Q+A 1: Who Are We?
Tim Ross | January 3, 2021
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Transcription
Happy New Year again. How many people are excited to be in the building today Wow, I am so excited to be here. Last night was like before the first day of school. I laid my clothes out. I put my shoes out. I ironed my stuff. I hung it up and then I couldn't sleep. I kept waking up in the middle of the night like, "Is it time yet?" We didn't know what to expect when we got here. We had no bets, but we were like, "What's the over-under? Who do we think was going to be there?" We were like, "We don't know." We don't know who wants to be at home. We don't know who wants to be here.
Listen, I just want to say that whether you are in the room or you're watching us online, you're in the right place. Wherever you decided to be today, you are in the right place. I know that God has so much in store for us for this season that I want to jump into a new series because I'm just excited and I feel like I'm about to jump out of my skin. Y'all have been so patient and so generous.
Do you know that five days from now, it would have been 10 months since we had our last service? The last time we were in here on a Sunday morning was March 8th of 2020. God has done a lot since then. The calibration that He gave us between the end of November and December was that this was a master reset. How many people feel reset? How many of you all feel like there's a reset that's happened in your life? It hasn't just happened internally. It's happened externally as well.
For those that call Embassy City home, when you walked in here, there was a reset to this building. You walked in, it was like, "Am I in the right-- whose church is this?" All of these resets give us the reflection that something new is about to happen for us. In that vein, I'm starting a new series this weekend called Q&A, questions and answers. Whether you're in the building or you're watching us online, here's what I want you to have the framework of.
I want to answer questions that pertain to this house. I want to answer questions that pertain to who God has called us to be, what He's called us to do, when He wants us to do it, where He wants us to do it, why He wants us to do it, how He-- all the questions. Who, what, why, when, where, and how. Let me ask this question. How many people have questioned 2021? How many people came into this year with some questions? I know you've got goals.
I know you made some resolutions, but how many people came in with some questions like, "We got this one. We wrote that down"? How is this going to happen? When am I supposed to do this? Where should I go? What should I do? I want to answer some questions as it pertains to the house because I think if we can answer those questions, we can see God give us some answers that we desperately need. The series is Q&A, okay? This first message, if you're taking notes and you should be taking notes, "Why-"
-“nerds rule the world."
Even under a mask, y'all got it, "nerds rule the world." If you're taking notes, the title of this message is simply, who are we? The question that I want to answer today, who are we? When I say "we," I'm talking about specifically Embassy City Church, but I know I'm talking to the big church, big C church. I know it's not just for here. I know it's also for there. I want to shout-out people that are watching us live all over this country.
I want to shout-out people that are watching us live, staying up late in Africa and in Australia because y'all are crazy and you need some sleep. You got some coffee and I don't know what you're doing up, but you're watching us because over the last 10 months, our family's gotten bigger. It's not just who is in here. It's also who's watching us there. I want to answer the question, who are we? Would you just turn to your neighbor real quick and just say, "Who are you?"
Who are you?
Turn to your other neighbor and say, "Other neighbor."
Other neighbor.
Who are you?
Who are you?
Let me give you 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. I'm reading from the 11th verse down through the 21st verse. St. Corinthians 5:11. Here's what it says, "Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere and I hope that you know this too." Are we committing ourselves to you again? No. We are giving you a reason to be proud of us.
You can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. If it seems that we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. Can I just stop right there? If I'm crazy, I'm trying to bring glory to God. That's my disclaimer because I know I'm a little throat, okay? If we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. In a way, Christ's love controls us.
Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ who died and was raised for them. We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. I want to take my time right here. We have stopped evaluating people from a human point of view.
There was a lot of evaluation in 2020 from a human point of view. There were a lot of judgments made in 2020 from a human point of view. Paul says that we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view, which implies that he used to do it too. He says at one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. I love this next sentence, "How differently we know him now."
It's easy to get things wrong when you just have it from your human point of view. It's easy to judge people when you only see them from your human point of view. It's easy to mistake God's love when you only see it from your human point of view. What changes? What changes that we changed from a human point of view to heaven's point of view? When we started seeing things from heaven's point of view, we started seeing people differently.
From a human point of view, we go, "I can't stand that person." From heaven's point of view, you go, "That person is broken." From a human point of view, you say, "I'm not going to be associated with that individual because of this reason and that reason." From a heaven's point of view, you go, "Wow, it's a shame that that brokenness has manifested in these actions or behaviors."
From a human point of view, you look at God's love and go, "Oh, I better do right because I might get spanked." From heaven's point of view, you say, "I appreciate God's love in spite of my actions where I should have got a spanking. Christ took it for me." We've stopped evaluating others and Christ from a human point of view, how differently we know Him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone. A new life has begun. All of this is a gift from God who brought us back to Himself through Christ. God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. "For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. No longer counting people's sins against them and He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation." We are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God for God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ." That's so good. Bow our heads. Let's pray over the word, shall we? Holy Spirit, tell us who we are. Amen. Let's go. I got a lot of time to think this year. I got a lot of time to just pontificate, to muse what is going on in the world.
I've had a lot of time to think about what has happened over the last 12 months. As a result, I had some questions. I figured I had some answers, but I had some questions. I am an introvert, which doesn't mean I don't like people. It just means that I get recharged when I have time alone. I'm a thinker. I have a lot of time or I make a lot of time to just spend in solitude so that I can let my thoughts just float out there.
Some of them are stupid and they just float away. Some have more substance and then those that have a little bit of substance, I take it to the word of God and I weigh those thoughts against the word of God to figure out if I'm thinking clearly or if it's just my human point of view. All of my human points of views are submitted to the word of God because at the end of the day when I open my mouth, I want to say what heaven has to say, not what Tim has to say.
Because a lot of times, Tim is just in his feeling. Tim has a lot of opinions, but Tim's thinking and opinions will not change anybody. It's only God's word that will change. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that we are the people that He has called, God has called, to be representations of heaven on earth. He has, throughout his written epistles, been sprinkling what seems to be like breadcrumbs across his letters as it relates to this thought of reconciliation.
In Romans 5, he talks about what it costs God to reconcile the world to himself, that it costs God literally His own son for us to be back in a fateful committed relationship with Him. He drops a breadcrumb. He goes on and writes to the Colossians that if you want to know about the reconciliation power of Jesus Christ, it's not just to bring humanity back to Him but to bring the universe, the entire cosmos back to Him that in Christ, the one who is supreme above all, we find ourselves reconciled in Him.
The earth finds itself reconciled in Him. The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets find themselves reconciled because of the word of God. In the book of Ephesians, He drops another huge breadcrumb. I talked about this over the summer when the nation was flaring around racism and injustice. I talked about the reconciliation of Christ and the church that a Jewish man and his broken body on the cross reconciled Jews and Gentiles.
In breaking down a wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, we are unified as one body. We are the church, the expression to the entire world that we can get along. Not because we have a lot of stuff in common but because we have our savior in common. The fullest revelation is what we just read in St. Corinthians 5 because he's not just talking about what it costs God in Romans. He's not just talking about the cosmos in Colossians.
He's not just talking about breaking down walls, the hostility between Jews and Gentiles, Blacks and Whites, Republicans and Democrats, renters and buyers, those that eat meat and those that do not. He says, "I want to bring this all the way back down to you. We've reconciled you so that you can do this for others." Point number one, I want you to write this down. I only have two points to this message, but I have six bullets. Y'all got that? I'm in Texas, so I want to be clear on my bullets.
Bullet points, okay? I got them other bullets too. They're hollow.
I will throw them things at you if necessary. I'm just playing. No, I'm not.
Point number one, please write this down. We are reconcilers. We are reconcilers. We're answering the question this weekend. Who are we? We are reconcilers. When you leave today, there's going to be two points that I want you to write down. When somebody asks you, "Who are you?" You tell them, "I am a reconciler." Here's what it says in 2 Corinthians 5:18, "And all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to Himself through Christ and God has given us--" Who?
Us.
Who?
Us.
Who?
Us.
I know you got a mask on. Who?
Us.
"He has given us this task of reconciling people to Him." Who?
Us.
Not the pastor, not the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. That's y'all's job. I'm just here. Do you? Go get him. Preach the word. Holler at your boy. Can you pray for my friend? Us. Not just the worship leader, not just the person that has a doctorate in divinity, a master's in theology, a BA in biblical studies. Who?
Us.
Us. We have this task of reconciliation and the reconciliation is not to each other. It's to God. This is why over the summer when everybody was talking about racism and they were like, "Come on, we got to reconcile. Black and White people, we're sorry. Let's reconcile," I was like, "There's no such thing as racial reconciliation." They all looked at me.
"No, brother, we have to be reconciled. Come on racial recon--- Come on, God wants us to be reconciled to each other." I said, "What? Racial reconciliation in America? It's an oxymoron." Reconcile means to restore to a previous relationship. "What was that?"
"Do you want me back on a boat or do you simply want me on your land?" The biblical message of reconciliation has nothing to do with race. It actually has something to do with a relationship. It's not to each other, it's to Him. Because if you're not reconciled to Him, you won't be reconciled to me.
I had to go in there and I'm crossing wires. Racial reconciliation, no. Huh? Be reconciled to God. Okay. Now, we can be brothers because if we got the same daddy, then we're brothers and sisters. Anytime siblings fight, the parents get involved. It's hard to leave it alone because I did it over the summer, so you can go back and watch it. Write this down. I want you to write down this definition of reconcile or reconciliation. What is it? What is it that I want you to be? Here's what it says. Reconciler. Please write this down.
A person called upon to call people-- I want you to get this. A person called upon to call people to accept what God has done so that they can be made right with God through Christ. If anybody asks you what a reconciler is, a reconciler is a person called upon to call people to accept what God has done so that they can be made right with God through Christ. That's all reconciliation is.
This is our assignment. This is who we are. This is why Christ died. There's three things I want you to know about reconciliation. These are my bullets, my first three bullets. Three things to remember about reconciliation. Here's the first one. Write this down. Christ died for all believers. Why do I want us to reach everybody with the gospel of Jesus Christ? It's very, very simple.
Because Christ died for everybody. If in your evangelistic efforts, you only reach out to people who look like you, dress like you, talk like you, walk like you, have your native tongue, come from the block you came from, went to the school you went to, if that's the only people you reach out to, you're not following the biblical mandate of reconciliation.
The reason why we've gone 10 months without having a service and we show back up 10 months later and we still got everybody in this room, it's because the gospel is for everybody. Christ died for everybody. Now, this means something to me because I just want to keep it real. I am a Black man who was born in Inglewood, California, the hood, okay? The hood-hood. If you don't know what the word "ghetto bird" means, you have not grown up in the hood. A ghetto bird is not an Indigenous bird that is only found in urban areas. A ghetto bird is a helicopter that flies very, very low in inner-city neighborhoods trying to catch people who are criminals.
When you can go to sleep to gunshots, that's the hood, okay? When you have to change what you wear based on where you're driving through in neighborhoods, that's the hood. "Oh, we're in a Blood neighborhood. Change your shirt," "Crip neighborhood. Change your shirt," "Eses. Change everything."
Shout-out to my Hispanic people. Being that I am a Black man who was born in Inglewood and raised by a Black family and went to a Black Pentecostal church, you would think that this would be a room full of Black people that I'd be preaching to, except the gospel is bigger than Black. Gospel is bigger than White. Gospel is bigger than Hispanic and Native American and Southeast Asian and whatever 23andMe or ancestry.com has shown you since you spit in that tube. Gospel is bigger than that. Gospel is bigger than America.
Hoo, I can stay right there. Gospel is bigger than England. It's bigger than Australia. It's bigger than Singapore, bigger than China. The gospel message is one-size-fits-all. Why would you hinder someone from receiving it because they don't look like you or have the same experience as you? Why would you hinder communicating to them because they don't come from where you come from or understand what you've been through? Why would you hinder the gospel message because it doesn't fit your narrow parameters?
Because Christ died for everybody, we reconcile everybody. Here's the second bullet. Please write this down. In Christ, believers also die to sin and self. I hope this helps somebody. Christ died for everybody. In Christ, believers die to sin and self. Anybody besides me can admit that some of the death is slow? Show of hands. How many people have-- Thank you all. I love you all. You all are refreshingly honest. I said it the first time, you all was like, "Okay, yes, you know."
Show of hands, "Yes, sir."
Death is not something that anybody wants to do, but why do we do it? We die to sin and we die to self so that we can get out of God's way to reconcile people to Himself. God's not trying to get you over your sin merely so that you can understand what freedom looks like. He wants you to get over your sin so that you can experience it and then others can experience it in you. Point number three, third bullet, all believers live for Christ. Now, if you're going to be a reconciler, you have to understand this. All believers live for Christ. Would you say this after me? "I live for Christ."
I live for Christ.
Again, "I live for Christ." One more time. "I live for Christ." If you're watching us online, put that in the chat right now, "I live for Christ." This needs to be a reminder to us every day that we're not living for ourselves, that you're waking up in the morning that you have some things that you are going to do. There's some things that God has wired you and purpose you to do. In that life that you are living at, you are not merely living it for yourself. You are living it for Christ.
That means in every situation, you need to be reflecting Christ's likeness no matter what the situation is. Hoo. The reason why I'm tickled because when I'm preaching, stuff comes to my mind, and then I'm like, "Should I say that?" It's just, "What? Really?" 2020s post in social media had me thinking, "People don't even know who Jesus is." I'm not talking about unsafe people. I'm talking about born-again Christians based on post alone because there's a difference between judgment and fruit inspection. Yes, let me just marinate this chicken.
There is a difference between judgment and fruit inspection. I hear people say all the time, "Only God can judge me." I'm like, "Tupac is dead."
Only God can judge me, okay? Only God can judge you. Got it. That's absolutely true. Christ even says this. Only God can judge. Judgment deals with eternity. Only God is going to determine where I spend eternity. Fruit inspection? Fruit inspection? That's my privilege. That's how God keeps me safe. Is by me deserving fruit? This is the reason why you haven't died of poison, right? Because you know I shouldn't eat-- that don't smell right. That don't look right, right? Y'all still pulling out gallons of milk like.
"You think that's still good? You smell it." Don't you hate when people do that? They smell something, "Oh God. Smell this," and you're like, "Well, listen, if that was your reaction, what you want my nose up in there for? Pour it out already." You're looking at me crazy. "Smell this room. Hey, this tastes funny. Would you taste this now, man? If it tastes funny to you, it's going to taste funny to me. Throw that out."
What is fruit inspection for? It's a safety mechanism so that you don't wind up around people who are toxic. We inspect fruit and it's easy to inspect fruit. Scripture says in Galatians 5 that the fruit of the spirit is-- There's nine things. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. Oh, somebody made some-- It's only nine, so I know that first one.
The last one is self-control.
Self-control. The first one is love. The last one is self-control. Look how He booked into that. I want you to love and I want you to show some restraint for yourself and others. Last year, I saw a lot of fruit that didn't look like that. That's not a judgment. That's just me going, "Oh, that. Uh-mmh. You can't keep calling yourself orange because you have clearly shown me banana-like behavior."
"You're too yellow and you've been peeled back too many times to keep trying to tell me you're orange. You are a banana."
"Stop trying to play me. I know bananas. I know oranges. I know kiwi.
I'm not making a judgment against you. I'm calling a spade a spade. Last week, I was like, "Banana, banana, banana-nana fofana."
"Banana, banana, banana. Orange, orange, orange, yay, orange." Needs it, needs it. Yes, amen, orange. Banana? Now, please, I don't have nothing against literal bananas. I don't want nobody thinking, "I can't have banana pudding anymore." Food inspection is different. We are to be people who reconcile people back to God based on what Christ has done. Point number one, who are we?
Reconcilers.
Thank you so much. It's not a trick question. Who are we?
Reconcilers.
Put it in the chat. Who are we? Reconcilers. We reconcile people back to God. That's who we are. That's who we are here at Embassy City Church. We reconcile people back to God. I holler at everybody. Everywhere I go, I upset people's world. Everywhere I go. Listen, I evangelize everywhere I go, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostic, people that hate church, people who have been hurt by church.
I don't care and I don't care who they are, what their upbringing is, what they feel like. I'm like, "So anyway, let me go ahead and give you this book," because I'm down to reconcile everybody back to Christ. Point number two, please write this down. Who are we? Point number one, reconcilers. Who are we? Point number two, we are ambassadors. No duh, we are ambassadors.
2 Corinthians 5:20, "So we are Christ's ambassadors." Thank you, Paul. "We are Christ's ambassadors." God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God." I know Nathan and Noah are watching right now. If I were to ask them what ambassadors say, pop quiz out of nowhere. If I would just walk up to them and say, "Nathan, Noah, what do ambassadors do? What do ambassadors tell people?" they'll just say, "Come back to God."
When all the 12 and 10-year-old energy, they got, "Come back to God."
My 10-year-old's really turned up. He'll say, "Come back to God," and then he'll hit you with a--
It was like just spontaneous dance breaks out on the other side of his ambassadorial assignment. We are Christ's ambassadors. God is making His appeal through us. I know that my ethnicity flavors everything that I do, but my mindset when I am preaching is that I'm talking to nations. It's the reason why I've been able to travel all around the world. Literally got a stamp in a passport to almost every country in the world. Why? Because the Bible is a one-size-fits-all Bible.
Everybody can find themselves in here even if they can't find themselves in me. Everybody is a part of the redemption story. Everybody doesn't have the story that they was born in the hood, but everybody has the story that they were born into sin. Because of that, this gospel travels. I don't want to preach a gospel that has a four-mile radius. I don't want to preach a gospel that only appeals to one ethnicity.
I don't want to preach a gospel that only percept the ears of a certain type of person. I know everybody has discretion on whether they want to go to church. When I preach, I'm trying to reach everybody because I'm an ambassador. As an ambassador, I've been sent on assignment to speak as a representation of heaven on earth. His definition of ambassador, please, please, please write this down.
Ambassador. You should feel something when I read this. You should perk up a little bit, okay? A diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative. I'm going to say it again. A diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative, or if I want to put the emphasis on a different syllable, resident representative. We represent God to the world.
You are, right now, a diplomat of the highest rank. That should make you feel a little special. Not prideful, but confident that when you walk into any space, you don't walk in alone. When you walk into a space, your presence literally changes the atmosphere because of who you are carrying on the inside. You are a diplomatic official of the highest rank. When you walk into a room, the atmosphere changes because of who you are carrying on the inside of you.
I feel like a preacher right now. The Ark of the Covenant was where God manifested His presence in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it's you, it's me. He's no longer being carried around being represented in an object. Hoo, he's walking around being represented in you. When you show up, He shows up. That's why God has you at that job. That's why God has you in that school.
That's why God puts you in that family. Not just for you, but there should be something in you that transforms what's on the inside of them. That's why you can't stoop down to their level. That's why you can't get caught up in petty arguments, in feuds, in disagreements that don't produce any fruit. Why? Because you're an ambassador. I was in Florida a few years back and my wife was down at the pool with her friends and I was flicking through channels. I knew I had because I'm 45. I'll be 46. I know I look great.
I know, I know, I know. It's just that melanin is popping. That's just all that is.
It's just the way it was set up. It's not my fault. Shout out to my ancestors. I don't know. I knew I had crossed 40 because I was flicking through channels and where I used to stop at Cartoon Network and Food Network. I stopped on C-SPAN. I said, "I must be getting old because I'm interested in C-SPAN." It wasn't just interesting, muy interesante. I'm watching C-SPAN and the ambassador to the UN was talking to a group of people for an hour.
The ambassador was talking to this group of people and she was fielding all these questions for one hour. She never gave her opinion about one thing that they asked her. The only thing she kept repeating was the current administration's policies, procedures, and protocols. No matter what they asked her, she just kept repeating the nation and the current president. Not this current president, but the current president at the time. I think it was Obama's administration.
She kept repeating his procedures, his protocols, his practices. She never gave her opinion on anything. At the end, somebody asked her a question and her response was so cold. I said, "Oh, I'm going to do this the rest of my life." Somebody asked her a question and her response without breaking a sweat, without changing her disposition was, "You have the privilege to dabble in hypotheticals, I do not."
Hoo, that thing was so stanky. She said, "You have the privilege to dabble in hypotheticals, I do not. The only thing I can say as an ambassador is what they already say. I can't make nothing up. I can't give you my opinion. I can't give you what I think about it. The only thing I can repeat is what the President has said." The only thing I can repeat is what my King has said.
I cannot change the Bible to suit you. I can only say what's already been said whether you like it or not. Here are the two bullets I want you to have. For point number two, two things about being an ambassador. Number one, it's a privilege. I want you to understand, you have the privilege of being an ambassador. This should not make you cocky. It should not make you arrogant. It should not make you feel yourself.
You should feel honored that you have the privilege to be an ambassador. Out of all the people in the whole world, He chose you. Out of all the people to carry His presence, He chose you. Out of all the people in the entire world that He could have chose to represent His glory on earth, He chose your body with your mind, with your issues, with your behavior, with your hang-ups, with your idiosyncrasies.
You're talking about leveling the playing field. Who's going to be an ambassador? Surely people that are educated, surely people that have risen to the upper echelon of intellectual rigor as it relates to the theological conundrums of the text. "No, I'll take them too, but I'll also take Sally." "Sally?" "Yes, Sally." "Sally from the valley?" That same Sally. I'll take the person with a degree and the person without one because this privilege is for everybody.
Here's the second bullet point I want you to have and please, please, please get this. We don't speak for God. God speaks through us. I'm going to say it again. We don't speak for God. God speaks through us. Remember what Paul said, "We are Christ's ambassadors. God is making His appeal through us." We don't speak for God. God speaks through us. We open up our mouths and we let God speak His words through us.
I love that this series is called Q&A, but I also personally love Q&A. I did this thing called Talk On Tuesday over the summer last year where, on Instagram Live, I just let people call. Well, they didn't call. I just let people jump on Instagram Live and just ask questions. God was giving me answers because He was speaking through me to them. If I didn't have an answer, I just said, "I don't know."
Some people were like, "Well, what about this?" I was like, "I can't call it. I don't know." If God didn't have anything to say, I didn't say anything. If he had something to say, I said it. If it's something I already read and already know in the book, I just repeated it. Why? I don't speak for God. God doesn't need me to defend Him. I'm going to help somebody right now. Last year, there was a lot of people trying to defend God.
Everybody's social media posts are trying to defend God. A lot of people's sermons we're trying to defend God. God doesn't need defense if the government is on His shoulders. If the government is truly on His shoulders, do you honestly think He needs you to get into a fight over what this government is trying to do? Do you honestly think He needs you? "I got to give him a piece of my mind."
You scrolling through, you see a post, and you just triggered, "I got to tell him."
I told him. You should have saw the comment I wrote. "You saw that post? You should have saw what I posted back." All of heaven is like, "Did they just spend two hours fighting in a dam and you talking on behalf of God?" As if God needed your defense, as if Christianity hasn't been resilient over the last 2,000 years, He needed your post. We don't speak for God. He speaks through us.
You know when He wants to speak through you because it's going to have the fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit. You know He's not speaking through you if you can't find the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Long-suffering, right? Temperance was one of those fruits. How many people had a short fuse last year? I'm talking, couldn't take two minutes worth of nothing. "How are you doing?" "Fine." "Are you sure?" "I said I'm fine."
"I was just trying to check on you, but I can see you've got some things going on right now." Who are we?
Reconcilers and ambassadors.
Who are we?
Reconcilers and ambassadors.
Who are we?
Reconcilers and ambassadors.
Come on. Stay it until it feels good. Who are we?
Reconcilers and ambassadors
Put it in the chat. Who are we?
Reconcilers and ambassadors.
This is who we are. This is who we get to be. On the first day of the New Year, I didn't want to give you nothing that rhymed with 21.
I wanted to come in here, "You ain't done in 21. You're going to have fun in 21. You're about to run in 21. Honeybun in 21." No, no, no. You just, "Oh God, oh God, oh God."
They ran in a whole circle and still don't know who you are.
No, not going to be me. I have an assignment. Hoo, I have an assignment and my assignment is to tell you who you are according to the word of God, not according to your feelings. We are reconcilers. We are ambassadors. God is making His appeal through us to the entire world when we open up our mouths confidently and declare, "Come back to God." It's one of the biggest privileges that we can have.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? First message of the year. God, I need a word from You. I need You to tell me what You want me to do. First message of the year. "Let me tell you who you are. Let me tell you how I see you. I know you've been told by a lot of people over the last year how they think about you, how they see you, how they observe you."
"Let me tell you what I think about you. I think that you are a reconciler. In the same way that I brought you to Me, I want you to bring others. You are an ambassador, a diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by Me to that job, that family, that school, that situation as My resident representative. You get to go into that situation and let people know who I am through you."
You may not always open up your mouth and say, "I'm a Christian. I'm a believer," but they will know you by your fruit. After a while, when they finish inspecting that love, that patience, that long-suffering, that joy, that temperance, that self-control, after the end, concluding their fruit especially, they're just going to have to say, "That person must be a child of God. Their actions display it. I'd be shocked if they weren't a person that believed in Jesus." We are His reconcilers and His ambassadors.
Whether you're in this room or you're watching us online, God's going to do some amazing things through us this year. It's going to be because of the grace that He has given us to be who He has called us to be. Holy Spirit, I am so thankful for every person that decided to come today in-person, that decided to be with us online. God, I pray that those that have been far from You would draw nearer and those that are near would come even closer. Let this all be done for Your glory, none of our credit in Jesus' name. Amen.
