← ArchiveSunday, December 15, 2013DateDecember 15, 2013Speaker—Text2 Corinthians 5Passages in this sermon2 Corinthians 57:34Romans 1:169:252 Corinthians 5:179:52TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Beautiful music, I always struggle, am I on? Can you hear me? Okay, good. Wow, what a beautiful, beautiful, I just looking at, I don't know if you guys noticed, I just love these flowers, the decorations, the tree, everything. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And I want to thank the pastor, missions committee, all of you for the invitation to be here today.0:30It's an honor to be here. And tomorrow I'll be in Dominican Republic. It's going to be about a 60 degree change in temperature. Then I'll go over to Costa Rica, come back at the end of the week. And that's something I'm looking forward to because we have a celebration going on down there.0:59We will have a Christmas party for all of our missionaries, church planters, nationals, Americans. Then we'll have a big Christmas party for our orphans and our orphanages, some of whom this year was the first year they've ever had a Christmas tree. And I don't know how you guys believe, don't we're going to have Santa Claus show up Tuesday.1:28You can say, that's pagan. Yeah, that's pagan. I guess I was raised pagan. We had Christmas trees in our house. We had Santa Claus show up. And we're looking forward to that. And then we're going to give away 26,000 pairs of shoes. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The little kids that never had a pair of shoes. Can you imagine?1:58You're sitting here and there's 26,000 little kids next week in Dominican Republic going to get their first pair of shoes. Thanks to a company. Yeah, amen. Thanks to a generous company in the United States. They make these things called crocs. That's not much of a pair of shoes. Well, you're a little kid. You don't crocs or shoes.2:27They're going to get them. And they're going to get the story of Christ. We're going to tell them about Jesus. That's a company. I don't know if it's a Christian company. All I know is they gave us 26,000 pairs of shoes. And thanks to the generosity of a Christian businessman who paid to get them all shipped down there, those little kids are going to get their feet washed. And they're going to get their first pair of shoes next week. And then we've got an organization going down from Tampa, Florida.2:56And they're going to build us. They're looking at all the work. They're going to build us. A dormitory for our orphanage there. We started an orphanage. We found an orphanage. It had 16 little girls living in two rooms. And they didn't have a bed. They slept on the floor. And what beds they had, 16 little girls, some of them were sleeping two to a bed.3:21And somebody came along, a youth group up in Indiana. And a bunch of teenagers started doing something about that. They'd been on a trip with SCORE and God touched their hearts. You know, a lot of times you go on a mission trip, you get your heart stirred, and then you come back home and you just get back to normal. These little kids came back, these teenage kids came back to Indiana, decided they were going to do something about what they felt, about what they saw.3:45So they raised $65,000. And we bought a piece of land with a building on it, and somebody else, another Christian family gave us $35,000. We had $100,000. Now we got a new building for those little 16 girls. Now we got 40 little girls. They got their own bed. And on Tuesday, they're going to have their first Christmas party.4:15And again, it's because of the generosity of Americans, people in the United States, who believe in missions, who give to missions. And that's what this meeting is about today. A youth group, a youth group in Indiana, with about 35 teenagers, gave $65,000. They just went out and did, they did everything.4:46And the public schools heard about what they were doing, and they threw, they said, hey, we're going to get involved in that. You're helping little girls in Dominican Republic? It was a Christian school and a youth group that did this, and the public schools said, we're going to do something about that. We want to join in on this. We want to help you raise money for those little orphan girls. And so you know what they did? They threw a dance. You said, a dance?5:15You mean they charged money? They threw a dance. They had a dance. The public school had a dance. You say, you took that money? You said, you took that money? Yeah. From the dance? Yeah. You think those little girls in Dominican Republic said, now wait a minute, was that dance money? We're not into that. God touches people's heart to invest in the eternal destiny of little girls.5:39One little girl in our orphanage was raped by her father. Another little girl we found on the beach that was abandoned by her parents. It's amazing what God does when people are sensitive to missions. The greatest mission story I could ever tell you, and I can tell you a lot of mission stories,6:08but the greatest I can ever tell you is that 2,000 years ago, God sent his son on a mission trip. And he came to this planet, and because he came to this planet, no, he never went more than 200 miles from his birthplace. But 2,000 years later, we're still celebrating the mission trip that God sent his son on, because that mission trip resulted in your redemption and your salvation,6:38and you're here today to worship him because God so loved that he gave. You talk about a sacrifice. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't sacrifice. We're not even asking you to sacrifice. Today, I am on mission from God today to share with you just the reality of how much we should be missional in our thinking6:59as families and as a church body. If he who spared not his own son gave so that you might have eternal life, is it too much to ask that we give in gratitude for what he's done and also to help others to have this story?7:282 Corinthians chapter 5 is a portion of scripture I want to share with you today. And I know this is a very exciting year. We got people here that love football. I know where I am. And there's some people here that are ecstatic. There are other people here that are a little down, a little down.7:58You're just a little down. There's no hope. National championship, gone. But there are some people here today that are saying, Wow, what a year. I can report to you today, no matter who wins football games, basketball games, because you see, I'm a coach. My background is sports.8:26But I can tell you today that we're all winners if we focus upon Jesus, who came that all of us who are losers might know the victory that's in Christ. That's what we celebrate today. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I see a verse in verse 17 that says, If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things pass away, all things become new.8:54That is one of the greatest verses in the Bible because it explains what a Christian is. If any man be in Christ. It didn't say if any man is in the church. It's in Christ. If you are in Christ, you are a believer. You are a Christian. And you know what? You experience a change, a radical change in your life. My dad was an alcoholic. My mother was an alcoholic. I didn't come from a Christian home. But in a football stadium one night, they heard the gospel.9:22And by the way, my favorite verse in the Bible is Romans 1.16, which says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes. Jew first and also to the Greek. And the gospel is the power of God. When my dad heard the gospel, a man who was the town drunk in a small little community in South Carolina, that gospel was powerful enough to change his life. And 2 Corinthians 5.17,9:52if any man be in Christ, new creature. Old things pass away. I never saw my dad touch another drop of alcohol. My mother, who was drunk every day when I came home to school, God changed her life. And that is the gospel. The gospel is Christ came, died for sinners. That's a wonderful story. But in verse 18, we begin to see something that I want to share with you. You see in verse 18, 19, and 20, there's a word that sticks out. I was an English major in college,10:21and I wasn't good. I didn't really like literature, but I love composition. I love to diagram sentences. I love to see what a passage was talking about. I didn't realize this, but when I got to seminary, I realized how valuable that English really was. Because what I've done with my Bible studies, a lot of times I'll look for a repetitive word, something that's repeated, because whatever's repeated kind of gives you an idea10:51of what the theme of the passage is. And when I look at verse 18, 19, and 20, there's one word that jumps out in every verse more than once. And it's the word to reconcile, reconciliation, reconciling. I want you to look at verse 18. In verse 18, now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.11:18Verse 19, namely that God was in Christ, there it is again, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. You know, you can be from a small town in South Carolina, or you can be born in Georgia, which is my testimony. You can be from South Carolina or Georgia, but you can figure out what the Apostle Paul is trying to communicate to us.11:48The one thing that this passage is about is reconciliation, reconciling. And then in verse number 20, he says, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us, and we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now I want to share with you three thoughts today because in those three passages, you see that word reconcile, reconciliation, reconciling several times, several times. And here's my message to you today.12:17First of all, look at, if you will, back in verse 18, because here God wants us to know that he's given us the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation, what does he want us to do? He's given to who? Us. Who's he talking to? To Pastor Chris and the missions committee and the deacons? And has he given that to the staff here? No. He's given this ministry of reconciliation to us.12:45Who is us? The church. You know what that means? We all have responsibility. Not just your staff, not just your pastor, not just the deacons, not just the missions committee. God has given every believer who've been changed by that gospel, verse 17, he's given to every one of us, the ministry, us, the ministry of reconciling13:14a holy God with sinful men. And by the way, can I just remind you? We're all sinners. Hello? You look churchy. You look Christianized. But the truth of the matter is, everybody sitting in the pews here today, you are a dirty, rotten, lousy, losing, no count sinner. You say, man, we brought you all the way down here13:44to tell us that? No, God sent me on assignment to tell you that. The Bible says, all have sin and come short of the glory of God. Whose sin? Those sinners? All. There's none righteous. And to make a little more emphasis on that, he adds, no, not one. There's none righteous. You say, now, wait a minute now. My great, great, great grandmama14:13is buried out there in that cemetery. Now, she was a sinner. Just like you and me. So here we got sinful man, and God says he's given us the ministry of reconciling sinful man with a holy God. That's our ministry. What does that mean? When you have two people that are on the outs with each other, you ever known somebody, has anybody in your family ever been kind of wayward14:42and maybe you were on the outs with them? Or is anybody in your neighborhood or anybody at work that you've kind of felt like, man, I'm not going to have anything to do with them. You ever known that to happen in a church when there have been opposing factions? Hello? Are you a Baptist? We've known this. There have been times when people have needed to be brought together. And when we bring two people together, it's called15:12it's called reconciliation. It's bring them together. Reconcile. Reconcile. Well, there's a holy God and their sinful man. How in the world is a holy God and a sinful man ever going to come into agreement? By the way, can I tell you one more thing about the fact that you're a sinner? I just thought I'd throw this in. The Bible says that there was a period in our life when we were enemies of God. That's Romans.15:41That's Romans. We were enemies. You say, man, I've been religious all my life. Well, that might be your view of yourself, but God's view of you is he says we were his enemies. Here we are, sinful man. All have sinned, come short of the glory of God. Here's holy God. How do we bridge that gap? How do we get reconciled to God? It's through Jesus Christ. It's through Christ. That's what Christmas is all about. He didn't come16:11to just be a little baby. He came to grow up as the God man. He came to reconcile as the God man. Remember, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're sinners. God's holy. God the Father, sinful man. He sent Jesus, born of a virgin. He was as much God as if he weren't man and as much man as if he weren't God. I can't explain it to just believe it. He was the God man who came16:40who came sinless, who was qualified to die as a sinless son of God on our behalf on our behalf for us that he might as God reconcile himself with sinful men. And he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't vote on this. It's our responsibility17:09as a church, as a Christian that we be involved in the missions of reconciliation. It's our ministry. And everybody here can reconcile somebody to God by the power of the Holy Spirit. We'll see that in a minute. Everybody. You say, man, I'm a teenager. I don't know very much. Can I tell you, teenager, God wants you because you've got a sphere of influence. God wants you to reconcile somebody in your generation17:38to a holy God. And you can do that. You can do it. And God wants you. You say, I'm just a businessman. I don't understand this stuff. If you're here redeemed by the blood of Christ and you know Jesus Christ, your personal Savior, there's somebody in this community that only you can reach with the gospel. He can't use your pastor. He can't use staff. He can't use anybody. He wants to use you.18:07But you've got to see that He's given you the ministry of reconciliation. And so I challenge you today. Verse 18. He's given us, committed to us, given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Look at verse 19. Not only has He given us the ministry of reconciliation, He's given us the message of reconciliation. Verse 19. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting18:37not counting their trespasses against them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. That word, word, could be translated message. He's given us not only the ministry, but He's given us the message. And that is be reconciled to God. We have a wonderful message. And you know something? It's the greatest time in the world. It's the greatest time of the year to be sharing19:07this message. Christmas is the best time. I was in a church last week. Today, in Indiana, the church that I was at last week, they're having a big musical. They're having it just like you guys. It's a big musical. It's a big inspiration. And you know what? The challenge was, go tell somebody. You know what? People, even Americans, many of whom are lost, make much of Christmas. Now, the secular world tries to squash it out.19:36I had a hard time this year finding a Christmas card that said, Merry Christmas. I found a lot of cards that said, Happy Holidays. But the secular world wants to do away with all that. But can I tell you something? God wants us to do whatever we need to do to be used in this reconciliation. The ministry. The message. And last week,20:06the challenge was to the church. And I can't wait to call the pastor today and say, Hey, how did it go? Because the church was challenged. Hey, you might not feel comfortable giving the gospel. Do you know what? You can go out and tell your neighbors, come to the musical. It's not too late. You could probably, this church could be filled tonight. You know, a lot of times they don't want to come here to preaching. There's no reflection on your pastor. That's just the way it is. These people just, I'm not interested in going down there to that Baptist church and hear that preacher. Do you know what? They'll come here.20:36You know, there's several things they'll do. They'll come to a children's program. Every grandmama and granddaddy and every aunt and every uncle. Lost, pagans, they'll come to a children's program and they'll come for Christmas music. You can go home today and probably invite your neighbors. You see, you say, well that's not much of a witness. It is because when they hear the music, it's all about Christ and that's missions. God wants us to get into the act21:05of being involved in the ministry of missions and also to be involved in the message of reconciliation. Third thing, verse 20. Verse 20 says, therefore we are what? Three of us have a Bible that says, come on church, look at your Bible. We are His ambassadors.21:32Did you ever see yourself as an ambassador? A few years ago, my wife and I went to Panama. We were fortunate enough to get bumped up to first class, which meant we were going to be the first people off the plane. We got off the plane, the rest of the people back there in the coach, they came on up and we got in line to go through immigration. Pat and I were the first ones in the line in immigration. Wow, we're going to get through and our missionary is going to be waiting for us and we're going to be out of here in about 15 minutes. We were the first one.22:01But when we got in that line waiting for that person that we were in line with to wave us, they closed that particular line. line. Which meant all those other people that came off that plane and got in those other lines. They were ahead of us. I said to my wife, that isn't fair. She said, the first shall be last. I said, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. I said, we didn't come off22:30this plane and now we're going to be about an hour getting out of here, honey. We're going to be an hour. And then I saw a line on the far end that said, diplomats. My wife looked at me. She said, no. Uh-uh. I said, yeah, come on. She said, there's nobody in that line. I said, that's right. Come on. We went from that line instead of going in the back of the line with all those other, we went over to that diplomat line. And I said, give me your passport. We walked up23:00and that lady looked at me and she said, diplomat? Yes, ma'am. What country? Oh, I said, well, let me explain this to you. And she said, okay, let's hear it. I said, I'm an ambassador. Oh, really? You're an ambassador? I said, yeah, me and my wife, we're ambassadors. What country? I said, that's a good question. I'm a U.S. citizen,23:30but my real citizenship is in heaven. She looked at me like, what? Where? I said, heaven. You are an ambassador. Yeah, I said, let me show you something. She said, I want to hear this. I said, the Bible says that I am an ambassador of Christ. My citizenship is in heaven. And one day when I die, because I'm an ambassador for Christ, I'm going to heaven,24:00which is really my home. And then I wanted to sing to her, this world is not my home. I'm just a pastor. But I knew she didn't want to hear that. She looked at me with the strangest look on her face. Ambassador, heaven, that's me and my wife. She looked at me and said, okay, stamp my passport, stamp my wife's passport. And it was almost like she said, get out of here.24:29I see you later. You say, did that happen? Yes. Ask my wife. She'll tell you. She was so embarrassed. She's never forgotten that moment. But ladies and gentlemen, I'm serious. I am an ambassador. And can I tell you this? You are an ambassador too. And God says that we are His ambassadors on this planet. By the way, when Jesus left here, He went back to the right hand of the Father and He sent the Holy Spirit24:57to live in you and to live in me. And He has empowered us and commissioned us to take the message of reconciliation and to take the ministry of reconciliation and go into all the world and share the gospel. That's what He's done. It's called our mission. It's the mission of reconciliation. Verse 20 says, Therefore we are ambassadors of Christ as though God were making His appeal through us.25:27through us. God's making His appeal to this world through us. Through you and through you and through you. He wants to make His appeal to a lost world through you. We are His representative. He has gone back to the Father and He left us here empowered by the Holy Spirit. And look what it says next. We beg you on behalf of Christ. You know what that means? We're here in Christ's stead.25:56We're ambassadors. We're here in His place. On His behalf. We're to share this message of reconciliation. What is today all about at Bethel Baptist Church? It's about a calling that God's put on all of us to give and to go. For some of you going is not an option. But to all of us giving is our responsibility.26:26It's not an option. Well, I'm not sure. I don't know if I should. Yeah, you should. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility. I went to a program the other night, a musical, Friday night. And I had three dollars in my pocket and a hundred dollar bill. And after the program, by the way, this was a Christian school with a church orchestra choir.26:55It was unbelievable. They concluded with a hallelujah chorus and we were all shouting hallelujah, clapping and standing. It was a magnificent night. And then this group of teenagers were going to perform at Disney World. They were performing this next week in Disney World. And the principal27:25got up at the conclusion and said, there are going to be some kids at the back. They don't have all their money yet. We want you to give because they're going to use this experience to share the gospel at Disney World. And so just put money in the baskets if God touches your heart. Well, I love to give. I'll be honest with you. I love to give. But when I walked out, this little girl was standing there with her little basket. Teenager. And I said, hey, wait a minute.27:55Yeah, I'm going to give. I got some money. I thought I'd broken that $100 during that day. So my intention was to drop a $20 in that basket. But when I opened it up, I saw a $100 bill and I saw three $1 bill. I looked in that basket and there wasn't nothing in there. I wanted to say, hey, you got change for $100? She didn't have a change for $100. She didn't have a change for nada. She had no money in there. Now I got a decision.28:25Am I going to be, am I going to give a dollar? Am I going to give a dollar? Am I going to give $3? I'm not even going to buy a gallon of gas in any state in America. And so I pulled that $100 out and there was something in me that said, uh-uh, no, don't do it. And I finally, I dropped that $100 bill in that basket and that girl28:55says, it was almost embarrassing. I felt stupid. Did I want to give $100? No. Was my attitude right? No. I wanted $80 change back, which she obviously didn't have. I dropped it in. She says, wow! Thank you, sir. I said, I wanted to say, no, keep the change. But I said, no, that's okay. Merry Christmas. And I walked out.29:31I think sometimes that's the way we look at missions. No, I don't want to give that. That'd be a sacrifice. But then when you think about Christmas, you think about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I think about those 26,000 pairs of shoes that these kids are going to give. I think about the orphans that will have their first Christmas present in their life, their first tree, and their first conversation with Santa Claus. I think about30:00missions and my responsibility. And church, I want to tell you, you want to make your Christmas something special. This church, and I travel a lot, this church is a missions church. Your pastor has a heart for missions. The missions committee is committed to missions. You've always been known as a mission old church. I want to share with you this thought. This year,30:29This year, missions given is down in many, many areas. In churches all across America. What does that mean? Missionaries with the IMB need help. Missionaries with NAM, North American Mission Board, need help. Your missionaries need help. This church needs you to step up to the plate at Christmas time and go ahead30:59and call it sacrifice, if you will. But you need to give. It's not for anybody here. It's for the world and to be obedient to what Jesus tells us. We are ambassadors. We are people with a ministry of reconciliation. We are people with a mission, with a message. And we need to get this message out of the building and get it to the world. We need to get it31:29to the world. I'm so excited. We got a call the other day. Hey, we want you to come to Pakistan. I said, what? Pakistan? Pakistan? That's where Osama bin Laden lived. Pakistan. And I said, that's where they kill people. That's where bombs go off in the middle of a service. Pakistan? Yeah, we got a wonderful opportunity. They love sports. We want you to come with a basketball team. I went to our international director of31:58director of basketball and said, hey, we got an invitation to go to where nobody else has an opportunity to go. He said, great, let's go. Where's this at? I said, Pakistan. He said, co. Pakistan? That's where Osama bin Laden is. That's where they blow up churches. We read about them in the news. I said, yeah. Coach, if we go to Pakistan, we might not come back. I said,32:29I said, yeah. Americans? In Pakistan? Muslim? Then after a few minutes, he said, coach, let's go. I said, are you serious? He might not come back. You know what? When I stand here, I feel almost hypocritical to ask you to come to the table and give and give and sacrifice. When we're32:59When we're looking at our staff and we got to go recruit a group of Americans that might give their life, money would be easy, but they're they might give their life. What for? To get this wonderful news of reconciliation. Can I ask you a question? If there were men from America willing to go and give their life, would you give your money? I'm not asking33:30you to go to Pakistan. There are missions, opportunities in countries. We got a guy from Alabama. He graduated from the University of Alabama. I don't know if he read a book, but he graduated from the University of Alabama. He lives in Huntsville, Alabama. His name's Hoss Walker. He's 6'6", 380 pounds. He's the last player signed by Bear Bryant before Bear Bryant was done at Alabama. His name is Hoss Johnson. Why they call33:59him Hoss? Because when he was born, he weighed almost 13 pounds. Doctor came back and says, Ms. Johnson, here's your little Hoss. And the name stuck. He played at Alabama. He was a great player. You know where he just did a football clinic, American football? In Israel. Israel? Scoring an ash, don't have a football guy, do a football clinic for Israelis in Israel. And one of the places, listen to this,34:29this is so exciting, one of the places they did it was in Bethlehem. Bethlehem. That's where Jesus was born. We did a football clinic in Bethlehem for Israelis. He did another clinic in Turkey. Muslim country. Muslim country. And there was a guy there that was in charge of American football in Turkey. They play34:59They play American football in Turkey. Yeah. We get into countries that no missionary can go. There's not too many Southern Baptist missionaries in Pakistan. IMB is not sending people to Pakistan. It's dangerous. But we're getting in countries that nobody else can get in. He did a thing in Turkey and one of the guys that was ahead of the football league in Turkey is a rocket scientist. He's Muslim. But he fell in love with our guy named35:29guy named Hoss Johnson who lives in Huntsville, works for SCORE, putting on a clinic. He fell in love with Hoss and he says, you know what? I'm supposed to go to Huntsville, Alabama. Hoss said, that's where I'm from. What are you coming to Huntsville? He said, well, I'm a rocket scientist and we're going to be. And Hoss shook his head and said, here I am running around with a Muslim rocket scientist and I graduated from Alabama. Ain't too many rocket scientists that played football in Alabama. But Hoss said, okay. So he35:58So he went to West Huntsville Baptist Church where Hoss goes to church and he actually went in there and Hoss said, hey, preacher, my buddy here, he's from Turkey. Oh, this is a rocket scientist? Yeah, this is a rocket scientist. He's here studying here in Huntsville. Rocket scientist here having a meeting. And he said, now let me get this straight. Now you're Muslim, right? Yeah. Oh, would you mind I pray? Oh, I'd love for you to pray for me. Muslim? Asking a Baptist preacher in Alabama to pray for him? I'm telling36:30I'm telling you folks, we are his ambassadors. And whether it's a business world, or whether it's a football, sports world, or whether it's your neighbor, or whether it's somebody that you work with or go to school with, whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an awesome opportunity to be in Jesus' place here in Alabama to represent him with the word of reconciliation, the ministry, the mission. It's a wonderful opportunity. Got to see yourself in36:59yourself in this place. And then we got to come to the table and say, you know what? I can't go, but I sure can give. I can give to sin. I can give to help our church, Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, all the mission agencies, all the missions program of our Southern Baptist Convention. They look to us, churches like this, to give, to give, so that the message of reconciliation can go to37:29the whole world, to the whole world.37:40If completing the task of world evangelism is our responsibility, would it ever get done if it was dependent upon your giving? God's not asking you to give millions, billions. He's asking you. to do your best, to give, so that this wonderful message of reconciliation can be carried through our38:09through our Southern Baptist evangelists to the ends of the earth. That's what we're supposed to do. And I'm asking you on behalf, because I'm here as his ambassador, speaking to you on his behalf. He couldn't be here today. Oh, he's here. You don't see him. He's here. And I'm speaking on his behalf, as you saw in that text, and asking you, give, give, give,38:39so that our missionaries to Alaska, so that your missionaries to Nicaragua, so that your missions teams to Dominican Republic, give, give, give, that we might take this word of reconciliation to the world. That's your responsibility, and that's my responsibility. And you know what? I know when we talk about money39:08and giving, it gets real quiet in the Baptist church, but I'm telling you right now, I'm excited to represent him, to tell you, you cannot ever give so much that you even come close to what he gave for you. What did he give for you? His best. His son. He gave him for you. What this is all about, what all this music was all about, what everything here is all about, what39:38that was all about, what that was all about, is what he gave for you. It's not too much to ask for you to give more and unusual this year to help your church do their part to get the word of reconciliation to the world. I tell you this, and I'm through. Did I tell y'all I love you? I love you guys.40:07I love Alabama. I used to pastor in Morgan County. And I love this church, your pastor and his family. I just love being here. I'm going to go up the road today and I'm going to pray, God, help those Christians, those believers, who are recipients of your giving, to give more than they've ever given, so that their church mission can go40:36forward with this message of reconciliation. We had a girl go on a mission trip. She's 26 years old. I want you to Google this name, so you need to write this name down. Google this name. Cara Stiles. Cara is spelled C-A-R-A. Stiles is S-T-I-L-E-S. Cara went on a mission trip about two years ago with the score of the National Dominican Republic. 26 years old, beautiful, single41:06beautiful, single coach from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Big school, 3,000 students. And Cara was a softball coach. She took a softball team and she went. But God grabbed her heart. She came back home to Chattanooga. You know what she did? First thing she did? She went in and asked the school board a request for a year's leave of absence. And they said, what are you going to do in a year's leave of absence? Oh, I'm going on a mission trip around the world. Really? Yeah. For one year. Then I'll be back at the end of the year. I just want a year's leave of absence. They denied that41:36request. So the next Monday, Cara resigned her position. She quit. She turned in a resignation as a school teacher and as a coach. She was making a good salary for a 26-year-old woman or even a 26-year-old man. She was doing well. She was making good money with a stipend and a salary. Huh. And her mother and daddy thought she was nuts because you know what else she did? She had a relationship. She was engaged to a42:06nice young man. She broke that off. Everybody was mad at score. Going on a mission trip with us, came back home, quit her job, broke her relationship up with her fiancé. Wow. And then I said, what's going on here? She said, coach, I'm going on a mission trip. I said, where are you going? She said, I'm going to 11 countries in 11 months. I'll be one month in one country, then we'll go to next month in another country, then we'll go to next month to another country. For 11 months, I'll be in 11 countries.42:36I said, what kind of country? She said, oh, we'll be in China. She told me she was going to be in some, oh, my goodness, some of the, oh, wow, are you kidding me? 20 young ladies, and they had to raise, listen to this, $20,000 for this mission trip. We're not talking about 1,000, 1,200. We're talking about 20,000 she had to raise. I said, Kara, you got to raise $20,000 one month in a country. Kara, you broke off your relationship with your fiancé. Your mother and daddy think you're nuts because you quit your job.43:06Kara, what are you thinking? What are you thinking? And she said, that's not the end of it. She said, I can't take a suitcase. I said, what? You're going to be 11 months, you're a woman, you're not going to take a suitcase? I got a wife and two daughters and three granddaughters and what are you going to take? She said, I got to put everything I'm taking for 11 months in a backpack. I said, a backpack. Yeah, and it can only weigh 20 pounds. My goodness, half of that would be cosmetics. Half of that, 2043:37pound backpack, 11 months mission trip. Are you crazy, Kara? I said, man, I got to tell your story. I got to tell your story. Give me three words that will define who you are and what you're all about. She said, three words? I said, yeah. She didn't hesitate. She said, tell everybody you want to, wherever you go, when it comes to missions, when it comes to missions, when it comes to missions, I had to raise $20,000. She said, you know what? When God does something, he does it big.44:07The $20,000 came in in less than two months. What? And I said, you got the three words for me? She said, yeah. What are they? She said, you tell the churches. The reason I broke up my engagement, the reason I quit my job, the reason I'm willing to go around the world in 11 months, the three words that define me, consumed44:34with Jesus. I said, no more questions. No more. I found a 26-year-old teacher who's so consumed with Jesus, and she's willing to walk away from a job, walk away from a relationship, walk away45:03from the comforts of the United States of America, to put everything she's got in a backpack, no more than 20 pounds, and go on mission with Jesus Christ. God is not calling you to do that. You know what he's calling you to do? Give. Give. So that your missions program of your church at Bethel, we're not asking you45:33to give all your money to Score International, to IMB, to NAM. We're just asking everybody who's here in this building to give more than ever before for the cause of taking this goodness, of reconciliation to the world. You can do that. You can do it. It might be sacrifice. For you, it might be46:02sacrifice. Give. That's what he wants us to do. That's the message. And if you're consumed with Jesus, you'll get in your car and you'll drive off this parking lot. And by all those grave sites of people that are already gone, and you'll drive by and you'll say this, consume what you do. I need to be so consumed that I want to get in on this idea.46:32I'm reconciling a world to Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. Are you in? Pray and ask God to enable you to give so that others might know how to be reconciled to God. If you're here today, and I'm sure there's people here, it's a good audience. If you're here today, and47:03you obviously are, and you've never received Christ, Jesus loves you. His coming to this earth was specifically just for you. He came for you. He came to reconcile you to God. You're here, you can have three things. You can have the forgiveness of sin. God wants to forgive you of all your sins.47:32What's that worth? You can have a home in heaven. A mansion in heaven with a street of gold. What's that worth? He has prepared more for you than your mind can ever comprehend. You couldn't buy it with all the money in the world, but it's waiting for you.48:02for you. God wants to forgive you of your sins, give you a home in heaven, and give you a great life down here. And all you've got to do is receive the gift of eternal life, forgiveness of sin, and a great life. Just receive that free gift by faith in your heart. And those of us who are saved, we've experienced that. And we say, thank you to you. That's what Christmas is all about.48:31all about. Let's pray. Every head is bowed and every eye closed. Friend, I want to tell you, Jesus loves you. He died for you. It's a wonderful message. It's a free gift of salvation, forgiveness of sin, home in heaven. And all you have to do is just say yes. Just receive it. It's a free gift. You're talking about a Christmas gift? You could have no greater Christmas gift than a gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ who died49:00on the cross for you. All you've got to do is receive it. Just receive it. And the second part of my invitation is this. Why don't you as a Baptist just come to this altar today as a Christian, as a member of this church, and say, God, I need you to help me to be so consumed with you and your agenda for this world that I'm willing to give as never before49:30to show my gratitude for what he gave for me. I can never repay you, Jesus, with silver and gold. I can never give you enough because you gave your life for me. I understand. I can never do, but I can sure do a whole lot more to get this message around the world, and I'm willing to do it. Some of you need to come to this altar and say, Jesus, I just need to, I just need to learn the joy of giving. Father, in Jesus' name, we50:00thank you for your calling to all of us to take the message of reconciliation to the world. Help us to obey this. Help us to obey. And Lord, if there are people here today that have never, never experienced salvation in Jesus Christ and receive this free gift of eternal life, forgiveness of sin, and a great life here, I pray that they'll say yes to you today. Have your way, Lord, we pray.More sermons on 2 Corinthians →
