New Believers, My Next Step

Greetings friend. Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to listen to this tape. I trust it'll help you in some small way to grow in the process of knowing Jesus Christ personally. Now, if you're like me and most of the people here in our church, you didn't come to this point of decision today out of the blue. Rather, it's likely that for some time you've wanted to know more about God. You've been searching for truth. You've been asking questions about him. Maybe you're seeking to fill a void in your life or to answer some questions or some problems that you've been struggling with over the past months or even years. Well, this step is a very important one in the process of finding those answers and of knowing God personally. I'd like to first of all talk to you about what it means to be born again. You know, it's a term that's been thrown around a lot in our culture, but what does the Bible really mean when it says you must be born again? You know, Jesus said those very words. It wasn't, you ought to be born again or it'd be nice to give something or be taught something. He said, you must be born again if you're to know me. Now, there's a lot of misunderstanding here, so please listen carefully. To be born again is to receive new life on the inside by the Spirit of God. The Bible tells us that when we were born into this earth, we have a body and a soul and a spirit, but our spirit is dead toward God because of the disposition of sin or pride or selfishness. It's resident in each one of us. That disposition blocks the life of God and keeps our spirit from coming alive. However, when you receive Jesus Christ through an act of faith as you did today, your life is open to the Holy Spirit coming in and breathing a new dimension of life upon you on the inside. That dimension of life gives you a whole new perspective. Something will be added to you that you've not known before. You'll be sensitive toward God in a way that you haven't felt before. You'll even sense His presence with you. His Word, the Bible, will begin to make sense to you like never before, and if you've had any difficulty understanding it, it's been because the Holy Spirit, who is the author of the Bible through men, was not alive in you. Now He is alive in you, and the Bible will make sense. You'll find that your desires and your drives will begin to slowly change as God re-orients what really is important to you, and even your values will go through a metamorphosis. You know, it's almost springtime here in the North Hills as I record this tape, and everywhere I look the flowers and the trees are blooming, even though all this life was latent in them before. Through the last five months of this long cold winter, it's taken the right ingredients of sunshine and rain and moisture and the air and all the rest to bring about this beautiful change, and so it is with you, friend. In God's perfect timing, you've responded to the nudging of His Spirit, and now all the ingredients are coming forth to give you a new and beautiful life. Being born again is the greatest experience you'll ever have because it's an eternal one. Your newborn spirit will never die, the Bible says. You're promised to live with God forever. The fear of death will no longer haunt you, and He says, after you die, I'll even give you a new body to go with your spirit. What a great promise that is. Now, I can assure you that most people experience a season of doubt after this decision. You may ask yourself some questions about how all this relates to your church background or whatever else you may have had in your past. You may be wondering, did I really experience anything different? I don't feel any different today. And maybe you'll think, well, maybe it was just a weak moment and it didn't really matter, but friend, those are all lies. Don't believe them. If you truly meant your decision, if you truly sensed that something needed to happen in your life, then God did do a work in your heart when you asked Him in. The very fact that you're listening to this tape is a testimony to God working in you. You wouldn't have been able to pick up this tape and listen to it if it wasn't God drawing you to know more about Him. So, simply trust Him. Trust Him every day to complete the work that He's begun in you, and He will do it. You know, Jesus said in Revelation 3 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and have fellowship with him. The door is the doorway of your heart. You see, you heard the Lord symbolically knocking and saying, can I come into your life? And you opened the door to Him, and by the assurance of God's Word, I can tell you today that you with certainty have Jesus Christ in your life and heart, and He'll never leave you. You can rest on that. Feelings may come and go, but the fact is the Lord Jesus Christ never will. Now, in conclusion, let me suggest three things that you can do, just three simple things that you can do in order to grow in your new relationship with the Lord. Remember, your relationship to God is like knowing a new friend. You must simply have time to spend with Him. So, here we go. Number one, read His Word. That is, take the Bible. Specifically, I would recommend the Gospel of John. Now, for your convenience, we've enclosed the Gospel of John in this package of information. If you have your own Bible, it's the fourth gospel in the New Testament. Read about a chapter a day, about five minutes or so, and just let yourself ingest new things about God, things you didn't know before. Take a moment along the way and thank Him for the things that you're learning about Christ. Just pause in the middle of your reading and thank Him. You'll find that over the space of the next 30 days or so, your life will begin to change as a result. That's number one. Read His Word. Number two, tell someone about your decision. Now, you may be thinking, well, I'm a private person and I don't want to talk to anybody about it, but one of the most important things that you can do is to let someone else know that you've made a decision to receive Christ today, to turn from your old life and receive His brand new life. I invite you to call me personally or one of the other pastoral staff members here at Northwood, but by all means call a friend or someone that you know from this church or another church or a relative who's been praying for you and tell them about what you've done. Number three, I want to personally invite you to come back to worship with us. I want to urge you not to separate yourself and try to make it on your own, but rather come and experience worship with God's people. And most especially, I want to invite you to a class that's been prepared for folks just like you. It's called Discovering the Way. Now, it's just a four-hour class that usually meets on the first Sunday afternoon of every month. You can sign up for the next class by filling out a communicator and those North Way notes that you receive and dropping that in the offering basket a little later or handing it to an usher. In Discovering the Way, you'll review the scriptures that should help you to understand your decision and we'll talk with you about another important step in confirming your decision for Christ, which is water baptism. One other alternative, a possibility that many of you might want to consider is to call our lay pastor, Paul Maldzaleski. Now, Paul will be happy to talk with you at a personal level about your decision and explain to you the opportunities that are available for you to take another step of spiritual growth here at North Way. He's a great guy and easy to talk to. So, just call him at 935-6800 and tell him and he'll be happy to talk with you. Finally, friend, please know that we're praying for you and that we're here to serve you and that as you read his word and tell others about your new experience and as you become part of a growing family of faith in Christ, your life will never be the same. God bless you and thanks so very, very much.