2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:2 - Christ's Ambassadors

Right, we are continuing in our series in the book of Two

Corinthians. We're in chapter 5.

Today and I'm going to be reading verse 11 to 6.

Verse 2. If you've got a Bible, it'd be

great if you. Opened it.

I always say it's. Great to read along with me

because my reading isn't always the best.

So here we go. It's.

Going to come up on the screen. And but yeah.

Please read along with me, it says, Since then we know what it

is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others.

What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your

conscience. We are not trying to commend

ourselves to you again, but I've given you the opportunity to

take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in

what is seen rather than what is in the heart.

If we are out of our minds, as some say, it is for God, if we

are in our right mind, it is for you.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that

one died for all, and therefore all died.

He who died for all, that those, those who live should no longer

live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised

again. So from now on we regard no one

for a worldly point of view, though we once regarded Christ

in this way, so do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new

is here. All this is from God who

reconciles us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the

world to Himself through Christ, not counting people sin against

them, and He has committed to thus the ministry of

reconciliation. We.

Therefore are ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal

through us. We implore you on Christ's

behalf be reconciled to God. God made him.

Who? Who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As God's coworkers, we urge you not to receive God's grace and

vain. But he says, in the time of my

favour I heard you, and the day of salvation he helped you.

I tell you, now is the time of God's favour now.

Is the day of salvation. Lord Jesus, I thank you, Lord

God, for all that you have done for us.

Lord Jesus, I thank you, Lord God, that Jesus Christ you came

and that today, Lord God, we can declare with you that today is

the day of salvation. Lord Jesus, that you have made

us. You've made a way that we can be

made right with God, that our sin can be dealt with, that we

can have a relationship with you, Lord Jesus.

And I pray, Lord God, that if there's anyone here or anyone

who listens to this Lord Jesus who doesn't know you or is once

knew you and us, turn their back on you, Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord

God, that you would draw them back into relationship with you

once again. Lord Jesus, you came so that we

could have eternal life with you.

And Lord God, I pray that each and everyone of us would, as we

sung in worship, would surrender our lives to you and take hold

with both hands this opportunity to have a life and life with you

eternal. Amen.

Amen. So I want to ask you to start

off with what is a Christian? What does it mean to be a

Christian? Now, last time I asked you a

couple of questions and I gave a couple of bad answers.

And so I'm going to give you a couple of bad answers again.

So what does it mean to be a Christian?

These are bad answers. To be a good person, bad answer.

Yeah, exactly. And it another bad, bad answer.

To be a Christian means that you go to church to be a good

Christian. To be a Christian means that you

pray. To be a Christian means you

serve and you give. Now all these things are good.

Now if you, if you are a Christian, we are, we are called

to live to a higher standard. If you are a Christian, we are

called to meet together as the body, to gather, to prioritise

the gathering of the Saints, to come together on Sundays, to

meet together in midweek groups. We're we're asked to do that.

If we're a Christian, we're called to pray, we're called to

seek God, to pray, pray to Jesus.

If we're a Christian, we're called to use our gifts and

talents to serve one another, to give to what Christ is doing.

But that's not what it means to be a Christian.

So to be a Christian, actually a guy called Nicodemus in John

John 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 comes to Jesus. And Nicodemus was one of the

most experienced, well known teachers of his day.

And he came to Jesus and he says to Jesus, what must I do to be

saved? Jesus, go on, you tell me, rabbi

to rabbi, teacher to teacher, how do you believe that I

receive the Kingdom of God? How will I have eternal life?

And Jesus answer kind of perplexed him for a bit because

Jesus says you need to be born again.

You need to be born of water and born of the spirit.

And Nicodemus is kind of freaked out by this.

He's like, Jesus, I'm an old man.

That just doesn't work. I can't be born again.

And so Jesus explains to him. He says whoever believes in me

will not perish but have eternal life.

What he's saying is, is if we believe in Jesus, then we are

born again, that we are made new, as Paul says in this

passage here, that we are a new creation.

It's OK. So to be a Christian means to be

born again, which means to believe.

But what does it mean to believe?

I mean, does it mean that I believe that Jesus is king just

as much as I believe that we have a Labour government?

Is that what it means to believe?

Come on, Is that what it means to believe?

No, no, actually Scripture tells us.

Come on, let's have some, let's have some feedback here.

Jesus, Jesus text, doesn't he? He says that if the Bible tells

us that even Satan, even the demons, even the gods of this

world, they know that God is king, that Jesus would go around

to place to place and he'd set people free from demonic

oppression. And the demons, as they'd come

out of these people, they'd cried, Jesus, you are the Son of

God. They knew who he was.

See, Satan knows that Jesus is king.

Satan knows that he is all powerful.

Satan has really good doctrine. He does so that doesn't make us

a Christian. That doesn't mean that we

believe. That's not what Jesus talking

about when he says if you believe in me, you will have

eternal life because we know that Satan and all his demonic

forces at the end of time are we thrown in the fiery lake and

they will have be no more. That's not what it means to be

to believe. And to believe, Scripture tells

us, is not just to acknowledge that Jesus Lord, not just to

acknowledge that he is God, but actually to treasure him, to see

that he is infinitely valuable. To desire to follow him, to

desire to cherish Him and do what He asks us to do.

To give up everything because we've been talking about

already. For him to long to gaze, to be

in the presence of Him, to lay down our rights, to have Him, as

David said, better as one day to realise that better as one day

with him is better than a million days doing something

else. That's what it means to believe.

See Satan, He knows who God is. He knows how much power he has.

He has not submitted to him. He does not follow him.

See, belief is to fall down upon our knees in worship, desiring

nothing but to be with him, to be surrounded, to be satisfied

by the King of all kings. You see, to believe it means to

worship, to believe. You cannot believe without

worshipping, without submitting yourself.

So you can. You can have the best voice, you

can sing the best songs, you can sing to Jesus all day long, but

if you have not submitted yourself to Him, if you do not

follow Him, you're not worshipping.

You're just singing a nice tune, but you're not worshipping Him.

Church. Are you worshippers?

Are you a worshipper? Is anyone a worshipper?

We all got an extra hour in bed and we're all asleep.

We are. We're called to be worshippers.

See the gospel, the gospel, the gospel tell the Bible tells us

the gospel message, the gospel message, which is that Genesis

1, God created everything. He created everything.

Everything we see, everything that we don't see, he created.

And then Genesis 2 and God, God takes this Adama, this soil,

this mud, and he uses it, He moulds it and he makes it into

an atom and he breathes life into it.

And he takes this atom, this man, and he goes and puts him in

a garden paradise, this mountaintop garden paradise.

He places him there and he places this atom as a

representation for all mankind. And he says to Adam, he says to

man, he says, you can choose to follow me, which leads to life,

or you can choose to disobey me. You can choose to live for

yourself, which ultimately leads to death.

And we know the story, don't we? Genesis chapter 3, Adam, man, he

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chose, he chose death. He chose death.

He chose to live his own life. He chose to live life without

God as king. And Genesis and the rest of

Genesis all the way to Chapter 11 is about how depraved, how

bad people just keep getting worse and worse and worse and

worse as we keep trying to do things on our own.

And if you're there thinking I could, I would have done things

better if you placed me in a garden paradise, I would have

lived perfectly. No, you wouldn't.

You wouldn't. Don't be deluded if you believe

it for a second, ask if you're married, ask your partner.

You would definitely will not. You would not.

None of us would you see and then Chapter 11 of Genesis, we

read it that God gives us over. So theologians call it a kind of

the great divorce that God gives up.

He says I'm no longer be going to be your God.

I'm not going to be your God, mankind, but straight after

that, because God is good, because he is loving, he picks

two people, Abraham and Sarah, and he says through you I'm

going to create a new nation, a new people.

And he supernaturally births the nation of Israel, the nation of

Israel, which were meant to be a people who God could, could

bring man, woman back to him, a people who he who who would use

to save the world. You see, when we disobeyed, when

Adam disobeyed, when we disobey, there's a chasm caused between

US and God, between him and his goodness that we cannot cross on

our own. And God supernaturally births

into being the nation of Israel to be his way of healing that

rift, of making a way back. But if you read, if you read the

if you read the scriptures, you read the Old Testament, you find

that not only does Israel fail, actually Israel, they need the

saviour just as much as we do. They need a saviour.

They mess up, they don't follow gods.

And so the Old Testament is left with a world in darkness, a

world without hope, a world abandoned, a world without God.

That's you and me. That's where Paul comes in.

He says you were lost. You were once one of Adam's

rebellious race. See, no matter where you were

born, what skin colour you have, we are all the race of Adam.

We are all his race and he Paul says that in Adam all die.

All die but God Hallelujah. But God it says he says in in in

verse 15. He says for Christ his love

compels us because we are convinced that one died for all

and therefore all died and he died for oh, he's talking about

Jesus here, that those who live should no longer live for

themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.

You see, we were lost. We were hopeless, we were dead

as Adam's race, but God, but he sent Jesus, Jesus Christ who

died in our place, who died so that we, if we have faith in

him, if we believe in him, he says we died.

If you're a Christian, you have died to your old self, you've

died to Adam's race and now you have been raised again in

Christ. That's why we baptise people,

that's why we baptise them. When we baptise people, we don't

baptise people before they become Christians, we baptise

them after they've become Christians because baptism is a

symbol And that you die to your old self.

The old self that was in Adam is dead and now you are alive again

as Christ raised to life. You are a raised to life and now

you are no longer an Adam but you are in Christ, you are his,

you belong to him. Yes God love to see the

awakening heart. Brilliant.

See Jesus in living the perfect life that none of us could live.

See, death didn't have a claim over him.

Death had no claim over Jesus. But he chose to die.

He chose to surrender his life. Jewish guards, Roman centurions,

nails did not hold him on the cross.

He held himself on the cross. He sacrificed his own life, gave

his own life up so that as Martin Luther called the great

exchange, so that all our dross, all our disobedience, every day

that we live, every moment that we live, not acknowledging Jesus

Christ as King. All of that disobedience was

placed upon him and then his eternal obedience was then

placed upon us. So Paul writes that we are, we

are. He's the the image that we are

now clothed. You are now dressed in Christ.

So you may do things that are wrong.

You may think things that are wrong.

You may sometimes live your day and not acknowledge that Jesus

Christ is king over your life, but that's not who God sees.

God sees the perfect, wonderful, obedient life of Christ clothing

you. You see, if you believe in

Christ, if you follow him, if you've submitted to him as your

Lord and Saviour, you are no longer in Adam, but you are now

in Christ. The old you has gone.

There is a new creation. Christ says.

Paul says God made him, Jesus, who didn't have sin, who didn't,

who had no sin to become sin. Why?

So that you and I through faith could become the righteousness

of God. That's who you are.

I don't know if you feel like that this morning, but if you

are a believer in Christ, if you are his, you are righteous.

You have the righteousness of Christ upon you.

Your life has been exchanged for His.

He goes on and he says therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new

is here. All this is from God who

reconciles us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself

in Christ, not counting people sin against them.

Do you know, church, that when you mess up, God does not have a

tally chart? You may have messed up this

morning. You had an extra hour to do so

God did not come when you did not come here with God with a

clipboard saying, OK, these are things that you need to repent

of before you can come and enjoy My presence.

He's not counting your sin. There is no guilt.

There is no shame upon you. It is done at the foot of the

cross. See, once you are far off, but

now through faith in Jesus Christ, you are his.

You have unlimited access from not just when you die, you have

unlimited access from the moment you believe to Christ.

You have unlimited access to life as he calls it, life to the

full. See, Christ changed everything

upon the cross and the day that you met him, your life was never

ever going to be the same again. You see, through Jesus Christ

you have freedom, you have forgiveness.

Your guilt and shame is gone. You are adopted into a brand new

family. He calls you a son.

He calls you a child of the King of Kings.

You are as as the New Testament says you are a St which means

you are a holy one. Now that Christ's sacrifice has

been, the guilt is gone. You have forever to enjoy life.

As we looked at last time. We have life with Him and that

is the point of the gospel, to have life with him.

I mean, how amazing is life in Jesus Christ?

Isn't it good? It is so good.

I mean, don't you just like, don't you just love the fact

that Jesus has chosen you, that you are in him?

Don't you just want to tell people about him?

Don't you just want to tell how amazing he is?

How wonderful he is to shout it out from the rooftops that Jesus

Christ is the King and he loves me and he loved you.

He saved me and he can save you as well.

How wonderful it is to know Jesus.

How wonderful. No wonder when we when we become

a Christian, something amazing happens.

We want to tell people some of us are better than that than

others. Some of us are just better

talking than others, full stop. But actually we want to tell

people about Jesus, and that's exactly what Jesus wants.

Is he Jesus? See, Jesus has called, has said

that he is that treasure and that he has called us to go and

tell the world about the treasure that we have.

So that's why Jesus said, now you have received, don't hold

it, but go. You have eternity in your

hearts, don't you keep it there, but tell the world about this

eternity that you have found. He says, He says here that we

are called each and every single one of us that knows Jesus to go

into all the world and be Christ's ambassadors, being the

voice of God, declaring to them that there is a Saviour who

loves them. See, God has promised that the

whole world is going to be changed into His glory.

Hosea, as the waters cover the sea, and as far as I know the

sea is made-up of water, the glory of God will cover the

whole earth. But how?

How is he going to do that? Paul says.

We therefore are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were

making his appeal through US. Who's he making his appeal

through? Through us, Through you and me.

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

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we might

become the righteousness of God. As God's Co workers, we urge you

not to receive God's grace in vain.

I mean what does he mean by that?

Receive in in vain? Well the Father to the Father,

the Father Spirit, Son, they have eternity lived in perfect

community. See, they didn't create the

earth, the stars, the planets, the animals, you and me, because

they were lonely. Actually, the Bible teaches us

that God created us because he wanted to have community with

us. He didn't need us, but he wanted

to invite us in to that community.

But because of our sin, because of that chasm, something needs

to be done. And so Jesus comes, his

attorney. Sacrifice makes the way.

God wants a family. Jesus makes a way.

But there's a whole load of people who don't know him.

How are they going to know that Jesus made a way to the Father?

How are they going to know that they need to get to the Father?

We must tell them. How will they know unless

someone tells them how are they here unless someone preaches you

see between this community we've got and being lost as people.

Jesus made a way but to so that they can hear is your mouth.

Your mouth is how people are going to hear everyone point to

your mouth. This is how God is going to save

the world. Now say it.

This is how God is going to save the world. 123 again like you.

Believe it one more time. It's true.

Now I know some of you still don't believe it, but it is

true. This is how God plans to save

the world. Through your mouth.

Through your mouth. See here.

His plan is to send us, Paul says as ambassadors.

Ambassadors speak on behalf of the ruler who they came from.

So when you open your mouth, you speak in the name of Jesus.

Don't believe me? Here's Peter.

Peter says, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy

nation, God's special possession.

You are chosen church. Every single one of you has been

chosen. You are a royal priesthood.

That means you are a ruler with Christ, that you have access to

him. You are holy.

You are set apart. You are special to God.

Why, that you might declare the praises of him who called you

Christ Jesus out of darkness in to wonderful light.

See, Jesus is the light of the world, but he turns around and

he says, you church, you my church are the light of the

world's. See, a Christian is someone who

surrenders their life to King Jesus, who does what he wants

them to do, who pledges their loyalty to him, and then goes

and tells people how amazing he is.

That's what it means to be a Christian, to declare the love,

the wonder that I have been forgiven, that I have been set

free, that Jesus loves me. See, Paul says that we are

ambassadors of Christ. He doesn't say some of you are

ambassadors and some of you aren't.

He doesn't say some of you are cool to open your mouth and tell

people about Jesus and some of you are not.

You guys can cheer them on. No, no, no, he says.

We all are. Actually, Paul wraps it up in

our identity that you are forgiven, that you are free,

that you are a new creation, that you are a declarer of

truth, that you are an ambassador of Christ Jesus.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

See, we are called to be Christ's ambassadors.

And so I want to look at just as we end on how Jesus showed us

how to be ambassadors, how Jesus showed us how to open our mouths

and declare the wonders of who he is.

So if you've got a Bible, just go back a few pages to the book

of John. We're going to be John 4,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, if you know the New Testament, John

four. And we're going to look at a

conversation that Jesus has with a woman.

And now there's a there's loads of cultural things that we could

get into why this is such an amazing conversation, but we're

going to leave all that. And but in verse 23, they have

this they're having this conversation about water.

They're having this conversation about worship.

And Jesus says, says to the lady, when they start talking

about worship, he says, yet a time is coming when and has now

come when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and

in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

You see, before I get into exactly what Jesus, Jesus Jesus

says and how he, this woman is saved, I want you just to notice

here that they've been having this, this conversation of do

you worship on this mountain or do we worship on that mountain?

Our people worship here. You say you should worship

there. And Jesus says a time's coming

without and it's come when that won't matter.

But know this, the Father is seeking worshippers.

So what that means is for us, as we go, as we open our mouth, as

Jesus said for the Great Commission, we don't go alone.

God isn't going here You go church, go and tell the world

about me and good luck. You're on your own now.

No, no, he says, I am with you. Jesus says in the Great

Commission, I am with you, the Father.

You're going, you're speaking. But the Father is the one who is

seeking worshippers. So the lost will be found

because God has ordained that lost people will be found

because he is looking for them and he's not looking for them

like you might look for your keys.

And when you've lost them and you can't find them, he's not

looking for them because he doesn't know.

I have no idea where these people are.

That's not what he's saying. He's like, where are my keys?

Well, I put them down, I can't find them and I no, no, no, He

knows. He knows where the lost people

are. He knows where His chosen sheep

and He sends us to go and get them.

He says in John 10 I have other sheep that are not of of this

sheep pen sheep being Christians, I must bring them in

also. He brings them in through the

cross. They too will listen to my

voice. How do they hear His voice?

Through you speaking? And there shall be 1 flock and 1

shepherd. See when you speak, when you say

words like come and though Jesus.

Why don't you join me at church this weekend?

Christ is speaking through you when you speak.

Dead hearts come to life. When you speak, the lost are

saved. When you speak, the hurting, the

sick, the bound up are free and healed.

Not because there's anything special with your voice.

That's because when you speak, Jesus speaks through you.

Jesus is speaking. You are his ambassadors.

And actually, Jesus will flip it on its head and he says that.

So don't worry when people reject you, when people tease

you, when people hate you for speaking truth, for saying that

you love me, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting

me. He says they're rejecting me,

they hate me. But between God wanting a family

and Christ making a way is your mouth.

It's your mouth. And as an ambassador, as a

spokesperson for gods, we get the privilege of speaking.

And as we speak, seeing the Holy Spirit move, and as the Holy

Spirit moves, it creates a hunger in those that we're

speaking to that we may get conversations like Nicodemus,

what must I do to be saved? Like this woman we're going to

read who's thirsty, Who's hungry for something more.

So how does Jesus do that? He says, well, he meets this

woman first, doesn't he? But what I want us to notice

right at the beginning of this chapter, it says now he, that's

Jesus had to go through Sumeria. Now if you don't know geography,

Judea is in the South. Galilee, where Jesus spent most

of his time was in the north. In between was Sumeria.

So it says here now we had to go through Sumeria to get to

Galilee. OK.

Or the other way round. I can't remember where he's

going. But anyway, he had to go through

it. Do you know what every other Jew

they went round took a longer trip to go round.

So when it says now we have to go through Sumeria, No, he

didn't. No one else did.

See if he's talking to his disciples one day and saying,

right, we're going for a journey, we have to go through

Sumeria. They'd look at each other and

go, Jesus, No, we don't. No one goes through Sumeria.

We don't like them, they don't like us.

So we don't do it. We don't go through Sumeria.

They don't go. They don't like us, we don't

like them. No one goes through Sumeria.

But but this, this sense this, I have to go through Sumeria.

It's the same language as where, where he says in John 10, I have

sheep, I must bring them in. I must go through Sumeria, I

have sheep, I must bring them in.

See, he says I must go through Sumeria because he had to speak

because there was a woman there who was a lost sheep who he was

going to find. That's why he went through

Sumeria. Just think right now what people

in your life have spoken truth, have spoken love, have spoken

Christ into you. Every single one of them was an

ambassador sent from Christ to you.

Every single one of them was God's voice from him to you.

So that that ambassador might have been in the shape of a mum

or a dad. That might ambassador might have

been in the the shape of a friend or a work colleague or a

a fellow student at school or a complete stranger.

But he sent them to you to be an ambassador to you, because he

loved you, because he wanted you, because through them he was

calling you once a lost sheep, into his family.

And their voice, through their voice, you heard the voice of

the Father. You heard the Holy Spirit

calling you home. So how does he do this for this

woman? Well, Jesus asks her, meets her,

sorry, he asks her for a drink. And then we read in verse 9 it

says the Samaritan woman said to him, you are a Jew and I am a

Samaritan woman. How can you ask for a drink?

That's that kind of stuff. If they don't like each other,

we're different, blah, blah, blah.

It says Jesus answered, if you knew the gift of God and whom it

is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he

would have given you living water.

Sir, the woman said you have nothing to draw with you.

You have a bucket, a cup, you don't have anything.

You know, how are you meant to get this and the water and the

well is deep and I've been prised and lost where I was

where, where can you get this? Where can I get this living

water? Are you greater than our Father

Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did

also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, Everyone who

drinks this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of

water welling up to eternal life.

See God, He was calling this Samaritan woman, and Jesus was

called to go through Sumeria to find her.

He was called to go through Sumeria, place that wasn't

welcoming, that didn't want him. The Jews were not welcome.

Jesus was not welcome. Let me tell you this.

Jesus isn't welcome in Blackpool.

Eva, Jesus is not welcome here and that's why we go.

Jesus wasn't welcome in Sumeria, but he went because they were

lost sheep in Sumeria. If you read on the next few

verses, it tells us that this woman, after she's speaking to

Jesus, then all of a sudden the Father through the Spirit brings

her alive to Christ. She drops a bucket.

She's forgotten about needing water, and she runs back to the

town and without even knowing it, she becomes an ambassador.

She goes back to the town because she believes in Christ.

She knows who he is. She knows he's the King, and she

wants to automatically, naturally just tell us about

him. And we read in the book of Acts,

the apostles and Philip, they arrive in Sumeria.

And what they find when they get to Sumeria, they find people who

believe in Jesus. They have a church that's ready

to go in Samaria already. And that's because she was

Christ's ambassador, opened her mouth, and through her mouth

many others heard the voice of the Father.

They saw the Spirit at work in them.

See church. We are called to go to places

like Blackpool where Christ is not welcome, He is not welcome.

But just because he is not welcome, that does not mean that

the Father does not have lost sheep there.

Actually, Scripture tells us there are many lost sheep in our

town. There are many lost sheep in

Lytham, St. Anne's, in Poulton, in

Fleetwood, in Poulton, in Wesham, there are many lost

sheep who have not yet come to the shepherd because they have

not heard His voice, because we have not yet spoken to them.

Church. So he is calling you to go, to

be his ambassadors, to lead them to him.

You see, over the next coming weeks and months, we are going

to find ourselves at Wells, not physical wells.

We're going to find ourselves at metaphorical wells where people

will ask, what water do you have?

And we are going to be able to tell them of the water that

quenches all thirsts. We're going to be able to tell

them about the King of Glory, the treasure that we have.

So that's what we've been talking about over the last few

weeks, that we have this treasure locked up in jars of

clay, that we have a God who is far beyond our comprehension,

that He loves us, He chose us, He died for us.

And we don't keep that to ourselves, but we get to share

that Christ has chosen in His sovereign will to use you and me

as His mouthpieces to see many, many, many souls come to glory

to know Him. So here's three questions.

I'm going to end on this church. Do you believe in Jesus?

Do you believe? Is he your Lord?

Is he your Saviour? Have you heard his voice and

responded to him? Have you come to the fountain of

life and given your allegiance to King Jesus alone?

If you haven't, I'm going to give us an opportunity in a

second to do that. But secondly, have you drifted?

Do you know of a time when you did?

You knew the Father's voice, you knew the Shepherd's voice, but

you've been ignoring him of late.

You've stopped listening. Church, I want to give us an

opportunity now to say right God, I mean business.

I'm going to stop ignoring you and whatever you ask me to do,

I'm going to do. I'm going to pledge my

allegiance again to you and follow you.

And thirdly, will you go? Will you go?

Jesus said I have people not of this fault.

I have many people not not yet saved.

We have a big old hall and we want a bigger one.

And there is plenty of space for more people who don't yet know

Jesus. And we are desperate.

We want, we want people to come and join from other churches.

Yeah, we want workers to the harvest, but we're desperate for

people who don't know Jesus to fall in love with him, to come

and see and savour him and like this woman, run back to where

they're from and say, come and meet a man who told me

everything about myself. Come and meet Jesus.

So will you go? Will you be his ambassador?

Will you call people from death to life?

Will you sacrifice your life in the pursuit of others?

Will you go to the Sumerias of this world, to our town where

Christ is not welcome, so that the Father might find lost sheep

through you? As Isaiah said, as he saw the

desperation of this world, his heart wasn't to say someone else

is going to sort this out. You know, as he's in heaven's

throne room, he didn't think, oh, there's people here way

above my pay grade in this place.

No, no, he burst out into the midst of the Father and he said,

here I am, send me. Send me to the lost and the

broken. So I'm going to pray.

And whichever one of them is you, I want you to do business

with gods because we're not coming here to hear a nice

message and sing some nice songs and go out unchanged.

We're here to hear the word of God so that we can go out there

equipped with what we've received.

So Lord Jesus God, if you don't know Jesus, I'm just going to

pray and I'm going to ask you to pray along with me.

So Lord Jesus, God, I admit I've, I've never heard, heard

your voice before, but I recognise that being here,

listening to this message, being amongst your people, that you

are speaking to me, God. And I want to lay my life down

today and follow you God, I surrender all my rights to you,

King Jesus, God, I thank you that you forgive me, that you

accept me. And from this day on, I want to

be yours and yours alone, Amen. And Lord God, for those of us

who are, who have, who have been drifting, who've been wavering,

looking left and right, Lord God, I pray right now that they

would grab hold of you with both hands.

They wouldn't mess around with you any longer being one Step 1

foot in the world and 1 foot out, Lord God, but they would

jump in, as although wonderfully put it last week.

Lord God, we want people who fully 2 feet jump in and say,

Jesus, I'm here for you. And Lord God, I pray that you'd

encourage us. Lord God, where some of us still

don't believe that you could use our mouths, Lord God, you would

help our unbelief. Lord Jesus, and even this week,

even today, you give us opportunities to speak, to be

ambassadors for you, to say words that bring life, to say

words that bring hope in hopeless situations.

Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves to you, and we ask you for your

Kingdom to come and your will to be done.

Amen.