The Ministry of Reconciliation - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 - The Carols

All right, hey, at all of our locations this weekend we're excited to have you.

We're going to dive in. If you have a copy of scripture, we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 today. But as you guys are finding that, let me just update you guys and we're going to celebrate this. Hey, last weekend was the largest weekend of giving we have ever had in 10 years at our church. Can we praise God for that?

All right. And it matters, y'all, it matters because every dollar ends up being a missions dollar. This is what the mission of the church is, man, in the triad and in the world. And so everything that has come in, we're going to leverage it for all the things that we've talked about through the deeper initiative. But it's really important for you guys to understand that it matters that that money is coming in in the way that it is. And I want to push you, if you can, everybody can't do this, I know that, okay? But if you can, to accelerate the giving that you have committed to on the front end of this initiative.

And I want you to know why, okay? Because here's the deal, and I'm going to illustrate this, all right? Most of the time, conventional wisdom would show that in a church like Mercy Hill, two year kind of deal, people commit to it, that the money will come in not evenly over two years. What ends up happening, generally speaking, in a church like ours, is that over the two years, actually more money would come in in 2024 than it would in 2023.

Usually 15 to 20% more, okay? In 2024, over 2023, it's just the way these things kind of work out. But here's the deal, that would be fine if our expenses for the deeper initiative, we're going to follow that same path. But as you guys know, at all of our locations, you know, that when we build the home and hub, most of that is front loaded right here in 2023, okay? So let me give you an example of that. When you go to buy AV equipment to upfit a new facility, they're going to ask you to buy that equipment 12 months in advance before it's ever installed.

That's just one example, okay? So just so you got it in your mind, like while the income generally would do this, the way the expenses are going to work over the next two years is kind of more like this. It's higher in 2023 and then begins to tail off. So you guys can understand that sort of creates a little bit of a cash flow issue here. This is something that we've known is coming. Man, our directional elder team is talking about, our executive team is talking about it. Man, we're managing it. But I just want you guys to hear, when you hear me say through the course of December, hey, what it matters, what comes in on the front end of this, you can see it really matters what comes in on the front end of this, okay?

And so just if you have an opportunity to accelerate through this year, you know, through the end of this year, what you've committed to give, that would be really, really great for us to have, alright? Alright, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. That is where we are going to be here today and we're going to be talking about this concept that we've gotten into last week of the Christmas carols and talking about the scriptures that produced them, okay? Now I've told you before, we're not that interested in this series talking about holly jolly Christmas songs, okay? Because by and large, although we want to make them Christmasy and about God, they're really just not, okay? So, you know, run, run Rudolph is not about running from your sin, alright? All I want for Christmas is you is not about making God the deepest desire of your heart, okay?

Grandma got run over by a reindeer is not a metaphor for Jesus trampling sin and death. These are not, these are holly jolly songs. They're cultural songs. That's fine.

I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with them. We're not interested in that. We're interested in some of the deep theological songs that we sing and here's what we want to do. We want to close the gap between what we understand about Christmas and what we sing about Christmas, okay? Now we're not, you know, I'm not doing expositions of songs here so I'm relying on a little bit of knowledge of some of the songs in our culture but we do want to do four and we've already done one. Expositions, that just means kind of exposing what's in the Bible around the scriptures that produce some of these great songs, okay?

So we did Joy to the World. We talked about Psalm 98. Today we're going to be talking about 2 Corinthians 5 and we're going to be talking about this concept of sinners and God being reconciled, okay? That's going to be what we get into today. That God and man are reconciled through the life and work of Jesus Christ.

This matters so much. Some of the greatest sermons you're ever going to hear in your life are sung in the form of Christmas songs in your kid's public school walking down the aisle at Walmart or at the Rockefeller Center in New York City when they light the Christmas tree up after doing all holly jolly Christmas songs when the lights actually come on they're singing Joy to the World. They're singing these songs about Christ.

I'm not sure our culture fully understands them but we have an opportunity not only to understand in greater ways the scriptures that produce these songs and I've told you before the Spirit uses songs many times to drive faith deep into our hearts but these are also songs that we can use as sort of sermons in our culture. I am hoping that somebody's going to come up to me and they're going to tell me a story and I hope maybe my family will end up having some stories over the course of the four weeks where I'm able to say hey you know or somebody's able to say to me there was a co-worker or there was a teammate or there was somebody in my class in a grad program or whatever and we were talking about Christmas and this song and I was able to say this phrase hey I heard a talk about that song. I heard a talk about that one and I know where it came from. Well that's what we want to do in the series. Certainly what we're going to do this weekend. 2 Corinthians 5 shows us some great truths about the song Hark the Herald Angels Sing okay. We've already you know sung it in our campuses. We are going to maybe reprise that again.

John Wesley penned this song in 1739. I think it is a perfect example of what we're talking about. We sing it. Do we understand it?

I'm not sure how many of us in our everyday language you know say hark you know I don't know maybe you do okay. Do we know what this means? Do we understand what the herald angels means?

I'm like man I don't know what that means. Is that their name? I mean one of them's named Gabriel.

Another one's named Harold okay and in the scripture that doesn't seem like it goes together. All right what does it mean? Well we're gonna get into that and and a big idea of this song is that in Luke chapter 2 heaven breaks into earth and begins to shout and begins to show that peace will come on earth because peace himself is swaddled up in a manger. Because the peace child has come to declare that there is reconciliation to be had between God and humanity. And we will not get very excited about that.

If somebody says peace that's only exciting if we understand that we're at war. And in our sin we are hostile to God. Our culture doesn't like that.

We don't think about it that way. But that is what the scripture calls us to see. We don't get excited about peace and reconciliation if we don't understand that there is a relational brokenness between humanity and God that needs to be put back together. I hope I can show you that this weekend and certainly I think that's what Paul is after in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

Here's the big idea this weekend. The king came to reconcile sinners to God. To put back together what was broken. To crush the enmity and hostility that exists between humanity who have rebelled against God and decided they would rather have his throne and run their life even though it's his creation.

Okay that we would rather do that. Jesus has come to declare peace and to reconcile us to him. And that's what Paul has in mind. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

Now here we go. Let me start in verse 17. I'm gonna read all the scripture today and then we'll go back and we'll sort of parse this out a little bit verse by verse here. Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.

The old has passed away behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Y'all we could preach on this passage for weeks and weeks.

Okay it's very rich it's very dense. Now what's funny is we're doing a sermon on carols. This is not actually the scripture that produced Hark the Herald. Okay that that scripture comes out of Luke chapter 2. You probably know that if you're not even around church from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Okay you know that you know that one right Luke chapter 2. Glory to God on the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men or among those whom he has pleased popularized again by Charlie Brown. But we know that one from Luke chapter 2.

That's what I think is in mind in the song but I want to grab one phrase of the song. Remember what is born this series kind of in my mind is that we equip an entire church number one to remember what God has done for them but number two to have that conversation at the water cooler that says hey I heard a talk about that song and if you're going to have that conversation hey I heard a talk about that song get right to the point. God and sinners reconciled. This is the idea that man and God would come back together and this is a great song for us to get all the way right to the point of the gospel so we could say it like this. To be reconciled to God starts in 2 Corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.

Okay to be reconciled to God. It starts by and is entailing the concept of becoming new to be reconciled to God entails becoming new that God would do something in us that would bring newness the old has passed away it says and behold the new has come. You could you become new. The gospel gets a hold of you when you put your faith in Jesus Christ now newness in our lives in a lot of ways can provide a lift. Okay it just can man new you know new new school you know new new child comes home new possession new haircut I mean whatever like it just kind of can provide a little bit of a lift. But here's the problem with new all new gets old right if it's if it's new it ends up getting old. The thing about what the Bible is talking about here and what Paul is talking about here and this gets into very deep theological waters I think that really harkens back to the message that we talked about last week is that Paul is talking about a newness that doesn't get old he's talking about a newness that only gets newer it only becomes more and more new over the generations of course what I'm getting into here is that Paul is actually anchoring back the newness of our heart and the newness of a person in Christianity in something bigger and that is he is anchoring this in the new heavens and the new earth he is anchoring this in Isaiah 65 17 that God would come forward and put forth a new heavens and a new earth he's going all the way to the very end of the last book when the new heavens and new earth are here and we get a chance to be a part of that we talked about this a little bit last week far as the curse is found okay all the way down to the dirt man as far as the the curse is that's how pervasive the newness of what God brings will be I mentioned that that at the ending of the the Chronicles of Narnia further up further in it's the home we love this world because sometimes it looks a little bit like that one and we remember that when there is an echo of eternity in all of our hearts we collectively remember a time all the way back to Eden when God's world was as he intended it to be and it will be that way again this is the newness that Paul is getting into here read it with me again therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed and behold all things have become new he is not just talking about our hearts this word gets deep okay he's not just talking about our hearts he's talking about the newness of our hearts in relation to the new heavens and the new earth that are coming this is why I say it's deep because to understand this concept you've got to be able to understand a phrase that many theologians have used and the phrase is the kingdom of God is already but not yet okay it's already but it's also not yet there's a fullness to come of which our hearts are sort of already regenerated to be prepared for okay when God saves you man when you put your faith in him when he regenerates that heart all of a sudden that's kind of this concept of your citizenship now switches into heaven well is that a kingdom that is coming yes it is a kingdom that is coming but your heart is sort of already there a little bit the the best way that I can describe this and think about this is like this I think a lot of us want to even even you know even in school and stuff like that they sort of you know western history in a lot of ways is divided by when Jesus came right I mean it's kind of before him and after him and I know they have all the different ways of saying that but generally right and I think about that because there's a real sense in which for the believer yeah that's true I mean Christ divides history old covenant new covenant everything is one way and then Jesus and then everything is another way and historically on a timeline we we live on the this side of of the divide right but it's deeper than that because Jesus also came to bring a kingdom of which our hearts if you are a believer and are regenerated are already sort of a part of even though we're not living in that reality yet this is the best way I can describe it okay yes Jesus divides history old and new but there's also an aspect of the kingdom that's almost like a parallel universe and I don't want to push the illustration too hard okay but if you've seen like the marvel comic stuff okay or maybe some stranger things or some other show that's kind of this way I'm not I'm not an expert in all this all this stuff but if you've ever seen a show where there's like there's like two planes of existence a little bit now don't don't push the every illustration breaks down okay so don't push it too hard and don't email me and if you need to email me you can always do that at bobbyherrington at gmail.com okay so you can email me whenever you need to all right but but I'm just saying it's a little bit like our hearts have been regenerated and it is our heart that has been put in the new universe it's a little bit like our heart has already been put somewhere else or at least is being prepared for it we have experienced the life and renewal inside that one day our bodies will follow and the very dirt in this earth will follow there is coming a day where there is no tears there's coming a day where everything is regenerated and our hearts are the first ones to get to experience this and and see that change and that's what is so beautiful about verse 17 if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation prepared for the new creation the new heavens and the new earth this is why Augustine said it like this okay Augustine living exactly in this world all right so he's living in in this world and yet he's able to say you know Augustine 400 AD he lived a very licentious kind of party lifestyle before he became a believer he gets converted and the story is said of Augustine that his mistress found him and she said Augustine Augustine he's running away he's running okay he's running away from her and and she says Augustine it is I and he looks back at her and he says yes but it is no longer I right what but what do you mean you're still here what are you talking about your your body's still decaying you died there's a piece that you know what do you mean you're part of new creation what do you mean it is not you well that's the tension isn't it it's that we have been translated from a kingdom of darkness to a kingdom of light we are citizens now of heaven even though we live here the spirit in our life the regeneration in our life y'all it is a down payment of a glorious future in a place where we live under God's sight under his reign in the place that he has prepared for us for all time if we are to be reconciled to him if we are to experience this newness man the heart that he has given us it's it's like you know you know the best example this is okay it's like an appetizer it's not the full meal okay but you what God has done in our life it is a down payment it is a promise and we get to taste some of the fruit of it now i remember a few years ago our our our we did like a big staff retreat okay and part of the staff retreat was we got a chance to send little teams of our staff like five or six people at a time we sent them all out to dinner we gave them gift cards whatever they could choose the captain of the team could choose wherever they wanted to go to dinner okay so all these teams are going they're all going to these little niche places boutique little farm to fork you guys understand the whole race me and anna pick cracker barrel for our team okay so we're like man we're going to cracker barrel we're like man this is bang for the buck gets you a little gift on the way out it's perfect all right and uh and i don't know if you guys like cracker barrel or not all right the the prices at cracker barrel have gone up significantly i'm going to be honest okay but it's the one place in our culture where the prices are just catching up to how good it always was okay uh that's that's that's cracker barrel so so uh anyway we we got and the reason i bring it up it's it's kind of funny but if you ever go to cracker barrel i don't know what you'll get okay i don't know what you'll order whatever but whatever you order the first thing that comes out ain't what you order the first thing that comes out is corn bread and biscuits that's what comes out first and they're really good now they're not the catfish or whatever you like to order it's not the main deal but it's pretty good y'all the new life that we have been given there's there is a body of death there is decay man there is there is brokenness in this world there i mean read paul in the book of romans there is a war in our flesh but man the heart is alive and the spirit is in and there is a true down payment that is pretty good it's not the main course that's coming but man it's pretty good and the scripture tells that this is part of us becoming new as we find our home in the new creation and the new heavens and the new earth one day and then he says this in verse 18 now what does it say new creation now old things are past behold all things are becoming new look what it says in verse 18 real small phrase here okay all this is from god what what is from god all this is from god wait a minute all this all the new creation old things are past you know that now now everything has become new all of this is from god your entire story is from god we're gonna have to wrestle with something here y'all and and you're gonna have to we're gonna have to just man we're gonna have to wrestle with this because i think a lot of times we want a simple pat answer but here's the deal and i think this is important for right now at the end man holiday seasons are always super fun and all that and i get that they're also a time for many people of an enormous amounts of regret there are times to look back and wish over and over and over that it would have been a different way and yet we hear in verse 18 all this is from god all these things that are passing and coming the new creation the old is gone the new is here all of this is from god see here's what i want to say for just a minute okay this isn't the main point we're going to move on but i know in our church right now there are some of us that are dealing with massive amounts of regret maybe over ways that you raised your kids mistakes that you made welcome to the club it's every parent right okay but you're thinking about that maybe there was something in your past maybe there was infidelity in a marriage you're putting the pieces back together maybe as the holidays can bring joy but also can bring back memories of things that you said or were said to you that you wish you could take back college student maybe there's something going on right now maybe you're seeing this at home you're already home for the holidays or whatever and you're thinking about this because your whole life was pretty high in integrity and morality and you went pretty crazy your first semester in college and you're looking back on that man and and listen i'm talking to the believer here i'm talking to somebody who has repented of these things and who understands that jesus saw them from the foundation of the world and still died for your sin he knew what you were going to do and he chose you and he calls you and he loves you and he covered you in his blood and when god sees you he doesn't see this stuff but yet you still feel immense amounts of guilt and shame and i think one of the things that this passage is teaching us man new creation all this is from god you're gonna have to settle in your heart right now new means new the gospel isn't hey turn over a new leaf it's you have now been found with a new life you have a new life and those things that god has worked in your life choices that you made things that you regret listen every one of us are broken over things that are in our past that's not what i'm saying grief over our past sin a broken and contrite spirit over our past sin man when we think about that when we you know we put ourselves back in that shoe you know in those shoes again or we think hey if that comes about in my life again i'm standing in the same place i'm choosing obedience man i'm not i'm not i'm walking in the revealed will of god i would never make that choice again that's normal for a believer that's healthy for a believer that next step of wishing every single day i wish it would have been different i wish god would have done it a different way you know what that ends up doing man when we can't when we look back and all we wish is that god would change a bunch of stuff around all of a sudden we are forgetting that he works all things together for the good of those who love him are called according to his purpose and so this is what i'm saying we got to wrestle you know we got to wrestle with today don't let a godly brokenness over sin turn into an ungodly distrust of god's sovereignty so let's let's be broken and contrite over things in our past but let's not go all the way to that place through guilt and shame that we are are just wishing every single day and envisioning in our life if it would just have been different if it would just have been different if it would just have been different you know what's funny i was thinking about this i was i was wrestling with this even talking to some of our staff about this i guarantee you that joseph's brothers for years woke up in the mornings and thought to themselves i wish i could change how could i have ever if i could go back i never would have sold him into slavery god i wish i could go back i never would have i never would have i never would have and you get to the end of the story and you're like man you better not wish you never would have because he saved your whole family because god was moving in it it's it takes maturity to understand this okay standing in the same shoes i would choose obedience man i'm not going back there am i broken over my sin contrite spirit grief over that yes but i'm looking back at a god who is good and can even put that back together that's where we got to get okay because what it said was all this is from god okay so new creation we are part of a new creation old things are past new has come all of this is from god look what it says who through christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in christ god was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation now let's if you're like wait a minute have we done anything with the song okay okay here's the song all right hark the herald i told you i'm only doing one little piece of this okay here's the song hark the herald angels sing glory to the newborn king peace on earth and mercy mild god and sinners reconciled the newness down in the gospel reconciles us to god and you guys know this but i'm putting on the screen reconciled means to re-establish a relationship that has been broken and reconciliation is language that is unique to paul now why would why would paul harp on this concept of reconciliation i'm going to tell you why because if you know paul's story and his salvation story on the damascus road paul was at war with god he was at war with god's people and god confronted him and showed him who he was and his character and the gospel is shared and you know the story okay but the reality is that paul is talking about reconciliation because he understands the brokenness that was in his relationship and that's where the rub in our culture is isn't it because what's hard for us and listen you may not be a believer here you may be at one of our campuses today and you're not a believer and you've you may have been steeped in this cultural concept of god that goes something like this well god would never do judge sin like that god is love that's all he is god is love god would never do xyz and all it is is the human deciding to look at god and saying god you created me in your image so i'm going to return the favor here okay so i'm going to recast you in the image that i think rather than take you at your word as it is written because what the scripture actually tells us is the opposite of this what the scripture tells us is that in sin we are in great rebellion in sin we are at war with god we are hostile to god and listen if you're if you're like fuzzy on this at all or you kind of have this concept like well sin is really that big a deal man just jot a few of these down i'm gonna i'm gonna click through a couple of them okay and and sometimes man i'll click through scriptures and you can write them down i want these all on the screen because i want you to just feel the weight of this for a minute for the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord romans 8 7 for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile toward god james 4 4 you adulterous people do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with god therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of god in sin we have declared rebellion against the god of this universe who created us i want you to think about this from god's perspective for one second i mean god creates this world in perfection creates the crown jewel gives them his image and instead of accepting who they are and living in harmony with him and nature for all time they rebel they choose wickedness and we've chosen it ourselves every single time we can go back and blame adam and eve but why do we remain so complicit in our pride in our greed and our refusal to to do anything other than isolate and hide as they did many times y'all we have joined in the rebellion and there's a great chasm between us and god and that's why paul grabs for this language and he says be reconciled don't you understand be reconciled is a great summation of the gospel because it is an opportunity for saying there is an opportunity for you to be in relationship with god if you would allow god to make you new you could say it like this we aren't reconciled without being new and we are not new without hearing and trusting the gospel in christ you have been given away back to god in christ in christ uh let's sorry can we hold off on that you could be up here for a few minutes okay all right sorry rachel i'm sorry all right uh at our campuses i don't know if you heard that but that's gonna be kind of weird okay all right here's the deal we're reconciled to god because we because he has made us new in christ you are given away back into god's good graces back into the family but it only comes from understanding and trusting what christ has done for us in the gospel that jesus christ came and took the penalty of our sin and then he gave us the rewards of his righteousness this is what christ has done that is why the angels break forth and they begin to cry out man peace on earth why because peace is laying in a manger because peace has been given a gift of peace and his name is jesus christ i told you guys this story before but i think it's so good in the 60s and the kind of big missionary movement that happened during that time there was a family and the head of the family's guy named don richardson and they they moved to a place in indonesia where they engaged a people group a tribe called the saree all right and the saree people were a treacherous people and i don't mean that pejoratively i just mean that's actually the way they would in their language describe themselves okay many of their virtues in their society were sort of backwards than a lot of things that we would think are virtuous in a western type society or even by god's standards right and so for example one of the things that they really prized and valued was the ability to deceive even if it took years and years all right to be able to deceive someone so the good example of this that's told in the book is that when they told the gospel story okay they get all the way to the end and they thought that judas was the hero of the story that when judas betrayed jesus they stand up and cheered okay because they're like man he he built this relationship over a long time but he got the better of him and got the silver and all of that so you can imagine doing ministry you know as you're trying to un on you know on untangle and unravel some of that the brokenness that's that's that you know that's kind of seeped in there and over over generations of being without the word of god and all that all right so don richardson's there they're sharing the gospel man they're doing everything they can for those people they're bringing medicine they're doing all these kind of things to help physically alleviate things as they are also talking about the gospel and what ends up happening is um the the people are so violent that that don richardson finally says man we've we we gotta we gotta leave like i'm taking my family and i'm leaving because you guys just can't stop these crazy wars i mean we're out here and all of a sudden next thing you know there's arrows flying and spears and all this stuff and it's like somebody's gonna get killed for my family or whatever and we can't stay unless there's peace well one of these you know skirmishes broke out between these different tribes that were living there and they're all sort of under the same umbrella of the same people group but different families are warring and all that stuff and so there's this you know arrows are flying and all that and he tells the story of suddenly the middle of the battle one of the tribes runs out into the field with a child and when they run out with the child everybody stops and they all stop fighting and he didn't really understand what was going on until it was explained to him and he never heard of this before but deep in their culture like deep deep deep down in the psyche in the psyche of this culture was embedded this principle of a peace child and and here here's what they said that they said hey the only you know you got a you know you got a people group that kind of values treachery and deceit how could you ever make a treaty i mean how could you ever decide like oh we're gonna stop fighting it's like i got you you know you said you were gonna stop and we didn't and that would go on so here's what they they said the only way that peace will stand is if one tribe is willing to give the other tribe a child from their tribe and here's the deal as long as that child lives the peace will stand that we will promise peace and and don saw that and he's like man y'all didn't just come up with that that's embedded from the creator of the world okay where where he looks in and he says man i've got the ultimate story of the ultimate peace child and he told them about jesus and that's what i'm talking about here man that jesus came and took our penalty of our sin gives us his righteousness and creates reconciliation between us and god and as long as jesus is alive which he's already defeated death once don't have to do it again okay he's already been raised one time man as he is alive then we will have peace with god forever if we would put our faith in him but not only that what did the scripture also say the scripture also said that we are to be ministers of reconciliation right so we are we are to be reconciled but we also are to be ministers of reconciliation there's really two things that are going on here this is funny when i was when i was in college there was kind of this movement of music called the passion movement okay and one of the one of the songs that came out charlie hall wrote a song or at least did the song uh it was called one thing and here here's here's the here's the line of the song and man we used to sing this song you'd sing it you know you'd sing the line like 100 times you know what i mean and uh and here's what this here's what the song says all of life comes because i think it's very much like this verse be reconciled and be a minister of reconciliation here's what the song said all of life comes down to just one thing and that's to know you oh jesus and to make you known the problem i had with that song of course charlie is that that's actually two things okay it's not one thing it's two all right uh to know him and to make him known but uh you know analytics aside here okay the idea was that we would be reconciled and then that we would go out and be people who are concerned with the reconciliation of others second corinthians 520 the last verse i want to read therefore we are ambassadors for christ god making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of christ be reconciled to god the first sign of a new life is our willingness to talk about our new life the first sign of a new life is our willingness and excitement to talk about our new life with those who don't now what do we talk about last week it's very similar worship overflows into mission okay very similar to what we talked about last week worship and mission go together i'm reconciled and it immediately begins to wake me up to see that the reconciliation of others is something that i need to be about it's what god has given me you could say it like this reconcile people seek to reconcile people i actually went i actually tapped a few of our um sent ones okay people that are on the field or have come home and i said hey these are people that have moved their life all right to go share the gospel with people who don't know and i said and the question was posed to them talk to me about the connection that you see between worship and mission i had a bunch of answers come back but here's a couple of them one of them said this god is worthy that's that's the bridge worship and mission he's worthy he's worthy of our praise he's worthy of the praise of others another said it like this in worship we see the character of god and when we see god's character we cannot help but tell others another person said it like this passion for god is what sustains us when every other motivation runs dry and i thought about that for our congregation you may not be one who's about to move to the mission field but do you have a brother or a sister maybe who is who is trying running from christ destroying their life somebody in your family somebody that you love and maybe you're getting all the way to the point of saying like dude what's the point i'm washing my hands of this all of the motivations of i love you we're part of family we're brothers when all of that runs dry our passion for god will remain and maybe what keeps us praying is not i love you i love you i love you maybe our our what keeps us praying is god is worthy of your praise right god is worthy of seeing a center repent and seeing you repent i think about that with a co maybe you have a co-worker somebody that's difficult you know that you're working with and you're like man i want to invite him i want to pray for him but it's you're just kind of run ragged you run a little bit dry when all these other motivations run out man our passion for god where do we get that we were reconciled and it gives us this fire and passion to see the reconciliation of others so in conclusion all right and now we can begin the music okay uh in conclusion okay um be reconciled to god and be a minister of reconciliation for god all right so so it's very simple okay i want to call i want to call the church two things number one think about your own salvation here if you if you hear an urgency a little bit in my voice this week you know i was i was alerted to this just thinking about man we've come all the way to the end of another year and there's some of you here under the sound of my voice there's some of you at our campuses you have listened to sermons you have talked to people you have talked to people who brought you maybe you've even sat in community groups you've been around it you've seen baptism you've seen communion and you're still not saved you're just you're unconverted it's like man i'm coming i'm trying to be better i want to clean my life up a little bit but it's like you have not made that decision of radically handing all of your life over to this god i want to call you not to end the year that that way and the way i can call you to that is to say hey let's go back and think about what the song says hark the herald angels sing hark just means heed hear listen take notice of that's all that it means what are the angels heralding this beautiful gospel of reconciliation confess your sin trust that jesus has done everything necessary to save you and your heart will be translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and what will await you is the new heavens and the new earth for the rest of us that are believers man you're here you know you're you're you're trying let me let me ask you this man are you thinking about the fact that god has enlisted you to be an ambassador for christ you know we think about missionaries church planters and all that stuff every single one of us as a believer has a part to play in what god is doing in his great global mission we all have a part to play for some of you i don't know maybe it looks pretty you know we had a really cool story this week come out of our church all right and you know we partner with different organizations do different things in conjunction with the baptist state convention north carolina different baptist entities baptists on mission our local baptist association here you know we partner with these people sometimes and we were able to partner with them and bring a dental bus into greensboro okay with some other churches and and they come in and we provide volunteers to help and they had a guy come a bunch of people come actually they had a guy come from muslim background had a chance to share with him actually had a chance through some of the partnership to put a bible in his hands that is in his language you know maybe gave him a ride home after the dental work was over some people from our church saw him again later downtown in greensboro strike up a conversation simple question would you be interested in read the bible yeah i would actually be interested in reading the bible now heading into the end of this year they're reading the bible together going through the book of luke ambassadors for christ now some of us are like man i i don't know okay well how are we having conversations around the dinner table about your kids friends on their ball teams and and their schools how are we going to invite them to tanger i mean it's all it's all mission don't you understand it's all the it's you know it all is it's all us doing what we can to move the needle and so i don't know how god's gifted you i don't know exactly you know who he's put in your life but i know this you're at a job you're in a neighborhood you're in a family you're on a team you're on a campus middle school high school whatever it is you are there for a reason and if you're a believer god has you right there for the sake of his mission and i would call upon you to move and make some decisions around what you could do man to further the kingdom going into this year y'all we got the tanger center coming up we've talked about that every week i'll talk about it again next week but here's a really cool story to close the sermon from one of our college teams that does a lot of work on the college campus you