How to Live for Jesus

Love worship music. I love worship music. For a long time, I wanted to be a worship pastor. I thought that's what the Lord had for me. I had the heart for worship until my good friend, Kevin Ewell, one day told me I just didn't have the voice for leading worship. So I begged to differ though. I mean, there was one Sunday years and years ago, I was sitting down here in the front row, getting ready to preach. And I'm just killing it. You know what I'm talking about? Like you're worshiping and for whatever reason, you feel like your voice hits a gear it doesn't normally hit. I'm over here worshiping and I can hear like I am matching pitch for pitch.

Whoever that angelic voice on the stage was that morning, I'm like, I'm right there in sync with that guy. I think I got it until I realized that person's sniffles were also in sync with my sniffles. And it wasn't someone on the stage that I was hearing. It was my own voice coming through a microphone for everyone else. To hear as well.

And I have had little glimmers of hope like that along the way of man, maybe there's still time. I just, I love worship. When I think of how I interact or feel the Lord's presence most, it's typically around worship, worship music specifically. I know everyone is a bit different, right? For my good friend, Kevin Ewell, perfect worship, a perfect worship service even would look like we all come in this room with our mouths taped shut. And we're given a Bible and we just read the Bible for an hour. That would be the best worship service in his mind. For some of you, it would look like we're going to go meet at Camelback or we're going to go meet at Tom's Thumb and we're just going to enjoy creation.

That's what worship looks like for you. For me, it's always just been like musical worship. I love musical worship. There's different songs that have ministered to me in different ways. Or maybe like you, like me, maybe there's songs will come on the radio and you'll remember like where you were when you first heard it. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think Or And I think that's what it's all about. And I think that's what it's all about. And I think Or what you were going through in that moment.

And maybe it's not even a worship song. Maybe it's some other secular song, but like it ministered to you in deep and meaningful ways. And you can remember like, man, I remember where I was at. I remember what I was going through when I heard that song. And I don't know, music is just a beautiful, beautiful thing. I've been listening to this song lately. It's on repeat. There's a band called Sons of Sunday. And they have this song called One More Day. And the lyrics, they just say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. One more day to say I love you.

Just thank you, Jesus, for one more day for me to just say I love you. And I don't know what it is, but there's something beautiful and simple about that, that we can come before the Lord and God say, there's a lot going on in life right now. There's some good things. There's some hard things. There's some happy things, some sad things. But God, thanks for one more day where I can come before you and just say, I love you. I love you. I think that's what we want. I think each of us wants to make a difference. I think each of us wants to make a difference. I think Predator deserves what we want,

Too. And I just, I've always wanted. You know, I think the Lord's creating it. We're going to have an army of three. Here we go. We're going to live our life for Jesus and trying to figure out like, what's that mean? Does living your life for Jesus, it'd be great if every day I could just spend the day in church and we just worship together. Is that what living life for Jesus looks like? Maybe it's, man, if I could just go hike forever and be in creation, or if I could just be in God's word, that's what living for Jesus would look like. That's what worship might look like. Romans chapter 12, verse one talks about real authentic spiritual worship.

And it tells us that we should offer ourselves as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. What's it look like to really worship Jesus? It means daily we're a living sacrifice unto the Lord. That's our authentic, real spiritual worship. That's a big question. How do we live for Jesus? If we want to live for Jesus, how do we live for Jesus? Is that just hour on a Sunday? We live for Jesus. Is that just Christian radio live for Jesus? Is that our quiet time? We live for Jesus out in the creation, live for Jesus. I think that's certainly a part of all of it, but what might it look like for us to really live for Jesus?

And that's what I love about second Corinthians five, where we're going to be at this morning. I think second Corinthians five gives us five ways that we can live for Jesus. And I know that's certainly a lot, right? Perfect world. We all come in here, five things, hammer them out all week. And bang, we're living for Jesus. Maybe there's one of these things, two of these things, three of these things you feel like the Lord putting on your heart this morning of, man, if I could implement that in my life, if I could change the way I think about that by the power of God's spirit, maybe I could more fully live a life that's devoted to living for Jesus.

I think that's what we want. I think by the power of God's spirit, maybe we'll be able to walk in a way that pleases the Lord just a little bit more based upon what his word says to us this morning. Let me pray for us, and then we'll hop in. Corinthians chapter five. Father God, we come before you with gratitude and humility. God, so much gratitude that you would call us children of the Lord.

God, so much gratitude that we can come into a beautiful building with air conditioning and typically running water and resources and facilities. And God, we are so blessed by you. So blessed by you. God, thank you for opportunities, even like this morning, a water rain break at 6 a .m. God, thanks for reminding us this morning what's really important.

Holy Spirit, I pray this morning you would open our eyes that we could see God clearly. You'd open our ears that we could hear him. God, would you open our minds that we would know you, our hearts that we would love you, and our mouths that we would go out into the world with courage and confidence and just speak the good news of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done.

Father, our goal is to be a part of you. We want to be a part of you. We want to be a part of you. We want to glorify him in everything we say and do in this place this morning. It's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen. How do we live for Jesus? Five things we're going to see in the text this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The whole thing, the first is this. How do we live for Jesus? We live in anticipation of eternity with Jesus. We live with anticipation of eternity with Jesus. This is what we saw last week. Now is not forever, and this place is not our forever home.

Someday, we might live for Jesus. We might live for Jesus. We might live for Jesus. We might live for Jesus. Chapter 5 verse 1 says this. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with human hands, eternal in the heavens. I can't think of a more temporary structure than a tent.

Paul was familiar with tents. Paul was actually a tent maker by trade. He would preach the gospel, minister to people, plant churches, and then he would fund that ministry by building tents. He was a tent maker. He was a tent maker. He was a tent builder. So he was very familiar with tents. The whole city of Corinth, actually, if you remember, as we've talked about the city of Corinth, the city of Corinth was like a pretty transient town. It would swell to like multiples of its normal population during this thing called the Isthmian Games. It was second to only the Olympic Games. So many people would come into town, and to house them, they would put up a lot of tents.

And then when people left, they'd tear those tents back down. Tents are cool. Anyone like camping? I love camping. What I love about camping is that I get to go home.

Like, I love being out there. I've shared with you before, like, if I get lost in the woods, I tend to find myself and find the Lord. Like, I love being out in the woods. I love camping. I love being out in God's creation. But tent is always a reminder of like, thank God I don't live in a tent.

Like, the whole goal of being in a tent is like, let's make this thing as close to home as possible. Let's get a real comfy, cushy sleeping bag. We could sleep on the floor. Or what if we brought in a whole mattress? Like, we try to make the tent as close to the real thing as possible. It's temporary. You're always looking forward to something better. Like, you enjoy the process, you enjoy the experience, but you know, there's something better on the other side. I think that's the reason he uses tent. Our body is like a tent.

And we ought to enjoy it. We ought to take care of it. But we ought to also realize that we're not going to live in a tent. And remember, it's just temporary. This is not the body we will have forever. It said, someday this tent will be destroyed and we'll have a building from God. If you remember 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we talked about our eternal bodies, our glorified bodies, our resurrected bodies, that someday we will die. Our bodies will be sown like seeds into the ground, but what's sown perishable is raised imperishable. That someday we'll have a forever home.

And that body gets to live in a place that Jesus himself is preparing for us. If you want to, take in your Bibles, go to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. We'll have an eternal body, but we'll also have an eternal home. This is Jesus speaking in John chapter 14. He says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. And I don't think this is some metaphor.

Someday we get to live with God forever. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am, you may also be.

And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas the Apostle said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus responds, one of the most famous, most famous, most famous statements in the Bible. Jesus says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. See, we have these tents. We have these temporary dwelling places. We saw last week, our outer self is wasting away. We face these light momentary afflictions, but all of those things ought to be a reminder of this place is not my forever home.

Someday this body will die and I will be given something much more glorious and something more eternal, a place where I can live with God forever. Verse two, for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on, we might not be found naked. For while we're still in this tent, we groan being burdened. Every time we realize in our body something doesn't feel right or something is off, it's like we're groaning for something better.

Sometimes it's just a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan. Just a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan. Sometimes you're hurting so bad those groanings just make their way out on accident. Yesterday morning, getting out of bed, grabbing onto everything I can to muster up the strength to just get myself out of bed. There's a lot of groaning involved.

A lot of groaning. Why? Because something's not right. Because something's off. Something hurts. Something is not the way that it's meant to be. Maybe you're mourning the loss of a loved one. That's groaning. Death is a result of a curse.

It's groaning. Something's off. Something is not the way it ought to be. The ending of a relationship. Sorrow. It's groaning. Because something is not the way it's meant to be.

Sickness. Groaning. Something is off. Something is not the way it's meant to be. So yeah, in these tents, in these bodies, we face these light momentary afflictions. We face these groanings. Realizations that something is not right. But instead of like just accepting defeat, we ought to be spurred on to realizing, man, how do we live for Jesus? We live with anticipation of eternity with him. We realize that now is not forever and this is not my home.

Someday, by the grace of God, through the way of Jesus Christ, I get to dwell with my heavenly father forever.

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God. He who has given us the spirit of God. As a guarantee. Earlier, he says that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. That's what we're looking forward to. I'm gonna fast forward Revelation 21. You can join me there if you'd like or you can just listen along. Revelation 21, it talks about this. It talks about mortality being swallowed up by immortality. It talks about these tents. It talks about this life we experience now being swallowed up by the life that is to come.

Revelation chapter 21 begins. in verse 3, I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. He will wipe away the groaning, and death shall be no more. The groaning shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. Why? For the former things have passed away. That's the day we look forward to. No more groaning, no more pain, no more sorrow. Eternity, perfect peace, harmony with Christ and Christ alone.

Chapter 22, when's that day coming? Jesus speaking. 22 verse 7, Jesus says, behold, I am coming soon. Jesus in 22 .10, the time is near. Jesus in 22 .12, behold, I am coming soon. Jesus in 22 .12, behold, I am coming soon. Jesus in 22 .12, behold, I am coming soon. Jesus in 22 .12, behold, surely I am coming soon. Our response, amen. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Maranatha. How do we live our life for Jesus? We live with a recognition that now is not forever. This place is not our home. We live in anticipation of eternity with Jesus forever.

Second thing, how do we live to follow Jesus? How do we live for Jesus? We live to please Jesus. We'll get there shortly in verse 9. Verse 6 says this, so we are always of good courage. Why? Because we realize now is not forever. Also, Christ is with us. We are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. That's how we walk now. We walk by faith. We don't have Christ right in front of us. We walk by faith, but someday we will walk by sight.

Revelation 21 and 22 says this new city, this place we live has no need for the sun. We will not need the sun. We will not need the sun. We will not need the sun. We will not need the sun. Why? Because we have the glory of our God..

We will have the living, breathing Jesus right in front of us. We will walk by sight. But for now, we walk by faith. We walk by faith. And if we're going to live to please Jesus, if we're going to live to love Jesus, we fix our eyes on Jesus. We walk by faith.

Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Take your Bibles, go to the right. Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians chapter 1 verse 21, Paul speaking about his desire to be away from the Lord, away from the body so we could be present with the Lord. Chapter 1 verse 21 says this, for to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Well, why would death be gain? Because if death is just a doorway to eternal life, if death is just a doorway to the perfect presence of our Father, then yes, to live is all Christ, and to die for the believer is just more Christ.

For the believer, like life is pretty good, but the best really is yet to come. There's gain on the other side of it. To live is Christ, to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is far more necessary. On your account, it's an interesting word. He says, I'm hard pressed between the two. Hard pressed between what? On one hand, I'm hard pressed. I just want to go be with Jesus. But on the other hand, I'm hard pressed, like I just want to live my life for Jesus, that I might help people find and follow Christ.

That word hard pressed means to like smash together. Like I'm smashed together by these two things, both of which involve just living my life for Jesus. It gives me the visual of like, you ever make a snowball?

I know out here, we don't get to make snowballs a whole lot. But if you're trying to make that perfect snowball, not like, you can't use fresh fluffy stuff. It just disintegrates when you throw it. You can't use really wet stuff because that just concusses whoever you throw it at. You're looking for that like perfect snow and you form this perfect and you hard press and you shape it.

Paul says, that's my predicament. That's the situation that I'm in. I'm hard pressed and being shaped by this. I desire to just go be with Jesus. I'm hard pressed between the two. Hard pressed between the two. I just go be with Jesus. I'm hard pressed between the two. Hard pressed between the two. I just go be with the Lord. But I also desire to just do what the Lord would have me do in the here and now. I just want to live with and for Jesus.

I'd rather be away from the body so we can just be home with the Lord. So whether we are home or away, we make it our aim to please him. Whether I'm with Jesus in eternity, or whether I'm still on this side of heaven, my goal will be to please him.

The Holy Church Father, he put it like this, before we know Christ, before we are a Christian, what does it look like to please the Lord? Well, the book of Romans says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. So Augustine said this, for those who are apart from Christ, you can't please him and you can't please him.

If you have no faith, you can't please the Lord. He also described it this way. He said, you can choose to sin and you can choose to sin. That's what freedom looks like apart from Christ. You can't please God. For those who are in Christ, for those by faith, we've been saved through Christ, what he's done, who he is, place our faith, our hope, our trust in him, become saved, become children of God. Well, what does it look like to please God? Well, now we have the freedom to sin and we have the freedom to not sin. I have the freedom to displease God and I have the freedom to please God.

But someday on the other side of life, when I'm with Jesus, what does freedom look like? It looks like this. I'm free to not sin and I'm free to not sin. Someday when I live with the Lord forever, I'm free to please him and I'm free to please him. So whether I'm in this life now, Paul says, I'm going to make it my goal to just please Jesus. And then someday when I'm with eternity forever, I know the outcome. The outcome is I'm going to please Jesus. I make it my aim to please him.

There's a saying I heard a long, long time ago, I'm free to not sin. know if I heard it in sports or in archery or who knows what. Aim small, miss small. You've heard this before? If you're shooting a free throw, don't just like throw it up there and hope for the best, right? Like pick a target, shoot for the target.

If you're throwing darts, the goal isn't like, I'm going to try to hit triple 20, but I'm going to spin around three times, close my eyes, and we'll see what happens. If you're shooting a bow, aim small, miss small. So we're looking specifically, I'm going to look at someone who won't be offended. Look at my brother Daniel. I'm aiming for my brother's nose. Aim small, miss small. This isn't just like, man, I hope.

Maybe for this, hope's kind of a bad strategy. Like put a plan together, right? Unless your hope's in Christ, best strategy in the world. Aim small, miss small. I'm going to look at something very specific, and if I miss it, I'm going to be off just by a little bit.

This isn't just like, I'm just going to hope I somehow please the Lord. I'm going to look at something very specific, and if I miss it, I'm going to be off just by a little bit. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Which is often times.. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Aim small, miss small. Which oftentimes is what we do. We say we're going to live for Jesus, but then when it comes down to it, okay, what's that look like? Well, I just, I wake up with this desire to like, you know, I'm just going to please the Lord.

What's that look like for you? You know, I'm going to, pleasing the Lord looks like I'm going to go to church on Sunday. That's a great start.

Pleasing the Lord looks like, you know, maybe, maybe today I'll turn on Christian radio. Great start. You know, maybe today I'm going to, let's screen time. I mean, aim small, miss small. What does it look like for you to really focus and fixate, fix your eyes on Jesus?

He said he makes it his aim. Aim small, miss small. He sets his sights on Jesus. He's solely focused. My goal in my life is to please Jesus.

How do we live our life for the Lord? We aim to please Jesus. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due. For what he has done in the body, whether good, or evil, judgment seat of Christ. The term used here is this word, Bema. These people would have been really familiar with that. Remember, these are Olympic games types of people. They would go to these Isthmian, Isthmus games, and they would watch these different races. Think of like summer Olympics, feats of strength, feats of speed, all these Olympic style sports. There'd be a raised platform. That raised platform was the Bema. And from the Bema, the judge would watch the race take place.

After the race, the judge would, you know, he would, you know, he would, you know, he would, kind of say who wins and who lost, and then would issue awards based upon how those people ran the race. The Bema seat was not a place of punishment. The Bema seat is a place of reward. For those who are in Christ, someday we will stand before Jesus as he sits on this Bema seat. For those who are in Christ, we do not face judgment. We do not face consequences. What we receive is reward.

What those rewards look like, people speculate also. And so, the Bema seat, I hope, is meant to be something that does not hurt something that does not hurt you, but will bring you peace. And so, the Bema seat is a place of reward, and I would say that's what crowns in the Bible come from. I mean, people go up, they go down. You know, it's like the foundation of God. A crown for the Lord, A crown for the Lord, and other things, but the Bema seat is plan for a question. And so everyone stands before Jesus someday. Scriptures teach someday every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. For many, they'll just do it too late.

There's another judgment. People will stand before Jesus, and to some, Jesus says, well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter the joy. Enter the rest of your master. To others, he'll say, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

But Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father. Friends, he's made a way. He's made a way for us to get to the Father. He's made a way for us to someday stand before Jesus with a righteousness not of our own doing, but a righteousness that's totally his, a righteousness based on Jesus, a righteousness based on his life, his death, his resurrection.

We live this life to please him. Verse 11, therefore, in light of Jesus Christ, we live this life to please him. Verse 11, therefore, in Jesus Christ, we live this life to please him. Verse 11, therefore, in light of this, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others because everyone goes somewhere forever.

Everyone goes somewhere forever. All of us in this room can probably think of someone in our life right now that we love deeply, but we have a pretty good idea. If they were to die today, we have a pretty good idea where they'd end up. Everyone goes somewhere forever, and that person you love deeply, Jesus wouldn't tell them, well done, good and faithful servant.

Jesus would tell them, depart from me, I never knew you. Man, that should break our hearts the same way it breaks the Lord's heart. John chapter 3, verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave. God wants people in heaven. God wants heaven crowded. Is that our heart?

If everyone goes somewhere forever, do we then do the work to persuade others? That's what he says. With this in mind, therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, that everyone will face judgment before God, we persuade others. Sometimes we think persuasion looks like, you know, I'm just going to live my life a certain way, and certainly that'll change their hearts and someday they get to go to heaven too. Okay, Jesus says, he is the light of the world. He also tells us, you, therefore, are also the light of the world. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Absolutely, live your life in such a way that people see Jesus through you.

But this word right here, persuade, is a vocal, verbal, talking word. This isn't just live your life in a certain way. People see your life and they go to heaven.

Do we love people enough to say hard things? Do we love people enough to share the good news? Yes, live it out, but to share the good news with them. Let them know who Christ is and what he's done.

This is what Paul did. He received the love of Christ, and then he freely gave that love away. If we're going to live our life for Jesus, we live for the love of Jesus. If we're going to live our life for Jesus, we live for, from, in, and through. Everything is the love of Jesus. Maybe you're catching on by now. Every answer in your outline is Jesus.

Five blanks, all of it's Jesus. We're in church. Of course, that's the answer. Maybe you've heard the silly joke before. You know, what's fuzzy, hides nuts in a tree in the winter, has a tail? Well, it sounds a lot like a squirrel, but we're in church. So I think it sounds a lot like Jesus.

The answer is always Jesus. It is. It is. Everything is Jesus. All of life is all for Jesus.

When I receive the love of Jesus, I reciprocate love back to Jesus, and then I freely give that love away to people around me. And because I love the world, just as Christ loved the world, I'm willing to do whatever it takes.

We live because we love Jesus. We persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it's known also to your conscience. We're not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. Apparently, there were some people in this church in Corinth who became kind of vocal in naysaying who the apostle Paul was, spreading rumors or saying false things about him. And Paul says, you know, hopefully you all know me well enough that when people say that, you'd go to bat for me and you'd have my back.

That's the point that Paul is making here with these people. 1 Corinthians 3 .4 -5. If we are in a right mind, it is for God. If we are in a right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us. Interesting thing here. The love of Christ controls us. Remember that word the apostle Paul was saying, I'm hard -pressed between the two, the snowball thing? Same word used right here. The love of Christ, I am molded, I am shaped, I am who I am because of the love of Christ.

I would not be here without the love of Christ. The love of Christ, it has this two -handed grip on me. The love of Christ controls me. The love of Christ compels me because I have received the love of Christ in my life, I can't help but reciprocate the love back to him, give the love back and then freely give love to the people around me. Jesus in Matthew 22, someone asks him a question. What's the greatest commandment in all the scriptures? You've probably heard the story before. And Jesus says, well, there's two of them. The first one is this, love the Lord your God, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength.

And the second is just like it, love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, everything else hinges upon those two. Love, love God, love people. That's what we talk about all the time, ain't it? The love of Christ, we would receive the love of God, that it would compel us, that it would control us to love him and to love the people around us. How do we live for Jesus? We live a life of love, receiving his love and then reciprocating his love to everyone around us. We've concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised again, that we would offer our lives, our spiritual act of worship would be us offering ourselves as living sacrifices daily to the Lord.

That's what our love to him would look like. There's a fourth way. How do we live for Jesus? We live as new creations in Jesus. We live as new creations in Jesus. From now on, therefore, we regard no one. According to the flesh. Remember Paul just said, there's some people out there regarding me according to the flesh. What I want is for you to see my heart. Don't just see what's going on on the outside, see what's going on in a heart level. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come.

I love that phrase, passed away. That's what we say when someone dies. It's a nice way to say it, right? You know, they've passed on. It somehow lessens the blow. They're no longer with us. I have some doctor friends who have told me when you're seeing a patient and that happens, you're not allowed to say things that are unclear.

Like you can't tell grieving, concerned, angsty, worried people that they're no longer with us because we're not thinking straight. Where'd they go?

They're passed away. Well, where to where? They have to tell them like they have died. They are dead.

This is what Paul says about our sin. The old you is dead. Who you used to be apart from Christ, those things you used to do on the outside, they're dead. They're gone. What Christ sees when he sees you now is himself, his righteousness, because that's the righteousness you've embraced. He sees what's going on in your heart. Yeah, you got some jacked up stuff happening on the outside, but when God looks at you, he sees your heart. Isn't that the opposite of what we see? That's the opposite of what we see.

Like we're fruit inspector judges just looking at people and trying to see based on the outward appearance, I'm going to judge what's going on the inside. I'm guilty of this all the time. I met a guy this last week. We were having breakfast over at JJ's Deli, wonderful deli. And a guy came up to us as we're leaving breakfast, guy pulls up in a busted, banged up Prius, tears in his eyes, crying, super dirty. And you can guess right away, you know, homeless.

And right away, you start thinking some things in your head. And we're probably thinking some things in our heads right now, right? We see an outward appearance that we start judging what got them there. Man, this kid deeply loves the Lord. Never would have guessed it. Typically wouldn't give him like a second of my time. You know, here's another guy who threw it all away, blah, blah, blah.

Deeply loves the Lord. Trying to pursue the Lord. He said the only reason he stopped is because he was driving around the world. He was driving around the world. And felt the Lord tell him, go talk to those guys. They have the Holy Spirit. They'll give you what you need.

Tears in his eyes. I don't want your money. I'm just hungry. Haven't eaten in days. Can you please help me? Boy, did I judge that guy wrong.

Sure, he's made some mistakes. Who hasn't? Part of me questions, how many mistakes am I away from being that same guy?

How many mistakes am I away from throwing it all away? How many mistakes am I away from losing the privilege of what I get to do to preach God's word to his people?

How many mistakes am I away from losing my family? How many mistakes am I away from losing everything?

And I can't look with judgy eyes, looking at the outside. We got to find a way to see the heart. Why? Because when God sees us, he sees heart.

So we live as new creations. We see us the way God sees us and we see people the way God sees people. We see them with love. We see them with compassion.

Fourth thing, what does it look like to live for Jesus? We live as witnesses of Jesus. Verse 18, all this new life, new creation, new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. He's going to use that word five times right here. Reconciled means to buy back, to get right, to exchange.

Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. So if you are in Christ, you are a minister. I know sometimes we think like, no minister, that's your job. Pastor, minister, that's your job. Minister just means, says, it means servant. And what he says here is if you've been reconciled to God, if you've been bought back to God, if you've been made right to God because of what he's done, then all of us have received this ministry of reconciliation. All of us are ministers.

Your job title might be different. Your occupation might be different. What you do with all your time might be different, but all of us should see our job as ministers of reconciliation. Christ saved us. Therefore, whatever we do with our life, we look for opportunity to help people be reconciled back to God. That is, and Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Man, there's got to be a more effective way to get your message out than trusting it to people, right? Like if I need someone to know something, I know it's far more effective for me to just go tell that person than it is for me to tell a bunch of people, hey, can you go tell these people the thing I need them to know?

Why God has chosen such a thing, I'm not sure, but what a joy it is to be a part of it. What a joy it is to see people repent.

What a joy it is even just to see people take one step away from what they thought they knew to explore who Christ is and what he's done. That's the invitation the Lord's given us. What's it look like to live for Jesus? Man, it looks like being a witness to who he is and what he's done.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And what a blessing that him who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, the perfect spotless lamb of God, the one who took on the sins of the world, that we might have the righteousness of Christ. What an exchange he made for us.

How do we live a life that pleases the Lord? What's it look like to live for Jesus? It has to start there. We must be reconciled to God. We must be made right with God. The beautiful thing is there's nothing we have to say or do. It's already been done.

It's already been done. All we do is receive it. We accept it. The scriptures teach that each and every one of us is a sinner. Maybe you sin in big ways, maybe you sin in small ways. However you define those things, the point is all of us have sinned in our life. The scriptures teach that the wages of that sin is death. Some day we'll stand before the Lord and give an account for our life.

Everyone will go somewhere forever. For those apart from Christ who haven't placed their faith in him, he will tell them depart from me, I never knew you. For those who want your shame, who trust in Christ, who've been reconciled back to him, he'll say, well done. Good and faithful servant, enter the joy, enter the rest of your master. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. The beauty of the gospel is that God saw us even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And if you and I would place our faith, our hope, our trust in Christ, we too could become children of God.

The scriptures teach if we confess with our mouth, agree, if we agree that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we too can be saved. We can live a life that pleases the Lord. Man, just like Paul implored this church to be reconciled to God, if that's you, man, I implore you this morning, would you receive the invitation of Jesus Christ that he's offering you this morning? Would you place your faith, your trust, your hope in him and in him alone?

For the rest of your life, for the rest of your life, for the rest of us, would we live from that position, that position of being a new creation? Would we live lives as people who have been reconciled to God, not because of what we've done, but because of what he's done? Would we live in this anticipation

Of eternity someday with the Lord? Would we live with a singular aim? Would we live to please Jesus? Would we embrace this love? Would we receive this love and then show this love to the rest of the world? Would we see people the way Christ sees us as new creations, as people that Jesus loves? And seeing that we've been reconciled, would we go out into the world as witnesses of who Christ is and what he's done and just talk about Jesus, amen? Amen, let me pray for us.

Father God, thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for the life he lived, the death he died. Thank you for his resurrection. thank you that he exchanged his life for ours his righteousness for our sin, and that in doing so, when we place our faith in him, we receive that righteousness. God, I pray for anyone in this room right now who's on the fence of making that decision. God, I pray that you would, in your loving kindness, get them off the fence and help them be reconciled back to you.

Would they see you clearly? Would they hear you speaking to them? Would they feel you moving in their heart? Would they confess you, Lord, and believe that, in fact, you did raise from the dead? Would they experience the blessing of living life as someone who's been saved?

Father, thank you for sending your son to live for us. Help us live for him, for his glory and his glory alone. God, we love you, we thank you. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, would you join us as we close in worship? Amen, my hope is only Jesus, yet not I, but Christ in me. I don't know where you're at in your faith this morning. We've got a prayer team down front. They would love to pray with you. Maybe you feel the Lord calling you to himself. Maybe you desire to give your life to the Lord. Maybe you just have some feelings and some emotions going on. You're not sure what to do with it.

Maybe this morning that God is seeking and doing whatever he can to reconcile you back to himself. Man, we'd love to talk with you. We'd love to pray with you. This team down front would love to do that. Maybe you've got some good things, hard things. They'd love to minister to you through prayer as well. For the rest of you, don't forget, service isn't over till you love somebody. Love somebody. Love somebody well, then go out into the world and live on mission for the glory of Christ and Christ alone. We love you. God bless you. We'll see you next week. Bye -bye.