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Amen. The verse that I want to focus on is there in verse 20 where the Bible reads, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you now in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. And the title of my sermon this morning is Ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors for Christ. What is an ambassador? Well if you think about an organization like the United Nations where countries get together and talk, well obviously the heads of state from those countries don't actually get together and talk. They send someone to represent their country and they all get together and the ambassadors talk and make agreements and so forth, so they are representing that country. Or in the United States, there's an embassy from virtually every country in the world and if you go to that embassy for Hungary or embassy for Botswana or embassy for Germany, you will speak with ambassadors from that country that represent that country. But not only does the ambassador just represent that country and sort of express the wishes of that country, but usually that ambassador has power as well in order to make agreements on behalf of their country or to make an offer of something. They actually have authority and power that they've been given. And we are much better than a United States ambassador. We as Christians are ambassadors for Christ. So we represent the King of Kings, we represent the ultimate government, the ultimate authority, and so not only is this a great privilege to be an ambassador for Christ, but it's also a great responsibility. If you ask someone what they did for a living and they said, I'm an ambassador for so and so of the country, you'd probably be pretty impressed with that, wouldn't you? You'd think, well this guy is pretty important, I mean he represents a nation here, he's an ambassador, that's an important job. Well we have an important job. Every single one of us, man, woman, boy, girl, if you are saved today, you are an ambassador for Christ. That's very important and so you need to take your life seriously and understand how your behavior is important, everything that you do matters because you have this important job of being an ambassador. It's also a great privilege, you know, you should think of yourself as an important person, right? Not because of anything intrinsic to you, but because you're an ambassador for Christ. It's not you personally that should think of your own greatness, but rather the greatness is the job that you have, that you have this position of being an ambassador for Christ. So don't ever think that you're not important or that you don't matter. You have a very important role to play in this life as an ambassador. Now in this particular passage, the context here of being an ambassador for Christ is to the lost. It's to the unsaved because it says, 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. So another way of saying in Christ's stead would be instead of Christ, okay, in Christ's stead instead of Christ is how we would say that in 2019. It's as though God were beseeching you by us, the Bible is saying. So basically when we go to a lost person with the Bible to preach the gospel to them, it's like God is preaching the gospel to them. Isn't that what the Bible just said? It's as though God were beseeching them by us. Why? Because we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. So when we go to them, we're not preaching our own message. When we show them John 3 16, that's not really us beseeching them. That's actually God beseeching them. God is the one who gave those words. We're just delivering that message. So it's as if God were preaching the gospel to that person. Boy, that's a pretty big responsibility. When you speak for God to come to someone and say, thus saith the Lord and give them a message in the name of God, boy, you better get the message right. That's a huge responsibility. Can you imagine some ambassador bungling the message and then a war could be started or something if they get the wrong message. The wrong treaties could be signed or whatever. So here it says it's as though God did beseech you by us. And then it's saying, we pray you in Christ's stead, meaning that instead of Christ going to that person and preaching them, we're going instead. Jesus said, as long as I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world, but he was only in this world for a very brief time. He was only on this earth for about 33 years and really only about three years of that he spent preaching. And so most of the time he has committed that to someone else, us namely, to be his ambassadors, to preach the gospel. We've had the ministry of reconciliation committed to us so that we could reconcile people to God and get people saved. Now in Ephesians chapter six, the apostle Paul says something similar. If you would flip over to Matthew chapter 10, go to Matthew 10. In Ephesians six, Paul talks about being an ambassador for the gospel. It says in Ephesians 6 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So again, the context here is preaching to the lost, getting people saved, preaching the gospel. And he says, I'm an ambassador of the gospel, so please pray for me that I would preach it boldly as I ought to preach it. So as an ambassador for Christ, we need to preach with boldness. We don't want to show up and be like, man, you wouldn't want to hear the gospel, would you? Well, you know, I'm really sorry to disturb you. I mean, you know, but do you think maybe, you know, you could just, uh, no, we need to preach boldly. We have authority behind us. I mean, think about if an ambassador from whatever the country walked into the white house or walked into the capital here in Phoenix and he's the ambassador from Germany or whatever the country ambassador from Mexico came to Phoenix, Arizona, you think he's just going to walk in and kind of coward kind of, you know, I don't know if I'm supposed to be here or whatever, but he's probably just going to March in with an air of authority. And if the ambassador did not come with boldness and with authority, he's probably going to get fired because they'd say, you know, we don't want this weakling representing our country. You know, we want somebody with some boldness. We want someone that's going to put forth an image where people will take our country seriously. Okay. We don't have to apologize for preaching the gospel. We don't have to apologize for being a Bible believing Christian. Too many Christians today are just so sorry that they're a Christian. So sorry to be a fundamental Baptist. I'm so sorry that I go to Faithful Word Baptist Church. You know, I'm just so sorry that I don't fit in with this. No, I'm not sorry because of the fact that I'm an ambassador for Christ that has the power to preach his word and to speak on his behalf, his word and say, thus saith the Lord and preach out of this book right here. I've got the message right here. It's nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So we're not ashamed. We are bold in Christ as ambassadors. At least we ought to be. Now sometimes it's not easy to be bold and that's why Paul said, pray for me that I'll speak boldly as I ought to speak. Look what it says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 40, he that receiveth you receiveth me. That's what it means to be an ambassador, isn't that interesting? He that receiveth you, Matthew 10 40, receiveth me. And he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. So Jesus was an ambassador for God the father. We're ambassadors for Christ. And the Bible says that he that receiveth us is receiving Christ. Now obviously that's talking about when we go out in the capacity of preaching the gospel. If you look at the context here in Matthew 10, Jesus is sending out his disciples two by two and they're preaching the kingdom of God. They're preaching the word of God. So when we go out there and preach the word of God and people reject us, you know, they're actually rejecting the gospel. You know, if we bring the gospel and they scoff at it, mock it or get angry, don't take it personally. Don't be one of these soul winners that, that, you know, tries to give somebody the gospel and they get yelled at and then they, they get emotional and they can't let it go. Well, just shake the dust off your feet both literally and figuratively and walk away from that door. Who cares? It's not me. It's not personal, right? It's it's the Lord that's the issue. And so he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. That's powerful. And I don't think a lot of people grasp this and you know, what's funny is that today we have Christians who don't go soul winning, but it's not enough for them to just sit on the sidelines and not get involved with the ministry of reconciliation, not getting involved in preaching the gospel to loss, but they want to criticize those who are doing it. And so you'll hear these things about how soul winning doesn't work or they'll say, well, you guys are just going around just praying a prayer with people and that's not real soul winning. These people aren't really getting saved and whatever. You know, I just want to know what Bible are these people reading? Because the Bible that I read has people getting saved in the book of Matthew, people getting saved in Mark, multitude saved in Luke, multitude saved in John, and then Jesus is gone and then it's just us for no more and it just, we just kind of wind it down until Jesus comes, right? Just kind of just supervise the controlled demolition of Christianity, right? No. In the book of acts, they're getting people saved and you know, the guy who's getting the most people saved, he's the one, the book of acts just follows him around for the last half of the book of acts. The apostle Paul, the guy who's getting the most done, the guy who labored more abundantly than they all. Well, that's who God decides to highlight for chapters 13 through 28 of the book of acts. Okay? So the acts of the apostles ends up being the acts of the apostle toward the end there, right? But at the end we're following Paul because he's doing a lot of great work and the book of acts is showing us people getting saved, people getting saved, people getting saved, people getting saved. Then you have some dead church that never grows, that never gets people saved. Nobody ever gets baptized. And then they say, well, solely doesn't work. Well, then, well, then what's the Bible talking about when it keeps showing it working? You know, what's the Bible talking about when there are all these great works being done from Genesis to revelation and then all of a sudden it doesn't work for us in 2019. Well, you know, some people are making it work. You know, I was out soul winning, uh, yesterday or the day before, cause I was out solely both days. I don't remember which day it was. I knocked on this young lady's door and you know, I got there and she wasn't saved. And she, she said that she thought that in order to get to heaven at the end of your life, God's going to basically review your life and he's going to just kind of go through everything you've done and see how good you were and see if you're going to make it into heaven. Right? So I proceeded to preach the gospel to her and show her all kinds of scriptures about how it's not by works that were saved, it's actually by faith. Jesus did everything. He died on the cross for us. He was buried. He rose again. He paid for all our sins. If we believe on him, we receive everlasting. You know, she received the message. She comprehended the message. She understood the gospel and by the end of it, she was ready to fully trust Christ for her salvation. Not just, well, I'm going to live my life and see how I do and hopefully I make it in. And at the end, she called upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. But you know, oh, actually we're just going around, praying a little prayer with people. Just going through a little song and dance with people, right? A little one, two, three, repeat after me is what we're doing, right? Is that what happened? It's not what happened at that door. And guess what? I knocked another door and did the same thing. I went to another door and did the same thing. And guess what? We had 38 people out there for two days straight up three and a half hours from our church doing the same thing all day, preaching the gospel, teaching people what the Bible actually says. And you know, when we got there, some of them said, Hey, I'm Lutheran, I'm LDS, I'm whatever, but they didn't know the gospel at all. They didn't know what they believed at all. They were completely in the dark. Now we did run into many people up there that were already saved. Praise the Lord for that. I personally ran into several people who were already saved. Lots of other people said, man, I'm running into a lot of people up here that are already saved. Praise the Lord for that. But you know, what about the ones that aren't saved? Let's get them saved. But people who pick apart soul winning, it's like, they're not even reading the Bible. You know, God has made us ambassadors for Christ and he sends us out there and then he makes this bold statement, this, this really kind of startling statement. He that receives you receives me. You're my ambassador. It's like, it's like God is beseeching these people, you know, in Christ's stead, you're preaching these people. He's there. Oh, I don't like that. Right here. That sounds weird. You're weird. You're weird. If you think that sitting on your rear end and letting the whole world die and go to hell is what God called us to do. You know, and so many Calvinist churches are like this, where they're basically just like, they got like 12 people or something and they think they're the 12 disciples or something. And they sit there and then anybody does any soul winning and they pick it apart. And they're just like, well, it's already forwarded. Well, isn't it amazing how God ordained your church to just never grow. But then the one over here that's not a Calvinist, he ordained them to get huge and win people to Lord and lives to be changed, right? Folks, it's an excuse to not go soul winning when you say, oh, soul winning. How could it not work to open your Bible and preach the gospel to someone? Oh, that's not going to work. What? That's the only thing that's going to work is opening your mouth and telling somebody the gospel. How could that ever become outdated? How could that ever stop working? You say, well, you know, going door to door doesn't work. Okay. Then just walk up to somebody. Just go, go walk out this door and find some stranger and just give them the gospel. Not going to work. Why wouldn't it work? How else are we supposed to get people saved if we're not going to open our mouth and preach to them? You say, well, you know, they'll have to come to us. They're not going to come to us. We've got to go into all the world and teach them. So being an ambassador for Christ is a great opportunity. It's a great privilege. Should make you maybe stand up a little bit taller and think, hey, you know, I'm an ambassador for Christ. I'm somebody, you know, I'm kind of a big deal, you know. I'm somebody who's important, right? But not only that, it's a huge responsibility to have it said of you, you know, he that receiveth you, receiveth me. And, you know, you're beseeching people in Christ's stead. And it's as though God, you know, besought people. That's a pretty big deal, isn't it? He said in verse 41, he that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And you say, well, you know, I just, I think he's just talking about the apostles. You know, when he says he that receiveth you, receiveth me, and, you know, we're ambassadors for Christ. I think it was just like Paul and Barnabas, you know, Peter, James, and John. People like that, kind of the heavy hitters. You know, you can't just sit there and say, he that receiveth you, receiveth me, to just Joe Christian, Joe soul winner. Really? Because what does it say in verse 42? Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. Look, there are scriptures where Jesus takes a little child and sets him in the midst and says, he that receiveth this little child in my name receives me. A little child. He that receives, and he grabs just a random child. One of these little ones that believe in me, he said. He just grabs a young child who believes in Jesus Christ, sets him in the midst, and says, you receive this little child in my name, you receive me. Even a little child could be an ambassador for Christ. That's why in Matthew 25 when he says, you know, hey, I was hungry and you didn't give me anything to eat. I was thirsty and you didn't give me drink. Because in as much as you didn't do it unto one of the least of these little ones, you didn't do it to me. Why? Because even a little child can be an ambassador for Christ, that's why. That's why sometimes when you're out soul winning, this just happened yesterday too, we knocked on this guy's door, he had no interest in hearing the gospel, he did not want to hear anything about it, he just immediately sent us away, which I have no problem with, great, don't waste my time, if you're not interested, I'll be glad to go to the next door. But he sent me on my way, but first he said, hey, do you guys need any water or anything? A lot of people are superstitious about this, it's like they want to give you water, because they don't want to be that guy that won't give the water to Jesus, that won't give food to Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Who's been out soul winning? You kind of notice people, they're really serious about making sure. And it's not just because it's Phoenix, it could be any time of year, any weather, anywhere, a lot of people, they've heard this before, and something tells them, don't neglect to give Jesus water. You say, well you're not Jesus, I represent Jesus, you represent Jesus. Anybody who is going soul winning, even if it's a little child, if they're carrying the true gospel of Jesus Christ, represents Jesus, if they're speaking the word of God. If anybody rejects the gospel at their mouth, rejects the word of God at their mouth, well send a better messenger. No, you just rejected Jesus. That little girl, that little boy, that backward socially person who dropped their Bible at your porch and tried to give you God, that's who you get buddy. That's who I send. I've chosen the foolish things to confound the wise, God said, that you don't get to pick the messenger. Whether you like the messenger or not, when somebody shows up and they're preaching the word of God to you, the true gospel, I'm not talking about a false teacher now, but somebody who brings the true gospel, that person is an ambassador for Christ. You better receive that ambassador. Well, think about in the Bible when ambassadors showed up and they were treated poorly. What happened? People died. Right? Remember when people showed up to console King Hiram and them from Tyre, and David sent ambassadors and then they ended up making fun of them, shaving off part of their beard, cutting off part of their clothing and sending them looking like clowns. Those people ended up getting wiped out. God doesn't take it lightly when the ambassadors are mistreated. Look when Elisha was mistreated. What happened? God sent bears and they ripped them up and everything else. So if you would go to John chapter 15, so it's a privilege to be an ambassador, but it's also a great responsibility because if you're going to go in the stead of Christ, if you're going to go on God's behalf, you better make sure you got the right message and you better make sure that you're representing him well. So this is a two-edged sword here of being an ambassador. Look at John chapter 15 verse 18. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of the world but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word which I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Watch this. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. If they've kept my saying, they will keep yours also. You see, if people just say, oh, I love Jesus. I want to obey Christ. But then a preacher gets up and preaches the words of Christ, well, if you keep Christ saying, you're going to keep the saying of those who are preaching the word of Christ. You're going to listen to the preachers of God's word that actually give you the word of God. So he says, if they've kept my saying, they'll keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. Why? Because he is the ambassador of God the Father. He represents God the Father. He is in the image of God the Father. He does all things that he's commanded of God the Father. He came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. So if they hate Jesus, who do they really hate? They also hate the Father. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not sinned. They had not had sin. But now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. Because by seeing and hating Jesus, in effect, they have seen and hated God the Father. Because Jesus represented the Father, he was the ambassador for God the Father. Go to chapter 17, verse 14, John 17, 14. It says in John 17, 14, I've given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Go to 1 John. Actually, if you would, go to Psalm 105 in the Old Testament. Psalm 105 in the Old Testament. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you from 1 John 4. Year of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The Apostle John is saying here that the way that we can discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error is simple. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So because we are ambassadors for Christ, because John and the other apostles were ambassadors for Christ, they said, look, if people don't hear us, it's because they're not of God. Why? Because Jesus said he that is of God heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because you're not of God. So if a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking God's word, and people won't hear them, won't hear them, won't listen, won't listen, it's just because they're not of God. They don't get it. They can't understand it. They won't believe it. They won't comprehend it. They won't receive it. That's how you can tell the spirit of error, is when you give somebody the truth, they don't get it. You give them a second truth, they don't get it. You give them a third truth, they don't get it. Spirit of error, this guy is not of God, because I'm showing him the word of God, showing him the word of God, not getting it, not getting it, not getting it, not of God. Now you get up and say that, and people panic, and sometimes people get offended by that. How dare you be the judge or the measure? What does the Bible say? How else are we supposed to know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error? He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. How do we know? You know, if we go to somebody preaching the gospel and they reject the gospel, they rejected Christ. Well, you're not Christ. No, but I'm an ambassador for Christ, and so are you, and so is every believer who speaks God's word. Christ is not just this mystical, ephemeral, distant person. Christ is in you. Christ is in me. We're speaking the word of God. We're ambassadors for Christ. It's not just, oh, well, you know, far off in heaven somewhere. God's there, and Jesus is at his right hand, and, you know, well, we don't know if we're going to heaven, but, you know, when we get there, I guess it's up to him. No, you're talking to a guy at your door right there that actually represents Christ, that actually has the message from Christ, and he can actually make things right between you and God right now. He can actually sign the treaty with you right now. He can actually make the deal right now at the door, right? He can actually do the trade agreement or whatever, you know, like an ambassador would come and do the deal. Well, I'm going to need Trump to come over here himself or something. No, the ambassador has been sent. He can sign that. He can do that. He has that power. Well, you know what? We've been committed this ministry of reconciliation. We can show up on the door, and you know what? We can actually reconcile that person to God right there. We can do that, and you know what? You don't have to be some clergy to do that. You don't have to be a priest to do that. You don't have to have holy orders to do that, right? All you've got to do is be saved, and you're an ambassador for Christ, and you can show up, and you can actually be there and actually broker that reconciliation right there and say, look, you've offended God. You've sinned. Here's how you make it right. Here's what the Bible says. You've got to believe on Christ. You know, you've got to believe the gospel and go through that whole plan of salvation with them, and then they can get saved right there. Well, they need to take a class. No, they don't. Well, you've got to do follow-up, and you know, well, not if we can get them saved right now, because guess what? Some people get saved right when they hear it. In the Bible, in the book of Acts, there were three kinds of people. There were the people that scoffed when they heard the gospel. There were the people that got saved immediately, and then there were the people that said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So not everybody's going to get saved right then and there, but some will. Why don't they come to church? Well, I don't know. I'm trying to figure out why the 90 people that we won to the Lord on the Apache reservation don't come to church. Could it be that we live three and a half hours away? Could it be that it would be a seven-hour round trip for them to come to our church? Could it be that that's why they're not here this morning? Could that be part of it? Or how about this? Could part of it be the fact that half of them don't even go to work? Could it be that many of them rarely ever even leave their house? Could that be part of the issue, do you think? Have you been there? Have you visited the Apache reservation? Have you been to Cibicue, Arizona? Have you gone through and checked out the dwellings there in White River and everywhere else? And look, there are some great, hardworking, good people there. I'm not trying to stereotype here, because you know what? When I walked into that Vashas grocery store in White River, that guy who rang up my groceries was like the best grocery clerk I've ever had in my life. The guy was a machine. I mean, he was fast, he was efficient, it was just like boom, boom, boom. I mean, this guy was on it. I was thinking, man, this guy is the ultimate grocery clerk. So I'm not trying to stereotype here, but I'm telling you something, there are a lot of people up there that don't get out of the house. This is a fact. If not, sign up for one of these trips and then tell me I'm wrong. You walk up to certain people's houses, there was literally, the entire porch was filled with trash this high. Just trash, junk, just very strange conditions that some of the people are living in up there. If I'm not telling the truth, then sign up for one of these trips and tell me I'm wrong. There are a lot of people up there that don't get out very much, they don't get out of the house very much, they haven't been taught much of a work ethic or character. And again, like I said, we run into some people with a lot of character up there, but we also run into a lot that have just gotten used to just living off the government dole and whatever the programs that they're involved in and what have you. Here's my point though. So shouldn't those people still get a chance to go to heaven even if they're not going to go to work, even if they don't get out of the house very much, even if they're living an unhealthy lifestyle, even if they're drunks and have other issues and problems, look, I still want to get them saved. And there are shut-ins, there are people who don't leave the house, there are people who have no character to come to church, and I thank God for everybody who's here this morning who had the character to get up on your day off and get dressed and drive to church and to be here. Well, some of you, somebody's making you be here, your parents are making you be here, but the vast majority of people that are here today are here because they want to be here because they had the character to get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, put your clothes on, get down here. Guess what? A lot of people today don't have that character. They don't have that habit. I mean, if they didn't go to church their whole life, they're used to the weekend being just pajamas and cereal and cartoons or whatever, but you know what? I still want them to go to heaven. Even if they never darkened the door of the church, I still want them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Say, well, how are you going to follow up with these people? There's a Baptist church in their town. It's a Baptist church in every town in America. So don't tell them, oh, they have nowhere to go, are you going to start a church for them? No, there's already one there. It's not my fault. It's lame. Am I responsible to make sure every church in America isn't lame? Good night. There's a Baptist church in every town. Why don't they go to the Baptist church? We told them, hey, we're Baptist. Here's what we believe. We preached them the gospel. We gave them a DVD. We gave them a CD. We gave them a YouTube card. We gave them an invite to church. And there's a Baptist church a mile from them, and anytime they want to, they can drag themselves down to that Baptist church. And you know what? If they don't do it, well, that's too bad for their spiritual growth, but you know what? If they believe on Christ, they're saved. Otherwise, maybe you should go join the Church of Christ if you think that there are seven steps to salvation and that people have to believe and get baptized and go to church and do all this other stuff, because I just believe that faith is enough to save someone. Are we in Psalm 105? Look at Psalm 105, verse 8. He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac, and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. When they were but a few men in number, yea, very few, and strangers in it, they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. This is specifically talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but it is also by extension being applied to the nation of Israel in general. So in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel were God's chosen people, chosen for what? Chosen to be ambassadors, chosen to be ambassadors. Why were they even chosen in the first place? Just so that, hey, God's just up in heaven saying, hey, I just want to have this nationality that I just play favorites with. I just want to play favorites, I just want to be a respecter of persons, and I just want to have a nation that I just coddle, and treat better than everyone else, and everybody else can be second class, they're going to be first class. Is that why God picked the nation? That's ridiculous. But isn't that how a lot of Christians view the election of Israel? That's how they picture that. They think, oh, yea, the chosen people, oh, you're the chosen one, right? Christ is the only chosen one that we bow down to, friend. The Israelites were chosen to be ambassadors. They were chosen to shine the light to the Gentiles, a light to lighten the Gentiles, right? They were supposed to be a pattern nation where all the other nations would hear the word of God, all the other nations would see an example of a godly people following the law, and they'd say, man, these laws are so righteous, this makes so much sense, the word of God is so powerful. That's what God predicted would happen in Deuteronomy if they would do right, that other nations would come and people would join. And we see throughout the Old Testament people joining the nation of Israel from all over the world, or just at least wanting to get close to them and hear the word of God and hear the wisdom of Solomon, etc. So they were chosen to be ambassadors. Okay, who's the ambassador now? Is the nation of Israel the chosen ambassador right now? So right now God has chosen the Jewish state of Israel to be an ambassador for Christ? That doesn't even make sense. That's I mean, you might as well, that'd be like saying, hey, you know, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is going to be the new ambassador for Israel. Would that make any sense? That'd be like saying, hey, Kim Jong Un is the new ambassador for South Korea. You're not going to take somebody's archenemy and make them the ambassador. So you're not going to take the Christ killing enemies of the gospel and say, all right, they're the ambassadors for Jesus, even though they hate him, even though they don't believe in him. That's crazy. It's nuts. Okay. The ambassador in the New Testament is the believer. It's the Corinthian believer that he's writing to in 2 Corinthians 5, the Gentile believer in Christ. He's saying, look, we're ambassadors for Christ. Okay. We're ambassadors. If you believe in Christ, even if you're a little child, you're an ambassador. Okay. So back then, Israel were the ambassadors. Today Christians are the ambassadors. Okay. In the New Testament. Well, what did he do for these ambassadors? He gave them certain protections. He reproved kings for their sakes saying in verse 14, he suffered no man to do them wrong. Yeah, he reproved kings for their sakes saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. So with being an ambassador comes a certain diplomatic immunity, right? I mean, if an ambassador shows up, you can't throw them in prison. They're immune from all that, right? You can't just kill them or battle with them. When they come to you bearing that white flag, you're supposed to respect that, right? And if you don't, well, you're going to get rebuked. You're going to get destroyed like David had to do with the ones from Tyre. But here we see that if this applied to them back then, we inherit these promises in the New Testament now as the new ambassadors, as the new spiritual nation of Israel where, you know what? If God is not going to suffer any man to do us wrong, and he's going to rebuke kings for our sakes, he's going to say, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. There's a certain protection and safety. Now that's not to say that something bad won't happen to us, but if it does, God's going to punish those people. Just like something bad could happen to an ambassador, but if it does, are there going to be repercussions? Oh yeah. The wrath of that nation is going to be brought in. So if someone harms us, yeah, people are going to beat us or imprison us or even possibly kill us, but that person will incur the wrath of God. Any time they steal from us, smite us, do anything to us, they've incurred the wrath of God. Go to Romans 2 along these same lines, Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, thinking of Israel again as the Old Testament ambassador, the New Testament Christians as the new ambassador today in 2019, look at Romans chapter 2 verse 17, Behold thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law and are confident that thou thyself are a guide of the blind, a light of them, which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. So he's being a little bit sarcastic here because he's talking about what they're supposed to be and what they think of themselves. So they're making their boast in God and they think, oh man, we know the will of God. We know the word of God. We're instructed in the law. We're the light to shine in the darkness, right? We're the ambassadors for God. That's what they thought of themselves. But then he says, okay, verse 21 thou therefore, which teaches another teaches thou not thyself, thou that preaches to man should not steal, does thou steal, thou that sayest to man should not commit adultery, does thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, does thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking the law dishonorous thou God for the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written. So we've talked a lot about being an ambassador and we focused on the positive. Hey, if, if, if they receive you, they receive Christ. If they treat you bad, they've incurred the wrath of God, right? And we're important. We've got this great job and God's using us to reconcile people unto Christ and, and, and how great it is. But here's the other side of that coin. What if you are a cause for God to be blasphemed because you're bad ambassador? You know, what if you are someone who steals, commits adultery, commits sacrilege or idolatry, and you dishonor God, you could actually cause the name of God to be blasphemed because that's what the Jews did. They caused the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles where people didn't want the Lord because they felt so negatively toward the Jews. Okay. We don't want that to be us as Christians where we give a bad name unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to Titus chapter two. And while you're turning there, I'll read you first Timothy chapter six verse one. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. So he's talking about workers giving honor unto the boss at work. Why? So that God's word and God's name and his doctrine will not be blasphemed. So what does that mean? That means if you go to work and you're a slacker and you're disrespectful to the boss, you're an ambassador for Christ. So if you look bad, he looks bad, right? This reminds me of the old commercial from the 80s. Hey, because if you don't look good, we don't look good. You remember that? Who knows what I'm talking about? All right. 10 people. All right. It's a very young crowd today. All right. But, you know, it was the corniest, stupidest commercial in the world. We need to have a sassoon. You don't look good. We don't look good. All right. But guess what? If we don't look good, he doesn't look good. Why? Because we represent Christ. We're ambassadors for Christ. And so if we go to work and we're a pain at work, we're disrespectful, we're disobedient, we're a bad worker, we're lazy, we're a slacker, then you know what they're going to think of Christ? They're looking at you and you represent Christ. Think about what if there was a certain country that nobody's ever heard of, okay? Let's come up with a country that almost nobody's ever heard of. Somebody hit me with a really obscure country that most people won't have heard of. Lesotho. Okay. So let's say, who can tell me some facts about Lesotho? You can explain to me where Lesotho is and tell me facts about it. Anybody like that today? A few people? Okay. So 99% of people can't. So let's say you don't know anything about Lesotho, okay? And let's say an ambassador for Lesotho shows up. Right? He shows up to our church and he shows up and he's just, he's dirty, smelly, disheveled, rude, uncooked. You're going to think like, this is a backward country. If this is who they send us, this country is backward. This is a messed up third world country. You know, you'd have a bad impression. Now I've never been to Lesotho, but it's funny that you should bring Lesotho up. I actually really would love to go there and let me tell you why. Because Lesotho is this country that's a little tiny country that's surrounded by South Africa on all sides. So I thought it'd be great to go do like a soul winning event in South Africa, you know, because I'm in Lesotho and I'm surrounded on all sides by South, you know, I could go up like Moses and kind of look at South Africa but not be allowed to enter. But actually Lesotho is related to Botswana. The people are the same. They speak a very similar language. They're ethnically the same group of people. So it's like a little colony of Setswana type people in this country of Lesotho. But it turns out every flight to Lesotho that's a commercial flight goes through South Africa. So I'm going to have to charter some kind of a special transportation, right, you know, charter something and fly straight to Lesotho. But anyway, the sermon is not about Lesotho, but the point is if that guy was your first impression of that country and he's just, he's a jerk, he's rude, he's uncouth, he's a slob, he's sloppy, he's lazy, he falls asleep during the sermon and snores loudly, you'd think to yourself, this country is a joke. Who are these people? Where did this, where's this guy from? But you know what, what if someone has never heard of being a Baptist or somebody has never really been around a Bible believing Christian or even an evangelical type Christian and then you are a slob, lazy, you know what, that's what they're going to think of Christianity. I mean think about it, we run into people of obscure religions, what are we going to think of that religion? It's a messed up religion, right? Think about it. All religions are messed up except Christianity, amen? That's a fact. Anyway, so we want to be a good ambassador. Look at Titus chapter 2 verse 1, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity and patience, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. So look, if you are not living a life of Christian virtue, you could cause God's word to be blasphemed. You could be a bad ambassador, right? And we want to be a good ambassador that gives a good image of what Christ is. Now none of us is the perfect image of Christ, right? None of us is a perfect ambassador. So when people look at us, there are faults that they're going to see and we're not going to be a perfect representative of Christ, but you know what? We want the picture of Christ to come through as clearly as possible. Whether we're knocking on their door, whether we work with them, whether we go to school with them, whether we're friends with them, we want the picture of Christ to come through as clearly as possible. It's never going to be perfect, but we don't want it to be so skewed and warped that they would say, oh man, I believe that, you know, and blaspheme that. Blaspheme the name of Christ. Why? Because of you. Blaspheme the word of God. Why? Because of you. That's a pretty big responsibility to carry around, isn't it? Be a good ambassador for Christ. So I'll close with this. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse two, for ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men for as much as you're manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. We are like a walking Bible, or we're supposed to be a walking epistle of Christ, right? So you've got the epistle of Paul to the Romans, the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, right? The epistle of Paul to the Galatians, right? The epistle of Peter. What about the epistle of Christ? You are supposed to be a living, breathing epistle of Christ, where you are a message sent from God to people, and you speak God's word, and you represent his views and what he believes, and you show behavior that becomes or fits or suits your status as an ambassador for Christ, that the name of God be not blasphemed. Then one more thing, 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse five says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So we're just an earthen vessel, but we have this treasure. We have this status as an ambassador. So this is not something for us to get puffed up or prideful, but we do need to realize how important we are. And there's a difference between being filled with pride and arrogance like the bunch of weirdos this month with their pride month. The right attitude for a humble, meek Christian to have is one that says, you know what? I am privileged. It is an honor. It is only by God's grace that I've been given this position of being an ambassador. It's not because of anything good in me. In my flesh dwell with no good thing. It is a privilege. It's a blessing from God that I get to be an ambassador. But because of that, I'm an important person. I'm important. I don't want you to go out of here saying that you don't matter. And I've heard some preaching that says you're expendable. You don't matter. You're scum. We're all scum. We're all dirt. We don't matter. We can all be replaced. I don't believe that. I believe that I'm super important. I think you're all super important. I think we all play a key role in God's plan. And that if we don't do it, it isn't going to get done. You think you're expendable, speak for yourself. I don't think I'm expendable, but I don't think you're expendable either. I think if you don't do it, it won't get done. I think if I don't do it, it won't get done. Folks, we matter. And you know what? If you think about yourself as an important person, not because of you, but because of the position you're in, because of the ministry that you have, because of the treasure of the gospel that you carry, if you think of yourself as being an important person because you're a child of the king, then that could help you act like an important person. I mean, think about it. If I am showing up to Lesotho as a tourist, I might just kind of roll out of bed whenever and just kind of walk around, see the sights, right, wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops and just kind of do whatever and just kind of hang out, right? But if I'm going there as an ambassador for the United States, what if Donald Trump called me and said, Pastor Anderson, I want you to be my ambassador to Lesotho. I've been sending out too many FAG ambassadors. I need to send out an ambassador to represent our Christian heritage here in the United States. Anybody who can represent us as a godly Christian, and I've chosen you, Pastor Steven Anderson, will you go? You will represent, and I'd say, how am I going to get there because all the flights go through South Africa. No, no, no. What? We're going to get you a special transportation that will bypass South Africa, get you straight to Lesotho. Okay. Well, look, don't you think that would be different how I would act? I'd probably be up at 0 dark 30 in the morning, right? I'd be dressed. I'd be ready to go, suit and tie, strict schedule. Where am I going? What am I doing? And I'd be prepared. I mean, if I were just going there just to fool around and go hiking or something, that'd be one thing. But if I'm sent there as an ambassador of the United States, then you know what I'd probably do? I'd probably be cramming the language so that I could at least show up and kind of wow them with a little bit of phrases and be able to speak their language a little bit, break the ice a little bit, so that we could talk Turkey, right? Because I'm there to make deals. I'm there to broker a trade agreement or whatever. Who knows what I'd be sent there to do? But if I'm going to be talking Turkey with the Lesotho government, then I better be sharp, I better be on time, and I better know what's going on. If I were sent some kind of a briefing or something, I'd need to study that, learn that, make sure I don't get the message wrong, learn a little bit of their language to break the ice. I mean, there'd be a lot of... Let's say I were going in two weeks. It's probably all I would work on for the next two weeks, this job, right? You know, I gotta be ready for this. This is super important. I'd be burning the midnight oil working on that. Well, guess what? That is nothing. Because someday Lesotho is going to be gone, someday the United States is going to be gone, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And so what we do is more important. So you know what? Why don't we get in the Bible and read it and study it and learn it? Why don't we work hard to be the best ambassador we could possibly be? Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you so much for this ministry that you've given us, and what an exciting job, and what a blessing it is to show up at someone's door and actually be able to present the gospel and present the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to be good ambassadors, Lord. And many times we go to hostile places and people don't want to hear the message, Lord. Help us not to take it personally and to realize that if they reject us, they're not rejecting us. They don't even know us. They're rejecting you. They're rejecting your word, Lord. But help us to be the best possible ambassadors that we can be. And Lord, there are many people here today that they're not being much of an ambassador because they don't even preach the gospel to anyone. They never even witnessed to anyone, Lord. I pray that they would show up at a soul-winning time and learn how to give the gospel, maybe watch some videos online that we've done about how to give the gospel, and start witnessing to the people around them, knocking some doors, going on some missions trips, Lord. The time is short, and let us redeem the time and do the best that we can for you. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.