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Welcome!! This podcast is about "dividing the word one episode at a time" A real, relatable, and refreshing space for young and older adults seeking to grow in everyday life with Christ. Each episode dives into honest biblical teaching and conversations with life experiences that connect generations and deepen our walk with Christ. Whether you’re navigating adulthood or seasoned in your faith journey, there’s something here for you, thanks for being here!!
Christ & Me Podcast (00:05)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Christ and Me podcast where we rightly divide the word one episode at a time. I'm your host, Jamir. Today we're gonna be talking about what it means to be a Christ ambassador and why being an advocate for the light is important. And of course, some things to keep in mind as well. So we have some scriptures. This is a little bit more scripture heavy, but the main scriptures that we are gonna be looking at throughout this episode is 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 15, and 17 through 20. All right.
So verse 15 says, 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… 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. We are therefore Christ ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. So the first point I want to make is that being a Christ ambassador means also being a representative of Christ's reputation. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17-18 talks about how
when you are in Christ we are new creation how the old has gone and that the new is here that if all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation we follow Jesus but being called Christian should not just be a title but a lifestyle
Being in Christ brings a freeing transformation along with a divine occupation. You've become a kingdom diplomat with a new mission. The newness we have in Christ should create in us the boldness to represent and speak about Jesus, knowing that God does not recognize us by our sin. So because of the fact that the old is gone and the new is on us,
The Lord no longer sees us as falling short of his glory, but has been purified by the blood of Christ walking in righteousness. So we can be before him in his presence because of what Christ has already done for us. And because of what Christ has done, it should push us to have the boldness to speak about what he's done so that others may be transformed and reconciled to God as well. Another point within this one is to be a kingdom diplomat means
when coming to coming in contact with Christ it is a call for surrender that we are to make our lives effort to spread the message of who he is what he's done and live our lives according to his will and teaching.
The second point I want to make is reconciliation with the Father leads to avocation with the Son. I want to say that again. Reconciliation with the Father leads to avocation for the Son. Because of what Christ has already done for us by dying on the cross, He had advocated for us to be reconciled with God and through what He's done and through God the Father saying, I will reconcile with my children.
We now have the chance to advocate for him because of his avocation for us. Verses 19 to 20 of chapter 5, 2 Corinthians, says that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. I just want to say, not counting people's sins against them in Christ. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation, who? God.
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. Now we represent him God is making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God in a broken world where Christ is foreign to some and hated by many advocacy of sin is at an all time high. Everyone and I mean everyone is advocating for something whether they're intentional or unintentional people.
people's advocation is the stage of how they live their lives, whether on and off stage. And I want to kind of talk about that. So in sociology, I had learned about being on stage and backstage. So stage, front stage and backstage. That is the circumstance where individuals kind of
⁓ represent themselves one way front stage and then represents themselves differently backstage. You have a character in the front stage, but then you're also being yourself in the backstage. is your representation of Christ a reflection of both front stage and backstage? Because a point that I really wanna make is what Christ has done.
doesn't limit us to live for Him, but for Him to also live through us. Galatians 2.20 talks about, have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. We have died to this life.
banning its norms and its desires. We live as citizens for the kingdom, striving to look like the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, the last point I wanna make within this point is proper advocacy actually leads to other advocates. Second Timothy chapter two, verse two says,
and the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable people.
who will also be qualified to teach others. Philippians 4.9 says, whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice and the God of peace will be with you. Those scriptures along with Matthew 28.20 reference a matter of representing and speaking and teaching about who Christ was and what he commanded. Right?
Christ's would lead others to want to follow your example. Your proper representation of Jesus will lead people to want to actually live for him. I heard that we should live our lives like someone is always watching, because of course, someone always is. The third point I wanna make is that leaving things behind for Christ, right?
Verse 15 says this, 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. And I want to kind of replace he and him with Jesus. And Jesus died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Jesus who died for them and was raised again. Leaving the old behind for Christ oftentimes creates uncertainty and uncomfortability, which of course I am no different. Whether questioning to leave things behind or rather cling to the old things that we're used to. As I spoke
about before I was a bisexual Christian and it was hard separating Christianity and my bisexuality, separating the holiness of God from the evils of my sins and not trying to figure out now which one do I want to hold on to or can I hold on to both when the Lord would then teach me that I couldn't.
Leaving things behind is necessary to move forward and to deepen your relationship with Jesus. You can't advocate for someone well if you don't know them well. But once you get to know Christ, the old test to go. We are great representations of how our parents raised us. We are often great representations of the people we hang around. So if we are great representations
of our upbringing from our parents and how we hang around our friends and the people we hang around, wouldn't that also ring true for how we represent Christ? Colossians 3 verse 5 to 10 says, put to death therefore whatever belongs to earthly nature, sexual morality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now, you must also rid yourselves of such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off the old self with its practices.
and if put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its creator. And then of course, Philippians 2, 14 to 15 says, everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. And before I move on to what I want to say, something I want to highlight here is so that you may become blameless and pure
Children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky the call the Lord says you are the light and a city on a hill cannot be hidden, right? We are called to be a light my brothers and sisters. We are called to be a reflection of holiness Keeping back decay
and releasing the impurities of the world, constantly woven in the world the goodness of God.
As we continue to know him, we are able to put to death what we used to gladly indulge in, to embrace who he is and the characteristics that lead us to represent him well. So the next point I kind of want to get into is, and the last point of course, is when advocating these are the things that you should be mindful of.
Firstly, your audience. When living for Christ, we are not just advocates around already Christian friends and family members, but we should push our hearts to.
represent Jesus in front of lost family, friends, and strangers because someone is always watching. And that our lives should reflect the character of Romans 12, verse 9 to 21, where Paul goes into this emphasis of what Christians should look like in character and how they should carry themselves with others. Second point I want to make is behavior.
Behavior, although Christianity is not shown through our behavior modification, but through fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we must remember that we are at war constantly with the flesh. So we must not allow ourselves, even in the way we carry ourselves, to be outside of the fruit of the Spirit. Verse.
Galatians 5 verse 22 to 23 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such things there is no law. We should not manufacture these fruits in our behavior, but allow them to bear fruit in our fellowship with the Spirit. And then the last point I want to make before we close this out is remembering Christ. In the midst of trying to advocate,
for the Lord we fall into pride doing it for our glory instead of his. We must constantly remember not the why but the who. The why can quickly shift but the who makes it all different. And I want to kind of help people understand this because this can be a little confusing. The reason why the who is more important than the why
is because if you're doing this more for yourself to be a better follower of Jesus than to do it so that Jesus can get glory through your life, then oftentimes your why will change. Your why changes when your who changes. Your who stays the same. Your why stays the same because your who stayed the same. So keep that in mind.
fixed we are constantly as followers of Jesus keeping our eyes on Christ the Bible says fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith for the joy set before him he endured the cross scorning the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God that's Hebrews 12 2 we as followers of Christ should constantly fix our eyes on Jesus because he constantly fixed his eyes on eternity and what he had to do in order for us to have fellowship with him
So here's my challenge to all of you guys. It is to understand that we, firstly, should make action plans to not represent him in only part of our life. How can I be better representative of him at work or at home? No. Make action plans in three different parts, and I'm gonna do this as well. Make action plans in three different aspects of your life. Work, home, and if you are a student in the classroom.
and create that action plan to at least have three things to magnify so that you can reflect Jesus more. Pick out at least three things to highlight in your life that could actually help you reflect Jesus even more. Whether that's being on time more, for ⁓ classes, ⁓ whether that's not cheating your boss out of their time, whether...
That also means just viewing your house chores in a different light. Shift the way you view things.
All right, everyone, to close. A scholar theologian and a former professor in the 20th century, William Barclay, once said this. There is no joy in the world like the joy of bringing one soul to Christ. ⁓
We must make the absolute effort to live holy and solely to King Jesus. We want to make heaven crowded, and the Lord calls us to reflect him in all we do or say. So let us not just be obedient to not just some of his word that benefits us, but all of his word that glorifies him. So everyone, let us remember to step out to be the light and be ambassadors for what he's done on the cross for us.
Thank you everyone for listening to another episode. I hope this episode blessed you. Until the next time when we rightly divide the word one episode at a time, this was your host Jamir Be blessed.