Be Reconciled to God, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 5:17-21

2nd Cor. 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!

2nd Cor. 5:18  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2nd Cor. 5:19  that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

2nd Cor. 5:20  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2nd Cor. 5:21  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

          The elders shook their heads as they gathered together, asking one another what they were going to do about their elderly preacher.  He had just preached the same sermon as he preached last Sunday.  One of them was appointed, and he went to see the preacher, gently asking, "Pastor, are you aware you just preached the same sermon twice in a row?"

          To which the preacher replied, "Yes, I am.  And when I see some evidence that you understand it, I'll move on.

          As you read today's sermon, you may get the feeling we have stamped around this ground before, even though the facts and the setting are different this time.  And you would be correct.  For we are talking here about a life and death matter, a matter of eternal life and eternal death, and there is not enough that can be said about it.  I didn't write the rules, but I read them, and I pray you are willing to live them.

          Returning from a recent trip to Great Britain, I brought back a love of local Irish music.  Specifically, a group called Celtic Woman.  They sing what many considered Irish tunes, but actually some of it is Scot and some is Irish.

          The Celts were in Britain long before the Romans arrived, long before there was a division of Scotland and Ireland; just rolling moors and hills and tribes.  They were known for being fierce warriors.  If you saw the movie "Braveheart," those were Celts.  The only thing the movie didn’t show was that the women were as fierce warriors as the men.

          The men were stout, built like fireplugs, muscle from head to toe.  And when they went into battle, they painted their faces blue and charged in stark naked.  So here you are, recruited by your tribal chieftain to make war on the Celts.  You have your sword and shield, and all of you are proceeding down the hill to the battlefield.  When suddenly an army of naked, hairy men, faces painted blue, armed with swords and spears come running across the battlefield and up the hill toward you.  And they are screaming, screaming bloody murder!

          I think that would get my attention.  Some of their enemies simply turned and ran.

          But getting back to the singing group Celtic Woman, I tell you about them because of one song they performed that would not leave my mind.  It has a chorus that goes, “Valpariso, when will the wind blow me back there again.”

          “Valpariso, when will the wind blow me back there again….”

          As I listened to it, I was reminded that many people live their life like that, blown about, here and there, by every passing wind of societal mores and the newest peer pressures, even though Ephesians 4:14 warns us, "... we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming..."  Such people are led about by their desires, their curiosity, their hungers, their emotions.  Just whatever happens to them is fine with them.  No planning, no purpose beyond feeling good right now, and no thought for the future. 

          But it is a truism that those who will not plan will serve those who do.

          I remember a certain summer in Woodlake, Calif., as a youth.  A tall grassy mountain loomed over Woodlake and someone had placed a "W" of white stones high up near the top.  On a beautiful California morning several of us climbed up that grassy incline to sit in the wind among the white stones, drink our Cokes, play tag, King of the Mountain, and sit around with flowers in our hair telling stories.  It was a memorable time of peaceful fun and innocence.

          But there came a time when, as the Bible says, I put away the things and the times of children.  In fact, the whole verse of 1st Cor. 13:11 says, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

          There are many among us now who, although adults, have not put away childish things, who bend life to their own selfish, personal desires, who sell virtue short for satisfaction, and though they find little, continue to pursue their own course to the detriment of themselves and all about them.  They live blinded lives, shielding themselves from the harsh realities of this world with artificial pleasures.

          That might be acceptable if we were once again on that grassy hill in Woodlake, where the sun always shone, where the world was much kinder and innocence abounded.  But we are not.

          I noted earlier the truism that those who will not plan will serve those who do.

          There is a force in the world planning for the death of Christians, of Christianity.  Blunt, but true.  In fact, Christians are dying all around the world even as you read this, have been since this war began a very long time ago.  The time to sit around playing games with flowers in our hair is long past.  We will serve the Living God, or we will serve a dead idol propped up by the forces of Satan.  Where is the love in that?  The love is only in the God we serve, but it is not in the enemies of Christ, who call Jesus a prophet but deny His deity, and are bound and determined to see exterminated those who follow the Christ.

          We who serve the Living God have been born into a stretch of time when the actions of a war begun long ago are beginning to close in on us.  Those who follow the false religion of Islam have been at war with "the people of the book" -- Jews and Christians -- from the beginning of Mohammed's Islam.  It first impacted America following the Mideast Six Day War in 1967, when presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy promised if elected to send 50 fighter jets to Israel, and on June 5, 1968 Palestinian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan executed Kennedy in the middle of his campaign.

          Over the last 35 years, 3,094 persons have been killed in America by Muslims in 66 terror attacks.  That includes the 2,752 murdered, with another 251 wounded, in the attack on the twin towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.  35 years; 3,094 killed; 66 terror attacks.  (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/AmericanAttacks.htm)

          So what is the message here?  Go and kill Muslims?  No.  Absolutely no.  That may be someone else's message, but not mine as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

          The message is get to know the Living God, because this is a war of evil against good.  You have read in Ephesians that in the end this is not our war, but a continuation of a battle begun in the heavenlies long ago.  The men and women of evil are human and their weapons manmade, but Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

          And here is the difficult part, they are human beings, with souls.  They are part of the mission Christ gave us.  "He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."  Even those who worship false gods are part of God's creation.  Later, in verse 24, Paul writes to Timothy, "The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them."  But in writing to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 19, Paul tells them, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord."

          As God said to the Jews in Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" 

          In 2nd Corinthians, 5:20, we read, ‎"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."

          Those who follow Jesus Christ, the church that calls itself Christian, the very bride of Christ, must draw near to God, especially in these turbulent times when all over the world Christians are under attack, even here in the United States of America.  God given freedoms are under attack all over the world, the very nature of truth, ethics and morality are under attack.  We must be reconciled to God if we are to carry the gospel message, if we are to be His ambassadors, if we are to survive the onslaught of evil that comes even now.

          Unfortunately, there are those who believe you can replace Judeo-Christian values, standards, guidelines with secular self-centered worship as the new morality, and relativism as the new ethical standard. They are correct. You can. And you see where America stoops with it today.  You see where those who call themselves Christians depart from the gospel message and stumble along, dragging the innocent and the unsuspecting with them.  They may know of the Christ, but they cannot know Him or they would still be with Him.

          As an example, although in Exodus 20:25 we see that at one time God directed His altar not be made with "dressed stones", but with stones never having had a tool on them, yet today those who arrange our meeting places build into them such finery of sculpted stone and stained glass windows as to be very nearly edifices to be worshipped for their manmade beauty.  How far the exalted religionists have led us from what God intended in our worship of Him.  We fashion the Christ in our own modern world image, we downgrade other Christians and other churches so that we and our church appear to be the only true church worshipping Almighty God.  There is such danger in that, and we don't even see it when God decides to leave us in our own self-made confusion.

          There are those who claim that our current collision with the Islamic culture is also self-made, of our own arrogance and interference.  And there is undoubtedly some truth to that.  The only remedy for that is to follow the directions Jesus Christ gave us long before Islam and Christianity met head-on; to love our brother and tell them of the Christ.  If we must defend ourselves from religious extremists in the meantime, Jesus never said we should commit suicide or allow the innocent to be slaughtered.  But in the end, only the gospel of Jesus Christ will change lives, and that will change hearts.

          May God grant us the wisdom and the strength of faith to live up to the claim of 2nd Corinthians 5:20: ‎"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."   Even as the battle continues between evil and good, even as we strive for more love as more terrible times approach, let us be reconciled to God that we may stand on His ground in His name.

          Amen.