Introduction:
The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):
- I'm controlled by Love . (2 Cor 5:14-15)
- I'm defined by Identity . (2 Cor 5:18-21)
- Trustee (2 Cor 5:18-19)
- Ambassador (2 Cor 5:20a)
- Spokesperson (2 Cor 5:20bc)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:42-00:46
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to 2 Corinthians 5.
00:46-00:47
We're in this series.
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This is who we are.
00:50-00:56
And if you're new around here, we've been spending some time talking about this is our identity as a church.
00:58-00:59
So if you're new, it's a great introduction.
01:00-01:15
And if you've been with us for a long time, again, it's just so important that we get back to this, that we don't forget who we are and what we're about, so we don't drift and start doing some crazy, unbiblical, non-Christ-centered things.
01:17-01:18
This is why we do these series.
01:21-01:28
2 Corinthians 5, while you're turning there, several years ago, we had a knock at our door.
01:28-01:43
I was sitting at the dining room table, and Aaron went and answered the door, and there was a guy at our door who said, "Hey, I just got done sealing a driveway up the street, and I got some extra material, I'll seal your driveway for $220.
01:44-01:45
Anybody ever have somebody show up at your house like that?
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Show up and, "That guy's been to your house too? A lot of you.
01:51-01:57
Okay." Well, Erin goes, "You know what? My husband actually just did our driveway," which I did.
01:58-02:04
She goes, "My husband just did our driveway like a month ago, so it's like a 10-year sealant.
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I don't think we need to do it again, but thank you.
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And he goes, well, I have the extra material.
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It won't take me that long.
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It's only $220.
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And my wife's like, we don't really need it, thank you.
02:19-02:23
And he said, is the man of the house home?
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And I said, I'm right here, and I'm going to go get some popcorn, because I want to watch how the rest of this conversation goes.
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I'm going to fast forward through the next few minutes.
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He limped back to his truck and he came back next year.
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Same guy, same story.
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I was in the neighborhood and I have the extra material and I can do it real quick.
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And my wife's like, "Still no." You're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" in heaven, I'm going to be that guy.
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I'm going to be that guy in heaven.
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Because I'm going to go around and say, "Hey, can I tell you how awesome Jesus is, and how He died to take away your sin and rose from the dead to give eternal life?" And everybody in heaven is going to be like, "We know." "No, no, no, if you receive Him, you have the gift of heaven!" they're going to be like, "Dude, we're here." Like, you don't understand.
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Jesus Christ loves you so much that He was willing to lay His life down.
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And they're going to say, "Goat boy, are you new here?" Because we know the message of the Gospel.
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And I'm going to be like driveway guy walking around with my bucket of sealant.
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"Anybody want to hear the Gospel?" We know! We got it!
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No.
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I'm going to be out of a job in heaven.
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And that's okay.
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Do you know what that means?
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That means while I'm on the earth, I have to take every opportunity that I have to do the one thing that I will not be doing in heaven.
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Not just me. You too.
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Every opportunity the Lord gives you to do the one thing you will not do in heaven, and that is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
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This is who we are.
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We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
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We lift high the name of Jesus through worship.
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We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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And this is our fourth pillar.
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We share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
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So, how do we share?
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How do we share?
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I have a stack of books in my office that I was looking at this past week, and every book is about how.
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How. How do we share? How do you share the Gospel?
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How do you share the Gospel with someone?
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How do you share the Gospel with someone?
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And, you know, biblically there's really only one word used to describe how we are to share.
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And that is the word "boldness." Boldness doesn't mean obnoxious, okay?
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Boldness doesn't mean showing up at your neighbor's house saying, "Hey, pagan, you're going to hell!" That's not boldness.
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That's obnoxious.
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That's jerky.
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Boldness doesn't mean condescending.
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Boldness doesn't mean self-righteous.
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Boldness simply means this.
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When God gives me opportunity to share the message of His Son, I'm going to open my mouth and share it.
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That's all boldness means.
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But boldness is how.
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And you know with this series, I'm not going to focus on how, I want to focus on why.
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I want to talk about why do we share the message of Jesus with boldness.
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Why? Why evangelism?
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Why witnessing? Why? Why?
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And some of you coming in here, maybe you heard Dr. Andrew give the announcements and you're like, "Oh, a message on evangelism! Oh!" Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip, and Jeff's going to get up and tell us what horrible Christians we are because we don't share with our neighbor, and you're not getting any of that today.
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Because when it comes to evangelism, the message, we got that. Easy, right?
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We got the message.
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It's all written down.
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You have a copy on your lap right now.
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We've got the message.
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And the method, that's easy too.
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Boldness, right?
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When God gives you opportunity, you're just going to open your mouth and say about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
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That's easy.
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Today I want to talk about the motivation.
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Because I can give you all the information.
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I've taught so many classes on evangelism and how to and different ways to, and I can give you that.
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But something that I cannot give you is the motivation.
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I can give you the message and I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the motivation.
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I can't do that.
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The motivation has to come from God.
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Only His Spirit can do that.
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So in your outline today, if you're taking those, I'm going to look at two things.
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The two motivations to share the good news of Jesus that are embraced by every true witness.
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I had some time allotted to shorten that heading, but I got a phone call and I never got back.
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So that's what we're going with today.
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The two motivations, biblically, to share the good news of Jesus, and these are embraced by every true witness.
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2 Corinthians 5.
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Jot this down first of all.
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I'm controlled by love.
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Look at v. 14.
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It says, "For the love of Christ controls us." Stop right there.
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"For the love of Christ controls us." And you have to see that Paul isn't saying, "I'm controlled by my love for Jesus." And I think that's what we want the passage to say.
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Like, "I love Jesus so much and I just can't help sharing with people." That's not what it says.
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He's like, "We are controlled by His love for us." And I just have to tell you, if you don't know the power that love has to motivate you to the point of actually controlling you, I would just say you haven't met the right person.
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And you certainly haven't met Jesus.
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Because nothing moves a person like love.
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If you're married, you can look at your husband or your wife right now.
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Go ahead, and then say, "Nothing moves me like your love for me." Go ahead.
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Early Valentine's Day present.
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I am so glad the people at home can't see this.
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That was terrible.
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That was unconvincing.
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We're starting a sermon series next week on marriage.
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Not really, but I'm really rethinking that now.
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Nothing motivates like love.
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Nothing motivates like Jesus' love for me.
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You see, it's like telling a child to get excited about Christmas.
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Or it's like telling a bride-to-be to be thinking about her wedding.
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Or like telling the mom of a special needs kid to be protective of her child.
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I don't need to do any of those things.
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And that's exactly what it's like trying to convince someone who knows Jesus' love to share Jesus' love with other people.
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They're like, "You don't got to tell me to share Jesus with people.
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Because He is so awesome, and everything He's done, I can't help it.
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I love telling people about what God has done.
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So how does His love control us?
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Well, get back to verse 14. He tells us.
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He says, "Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for Him, who for their sake died and was raised." How does Jesus' love control us?
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He tells us being alive in Christ means being dead to myself.
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My life belongs to Jesus, and because it belongs to Jesus, I can't live for myself, because His love controls me.
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My God loves me, and through the death of Jesus on the cross, taken away all of my sin, all of my guilt, all of my shame, and that love moves me to do everything that He's called me to do. I don't feel obligated to be standing up here and telling you this. And you talk to anybody who's serving in our ministry teams or our elders, nobody's obligated here. Nobody's taking a guilt trip to teach a class or lead a ministry. It's like, I'm doing this because of the the way Jesus loves me.
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It's a privilege to do what He's called me to do.
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So no, I'm not going to spend time today telling you how to evangelize.
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And you're like, "Well, are you ever?" Yeah.
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We're in a three-year series in the Gospel of John right now called "Knowing Jesus." If you know Him, you'll love Him.
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But more importantly, you'll know that He loves you.
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That's why we're doing this series in the Gospel of John we're getting back to in two weeks.
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That's why we're doing it.
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Because everything in the Christian life is about knowing Him.
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It's about a relationship with the living God.
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And when we talk about sharing the good news of Jesus with Buldus, That's how it happens.
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It comes as you know Him.
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That controls you.
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The number one thing a witness for Christ needs is knowing Jesus' love.
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And by the way, speaking of love, there's a secondary motivation from love.
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And it's a love for people.
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It really flows from the first.
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Look at verse 16.
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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." Paul says, "I stopped seeing people as external, just looking at the outside." He said, "We used to look at Christ that way.
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We looked at Jesus and we just saw He's this Jewish guy, and he's a blasphemer, and I don't really like him or regard him." Paul says, "That's how we used to think of Jesus, but now we see Him for who He is.
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Our eyes have been opened." He says, "And now I see people differently.
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I see people as spiritual beings.
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And I probably don't have to sell you on the fact that we have drifted so far from that in our day, seeing people as spiritual beings.
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How do we see people in our day?
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More than ever, it's external, right?
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Oh, if we find out your political persuasion, you're either an idiot Republican or you're an evil Democrat, That's how we see people.
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Or you're like, "I'm independent." Okay, then you're a weirdo independent.
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That's how we see people.
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Or we look at people according to purely like sexual preference.
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He is a homosexual, she is a lesbian, they are transgender, and we just, we want to slap these external labels on people.
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or we look at people according to the money they have, or the money they don't have.
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You're part of the 1%, you're part of the 99%, or whatever.
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Can we just acknowledge that all of these things are external things that sometimes we don't get deeper to say, "This is an eternal soul.
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This person is going to spend eternity somewhere, either in the presence of the God who loves, We're apart from the God who loves forever in hell.
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We need to see people not as external, but as eternal.
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Eternal souls.
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And I have the message that God uses to transform them.
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Look at verse 17.
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"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
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The old has passed away.
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Behold, the new has come." New creation.
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Jesus Christ didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
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Jesus came to turn dead people into alive people.
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Christ's love controls us, and as a result, His love for people is now our love for people.
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And that's compelling.
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So two motivations to share the good news of Jesus embraced by every true witness.
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First of all, I'm controlled by love.
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Second thing, jot this down.
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I'm defined by identity.
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I'm defined by identity.
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Now, evangelism is commanded.
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Yes, absolutely, 100%, great commission, but when it comes down to actually witnessing, to just simply say, "We're commanded to do it," that's true, but just simply saying that much doesn't really capture the bigger motivation behind sharing Christ.
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I want you to see in this passage that your motivation has to be tied to your identity.
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Think about it this way.
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You need to move from "I have to witness" to "I am a witness." See the difference between the two?
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"I have to witness.
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That's what God has told me to do." There's truth in that.
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The deeper truth is, I am a witness.
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Because that's what God has called me.
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And you're like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, Jeff, but you know, witnessing is not really my thing." And I would say, first of all, don't say it like that.
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And second of all, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, Witnessing is your thing.
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The issue is you're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, really.
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But you're a witness if you're one of Christ's, right?
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Because it's your identity.
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It's not your chore.
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It's your identity.
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And you're like, "Man, can you back that up?" Well, let's look down at verse 18, shall we?
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Because Paul describes this identity with three pictures.
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The first, we're looking at verses 18 and 19.
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The first picture is a picture of a trustee.
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He says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
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So first of all, according to God, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a trustee.
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Did you see that?
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He uses that with a couple phrases here.
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The first one, he says, "The ministry of reconciliation was given to us," and then he says, "it was entrusted to us." Think about that.
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In this church, we entrust money to Andrew and Sean.
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They lead our finance team.
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So when you give, we're giving to God.
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Yes, right, Alex? We're giving to God.
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Right? Okay, thank you.
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We're giving to God, but there's a sense in the church that we're entrusting the money to Andrew and Sean.
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Right?
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And you're like, "If I'm giving money to God through these guys' hands, they better be reliable.
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They better be honest.
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We better be able to trust these guys if I'm giving the money that I worked for to them.
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We better trust these guys.
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But you know, if we do something even more audacious than that, we entrust our children to Mandy.
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(laughter)
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That statement I just made has nothing to do with Mandy's character as much as it has to do with how much more precious our children are to us than our money.
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Amen?
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That would have been a much easier sell when it wasn't Family Sunday.
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Right?
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When we're thinking of our kids back there instead of right here.
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But we entrust our children to Mandy.
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You know, this is life.
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We love these people more than anything, and we do everything for them, and we come here on a Sunday, and we're like, "Mandy, here, I'm trusting you with the most precious thing that I have." Okay, so, God has given to us something that He is trusting us with.
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God says, "I have this ministry of reconciliation.
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I can change people eternally through this message." And God says, "Here, I'm giving this to you." Now just as seriously as we would take Andrew and Sean with the money, just as seriously as we would take Mandy watching the kids, how seriously do you think God takes it when He says, "Here, I'm trusting this with you"?
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He's pretty serious about that.
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You think God's pretty serious when He says, "Hey, people are lost, and people are self-destructing, and people are heading to hell.
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So here, I'm giving this to you.
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I'm trusting you.
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You make sure they get this." You're a trustee.
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It's in your lap.
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Can God trust you with it?
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So not only are you a trustee, you're also an ambassador.
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Look at verse 20 again.
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It says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God, making His appeal through us." Let's stop there.
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An ambassador.
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What's an ambassador?
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It's somebody that's in another country, they're representing the king from their country.
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Right?
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And they're not in this other country for personal gain, they're not trying to establish their own agenda, and they're certainly not there to change the culture of the other country.
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They are there simply to represent the king in another culture.
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If you're a born again believer, you too are in another culture, and you too are representing the king from your culture.
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You're like, "What's the other culture?" This!
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Earth!
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This is the other culture and you are a citizen of heaven representing the King of heaven.
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That is a very serious responsibility.
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You're representing heaven to people.
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You're representing Jesus Christ to people.
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So we're trustees, we're ambassadors.
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Letter C, you're also a spokesperson.
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Back to verse 20, he says, "God making His appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." First of all, it says God is making His appeal.
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You know what that means? Appeal?
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That's an urgent request.
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God's like, "Hey, I need to tell you something, It's really important!
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He's making his appeal.
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God is making His appeal to the world through you.
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But it's even deeper than that.
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Because He says, "We implore you on behalf of Christ." Now that word "implore" this is going to sound strange.
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That word "implore" means to desperately beg.
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In other words, if Jesus Christ was here right now, what would He be doing?
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He would be desperately begging the world to receive His gift.
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Because it says, "We're imploring you on behalf of Christ." Like Jesus isn't physically here, but He's spiritually here in His people.
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because I represent Jesus, I've got to tell you something.
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He is begging you to get off of the path that you're on and to trust Him.
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And I just have to ask you, church, do you see the heart of God behind these commands?
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Do you see the heart of God that we are to represent?
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Some people sort of view God in heaven as distant and unemotional, and He sort of put the plan out, God's just kind of in heaven with His arms folded, and He's like, "Turn or burn, I don't care." That's how some people view God.
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That God's up in heaven looking down, and He's saying, "Look, get right, or get left.
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Whatever." But there's a real passion and emotion behind this.
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Because of the love that God has, Not just for His people, but for the lost.
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Because of what is at stake.
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What's at stake is something that we prefer not to think about.
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So often people talk to me about unsafe co-workers, for example, and they're like, "Man, Jeff, I work with this guy, and man, Jeff, he is so lost, and this guy needs Jesus so bad, work with this guy, he needs Jesus so bad." And my response is, "If only God had a spokesperson working with that guy.
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If only God had somebody, somebody that knew the message of Jesus, that could be in proximity of this guy, and maybe spoke the same language this guy spoke, and could maybe tell him, 'That's you, home slice.
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In case you didn't pick it up, you're the spokesperson.
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So these aspects of identity, being a trustee, being an ambassador, being a spokesperson, that means getting the message right, obviously.
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You're going to get the message right.
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What's the message?
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Well, five times in these verses, five times, same word comes up, reconcile.
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The Gospel is not often presented that way, but that's how the Bible presents it.
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That there's a hostility between God and man.
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We are enemies with God by nature, because God is holy and perfect and just, and we are sinful and rebellious and self-centered.
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And we are enemies of God, and God wants to reconcile.
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God says, "Look, you have sinned against Me, I have made provisions so that you can have your sin taken away.
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Every nasty thought you've had, every rotten attitude, every harsh word, every time you've avoided doing what you know you should have done, all of that's sin.
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Everyone knows.
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Everyone knows deep down that we are flawed people.
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Everyone knows that.
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When you're sharing Christ with people, you already have that advantage.
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We know deep down that we are miserably rotten people.
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And people deep down wonder, "Well, what happens someday when I die?
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Where do I go?
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What happens when I stand before God?
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What happens when I have to answer for all of the wrong things that I've done?" See, that's where the good news comes in.
29:19-29:28
This is where I get to represent God and say, "Hey, there's a way God will never hold your sin against you.
29:31-29:33
Like, well, how can that be?
29:33-29:37
You know, I've really messed up a lot of things in my life.
29:37-29:39
I've really made a lot of bad choices.
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I've really hurt some people.
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And I don't understand how you could say God will not hold my sin against me.
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How can that possibly be?
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Well, look at verse 21.
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in my mind, the most profound verse in the whole Bible.
29:57-30:03
He says, "For our sake, He made Him..." That's God the Father made Jesus, okay?
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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." In other words, for the one who will believe, When Jesus Christ was on the cross, God treated Him as if He lived your life.
30:31-30:42
And as a result of Jesus' sacrifice, now God treats you as if you lived Jesus' life.
30:45-31:03
That in a profound way that I will never be able I can fully wrap my brain around when Jesus was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself, and in exchange, He gives you His righteousness.
31:05-31:16
That in Christ, God sees you as sinless and perfect and holy, not because of your conduct, but because of what His Son accomplished on the cross.
31:17-31:18
I'm not going to tell you.
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That's life-changing stuff right there.
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So every true believer says, "You know, I don't really need commanded to share that message.
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But I'll tell you what, I am going to share that message.
31:38-31:47
Because the love of Christ controls me, and honestly, that's just who God called me to be." Come on, let's pray.
31:48-31:57
Father in heaven, your gospel is beyond human explanation.
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Sometimes those of us who have known it for a while can take it for granted.
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What a staggering thought that the God of the universe would pay the penalty that we owe.
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It's just staggering.
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that You would love us that much.
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That Your Son would take our sin on Himself and He would give us His righteousness.
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It's absolutely staggering, Father.
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And even if we can't fully wrap our brains around it, we believe it.
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And we certainly thank You for it.
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Specifically today, Father, we thank You that You have given us the ministry of reconciliation.
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In Your wisdom, Father, there are literally trillions of other ways You could have used to communicate Your Gospel that You have chosen to entrust the message to us.
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And I just pray for my brothers and sisters here, especially as the days are evil, especially as people want to hear it less and less.
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At the same time, Father, You are preparing people for it.
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You are already at work in the hearts of people that You are entrusting us to come along and share the message of Your Son.
33:46-33:52
Father, I pray that as we draw near to Jesus Christ, we allow His love to control us.
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Father, I pray that we look at ourselves the way that You do.
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We find our identity being ambassadors of heaven.
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Father, it's all for Your glory and honor.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain how the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor 5:14-15). How does that motivate you to share the Good News of Jesus with others?
What is the difference between “I am commanded to witness” vs “I am a witness”? How does understanding your identity make you an effective witness for sharing the Good News of Jesus?
What would you say to someone who says, “Honestly - I don't really share Christ with others. It's just not my gift.”
Breakout
Pray for boldness – when opportunity comes to share Jesus with someone, you take that opportunity.
