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00:00:00 this morning's scripture reading is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 16- 21 2 Corinthians chapter 5 16- 21 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view Though we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer Therefore if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come The old has gone the new is here All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting people's sins against them And
00:00:48 he has committed to us the message of reconciliation We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his pe appeal through us We implore you on Christ's behalf Be reconciled to God God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God This is the word of God Thank you Jesse Wow Good morning church Amen So uh next can we have the slide back again please all right So next week uh brother Brandon Wong will be continuing our exposition of Galatians looking at
00:01:34 chapter 2 6-4 And after that our elder and the Lim the heart of the gospel our identity in Christ preaching from Galatians again You know it's funny you know um you write a book and uh you don't know where it goes And halfway around the world it affects a group of people And that's what actually happened for our esteemed preacher today who I will introduce is Professor Ed Stetszer and his wife Donna Can you just welcome them with a big hand he wrote a book uh called uh transformational church and we happened
00:02:24 to have read it the the the leaders of this church 15 years ago with with important concepts like how we change a scorecard Instead of looking at church growth in terms of numbers it's actually transformation that matters in your life in the community's life and the kind of leadership vibrant leadership I I like the quote in this book where he says "Leadership is the stewardship to help others exercise their gifts not just an opportunity for me to exercise my gift." And I think we've done that reasonably well You can see so many
00:03:04 young people coming up now and exercising their gifts So Ed Statzer's CV very long so I'm not going to read it to you other than the fact that he's got a double doctorate and and and and teaches as a professor of Christian leadership uh in Biola University in California What a unique individual who even though he's got uh two PhDs can still communicate to the average person So that's wonderful So let's give him a big hand to welcome him to Malaysia Thank you Ed Thank you brother Well good morning and it's good to be
00:03:44 with you Good to be back in Malaysia and to bring Donna along as well this time It's good to be at a place where 55 is still considered a young family So that was great to see as well Uh but we missed that baby We were close but not anymore So um but it's good to be with you and to be able to share with you and to be here I'm here with Operation Mobilization and uh through some connections and some friends They they invited me to come preach here at your church And what a thrill to be able to do so Last time I was in Malaysia I
00:04:13 taught over in Paneang at Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary Taught a course there on church planting in multithnic teams And of course your church is a beautiful picture of some of that here as well Uh it's a picture of heaven in some ways what it looks like when men and women from different tongues tribes and nations come together with God as the focus and his glory as the mission So today we're going to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 I I see from the slides that you're actually going through the book of Galatians And I'm
00:04:39 I'm a little feel bad when I'm interrupting uh interrupting somebody preaching through the book of the Bible unless it's Leviticus and then you need a break occasionally And so I'm happy to to do that That's a harder one to go through Uh but thank you for letting me come and kind of share a passage that's out of the norm uh as we go through uh this together 2 Corinthians chapter 5 If you have a Bible take it out or turn to it and you can follow along with me or turn one on if you're watching online
00:05:03 Just open up another window and you can follow along in the scriptural text as well 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is our text It says this It says "From now on," well it's already been read so let me just a couple of the highlights From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view Well that's where we're going to start We're gonna kind of start there and kind of work through this passage Now I'm going to work through the text in four points One two three four And and I've got they've given me the uh the
00:05:28 uh the pointer So I'll I'll click through as we go So we can have our tech team that does an amazing job able to just follow along uh and and listen as we go But so we're going to look at four things today These four things are going to shape us from this passage They're drawn from this passage And my hope is that as we listen to today's message we'll be faithful and fruitful in representing Jesus and his kingdom in our world in what's a very divided time all over the world It's tumultuous and it's turbulent all over the world and
00:05:56 but we can actually walk through these times focused on Jesus his kingdom and our representation of him and that kingdom Uh so that's what we're going to look at today Now Paul's writing to the church at Corenth Uh Corinth is a church is pretty corrupt to start I mean Corinth not the church but the place was like the corrupt place It was known fat And but the church had also experienced some of that corruption They were wrapped up in so many things that weren't glorifying the Lord that weren't God-honoring Paul had to uh write to
00:06:27 them and rebuke them or admonish them at least twice that we know of There's actually a reference in both letters uh first and second prior letters he had written So so so so he's actually written them more than once and said "Hey you got to you got to stop this stuff and focus on this stuff." So in this second admonishment Paul encourages them to represent Jesus and his kingdom Well I think that's important thing for us to do Now of course just our church just FBC represents Jesus and his kingdom because we come together men and
00:07:01 women from different backgrounds cultures languages ethnicities and communities And that's in a that that that's ultimately a a way for people to see how Christ is at work in his church and thus at work in the world but also we're going to look individually how this applies to us because the church at Corenth was pretty far from fulfilling this and it can be a reminder to us So 2 Corinthians chapter 5 hopefully by now you have the passage open or on and we can look at four things Number one on our outline I think I was gonna thought
00:07:33 I was pressing this Is there a button or a switch is uh is there something well yeah you have to turn it on Um things are a little more technologically advanced here in Malaysia I think now I can go back and forth The Americans they learn slow but they but they do but they do learn So so number one um we get a new perspective We get a new perspective a new way of looking a new way of seeing people and the world You can see the passage It says "So from now on from this time forward right from now on we regard no
00:08:08 one with a worldly point of view." Can I tell you right now maybe it's different in Malaysia one of the things that we're struggling with in many Christians in America is they're starting to see people not through the lens of the gospel or the lens of the scripture but they are often well they're sometimes being discipled by their cable news choices They're seeing people like other people see them on their social media feed or on talk radio and and ways that don't always align to the word of God So
00:08:35 2,000 years later we may still need to hear this word So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view If you're a follower of Jesus you've got a new way of looking at the world a new set of lenses through which you see the world It goes on to say "Though we once regarded Christ in this way we do so no longer." Now what's interesting is it actually doesn't explain what Paul means here He's writing to the church at Corinth The we who's the we maybe him and the church at Corenth They maybe
00:09:04 regarded Christ incorrectly but now they've got a clearer view Maybe they've been corrected Maybe they now rightly understand who Jesus is We don't know the details but what we know is is because of our new life in Christ we have a a new set of lenses gospel lenses through which we see the world says verse 17 says therefore if anyone's in Christ and that's kind of a famous verse I don't know there it seems strange that there are famous verses but this is one of those famous verses it says therefore if anyone's in Christ the
00:09:35 new creation has come you use the NIV here you might have memorized this is he is a new creation but the new creation has come and the old has gone and the new is here so so so the passage begins with the idea that we don't see anybody from a worldly point of view From now on we've got a new way of looking at people and the world But as you go through books of the Bible and you're preaching through Galatians I love Galatians One of my favorite books to preach through As you're preaching through the book of
00:10:06 Galatians can I just say that I love that you build one of the strengths of expository preaching is you build on what's before So Paul writes this and we explain this and we go into the next week and we have we can build on what was before But because I'm a guest speaker just preaching on one passage I actually can't build on what's before But I'll tell you uh what we actually find here is is kind of when it says from now on it's kind of talking about our new life in Christ even before there It's talking about who we are how we're
00:10:37 confident how we are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and how we're going to see the Lord and we're going to persuade people And then verse 16 it starts our section says "Okay okay All that being said from now on we see no one from a worldly point of view But it's also interesting You can see on the screen you can actually see the passage It says "Therefore." Would you would you say the word therefore just out loud with me therefore I don't know if you're a participatory church or
00:11:03 not Are you a participatory church you You didn't seem like it just a minute ago So let me try it again Say therefore with me Therefore Okay Thank you Thank you I appreciate that It makes me feel a little bit better So therefore um when you're reading a passage in English right this is of course translated from the Greek Um when you're reading a passage reading through a book of the Bible whenever you see the word therefore you want to ask what's it there for right what's it doing in the passage and it's doing something right
00:11:34 so therefore is doing something And here's what it's doing It's kind of linking together the first part of the passage with the second part of the passage right so it says "We don't see anyone from a worldly point of view We've got a a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which we see the world Therefore okay wait So we've got a new set of lenses a new way of looking But therefore if anyone's in Christ the new creation has come Now so in other words the therefore is linking our new life with our new way of looking and our
00:12:06 new set of lenses through which we see the world Are you with me so our new life is connected by the therefore with a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which we see the world At its simplest a new life has given us a new look You need new lenses through which you see the world and that makes all the gospel difference Now by now you've seen that I'm wearing glasses I've touched them a couple of times I I I wear glasses And if you're are you okay raise your hand if you wear glasses It's okay
00:12:36 Right When I was a kid I see some of you little little tent Should I raise our hands um because maybe you were made fun of as a kid Did they make fun of you when you were when you wore glasses in America they make fun of you for wearing glasses Or at least they used to When I was a kid they called people who wore glasses four eyes Did you get that here i don't know I don't know I don't know I don't know Why would you make fun of somebody being able to see but anyway that's another story But I remember my mother coming
00:13:04 home and telling me that I was going to wear glasses She came home She called me Eddie and you may not She called me Eddie and she said um she said Eddie we just came from the O doctor and she tried to be encouraging mother She said ' Eddie um you're going to get to wear glasses I don't really think of it as getting to like it's some great opportunity but my mother wanted me to be encouraged and not discouraged And I said "Mom mom no The kids are going to make fun of me." And she said "Oh Eddie
00:13:34 they're not going to make fun of you." You know I think that may have been the first time that I realized that mothers don't always tell the truth to their children because they did make fun of me I said "Mom no I don't want to wear glasses." She said "We have to see." And I said "Mom I don't want to wear glasses." Then she broke the rest of the news to me because of the particular eye situation I had She said "And Eddie you're actually going to get to wear an eye patch to school." I said "Mom no The kids are going to be
00:14:02 merciless." She said "Eddie they're going to just think you're a pirate." They did not think I was a pirate and they did indeed make fun of me but I survived it But I was a little bit I don't know So I was a little bit triggered by glasses And so decades later Donna my lovely wife who's here with me today her first time in Malaysia So after the service make sure you tell her what foods we should eat while we are in Malaysia because I hear uh durian tastes like heaven But well let's just leave it right
00:14:33 there Um so anyway so Donna comes home with our youngest daughter We have three daughters What a blessing We have three daughters They're now all young adults in their 20s And so Donna comes home with our um youngest Her name's Caitlyn She uh she was in middle school at the time So I think she's maybe 13 14 years of age And and she brings me into the kitchen where we live She puts her lovely hand on my arm which is a typically a signal that I need to pay attention And I said "Yes." and she said
00:15:00 "Listen Ed uh Caitlyn's going to be getting glasses I don't want you to overreact about this." I'm not saying she says that to me a lot but it may happen sometimes where she says "But I what I I was I was ready for this right?" So I got into dad mode Do you have dad mode in Malaysia all right Just making sure You've seen dad mode So I go up to Caitlyn She's up in her room and I say "Caitlyn Caitlyn I hear you're I'm going to try to encourage her right i hear you're gonna get to wear glasses I heard coming out of my mouth the words
00:15:32 of my mother from prior decades And what was interesting was Caitlyn was not having it at all Now I don't know you know teenagers in different cultures you know but and our teenagers they're not allowed to uh roll their eyes at their parents And I don't know if that's true in your culture or your context or maybe the idea that you have to tell them not to is shocking in your culture and your context but pretty much teenagers roll their eyes at their parents a lot And I we told our kids don't roll your eyes at
00:16:02 us So So Caitlyn who's really not having my little speech about glasses so but she's not allowed to roll her eyes but she has the ability to verbally roll her eyes And she says "Dad but her eyes stay completely still." Dad Dad She says she says "Dad I know what you're trying to do but glasses they're fine today." She said "Dad my friends are going to the stores to buy glasses without prescriptions so they can wear them because they're some of you are nodding your head You knew this Like people are
00:16:37 buying fake glasses because they're that cool." Now I had no idea right cuz here's the thing Like so like I I wear glasses for wait for it for seeing They wear glasses for fashion It it appears to be the case So she was like she said "Dad I'm excited about So I was I mean I was excited for her but still simultaneously bitter about my own childhood experience cuz I wear glasses for seeing If I take my glasses off I don't know where I am right now I'm glad I don't know if I'm in Malaysia or if I'm in
00:17:11 Minnesota but if I put it back on I see you in all your awesome glory." So I wear glasses but I have a troubling relationship with my glasses because they slip down my face So I don't know your culture enough to know if we can have fun in just a moment but I want to ask you I'm going to I want to show you something And this I again it's it's a little tricky cross-culturally but um I was the interim pastor of a church in Chicago called the Moody Church Has anyone ever heard ever been to the Moody
00:17:41 Church in Chicago dl Moody Exactly So I was for four years I was the interim pastor of that church and it was a wonderful time It's a be it's the largest non-olumned amphitheater in downtown Chicago It's a cathedral known around the world and um and I would preach there I was the interim pastor So the interim pastor is just that person between pastors They have all these famous pastors like Warren Wearsby and Harry Ironside and Irwin Looter And I was just helping them out in the middle But because I was there um you know this
00:18:10 is a very well-known church And so people had a lot of opinions about it and sometimes when I was there I didn't for example when I started I wore a suit and tie every week because that's what the poor prime uh prior pastors have worn But I I got a little more casual I may be dressed like I am today Not not too casual but a little more casual And sometimes people would send in letters and sometimes they were happy and sometimes they were not happy But I was just the interim pastor so it was okay
00:18:38 And I'm sure you never send letters to your church No No email It is 2025 So we don't have email yet So we're working towards that in America So I'm just kidding We do Facebook messages are the worst But anyway so I'm there about a year and I get a letter That's a complaint letter but it's the greatest complaint letter ever in the history of complaint letters If I show it to you can we have a little fun or I don't know I'm a little nervous about showing this to you Just please It's okay It's okay
00:19:08 Are you Is it just you the rest of them are going to be offended No you're okay You speak for everybody Okay Okay All right I appreciate that I appreciate the communal speech So so so I got this This is I'm I'm going to show you in just a minute the unedited screenshot So I got this letter on my phone I I I read it It said "Dear Pastor Ed it ended The person gave their name." And so I took a screenshot just of the middle section so I could share it with you today Are you ready here it is Right here It says this
00:19:33 So I listened to your August 13th sermon at Moody Church online This is unedited You can see the little blurry in the background right it says "After listening to it once I listened again." Praise God He's a double listener because I was aruck It's even getting better He was aruck I mean I love it when someone says they're aruck by my sermon He says "I'm aruck by the number of times you adjusted your glasses while preaching." He goes on to say "So the second time I listened," so this was very important to him I saw in the first
00:20:11 36 minutes of your sermon you adjusted your glasses 74 times You can hear his passion 74 times and then you took them off so I counted no further Then he gets a calculator Uh this was an average of once every 30 seconds But you can hear his passion But keep in mind this was an incomplete count because some of the time scripture or your sermon was on the screen and I could not see you You feel the passion I tell you this in Christian letters This is not a mean letter This is a nice letter cuz I know you're
00:20:56 interested in being aware of anything that might distract teachers uh listeners from hearing what you're preaching and teaching Here is the passion though So I hope you will accept this knowing I want your ministry to be as effective for Christ as possible Hallelujah Hallelujah Let me tell you why I adjust my glasses Because I don't wear my glasses for fashion I wear my glasses for seeing And when you have glasses you know that there's a focal length that's there And if my glasses are down here I can hardly
00:21:28 see you And I have to put them up here And now I can see you properly I have to adjust the focus of my lenses so I can see rightly And so when I get excited and my head starts moving around and preaching I have to adjust my glasses more than normal Now I want you to hear this We're living in a tumultuous and turbulent time We're living around the world in a time that we don't quite know what the future holds It's easy for us to have been knocked about in culture and context around us And our gospel
00:21:57 lenses have maybe been knocked out of focus a few times And what I'm coming back to you today in this passage is to say we've got a new life We've got a new way of looking a new set of gospel lenses through which we see the world And I'm asking you today to make sure your gospel lenses are readily focused So you can see amen You got a new life a new way of looking a new set of gospel lenses through which we see the world Number one we get a new perspective We don't regard anyone from a worldly point of view We've got new
00:22:32 life a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which we see the number two in our outline We're sent on a mission of reconciliation A mission of reconciliation Remember we've got a new life a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which I see the world But then we're sent on a mission And this is from verses 18 and 19 It says "All this is from God which talking what's before." remember the strength of expository preaching You would have actually gone just before what was before He reconciled us I want you to
00:23:04 notice that word the word reconcile because it's going to be used five times in the next three verses I want you not to miss this Who reconciled us past tense to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation There's that ongoing work And then it sort of repeats itself If someone like I always feel sorry for people who are reading scripture uh because sometimes the New Testament writers when they have to read what's called a parallelism in a parallelism that's what this is the New
00:23:34 Testament writers will say something almost the same way so you hear it twice and you get the full emphasis of it so this is that important it's it's written in a parallelism and then someone who gets up and reads scripture is like wait did I just read that and sometimes they could be a little nervous so it says God reconciled us to himself through Christ gave us the ministry of reconciliation Then the parallelism that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting people's sins
00:24:00 against them You see the parallelism and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation So if you look closely at that passage you'll see two things One is we have received reconciliation If you're a follower of Jesus the heart of the gospel is you have been reconciled to God through Jesus death on the cross for your sin and in your place So you have if I could put this on a timeline of history you have received from God into yourself reconciliation And then you or from you is you've been
00:24:32 reconciled by God through Christ And now you have the uh ministry of reconciliation And now you have the message of reconciliation You see do you see the order you've received reconciliation Now you have the ministry and message of reconciliation And it's not just a solitary individual idea of a western mindset right well me myself I have been reconciled to God but now I'm on a ministry of reconciliation But this uh receiving and reconciling this being reconciled and having a ministry and message of reconciliation goes back
00:25:07 2,000 years because Jesus told his disciples to go make disciples of all nations And they went and they shared the gospel They were reconciled They told others about being reconciled And they were reconciled They told somebody else about being reconciled and somebody told somebody who told somebody who eventually told you and you were reconciled If you're a follower of Jesus you've been reconciled by God through Christ But now you've been given the ministry and message of reconciliation So there's a great
00:25:38 commission highway Do you use the word highway or motorway what is that thing I drove on this morning you say highway Okay So you're on a great commission highway that goes back 2,000 years Don't miss that You're on a great commission highway that goes back 2,000 years Somebody told somebody who told somebody who told you And that's my role now is I've been reconciled Now I've got the the ministry and the message of reconciliation I can do it all kinds of ways I can share the gospel share the truth in all kinds of ways Hospitality
00:26:10 with my neighbor meeting needs around me sharing the gospel with somebody So Don and I were um Don and I love warm places So Malaysia is God's country So um so we love warm places but we lived in Chicago for seven years I know it is cold in Chicago It is colder in Chicago than a legalist's heart And that is very cold Is it okay to make that joke he says "Send a note to the pastors and leaders if that offended you but you might look like a legalist But anyway um so we live in Chicago I was the head of what's
00:26:44 called the uh Weaten College Billy Graham Center You maybe you've heard of Billy Graham So I I held an academic chair Billy Graham went to college at Weaten College Uh Billy and Ruth did And so I held the academic chair of the Billy Graham chair when I was there And so one day I was asked to speak in Florida and it was February freezing cold in Chicago and beautifully Malaysian warm in Florida So we called Uber which uh used to have Uber and then Grab bought that up So Grab grabbed Uber Uh so so we
00:27:16 called our version of Grab and they came to us to pick us up and I could see the the person's name because it's on the app Just like yesterday when I took Grab from the airport I could see the name of the person They could see my name I actually had to set up Grab When I came here they took picture too So they got my selfie After 24 hours of continuous flying from now on when I picked up by Grab that's the painful picture that everybody gets to see So our grab driver's name was Jane And uh I'll call her the Uber driver for the
00:27:45 sense You know what that is So so Jane picks us up We don't know Jane at all Jane picks us up She says "Hi Ed What's your name?" Talks to Donna Donna says "My name is Donna." And we get in the car together and it's warm which is a plus She's already got it warmed And she says to us "Um uh well hi You know um if you want some water there's some water in the seats behind you If you want to charge your phones I've got some plugs." She's super nice In America you're less of a tipping culture but in America
00:28:09 everyone in Uber is super nice because partly the tipping that comes along with that So I'm like "Oh maybe she's being super nice She's tipping Wants us to tip." And and I love to tip In American culture it's very common So so but then she says "But listen there's some there's some uh candy in the middle and and take anything you want from the little the little basket down on the floor." And Don and I looked at the little basket down on the floor and down there was some candy and an obviously strategic place strategically placed New
00:28:36 Testament of the Bible So we knew something was about to happen Now Don and I have been married how many years we've been married I know how many years So you saying that to trigger you 38 years So um so we've been married a long time This was about six years ago So we' already been married 30 years And so Donna and I at our stage of marriage can have entire conversations that don't involve the use of vocal cords or lips right it's a skill that comes maybe at 30 years it happens I don't know So I
00:29:07 turned over to Donna and looked at her and I said without uttering a word let's not tell her that we work at the I work at the Billy Graham Center Matter of fact let's just have a little fun and see how far this can go nothing We wouldn't embarrass anybody or anything that sort But let's see how far this could go I gave this whole paragraph to her just with my eyes looking at my beautiful wife And she gave me an entire paragraph back without saying a word Her paragraph was "I've known you since you
00:29:34 were a teenager Do not take this too far Ed Stzer I know you." So the whole conversation was just through the eyes So we start driving on the Uber to the airport It's about 30-minute drive to the airport And and Jane starts saying to us "Well where are you from?" and Donna's from Canada and I'm from New York City And we start talking about that and and she said "Do you have any children?" I said "Yes we have three amazing daughters are the joy of our lives." And and sometimes she'd ask questions very inappropriate not not not
00:30:02 intrusive but uh sometimes she'd ask questions that I would try to redirect because remember I want to see how far we could take this So she would say "Well what what brought you to town?" I said "Well I got I got a new job here." And she said "Well what do you do?" And I said "Well I'm a teacher What do you do?" I didn't want to tell her I was a professor of evangelism that would ruin the whole conversation So I said "I'm a teacher What do you do?" And she said "Well you know normally I sell real estate I'm a
00:30:25 realtor but in February nobody's moving to Chicago And so I drive Uber to meet people." And I later found out more of why she likes to meet people So anyway eventually she gets to the place where she asks us a question where well here's what she says Do you guys have any like um spiritual beliefs or any religious upbringing and so really at this point Donna looks at me and she says "You can't keep going at this point can you?" And I'm like "Nope." And so I tell I lean forward and I say "Jane yes we're
00:30:52 actually Christians." And Jane let me just tell you uh I teach evangelism at Wheaten College and I'm the director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaten College I love evangelism and you are doing so great right now A+ for Jane So that was Jane the Uber driver Matter of fact I wrote an article about it called Jane the Uber driver and it went all around the world because something happened that next day after Jane see Jane took us to the airport and we flew down to Florida to speak at this event And the next morning when we woke up my
00:31:25 phone was uh was was filled with texts and it told me that Billy Graham had died And Billy Graham's most famous evangelist in the last century And so and I I was I held the academic chair in his name So all of a sudden we had to change things very quickly I I wrote an article for CNN where I got to share the gospel about who who Billy Graham was And my article for CNN I wrote Billy Graham was famous for trying to make someone else more famous And I got to share the gospel in CNN and USA Today kind of our national paper Got to share
00:31:57 the gospel I love sharing the gospel in those places So fast forward a week later we gathered together in the funeral for the funeral for Billy Graham And I don't know if you saw it but it was broadcast all over the world Um if you listen on the radio me and another guy with a radio voice kind of explaining what's going on in the funeral And and so afterwards the a reporter you know it was I mean it's one of the most newsworthy events of that year about six years ago now So a newspaper reporter comes up to me from
00:32:23 the New York Times and she says to me she says "Uh Ed uh I think she might have called me Dr Sterzer but we're friends Maybe she probably called me Ed She said she said "Ed um you know what do you think Billy Graham's legacy will be?" And I was ready for that question And she said "Well what do you how do you think Billy Graham would do in today's world?" And I was ready for that question And and then she asked the question that nobody really can answer and nobody should claim to be She said "Well Ed who's the next Billy Graham?"
00:32:49 Now nobody in the family says they're the next Billy Graham Nobody should say they're the next Billy Graham but I was ready for an answer She said "Who's the next Billy Graham?" I said ' It's Jane the Uber driver And she looked at me with a strange look on her face And I told her the story just like I told you that story And here's what she said She said ' Ed that's a great story Big smile but it's not making the New York Times I like but I wrote about it because here's the thing I want you don't want you to
00:33:13 miss right we think of Billy Graham proclaiming the gospel around the world Millions and millions 200 million people have heard the gospel and we're so thankful for his life and legacy And I can tell you he's deeply missed in where where I am and probably around the world as well But Billy Graham was on a gospel highway too He was on a great commission highway You see somebody told him he credits Morai Ham for preaching the gospel when he became a Christian And somebody told Morortei Ham and somebody
00:33:39 told that person who told that person and it goes back 2,000 years And so the same is true about Jane right somebody told Jane and somebody told that person and somebody told that person And so Jane and Billy Graham both said "We've been reconciled by God through Christ and we've been given the ministry and message of reconciliation." And what I want to say to you 2,000 years later I'm not Billy Graham It's okay Neither am I And I'm not driving grab And I say "Well neither am I." But what I want to say
00:34:06 for all of us is don't let your life be a dead end on God's great commission highway Amen You use the word culde-sac Is a culde-sac language you use here yeah Don't yet let your life be a culde-sac on God's great commission highway I don't want you not to miss that because ultimately the future advance of the gospel is entrusted into men and women who have been reconciled by God through Christ Now if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus this message and ministry is not for you Okay the message of reconciliation is
00:34:39 one you need to receive not one you're going to share But you can receive it by grace and through faith You can say "Lord Jesus forgive me of my sins Come into my heart I want you to be my savior and my lord." You can receive the good news of Jesus Christ and his gospel today And for those who have received it you've been reconciled You see it on the passage You've been reconciled through Christ and given the ministry of reconciliation God was reconciling to himself and he has committed to us the
00:35:10 message of reconciliation So how might you represent Jesus and his kingdom which leads to our third point in our outline number three if you're a notetaker is we are representing Jesus and his kingdom says we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us Now if we had been walking through a book of the Bible as I prefer like you're walking through Galatians I would have told you that Paul's actually defending his apostilhip at this point And specifically when he
00:35:41 says we're Christ's ambassadors he's actually not talking about you but he's talking about himself and a group of missionaries that he's with And he's saying "We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God." But Christians for 2,000 years have also taken the word ambassador because it's used elsewhere and applied it to themselves For example in Ephesians 6 19 and 20 Paul it's not on your screen says ' Pray for me that the message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for I am an
00:36:12 ambassador in chains Pray that I might be bold enough to speak in him as I should So the idea of being an ambassador is something Christians for 2,000 years have applied to themselves And that makes sense right the the kingdom showed up when the kingdom of God showed up So the king's here the kingdom's here It says "Seek first in Matthew 6:33 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you as well." The kingdom arrived when the King Jesus arrived And the kingdom has come
00:36:43 because Jesus has come but we still really still pray for the kingdom to fully come when we pray "Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So the kingdom's here now We're a citizen of it and we're an ambassador of it We represent Jesus and his kingdom in the world and and sometimes that's in bad times We don't get to pick the time that we represent Jesus in his kingdom We get to pick our intentionality in it Uh a week ago today I was actually preaching my father's funeral My father
00:37:18 died the week before last so last Sunday at this time I was sharing my at my father's funeral It's a sobering thing to see that the prior generation is gone I I I I I had a pastor friend text me and said you know it's not like anything you'd imagine It's just different than what you expect And it is And many of you have walked through that and gone through that in the room But you know I got a text a few minutes ago just as I walked in from one of the people who were was there at the funeral just just
00:37:48 moments ago Literally I was sitting there Maybe I shouldn't have looked at my phone Forgive me Uh but he said 'You know I'm really thankful for how you pointed honored your father but also pointed people to the Lord You see that's what we get to do in good times and in bad times The last few weeks have been hard times in our family right just three three and a half weeks ago I was planning uh American Thanksgiving with my father and three days later he was diagnosed with cancer and less than three weeks later he was
00:38:14 gone But in good times and bad times we represent Jesus and his kingdom And that's what we can do in the hard times and in the good times and the challenges It's often in the hard times and and that we get distracted because there's so many difficult things And then in the good times we get distracted because there are so many good things But our role still remains to represent Jesus and his kingdom because you've been reconciled You have the ministry of reconciliation because you've been reconciled You have the message of
00:38:43 reconciliation So number one we get a new perspective Number two sent on a mission of reconciliation Number three representing Jesus and his kingdom And number four and finally because of the cross Because of the cross And I'll close with this You know what it means when a guest speaker says "I'll close with this." By the way absolutely nothing Actually just out of interest are you an ontime culture do they actually say they're going to preach 45 minutes and be done oh no No No Okay Never Not Okay Not You're always late
00:39:16 Okay Okay Well I hope you packed a lunch then cuz we're uh because as a guest speaker one of the first things you learn when you're a guest speaker is is if you want to come back and have friends you finish on time No no no no You're saying "Oh you go You go You should see the people back there They're not as excited as you are." Because if you can't say it in 45 minutes you have Well I'm not going to say that but uh because some of you might go a little bit longer than that when you're preaching but but they give
00:39:44 me 45 minutes Is that okay with you is that okay you want to give me one extra yes No you're too excited Sh Number four And finally because of the cross Because I want to bring forward a theological truth here that I think you can see Oh I got to press I got to press the slides Uh number four because of the cross Remember number one we get a new perspective Number two sent on a mission of reconciliation Number three representing Jesus in his kingdom Number four because of the cross And here's what it says God made him who had
00:40:16 no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God Now this is a very I don't know if the word strange um but everything before this passage talks about don't think about it right how we see others We don't see anyone from a worldly point of view We got a new life a new way of looking a new set of lenses And then we see that we're reconciled to be agents of reconciliation Don't let our lives be culde-sac on God's great commission highway And then it's how we relate to
00:40:46 others as ambassadors We're ambassadors of Christ So we we relate to others as ambassadors But then number four goes in a very different direction Number the verse 21 and it's very theological right here It's also got a lot of pronouns in it So we have to kind of unpack it Let's look at what it says God made Okay just hold that separate Him who had no sin So that's Jesus So God made Jesus him who had no sin to be sin for us So when Jesus died on the cross for your sin and in your place he didn't just die for
00:41:19 your sin He was actually made to be Listen what it says He made him who had no sin to be sin So as Jesus died on the cross for our sin and in in our place he didn't just die for our sin He was made our sin And the technical theological word for that is imputation Would you say that out loud with me imputation So our sin was imputed In the Greek it's similar to the word deposited like a banker So it was imputed So when Jesus died on the cross our sin was imputed to him He cries out "My God my God why have
00:41:54 you forsaken me?" He became your sin So every sinful and foolish and wrong thing you've done was imputed to Jesus And he was made sin for us So that don't miss the so that So that should get our attention So that in him another prepositional phrase in him in Jesus right in him we might become the righteousness of God More imputation here So your sin is imputed or deposited into Jesus And his righteousness is imputed or deposited into you through imputation So now if you're a follower of Jesus when God looks at you he
00:42:39 doesn't see your sin and the foolish things you have done He sees Jesus perfect righteousness when he looks at you If you're a follower of Jesus I don't know about you if you're not a follower of Jesus I want to get under that I want to be in him And you do that not by your own merit It's by grace you're saved through faith It's not of you But you receive by grace and through faith the gospel And in doing so you are in him It's the substitution So when Jesus died on the cross he died a sinner's death He was not a sinner but
00:43:14 he died a sinner's death Jesus took our sin and he took the punishment for that sin the wrath of God as our substitute Can I tell you if you're not a Jesus you do not want to face eternity without having the forgiveness of Christ He shed his blood for this very purpose So he was made sin not a sinner but sin for us Sin was imputed to him just so that righteousness might be imputed to us God treated Jesus as if he committed every sin so that believers could be seen as having lived Jesus perfect life Now I
00:43:54 don't know you I don't know your culture but where I come from the end of that sentence would be a amen from a congregation So I'm going to give you another opportunity to step up and give me that amen Are you ready don't want you to miss this Right So God treated Jesus as if he committed every sin so that believers could be seen by God as having lived Jesus perfect life Amen I thought that was in your heart and I just needed to help it come out So I don't want you to miss this Right Isaiah 53:6 is a beautiful It's
00:44:28 not on the screen but Isaiah 53:6 in the King James version I like to use the King James version sometimes I figure if it's good enough for Jesus to use it I can use it I'm just kidding Jesus didn't use the King James version ancient English But in the King James version it says like this "All we like sheep have gone astray We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." So the beautiful doctrine of imputation here is before us Now learning theological words
00:45:04 at church sometimes may seem strange I don't think so at your church but at some churches it may seem strange Do you have like Starbucks coffee in in Malaysia i don't I don't drink coffee cuz I'm a Christian But uh I think coffee is bitter water for bitter people But you go do whatever you want to do Donna loves coffee and I love Donna So that's the only thing that's allowed here But I believe if you can learn to order coffee you can learn some theological words at church because there's a whole language you got to
00:45:32 learn at Starbucks Venti I don't even know what these things mean So imputation is the doctrine but it's also the motivation See I don't want you to miss this My final point is we do this because of the cross See if you're going to have a new life a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which we see the world that's countercultural in the world in which we live Right now people are increasingly being divided by technology and not seeing people the way Jesus would have to see people But when you get what
00:46:01 happened in verse 21 he who had no sin was made sin for us Then you can say I got a new life I got a new way of looking I got a new set of lenses through which I see the world Or maybe just going on being a minister of reconciliation That's hard today man The world's divided People are sometimes unhappy to hear or unwilling to hear the good news of the gospel though most stats tell us they're more open than we're willing But maybe you're like "Man I could never get in an Uber and start a spiritual conversation." Okay that's
00:46:29 with someone you don't know But what about your coworker and what about your neighbor you say "I'm not sure I can do that I can acknowledge I've been reconciled but I'm not sure I can be a a minister with a message of reconciliation." I want you to know you can not in your might but because God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him you might be the righteousness of God So from that beautiful truth you now don't let your life be a dead end on God's great commission highway Or maybe even
00:47:00 representing Jesus and his kingdom How can I be an ambassador for Christ not everyone likes that Not everyone's enthusiastic about that People push back about that Yet Paul writes "We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God How can I do that here's how you can do that Because God made him who had no sin to be sin for us So that in him we might become the righteousness of God So verse 21 is the motivation of everything before So when you get what God has done in Christ that in him you are these
00:47:37 things then you can get a new perspective a new life a new way of looking a new set of lenses through which you see the world When you realize that in him you're the righteousness of God forgiven of your sin then now you can be sent on a mission of reconciliation reconciled but now sharing that reconciliation with others in him You can say "I can represent Jesus and his kingdom." And we do all this because of the cross I'm going to ask the worship team to come join me up here on stage I'm going to lead us in a
00:48:07 prayer to give us the opportunity to respond to how God may be speaking to our hearts through his word this day because I believe with all of my heart that you and I are sent on a mission Jesus says "As the father has sent me even so send I you." Would you say yes to Jesus mission as we press forward together for God's glory i'm going to lead us in a prayer and I'm going to give you the opportunity to respond to how God is speaking to your hearts Would you bow your heads and pray with me heavenly Father we acknowledge that by
00:48:40 your grace and your goodness you've redeemed us and called us by name And you've sent us on mission for your name's sake And in the quietness of this moment as the band plays quietly behind us Lord I pray that you might help prepare us and our hearts for what's been preached but now needs to be applied Just with your head bowed and your eyes closed could you could you think back in your own life and journey right now are you are you living out that new life by having a new way of looking at the world gospel
00:49:12 lenses reconciled to be an agent of reconciliation on a gospel highway representing Jesus and his kingdom as an ambassador And if the answer is no if you're a follow Jesus come back to that last part God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God with in your mind's eye Would you think about your friends your neighbors your co-workers your family i don't think a lot about my family this week How might you represent Jesus and his kingdom to them would you make that
00:49:48 commitment today because of what God has done in Christ Lord we yield ourselves to you again Jesus you are the Messiah We trust you and believe you remind us again to join you on mission in the world so your name and your fame would be more widely known for it's in Jesus name and his sake we pray Amen And amen Well praise the Lord for the message that he has imprinted in our hearts today Uh those of you who are interested the transformationational church will be on sale outside with Victor Just come and pick up a copy It's
00:50:25 only 28 ringit And uh those of you who would like to have the elders pray with you please come up and uh for us to minister to you Uh we'll also pray for Ed and Donna as they go on their mission trip I'll ask our elder Arnold to do so and then we'll have uh Ed give us the benediction I I'm really tempted to say this So let me give a short story So that day you know I I I I work as an architect right i'm I'm changing the facts a bit right and I met a carpenter The carpenter told me his name is Zedekiah How many carpenters you know
00:51:03 are called Zedekiah so I told my wife "Hey the carpenters called Zedekiah." She said "Surely must be Christian." So I did my Jane Uber moment I said "It's a great name you know Do you know the names from the Bible?" He Whats me back haha Yeah my dad used to be Christian Now the thing is I'm meeting Zedekiah tomorrow because we have two weeks to finish a job and I think after today's message I'm saying the Lord give me an opening give me wisdom give me something to say and then you would say out there you
00:51:41 know we're not like app I don't hold two double degrees and I look at myself I say I'm a sinner but you see the Lord has imputed his righteousness on me And when Christ looks down on me he sees Christ in me And in my weakness in my inability to do this he can do it And all I need to do is pray I'm going to ask Ed afterwards to pray for me And again we'll be up here including with Ed to pray for you Please come in front and get ad to to to pray over you Let's be a vulnerable authentic church And right now can we raise our hands
00:52:27 towards our pastor our beloved elder our beloved leader as they continue their mission trip Lord we pray for Donna and Ed as they continue in their work to just bring the good news to everybody that we ask that your spirit be with them your hand be with them and that your righteousness continues to be imputed in them that they go in your strength and not in theirs And we say this in Jesus' name Amen God bless you All the service is over Do please stay back for prayer God bless you guys Oh benediction I'm sorry I'm going to let
00:53:05 Ed do it Thank you brother And I appreciate that Would you bow your heads with me father we thank you that by your grace and your goodness you're at work in your people you're a working your people in Malaysia around the world men and women from every tongue tribe and nation are singing your praise Father I pray that as we go from this place as the writer says we will be preserved complete and without blame until the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ And may the blessing of God rest upon us Father Son
00:53:31 and Holy Spirit until we gather again in Jesus name And for his sake we pray Amen And amen God bless you Now you're dismissed
