Excuses why I don’t share the Gospel with people:
- "That's not my GIFT."
- "Preacher's JOB."
- "I don't know what to SAY to people"
- "What if they ask hard QUESTIONS?"
- "Don't want to OFFEND anyone."
Why we share the Good News with Boldness...
- Because I am CONTROLLED by the LOVE of Christ (2 Cor 5:14-15)
- Because people are ETERNAL beings (2 Cor 5:16)
- Because the gospel has CHANGED me (2 Cor 5:16, 21)
- Because this assignment is directly FROM GOD (2 Cor 5:18-20)
- As a MINISTER: This is God's Work! (2 Cor 5:18)
- As a STEWARD: This is God's Word! (2 Cor 5:19)
- As a REPRESENTATIVE: This is God's Passion (2 Cor 5:20)
What moves you?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:10
We're concluding our series today on the four pillars of Harvest Bible Chapel.
00:11-00:18
And today we're talking about sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
00:22-00:41
I came to Christ in 1995 and very shortly thereafter was called into ministry so I threw everything that I had in a little two-door Cavalier and drove to Bible College out near Columbus, Ohio.
00:44-00:45
Didn't know a soul out there.
00:48-00:58
And I went to a local county fair, and they had all these rides set up and games and the whole fair scene.
00:59-01:02
I saw they had my favorite ride there, and that was the Zipper.
01:02-01:04
Did you ever go to the fair and ride the Zipper?
01:05-01:06
Did you ever ride that?
01:06-01:16
It's basically like on a Ferris wheel, but each individual car is like a cage, and it It goes really fast and the little cars spin while the whole thing is spinning.
01:17-01:18
You know the thing I'm talking about?
01:19-01:21
You know that contraction?
01:21-01:32
Well, I was really excited to ride the zipper and I get up to the front of the line and they said, "You can't ride this alone.
01:32-01:48
You need to have a partner." I'm like, "I don't know anybody in Ohio." "Okay, I don't have a partner." and they're like, "Well, what do you got to jump in with him?" Again, I was a brand new Christian.
01:50-01:52
And I only knew one thing.
01:53-01:58
And that was, Jesus Christ died for my sins.
01:59-02:00
And He rose from the dead.
02:01-02:04
That was like, all I knew. That's why I was going to Bible college.
02:04-02:05
Maybe I could learn a little bit more than that.
02:06-02:09
But I'm locked in this cage with this complete stranger.
02:11-02:14
And I'm thinking, I'm going to share the gospel with this guy.
02:15-02:22
While we're on the ride, okay, so this whole thing's spinning, our little car's spinning, and we're flying around, and...
02:25-02:29
Baby Christian, I just was trying to start the conversation on this ride.
02:29-02:31
I figured I only had, like, what, 30 seconds?
02:32-03:02
So as a good leading question, as we're flipping and spinning and the thing's creaking, I lean over to the guy and I'm like, "You know where you're going when you die?" I imagine he might have thought, "We're probably going to die before we get off this machine." But I'll never forget his response. For as long as I live, I'll never forget the man's response.
03:03-03:27
He said something like, "Woo! I don't care! Woo!" So I'm sitting in the cave with the guy, and like the whole rest of the ride was awkward, because like, I go, "What do you say now?" "I don't care." I'm like, "Oh." "Well, you should care," and I totally lost him. Totally lost him.
03:29-03:39
So needless to say, my first time up the plate for evangelism, I don't know, I would say maybe it wasn't so great.
03:40-03:44
Who knows, maybe that guy left that night and got thinking about what's going to happen.
03:44-03:47
Maybe he's preaching in a church of 20,000 today, I don't know.
03:47-03:49
Good idea, I like to think that.
03:49-03:52
But, what comes to your mind when you think of evangelism?
03:54-03:56
When you hear that word, what do you think about?
03:57-03:57
Evangelism.
03:59-04:09
You think of that guy on TV with the white suit, and he's brushing himself off, "What the heck, David?
04:09-04:11
David!" You thinking of that guy?
04:16-04:28
Or are you thinking of like the guy in the street corner that's just standing and telling they're going to hell. You thinking of that guy? What do you think of when you think of evangelism?
04:30-04:55
Like, nah, I've been to church. I know the caricatures. Evangelism is when you take a short-term mission trip. Or, you know, like maybe you go overseas. Or, you know, we send the youth to a place where they can reach out. Maybe it's not even overseas. Maybe just a place in the the house or something and maybe give the people a track while you're there.
04:55-04:56
That's evangelism.
04:58-05:03
Right now you're thinking, "Oh no, I hope this isn't paid." We're all evangelists, sir.
05:04-05:05
Well, guess what?
05:07-05:07
Guess what?
05:08-05:08
It is.
05:10-05:11
It is.
05:13-05:26
Now you're thinking, "All right, pack your bags because here comes the guilt trip." I just want us to be honest with where we are with evangelism.
05:28-05:34
Remember the very first sermon when the church launched October 2nd, we talked about the Great Commission.
05:35-05:43
And the mission of Harvest Bible Chapel is to glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
05:43-05:45
Somebody grab a sharpie and write that at the bottom.
05:45-05:49
But in the spirit of the great commandment, our job is to make disciples.
05:49-05:51
Jesus' last commandment is our first priority.
05:55-06:03
And part of making disciples is sharing the good news of Jesus with moldness.
06:04-06:09
Again, this is not a guilt trip, like he's going to guilt us into telling people about Jesus.
06:09-06:11
That's not the case at all.
06:12-06:12
At all.
06:15-06:22
We're going to take an honest look at the situation and see what God's word has to say about why we should share in boldness.
06:23-06:28
Here's some excuses why I don't share the gospel with people.
06:30-06:33
I've wrestled through some of these things, maybe you have too.
06:34-06:36
Top 5 reasons I don't share the gospel with people.
06:36-06:37
Here's number 5.
06:38-06:39
People say that's not my gift.
06:40-06:43
Like, BAM! That's like a spiritual trump card, right?
06:44-06:47
I need you to work in children's ministry. That's not my gift.
06:47-06:51
UGH! Yeah, I need you to help with setting up and tearing down.
06:51-06:54
Yeah, that's not my gift either. BAM! I'll get out of doing nothing!
06:55-06:58
You need to be sharing Christ with people. That's not my gift.
06:58-07:00
Dang, I could use that all day.
07:00-07:05
Well, I think that's an often misused statement in the church. That's not my gift.
07:05-07:09
Is it true that the Holy Spirit gives us each a gift to use in ministry?
07:09-07:09
Yes.
07:10-07:13
But that doesn't mean that we get off the hook on things like this.
07:13-07:15
Whose job is it to share Christ with people?
07:16-07:16
Whose job is it?
07:18-07:19
Whose job?
07:19-07:20
Me and Dale, basically.
07:22-07:22
Anybody else?
07:23-07:25
Whose job is it to share Christ?
07:25-07:26
All Christians.
07:26-07:27
All Christians.
07:27-07:28
Yes, thank you, Gordon.
07:28-07:29
It's all of our job to share Christ.
07:30-07:32
You're going to encounter people that I will never see.
07:33-07:34
And vice versa.
07:35-07:35
Who's going to share the gospel?
07:35-07:42
gospel with them. You are. Okay, so this can't be, that's not my gift thing.
07:44-07:50
Number four, excuse me, well that's the preacher's job. That's a preacher's job.
07:50-08:05
I grew up in a church like that. I'm not supposed to do ministry, that's what the preacher's job is. We pay him to do the work. Interestingly, if you read Ephesians 4, You pay the preacher to get you to do the work.
08:06-08:07
How's that for a racket?
08:09-08:13
It's the job of the pastor to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
08:14-08:17
So basically, you pay the pastor to equip you to do the work.
08:19-08:20
That's the way it works.
08:21-08:23
So that's the preacher job. Incorrect.
08:24-08:24
Number three.
08:27-08:29
Excuses. Why don't you have gospel with people?
08:29-08:30
I don't know what to say to you.
08:31-08:32
I just don't know what to say.
08:33-08:38
You're like, you know, being on that ride with that guy and asking him where he's going, that's like me.
08:38-08:39
I don't know what to say to people.
08:41-08:42
Just not sure what to say.
08:45-08:46
We'll talk about that.
08:49-08:51
Number two is what if they ask hard questions?
08:52-08:54
I've heard that so many times.
08:54-08:57
People say, I wanna share with people, but what if they ask hard questions?
08:58-09:00
I'm gonna do a real quick seminar on that.
09:00-09:00
You ready?
09:01-09:05
You're sharing the gospel with somebody and they ask you a question that you don't know the answer to.
09:05-09:06
Here's what you say.
09:07-09:08
I don't know.
09:09-09:09
That's a good question.
09:11-09:13
Let me look it up and I'll get back to you in a minute.
09:15-09:16
What's wrong with that?
09:18-09:19
I've had to do that.
09:21-09:22
Many times.
09:24-09:25
People bring questions.
09:25-09:26
I don't know the answer to that.
09:27-09:28
I'll find out.
09:30-09:31
Don't worry about the hard questions.
09:32-09:34
And number one, you know what it is?
09:34-09:36
It's, I don't want to offend anyone.
09:37-09:38
I don't want to offend anyone.
09:41-09:43
I don't want to offend anyone.
09:43-09:56
You know, I was looking at this list and I thought, if your neighbor's house was on fire and you could see in their window that they were like laying on the floor, would you apply these excuses to that?
09:58-09:59
I can't go rescue my neighbor.
09:59-10:00
That's not my gift.
10:01-10:02
You wouldn't say that.
10:03-10:05
I hope you wouldn't say, well, that's the preacher's job.
10:06-10:08
Jeff, my neighbor's house is on fire.
10:08-10:09
Would you come drag him out?
10:11-10:14
Well, I'm just not sure what to do.
10:15-10:16
I'm just not sure what to do.
10:16-10:17
I see him laying there.
10:17-10:18
I see the house.
10:18-10:19
I'm not sure what to do.
10:19-10:21
In a situation like that, you figure it out pretty quick.
10:23-10:25
Or what if things get hard?
10:25-10:26
What if it's hard?
10:26-10:27
What if the fire's hot?
10:28-10:30
I mean, think about that.
10:34-10:34
And...
10:34-10:36
The last one just seems kind of silly. I don't want to offend him.
10:37-10:44
What if I go in there and drag him out and he's all offended that I might have kicked his door in when I dragged him out?
10:46-10:51
Like, well that seems silly. Well, you realize people are in a real danger apart from Jesus Christ. Did you know that?
10:52-10:56
And it's a lot worse than your house being on fire.
10:56-11:02
You're facing a godless eternity apart from Christ.
11:03-11:06
So let's talk about why we share the good news with boldness.
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And I want you to turn to your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
11:14-11:16
2 Corinthians chapter 5.
11:27-11:29
It's really quiet in here this morning.
11:31-11:33
Can you like flip the pages in your Bible and cough or something?
11:36-11:37
Thank you.
11:39-11:40
Alright, that's enough.
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Quiet down. We're in church.
11:44-11:47
Let's talk about sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
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First of all, let's get this on the table. What boldness is not.
11:53-11:54
We're going to get to the word here in a second.
11:55-11:58
Boldness is not obnoxiousness. Let's get that on the table.
11:58-12:05
Boldness doesn't mean that we go up to people, "Hi, how are you doing? Do you know Jesus?
12:05-13:00
If not, you're going to hell. You godless pagan. Repent." true but that's sort of obnoxious way boldness is not obnoxious we tell you how to hold this is not I wrote down my outline boldness is not kitten emails what are kitten emails we've all got you ever get those emails there's all these pictures of like kittens and It's just so adorable and then there might be a little Bible verse at the bottom, but then it says the statement that just creates a meal like nails on a chalkboard.
13:02-13:05
Jesus said if you're ashamed of him, he'll be ashamed of you.
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Therefore, if you're not ashamed of Jesus, forward this to twenty people in your email list.
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Really, Jesus is up in heaven evaluating whether I love him or not based on how many kitten emails I forward to people.
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The kittens are cute. They are.
13:23-13:25
I have never forwarded one of those emails.
13:27-13:30
I wonder if Pastor Jeff loves Jesus.
13:31-13:33
It's a question of... You didn't send it to 20?
13:35-13:36
I've gotten every one of those.
13:37-13:39
Every. One. Of. Those.
13:40-13:42
several times.
13:43-13:49
So, I'm at the point now when I get an email that looks like it might be that way, I scroll to the bottom and if it says that, I just delete it.
13:50-13:57
Like, I do love Christ, but that's not measured by how many of these precious emails I send out.
13:58-14:04
So, the reason I put that down is I think for some people they think, "Well, that's my evangelism.
14:05-14:15
I'm going to send this to Becky because I know Becky doesn't know the Lord." And nothing speaks to the love of God more than a kid that stuffs a tea kettle or something.
14:18-14:24
Well, here's what boldness is. When God gives me opportunity, I'm going to speak of Him.
14:25-14:26
That's what boldness is.
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Jot that down. When God gives me opportunity, I'm going to speak of Him.
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I'm going to take advantage of every opportunity that God gives me.
14:36-14:37
That's boldness.
14:42-14:48
Now God doesn't tell us who, when, or where exactly to share the gospel.
14:51-14:53
He's not as specific about those things.
14:55-14:59
But when you look at God's Word, He is very specific about how the good news is to be shared.
15:00-15:01
It is to be shared with boldness.
15:02-15:06
Over and over and over again in Scripture, it's sharing the news with boldness.
15:07-15:10
So why do we share the good news with boldness?
15:11-15:12
Let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
15:13-15:22
Your Bible may have a heading that says something like mine, "The Ministry of Reconciliation." We're going to pick up in verse 14.
15:25-15:27
So why do we share the good news with boldness?
15:27-15:31
Number one is because I am controlled by the love of Christ.
15:32-15:34
Look at verse 14 and 15.
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Paul says, "For the love of Christ controls us, "because we have concluded this, "that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
15:46-16:03
"And he died for all that those who live "might no longer live for themselves, "but for him and for their sake died and was raised." He's gonna talk in a second here about the ministry of reconciliation that we have.
16:03-16:06
But we have to see where this all starts.
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It starts with being controlled by the love of Christ.
16:10-16:14
And you see right here in the verses, why are we controlled by the love of Christ?
16:14-16:17
Because one has died for all, therefore all have died.
16:17-16:21
It's an identification with Jesus Christ.
16:23-16:25
Paul says, "When Christ died, I died with him.
16:27-16:30
"My old man has been crucified with Christ.
16:31-16:36
"And when Christ rose from the dead, I identify with Him in that too. I've been raised with Him.
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That's why He says, "I don't live for myself anymore." "I live for Jesus Christ." My desires, my wants, my this, my that, it's not about that anymore.
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My life belongs to Jesus Christ.
16:56-16:59
Because I identify with Christ, I'm controlled by the love of Christ.
17:01-17:10
The Greek, very interesting, it implies to compress forcibly the energies into one channel.
17:11-17:14
To compress forcibly the energies into one channel. What does that mean?
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Well it means it's like toothpaste.
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Why is it that when you get your toothpaste out and squeeze the tube it doesn't just go flying all over the bathroom?
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Because it has that little nozzle on the end of it, so that when the force is applied, that controls where it goes.
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And that's how you get a grain on the end of the toothbrush.
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What did you learn in church today? How to put toothpaste on a toothbrush.
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But that's the picture here, of being controlled.
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He's saying, the force is Jesus Christ, so to speak. It's Him in us, and He controls us.
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Another way of looking at it is it's like a curve.
17:57-18:04
If you're driving and there's a high curve and you're not paying attention, and you hit that curve, it'll direct you where you need to go.
18:06-18:12
But it's the idea of compressing forcibly the energies into one channel.
18:14-18:16
Jesus Christ is controlling me.
18:17-18:20
Specifically, He says I'm controlled by the love of Christ.
18:21-18:28
Have you ever been controlled by love? How many people here at one point in your life would say I've been controlled by love?
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You married guys better put your hands up. Come on. You've never been controlled by love?
18:35-18:48
Man, I have Aaron. I have. You can tell I have. I have been controlled. I have done some goofy things Because I love this woman so much Jeff why are you doing that? Because I love her!
18:50-18:52
We'll tell you some stories about that sometime.
18:52-18:56
But I love her so much, and because I love her, I can control what I do.
18:59-19:05
And if my love for my wife won't control what I do, she will, personally.
19:08-19:11
But you understand what it means to be controlled by love.
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Why are you doing this?
19:14-19:14
Because I love Jesus.
19:15-19:17
Why are we planting a Harvest Bible shop?
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Why are we doing this? Because we love Jesus.
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Because the love of Christ is in us.
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It would be a lot easier to do other things, wouldn't it?
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Well, let's join up with another church.
19:31-19:36
It would be a lot easier to just get away from the whole church thing and not go back to being a magazine vendor.
19:36-19:38
Life was a lot easier back then.
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So why are we doing this if it's so much harder?
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I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it.
19:46-19:48
Samuel gave you testimony about that too.
19:49-19:50
Tried to get a worship ministry, didn't you pal?
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Why are you back up here leading worship?
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You can't help it.
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Because the love of Christ is controlling you.
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He said, "I tried to get out of it. I swore I was done." "You're going to make a million dollars and buy a Beamer?" "Hopefully make another million and buy me one." But he said, "I just couldn't get away from this." The love of Christ controls us.
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What moves you?
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What moves you?
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Or let's make it blank.
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Or blank controls me.
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Does the love of Christ control you?
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Something controls you.
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We're sad that the pig was lost last night.
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We're sad that it stood yesterday.
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We're sad that the store ran out of waffles.
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moved about all these things.
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And as we talk about evangelism, when was the last time you were moved?
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Because somebody doesn't have the word.
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When was the last time you were moved by something that moved Jesus Christ?
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If the love of Christ doesn't move you, then you probably don't know.
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I saw a video one time, I'm watching these YouTube videos about evangelism, and I think it was the Way of the Master, you know, Ray Comfort and Kurt Cameron, they were doing this street witnessing thing.
21:19-21:35
Well, they grabbed this guy, and they said, "Here's a track, an gospel track." They said, "Go give it to those people over there." What is a profession?
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What are you thinking?
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Profession of faith.
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I don't know.
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They said, "Well, did you do it for $100?" They pulled out $100 bills.
21:48-21:53
"Did you give that tract to somebody for $100?" He grabbed that tract, ran right over there.
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There's these girls walking by.
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He goes, "Here, here, here.
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"Here, take this and read it.
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"There's good stuff on there." Comes back, gets his money.
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He's like, "It's a chain, $100." I was like, "Here you go, here's your money." He's like, "Like on a crisis rate?" I was like, "Yeah." He sticks the money in his pocket.
22:12-22:35
And then the person said, "Well, can I ask you a question?" "Jesus said you love God and you love money. Does it concern you that you wouldn't do that because you love God, but you didn't for money?" And the guy was like, "You can like see the wave of conviction coming." And he was like, "Oh." But it's true, isn't it?
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You do it because you love Jesus.
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Or...
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Why do you do it? The love of Christ controls us.
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So that's why we share the good news with the bold, is we just, like, can't help it.
22:52-22:55
Secondly, because people are eternal beings.
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Look at verse 16 with me. People are eternal beings.
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He says, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
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Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer." Why do we share the good news with Paul?
23:15-23:17
Just because people are eternal beings.
23:20-23:23
What's this "regarding people in the flesh" thing? What's that all about?
23:24-23:29
What he's saying is, we used to think of Christ that way, but we don't anymore.
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He's saying we used to look at Jesus from a purely human perspective.
23:33-23:34
That he's just some guy.
23:35-23:38
Jesus is just some guy. He's like some charismatic guy.
23:39-23:41
He's got a lot of followers kind of guy.
23:42-23:44
He's kind of a religious guy, but he's just a guy.
23:46-23:47
He says, you know, then the lights came on.
23:49-23:51
Jesus Christ isn't just some guy.
23:51-23:53
He is God in the flesh.
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He says we don't look at Jesus from a merely human perspective anymore.
23:57-24:00
He says we don't look at anybody from a merely human perspective anymore.
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What that means is that person that you absolutely can't stand is an eternal being.
24:16-24:19
The President sitting in the White House is an eternal soul.
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The hopeless guy standing down by the bridge, that's an eternal soul.
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We don't look at people as just, well that's just some guy.
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Eternal souls.
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We don't look at people from an earthly point of view anymore.
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I was dead in my sin.
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They are as I was.
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I was heading to hell, as they are.
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Because you see, we talk about sharing the gospel with boldness.
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This isn't about getting people on your team.
24:57-25:02
The Methodists have a really good team, and the Lutherans have a really good team, and we're starting this harvest team up. We want to join our team.
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It's not about that. This is about deliverance.
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This is about God changing the course of a person's eternal destiny.
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It's a serious business.
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So we don't regard people according to the flesh.
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You're annoying, you're ugly, I don't want to be around this person.
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Every single person, eternal value.
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Eternal value.
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I just love how lights come on about that.
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William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, I love this quote.
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He said, "When people became candidates for officership in the Salvation Army, he said what he'd like to do more than anything is send them to hell for 24 hours." I thought that is fantastic.
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I would love that.
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People come on to Harvey's Prayer Room membership class, first thing you're going to do, we're going to send you to hell for 24 hours.
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We're not really going to do that very quickly.
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But think about, how would your zeal be for lost people?
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If you spent 24 hours in the absolute worst misery, torment, anguish for 24 hours, apart from the presence of God for 24 hours, and then you came out of that, what would your zeal be like for rewarding people then?
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We become lazy in evangelism because we choose not to think about the condition, the destination of the lost.
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People are eternal beings.
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So we share the good news and the fullness first of all because we're controlled by the love of Christ.
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Secondly because people are eternal.
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because the gospel has changed me because the gospel has changed me look at verse 17 therefore anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come And then down to verse 21, I want to talk about this verse too, where Paul writes, "For our sake He made Him," that's God the Father made God the Son, "to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we may become the righteousness of God." Why are we so bold? Well, the Gospel has changed us.
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I want to talk about the gospel for a second.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about getting religion.
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Okay?
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It's not...
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Yeah, you know, he started going to church.
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Ever since he got religion, he's been a pretty nice fellow.
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It's not about getting religion.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about cleaning up your act.
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Because, truth be told, you cannot clean up your act.
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You can try and you can try and you can try and you can fail repeatedly because by nature you're a sinner.
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By nature.
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You were born with a sin nature.
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And apart from divine intervention you'll die with a sin nature.
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In fact, what does a person have to do to be condemned and to go to hell?
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What does a person have to do?
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The answer is nothing.
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Because we're born in that situation.
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The Bible tells us that when Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, Romans chapter 5, that sin nature is passed down from generation to generation to generation.
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You're a sinner because your parents are sinners.
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Like, you don't talk that way about my mom.
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Well, your mom is a sinner because her parents are sinners.
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I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, now you don't even know my grandmama. Now you're bringing her into this." Well, hang on. The reason your grandmama's a sinner, guess what?
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Because her parents were sinners.
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You can trace that all the way back to Adam and Eve.
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The Bible says they brought sin and death into the world by their transgression and then spread the awe.
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That's why children are born with a nature bent towards doing wrong.
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Nobody teaches a child how to lie, how to steal, how to cheat.
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Children know that inherently. Why? Because they're born sinners.
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So understand the gospel is not about cleaning up your acts.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ is about pulses here in new creation.
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Where Jesus said in John chapter 3, it's about being born again.
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It's about being born again.
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I heard the radio this past week because of Halloween and people were talking about zombies.
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And they said, "Did you know zombies originated right here in Pittsburgh?" Is that true?
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I see some people nodding their heads. I heard that this week.
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That zombies originated and they had this whole spiel, "Zombies are the working class monster." Because Dracula is kind of highfalutin, rich, European kind of guy.
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But, you know, seriously, they have this whole psychology of monsters.
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But the zombies, they're just a working class.
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They get out there, they hit the streets, they do the work, they get down and dirty.
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Like, wow, somebody's putting a lot of thought into this, and I'm wasting a lot of time listening to it.
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But here's the interesting thing about zombies.
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Zombies walk around and look alive, but really, what's their gimmick?
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Their death.
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That's how we all are, apart from Jesus Christ.
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We look alive, and we're moving around, but we're dead.
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We are spiritually dead.
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See, that's why in Christ we can become a new creation.
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So understand, I've said this so many times over the years, but jot this down.
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You're going to hear this again.
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Jesus Christ did not come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
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Jesus Christ came to turn dead people into alive people.
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Your problem, by nature, is you're dead.
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The solution must be you need to be made alive.
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In Ephesians 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sinned.
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You've been made alive in Christ.
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Look at verse 21 again, I'm going to explain this quickly.
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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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What's this verse about?
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This verse is about the divine swap.
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Understand that when Jesus Christ was on the cross, he wasn't just being a martyr.
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The Bible says that Jesus Christ, that's He who knew no sin, God put your sin on Jesus Christ.
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So when Jesus Christ was on the cross, God was pouring out His wrath on His Son.
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For all the stupid, sinful, knuckle-headed, foolish, evil, rebellious things that I've done, God was taking it out on His Son.
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Jesus for the things, not only the things that I've done, but the things that you've done.
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Putting the sin of the world on His Son and punishing His Son.
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Experiencing, you know, that's why Jesus was so worked up in the garden, you know that, right?
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Jesus wasn't afraid to die.
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He knew He was going to experience separation from His Father because Jesus became the embodiment of sin on the cross.
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He took him who knew no sin to become sin.
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When Jesus was on the cross, he became sin.
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And it's important that we understand that Jesus never sinned.
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Because if Jesus did sin, then people would say, "Well, they crucified him and he did something wrong. He just got what was coming to him." He was perfect and innocent.
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God poured out His wrath on His Son.
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And the next part of the verse says, "that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." So God, you know, puts our sin on Jesus, and Jesus gives us, what?
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He gives us His righteousness.
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That doesn't seem like a fair trade.
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That Jesus would take my sin, but he gives me his righteousness.
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But that's exactly what your Bible says.
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So how righteous are you in Jesus Christ?
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How righteous are you?
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The answer is, you're as righteous as God is.
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And I know that might sound hard to hear.
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That's what your Bible says.
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In Christ, God has pronounced you 100%.
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You are holy and righteous.
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So we need to dispel some myths.
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You know, there have been a lot of things that have kind of eeked their way into the church and mindsets and philosophies and false beliefs that we want to get ahead of.
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But get this, though.
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If you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are perfect in God's sight.
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"There is now therefore no condemnation," Romans 8:1, "for those who are in Christ Jesus." Jesus said in John 19 while he was on the cross, he said, "It is finished." Paid in full.
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Yet sometimes even Christians say, "Not good things." I had a friend of mine say to me, "Well, you know, I hope you're not lying behind me in heaven because I have a lot of things to explain for you, and I'm sure God's just going to chew me out.
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So I hope you're not lying behind me." And he was serious. I'm like, dude, that's not true.
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He goes, what do you mean it's not true? I've done a lot of bad stuff. You don't know the stuff that I've done. I've done a lot of bad stuff.
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There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Okay? No condemnation.
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So when you stand before God, in Jesus Christ, what is God going to condemn you for?
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God says, "You're perfect.
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We've got a place here prepared for you." But I've done some miserable things, and God took those things out of His Son.
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For our sake, He made Him who knew no sin to become sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.
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Apart from Jesus Christ, you don't have a chance.
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If you're sitting here this morning, you don't know Christ.
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There is no other religious leader or person anywhere who ever existed, anywhere ever, who could take your sin on themselves and pay the penalty for your sin.
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Nobody could have done that.
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Because they have a sin problem too.
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The only person that could do that is God in the flesh.
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Jesus Christ.
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He takes our sin, He gives us His righteousness.
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It's the divine swap.
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The Gospel has changed me.
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A new creation.
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A new creation.
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I gave my life to Christ in '95, I just remember the whole world a little different.
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And I don't mean it's been Disney World for the last 16 years or whatever.
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We've had some rough spells.
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But things have been different.
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Because all things have been made new in Christ.
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So that's why we share the gospel with boldness, because Christ has changed us.
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And then finally today, why do we share the message with boldness?
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Because this assignment is directly from God.
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Okay, look at verses 18-20.
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Take a note of how many times he says something is from God, or some kind of verb, like that.
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You ready? Here we go.
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All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
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That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting the trespasses against them.
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And entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
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Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
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God making His appeal to us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
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This assignment is directly from God.
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Three things, first of all, as a minister, as a minister, this is God's work.
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Look at verse 18 again, all this is from God.
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Again, He through Christ, He reconciled the world to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
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God did not give us a checklist.
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God did not give us a job, a to-do list.
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Like, here's your list of 10 holy things that must be accomplished.
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Look at what He's given us.
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This is awesome.
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God's like, okay, so here's what I did.
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I looked down and saw a world who rebelled against me, spit in my face, and I was like, my face, rejected me, and chose to do their own thing.
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I came to the world, died, and rose from the dead, defeating death and sin, giving the promise of eternal life to anybody, anybody who would receive it.
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Isn't that awesome?
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Isn't that awesome?
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And I was like, okay, your job is just to tell people about that.
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I get to tell people about that?
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Cool, I get to tell people about that?
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That is awesome.
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That's why I signed up for this gig.
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I get to tell people what God did through Jesus Christ?
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This is a ministry.
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This isn't a job.
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This isn't like time to make the donuts.
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This is awesome.
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This is glorious.
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That God did this eternal work and would allow us to be a part of it.
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Wow.
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You saw it five times in these few verses.
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The word reconcile.
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Reconcile, reconcile, ministry of reconciliation.
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What that means is, it is very simply restore the relationship.
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That's what that means in the Greek.
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Just like in the English, you restore the relationship.
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We were God's enemies, now we are God's friends.
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He restored the relationship.
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As a minister, this is God's work. It's glorious.
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It's glorious.
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Secondly, as a steward, this is God's Word.
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This is God's Word.
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Look at verse 19.
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He says, "In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself without counting their trespasses against them." And look at this, "and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." So as a steward, this is God's Word.
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God says, "This is what I've done.
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Go tell people I trusted you to get the message right.
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Here it is.
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Now I know you young people might not understand this illustration, but when I was a teenager, our phones, this is gonna be hard to describe.
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Some of you are gonna get this and some of you are not.
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But our phones were actually attached to the wall.
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And there was like a springy cord and attach to this thing on a headset or a handset.
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Or what do we call that thing?
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But anyways, it was attached to a cord.
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So what that meant was you could only go as far as that springy cord would reach, which meant we didn't always have our phones on us.
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So back in those days, after Paul would bring in the dinosaur for dinner, if you were out and somebody called, Somebody would have to write down the message with a pencil and pen.
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Now I can explain that.
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Anyways, you get the point.
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I used to get so frustrated when I didn't get a phone message.
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I used to get so frustrated.
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Like, "What? You didn't tell me they called!" Well, God has entrusted a message to you.
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Are you getting it out?
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You see that? It says, "He's entrusted this to us." Do you get that? Do you get what that means?
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He's entrusted us.
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God's like, "Here's my word. Here's my word. Go tell people I'm trusting you." Do you realize God could do this any way He wanted? Do you know that?
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He could write it in the clouds if He wanted to.
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He could open up heaven and just shout it down Himself.
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But how has God chosen to get His message out? How has He chosen?
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He says, "I'm trusting you with it." Here it is, here's my word, I'm trusting you to get it out.
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So the question is, are you trustworthy?
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Are you getting it out?
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God's entrusted this to us. I take that very seriously.
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You should too.
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God is trusting you with His message.
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His message!
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Our job is not to monkey with it.
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Or not to sugarcoat it or water it down. Our job is to broadcast.
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My job basically is just to be the megaphone. I don't make up the message. My job is to just stand up here and broadcast.
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Here's what God said. Here's what he said.
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Today I'm telling you here's what he said. He's entrusting this to us.
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So let's get it out.
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Let's get it out. As a steward, this is God's Word. And as a representative.
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As a representative, this is God's passion. Look at verse 20.
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Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.
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God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God.
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So not only are we ministers, not only are we stewards, we're also representatives.
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We represent Jesus Christ.
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I'm not really crazy about that idea, but guess what?
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It doesn't matter how you feel about it.
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When people find out that you're a Christian, they are evaluating the entirety of the Christian message on watching your life.
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I don't really like that. It doesn't matter. It's true.
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How you talk, the things you talk about, how you spend your time, they're watching that stuff.
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The words that you use, the way that you treat people, the way that you talk about your wife.
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Do you realize people are evaluating the gospel on you?
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Man, I'm so far from perfect.
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We are Christ's ambassadors.
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God is making his appeal to us.
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When you see God's passion there, he says, "We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." How serious is God about reconciliation? How serious is he?
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Scale of 1 to 10, how serious do you think God is about people receiving his son?
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Scale of 1 to 10, what do you think?
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10.
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10, yeah. I think he's pretty serious about this.
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people coming to know his son. He's pretty serious. As his ambassador, how serious are you about it? You know, God's not sitting in heaven going, "Turn or burn, I don't really care. You don't want me, fine. You don't want me." That's not God. God desires that God should perish. That's why Paul writes here, "We you Don't even try to Google it.
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Like, I'll find that on eBay. No you won't.
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Jesus Christ is the only place you're going to find eternal life.
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If you received him as your Lord and Savior.
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If you have not, I am begging you.
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Don't let another second pass.
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As a good friend of mine always says, "Hell is too long to be wrong." Let's get fired up about what fires God up.
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I'm going to share a few words with you about how do I do it.
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You're like, I'm totally tracking with you.
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I feel like I'd be doing you a disservice now if I left you go.
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I want to share with people, but you never really go back on giving us good words on that.
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I'm going to jump these interest in spiritual things at that point in their life.
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They're just not ready. Some people aren't ready.
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It's not up to us to determine who's ready and who's not.
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We sort of bump on the doors and see which one's open.
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Some people aren't ready.
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In Harvest it's called "red apple evangelism." We're going to be talking more about this topic later, but here's what red apple evangelism means.
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The circumstances of life, ripen people to the gospel.
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When you see people coming to Christ and being baptized, typically the story is, "You know, I found out that my thing wasn't working." "And I realized that there was a big emptiness inside me, and I realized that I needed Jesus Christ." That's right, I'm evangelist.
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Some people just aren't ready.
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So if you can't pick the fruit, don't bruise it.
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Let's look for the people that God has prepared.
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Here's another thing.
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Ask questions to people about what they believe.
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Ask questions to people about what they believe.
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When you're talking to someone, hi, my name's Jeff.
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Oh, hi, I'm Jeff, very nice to meet you, Jim.
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You know, Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven apart from him, who prepared you.
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Typically the conversation doesn't launch into a gospel presentation that quickly.
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A lot of times when I'm meeting someone I'll get asked that.
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Here's one of my favorite questions, easy one.
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"Where do you go to church?" You can find out a lot about persons by the way they answer that question.
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"Where do you go to church?" "Oh I really don't go to church, I really, you know, I believe in spiritual stuff but uh..." "Well what do you mean by that?
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What do you mean you believe in spiritual stuff?" kind of looks out for us. You can find out a lot about people just by asking questions.
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You know, what do you believe?
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The same line, ask people if they'd like to hear what the Bible has to say about that.
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You know, when you're discussing spiritual beliefs, say, "You know what, that's...
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you bring up a good thing, you mentioned about evolution, and, you know, man evolving.
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Would you like to sit down sometime and talk about what the Bible says about it?
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Or you said something about you believe everybody ultimately ends up in heaven.
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Would you like to sit down and actually look and see what the Bible says about how someone goes to heaven?
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Just ask.
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A couple more words.
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Letter D on my outline is, "See your job as getting people one step closer to God than where they are." You know 1 Corinthians 3, "I have a land of the polished water, and when God gives, he agrees." This is all a work of the Lord.
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But as the Lord is at work, He's using each of us in a different place.
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And sometimes I do have the privilege of seeing people come to Christ, but not everybody I share the gospel with comes to Christ.
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My job is to try to help people get one step closer than they are.
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to that place where they come to that understanding who Jesus is and what he's done.
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Lastly, here's an easy one.
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Invite people to your church.
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You want to be in small groups? Invite to the small groups.
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Easy one. I am committed. I want to share the gospel in some way, shape, or form with clarity in every sermon.
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I'm committed to that.
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So just invite them to church.
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Hey, we're starting this series on Colossians next week.
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You know somebody that doesn't know the Lord, needs to know the Lord, bring them.
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Love to meet them. Love to welcome them to our Harvest Bible Chat.
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Or when we start small groups up, hey we have a group of people to get together at our house on Tuesday night.
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We talk about the Bible. I'd like you to come over.
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Just that invitation alone can go so far.
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So as I close, Sammy and Laura, if you guys want to come up here, I know we went OT a little bit.
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We're preaching in the four pillars, but I just never wanted it to end.
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But the truth is, Paul tells us we are Christ's ambassadors.
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Several years ago, many years ago, I had to drive to Ohio.
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And weird circumstances, long story, but I ended up, I had to stay in a hotel.
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Because I didn't have the energy or the physical strength to drive all the way back here.
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But I didn't really have a place to stay out there.
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So there was a night's in hotel.
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I went in, checked in for the night.
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The hotel was clean, the service was friendly.
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And when I drove up the next day, I thought, good experience.
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Laura said it like that was a lazy morning.
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Well, the next time we were going to Ohio, I was with my wife and our 10 day old son at their new funeral for a friend out in Springfield, Alabama.
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And I thought, well the night we stayed at Columbus was so nice.
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We'll just take the night in Springfield.
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Because it's probably nice, right?
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Wrong.
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It was a...
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I was going to say dumb, but I don't want to insult somebody that hasn't done it.
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It was horrible.
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I mean, the ceiling, the ceiling was sagged and water stained.
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And like, even the phone book was like, it looked like it was laying in a mud puddle and they're all kind of like filthy, like little bugs and stuff crawling all over the place.
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So we walk in with our 10 day old son, and Aaron walks in, and I'm like, don't sit him down anywhere!
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Aaron's like, what are we doing?
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I'm like, Al, we're not staying here.
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The place was absolutely crusty, cruddy, filthy, disgusting, nasty-astic.
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So here's the point.
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If you go to the corporate offices of the Knights Inn and ask them, which of these would you feel is a better ambassador for your company?
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Which one do you think they're going to pick?
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Knights Inn in Columbus or Knights Inn in Springfield? Which one?
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You would think that they would say, "Well, the one in Columbus is really what we're about.
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Clean, friendly, very few rodents." That's what we're about.
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But you see the problem is both of those hotels have a magazine sign on.
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They were both ambassadors for a company. One was very good. One?
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You are carrying out the life of Christ.
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You who are telling people That you have given yourself to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior You are an ambassador for Christ That's not the question The question is What type of ambassador for Christ?
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Read by yourself Our Father in heaven I'm going to Father, I really think if we get that, we will better be your ambassadors.
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To know that we're controlled by the love of Christ.
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So Father, do a work in us and through us.
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We know that you've started one.
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Your word tells us that you're going to see it through to completion.
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You're growing us, you're maturing us, you're changing us still.
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And in this area of evangelism, Father, I pray that you would find us as faithful ambassadors, you have entrusted this to us.
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May we become trustworthy, lovingly and clearly broadcasting your message.
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We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.