Sermon Central
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Pullup A Chair Pt 1 Series
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Dec 28, 2025 (message contributor)
Summary: God is inviting each of you to pull up a chair next to Him this new year in 2026 – Yes, even next to His table – to have a conversation with Him – to even ask questions of Him.
Video Transition: Nicodemus and Jesus from the Chosen!
Scripture: John 3:1-21: Jesus meets Nicodemus!
1There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.
2After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
3Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.
6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
7So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’
8The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
9“How are these things possible? Nicodemus asked.
10Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?
11I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.
12But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.
14And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
15so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
16“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
17God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.
19And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
20All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
21But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Did you notice in the video clip – Jesus invited Nicodemus to sit at the table – to pull up a chair with Jesus!
Jesus invited Nicodemus to sit at the table – in essence you could say Jesus invited Nicodemus to pull a chair up to the table with Him. So, they could talk – so Nicodemus could ask his many questions!
New theme for 2026 - Pull Up a Chair!
(Reference the banner) Key Verse on the banners for Series:
1 Peter 4:8-10: 8Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 10God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
Over the next few weeks, we will make a connection to these verses but the first step we must take is we ourselves must pull up a chair and meet with Jesus like Nicodemus did!
Illustration: THE PRAYER AND THE CHAIR
A woman called a pastor to come to the house to see her father. He goes to the house not knowing whether the man is Christian or not, but he notices as he talks to him and the man answers back that he must be a Christian and there is a chair sitting close by. An empty chair. He asks, "What's the chair for and the man said, "Well, I'll tell you, but I won't tell my daughter, she'll think I'm crazy. I've always had trouble praying. I knew a man in my early years who said to me, 'All you need to do is put an empty chair in front of you and prayer is nothing more than talking to God. And why don't you imagine God sitting in that chair and you just talk to him.'" And so he said, "I put an empty chair there and started talking to the chair as if God was there and it got so good that I just do it now hours sometime at a time and just talk to God and God talks to me and my soul is blessed by His divine grace." And he said, "If I tell my daughter, she'll think I'm losing my mind."
