Good morning. Let's take our Bibles and turn to 2 Corinthians. And while you're turning there, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, may I have a word of prayer? Lord, this morning as you bring us here together, Lord, this is your time during the week that we can hear from you. You know, Lord, that we are bombarded with information day in and day out. A lot of it, Lord, is not helpful to our thinking, to our planning, to our worship. So this morning, Lord, please clear those things out of our minds. Make us available to hear your truth. Remove the distractions. And now, Lord, I pray we'd give ourselves to you as we look at scripture and we hear your voice. And bless us because of that, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now, last week I asked you a question. I said to you, why are you here? Why are you here? Why were you born during this time? Why not some other time? Well, it doesn't really matter when you were born. You're here now. And in our passage, it really tells us, gives us the answer. In verse number 20 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says, therefore, we are ambassadors. For Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That is the most important message that we could ever share with anyone else. I read across a story many years ago of a Japanese ambassador. As a boy, his name was and he dreamed of becoming Japan's ambassador to Russia. By the 1930s, he was an ambassador to Lithuania. He was just a step away from fulfilling his dream. One morning, though, a huge crowd gathered at his office. Sighihara learned that they were Jews who fled from Poland seeking Sighihara's help for Japanese visas that would permit them to escape the German Gestapo. Three times Sighihara wired Tokyo for permission to provide visas. Three times he was rejected. He was a committed Christian. So he had to choose between his dream and the lives in that crowd. Sighihara chose to disobey orders. And for the next 28 days, he wrote visas by hand, barely sleeping or eating. He was recalled to Berlin. While he was departing, he was still writing visas, shoving them through the train window into the hands of the refugees running alongside the train. Ultimately, that decision saved 6,000 lives. Back in Japan, Sigahara's remaining days were selling light bulbs. When the story was finally told, his son was asked, How did your father feel about his choice? He said, my father's life was fulfilled. When God needed him to do the right thing, he was available to do it. So the real task of an ambassador is to, if possible, lead people to salvation in Jesus Christ. He showed what it was to be a Christian ambassador By example, he denied himself his dream in order to save lives. An ambassador of Christ's disciples, their mission is to go and represent the kingdom of God on earth and lead people with the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they can obtain visas for the kingdom of light. and escape the kingdom of darkness. That's what our job is. That's why we're here. See, Christ's ambassadors carry out this mission by living out four distinct marks of an ambassador for Christ. That's what I would like to look at this morning. Probably we'll only get to two of them. But let's look at the scripture. But before we look there, I want you to get in your mind, wrap your mind around it, and understand what an ambassador for Christ is, so you can live out your ambassadorship with confidence. An ambassador can be defined as, D.A. Carson defines an ambassador like this, a government representative commissioned to serve in a foreign country for the purpose of accurately communicating the positions and policies of the government he or she represents so that the people in whom he or she speaks will be brought into and kept in good relationship with the government of the country he or she serves. Ambassadors do not come with their own agenda. They do not come on their own authority. They do not come with their own message. An ambassador comes with the agenda of another and on the authority of another. And the authority that's given to us to be ambassadors is given to us by Jesus Christ. So in other words, we Christians, as aliens in this world, have been called by Christ to bring the Word of God, the Gospel, to a world steeped in spiritual darkness, and in particular, to our own culture. The baby boomers, who are actually turning 65 at a rate of like 10,000 people a day. Baby busters, Generation X, Y, and Z, and beyond. I don't even know what they're calling them today. So with our culture's unique characteristics and needs, what people need more than anything else is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the one and only institution who has been mandated by God to bring that message to the world is his church, not the government. The church. Because in the church are to be found the followers of Jesus Christ, and he has entrusted his followers with his message of salvation by grace alone through Christ alone. So today, I want you to take note of four distinctive marks a baked-dirt ambassador for Christ should understand. And then apply them to yourselves for evaluation. And then make necessary adjustments in order to live out your ambassadorship with confidence in Holy Zeal, because all believers have been called to be ambassadors. To your family, to your neighbors, to the people that you work with, to your enemies. We're ambassadors. So the first distinctive mark of a baked-dirt ambassador for Christ is their disposition, their disposition. Look at verse number 11 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It says, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. See, one thing that an ambassador for Christ understands from the passage before that is that they understand the fear of God. And that is the reverential fear of the Lord and, yes, the fear that God is a judge and he will hold people responsible for their lives. So we know what it is to fear the Lord as believers. that we will give in an account of our lives, as it says in verse number 9 and 10. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. Why? For we must appear, all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. So it is the evaluation of Christ that matters. It is the realization the work of a Christian will be tested with God's fire. Therefore, we must be careful how we build. The Apostle Paul is actually defending his ministry in this particular section of Scripture and most of 2 Corinthians actually. And he knew that everything will be brought to light by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every, even the very secrets of the heart. So to live a double life was unthinkable to him. And, of course, to live a double life should be unthinkable to us too. Therefore, the phrase in our passage in verse 11, we persuade men, does not mean what you may think it means. Actually, some people have given various meanings to this phrase in this text. Some say that it's to persuade people to fear the Lord, or to persuade people of the wrath to come, or to persuade people to recognize the virtues of Christ, or to persuade people of the truth of the gospel. But the only one that actually fits the context is that Paul needed to persuade the people of his own integrity because he was being attacked by the false teachers. He was being maligned by the false teachers. He was being misrepresented by the false teachers. So consequently, Paul wrote to protect his integrity before false accusers who were trying to destroy his reputation. And that would not be healthy for the church, nor for the advancement of the preaching of the gospel. Faithful building includes a ministry of integrity. Because one day, you and I will stand alone before Christ, who has sent us to carry out the message of peace to a world of rebels and given account. Also in verse number 11, it says there, but we are made manifest to God and I hope that we are made manifest also in your conscience. So you see here in this passage, God already knew Paul's heart. He had called him. He had established him. He had given him a message. He even called him to heaven and showed him things that he couldn't even talk about and brought him back down to this earth to minister so God knew his heart. But he hoped that the Corinthians would also be convinced in their own conscience concerning his integrity so they would actually listen to what he has to say. Integrity goes a long way. It really does. If they listen to Paul, then they won't listen to the false accusation of his accusers. And the word integrity really means entire or the quality of being. This means that an ambassador for Christ is not to be hypocritical or duplistic or double-minded. They are to be honest and sincere and genuine and uncorruptible in their behavior. Integrity is part of the character of a genuine ambassador for Christ. Now, just to get the sense of a biblical understanding of integrity, take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 15 for a minute. Psalm 15, verses 1 through 5, In this psalm, it kind of lays out, showing really that a heart of integrity acts a certain way. It says in Psalm 15 verse 1, a psalm of David, O Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell in your holy hill? Those are questions, of course. Verse number two, he who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart, he does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend. Verse four, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, He swears to his own hurt and does not change. He does not put out money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. That is the definition of integrity there. In every aspect of this person's life, if they understand that, integrity will be a characteristic that is hard to argue with. And if we don't have integrity, then the work of an ambassador is hindered and the message they are to bring to the people is stifled and misrepresented. So that is the first characteristic under this heading of the first distinctive mark of a baked dirt ambassador. The second one is in verse 12 through 13 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let's turn back there. And it's simply this, genuine humility. Where it says there in verse 12, we are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearances and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God, If we are of sound mind, it is for you. Now, he is saying here, he's really not trying to build up his own power base. He's not trying to blow his own horn or advance his own selfish agenda. He was not out to impress anyone by some abnormal behavior. He had no self-interest here, Paul. He just wanted the Corinthians to have confidence in his integrity so that they would know how to answer the hypocrites. And notice how he identifies the false critics in verse 12. He says, those who take pride in appearances. It's always the outward thing false teachers and false prophets emphasize. the externals of ministry, the buildings, and the programs, and the methods, and the numbers, and everything they have done. That's not what God looks at. God looks at the quality of the heart. That's what he sees, and that's what we ought to see, too, as an ambassador, that we would have genuine humility as we even look at ourselves, what's going on in our own heart. So armed with a proper view of Paul, his supporters would figure out that it was not, it was actually the hypocrites who lacked integrity because their concern and focus was outward religious appearances and not the true condition of the heart before a watching God and a watching church and a watching world. Genuine humility always concerns the heart and has a concern for others. It will take humility to represent Christ in an alien culture. Why is that? Because people will say all kinds of evil against you just because you're a believer, just because you believe the Bible, just because you believe sixth day creation. just because you believe that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. There's no other way. Those particular beliefs will put you on the sideline and make you, you will, you and I will be an attack for those who just don't believe those things. And we have a culture going completely the opposite direction. So if you feel like you're swimming upstream as a believer, that's exactly the way you ought to feel, because you are. But it's very hard to argue against the heart of integrity and humility, even if somebody is lying about who you are and what you've done. And that's why he says here in verse number 13, he says, for if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are of sound mind, it is for you. In other words, to the onlookers, an ambassador may look to be considered a crazy fanatic, a madman. How could you believe such narrow things? Get with the program. This is 2021. You're old school. Cast off those things. Can't do that. See, we can't do that. So you're going to be looked at sometimes as crazy. You know, a Bible thumper. One of those Christians. And you probably have been mentioned that way somehow by your own family or by somebody at work or by some neighbor that you have or some acquaintance you've been labeled. Oh, here they come again. You know, you walk into a room and everybody else walks out? Ever been there? Because they know you're going to talk about something that they don't want to hear having to do with the Word of God or the Gospel. So whether people thought him imbalanced mentally or sound in mind didn't matter to him. What mattered was the truth is being proclaimed. It doesn't really matter what people think about you. If you are sincere in your heart and you're humble before God, it doesn't matter. Don't be living in the realm where you have to always justify yourself before people concerning your belief in the Word of God and your walk with Christ. God knows your heart. That's where you ought to walk. Don't worry about what people say about you. They're going to malign you. They're going to say, talk behind your back. They're going to leave you out. They're going to give you a bad review at work. They're going to write a bad review about you online somewhere. Don't worry about that. Be concerned about how Christ sees your heart. There's a third characteristic of ambassador's disposition. What is the mark that will cause genuine ambassadors to act so differently from among other people? It's got to be this next one, verse number 14, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It says, for the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. So in other words, deep thankfulness for Christ's love towards you. That Christ's love for Paul had overcome him. Paul knew the love Christ had for him because it was demonstrated to him in the most costly way, the way of death. He knew Christ loved him savingly. And this term here controls we get the sense that it means to rule something. But there's a further meaning that was brought out by 18 Robertson and is considered from an old common verb meaning to hold together. So in other words, here Paul's conception of Christ's love held him together to the task, didn't allow him to step back and quit. Whatever men would think or say about him did not matter. So overtaken by Christ's love, compelled him to serve wholeheartedly and beyond what is ordinary. That's why, you know, if you go back to chapter 4, note of the list, if you remember the list there in verse number 8, where in verse number 7 he says, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. And then he says in verse number eight, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not sparing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body, the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our body. And then he goes on in chapter 6 and he mentions all these things. He was willing to put up with anything because he knew Christ loved him savingly. So he was willing to go beyond the ordinary, no matter What curveballs are thrown into the mix? Nothing can keep a true ambassador from their task. They're not going to pack up bags and move back to their country. They're there to represent their country, not to leave. Others must hear about the love of Christ. So nothing can keep us from taking the message of the gospel to all men everywhere. It is a love that has the power to make alive. So Christ's love holds believers to the task and puts pressure in their life which produces results. Everything is changed and different because Christ loves me and loves you if you're a believer savingly. Everything is different. That Christ died in the place of all who put their faith in Him. He says in verse number 14, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. See, this is the great proof of His love. His death was in our stead, in our place. It was John Calvin who said that all equal all kinds of classes, rich, and poor, high and low, rejecting no class of people, taking some of each of those groups, but not all in the sense of every individual. We know that not everyone's going to be saved. So this all meant all those who would genuinely come to Christ, call upon Christ as their Lord and Savior. And then once they do that, they realize the depth and the extent that the work of God had done in our behalf to save us. And that's the point of the ambassador, too, that they have such a message that is saving people because of their eternal soul will either live eternity away from God in a place called the Lake of Fire or in the presence of God. We want people. to be saved. So Christ's death fully satisfied God's justice and propitiated His wrath for all those who would put their faith in Him. The cross was a terribly bloody execution. That Jesus' crucifixion shows us that something had gone terribly wrong with the human race. But it also shows us that there is a solution. that the Bible tells us about what God has done in order to reconcile sinners to himself. Friends do not need to be reconciled, but enemies need to be reconciled. It was God who sent Christ. It was God himself who took the initiative. And the Lord responded to sinful humanity who had nothing at all whatsoever to offer him by offering himself. a sacrifice for sin, as the Gospels tell us, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So his sacrifice was meant to satisfy God, to turn away his wrath. And the result of that was that Jesus died to wipe out the guilt of our sins. So that is the love of Christ. All this is describing the love of Christ. That this covering of Christ's blood, this offering of Christ's body, was a vicarious punishment of a victim. In other words, the Old Testament gives us a picture of substitution. A victim was taken and an animal was substitute for the sinner. And this animal then became the one who bore the punishment of that sinner. So the Old Testament sacrifices show that it is because the animal was substituted for the offender, his sin was dealt with in the animal so that His guilt was wiped out. So the effect of such a sacrifice was the pardon of the offender, the forgiving of their sin, and the restoration to communion with God. In other words, sin was dealt with in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. And the result of that is that the sins of believers are washed away. That's the love of Christ. And that should be always on our mind as a motivator to be an ambassador for Christ. Other people don't know that. They need to know that. They need to know that, that a believer can be reconciled to God. So the love of Christ that is that Christ loved you savingly, this is the driving motive for baked dirt ambassadors. And there's four things to consider when we think about the love of Christ. The first thing is this, found in verse number 15, that the love of Christ moves the believer to a new sphere where they no longer live for themselves. Notice what it says in verse 15, and he died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. So brethren, before we came to know Christ, all we knew was to live for ourselves. That's all we knew, selfishly, doing what we wanted to do, carrying out our plans, seeking our desires, But then we come to Christ, and all of a sudden, our desires are changing. Our worldview is changing. Our motives are changing. Everything is changing. So in Christ, believers experience not only death to sin, but also a resurrection to righteousness and a death to selfishness. when we come to Christ. That's part of the newness of Christ. So there's a change. We came to be constrained by His love and now to live for the one who died for us. Now we have the authority and the motive to live for Christ, the one who died in our place and rose to give us real life. So our whole life interest should center in on Christ. not center in on ourselves. And for now, believers are spiritually alive to serve Him gladly. And the implication of the cross, the implication of the love of Christ, is the end of a life of selfishness. For me to live as Christ, we sang this morning, and to die is gain. For me to live as Christ. The second thing about the love, is that the love of Christ moves the believer to a new sphere where they no longer look at people in a fleshly way. Look what it says in verse 16, therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh. Therefore, it says there people are not looked at as Jew and Gentile or bond or free or rich or poor or pagan or barbarian nor are they looked at by their skin color, whether it be red or yellow or black or brown or white, they are looked at as those who are lost in darkness, in bondage to sin, alienated from the life of God and under His wrath, people who are in desperate need of a word from God to give them hope, to shine light into darkness, This is why we're given the ministry of reconciliation to make our appeal to sinful humanity as if God himself was making the appeal through us. And what is that appeal? Be reconciled to God. So death itself and the love of Christ and the love of Christ and death itself brings us to die to all kinds of prejudice toward people. And why is that? An ambassador can't go into a country and say, I'm just going to talk to this group of people. No. You go into the country and you talk to the whole country. So an ambassador for Christ is someone who cannot say, well, I don't like that group of people, so I'm not going to go to them. Or I don't like that group of people, I'm not going to go to them. No, you go to everybody. You tell everybody, so prejudice must be removed from us if we are going to bring the gospel to all kinds of people and all classes of people. So death to selfishness, death to prejudices. And also, the third thing, the love of Christ moves the believer to a new sphere where they no longer look at Christ in a fleshly way. Verse 16, the middle of the verse says, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Many know Christ according to the flesh. He was a great man. He was a religious leader. He was a good teacher. He was a good example. He was a prophet. Some people believe he was an angel. Some say he was a carpenter. Some simply are ignorant of him and ignore him. But what happens is the love of Christ brings us into the realm in which we understand that our understanding of Jesus Christ was all wrong in the Bible. brings a death to a false understanding of Christ and now we have a genuine biblical understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done which motivates us to actually live for the Lord. Some are filled with foolishness and perniciousness and vicious thoughts about Jesus Christ. And just think about the Apostle Paul who's writing this. This proud Pharisee who had been mad in his efforts to stamp out the name of Christ, is writing this. He hated Christ as a false messiah, but when he was overcome by the love of the one in whom he once hated, he no longer viewed Christ in the fleshly way. Now Christ was the object of his love and service Christ's love enveloped and consumed him. Christ was the motive for Paul staying alive and enduring hardships and trouble. Christ was now, in his understanding, the God-man who rose from the grave to give eternal life and who had a plan for humanity, and he is preparing a place for all those who love him, and he is coming back again. He knew that, and that motivated him to serve Christ out of love. for Christ, not hatred. So Paul is the perfect example on what happens when an ambassador does his job. He takes a person who hates Christ and brings them to the place where now they understand Christ and now they love Christ, right? And you know what? Believe it or not, all of us were haters of Christ. All of us hated Christ. What did Paul say in Romans 5? For if while we were enemies, We were reconciled to God through the death of his son. See, we were all enemies of Christ. We were all haters of Christ. Now, we understood that after we became believers. So, yes, believers in Christ, you are ambassadors for Christ to bring his gospel to a lost and dying world. And the best disposition, this message flows through is one with a consistent integrity, a genuine humility, and a deep thankfulness for Christ displaying His love towards you in a saving way. He saved you, gave you eternal life, forgave your sin, made you right with the Father, preparing a place for you coming back again. It doesn't get better than that. It doesn't. If that doesn't motivate you, you must be dead, spiritually dead maybe. A second distinctive mark of a baked ambassador for Christ is their work. Look at verse 17 and 18. There's a source of this new work and the source of the work is God himself. Verse number 17, it says this, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away, behold, new things have come. So this is an important shift of stance, a change into another sphere because the Apostle is viewing all people as either in Adam or in Christ. There's no other groups. Either you're in Adam or you're in Christ. Now before you became a Christian, you were in Adam. But when you became a Christian, you were no longer an Adam, now you're in Christ. Those are the groups. And so, all who are in Christ are a new creation, and all who are in Adam are still linked to the old things. And the old things being the old Adamic nature with all its old corruption, its old habits, its old desires, its old sinful enslaving sins, that those who are now associated with Christ, who are in Christ, find themselves in a new position, a new sphere. And the whole phrase, new creation, or new creature, points really right back to Genesis, in which we are pointed at what God did when he created the world. God did not simply patch up the old, but he created a new. The old things are discarded. The old things passed away, it says in our text, and it means to cast aside as no longer being part of us. We have no need for those things anymore. We have no desire for those things anymore. We also know that those things, all that they did, whatever sin that kept you in bondage, all that they did was enslave you. and they controlled everything in your life. They destroyed relationships. They brought you nowhere. They gave you no hope. Matter of fact, they bring you down to the lowest point you can be on this earth, discouraged, depressed, no desire to want to live, see no hope in life. And that's what sin will do in our life. It will actually destroy us. and it will keep us in a place longer than we'll ever want to stay. And it brings no light because it just consumes you in darkness. The old things do not become new. At conversion to Christ, they are discarded and other things take their place as newly created. That's so great about becoming a Christian. It's not that you leave all the old stuff and there's nothing else you go to. No, you get the new stuff and you forget about the old stuff. And like some of the new stuff we're talking about, some of the things that are right here in our text, just the love of Christ, being an ambassador, having work to do. In fact, the term here, behold in our text indicates it is a surprising thing. That's happened to me as a believer. With this newfound faith in Christ, everything has changed. I don't know about you, but when I became a believer, everything changed. I was so surprised myself. I said, something's going on here. I don't really know yet, because I didn't know anything. But I started reading the Word of God, and I said, wow, this is, you know, When you see a text, all things become known. That has to mean something, right? When you become a believer, it's surprising when you really understand the gospel and what Christ has done for you. It happens to new believers with their newfound faith in Christ. It's like saying, take a look at what happened. It's all new to me, new things, new life, new work. new destinations, this new standing, this new worldview God's giving me. And it's brought about by His doing, by God Himself, not by you. You didn't turn over a new leaf. You didn't just drop off an old habit. No, everything becomes new when God does it. People can drop off habits. They can stop sinning in one area. But what about all the rest of it? When God calls us to salvation, all things become new, everything. He changes our thinking. He changes our mind. So this new standing is brought about by God. And once we sense the newness we have in Christ Jesus, we also learn we have new work. Okay, now I'm a Christian. What do I do? Well, notice verse number 18. It says, now all these things are from God who reconciled us. to himself through Christ. So the source of the work God's going to call us to, he's getting to an ambassador, that all these new things are from God and is because of what God had done. And those who are controlled by his love and now live for Christ, not themselves, these new things do not have their source in the flesh. But God, they are the byproducts of being reconciled to God, that God's love provided the means and the basis for man's reconciliation to God whom he had sinned against. It is sin that separates people from God. It is God who provided Christ's death to remove sin and guilt. So it is all God's plan because of his love. towards his children. But God's own sense of justice had to be satisfied, and so God gave his Son as a propitiation for our sins to remove the separation. So here he is. In this passage of Scripture, the term reconciliation really has as its root the thought of change to put someone into friendship with God. You see, people are not at peace with God. They are actually enemies of God, as already mentioned, and God's attitude toward the sinner is one of judgment and condemnation and wrath. Like John 3.18 tells us, he who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already. because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son. So the sinner cannot reconcile himself or herself to God on their own. That's God's place. It is when the sinner repents and turns to Jesus Christ in faith, only then, only then, only then can God the Father change his attitude toward the sinner from one of wrath to one of peace, from one of not being reconciled to one of becoming a friend of God. That means that all alienation between the repentant sinner and God has ended. That's the change that takes place. And his change is solely based on the death of his son and the work Jesus accomplished on the cross that God can set aside his wrath toward that repentant sinner. So the point here is that God needs no reconciliation, but is engaged in the great business of reconciling people to himself. The term gave us the ministry of reconciliation. God is not only the source of the work, but he is also the bestower of the work. Notice what it says in verse 18. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And God has given us the task to reconcile people to him. Actually, the term ministry is a very familiar word to some of us. It's the word deacon. It's used of ministry, service, help, mission. We have been given a mission that is leading others to put them into friendship with God. That's the mission. So the task of winning the unreconciled to God is committed to us, given to us by God. And of course, when he gives us that task, it's such a huge task. It can overwhelm you. God gives us all the help to do it. He gives us all the power to do it. It is a high and holy one and supremely difficult because the offending party, the guilty, is the hardest to win over. If the task of making sinful enemies friends of God were solely up to us, no one would be saved. No one could be reconciled to God if it was up to us. Our verbal skills, our ability to write clearly, that's not it. God uses those things. It's about God. God is the one who will reconcile sinners to himself, but using weak dirt vessels like us. He uses weak vessels. He didn't call angels to preach the gospel. He called us to preach the gospel, to take the gospel to other people. All the work has been done by God himself. And our Lord, in whom we love, he gives us a mission as ambassadors to carry out his unfinished business. This business is basically in the form of a message. And that message is the gospel. It's not our message. It's God's message. It's not any message. It's the message that comes from the Word of God, and it is the gospel message. Next time we'll look at that. So this morning, I do want to admonish you to rethink your life in the sense of the Word of God, that you are an ambassador. You are living here. You are the real aliens. You are strangers in a foreign land. You are not home, and you cannot go home. until God takes you home. So you know what? You're here. Don't cry and complain about that. Use the circumstances, the gifts and the abilities and the relationships you have to be an ambassador for Christ, because that's what God called you and I to do. Amen? Let's do it. Let's pray. Lord, thank you again. Your kindness to us Lord, in sharing the Word of God and explaining to us all that took place to save us. I pray, Lord, that we would represent the Kingdom of God on earth in an honorable way, with integrity, with humility, with the motive Knowing that you loved us savingly and all that took place to save our lost soul I pray Lord every day we'd wake up and we just pray Lord send someone our way that we can share Christ with being an example of Christ to them Even were open up the Word of God to them and show them the message of the gospel Please Lord use us Knowing, Lord, that it's not because of what we are or what skills or talents you've given us or what kind of mind that you've given us. It's all the power of God. So Lord, you have called us earthen vessels to display and give your message to a lost and dying world. Use us for that sake in the glory of the precious name of Jesus Christ. And I pray this this morning. Amen.