Sending People on Mission: Every Christian is an ambassador for Christ, sent out with the message of reconciliation, the gospel. Motivated by the fear of the Lord and the love of Christ, we are sent. Some of us are sent across the world, others across the street, but every Christian is a missionary. Recorded on Jan 22, 2023, on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 by Pastor David Parks.

This message is part of our DNA, a sermon series on our core values that define who we are and what we’re trying to do. Our core values include inviting people to worship, connecting people in community, training people for ministry, and sending people on mission. These values provide a wonderful source of power, meaning, and joy for the Christian life.

Sermon Transcript:

 All year, we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus. And today, we’re finishing a 4-part sermon series called DNA, focusing on our identity and the core values which define who we are and what we’re trying to do here. Our core values [Values slide] include inviting people to worship, connecting people in community, training people for ministry, and sending people on mission — our topic for today. At the most foundational level, worship, community, ministry, and mission are the basic building blocks of the Christian life. Today, we’re considering the surprising truth that God has given us the responsibility of bearing the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth. And he has entrusted to us the responsibility of making disciples of all nations. Last week, I said that responding to the call of ministry and that every Christian is a minister is a huge part of finding your God-given purpose in life. But the realization that God has called us to participate with him in his work of salvation in the world, and that every Christian is also a missionary, is the other half of discovering your God-given purpose in life. The reason why God doesn’t zap us into heaven as soon as we’re saved is because we have a mission; we have a job to do. Every Christian is a missionary. If you have a Bible/app, please open to 2 Corinthians 5:11. We’ll read through this and unpack it together. (v.11)

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 (NIV), “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 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. 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. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So 2 Corinthians in the Bible is an epistle or letter from the Apostle Paul to the Christians in the Greek city of Corinth in the first century AD. Actually,