For the word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart.
This message has been brought to you by
Manichristian Fellowship, Ellensburg, Washington, area code 509-925
-1167.
Good morning.
Well, we're going to start a little series
here.
I hope to encourage you and challenge you
this morning and in the coming months.
The title of the message, Ambassadors for Christ,
Ambassadors in Bonds.
And we're going to be focusing on what
is the call of an ambassador.
Paul was the one who said this, not
only about himself, but he said this about
those that are in Christ.
He said it about those that are Christians.
And so, as a professing Christian, as a
believer, as somebody who's been filled with the
Spirit of God, we have been called as
ambassadors in bonds.
I'll be the focus of the message this
morning.
So let's pray and just thank God.
Father, we thank you, Lord, for what you've
done this morning.
We thank you for the ground in which
you prepared our hearts, Father, for the Word.
We thank you for the Word given this
morning.
And we know that you are the one
true God, the one that we can put
all our faith and our trust and yield
to, Father.
So this morning, we pray that we would
yield to you and to your Spirit.
Father, we pray that you would help our
feeble minds, our feeble words, Father.
You would fill us, Lord, and you would
be our sufficiency this morning, Lord.
And I can claim, as Paul did, my
sufficiency is only in you, Jesus.
And I pray that you would fill me,
fill my heart with your words, Father.
Bless each one here.
Bless your body, Father.
Help us, Lord, to be a powerful force,
Lord, in spreading the Gospel, in opposing the
enemy here in this little valley.
We pray in Jesus' name.
2 Corinthians 5, verses 19 and 20.
2 Corinthians 5, verses
19 and 20.
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespass
unto them, and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us.
We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye
reconciled to God.
And then in Ephesians 6, we see the
same word.
It's used three times in the New Testament,
and that's it.
Ephesians 6, at the end of the book
of Ephesians, verses 19 and 20.
Ephesians 6, verses 19 and 20.
And for me, that utterance may be given.
Let's go to verse 18.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints.
And for me, pray for me, that utterance
may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly to make known the
mystery of the gospel for which I am
an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may
speak boldly as I ought to speak.
So Paul said, I have a need for
you to pray for me.
This is a prayer request.
And I'm asking you to pray that I
would be given words from God and the
Spirit of God to proclaim the mysteries of
the gospel.
He says, for which I am an ambassador
in bonds.
Presbuo is the Greek word.
Presbuo.
It simply means ambassador.
To be older is one of the inflictions
of the word.
To be, in a sense, as we're ambassadors,
we are the ones that are bringing about
authority.
We're bringing about the truths of God's Word
to people who don't know these things, to
people who are immature.
We are, in a sense, elder in that
sense, but not better.
What did an ambassador do?
What is an ambassador?
American ambassador?
Ambassador to a country?
Maybe even an ambassador back in the Old
Testament times.
What did an ambassador do?
Well, number one, very first job is he
communicated on behalf of an authority, a governing
authority, or a ruler.
He was their communicator.
He was the one who was bringing the
message.
Whether it was a message of saying, hey,
here's the terms by which we will establish
peace.
So when an ambassador comes, he comes with
authority.
And he says, look, you know, you guys
need to submit to us.
You need to give up trying to fight
against us.
Here's the terms by which we'll make peace
with you.
Or else there's going to be some severe
consequences.
You see?
So an ambassador often would come, or also
an ambassador might come from a weaker ruling,
government, king, whatever it is.
And he might beseech this more powerful government
and say, we would like to make peace
with you on these terms.
So he might come from a couple of
different perspectives, but he's representing and he's communicating
on behalf of a ruler.
So the ruler, the king, the government, the
president, he doesn't show up himself all the
time, unless he sees that there's a need
to do that, but he'll send an ambassador
out.
So what does it mean to be an
ambassador?
Well, that is one of the functions of
an ambassador.
Bringing a message, bringing a message of peace
often was the occupation, the job.
So what does it mean to be an
ambassador in bonds?
That's what I like to focus on this
morning.
We are ambassadors in Christ.
We should be ambassadors, the Bible says, for
Christ, for him, for his sake.
So what does it mean to us to
be an ambassador in bonds?
I believe for me, as I look at
this, this is the first qualification.
You and I have to be, in a
sense, looking and acknowledging and living out in
our own selves the reality of being an
ambassador in bonds.
What does it mean?
Well, the basis of the word needs to
be a servant.
That's the basis.
Just take that general information and you know
what a servant is, you know what a
servant should do.
But I want to break it down.
I want to look at it a little
bit more clearly so that we can see
that our commission, our calling, and we as
ambassadors, we have a function, a purpose, and
a way that we go about doing what
we do.
Why are we on fire for the Lord?
Why do we love Jesus?
Why do we serve Him with all our
heart, soul, mind, and strength?
Why do we want to spread the Gospel?
Why do we want to tell all these
other people about Jesus and pray that they
get saved?
I think often many people wonder, why are
we doing all these things?
Well, let's look at the characteristics of an
ambassador in bonds.
I'm talking about not an ambassador now to
a government, but ambassador to Jesus Christ.
He should be a man, a woman, or
a young person that is saved, number one,
and the characteristics of being yielded to God
with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Adonai of Judson, who was a missionary, he
said this, I am not tired of my
work, neither am I tired of the world,
yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall
go with the gladness of a boy bounding
away from school.
So, he's staying here.
I am making all these efforts.
I am working.
he exhausted his life out for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
He was content where he was at.
And yet, when God called him, and he
had finished the race, he said, I'll bound
to the kingdom.
Like a little boy looking forward.
And there's riches that was in his life
that made him feel this way.
Jonathan Edwards, he said this, he made some
resolves in his life.
And we're going to look at that because
a servant has had to make some resolves.
Some servants are servants voluntarily.
Some servants have been forced.
You are not forced to be a Christian.
You have not been forced to be a
Christian.
There's no power of God that He came
and held you down and said, you'll be
one of My servants.
You'll be one of My servants to serve
Me for the rest of your life.
There wasn't a forcing on this.
Some people might disagree with that, but God
did not force Christianity on you.
You became a child of God.
You were born again of the Spirit of
God through faith.
You believed.
You yielded yourself.
You turned back and terminated all those things
that were hindering your love.
The sin in your life, you turned your
back on it.
Jonathan Edwards said this.
These were his resolves.
I resolve to live with all my might
while I do live.
With all my might while I do live.
I resolve never to lose one moment of
time to improve it in the most profitable
way I can.
Let me read that again.
I resolve never to lose one moment of
time to improve it in the most profitable
way I can.
to improve His time in the most profitable
way I can.
Sometimes we don't understand what it takes to
make a profit.
Maybe we're thinking, let's just think for example,
in a business situation.
Sometimes we go into a business situation and
we don't know how to make it more
profitable.
Well, sometimes God gives us wisdom as we
seek Him and say, God, this thing is
somewhat out of control.
I see the evidences of we're losing money
here.
We're not doing very well.
And so He seeks wisdom, tries to figure
this thing out.
Well, God can help us if we're willing
to go to Him and say, God, make
every moment of my life profitable.
What's the best way to run a business?
Seek first the Kingdom of God and all
these things shall be added unto you.
That's the best way to run it.
Absolutely.
So here are some exciting resolves this man
made in his life.
And if you know anything about Jonathan Edwards,
he left some tremendous fruit behind him.
Tremendous fruit in his life.
Maybe we wouldn't agree or eat the whole
thing.
Maybe we'd have to throw out a few
bones.
But hey, there's a lot of good meat
there in his life.
There's a lot of good fruit in his
life that we could respect and reverence.
Resolve never to do anything which I should
despise or think meanly of in another.
Resolve never to do anything out of revenge,
jealousy.
Resolve never to do anything which I should
be afraid to do if it were the
last hour of my life.
So here's resolves.
He just got a burden and he made
these commitments to God.
He said this is the way I'm going
to live my life.
As if this were the last day.
So, an ambassador in bonds.
Don't you think that Paul made some major
resolves in his life?
Don't you think that when he got the
vision of God and God spoke to him
directly and God ministered to him, he made
some severe decisions in his life?
One, never to turn back to the old
ways.
Never to go back to the old law,
to the old way of thinking, to the
old reliance and trust on myself.
He resolved to be crucified with Christ.
He says it over and over again in
his epistles.
I am crucified with Christ.
He's my hope.
So, the very first basis for evangelism starts
in our own life.
The resolves, the determination in our own life
and our walk with God.
You see, like the brother said this morning,
what is the difference?
Well, one of the major differences, David Bernier,
when he went amongst the Indian people, he
was just a young man.
He died as a young man.
He made some major resolves in his life.
He went in there and he said, you
know what?
He began to pray and he did not
know their language.
He had no concept of what their language
was.
And so he said, God, you're going to
have to fill me so much with the
Holy Spirit that they will see in me
the Holy Spirit.
They will see God in me because I
can't speak their language.
And then after that, he prayed and he
fasted and he gave himself to being filled
so much with the Holy Spirit that one
of his messages that he gave, one of
his very first messages he gave to these
people through an interpreter, this interpreter was totally
intoxicated, totally drunk.
And yet God used him to convert many,
many during that message.
And yet he was having to speak through
this drunken Indian.
God does miraculous things when we're filled with
the Spirit of God.
God does incredible things and He can overcome
any obstacle except for a lack of faith.
So, an ambassador in bonds.
Submission.
What does it mean?
Submission.
Number one.
Submission is a primary characteristic of a servant.
We know that.
We know that that's one of the things
as somebody is going to serve or be
a servant or be a slave.
And that's what Paul said.
I'm not just a servant who can come
and go as I please.
I'm not just a servant who is expecting
to be paid.
There's five or six different Greek words for
service or servant.
And he put himself on the lowest one.
I'm a bond slave.
I'm a slave.
I'm bound to do this.
I don't have a choice is what he
said.
So, when we see the level of service
and see the level of being a servant,
there's some servants that come and you pay
them and they vacuum the rug or clean
the toilet.
And then some that are forced into service
or maybe born into that service, but yet
they still volunteer.
Some volunteer for the military.
The service of the military.
And they have to do extreme things, but
they still get paid and they're still somewhat
free, but they're really not.
But there's different levels.
Well, this level that Paul's talking about is
down at the bottom.
Submission.
I'm an ambassador in bonds.
An ambassador in bonds.
I'm a messenger.
I'm a constrained messenger.
I'm a slave to God.
I'm a love slave.
I'm a bond.
I'm in bondage to Jesus.
You know, there's some people that are living
in bondage to works.
There's some people that are living in bondage
to fear.
There's some people that are living in bondage
to money.
There's some people that are living in bondage
to lusts and pleasures of this life.
And they're bound up by those things.
Totally.
They're controlling their lives.
And there's some people that are bound by
the Spirit, by Jesus Christ Himself, by the
King of kings and the Lord of lords,
the One who rules all things.
There are some that are bound by Him.
That's what Paul said.
I'm bound.
I'm submissive.
What's the first sign of somebody who's submissive?
They're humble.
They don't see themselves as anything.
They see God as everything.
They see God as the One who is
bringing the message.
God is the One who is sufficient.
God is the One that gets the glory.
God is the One who we want everybody
to know His name.
You see, humble.
Number two, aspect of submission.
Being an ambassador in bonds.
You've got to be humble.
It was to Micah, I believe.
It was said this.
I can find my note.
He hath showed thee, O man, what is
good, and what doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly and to love
mercy and to walk humbly with thy God.
What does God require of thee?
To do justly, to walk righteously, honestly, to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God.
What does it mean?
Waiting on God.
Waiting for His power.
Waiting for His authority to come into our
lives.
Waiting and trusting on Him during circumstances that
seem to be out of control.
Waiting, trusting.
Number two, reverent.
What does submission mean?
Reverent compliance.
It doesn't just mean Christian submission.
Worldly submission means I'm complying, I'm following Your
rules because I have to do it.
I can be in the military.
I can be working for a company and
I can say I'm submissive because I comply.
I do what I have to do.
But Christian submission is completely different.
It is reverent submission that not only obeys,
but supports, lifts up.
Yes, let's do this.
Yes, let's go this direction.
Yes, that's what I want to do.
We had a little bit of a lesson
this week of submission in our home.
My wife, she went into labor two weeks
early.
And so, I had to just trust God
and say, God, okay, if this is Your
time, I'll submit to that.
But then you know what my wife had
to do?
When she was in the pain and she
was feeling anxious, she had to submit to
my commands.
And as she did that with support and
saying I want to do it, I'm excited
to do it, God blessed that.
God blesses that.
When I submit to my Father as a
young child, and I obey Him with all
my heart, and I say, yes, I want
to do this, yes, I'll obey with all
my heart, I want it.
I want it.
You know what?
God honors that kind of obedience.
He blesses that.
There's reverent compliance.
There's real, true Christian submission.
And you know what?
God does some amazing things.
I need some more water, please.
Thank you.
So, reverent compliance.
Supporting.
Saying, okay, this is the way we'll go.
Yes, Father.
Yes, Husband.
Yes, Lord.
See, that's number one.
He's number one.
Yes, Lord, we'll go.
If the Word says it, we won't let
anybody distract us from it.
I am an ambassador in bonds.
I'm constrained.
I have to preach the Gospel.
I have to.
You know what?
The greatest fear that should be in our
life is not worrying about this or worrying
about that or worrying about being sick or
worrying about not having money or worrying about
what somebody will think about us.
The greatest fear we should have is fearing
how many people will partake of the second
death.
How many people will go to hell in
our community?
That should be one of the greatest fears
in our life.
We should have a compassion, a longing for
the souls of men.
Reverently complying and supporting the heart of God.
And saying, yes, Lord, let's go.
Let's do it.
Let's lead back.
I believe in entire sanctification.
I believe a man can be completely sanctified
and set free from his sin through the
power of the blood of Jesus Christ.
And he can be made effective in the
Kingdom of God in a powerful way.
This is a little project I'm working on.
I thought, well, I'll just show you this.
But I'm making up these pictures and I'm
putting a little bit of a sign there.
Who is that?
D.L. Moody.
And so I just said, okay, I'm going
to make some pictures of these preachers.
I look at their face.
I look at their determination.
I read their life story.
I'm going to put it up in my
boys' room and help them to see these
are men that walked with God.
They're not God.
They're just men.
That's what I want to show you.
They're just men.
They're kind of ugly, but he had determination.
He had a fire for God.
He saw what God was doing and he
said, let's go.
I want to be a part of that.
I want to do it.
You know what?
You wonder why sometimes God narrows down the
numbers.
It's because He wants to get all the
glory.
He wants the victory.
Why sometimes does it seem like our resources
are narrowed down and narrowed down and narrowed
down?
Well, He wants to do a mighty work.
Not a possible work.
Not a humanly possible work.
He wants to do a mighty work through
His people, through a few people praying, a
few people seeking revival, a few people burdened
for lost souls.
An ambassador in Boston.
Don't you think Paul was like a little
army?
Every time he went into a community, he
literally would bomb these people.
Don't you think the church in Acts literally,
when they got saved and they were filled
with the Spirit, they blitzed their whole community?
They completely affected the whole community around them.
Just a few.
Just a handful is all it takes.
God's proven that in His Word.
Submission.
Reverent compliance.
And surrender.
Surrender.
A servant, somebody who's submissive, an ambassador in
bonds, is literally surrendered, yielded to God's authority
in his life.
What does God say to us?
He says so many things to us.
And this yielded servant, this surrendered servant, is
preparing.
His feet are shod with the preparation of
the Gospel.
He's putting on the helmet of salvation.
He's taking up the sword of the Spirit
and the shield of faith and the breastplate
of righteousness.
He's putting it on every day.
Isn't it exciting to see the incense burning?
Burning in our prayers when God comes down
and assists us and helps us to pray.
So, a submissive, he's surrendered.
Surrendered.
My rights don't come back.
He says I'm crucified.
My flesh is crucified.
I identify.
I want to identify with the fellowship of
His sufferings.
The redemptive work of the cross.
I'm identifying with the cross of Jesus Christ.
Not all the glories in the world.
Not all these other things.
I'm identifying with the cross of Jesus Christ.
The blood shed.
Submission.
Surrender.
It's a life of surrender.
It's not a groaning and a moaning.
It's a surrender to victory.
A surrender to the power of God.
What does submission mean?
Submission often requires waiting.
Abiding.
I'm going to do a picture of Andrew
Murray and put abiding under his picture of
his face.
He was a man who abided with God.
I'm going to put it up in my
office so that every time I look at
it, I remember that a servant of God
should be abiding.
He should be determined.
He should be diligent.
See, we need to have the inspiration of
the Word of God.
Waiting on God.
Sometimes I say, God, I'm seeking, I'm seeking,
I'm seeking, but I'm not getting it.
I'm not getting it.
Help me to get it.
The words, they're just going by.
I need to get it.
And sometimes God comes and I get it.
You see, we need to be getting it.
We need to be understanding.
Sometimes a student can go through a whole
course and a teacher can acknowledge he never
really got it.
He never really got this.
Don't let that be our testimony.
We have to walk with God.
We have to be devoted to God.
We have to be submissive and surrender to
God to get it.
Don't let us go through years after years
after years and say, I never got it.
Don't wake up one day and say, I
never got it.
There's no reason.
Wisdom is at our feet.
It's at our hands.
It's in our minds.
Not on our own strength, but it is
available through Jesus Christ.
Wisdom.
Understand, if any man lacks wisdom, let him
come to Me.
Come on.
Just ask.
Seek.
You'll find.
And then a submissive person allows this authority
of God to begin to regulate his life.
See, many men, their vision, their lives were
totally changed.
Hudson Taylor, he had a vision to be
in China.
God kept bringing him back.
His body was weak.
God kept bringing him back to America.
I don't want to be here.
I want to be there.
No, you come back.
But as we submit to that authority, God
then uses us.
Sometimes we go and things are going on
in our daily walk, our daily life that
we didn't want to happen.
They weren't in the schedule.
They weren't on the PDA.
They weren't in our notebook or our game
timer that morning.
But things get out of control.
Why?
Is it a coincidence?
No.
It's not a coincidence.
Always look and open your eyes and say,
okay, Lord, what do You want me to
do?
I'm willing to do anything.
I'm willing to be changed and flexible to
Your schedule.
Okay.
Surrender.
Surrender your time.
Surrender those things.
Surrender your schedule.
I'm very schedule oriented.
And so, it's hard for me to say,
alright, you know, one of the very first
things when my wife went into labor was
to say, I'm not going to have my
quiet times at 4 o'clock this morning
because my wife's having a baby.
I'm not going to even get any sleep
tonight.
But we have to be willing to be
a little flexible.
Especially in that situation.
But let God kind of arrange the schedule
how He wants to.
Because often I've found that as I'm seeking
what it is that God wants me to
do, boom, He puts somebody right there.
Right there.
To hear a word.
To hear the Gospel.
You know, it was so funny this week,
or maybe it was last week, I got
a call.
This lady called.
A 93-year-old lady.
She called for the Billy Graham Crusade.
She got the wrong 1-800 number.
She called my 1-800 number.
I got a chance to witness.
This lady had no assurance of salvation, and
yet she had claimed to be saved two
different times in life and all the stuff
she did.
And her father was a Baptist preacher and
all this stuff.
And I said, woman, you need to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to repent of your sins.
And I got a chance to witness this
93-year-old lady.
She walked away.
I said, wow!
Are you sure this is the Billy Graham
Crusade?
No.
This is a man of Christian fellowship.
It was funny.
So anyway, I told her she got the
wrong number.
But maybe she got the right number.
So, let God just kind of regulate.
Be willing to submit to His authority.
Let Him control the traffic.
Let Him control the things that happen in
your life.
Surrender.
That's what surrender is all about.
That's what being an ambassador involves.
I'm here under God's authority.
He's the King of Kings.
I'm His ambassador.
I've been commissioned as an ambassador for Christ.
And so, God's one purpose in my life
is that I fulfill that commission that He's
given to me.
Not that I have great properties and things
of this world.
Not that I'm successful and have a good
reputation and all those things.
But He's got a purpose, a plan, and
a message for me to give to somebody.
And so, I have to be submissive.
I'm an ambassador in bonds.
Lord, okay, if He says now, I want
you to go and I want you to
try to make peace with these people.
Bring the ministry of reconciliation with these people.
Wow!
They're way different than I am.
I can't identify with them.
I can't even speak their language maybe.
God says, well, He says go anyway.
Go anyway.
Why?
Well, because you and I are just a
vessel.
Point two.
We're just a vessel.
Literally, you're a can.
You're a vessel.
You're a clay pot.
Empty without Christ.
Totally dead in trespasses and sins until Christ
comes in and by faith saves us and
fills us up.
What does He say?
Fills us with the Spirit of God.
Then, I'm still a vessel.
A vessel unto honor.
It says in Romans, saved by grace.
I'm a vessel filled.
There are things that hinder that, but as
I believe and as I exercise faith and
as I turn from my wicked ways, I
am a filled vessel, filled with a power,
the authority of God to do what?
To fulfill that which has been given to
me.
And you are also a vessel of God
to fulfill that which has been given to
you.
Susanna Wesley, she had that vision.
She stayed.
She submitted.
She was content.
She didn't have good circumstances.
She didn't have lots of money.
She didn't have all the reputation of this
world and all the wonders of this world.
But she had a simple faith in Jesus
Christ and she just kept following that.
And eventually, she got completely and entirely saved.
And her life was a sign of true
submission to the Father.
We're just vessels, brothers and sisters.
We're just vessels.
That's really what it means to be humble.
We say, I'm just a vessel.
Lord, You're going to have to fill me
up so that I can give it out.
Paul said, I'm weak.
I don't come with very good speech.
I don't have what it takes to bring
the message.
Pray for me.
Pray and help me.
But he did it.
I came with much fear and much trembling,
he said.
So, we all have fear and trembling sometimes.
Well, Christ came to overcome all that by
faith.
When I exercise faith and say, I will
proclaim the Gospel, God comes on the scene.
But not until we make that determination.
Not until we say, I am an ambassador
of bonds.
I'm constrained.
I can't do anything else.
It's interesting that the Webster's Dictionary says this,
a person into whom some quality as grace
is infused.
A vessel.
That's what it says.
The dictionary definition of a vessel.
A person into whom some quality as grace
is infused.
Something should have been infused in us.
Something should have been taken place at that
day of salvation.
There should be a growing in grace.
No, there shouldn't be necessarily a change in
your talents and your abilities and your bank
account.
There should be a growing in grace and
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
There should be a more Christ-like spirit.
A more abiding.
There should be more waiting on God.
Not that you get it all at one
time.
Because you don't.
I don't get it all at one time.
And I've never seen any man that gets
it all at one time.
But I've seen men that are getting it.
You see what I'm saying?
They're getting it.
They're on the road.
And they're constantly surrendering their lives.
A vessel.
A vessel, the very first characteristic that I
thought is here's a vessel.
It can't do nothing for itself.
But, it's going to get filled up by
somebody else.
Well, a vessel of honor gets filled up
by the King of Kings, the Lord of
Lords, the One who's all-wise and all
-knowing.
And He fills us.
But my God, what does He say in
Philippians?
My God shall supply all your need according
to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
So, we're just a vessel.
Paul was just a vessel.
He literally identified himself.
This was the kind of vessel he was.
He says, and I, brethren...
I just said a little bit of it
in 1 Corinthians 2, 1-5.
I, brethren, when I came to you, I
came not with excellency of speech.
So here's part of the outside shell.
No excellency of speech.
This is a bad tape recorder.
This is a speaker that doesn't work very
good.
But I came not to you with excellency
of speech or of wisdom.
You see, the wisdom that we have doesn't
come from us.
So, I didn't come to you with excellency
of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the
testimony of God, for I determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and
in fear and in much trembling.
So here's my vessel.
Weakness, fear, much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit in power.
That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of
God.
So, all the intellectual eloquence, chuck it out.
We want to see the demonstration of the
Spirit of God and that's what the world
needs to see an ambassador in bonds.
I'm bound.
I'm constrained, sir.
I have to tell you that if you
do not repent, if you're not saved, if
you're not washed in the blood and you
don't have faith in Jesus Christ, you will
not be saved.
But, if you believe on Jesus Christ, you
repent from your sins, you turn from your
wicked ways and abandon your life to Jesus,
you will be saved.
You can have assurance of that salvation.
So, submission, a vessel.
An ambassador of bonds is a vessel, literally
a vessel, under control of the Holy Spirit,
under control of the Word of God, under
control of Jesus.
Number three, this ambassador in bonds has no
sufficiency of himself.
Herself, himself, whoever's self it is.
But that Christian, that believer that is an
ambassador, can never say, I'm sufficient to do
this, I'm sufficient to do that.
Some people say, I've been called to do
that and therefore they believe that they're sufficient
to do that.
Just because they have the calling, they say,
well, I must be sufficient.
And so they go out and they try
to work the thing out on their own
works.
And it doesn't work.
And they try to get men saved and
they try to preach the Word and they
try to do all these things on their
own effort and in their own strength and
under their own authority.
It doesn't work that way.
So, Paul said this, "...and such trust have
we through Christ to God, not that we
are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as
of ourselves."
We're not sufficient of ourselves to think anything
as of ourselves.
But, our sufficiency is of God.
Our sufficiency is of God.
What does that word mean?
To be sufficient that God is our sufficiency?
That we are not sufficient of ourselves.
That means this, ability.
Ability to be sufficient of ourselves.
Our ability.
Some of you, you can memorize Scripture way
better than I can.
Some of you know all the details of
Scripture way better than I do.
God can't use that until that ability has
been completely surrendered to Him to use.
But then, you know what, brethren?
If you'll surrender that to God, He will
use it and He will take you way
further than I will ever go.
You see what I'm saying?
If you'll surrender that sufficiency, that ability to
God.
Some of you are way smarter.
Most of you have more brain capacity than
I do.
You're way up there in the gigahertz compared
to what I am.
I'm back in the old days.
And I've learned some bad things that messed
up my mind.
God is my sufficiency.
I had no discipline as a child.
No, you don't have to have discipline.
Nobody disciplined.
And so, we go our own way when
there's no discipline.
But some of you young people have been
raised up in a godly home.
In a home where there's a vision for
God.
In a home where there's godly disciplines.
But you can't say that's my ability.
You've got to surrender that ability and then
God will use that in a powerful way.
What does it mean?
Our sufficiency to meet your needs is not
of us.
That's what Paul said.
My sufficiency to meet your needs, to preach
the Gospel, to come with the power and
demonstration of the Spirit, to heal, to do
whatever, he said my sufficiency is not, my
ability is not of me.
It's of God.
That's what it means.
Ability to meet needs.
My adequacy.
Sometimes I say, I am not adequate for
the job.
I long for plurality of eldership.
I long for plurality of leadership in this
church.
Why?
Because I'm not adequate for the job.
But, my adequacy, your adequacy is in God.
You see, you're going to face the same
thing when you go out there and you
say, and you determine in your mind, I
will witness.
I prayed this week, Lord, give me somebody
to witness to every day of the week.
Every day of the week.
Give me somebody to spread the Gospel to.
I don't care how.
Just do it.
So one of the nights was this lady
calling me.
Well, God does some amazing things.
But, never can I say, well, because I've
been studying and because I'm this and because
I'm that, I'm adequate.
Never can I say that.
You'll never say that.
I'm telling you no matter how smart and
how talented and how knowledgeable of the Word
of God you'll get, you'll never say, I'm
adequate for this job.
And as soon as you do, you'll stumble
and fall because your adequacy is not of
you.
It's of God.
So I say, God, I'm not adequate to
meet the needs of this person.
This person I know evident that they are
going to hell.
They've rejected You.
I'm not adequate to meet that need.
Only You are.
But God has said, You're my vessel.
You're my ambassador.
I want You to go.
Some people don't believe that.
Some theology says, no, God will take care
of it all and you don't have to
do anything.
That's a lie.
That's wrong.
We're ambassadors in bonds.
We're ambassadors for Christ.
He said, you have some people, you have
some children, you have some that you need
to go to.
I'm sending you.
With the ministry of reconciliation, with the glad
tidings of the Gospel, I'm sending you.
But my ability, my adequacy, or the sufficiency
for the need is not of me.
But our sufficiency is of God.
So I'm recognizing.
I'm an ambassador of bonds and I'm recognizing
the sufficiency is in here.
The capability to be sufficient means to be
capable.
To be sufficient means to be adequate.
Well, does God say, I never want you
to be adequate.
I never want you to be capable.
I never want you to be sufficient.
No, He's not saying that.
He's saying you're not going to be, but
He's saying you are going to be in
Me, capable.
Sometimes, this is one of the areas where
Satan tries to attack me the most often.
Say, you guys are not able.
You're not capable.
You don't have the ability to go and
witness and affect this community.
You don't have the capability in your prayer
life.
You don't have the ability in your faith
to overcome and to witness effectively to these
people that I've given to you.
And Satan will come and he'll try to
say that.
Well, I just have to say, no, exercise
faith.
Put away those evil thoughts.
Get behind me, Satan, because our sufficiency is
of God.
Our capability is of God.
Is God capable to do it?
Has He proven it in history over and
over again?
Yes and yes.
He's capable.
He's sufficient.
And lastly, this word sufficient means to attain
to the responsibility.
To attain to the responsibility.
Some will say, they'll put off responsibility and
say, well, I'm not responsible for that.
Am I my brother's keeper?
I'm not responsible for that.
You know, I'm not responsible for that person.
That can be a big mistake when God
does give us some authority.
Oh, well, you know what?
My ministry is just in the church.
No, it's not.
It's not.
To attain to the responsibility.
Our sufficiency is of God.
So it's there.
It's of God.
We're an ambassador in bonds.
We should be constrained.
We should be not able to do anything,
but to preach.
To share the love of Jesus.
To share.
Now what does it mean to be an
ambassador in bonds?
It means to be completely constrained.
Surrendered in my character.
Surrendered in my attitude.
Surrendered in my words.
Surrendered in my thoughts.
You know, the Bible says, don't think on
anything that doesn't have a good report, that's
not pure, that's not lovely.
You know, God convicted me and said, you
know what?
You can't find nothing in the newspaper or
in the news that fits this Scripture, my
friend.
You can't find it.
I said, you're right.
Boom.
Changed my life.
If you will dwell on those things that
are pure and lovely of good report, and
you'll put away all the little controversies and
criticisms and all the negatives.
Even in religion it happens.
Even in Christianity it happens.
People get so focused on what other people
are not doing or what they don't believe
or what they don't think.
If you'll think on those things that are
pure and lovely, undefiled, it'll change your life.
Absolutely change your life.
It'll change your love relationship for the Lord
Jesus Christ.
It'll change your devotion to Him.
You'll be getting through more often in your
prayer life.
I guarantee it.
I promise you.
And I'm not supposed to make any promises.
But in Jesus' name, I believe that if
you'll abide in the Scriptures and let them
abide in you, God, you will ask anything
and God will give it to you.
You can ask anything, but they have to
abide.
Often we think on things that are unlovely,
unpure, and ambassador in bonds.
He's got one mission.
He's got one vision.
He's not told to go and, you know,
hey, when you get there, have some fun.
Go, you know, drink with them and go
carouse with them.
No, He says, you have a mission.
You have a message.
Give that mission.
Give that message.
And then get back here because I have
another place for you to go.
You're under My authority.
You'll do what I say.
And God has our greatest interests.
God, He is thinking His ambassadors, He's taking
care of them.
He's not jeopardizing their lives.
But He's sending them with power.
He's sending them with authority.
He's sending them with the glad tidings.
He's sending them with the ministry of reconciliation.
He's sending them with the authority and His
power of His words.
Sufficiency.
Ability to meet needs.
Our ability to meet needs.
We think, oh, somebody called me for counseling.
I must be sufficient for this job because
God led this person into my life and
now I'm going to counsel him.
Well, God taught me that a long time
ago.
There's no way to approach that situation, friend.
No way.
And often I'll have to say, I don't
know.
I'll have to say, I need to pray
about this situation because my sufficiency is not
of myself, but of God.
My sufficiency to meet the needs, to answer
the questions, to preach the Gospel, not of
me.
It's of God.
My adequacy to do it.
My capability.
And even the heart to attain to the
responsibility, stepping up to the responsibility, fulfilling that
commission, is not in me.
It's in God.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves.
But you know what?
That didn't change his determination.
Paul's determination.
He went and he was as an army
in those cities.
He was just shattering the theology.
He was shattering the gods and the idols
and every way that man was thinking.
He was putting their reasoning to naught, to
nothing.
He was putting their reasoning to nothing.
Because he had faith in God.
He was exercising that faith daily.
Letting it grow.
As a brother said this morning, determination.
We just have a few minutes left.
Determination.
An ambassador in bonds is somebody that's determined
to fulfill the mission.
He will bring the message.
There's a determination to do that.
You know what determination means?
It means when you get determined to follow
Jesus, what will you do?
You will terminate everything that is hindering you
from doing that.
Determination literally means to terminate.
And so, those things that hinder my life
from taking up my cross and following Jesus,
I terminate them.
No, that doesn't mean to terminate people that
are in my way or anything.
You know, you start thinking worldly and carnal
and you can just take that thing right
out of context.
No, it means to terminate anything in my
life that is causing me to fear, to
tremble, and to retreat.
What is that?
It's a lack of faith.
It's unconfessed sin.
It's a lack of terminating those things.
Saying, you know, I can control them.
You know what?
We can't.
Our sufficiency is not in ourselves to control
those things.
Some men will say, well, I can control,
I can read these things, I can control,
I can watch the TV or whatever and
I can control this.
No way.
You can't do it.
Our sufficiency is only of God.
So the minute we start thinking that and
we're not willing to determinate those things, then
we've lost the vision.
We've lost the vision to be ambassadors.
We've lost the vision.
That's why we've come out from the world
and the different churches and the carnality and
the worldliness and said, as for me and
my family, we'll serve the Lord.
We're coming across this place, this river, and
you can all stay behind, but we'll serve
the Lord.
And that's what you've said.
That's the commitment you made.
Maybe you forgot it, but that's the commitment
you made to God.
We will serve the Lord and that's why
we're going the way we're going.
Determination.
Pilgrim was determined to leave his family and
to leave behind all the temptations and all
the reasoning and all the thoughts, and he
said, I'm going to go on this road.
I'm going to follow it no matter what
and I'll follow this path that God leads
me on.
Because there's something there at the end of
it.
There's something that I want to attain to.
What are those things that keep us from
determination?
The things that we haven't terminated.
Right?
The things that we haven't terminated.
It's those things that keep us from...
Sometimes, I've come to a point in my
life and I say, why, God, am I
not getting past this point?
Well, you haven't yet terminated the thing that's
hindering you from going beyond this point.
I believe in entire sanctification and yet, I
believe that God is sanctifying us this very
day and bringing us to a greater understanding
of that sanctification.
We're working on our salvation with fear and
trembling.
But sometimes, there's something and it doesn't have
to necessarily be blatant sin.
Hopefully, those things are all left behind.
It can just be a lack of terminating.
Terminating what?
My attitude.
Sometimes I have attitudes that are hindering me
from going beyond.
You've got to terminate them.
This Uncle John Vassar, he was a soul
winner way back when.
And I'll just tell you a little story
about him.
He's a man that had a heart for
revival.
He prayed.
He was just kind of a little bit
of a nobody.
He was under some great ministers, great preachers
of the Word of God, and they said
of him, he was a man of prayer.
He prayed and prayed and prayed.
He was determined.
And here, he was out soul winning and
handing out tracts, going from house to house
in the city.
And there were some women that had talked
about him and said, Uncle John Vassar, he'd
come to my house and give me these
tracts and give me this message and all
this stuff.
And so he just kept going.
This one lady determined she had heard about
him.
She said, if he comes to my house,
I'm going to slam the door in his
face.
So, Uncle John Vassar made it to her
house, handed out a tract, and as soon
as she opened the door, she saw who
it was and she slammed the door in
his face.
And he sang the song, But Drops of
Grief.
He fell onto the ground and just was
thanking the Lord.
He said, But Drops of Grief can ne
'er repay the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away.
Tis all that I can do.
And at that song that he sang in
front of that step, that woman opened that
door back up.
God broke her heart and he led her
to the Lord.
Changed.
He was a determined man.
Those preachers would say of him, he was
determined in the place of prayer.
He was determined to win souls.
He was determined.
He was determined to win souls.
He was determined.
D.L. Moody, the same way.
Determined.
Never to let a day go by without
witnessing, without sharing the Gospel with one person.
But it takes termination, is what determination takes.
It takes termination.
You and I know there are some things,
I know today there are some things God
said you've got to terminate those things.
Well, my capability to do that is only
of God.
And so I need to be seeking God's
face to terminate those things that keep me
from being an ambassador in bonds.
To do justly, to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God.
An ambassador in bonds.
It's not just this picture of a slave.
It's a picture of a life.
It's walking with God.
Every time it comes to cross the obstacle,
terminates the obstacle.
Every time it's been given the commission, this
soul goes ahead and gets on track and
says, I'll go.
I'll go.
You know, God's looking for men that will
just say to Him simply, I'll go.
I'll go.
Because there's no lack of places and people
right here.
There's no lack of a mission field.
But God's just looking for men that will
say, I'll go.
I've got much weakness.
I've got fear and trembling, God.
I'm not sufficient.
I can't even say the right words, but
I'll go.
And when we get the determination, we terminate
all the other things and say, I'll go.
God will do amazing things.
Ambassador in bonds.
Ambassadors for Christ.
Let's pray.
Father, I know that my words sometimes stumble
and not make things very clear, but Father,
I pray that You would make these things
very clear to our hearts, Lord.
That You would help us, Lord, not to
have a carnal zealousy or pride about what
we do, but to be constrained by the
love of God.
To be burdened for the loss.
To be wise and win souls, Lord.
And we pray, God, that this would encourage
our life and our love for You.
Our determination to be burning the incense in
our quiet times.
Our determination to be showing mercy and love.
Our determination to care for one another, to
love one another.
Father, to pray and to uphold one another
in the place of prayer, Father.
And there's so many needs in our lives.
And Father, we pray that You would just,
by the Spirit of God, come and establish
Yourself amongst us today.
That You would allow, Lord, the words from
the first message and this message, Father, to
just stir in our hearts this morning.
To bless us, Lord.
To encourage us.
To convict us, Lord.
And yet we know our sufficiency is of
God.
Nothing that we've done is of ourselves.
The place that You've brought us to, it's
not of ourselves.
But Lord, we want to go further this
morning.
We want to go higher this morning.
Lord, we want to fly, Lord.
And we want to see You in Your
glory.
Father, just give us, Lord, wisdom.
Give us might and power.
Give us the authority that we need.
In the name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.
Okay, one last song, please.