Rick Warren - We Are Ambassadors - Part Three

Hey, everybody, we are so glad you're here with us today.

On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, Rick Warren continues with an

inspiring news series called what does it Really Mean to

Follow Jesus Now? In this powerful teaching, Rick dives into

God's word to explore how we grow spiritually represent Christ

in the world and find our place in God's family

through the church. It's a fresh look at discipleship, purpose

and the life changing power of spiritual community. And now

here's the final part of a message called we Are Ambassadors.

The third responsibility of an ambassador Number one. I must

set the example, I must share the message. I must

show love. I must show love to everybody. Because if

you're an ambassador, you've got to have a big heart

and you got to show love. Why must an ambassador

of Jesus Christ show love to everybody? Because God is

love and if you show anything but love to other people,

you're not representing Jesus.

God is love.

Now, how do I show love to the people in

my life? The people I work with, my neighbors, my family,

my coworkers, my enemies, my boss. How do I do it?

Three ways? It's the next three verses. The first way

I show.

Love is by using my life to meet others' needs.

When you use your life to meet the needs of

other people in a practical way, whether it's taking them

a meal, or helping them with a project, or offering

them a ride, or praying for them, or you know,

picking up something at the grocery thing, or helping them

with a plan or a deal. Every time you do

practical help to somebody else, you serve others, you're ministering

to them. You're showing love to meet their needs. Now,

this is what an ambassador does. The Bible says this.

In First Thessalonians two. Paul says, we loved you so much.

He's talking about the people in this town in Greece

called Thessalonika. He said, we loved you so much that

we gave you not only God's good news that's number two,

but number three our own lives as well. Now, if

you're going to be an ambassador, some of the time,

you got to get out of the embassy.

Does that make sense?

If you spend all your whole Christian life is spent

inside the four walls of the church, you're not much

of an ambassador. You got to get out where people

are hurting, where they're needed, where they're loved, need love,

and now where they need help and concern. So you've

got to get out out of the embassy and into

the interior, using.

My life to meet others need.

Second way, you show love by giving respect to everyone.

By giving respect to everyone, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ,

you are not allowed to be disrespectful to anyone. Why

Because God values every person. Doesn't matter who they are,

what they've done, who they've done it with, or how

long they've done it. They have the dignity of being

created in the image of God, and the Bible says

this on the screen one Peter two seventeen.

Treat everyone you like with dignity or doesn't say that?

Does it treat everyone you agree with politically with dignity? No,

it says, treat everyone you meet with dignity. That means

even the people who voted differently than you.

You may not put them down.

You may not use sarcasm and slice and dice and

use the same kind of words that the world does

for people you disagree with. Treat everyone you meet with dignity,

Love your spiritual family, revere God, and respect the government.

That doesn't say respect the government. If you voted for him,

you didn't. Maybe you didn't vote for the city council,

you still need to respect them. Maybe you didn't vote

for the governor, you still to respect them. Senator President whoever,

it doesn't matter me. The Bible says respect the government.

Why because as representatives of Jesus, we show dignity to everybody. Everyone,

We show love and kindness. Let me ask you, this

is an ambassador dogmatic or diplomatic, diplomatic. They don't stay

as ambassadors very long if they're not diplomatic. When you

find a dog maa Christian, they are not an ambassador

of Jesus.

They may be on the.

Radio, they may be on television, they may write books

or blogs or whatever. If they're dogmatic, they may be right,

but they're wrong because they're not being diplomatic. The Bible

says we're to do everything in love. We're to respect everyone,

doesn't matter who they are, what they are, what they've done.

I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but

most of the time when I'm not at saddleback, I'm

speaking to people who totally disagree with me. Almost all

the time I'm speaking to group, and that gets me

in a lot of trouble.

Okay.

I speak to other religions, to atheists, to Muslims, to Jewish,

to Buddhists, the secularists. I speak most of the time

when I'm not saddled backed to groups who totally disagree

with me.

Why.

Because I am an ambassador. That's my job, and you

are an ambassador too. Ambassadors don't speak to their own country.

They speak to everybody else who's not in their country.

They even speak to their enemies. And we are to

show the message with love and kindness. In fact, here's

what the Bible says. Be ready at all times to

answer anyone who asked you to explain the hope you

have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.

You and I are called to be gentle with everybody

and to respect everybody. It doesn't matter what they say

to me, doesn't matter how much they lie about me,

doesn't matter how they accuse me. I am forbidden to

hate anybody. I am forbidden to retaliate on anybody. I

am forbidden to attack back. Why because I represent Jesus,

and Jesus said you turn the other cheek. Jesus said,

you overcome evil with good. The Bible says you bless

those who persecute you. I am forbidden from using the

same tactics that people use against you.

Or me or anybody else.

Why Because I am an ambassador of Jesus Christ, and

we are to be known by meeting others' needs, by

loving respecting everybody. And here's the third thing we're to do.

I must show love by building bridges. I must show

love by building bridges. Ambassadors build bridges, not walls.

Now.

On First Corinthians, chapter nine, it tells us this. He's

talking about dealing with unbelievers. Whatever a person is like,

I try to find common ground with him. Okay, it

doesn't matter what he is. May be another culture, maybe

another race, another language, another political party, another religion, another lifestyle.

He said, whatever.

Person's like, I try to find common ground with him.

Why to be popular, no here, so that he will

let me tell him about Christ.

And let Christ save him. I'm an ambassador.

I do this why to get the good news to them,

and also for the blessing I myself receive when I

see them come to Christ. Anytime you see your pastor

speaking to any group, whether I've spoken to intellectual groups.

In the last couple of years, I've spoken at Harvard,

at Oxford, at Cambridge, at Jewish University, at intellectual things

like the aspen Idea Center. I've spoken to groups like

political gris groups on every possible side. I've spoken to

every possible religion. You can imagine. When you see that,

you need to understand I don't have any faith at

all in politics' ability to change human lives. Politics can't

change a human heart. If I believed it could, I'd

go in the government, but I don't. You cannot force

somebody to be good by a law. It has to

be an internal change in their heart. And you need

to understand that. All these people I speak to, why

do I do it so I can get the good

news to them.

I'm building bridges, not walls.

By the way, how do you know when you're building

a bridge you get walked on?

Count on it.

You get walked on. That's what bridges are for. And

so you know, if you're building a bridge, if you

get walked on. Now, if you never get walked on,

what are you doing. You're not building any bridges, You're

only building walls. Walls don't get walked on. Bridges get

walked on. And my goal and your goal as an

ambassador of Jesus is that we build a bridge of

respect and love to everybody so that Jesus Christ can

walk across.

That's the goal. That's the reason we.

Try to find common ground so we can do this. Now,

what's the reward. We've looked at the role of an ambassador,

we looked at the responsibilities. Now what's the rewards for

being an ambassador? Oh, it's good Colossians chapter three. Whatever

you do, always work at it with all your heart.

Now I want to circle whatever you do and all

your heart. Now, I don't care what you do. The

Bible says, no matter what you do, you should be

enthusiastic at it. If you work at Taco bell, you

better be enthusiastic about it. If you do gardening, you

better be enthusiastic about it. If you do daycare or hospice,

or you close multimillion dollar deals, or you drive a bus,

or whatever you do. The Bible says, whatever you do

as a believer, you are to do it with all

your heart. You are to do it with enthusiasm. Why,

because you represent Jesus. You are to do it with

all your heart as though you were working for the Lord,

not for people.

Because you are working for the Lord.

Remember that the Lord will give you here. It is

as a reward the inheritance he has kept for his people.

God has some big plans for you in heaven. He

has rewards. He has an inheritance for you in heaven,

and he's keeping it there. For Christ is the real

master you serve.

Now.

You don't have to like your boss, but you do

have to treat them with respect and dignity. And the

Bible says, regardless of who your boss is, you're to

just do your work as if you're working for Jesus.

And that's why you do what you do, not because

you want to please that person, because you want to

please the Lord. And he says when you do that,

it will produce great reward in your life. I want

to do something this weekend I've never done before. I

want to read from a well known book, nice cover,

purpose driven life. Imagine if you were asked by your

country to be an ambassador to an enemy nation. You

probably would have to learn a new language, You have

to adopt to some customs and cultural differences. In order

to be polite and accomplish your mission as an ambassador,

you would not be able to isolate yourself from the enemy.

You couldn't stay in the embassy all the time. You'd

have to fulfill your mission. You'd have to make contact

with people and relate to them, the people who disagree

with you. I suppose you became so comfortable as an

ambassador with this foreign country you're in that you fell

in love with it, and you started preferring it to

your own homeland. Your loyalty and commitment would change. Your

role as an ambassador would be compromised, and instead of

representing your home country, you would start acting like the enemy.

You would be a trader. The Bible says, we are

ambassadors for Christ. Sadly, many Christians have betrayed their king

and his kingdom. They have foolishly concluded that because they

live on earth, that earth is their home.

It is not.

The Bible is clear, friend, this world is not your home,

the Bible says, so don't make yourself cozy in it.

Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.

God wants us to not get too attached to what's

around us because it's all temporary. The Bible tells us

those in frequent contact with the things of this world

should make good use of them without becoming attached to them.

For this world and all it contains is going to

pass away. In order to keep us from becoming too

attached to Earth, God allows us to feel a significant

amount of discontent and satisfaction, dissatisfaction in life, longings that

will never be fulfilled in your life on this side

of eternity. We're not completely happy here on Earth because

we're not supposed to be. Earth is not our final home.

We were created for something much much better. A fish

would never be happy living on land because it was

made for water. An eagle could never feel satisfied if

it wasn't allowed to fly. You will never feel completely

satisfied here on Earth because you were made for far more.

You'll have happy moments here, yes, but nothing compared to

what God has planned for you in heaven. Realizing that

life on Earth is just a temporary assignment should radically

alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become

the deciding factors for all your decisions.

As C. S.

Lewis said, all that is not eternal is eternally useless.

The Bible says, we fix our eyes not on what

is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is

seen is temporary, but what we cannot see is eternal.

So it's a fatal mistake to assume that God's goal

for your life is material prosperity, your popular success.

As the world defines it.

Abundant life has nothing to do with material abundance, and

faithfulness to God does not guarantee success in a career

or even in ministry. An old story is often repeated

of a retiring missionary coming back home to America on

the same boat as the President of the United States.

Cheering crowds and a military band and a red carpet

and banners and the media all welcomed the present home

with great fanfare, but the missionary slipped off the same

ship unnoticed. Feeling self pity and resentment, the missionary began

to complain to God. Then God gently reminded him, but

my son, you're not home yet. You will not be

in heaven two seconds before you cry out, why did

I play so much importance on things that were temporary?

What was I thinking?

Why did I waste so much time and energy and

concern on what wasn't going to last. When life gets tough,

and when you're overwhelmed with doubt, when you wonder if

living for Christ is worth the effort, you need to

remember that this isn't your home and you're not home yet.

You see it death. You won't leave home, You'll go home.

It's power heads. Did you pray this prayer in your heart?

Dear Jesus, I realize that to follow you means to

be your ambassador, that it means to represent you in

the world. And I ask you to forgive me for

failing in my mission. Forgive me for the times that

I have been silent and not shared your message. Forgive

me for the times that I have not been a

good example. Forgive me for the times that I have

been just as unloving as others. And I have returned

evil for evil rather than returning good for evil. I

want my life to reflect you, Jesus. I want you

to use my life to meet the needs of other people.

I want you to help me to learn to respect

and treat every person with dignity, no matter who they

are or what they say to me.

I want to be a bridge builder, not a wall builder.

And whatever I do, I want to do it with

all my heart as you've commanded me to do. Because

I represent you. Help me to get out of the embassy,

to reach one more person. For Jesus, God, I ask

you to give me the privilege of bringing one person

into your family this year. I want to reach one

more for you and Lord, I ask you that when

times are tough and I begin to focus on what

I don't have and what I need, to realize that

this life here is just temporary and the one day

I will be with you for eternity. And I want

to hear you say well done, good and faithful servant.

If you've never invited Christ into your life, say Jesus Christ,

come into my heart right now. I want to be

on your team. I want to follow you. I want

you to be my.

God, my boss, my manager.

I want to learn to love you and trust you

in this year and be your representative.

Thank you for ending the war.

Thank you for offering the message of peace, Jesus, thank

you for offering forgiveness. They ask you to give me

that forgiveness in your name. I pray Amen. You know

if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time,

or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today.

Would you let me know about it. There's something real

about sharing your commitment. So write me Rick at pastor

rick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer

of commitment, I gave my life to Christ. And I'll

send you some material that will help you on your

journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you. God

bless you.

Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and

listening to Pastor Rick's daily hope. Pastor Rick Warren teamed

up with a talented artist to create the stunning children's

book Words to Love By. Written with warmth and wisdom,

it speaks to the hearts of little ones. Words to

Love By takes children on a joyful, grace filled journey

exploring the power of words. Through charming illustrations and engaging text,

Young readers will understand how their words can change their

lives and the lives of those around them. Kids learn

that while words may be small, they can do big things.

Words can encourage, and they can spread love and kindness,

and they let us know we are not alone. This

book is hardcover and is written especially for children ages

four through eight. It makes a perfect gift for the

kids God has placed in your life today. When you

give a gift to help Daily Hope take the certain

Hope of Jesus to people worldwide, we'll send you the

hardcover book Words to Love by by Rick Warren as

our way of saying thanks. Just go to pastorick dot

com to get your copy of this great resource. That's

pastorick dot com. Or you can just text the word

hope to seven oh three oh nine and again, that's

the word hope to seven oh three oh nine. Please

join us next time as we look into God's.

Word for our daily hope.

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