Ambassadors for Christ

Thank you very much.

Well, it's a great privilege to be here with you today and to minister alongside Patrick again.

He is one of those great guys, gifted in God's word and uh being a great ambassador for Christ, and he never ages.

That's uh that's a really disturbing thing for me.

Uh most of my family is here, and uh my wife and two sons are here.

We also have another daughter, but I want to just give you a little look.

I love to play golf, and so that's what the background is gonna be today.

This is one of my favorite holes, is up at Giants Ridge called the the course is called The Legend, and uh that's one of the greatest sand traps of all time.

Takes a big hit, but it uh just kind of sucks your ball in no matter where you hit the ball.

So I thought that's just kind of a fun, fun shot.

That's our youngest son, Carson, right there.

But Carson, this last week on last Monday, we were playing in the golf scramble for our school, and the four guys in our foursome in that morning included a former professional golfer who played up in the Canadian tour quite a bit, and then also played the nationwide tour here in the U.S.

Phenomenal golfer and really fun to watch because you'd hit a really great shot you felt, and then he would go 50 yards beyond or clearer, cleaner, or more accurate.

And uh, in this particular par three, Carson was the best driver on this par three.

He just popped it up about probably 10 feet from the hole, and you can see him pretty pumped about the shot.

So Carson's going into fourth grade, he's just a great joy to us.

Uh then we have a daughter who just graduated this last this last year from Park Christian, and her name is Megan, and then Duncan is uh a sophomore this coming year at NDSU.

Megan's gonna go to MSUM in elementary ed.

Duncan's in the communication major, and at NDSU this is his sophomore year, and then that's our whole family together coming up.

There they are, uh, outside of a church that we'd like to visit Minneapolis whenever in town.

But I mentioned that golf is one of my favorite things to do as far as a pastime, and so I want to just find out what kind of a group we're working with today to find out how well you understand the game of golf and how you know history a little bit.

And so I'm gonna put up a picture here and I want us to find out if you know who this golfer is.

There's a second one also.

Did somebody say it?

Yeah, Chi Chi.

This one's a little bit easier to see.

There he is, Chi Chi Rodriguez.

Seven years ago, uh my family got to go to the champions tour event in Blaine.

And uh we got we were sitting in a tent, Duncan and Megan and I were in a tent, just kind of a display tent looking at stuff, and an announcement came over and mentioned a bunch of golfers are going to come to have their autographs offered if you wanted to go in line.

And so we thought, well, sure.

So we went and stood in line, and Chi Chi Rodriguez was the first guy out.

And uh it was a long line of which we were at the end.

I didn't know the thing was happening, apparently everybody else did.

And so we were sitting in the back of this line, and Chi Chi came out and whispered something to the security guard and the kind of crowd control gal, and she turned and said, All children, all young children, please come to the front of the line.

And so I told Duncan and Megan, I said, Go, go up there, go up, go up front.

I'm like, no, no.

So they're just kind of quiet.

I said, No, seriously.

They said go up front, go up front.

So they went up front, but I want to ask you a question.

Why do you think Chi Chi Rodriguez said, have all the young kids come to the front?

Any ideas?

Where's the future of the game of golf with the young kids?

So he said, Hey, young kids, come up front.

I want to really talk to them right now.

And so they went up front, and here's a picture of uh of whoops of Duncan uh getting an autographed by Chi Chi Rodriguez.

It was an awesome thing.

It was very fun.

And Chi Chi just loved kids because he wanted the game of golf to be strong.

So he wanted to speak into kids.

That maybe has some implications and applications for church.

So then another guy came out.

Let's see if we know who this guy is.

Hey, somebody got it.

So Lee Trevino?

Nicely done.

There he is.

Lee Trevino, he came out, was a great gentleman, just talked with everybody as they went through, and he kind of went through one, you came back around the line and did it again.

So Lee Trevino was just a great guy, just warm and friendly.

Then another guy came forward that uh maybe is a little bit more popular or famous.

Uh this first picture might be tough.

Yeah, there it is.

Arnold Palmer.

Uh, what a just a tremendous grandfather-like figure.

And uh he came out, and here's Duncan and Megan talking to Arnold Palmer.

And uh, what was awesome about that is Duncan came forward first, and Arnold Palmer just leaned across the table and he goes, Hello, young man.

And Duncan's like, well, hi.

And he goes, Do you like the game of golf?

And Duncan goes, Yes.

And he goes, You keep it fun.

And Duncan looked in.

I will.

He just he pulled you in right away.

It's like the kind of guy you want to jump over the table and say, I just have some other things I want to share with you right now.

Can you just listen?

I mean, he was just so warm and friendly.

And who can wear a pink shirt with a light blue sweater over his shoulder better than Arnold Palmer?

Huh?

So then Megan came forward and uh he looks at you, looks at her, and as she walks up, here's the first thing he says.

Oh, you're beautiful.

Megan's like, oh thanks.

Do you like the game of golf?

And Megan turned in.

No.

And he just kind of like, that's okay.

You like what you like, and you keep it fun.

And Megan turned, I will.

He was so compelling and so warm.

And in a brief interaction with these three gentlemen, especially Arnold Palmer at the end, both of my kids, both of our oldest kids, walked away with a deeper appreciation for the game of golf.

30 seconds of interaction.

They were amazing ambassadors for golf.

As I was thinking about what to share with you today, there's a lot of things that a person thinks about when they come, they get one chance to speak to a congregation, and there's just all kinds of things that happen.

Well, I thought, you know, what I want to share with you is my life verse that many years ago, for whatever reason, 2 Corinthians 5.20 just popped off the pages.

I don't know if you've latched onto a verse or a passage, but it just seems to be something that just strikes a chord.

And so 2 Corinthians 5.20, it was actually my second life verse.

My first life verse was Isaiah 28.20.

Isaiah 28.20.

And that says the bed is too short on which to stretch out.

You've got to read scripture.

It's amazingly applicable.

But 2 Corinthians 5.20 says that we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors.

What a huge responsibility, but what a great privilege.

And so as we think about being ambassadors, let me define a couple of words for you.

First of all, is the word ambassador.

An ambassador is an authorized representative or messenger.

You're going on behalf of one person or group and representing that person or group or God's word to a group of other people.

It's as though it says God were making his appeal through us.

That's a pretty high calling.

So let me boil it down a little bit tighter for you to understand what that means.

We're supposed to represent all of God's word.

That can be kind of overwhelming at times.

But there's really only two things God's calling us to do.

The first one is a category, and it says to do what the Bible tells you to do.

There's great freedom in doing what the Bible tells us to do.

One of the things that the Bible tells us to do is to respect authority.

And one of my favorite things to talk about with kids and adults is respecting authority.

We were talking about that even in our home this morning.

So respect authority.

And one of the things that gets a little personal pretty quick is that it even includes when you drive, there's a speed limit posted, and so we're supposed to follow that speed limit.

And when we live within God's guidelines, it gives us great freedom.

I was driving back from college, I went to Northwestern in St.

Paul, and driving back during Christmas break one time, and uh it was back when the speed limit was 55 miles an hour.

So it took a long time to get back to Fargo from Minneapolis.

And I always go on the road, get on the highway, I get to the speed limit, and I hit the cruise.

Cruise is a beautiful deterrent to sin.

I got to 55, I hit the cruise, and I was going along.

Well, I came all of a sudden there's a really long line of traffic.

And I thought, oh, I wonder what's going on.

Usually that means there's an accident or something's going on.

We need to slow down.

And so I kind of pulled into the line and we're going about 50 miles an hour.

And I thought, I want to get home.

It's Christmas break.

I want to get going.

And so I pulled out, hit my cruise to resume cruise to 55, and I was passing everybody.

At the front of the line was a highway patrolman.

And so as I'm driving, I of course looked to make sure it's still 55.

Good.

And I kept going and I looked over at him, and here was his reaction.

He was having the time of his life.

Driving 50.

And everybody was like, I can't pass the highway patrol.

It's authority.

You're fine around authority if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing.

And so he waved and I waved back, and one by one, as I went to the rearview mirror, one car would pull out at a time, kind of go around sheepishly, like, are we doing what we're supposed to be doing?

When we obey God's word, there's great freedom.

And it should be natural.

In 5.17, it says, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

The old is gone, and the new has come.

And so we should just be who we are, be Christians.

Are we going to fail?

Yeah, we're going to fail.

That's when we look at each other and go, oh, sorry, I messed up.

And we keep going.

Just do what's natural.

We don't have to always sit around and think so hard.

I wonder what Jesus would do.

I wonder what the right thing is.

You know what the right thing to do is.

The Bible tells us to do a lot of things.

Forgive, pray for one another, lift each other up, encourage one another.

Represent him to other people.

Do what he tells you to do.

When we don't do that, it's not natural, really, as a Christian.

I'm now 50 years old and I'm a guy.

How many of you have never heard me speak before?

Okay, you got to pay attention.

I've been going for like 10 minutes already.

Just kidding.

So if you've never heard me speak and I came walking up, you had some feeling of how I might sound, right?

I mean, you look, you think, oh, voice matches who he is, maybe a little bit.

What if I would have come up and looked at you and said, Goodness to you!

Can't see many of you.

Most of you are going, this is really getting uncomfortable really fast.

And my family, I think, just left.

It's not natural for me to speak that way.

It's not who I am.

It would also be weird for me to walk up and go, hey, it's really nice to have you all here today.

Um, Pat is my hero.

That's just weird.

I gotta stop that one.

So it's not natural.

See, to come when you are an ambassador for Jesus Christ, you're not trying to do something that's unnatural necessarily.

It's who we are supposed to be now.

So do what the Bible tells you to do.

The second category is to not do what the Bible tells us not to do.

Again, not very profound, right?

But if the Bible says don't do it, don't do it.

The don'ts in Scripture are for our protection.

I don't know, like the people you've talked with or anything, and I know that Patrick in his youth ministry years, and probably now as well, there's plenty of people who look at the Bible and say, I don't want to follow the Bible because there's too many don'ts.

It's gonna ruin my life.

I don't want to follow, it's too restrictive.

Well, for the sake of illustration, let's just say we're all gonna wind up on this side of the church over here.

And on the count of three, I want us to run across the sanctuary over to this wall.

And there's only one restriction I'm gonna put on you in this whole experience.

And that experience, that whole restriction is do not put your head through the wall when you get to this wall.

Now, most of you are a pretty sharp congregation, I can tell.

You would look at me and go, duh, gonna put my head through the wall.

Now, some of you, don't point, would be going, oh man, that's gonna ruin it for me.

I like putting my head through the wall.

I did it this morning and I like it.

I'm gonna just do it.

I can't believe you told me don't put your head through the wall.

So let me ask you, why did I say don't put your head through the wall?

Any ideas?

Yeah, because we gotta fix the wall.

I put the restriction on you so you wouldn't hurt yourself when you got there.

The Bible's that way.

Does it have a lot of don'ts?

Absolutely, it does.

It has a lot of don'ts.

Don't lie.

Don't steal.

Don't cheat.

Be pure.

Don't commit adultery.

Don't, don't, don't, don't.

Those don'ts are for your and my protection.

Do what the Bible tells you to do.

Don't do what it tells you not to do.

It's really basic.

And it's awesome.

Well, this verse goes on to say, not only are you called to be his ambassadors, but there's a word that's used that's called implore.

I implore you on Christ's behalf.

So implore means to call or pray for earnestly or to beg.

To beg.

I never use the word implore unless I'm talking about this passage.

There's a heightened emergency message that he's trying to communicate with us.

Listen, you are called to be Christ's ambassadors.

And so listen, there's something really, really important that you need to do in response to how God loves us.

There's something really important.

There's extreme urgency in his message.

He's saying, please, please, please, please, please do something.

The urgency is like this.

Let's say, for the sake of illustration, sorry, I got ahead of myself.

Um, for the sake of illustration, this now is uh the sanctuary that I built.

It's my home church.

You're all just visiting for the first time.

Okay?

But when I designed this church building, um, I just I thought about almost every possible scenario that could happen while we're in a building.

And so while I'm talking up here, this room all of a sudden fills up with smoke.

It gets so thick and dark that you can't see anything.

You can't even see the hand in front of your face.

And I'm up here and I have this digital readout on this podium that shows all the exits, everything going on in the church.

And I see on this readout that every exit is blocked by fire.

Okay?

There's no way that you're gonna get out one of these exits safely.

And so I thought ahead of time while building this that there needs to be an escape route.

And so I knew that if I went back here and actually touched on this music stand right here, which is placed here every Sunday, maybe not, but let's just say it's here that when I push this, this opens up and I get to go out to slide out to safety, and I get out of this building.

Well, what do you think I'm gonna do at that point?

You're it's filled with smoke, you can't see anything, you're getting excited, you don't know what's going on, and I know that I can get out this way safely, and you can't get out any exit.

Do you think I'm gonna do this?

Oh, they're all gonna die.

And sneak out?

That's not what I would do.

I would walk right down, I'd start right down over here.

What's your name?

What is it?

Caden, that's correct.

All right.

So, Caden, I would take, I'd come down to Caden, I'd go, Caden, listen to me.

Come on, man, seriously, you gotta go.

Grab something next to you.

Let's go this way, this way, this way.

Come on, Caden, move it.

There's an urgency.

Well, what if Caden sat there and goes?

I can't, I can't go that way.

What?

My car is parked back over here, and if I go that way, I might not find my car, and I don't I can't go that way.

Would I carry on a conversation with him?

Caden, tell me about your car.

What color is it?

Oh, that's cool.

Kind of interior.

What's under the hood?

An engine, okay.

And we would just talk a little bit, I would not carry on conversations about the car because that's not important.

What is important right now that you serves every other priority in life, is let's get out of here.

And I would get as many people, thank you for being a good sport.

Awesome.

So I would get as many people out of here as I could because the the message is urgent.

To me, that's the picture I get when Paul in 2 Corinthians 5.20 says, hey, you're Christ's ambassador.

Kent, you're Christ's ambassador.

Pay attention.

There's something really, really significant that God is asking me to call you to do.

Well, that gets my attention.

That gets my attention.

So what is it, Paul?

What are you telling us?

Here's what he's telling us.

He's telling us to be reconciled to God.

Reconciled to God.

There's two definitions, at least two.

The first one is kind of the more traditional one, is to restore the friendship.

You know, we reconcile with somebody, we're made right in that relationship, and that's powerful.

Is there something hindering your relationship with God?

If so, make that right.

Be reconciled to God.

We're supposed to represent Him.

Let's get right with Him first.

The second one really struck me one year when I was looking at it, and that was to stop opposing something.

So I'm Christ's ambassador, so can't please pay attention.

Stop opposing God.

It really made me look at it a different way and go, God, how am I opposing you?

I don't want to oppose you.

I don't want to oppose you in any way.

Hebrews 12, 1 says to throw off whatever hinders.

And the sin that so easily entangles.

There's times it's really easy to identify the sin, right?

I mean, we know what sin is.

And we know that that hinders our walk with God and it opposes what he wants to do in our life.

But there's sometimes too that says throw off everything that hinders.

That might not be sin.

It might be something that's hindering your walk with the Lord.

Maybe it's too much time doing something.

Maybe it's too much time inputting something into your life that isn't necessarily sin, but it's not helpful in your walk with God.

So I think you would ask us the question: what are you, what am I opposing God with?

With what are we opposing God?

I think of this illustration.

For the sake of illustration, here's God.

He creates Mark and Mary.

Little Mark and little Mary.

And he tells them, Mark and Mary, look, I've created all this world for you to enjoy.

Here you go.

Go and enjoy it.

But there's just one restriction I'm going to put on you, and that is do not throw rocks in that pond over there.

Well, Mark and Mary look around and go, what a great creation.

Why would I do that?

Why would I throw rocks in the pond?

Thanks, God.

So Mark and Mary go out and have a great time together.

Finally, one day, Mark looks over and he looks down and he thinks, I wonder why God said don't throw rocks in that pond.

So he picks up this little rock and he throws it in the pond.

Ripple.

And Mark is like, Mary, did you see that?

Wow! That was so cool! And it hit, and then the ripple thing?

Wow, that was awesome!

And God comes back up over the hill.

And he picks up little Mark and little Mary.

And he goes, hey, hey, hey.

I thought I told you, don't throw rocks in that pond.

Little Mark and little Mary understand their position in life.

And Mark goes, I'm so sorry.

Sorry.

It's terrible.

I'm very sorry I'll never do it again.

The guy goes, okay.

Puts him back down.

Happens seven times.

Seventh time.

He picks up little Mark and little Mary.

And he goes, guys, I thought I gave you a guideline.

I thought just one thing.

And Mark is sitting there.

And Mary's sitting there.

And Mark finally looks up and looks a God right in the eyes.

And he does it.

I don't need you! I can do what I want!

I don't know if you were a God how you would respond.

I think I'd be tempted to say, Mark, you're absolutely right.

You can do whatever you want.

My bad.

High five.

Whoops.

I mean, wouldn't you think that a little bit?

I mean, I don't think God thought that.

But could you think about that?

A little thing is just yelling at you, shaking her fist, and going, I don't need you, God.

But you know what God does when you and I still do that today?

We still have the audacity to do that.

God, thank you, but I'm gonna do my own thing in this relationship.

God, thank you.

I'm gonna do you don't know what this person did to me.

God, I can do whatever I want.

God, I can drive however I want.

They really don't care until it's seven miles over the speed limit.

God, I don't care about my finances.

I don't care about this or that.

I'll do my own thing.

And God goes, you know what?

That's not gonna work very long for you.

And somebody's gotta pay a price for that rebellion.

And you know what?

I'm gonna provide my son to pay the penalty for that attitude right there.

And I'm gonna give you another chance.

What are you opposing God with in your life?

He calls us to be his ambassadors.

Is there something you're shaking your fist at God regarding?

Anything?

He already knows what it is.

And he'll reveal it to you.

Would you please pray with me this morning?

Heavenly Father, you're so good to us.

You're so good.

You know, I struggle with you choosing us to represent you.

I just think it had to have been a better plan than that.

Because I'm gonna fail you in so many ways.

But yet, Lord, you said that you're gonna call us to be your ambassadors.

Those of us who are in Christ, in Christ are now Christ's ambassadors.

Help us to understand the urgency of the message.

And then, Lord, help us to identify in our lives where we shake our fist at you.

Forgive us for those times.

Please minimize, limit, get rid of those times that I shake my fist at you.

And to humbly seek your forgiveness.

And then help me, Lord, to be a good ambassador for you.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

At the beginning of the service, we mentioned.