The second message in Tapestry Lenten message series of 2023 from the Sunday, March 5, 2023 worship gathering. John 3:1-17. Jesus talked about a new birth. What does that mean for us during the Lenten season?
Autogenerated Transcript
Lenten 2 3 5 2023 John 3 1-17.mp3
Transcript
00:00:01 Robert
Thank you, Adam, by the way.
00:00:03 Robert
Strings are not here.
00:00:05 Robert
Maidan’s Long John is up for auction. Do I do I have a bid? Basically, who would like a long John?
00:00:14 Robert
There we go.
00:00:16 Robert
If I throw it, it’s gonna be it’s gonna be destroyed.
00:00:18 Robert
So I’m gonna wait for you to.
00:00:19 Robert
Come up there.
00:00:20 Robert
And get it.
00:00:21 Robert
Well, guess what you have.
00:00:22 Robert
A long John.
00:00:22 Robert
Now you only stole it from a it.
00:00:25 Robert
Made us three, I think.
00:00:28 Robert
So you only stole it from a four year old.
00:00:30 Robert
If, if she blames anybody, I’m gonna throw you under the bus.
00:00:34 Robert
Just so you know, OK.
00:00:36 Robert
OK so.
00:00:39 Robert
Basically, I’m going to be referencing pretty much everyone of Lindsey and Jason songs because those were realistically the sermons, so.
00:00:51 Robert
If you remember anything from the Gospel of John that we have been talking through, and I don’t ever expect anyone to remember any of the the sermons, I’m always honored when you do remember any of the messages, but the reality is most of what we do in church is we just try to remind each other the grace of God.
00:01:07 Robert
If you get that and you can live that out during the week.
00:01:09 Robert
That is a wonderful thing.
00:01:11 Robert
It’s not about.
00:01:14 Robert
More biblical knowledge is about more interaction with Jesus.
00:01:18 Robert
So if you remember anything, the text that we are about to go through, you’re going to go, huh?
00:01:23 Robert
We talked about that about four weeks ago because what we’re doing is we are going through the scriptures that are typically used in Lent.
00:01:30 Robert
So this is one of those, but we’ve already talked about a little bit.
00:01:33 Robert
I’m going to turn this down.
00:01:34 Robert
’cause I can hear it.
00:01:35 Robert
Does it sound like?
00:01:36 Robert
It’s ringing just a little bit to you guys.
00:01:39 Robert
OK, well, it does to me just a teeny bit.
00:01:42 Robert
This is why I like it when Eric is here.
00:01:44 Robert
Because Eric immediately adjust the sound.
00:01:46 Robert
So if you have your Bibles or if you have a bulletin around you or a phone, or if you just want to look behind me, this is the word of the Lord and Mr.
00:01:55 Robert
You’re going to operate this.
00:01:56 Robert
So I can thank you.
00:01:58 Robert
This is what the word of the Lord.
00:02:00 Robert
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling Council.
00:02:06 Robert
He came to Jesus and at night and said Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God for no one could perform the signs you are doing.
00:02:16 Robert
If they were not from if if God were not with him.
00:02:20 Robert
Jesus replied.
00:02:21 Robert
Very truly.
00:02:22 Robert
I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.
00:02:27 Robert
How can someone be born when they are old? Nicodemus asked. Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born.
00:02:35 Robert
Jesus answered very truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the spirit flesh gives birth to flesh.
00:02:45 Robert
But the spirit gives birth to spirit.
00:02:47 Robert
You should not be surprised at me saying you must be born again.
00:02:51 Robert
The wind, the wind blows wherever it pleases.
00:02:54 Robert
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell.
00:02:56 Robert
Where it comes from or where it is going so it is with everyone born of the spirit.
00:03:03 Robert
How can this be nicodemi?
00:03:05 Robert
Asked you are Israel’s teacher, said Jesus. And you do not understand these things very truly. I tell you, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen.
00:03:15 Robert
But still you people do not accept our testimony.
00:03:17 Robert
I’ve spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe.
00:03:21 Robert
How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
00:03:24 Robert
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the son of man.
00:03:30 Robert
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes.
00:03:38 Robert
May have eternal life in him.
00:03:42 Robert
For God so loved the world that he gave his only one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
00:03:49 Robert
For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
00:03:57 Robert
I want you to think for just a second.
00:04:01 Robert
About groups around us that influence what’s important to us, think about it.
00:04:08 Robert
What are some of these groups?
00:04:09 Robert
That that influence.
00:04:11 Robert
What you think or what others think are important?
00:04:14 Robert
And I’m going to give you an example that I actually talked about with with my family yesterday because it, if you have noticed.
00:04:22 Robert
There is, over the past few years, a change that takes place within our the whatever the popular drinking vessel is, so water is important.
00:04:31 Robert
You should all hydrate.
00:04:32 Robert
Hydration is good.
00:04:34 Robert
A few years ago, well Yeti was the cup of choice that you wanted to get, and it was like, oh, this is really expensive.
00:04:41 Robert
I figured out a way to work the system.
00:04:44 Robert
For some reason there is a Security Agency that is convinced that tapestry has a building and they were like Pastor Robert.
00:04:52 Robert
If you watch this this seminar, you’ll get a free Yeti.
00:04:55 Robert
Like, OK, that would be nice.
00:04:58 Robert
I could use a Yeti.
00:05:00 Robert
I watched a seminar.
00:05:01 Robert
Are you interested?
00:05:02 Robert
No, we don’t have a building.
00:05:03 Robert
We can’t use a security system, ABB.
00:05:06 Robert
Your your mom might want one here, but they it’s like, oh, OK, OK, we’ll send you the Eddie.
00:05:11 Robert
Hey, Pastor Robert.
00:05:12 Robert
If you watch another seminar, we’ll send you another Yeti.
00:05:17 Robert
OK.
00:05:20 Robert
I watched another seminar.
00:05:22 Robert
Would you like?
00:05:23 Robert
Would you like this security system?
00:05:24 Robert
It’d be great for sure.
00:05:25 Robert
This looks really good, I agree.
00:05:27 Robert
This is really top notch.
00:05:28 Robert
We could probably really use this if we had a building we don’t have a building.
00:05:33 Robert
OK, OK.
00:05:34 Robert
We’ll send you Yeti, pastor Robert.
00:05:38 Robert
Would you like to watch another?
00:05:39 Robert
I watched 3 stinking seminars.
00:05:43 Robert
I have a Yeti now.
00:05:45 Robert
My wife has a Yeti.
00:05:46 Robert
Now I think, Adam.
00:05:48 Robert
You’re the only.
00:05:49 Robert
Immediate member of the former nuclear family that did not get a Yeti because you were not living at the house at that time.
00:05:54 Robert
You got a wife.
00:05:55 Robert
Instead, I think you made a better choice, OK?
00:05:58 Robert
Not that sounded really bad.
00:06:00 Robert
That’s not what I meant.
00:06:05 Robert
We’re just going to go home now, guys.
00:06:08 Robert
If you remember like.
00:06:11 Robert
People really into this and then it went from Yeti to like Hydro Flask and then it went, I know.
00:06:17 Robert
And then it went from Hydro Flask.
00:06:18 Robert
What was the other one that you guys talked about that you said that I didn’t remember it?
00:06:24 Robert
Which makes me think from The Muppets my favorite character was beaker on The Muppets, and now it’s Stanley Cups.
00:06:31 Robert
I have a Stanley coffee coffee thermos that that I love that I take with me hunting or watching Eagles.
00:06:38 Robert
I love it.
00:06:39 Robert
Those things you’re selling for, like apparently 70 bucks now for a Stanley.
00:06:43 Robert
Stop, because some people decide to use this and it influences everyone else.
00:06:51 Robert
You were wondering where this was going or OK.
00:06:54 Robert
You see this around.
00:06:55 Robert
Think of the groups that influence you and those around you that say this is what’s important in life.
00:07:06 Robert
There’s a lot of it.
00:07:07 Robert
Here’s why I bring this up.
00:07:09 Robert
Our passage today starts with this.
00:07:13 Robert
Now there was a Pharisee.
00:07:15 Robert
The very first thing we know about Nicodemus is that he was defined as a Pharisee, and the reason that’s important is there were groups in the ancient Near East, specifically in Judaism at this time that were thought groups that influenced how everyone.
00:07:33 Robert
Reviewed the.
00:07:33 Robert
The world now, there are a lot of different groups there.
00:07:37 Robert
I’m going to talk about 3 specific groups, but there were a lot of different groups, OK, but religiously there were these, for lack of a better phrase, religio political groups that were concerned about one question.
00:07:51 Robert
And that question was.
00:07:54 Robert
Why is Israel no longer powerful?
00:08:01 Robert
God had said that we were the chosen people. God had said that David’s Kingdom would rule forever and we are now subjugated by Rome.
00:08:11 Robert
Why is Israel no longer powerful?
00:08:13 Robert
And you had three groups, and if you notice this artist basically set them up a little differently.
00:08:19 Robert
You had the Sadducees, who were more priestly.
00:08:22 Robert
You had the Pharisees who were more scribes, and here’s the different.
00:08:27 Robert
The priests, the Sadducees, were concerned with the ritual of the temple.
00:08:32 Robert
They were concerned very much with what happens in this ritualistic practice and how is that ritualistic practice continued elsewhere.
00:08:40 Robert
The Fierces were very much considered are concerned with the law, so think this way.
00:08:45 Robert
Church Service Bible study.
00:08:49 Robert
And then you had the essence, Essenes.
00:08:53 Robert
They were like, everybody’s messed up.
00:08:54 Robert
We’re just going somewhere else.
00:08:57 Robert
So here’s how they approached him.
00:08:59 Robert
The Sadducees were convinced that Israel was no longer powerful because they had chosen the wrong side, and the Sadducees said if we do the ritual right and we’re faithful, that’s the most important thing.
00:09:09 Robert
God will lift us up again.
00:09:11 Robert
So what we need?
00:09:11 Robert
To do is make sure that that Rome is happy with us.
00:09:17 Robert
And we are able to continue to do the sacrifices.
00:09:19 Robert
So they very much fed into the power structures of Rome at the time and they’re like everybody needs to do the ritualistic practices.
00:09:29 Robert
So they would encourage you, you had these powerful priests that were encouraging people to do it.
00:09:33 Robert
And when you read the story of Jesus, you see where priests.
00:09:37 Robert
We are basically concerned with, Oh my gosh, he’s ticking off Rome.
00:09:41 Robert
That’s going to stop the sacrifices from happening in the temple.
00:09:44 Robert
We have to deal with him.
00:09:45 Robert
We have to get rid of him.
00:09:47 Robert
The Essenes over here.
00:09:50 Robert
Basically had the mindset of everybody is so evil that there’s no way for us to redeem it.
00:09:56 Robert
We’re going to separate ourselves from everyone else.
00:09:59 Robert
Now you have heard of them, even though you didn’t know that you’ve heard of them. Because we in the 1930s is this wonderful gift that was discovered in a.
00:10:10 Robert
The Cave that was known as Kumaran, and specifically the Qumran community, was known to be there.
00:10:15 Robert
We know it as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
00:10:17 Robert
We have the Dead Sea Scrolls because of the Essenes and it’s a great gift because some of the.
00:10:21 Robert
The best examples of Old Testament literature we have come from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the reason those exist there is because this group right here said everybody is ruined.
00:10:33 Robert
There’s no repentance possible.
00:10:35 Robert
Only thing we can do is separate go out into the wilderness, escape everybody else, and then we can live a pure life.
00:10:43 Robert
And finally, God will lift us back up so that Israel will be redeemed.
00:10:49 Robert
So you have people here.
00:10:51 Robert
That are we’re going to lean into the power structure.
00:10:55 Robert
You have people here that are we’re going to escape the power structure.
00:10:59 Robert
And the Pharisees are kind of in the middle.
00:11:03 Robert
The Pharisees are convinced the reason that Israel is no longer powerful, the reason that Israel is subjugated is because the people of Israel were not following the law properly.
00:11:16 Robert
And they specifically meant by that 613, what would be known as mitzvah laws, commands righteous acts that you were supposed to follow, and they were saying if we can get the people of Israel to follow the law perfectly, then God is going to lift Israel back up.
00:11:36 Robert
And we will again be the powerful people that we were supposed to be.
00:11:44 Robert
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.
00:11:48 Robert
And he says the following, he says.
00:11:52 Robert
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God for no one can perform the signs you were doing.
00:11:59 Robert
If God were not with him and Jesus answers him in a way that seems to not actually answer his question, Jesus says the following.
00:12:08 Robert
He says this very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God.
00:12:12 Robert
Unless they are born again.
00:12:16 Robert
Nicodemus comes and says you’re doing great things, and no one can do that without God being with him, but his whole background is 1. He’s a part of a group that’s saying if we want to be lifted back up by God again, we have to make sure that we follow all 613 laws. We have to make sure that everyone does it. There’s an old story.
00:12:37 Robert
About Pharisees, this is probably apocryphal, but the story is that their foreheads were constantly bruised because they were so convinced that they would be tempted if a woman walked past them.
00:12:47 Robert
Because women are evil, that is me saying that in quotes, OK.
00:12:51 Robert
OK, I’m not actually saying that.
00:12:53 Robert
I guess I did actually say that, but I’m saying it in quotes, that they were worried they would be tempted that they had constant bumps on their foreheads.
00:13:00 Robert
Because if a woman walked by them, they would turn this head, turn their head this way or away from the woman, and would walk into things nonstop.
00:13:07 Robert
They were concerned with purity.
00:13:11 Robert
Over and over.
00:13:12 Robert
Again, that’s what Nicodemus is coming out of.
00:13:15 Robert
And he sees Jesus and says this man is doing the things of God.
00:13:19 Robert
I have to go talk to him.
00:13:21 Robert
And Jesus understands affairs.
00:13:23 Robert
He’s talking to me at the end of the day.
00:13:25 Robert
What they’re concerned with is what do we have to do for Israel to be lifted up again?
00:13:33 Robert
Nicodemus takes Jesus too literal in one way.
00:13:38 Robert
He he does this wonderful statement where he says how in the world can a man.
00:13:42 Robert
Be born again.
00:13:43 Robert
How how does a person get back up into the womb and and those of you who’ve given birth before?
00:13:47 Robert
We’re probably like I am very thankful that is not possible.
00:13:51 Robert
That would be very painful, that would not be.
00:13:55 Robert
But what I think happens so often is while Nicodemus took Jesus physically, literally too much.
00:14:02 Robert
We don’t take.
00:14:03 Robert
Jesus, literally enough when it comes to life.
00:14:07 Robert
His answer literally was.
00:14:10 Robert
You need a new birth.
00:14:13 Robert
And I think so often when we hear new birth, we think new as in going back and doing a second try, we think new as in restoration.
00:14:24 Robert
But when Jesus talks about new, he’s talking about transformation.
00:14:30 Robert
It is a different way of life.
00:14:32 Robert
The poet that we watched at the beginning used a phrase that comes from Scripture where it is people turning the world upside down.
00:14:40 Robert
When we sang the Ren collective song, which is I forgot the name of it.
00:14:45 Robert
Build your Kingdom here.
00:14:48 Robert
There’s one phrase that is change the atmosphere.
00:14:52 Robert
What you think about that for just a SEC.
00:14:54 Robert
What would happen to us if the atmosphere in this room was changed?
00:15:01 Robert
We die.
00:15:02 Robert
We can’t exist it.
00:15:02 Robert
We have been created to live in a certain atmospheric condition, to be able to live in a different atmospheric condition.
00:15:13 Robert
We either have to somehow bring our atmosphere with us or entire system would have to be changed.
00:15:21 Robert
Jesus is talking about a new birth where he’s saying.
00:15:24 Robert
You’re being born.
00:15:25 Robert
Into a new set of values, because what happens again and again is we just want to take the values that are around us and make them religious rather than looking for a different set of values.
00:15:41 Robert
We are in the midst of Lent.
00:15:42 Robert
A few weeks ago, we saw people walking around with ash in their forehead.
00:15:46 Robert
Matter of fact, if Sarah Reeve is watching this today, I had the photo showed with me.
00:15:51 Robert
I was going to put in the slide show and I didn’t.
00:15:53 Robert
But Sarah Reeve sent Pam a photo this week that said if you remember the statement from Lent is, remember thou art dust and to dust you shall return.
00:16:02 Robert
And she sent us a photo of a sign that says, remember thou art dust, and to dust you shall return.
00:16:08 Robert
Therefore, I do not dust.
00:16:14 Robert
Oh, I I didn’t catch the last.
00:16:15 Robert
Part so.
00:16:17 Robert
I did not catch that the last part was because it might be someone I know that makes it even funnier.
00:16:24 Robert
See, I only get half the joke and I still thought it was funny.
00:16:29 Robert
Lint is supposed to remind us that all the systems that are telling us this is what you should value.
00:16:36 Robert
Are dust.
00:16:40 Robert
And the reality is, followers of Jesus so often we do not look for upside down values.
00:16:46 Robert
Instead we take the values of the world.
00:16:50 Robert
And we just try to make them religious.
00:16:56 Robert
If you think about it, you’ll think of lots of examples.
00:16:58 Robert
I think Lindsey did an example up here, not in a bad way, Lindsey said.
00:17:03 Robert
We’re not trying to say that Aaron Stomp.
00:17:08 Robert
There we go.
00:17:09 Robert
Aaron Strempel is wiser than than Martin Luther.
00:17:13 Robert
Because the value of this world is is that you, if you have charisma, if you have great learning, if you are a great speaker, then you probably have wisdom.
00:17:22 Robert
But there’s no no actual connection that you will have great wisdom just because you’re a great speaker.
00:17:30 Robert
If you look at the history of Martin Luther, he was.
00:17:32 Robert
A jerk.
00:17:35 Robert
Is a jerk that God used.
00:17:37 Robert
I’m convinced that Paul was probably a jerk also, and God used Paul because he was able to use that ability to accomplish his will, but it doesn’t mean that somehow Martin Luther is holier than you or I.
00:17:52 Robert
It means Martin Luther had the right talents at that time for God to be able to use that kind of needed a jerk.
00:17:58 Robert
For the Reformation to happen.
00:18:00 Robert
Now, that may sound a little weird until you start thinking we have a story of Jesus watching everyone give their offerings at the temple and he says that one specific person does it right.
00:18:16 Robert
Anybody know who it was?
00:18:20 Robert
As a widow who threw 2 little small coins in, we call it the widow’s mite. Jesus literally says everyone else is giving a lot.
00:18:30 Robert
She gave next to nothing and that is the greatest gift that happened today.
00:18:38 Robert
It’s not the only example.
00:18:39 Robert
All of Scripture is again and again the values being turned over.
00:18:46 Robert
The first will be.
00:18:50 Robert
And the last will be.
00:18:55 Robert
But even when we know that we struggle when the songs we said today was that our weakness would be made strong.
00:19:02 Robert
But if you look at Scripture, what it says instead is that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.
00:19:08 Robert
It’s not that weakness has somehow changed into strength, but literally when God displays his strength, it is weakness.
00:19:19 Robert
You look at Scripture again, Jesus is glorified not when he is lifted up at the end.
00:19:25 Robert
His glorification literally is when he is.
00:19:28 Robert
On the cross.
00:19:32 Robert
When our God is calling out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
00:19:36 Robert
He is in the midst of his glorification.
00:19:41 Robert
His coronation is king.
00:19:44 Robert
The values of the Kingdom are the exact opposite.
00:19:52 Robert
And we have to be challenged from that, Thoreau.
00:19:56 Robert
Who I don’t normally quote, but I think it fits, said the following.
00:20:01 Robert
He said never use a clicker was that?
00:20:03 Robert
You or me?
00:20:04 Robert
OK, alright, he said.
00:20:06 Robert
I went into the woods because I wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life and to see if I.
00:20:13 Robert
Could not learn.
00:20:14 Robert
What it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
00:20:19 Robert
Now I have real problems with rowing some things, but what I liked is he understood that where he lived.
00:20:25 Robert
Influenced who he was.
00:20:29 Robert
I want to be this person.
00:20:31 Robert
I need to escape this spot and go and live in this spot.
00:20:37 Robert
And when we try to make the world’s values religious, when we try to say we’re going to reach more people if we’re more popular.
00:20:47 Robert
We’re going to reach more people if we have a larger system.
00:20:51 Robert
We are influenced by those values.
00:20:54 Robert
To follow a false gospel.
00:20:58 Robert
And it is.
00:20:59 Robert
All around us and it, I mean today for me.
00:21:05 Robert
One of the things I love the size of tapestry, but we had like three weeks in a row where we were bursting at the seams.
00:21:14 Robert
Bursting at the for us, OK?
00:21:18 Robert
We were back close to what we were pandemic wise. We had 41 people here. Yes, last week. That’s huge for us. We ran out of bulletins for the first time in a long time.
00:21:31 Robert
And I love you.
00:21:31 Robert
Got you were my friends, and I was upset when there weren’t as many people here today.
00:21:38 Robert
And some of us, my pride, because my son and my daughter-in-law are here today, and I want you to. I want them.
00:21:43 Robert
To see it like we’re back.
00:21:47 Robert
Higher numbers are not a.
00:21:49 Robert
Value of the Kingdom of God.
00:21:54 Robert
There is nothing more holy about large church attendance, but we buy in that lie all into that lie all the time.
00:22:01 Robert
You will hear in church healthy things grow, which is pure baloney.
00:22:06 Robert
Healthy things mature.
00:22:09 Robert
If you continue to grow, it’s called giantism and it’s not a good thing.
00:22:17 Robert
And this morning, rather than going father, I am so thankful.
00:22:23 Robert
For these constant reminders of the image of God that I am surrounded with.
00:22:30 Robert
I was going.
00:22:30 Robert
Why are we low today?
00:22:35 Robert
Because I live in the wrong values.
00:22:42 Robert
Jesus said.
00:22:45 Robert
My Kingdom is not of this world.
00:22:47 Robert
If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders, but now my Kingdom is from another place, he says this in challenge to someone saying I have power over you.
00:23:01 Robert
My kingdom’s not here and.
00:23:02 Robert
That doesn’t mean it’s just blandly.
00:23:04 Robert
Spiritual he’s saying I literally live in a different system.
00:23:09 Robert
Where what is good and what is bad are different things than what you value.
00:23:14 Robert
And yet so often as believers in Jesus Christ, we claim the values of the world, we just try to make them religious.
00:23:26 Robert
We are influenced by where we live.
00:23:32 Robert
Paul says do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
00:23:39 Robert
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will.
00:23:45 Robert
And when we come to lent, we are not only recognizing that we are dust.
00:23:50 Robert
We are not only recognizing that we have.
00:23:52 Robert
Then, but we are recognizing that the world we live in, the world we are constantly influenced by the world that says what is good and what is bad is dust also.
00:24:06 Robert
And we have to come to him and say change us now.
00:24:12 Robert
The new birth is not about a new start.
00:24:15 Robert
It’s not about a maybe this time I will be able to correct it.
00:24:19 Robert
It is enter an entirely different world.
00:24:27 Robert
The atmosphere has changed and for that to happen you have to be a new creation with new lungs that can can take up nourishment from this other stuff that is viewed as poisonous and is weak.
00:24:39 Robert
Nietzsche’s problem with Christianity was that he saw it for what it really was, and he says it makes humanity.
00:24:45 Robert
Weak and Jesus’s answer is yes, because my strength is made perfect in weakness.
00:24:56 Robert
So when we come to lent, we not only recognize our own sin, but we recognize the failure of the values around us, and we beg for a new birth.
00:25:07 Robert
So before I suggest what I think we can do with this, does anybody have?
00:25:12 Robert
Anything to add?
00:25:19 Robert
OK.
00:25:20 Speaker 2
So how do you live in a new world?
00:25:28 Robert
Not through our own effort.
00:25:31 Robert
Jesus describes it literally as a new birth.
00:25:35 Robert
What did you do to get born?
00:25:38 Robert
Not diddly squat.
00:25:42 Robert
You sat in your mother’s womb. At least I’m assuming we all came out of a womb you sat.
00:25:47 Robert
In your mother’s womb.
00:25:48 Robert
For nine months.
00:25:50 Robert
Maybe a little more if you were late, maybe a little less if you were early.
00:25:57 Robert
I think we have to constantly come back and.
00:26:00 Robert
Well, in the back table we have a sticker from from Dietrich Bonhoeffer that’s there every week.
00:26:06 Robert
It says, Lord, I do not understand your ways.
00:26:10 Robert
But I know you are the way for me.
00:26:14 Robert
I think Lent gives us the chance to come back and say.
00:26:19 Robert
What is dust all around me?
00:26:22 Robert
And how is it influencing me?
00:26:26 Robert
Jesus, I do not understand your ways.
00:26:29 Robert
But I know you are the way for me.
00:26:32 Robert
And that may be destructive, but it’s always destructive.
00:26:36 Robert
That leads to construction.
00:26:39 Robert
It is deconstructing around us.
00:26:43 Robert
That we might live in the Kingdom of God.
00:26:46 Robert
So this week.
00:26:49 Robert
Recognize you live in a dusty place.
00:26:53 Robert
So if you will join with me and singing.
00:26:56 Speaker 2
The closing prayer.
00:27:00 Speaker 2
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
00:27:08 Speaker 2
Praise him.
00:27:10 Speaker 2
All creatures here be low.
00:27:16 Speaker 2
Praise him up all of Ye heavenly host, praise Father, son and Holy Ghost homily.
00:27:37 Robert
You live in a dusty world.
00:27:39 Robert
I live in a dusty world.
00:27:41 Robert
Remember you art dust, thou art dust.
00:27:46 Robert
But we have a God who breathes life into dust.
00:27:49 Robert
Have a great week.
00:27:50 Robert
OK.
00:27:51 Robert
Thank you for joining us on video.