According to this passage of Scripture, there's a
war going on.
And in fact, there are three wars going
on in the world today, but they all
go back to this one that Paul's writing
about.
People are at war with each other.
We have race against race, and we have
clan against clan, nation against nation, class against
class.
People are at war with each other because,
according to James chapter 4, they are at
war with themselves.
From whence come wars and fightings among you,
asks James.
Here's where they come from.
Your members that are at war down inside.
So people are at war with themselves, and
therefore they are at war with each other.
But the basic war is people are at
war with God.
And when people are at war with God,
they're going to be at war with themselves.
And if they're at war with God and
at war with themselves, they're going to be
at war with each other.
And so the only way really to bring
peace into homes and cities and nations is
for people to be at peace with God.
Now, Paul does not tell us that God
has declared war on the world.
The fact of the matter is he says
just the opposite.
He's saying here that God has declared peace
on the world.
And he sent out his ambassadors not to
declare peace, not to declare war, but to
declare peace and let people know that they
can be reconciled to God.
In the Roman Empire where Paul lived, there
were two kinds of provinces.
Whenever Rome would move in and conquer some
territory, these territories would be classified in one
of two ways.
They would either become senatorial provinces or they
would become imperial provinces.
You say, what's the difference?
Well, the difference was significant.
Where the Romans conquered a people and these
people were submissive, obedient, cooperative, it became a
senatorial province.
And there wasn't a great deal of army
that was settled there.
But where you had a province where people
were rebellious, uncooperative, where it was dangerous, this
was called an imperial province.
And an army, a large army was stationed
there and an ambassador was sent there to
deal with the people.
Now, if Paul is telling us Christians in
verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ.
You know what that means?
That means that this world that we live
in is not a senatorial province.
This world we're living in is an imperial
province.
It's at war.
It's rebellious.
It won't cooperate.
It won't listen.
And so God's had to send ambassadors out.
Let's think about this tonight.
Let's ask ourselves the question.
We are ambassadors for Christ.
What does this mean?
Doesn't say we should be ambassadors.
Says we are.
Paul's not challenging us.
He's describing us.
What are the characteristics of an ambassador?
What do we know about an ambassador?
Well, let's just tick them off one by
one because ambassadors back in that day were
not much different from ambassadors today.
Number one, an ambassador had to be a
citizen of the country that he represents.
This is true today.
If Mr. Carter is going to appoint an
ambassador, he appoints someone who is a citizen
of the United States of America.
Now, you and I, as ambassadors for Christ,
have to be citizens of the country that
we're representing.
Now, what is the country we're representing?
We're representing heaven.
Here we are in this imperial province.
People are rebellious against God.
They've declared war against God.
The carnal mind is enmity against God.
Here we are as ambassadors and we're coming
into this province and we're saying to people,
heaven is interested in you.
The God of heaven has sent us to
you to tell you be reconciled to God.
He has been reconciled to you.
If that were not the case, he'd have
blown you right up.
Through the death of Jesus Christ on the
cross, God has been reconciled to this world.
Judgment is suspended.
And we're representing the nation where our citizenship
is.
Paul says in Philippians chapter three, our citizenship
is in heaven.
The disciples came to Jesus one day and
they were just so thrilled.
Usually they were arguing about who was the
greatest, but not that day.
They were just thrilled.
He had sent his apostles and some extras,
70 of them out to minister.
And when they came back, they said, Lord,
even the demons are subject unto us in
your name.
And Jesus said, don't rejoice because the demons
are subject to you.
You rejoice because your names are written down
in heaven.
And I appreciate the fact that when Dr.
Luke wrote that verse in the Greek language,
he used the tense of the verb written
that says, your names stand written in heaven
and they always will be written in heaven.
The Lord didn't say, now, as long as
you are successful, your names will be written
in heaven.
As long as you serve me, your names
are written in heaven.
He said, don't rejoice about your service.
Service comes and goes.
The reason you are effective on earth is
because you are known in heaven.
Now, if you're a Christian tonight, your name
is written down in heaven.
That's great.
Our names aren't written in many great places.
We don't have our names written in the
annals of history.
If the Lord tarries and we someday pass
off the scene, people won't pick up the
Encyclopedia Britannica and find our picture and our
name.
But there's one place where our names are
written down because of Jesus Christ.
Our names stand written in heaven.
We're the citizens of heaven.
Now, being the citizens of heaven, therefore, we
can represent heaven.
An ambassador must be a citizen of the
country that he represents.
That's why it's an impossibility for us to
be effective ambassadors if our citizenship is not
in heaven.
We can talk about Jesus, preach about Jesus,
even in our own limited way, try to
serve Jesus.
But oh, when you get to know him
and your name is written in heaven, then
you can be an ambassador.
Now, a second characteristic comes to us.
Not only must he be a citizen of
the nation that he represents, but he has
to be commissioned.
Wouldn't it be silly for me to go
down to Marshall Field and go into their
leather goods department and say to the immaculately
dressed clerk there, Sir, I want to purchase
an ambassador's portfolio.
Are you an ambassador?
No, but I'm going to be one.
Really?
Yeah, I'm going to make myself one.
Some years ago, there was a gentleman who
used to go around the United States and
around the world carrying a crown and a
folding chair.
Remember him?
One day, he set up his folding chair
right in the Capitol there, on the front
stairs of the Capitol building, and he crowned
himself King of the United States.
A little squib in a paper about this
alone.
Nobody paid much attention to him.
You can't go walking into the embassy and
say, Where's Behere?
Oh, yeah, who are you?
Well, I'm the ambassador of the court of
St. James.
Really, where are your credentials?
Have you been commissioned?
Oh, I commissioned myself.
Sorry.
The ambassador has to be commissioned by the
people that he represents.
This is what our Lord says in 2
Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19, that God has
committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Verse 18, he has given to us the
ministry of reconciliation.
Reconciliation, bringing together again.
Satan is in the business of dividing.
Christians should be in the business of uniting.
Sad to say some of them are in
the business of dividing.
We are commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, you'll keep a marker, please, in 2
Corinthians 5, because we're going back there again.
And you'll turn with me to John chapter
17.
John chapter 17, that magnificent high priestly prayer
of the Lord Jesus.
If this coming year you want to meditate
on something that will lift your heart heavenly,
John 17 is the place to go.
In John 17, our Lord prays an interesting
prayer.
Verse 15, I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
So the word of God keeps us clean
in this present world.
And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that
they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Now, I skipped verse 18 deliberately.
Look at what it says.
As thou hast sent me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into
the world.
Every Christian has been commissioned by Jesus Christ
to be an ambassador to a lost world.
Now, he prayed that way and he spoke
that way over in John chapter 20.
In John chapter 20, when our Lord appeared
in the upper room with the disciples, when
the doors were shut, and he came in
and he said to them in verse 19,
peace be unto you.
He's the first ambassador of peace.
And he showed them his hands and his
side.
That's the basis of our peace.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw
the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, peace be
unto you.
There is a peace with God and there
is the peace of God.
As my father hath sent me, even so
send I you.
And so you have to be commissioned by
the ruler that you represent.
Now, have we been commissioned?
Yet we have.
Yes, we have.
Now, there are many motives for being an
ambassador.
Some people might want to be an ambassador
because of the prestige that's involved.
Somebody might want to be an ambassador because
he can work his way into the government
and perhaps become president someday.
There are many motives for evangelism.
Why should we go out and witness?
Well, there are lots of motives.
Some people do it because they see the
desperate plight of people.
They say, I want to do something to
help these people.
It's like Paul, when the man from Macedonia
said, come over and help us.
Paul says the love of Christ constraineth us.
His love for Christ and Christ's love in
him.
He was constrained.
He was compelled because he'd been commissioned by
the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's no reason for us to argue about
it or debate it or try to excuse
it.
If we are not representing Jesus Christ as
we should in this world, it's because something's
happened to our love.
We can take all the courses in evangelism.
We can fill our pockets with tracts.
But if we don't have that kind of
love that made Jesus Christ the first ambassador
of peace, we're never going to get the
job done.
We are commissioned.
You are commissioned.
I am commissioned.
There's no escaping that.
There's a third characteristic of the ambassador, and
that's this.
He must represent the ruler.
He doesn't represent himself.
He's not supposed to represent some vested interest.
If we discover that an ambassador of the
United States is using his office to carry
on some kind of nefarious deal, we take
away his commission.
This is why the Apostle Paul says over
in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 5, for
we preach not ourselves.
Don't do it tonight, but when you have
some time, read through 2 Corinthians and mark
when Paul uses the word ourselves.
It's an interesting study.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the
Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Jesus Christ,
for Jesus' sake.
In other words, we are not to go
out and preach D.L. Moody.
We're not to go out and preach Moody
Church.
We aren't to go out and preach ourselves.
We're to preach Christ.
When an ambassador is sent to a foreign
power, he represents the ruler who sends him.
And the ruler says to him, now here
is the message that I want you to
give.
Here it is.
And one of the saddest things in all
of church history has been when men have
refused to give the message that God has
given.
We have more different messages today.
Someone says, I represent Jesus Christ.
If you let me baptize you, you'll go
to heaven.
If anybody else but myself baptizes you, you'll
never make it.
Somebody else says, I represent Jesus Christ.
If you come to this table or come
to this church, we preach not ourselves.
Paul said, if anybody preaches any other gospel
than the one God gave to us, let
him be accursed.
That's strong language.
And he repeats it.
I say it again, as I've said before,
if anyone, even an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel than the gospel we've preached,
let him be accursed.
We must represent the ruler who sends us.
This is one of the most wonderful things
in the Christian life.
We don't have to manufacture anything.
We don't have to get up in the
morning and say, what can I say today?
God has told us what to say.
Christ died for our sins, according to the
scriptures.
He was buried.
He arose again the third day, according to
the scriptures.
He was seen of witnesses.
That's our message.
Now, to win the hearing is something else.
To be able to build the bridge between
our message of peace and their heart of
war.
That's something else.
But once that bridge is built and once
we have the ear of the enemy, we
have the message already.
It's too bad when many Christians think they
have to think up cute ways, clever ways,
novel ways to tell people that they're sinners
and that Jesus died for sinners and they
can believe and be saved.
We don't have to do that.
We just simply represent the ruler.
May I add in parenthesis at this point,
the ambassador, wherever he is.
Represents the ruler and the nation.
And people judge the ruler and the nation
by him.
This is one of the sad things about
being a tourist in a foreign country.
Some of you have had this experience.
I always try not to look like a
tourist.
Really, I don't carry a camera.
Mainly because I can't take decent pictures.
My wife takes the pictures.
And I always try to look as though
I own the place.
As though I've been there all of my
life.
Because there's one thing that has really upset
me in traveling in foreign places.
It's because it's Americans who have acted like
fools.
I've told you about the time we were
on the bus in London.
And we went up on the second story
of the bus.
So we could see the sights as we
drove along.
And we were in the back and in
the front were six or eight American tourists.
Boisterously laughing, cursing, talking about gambling and drinking.
And I said to my wife, don't tell
anybody you're from the States.
I was embarrassed.
Now, perhaps it's wrong for us to do
this, but we do it.
We judge a nation by the people that
we see.
We shouldn't do this, but we do.
When the ambassador comes to court, when he
presents his credentials, when he gives his message,
the way he does it reflects upon his
ruler and upon his nation.
That's why he should always be dressed in
the uniform of his nation.
Now, if you want to know what your
uniform is as a Christian, read Colossians chapter
three.
But put off all these things, anger, malice,
lasciviousness, all these dirty things, and put on
meekness and humbleness of mind and love.
Can you imagine an American ambassador walking around
London or Paris or any other capital city
looking like a bum?
Boy, Time magazine would put that in the
front cover.
Man of the year.
Hobo News would feature it.
We represent our ruler and we give his
message and we seek to glorify him.
Now, a fourth characteristic comes to us.
It's this.
The ambassador has all of his needs provided.
Now, if you're going to be an ambassador
for the United States, you'd be good to
be wealthy before you start.
Because there are extra expenses that must break
them.
This is why so often wealthy industrialists become
ambassadors, because they've got the checkbook and the
credit cards to do it with.
But basically, the needs of the ambassador are
met by the nation that he's representing.
That includes protection.
Technically, technically speaking, an American embassy on foreign
soil is American soil.
There is diplomatic immunity given to ambassadors in
foreign countries, and we grant it to them
here.
Now, if we discover they're involved in some
kind of a spy ring or something, we
just ask them to leave.
That happened just a day or two ago
to one of the United Nations personnel.
But we have the provision and the protection
of the God that we represent.
I was just recently reading a book on
discipleship evangelism.
I enjoyed reading it.
And once again, it reminded me of something
that I've known and you've known.
We don't like to admit it.
In one of the chapters, the fellow says
this, and Mr. Kennedy makes the same statement
in his evangelism explosion material.
Most Christians do not witness because of fear.
They're afraid of what people will say and
they're afraid of what people will do.
Now, what is there to be afraid of?
We have all of the armies of heaven
behind us.
We have the power of the spirit within
us.
We have the sword of the spirit before
us.
We have the God of glory looking down
upon us.
He has said, my God shall provide all
your needs according to his riches and glory.
Now get going.
What's there to be afraid of?
Well, we're afraid of our reputation, but that's
not why we're there.
None of us has been commissioned to be
an ambassador to build our reputation.
Jesus gave up his reputation for us.
He was made of no reputation.
They crucified him.
Early in his ministry, Charles Spurgeon was lied
about.
People were jealous of him and they hated
him.
And he was just having a great ministry
and the devil fought him and he was
criticized.
Oh, they lied about it.
There were articles in the paper and people
even published booklets entitled, Is C.H. Spurgeon
a Converted Man?
And it almost broke Mr. Spurgeon.
His wife had a plaque made from the
Beatitudes.
Blessed are ye when men revile you and
persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is
your reward in heaven.
And she had that put into his rooms.
When he woke up in the morning, it's
the first thing he saw.
But one day he read an account that
just dragged him into the mud and back
again, and he went and fell on his
face and said, Oh, Lord, why should this
happen?
Then God said, Why shouldn't it happen?
If they've criticized the master, they'll criticize the
servant.
If they have vilified him, they'll do the
same.
If they've crucified him, they'll crucify you.
And Spurgeon said, Lord, I have given you
my body.
I've given you my life right now.
I'm going to give you my reputation.
And if you want to take my reputation
and my name and allow this to happen
to it, and it glorifies Jesus Christ, here
it is.
You and I aren't sent out as ambassadors
to build our reputation.
We're sent out as ambassadors to stand and
give the message God's given to us, whether
people like it or not.
And all of our needs will be provided
and God will protect us.
Quickly, there's a fifth characteristic of the ambassador.
He must keep in touch with headquarters.
Now, this was a difficult thing years ago.
When you read about the early days when
Benjamin Franklin was sent over to Paris to
do some negotiating, it took months to get
across the ocean.
My, now you can get in a Concorde
in New York and you're over there in
what, three hours?
And you can pick up a telephone or
push a button.
And within a few seconds, you're in contact.
The ambassador has to keep contact with headquarters
because he's not there on his own.
He is there as a representative and an
issue comes up and he just can't make
a snap decision.
And so he has to pick up the
phone and dial headquarters and say, now, what's
our position on this?
What's our position on that?
You and I, as ambassadors have got to
keep in touch with headquarters.
Since you then are risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above where Christ sitteth
at the right hand of God.
Set your attention, your affection on things above
and not on things in the earth.
Now, Paul's not saying ignore the things on
earth.
We are on earth.
We can't ignore them.
What he's saying is you govern things on
earth according to heaven.
Keep in touch with headquarters.
How many times we as ambassadors, we go
ahead and make snap decisions, what to do,
where to go, how to spend our money.
Never consult headquarters.
Never see what the rule book says.
Never pick up the phone, dial heaven, talk
to the Lord about it.
Get our instructions from headquarters.
If the ambassador is going to be effective,
he's got to keep in touch with headquarters.
And if he isn't in touch with headquarters,
more and more, he's going to get off
of what headquarters wants him to do.
This is how Christians get out of the
will of God.
No time to pray.
No time for the word.
The most beautiful thing you and I can
do is each morning, get alone with God,
open the word and say, Lord, here comes
your ambassador.
I'm going out where they are after me.
Jesus said, I'm sending you out as sheep
in the midst of wolves.
So here we are ambassadors of peace.
We have peace in our hearts.
They have war in their heart.
We go forth with truth.
They have lies.
We have love.
They have hatred.
Oh, God, you've got to prepare me.
We get in touch with headquarters and God
gives us all that we need for that
day to get started and to go out
and to represent him.
Which leads me to our sixth characteristic of
an ambassador.
One day he has to give an account
of what he's done.
He's called home.
He stands before the president or the secretary
of state.
And he says, well, here are the books.
Here they are.
Here's how the money was spent.
And here's what we did.
And here's the documents.
Here we are.
Now, the issue is not his citizenship.
They don't call him in to see if
he's a citizen.
That's all settled.
We don't stand before the judgment seat of
Christ to determine whether or not we're going
to heaven.
That's settled.
If it were not settled, you wouldn't be
an ambassador.
An ambassador must be a citizen of the
country he represents.
We must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, says verse 10, second Corinthians five.
That word appear doesn't mean show up.
It means be revealed.
It's a frightening word for we must all
be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ.
Be exposed.
The records are open.
Now, not our sins.
I've heard some men preach about the judgment
seat of Christ as though it's some sort
of an evangelical purgatory.
He's not talking about our sins.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus.
He is talking about our ministry, our witness,
our lives, and the books are going to
be open and we're going to be exposed
as we really are.
Today, we masquerade quite a bit.
We can cover things up with our singing
and our speaking.
But on that day, when we stand before
the Lord, it's going to be exposure.
God's going to see us and God's going
to show us.
We must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ that everyone may receive.
That word receive means carry away.
Carry away as you carry away wages.
It's talking about a reward.
Everyone may receive the things done on his
body.
According to that, he hath done, whether it
be good or bad.
The word bad here doesn't mean evil.
It means worthless, good for nothing.
God is going to open the books.
Jesus Christ is going to examine our works
and he's going to say, this is worthless.
This is going to last.
Oh, how many people are just waste their
life, waste time, waste opportunity, waste strength.
It's not that they go around doing evil
things.
They aren't guilty of burning down buildings and
things like that.
It's just useless, just worthless.
And the ambassador has to give an account
of his ministry.
Now, the purpose of our ministry is reconciliation.
We aren't out to get people to join
Moody Church.
We aren't out to get people to think
we're the greatest people in the world.
We're out to get people reconciled to God.
We have marvelous news to give them.
We have good news to share that God's
not angry with you.
God loves you and God has sent his
son to die for you and he is
reconciled to you.
Now you be reconciled to God.
You turn from your sin.
You trust his son and they'll be at
one.
That's our ministry.
To hear some people and to read some
literature, you'd wonder if people know what their
ministry is.
Our ministry is to tell people that Jesus
Christ is God's bridge and you can be
reconciled to God.
And we're going to be examined on that
basis at the judgment seat of Christ.
And I have a suspicion, yea, more than
a suspicion, I have a conviction that when
I stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
many things that today seem very important to
me won't be very important.
Some of the difficulties I've endured that I've
said, oh God, why?
I won't even think about them.
I wonder if I won't be saying to
myself, if only I could preach that sermon
again.
Oh, if only I could speak to that
soul again.
The ambassador is called to give an account
and someday we're going to give an account.
Now I want to add one final characteristic
of an ambassador.
This is generally speaking in history.
Now don't, you could probably find an exception.
But generally speaking in history, before war is
declared, the ambassadors are called home.
Now, one of these days, God's going to
declare war.
Right now he's declared peace.
Same pattern in the old Testament.
God said to the Jews, now, when you
go into Canaan land, you come up to
a city, proclaim peace to the city.
And if they accept your terms of peace,
fine, make slaves out of them.
If they won't accept your terms of peace,
wipe them out.
Now what's God doing today?
God's saying to us, go out and proclaim
peace.
Don't declare war, declare peace.
If they won't accept your terms of peace,
they already are slaves.
They're making themselves slaves.
I want to set them free.
You see, in the old Testament, if they
wouldn't accept the peace, they were killed.
In the New Testament, they are already dead
because they haven't accepted the peace.
Dead in trespasses and sin.
Now, God says to the world today, peace.
What did the angels say when Jesus was
born?
Peace on earth among men of goodwill.
What did Jesus say?
Peace I give unto you.
My peace I give unto you.
Not as the world give.
What does Paul write?
We are ambassadors for Christ.
We're beseeching you.
We're not besieging you.
We're beseeching you.
We're persuading you, knowing therefore the terror of
the Lord.
We persuade men.
Not we manipulate men.
Not we propagandize men.
Not we exploit men.
We beseech you.
We persuade men.
Accept God's terms of peace.
Now, what are God's terms of peace?
Number one, admit that you're at war.
Number two, admit that you're wrong.
You're a sinner.
Number three, believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior.
And when you do that, those are God's
conditions of peace.
And he forgives you.
He writes your name down in heaven.
And you cease to be a sinner.
You become an ambassador.
And you go out and reach somebody.
And before God is going to declare war,
he's going to call his ambassadors home.
I do not make this a test of
fellowship.
You've heard me say this.
I would never consign a man to some
lower level of Christian living if he disagreed
with me on this.
But I believe that the Bible teaches that
God's ambassadors are going to be called home
before war is declared in this world.
Now, when we're gone, and that's going to
happen in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, when we're gone, then God is
free to declare war.
And he will.
Now, if you're one of our Lord's ambassadors,
let me close by giving you a very
practical suggestion.
It's this.
I'll suggest it by illustrating it.
When I began my ministry more than a
quarter of a century ago, I didn't like
to go visiting.
I was happy to study and preach in
the pulpit.
But when it came to knocking on doors
or talking to people personally, I was timid.
I was fearful.
I was embarrassed.
And then one day I heard a preacher
say, you are an ambassador.
Nobody's ever embarrassed to be an ambassador.
I recall that we were standing in the
White House one day.
We were taking one of the back door
tours of the White House, thanks to a
friend.
And a helicopter descended over on the pad,
and out came Ambassador Ball of the United
Nations.
And I want you to know that when
he got off of that plane, he's the
only real live ambassador I've ever seen.
When he got off of that plane and
came in the side door of the White
House and came right through the room where
we were, people moved.
I tell you, doors opened and people were
in attention.
He didn't come slinking in and say, oh,
I'm an ambassador.
And so my preacher friend said, you know,
when you go knocking on a door, you
shouldn't say, oh, I hope nobody's home.
You ought to say, you know, you people
who are behind that door, there's an ambassador
standing out here.
And you ought to be rejoicing because one
of God's ambassadors has come to talk to
you.
You know what that does?
It takes, well, it puts some backbone into
you.
It puts into you, would you excuse this
term, it's the only one I can think
of right now.
It puts into you a sanctified superiority complex.
Not egomania, not pride.
For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they
may be sanctified.
We are set apart.
We are representing him.
We don't have to hang our heads in
embarrassment and shame.
We can stand straight and tall and say,
I'm an ambassador.
So if you're one of our Lord's children
and your name is written down in heaven,
right after your name up in heaven, it
says ambassador.
Enjoy it, live it, share it.
But if you're not one of his ambassadors,
that means you're one of his enemies.
And one of these days, the Lord Jesus
is going to say, those men who would
not have me rule over them, bring them.
And there's going to be judgment.
And so my message to those of us
who are saved and I preach to myself
is this, stand tall and straight, rejoice.
You are one of his ambassadors, the highest
calling in all the world.
If you're not one of his ambassadors, it's
because your name has not been written down
in heaven.
If your name hasn't been written in heaven,
it's your fault.
Trust him, believe in him.
Stop fighting him.
Just come to him and he'll give you
rest.
Heavenly Father, forgive us when we have belonged
to the secret service.
We have enjoyed, but we haven't shared.
Forgive us, Lord, when we've been embarrassed and
fearful.
Help us, Heavenly Father, to realize what a
high and holy and dignified calling we have
as your ambassadors.
Thank you for your patience with us.
And thank you for your long suffering with
a wicked world.
Thank you, O God, that you are not
willing that any should perish.
This is why you're waiting.
And I pray for any here tonight who
are perishing, who are on the losing side.
Oh, that tonight they might come and trust
Christ.
This is our prayer in Jesus' name.
Amen.