Good morning. Well, we'll be back on Salt and Light this morning. Last lesson, last part of the last lesson. Finish it up today. Probably wherever we get to, that'll be the end of this lesson. We are on an ambassador for Christ. Does anybody need the outline for 13? Right up here, need one. And right back in the back, and right another one up here in the front. We're gonna make you walk as much as we can. You got two up here, and two back there. All right. So, Number one, we talked about an ambassador's access, and then A was authorized access and available access. Number two, we started, didn't quite finish the ambassador's adversary, and A was the adversary's attack, excuse me, Sorry about that, trying to get this cleared out. And B, the ambassador's defense. And I think we read Romans 12, 1 and 2 last week. We'll read that again this week. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice means surrendering our will to God's will. We will give him the ownership and the directorship that he deserves to have. It is our, as the verse says, our reasonable service. And reasonable service means that you're not doing anything outstanding, you're just doing what you're supposed to do. Those who would say it's my body and I'll choose to do what I want to do, That's unreasonable if we're saved by the grace of God. Ambassadors fulfill their leaders' desires. That is the essence. That's what they're supposed to do. If an ambassador for the United States goes to a foreign country and they're not following what the president wants them to do, they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing. They're being unreasonable. But the next step is transforming and renewing our minds. And we accomplish this by filling our minds with God's word. That makes sense, right? Whatever it is that you want to transform over to, if you, let's say, well, I'll just use myself for example. I used to work on step vans, and for a while then I went to working on big trucks, big truck engines. Now, if I had not, and literally, it really was, filled my mind all that I could get in it with the instructions on how to rebuild one of those big engines, I'd never got it done. So when we're lost before we're saved, we have the world in our mind And so we have to, if we're going to be Christians, we have to fill our mind with what it takes to be a Christian. Well, God has given us what it takes in the word of God. So whatever you want to transform into, whatever you want to change what you do and how you act, you have to put things in your mind. And then we have to shun the things which take our mind and hearts away from being a Christian. 2 Corinthians 10 5, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. But pay attention to that phrase, bringing into captivity every thought. Men are more this way than women. You can be thinking about something and one thought get on your mind. And the reason is men, they only have one track. Women's got 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 sometimes. That's the reason. My wife showed me a picture of why men have trouble relating to women, and it showed the man's mind was one railroad track, and the woman's mind was track over track, you know, like Spaghetti Junction, what they call it down in Atlanta. You get one thought on your mind off of what you were trying to think and you'll go, that's the direction you'll take. So we have to captivate every thought in our mind. Now what, I'm gonna need some participation here, okay? And if you know you know the answer, don't answer. But I want people to guess. Maybe nobody knows, I didn't know until I did that. Now then, what do you think is the record of consecutive free throw, basketball free throws. Not in a game, but just somebody standing, shooting free throws. Somebody give me a mark, a guess. Well, no, okay, I know what you're saying, and that's good, but not in a game. I'm talking about a person in a gym by themselves just shooting, and you're probably right. but not in a game, just an individual. Not percent, how many? 100%, how many? Higher. He said 234, I said higher. Higher. He said 1500, higher. Anybody else? Higher. Higher. Higher. Somebody say 5,000? Higher. No, not that high. 5,221. He took a 10-minute break every hour and it took him seven hours, but he hit 5,221 freeze throws without missing. I didn't write his name down. Well, I remember it. I will not remember anything else today. Is that an odd name? I guess that's the reason I remember it. Ted St. Martin. The middle name is St. And I think he's passed now, but he did it in the 80s. And he used to go around and do, you know, and have times at NBA games and do that. And the hardest thing about it was it could get very boring to watch it. He had to bring every thought into captivity. He couldn't think about anything else. He couldn't think about a three-pointer. He couldn't think about dribbling the ball. He couldn't think about somebody else. He couldn't think about where he was yesterday. He had to keep his mind on doing that. If we want to accomplish all that we can accomplish, we have to keep our mind on godly things. We have to keep our mind on it. We have to captivate our thought life. Proverbs 4 and 23, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. We have a powerful adversary, but we have a mightier king. There's no doubt, and please don't underestimate the power of Satan, but at the same time, don't underestimate the power of God. It says, keep thy heart. That word keep there means to guard, to protect, to maintain your heart. Keep your heart close to God. Because your heart in the flesh will want the wrong thing. So we have to keep our heart close to God. So now that brings us to number three, an ambassador's assignment. Our duty is to represent God in this world. But our mission, our assignment is to fulfill the Great Commission. And that is to tell others about Christ. Now, you can represent God by living right, but that doesn't fulfill the Great Commission. You have to tell others about Christ to fulfill the Great Commission. Matthew 28, 18 through 20, that's in your outline there, should be. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And the next verse says, Go ye therefore. And what he's saying is, Go ye under that power that I have. Go under all power that I have. And then the Bible says, And teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. If we are fulfilling the Great Commission, God is helping us. God will help us. You can say it both ways. If you are fulfilling the commission, God is helping you and you cannot fulfill the commission without God helping you. It can't be done. He will help you if that's what you're doing. So the letter A there is, go therefore. Now, word in Matthew 28 and 19, therefore, why did Christ instruct us to go into all the world with the gospel? Because again, in verse 18, he has the power and he promises to personally accompany us when we do that. We are authorized by the Lord to fulfill the great commission. But not only authorized, we are commanded to do so. and to go to all nations. Some may be called to foreign lands as a missionary. Others may be called to various places in their home country and others just in there where they live and where they live, where they work to be Christians and to tell people about Christ. Every Christian needs to participate in some way. We can give, we can pray, We all have a part in the great commission. Proverbs 25 and 13, and this may sound like to begin with, I'm going in a different direction. But the verse says, as the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so was a faithful messenger to them that send him, for he refresheth the soul of his masters. Our responsibility to carry the message on behalf of our leader is our responsibility. That's what we're supposed to do. I once heard a man say in January, and it was freezing weather, some sleet coming down, and he said, can you believe this weather? I said, well, we're in North Carolina, and it's in the middle of January. He said, yeah, I can believe this weather. Are we as faithful to fulfill the Great Commission as January is to have cold weather. And that's what that verse is saying. As the cold of snow, as much as we know this January, I'll make a promise to you, okay? It will be colder in January than it was this month. Okay? That's how faithful we're supposed to be to fulfill the Great Commission. We really ought to do it to a point where somebody could say, you know, so and so, they're going to witness for Christ. It's just going to happen. Can God trust us to carry his message? And then B, go preach. Go preach here doesn't mean stand behind a pulpit and preach a message but to proclaim God's message, to proclaim God's word. Mark 16, 15, Jesus told us the message he wants us to carry. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now that's as simple as you can put it. It doesn't, there's no, it's not I can't think of the word for the English literature that I want, but it's not a hidden message. It means exactly what it says. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It's no use going if you're not carrying the message of the gospel. Paul described a simple message of the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand. So he's talking to Christians, people that are born again. He said, I preached this gospel to you, you believed it, and this is what you believe, this is what you're standing on. Verse two, by which also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now that is the gospel itself is the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you say the gospel in simplest form, that's what it is. But there was a reason for the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Romans 1.16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. You see, it is the power of the gospel. In other words, Jesus being born of a virgin, living a perfect life, being crucified, shedding his blood, being buried and rose again, that is the power of salvation. That is how we can get saved. Without that, there is no salvation. The duty of an ambassador of Christ could be summed up as follows. I am an ambassador for Christ. He sent me to beseech you to be reconciled to God. Now, we're going to repeat our key verse from the first of the lesson. We didn't say it this morning, but this is where the lesson started. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5.18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation. So to get to heaven, we must be reconciled to God. But we cannot reconcile ourselves to God. He had to reconcile himself to us. He had to be the one to perform the path to heaven. We were unable to do so. 2 Corinthians 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." That's the reconciliation. God, Christ was righteous. And He died for us and shed His blood for us that if we trust in Him and ask Him, He will give us His righteousness. And once we receive that righteousness by believing in Him, we are reconciled to God. That is the only way to be reconciled to God. The Son of God came to earth to shed His blood and to die for that sin, Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The price has been paid, forgiveness has been purchased, the way of reconciliation is open, but man has to accept that gift. It's just like the picture of the gift that was on the screen when we got started. You have a gift to give somebody. If they say, no, I don't want it, they'll never have it. They won't have the gift. And most people, Unfortunately, when presented with the gift of the gospel, we'll say, no, I don't want it. That is our message. Delivering this message in personal, one-on-one, soul winning, preaching behind a pulpit, or any other method of proclaiming the gospel is the assignment of every ambassador for Christ. That is why we have visitation churchwide visitation once a month we go out on Tuesdays in the Mornings or afternoon depending on time of the year And pass out tracks invite people to church. That's the reason we go knock on doors and invite people to ride the bus to church That's the reason we meet somebody we tell them about Christ. Maybe we go door-to-door on our own Tell people about Christ people we meet we should tell about Christ people we work with we should tell about Christ people we see in the store if you can start a conversation with somebody in a store you can add to that conversation or make the conversation salvation and that is proclaiming the gospel that is what we are to do as ambassadors and then the last one here is the ambassadors address and of course talking of like a United States ambassador His address, while he is an ambassador, is not the United States. His address is whatever country he is ambassador to, but that is not his home address. And just like we, yes, we live here physically right now, I live in Kernersville, most of y'all live in Davidson County, some of you do live in Forsyth, and some may live even in Guilford, and we'll pray for y'all, but... But our home address is heaven. If we're saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, we know that one day our home will be heaven. But while we're here on this earth, we are ambassadors. Every part of our home and life should help enable others to come to Christ. The opposite of enable is disable. Now we have laws. In North Carolina, and I guess maybe all of the United States, we have laws that when you build a new building anyway, some of the older ones, very old ones don't have this, but when you build a new public building, you have to make it accessible to the disabled. They're not going to let you open up a business unless it's accessible to the disabled. Because of sin all man is disabled and unable to enter into heaven It's inaccessible just like if somebody Or brother Eddie has to use a wheelchair now if we had 25 steps coming into here and it was a newly built We would have to have a ramp for him to be able to drive that up on well as ambassadors for Christ We are to make a way for people to get where they cannot go on their own. And that's everybody. Everybody that has not received salvation is unable to get to heaven, so we have to make that ramp, and that ramp is the gospel of Christ that we must give to them for them to be able to get to heaven. God requires us to present that accessibility to everyone. Is there anything in our lives that prevents somebody from receiving the accessibility to heaven? Then we are disabling them. We're not enabling them to get to heaven. We are disabling. So if there's something in our life that turns somebody off from Christ, we've tore the ramp down. And we're supposed to be building the ramp. And then, of course, our permanent address or temporary address is Earth. Permanent address is Heaven. So, while we're here, yes, our address is Earth. But we know we're going to Heaven. And our job, our task, our command is to see how many others, we can get the help. Alright, next week if you don't have, if maybe you haven't seen Facebook, I ask you to begin reading the book of Esther. So we have eight lessons coming up on the book of Esther. So if you want to read that, that's not that much reading, go ahead and get that, rehearse that book. That way when we teach on it, it'll come a little easier. Not that it's gonna be hard. Hope's not hard. Better to make it better. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day that you've given us. Thank you for salvation, Lord. Lord, help us to enable others to come to Christ. And Lord, help us to renew our minds. Lord and to be transformed into a child of God that Presents the gospel and makes it desirable for others to be saved in Jesus name. We pray. Amen