Matthew Stuckey here and I'm giving you another soul winning tip and in this video I want
to talk to you about the example of being born again that is mentioned quite a bit in
John chapter 3 where Jesus told Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.
But also this spiritual birth is referenced in John 1 in a lot of places really every
time it talks about everlasting life and eternal life.
And so the Bible teaches that to be saved we need to be born into God's family.
So it's important for people to understand everybody was created by God but it doesn't
mean that we're all his children.
That's something Catholics oftentimes struggle with.
So that's one thing we might want to mention as we mention being born again because some
people might not feel the need for it because they think they're already a child of God.
So you might want to mention that.
But let me give you four other things you can quickly mention about being born again
and why it's such a great example.
And realize everybody's been born and everybody has at least a little bit of an idea of what
takes place at birth.
So it's an example that people, that really resonates with people that they can really
understand.
And one thing you can mention when it comes to the spiritual birth is this.
You can ask people, well when a baby is born, who does the work?
The mom or the baby?
And they're going to say, the mom does the work.
Well when it comes to the spiritual birth, who does the work?
Do we do the work or did Jesus do the work?
Jesus did the work.
So just as a mom does the work for a baby to be born at a physical birth, God did the
work for us to be born at a spiritual birth.
Of course we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not Calvinists.
But what I'm saying is, Jesus did the work.
Salvation is not of works.
He died on the cross for us.
So one thing you can mention is the fact that, you know, just as a baby does not do the work
to be born, we don't do the work to be born into God's family.
Another thing you can mention is this, well how many times were you physically born?
One time.
How many times do you need to be spiritually born?
One time.
Right?
Not that complicated.
Another thing is this, you know what, well does a loving parent ever take their child
and throw them in a burning oven or throw them in a volcano or throw them in a lake
of fire?
They're going to say, no, you know, I would never do that.
And this is a great example to use if people have kids and they're like, no, I would never
take my child and throw them in an oven.
Well then if you're God's child and God is more loving than you, would he ever take you
and throw you into the lake of fire?
Well, no, no, he wouldn't do that.
So that makes perfect sense to people.
The other thing is this, you can mention the aspect of discipline.
Eternal security is hard for people to comprehend because they hear it and they think we're
saying they can get away with whatever they want and nothing ever happens for your sin,
but the reality is God disciplines us.
And so here's the thing, just as a loving parent will discipline their children, God
will discipline you here on earth if you break his rules.
And as the Bible says, you know, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.
And so explaining how God will discipline you on earth and how much he disciplines you
is how much did you do wrong and how bad was it that you did.
Well, the same thing with God.
The bigger the sin, the bigger the punishment, but you're still a child of God just as you're
still a child of your parents if you do wrong and disobey them.
So four things that you can mention when it comes to this.
One thing you can mention as an overview is the fact that we have to be born again because
we're all created by God, but we're not God's children.
We can mention that when a baby's born, a baby does not do the work.
Same thing for us, the spiritual birth.
We don't do the work.
Jesus did the work.
We can mention that, you know, how many times were you physically born?
One time.
How many times do you need to be spiritually born?
One time.
We can mention that a loving parent never takes your children and throws them into a
burning oven.
They discipline, but they don't throw them into a burning oven.
Same thing with God.
And then also, as I just mentioned, the discipline.
A loving parent, though, will discipline their children.
So we're not saying it's okay to commit sins.
We're just saying he will not take away eternal life.
He will not take away everlasting life.
So those are four things that you can mention, and these are some of the reasons why God
gave us such a great example to use when we preach the gospel of being born again.
Anyways, thank you, and God bless.