“Ambassadors” By Chris Ulrich October 15th,
2017
Amen,
you may be seated. A lot
going on up here; I saw Kirk running over there with Malcolm’s son,
with the
tambourines. I saw a can of Altoids on the floor, I saw Pat strumming
on the
guitar, so there was just a lot of activity. But, I appreciate that
it's great
to be in the house of God and to see everybody today. I'm
going to ask you to turn with
me, really quickly, to the Book of John, chapter one, verses one
through twelve. John 1:1-12
In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word
was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with
God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any
thing made
that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of
men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The
same came
for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him
might
believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of
that
Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into
the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the
world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received
him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the
sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name: Mike
Alford, if you could come,
and lead us in a word of prayer, please. Mike: Bow your
heads. Lord
Jesus, we just praise Your holy name, Lord God. We thank You for Your
love,
Lord God, and showing Your light to us, Lord God. No, we're not that
light, but
we are, like John, to help manifest that light, Lord God, to others
around us,
Lord God, that we hold in our life, we've accepted it, Lord God, and
we’re Your
sons and Your daughters, Lord God. Lord, we want to be faithful, Lord
Jesus,
and hear, "Well done,” at the end of this life, Lord God. We want to
help
other people who don't have that light, who don't know the light, that
they can,
hopefully, they can be saved, too. We just pray that You would bless
the
message today, and bless and anoint Brother Chris, as he delivers the
message,
Lord God. And help him to deliver the message that You would have for
him, in
the name of Jesus, Amen. Thank
you, Mike. I have to say
that I really appreciated the music this morning. And there was a
song—not the
one that we just heard—but prior to that, that we're kind of doing,
it's kind
of a new song, "Your Presence Is Heaven to Me.” Now, what I like about
things like that is, every now and then, I mean, we do traditional
songs, but
we'll have newer ones. And, I'm not part of the music ministry at all,
I just
appreciate it. I don't know how the committee gets together, or, Andy,
somebody
comes up to him, this is, "Oh, I got this song,” or, "I heard this
song,” or read about it. And, then they just start practicing it, but
it
blesses all of us. I guess one way I would describe it is, it was
cheerful, and
that's important. And, I appreciate the simplicity of this passage we
just
read. Remembering it, for the first time I read it after being born
again. And
it was more than just enlightening, it was as though God spoke to me
personally. There were things that were enlightening, and there were
things
that I knew that, that my life had changed for the better. One of the
highlights from last week's sermon that Parrish preached was him
saying,
there's still a newness that we get in God, that’s as though we were
born again
yesterday. And that's coming from a man who's been many years in the
faith.
Many of us can relate to that, because there is a certain freshness,
behold all
things are new, old things are passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). And,
each day
God gives his blessings and his mercies are renewed. And it's not as
though we
look at each day with dread or fear. I get that there's problems, I get
that we
all face different dilemmas, and situations, and whatever they might
be. Sometimes
they might be tragedy, but we still have the power of God; we still
have the
power of God to get us through each day. And, God will give us that
newness of
life if we are willing to receive it, for however long we're saved. And
part
one of the message today is receiving God's love. Part 1: Receiving
God's Love So,
what does it mean to receive
God's love? The paradox to that is that it may not always feel like
God's love,
but that doesn't mean it's not real, that doesn't mean it's not right.
And,
it's not something we can just explain away in a few quick sentences.
Somebody
asks you to tell us a little bit about God's love, I would imagine that
there
are hundreds of thousands of millions of different answers from
different
people. Because, it could mean different things to us at different
points of
life, too. It could mean receiving a healing touch. It could mean that
the
bills are paid. It could mean that we have a relationship that's been
mended.
It could be the wisdom that God blesses us with. Or it could be
something that God’s
correcting us with, that He’s showing us that we need to go a different
way. Or
it could be just savoring the breath of life. But,
on the other end of the scale,
what does it mean to reject God's love? I don't think we have to look
very far,
or look very hard, to see what it looks like to reject God's love,
because
we're surrounded by it in this world, and I would even go so far as to
say that
we're inundated in it. I would even go so far as to say that, sometimes
it
feels like, going through this life as a Christian, that you're just
being
chased. I'm talking about just, relentlessly. It's just an ongoing
thing. You
don't know what's going to happen next. You don't know what law is
going to be
enacted next. You don't know what persecution, or what people's
reaction to our
stances in God is going to be next, and it is like being chased, but
there's
victory. We all have power in God. And, there is the ability to take a
stand.
And, we don't have to be defeated by those who reject God's love. In
verse twelve
of the passage that we just read, it talks about God gives us, His sons
and
daughters, the power over the world. And that power will sustain us,
even when
that evil is so prevalent. Even when it seems like it is an
overwhelming force,
God gives us that power. Now
I'm going to go out on a limb
with this next question to everyone, but: Is there anybody here that
comes to
church regularly even though the person or the people that invited you
out was
an absolute jerk? I appreciate that. Now, my next statement was don't
raise
your hand, especially if the person who invited you out is here. So, if
that
was the case, I have to say this much: Then the anointing of that
person or
that group of people must have been pretty incredible, because,
otherwise, why
would you come out to some place just voluntarily? So, the truth is, I
knew
that was a little bit of a loaded question. But I hope you know where I
was
going with this. Truthfully, most of us came out as a result of
somebody that
was friendly, by somebody that did take time, that did listen. Maybe we
weren't
able to put our finger on it exactly, maybe we weren’t able to
understand
completely what their motive was, or what we were getting into. But, I
would
say, and one of the people that invited me out, Kirk Orelup, is he?
yeah, Kirk’s
back there. It was actually a group of five people; I was in the
military at
the time just walking around, and at the time I know that I was seeking
God and
I was seeking for some answers. And really, I didn't know where to go,
what church
to get involved with. I remember actually just looking in the phone
book. I just
was sort of at a loss. But, I remember coming across these guys and
they were
friendly, I mean, really nothing out of the ordinary. I remember Kirk
specifically mentioning hacky-sack, which was something that was pretty
common
back at that time. And, I thought, "Oh yeah, I've played that a little
bit,” but it piqued my interest. It got me seeing that these people
were
trustworthy. When I came out and I met the rest of the church I saw
there was
no doubt about it. There is no doubt about it that these people were
friendly.
And that's part two of the message today, is about we need to be
friendly. Part 2: We
Need to Be Friendly And,
I know that I usually give
the title a little bit later on in the message, but, today, I want to
give it
right now, unless Pete already put it up there. But the title of this
sermon
today is, "Ambassadors.” Because, that's what we are in the family of
God,
which also happens to be the theme of the month, that this is the
family of
God. These are the things that the family of God does. And, after we
receive
the love of God, God has a mission for us. We become his
representatives. We
become an example of the believers. I'd like to ask if you could turn
with me
to the Book of Proverbs, chapter eighteen, verse twenty-four. It's a
common
verse. It's a very quick, easy read. Many of us have heard this first
before.
But it simply says: Proverbs 18:24 A man that hath
friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh
closer
than a brother. This
isn't complicated, and it
isn't some mystery that someone who has friends is a friendly person.
And, it's
going to take friendliness to get people interested in coming to
church, as
well. We're not off the hook. God has something for us, and God has a
responsibility for us, and God has a mission for us. But, if God has
given us
that love, which was our first part today, we should be able to
overcome the
different obstacles that we face in life, to at least have that, we
should be
able to at least have that. I
remember a few years back, God
spoke to me about my demeanor and approachability. And I didn't take it
as a
blasting rebuke, or, something that God just came down, furiously, and
said,
"You're absolutely not doing this!” But, it was one of those gentle
reminders that God gives us, but it was still a reminder, and, it was
something
that made me check myself. There’s times when God does that, where
there are
rebukes. I mean, we look at our own personal life and we look at what
the Bible
talks about, as for as, furious rebukes and, times when God really
needs to get
our attention, does that happen at times? Absolutely, it does. Is that
always
the case? Absolutely not. But, I look at that wisdom from God
seriously. I'd
like to ask Alex, Alex Rasimov, he's going to come up and read from the
Book of
James, chapter three, verses thirteen through eighteen, please: James 3:13-18 Who is a wise man
and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good
conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying
and
strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
This
wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For
where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
But
the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy
to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and
without
hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of
them that
make peace. Thanks,
Alex. But, the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be
entreated, full
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality—which is something we're
going to
touch on later, that partiality—and without hypocrisy. God speaks to
us, and,
whether the world, or different people don't agree with that, that's
fine.
We're going to run into that disagreement. We're going to encounter
people in
life that aren't seeking God, whatsoever. We're going to come across
people
that are unreasonable and evil people, like even the Bible talks about,
that's
okay. Because, we're all going, ultimately, to be judged individually;
we're
not going to be judged as a collective group, not going to be judged by
a
certain race, by a certain ethnicity, by our gender, or whatever other
category
wants to be thrown out there these days. So,
I've got a quick story here.
Recently, I was at El Famous Burrito, which is a Mexican restaurant
right down
the street over here. Just ordered a meal and kind of standing out,
over by the
horchata machine which, in case anybody, doesn't know what a very
delicious,
sort of, milk-like drink. So, anyway, I was kind of standing there
looking around,
watching the football games, the soccer games, different people, people
running
around, kind of keeping an eye on my order, and I kind of looked back
and God
spoke to me again and said, "Check your demeanor. Check your
friendliness.
Check your approachability.” And, I have to say it was one of those
things
where I didn't take it as a blasting rebuke. The voice of God speaks to
us just
like we talked about, like we just read in verse seventeen. The wisdom
from
above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. It's
not like
every time God speaks to us that it's a blast, or it's a rebuke, or
it's a
correction. And, even if it is, there's times where God just says,
"Hey,
check this. Keep an eye on what you're
doing, look around, look through other people's eyes and see what they
see in
you. Are they seeing somebody that's friendly? Are they seeing somebody
that's
approachable? Do you look like somebody that they want to go up and
talk to, or
you look like you are trying to look tough, and trying to get down, and
just
trying to, you know, act like you own the joint?” I hope not. But
that's the
way society has gotten. That's unfortunate, but that's true. Because
there's so
many walls, and I think it was Donna that had mentioned it in her
testimony, about
people build up all these walls of protection, and there is a degree of
need
for that, because we have to protect that which is precious to us. But,
we also
have to understand we can't always have our guard up. We can't always
be just
ready for a fight with everybody that just approaches us, or walks down
the
street. So, I'd love to tell you that what happened after that was
people
started coming running up to me, and wanting to give their life to
Jesus Christ,
and know more about the truth. But, that's not what happened. I got my
order,
sat down for a three-taco dinner, got up, walked out, went home. But,
I'll tell
you this much: So, what's the actual lesson in that short story? That
we're
ambassadors for God no matter where we're at, and that friendly is what
the whole
family of God does. We have to have that friendliness. So,
I have a question for
everybody; I'm not really looking for a response, but just kind of
think about
this: Does anybody here think that God respects us? That might sound
like a
little bit of a weird question. I’m going to ask Jubal, if he would
come up,
he's going to read from the Book of Genesis, Chapter four, verses one
through seven.
Because those of us that believe that God is our creator and we are the
created, we might feel like the God doesn't have to respect us at all.
Part three
is about being respectful. Part 3 Being
Respectful Genesis 4:1-7
And Adam knew Eve
his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a
man from
the LORD. And she again bare his brother
Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the
ground.
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the
fruit
of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also
brought of
the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had
respect
unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering
he had
not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the
LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance
fallen?
If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest
not
well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and
thou shalt
rule over him. Thanks,
Jubal. So, I have to admit
that as I was preparing this, and starting to look over some
definitions, that,
it dawned on me that for God to respect his own creation, just that
whole idea
to me is mind boggling. It sort of pushes the limits of what we define
as the
love of God, past any boundaries that we can even think. So, I'm going
to give
a couple of quick definitions. The Strong's Concordance definition of
respect,
in this passage, in Genesis four, is to gaze at, or about, inspect,
consider, have
compassion or regard. The thesaurus definition: Admiration, reverence,
esteem.
It's a little different from the concordance, but not by that much.
Now, we also
read in Romans, two, eleven: Romans 2:11
For there is no respect of persons
with God.
So,
which is it? Does God respect
us or not? God is no respecter of persons in the fact that God shows no
partiality or favoritism, as was mentioned in James, chapter three,
verse seventeen,
without partiality. So, yes, God does have respect for us when we do
what's
right, just like what Abel did. And again, I have to say that as I was
reading
this—and I've read through this a lot of times in my life. Because we
hear so
much, God has no respect of persons. God has no respect of persons. God
is no
respecter of persons. You think after a while, "Oh, God doesn't respect
us.”—but when I was thinking, "Okay, this point, this part of the
sermon is
about being respectful.” Well, it says in verse four: And the Lord had
respect
unto Abel and to his offering. Because, I had to reread that, because,
I
thought, "No, He just had respect for the offering.” It said He had
respect unto Abel. To me, that sort of sets me back in a good way.
Because, it
makes me thank God that much more. It makes me understand that the
boundaries
of God's love are just absolutely limitless, and that's a good thing.
Because,
it makes us realize, we're not going to know everything, and we're not
going to
understand everything in this life, including the very first point,
receiving
God's love. We're going to receive as much as we can, and what's that
going to
look like to different people? Different things at different times.
It's going
to mean different things to people that are serious about the Gospel at
different times in their life, and it's going to have a greater impact,
but
it's never completely disannulled. It's never to where it has no effect
at all,
or it means nothing; it always will mean something. And, the fact that
God
respects us if we do what's right, I've got to say I just love that. I
mean, I
don't know how else to really describe it, or I don't really have much
more to
go into about that. And God doesn't play favorites. Because the Word
also says
in Revelation, Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water of
life
freely (Revelation 22:17). So, let's bring this respect thing, right
now to see
how it translates into action. How are we showing people respect in
general?
One thing I believe will firmly will never go wrong if we show respect
to
people, and being respectful is what the family of God does. I believe
we
should be respectful to each other, and that's an ongoing way, as well.
But I'm
especially talking about being respectful to people who were in
positions in
life that maybe aren't really expecting it. The truth is, it's easy to
respect
somebody who's in high authority, or that’s signing our check, or if
it's
somebody that can get rid of us at the drop of a hat, or whatever the
case
might be. And, there is nothing wrong with being respectful towards our
employers. Or there is nothing wrong with being respectful to different
people
in society. But I'm talking about, and I'm going to name some
positions.
Because a lot of times, these are places in society that they are a
little bit
more front and center. That they are a little bit more vulnerable to
the wrath
of people. And we're talking about waiters and waitresses, I’m talking
about
people that bag groceries, I'm talking about people who were at the
checkout
counter at the airport, I'm talking about cab drivers. And, you know,
I'm not
trying to name, and I hope I'm not embarrassing anybody. But I will
just say
that there are certain, but there are certain sectors of society they
are just
going to face the brunt of people a lot more often. I mean somebody
that sits
in a place that... Now I have been in those positions. I mean the
position that
I'm currently in, I'm not, but I still get it occasionally. But I'm
talking
about, how are we respectful toward them? How are we respectful to
somebody
that's a cashier? And I get that—I’m not making excuses for bad
service,
either. I mean, if you are going out checking out of the grocery store
and they
don't say anything, absolutely, at all, I think there's something wrong
with
that. And, I'm not here to try bring up every experience that we've all
ever
had., "Oh, I got one, too. I got one that's worse than that. They
showed
me so much disrespect.” Okay, okay, too much focus in society on how
everybody
is mistreated, everybody’s drafted in a low draft pick, or everybody’s
get
wronged, or everybody's body shamed. And after a while, it's like, did
anybody
say anything good, absolutely at all, to you about this? I mean, I read
this
sometimes, it's like this person got body shamed and I'm like, “You
posted it
online; 3000 people commented on it, and maybe three people had a
negative thing
to say about it, and you're going to focus on the three, what about all
the
others?” “Oh, you look good.” “Oh, you look great,” “Nice dress,” or
whatever
the case might be, and it's just sort of exasperating after a while.
But, we're
talking about being respectful. Because, on this side we're going to be
respectful, but we can't always tell what everybody else is going to
do,
because it's a free for all. It's an absolute free for all. But, God
will always
bless us for treating people with respect. We’re
in my last part today. So, every
day we live, and whether we like it or not, we make judgments. We make
judgments about small matters: What time we're going to get up, what
time what
we're going to have for dinner, whether we're going to do yard work
today or
tomorrow. We make judgments about weightier matters, such as: Should we
buy
this house? about getting married? Marriage? about people, and they’re
deciding,
in this congregation, right now, what college they'd like to go to, or
whether
they want to go in the military. Or, if they're already there, they’re
deciding
what classes to take, or what kind of orders they like to get. And then
there
are judgments that we face that, they are the highest court that we
could think
of: Things like getting baptized, or what we think we should say to
somebody
who is terminally ill, or faced with a crisis. And, our fourth and last
point
today is about being non-judgmental. Part 4:
Being Non-Judgmental I'm
going to read from the book of
John, chapter twelve, verses forty-six through forty-eight. I’m going
to let
everybody turn there, if you've got your Bible today. And, I have to
say this
was another one—and sometimes I think when you take a little bit closer
of an
evaluation of the Word of God. And God highlights some things to us
that maybe
we didn't get earlier on, something to rejoice about, that’s something
to be
thankful for, and that something to guide us in our path in life. These
are the
words of Christ, He said: John 12:46-48
I am come a
light into the world, that whosoever believeth on
me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words,
and
believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to
save
the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words,
hath one
that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him
in the
last day. We're
talking about, what are our
stances when it comes to judgment? Now, do we just take a pass and tell
them we
have no opinion at all? What do we tell people when we’re pressed for
an answer
about what happened? What do we do when we're at a funeral, and we know
that
somebody wasn't born again, and they ask us, "Where do you think they
went?” I know a lot of us have heard this. But, I'm going to share it
again,
because I feel like it's worth reiterating. Early on, in the years that
I
became a Christian, I remember our founding pastor sharing, if you are
in that
predicament, or if you are in that situation, just tell them that they
are in the
hands of a just God, and I've used that. It didn't come up the next
day, I mean,
it came up twelve or thirteen years later. God puts those things in our
toolbox. We are able to retrieve that years and years later. I've got
an
analogy I want to make here. Somebody and I were talking about this
recently. I
think it was Parrish and myself. But, have you ever been out on the
highway, and
there is construction, and they’ve got those humongous machines that, I
think,
are called road graders? Andy, do you know what I am talking about,
they
flatten out the tar. I mean, you can see that there's a guy riding on
them, and
he goes really slow and it levels out all the asphalt. Well, I thought,
"That machine has no other purpose than to flatten asphalt. You can't
use
it as a hammer, you can't use it as duct tape, you can't use it as a
thumb
tack.” I mean, just think, that machine, I don't know what they cost,
but, let’s
just say twenty-five million dollars. So, think about it. That's a tool
that's used
for a very specific person purpose, and it’s not used for just
everything under
the sun. And that's the case a lot of times for the things that God
puts in our
toolbox, maybe we won't use it immediately. Maybe, it's something that
we hear
now, or that we had years ago, that we end up using fifteen years
later, twenty
years later, where did that come from? The Holy Ghost brings those
things into
our remembrance. But, Jesus said He came to judge no man, because He's
not here
to judge the world, but to save the world. But He also knew that part
of his
mission was to warn people about the wrath to come, and that eventually
we're
all going to be judged by God. So, what this play, it matters, and I
kind of weighed
it up, and I'm kind of going to be closing here in a few minutes, about
some of
the situations that we hear about, some of the issues that we hear
about in our
society, and some of them are ugly. How many of you heard of this
Hollywood
producer, Harvey Weinstein. Okay, some of you haven't, some of you
have. He is
now being accused by several women of some lewd behavior; It's traced
back for
decades. And he's quite a powerful figure in the film industry. And
it's one of
those things where, I don't agree with Harvey Weinstein's politics.
I'll just tell
you that right off. A lot of the people who have accused him are really
on the
same side of that fence, but I'm just going to share it like this. I
don't, and
I don't think anybody in this room is an agreement—for those of you
that don’t know
it's sexual allegations and rape and groping, and just so on and so
forth—I don't
think anybody in this room agrees with that kind of behavior, I
certainly
wouldn't think as far as Christians go, absolutely not. But, what if it
comes
down to what if somebody asks us about it? What's our judgment, what or
what we
have to say. I don't agree with what he's being accused of; I don't
know all
the details enough to make a judgment. And I know that's kind of an
extreme
case, but there are things like that—and I'm going to share one last
thing, and
I am going to be closing in a moment. There was a man many, many years
ago, and
by the name of Alton Coleman that was from this area, and had committed
some
extremely violent murders over the course of time, and was on death row
in Ohio.
I don’t remember all the details, but somehow Pastor Paine and others
in the
ministry—Kirk, do you know the details of that? Do you know the details
of how
the communication between Alton Coleman and our ministry originated?
Okay, I
thought I’d ask, because I knew you were—Pete does? Let me just give
you the
microphone, here. Pete: There
was a lady in
our church, at the time, she's passed now, but he grew up in the
neighborhood
that she lived in. She knew him, and she was communicating with him
while he
was on death row. And when she mentioned to our pastor that he was
interested
in making sure that he didn't live the next life the way he lived this
one.
They made arrangements, so they went to the prison and baptized him. Editor’s note: I
have since
been corrected on that. We didn't baptize him, but his accomplice
Debbie Brown,
was baptized. Thank
you, Pete. So, that's
something that, if we were to decide, if Pastor Paine decided, "No,
absolutely not, he has no chance, he stands no chance.” And, yet, we
don't
absolutely know, we are going to err on the side of mercy. Mercy
rejoices
against judgment. You look at Apostle Paul, you look at the marvelous
works and
the writings that he did. He was a murderer. And, I guarantee you, I
mean,
that's then, and sometimes it feels like, "Oh, that’s so long ago; it's
not really connected to the modern day.” Yes, it is. Because the
behavior of
people is never going to change. The behavior of people, the way God
has created
us, is always going to be the same, whether it's good, or whether it's
evil. And,
the truth is, God is going to be able to give us the ability to speak
when
important matters arise. Because we're all going to give an account.
We're all
going to be judged by the things that we do and the things that we say,
and
what about those matters that are a little bit more closer to home that
maybe
involves family, or maybe involves something we were done wrong in,
where is
our judgment, then? I'm not saying that we can't have a righteous
judgment, but
I'm talking about when Christ said, "I judge him not,” He's talking
about
an eternal judgment that that person couldn't escape, that there's no
hope,
there's absolutely no hope, whatsoever. But, we have to make sure that
we always,
always trust God. Trust God for his judgment, lean on Him, lean on the
Holy
Spirit for the understanding, and the direction, and the words. The
Bible
teaches us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Are you
speaking
life today? Thank you, and God bless.
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