Being Born From Above / and Waiting Upon the Lord

I just heard the best sermon I've ever heard on the subject of the new birth, by a pastor Grant Van Leuven of Puritan Evangelical Church of America in San Diego.  He's come to this topic in the process of working through a series on the Westminster Catechism, and he covers quite a range of related information including how we inherit the sin of Adam and how Jesus was born sinless.

To be Conveyed Into Heaven You Must be Born from Above

UPDATE 8/26: WAIT ON THE LORD: WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD.

I just have to report that I've listened to more of this pastor's sermons and in the sermon "Wait on God" from Exodus, he spoke of his own prayer life briefly but enough to tell me that this is why I'm impressed with his sermons. The truth I know and forget: He spends much time with the Lord, even "wrestling" with the Lord. THAT is the crucial element in the Christian life, especially for a preacher or teacher of the Word. It's something you can feel in your spirit (at least if you have SOME experience of waiting on the Lord yourself, and the more you have the more you can sense it in others) when someone has spent time with the Lord: He has the scent of the Lord about him you could say, there is a resonance between his spirit and your spirit.

It's an amazing experience and yet how few of us there are who live like this or even try to live like this. I certainly don't but it inspires me afresh to seek it. Waiting on the Lord. That's where the power of the Holy Spirit comes from. That's where the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to impart life to others comes from.

I'm ashamed that I rely so much on my own abilities instead of seeking the Lord more. It's not that I don't pray, I do pray, and sometimes I pray a great deal over, for instance, a particular post I might write, but although I think the Lord does lead me from this paltry effort, I have to admit that it is paltry. There's no value to anyone in a paltry prayer life. Yet most preachers do the same and you can feel that too, at least you can if you've had some experience of it yourself and know the difference from someone who does wait upon the Lord.

Yes, let us learn to wait upon the Lord. It's THE crucial thing.