SHIFT #3: Responsibility Shift
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmark: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Housekeeping Stuff & Announcements:
Thank Donna. Welcome everyone to the family gathering.
It’s good to be together again this morning to worship the Lord together. We are still in the process of our “soft opening” of the church building for the church family, as we still can’t all come together in one place at the same time. Many of our church family is still watching online, and we want to say, “Hi!” to them. So everyone turn to the camera back there in the booth, and on three, we’re going to wave and say, “Hi!” together.
We are still navigating what this “soft opening” time looks like as far as family worship practice, and things today will still be somewhat different than what we would call “normal.”
We are really going to celebrate when we can finally bring the whole church family back together safely under one roof, but it’s great to be together to this extent for now. For today, we’re going to keep our masks on (except me since I’m speaking), we’re going to maintain safe social distancing practices, and we’re doing all of that out of love for one another. Thanks for understanding this. I look forward to one day not having to be concerned about that.
This morning, there might be some here or watching online who are just checking Eastern Hills out. We have a text response system called Text-In-Church that we use to helps us stay in contact. If you’re here in the building today for the first time, and you’d like to receive some follow up, prayer, are have some questions, we’d appreciate it if you would text the word SCREEN WELCOME to 505-339-2004. You’ll get a text back with a link asking for more information. Thanks for taking the time to fill that out. Now, even though many of us are back in the building this morning, we know that many are watching who have never even been here physically. We’re going to keep streaming in the future. We would love to continue to worship with you in the weeks, months, and years to come, and so we’d like to be able to communicate with you as well. SCREEN If you’re visiting with us online, you can text the word LIVE to 505-339-2004. Like the local group, it will ask you to click a link just to provide us with your name and email address. We want to be able to pray for you, follow up with you if you have any questions, and keep you apprised about things as we look forward into the coming weeks and months. Text LIVE to 505-339-2004 for online only. Text WELCOME for local. Thanks. One other way that you can connect is that we have this morning’s service all set up on YouVersion, so you should be able to see it if you get on YouVersion and look for our Live Event.
PRAY
Alternate Forms of Worship Service
Alternate Forms of Worship Service
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there is a concern that singing can be a “superspreader” of COVID-19, so for the moment, we are limiting the amount of singing we are doing in our worship services. While masks are helpful, the question of singing doesn’t have a definitive answer yet. So we are going to have some music this morning, but for today, we’re going to ask that when we reach that point, we will take the time to reflect and pray, to read and listen to the lyrics of the song, or to hum along instead of sing. I understand that this might be a struggle for some of you. It is for me. I love to sing my praise and worship to God. But just because we aren’t singing doesn’t mean we can’t worship.
I did a little mini-teaching two weeks ago on this topic, so I won’t repeat that this morning. But remember that there are lots of ways in Scripture that we are given to worship the Lord together.
Worship is ultimately about focusing on God, not ourselves. While singing is a great way to worship the Lord, it is certainly not the only way.
As we did last time, we can engage in the proclamation of Scripture together as an act of worship to the Lord. The responsive readings that we find in our hymnals are all based on Scripture, in fact, they are mostly just passages of Scripture quoted directly.
Let’s stand together while we join in Responsive Reading 665.
Responsive Reading #665
Responsive Reading #665
Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, working side by side for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by our opponents.
For it has been given to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.
Stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught.
Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave and strong. Your every action must be done with love. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. However, do this with gentleness and respect.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty.
You may be seated. Let’s contemplate what it means to live life in a manner worthy of the Gospel during these uncertain times as we watch this video:
VIDEO: IN UNCERTAIN TIMES (1:30)
Responsive Reading #499
Responsive Reading #499
For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden, because whatever has been born of God conquers the world.
This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
In all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.
Today you are about to engage in battle with your enemies. Do not be faint-hearted. Do not be afraid, alarmed, or terrified because of them. For the LORD your God is the One who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.
What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son, but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
BAND: WE BELIEVE
As we have said, taking other actions such as clapping or shouting can be acts of worship unto God. Everyone, of almost any age, can take part in these forms of worship, even if they can’t yet read.
But in Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, the teacher writes:
1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to approach in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong. 2 Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
One way that we can worship the Lord is in silent reflection upon who He is, what He has done, and all that He says He will do. Silence is something that we very much struggle with in our society right now. We are constantly bombarded with noise. Sometimes, we need to decide to quiet down, to be still, and know that He is God.
In the book of Revelation, chapter 8 verse 1, when the seventh seal on the scroll is opened, it says that there will be silence in heaven for about a half and hour.
We are going to take thirty seconds to stand in silent reverence of and reflection upon our God. Like our applause last time, this might seem like a long time, given the breakneck pace and constant sound in our lives. But during this time, focus your attention and reflection upon the Lord God, in whom we believe and have placed our hope and trust. Then, I will lead us in prayer and we will end that prayer with a shout of “Amen” together as worship.
SILENCE for 30 seconds
PRAY
SHOUT “AMEN” at the close as our final congregational act of worship.
STAY STANDING.
Opening
Opening
This is our third and final message in this little three-part mini-series called SHIFT that I wrote for the BCNM student camps back in 2018. As I’ve said, I preached these three messages to our Sunday night worship group in October of that year, and many asked that I share these with our congregation as a whole.
So let’s open the Scriptures and look at our focal passage for this series, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. Today, we will focus on verse 18-20 in our study, as we have already considered 17 and 21 in our first message, then 14-16 last week.
14 For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died. 15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised. 16 From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
PRAY
My first paying job was at McDonald’s. Yes, McDonald’s. I worked on the grill, making hamburgers. Most of McDonald’s burger preparation now is automated, but at that time, someone working the grill actually had to “flip” the burgers.
There was a set of tasks that I was expected to do, over and over, simply because I was an employee of McDonald’s with a particular job. Burger preparation went like this:
Hear the order and acknowledge it by repeating it back.
Lay out the buns on the prep tray.
Start the buns toasting.
Put the burgers on the grill, season them, and start the timer.
Pull the buns out when the toaster buzzes and begin condiments on the top buns.
When the timer buzzes, flip the burgers, and hit the timer again.
Finish condiments, including cheese as necessary.
When the timer buzzes again, pull the burgers to the top buns.
Slide the bottom buns onto the tops.
Call to the front what’s up while passing the burgers up to be wrapped.
Scrape the grill.
Start over.
This list of tasks would vary a little, depending on whether I was making regular burgers or quarter pounders or Big Macs or whatever.
No matter which I was making, it was always a set of tasks that I had been given to do, and an expectation that I would do them faithfully.
A few points to add to this illustration, things that we will flesh out in our points:
One thing that McDonald’s made very clear was that I was a representative of McDonald’s to our customers and those who weren’t our customers, and my attitude, courtesy, appearance, and food preparation skill all reflected upon the company, either positively or negatively. (MINISTRY)
The repetition of the tasks in a set way over and over was to make sure that the hamburgers were always prepared consistently to McDonald’s standards. (MESSAGE)
In doing these tasks over and over again, I got better and better at performing them, and eventually reached the point where I not only could make burgers quickly and correctly, but actually train others in making burgers. (MISSION)
To his point in our series, we have considered that our REALITY SHIFTS when we surrender our lives to Christ, and that now we should have experienced three RELATIONAL SHIFTS as well: Seeing Jesus correctly as fully man and fully God, seeing ourselves as His, and that we see others as Jesus sees them. Today, for our final lesson in the series, we are going to talk about the RESPONSIBILITY SHIFTS that comes with belonging to Christ.
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #1: WE HAVE A MINISTRY
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #1: WE HAVE A MINISTRY
18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”
The first thing that we need to remember when we come to this passage is that God is sovereign over literally everything. There is nothing that He is not the ruler over, nothing that He cannot evaluate or judge, no decision that He needs advice or permission to make, no action that He cannot take if He so pleases.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure or weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on the scales? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or who gave him counsel? 14 Who did he consult? Who gave him understanding and taught him the paths of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
25 “To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up and see! Who created these? He brings out the stars by number; he calls all of them by name. Because of his great power and strength, not one of them is missing.
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding.
I need to define one more term here before continuing: “Reconcile”. To “reconcile” two things is to “restore to friendship or harmony” (m-w.com). Throughout this passage, we see this word five times in three different forms: “reconciled” (18, 20), “reconciliation” (18, 19), “reconciling” (19).
And God was pleased to do all the work required in reconciling us to Himself. According to Ephesians 2:4-9:
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
We cannot work hard enough to earn reconciliation, because it is a gift. The only thing we bring to our salvation is our surrender to God’s gracious gift of grace (unearned favor) through faith (belief that takes action). We are saved when we give up trying to save ourselves and instead trust in what Christ has done to save us.
But now that we are saved, 2 Corinthians 5:18 and the first part of verse 20 tell us something important about who we are: We are ministers and ambassadors.
When we say the word “minister” in our Christian context, we nearly always think of a pastor or other church leader. And this isn’t far off: The Greek word for “ministry” here actually means “service”, and shares the same root as our word “deacon.” However, there is another type of “minister” (literally, “servant”) that is more closely related to “ambassador”, and we’re going to tie these two together here:
Minister: a person acting for another as agent and carrying out given orders or designs; specifically a person appointed by the head of a government to take charge of some department. (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)
Ambassador: an official envoy; especially a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment. (m-w.com)
You could say that, from my opening illustration, I was in a way a “minister” of McDonald’s. I was called upon by the company to represent it in the world to our customers and to those we would like to have become our customers. Who I was (while I was working at least) spoke to who the company was. How I treated customers and other employees made me, in a way, an ambassador of McDonald’s.
To sum this up, ministers and ambassadors are essentially the same thing: they represent an organization, ruler, nation, or kingdom in a particular ministry.
Can you see this in verses 18 and 20?
God “gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (18) and “we are ambassadors for Christ.” (20)
Instead of the “church” idea of a minister, think about it as the “government” idea: God’s “ministers/ambassadors” represent the Kingdom of God in a foreign place: the lost and fallen world.
So don’t miss this: Every Christian is an ambassador, a representative of God, ministers of reconciliation on God’s behalf to the world. This is our MINISTRY: We are “ministers of the task of restoring friendship or harmony between God and man.” And God has chosen to make us RESPONSIBLE for that MINISTRY.
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #2: WE HAVE A MESSAGE
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #2: WE HAVE A MESSAGE
A minister or an ambassador of an organization or nation fulfills that role by doing something: Ministers and ambassadors have the RESPONSIBILITY to speak on behalf of the nation or ruler they represent. What they speak is their MESSAGE.
At McDonald’s, my “message” as the representative of McDonald’s was my work product: the quality of the food that I prepared. That message was part of what makes McDonald’s McDonald’s. It’s why you can go to just about any McDonald’s and you know what will be on the menu: because their consistent product is the message.
Verse 19 tells us what our message is as Christians:
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
Just to be clear: Biblically, a “trespass” is another way of referring to “sin.” The idea is that we go morally where God has declared that we are not allowed to go.
Our message is what we’ve already talked about: That God has done the work of making a way of friendship and harmony between Himself and sinful man: He offers to not count their sins against them IN CHRIST (remember LESSON 1!). Because of the love that God has for us, Jesus lived the perfect life that we couldn’t live, and died the death we should have died, and rose from a grave we could never escape, so that if we surrender our lives to Him in faith, then we are made right with God, we have overcome the grave, and will live forever with Him. THIS IS THE GOSPEL.
We must understand that God is not the one who needs to be reconciled to us. He didn’t break our fellowship with Him. We did (Lesson 1). But because of what God has done for us in Christ, we represent HIM as His ambassadors/ministers.
So now our home “kingdom” is the Kingdom of God. And we are sent to live as His ambassadors in a foreign land: the sinful and broken world.
13 These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.
19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,
Who is it that we are supposed to bring our message to? To the lost people of the sinful, broken world.
We’ve already discussed in Lesson 2 how we are to see these people, ALL of these people: “a His beloved creation, created in His image, worthy of respect, dignity, and His love.” Therefore, they should experience that respect, dignity, and love through His representatives: us.
As God’s ambassadors, we have the RESPONSIBILITY to share God’s MESSAGE of reconciliation, as this is what we are MINISTERS of: reconciliation.
And doesn’t the world desperately need this message of reconciliation right now? I suppose I could attempt to come up with a time that I felt that there was more discord and conflict in our nation, but I can’t think of one in my own experience. Those who are older than I am might be able to. The way to reconciliation isn’t in backing down from declaring the state of mankind, the truth about sin and death, and the hope of the Gospel. It’s in declaring boldly that the only way we’re going to be truly and permanently reconciled to one another is if we are first reconciled to God: made new through faith in Christ! We have a heart problem! And that, brothers and sisters, leads us to our third point:
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #3: WE HAVE A MISSION
RESPONSIBILITY SHIFT #3: WE HAVE A MISSION
So we have established that a minister/ambassador has a RESPONSIBILITY to fulfill their MINISTRY by speaking the MESSAGE that they have been given by the ruler, nation, or kingdom they represent.
In doing that, the hope is that their MESSAGE will be heard and that those who hear the message will be persuaded to agree with the message and take some action. This is the ambassador’s MISSION.
Verse 20 reveals our MISSION:
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”
To “appeal” means to “call or invite”. Since we are “ambassadors for Christ,” we are “certain that God is making His call or invitation through us.” To “call” or “invite” someone is a form of persuasion: we are asking them to make a decision or take an action.
To “plead” is even stronger. It literally means to “beg.”
What are we calling/inviting/begging them to do?
We call/invite/beg that those who hear our MESSAGE would be persuaded to surrender their lives to God through faith in Christ, and thus would be restored to a place of friendship and harmony with God. THIS IS OUR MISSION: to make disciples of Jesus Christ by proclaiming the MESSAGE to them, pleading with them to respond positively to that message:
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And it really is that simple:
We have a RESPONSIBILITY to fulfill our MISSION by faithfully proclaiming the MESSAGE of reconciliation as MINISTERS or AMBASSADORS of the Kingdom of God.
But notice one last nuance to this mission that we have as ambassadors of Christ: we are to teach those we plead with to observe everything Jesus commanded. And what has He commanded? Well, right here, that we would make disciples.
My mission at McDonald’s involved first learning, then doing, and then teaching. I learned my tasks, I did my tasks over and over until I was proficient at them, and then I started teaching other new employees to do those same tasks.
Brothers and sisters, we have a mission that we’ve been given: to proclaim the message of the Gospel and invite others to respond to it, and then to teach them what Jesus commanded us to do, and thus teach them to proclaim the message of the Gospel and invite others to respond to it. This is discipleship, and discipleship is a part of our ongoing mission.
Application/Closing
Application/Closing
This final SHIFT is about our RESPONSIBILITY as MINISTERS of the MESSAGE of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which ultimately is our MISSION. Have you ever considered that we have been given a great RESPONSIBILITY to share the message of the Gospel with the world?
To be clear: God CAN fulfill His mission in any way He would like to. That goes with His being sovereign. However, God has CHOSEN to give us a MINISTRY to fulfill, a MESSAGE to proclaim, and a MISSION to undertake.
How does it make you feel to understand that if you are in Christ, you are a “minister of reconciliation” disguised as something else:
a child;
a husband;
a wife;
a single person;
a mid-school, high school, or college student;
an executive;
a plumber;
a clerk or cashier;
a police officer or fireman;
an accountant;
a retiree;
an engineer;
a real estate agent;
a car salesman;
a pilot;
a butcher;
a baker;
a candlestick maker;
or a pastor or a fast food service worker?
The challenge for each of us today, and for the days and weeks and months and years to come, is to take seriously our RESPONSIBILITY as MINISTERS of reconciliation: to speak our MESSAGE in love, that people might be persuaded and we might fulfill our MISSION.
But this morning, I would be a poor ambassador for Christ if I assumed that everyone in this room, or everyone listening online, had already trusted in Christ for their salvation. My role, as I mentioned, is to plead with you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God by surrendering your life to Him in obedience, understanding that you cannot save yourself. You need Jesus. Stop going your own way, and trust Christ.
Again, because of social distancing, we will not have a personal “come down” invitation this morning. But please reach out to me or the rest of church staff via email, Facebook, or Text-In-Church if you are in need of prayer or if you have made a decision this morning to follow Jesus.
Donna is going to play a piece on the piano for us as we reflect on our role as ministers and ambassadors of the message of the Gospel. You can also use this time to give your offering as an act of worship if you’d like to do so online.
PRAY
Donna
Thank you for being with us this morning in person and online. Please be in prayer for each other and encourage one another this week. You can get our PrayerLine on our website under the “Family Life” tab, so you can know some of what is going in that needs pray in our church family. We pray that you have a blessed week, and we look forward to worshiping with you again next Sunday.
The safety and security team will release us, and make sure that you go out through the doors that lead to the courtyard.
Donna Postlude