Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 86:1-7
Listen, Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Protect my life, for I am faithful.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
3 Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to your servant’s life,
because I appeal to you, Lord.
5 For you, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive,
abounding in faithful love to all who call on you.
6 Lord, hear my prayer;
listen to my cries for mercy.
7 I call on you in the day of my distress,
for you will answer me.
Read the Entire Psalm
Protect my life. This may be a prayer that we rarely pray. We live in relative safety in middle America. God is our protector. Without him we would not have life. We need his protection. Praise him that he protects. Ask him to be your protector.
SCRIPTURE READING:
John 3:1-21 – Christian Standard Bible
Jesus and Nicodemus
3 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.
14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Pray for those leading in our government. Pray they would have courage to fulfill their duty and to faithfully serve and protect.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
CS Lewis once described salvation something like this: When you come to the gospel, there is a door over which is inscribed on the outside, “Whosoever will, enter here.” When you enter through that door and find yourself enjoying life in the kingdom, experiencing the fullness of the house of the Lord, you look back at that same door. On the inside you see written, “You do not choose me, I choose you.” This is not contradictory, this is complementary. God has made us with the responsibility to choose him, but in the end, he chooses us. Jesus said it like this in John chapter three: “But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.” In that one verse we see that we are responsible to come to the light, but what has happened in us is the accomplishment of God. We are to encourage others to believe and receive the gospel invitation. If they do, we give thanks to God, not them. We ourselves are to continually respond to God’s invitation to believe. As we do, he changes us. As he changes us we must give thanks to God and take no credit ourselves. His works in us are accomplished by him, not by us.