Teaching Notes

  • February 1, 2026

    What if messy spirituality isn’t a problem to fix but the only kind of spirituality that actually works?

     

    QUESTIONS IN THE DARK

    Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

    Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

    “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

    Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

    John 3:1-8

     

    3 CONFESSIONS OF MESSY SPIRITUALITY

     

    Confession :  I am a MESS.

     

    Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night…

     

    “Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides.”

    – Anne Lamott

     

    We all try to COVER UP our IMPERFECTIONS.

     

    Confession :  I can’t UNMESS myself. 

     

    “No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?”

     

    “The gentlest form of spiritual narcissism is the idea that one can accomplish one’s own spiritual growth…‘I can do it.’” 

    – Gerald G. May

     

    We all have DONE things that we cannot UNDO.

     

    Confession #3: Only JESUS CAN.

     

    “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

     

    We can’t solve a SPIRITUAL problem with a PHYSICAL solution.

     

    Memory Verse:

    For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

    John 3:16

    My mess isn’t too BIG for Jesus’ GRACE.