Welcome to this week's edition of the Weekend Sermon. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to read the sermon. I hope and pray that everyone is doing well.
I've had a busy week. I had a lot of writing work to do, and I had a temporary job helping someone with a project. I thank the Lord for the work.
In prayer this week, please pray for those in Japan who are impacted by the typhoon. Pray that people will be safe, and pray that those who are injured or who have suffered damage will get the help that they need. Pray for those who still need help in the Bahamas as well.
Please pray that in my country, the US, that those children who were separated from their parents at the border will be reunited with their parents. Courts have ruled that the children should be reunited with their parents, but this has not happened in all circumstances. This is a terrible thing that has happened, and these children need our prayers.
Continue to pray for the end of the Ebola outbreak in Congo. Pray for those who are assisting with this crisis.
The nation of Syria really needs our prayers right now. Many people are suffering today, and it didn't have to be this way. Please pray for peace in that nation. Pray for peace in Afghanistan, Yemen and Libya as well.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for those in the Czech Republic and Qatar. Pray that many will recognize their need for the Lord Jesus.
This week, we will be concluding our series of messages on what we can learn from II Corinthians chapter 5. Today, we will focus our attention on verses 18-21. I want us to focus on two particular themes from these verses. First of all, verse 20 tells us that we are to be ambassadors for Christ. The second thing that I want to emphasis is what Jesus has done for us.
We are called to be ambassadors for the Lord in this world. What does this mean. An ambassador is a person who represents his or her country in another country. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we are citizens of His heavenly kingdom. We are not at home in this world. We are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
While we are here on this earth in its unredeemed state, we are to be the representatives of our Lord and King Jesus. We are to tell others about Him, and we are to represent the values of the Kingdom of Heaven while we are on the earth.
One of our important missions as ambassadors for Christ is to make Him known to others. Jesus instructed us to do this when He gave the Great Commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. We are to tell others that Jesus has come to seek and to save those who are lost. As we see in II Corinthians 5, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are to tell others that they can be reconciled to God the Father through the His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
As ambassadors for Christ, we have another important duty. We are to demonstrate in our lives and in our actions the values and the teachings of the Lord we claim to serve. Jesus lived His life on this earth as a demonstration as to how we are to live in the world. He gave us the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount so that we would know what the values of the Kingdom of Heaven are.
This world in which we live does not for the most part honor and practice the values and teachings of the Lord Jesus. The poor are exploited for profit. Greed abounds. People are discriminated against because of their race, sex and ethnic origins. The environment is being destroyed. People are going hungry and dying from treatable diseases. This is not in keeping with the values taught by the Lord Jesus.
As ambassadors for Christ in this world, we are to speak up against injustice and oppression. We are to work to make this world a better place. We are to help others in the name of the Lord.
Now, I would like to focus on the final verse of II Corinthians 5 which states, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Jesus came to this earth to save us from our sin. On the cross, He bore our sins in His body. He took our penalty. He was the Lamb of God come to take away the sin of the world.
When we come to faith in the Lord Jesus, He forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He takes our sin from us, and in its place, He gives us His righteousness. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
I hope that you have asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins. I hope that you are acting as an ambassador for the Lord in this present age.
Next week, I will post the sermon on Saturday. We will be starting a new series of messages. I will post the verses on Monday. I will try to post a review or a poem on either Wednesday or Thursday. May God bless you all. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment