SPEAKER_00: Hi, it's Pastor Jonathan, and thanks for downloading the FBC El Dorado Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message will challenge and help you take the next step as you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I do invite you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: We are going to start in verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: And as you turn there, let me give a few introductions.
SPEAKER_01: I have the privilege of serving as your international church strategist with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm so grateful for you and 1,500 churches just like this around the state who have a heart and a passion for the nations because you have been faithful to continue giving to cooperative missions through the special missions offerings of the convention as well as cooperative program.
SPEAKER_01: Brian mentioned Ukraine, and no doubt you guys watch that on the news constantly, like many of us do.
SPEAKER_01: The majority of relief efforts happening among Christians right now are being let out by evangelicals.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of those, if not most of those, are being let out by Southern Baptists and their national partners.
SPEAKER_01: And because churches like yours have continued to be faithful in giving to cooperative missions, our missionaries, many of whom had to come out of the Ukraine or are stationed around the borders, but they are well positioned to minister to those who are fleeing.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are in the surrounding countries already are ready to receive refugees and to minister and to meet needs because the system was already in place because of churches that pray and give and go, just like First Baptist El Dorado.
SPEAKER_01: As we speak, there are teams from various state conventions that have been forming to go help and serve on the front lines.
SPEAKER_01: They might not have the language skills that some of our full-time missionaries have, but they can offer a lot of other resources and services in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: And they are there on the prayers of churches like yours.
SPEAKER_01: And so thank you for giving towards those efforts.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't seen lately, you can visit absc.org and you can see a video update, an interview that Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Sonny Tucker had with the president of the International Mission Board, Paul Chitwood, just explaining and expressing thanks for Southern Baptist Churches and all that they've done during this season.
SPEAKER_01: And I know you've got a lot of affairs to take care of at home, but as we're going to see this morning, God's heart is for all people everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: That includes us, and that includes them.
SPEAKER_01: And we want to be a church.
SPEAKER_01: All of us together, we want to be a church that are expressive of God's heart for all people, amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm grateful that I get to share in that ministry with you, that you partner together with others to accomplish that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm grateful for your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jonathan was a huge influence in my life as a teenager.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that might date me, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: That might date him more, but uh he was influential in my call to ministry, and so he has been a dear friend for several years, and I appreciate him greatly.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my name is Jamie Narramore, and I have the uh the humble honor of being married to my wife Jessica.
SPEAKER_01: We have four little kids.
SPEAKER_01: You can pray for her this morning.
SPEAKER_01: They are 10, 7, 5, and 3, and she had to get them all ready for church, as some of you had to do as well.
SPEAKER_01: And so uh she said they made it about 15 minutes late, which was pretty good for them.
SPEAKER_01: So um that's a little bit about us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my last name is Narramor.
SPEAKER_01: Um my extended family comes from the northern moors of England, uh, which I always find history and lineage and heritage and all that kind of stuff really fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: Uh people always ask me around the state if I know this Naramore or that Narramor, and I rarely ever do.
SPEAKER_01: Uh my grandpa always told me our family was kind of like the Hatfields and McCoys.
SPEAKER_01: There was some fight about a horse a long time ago in Alabama or something that led to the family kind of splitting up, and so I only know our little our little grouping of Narramores, and really it's my adopted name anyway, and so I only know those that are in my immediate family.
SPEAKER_01: Um but I but I love being a Naramor, but in fourth grade my stepfather adopted me.
SPEAKER_01: I took his last name.
SPEAKER_01: Prior to that, though, my my birth name, all right, the the name of my father uh was Geezer.
SPEAKER_01: Jamie Geezer.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, my family they were geese herders from Germany.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and somehow along the way that got softened just straight to geezer.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, when my wife and I got married, uh I just apologize on the front end for this, but uh on when we got married, we were calling the different family members up to get pictures, and I made the mistake of calling for the geezers to come up to the stage to get their pictures taken, and apparently her family didn't know the full story, and they got really offended.
SPEAKER_01: And so I had to then go and apologize to all the Irish O'Brien's uh that the Germans were just offensive people.
SPEAKER_01: Um several years ago, though, uh, I got to serve uh through your International Mission Board in North Africa in the Middle East, and I'll tell you what, it might have been jet lag, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I have never slept so well in my life as I did that first couple nights in North Africa.
SPEAKER_01: Um and it might have been the jet lag, but in reality, I think I was home.
SPEAKER_01: There was just something about my heart that was at rest.
SPEAKER_01: So a couple years ago, my uncle took one of those like 23andme ancestry tests, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it came back that that side of the family is 1% North African.
SPEAKER_01: I felt just completely justified in everything about me.
SPEAKER_01: Like my life could end right now, and I'll be happy, okay, to find out that I am German, French, English, you name it, and now North African.
SPEAKER_01: I was just really excited.
SPEAKER_01: The other day we were going through some paper and um some papers from our family, and we come across some news clippings that my grandmother sent me, and it was this picture of my great-great-grandfather uh when they first arrived in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all, his name is Bruno.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: If you got little kids like I do, there we haven't been able to get that song out of our head.
SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about Bruno.
SPEAKER_01: So now all my kids are like, why have we never known about great-grandpa Bruno?
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't talk about them, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's there's so much diversity behind every single one of us, right?
SPEAKER_01: And anybody in this in this room, you could go back.
SPEAKER_01: Like most of us, when we go through our family heritage, we're just amazed and blown away that God has put this hodgepodge of people together and brought us to where we are today.
SPEAKER_01: And there is something beautiful about the church being unified in all of this diversity.
SPEAKER_01: And if we'll just take a few minutes to go back and look at our history and look at where we've come from and look at the mosaic that is the body of Christ, we can't help but be thankful that God's heart is truly for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Brian read the passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You should be there by now, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just spend a few minutes in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul, in the context of this passage, he's been addressing this building from God, a house that hasn't been made with hands, for which we are prepared and guaranteed through his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks of a heavenly dwelling as if it's this tent with which we will be further clothed one day.
SPEAKER_01: He's referring to the resurrection of the dead, and the language is reminiscent of Jesus' promise in his ministry, where he says to the religious leaders, if you destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up again.
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't purely about our individual salvation stories.
SPEAKER_01: It's not this just a purely individualistic salvation, but if you think from the very beginning of Scripture, and I know your pastor is really good at holding the bookends of Scripture together and communicating the whole story of God, but if you think all the way back from the garden until the dwelling place, then back in the garden, the dwelling place of God was with men, but ever since then it has not been with people.
SPEAKER_01: There's been these momentary glimpses of God dwelling with his people, whether a tent or a tabernacle or a temple, right?
SPEAKER_01: But there is this broken relationship between us that was formed because of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: But in the death and the resurrection of Jesus, full and forever access to the Father has been achieved.
SPEAKER_01: And one day, one day, his dwelling will be with us again, when that new heaven and new earth just engulf everything about us.
SPEAKER_01: And we are together again with him in our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_01: And if that is true of you, if that's your story, if this whole scripture is your heritage, then I can't think of anything better to do with our life in the meantime than to just waste it for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Because anything else truly is a waste, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: If we truly believe this book from beginning to end, from first page to last page, that it's all about the glory of Jesus among all people and his glory just engulfing all of creation, then what better way to spend your life?
SPEAKER_01: And I hope you see from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 this morning that God's big vision has always been this new creation.
SPEAKER_01: But this new creation evidenced among all nations.
SPEAKER_01: New creation among every nation.
SPEAKER_01: You saw it in a couple of those verses.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, Paul said, if anyone is in Christ, he is new creation.
SPEAKER_01: If you skip on down to verse 19, it's as if Paul was going to be.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just further explain what that means, that you are a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: It says that in verse 19, in Christ, God was reconciling the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: His vision isn't just for a particular group of people, it's for everyone everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: It's not for a particular nation or geographical plot of land, it's literally everything.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan to redeem, and I want you to pay attention just to a couple things in this first point.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he says new creation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't always feel new every morning.
SPEAKER_01: I don't always act like a new creation every day.
SPEAKER_01: There is a process in it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why if you skip on down to verse 21, it says you are becoming something, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have been declared new, but there's a lot of it left to work out.
SPEAKER_01: If you think of our founding fathers, they made a declaration of independence, but they still had a battle to fight, did they not?
SPEAKER_01: They still had to go claim that thing that was declared.
SPEAKER_01: Now God stands at the beginning of the story, he stands at the end of the story, and he is everywhere in the middle of your story, and so he has the right to declare you today to be new, knowing the task that he's going to complete.
SPEAKER_01: He who began a good work in us, he's going to be faithful to finish it, is he not?
SPEAKER_01: And so he can say today you're new creation, even though sometimes we don't look a lot like it.
SPEAKER_01: But we are becoming his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: We are still in this spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to encourage you this morning that we might have a lot of work to do, but we know that the victory is already ours on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: We can read the end of the story and know that this thing is guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that anyone who is in Christ can claim this promise.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone.
SPEAKER_01: Paul spends a lot of time defending his ministry in Corinthians, but here he says anyone.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say just the super spiritual or the supermature or just those who are called to full-time missions or just those who are ordained in the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say those with squeaky, clean past.
SPEAKER_01: He says anyone.
SPEAKER_01: And so that heading, if anyone is in Christ, they are new creation, that's going to cover everything that follows in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: So everything I'm about to say applies to you just as much as it does to Paul and anybody else who reads this.
SPEAKER_01: But anyone, and everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Because you notice that in verse 19, right?
SPEAKER_01: Everyone.
SPEAKER_01: In Christ, God was reconciling the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so this offer of new creation is available to anyone and everyone.
SPEAKER_01: That's his big vision, and it should be our vision as well.
SPEAKER_01: I want to introduce you to something this morning that I like to call the heart of God and 17 chapters.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not going to read 17 chapters of scripture for you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to invite you to jot these passages down.
SPEAKER_01: This is just a simple way to see God's heart for the nations and all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And the first place I want you to see is Genesis chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to read just a few verses for us, but you can just jot down Genesis chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to pay attention to verses 4 through 7.
SPEAKER_01: This is our father Abram when he was called by God.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want you to listen to what God says to him in chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of what?
SPEAKER_01: Of nations.
SPEAKER_01: No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations, and I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
SPEAKER_01: You will be the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: You remember Jesus when he came on the scene, he said the gospel must first be preached to the Jew and then to the Gentiles or to all people.
SPEAKER_01: You see, salvation was meant to come to the Jews, but not stay with the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: It was meant to pass through them to all nations.
SPEAKER_01: God's heart has always been for the nations.
SPEAKER_01: When there was a multitude that left Egypt in the Exodus, it was a mixed multitude.
SPEAKER_01: There were other nations that followed Moses on out of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: God's heart has always been for the nations.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn to John chapter 17, John chapter 17, verses 18 through 23, this is the high priestly prayer of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is like, this is this is the last moment before the cross when he's just really going to pour out his heart to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this in verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Father, as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
SPEAKER_01: And for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.
SPEAKER_01: I don't ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear what Jesus prays for in John chapter 17?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just pray that God will be glorified in himself.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just pray that God will be glorified in his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: But as he is sending his disciples into the world, he prays that God will be glorified through those who would one day believe on account of their word.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prays for El Dorado, Arkansas in John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed for you in John chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's heart and his vision have always been for all people.
SPEAKER_01: Final place I want you to look in the heart of God in 17 chapters is Acts chapter 17.
SPEAKER_01: This has become one of my favorite passages for the past several years.
SPEAKER_01: But in Acts chapter 17, it's a famous account, a very popular account of Paul's contextualization of how he relates the truth of the gospel to people from other world views and other backgrounds and different ways of thinking, and there's a lot of interesting things that we could unpack.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to notice these two verses.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is now describing to the Athenians this unknown God that they've set up this little idol just to kind of cover all their bases.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the story, right?
SPEAKER_01: Paul has arrived in Athens.
SPEAKER_01: He's all by himself, but he can't keep quiet.
SPEAKER_01: This is just kind of his standard mode of operation.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is usually on missionary teams preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He finds himself all alone.
SPEAKER_01: He's just been persecuted and run out of a previous city.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to another city that's full of idols and all this false worship, and he just can't keep quiet.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts noticing all these idols all around the place, and he finally notices one with the inscription on it to an unknown God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the Athenians, they had a God for literally everything.
SPEAKER_01: They're like modern-day Hindus, okay?
SPEAKER_01: They worshiped everything under the sun, anything that's out there.
SPEAKER_01: And they even had one called the unknown God, just to cover all their bases in case they missed anything.
SPEAKER_01: And so Paul says, I'd like to explain to you who that is.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the God who made the world and everything in it.
SPEAKER_01: He also made, verse 26, from one man all the nations of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him, yet he's actually not far from each one of us.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what Paul says there?
SPEAKER_01: God has providentially orchestrated the movement of the nations for his kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_01: He has determined when you live somewhere, and where you live for the sake of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He has done that for all nations, and he's done that, I would argue, for you in this room.
SPEAKER_01: For myself.
SPEAKER_01: There's a divine purpose and a plan for over 140 people groups being represented in Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01: There is a divine purpose and a plan for unreached people groups whom our missionaries have a difficult time engaging because of geopolitical reasons and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: That God would open a back door for them to come in to the Bible belt of all places.
SPEAKER_01: So that he might not be far from each one of us.
SPEAKER_01: I believe there's a divine purpose and a plan in you sending your kids off to colleges with international students representing the best and the brightest the world has to offer, but most of the time coming from some of the most dark corners of the earth when it comes to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: If you turn your attention to the screen, there should be a couple slides to show this.
SPEAKER_01: This was before we updated it recently, that 216,000 people roughly represent represented in these 130 different people groups.
SPEAKER_01: Of those, you heard Brian say on the next slide that over half of those would be considered by the International Mission Board to be unreached.
SPEAKER_01: These are all estimates.
SPEAKER_01: We're uncovering new data every day as we get into just places all over Arkansas and we meet people.
SPEAKER_01: The next slide shows how this has impacted our universities.
SPEAKER_01: Every year we have around 6,000, sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, international students on our college campuses.
SPEAKER_01: And as I mentioned, these are the best and the brightest the world has to offer.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at some of the top represented nations on that map, those represent some of the most lost places in the world.
SPEAKER_01: For example, if if 15% of all of our international students come from India, do you know in India we have the largest concentration of lostness on the planet?
SPEAKER_01: The largest concentration of lost people and of people who have never even heard the name of Jesus are in the country of India.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know which country in the world has the fewest, the lowest percentage of missionaries?
SPEAKER_01: India.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think that God might be up to something when he opens a door for Indian students who have influence to come and study with our students.
SPEAKER_01: When you graduate students, you are not graduating them, you are launching them, you are commissioning them, you are sending them into a mission field.
SPEAKER_01: And rather than worrying about that, we should be excited about the opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: There's a young man in Little Rock whose father is the high priest of all the priests in his state in India.
SPEAKER_01: And after about four years of connecting with your collegiate ministries on the campus there, he has most of the New Testament memorized.
SPEAKER_01: And our conversations have moved beyond is Jesus the only way of salvation?
SPEAKER_01: And now our conversations have moved to, is he worth dying for?
SPEAKER_01: Is he worth risking everything for?
SPEAKER_01: Because when your dad finds out that you're a believer, the consequences are gonna be grave.
SPEAKER_01: But that is the kind of impact that you can have all throughout our state.
SPEAKER_01: Just a week ago, I was in northwest Arkansas connecting with some Asian American pastors representing Hmong, Cambodian, Chinese, etc., congregations in that part of our state.
SPEAKER_01: And it was beautiful to watch how Acts 17 was just coming to live, coming right off the pages of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting around this table, and a group of Vietnamese pastors are sitting there scratching their heads, saying, you know, a day ago when we came to this meeting, we weren't quite sure why we were supposed to be here.
SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do with us?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we just wanted to make connections and foster good relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And then they said, but we've just realized that we had five families move from our city a couple hours away, who are strong believers, who have a passion for the lost, and they just moved to your city, and they haven't been able to find a Vietnamese-speaking church.
SPEAKER_01: And so what if the whole reason we're gathering together is because this large influx of Vietnamese moving into this region of the state actually need a Vietnamese church among them, and that was the core team of a future church plant.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think God might have been behind the scenes orchestrating some of that?
SPEAKER_01: And that's happening all over the country.
SPEAKER_01: And it's happening in small places that you wouldn't expect.
SPEAKER_01: And it's happening in cities like El Dorado.
SPEAKER_01: There was a Cambodian who we met recently, works in a restaurant setting.
SPEAKER_01: For several years, no one has ever asked his story.
SPEAKER_01: He's just minded his business and done his work with excellence.
SPEAKER_01: You go around any town in Arkansas, and I guarantee you that most of the donut shops in those cities are going to be run by South Asians or Southeast Asians or East Asians, many from Cambodia.
SPEAKER_01: This man came to Christ in a refugee camp, fleeing for his life, was one of only a few of his family that survived the killing fields of Cambodia.
SPEAKER_01: He became a Baptist pastor in the refugee camp, started churches in the refugee camps, made his way to North America, started and pastored churches, and then he made his way to Arkansas and opened up the small little restaurant, and no one had any interest in him.
SPEAKER_01: He is a wealth of knowledge and experience and connection.
SPEAKER_01: So my question is, are your eyes open?
SPEAKER_01: And even more than your eyes, are your hearts open to the nations around you?
SPEAKER_01: Top three languages in the world today: English, Spanish, Mandarin.
SPEAKER_01: One of the fastest growing demographics in the world, Spanish speakers.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought for a minute that maybe it is God's providence that the population boom among Hispanics might actually be used for the advance of the kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: I like to think of it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like football in this room?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, could you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Tom Brady just came out of retirement, right?
SPEAKER_01: Six weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: He's like the new Michael Jordan in every sense, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Could you imagine if Tom Brady has got a world-class array of wide receivers who are running wide open to the end zone with their arms just waving for the ball, and Tom Brady decides that he's gonna quarterback run that thing from about 90 yards away?
SPEAKER_01: What is Tom Brady gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna pass the ball to any one of those receivers who's wide open running towards the end zone.
SPEAKER_01: Church, many of our Hispanic brothers and sisters, many of our Chinese brothers and sisters, many of our Indian brothers and sisters who are now in the state of Arkansas, many of our brothers and sisters from these other cultures and nations.
SPEAKER_01: It's time for us to equip them and to resource them and to support them because they are gaining access into pockets of lostness that you and I can only dream of.
SPEAKER_01: And there is gospel opportunity everywhere you turn in your schools and your businesses and all around you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm running short on time and I only got through two verses, so let's go and finish up.
SPEAKER_01: All of this is from God.
SPEAKER_01: This is an act of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an accident.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to leave you with some good news.
SPEAKER_01: If God's big vision is for new creation to be among all nations, then point number two, our unique mission is to work together with him in reconciling the world.
SPEAKER_01: We get the opportunity and the privilege, the unique mission of working together with him.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Paul says in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Anyone who's in Christ is also an ambassador for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna make you say it out loud this morning, but maybe just, you know, under your breath, say it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a new creation in Christ and an ambassador for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who's in Christ is a new creation and an ambassador.
SPEAKER_01: It's like if you pulled out a quarter, that thing better have a heads and a tails.
SPEAKER_01: It's got two sides to it.
SPEAKER_01: And every believer in Jesus has two sides to them as well.
SPEAKER_01: You are new creation and you're also an ambassador.
SPEAKER_01: You can't separate them.
SPEAKER_01: I might not do a good job of that every day, but that is who I am.
SPEAKER_01: That's my identity.
SPEAKER_01: But God doesn't call us to do something without also equipping us for the task.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone and everyone who's in Christ is a new creation and an ambassador for him, I want you to see that God has not left you ill-equipped.
SPEAKER_01: Go to verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: It says, All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself.
SPEAKER_01: And what happened?
SPEAKER_01: He gave you a special gift, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: He gave you the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought of yourself as having a ministry and it's God given?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone and everyone in Christ has received a ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what your ministry is.
SPEAKER_01: That's something you and God need to talk through.
SPEAKER_01: You need to ask him today, God, what's my ministry?
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty confident your ministry has a first name.
SPEAKER_01: It might not have a position or a title, it might not have a special location to it.
SPEAKER_01: I guarantee it's got at least one first name attached to it, and probably multiple.
SPEAKER_01: I heard someone say recently, you don't have a strategy to reach the lost until you got a first name.
SPEAKER_01: I think that was pretty good, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: You need to know people, and you know people that I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You know people that your pastor doesn't know.
SPEAKER_01: You know people that others on staff don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You have relationships and credibility with people that missionaries all over the world don't have access to.
SPEAKER_01: They are your ministry, and God has specifically given you that for his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: But not only has he given you a ministry, look what you got in verse 19, you got a second gift.
SPEAKER_01: This is like Christmas this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You got another gift when you became in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You got a message.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: And he has entrusted us with the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: You got a story, your story, that no one can take away from you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you struggle with sharing the gospel, what do I say and all that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm there.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 21 is a great example of the gospel message.
SPEAKER_01: God made Jesus, though he had no sin, to take my sin so I could become his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: A great exchange of my sin coming on Jesus and Jesus giving me his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you got a story like that?
SPEAKER_01: Of him taking your sin and shame, your guilt and your fear, your brokenness, and restoring you and redeeming you and exchanging it with his righteousness?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a story like that?
SPEAKER_01: Everyone in this room who is in Christ has a story.
SPEAKER_01: People can't argue.
SPEAKER_01: They might have to like it.
SPEAKER_01: They might not have to agree with it, but they can't argue with the story of how Jesus saved you.
SPEAKER_01: That is your message.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 4, woman at the well, one of my favorite stories in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Who is the ambassador in John chapter 4?
SPEAKER_01: Was it the disciples who were going to get lunch or the woman at the well?
SPEAKER_01: The woman who went back into the village and she told everybody the most eloquent sermon you have ever heard under the sun, come and meet the man who has told me everything I have ever done.
SPEAKER_01: And it says that many came out and believed, not any longer on account of her word, but when they met Jesus and they heard him.
SPEAKER_01: She was just the avenue that got them there.
SPEAKER_01: She had a message.
SPEAKER_01: And so do you.
SPEAKER_01: John Popper says the total mobilization of Christians is the only answer to the total evangelization of the lost.
SPEAKER_01: The total mobilization of Christians is the only answer to the total evangelization of the lost.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God gives everybody a ministry and a message.
SPEAKER_01: It takes every single one of us to complete this task, to see this vision of new creation among all people, to see that become a reality.
SPEAKER_01: It takes every single person in here, every man, every woman, every grandma, every grandpa, every boy, every girl.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone who's in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He read this passage of scripture and was convinced that God had given him a ministry, and the first person on his prayer list was his mother.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Uzbekistan, nominal Muslim.
SPEAKER_01: Him and the pastor in Magnolia just started praying fervently for her, for opportunity, for boldness, for open doors.
SPEAKER_01: Three weeks ago, mom gave her life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because her son was persistent.
SPEAKER_01: Though he is a new baby believer, he wanted his mom to meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That came from Magnolia.
SPEAKER_01: Can't tell me that God's not behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_01: But this vision only becomes our reality through Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: You see that at the end of the passage.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_01: And I would implore anyone in this room who is not in Christ, who has not surrendered themselves completely to him to forgive them of their sins and to rescue them from their brokenness.
SPEAKER_01: You can do that today.
SPEAKER_01: You can be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen what Paul says in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Working together with him, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
SPEAKER_01: For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, now is the favorable time.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, now is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: My friend, today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If you have already been saved, then today is the day of salvation of someone who's next to you, of someone you know, of someone in your circle that only you can reach.
SPEAKER_01: Today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If you notice what Paul says, he says, we're working together with God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you ever notice this, but you can't join Paul's team and not get in the game.
SPEAKER_01: You get after it.
SPEAKER_01: There's no bench warming.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's got a role to play.
SPEAKER_01: That's what makes the razorback so good, right?
SPEAKER_01: Today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have a short time of invitation.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd like to invite you to respond to a couple things.
SPEAKER_01: If you have never trusted the gospel so clearly as Jesus taking your sin and you getting in exchange his righteousness, I would invite you to come down this morning and receive that.
SPEAKER_01: You can grab me down here, you can grab Brian on the other side and say, I need Jesus, and we will pray with you, we will talk to you.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to see today be the day of your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: No doubt that God has been pricking someone's heart, maybe today, maybe for seasons and years, that he wants you to get involved in the missionary task.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's calling you to reach a neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he's calling you to the nations themselves.
SPEAKER_01: If you just need someone to pray with you over that, I want to give you an opportunity while we're singing this last song to do that myself or at the altar.
SPEAKER_01: Every believer is called to have an open Bible and an open map.
SPEAKER_01: And ask God daily, where do you want me to go and what do you want me to do?
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna invite you to do those two things this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God how He wants you to pursue the ministry He's given you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's the internationals that are in El Dorado.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to save you if you have not already.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Father God, thank you for your kindness and grace to rescue sinners like us, and I pray that those in this room who have never surrendered their life to Jesus would do so this morning.
SPEAKER_01: They would make that public through confession with brothers and sisters who have already joined the family.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray for those who have been burdened for the loss and they don't know where to start.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, would you make it clear to them?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give them opportunity?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give them boldness?
SPEAKER_01: Would you give them clarity?
SPEAKER_01: I invite them, Father, to come and to seek that out as well.
SPEAKER_01: Would you call out people to ministry and to missions, Father?
SPEAKER_01: Show us how to use our gifts and our skills for your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, I pray for first El Dorado, I pray for this city.
SPEAKER_01: That the nations who are here, some in the background who are hiding in places.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that you would draw them out.
SPEAKER_01: Draw them first to yourself, God, send them out among others.
SPEAKER_01: We shall be used by you to make you famous among all people.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thankful for this church that desires the same.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Come forward if you need to.