What it means to be Born Again

00:01 Greet you this morning in the name of Jesus. Let the church say, Amen. We return our thanks back to the Lord today for who He is and what He's done for us and what He's given to us. I would like for you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures this morning to John chapter 3. We assume many times that everybody knows what it means to be born again. 00:22 But yet, we need to be reminded from time to time what it means to be born again. Because we have young people that come up and that sometimes kind of catch the Gospel by... well, think they kind of catch the Gospel by association. 00:41 And I wouldn't say that about our young people necessarily because we do present them with the Gospel as homes and parents and church. But the Lord laid on my heart this morning to share with you from John chapter 3, the first 21 verses. "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 01:01 The same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him, 'Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher. Come from God. For no one could do these miracles that Thou doest except God be with him.' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, 01:22 he cannot see the kingdom of heaven, 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, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 01:44 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and now hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. 02:01 So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Art Thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen. And ye receive not our witness. 02:22 If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath 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. 02:42 That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.' And say it with me. '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, 03:02 but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not on Him is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 03:24 For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.' I want to share with you this morning four points. Number one, the urgency of the new birth. 03:46 Secondly, the explanation of the new birth. Thirdly, the experience of the new birth. And fourthly, the evidence of the new birth. The new birth is of a great urgency. It is of great urgency. 04:02 The story is told in the account of the mutiny on the bounty about a group of people who had overtaken the ship bounty and had plunged it into... taken over the ship and they were shipwrecked on a Tahitian island. 04:22 Story goes that nine mutineers and six native men and 12 Tahitian women were put ashore on Pitcarn Island in 1790. One sailor soon began distilling alcohol, and the little colony was plunged into debauchery and vice. Ten years later, only one white man survived, 04:42 surrounded by native women and half-breed children. In an old chest from the bounty, the sailor one day found a copy of the Bible. He began to read it and then to teach it to others. The result was that his own life ultimately... and ultimately the lives of all those in the colony were changed. 05:03 Discovered in 1808, this little colony which was almost self-destructing through vice and sin was discovered by the USS Topaz. Pitcarn had become a prosperous community with no jail, no whiskey, no crime, and no laziness. 05:22 The Gospel had entered into the hearts and lives of that little group of renegades and had changed their lives. The Gospel changes people's lives, and it's an urgent change that needs to happen. It's a change that needs to happen in our world. 05:38 Many are wondering what the world looks like for us in the next number of years as things are changing and the winds of change and the climate of change just threatens to sweep many of the things that we've held dear and assumed that people knew sweep them all away. But there's one thing that will help this world that will survive in the midst of turmoil, 05:59 and that is those who are born again. Those who are born again. It is an urgency that man understand that God wants to have a personal relationship with the people of this world and enter into their lives and create new life. We've seen that this morning in our singing. Beautiful, beautiful. 06:18 Jesus makes beautiful things out of people's lives, touching us tenderly, changing us, creating life in us that was not there previously. 06:28 This is that which was spoken of in the Old Testament in a veiled kind of way. Moses found the urgency in his own heart when God told him to stick his hand into his vest, into his chest, and pull it out, and something happened to his hand. It was leprous as an indication of the sin. 06:49 Leprosy being a picture of sin. And Moses pulled that out from next to his heart as an indication of the sin that resides in man's heart. And then the picture was Moses put your hand back in there and pull it out again, and it was changed. It was changed. And that's a picture of the urgency because in the heart of man is sin, 07:09 is evil, is wickedness, is darkness. And left to himself, that darkness will eventually consume him. I remember in my own life, my testimony would be that at the age of nine years old... and it happens at different ages for different people. But generally, in our Christian homes, 07:29 it comes at a fairly early age an understanding of... an understanding of sinfulness. And sometimes that comes as an understanding of certain sins, but it grows to be an understanding of sinfulness, a state of being a sinner. I was a compliant child, 07:49 and obviously at nine years old, I'd never gone out and done a lot of wild and crazy things. Wasn't living in overt rebellion. But looking back on it now, I recognize that all of the seeds, all of the seeds of anger and bitterness and hatred and lust and rebellion, they were all down there in my heart. 08:10 In my heart. And I remember understanding... I remember dreading revival meetings. Even at nine years old, I dreaded that time of invitation because I knew that God was speaking to me. And I knew that if I were to die or Christ were to come in my lost condition, that I would not go to heaven. I would go to hell. And I wanted to go to heaven, and I wanted Jesus to be my Lord and Savior, 08:30 and I wanted to follow Christ. And so down an aisle, I went one day at a citywide crusade, and I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ. That was just the beginning, but that's when everything began to change. Everything began to change. 08:44 You see, even though I had not gone and done a lot of wild and crazy things, I was known to my teachers as a first grader who had a bad temper. Had a bad temper. And already at six years old, I remember Mrs. Strutz. Mrs. Strutz was the mean, bad, angry, strong-willed, loud teacher in the big room. 09:06 We had a two-room schoolhouse, and she was in the big room, and I was in the little room. And one day, I got called into Mrs. Strutz's presence and said, "You have a bad temper. Did you know that?" I didn't know that, but I did. It was showing. There was something happening in my heart. Anger, bitterness. Already the roots were all there. 09:25 The seeds were all there. The seeds. I want you to think about those sins as being seeds. And she said, "For now until we get this under control, you and I are going to meet every Monday morning in her office," which was the kitchen of this little two-classroom school. So we'd meet in the kitchen. Mrs. 09:45 Strutz and a little six-year-old boy who had a sin problem. Had a sin problem. And I'm convinced that had I allowed that sin to grow, it would have brought forth a crop and a harvest of greater sin and greater sin. But I'm thankful that at nine years old, 10:04 I understood enough to know that I was lost, that Jesus is the Savior, and I wanted to give my life to Jesus Christ, and I wanted to follow Jesus. And God put another seed in my heart. And that is the seed of His Spirit. And just like physical life is created when there's a seed that is planted, 10:26 even so spiritual life is created when the seed of God's life is placed into the human heart and spirit. And that which is dead becomes alive. There's an urgency in this message, brothers and sisters. There's an urgency when Jesus cuts right to the chase in verse 3. You know, here comes Nicodemus. He's kind of... 10:44 you know, Lord, we know that You're a good man. You're a good teacher. You're from God. And Jesus said, "You've got to be born again." And He just laid it right out. And Nicodemus didn't quite understand how to respond to that and understand what He was talking about, and so he laid it out again. "You must be born again." There's urgency in that statement. 11:07 The children of Israel came to be confronted with their urgency. In Deuteronomy 5:29, "Oh, that there was such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their children forever." Oh, that they would have a heart, a new heart, a new life placed within them. 11:29 It says prophesied in Ezekiel 36, "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." You see, 11:47 until that happens, we cannot see the kingdom of God in the sense of understanding it. We cannot see spiritual truths. We cannot understand the things of the Spirit, and we cannot enter into the kingdom of God either future or present unless we are born again. 12:07 Jeremiah spoke of this when he said, "I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God." Yes, this was illustrated by Moses. I mentioned that. So there's an urgency in Jesus' statement here that you must be born again. 12:28 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We don't have a problem understanding that. That seed gets planted in the mother's womb, and that life grows and grows until nine months' gestation are over, and then there's a birth. There's a birth that happens, and that new life which had been incubating now comes forth. And there's an urgency that you don't understand. 12:49 You can't stop it when it starts. You may try. You can start it before you're supposed to through modern medicine and conveniences and modern medicine, but it happens. It happens. And even so, when the Spirit of God plants the seed of God's life into the human spirit and touches that spirit, there is a life that begins, 13:11 and that life then begins to respond to God in a meaningful way of receiving Jesus Christ into the heart. And so Jesus goes on to explain what He's talking about. He explains what He's talking about. It's like the wind. It's like the wind blowing. You don't understand it. 13:31 You can't see it. You can't observe it. You can see its effects, but you can't always tell where it's coming from and where it's going. But it is a spiritual reality. The word spirit here is the same word as wind. It is a spiritual reality that hovers over the human heart, 13:51 creating order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of death. He says, "Don't be amazed that I say unto you, 'You must be born again.'" Verse 7 says, "Marvel not that I said this unto you. You must be born again." It's an interesting word there in verse 7. 14:12 He said, "Marvel not that I said unto you, Nicodemus, but that you is plural. You all must be born again, or you cannot get to heaven." You can't understand spiritual things. And I sometimes wonder how much people try to understand, 14:31 and they can't understand until they have had the Spirit of God enter their hearts, and then the lights go on, and we begin to understand the ways of God. Nothing else than being born again will ever be enough. Nothing. You can paint the well. 14:50 You can paint the pump, but unless you're connected to the water, to the living water, you'll never change. I remember reading the story about D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody was telling the story about a man who had bought a new farm. 15:07 He had bought a farm, and he went to get some water out of the old pitcher pump so he could have a drink of water out of the well, and somebody saw him and said, "Don't do that. That well is polluted." He said, "Well, I'll fix that. I'll fix that." And so he went to town, and he got some putty and puttied up the pump, and he got some paint. 15:26 He got some new this and that and the other thing to try to fix that pump, and that pump looked wonderful. And yet, that's not the problem. The problem and the urgency and the explanation is that we need a new well. You need a new source. You need a new life. You need a new outlook. 15:46 You need a new spirit. You need a spiritual transformation, and that only comes when the Spirit of God comes into our lives by faith in Jesus Christ as we say, "Lord Jesus, come into my life. Forgive me of my sins. Be my Savior. Be my Lord." And just like that mother's womb receives that seed, 16:07 and life begins to form, as the human heart receives the seed of the Word of God by faith in Jesus Christ, life begins to form. Similar, another illustration would be of a tree. We all have seen fruit trees. We all have been living in northern Indiana. We know what that dormant season is. You see the leaves fall off, and it looks like the tree's dead. 16:27 And it looks like for about five, six months, there's nothing moving in that tree other than some dead branches in the wind. And how many of us would think it'd be crazy to try to put fruit on the tree in the wintertime and then pretend that we have a fruit tree? 16:47 And so you go to Kroger, you go to Walmart, you go to Aldi's if you're really trying to save money, and you say, "I'm going to have a fruit tree if it's the last thing I do." And so you go and you buy some apples and some oranges that come from some other fruit tree, and you put string around it, and you put it up in the tree, and you look and say, "Man, what a wonderful cherry apple tree that I have. 17:09 Tangerine, grapes, whatever." I guess grapes don't grow on trees, but you get the point. And your neighbors would look at you and say, "You are nuts. You might as well hang nuts on the tree because you're crazy." You don't have a fruit tree. You have a dead, dormant, nothing-moving piece of wood. 17:30 But something starts happening, and you don't see it. We don't understand the ways of God, and we don't always see the ways of God, and so don't give up praying for people. That God would continue working in their hearts and in their lives. And long about what? February, March? I don't know. Maybe it's earlier than that. Maybe it's January. 17:50 The sap begins to flow in that tree. The sap begins to flow. The nourishment, the nurture of that tree begins to flow up through that tree and goes up through the trunk and goes out through the branches and into the twigs and then begins to create life. Not because you hung it on from the outside. 18:11 Not because you got that little six-year-old boy to control his temper and to manage his sin. No. 18:20 But because there's a change from inside that comes forth and permeates throughout the whole tree, and then that blossom or that bud and that blossom and that fruit begins to form, and at the full age, that luscious fruit there that can be a blessing to those around. 18:39 Then you have a true fruit tree. Religion will never be enough. Ethics are not enough. Philosophy is not enough. Education is not enough. Doctrine is not enough. As important as good theology is, it's not enough. 18:58 The sacraments, baptism, communion are not enough. The law is not enough. Good intentions are not enough. Political reform, a good environment, good deeds, good works, a good job, good paycheck are not enough to transform the human heart. The flesh cannot do it. 19:18 It cannot do it. As much as it may try, it does not work because the explanation of the new birth is that it is a work of the Spirit of God to bring life out of death, to bring light out of darkness, and to bring Christ into chaos. And so the question about being born again this morning is, 19:39 has Jesus Christ with His life and the wind of His Spirit been allowed to enter into our heart and make a change? And make a change. Regeneration, it's called. To regenerate something, to beget something. Life begets life. Death does not beget life. 19:59 Life begets life. So how can the dead live? The dead can only live when there's life given to it from a source outside of itself. And even so, it is with the new birth. Like a breath of fresh air from a sinsick heart, Jesus really maybe had a difficult time explaining this. 20:20 To explain the wind. Explain the wind for me. Explain the working of the Spirit. Explain the new birth. All we can say is it is a mystery, but it is real. It is a mystery, but it is real. 20:39 And until the Spirit of God and the Lord Jesus Christ is allowed to come into our life, I don't just say invite Jesus into your heart. What does that mean? But invite Him into your life. "Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Lord Jesus, You are the Savior. 20:59 Lord Jesus, come into my life and make me a child of God, a disciple of Jesus Christ, a forgiven child of God." I love what Don Price, a former inmate who used to work with Gospel Echoes, he's been gone to glory for many years, 21:17 but his testimony was this: when he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ, he just prayed, "Lord, whatever it is You do to a man, do it to me. Do it to me. Whatever. Whatever You do in the human heart, do it. Take control of my eyes that I might see right, 21:37 my mouth that I might speak right, my feet that I might walk right, and these hands" he was in prison for robbery "these hands which are so quick to take those things which do not belong to them, take control of them as well that I might do right. Whatever it is You do to a man, do it to me." And Jesus did. 21:58 "Come into my life. Make me a new person." I cannot do it. The Bible says we cannot do it in our own strength, not by might nor by power. It's not by the strength of many. An army can't do it for you. Your preacher can't do it for you. Your parent can't do it for you. Your grandparent can't do it for you. 22:16 It is a personal transaction between a sinner and God, and it is not by wealth or by money. It is not by power. You can't buy it. You can't earn it. You can't manufacture it. You can't find it in a store. No wealth, 22:35 no amount of substance, no force, no vigor, no riches that can pull this off. It is beyond the ability of human resources. It is a supernatural work of God in the human heart. And so that's the experience, the experience of being born again. 22:57 Charles Darwin in 1833 set about into the South Sea Islands to find his missing link. By the way, after 100 and some years, almost 200 years, his missing link is still missing, but he thought he'd found it. 23:08 As he studied the cannibals in the South Sea Islands, he concluded that no creatures anywhere were more primitive, and he became convinced that nothing on earth could possibly lift them to a higher level. They were so depraved. They were so inferior. They were so inhibited. They were so evil, so wicked, so primitive that he said nothing can help these people. 23:29 And he thought he had found his missing link between animal life and civilized life. The problem is he came back 34 years later to the same islands, and to his amazement, he discovered churches, schools, and homes occupied by some of these former cannibals. 23:49 In fact, many of them wore clothes and frequently gathered to sing songs and hymns. What made the difference? Missionary John G. Patton had been there proclaiming the truths of salvation, and what was needed in the human heart was a born-again connection with God to create life out of death, 24:10 light out of darkness, Christ instead of chaos. And that has been repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated through cultures, through individuals, through groups of people, one person at a time. And so what is the evidence this morning of being born again? 24:31 I want you to see in verses 19, excuse me, 17 and following, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved." That's why Christ came. 24:43 He wants every one of us to see the kingdom of God, enter the kingdom of God, be born again, have spiritual life created within us that is a life-changing dynamic that will cause us to live forever. He wants that for us, but He did not send His Son to condemn the world, 25:02 but that the world through Him might be saved, that it might be rescued as a drowning man would come to safety, as a person in a dilemma would come out of that dilemma and be rescued. He wants us to be rescued. He wants us to be saved. 25:22 "And he that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already." Why is he condemned? He's condemned because he doesn't believe on Jesus Christ. He doesn't believe on Jesus Christ, which is the issue. 25:36 This is the way to be born again through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, and whoever looked at that serpent in faith, 25:55 you had to look in faith because if you didn't look in faith, you wouldn't look. And they looked in faith to that serpent, believing the Word of God through Moses, believing the promise of God through Moses that he who looks will live and will be rescued from the snake bite, and whosoever looked was saved, 26:15 was spared from death. "Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." And so you look to Jesus for who He is and what He's done with a commitment to follow Him and to invite Him into our lives and be our Lord and Savior, and we can have eternal life. 26:37 God, in a similar way, sent His only begotten Son, His one and only Son, that whosoever that includes us. It includes people of any ethnic background, of any color, creed, race, or tribe, or kindred, or nation. Whosoever, that whosoever believes in Him, 26:57 believes in the sense of fully committing, engaging, and surrendering to those claims, who believe what God has said, who look to Jesus Christ as our rescuer, our only hope of salvation, should not perish but have everlasting life. The word everlasting life is a wonderful word. The word life is the Greek word zoe, 27:18 which means the highest kind of life and experience that could ever be lived or imagined. Zoe, zoe. The highest potential of life and living to the fullest that you could ever live. And the word eternal just simply means perpetual, unending, 27:38 unending living of life to the fullest for all eternity. What could be better? People are looking for the good life. They look here. They look there. They look to power. They look to possessions. They look to persons. They think this person will make me happy. That experience will make me satisfied. This possession will take the edge off of my pain. 27:58 This, this, this practice, this, this, this substance, this whatever will give me that kind of ongoing life and satisfaction, only to be disappointed because there's only one place to live forever in the kind of life that you really want, and that's in Jesus Christ. 28:16 So the evidence this morning of this is found in verse 19. This is the condemnation. The light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. You'd think with such a promise as this that people would flock to it around the world, 28:38 but they don't. In some places, they do, but many places, they don't. Why? Because we love our sin. We love our sin. We're infatuated with our sin. We love ourselves. 28:52 We're in love with self and sin and independence and our rebellion and our evil ways and our control mechanisms and manipulations and all of the flesh that the flesh has to offer, and they don't flock to Christ because they love darkness. 29:13 A little bit like a cockroach. Why doesn't a cockroach come to the light? Because it loves the darkness, because it is in the nature of cockroaches to be a cockroach in darkness, and it is in the nature of sinners to be a sinner in darkness. 29:32 And that which begins to expose sin is something that man recoils from because it requires something. It requires something that I come to the light and say, "I am wrong. My deeds are reproved." And so the evidence, he says in verse 21, 29:53 "He that doeth the truth comes to the light." How do you do truth? He didn't say he that believes the truth, but he that does the truth. He that recognizes the truth of his sinfulness, recognizes the truth of his hopelessness, recognizes the truth of the person and finished work of Jesus Christ, 30:14 who He is and what He has done, and walk in that as a disciple of Jesus Christ is the evidence of being born again. Doing truth versus living a lie. Doing righteousness versus living in sin. 30:32 Loving God versus hating the light. So Jesus has laid out for us, not in some haphazard way, but in a specific discourse here to show us what is necessary. It is urgent that man be born again. 30:53 It is explained here that it is a work of the Spirit of God placing life into the individual's heart. It is the experience of repentance saying, "I'm lost. I'm unsaved. I'm doomed. I'm perishing. Come into my life, Lord Jesus. 31:15 Make me a new person, and by Thy grace and truth and blood, save my soul." Have you done that? Have you done that? Don't think that you can just kind of get it by hanging around people that got it. 31:35 It doesn't work that way. There must be a heart change. You must believe. You must believe that Jesus is Lord. You must believe that His death on the cross and His resurrection were a payment for my sin. You must believe that He alone is the Savior. 31:54 You must open your heart to Him. You must confess Him as Lord. And oh, the joy that happens when that happens. You don't get converted by a man. You get converted by God. Maybe you've heard me tell this story, but Whitfield, George Whitfield, 32:13 was finished preaching one day when a man came reeling up to him, and it was obvious that he was drunk. He said, "Mr. Whitfield, do you remember me?" Whitfield replied, "I don't think I know you." "Don't you know me? Sure you know me." He said, "I am one of your converts." He said, "You must be because if you were one of God's converts, 32:33 you'd be sober just now." I can't save anybody. A man I met a number of years ago was called to be an evangelist. He said, "I can't save a duck." Well, ducks don't need to be saved, but I got the point. It's outside of man's ability to save anybody and give them what they need in this born-again experience. 32:54 It is the work of God as we open our hearts and let Jesus come in. And oh, the joy. 33:02 One of the men at the Bowery Mission years ago, his testimony was written in the Century Magazine. He got up off of his knees. He was down. He was out. He was drunk. He was dirty. He was unclean, as it were. And he gave his life to Jesus Christ, 33:23 and immediately there was a change. He said, "I was sober, and from that moment, I have never wanted alcohol, and I wanted a clean shirt. I loathed my rags. How I craved a bath. I was offered 5 cents." I rejected it. This was a long time ago, and 5 cents meant something. 33:41 "I rejected it. I was no beggar." Something changed in his heart, in his mind. He said, "I wanted to work, and I got a job. But first, I had to rest. They lifted me up into the berth in his bunk. He said, "I had fallen very low, but I could not sleep. I'll lay awake all night." There were tears of contrition, 34:02 prayers of rejoicing, and aspiration toward work and service. Immediately, the operation of change began. It may not look quite that same way in everybody. In this case, God delivered him from alcohol. God doesn't instantly deliver people from everything all the time. 34:24 Sometimes it's a struggle to the death, as it were, to death of self, but nevertheless, it's an illustration of the change that happens when a person gets sick and tired of being sick and tired. 34:36 And so this morning, have you done that? Have you done that? Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ and said, "Lord Jesus, I need a new life"? Have you opened your heart to Jesus and said, "Whatever you do to a man, a woman, a boy, a girl, a teenager, a grandpa, a grandma, whatever you do to a person, do it to me, 34:57 lest I die and perish in a Christless eternity"? Would you bow your heads this morning? Close your eyes. There may be someone here today who has never trusted Jesus Christ. You've been trusting everything else. You've been trusting in being a Mennonite. You've been trusting in being a church member. You've been trusting in being a good person. 35:16 You've been trusting in being a compliant child. You've been trusting in dressing nice, looking nice, combing your hair, brushing your teeth so that nobody thinks bad of you, but you're lost. And if Christ were to come or you were to die, you know you wouldn't go to heaven because you've never invited Jesus Christ to come in and take control. You've never surrendered to Him. 35:37 You've never said, "Lord, whatever it is you do, do it to me. I need you in my life more than anything else." And now is an opportunity if you don't have the witness of the Spirit in your heart that you've been born again to pray with me. You can pray something like this. 35:57 It doesn't so much matter the specific words. It's the cry of the heart, but because that cry comes through words many times, needs to come through words, you can pray something like this, "Dear Lord Jesus, I need you in my life. I need you to be my Savior, 36:19 for I am a sinner and have broken God's laws. I need you to be my Lord and take control of my life. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, my only Savior, 36:41 my only hope, my only help. Come into my life. 36:47 Make me a new person and save me now for all eternity in Jesus' name." 36:58 And Lord, I pray that if there was someone here this morning that has prayed that or is praying that, calling upon you, that they would testify of that, for you have said, "If we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth, that we are saved." And so, 37:18 Lord Jesus, give us opportunity to confess Christ as Lord and Savior in Jesus' name. And this morning, in an attitude of prayer, I'm not going to invite you to come forward necessarily. If you want to, that's fine, but in an attitude of prayer, 37:39 I'd like to give opportunity for someone to confess Christ. It doesn't have to be a first-time decision. It could be a rededication. 37:46 It doesn't have to be even a rededication, but you'd like to take an opportunity to stand and say, "I confess Jesus as my Savior and Lord by the grace of God." Would anybody like to do that this morning? 38:03 I kind of suspected this, but really, people ought to be jumping up all over the place. I'd like to do it this morning. I'd like to say, "I confess Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. I want to follow Him, serve Him. 38:19 I want to be His disciple." Sister, would you have a verbal confession you'd like to make? 38:27 I confess Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord. 38:30 Thank you. Thank you. Brother Liam? 38:34 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, 38:38 and I desire to follow Him. 38:47 Okay. Brother Travis? 38:50 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, asking to lead my life, whatever that means. 38:57 Amen. Horace? 39:01 I confess Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord and my life. 39:09 Sister Suetta? 39:11 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and my life. 39:17 Amen. Jen? 39:20 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and my life. 39:27 Amen. Amen. 39:31 You may be seated. Jason? 39:33 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. 39:38 God bless you. Anyone else? Virginia? 39:46 The Lord and Savior and just asking Jesus where I'm coming from. 39:55 Amen. 39:59 Anyone else? God's working on this side of the room too, I think. Bernice? 40:05 I confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior and still thank Him for salvation. 40:10 Amen. 40:16 It is with joy that I confess in Jesus Christ. 40:25 Brother? 40:26 I confess Jesus Christ as my Savior and believe that God will save me from the dead. 40:32 Amen. Anyone else before we pray? 40:40 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and my life. 40:44 Amen. 40:44 And help me in the day through struggles and hardships. 40:49 Amen. Amen. Brother Dave? 40:54 I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and my life. He's talking about love and Jesus. 40:59 Amen. Let's pray for those this morning who have stood to confess Christ. Let's pray for each other. Lord God, we thank You, Lord, for the opportunity that we have to confess with our mouth that faith in our heart that Jesus is both Savior and Lord. 41:21 Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the day that You came in and took up residence. Thank You, Lord, for the day You came in and took up ownership, occupancy, lordship. Lord, we can't go anywhere else to find what we're looking for. 41:42 We can't go anywhere else to find the answer to our problems, the answer to our needs. We can't go anywhere else to satisfy the human heart, so we come to You, and we thank You for each one who's just this morning reaffirmed their testimony and their confession of Jesus as Savior and Lord. 42:02 Lord, bless them in a special way. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.