But you know the Lord is talking to you.

But put his finger on something that he wants you to yield to him and give up. And the testing, you like the testing stuff because you're going, OK, I need to do some of that. But there are others here. You've never yielded to Christ.

You've got to answer his call to submit to the Lordship of Christ and to receive the gift of eternal life and the new man that we're talking about today. Well, today is your day as well. OK? Today is your day.

How hard is this? It's the easiest thing on earth. Simply this, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. It's all he requires is belief.

Believe what? The gospel message is simple. Christ died for my sins. He was buried.

He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Who believes that today? Who believes that? That's all it takes is to believe that.

And then it says, Scriptures go on to say in Romans 10, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus says, Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness. And with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. For the Scriptures say, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.

God is not going to disappoint you today. He is here to fulfill his promise to you. He is here to fulfill that. We're getting ready to close the service.

And I'm going to give all of you a chance to respond however God is leading you and however God is speaking to you today to respond.