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God, thank you that you hear these prayers right across this room. And as we open your word now, as we look at our own hearts and our own lives, God help us to be honest. Honest with you about where our hearts really lie, about the things that we're really believing. God, we pray that your word, which we know is true, that it would impact our hearts. That it would impact our lives. Thank you. Amen. Have you guys ever had a situation where you're trying to help someone and they don't seem to understand what you're saying or what you're doing? They don't get that you're trying to help them. I don't know if you've ever had a situation like that. Maybe it's as simple as the one that I've had, where you're driving and it may be early in the morning and it's still pretty dark outside, and you see a car coming the other way without its headlights on. You guys know what I'm talking about? And as that's happening, you're like, oh, they don't have the headlights on. Let me be a good helper. And so you flash your headlights at them to warn them, hey, nobody can see you. And they don't turn their headlights on as they come towards you, and but there is enough light for you to see their face as they drive past, and they're looking at you like, what are you doing? Why are you flashing your lights at me? What's your problem? They're giving you this look, and you're like, I'm trying to help. I'm trying to be helpful. It's frustrating when that happens, right? Well, I think that we as individuals, if we're honest here this morning, can admit to the fact that we're capable of being ignorant and ununderstanding ourselves. That there are times that we uh behave that way, even with our God, with our Creator. There are times when God is trying to help us, and lots of us are really, I mean, to put it uh for lack of a better term, we're giving God the stinkee when He's trying to help us. And this occurs in a whole bunch of different areas, I believe, but I specifically I believe this occurs in the area of reconciliation. Sometimes we don't understand God's reconciliation. We fail to grasp the significance of what you and I have in Christ. We fail to see that once we receive reconciliation, that we are called to be givers of this same grace. And we have good excuses for that. Like there's good reasons that we don't understand it, right? We have excuses like our concerns or our distractions or our pleasures or our busyness or all the things of life. But it is a problem. And so I wanted to be really clear this morning on articulating the problem I want for us to tackle. The problem is this, and it's in your notes. We struggle to understand what reconciliation means for us and for others. Another way to put it is we struggle with both its application personally and its implication for those that God has put around us. Now, some of you in the room may not be Christians. I'm gonna just go ahead and say statistically, in this room there are people here who would not identify themselves as Christian or they're not sure if they're a Christian, they don't know exactly what they believe. I just want to give you a quick note because I don't want you to be like, oh man, he's talking about churchy words like reconciliation already, and you know, we're headed down this path of talking about a whole bunch of Christian stuff that I don't really know or understand or care to know and understand. And I want to ask you to stay engaged because it it's my encouragement for you today that you're gonna hear things that could potentially could change your life. We're gonna talk about the gospel, which is, I believe, the most amazing message ever, in very explicit terms, in very simple terms. And so I want to give you the task, if you're not a Christian here this morning, if you're maybe just exploring faith, or maybe somebody just dragged you along to church today, if you're in that space, stay sitting there with open ears today, because I believe that the things that we're talking about really are incredibly significant and could change the course of your life. And I don't say that lightly, I really do mean that. If you're a Christian or if you're a non-Christian, the truth is we both have wayward tendencies and distractedness, and I believe that God understands that. And because of his understanding, he has spoken through his word repeatedly about his grace and what it should produce in us. There's a particular passage that focuses on reconciliation, and I'd like for us to turn there. We're just gonna jump straight into the text. So I'm gonna ask you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and as you turn there, just realize that we're gonna be parked here pretty much all day today. So, um, or at least for our time together. So 2 Corinthians 5, and we're gonna pick up in verse 17. Just a quick note, this whole chapter is awesome. I I I if we had time, I would read through this whole chapter. It's in our reading guide this week. If you need to, if you want to learn how to read the Bible or if you're looking for a guide on how to read the Bible on the back of your listening guide, we just give some suggested readings, and this is one of the chapters that we would suggest you read this week. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 says this. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. Everything is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ 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 he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. What is reconciliation? You've heard that word obviously a whole bunch of times already. What does it mean to be reconciled? I think it's a bit of a funny sounding word, and one that we typically don't use a lot. If you look at uh the Baker's Encyclopedia of the Bible, it defines reconciliation as this restoration of friendly relationships and of peace where before there had been hostility and alienation. Another way to put it is like this: reconciliation occurs between two parties that have formerly had hostility and enmity. There was something between them that they couldn't figure out. There was something wedged between those two parties. And I believe that a good way to think of reconciliation is it's the forming of a bridge over those hostilities. It's the connecting of those two parties, a bridging of those two parties. Now, I say this word bridge, and most of you guys are like, yeah, I get it what you mean by a bridge. The thing is, in our modern day and age, we live in a world in which we take bridges for granted, right? We drive over bridges, we drive under bridges all day, every day, and we're like, oh yeah, great, that's a bridge. Like, think about the Mopak bridge over the Barton Creek Greenbelt. You guys know what I'm talking about? That huge bridge that kind of spans out across. We just drive across that when there's not traffic at 65 miles an hour, right? We just sail along that without thinking about the incredibleness of what's going on. We're going over easily, we have access between two points so much easier because of that bridge that is formed. Bridges are amazing things. If we didn't have that, you'd have to work all your way around. Think about an island that has a bridge to it. You have to catch a ferry or a boat or something to get across to that if there's no bridge. Bridges are significant because the gospel itself, I believe, is a bridge of reconciliation. The gospel is the good news. This is our definition from last week. That God has rescued and is restoring creation in and through the work of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus is the bridge between God and us. If I could articulate the gospel in just a minute or so, I would put it like this. There is a God, this is what I believe. There is a God who created us, and he created everything in the entire universe. And when he created humans, he made us unique and special in that he gave us, he made us in his image, and he gave us the ability to choose to worship and to serve him or to reject him. We chose to reject him. You can read about that in the first few books of the Bible. And what that process did is it created a chasm between God and us. An uncrossable chasm. There is nothing that we could do that would be good enough to earn us back into a relationship with God. You couldn't behave good enough, you couldn't say enough of the right things, you couldn't do enough of the right things to be back in a right relationship with God. And God in his sovereignty, in his justice, in his righteousness, couldn't just forget about that sin and be like, oh, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about all that sin, all that stuff that's between us. And so there's existed this chasm between us and God. But God, in his grace, worked out a plan to save us and to make things right with us again. And that plan looked like this. He sent his son, Jesus, who is fully God and fully man. So he represented both parties. And what happened is Jesus came, lived the perfect life that none of us could, and then died the death that none of us could, and was raised to life again, and through that process, he reconciled us, he built a bridge with us so that we could be in right relationship with God again. If you want to think of it this way, you've got God, you've got us, and the bridge between us is the cross. Okay? So picture that in your minds with me today as we talk about this. When we say the gospel, we're talking about this act of reconciliation that we're offered through God. And I don't know if you saw it, but it's already been talked about where we picked up reading in verse 17. I want to reread it with you. We started out in verse 17, part way through this chapter, and it says, Therefore, if anyone is in you in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. Everything is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. As I'm reading this, I'm already seeing the gospel in and through all of this text. Because what I'm seeing is it's saying that we are a new creation. What that's saying is that when you make a decision to follow God, to be in a relationship with God, to accept the sacrifice of Jesus, you are made into a right place with him, and you are not your old self, you're a new creation. We symbolize this with baptism, right? When somebody's baptized, we say you're buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in a new life. That's the work of God. That's this new creation. And we could talk a whole message today on being a new creation, but that's not what we're talking about this morning entirely. It's part of what we're talking about. The second thing that we see here in this text is that it says in verse 18 that everything is from God. When it says that everything from God, it means everything is from God. Our life, our breath, our movements, our days are numbered, where we live, the steps that we take. God is sovereign. We believe as Christians over everything. That's a part of the gospel message. Another part of the gospel message is what we see as it moves on. It says there that everything is from God. And I'll read the second part of 18. It says, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. I mean, that's explicitly the gospel right there. That's that bridge that we were talking about earlier. God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and that is an amazing thing. Now we talked about this a little bit last week as we talked about the gospel in terms of a gap. For those of you who weren't here, we talked about essentially how there's this gap that sometimes exists between the things as Christians that we confess that we believe, and then the things that we truly are believing and acting on. And how that isn't a good space to be living in, that there's there's a void that the gospel needs to be applied to. And so we talked about how we need to preach the gospel to ourselves, how we need to speak truth and love, to speak the scriptures to that gap. And so what we saw is that the gospel brings reconciliation internally. It was a conversation about healing, about mending between ourselves and God. This week, what we're going to look at is how the gospel brings reconciliation externally. It helps us to build bridges of reconciliation for others. And the key for us today is really where I left off reading just now in verse 18B. When we say B, that means just the second part of the text. Let's read it again. 18. Everything is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and here's the kicker, guys, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We cannot blow past this. God has given us a ministry. Those who experience reconciliation through the gospel become ministers of that same reconciliation. Now, some of you maybe there have been like, okay, are you sure that we're all as Christian called to be ministers? Like, isn't that a pastor's job? No. Read it in the text with me again. It says that we are called to we are given this ministry of reconciliation, but it in case you're not entirely sure what Paul's saying or God is saying through Paul, read on to the next verse. It says, that is, so he's about to repeat exactly what he just said to clarify. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. There's the gospel again. And he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Last Halloween we experienced being booed. Have you guys ever been booed? Do any of you guys know what I'm talking about? It's this thing where somebody leaves a treat on your doorsteps and says, You've been booed, and then on that there's this little slip of paper that explains what being booed means, and it means that you've got to put like a little symbol on the outside of your house that says you've already been booed, so somebody doesn't do it again. But then you're in turn asked to then boo two other families, two other individuals. And so you have to make these goodie baskets and take it, you know, to your neighbors or to your friends and pass it on. And as that happens, I was just thinking about that, as I was thinking about this, as you're enjoying that treat that you get, you're enjoying it, but you're also understanding that there's an expectation that you're going to pass that enjoyment on to others. And that's much the same as what we're talking about here. As you're reconciled, you're given the task of being a reconciler. And you can't squirm your way out of this one, guys. There seems to be a notion amongst comfortable Christians in the Western world that they can be reconciled and then sit around and wait for Jesus to come back. We cannot escape the truth that we are called to be agents of reconciliation, each and every one of us. If you are a Christian, you are an agent of reconciliation. Another way that the text puts it is in verse 20. It says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors. What's an ambassador? An ambassador is an official representative, typically of a foreign country or a diplomat, usually an authorized representative or a messenger, and they're usually representing a higher authority. As you read this text, as we talk about this reconciliation, I want you to see that we are ambassadors representing the highest authority. That's God. Now, an ambassador is typically an ambassador to someone. Like you may be the Australian ambassador and you're located over in the United States, right? So you're an ambassador to someone. Who are we called to be ambassadors to? As Christians, we are ambassadors to both our Christian family and friends and to everyone else. A simpler way to say this is we are ambassadors to everyone. But I want to articulate this clearly because sometimes we forget the truth that we are called to be ambassadors to our Christian family and friends and to our non-Christian family and friends. Because what we see as we think about that, that there's need for reconciliation inside of the church and outside of the church, what we see is that we are called to speak the gospel to both groups, and it looks and sounds very different in all of those contexts. Thankfully, the gospel is incredibly deep and moldable, and what this means is that it has the ability to flow into the cracks and crevices of our lives and the cracks and the crevices of other people's lives. It's customizable, the gospel message, into all sorts of different situations and issues. Let me just list out a few things that came to my mind quickly as I got to thinking about this, how the gospel can and should conform in my life. I need to speak the gospel to my son as I discipline him. I have a son, he's five years old, he's not yet made a decision to be a Christ follower, but we're talking about it. Some days our conversations about Jesus are really cool and they make a lot of sense, and then other days we're off on a different planet, okay? It's just the journey that we're in right now. But he's asking a lot of good questions. There are moments when he shows his true sinful colors. I don't think I taught him how to do that, but his sin nature just comes out and he is disobedient, he is rude, he is mean, these things come out of him, and in those moments, as a parent, I have an opportunity to just sit him and slam him and say, hey, that is not good enough. You've got to do better. And there's part of me that just wants to parent like that, but what we're talking about here today is my non-believing son needs to hear the gospel as I discipline him. He needs to know that there's more to what's just going on. I could just give him a slap on the wrist and say, that's not good, be immoral, be a good kid. But I don't want my son just to be a moral and good kid. I do want that. But more than that, I want him to love the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind. And so what I need to do in that moment, the way that I'm, I mean, personally, I'm just sharing, I want to grow in this. What I want to do in that moment when his struggling is not just say, no, don't stop. I want to sit down with him and say, hey, buddy, what's going on in your heart? Tell me what how you're feeling, what's going on. And as he starts to get honest with me and tell me what he's feeling, say, hey, I understand that. I feel like that sometimes too, actually. And you know what daddy has to do in those moments? I have to pray. I have to ask God to help me, and I ask him to help me in this way. And so, do you want me to pray with you? Do you want to talk to God about it? And have those conversations. I need to speak the gospel to my wife. She is a believer. She needs to speak the gospel to me too, which she does, thankfully. But there's moments, there's situations where she's struggling. It may be in our parenting, it may be in just the um busyness of our week and anxiety about what's going on. It may be family dynamics or stuff going on with friends. In those moments, I need to speak the gospel to her and remind her that our worth and our value is found in Jesus and Jesus alone. That He loves us and that He's in control of all the things that are going on in our lives. I need to speak the gospel to my believing wife. I need to speak the gospel to my unbelieving friends that I ride with from time to time. I like mountain biking, and sometimes when we're riding, we have conversations about random stuff. Sometimes it's politics. And I'm like, ugh, please no. I don't want to have this conversation, but in that moment I need to portray the gospel. How am I what am I speaking so that my friends know that my identity, my worth, my future is not set on a political party or in an individual, but it's set on Jesus. How can I use my words in that way? I need to speak the gospel to my believing friend who's struggling with his job situation. How do I speak truth and love and hope into that moment, into that situation to encourage him that God is with him, that God hasn't forgotten him, and that we can know that we know that we know that in that moment. And so what I want you to see very quickly is that between believers and unbelievers, there are a whole bunch of contexts and situations in which the gospel, we can be agents of reconciliation of the gospel, which leads us to a really, I think, good question. How do we grow as gospel bridge builders? I'm gonna give you four thoughts on this. The first two, now there is a lot more that we could say than four points, but four thoughts on this. The first two are very much internal things that we need to grow, and the second two are evidenced externally, okay? The first two, well, the first one is this we grow as gospel bridge builders by being submitted and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Now, for those of you who are here last week, you're like, that's really similar to last week's point. Yes, that's on purpose. Everything starts with God. We cannot grow in the gospel without God allowing and inspiring and leading that to happen in our lives. If God stirs you today to be submitted and sensitive to his working, that's his working. Remember back to verse 18 that we read in chapter 5. It said that everything is from God, and we said that means everything. Think about it like this. If we desire to grow in the gospel, that is by his grace. If we grow in the gospel, it's by his grace. If we apply the gospel to our lives, that's by his grace. And if we help others to see the gospel, that's by his grace. The way that Jesus put this in John chapter 15, he said, I'm the vine, you are the branch, and you can do what without me? Nothing. That's right. You can do nothing without me. He doesn't say, Well, you won't be as good without me. No, he says, You'll you'll do nothing. Think about what that means. What that means is that all of this, this whole conversation, like last week, begins and ends with God. If we want to grow as gospel. Bridge builders, we have to be submitted and sensitive to the Holy Spirit, who is Christian, lives inside of us. He's the counselor, he's the one guiding and directing our steps. The problem is that there is our own flesh, our own will, our own desires that pull and struggle and work against the work of our the Spirit in our lives. We get distracted by the noise of life. I love the way that C.S. Lewis puts this in Mere Christianity. I'm going to read a quote for you from there. He talks about this issue of noise and the things that distract us. He says, it comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. Isn't that a good way of putting it? And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in, and so on all day, standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings coming in out of the wind. I want to encourage you guys that we have got to just put ourselves at guard and say, God, I need you each and every day. I need you. The second way that we grow as gospel bridge builders is by meditating on the gospel. The only way that we can be proficient givers of the grace of the gospel is allowing God to grow us in our fluency of the gospel. Applying the gospel in our lives isn't possible without being fluent. What does it mean to be fluent? It means to be articulate in the gospel, to be natural in the gospel. One of the ways that I've put this before is by saying that being fluent in the gospel is like marinating in the gospel. When you marinate something, it's like sitting in the juices, right? You get a piece of meat and you put it in this marinade, and then, you know, it's sitting in these juices, and what happens is they infuse with one another, the flavors, right? And much in the same way, we too need to just marinate in the truths of who God is, what he's done for us, what the gospel is, what the reconciliation he's given us means. And as we do that, that's just going to naturally permeate into the fibers of our souls and affect us in each and every day. And I see that happening here in this chapter. As we read chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, we just hear over and over the thoughts of the gospel coming out in the text, and I love that. We said last week that it's hard to preach the gospel if we don't know the gospel. And I would add for this week: it's hard to be an agent of reconciliation if we don't know reconciliation. This looks like us daily immersing ourselves in and coming back to the gospel because once we're familiar with the language of the gospel, it will naturally surface in all of life. You know, I've found personally a good way to gauge this is just by what's going on in my home. It's like the putting your finger on the pulse, figuring it out. I was talking to a friend about this this week. How on the days that I immerse myself really in the gospel when I'm really believing that I am saved by grace through faith and that God loves me and that I'm I'm totally satisfied in Him, things can be going terrible at home and it doesn't stress me out. The kids could be going crazy, things could be chaotic at my house and it doesn't impact me because I'm at peace in the gospel. The days where I'm not at peace in the gospel, just even a little thing can set me off. There is a huge difference between the days that I'm marinating and just soaking in God's goodness and grace and the days that I'm not. And I can tell that. Any person who's walked the Christian life for a time will tell you they can tell the days that they're fully submitted to God and surrendered to Him and reminding themselves of the truths of who they are in Christ. The third way that we grow as gospel bridge builders is by speaking the gospel through our actions. You see what I did there? You don't really speak with actions. We're speaking, though, through our actions. I have a friend who is an atheist, and uh one day we were hanging out, and uh I said to him, I kind of was just curious, and so I was like, I'm gonna push on this a little bit, and I said, Hey, explain to me. I'm I'm a pastor of a church. Why do you like me and why do you like hanging out with me? Like you're an atheist. Obviously, we have very different thoughts of you. And he said to me, the fact that you love me, again, a paraphrase, the fact that you love and accept me and my family means that I want to love and accept you and your family. The fact that you guys have engaged us and and um loved us and showed us love and respect as a family means that we want to do the same thing to you. And as I as I thought about that and I reflected on that, I was just, it wasn't hard. It was just the ways that we, in small ways that we'd reached out to them and tried to encourage them and support them in just small things, little actions. And I was reminded that man, our actions sometimes do speak louder than words. They give us permission to be heard. Look back at verse 20 with me. I want to read it with you again. Verse 20 in the text says this Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. Listen to this. Certain that God is appealing through us. I like that text. I really like that text because what I believe it's saying is that our actions, the things that we do, can point people towards Christ. Which leads us to a great question. Is God appealing through you? Is he appealing through me? Because we are called to be lights of the gospel in the places that God puts us. Again, Jesus said this himself in Matthew 5. He said, Matthew 5, verse 14, you are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand. And it gives light for all those who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. First Peter 2 12 says this conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you, as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation. Sometimes the best way to share the gospel is through our actions, through serving, through loving, through giving, and just engaging people. Fourth thought. On build being a gospel bridge builder. We grow in this by speaking the gospel to others through our words. You knew this point was coming, right? There is a moment that comes where we need to speak, where we need to use our words. Look back to verse 20 with me. I cut it off when we read it a second ago. It says there that we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, and look, it's in quotation marks. Be reconciled to God. There are moments where we need to not just be certain that he's appealing through our actions, but actually use our words to speak and declare the goodness of God. In truth and in love, we do that. If you're a reconciler, you've got to realize this. You're never off the clock. There isn't a moment where you just take that hut off and you're like, oh, I'm not really a reconciler anymore. You don't come home and you're like, okay, taking that reconciler hat off, or I'm getting to work, or I'm around my friends, I'm not a reconciler anymore. If you are a Christian, you're a reconciler. 24-7. That's the call as Christians. Now, we may be a good ambassador, we may be terrible ambassadors, but we are ambassadors. And the challenge here is to really understand the responsibility that we have to every place and every person, from our home to people that we just meet on the streets. We are called to be reconcilers. And this reminds me that if we are going to speak, if we are going to engage people with the gospel and speak words of the gospel, this all begins again with the very first point of being submitted to the Holy Spirit. Don't just blurt things out. Be sensitive to what he's leading to you, to the conversations that he's calling you to have. Now, as we seek to have these conversations and to engage people with the words of the gospel, a great question to ask is this what is it that they believe? What is this person believing? What are they at a heart level believing? This allows you to dig into the belief and to figure out what's going on just beyond the circumstances. Remember, as you have these conversations, to point people to God first before you seek to make some sort of reconciliation for them. Say you're sitting down with a friend and they're really anxious. Don't just help them organize their schedule better or just tell them, hey, you need to find some more margin in your life. Get to the issue beyond the issue and be like, hey, are you really believing that God is great and that he's in control of all things? Because I'm not seeing that in your life right now. The issue beyond all the other issues is that we need Jesus. The issue beyond all the other issues is that we need Jesus. All of us, personally, our friends, our family, our wives, our husbands, our kids, our friends, and people that we just meet, they all need Jesus. So what does this look like practically? I wish I could stand up here and be like, well, it looks like this, this, and this, and give you a totally figured out view. But the answer I'm going to give you is I'm still figuring this out. What this looks like practically, I feel like, honestly, I'm taking some baby steps, especially in that area of parenting we were talking about earlier. Liz and I talk quite often about how do we point Trafford, our son, and our girls towards the gospel through our parenting, through our disciplining. We want to grow in this. But I'll give you a couple of quick stories of moments where I felt really led by the Holy Spirit to have conversations and talk about the gospel. One was with a believer, the first one I'll share with you. I was having a conversation with a lady several months ago, and in this conversation, as we were talking, she was a believer, but she was really struggling in a relationship with a significant other where she was looking to this significant other for significance. Not surprisingly, right? We do that. And she was really looking to this guy for significance, for worth, for value, for her identity. And as she was talking, she was articulating some stuff that had happened in their relationship where there was like just commitment issues, and and in that she felt in front of her family and friends embarrassed. And this embarrassment thing came up a few times. I was trying to be a good listener, and as we were, as we were talking, I tried to just really listen for a while, and I heard this embarrassment thing keep coming up. And as we were talking, I was also praying a little bit and just saying, God, give me wisdom. If you want me to say something, lead me to what I need to say. And as there was a pause in the conversation, I said, you know what? I want you to know that Jesus, this may sound a little strange, but Jesus really understands your embarrassment and how you feel. I want you to know that he gets that because we're told in the word in the in the Bible that he was hung naked on a cross for us. Like he was stripped bare and hung on a cross for all of us, for all of our shame. And so when you say that you feel embarrassed, know that that God gets that, that he identifies with how you feel, and also know that your identity, your worth, and your value is not found in somebody else. I know it's easy for us to look to other people, but if we look to people, they're ultimately going to let us down. The only person that will not let us down is Jesus. And so I want to encourage you to look to your signific for your significance, your meaning, and value, value to Jesus. And so we had this conversation, and that's the paraphrase, that's the much, I'm sure it wasn't that pretty when we're engaging in this conversation. That was the conversation that we had. That was a believer. I had a conversation with a friend who wasn't a believer, and it was a conversation that I almost just let slip by because I didn't want to have the conversation. I don't know if you've ever had those moments. But as we were, as we were having a conversation, he kind of in passing made this comment about, well, you're a good person, and that's because you're religious. And this kind of went through this train of thought that he was on, kind of going along. I was like, oh, do I leave that or do I jump in in this conversation? And I felt prompted to engage in the conversation. The Holy Spirit, I'm just gonna go ahead and say he was bringing some conviction in that moment. And so I was like, okay. And so I said, you know what? Like, I know that you think that I'm a good person, but I'm not. Like, I'm really not. Like, I'm messed up. I have issues that I struggle struggle with just like everybody else. Things that I've dealt with in my past, with addictions, with with sins, with problems, with a bad temper, like all sorts of different things. I I'm I'm messed up and I struggle. But you know what's different about what I believe to other religions that you're talking about? Because when you say religion, I think what you're assuming is that all of us are behaving a certain way so that God will approve us. And I think that's what you think religion is about, is acting a certain way so that God, you God will let you into his, you know, his heaven or whatever. I said, that's not actually what I believe. I believe Christianity is unique because, unlike all other religions, it's a belief that God reached down to us to rescue us, not us reaching up to him to try and earn his favor and approval. So I don't believe there's anything that I can do to earn God's approval and favorable favor, and that's what's different about what I believe. And we went on and had a great conversation out of that. Now it wasn't a moment where he's like, I need to know about Jesus right now, and I want to pray a prayer. Like it didn't end like that, but he's still my friend, you know, it's it's it was a good conversation. And as I think about that, as I think is about us having these gospel conversations with people who do believe and people who don't believe, what I'm reminded of is 1 Corinthians 1.18, because it says this for the message of the cross, that's the gospel, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God's power to us who are being saved. And as I think about that, what I'm reminded of is the truth that you and I are just called to be ambassadors, representatives, reconcilers. And what that means is we don't know who's gonna be reconciled. Ultimately, I don't know if my buddy that I had that conversation with is going to become a Christian or not. I pray that he does, I really do. But if he I don't know if his perishing and if it just seems like foolishness or if it's gonna be the power for his salvation one day. What we need to do is entrust God with the results. We're called to be reconcilers, and then we entrust the results to God. Ultimately, it's in his hands. Remember that we are called to live the gospel and to speak the gospel, both to those inside and outside of the faith, and to trust the results to God. We are just called to be reconcilers. Now, some of you are a little overwhelmed by the responsibility of what we're talking about this morning. As I've read this passage to you, and hopefully we've made it exceedingly clear that if you are a Christian, you are called to be a reconciler. Some of you are probably sitting here this morning being like, I didn't sign up for this. Like, was this in the small print? Like when I became a Christian, I didn't see this. But I don't want you to be overwhelmed by this thought. The fact that we even have a part to play in this is beautiful. Like, this is good news that we are called to be agents of this same amazing grace that we have received. Don't be overwhelmed. Look to Jesus today because he is the greatest reconciler. If you need to know what this looks like, look to his life. Soak in his story and what he has done. I purposely left the last verse for now because I wanted to save dessert to the end of the meal, if you would. Let's read this last verse of chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians. It says this in verse 21. He made the one, that's God making Jesus, who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Guys, this is the gospel in a verse. That's the depth of the gospel in a verse. He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God in him. There's the bridge that we've been talking about today. If you want an example of what it looks like to be a reconciler, look to Jesus, because he is the perfect example. And as we look to his example, what we see is we see in Christ that creating a gospel bridge takes sacrifice. Thankfully, he is the giver of that sacrifice. His sacrifice was and is sufficient. You see, he was the one who got up on that cross. It's not us that has to get up on the cross. When I get to get here up here today and say, you guys are called to be reconcilers, some of you are overwhelmed by that. Jesus did all the work. He's the one who got on the cross and saved us from our sins. All we do is point to him. All we do is say, There he is. Look at him. In our marriage, in our parenting, in politics, wherever God puts us in anxiety and stress, God is calling us to point people towards the gospel. That's all we did. He did the work and it was finished. Remember, that's what he said when he was on the cross. It is finished. And that's the truth of the gospel. It was sufficient. All we do is point to the cross. So how do you and I respond today? If you're not a Christian, again, I'm not going to assume everybody in this room is a Christian. If you're not a Christian, if you wouldn't identify yourself as a Christ follower, I implore you to respond to the message of reconciliation. Because there is a chasm between you and God that you will never bridge by yourself. I can't say it any more explicitly than that, but let's be honest, let's be real. If you're in that spot and you don't see a chasm between you and God, you're never going to think that you need reconciliation. Unless you see your sin, unless you see your offense between you and your maker, you are never going to think that you need help. But the message of the Bible, the message of the scripture, the message of the church is this: that you are depraved, you are sinful, and there is a chasm between you and God. And the only way to bridge that gap is through Jesus. If you believe in Him, if you confess Him as your Savior and Lord, if you believe that He died for your sins and was raised to life again, you can be saved and you can be reconciled. And there is no greater place to be in than that. And so if you want to make that decision today, that is literally the best decision you can ever make in your life. If you want to make that decision today, you can come and talk to me at the end of the service or Nick or somebody else who'll be on our prayer team around the room. Talk to the person that brought you and say, I want to be reconciled. For the very first time, I want to be reconciled to God. Say that, and we'll know that what you're talking about. We'll know that you understand that there is a chasm between you and God and that you need Jesus to make that whole, to reconcile that. If you are a Christian, again like last week, I want to encourage you to submit to the Holy Spirit. To be submitted and sensitive to his voice. I want to ask you too to immerse yourself in the gospel. This week, as you get up and you start your day and that wild herd of thoughts comes barraging at you, submit to the gospel and say, God, I need you more than I need my to-do list. I need you today, and I want to follow your voice and your will for my life today. Thirdly, pray and look for opportunities to serve and to speak. Tomorrow night, you guys are gonna have an opportunity. It's Halloween. Your neighbors are gonna come to your house, serve them with love, serve them with the gospel, build relationships, speak the gospel, be the ambassadors that God has called you to be. May our hearts and our prayer be turned towards today. A desire to continue to grow, to mature in knowing God's grace so well personally that it naturally flows into the context and conversations that we have not just today, but for the rest of our lives. My challenge for myself and for you guys is that we would become more and more fluent in the gospel as we mature as Christians, so that this thing just naturally happens. We preach the gospel to ourselves, we speak the gospel to others just naturally because it's who we are and who God has changed us into being. Let me pray first. God thank you. That your good news is good news. God thank you. That the good news doesn't just apply to us, but it applies to every single person, every living being that is around us. God, you've called us to be agents of reconciliation in every place you put us, whether that's in our home or even out on the streets. God, you have called us to be your ambassadors, to be your representatives. And God, we'll be honest with you today and just say, sometimes we blow it. We really stink at being ambassadors. And for those times we ask for your grace and we thank you for your grace that it's sufficient to cover our shortcomings. But God, we do want to pray that you would help us to engage people this week with the love of Jesus. God, may the truths of the gospel be so true in our hearts that they would naturally flow out in whatever place you put us this week. God, may people know you through us and through the work that you're doing in us. God, we want to be submitted to you. We know that everything begins and ends with you, that we can do nothing without you, and so we submit ourselves fully to your working, even as we respond in these next few minutes. Thank you. Amen.