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AMBASSADORS

Speaker: Pastor Keith Goullette
Theme: Church Life
Thesis: Are You Being An Ambassador?
Scripture Text: II Corinthians 5:18-21 (next week: II Corinthians 6:1-10)
I. Reconciliation - v. 18-20
II. Righteousness - v. 21

Scripture Readings

MATTHEW 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

ACTS 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

ROMANS 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

II CORINTHIANS 4:7
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.

I PETER 2:24
And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

SCRIPTURE TEXT—II CORINTHIANS 5:18-21
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

NOTES:

• Romans 3:10 - man is totally hopeless, totally helpless
• Reconcile = change thoroughly
• Matthew 27:46
• ⇒ Christ DIED for SINNERS
• God uses human beings to raise and train up all new human beings, He uses human parents. Are we doing a job worthy of what He has entrusted?
• POEM:

  • The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
    Are read by more than a few,
    But the one that is most read and commented on
    Is the gospel according to you.

    You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day
    By the things that you do and the words that you say,
    Men read what you write, whether faithless or true,
    Say, what is the gospel according to you'

    Do men read His truth and His love in your life,
    Or has yours been too full of malice and strife'
    Does your life speak of evil, or does it ring true'
    Say, what is the gospel according to you'

    Arthur McPhee

• Righteousness: not one is right. Christ NEVER sinned. All else have.
• Christ's death: unpayable debt paid in FULL without any help from us.

Sermon length: 39:09