The Ministry of Reconciliation — 2 Corinthians 4-5

0:00 Hello, everyone. It's a real privilege to... Wait a minute. See you. I I have this strange eye problem.

0:12 I can see the middle of the room. I can't see the middle of the room. Can see the back of the room and I can see up close. I don't know why it's like that, but sometimes it spares me. I'm gonna ask you to turn your bibles.

0:24 Some of you all get that later. Turn in your Bibles to second Corinthians chapter five. Second Corinthians chapter five. Yes. Can do it off this.

0:37 Second Corinthians chapter five. We have been traveling now with our summer interns about a month, and, it's always a thrill to have the guys. We have a new guy with us this year, and his name is Justin George. Stand up, Justin. And he has had to endure the torture of our summer trip quite a bit.

1:03 Benjie from, Varghese from New York has been with me three summers, and Jiven has been with me four summers. He can't get enough, so something I'm doing right. We we take young men, those who don't know our program, our summer admissions program is involved in taking young men just finishing up high school and on into college with the mindset that there are enough Christian doctors and enough Christian lawyers and enough Christian engineers and enough Christian janitors in the world. We need to take the genius of youth and apply it to ministry. And so I provide them an opportunity to see ministry up close so they can consider it as a career option.

1:49 There's nothing wrong with being in full time service for the Lord. I think that when I retired from business twenty six years ago, that was the best decision I ever made in my life. And I want young men to find their place. Every single man needs a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. Every single woman needs a Naomi, a Elizabeth, and a Ruth.

2:14 Someone who pours into your life, someone that holds you accountable, and someone you're pouring into the life of. And unless we have that you're out of balance, the church has denied itself so much strength and so much vitality by forgetting discipleship. So please, please, please, if you aren't actively discipling someone, you say, well, do I... Nobody's discipling me. Well, break the chain.

2:38 You disciple somebody. And if you do that, I'm... I assure you before your life is over, God will send someone into your life to disciple you. The best way to learn is to teach others. The best way to learn is to teach others.

2:49 So I would implore you, pray for these guys. Their support is essential. It cost us about $26,000 per guy per summer. So that means that if they don't... We don't get the the support, Stephanie and I won't eat after the summer's over.

3:06 So pray for us. Pray for us. It's very a very expensive, but I believe a very lucrative return for the kingdom of God. I have never had a young man come back and say to me later, I'm... I hated the summer.

3:18 I don't ever wanna do it again. It's always been a benefit to them. So I also encourage you young ladies, consider being a discipler. I think one of the the greatest atrocities to the to the body of Christ is that women are being not being taught and are not being discipled. All the emphasis has been on men.

3:37 Shame on us. If we wanna have, wonderful wives and great mothers and, powerful leaders in our community, we cannot forget women. We need to empower women and make sure that they are maintaining the gospel standard. So with that said and the propaganda out of the way, turn to your Bibles there to second Corinthians chapter five, and we're going to start at verse number 18 and read to the end of the chapter, And then I'll give you my outline. Second Corinthians chapter five verses 18 through 21.

4:10 And all things are of God who reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing to them their trespasses unto them, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we as ambassadors for Christ as through God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. 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. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of His word.

5:13 The word reconciliation in the Greek is kataslatio, and it means not what most people think it means. When we talk about reconciling, people reconciling, husbands and wives reconciling, The thought basically is returning to the original relationship. Returning to the original relationship. And and when it comes to humans, okay, that's fine. You remember we we sing the song every Christmas, hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king, peace on earth and mercy mile.

5:45 God and center reconcile. I think that Mendelson, you know, had the right idea, but I think it projected the wrong thought. We're not trying to, with the word reconciliation, project the idea of returning back to the original relationship with God. I don't... The original relationship that man had with God was man was in the garden, God was fellowshipping with him, but that the relationship, even though wonderful, even though perfect, was not the best that God had to offer.

6:14 The word here reconciliation means to be restored to a mutual divine favor with God. A divine favor. All of us... God... You you can't ask God to to meet us halfway when God wants to make us perfect.

6:33 He is the standard. He's the measure by which that we are looking for. So God says, I want to bring you to fellowship with me beyond just fellowship, but I wanna be with you, but I also wanna be in you. That's the whole idea. So that's the the concept of reconciliation.

6:48 It's a very vital aspect of the walk with Christ. We have been reconciled with God. So look at what it says in verse 18. It says this, And all things of God who have reconciled to Himself by Jesus Christ and have given us the ministry of reconciliation. All things of God, God's divine provision.

7:07 God's divine provision. That now that that that does not mean that just that god provides for our basic needs, our social needs, our our our our physical needs. It's saying beyond that, Ephesians chapter one verse two, blessed be the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It doesn't get any better than being totally and completely supplied. People think when they hear the word blessing that it's all physical.

7:34 That's the low end of the ladder. That's not what God's talking about. He's talking about being satisfied from the very wharf and whoop of your being. God created us to be tripartite, spirit, soul, and body. Spirit, God aware or God conscious.

7:49 Soul, self aware or self conscious. Body, world aware or world conscious. So God's saying, I want to do something. I want to bring you into a relationship where everything you understand has a spiritual impetus. The start of everything is spiritual.

8:04 Let's look at the players. God is spirit, John chapter four verse 24. The holy spirit and angels are spirits, Hebrews chapter one verse five and six. The devil is a spirit. Ephesians chapter two verse two.

8:18 You are spirit. First Thessalonians chapter five verse 23. Everything is spiritual. So if everything is spiritual, wouldn't it make sense then to elevate to... Us to a place where we get everything we need spiritually, and it's a trickle down effect.

8:33 When I supply myself with the spirit things that I need, every aspect of my being is covered. That's what Paul says in Galatians five sixteen, this I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The whole idea is to get us to see the spirit walk. All things are of god and god's impetus is the spirit. You read first Corinthians chapter two verses 10 through 14, you see that.

8:58 That's the problem with the world. The Bible says, now the natural man received not the things of the spirit of god. For they are foolishness to him neither can they know... Can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Everything you need, honestly, has its start, has its impetus in the world of the spirit.

9:36 Jesus had every right to say, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. While father is the destination, I am the only way. The process that God gets us reconciled, the way God deals with all of our need and supply is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. The world will be totally happy, absolutely ecstatic with the Church of Jesus Christ if you say Jesus is a good way to get to God.

10:03 The world wouldn't bother you at all if you say Jesus is a better way to get to God. You'd have no problems with anybody on planet earth if you even say Jesus is the best way to get to God. But the problem, the conflict, the rub is this, we say he's the only way. And because of that, the world is mad at us. But he is the only way.

10:22 I don't back down from that. I hear the rhetoric of other religions, and I respect the fact that they have the right to believe what they want to believe. But to get to the father, you got to go through his son. And that's what God deemed here in verse number 18. He says, we are reconciled by...

10:37 To God to himself by Jesus Christ. That was God's divine process. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That's just part of the franchise. Okay?

10:52 A guy said to me once when I was working, he said, I don't like that. Jesus is the only way. I said, a simple way to handle it. He said, what's that? Die and tell God about it.

11:02 Okay. The third point in this is God's plan. Look at the end of verse 18. It says this, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now now now please follow this.

11:14 Follow this. It is imperative that we see, we who are redeemed are the best evangelists of the process of salvation, not Jesus, not the Holy Spirit. What do you mean? Turn just back a chapter and look at verse chapter four look at verses three through six. Now look at this, this is important.

11:40 But if our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost, and whom the god of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves with Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. Now get this, for God who commanded the light to shine under darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What it saying simply? This, the world, the Bible says, the gospel to them is hid.

12:14 It's hid. There's no way they can get it on their own. Why? Because the god of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not. Now, years ago, in the last century, early in the last century, scientists believed that, darkness was the absence of light.

12:33 And then an out of work patent clerk that we'll we'll never remember his name by the name of Alfred I... Albert Einstein said that there's no such thing as the absence of light. There's only the obstruction of light. And the Greek word used here for the word blinded is the word obstructed, In whom the god of this world has obstructed the minds of them which believe not. There's no such thing as the absence of light.

12:56 But here it is. Satan has obstructed. He's blocked out the light. So what happens? When man goes, in verse number five, when man tries to understand the bible himself because his mind is obstructed, he comes with all weird crazy ideas and fantasies that will never hit the target.

13:12 It is impossible for mankind, unredeemed mankind to understand anything. God is talking about the gospel. He'll never get it. So notice the genius of God. The genius of God says there needs to be someone who has been in position of mankind lost and totally and completely without God who has come to know Christ to share it.

13:32 Notice what he says in verse number six. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness have shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here's the point. The reason why I'm still here. The reason why you're still here is that God says there needs to be someone who has empirical knowledge, someone who has once been lost, who has now found the grace of God and redeemed and is now telling others about it.

13:58 That's the whole idea of of the fact of salvation. If God just wanted you to get saved and go to heaven, we would have what is known as the anointed Mack Truck ministry. What is the anointed Mack Truck ministry, Dwight? Well, we get you saved, we take you out the main street, the Mack Truck runs you over and you go to heaven. But God has not instituted the great Mac truck ministry.

14:18 Why? Because someone who has been in the same shoes as a sinner knows the grace of God, knows the glory and the power of salvation, and tells the world. He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation because who else can tell it? Jesus couldn't tell it because he was never a sinner lost and unredeemed. But we are.

14:39 We are. And so who better can tell it than us? That's God's divine plan. But so many of us have an escapism syndrome. We hide from the world till we die and go to heaven.

14:54 A young lady said to me... I'm sorry, it wasn't a young lady, was an older lady, said to me years ago, Dwight, I have the perfect way to handle Jehovah's Witnesses. Really? Yes. And she said, there's nothing they can do about it.

15:04 I said, wow, I'm gonna learn something. I said, what do you do miss? She said, when I see them coming down the street, I close the blinds, go down the basement, wait until they're gone. There are some saints who think it's their job to con... Contaminate the culture and just from a distance say they're bad, they're bad, they're bad, they're bad.

15:36 There's other people who believe that it's our job to condone the culture. Oh, they're not so bad. God loves everybody. Don't worry about it. You'll find your way to heaven.

15:45 And then there's there's the saints of God who believe that they have to criticize the culture. They'll never be right. They'll never get it. Those people are horrible. They're going to hell.

15:53 And then there's that part of us who believe that you have to condemn the culture. You're going to hell and there's no way you can be redeemed. None of those are right. God wants us to confront the culture. Live among them and confront them with the gospel truth of our lifestyle, then it causes them to ask the questions.

16:14 Cold start evangelism is fine. You pass out a track and and someone might ask questions. It's it's it's fine. You meet a lot of people that way, but it's not as effective as living your life ready for the questions. Ready for the questions.

16:47 I was going somewhere west. And, my family had gone ahead of me. And I was getting on a plane. I had been upgraded to first class, and my seat was was three b. That's a aisle seat.

16:58 I don't like sitting next to the window. And when I got on the plane, a very distinguished black gentleman was sitting in my seat. And I said, excuse me sir, you're in my seat. He said, really? And he looked at his ticket and says, three a.

17:09 I said, he said, okay. And he moved over one seat and we sat down and we're flying along. And I turned to him, I said, excuse me sir, you're Willie Horton, aren't you? And he said, yes, I am. Now for those who don't know, Willie Horton was a Detroit Tigers outfielder, home run hitter of days past.

17:28 He won a World Series and he was just an icon. As a matter of fact, when they built a new stadium, they put a statue of him outside the stadium and he retired his number. Still works for the Tigers today. And he said, yeah, am. And I asked him some baseball questions and so on.

17:41 And finally, he said, can I bother you? We got a three hour flight. Can I bother you about something? I said, what? He said, I'd like to talk to you.

17:47 And this man gently and lovingly shared with me his testimony and how he came by faith to know Jesus Christ. And there's tears running down his face as he's telling me this story. And I'm listening and I'm listening how intently and how sweetly he saved. He got saved when he was 55 years old. He had done all the dirt, all the carousing, the crazy life, divorced his wife, had a mistress and so on and all that.

18:15 And how his two nephews who were both dying, they died within two weeks of each other. When he went to visit them in the hospital to cheer them up, they shared with him the gospel. And after the second one shared with him the gospel, it really bothered him and their funerals were within days of each other. And at funeral, the man, the preacher, preached the gospel and gave an invitation. Well, Willie went home, ready to drink his night away with Jack Daniels, got convicted in his heart, and read what his nephews had written, they both had written him a letter, and he came to faith to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

18:48 And he said to me, I just want to give you son a chance to give Christ your life. I said, you're too late. I said, I've been saved for fifty years. He said, what? I said, yeah, I've been saved.

19:01 I said, I hope I look like I'm saved. You know? And he just hugged me and he said, I'm sorry, but everyone I meet need to know what Jesus did to me. That's the ministry of rec... Only somebody who was in the darkness and now in the light can talk about the light.

19:20 That's why that's why the next thing is so important. Notice what it says here, not just the the ministry of reconciliation, but the meaning of reconciliation. Look at what it says in verse number 19. It says this... Oh, chapter five.

19:32 I'm sorry. Chapter five. Verse number 19. To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing to them their trespasses and have committed to us the word of reconciliation. Notice the revelation.

19:47 God was in Christ. You know what it says. Acts chapter 10 verse 38, how the God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all of who oppressed of the devil, and what? Healing them, setting them free. God was in Christ.

20:11 See, that's the breakthrough that the Jews couldn't get. They thought that the Christ the Christ, the suffering Messiah, was only gonna be a man, and that's it. But no, they saw this... The the Christ as as one Christ being a man who's gonna pay for the price of the sins of the world, and the other was us a reigning Messiah who's gonna destroy all the enemies and replace them as in a world government on Earth. But it was actually one messiah coming twice, not two messiahs coming once.

20:41 So the the message that Paul was giving was this. I'm sorry, Peter was giving, that god was in Christ, and he was doing something. He was reconciling the world unto himself. The wonderful revelation is Isaiah chapter 59 verse 16. He saw that there was no man.

21:01 He wanted that there was no intercessor. So with his own army, he brought in him salvation, and his righteousness has sustained him. God says, I sent them prophets, and they killed him. I sent them priests, and they ignored him. I sent them kings, and they made gods out of them.

21:13 So the old adage is this, you want something done right, you do it yourself. He saw that there was no man. There was no mediator. What's a mediator? Someone that speaks for the greater to the lesser.

21:24 It was no intercessor. What is an intercessor? Someone who speaks for the lesser to the greater. Jesus said, I'll do both. Come now.

21:31 Let us reason together, say the Lord. Though your sins be as scholars, you should let us know that we're in as counsel, they shall be as wool. God was in Christ. That's that's the the the idea of reconciliation. We have somebody who works for both sides.

21:48 Jesus felt my pain. Remember, we are not in high priest who could not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are yet, but also we have someone who can make contact with us. We don't have some transcendental Shylock off into the skies and beats us up every time we do something wrong. We don't have some weak emaciated god like Allah who has to let other people do his bidding and pay for his enemy... And destroy his enemies.

22:12 We have someone who showed up. We have a wonderful artist who who who who shines in five dimensions, working his work on the canvas and then decides unlike the other artists to get into the canvas with us.

22:29 God was in Christ.

22:33 That's the wonderful miracle of reconciliation. The incredible idea that God would take on human flesh. That's the revelation that the world cannot handle. But notice not just the revelation, look at the explanation. Reconciling the world unto himself.

22:54 He's not trying to make a world a better place. He's not trying to make people love each other. No. He wants relationship with me. Once again, what God wants to walk in my garden in the cool of the day.

23:07 But the relationship now is not from a distance, not a star... A steer. God doesn't just wanna walk... Be by my side. God wants to be in me, and I in him.

23:17 He's reconciling the world to himself. That's the idea that blows my mind. No other faith, no other religion explains itself by saying, you become part of the God community. We don't become gods, but you know what? He comes in us, and he gives us the ability to live the god life.

23:37 That's what second Peter chapter three... Chapter one verse three and four says. He has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Before I could not do it, before I would not do it, now it's possible for me to live righteous before him. I was once talking to a drunk on the street where my old church was, 12th Street, Worcester Street in Detroit because of where the sixty seven riots took place.

24:03 And I was trying to talk to him myself saying that we can live above our sinful nature. And he turned around to me and hiccupped and said, The only way to live above sin is to get an apartment above Lavertz Bar right there. I said, You can live above sin. I said, I I I can't be perfect, but I don't have to sin anymore. I don't need to sin anymore.

24:28 Before I got saved, sin defined me as a human being. It doesn't do that anymore. The explanation is clear. God wants a relationship that He has defined. But not only one He has defined, look at the exaltation, one He has described.

24:44 It says this, not imputing unto them their trespasses. God is saying, listen, because of my son, I have justified you. I have made you, put you in a position where your past sins have been dealt with. No, didn't use an arrays and walk... Wash...

24:57 Wipe it away where the stain is still there. I took my blood and washed it away. I took my son's blood and I paid for your sin. Nobody has a free lunch. Your sins have got to be paid for.

25:08 God did not forgive your sin. That's a bad idea. Christ... God forgave your sin for Christ's sake. In other words, he allowed Christ to pay the debt for your sin, but sin had to be paid for.

25:19 And that's why it says, not imputing unto us our trespasses, but he did impute them unto him as we'll see later. That's the exaltation God takes, filthy, rotten, hell bound, gutter rats of sinners and elevates them and exalts them to the highest position attainable by mortal man, heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. Old saints used to say, he elevated us without inflating us. That's a wonderful position. And that's the point that I I believe that God especially wants the saints to live in.

25:56 He wants you to understand that you're not above the world, but you're out of the world living in it. That's the exaltation, but look at the next thing, the proclamation. It says this, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. You know what? I read a good book and I I I...

26:19 You preachers and teachers, I I think you need to read it. It's called Between Two Worlds by John R. W. Stott. And what John R.

26:26 W. Stott said in that book is this, there's the heaven context trying to get the spirit communication to the corrupt world. And God has put as an intermediary between heaven and earth, the preacher, the didactos, the poem and daikenos, the teacher, the prophet. And we get word of God that has this heavenly quality and ability of it, and God sinks it into our heart, and and it's and it's it's it's juxtaposed between God's word and our intellect, and somehow another, what what what Paul told to Timothy, but thou, O man of God, speak thou the things that become sound doctrine. You see, we get that nugget from God and we formulate it, we adjust it to say it in human words so that the world can hear the glorious message of God.

27:22 The world cannot receive it, oftentimes saints can't. So God gives it to the teacher, He gives it to the preacher, He gives it to the prophet, and it's churned in us. And just like the old days where the Bible says, well, holy men of God, God breathed but came out of human bodies. That's that's the idea. The proclamation of the gospel.

27:43 God has given it to the heart and the spirit of those that he's given to proclaim the word, and it's said in English in human words so the world can hear the wonderful word of God. Using illustration, using type and shadow to say what has been hid from the ages. That's the idea that God, he gave us the job of proclamation. There's nothing like it. That's why I believe that we move on that precipice that God's word will not return unto him void.

28:18 God's word is going to work on people's heart whether they want it to or not. As I said before, Soren Kildegard said, that great existentialist, I can dismiss the father because I've never seen him. I don't believe he exists in time. I can dismiss the son as just a historical figure, but the Holy Spirit messes me with my sleep at night. God's word will never return unto him void.

28:40 That's why we preach it. That's what we claim it. So if people yell at you and jeer at you, Jim and his brothers, go to Times Square and they they preach the gospel to everybody, to anything. And all kinds of people walk by and people laugh at them and they throw things at them and they argue with them, but when they go home, the word of God germinates in their heart. See, that's that's the genius of what Jesus said in in Mark chapter four.

29:09 He says in the parable of the sower, he says, this is the word that is sown in their hearts. When it is sown in their heart, Satan comes immediately to steal the word that is in their heart. The timing of his attack is immediately. Why? Because if the word of God is left resident in your heart, it begins to sink in, it begins to cultivate, and it begins to convict, and soon it'll convert.

29:30 So Satan has to come immediately to steal the word that's in their heart. And notice the target of his attack, their heart, not their head. And notice the treasure he's after, the word, not the illustration, not the jokes, but the word. I cannot tell you how many people meet me at the back of the door after I speak. They know, brother Dwight, I really enjoyed the message.

29:51 It was great. And they regale all the stories I told and all the illustrations and all the jokes. Really? What did I preach on? It was great.

30:03 Because in that short little time, Satan has gone on a wrestling match to steal the word of God sown in their hearts. That's why we need the constant barrage. It is important that God shows us that our job is to proclaim. To proclaim. That is the message of reconciliation.

31:07 They had never been to to Buckingham Palace. They had never seen the white shores of... White Cliffs Of Dover. They had never had any kind of contact. I would dare say that when the the white English missionaries made it to India, none of the Indians had ever seen the crown jewels.

31:24 They had knew nothing of Trafalgar Square. They had no idea who the Duke of Wellington was. But it wasn't long before they understood, before they adopted and even began to incorporate in their own life the culture and the tradition of the English missionaries. They noticed that the English missionaries had high tea in the afternoon. They know they talked with a very cropped accent.

31:50 That they had stiff backs and that they would get together once or twice a week and they would take triangularly flat bat and they would try to hit a ball from a bowler and the bowler would try to knock the wicked off the two uprights in the game called cricket. And they became very proficient at it themselves and they adopted not the sing song pig English that they had gotten from their slave masters, but they got the very important way to talk. And they had never been to England. You know why? They had noticed the lifestyle of these ambassadors of the queen and begin to adapt the lifestyle of these ambassadors from the queen since they were now the queen subjects.

32:34 They realize now that this is how things are in England. In England, you you held your pinky when you drank your tea. You drank from a cup. So what they were doing, they were saying that these English missionaries were living English lifestyle and English culture and English tradition on a place that was not England, living that life because even though they left the place of England, they were still English subjects as ambassadors. When the world, the indigenous populace want to know what's going on in heaven, they go to people of the kingdom.

33:09 They go to people of the kingdom life. They find missionaries of the kingdom life who are sent here as emissaries to represent the king. They want to know what the home life of heaven is, they don't go out to the bar, they go to the embassy called the church. And when the the the the indigenous populace want to find out what heaven is like, they should be able to find someone who is a citizen of heaven. And the lifestyle of the citizen of heaven will say, well, in heaven, there is no lying.

33:36 In heaven, there is no cheating. In heaven, we love one another. In heaven, God is glorified. So when they get to the embassy embassy, the embassy called the church, they see this group of people who represent another life in another place and say, you know what? I want that.

33:52 But what good does it do if they come to this embassy and we're bickering and we're fighting and we're slandering just like they do in the world? They say that can't be like heaven. So Paul says here, get this, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. We represent the kingdom. We know what the king is like.

34:17 In heaven, there isn't sourpusses. We are not gossipers. There aren't backbiters. There aren't liars. There aren't cheaters.

34:24 There are people who love him and love each other. We accurately represent the kingdom. I am in the business of making radical revolutionaries for Christ. I am in the business of teaching people how to live the life of Jesus Christ on earth. I'm in the business of telling people you're in the world but not of it.

34:45 I'm in the business of keeping people heaven conscious and duty bound to serve out heaven on earth. That's what I am as an ambassador of Christ. My job is before God to do something, a declaration by mouth and by life. I tell the guys I disciple not to practice what they preach, but preach what they practice. A biblical practice is a lifestyle that is promoting a theological fact.

35:13 Every time we want to support doctrine, we find someone in the Bible who's lived out the aspect of that theology. We have been given the job of God by God to declare the truth of the gospel and live it in front of them. But not only the declaration, but also look at this, the dedication. Notice he says in verse number 20, now then we are for, we are ambassadors for Christ's sake, as through God we beseech you, but, by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. We beseech you, you have a job to do.

35:52 You have something that is absolutely, eternally essential. You gotta live what you preach. The world has got to know. What amazed me about Willie Horton sitting on that plane, he was dressed very distinguishedly. And I can understand that because he had a meeting with the NLB.

36:14 And but also he went into his briefcase and he got out literature of his testimony. He he he said, here's some baseball cards, they're probably worth a lot of money. And he said, here's here's here's my personal testimony. Here's my card. You ever wanna call me, call me.

36:30 He says, please, young man, live for Christ. That's that's that's the whole idea, to leave people with a remnant memory of what Jesus has done for you. What Jesus has done for you. God save me. Please save me.

36:49 You're very good. Save me from junior high camp. I can handle teenagers. I can handle transsexual satan worshipers, but keep me away from junior high camp. I had to speak one summer at Lake Geneva Youth Camp, and I did boys camp, and then two weeks later I was supposed to do teen camp, but in the middle they put me in middlers camp, junior high school kids.

37:21 I'd rather stick needles in my eyeballs. And they had this tradition at junior camp that every day a different cabin would send up one representative from the cabin to pray over the meal. And in one boy's cabin, there was a little boy named Joey. He was the result of alcohol and drug addict mother. And he was twisted and he was very deformed and he walked, you know, wrong and he couldn't use his hands and he always drooled and, he had a baseball cap and they put him in a cabin.

38:02 And those mean little young men, I believe that they were working on a doctrine in demonology. Anyway, and they sent him up. When was time they had prepared, we're gonna send Joey up, we're gonna send Joey up. So they called for Cabin 7 and said, Joey, go up and pray. Joey said, okay, okay.

38:24 And they were all ready to listen to him flub it and mess up and look silly and they had told all of the Cabinets and the Cabinets were waiting to snicker to hear him And Joey got to the mic and the mic fell on the ground and he picked it up and he laughed and he put it there and he said, I wanna thank God for loving me. I just thank God for loving me. I looked around, it wasn't a dry eye in the place. Because that's what we are, we're deformed, we're inadequate, we're twisted, but we're saying to a lost world, I want to thank God for loving me. God has anointed.

39:20 He didn't he didn't dress you up and and polish you and shine your face and put a dinner plate behind your head and try to show the world how spiritual and how holy you are. God kept us in this state so that even though the outside is perishing day by day, inside, there's this wonderful transforming power. I left out that verse in chapter four on purpose. Go back to chapter four and look at verse seven. The wonder of it all, it says this, for we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

40:00 The word there, earthen vessels, remember in the in the ancient Near Middle East, the home had several vessels, several containers. That which was made of precious metals, gold and silver, that was for precious jewels was like the house safe. And then that which was made of brass was the the cooking oil that was very precious and very important. And then that which was made of simple metal or copper was used for the family drinking water. And then when you got to wooden vessels, that was the family washing water.

40:27 But when you got to the clay the clay vessel, that vessel that was disposable that you could get made in a... And buy cheap for for next to nothing, that was the house toilet. And notice what Paul says, we have this treasure in fleshly toilets. So what if your toilet has has glitter on and has your names... It's a toilet.

40:55 So what if you're dressed up better than everybody else? The best you got is a clay toilet.

41:01 And what makes you wonderful and necessary to the world is this, we have this treasure,

41:08 the wonder of His grace, the glorious gospel in earthen vessels so that

41:14 the world will see that the power is not of us. We haven't been made superstars of heaven. The charismatic joy boys give me an itch I cannot scratch. We're king's kids. We ride on a higher place of earth.

41:27 We have to have a billion dollar plane to fly everywhere. Most of the New Testament saints died pulpers because they were constantly giving into the kingdom, not parasiting and sucking from the kingdom. We have this treasure in earthly vessels so they'll see that the excellency, it's the only time it's used in the Bible, the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. My goodness, I'd wish they read second Corinthians chapter 11. What God has called us to, yea, and all they shall live godly, shall do what?

42:04 Suffer persecution. That's that's the whole idea. We have been dedicated to declare God's truth. And what is God's truth? The last part of verse number 20 is this, be reconciled to God.

42:23 That's the message we have to the world. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to... Look, God has made all the provision. He's made the way.

42:33 He's given you the opportunity. Won't you come to know him as savior? Won't you just let him have your life? And this is God's bargain to the world. I'll trade my life for yours.

42:46 You give me your old, dirty, filthy, wore out life, and I'll give you my... Just not just my life, but my life more abundantly. You have no idea what it is to know Christ and his life. That's what God has called us to. That's what God has called us to.

43:07 That's the method of salvation. That's the idea God wants for us. It's to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, be ambassadors of the kingdom to a lost world, to a foreign territory, and be radical revolutionaries for Jesus Christ. And how does he do it? Our last point.

44:00 Made the savior sin so that sinners can be saints. He was late for work. And he was driving down that very long stretch, 22 miles across Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. Heavy fog, dense, dense heavy fog, could barely see in front of him. Sometimes there'd be patches that would open up and he could see, he could race a little faster.

44:29 But he had to be at work at 05:30 and he was already ten, fifteen minutes late, so he was trying to make up time. And the fog was thick so much that he could barely see the hood on him in his car. And sometimes it would open up and be a patch of open space where he could see and he could drive a little faster. This process repeated over and over and over and over again. And finally, as he got an open patch, he noticed at the next set of fog bank something very strange.

44:53 He saw a man not driving a car, but running out of the fog, right in his lane. And the guy was running and doing like this. They said he must have had a breakdown. Well, I don't have time to stop and help him. And so he just shifted lanes and the man got in the lane with him.

45:11 And he was going like this, he said he got a flat tire, so what, I can't help him. So he shifted the legs again and man jumped over again. And he says, look, I'm just going have to whiz by him. I don't have time to stop. And he knows the man was yelling something.

45:22 Couldn't hear him, he was yelling and just yelling and yelling. And he says, what is this fool? If I have to run him down, I will. It's justifiable. And just as he got up on the man, the man jumped in front of the car again.

45:34 He slammed on his brakes and swerved and almost hit the embankment, and the guy jumped in the car.

45:38 He said, what is wrong with you? Are you crazy? Are you trying to get killed? He said, stop. Stop.

45:44 Please stop. He says, I can't help you. He says, no, you don't understand. The bridge is out. He said, what?

45:57 Through the night, a barge broke loose and broke off a 30 foot section of that bridge. He said, people are on the edge over in the water and they're dying. The guy said, well, he gets out of the car, and he ran and ran, and finally he was in the fog himself. And he said, stop, stop, stop. Get on the ground.

46:15 Crawl. Because it comes up suddenly. And he crawled on his hands and knees, and all of a sudden, the drop. And he saw cars, scores of cars, and a school bus, and kids clawing at the back of the door.

46:28 And the man started, he said, no,

46:29 you can't help them, the current is too great. He said, our job is to warn the coming. There are people racing at full speed like you who won't stop and who don't know that the bridge is out. There's only one way to save them. We've got to tell them.

47:27 Now you might keep going, you might brush me aside, you might even kill me, but somebody has gotta say stop, Stop. And the Holy Spirit of God deemed before time and eternity that it would be us. Not not fulfilling our self styling adoring, not not giving ourselves all kinds of accolades, not patting ourselves on the back. When I say unto the wicked, thou shall surely die and thou gives him not warning to wander wicked man from his wicked way, that he turn from his iniquity, His blood are required at your hand. This is the ministry of reconciliation.

48:14 The method and the meaning and the miracle of reconciliation, and God has committed it to us. Because we know that he knew that knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's all about I have to tell my story. I am so grateful for what he did for me. There's nothing I wouldn't do for him.

48:41 Heavenly Father, committed to the saints is a ministry that Christ came to save. To the world, it sounds like foolishness and that's okay. But we'll proclaim it. While the majority will reject it, some will stop and listen. Let us be there and tell the masses what God has done for us.

49:05 He is the propitiation of our sins and not for our sins only, but the sins of the whole world. Oh God, give us a burden for souls who like us are lost and need Christ. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.