This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. We're at day two and I look
together through John chapter three. We started out yesterday, you remember,
looking at the story of Nicodemus and the real definition of success in our
lives, moving from success to significance.

And how if I'm going to truly live the kind of life that God wants me to live,
I've got to check my definition of success, not just build it on what the world
thinks is important. I've got to seek out Jesus Christ. What's his opinion?

And then I've got to be born again. Starts with being born again. Now, as we
walk through this idea of living with a spiritual success in life, not just
financial success, not even just family success, but spiritual success, success
at the core of who you are.

As we walk through this idea, as we continue to the story of Nicodemus, there
are in this story three choices that emerge in daily life that you and I face.
They're going to make or break me when it comes to living for spiritual success,
for true significance. For instance, the first of those choices in verses four
and five of John chapter three, those verses say, "How can a man be born when he
is old?

" Nicodemus asked Jesus. He just heard about being born again. "Surely he cannot
enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born.

" Jesus answered, "I'll tell you the truth. No one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and the Spirit. " One of the things I've got to
struggle with in daily life, if I'm going to live with a spiritual definition of
success, is I can't let the physical blind me to the spiritual.

We live in a physical world. And because of that, we can be very easily blinded
to the spiritual things that God wants to do in our lives. The physical, what's
right in front of us, blinds us to the spiritual, that which is truly the most
important.

Don't let that happen. That's the lesson of the story of Nicodemus. Don't let
that happen.

Nicodemus, the greatest teacher in Israel, he knew the Old Testament as well as
anybody. He shows us it can happen to anybody. And so he asks, "How can a man be
born when he's old?

" He can't see past the physical. Jesus is speaking spiritually. Nicodemus can
only see physically.

That ever happened to you? Happens to me. God wants to do something in your
life, and all you can see is the physical circumstances.

You can't see how God is changing you, or moving you to the next step, or
growing you, or giving you the next opportunity. You can't see that because
you're just blinded by the physical circumstances, "Oh, I might have to move. "
"Oh, it's going to change this relationship.

" "Oh, things aren't going to be the same. " "Oh, I'm going to have to change
this job. " There's lots of physical things that can blind us to the things that
God wants to do in our lives.

Now, it's interesting. Jesus here says, and a lot of people have questions about
it, that we need to be born of water and the Spirit. Well, let's dig into that
for just a minute before we move on.

What does that mean? There are two principles of Bible study that help us to see
the answer. Principle number one is you always understand unclear verses in the
Bible in light of clear verses.

You don't find some verse you're not sure what it means and then make every
other verse that's really clear fit into it. So some people read this and they
say, "Oh, born of water and the Spirit. " Oh, that must mean you have to be
baptized and then you have to become a Christian and be Spirit-filled in order
to truly be saved.

That must be what it means. He's talking about baptism here. Well, the only
problem with that is there are literally dozens of clear verses where the Bible
says that all you have to do to be saved is trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord
and Savior.

That it's not by baptism or by our works that we're saved, it's by our trust in
Him. Jesus himself said to the thief that was on the cross, "Today you're going
to be with me in paradise. " He didn't take him down off the cross, baptize him,
and put him back up on the cross and say, "Okay, great.

Now today you can be with me in paradise. " It's very clear that you don't have
to be baptized in order to be saved. Now you should be baptized as a symbol, as
a picture of your salvation because Jesus commanded it and He exemplified it.

But this isn't about baptism here. You understand unclear verses in light of
clear verses. So what is it about?

The second principle to remember is the principle of understanding words in the
light of their immediate context. It's interesting here. Edemus had just asked
about entering a second time into his mother's womb.

And in the next verse we're going to look at, Jesus talks about flesh coming
from flesh. So in the context, they're talking about physical birth. So when
Jesus says, "Born of water and the Spirit," most interpreters, and I would agree
with them, think this means water.

That's when you're born, you know, woman's water breaks. We talk about I have to
be born physically, but I also have to be born spiritually. Now not everybody
agrees with that.

There's another interpretation of what this might mean. In Ezekiel 36, 25, that
whole chapter is talking about you need to be washed clean in your heart and you
also need God's Spirit in your heart. So there's some who think that this idea
of being born of water and the Spirit, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus who knew
the Old Testament and he's saying, "Just like in the Old Testament, our hearts
need to be washed clean.

We need God's Spirit in our lives. You need to be born that way. " Now I think
water refers to physical because of what Jesus said next.

In verses 6 and 7, Jesus said, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives
birth to Spirit. " You should not be surprised at me saying, "You must be born
again. " Jesus has this amazing way of taking what we tend to make incredibly
complicated and making it extremely simple.

There's just sort of an ABCD here. A, we were born in a garden spiritually. God
breathed life into us, the Bible tells us, spiritually in that garden, but the
Bible B tells us that we died in that garden spiritually.

Not physically, but spiritually. Our relationship with God, our spiritual
relationship with God was cut off. Not only Adam and Eve, but also all of their
descendants.

A, we were born in a garden spiritually. B, we died in that garden spiritually.
And C, there is no physical thing that you can do to resurrect spiritual life.

That's just sort of obvious. Jesus is saying flesh gives birth to flesh, the
Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You were born physically, but the only way to be
reborn spiritually is through God's Spirit.

And so D, you need a new birth. You need a spiritual birth. You can't get
through physical means, but it only comes spiritually.

The key word in this verse is, "You must be born again. " Hundreds of years ago
when John Wesley was preaching in England, his favorite passage to preach on was
this passage. He'd preach out in the streets, in the bars, anywhere they'd let
him preach.

He went everywhere and preached, "You must be born again. " One day, somebody in
one of the newspapers asked him about this. They said, "Why is it that you
always preach on this passage, 'You must be born again'?

" He looked at the reporter and he said, "Because you must be born again. " It's
pretty simple. There's nothing else in life that can give us what this spiritual
birth can give us.

So Jesus said, "You must be born again. " Don't miss that spiritual truth. Don't
let physical realities or physical problems blind you to that spiritual truth.

Now, Jesus wants us to get this. He wanted Nicodemus and he wants us to get
this. And so he gives us a picture.

He says in verse 8, "The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but
you can't tell where it's coming from or where it's going. So it is with
everyone that's born of the Spirit.

" Jesus says, "It's like the wind. It's got power, but you can't see the power
that's in it. You need to understand what God is doing.

" Now, the idea of the wind, that doesn't mean God's Spirit is out of control in
our lives. The Spirit never takes our lives out of control. The picture of the
wind isn't to say God doesn't know what he's doing.

It is to say that he is working even when you can't see it. The amazing thing is
that when I let go of control and I give the Spirit control, the Bible teaches
us that one of the first fruits of that is self-control. He gives me back the
very thing I desire most when I give him control of my life.

And if you're on the brink, if you're on the brink of God doing something great
in your life, one of the things that God's going to strip away is some of the
controls that you put into your life. Spirit control, rather than controlled by
your own desires or your own fears or your own needs. That's tough.

That's a little scary. But that's what it means to live with true, significant
spiritual success. You can't see the wind directly, but you can see its results
clearly.

You can't see the Holy Spirit in a person's life. Oh, they have the Holy Spirit
in their life because their ears are green or whatever. But you can see the
effect of God's Spirit.

Now Nicodemus was confused about this, and so he says in verse 9, "How can this
be? " And this is what I love about this man. This is why we're going to find
out later in the Gospel of John some changes happen in his life.

If you want to make a spiritual success of your life, if I want that, I go to
admit what I don't know. Nicodemus could have said, "I'm the teacher of Israel.
Here's 10 reasons why that cannot be.

" He could have acted like he already understood that, but he did not. How can
this be? He admitted what he didn't know, and so he got this answer.

Jesus says in verse 10 through verse 13, "You are Israel's teacher, and you
don't understand these things. I tell you the truth. We speak of what we know,
and we testify to what we've seen.

But still, you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of
earthly things, and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak to
you of heavenly things?

No one's ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of
Man. " Jesus is very honest with Nicodemus. He says, "You don't understand
because you didn't receive, because you didn't believe.

" He's always taking it back to belief. We're going to talk about that in just a
moment. Now before we take a look at a third key for daily life, if I'm going to
be a spiritual success, there is a phrase here that confuses a lot of people.

Jesus says something that sounds strange when he says, "No one's ever gone into
heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. " Does that mean
that no one else is in heaven but Jesus Christ? All those people who died
before, none of them went to heaven, none of the Old Testament saints?

Obviously, that's not true. The Bible tells us that they're in heaven with the
Lord. What Jesus is talking about here is the people that were on earth at that
time.

No one that's around us here has been in heaven except me. Everyone else was
conceived. Only Jesus came from heaven to earth.

Jesus is saying when it comes to spiritual things, heavenly things, I'm the only
eyewitness. I'm it. I'm the only one that you have.

There's a lot of people who make guesses about heaven. Some of the guesses are a
little more intriguing than others, more interesting than others, more
attractive than others, but they're just guesses. Only Jesus knows.

So that's why I should seek him out. That's why I ask him when I admit what I
don't know. And then in daily life, if I want the spiritual to be my definition
of success, I got to set aside the physical and the way that can keep me from
enjoying what God wants to do.

I got to admit what I don't know, have the humility to do that. And then in
verses 14 and 15, I have to make belief my daily measure of success. 14, Jesus
says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man," he's
talking about himself.

"So the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have
eternal life. " Jesus gives Nicodemus a picture to challenge him to believe, a
picture that he could relate to. He talks about Moses.

Moses would have been one of Nicodemus' heroes. He was the giver of the law. So
Jesus says, "Let me talk to you about your hero.

" Remember the story of Moses and the snake? Now, this isn't when the staff was
turned into a snake at the burning bush. This is much later.

The children of Israel were being bitten by snakes after they had escaped from
Egypt. And Moses went to God and said, "What can we do? " And God said to Moses,
"I want you to do this.

Put a bronze snake on a pole and tell the people that if they've been bitten by
a snake, if they'll look at that snake on the pole, they will live. If they
don't, they'll die. " Jesus is reminding Nicodemus of this story and us too.

And he's saying, "It's like this, Nicodemus, it's trust. " You couldn't figure
out why that snake on a pole worked by any physical means, by any physical
definition of success. It was just trust.

It was just that they did what God told them to do. How can we be born again?
Here's the answer to Nicodemus' question.

How can this happen? Jesus has to be lifted up. Just like that snake was lifted
up on a pole, Jesus must be lifted up.

The word "lifted" means both "crucified" and "glorified. " Jesus is lifted up on
a cross, then he's lifted up into heaven. And I have to look to him.

I must believe. You see, in our scientific age, we think things like, "Well, if
I was there with Moses, I would climb the pole, I'd get that snake, I'd figure
out exactly what makes it work, I'd break it down, I'd put it under a
microscope, and once I figure it out, I could distribute it to everyone. "
That's not the point.

The point is that that snake was lifted up so that people had an opportunity to
have faith, and Jesus is lifted up on a cross. Jesus is lifted up into glory so
that I have an opportunity to have faith. God's definition of success?

Belief in Jesus Christ. And I should measure both my life and my days by God's
standard of success. I invite you to measure both your life and your days, this
day, by God's standard of success.

Let's pray together. Jesus, right now, we lift you up in our hearts. We're going
to face a lot of circumstances today.

Help us to trust you in those circumstances. We're going to talk a lot with a
lot of people today. Help us to trust you in those conversations and with those
people.

We're going to face some problems today, some we know about, some we don't right
now. Help us to trust you as we face those problems. Lord, there's just going to
be some regular details of life, some of the humdrum routine of life.

Help us to trust you in that. In every circumstance, in every situation, in
every conversation, in every relationship, Jesus, remind us, help us to lift you
up. We ask this, Jesus, in your name.

Amen. Well, tomorrow, I hope you'll join us. We're going to be talking about one
verse, a fairly familiar verse, John chapter 3, verse 16.