It's a time of year that should draw our hearts to come and adore the greatest expression of God's mercy and compassion this world has ever known in the face of His Son, Jesus Christ. And I want to say today how thankful I am for the Lord's blessings. They're very apparent and real to me in a lot of ways. And we're called to walk through this life by faith, meaning we don't always understand what God has in front of us. We don't always understand what he's doing. There are times that he feels closer, times that he seems farther away, but he's not. And I'm so grateful for those times that he draws near and reminds you that he's there and that he's hearing you specifically and personally. And those times between those times matter just as much as those times when you can feel Him. Just as if He's right over your shoulder. This morning with the Lord's help I want to take a message, a text in John chapter 3, but before we get there I want to remind you of some things we talked about a couple weeks ago, because this is not really a sequel, but I want to build on the foundation of a message I preached two weeks ago called, A Faith Worth Fighting For. So as you're turning your Bibles to John 3, I want to do just a brief review. Our message was from the book of Jude. right next to the book of Revelation. And we talked about a faith worth fighting for. And I tried to be as clear as I possibly could to lay the foundation of the greatest message, the greatest story that needs to be told. And we talked about the faith. And by faith here, in this context, we're not just talking about belief, but we're talking about a set of essential truths that God delivered in His Word. Truths and convictions about God, who He is. Truths and convictions about who we are. and about His purpose, and about His gospel, His good news. That's the message of Jesus Christ, to come and save sinners like me, and like you. And the essential message of Christ, the faith, is something that's worth fighting for. But we understand that in a Christian context, it's not about taking up arms or guns to fight for my Christian rights. For as Jesus made very clear to the Apostle Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, that's not how His kingdom is advanced. But by clear and uncompromising proclamation of His truth, we're bold, but yet we also have to be willing to lay down our lives to advance His cause. And as we try to stand for the faith, you've got to know what you're standing for, and it begins by knowing those essential lines, the truths that we can't compromise on. As we preach through this, we looked at that passage in Jude 1-4, verses 1-4, we talked about a finished faith. By that we mean that the revelation of Jesus Christ, when Jesus came and He did what He did, He died on the cross for the sins of mankind, and He explained the purpose of that, and the apostles and the prophets wrote those things down. We have a finished faith. We don't need to know more about what God has done for us than what He has recorded. Here is sufficient truth for the salvation of every soul. We also talked about a saving faith, that there is a real danger that exists because we are all sinners and the consequence of sin is death, it is punishment. Even that place called hell, the Bible created, God created, not for us, He created it for the angels that fell. But for those who would reject His means of grace, of salvation, there is a real danger to die apart from a saving relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. And He's made a way, He's paved a path through Christ Jesus alone. One pathway whereby we might be saved from sin. We might be saved from eternal death. That through Jesus. You say, isn't that kind of chauvinistic of Christianity to say that you're the only way. Well I will just say it very clearly, no other system solves the problem of sin. Because every other system is built upon human works and achievement. I'll do this, I'll do that. You can put a different name on it, but it's all the same thing. I'm gonna take care of this problem myself and the problem is We're ruined and corrupted and we can't fix it. Thousands of years of human history trying to solve the problem ourselves hasn't taken care of the issue, has it? Instead we find ourselves in just as much of a mess as we've ever been. But Christianity stands unique because it's not about what I've done, it's about what He has done. It's about the work that Jesus Christ accomplished and by coming to Him there is hope of salvation. And this is a gracious faith, meaning that it's not by my good deeds. I don't have a hope of heaven. We sang about a land where we never grow old. I don't have that hope because of being a good person. Because quite frankly, I'm not. I'm not. I never have been. But my hope rests squarely upon the work of Jesus Christ and what He did in my heart when I was 18, almost 19 years old. When He saved my soul, when He changed my heart and my life, when I found no strength in myself and I looked completely to Him, He met me there and He took me and He saved me, not because I was worthy, but because He's worthy and kind and gracious to anyone who would truly come to Him. And finally, this is a life-changing faith. When God does that work in a heart, it makes a difference. It changes you from the inside out, and I still don't have it all together. I still sin, but I'm never alone. And I tell you, when I do, He gets after me. And by His grace, James Keene today is not who James Keene would have been. If I didn't have Jesus, and I know that without a shadow of a doubt, apart from Christ, I would not be who I am today. And my friends, that is the faith, that is the gospel, and that is something worth fighting for, to be uncompromising and clear about it, because there is no other name given among men whereby we can be saved except through Jesus Christ alone. This is the same gospel that needs to be heard all around the world. Every place, every people, every tribe, every tongue, every age. I asked you all this morning to pray for that. That services are gonna be having in Belize because the people in Belize need Jesus just as much as the people in America or any other place in the world. In every other time. It is the same faith, the same gospel. Yet, yet, and here's the message, here's the point. Yet this same faith connects with each person at a unique time. an individual way. The way the same gospel, the same message goes and connects to an individual person is personal. It is unique. And that's our picture of the snowflake on the title slide. If I were to go back to that we know you look out and you see a bunch of white things, a bunch of white stuff. You don't really do it here like we did back in Alaska. But you know it exists and you know it's all white. You've at least seen pictures. But the beauty of the snow is that each snowflake is unique. And the way God touches each heart is absolutely unique. And I want to focus on that this morning. I want to take a reading in John chapter 3. And we're going to read about Jesus speaking to a man named Nicodemus, and we'll talk more about him in a moment. I'm going to focus this in on one verse, but I'm going to read this whole context so you get the idea of what's going on. It says in verse 1, John chapter 3, there was a man of the Pharisees. Pharisees were religious leaders in Israel. the strictest of the strict. They look like they had their stuff together. He was named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews, so he was a leader. The same, this Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night. And he said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher. Come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, it means truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not, or don't be amazed that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes and whether it goes. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Let's pray together this morning before we go further. Our gracious God and King, I thank you, Lord, today for your love and mercy. I thank you, Lord, for your fresh compassion. The Bible tells us in Lamentations that it's new every morning. And God, I'm so grateful for that today, and I'm thankful for the fresh expressions of your kindness and concern and compassion for each of us, Lord, for this is the day that you've made. And let us rejoice and be glad in it, Lord. And I pray for your will to be done today. I pray, Lord, for you to help me that you would loose my tongue to speak the glorious truth of your gospel, Lord. The way that this truth of the gospel can intersect and interact with our hearts. Each of us, Lord, you meet us where we're at. And I'm so thankful, God, that for all of your enormity, God, for you are so much bigger than everything we can imagine, yet you can be that simple, still, small voice in our heart that speaks to us, Lord, in a way that we can understand. God, we praise you and we worship you for your goodness and kindness today, Lord, and I pray that it might be even more apparent in our midst. We pray for the lost, Lord, that they would come to know you. And those of us who've been found, Lord, we thank you for saving us, we thank you for being born again in what you've done in us. We pray and ask in Jesus' name. Amen. This thought's been on my heart for a couple weeks after I preached this message. It's just been kind of resonating in my mind. I want us to focus in on that last verse. I already have it on the slide. If you can squint and see it, it says, and I have it in the ESV, the English Standard Version. It says, the wind blows where it wishes. And you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from. or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." This is tying back to Jesus' response to Nicodemus. He said, we know that you're from God. And Jesus said, truly, truly, you need to be born again. Nicodemus' response was, I'm a grown man, how do I get back inside my mother's womb? And Jesus is explaining, that's not what I meant. You need a spiritual rebirth. you need to be born again spiritually. And Jesus explains that a little bit. And as he gets to the end of this first response to Nicodemus, he says in verse eight, look, here's an illustration for you. You get the sense of the wind, right? You know the wind. You know the wind exists. You see the leaves blowing. You feel it on your cheek and on your arm, but yet you can't see it. You know it's there. You know it's working. You can't deny that it's working yet. You don't understand even where it's coming from or where it's going. He says it is the same way. By this illustration there is something comparable here to understand about the new birth. And if I were to paraphrase this, I would say it this way. Everyone born of the Spirit, everyone who has been saved, has their origin and their destiny in the unseen, unpredictable, uncontrollable hand of God. Your origin and your destiny. The way God worked on your heart, if you've been saved, the way He moved upon you, were you in control of that? Now I know you had to seek the Lord to be saved. You had to call upon Him. So I'm not saying you're completely out of this equation. But I'm telling you, I'm asking you the question, the way God worked on you and moved in on you, were you in control of all that He was doing there? Or were you mercifully in His hands? Was He working in your life and on your heart? And maybe you even wanted it to stop when He first started dealing with you. You didn't like the way that it felt. You didn't like it when He was awaking you to your need for Him and to your sin. But yet He pursued you and continued to come after you. And even that moment of conversion, I didn't think at that moment that I got saved, that that was getting ready to happen to me. But I knew it when it did. I knew something happened. I knew something changed inside me. And he made that clear. I couldn't see God, but the effects of God on my life as He was producing that new birth in my heart were unmistakable. And even now what God is seeking to do with my life and where He's taking me and what all He wants accomplished with my life and what He wants with your lives, we don't see all of that. We don't understand all the ways that He would wish to use us after we've been saved. But we know He's there, don't we? And we know He's working. And we know He cares. Now when I say that God is unpredictable and uncontrollable, I'm not saying that God's not good. Because God is good. I don't mean that He's unfair or unkind. He just always works above our pay grade. His ways are higher than ours. His thoughts are higher than ours. But what's special about the way God works is that He works in each of our lives. Each person that He saves, you have your own testimony. You have your own conversion. You have your own walk with God. And it is so absolutely personal. Right? It's the same gospel that saved each of us. Each of us that have been born again. But your own testimony, your own story, the way God spoke to you and worked on you was unique. We see this principle in scripture. Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 7, it talks about there's one body, one spirit. We have one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's a sameness to that. One God. We have the same God, the same Father, who's above all, through all, and in you all. But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Yes, we all serve the same Savior and Lord, those of us who are saved, the same God, the same faith, if you've been baptized, the same baptism, right? But your walk with Him and your service to Him is unique. It is special. It's not like McDonald's. Y'all get McDonald's, right? What's the secret to McDonald's? They all taste the same. No matter where you go. That's the secret. When you go to McDonald's, maybe one's a little cleaner than another. Maybe one's a little newer than another. Maybe one's a little bit better service than the other. But when you put a Big Mac in your mouth, you know what it's going to taste like, don't you? It all tastes the same. That's not that it's bad. I mean, people go there because they like it. Right? But there's a sameness to it. My friends, the gospel message, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same, but the way the gospel intersects the human heart is unique for each one of us. Our stories are unique. And I want us to look at three people this morning and think about how Jesus interacted with three different people. And we've already read about this first one. So we're already ahead of the game. Nicodemus. I want you to think about who this guy is and how Jesus speaks to him. Because I think it's important to see how Jesus is interacting with this man. Now this guy Nicodemus, he was smart. He was very intelligent. He was very knowledgeable in the Scriptures because he was a religious leader. He was one of the 70. The 70 Jewish leaders that were part of the Sanhedrin. They were the Jewish ruling body in that area. So he was recognized by his peers as being intelligent and being a good and upright and moral man. And then Jesus Christ came on the scene, and they did not know what to do with Him. They did not know what to make of Jesus. In fact, that was one of the common questions. Who is He really? How does He fit in what God is doing? And so Nicodemus, he came to Jesus Christ, this smart, studied man. He came to Jesus Christ with an honest admission. He said, look, we know you've got to be from God. We know, we know you have to be from God because nobody could do what you're doing. He had been doing all sorts of miracles, public miracles. Nobody could do this except that God's with you. Essentially, Nicodemus is saying, who are you? What are you doing? Jesus and his apostles have been preaching about the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom was at hand. He came loaded with a bunch of questions because he wanted to figure it all out. He wanted answers and understanding. But he also came by what? Night. He came to Jesus at night. He didn't come during the day. Why didn't Nicodemus come during the day? Because he didn't want anybody to see him. He didn't want the other Jewish leaders or the other people to know what he was struggling with inside. But he had questions. And he needed some answers. So he went right to Jesus. You see, he had a high position. And there was dissension among the Jewish leaders. In fact, they would eventually all conspire to kill Jesus. Nicodemus and another one, Joseph of Arimathea, I believe, spoke out against it. but the vast majority were the ones who conspired to have Jesus killed. And so he did not want to risk his position. He obviously had some personal fears, but he came to Jesus with questions. Who are you? What are you doing? Is the kingdom truly at hand? And I want you to look here in just a moment at how Jesus responded to him. But what Jesus says in this first eight verses we read is he said, look, I know you've got a lot of questions, but you need to be born again if you're going to understand it. Jesus is essentially saying, I could tell you a lot of stuff, but you're not going to get it unless you've been born again. If you want to see the kingdom, you want to know if the kingdom's at hand, if you want to see it, you have to be born again. This new birth of water and spirit, is not new information. In fact, Jesus, I believe, is referring back to what Nicodemus would be familiar with back in Ezekiel 36, where it speaks of, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh. and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Jesus is telling Nicodemus you need to be washed, you need to be cleansed, you need a new spirit, you need a new heart, you need to be born again, you need to be saved because that's what salvation is. It's about a washing away of the sins and the presence of God coming to live within you. Jesus is telling this man who was a master in Old Testament Scriptures, who was looked upon as a leader and as a good man, you need to be saved. You need to be saved if you're going to get it. And I want you to look at how Jesus goes on to respond to Nicodemus. Let's read with me in verse 9. We'll read down a few verses here. Jesus answered and said to him, Are thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things. He says, You're supposed to be really smart about this and you don't understand it. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness. You're not believing me yet, Jesus says. If I've told you earthly things, and you believe not, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? No man ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believes not is condemned already, because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus, look, salvation is the entry point to what you are seeking. You've got a lot of questions, but unless you come to know Him, unless you come to know Christ, you're not going to get those answers. Those other things that you need to know will receive clarity when enabled by the Spirit. You see, Jesus came to this man and He spoke to him at his level. He spoke to him as an intelligent ruler of Israel, referred back to the Old Testament, and pointed out to this man the necessity of the new birth. He humbled him, but He helped him. If we were to go now to the next chapter, we'll look at our second person here. We're going to talk about Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And she couldn't be any more different than Nicodemus. She couldn't be any more different than Nicodemus. You see, Jesus has already explained to a guy who was really smart in the Old Testament, the new birth. Well, here's a woman he's going to speak to. Do you think he's going to speak to her the same way? Is He going to say all the same things to her? I'll tell you the gospel is going to be the same. But the way He's going to speak to this woman is going to be a way that will be meaningful to her. Let's read about her and we'll talk about her here just for a moment. John chapter 4 starting in verse 7. There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her give me to drink for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy me." I want to stop for a moment just to give you a little context. Jesus and his disciples were going from Judea to Galilee and the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. And that line took them to the land of Samaria. So what's the big deal? Well the issue is the Samaritans lived in Samaria The Samaritans had some Jewish ancestry, but it was very mixed. They didn't believe in all of the Old Testament like the Jewish people. They only believed in the first five books of the Old Testament. They didn't worship at the Temple in Jerusalem like the Jews. They worshipped on Mount Gerizim there in Samaria. And because of the differences, the Jewish people looked down on the Samaritans and typically didn't have anything to do with them. They thought they were better, in a sense, than the Samaritans. Here in John 4 verse 9, His disciples had gone into town to get some food as they were traveling through Samaria. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If thou knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman said to him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus said to her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. In that saidst thou truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet, and our Father is worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship because salvation is of the Jews, but the hour comes and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ. When he has come, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said, What seekest thou, or why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is this not the Christ? She couldn't be any more different than Nicodemus. Nicodemus was educated. He was respected among his peers. He knew the Old Testament. He was a Jew. She was a Samaritan with a different lineage, a different faith, a different worship, and she was a woman. Now we know that there are clearly biological differences, but in their society there were also social differences, significant social differences between men and women, and she was not afforded the same social status as a man. In fact this woman was not just any woman, she was a woman who had been through five marriages, five husbands, and as Jesus pointed out the guy that she was living with now was not her husband. She was living in sin. She was living in immorality. In fact, we can gather because she came alone to gather water in the heat of the day, that she was an outcast. That she was ashamed of her past. She was ashamed of her history. And so she didn't come with all the other ladies who would be going to gather water in the morning or in the evening when it was cooler. She came by herself in the heat of the day because she felt her shame and she was an outcast even from the Samaritan society. But there was Jesus at the well. As she was there in her shame and He was sitting there at the well and He confronted her sin. He didn't just say, oh, don't worry about it. He was honest and real about her sin, and she didn't deny it. She didn't try to rationalize it. Her shame was clear and apparent, but even despite her sin, Jesus offered her what she was really looking for. He said He asked her for a drink, and she asked why He would even ask her for a drink, and then He said, If you knew who was asking you for a drink, you would be asking me for a drink. Because what we see in this woman and in her serial relationships and the broken marriages and all these things was that she was looking for something in her life that she wasn't finding in all the other things of the world. And she had tried to appease herself in all these ways and nothing was satisfying it. And here comes Jesus saying, I have exactly what you need. I have exactly what you've truly been looking for, what you're truly thirsty for, and He is offering it to her. Well, she tries to change the subject because she recognizes He's a Jew. It's very clear from the way He dressed. And she was a Samaritan, so she switches to the topic of worship about, well, we worship here and you guys worship there. No doubt they had all these back and forths over the years between the Jews and the Samaritans. But Jesus brushes it all away and says, look, What God wants is real worship. What God wants is for it to be real from the heart, in spirit and in truth. That's what God really is seeking and it's not soon going to matter whether you're at the temple or whether you're there on Mount Gerizim. What He really wants is for it to be real. And this woman, this young woman here, knows at this point that it's not real in her and she realizes that she has her sin and her shame. But here is Jesus drawing her to himself to trust him. Because she asks about Messiah and Jesus just tells her as clear as day. What does he say? He says, I that speak unto thee am he. That is one of the clearest, one of the clearest expressions in the scriptures of Jesus saying, I am the Messiah. He tells this woman at the well, I am the Messiah. He spoke with more clarity to her than he did to a whole bunch of other people, because he cared about her. And her response indicates that at that moment there at the well, she trusted in Christ and found that new birth. Why would you say that? Because she ran to town to those people among whom she was an outcast because of all of her sin. She ran to those people who she was ashamed to be around and said, come and see this guy who is the Messiah. He has to be the Messiah. Come and listen. She wanted them to have what she had. These people who rejected her all the sudden she was concerned about them knowing the one that she just came to know. I believe she found that new birth. She found that living water in her soul and her life would never be the same. I've got one more I want to share in Mark chapter 10 And that's of the rich young ruler. I'm gonna take a little liberty with this because the rich young ruler, this young man and his conversation with Jesus is described in three of the four gospels. And so from these we pull together different information. We learn that he's a young man. We learn that he's very prosperous. He's very well off and he's also prominent. He was a ruler. We're going to read it from Mark's Gospel. Mark, I know it says Luke, but we're going to read it from Mark. Chapter 10. I changed my mind last second. I didn't update my slide. But Mark Chapter 10, starting in verse 17. Mark 10, 17. And when he, Jesus, was gone forth into the way, There came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, asked Jesus, good master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. He answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, One thing that thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me. It says of this young man, he was sad at that saying and went away grieved, for he had great possessions. What do we know about this young man? I mentioned already he's young, he is prosperous, he is prominent, he was a ruler, and he also clearly recognized Jesus as a man of God. He went to Jesus to ask the age-old question, how do I have eternal life. He wanted it. He wanted to have that kind of life that would give him life beyond this realm. We also learn from the way he responded to Jesus that he thought he was a very good person. He thought he was a very good person. And if we look at Jesus's response, the first thing I want you to notice in the midst of this is that Jesus loved this young man. We don't find this in what we read here in this account. We don't hear about this young man coming to saving faith, being born again. We don't see that happening in what we read. But I want you to know that the Bible says Jesus cared about him. And I think that's really important today for everyone here in this room to know, whether you're lost or saved, Jesus cares about you. He cares about you as a person. He cares about what's going on in your life. Nobody knows you better than Jesus Christ. He knows your story. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows the tears. He knows the triumphs. He knows every bit of it. The Bible tells us in Psalm 139 that when you were in the womb, He formed you and knit you and made you. And Jesus had compassion on this young man who came to Him, who thought he had it all together. He just knew he didn't have eternal life. He wanted to know how to have it. What do I do? And so Jesus, knowing what was really going on with this guy, He answered his question with a question. First thing Jesus says is, why are you calling me good? Jesus, it was an important question. Why do you think that I'm good? It was meant to make him stop and think. Because Jesus follows up that question with a statement. He says, nobody is good except God alone. Only God is good. Only God is perfect. Only God does everything right and righteous. The rest of us, we fall short of that. We all fall short of that. So he comes out of the gate with this question and statement that was meant to make this young man stop and think. And so Jesus says, well, you know the commandments. And here Jesus lists the back half of the 10 commandments. I think the last six there. Don't kill, don't steal, don't bear false witness, don't commit adultery, honor your parents, right? Don't covet. He mentions those commandments. He said, if you want to have eternal life, just obey all the rules. Obey all the commandments. The young man said, I've always done that. I've never broken any of these God's rules. And so Jesus says, okay, you've never broken any of the rules. I want you to go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. I want you to come follow me. And then we see in this young man's response, he goes away very sorrowful and upset because he had a lot. He had a lot. He didn't want to lose any of it. There's no record of him doing any of that. You say, well that doesn't sound like the gospel. My friends, that is the gospel. If you can keep all of the commandments, you can have eternal life. The fact is that once you've broken one, you might as well have broken them all. Because perfection is the standard. And what's the very first commandment? In fact, as Jesus sums up the commandments in two, what is the first and greatest commandment? It is to love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might, with everything that's within you. That is the first and greatest commandment. The second's like it, love your neighbor like you love yourself. You can sum it all up right there. That when Jesus told this young man to go sell everything that you have. If you're a good person, you've never broken a rule, then go sell everything you have and give it away and come follow me. And he went away sad. Why? Why was he sad? What did this young man love most? He loved his money. Yet the commandment is to love God above all else. What then was this young man? He was a sinner. And he didn't see it. And in order for this young man to be saved, and Jesus loved him and he cared for him, but for this young man to be saved, he had to first see that he was a sinner. He had to first see that he could not do a thing to save himself because he had already broken God's law, even the first one. He couldn't get past the first one. because he loved other things more than God. You have to be lost before you can be found. You have to realize that you need a savior before you can be saved. And the way that intersects each of our lives is personal. It's personal. The way God came into your life and spoke to you and showed you that you stand in need of Him. That is a personal thing. It's a personal way. The way God works that and does that in your life. What about Jesus and you? The gospel message is the same. It's set. It's the same message I heard when I was a kid. The same message, you know, my forefathers heard if they heard it. The same message that's been preached since the time of Christ. It's not changed. Yet the way God has worked in my own life and awakened me to my need of a Savior. I mean, I remember very specifically I was about eight years old when God came and showed me that I needed what He had to offer. And I spent about 10 years of my life fighting against that. There were four or five years that I knew it, and I tried to kind of seek it, but I didn't even really realize how much I knew it. But see, the Lord knew what my problem was. He knew what my obstacle was. He knew what it was that was keeping me from truly trusting Him, and that it was honestly, quite honestly, my pride. I just didn't think I was that bad. But by God's grace, I was like that rich young ruler that he had to take me to that place to let me really see how bad I am. I was thinking about Mary's testimony she shared a couple weeks ago. This is actually when she was testifying. It's what really got me thinking about this. I hope you don't mind, but she was sharing how she grew up Catholic and when she went to confession growing up, she tried to have to think about things. What did I do to say to the priest at confession? What did I do? Oh, I guess I fought with my brother. I'll say that. And she would tell you that she considered herself to be a pretty good person too. But when the gospel message came and started working on her heart, she talked about the night, the day she was seeking the Lord in her dorm room. When God was working on her, she tried listing all the things and she didn't seem to have any problem listing things then. because God was making her sin so clear and so apparent and she realized she couldn't even list everything. You see the difference going from like, have I done anything that I could think about to confess to God to like, I can't even list all the things that I've done. You see the difference. And that's exactly what she needed, for God to bring her to that place where she saw how much she needed him. We've each got our own stories. And I wouldn't trade my story for anybody else's. But I'm thankful at the end of that story, when God brought me to that place, He also not just threw me down in my sin, but He showed me the hope in Christ and He helped me to trust in Jesus. And my friend, He washed the sin away. And He forgave me and He came to be with me. And it was so personal. And my friend, maybe today God is writing your story. God is working on you. You have your own background, your own history, your own everything else. The gospel message is the same. It is a salvation through Christ. But my friend, His Spirit, God's Spirit has a way of coming and taking the truth and dealing with you in a way you can understand. You don't need to seek anybody else's salvation. You don't need to seek anybody else's experience. You need to seek Christ yourself. and you find Him, and you have your own story. Because there's nothing greater you can have in your life than for you to have your own story of coming to really know Jesus Christ. As we conclude the message today, I want to give an invitation for any among us that God is dealing with your soul, and you know that you need Him, and you know you need to talk to Him, you know you need to seek His face. We have a place down here where you're welcome to come and pray. There's nothing special about this bench. You can talk to God wherever you're at. But the point is this, whether you're here or anywhere, when God is dealing with you, when God is working on you, my friend, that is a precious, precious, precious thing, as uncomfortable sometimes as it can be. And you need to seek Him while He may be found. You need to take advantage of that opportunity. And so if God's dealing with your soul today, you know that you're lost. I urge you to come and seek the Lord. We'll come and pray with you. Pray beside you. We'll stay as long as you want to talk to God, but you need to seek God until you find Him. Until you have your story. Until you have a story about you and Jesus. when you came to know Jesus. As we stand and sing today, I want to invite anyone today who's lost, seek Christ.