Being Born Again

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Being Born Again!
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• Hosea 45-6 (NLT)
• 6 My people are being destroyed because they
  don't know me. It is all your fault, you priests,
  for you yourselves refuse to know me. Now I
  refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you
  have forgotten the laws of your God, I will
  forget to bless your children.

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• Proverbs 1625 (NLT)
• 25 There is a path before each person that seems
  right, but it ends in death.
• Proverbs 1412 (NLT)
• 12 There is a path before each person that seems
  right, but it ends in death.

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The Condition of our Nation!

• Americans that profess that they are saved
• 1978 60
• 1988 66
• 2006 - 72
• more than 7 out of 10 Americans (Barna research)
• This is pretty impressive right?

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The Condition of our Nation!

• Divorce
• Among married born again Christians
• 35 have experienced a divorce
• 23 get divorced two or more times.

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The Condition of our Nation!

• Social Issues  
• 33 say that abortion is a morally acceptable
  behavior
• 54 believe that if a person is generally good,
  or does enough good things for others during
  their life, they will earn a place in Heaven.
  (2006).

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The Condition of our Nation!

• Beliefs of born again Christians  
• 86 believe "the Bible is totally accurate in all
  of its teachings." (2005)
• 46 agree that Satan is "not a living being but
  is a symbol of evil." (2005)
• 28 agree that "while he lived on earth, Jesus
  committed sins, like other people,". (2005)
• 44 Adults and 9 of teenagers are certain of the
  existence of absolute moral truth.

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The Condition of our Nation!

• Religious Activities  
• 67 have read from the Bible in the past week.
  (2005)
• 65 of born agains attended church in the last
  week. (2005)

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Something is Wrong!

• Romans 122 (NLT)
• 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this
  world, but let God transform you into a new
  person by changing the way you think. Then you
  will know what God wants you to do, and you will
  know how good and pleasing and perfect his will
  really is.

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Something is Wrong!

• 50 percent of people that go to church are
  lost.
• Dr. Rod Bell President of the fundamentalist
  Baptist Fellowship of America believes
• 80 percent of Americans who claim to be
  Christian, Few live any differently from pagans
  or atheists, as though God has no claim on their
  lives.
• Luis Palau - Evangelist

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Something is Wrong!

• Many who call themselves Christians are not
  really biblical Christians at all. Although they
  may be religious people who attend church
  regularly, they have never experienced the new
  birth and a personal relationship with Jesus
  Christ
• Bill Bright - founder of Campus Crusade for
  Christ
• The majority of Christians are dabbling in
  religious expression that has no substance
• James Dobson

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How Did We Get Here?

• Fallacy of Modern evangelism
• repeat a salvation prayer and you are saved
• creates a false sense of security
• One hundred years ago
• evangelists were ecstatic if 10 percent of the
  people who came forward for altar calls were born
  again
• Either weve improved the way we deliver the
  Gospel, or our methods are producing a staggering
  number of stillbirths.

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How Did We Get Here?

• 1700s - Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and
  John Wesley
• Never used alter calls
• Prayer and Counseling was offered to inquirers
  seeking salvation
• 5 who stayed were saved or converted
• Evidence of Salvation
• power over sin
• The working of the Holy spirit in the individuals
  life
• Were never told they were saved

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How Did We Get Here?

• 1800s - Charles Finny
• father of the alter call (inquirers), should have
  extensive counseling
• Used methods designed to encourage seekers to
  immediately confront their lost condition.
• Used an Altar call as an appeal for further
  inquiry into the condition of the penitent rather
  than the conclusion of a contract.

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How Did We Get Here?

• 1900s Billy Sunday (famous baseball player
  turned evangelist
• popularized the idea that everyone who came
  forward was no longer inquirers but a convert.
• He eliminated the inquiry room
• no longer offered pre-salvation counseling.

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How Did We Get Here?

• 1900s Billy Sunday
• He used every psychological tool to get people to
  come to the front to shake his hand.
• Come and shake the hand of Billy Sunday
• Your not men enough to be Christian
• You havent manhood enough to walk down these
  isles and say I give my heart to Jesus
• Salvation was seen less as a Holy Spirit birth,
  and more as a decision of the will.

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How Did We Get Here?

• Some people think that they cant be converted
  unless they go down on their knees in the straw
  at a comp meeting, unless they pray all hours of
  the night and all days of the week while some old
  brother storms heaven in prayer. What I want
  and preach is the fact that a man can be
  converted without any fuss.
• Billy Sunday

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How Did We Get Here?

• Many of the evangelists are being ruined. A
  good deal of commercialism has been creeping into
  our work and I fear less dependence on God.

R.A. Torrey contemporary evangelist of that era
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How Did We Get Here?

• 1900s Billy Graham father of group salvation
  prayer
• SCFD (.25) B
• Sermon Counseling Follow-up Effective
  Decisions (.25) Born Again Experience
• Never believed everyone who repeated a salvation
  prayer was saved. He acknowledged Some were
  following the whim of temporary emotion some did
  not realize what they were doing.

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How Did We Get Here?

• 1900s Billy Graham
• Just coming forward does not save your soul. It
  must be an outward manifestation of an inward
  feeling. Not only is repentance needed but
  faithand this word faith means more than just
  belief. We give the people an opportunity to
  decide yes or no. But the actual conversion
  must be of God.
• Billy Graham

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How Did We Get Here?

• Today - Thousands of ministers are producing
  false converts (estimates as high as 90)
• Most twentieth century conversions were not
  conversions at all, but rather, at best, the
  beginning of illumination.
• Show Video of Jay Baker
• This Generation no expectation of Change

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Counting the Cost!

• Counting the Cost
• Luke 1425-33 (NLT)
• 25 Great crowds were following Jesus. He turned
  around and said to them, 26 "If you want to be my
  follower you must love me more than your own
  father and mother, wife and children, brothers
  and sistersyes, more than your own life.
  Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And you
  cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your
  own cross and follow me.

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Luke 1425-33 (NLT)

• 28 "But don't begin until you count the cost. For
  who would begin construction of a building
  without first getting estimates and then checking
  to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?
  29 Otherwise, you might complete only the
  foundation before running out of funds. And then
  how everyone would laugh at you! 30 They would
  say, There's the person who started that
  building and ran out of money before it was
  finished!'     

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Luke 1425-33 (NLT)

•  31 "Or what king would ever dream of going to
  war without first sitting down with his
  counselors and discussing whether his army of ten
  thousand is strong enough to defeat the twenty
  thousand soldiers who are marching against him?
  32 If he is not able, then while the enemy is
  still far away, he will send a delegation to
  discuss terms of peace. 33 So no one can become
  my disciple without giving up everything for me.

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Counting the Cost!

• Jesus
• Used Parables to illustrate spiritual points
• Matt 1335 (ISV)
• "I will open my mouth to speak in parables.  I
  will declare what has been hidden from the
  foundation of the world."
• Reaping and sowing agricultural society
  understands this principle
• Faith as a mustard seed
• Kingdom of Heaven - treasure hidden in field.

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John 31-3 (NLT)

• 1 After dark one evening, a Jewish religious
  leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2 came to
  speak with Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "we all
  know that God has sent you to teach us. Your
  miraculous signs are proof enough that God is
  with you."      3 Jesus replied, "I assure you,
  unless you are born again, you can never see the
  Kingdom of God."     

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Born Again

• Same Stages
• Natural Childbirth
• Spiritual birth
• Three Stages of the born again experience
• Moment of conception
• Stage of gestation
• Birth into the Kingdom of God being Born Again

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Born Again

• 1. Moment of Conception
• An Awakening (a seed is planted)
• Is there a God?
• Realize - I need God for some people it might
  be more intense then others
• Many times we stop here and say that people are
  converted!
• Illuminated and begin to feel something

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Born Again

• 2. Gestation Struggle of faith (it can last for
  days, weeks, months or even years)
• A Response, Conviction, Feelings or moved by the
  beauty of God Who God is
• pre-twentieth century
• understanding that the Holy Spirit prepared
  people before they could be born again.
• Some People
• Long and difficult conflict w/ inner motives of
  the heart.
• conversion comes at the climatic moment of a long
  period of a gradual conviction of their need and
  revelation of the plan of salvation.
• Either way a period of Gestation

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Born Again

• Examples of Gestation
• Charles Finney
• read bible
• went to church
• Led the church choir
• John Wesley and George Whitefield - Pre-faith
  illumination drove them to seek Gods complete
  salvation.
• prayed and fasted together The Holy Club they
  prayed that God would break through with his
  salvation.
• Whitefield knew he wasnt saved even though he
  fasted and did good works.

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Born Again

• Today
• We would have accepted these lost men as
  Christians born again.
• Wesley even went to work with the native
  American Indians for 3 years and then came back
  to England and while in the hull of the boat said
  I went to America to convert the Indians but O!
  Who shall convert me?

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Born Again

• Others Struggles of Faith
• John Calvin12 years
• George Fox12 years
• John Wesley23 years
• George Whitefield10 years
• Jonathan Edwards5 years
• David Brainerd9 years
• John Newton6 years
• Peter Cartwright1 year
• Charles Spurgeon4 years
• Virtually every account before 1900 of the
  born-again experience is characterized by a
  period of illumination and a struggle of faith.

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Born Again

• I have ignorantly said to others just believe -
  The devil will say that you are not saved
• Bible says to Examine ourselves
• 2 Cor 135-6 (NLT)
• 5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is
  really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot
  tell that Jesus Christ is among you,2 it means
  you have failed the test. 6 I hope you recognize
  that we have passed the test and are approved by
  God.

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Born Again

• 2 Peter 110 (NLT)
• 10 So, dear brothers and sisters,4 work hard to
  prove that you really are among those God has
  called and chosen. Doing this, you will never
  stumble or fall away.
• Luke 643-45 (NLT)
• 43 "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a
  bad tree can't produce good fruit. 44 A tree is
  identified by the kind of fruit it produces. Figs
  never grow on thorn bushes or grapes on bramble
  bushes. 45 A good person produces good deeds from
  a good heart, and an evil person produces evil
  deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your
  heart determines what you say.

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Born Again

• 2. Gestation This struggle of faith (it can
  last for days, weeks, months or even years)
• Can look to most people like you are a Christian
  and have been converted
• Sin still has power and a hold on your life
• No real moment that defines you life with Radical
  Change

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Born Again

• Gestation
• We must struggle and wrestle
• It will cost us everything
• Luke 1433 (NLT)
• 33 So no one can become my disciple without
  giving up everything for me.

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Born Again

• 3. New Birth
• When you say I hate my old life and want nothing
  more to do with it.
• The Birthing process begins and, not until then
• Exciting, painful, effort and not very pretty
• 2 Cor 517 (NLT)
• 17 What this means is that those who become
  Christians become new persons. They are not the
  same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new
  life has begun!

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Born Again

• 3. New Birth
• Die to ourselves and our sinful nature
• Romans 61-7 (NLT)
• 1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that
  God can show us more and more kindness and
  forgiveness? 2 Of course not! Since we have died
  to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or
  have you forgotten that when we became Christians
  and were baptized to become one with Christ
  Jesus, we died with him?

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Born Again

• 3. New Birth
• Romans 61-7 (NLT)
• 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by
  baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the
  dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we
  also may live new lives.      5 Since we have
  been united with him in his death, we will also
  be raised as he was. 6 Our old sinful selves were
  crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its
  power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to
  sin. For when we died with Christ we were set
  free from the power of sin.

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Born Again

• 3. New Birth true Repentance
• Repentance
• Repentance is a change of mind and feelings
  regarding sin itself.
• Repentance is not Remorse
• Many think remorse, a sense of guilt, is
  repentance. Then hell is full of repentance,
  because it is full of unutterable, eternal
  remorse. Others feel regret over something and
  call that repentance. But they regret their sin
  because of the consequences, not because they
  hate sin. This isnt repentance.
• Charles Finney

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Born Again

• If they long for their old ways, they show they
  have never really repented, because repentance
  always consists in changing views and feelings.
  If they were truly converted, instead of desiring
  such things, they would turn from them with
  loathing.
• Charles Finney

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Born Again

• Jesus never asked us to pray a prayer to invite
  him into our hearts
• He asked us to give him everything
• As we willfully lay down our lives a miracle
  happens in our hearts
• Luke 1433
• 33 So no one can become my disciple without
  giving up everything for me.

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Counting the Cost!

• Willing vs. Wanting
• A lot of people might want to be saved
• Two different things
• When we see anything that looks good to us, we
  naturally want itwe cant help wanting it in
  proportion to its goodness. But we can still be
  unwilling to have it, all things considered.

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Counting the Cost!

• I am afraid what has happened in America is that
  we have gone from conception to birth!
• It creates still births or miss-carriages
• This is an all you have to do mentality
• I wonder how many people are really in the
  gestation period.
• Wrestle with God - I will count the cost!
• Will you count the cost?
• Have you died?
• Has there been true repentance?

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Being Born Again!