Lenten 2

Lenten 2

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. 

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