Appealing

The last four weeks we've been in 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:1, looking at our IDENTITY. I find this passage of scripture to be personally engaging. There is, at least for me, a great sense of identity in how we live our lives and most importantly, how we live the message of Christ in our lives.

Yesterday we looked at "What We Live For." "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (verse 20)

Love it.

God is making an APPEAL through US!? Are you serious? You. Me. All of us are his ambassadors and God needs us, wants us, desires for us to be His ministers so that he can make His case and share His love through us!? Wow.

Think about that for a minute. You are the carrier of this message. You are the official representative of Jesus Christ. Your life tells the message of reconciliation. You.

Now, here is the idea I really want to expand on: Ambassadors can not "appeal" the message if we live for anything other than Christ.

Our identity is often found in many other things. I am a minister. I am a farmer. I am a lawyer. I am a husband. I am a father. I am a big Texas Rangers fan. Yet, what we tend (I am as guilty as anyone) to do is overlook God's given identity of us. You and me were created and have been given the title "Ambassador."

Imagine if our USA Ambassador to Germany began to speak in a British accent, stop showing up to the US embassy and spent more time in England than anywhere else in the world. What would you think? We do the exact same thing to Christ all the time! We say we live for Christ, yet we talk differently, we act in ways that don't show Christ and we spend more time on the internet or watching tv than in God's Word. So, are you living like Christ's Ambassador? Are you living for the message of wonderful, life-changing love? In other words, are you appealing?

I believe we are all appealing. We are all appealing to some kind of message. But, I believe if you are appealing in any other message other than Jesus Christ, you are living for the wrong thing. Simply put, something that is "appealing" is "attractive." I think we often are attractive. Not physically speaking, but life living.

I can remember as a teenager looking a certain "groups" of people and being attracted to them. Wanting to be like them or a part of them. I catch myself sometimes today looking at a certain life-style and being attracted to it. Watching HGTV and wanting very badly (lusting?) to re-model my entire house. I've read stories of real life heroes who do amazing things for the benefit of others and I want to be more like them. And if I'm honest, I watch Batman and wish I could take on crime all by myself too.

God's message is for all and He wants all to hear it, experience it and live it. His Ambassadors are the path He has chosen. He is making His own Godly appeal through you and me and if you and I are not appealing Christ, God's message can not be seen.

I think this is important. God's message is not only an audible message we need to speak, but a message we must live. Ambassadors for the United States go and live in another place. They are essentially the United States while there. They speak for the President. Their actions reflect an entire nation. Their mistakes often place our government in a tough situation. Christ's Ambassadors are Christ for a broken world. We must speak like we represent Christ. We must act like we represent Christ. We must even re-act like we represent Christ. One way or another we are representing something.

My challenge, for me more than anyone else, is to be appealing for the message of Christ.