Well, hello. What a joy to be here with you. First things first. I love when we sit at tables, but I don't want you to get a neck ache. So, I know you're afraid to turn your chair because you don't want to make the noise. So, everybody get your chair in a comfortable position because we're going to be this way for a little bit. I don't want anybody to get a neck ache on my account. I know I just met you and I'm already bossing you around and that tells you everything you need to know about my personality type. Also, get yourself to your Bible. If you didn't bring your Bible, you have one on your phone. I brought mine, we'll be okay, but definitely bring your Bible tomorrow. I always feel like I should give a bit of a disclaimer, especially after the glowing introduction that Rochelle gave me that I'm so grateful for, but I feel like there's about a 50-50 chance I'm gonna say something meaningful this weekend, which is not great odds. But I'm not worried at all because my assignment here is to give you the Word. And the Word of God is so powerful. And if anything of significance happens in your heart, in your mind, in your life during the next 24 hours, it's going to be because we have our Bibles open. So it's really important that you have your Bible handy. And again, if you don't have it tonight, for sure bring it tomorrow. Well, as Rochelle told you, my name is Erin. I hail from the state of Missouri. It's okay if you've never been there. Nobody ever comes there, and we like it like that. I've really been looking forward to being here with you and feel like the Lord has given me such treasures in his word that I'm eager to share with you. All of those things Rochelle said about me are true. What she didn't tell you is that I am a big fat Pharisee and I think you are too. And so we're going to be talking about our pharisaical hearts a little bit tonight. And it's going to be a message of hope, I promise, but often we have to go by way of conviction to get to what the Lord wants to show us. So Rochelle and I, and many other ladies who have been planning this, but Rochelle and I specifically, I don't know how Rochelle and I met. She could probably tell you that story. I can never remember how I meet people. But we have this text friendship now. And so for months and months and months, We've been dreaming about this moment and anticipating what the Lord might have for you, what the Lord might have for us. And we'd hear like a little something here or get something in the word and it felt like putting together this puzzle of what tonight might be. And we've been praying for you and as always happens, that prayer has turned into just like an ache. And that ache is that we don't just want you to have a good weekend. There's a lot of ways to have a good weekend. And we want so much more for you than that. We want something supernatural to happen in your lives this weekend, and here's why. As we look around, and I know that you're going to affirm this, but as we look around at the women we know and the women we love and at our own hearts, what we see is what I would describe as a soul hunger or a soul sickness. That's how we came up with this idea of satisfied, because we recognize that many of us are not satisfied. And I'm not even talking about them, those outside the walls of the church. I'm talking about those of us who are in Christ have a deep dissatisfaction. And we just keep trying to take the edge off, right? We just think, like, if I can... When life just slows down, and can we just like pop that bubble? Because I don't think it's gonna. I just think this is the pace of life. But we keep convincing ourselves that if we can just get through this season and get to the next season, that all of a sudden this ache that's inside of us will go away. Then we get to that next season and realize, whoops, that didn't solve it. Or if we, you know, if we can just get a weekend away with friends or with our husband, or if we can just get a cabin in the woods for a few days, then we can be satisfied. And then we do, and we still have to do laundry and dishes in those places, right? And it doesn't fix it. Or, you know, if I can just lose 15 pounds or 50 pounds, wherever you are on that spectrum, we think, oh, that is going to make the ache go away. And I could give us lots of examples. We're just always kind of trying to take the edge off. And what we don't recognize is that those things, many of which might be really good things, they cannot satisfy us. And so we're gonna spend our weekend just laser focused on Jesus, and I'm so excited about that. I have the joy of getting to teach the word all over the place in lots of different times and different environments, but I don't always just get to focus on Jesus for the weekend. And so that's what we're gonna do, and that's because Jesus is the great satisfier. So we can't talk about being satisfied and really talk about anything else other than him. And being satisfied in Jesus, you guys know this, I can tell that I'm among women with some depth, some roots in the word. Being satisfied in Jesus is not just for the moment of salvation, right? That's true for our whole lives. It's true for every moment and every ache, Jesus is what we're looking for. But we just don't necessarily recognize it. And we just all sang some really powerful words about who Jesus is. They come straight from scripture. He is all of those things. He is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. He is the one, the word says, by whom and through whom and for whom all things were made. But what we need to be aware of, and part of what we're gonna help each other remember this weekend, is that the gravitational pull of our broken spirits, and we're all broken by sin. And so the gravitational pull of our broken spirits is to worship something else and try to find satisfaction in something else. And again, this is family talk, guys. I'm not talking about what the lost do. Of course, the lost, they have a totally different approach to all of this. I'm talking about us. Even those of us who are in Christ because of our brokenness, because of our sin, we have a constant gravitational pull to try and worship and find satisfaction in something else. Which brings me back to the Pharisees and the realization that that is in fact what I am and likely what you are. But there's good news in what we're going to study. I've waited too long to say my very favorite words. Open your Bible. We're going to be in the book of John right there in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Get yourself there. Those are my favorite words. Open your Bible. This is my favorite sound. Bible pages turning. I love that sound. While you're getting to the book of John, I'll kind of give you the flyover. We're going to look at tonight three snapshots of Nicodemus. We see him three times in the book of John, and we're going to look at each of those snapshots together. And you probably already know this about Nicodemus, but Nicodemus was, in fact, a real deal Pharisee. We see that in this first snapshot we're going to look at here in John 3. And I know that the Pharisees get talked about a lot, and I know that they get a lot of shade, and they deserve a lot of it. But let's look at who the Pharisees were fundamentally. They were Jews who were deeply devoted to keeping the Old Testament law. And I think we should give them some credit, because to be fair, that was how they expressed their commitment to God, was through obedience to the law that God gave to Moses. And so now, because we have the New Testament, because we know what the Pharisees ultimately did to Jesus, we kind of say Pharisee like, with a little spit in our mouth, right? But Pharisees were people, men in scripture primarily, men who recognized their need for God. These were not atheists. They knew who God was. They knew God was Yahweh. And so they were not people who worshiped the pagan gods of their day, of which there were many. They were not people who said there is no God. They were not people who threw a rebel fist at God and said, yeah, there's probably a God, but we're not gonna bend our lives to him. But where they went wrong, And where we go wrong is that they missed the centrality of Jesus. Notetakers, if you wanna give this message a title, I would title it this way, Jesus Our Center. So they got a lot right. And they could actually even use a lot of Old Testament verses to justify the way they thought and the way they communicated and the way they behaved. But what they got wrong, and it's a big, oops, it's a big mistake, is they missed that Jesus is central to everything. He's central to the word, we'll talk about that in a minute. He's central to not just our universe, but all universes. And he's, the call of the Christian life is for Jesus to be in the very center of our lives. And when he's not, then we are living like Pharisees. And there is so much Pharisee in each of us. Let's jump into John 3, one through 15. I do love that I get to go to other churches and other places and be with God's people, but my favorite place to teach the Bible is in my living room on Thursday nights. So I have an ongoing women's Bible study that meets in my living room on Thursday nights, and it is my favorite place to be in the Word, my favorite place to teach. And the way we read the Bible in that group is we read a lot of long passages around Robin. So somebody will read one verse, somebody else will pick up that verse, somebody else So we get through the whole passage. And so I'm just going to consider this an extension of my living room. If you were in my living room, I would have fed you dinner as I do them every Thursday night, but it wouldn't have been nearly as good as that. So this is better than that. But because we're going to read 15 verses, let's do it that way. And if you're willing to read, that's great, but read it loud and proud. This is, after all, the holy, eternal, inspired Word of God, and we should read it as if it is that, not like, Like no, we're gonna read it with power. Okay, so we're gonna read John 3 1 through 15 I'll kick it off with verse 1 and then somebody else just get verse 2 and if a couple people read on top of each other That's okay. Just defer to each other and get the next verse John 3 1 through 15 now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews somebody pick it up right there at verse 2 and and said, Rabbi, you know that you are a teacher who has come from God, so no one who has performed a trial in New York City is God without living in it. Good. Jesus answered and said to him, Moses, surely you have faith in me, and left one to go to heaven, and not to make the children of God. How can someone be born when they are old and taking a trial? Surely they cannot enter at that time to get what they are going to be doing. Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into the new life. It is the story of the flesh of flesh, and that which destroys the spirit of flesh. Do not marvel, but I say to you, you must be born again. For me, it flows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everything that is born of the spirit. How can this be, you mentioned in the past? You are Israel's teachers, believe me. And do you not understand these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you do not receive our witness. If I pass away to the rest of the state, and you do not believe, how can you leave my son's memory, then? So we get 14. All right, bring it home. Who's got 15? And there's something so beautiful about hearing the people of God read the word of God. We need to do it as often as possible. It reminded me, I got to teach several years ago in this very remote fishing village in Alaska. And there were these Christians on the island, this Christian family that brought me in. And we read the word together at night and tears would roll down their faces because they had no other believers on the island that they could hear read the word of God. And so what a privilege to hear you just read scripture like that. So beautiful. Well, there's some cultural hurdles in this story that we just should admit are a little bit hard for us to clear. We're not Jewish. We're not from an ancient Middle Eastern context. But let's try to look at these verses as if we're Nicodemus, and he's the one telling the story. And when we do, we learn some important lessons about our pharisaical hearts. First thing we learn about the hearts of Pharisees is that Nicodemus' heart was drawn to Jesus. Now Nicodemus gets a bad rap, and he certainly is gonna make some mistakes here, but his heart was drawn to Jesus, and sister, your heart is drawn to Jesus. You have a built-in ache to be with Jesus. All of us do. I was just reading in Ecclesiastes about how God has set eternity into the hearts of man. And so while sin has this gravitational pull on you to pull you away from Jesus, your heart is on some level drawn to him. There's part of you that knows that nothing and no one else can satisfy you like Jesus can. Now, I'll admit, it can be a quiet part of us. It can be a part that's easy to manually override with everything else that's happening in our life. But you do have an innate alarm inside of you that is every day saying, get yourself to Jesus, get yourself to Jesus, get yourself to Jesus, get yourself to Jesus. Romans 8 tells us that all of creation is groaning for Christ's return. I can't explain everything we're seeing in our world right now, I wouldn't try, but I can tell you that one thing that we're seeing in our world is Romans 8 happening. All of creation saying, when is he coming back? And if creation is groaning, not just to be with Jesus, but to be with King Jesus in the new heaven and the new earth as he's promised us, you have that same longing in your heart. I have to remind myself often, this house will never be clean enough to soothe my ache. My bank account will never be full enough to soothe my ache. I will never get enough Attagirls to soothe my ache. And we have to be conscious of that, because otherwise, life will just feel like a carrot, that if we can just get to it, then we can be satisfied. And we have to recognize that many of those things might be good things to pursue. But the heart of every Pharisee, the heart of every person, longs to be with Jesus. Your heart longs for intimacy with Jesus. And what we see in Nicodemus is Nicodemus actually longed for intimacy with Jesus too. I mean, we know that he was a Pharisee. And though he went at night, because he knew there was risk, he took the risk. He risked his status. He risked his reputation. He likely risked his income to sneak through the night and be with Jesus. You ever have a dark night of the soul, where literally in the night you can't sleep, you can't eat, you can't lay down, and you just have to get yourself to the presence of Jesus? You're actually that desperate all the time. We all are. we just numb ourselves out to it. I will often pray, Jesus, I need you, I just know it now. I always need him. But I will anesthetize myself to that need, and you will too. So Nicodemus, with an inborn, created-in-him desire to be with Jesus, he sneaks through the night to be with Jesus. If you're in Christ, you've experienced the peace and the joy that only Jesus can give. And we've gotta remind each other often, that's what weekends like this are about. Remind each other often, get yourself to Jesus. Whatever price you have to pay, whatever convenience it costs you, whatever choice you have to make, however it disrupts your schedule, however it changes things at home with your family, whatever choices and changes you need to make, get yourself to Jesus. Pay the price, that's what Nicodemus did. We learned something else quickly as Nicodemus and Jesus began to interact. And Pharisees, the Pharisee in all of us don't like this. Jesus did not fit into Nicodemus' box of what Jesus was supposed to be like. Nicodemus had a preconceived notion of God. He was a Pharisee, had devoted his life to that. And he recognized some things in Jesus that seemed to line up with that. And yet, Jesus was not who Nicodemus thought he should be. Listen to verses two through nine again. I'll read them to us. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs unless you do, unless God is with him. Try to think of all the things that you would expect Jesus to say. I mean, that sounds a bit like a confession of faith. It certainly is an acknowledgement that Jesus especially calls him rabbi. He says he's a teacher come from God. He recognizes that Jesus is doing things that only God can empower. And Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus asked a really good question. How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. I can tell him with very polite church ladies here, but none of that made any sense. And certainly not to Nicodemus. He's asking Jesus questions, and Jesus is coming at him with these things that are like, what? And Nicodemus asks follow-up questions, and Jesus comes back at him with these statements that are, at a minimum, very confusing. So verse nine, Nicodemus says to him, how can these things be? Can you picture Nicodemus' face? He's like, I don't get it. And that happens over and over and over in the New Testament. People will come to Jesus with something, Jesus will tell them something, and they'll be like, we don't get it. The disciples were always being held back in remedial Jesus class, which I'm so grateful for. Because he would say something to the crowds, and then the disciples would be like, you ask him, no you ask him, no you ask him. And usually Peter would be like, Jesus, we don't get it. And then Jesus would sometimes give him an answer that was more confusing than the first answer. Any teacher who acts like everything Jesus said here makes total sense is clearly smarter than me or doesn't feel like they have the freedom to wrestle with God. I, on the other hand, feel the freedom to wrestle with this word. I often said, I was just telling my new friend here, if you're not wrestling with this book, you're not reading this book. You're reading People Magazine, you're not reading this book. Because this book is a wrestling match. And you have the freedom to say to the Lord, who already knows you feel this way, I don't get it. And even, I don't like it. And so, that's what's happening here. Notice again why Nicodemus came to Jesus in the first place. It's in verse two. This is a bold statement for Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin. We'll talk about that in a moment. He knew Jesus was a teacher, a special teacher, and he wanted to learn from him and he wanted an explanation. And instead, Jesus talked to him about being born again. Now, we're used to that phrase. That's good Christianese. But Nicodemus had never heard the phrase born again. No one had ever heard the phrase born again. We know that because Nicodemus took Jesus literally. He was like, how does that work, Jesus, right? And Jesus explained nothing about his miracles. He explained nothing about his teaching strategy. He explained nothing about his authority from God. That's what Nicodemus was asking about. Instead, he said some things that were really difficult for Nicodemus to understand, and Jesus talked about himself. Jesus talked about Jesus. Listen to verses 13 through 14 again. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. We go, okay, we get this. He's talking about his death, burial, and resurrection. Nicodemus didn't have a frame of reference for any of that. Jesus is no narcissist. We know that from the cross. But we want answers, and Jesus is gonna give us himself. We want our circumstances to change, and Jesus is gonna give us himself. We wanna know the plan. Where's my fellow type A girls up in here? Rochelle's one of them, I think. I say I'm not type A, I'm type AA, proud of it. And I always think, man, if I just know the plan, I'll be good if I know the plan. And Jesus wants to give me himself. He never gives me the plan. He certainly never gives me the plan in the detail that I would like him to give me the plan. but he offers me himself. And here's the question you have to answer. It's not rhetorical. The question you have to answer every day of your life is, is Jesus enough? Is he enough? If he doesn't give you the plan, but he offers you his presence, is he enough? If he doesn't change anything about your circumstances, like I don't think any of us are gonna get the call tomorrow afternoon that's like, Money, don't have to worry about that anymore. All your relational stressors, you don't have to worry about that anymore. Everything that's worrying you about your children, it's taken care of. You never have to worry about your kids again. Everything that's stressing you out at work, solved. We're not gonna get that call. And so if none of our circumstances change, is Jesus enough? And how will you respond when Jesus doesn't fit in your box of what you think he should be like? Don't you love that C.S. Lewis quote from the Chronicles of Narnia where the children ask, is he a safe lion? And the beaver, Mr. Beaver says, safe? Who said anything about safe? Of course he's not safe, but he is good. When Jesus feels unsafe, and he more often does than doesn't, how will you respond to that? When he doesn't fit in your definition of what you think he should be like. What about when he allows suffering in your life that you don't want? What about when that suffering stays for a long time? There's a difference between suffering and long-suffering. And what will we do with Jesus when he allows long-suffering into our life? How will you respond when he withholds good things that you do want? I'm estranged from my dad, and my sister have been for many years. And it doesn't make any sense to me. I read passages like Ephesians 4 that talk about the unity of God's people, and I hear sermons on reconciliation, and I know that God would desire a torn apart family to come back together, and for whatever reason, year after year pass, every holiday season, I have to kind of rethink through all of it. I do not understand why he hasn't intervened. I cannot give you a nice church lady answer for why my family remains ripped apart. My sister and I's case, we're both followers of Jesus that have been unable to reconcile our relationship with each other. And I know that God could do it like that. And he hasn't. He doesn't fit inside my box. of what I think, how I think he should handle the relationships in my life. How will we respond to him then? Pharisees demand a savior who fit into our box of what God should be like. And when he doesn't, and he won't, the way we often respond is we withdraw intimacy from him. We long for intimacy with him. but we put up walls and we hedge our bets and we keep our distance because he doesn't fit into our box of what we think he should be like. Now we might still go to Bible study, we might still serve at church, we might still read our Bibles, but we go back to our pharisaical predictable ways and we trade intimacy for control. That's a pharisaical step every time. The second thing Pharisees do is we miss Jesus in the word. One, we recoil when he doesn't fit in our box. Two, we miss Jesus in the word. Jump with me from John 4 to John chapter 7. We're gonna see Nicodemus again here at the end of John chapter 7, and I loved hearing you read it. Let's do that again. John chapter 7, verses 40 through 52. I'll kick us off with 40. Somebody wrap us up with 52. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. Somebody get it at 41. I didn't give you enough time. Let's everybody get there. I only have one speed, and it's fast, so sorry. Someone said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? I don't know if the scripture said that the Christ comes from Jesus. But I'm thinking we're divided because of Jesus. Somebody get 48. Does any of the rulers of the Pharisees believe in him? But this crowd is that does not know the knowledge of the earth. We could even assume that he would have gone to Egypt earlier, and he would have gone there a number of times. So there were also other men who were in chariots, and there were a few women. But in spite of our new reality, we're still seeing a new trend that has started to take Good. Again we see people struggling with the fact that Jesus is not who they expected him to be. And so the Pharisees, Nicodemus among them, they're starting to become agitated by this point. And Nicodemus quotes the law. Listen to verse 51 again. Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? Now Nicodemus wasn't wrong. He's quoting verses like Exodus 23 and Deuteronomy 1 and Proverbs 18. These are all passages that the Pharisees would have known. And what these passages say is they would have demanded that Jesus get due process under God's law. And so Nicodemus responds to kind of this fervor of the crowd and the Pharisees are beginning to get agitated and Nicodemus says, under the law God gave us, Jesus is due due process. But again, he misses the centrality of Jesus because what is the point of those verses about justice? They are to point to the one who executes justice perfectly. The whole Bible is about Jesus. The Old Testament is like a neon arrow pointing forward to Jesus. The New Testament is like a neon arrow pointing backwards to Jesus. The Gospels, where we see Jesus, are the center of the Bible because they point us to Jesus. He's to be central. They're to point to Jesus who executes justice perfectly. Listen to Deuteronomy 32.4, which is an example of this. It's describing Jesus. Deuteronomy 32.4 says, Nicodemus missed the point. He thought the point of the scriptures was to treat Jesus justly. Not to see Jesus as the example of perfect justice. He was so close, but he missed it. We do this too. We read our Bibles thinking they are primarily guides to becoming better women. The Bible is not a book about you. I'm sure you know that on some level, I do too, but I need a lot of reminders. The Bible is a book about Jesus. And the point of opening our Bibles is not to understand ourselves better, although that's gonna happen, but it's to see Jesus more clearly. You were made to bear the image of God. You don't bear the image of God by studying yourself. You bear the image of God by studying the one whose image you bear. And in understanding him more fully, then you represent him better. And so we make Nicodemus' mistake when we open our Bibles and we miss Jesus. Listen, I have a hunch you don't need more on your to-do list. I have a hunch you don't need help knowing you don't measure up. Every woman crawls in bed at night and all we can think about is the 97 things we didn't get done and the ways we fell short of loving the people we love. And then tomorrow we're gonna do better and we're gonna try harder. I tell my Thursday night Bible study group every single week, this is not the do better, try harder Bible study. And Tricia, who's a new believer in that group, every week she says, I wish it was. We all do, because we want a list. Because we think we can manage a list. We ain't never managed a list a day in our lives, we think tomorrow's the day. But when you open your Bible thinking it's a to-do list given to you by God, like the Pharisees did, what happens is we wait, we wilt under the weight of it. And it becomes a duty, not a delight. And it becomes something that actually can feed our pride because we think, well, I opened the Bible and thou shalt not murder today. When you open your Bible looking for Jesus, His ways, His character, His plan, That's when the Bible becomes the source of living water it's meant to be. That's when the Bible becomes the satisfaction that it's meant to be. Because Jesus is the source of living water. Reading the Bible for reading the Bible's sake is not living water. But Jesus, the God of the Bible, is the source of living water. He's what your soul is desperately searching for. Not just more time in the Word, although that can be a really good thing, but only if it gets you to Jesus. We're too quick to forget John 1. Let me read us John 1, 14 through 18. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me, ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who's at the Father's side. He has made himself known. Ladies, the Word is not a book. The Word is not a task. The Word certainly is not a taskmaster. The Word is Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And Jesus reveals himself through his Word. We again, we want checklist Christianity, but Jesus again wants to give us himself. So Nicodemus missed Jesus in the word. The third thing Nicodemus teaches us about the heart of a Pharisee is that Pharisees miss the gospel. Pharisees miss the gospel. I bet you could all quote John 3.16. Let's try. Doesn't matter what translation you learned it in. I'm going to go old school. Who did Jesus say those words to? Flip back to John 3. He said them to Nicodemus. It was in the context of his conversation with Nicodemus, right after that interaction they just had, where Nicodemus says, I don't get it, that Jesus, looking at Nicodemus, talking to Nicodemus, Jesus says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus loved Nicodemus. Jesus loves every single Pharisee, which is good news for us. Jesus still loves Pharisees. Jesus died for Pharisees. He longs for us to be set free from our slavery to sin and move to eternal life with him. But we're all prone to forget the gospel. I like to ask groups of believers, hey, can you articulate the gospel? And man, eyes dropped to the floor in a heartbeat. You can be totally transformed by the gospel. You can be a new creation who responded to the gospel at one point and have a hard time articulating the gospel. Now, part of that's because it's supernatural, but part of it's because we forget it. Paul, the apostle Paul, reiterated the gospel over and over again in the New Testament, in the epistles. Over and over, Paul was reminding people what the gospel was. Who were those letters written to? Christians. He was reminding people who were in Christ what the gospel is. I mean, over and over and over and over and over and over in the New Testament, Paul was reminding us of the gospel. You've probably heard the phrase, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words, that comes from St. Francis of Assisi. And I don't really like that quote, because with the lost, it's necessary to use words. We're all walking around thinking, well, if necessary, use words, and it's like, they're lost. Lost people are not just people who don't go to church. Lost people are lost. They are going to a very real hell someday, and they are living a living hell right now, as they are facing everything we are facing without the hope of Christ. And we're going, well, if necessary, use words. But I would say that that's also a really good plan of attack with yourself. Preach the gospel to yourself at all times, and when necessary, use words. Here's some observation from my own life, see if any of this hits you in the heart. When the Christian life is more exhausting than freeing, I've forgotten the gospel. When following Jesus feels like a list of got-tos, not get-tos, I've forgotten the gospel. When I stop using the word sin, and I start using the word struggle, and I act like I'm powerless to stop struggling, I've forgotten the gospel. I had this hat custom made several years ago. My friend Cheryl has a cricket, and I said, Cheryl, will you make me a hat? And she said, yeah. And so I had her make me a hat that said struggle bus driver. And I would wear it, and I would say, not only am I on the struggle bus, but I am the driver of the struggle bus. And people would always laugh. And frankly, I have four sons, and so they would be like, that girl, she's driving the struggle bus, literally. But I'm telling you the Holy Spirit convicted me firmly one day. Why would the lost people in my life want what I have if I'm walking around all the time claiming to be driving the struggle bus? And sometimes in the interest of transparency, we love to be transparent, we love to share with each other, and there's value in that that comes from James. But we just walk around acting like our lives are marked by struggle, when what Romans calls us is more than conquerors. The way the New Testament describes our life in Christ is one marked by victory over sin, move from death to light, new creation. And so when we act like our sin struggles define us and we are powerless against them, I would submit to us that we've forgotten the gospel. When my heart is filled with grumbling instead of gratitude, I've forgotten the gospel. When my thoughts are consumed with all I am going to do to impress God, instead of all he has already done to deliver me, I've forgotten the gospel. When I'm cynical and critical toward God's people, I've forgotten the gospel. And when I'm ambivalent to the plight of the lost, I've forgotten the gospel. There's probably more, but I forget the gospel all the time. And so did Nicodemus. Well, what is the gospel? I can't say it better than Jesus, I'm not gonna try. Here's John 3, 16 and 17. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. That's the gospel. Yesterday was Reformation Day, right? And Halloween, but also Reformation Day. And it was Martin Luther who articulated it this way, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, period. That's the gospel. I was teaching somewhere recently and I said that and someone found me afterwards and said, what was that thing you said? That was really great. I was like, that's from Martin Luther, but I'm glad you thought it was me. Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, period. That means you didn't earn it. You couldn't have earned it. You don't deserve it. And it comes through what Jesus already did on the cross and your faith in him. It's all grace. And that gospel is to be central to our thoughts, central to our lives, because if it's not, we'll default to one of two ditches often in the same day. The first ditch we'll drive ourselves into is that we will run ourselves ragged trying to earn the free gift that we've already been given. or in pride, we'll convince ourselves we already have. We'll look around at others and measure ourselves against them and think we're doing pretty good. I'm fresh on the other side of a pretty major shift in my life. I stepped away from a ministry position that was very high profile. I was using my gifts, lives were changing, but I didn't have time for Jesus. And my soul became very sick. Now that's not a commentary on the ministry that I was serving at or on anybody else. All that it reveals is that I'm a Pharisee. And I just forgot. For days that turned into weeks, that strung into months, that turned into years, I just forgot. That I cannot substitute doing things for Jesus, for intimacy with Jesus. And in about the past six months, the Holy Spirit has stripped my life down to the studs. He has taken away in his mercy so many things. And I gotta tell ya, what I've found is that Jesus is everything I've been aching for. And Jesus is everything that I could not find in anything or anyone else, even really good things. It has been a beautiful, a beautiful stripping away of things I was trying to find satisfaction in, and they just weren't working. I actually believe Nicodemus learned this lesson. Turn with me to John 19. We get our last snapshot of Nicodemus in the Gospels. A beautiful snapshot of Nicodemus. Just to orient you where we are here in John 19, Jesus has been arrested, he's been tortured, he's been murdered, and he's dead. And that's where we pick up the story. I'll read us John 19, 38 through 42, this last snapshot of Nicodemus. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. So they, Nicodemus and Joseph. They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Imagine it. Nicodemus and Joseph go to Pilate, the ruler of the land. Think of all the turmoil that the city is in. Think of all that's happening. And these two men, who had been secret seekers of Jesus, they become emboldened by his death, and they go and ask for his body. And they carry that body away from where he'd been crucified, and they take care of his body, and they put it in a tomb. Now Nicodemus had always had a lot to lose by being close to Jesus. But here in this final snapshot, the stakes couldn't have been higher. Nicodemus wasn't just a Pharisee, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish judicial body. That same Sanhedrin, which hours earlier had put Jesus on trial and condemned him to death. We don't know for sure that Nicodemus was in that courtroom because they didn't follow protocol. He had kangaroo court after kangaroo court. But very likely he was. And he was certainly a part of that group of men who had condemned Jesus as worthy of death. And now Nicodemus came to embalm the body. Nicodemus was on the wrong side of this thing. Humanly speaking, he was on the wrong side. He would have been seen as a defector. We already know that the Pharisees believed anybody who believed in Jesus was deceived. So they would have thought that Nicodemus was deceived. Before Nicodemus came at night, because of the cost to get to Jesus, or he kind of hedged his bet in the crowd, But here, Nicodemus boldly came before Pilate. And he brought 75 pounds of spices and oils to embalm the body of Jesus. There was nothing conspicuous about that. He didn't bring a little bit of something. 75 pounds is a lot. This was a bold move by Nicodemus. You don't need 75 pounds of myrrh and aloe to embalm a body. One commentator said that would have been enough to cover every inch of Jesus's body, every inch of the linen strips they wrapped him in, and every inch of the tomb that they laid him in. It was a tremendous amount of supplies that Nicodemus brought to this. It's possible he was overcompensating. Maybe it was a rich man's proof of devotion. This was a very expensive thing that Nicodemus did. It's possible he thought he'd waited too long to commit to Jesus, but it didn't matter, because Jesus had already shared with him the gospel. Jesus had already told Nicodemus why he'd come. Jesus looked Nicodemus in the eye and said, I didn't come to condemn, but I came to save Pharisees like you, Nicodemus. The reason Jesus came was to bring eternal life to Pharisees like Nicodemus and Pharisees like me and Pharisees like you. And I think, I hope Nicodemus got it. He decided he would spend his money and his status and his comfort to be with Jesus. And the question you have to wrestle with every day until glory is will you Will you spend what you have to be with Jesus? Only he can satisfy you. You'll get by on the fumes of other things for a while. And then at some point, if you're like me, your soul will get so sick that you'll decide, I'll pay whatever I have to pay. I'll give up whatever I have to give up. I'll change whatever I have to change. to be with Jesus because only he can satisfy me. Pharisees can change. That's why Jesus shared the gospel with Nicodemus. And that's why he's always calling you by his word and his spirit to make your life about him. Ephesians 1 is a beautiful passage. It sums up who Jesus is meant to be in our lives. Let me read you Ephesians 1, verses 21 through 23. This is who Jesus is. He's far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. He's above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. And he has put all things under his feet and given to Jesus as head over all things, the church, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Jesus is above all. Jesus is the ruler of all. Jesus is above every name, that's true now and in the age to come. Everything is under his feet. He is the head of all things. That's who Jesus is, that's undisputed. The question you have to wrestle with is, is that who Jesus is to you? Is he above all in your life? Is everything in your life under his authority? Is he the head of all things? Is he central to your life? And I'm not saying was he central to your life at the moment of salvation. I'm not saying was he central to your life three years ago when you were super involved in that Bible study and you were learning a lot about Jesus. I'm not saying was he central to your life in a moment of crisis when you knew how much you needed him. I'm saying is he central to our lives right now? If he's not, we've made the Pharisee's mistake again. And there's grace for it. But he's gonna call us back to him over and over and over again. I made a vow before the Lord several years ago that anytime I got to teach the Bible, which I consider just the high privilege of my life, that I would make it very easy to be doers and very hard to be hearers only. I don't want women to just smile at me sweetly and say, well, that was a good message. What was it about? I don't know. She's talking about naked demons. After church, my boys are not allowed to say, I don't know. We say, what did you learn in Sunday school? They can't say nothing. They can't say, I don't know. They can't shrug. They can't grunt. They got to come up with something. because I want them to be doers. And I want you to be doers too. And so here's how I like to close this time. I'd like you to huddle up in little groups. I'm not gonna give you a number. I know you introverts all just died and you don't wanna do this part, but I don't care. It's biblical. And I just want you to talk to each other for a few minutes about is Jesus central in your life? Do you have intimacy with Jesus? What are the barriers to intimacy with Jesus? And if you're like me, I would have great things to say in two days, and that's fine. I'm a delayed processor. And maybe the Lord is just starting to stir some things in you. The Lord doesn't answer to me. The Spirit doesn't do things in people's hearts on my cue. But at least begin to have the conversation. about what is a barrier to intimacy with Jesus in your life, then I'm gonna pray for us and we're gonna close with worship. So huddle up, I don't know, we'll take a few minutes, however long we wanna take, and just talk about what are the barriers in your life to intimacy with Jesus. I'll pray for us in a minute. Lord, we do love you. And our hearts do know on some level that only you can satisfy. But unfortunately, we remain women of flesh in a very loud and deceived and dark world. And there's an enemy of our souls who is constantly trying to separate us from you and from each other. And so Lord, I pray that you would protect your word in our hearts tonight, Lord. That we would come back with fresh hunger for you. fresh hunger for your word and that there would be no barriers to getting us to you tomorrow, Lord. Pray that your word would be seared into us and that we would listen and obey. It's in your name I pray, amen. Let's worship.