The book of 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5. I'd like to challenge you tonight about some specifics that God uses in his word that he would call you and I out to be. We obviously are called saints. But there are other terms that God uses to describe his children. And I think it's important for us to be reminded who we are as we look into scripture. And I believe that this passage of scripture has various forms that God would describe the Christian and his duties tonight as we look into the word of God. The Bible says in Second Corinthians, chapter five, beginning in verse 18, we'll read these two verses 18 and 19. It says, And all things are of God. who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. I believe that God would have us have a compassion for souls, but a compassion that has no limits. Often I limit myself. Often I find that my compassion for others is established or regulated by the temperature of my own spiritual walk. But God would have us envision our lives as one that is full of compassion, that has no limits and no borders, that God would be able to use us in any way and in any capacity. And here God describes to you and I that we have a ministry of reconciling men to God. There was an intruder. There was a great intrusion that came into the world. And this intrusion created a chasm between man and God. And God, by his own choice to love man, to fellowship with man, he chose to bring reconciliation between himself and mankind. But interestingly, God chose for man himself to be the ambassador of this form of reconciliation. Notice with me, verse 20 of the same chapter, it says now, then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ dead be reconciled to God. God has given us a name. He has called us ambassadors, representatives of this truth. When our son, Jordan, was born in the city of Sotokama, I went down to a place called the Cartoriu and filled out a form, put his name on that sheet of paper, and made sure that I had the spelling right, because on our second son, I misspelled his name, went back to the hospital, and my wife said, you spelled it wrong. So I made sure this time I spelled Jordan's name correctly, went back, and after a few months, we took all that documentation, drove to the city of Sao Paulo, went to the American consulate, and the duty there was to present all of our documentation so that we could obtain a birth certificate abroad. And so we're at the consulate. I present all of the documentation, fill out all the forms, hand it to the Brazilian that's behind the glass, and she says, sir, you're going to have to have other documentation to prove that this is your son." And I said, well, ma'am, what else do I need? She said, well, you know that little ultrasound thing that they print out when your wife is pregnant and it shows the baby in the womb? We need one of those. And I said, how would you know that's my son? And it didn't make any sense to me. How in the world would you know it's my son because he's in the womb? It could be anyone. She said, oh, you know, on the side, they write your wife's name, you know, on that little thing that they print out. And I said, well, ma'am, you know, I said, I've come a long way and it sure would be nice if I could leave here tonight, today with this documentation. She said, give me a moment. We sat down, waited another 15, 20 minutes, and a blonde haired, blue eyed man came out of the door. He announced, he said, Shawn Alexander. I said, that's me. He stepped up to me, shook my hand and began to just talk with us. And he asked questions. We went back and forth. He talked about our family as if he had known us. And our older son, Sean, was about three, almost four. Micah was two. And then our son, Jordan, was just a newborn. And before long, this man, I began to figure out what he was doing. He was actually trying to find out if Jordan belonged to us. And the interesting thing about it is, at that very moment, he was nursing. And I thought, that ought to be proof enough, you know. And before long, this man looked, he said, you know, I normally don't do this, but I'm going to go ahead and grant you a birth certificate. It's pretty clear that this is your son. The reason why I did that is because there was trafficking of children going on in the early 90s. And there was actually American families involved in the trafficking of Brazilian children, taking them out of the country. Families that didn't want their child, they would register them to themselves. And so they were concerned about whether this child was truly ours. And this consul, I'd never met a consul before, but I had the opportunity to talk with him, and he at that moment was representing the law of the United States. He was determining whether or not the law would give him the authority to be able to place in our hands a document that would declare that child our son and an American citizen. He was the representative of the United States in that foreign land. The Bible calls you and I an ambassador, we are representatives of a truth. In a foreign land, you and I are here as representatives, and that truth is a hidden truth, no chapter four and verse three, no, just turn back one page, chapter four and verse three, the Bible says, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. How is it that these cannot understand? How is it that the gospel is hid to them? If you'll follow, if you'll, if you'll file back to chapter three and verse 13, you'll notice with me chapter three, verse 13 says, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is as abolished. Verse 14 of chapter three, but their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. Verse 15. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Our gospel is hidden to a lost world because of the confidence that most people have in a religious system. Whether it be here in America or across the world in Africa or in Brazil, we have found people that are trusting in a religious system, in something that they have followed, a form that they have completed, a sacrament that they have been willing to fulfill throughout their lives. And this system has literally blinded them to the truth of the liberation that comes in Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that their hearts are closed. There's as if a veil is over their heart that cannot see the truth of God's Word. But secondly, it's hidden by the God of their choice. Notice with me chapter 4 and verse 4. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Our world by choice has chosen their God. John, chapter eight, verse forty four, declares that the devil is our father. And because of the choice of sin, they have chosen their God. And the truth of God's word is hint to them because of their personal choice in the God whom they serve. But last of all, it's hidden often because the messenger is not a servant. Notice with me, verse five of chapter four, the Bible says, for we preach not ourselves, But Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake. Let me ask you this evening, as a representative of the truth of God's word, as an ambassador, as God titles you as one who represents this truth. Have you found yourself not being the servant of God that he has called you to be? We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus and our servants for your sake. Often the word of God has not been proclaimed, lives have not been changed, the truth continues to be hid for the very fact that God's children have not taken up the task of being a servant to the lost. We are representatives of a truth. We represent a hidden truth that needs to be revealed. At the very end of the month of September, just before we arrived here in the States, I was in Curitiba, Paraná, São Paulo, Brazil. And in that particular city, there is a seminary. My brother Ed is the director of this seminary. We have about 35 students. We have a tremendous student body, a very serious minded student body this year. Many of them are ready to serve the Lord. They just haven't completed their studies. There was a mission emphasis for three days in the seminary and had the opportunity to share our burden of the world with these students. And I felt it necessary that these students find more about the world other than the world that they have come from. Many of them come from small towns. A number of our students now that are in our seminary in the South actually come from the Amazon region, the Amazon River. They have chosen to come to our seminary to study. And many of them only know this one small little place in the world. So on one particular day, I presented to the student body the 1040 window. two-thirds of the world's population within this framework in this area of our world. And at the end of the service, I had printed together 200 pages of unreached people groups that are within this 1040 window. And it was 200 pages with more than 20 to 25 people groups on every single page. Taped it all together. And had a student come up, and I held it here at the top of the pulpit, and he stretched it out all the way to the end of the chapel, came all the way back to the beginning of the chapel, turned the corner, and went all the way back to the end of the chapel again. And I saw students with tears in their eyes. I saw students bending down, reading, trying to find out the names of people from a people group of 30 to a people group of 7 to 10, 15 million. They hadn't realized. They didn't understand. They weren't aware of the fact that there were so many other people in this world that had never been reached with the gospel. We're representatives of a hidden truth. We're ambassadors. We're here to tell the story that others may know whether they've been blinded by their trust and faith in a religious system, whether it's by the fact that they've chosen the God of this world. But don't let it ever be that you and I are not servants of this message. But secondly, tonight, we are representatives not only of a hidden truth, but we are representatives of a precious treasure. Chapter four, verse seven. Chapter four, verse seven, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. The Bible here clearly states what you and I are. The Bible says this passage actually is referring to the idea that each one of us here tonight saved, knowing Christ, we are but a mere clay jar. In Brazil, most of the dirt there is red. Many of our clay jars are made from this red dirt. It's excellent dirt to make jars because it hardens the correct way But often they don't turn out very perfect. They're pretty imperfect jars But we've got a few sitting on our porch with me plants in them And you know, the Bible says that you and I are just like that clay jar God wants you to recognize God wants us to understand that if he is to be we are to be used and he wants to use us then we are to recognize who we are and In this world, we are but mere clay jars. And if it's by his choice, he could actually take that jar and break it back down. He can reshape it, put it into the place, into the position and in the way that he wishes to, if it's his choice. But the question I ask you tonight, do you recognize that you're just a clay jar in the hands of God? You're to be used as he wishes to use your life. God wants us to understand that we are just earthen vessels. But within this earthen vessel, we have a treasure beyond measure. This past year, year and a half ago, we had the privilege of attending Faith Baptist Church in Taylors. During this year, we began to see that God was beginning to work in the lives of some people within the church, and it began an outreach ministry. And I remember Dr. Jim Berg getting up in the service, actually sharing with the members of the church how God had began to burden his heart for a ministry. He was rebuilding something in his home, and one of the young men that was actually rebuilding part of his home, he began to witness to. And through this witness opportunity, he found out this was a street person. They were working for this contractor. This young man was a street person. This contractor had given him an opportunity to work, and he was in Dr. Berg's home. During this particular period of time, he was able to lead him to Christ. This man was not only a street person, but he was also a drug addict. And he said, now, as a faculty member at Bob Jones University, if there was any student that ever was ever involved or even came close to be involved in drugs, he said, they were here today, they were gone tomorrow. He said, that's kind of how it was dealt with. That was the end of it. They weren't going to be staying. He said, my wife and I find ourselves over a period of time working with various drug addicts. They would call us at two in the morning. They'd call us at four in the morning. We would sometimes leave our home to go help them. And we'd come back and we would find ourselves jumping in the air because they had only smoked marijuana two times that week. He said, we find ourselves rejoicing with the victory that these people were having over their sin. He said, before long, We started reaching out to others. This young man began to tell us about other homeless people, other drug addicts, other alcoholics. And he said, before long, we were working with numbers of people. We were getting phone calls all through the night. Today, there's a ministry called Freedom That Lasts at the church. Every Friday night, within a year and a half time, they have 80 drug addicts, alcoholics, street people that come to their church every Friday evening. Folks, our church ought to be filled with people that don't look like us. And it's a shame. It's wonderful. I have no doubt that each one of us would say we would not want to sacrifice anything to be able to reach the lost, and I don't believe that we need to. I believe that we can remain as we are, but often we find our church filled with people that look just like we do, when actually the church should be filled with people that don't look like we do. They look different than we are. They are needy. They are without a home. They have literally destroyed their lives. And you have a hope. That hope has changed you into what you are and what you want them to be. Let it not be of us that it would be said that our churches are filled with such wonderfully good people, but we didn't see the need of the lost outside of our walls. This church ought to be filled with people that don't look like you and I. We are representatives of a precious treasure. We have the responsibility as ambassadors, as clay jars, we live in this earthly house, as chapter five says. Chapter five, verse seven, notice with me, the Bible says in chapter five or seven, for we walk by faith and not by sight. I don't know if you're like I am, but I I often get really used to this earthly tabernacle. Chapter five, verse one talks about this tabernacle that we live within. And I get used to this tabernacle. Sometimes this tabernacle bothers me, like my back and my feet. We had a set of children 20 some years ago, and now we have another set of children now. And I still have to wrestle on the floor. I still have to play basketball. I still have to play soccer. Our children often like to Our first set of children loved to play hide-and-go-seek, and I don't know how it passed on, but our two children we have now like to play hide-and-go-seek. So in our house in Brazil, we should cut off the lights. And the kids go do their thing. They hide, and we play hide-and-go-seek, mom, dad, and the two kids. And not too long ago, Andrew was counting in the corner, and the house was pretty dark. And he finished counting to 20, and he said, turned, he said, dad? I didn't say anything. He said, I'm scared. And then all of a sudden he goes, but I'm brave. So he came looking for us. So then Anna counted her time and she got to 20 and she said, Andrew, where are you? Would you help me? You know, as we get a little older, we can place a lot of value in the tabernacle that God has given us. But, you know, the Bible says that we live by faith and not by sight. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. The Bible describes us as something else in Hebrews chapter 11. Living by faith, we know that this chapter very the very first verse of chapter 11 talks specifically to our faith. But if you look down in verse 13, it says these all all of who which ones is talking about this group of people in chapter 11, these great men of faith knows what it says. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Oh, wow, what another Another one of those titles that God has given you and I. You are considered a stranger and you are a pilgrim. You are just merely here for a period of time. Every single time I have to pull out my wallet in Brazil and show my documentation so that I can write a check or pay for something, I have to pull out this document right here. Now, before I pull this out, I like to go as far as I can to make people think that I'm Brazilian. When it's hot, I'm out constructing. I turn pretty dark. I look somewhat like the Brazilians. And I can talk like them to some degree. But once it comes out, this card here, they all know that I'm not from there. And that I've lost the ability to fool them that I'm Brazilian. But I'm also reminded that I'm not from this place. I am a stranger. I am a foreigner. This is not my home. This is not the place where God wants me to settle in. This is not the place where God wants me to get used to and enjoy. If you notice the very next verse in chapter 11 of Hebrews, verse 14, it says, For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. Their whole purpose was not necessarily what they could see, but what by faith they would have. And I ask you tonight, do you seek a country or have you settled in? You're an ambassador. You're a representative. You're a clay jar. You're a pilgrim and a stranger. Don't get settled into this world. Don't get used to all of the comforts and the things that are here that would cause you, that would create a difficulty for you to serve God in the way that he would have you serve him. God here wants us to recognize that we seek another country. We're not from this land. Tonight, the last thing, representatives of a hidden truth, representatives of a precious treasure, but last of all, We are representatives of an all encompassing love. Turn back with me to Second Corinthians, chapter five and verse 14. Second Corinthians, chapter five and verse 14 for the Bible says, for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all were all dead. Verse 15, and that he died for all that they would should live. Should not live henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. If we are to be representatives of this love, of this love that is for all mankind, then we must live unselfishly. We must find within our agenda, we must find within our day, we must find within our family a desire that would create for each one of us the ability to serve others unselfishly. This world is consumed with themselves. There's no doubt about what the world thinks, how they live, but Christians too often take up the same philosophy, the same way of living, and we find ourselves being very self-centered with our personal lives. This all encompassing love, this love of Christ cannot be a selfish one. We must live unselfish in this present life. As I was in Curitiba at the seminary for the Bible conference or for the missions conference, our student, his name is Sandro. He was saved about six years ago, carpenter by trade. God saved his life. He memorized about 600 passages of scripture in his first year of knowing Christ. In between the two breaks, between two of our sessions, I was standing with him. His wife is pregnant with their third child. She's bedridden. And so I just mentioned to him, I said, Sandro, I said, if you all have any needs, please let me know. If there's something that we can do, if you have any needs medically or any medicine that you need, we know that seminary students have very little money. And he looked at me and he said, Pastor, he said, you know that I'm not going to do that. And I said, well, son, I realize that, you know, you you want to trust God, but I said, you know, there's some times that you do need help and we'd be glad to help. Please, please give us a call. Let us know. He said, Pastor, he said, I made a commitment. He said, when God called me to preach, when God said it's time for me to serve him, he said, I made a decision that I was going to trust God. And he said, for the last four years in Bible college, we have only sought God and he has provided for all of our needs. He said just the other day, he said, we ran out of our gas bottle that we cook all of our food. And he said, I had come to a place the first time that I felt like I was going to need to ask for some help. And he said, I determined that as I got to church, I was going to ask the national pastor if I could borrow money so I could buy a gas bottle so that we could cook our rice and our beans for our family. And he said, I was on my way and he said, I got to church and he said, the service started and the Lord said, Sandro, don't talk to the pastor. You need to trust. And he said, I battled, he said, Pastor, he said, I battled with, he said, he said, I knew we needed to cook our food the next day. We hadn't been able to cook food for two days. And he said, I just battled with that, he said, because I wanted to do the right thing by my family. But he said, God told me, he said, do not ask for that bottle of gas. He said, the service ended, we got in our dilapidated car, and you should see the car they have, it's quite interesting. But they got in their car, and they were getting ready to pull out of the parking lot of the church, and someone ran to the window of his, on the wife's side, and she rolled down the window, and they took a $50 bill, a hay-ice bill, and put it in her lap and said, we thought you might need this. He said, from the church parking lot until we arrived at the apartments of the seminary, he said, we wept. He said, we rejoiced. that God provided for our needs. He said to me, Pastor, I won't be calling you. He said, I won't be calling you. He said, because I can call upon God and he will answer. We must live unselfishly in this present world. We have been called ambassadors, representatives of a truth that is hidden whether it be by the fact that they trust in a religious system or they've chosen the God of this world. The Bible says that we are clay jars to be used in God's hands. We're not better than anyone else. God could choose to take anyone else and do exactly what He's doing in Brazil without me and my family. He doesn't need us. We are but clay jars. But we represent an all-encompassing love for every man. Are you an ambassador of that truth? Have we lived selfishly? Over the last few years, we had an opportunity to work with a group of Guatemalans when we were on furlough. And none of them ever accepted Christ and held Bible studies with them. My son, Mike, and I were working with them, playing soccer and holding Bible studies in the church. None of them ever, ever really came to the Lord. About two weeks ago, since we were in Greenville, I went ahead to stop by to see the Guatemalans, just say hey to them and ask them if they would like to come and watch our son, Micah, play a soccer game. on the campus, and all we had was just a little pickup Ford Ranger truck. And I had my two children in the front seat, and so the only place for them to sit was in the bed of the truck. So they all got in the bed of the truck, and we were driving over to the campus, and all of a sudden it struck me. Oh, this is really good. An American missionary headed to Bob Jones University with four illegal immigrants in the back of a truck. What if I get pulled over, you know? How am I going to answer that one? When we pulled on the campus of the university, you should have seen all the heads turning, you know, watching these people come on campus. It was quite interesting. But interesting enough is as unique as these Guatemalans are, they live in somewhat of a tribal type of mentality. They still even here in America found that I watched as they interacted with our son Micah and how much they loved him. And how much they wanted to be with him. In the middle of that game, he'd come over and they'd be speaking Spanish and they'd be going back and forth and talking about the game. You know, that's what it's all about. Living not for ourselves, but reaching out to people that don't look like us, that don't smell like us, don't act like us, that don't speak like us and filling our church and our lives and our families with people that need Christ. Living unselfish. in this present world, a compassion without limits, a compassion without borders. Are you an ambassador of that truth tonight? Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. I just have a question for you before Pastor comes. You say tonight I I have been, God has used my life in the past, and I have been an ambassador of God's truth. But you know, so often I can get really comfortable with this earthen vessel, this country that I seek and this place that I live. And I slip back into an area of being comfortable and selfish. God spoke to my heart. I need to be that ambassador. I need to love people where they are. Show them this all-encompassing love of Christ. Tonight, God spoke to me. He pointed this out to me particularly. Would you pray for me? I would like to do that. Would you raise your hand, anyone at all? God bless you. God bless you. Amen. Anyone else? Father, we are very thankful. God bless you. Father, we're very thankful You can use this clay jar as weak as we often are. Lord, you have chosen to make us ambassadors. Help us to choose to be pilgrims and strangers. Help us to choose to seek another country. Lord, there's a world that needs Christ, and this gospel is hid to them that are lost. Open doors. Give us. Tremendous opportunities to share Christ. Bless those that raised their hand, Lord, and those that didn't. Lord, that we might be a witness of this truth, that it might be revealed and opened to the eyes of those that need it. We ask in Jesus precious name. Amen.