Every Member A Missionary - Part 2

Introduction

On Friday night Kathy and the kids and I drove over to Sam’s Club to pick up the new playground equipment for the church preschool. Many of you know the young man that works there at the exit door. He checks your things and your receipts as you leave, and almost without fail you won’t leave without him telling you to have a blessed day, or God bless you or something to that effect. I took a moment to introduce myself Friday night and ask him where he went to church. It is pretty exciting to watch such a young man on fire for the Lord. I thanked him for his testimony and told him that as a pastor it excites me to see Christian people be so vibrant and ready to be a witness for Christ. As I left, he said, "Brother, keep telling people about Jesus and I will too." Now admittedly he’s not in a Baptist church, but oh how I wish more of us had his great zeal for telling people about Jesus Christ!

This morning we’re continuing our look at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Remember that last week we began a message titled, "Every Member a Missionary," and said that every member of this church has been called upon by God to be ambassadors for Christ, to be representatives of the kingdom of God, to be missionaries to the people we know and encounter each day of our lives. In the Lord’s commission to His church, He told them to preach the gospel to every creature, to go into every corner of this world and share Jesus with those who have no hope. We’ve come to a place in the history of the Lord’s churches though when God’s people have forsaken their personal responsibility to be ambassadors and have adopted the thinking that they pay the pastor and church staff to share Jesus while they show up and enjoy the services. Oh how we’ve strayed from God’s plan for world evangelism!

Every one of you, whether you’re 15 years old or 50 years old, boy, girl, man or woman has a responsibility to share Christ with the people around you. God has called you to the mission field, a mission field that I can’t labor in. I can’t labor where you work or attend school. I can’t labor at your family reunions or where you hang out. God has called you to that field. You are His representatives to a world that’s racing hard to hell, and how you respond to that call may make the difference in whether those people spend eternity with or without Christ.

I want us to pause for a moment and pray. Before I give you the last two points of this message, I want you to honestly evaluate your own responsiveness to God’s calling on your life to represent Him. Have you been responsive? Are you sharing your faith? I’m going to lead us in a word of prayer, and as I do I want you to pray with me and plead with the Lord to do something great in our midst through the remainder of this message.

I really believe that every one of you who is saved wants to be a better representative for Christ, a better missionary in your mission field. Why do I believe that? Because the Spirit of God that lives in you is the same Spirit that convicted you of your need for Christ and is the same Spirit that is in the world today convicting those who are lost to receive Christ and He’s the same Spirit that leads you to act in obedience to Christ.

In order to be the best ambassador for Christ you can be, we said that first you need to know the Son of God. If you’ve never been saved, you need to enter a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible says that you have no hope of eternal life outside of Jesus Christ. Without Jesus you are dead in trespasses and sin and are under the condemnation of God and are destined to spend eternity in a devil’s hell. You need to come to Christ in salvation. You need to admit to Him that you have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory. You need to repent of that sin and trust Christ to save you. TThe wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!"