Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Today I want to take some time and go over the spiritual discipline of prayer.

Prayer is a vast topic, so today I will be speaking from our identity as Ambassadors in Christ on the subject of prayer.

I will only scratch the surface today, but I hope it encourages you wherever you find yourself, whether you pray all the time or you feel you need to pray more.

I hope it inspires you to dig deeper into what your prayer life could look like fully surrendered and partnered with Christ.

I’m gonna pray because I need God to guide this message and I desire Him to touch our hearts.

I don’t plan on giving you a big persuasive speech today, but I hope God would impact each and every one of us in regards to our identities here in His kingdom.

Pray.

(as His disciples prayed God I want you to teach us how to pray today.)

My great aunt ends conversations with me by saying ‘onwards Christian Soldier’.

Nothing like it to remind me i’m in war.

There is a war being fought every moment of every day for your soul, for the soul of your spouse, for the souls of your children, for your parent’s souls, there’s a war being fought for the soul of your coworkers, for your friends, for your neighbor’s soul.

I see the war raging everywhere.

I see it in our midst, I see it in my classroom at the daycare, I see it in my family and I know God is calling me to fight for Him in every situation.

Are you aware that you are a soldier in this war?

Do you feel equipped to be in this war?

Today I pray you leave more equipped for the good fight of faith than when you came in.

These may be old truths for some, but as we follow Jesus old truths are often refreshed and grow deeper in us and it never hurts to hear them again.

Pastor Chris just finished a series on evangelism and as I reflect on that topic it draws me into prayer for the lost in my life.

But with the knowledge of this war we are in I don’t want to just see the lost come to know Jesus, I want to see my sisters and brothers here walking in freedom from sins entanglement and I want to see God’s glory revealed in all of creation.

The devil is not going to let that happen easily, He’s putting up a fight, but friends, the devil is a defeated foe of the believer.

I would have to agree with him as we go over our position in Christ today.

I believe it will help us join in intercession with Jesus and we will shine brighter and see the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth as we have been commissioned in.

We are Ambassadors of Christ

Let’s open our bibles up to 2 Corinthians 5:20.

Here we will be going over our identity in Christ as Ambassadors and the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given.

This passage isn’t directly about prayer, but I believe as we know who we are we will be empowered to take ground for Christ and see God’s kingdom come through prayer.

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.

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

We have ambassadors for our country in almost every nation, just as most other nations do.

I remember in Romania I took a Romanian language course and in my class a guy there was an ambassador from Hungary that worked at their embassy in Romania.

As an ambassador he represents the government of Hungary on behalf of the president in treaty negotiations, immigration discussions, foreign aid projects and humanitarian aid projects.

He has no authority of his own, but he is authorized by his president’s authority to represent the nation sending him.

This man would also aid citizens of Hungary that are traveling in Romania and provide security for Hungarians during emergencies and natural disasters.

All Ambassadors are chosen because their higher authority believes they will represent them well.

It would do the president of Hungary no good if his ambassador to Romania made treaty negotiations that weren’t in line with the values of the presidency.

So in order for the president to choose his ambassador and use his ambassador their needs to be some strong communication and agreement about the values the president holds for his country.

With this in mind let’s go back to 2 Corinthians 5:20

So we are ambassadors from Heaven to earth for the sake of the Gospel.

Just as the president entrusts their ambassador to represent Him in another country.

God entrusts us with the privilege of re-presenting Him on this earth.

We are sent ones who go on no authority of our own, but the authority of Jesus to bring the Kingdom of Heaven here.

We are to negotiate strategies to bring Heaven to this earth.

We are to build up other citizens of heaven and protect them.

This verse in it’s context is about how we are speaking on God’s behalf for all men to be reconciled to Him.

Jesus died on the cross to forgive us that we may be washed clean to stand before a Holy God in right relationship with Him and God is commissioning us to be ministers of this good news to the world around us.

Jesus said in John 20:21

Now as an ambassador of Christ we need to know the Gospel, we need to know our Father in heaven and His truth that sets us free so we can adequately communicate and minister reconciliation to others.

We should do our very best to be on the same page with Christ so we can be His representation here on the earth.

I’m an ambassador of Christ in my daycare classroom, I desire Heaven to come in my classroom, I desire my kids in there to know the love of Jesus, I desire them to know about His forgiveness, I desire them to know His truth that will set them free, I desire they grow up in the things of God.

I teach them the bible story of the week and use different circumstances to teach them how to love one another, I share the gospel with them and provide a safe space for them with structure and boundaries that helps them grow in the ways of God.

As an ambassador I represent Christ and operate in His authority, but I’m also very called to pray for the people God’s entrusted me to influence that He may move on their behalf.

This Hungarian ambassador to Romania that I’m using as an example needed to communicate on behalf of Romania to the president of Hungary.

He needed constant communication both ways to continually know how best to represent his homeland.

In the same way we need correspondence with Heaven.

Jesus paid it all for everyone, but He’s commissioned us to partner with him in saving the lost.

God sends us out as ambassadors and enlists us to share the Gospel as we share we begin to love others and listen to them we realize their needs and these needs are what brings us to our prayer closets.

Jesus died on the cross for all.

He made forgiveness available for all.

He overcame once and for all.

Does that mean everyone is saved?

Does that mean everyone is forgiven?

Does that mean everyone overcomes?

No! God desires all to be saved, but being saved requires a trust and belief in God.

When you truly see Jesus, the Son of God as your Lord and Savior you are covered by His sacrifice and receive what Jesus did for all.

So how do people come to saving faith?

Most of the time it’s through you and me as Ambassadors of Christ that go out and love the world and come to our prayer closets and stand in the gap on their behalf.

When we come to our prayer closets we learn we are not fighting against the flesh in these people’s lives, but against powers and principalities.

The devil is ultimately defeated, but he is running loose still until the return of Jesus.

Again as an ambassador for Christ in my classroom mostly I war for their souls in prayer.

Not all of my kids go home to a Christian household and even if they do, the devil is at work.

He’s deceptive and sneaky causing most things that influence our kids fly under the radar of their parents and unfortunately strongly distract them from the things of God.

The kids in my classroom are a lot like the people you work with, they’re a lot like your family members, etc.

In that their soul is being fought over.

Most everyone has at least one person in their life speaking up against God or is being influenced by ungodly movies/music/media.

As ambassadors for Christ we no longer play by the rules of the world, but by the ways of the Kingdom of God and we are sent out here to bring the Kingdom of God here and that takes loving people with our actions and words and going to battle for their souls in intercession partnering with Jesus.

Jesus promised to build His church

So as ambassadors we probably feel a responsibility weighing in on us so let’s remember together the promise Jesus gave to us, let us open up our Bibles to Matthew 16:18

Jesus here is talking to Peter promising that Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So we’re pretty clear there is a war going on for the souls of all around us, but who is in charge of building the church?

Jesus!

Who has defeated the devil?

Jesus!

As we operate as Ambassadors for Christ it’s important that we properly handle our responsibility.

It can be a costly responsibility and that’s okay because following Jesus is costly and if our lives aren’t faced with the cost of following Him, are we truly following Him?

There is a difference though as with all the requests of Jesus there is a grace that is poured out for us to walk in as we obey.

It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit declares the Lord of Hosts Zech 4:6

We stand in the gap for people all around us out of obedience to Christ, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation and with that comes time spent in prayer with trust that God will build His church.

God equips us with all things for the battle we’re in, we have nothing to fear.

Jesus teaches us how to pray.

As Ambassadors of Christ we trust God and obey Him as we follow Him and His lead in this war that we’re in.

To begin to understand how to pray I need to scale it back.

I’ve talked much of intercession and fighting this war although vaguely, but here I want to cover more vastly the concept of prayer and then cover a bit more of what intercession consists of.

Our identity isn’t only an ambassador as I’ve been dialing in on, but as a Child.

I believe without a doubt that we can only love others and tell them about Jesus after we’ve loved ourselves and accepted Jesus for ourselves.

We can only be an ambassador after we know are right place as child.

Paul instructs us to pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Prayer is talking to God in it’s simplest definition.

The best part about us being requested to pray without ceasing is that prayer is talking with God.

As children of God we should be running to our Father for everything.