Colossians Lesson 6

Alright, so we're in Colossians chapter 1, 21 through 23. And last week we, I think we wrapped up Lesson 5, the questions. I know that we kind of said that there was going to be some transition with this idea of reconciliation. We'll definitely be getting into that today. But I think that what we're looking at in these passages is really exciting because we've moved from this prayer that Paul prays. He prays in a number of different ways, specifically two, rather, that these Colossians would grow in the knowledge of his will. And as a result, they would bear fruit and they would walk in a way that pleases him. And then he moves into these passages that we're continuing to look at today about the supremacy of Christ. And the Colossians had a lot going on in their brains. in their environment, just like we do today, about who Christ is and what he accomplished. They were dealing with this area of Gnosticism and so they were challenged in a lot of different ways about what Christ actually accomplished and even the nature of who he was. Was he a man? Was he a spirit? Was he both? And so these verses start to hint at some of the challenges that these Colossians were going through.

So we'll start with question one. and just see where we go from there. So, question one says, read verses 21 along with Romans 5, 10, Ephesians 2, 3, 12. And the question is, what was our disposition towards God before we were saved? So, where do we all start?

What's that? Alienated. Alienated. Hostile. Hostile. Enemy of God. What's that? Enemies of God. Enemies, yeah. Ignorant. Ignorant. Hmm. What do we think about ignorance? Ah, no knowledge of the Lord and no interest in even desiring to know. Okay. So one thing we could say about about being an ignorant enemy, because we'll use that word, I think enemy kind of encapsulates it, don't you think? We've got hostility of mind, you've got a disposition of the brain that says Whatever it is that you want, God, I want something totally different. It's that selfish disposition that is driven by sin.

In terms of ignorance, I think that there are many areas where we all started in terms of not understanding. But there are some things in Romans 1 that tells us that we do know certain things. So we're not completely ignorant so as to be innocent. We may be ignorant in the sense that we're not understanding, but we're created with a couple different things. We know about His glory, and we know that we stand before Him in judgment. Romans 1 tells us that. And so, we all were created with the ability to understand and recognize His glory and acknowledge that He's there.

We also acknowledge that we don't want Him there, right? and that's where we go into this state of ignorance, I think is a decent word, but we start with knowing, at least that He's present, and that we see His divine attributes, but yet we immediately turn our minds off, and at that point we become hostile.

And so, each person, whether or not they've been introduced to the Lord through the Gospel, stands in a place of having decided that they will be an enemy. That's a little bit different than just having been created one and not having the volition take place. Volition meaning your choice. So it was the Colossians' early state, before they had heard the gospel, that they had chosen to be enemies of God.

And so when we think about the unbelievers in our life, we're not going to probably walk up to them and say, you enemy. But, are they hostile in their thinking towards the Lord? And they can even say some of the kindest things, right? You've probably had really gracious conversations with unbelievers. conversations that weren't so gracious, too. But sometimes it's hard to recognize hostility and its nature of being an enemy and having this idea of, you're alienated.

But when we think about the Colossians before they had access to the gospel message, that's where they were. So when Paul talks about this, you can imagine them sitting there saying, yeah, that is where we were. And you know what? That's where we were, right? We stood in that same place.

We were hostile. We were enemies. We were alienated. Every unbeliever is, until they come to know the Lord. And so we're going to talk about the contrast of that. But when did this whole alienation take place in history? Where did it all start? The Garden of Eden. That's a good response. Why heaven? Satan, he was a high angel and then he decided to turn his back and become higher than God. Was he the first enemy? Through his own choice, he decided that he should be in that same place that God was in.

And isn't that really the same decision that every one of us that are alienated, hostile in mind at one point in time, isn't that the same attitude that we have? We think we know better. It's the whole issue of Genesis 1, the creator-creature. There's a distinction between the two. What? And John, it just reminded me of what you were saying. This is the condemnation. Light came into the world. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Yeah. And that was you. Wasn't it? And that was me.

And the reason I say that is because oftentimes having enjoyed the blessings of being a believer for years, and knowing the Lord in an intimate way, and growing in that, and even sensing the growth that takes place as we spend time together each Sunday as a body, we sometimes forget that each of us stood in that same desire to love darkness. That's where we came from. And when we interact with others that are unbelievers in our lives, we know what that's like, don't we? You know, I was reading in Genesis yesterday, where Satan told Eve, he says, well your eyes will be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

I think it started all the way back then. It sure did. From a human perspective, it started in Genesis. Yeah, you're right. There's the Genesis 2.17 passage.

And, you know, from the very moment that the Lord said, from this tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. But then he goes on to say, for in the day, what? If you eat from it, you will what? And what does die mean? It's not annihilation. It's separation. So we're going to come back to that whole separation because separation is actually tied to this idea of alienation. It's tied towards hostility. You're separated from God. You've made a mental decision that you know better than God. You're following the father of lies who was the first to proclaim that he knew better than God and that he should be in that place.

And so it is that temptation that Adam and Eve had in Genesis 2.17 and the warning that said, when you deny the truth that I've given you, you will be separated from me spiritually. And you will begin the process of different types of separation. There's a physical separation. There was an instantaneous spiritual separation that they had.

And when we're born into this world being from the seed of Adam, we're born in hostility. And it doesn't take us long, as a toddler, to learn how to defy and deny any kind of authority in your life. And to think, I know better than mom. I'm going to throw this food right back at you. You know? Notice you don't have to teach a toddler how to sin. No, that's right. And then if that doesn't work, then they find other creative ways to do that.

So, Genesis 2.17 is really where this whole alienation and hostility in mind began. You know, even in the Old Testament, in Isaiah 59, too, the Lord says, in your iniquities, but your iniquities have made a separation, a death, have made a separation between you and your God, and the sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. So we see throughout the scripture the fact that those who do not accept the creator and having understood who he is and they know that we all are created to know that we are not like our creator. We are not the same as.

It doesn't take us long to recognize that we're not omniscient. We don't know everything. I use the example, a lot of times when I'm talking to unbelievers about what they know, I say, you know, the Library of Congress is just a subset of all the knowledge in the world available today. How many books have you read in the Library of Congress? I haven't read any. Maybe they said, I've read some of the classics, I've studied every religion, and I think to myself, How long is it going to take you to understand and try to gain access to all that there is to know just so that you can claim omniscience? So, I'm just saying that there are practical ways. Omnipotence. Are you all powerful? Omnipresence. Can you be everywhere at the same time?

So, we realize that the claim of the creator in scripture is far different than who we are and what we're capable of, and it doesn't take us long to understand the difference there. However, we spend the rest of our unbelieving life hostile to that and trying to outrun that reality.

So, we've got the verse Romans 5, 10. Someone want to read that verse for us? For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. This is interesting, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled. So when does reconciliation take place? We're going to ask that question a little bit, but hang on to it. Sounds like reconciliation begins even in a place where we're enemies. That's an interesting perspective, and I think we're going to get into that more as we go.

But Romans 5.10 says, again, that word enemy. And I think that word enemy is really the contrast to where we're headed with the Colossians place in verse 22 and 23.

What about Ephesians 2.3? Someone read that one? Blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has... Is Ephesians 2, 3? Did I get that wrong? I have it. That's what I had down. I wrote it down, but maybe I'm wrong.

Among them, we too, all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So where were... I mean, this just gives us some further commentary about where our minds are. And we already talked about how they're hostile. But where are they focused? On yourselves. This body. What it is that I need. You see, this is a complete self-focus. It's 100% creature-oriented as opposed to creator-oriented.

And that's where the Colossians stood. And these verses just give additional light that the Romans also needed to hear the same place that they all began, or potentially stood in the case that they were talking to unbelievers. Ephesians, same thing, just down the road. These were situations where the lust of the flesh was rampant in the Ephesus. It was something that was a really huge problem. Same thing in corn.

Lust doesn't have just to do with sexual. It could be any desire that literally entangles you. In the book of James, we talked about how you're like a fish right underneath a rock, and your own lust draws you out into the river, and you bait and hook yourself all all in your own mind into temptation. And James just got a really interesting picture about how temptation works and how it draws you out. But that's how lust works. And it doesn't have to be sexual. It could be just the desire to have a more comfortable home or have a more comfortable salary. I mean there's all kinds of things that can drive you into a focus of the flesh and the self.

So Ephesians 2 and 2.3 and Romans 5.10 both shed some really interesting perspective that there's a consistency with how Paul, and even in Isaiah, how Isaiah viewed the place of Israel at that time. We all find ourselves in unbelief and hostility toward God.

And that was the disposition. So that's question one. Let's go back up to question number two. Well, before I do that, let me say one thing. What's the opposite of separation? So, what's the opposite of death? Life. Okay. If death means separation, life means? Union. Union. That's a really good word. So, just to keep in contrast, there is a separation, and then there's a union with.

And so, when we look at All of the scriptures that contrast this hostility, we see Romans 6, 1-11, this idea of being dead to sin and alive in Christ. So we've got the dead and alive contrast. Sin is what entangles you, but Christ, in union with Christ, you have freedom.

So those words like redemption and reconciliation and propitiation are some of the words that we're going to talk about today and they're big theological words. But we want to see what it is that the Lord's doing in order to free us from that sin and what has taken place in the past for the Colossians, in the past for us, but what stands to be potentially available to those that would still believe that haven't yet. Galatians 2 talks about died to the law to live to God. And then, of course, later on in the Book of Colossians, we died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world.

But right now, as an unbeliever, those elementary principles of the world entangle the people that we know that have yet to believe. They're entangled, they're hostile, they're enemies. And so, we have to recognize that when we start sharing and communicating, we're going to talk a little bit about the Gospel today, that's where they stand. And we'll ask the question, is it your job to persuasively argue them out of that hostility?

So that's where we're headed. Number two. Any questions on that? We good there? Alright. Number two. Is this alienation and enmity that exists in one's mind reversed by persuasive arguments about the gospel message of salvation? In other words, like I just said, can you persuasively convince someone to take their hostility of mind off of themselves and place it on the Creator? No. No? Why?

It's just the Holy Spirit that does the suggesting. You can use the words that you've said. So should we study apologetics? Apologetics meaning being able to defend your faith? If it's the Holy Spirit's job, what are we responsible for in terms of being persuasive? We have ministries like Answers in Genesis. We have all different types of apologetic approaches. We've got presuppositional and classical apologetics. You can go to seminary and major in apologetics. You can deal with every single evolutionary argument that might exist.

What's that worth if in fact the Holy Spirit... They have to accept it. What's that? They have to accept it. It's not worth anything because the old man is not capable of understanding spiritual things. It has to be done by the Holy Spirit to our spirit.

What about the 1 Peter 3.15, I think? Be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have. But does it say... Go ahead.

I think you can have a reason, you can be prepared to be ready when someone asks to be able to know the gospel and have that at hand when someone asks and the reason why they would be asking not through an argument or not through a defensive deposition but definitely through an act of love and an act of kindness and an act of grace by just definitely being able to see them being persuaded by your life. You, in fact, living out Christ daily. So is it them being persuaded by your life or Christ's life? Christ's life. That's right. I think that's an interesting point. And I think you're right.

I think being prepared, studying in the field of apologetics, as Peter talks about, being prepared for the reason for the hope that you have, doesn't mean that we don't talk to people about the hurdles that they face in believing. It just means that what we say ultimately is not going to convince them to believe. It may provide an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to convict them about it, but our words are not persuasive in nature. In 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5, and if you don't have that reference, I would encourage you to write that down under this question. Paul says, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech. or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

Was Paul prepared? Did he communicate a clear gospel? Did he defend, even in the book of Acts, in certain instances, did he defend the faith in the face of unbelief? He did. Was he prepared? He was, but here he says in 1 Corinthians that he didn't come with superiority of speech or wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God, for I determined, and this is what he said, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message, and here's the key part, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. There's a word that's really interesting. You mentioned that the Holy Spirit is doing the convicting, but this word power comes up in a number of different places in light of sharing the gospel with unbelievers.

What about 1 Corinthians 1.18? For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the what? The power of God. There's that word power again. Do you know what that word is? I mean, this is not a Greek test, but what is it? Dunamis. This is the word dunamis.

And again, in Romans 1.16, which is probably one of the more striking verses on this, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, the Jew first and also the Greek. It's the power of God. There's just three instances of where that word dunamis is used in light of how the gospel is being presented to someone.

What does it mean to have a powerful message, biblically? Does it mean that Paul came out and just slayed them with elegance of speech and had a really awesome PowerPoint? How could these hostile, alienated from God enemies be persuaded of the truth without Paul being persuasive? The Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit in conjunction with what? Truth.

So, while we might prepare ourselves with apologetics and we might study different approaches to the Gospel, I've done a lot of different types of evangelism and I've taken this track and that track and combined it in my own tracks and I've built my own little diagrams and my own bridges and I think probably some of you have done similar things.

We spent five years with Good Seed, which is a ministry designed to communicate clearly the gospel with a chronological approach, much like New Tribes does in remote settings. And so we spent a lot of time looking at tactics of how to communicate. And those tactics can be helpful. I mean, it's obvious that understanding the gospel is really important, and so how we communicate is important, and we can prepare ourselves, and we can spend time studying in terms of how do we communicate this in a way that makes sense.

However, at the end of the day, it's the power of God in conjunction with the Holy Spirit that brings a person to a choice of their own to leave a place of being an enemy and trust what it is that God can do on their behalf to reconcile that situation. That's where we're headed with that.

One other passage, 1 Thessalonians 1.5, For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in the power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

So it's this combination of God's Word. Remember, what does God's Word have the ability to do that yours doesn't? What's that? It's a double-edged sword. It's exactly the verse I was thinking about. It's only the Word of God that can pierce to the place of joint and marrow.

That deepest, most spiritual place, you cannot persuade somebody with your words into that place of their heart. But the Word of God can. And so as you behold the Lord through His Word, and His life becomes your life by trusting Him to live through you, People do recognize Christ in you. The Word is Christ, right? It's a personal thing. It's not just the words on paper. And so, our life can communicate the Word, because when we trust Him to do the living, He communicates through us, but it is the Word itself that pierces joint and marrow. It gets deeper.

And that's where, I think, in the book of Thessalonians, he talks about this power of conviction from the Holy Spirit happens. And don't just think about this as being gospel truth. Let's say you've got a child, a grown child who's dealing with, you know, a young adult child who's dealing with certain situations.

You can be persuasive as much as you want, and that can be helpful for them to understand, but at the end of the day, it's only the Word of God that is going to convince them about something. If they're going to rectify something in their life, we can encourage and we can support. Our responsibility would be to live in such a way that we trust the Lord to do the living through us so that they see Christ in us. But again, it's that conviction of the Holy Spirit and the power of God that is ultimately going to pierce joint and marrow and cause a decision of change in their hearts.

Same thing for us. Yes it was, but I'll never forget it. The teacher, I was against Christianity and she says all Christianity is is nothing but a crutch. I'd be so angry I didn't say anything and it wasn't until I got older and deeper in the Lord said I realize Thank God for that crutch. I may not have done the job, you know.

Well, Avery's been saying something in the main service that I think is really interesting. Everyone has faith. And that's what they mean is you have faith, we have, you know, the facts is the differentiation that they try to make, especially in a university setting or a scholarly educational setting. We study, we know, we have evidence. But Vern talks about how there's many places where, even in an evolutionary worldview, where they are exhibiting faith in that system. And so, if crutch equals faith, then you're exactly right. We have a faith that is built on the solid Word of God, and we recognize that it's personal, and we know that faith is not just about knowledge, it's about a relationship. And for them, they have a relationship too with inanimate objects. And they hold it very dear. Just drive around and look on the back of some cars. It won't take you long to see how excited they are about their faith.

This past week I was talking to my neighbor and talking about someone on our block that had passed away and I said, I hope that I will see that person in heaven. And she said, everyone goes to heaven. And so I said, well, you know, there are different churches.

That's one thing. I think a lot of people don't know about not just your church, but there are other churches that have changed. I mean, I felt helpless. I just didn't know. So I told her about this church. She said, I've never heard of a church like that.

Well, so it's hard for us to remember, especially in a country that grew up with Christian roots. Now, that has changed, right? It's changed a lot. But there's still a general awareness of Christianity in our country. There's places around the world where you say the word Jesus and they're like, does he sell tacos down the street? I don't know who that is. I've never even heard that name. So, it is a situation where we deal in our In our mission field, in the American westernized culture, we've got a lot of leftover defiant Christian baggage.

These are people that maybe heard some clear teaching from their parents and it didn't take long through university to start adopting other views. We know that the church by and large, we're talking about the larger church, has completely lost any definitive doctrinal stand in these areas. The idea that we all go to heaven is very much an Eastern way of thinking, and it's just all been synchrotized into this leftover Christian baggage, and we're open to it. And so those things, they shouldn't surprise us anymore. But where we differ, at least in, and I don't want to say about Holly Hill's Bible Church, I think where biblical Christianity differs from popular Christianity is that we have a final authority. And when you think about your neighbor, she made a claim. She made a definitive claim about something that sounds pretty much like a final authority to me. We all go to heaven. Well, why? How do you know that? Where did you get that information? Is it just convenient for you?

So that way you don't have to actually stand in the idea of looking at someone and thinking, well, I may or may not see them in heaven. I sure hope I do. Well, if I can think about being hostile in mind, being an enemy of God, how do I get away from having to make claims like that? I don't want to judge anybody.

So it's easier for me to say, well, we all go to heaven then. Hitler goes to heaven. The guy that, you know, abuses children. They all go to heaven. You start asking questions like that, and I say, well, I don't know, maybe there's this other place. I'm like, yeah, well, there's purgatory for some people. Then we just all get annihilated. It's over. When it's done, it's done. Live for the moment.

These are all philosophical perspectives that the Bible talks about, and they're ancient. I mean, these Colossians were dealing with a system of belief, Gnosticism, that challenged these very things in the same way. And so, it goes back to final authority. What's your final authority, though? When you say, no, neighbor, We don't all go to heaven. However, it's available to anyone who believes. Believes what? Believes the gospel. What's the gospel?

I'm glad you asked. I wish I had said that. You know what? It's okay. You know what? I think a lot of times when we get faced in situations where someone just bombards us with these major, these big claims. It takes time and just walking with the Lord to understand how you might deal with them. You know what I do a lot of times?

I say, well, I'll have to say I don't agree. I can't necessarily point to everything that I need to right now, but I want to talk to you about this again. And go take some time to spend with a teacher or get in the Word and come back and say, well, here's the thing that's different in me and you.

I have a final authority that's in the Word of God. Your final authority is probably like a pizza. You've taken a little bit of philosophy, a little bit of psychology, a little bit about your own feelings, a little bit about the game last night. You know, whatever it is that impacts your worldview at that time, and you've got a pizza topping final authority. You've just mismatched it all up from all the different influences you've had.

I'm spending my life trusting the Lord to unravel that so that it's clearly in the Word of God. The final authority is here, as opposed to those classes that I took that convinced me when I was 15, 16, 18 years old that I really don't exist for any reason whatsoever except to take up space.

We believe that. I mean, we all believe something before we believed in the final authority of God's Word. But to get back to the question, we can be prepared. And when we're not prepared, and I've been in that place many, many times where I didn't know what to say.

But what I did do is I took time to think about it after the fact and say, okay, what does God's Word say about this so I can at least have a conversation? And you know what? You can never persuade her to believe differently. But you point her to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit can do that. And all of a sudden she realizes we don't all go to heaven. Access to heaven is through reconciliation, which is the next part of this verse.

But I do think of 2 Corinthians 5.20. It says, Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. This ties in so beautifully into the verse we're talking about.

We are ambassadors. What does ambassador mean? A representative. You're an ambassador. You may not feel equipped, but you are. And equipping comes from what you're doing right now, spending time in the Word, thinking things through. It doesn't matter how old you are, where you are in your Christian life, you're an ambassador and you spend time thinking in order to represent who? Who? You are a representative of God, of Christ. An ambassador doesn't come up with his own ideas. He speaks on behalf of. So, when we say Who is the final authority? Is Paul the final authority? He's an ambassador. He represents.

Now, he is an apostle, so he's differentiated from us in that he had a direct relationship with the Lord that gave him access to divine revelation. He recorded that for us. We know in the scripture that we don't have access to that same. It's recorded. It's in full. Everything we need to know is right here. No less, no more. It's right here. And you represent it.

And so, don't think of yourself as, oh, I've got to prepare to be an ambassador, I've got to do all this stuff, I've got to go take seminary courses, done that, you know, been there. I've thought that way. I was like, I've just got to pack all this knowledge into my head. You know how you prepare to be an ambassador?

You behold Him through His Word. And guess what? You start to desire the knowledge of His will, like He talks about in the earlier verses. And guess what? You start walking worthy. Guess what? You start bearing fruit. That fruit starts becoming a component of being an ambassador. So don't get wrapped up in being an ambassador. Get wrapped up in the Lord, and that's what you'll be. But that's who you are. That's one of the words that Paul uses for us. And so, non-persuasive speech, we represent God as ambassadors, and it's the power of His word in conjunction with the Holy Spirit that does the conviction.

Do we slay that question? I didn't get a resounding yes. Can you go back? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Jim, I think some of the things, you know, it just takes the pressure off of you again when it's, you know, having gone through the Holy Spirit class. It's the Holy Spirit's job. We had a good friend, and I mentioned him several times, Sam Dalton, who was He'd carry around a flexible tube. And that's what he would say, that's what we are. We're a flexible tube. And we're just a channel for the Holy Spirit to work through. Nothing more, nothing less. And then it takes the pressure off.

And when you understand that, it's not our job to convict and convince that person. You know, for a long time, you know, with family members, you know, I thought it was my job. It was my job to get them to know the Lord. Anybody beating anybody over the head with a Bible lately? I've done that too. And it's not your responsibility.

Once you get out of that, it's amazing how much more you can be used. But even then, I go back to those verses, he's in control of all kinds of verses we just went over. He used you just the way he wanted to use you. And to point him to Holly Hills, that's maybe what the Lord wanted.

And we don't get wrapped up in, you know, if I get wrapped up in all the words that I have to say, my tongue is tied in a knot. You know, and I just thought, you know, let the Holy Spirit work through you. And if it's nothing more than pointing to Holly Hills, or I do that a lot too, I don't know, but I'll get back with you.

But even if you don't get back to it, it's not your job to be the one who has to convict that person. And once you get out of that, it's like, again, totally freeing. It's the Holy Spirit's job. And get away from the apathy that made a lot of people go, OK, I'm just going to sit back and be nothing. That's not what we're saying. It's just you're a reflection of Christ. And that's how your life... I think I've said this song, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. It's a verse from a song. I really take that to heart. I'd rather see Christ in somebody than a lot of... all those.

And I go back to that too. Mike and I get into these discussions where, you know, the guy who's on the, I guess there's a guy down at Coors Field who's out there pounding and screaming verses or something, you know, and it irritates him. For some reason, God may use that to get one person. I don't know.

And I just let the Holy Spirit work in a lot of different ways. You know, it may take a seminary guy. It may take somebody who it's not our job. And like I said for my family, it got so much easier for other family members when I realized it wasn't me who had to convince them. Well I think kind of going hand in hand with that and tying it back to the ambassadorship, there's a confidence with knowing that you are sharing God's message and that a rejection of that isn't a rejection of your own self.

Does that make sense? It's a good point. So I'll repeat it. When you share what the Bible says, in this case about heaven, well, actually the Bible says that without having believed in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection as a substitute for your payment of sin, you actually are headed for hell. Yeah, is that right? She lives across the street. Is what I said true? It's true.

What you're worried about is the same thing that we're all worried about is, oh my gosh, I just dropped a huge bomb of condemnation and judgment and now I'm that girl on the street. Don't go talk to Lana, she's just going to tell you you're going to hell.

But what Les is saying is that If it's true, and we have to deliver these in a way that is gracious and felt in a sense that it's right. So we're not beating somebody over the head on the corner of Coors Field. We're looking at how can I deliver this message graciously but not water down the reality. And if she rejects it, and if she gets mad at you, you're an ambassador. So you say, you can be mad at me, but you really need to be mad at my final authority, because that's what he said.

You don't have an issue with me. You have an issue with the Lord. And you don't like Him? Fine. You don't like Him. You can keep on believing this whole view of, you know, everybody goes to heaven. You know, they've got their own God, or they are their own God, or whatever. But you're not taking issue with one. You're taking issue with the Lord. And I think that's really important. This is not your message. This is Christ's message. You've chosen to place your faith in it, and you represent it, but ultimately rejection has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with them and the Lord.

My feeling is that if you could talk, if I were able to talk about grace, I think that would touch people more than, you know... Yeah, the scare tactic and all of that stuff is not a... it is used in the scripture. Okay? Fear of eternal judgment is a real fear. And it's something that you can discuss. I tend to not start there personally, even though there are biblical methods that do have that.

I do tend to start with an opportunity to be introduced to the Creator. sets up who Christ is. Now, we're talking about in Colossians the supremacy of Christ. He's not just a man. He's the God-man. And so, in order to get that whole concept in mind, they have to connect. I mean, there's been a number of verses in here that have tied Christ back to the creation. For Him, by Him, through Him. So, we've got to talk a little bit about the Creator. Let's not talk about where you're headed right now. Let's talk about what you actually don't understand about the Creator. Let's start there. And I'll introduce them to the creator. And what happens is, as they start to believe, okay, I'm a creature, he's the creator, I understand, I'm working on believing that.

Once you start to believe the nature of God, then things that were hurdles and held you up about heaven one day cease to be as important as someone gets acquainted with the scripture in a more chronological perspective. And I say chronological because, you know, if you just start saying that you need to believe in Jesus, well, to anybody today, the word Jesus, the meaning behind that is so different for every single person. You can't rely on just a word. You have to explain what that word means. A lot of times, you know, there are some people that know who he is and they've just flat out rejected him. You can have that conversation. But to say that Jesus is God? Well, in my mind, God is me. So I'm Jesus. You see, that's how people think. And so you have to figure out, where's their final authority? And once you've identified their God, you can start to contrast that with what the scripture means and said.

Yeah, when I learned finally that it wasn't my responsibility to get others saved, especially the relatives. used to think what in the world is wrong with this person that they can't get what I'm saying to them. But I discovered it was much easier to love them, to like them, to listen to them, to appreciate them as an individual and where they're coming from.

And it was easier not to While they're talking, think, okay, what verse am I going to quote next? And my mind is torn from where they are while I'm scrambling to figure out how I'm going to convince them. And just relax. And I don't know that people want to believe in a God that's condemning and doesn't listen to them. Listening is very important to figure out where people are coming from.

And I think if our focus is not on I've got to say this and I've got to say this, maybe the Holy Spirit has more freedom to give us the verse we need and to say in a loving way. I think the other thing too is that if we went around the room and we figure out how we all came to know the Lord, We probably have as many different ways, you know.

It could have been somebody who beat you over the head with the Bible and you did it. It could be you went through a trial and somebody was right at the end of the trial and gave you this hope. It could be friend. There's a million different things. It's individuals. And it's individually brought to the Lord. And it's not a cookie cutter. It's not a formula. And it's the Holy Spirit working individually in individuals. And that's the key is that we don't have to get a cheat sheet here that says, you know, this is my way to do it for every person.

I think the Lord uses us all in different ways and different methods. And I know if I said something more, I came in after somebody said something. Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah, and the Lord uses, the Holy Spirit uses us in a lot of different ways. So I just, you know, it's just that relaxing, you know, just relaxing the Lord. And the Holy Spirit let him do it.

And the words you use are what he wanted you to that day. And it's not, again, just that not responsibility. It's so freeing. I'm amazed when you do that, how many verses come up once you relax. It's like when I'm trying to think, I've got to tell that person something. My mind goes like a blank slate. But when I just relax, And it's not my responsibility.

It's amazing how many verses or what the Holy Spirit brings to me to share with that person. I think it's a good point. We all have had different means by which we came to the Lord. There is one consistent factor that we all share. What is that? You might have come at 3 years old or 10 years old or 55 years old. So age is not that factor. The way that the Lord brought an ambassador into your life, or maybe not a personal ambassador, but the ambassadorship of maybe a church, or a radio ministry, or a Billy Graham situation.

So the means is different, but is the content ultimately the same? It does get down to, each person that is saved, has heard the gospel, the power of the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, have convinced them that that is true. How that goes on, and if the gospel is clearly presented in five minutes on an airplane, or it takes thirty years to get through the gospel message, each believer has at least heard the truth of having a substitute die in their place for their sin. And they have, whether they know it or not, experienced the power of God at work in them through His Word, through His Holy Spirit. So this idea of there's many different ways to come to know the Lord, but the content is always the same. And how it gets delivered is different, but ultimately, in order to be saved, you have to hear the truth.

The truth is a requirement. So when we think about loving people to the Lord, that's a big thing, especially in a lot of touchy-feely environments of Christianity today. Don't worry about anything, just love people to the Lord. What is the greatest expression, I'm going to say this from my perspective, what's the greatest way you can love an unbeliever? Share God's Word with them. And it might take 30 years. Which means you might spend time mowing their lawn after they broke their law. You might do acts of kindness. Or you might trust the Lord, rather, to do acts of kindness through you. And that's loving them.

But ultimately, your greatest expression of love is telling someone the truth, even if it hurts. So we can't think of love... In 1 John, I remember, we talked about truthing in love. Truth in love. And so the love for unbelievers takes place in a context of truth, not in a context of touchy-feely only.

Although those things are important, we all need to see compassion. But it's not your compassion that ultimately is going to save them, is it? Although it might be one of the ways the Holy Spirit softens their hearts. But at the end of the day, it's the gospel message that has the power to save. I was 11 years old when I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I was crying and crying. And my older sister says, you're supposed to be happy. You're not supposed to be crying. I remember saying, I am happy! I can't tell you what the feeling was, but there was a tremendous drawing of me to the Lord. Yeah. And you know, we all have different feelings that took place. Some cry, some go into complete, you know, total silence.

And what we have to not do, I believe as ambassadors, is worry about the way people react. Because the way you react is going to be different than me. And we don't know what the Lord's doing in their heart. And so one of the things that, you know, in sharing the gospel that you can get wrapped up with pretty early on is, Why are you not more excited about this?

You want them to feel like you do, or you want them to feel like the last person that came to know the Lord that you had the privilege of being a part of looked like. But those are feelings. And remember Verne's illustration, it's faith in the facts and the feelings follow. So you can have a non-emotional experience where someone gets saved. You really can. They don't have to be. For you, it was very emotional, and it was deep-seated, and it was special because it was between you and the Lord.

But for another person, they could be sitting in a car by themselves and just not even realize when they actually believed. Listening to sermons, like I don't know what this stuff's all about, they're just listening on the radio, and all of a sudden they realize, I don't know when I believed, but sometime along the way, I came to understand and I believed. And I've met a lot of people who are like, I don't know when it happened or when it clicked. It wasn't this definitive moment, but I believe. It could have been ten years ago. They just weren't really sure about how it all came down.

Yeah. I was going to say, my brother John and I, when I was going to college, we had Jehovah Witness time. And I got my brain so scrambled with non-truth that, so long story short, my wife and I over at a Bible study in California, like two years later. And there was this really sweet guy named Joel and his wife Rose. And he'd be talking up and shooting all these noble witnesses at him.

And he said, you get married, go rest. Sure. I don't think what you're saying is right. But I'm just speaking. It was a loving thing. It wasn't like he was. Yeah, right. just shooting back scriptures of why I was wrong. He just smiles and says, you're really deep buddy. And that really meant a lot to me. Yeah, and there's those of us that get deep and then there's those of us that don't.

But again, it's the Word of God in conjunction with the Holy Spirit that convinces a person to believe not persuasive speech as Paul says. So we rest in the Lord, trusting Him to do the living through us. And when we have an opportunity to share what we know, we share it. And if we need to get back with somebody, we get back with them. Or if we don't, we trust the Lord that maybe I planted a seed and somebody else will come along and water it. But you rest. Being an ambassador is a restful job. Because the Lord is going to do the work. It's His job.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the privilege it is to be an ambassador, and we know we all are in different places with our preparedness, but At the end of the day, you're most concerned about fellowship with us and having sin out of the way so that we can spend time together and enjoy the union and the fact that we are alive in Christ. Lord, I just pray that our hearts would be at peace about the different circumstances and situations that we have around us and that we would just trust you to bring about the right opportunity and the right time and the right words to point them to your final authority. And so Lord, we again thank you for the privilege it is to be an ambassador. I just pray that we would trust you through the week and when we find ourselves struggling, Lord, just to calm our hearts and to spend time with you and your word to behold you. We pray these things in your name. Amen.