[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] I want to invite Tyler Masters to come on up. Tyler is a fine man of God. I've known him a long time. He's been used of God. You're going to enjoy this. You're going to miss it if you're not here for everything today as you listen to this man of God teach you about what God's doing around the world.
[0:31] Thanks, sir. Go ahead and turn your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. Last night I had the privilege of meeting with the World Evangelism Cabinet.
[0:44] It was a good time. I had a lot of really good questions. And during our meeting, the men asked about some experiences that I had, and I shared with them my experience of getting arrested.
[0:55] And then they asked if I could share that again this morning. So I'm going to go ahead and share with you one of the more exciting things that has happened on the mission field. Now, the preface to this is not every day of missionary life is like this.
[1:06] Like, this happens like once in like four or five years, okay? So don't think, hey, this is like a daily routine for me. It is not. However, about five years ago, six years ago, a friend of mine, Saeed, he's a Moroccan pastor, and Aaron Bayshore and I, the three of us took a trip to the southern part of Morocco to do follow-up.
[1:24] And I mentioned before that we have people who contact us from the Internet about receiving Bibles or just information about Christianity in general because in countries that are 99.9% Muslim, you don't come across a lot of Christians.
[1:37] So while we were down there working with a few of the believers that were out in the mountain area, we thought we'd take advantage of the opportunity to meet with some contacts in the city of Arashidea.
[1:47] So we called them, and nobody answered, which is pretty typical. When you actually get there to meet with people, they get nervous and they don't want to answer the phone. So we decided we were going to go to the city north of us, and we headed towards the bus station, and Saeed's phone rang again.
[2:04] And the man said, who are you and why did you call me? And Saeed said, well, I'm the pastor from up north, and I'm here, and I have a Bible, and I'd like to give it to you.
[2:15] And the guy said, well, how about I meet you at the bus station before you leave? So Saeed agreed to that. So we got to the bus station. Nobody showed up. I had a big duffel bag full of Bibles and DVDs and everything with me.
[2:27] I was supposed to leave it in the church in the north, but typical of me, I was running late. So I couldn't do that, and I had to carry this, like, 30-pound bag of Bibles with me all over the southern part of Morocco along with my own bag. And so Saeed and I, we were on the bus, and the guy called him, and he said, hey, I'm here.
[2:44] Come out and meet me. So Saeed said, all right, I'll bring you a Bible and a DVD, but we've got to leave. So he went out, and I was watching from the window, and typically in Morocco, men will shake hands, and then they'll kiss. So they'll put their cheek on one side and their cheek on the other side.
[2:56] That's a typical greeting in North Africa. But this guy, when he grabbed Saeed's hand, didn't kiss him. He pulled him in and grabbed his jacket and started walking toward the bus station. Now, every bus station there has a police post.
[3:07] So he walked into that station, and when that happened, Aaron got on the bus and said, where's Saeed? And I said, well, I think he just got arrested. He said, you kidding? He said, here, take my backpack. It has all of our information, our laptop and everything.
[3:18] Take it, hold on to it. I'm going to find out what's going on. So Aaron got off the bus, literally jumped into the bushes, and started watching from a distance of what was going on. Right after that, Saeed got on the bus again, and he walked back towards me, and I said, is everything all right?
[3:32] And he said, take this book. It was an address book that had all our contacts in the country. He said, take this book and make sure nobody finds it. All right, I guess not everything's okay. So I put it in my coat, and he got his backpack and got off the bus.
[3:43] And then two police officers came back, and I'm bright, shining in this bus, the only white guy there. And so they walked right back to me, and they said, do you know Saeed? And I said, yeah, I know Saeed.
[3:55] They said, can we see your passport? I said, sure, here it is. And they said, great, thank you, and put it in their coat pocket. And they said, all right, now come with us. So I went with them, and we stayed at the post for a little bit until a police van came, and they made us unload all of our bags.
[4:09] I had my bag of Bibles, my personal belongings, Aaron's bag with his computer, and Saeed's stuff. And we loaded all this up in the van, and they took us to the local station. And while we were there, the guy that turned us in was sitting right next to me.
[4:20] And the officer ahead of us had my passport and Saeed's identification card, and he was just typing out the information about both of us. The guy sitting next to me, what happened was he was not the contact. His son was the contact, an 18-year-old boy who claimed to be a Catholic wanting a Bible.
[4:35] So anyway, when the father found out that there were Christians down there taking a Bible to his son, he was furious, and he set this whole thing up. So he was sitting next to me, and I typically carry a wallet and a New Testament inside of that.
[4:46] And he saw it, and he says, what is that? And I said, well, it's a Bible. He said, why do you have a Bible in Arabic? I said, well, I'm a Christian, and I'm learning Arabic, and it's important for me to read the Bible in the language that I'm learning.
[4:57] He said, well, what's the difference between Christianity and Islam anyway? I said, well, good question. It's Jesus Christ. That's why we're called Christians. It's about what Christ has done for us that makes us acceptable before God, not what we do to try to earn favor with God.
[5:11] He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I've heard that before. I've met Christians before. He said, but that guy doesn't believe that. Talking about Saeed. I said, oh, yeah, he does. Ask him. So he asked Saeed, and Saeed said, well, of course I believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior.
[5:23] And they said, wait, what? And the officer during the report looked up and said, wait, how is that possible? Your identification card says that you're a Moroccan. He said, yes. He said, how could a Moroccan be a Christian?
[5:35] All Moroccans are Muslim. He said, well, I'm not. They said, well, how much are they paying you to be a Christian? He said, how much are they paying you to be a Muslim? They said, well, how did this happen? So he gave his testimony, and then officers started coming into the room and asked questions about the Bible and Christ and how Saeed could become a traitor.
[5:53] And he said, just give me back the Bible, and I'll explain it to you. So they handed back the Bible they confiscated from him. And he said, well, it all starts back here in Genesis. And he just started going through the Bible and gave them the plan of salvation. Well, then they loaded this up into another van, took us to police headquarters in Arashidia, and the same thing happened there.
[6:08] We got into a bigger room. More officers were coming in, and they were totally baffled that Saeed was a Christian Moroccan. So then later we went to the chief of police. Saeed gave his testimony there. And we went through the entire day with people asking questions about Christ in the police station, got fingerprinted, got our mug shots.
[6:25] They don't like it when you smile, evidently. They told me not to do that. So they got our mug shots and everything. And that night they released me. And I didn't realize it, but they did not release Saeed. So they took me to the bus station, and they carried even my bag full of Bibles.
[6:38] They never searched a thing. The entire day we were there, they never searched the bag. They said, well, you have lots of stuff. I said, yeah, you know us Americans, we're big babies. We need all our stuff when we travel. So they literally carried the Bibles for me to the bus station.
[6:51] And then I found out that Saeed wasn't there. So I called Aaron, who had already gone up to the city north of us, had him come down, get the Bibles. I went back, and I stayed in the area to be able to help Saeed give him food and drink, which they don't provide for their prisoners at that time.
[7:05] So I had to be there for that. So later on I found out what happened that night. See, after I left, they did search Saeed's bag, and they found a Bible and they found a DVD. And they asked him what the DVD was all about, and he said, well, it explains Christianity, what I've been telling you about.
[7:20] And they said, well, your transport's not here. Do we have time to watch it? I said, sure. So they put it in on the computer and they watched the God story together. And they said, well, we've never heard Christianity explained like that.
[7:31] That was pretty interesting. So then he got to his jail cell, and there were three other prisoners that night. One guy was in for beating a woman in public, one guy for getting in a fight with a police officer, and another guy who had just killed someone driving drunk.
[7:43] And they asked Saeed why he was there. And he said, well, because I'm a Christian. They said, what? That's horrible. You need to repent and get right with God. All these other criminals were trying to convince Saeed of the error of his way.
[7:54] So the next day, we finished up paperwork, and in the evening, they took us to the courthouse. Now, Morocco is a constitutional monarchy, all right? So the king is the chief potentate, all right?
[8:06] He is the man. And what they do is every region has like a little king, sort of like there was Caesar and then King Agrippa and all these other kings under him. It works that way still. So this guy was the king's representative, the Supreme Court judge, essentially.
[8:21] So Saeed got brought in, and he was questioned about his faith, questioned about what he was doing there, and he was able to explain the gospel to the king's representative himself, the man appointed by the king to be in that position.
[8:33] And then finally, they brought in the boy and his father who accused us. And so the judge, at the end of all the questioning, looked at the boy and he said, is it true that you claim to be a Catholic?
[8:44] No, I'm not. He said, why don't you tell me something about Islam? Well, it's the greatest religion in the world. He said, well, why don't you tell me something real about it? Well, God gave the prophet Muhammad the religion to unite all the religions in the world. He said, why don't you quote a verse from the Koran for me?
[8:57] And the kid couldn't. So then the judge, the king's representative, looked at the father and said, you know what? You really need to stop wasting your time chasing Christians around this country and start teaching your son about your religion.
[9:08] And he turned to Saeed and he said, I honestly do not understand why you would do it, but I believe that you are a Christian. And so we will now officially register you as a Christian and you and your friend are free to go home.
[9:21] So we walked out of the office and the two guards that had been transporting us the entire time were standing there. They said, what happened? He said, well, the judge said we can go home. He said, oh, that's wonderful. And they kissed us and said it was a pleasure to meet you and sent us on our way.
[9:32] And on our way out, Saeed said, that was the greatest experience of my entire life. He said, we went to this city expecting to talk to three people in secret about Jesus, but God had bigger plans.
[9:44] He wanted the entire police force, the chief of police, and the king's representative himself to hear the gospel. So this was the greatest day of my life. Why would Saeed say something like that?
[9:56] He realizes a very important thing that a lot of us lose track of. See, this life isn't about us. It's not about our comfort. It's not about how much God will bless us, although he will bless us.
[10:09] It's not about that. It's about giving glory to God. And the real paradox is when we stop thinking about ourselves and we focus on him, we experience true joy.
[10:20] See, when we're thinking about ourselves and all that we can get, we're worried that we're going to lose it and we are miserable. But as soon as we say, Lord, it's yours, take it. Take my finances, take my life, take my children, take everything.
[10:32] There's an immense amount of freedom to that. And say, Lord, take it all. I trust you. You say, well, God's going to give you so much more in return. Not necessarily monetarily. See, I always hear that. You give to God and he'll give you twice back.
[10:43] It doesn't always happen that way. We have to be willing to say, Lord, if you give nothing back to me, I want to give to you. Not because I have to give to you, but because you deserve it. And the Lord will give you so much joy through that and knowing him that you won't even want to go back to the life of trying to hoard things up for yourself.
[11:01] Twelve years ago, when we, as a team, it was BCWE back then, we started reading books together. And one of the books that we read was called Cat and Dog Theology. I don't know if you guys remember this. There are a few guys in here who went through that.
[11:13] I love the book. And for me, it was super helpful because it really addressed the problem with my own heart. Now, what the book is based on, Cat and Dog Theology, is based on a joke. And the joke is this, that cats and dogs are very different in the way that they view their masters.
[11:27] I grew up both with cats and dogs. More of a dog person. Don't hate cats. I just don't like them. Now, the idea is this. If you look at the way a dog and a cat treat their master, essentially this is what's happening.
[11:39] A dog will say, you pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me, you must be God. And that dog loves you and will serve you and will give his life for you.
[11:52] The cat, on the other hand, will take that exact same information and say, you pet me, you feed me, you shelter me, you love me. I must be God.
[12:03] Why else would you do all of this for me? All right? Dogs have masters. Cats have staff. All right? They expect you to serve them. All right? The dog wants out. You open the door. Boom, he's out. The cat's meowing at the door and you open it.
[12:15] It looks at you like, you think I really need you? I mean, I could have opened that myself. I'll think about it a little bit before it walks out. Right? What's the difference? The dog is master-centered. Now, the dog gets blessings and he loves when the master gives him attention.
[12:28] He gets a lot from his master, but he's consumed with his master. The cat, on the other hand, expects his master to give to him. Now, we as Christians, we don't claim to be God. But essentially what happens is this, is that we observe things.
[12:40] And dog theology says this. We say, God, you love me. You bless me abundantly. You gave your life for me. You must be God. That's dog theology. Cat theology says, Lord, if you love me this much and if you gave your life for me, I must not only be what you died for, but I must be what you live for.
[13:01] And it becomes me-centered. And the problem is, it's not necessarily a false doctrine. It's incomplete doctrine. The question is this.
[13:11] Why did Jesus Christ suffer? Why did he die a humiliating death? Why would he go through all of that? Well, the correct answer is he did it for you and for me.
[13:23] But that's only half the answer. And if that's all we focus on, it becomes me-centered. And eventually we start saying, God, I don't understand why you allowed so much death in my life. Why you would allow my mother-in-law, who gave her entire life, to serve a man who could give nothing back to her for 15 years, did nothing but sacrifice, and she's dead, and now he still needs people to take care of her.
[13:44] And you say, Lord, I understand why a four-month-old baby is going to die. And we look at these things and say, if it's all about me, it makes no sense at all. Suffering makes no sense if it's only about us.
[13:56] Because the gospel is about, Lord, he loves us and he gave himself for us, but he also did it for his glory. He didn't save us just so that we would live life and be happy ourselves. That is a benefit that we get from it.
[14:07] But if that's all we focus on, we are not truly experiencing the Christian life the way that we could. We have to realize he did it for us, and he did it for his glory, and both of these things play together, and there's immense joy in recognizing it's not all about us.
[14:22] Here in 2 Corinthians 5, and I'm going to go through it quickly, but I want us to see Paul, he is pouring his heart out to the church in Corinth. The second letter he's writing to them, his apostleship is being questioned.
[14:33] False teachers are coming in. They're contradicting what he's saying. And they say, look, Paul, I mean, if he was a man of God, why have people trying to kill him? Why isn't he being blessed abundantly?
[14:44] He goes through a list of sufferings that he went through in his life, being shipwrecked and stoned, half almost to death, and flogged 39 times, multiple times. He went through a lot of suffering. These guys, look, if God really blessed him, why is he going through all of this?
[14:56] And he's not really polished. He's not a great speaker. He doesn't dress like we do, as refined as we are. And Paul, right now, he's sort of giving a defense of his apostleship.
[15:07] He started this church. He loves these people. And here's what he says, and we'll go ahead and start in verse 12. He says, We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them, which glory in appearances and not in heart.
[15:24] For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God. Whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constrains us. Because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
[15:37] And that he died for all that they which live should not live henceforth unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
[15:55] Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
[16:10] To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
[16:21] 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. For he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
[16:41] So what happens in our life often is we fall into the trap of thinking, you know, God, if I serve you, then you'll bless me. Lord, if I do this for you, God, I know that you're going to give things back to me. And God is a good God and he does bless, but we almost treat him as though he owes us something.
[16:57] God, I gave my life for you. I serve you with my life. Why are these bad things happening to me? Why would you ask for my children? Why would you ask for my money? God, I'm giving everything else that I have to you. Why then would you want more?
[17:09] Why do they keep talking about giving more, giving more, giving more? Lord, I've done enough. Why don't you, there's this quidro quo, right? Like, give me back. Give me back a little bit. And we don't say it openly, but in our hearts we say that like, what did I do to deserve this?
[17:23] It's not about what we deserve. This is what Paul is saying. Why did Paul start this church? Why is Paul taking the gospel to places where they want to kill him? It isn't because he's going to get something in return. It's not because he thinks, oh, God's just going to give me health and wealth because he had the complete opposite from serving the Lord.
[17:39] He went beyond that and he found a motivation that was far more profound. Because see, all the motivations, the blessings, they're great. And the money and the fame and the recognition and all the praise, sure, that kind of stuff can encourage somebody.
[17:53] But the only thing that will be the motive that will cause you to endure is the motive of love, the love of Christ. And it doesn't even say love for Christ. It says the love of Christ.
[18:04] Because here's what happens. See, we get so focused on the he did it for us part, we focus on the us. But what should happen when we think about who Christ is and the fact that he came down from his throne to this earth and humiliated himself to give us eternal life, our hearts should not be great.
[18:20] What else is he going to give us? It ought to be if he did that, then it is nothing for me to give everything I have back to him. We owe him everything. But it's not about owing him. It's about loving him and saying, wow, Lord, this is who you are.
[18:33] This is how you view me now. This is what you've done in my life. I mean, he explains in here. This is why he goes through the transaction that takes place on the cross. And what happens, we lose sight of it. So you say, how am I going to get motivated about giving the missions?
[18:45] Return to the cross. See Jesus Christ for who he is and what he has done. Well, what is that? Well, he said, well, look, who were we? Who were we before we knew Christ?
[18:56] We were like cats. All right. It was all about us. And he said, you know what? He did this for us. The love of Christ constrains us. Why? We thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
[19:07] Our condition before knowing Christ was dead. We could do nothing for ourselves. We did not know him. We did not love him. It says in John 3, we were condemned already. What do you have to do to deserve eternal condemnation?
[19:19] Nothing. You deserve it by nature because of our sinful nature. This is what makes us sinners. He didn't come to condemn us. He came to save that which was lost. He came here to give hope to the hopeless.
[19:31] We were already condemned and we chose condemnation. We ran from God and yet he loved us and he pursued us. That is the love of Christ. We were dead. We thus judged that we all were dead.
[19:41] And then why did he do this? Why would he give us life so that we would be happy? Maybe that's part of it, but that's not what it says here. It says, and he died for all. Why? That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
[19:55] That's what we did before we knew him. We live for ourself. That's self-preservation, self-propagation, self-gratification. Get as much as you can, live as long as you can, and be as famous as possible, right?
[20:07] That's what we did before him. But then it says in verse 17 that now those of us who are in Christ, we have a new nature. His spirit dwells within us. We have a new nature. What is that nature? We now do not live for ourselves.
[20:18] We want to live for him. And I honestly don't like to preach to people, you need to serve God. You know why? Because I believe if you're a Christian, you want to serve him. And if I have to push you to serve him, you probably don't know him.
[20:31] Now, I think in every Christian heart, it burns, God, I want to know you and I want to serve you. And all I've got to do is say, hey, just get the focus on him. Say, well, I don't understand why I'm not passionate about missions. Return to the cross.
[20:42] It's not about what you do. It's seeing him for who he is, realizing who we were, and now what he has done for us. See, that was our condition before he knew us, and now he has given us a new life.
[20:52] And this is what he says has happened in our new life. He says, all things are of God. In other words, this was God's plan from the very beginning, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.
[21:03] Reconciliation. We were enemies of God. We hated God. We did not seek God. And yet he reconciles us to himself. How does he do that? It says here that he pursued us. He loved us. He sent Christ.
[21:14] He did it through Jesus. He was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. And what is he talking about here? God was in Christ, verse 19, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.
[21:25] God took the first step. There was a wall between us. That our sins separated us from God. It says that God reconciled us to him. He brought down the wall through Jesus Christ.
[21:37] And now he has been reconciled. That's the sovereignty of God. God is working in that, yes. But then there's also human responsibility. In verse 19, or in verse 20, I'm sorry. He says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ.
[21:49] As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God. God reconciled himself to you. Now what is our responsibility? Respond to that. See, Paul said, this is all I've done.
[22:00] God has provided the way. He is the way, the truth, the life. Jesus Christ is. And now know him. Be reconciled to him. We are his ambassadors. So not only were we condemned without him and he gave his life for us.
[22:12] Not only did he give us a new nature. He gave us a new purpose. He gave us a new purpose. In both of those verses, it says that God was in Christ, that has reconciled himself to us by Christ, had given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
[22:27] In verse 18, verse 19, it says, has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Here's what happened. Christ was on the cross and he cried out, it is finished.
[22:38] And it was. But the majority of the world didn't know about it. Didn't hear about it. So after he resurrected, his disciples are with him and they're going up to the mountain. And they say, all right, Lord, when are you going to restore the kingdom again to Israel?
[22:49] All right, when are you going to set up your throne and everybody's going to see you? He says, you know what? You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and to Samaria and to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And he leaves them with that. What did he do?
[23:00] He committed to the church. He said, you know what? I have provided the way. Man now is responsible and must respond to this. And the only way they're going to hear about it is if you tell them. He returns to heaven and he commits to us the ministry of reconciliation.
[23:14] We are ambassadors in his stead. What does an ambassador do? Exactly what his leader tells him to do. The ambassador of Tunisia does not have the luxury of saying, you know what?
[23:24] Trump is a little off his rocker. Okay. I don't think his policies are right. And I think we ought to do things in Tunisia this way. He can't do that. All right. And if he does, he won't be ambassador for long.
[23:35] He does not represent himself. He represents his leader. We do not represent ourselves. We represent our king, Jesus Christ. We are his ambassadors.
[23:46] We were lost without him. He gives us life in him. We now have a new nature. We have purpose in life to take the gospel of the world. We represent him. And when we lose track of that, verse 21, we need to return to this and realize what he did.
[24:00] It says, he had made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Where do we get our worth?
[24:11] Through Christ. What makes us acceptable before the father? Christ. See, when he's on the cross, he took our sins on him. But he didn't just empty our account. He gave us his righteousness.
[24:22] And now, standing before the father, he does not see me as Tyler, the sinner, and put to my account all the sins that I had committed that caused me to be separated from him. He now sees his son, Jesus Christ, in me.
[24:35] And I am acceptable, not based on what I do, but based on who I am through Christ. That is the love of Christ. That is our motivation. You say, why do I have to give?
[24:46] You don't have to give. My question is, why don't you want to give? Why don't you want to give everything you have? Well, Lord, I'll give you whatever you want except for, and that except for is your idol.
[24:58] What is it in your heart? You say, Lord, take anything but that. We'll talk about it a little bit more tonight. We'll continue on with this same thought. But see, Christians who know Christ, who really understand who they were, what he's done for them, become world Christians.
[25:10] In that, we will do whatever it takes to make him known. Not because it's because we want to be blessed. And it's not because the Muslims deserve it. They don't deserve it, and we don't deserve it.
[25:21] It's because he deserves it. He is worthy to receive all glory, honor, and power. We serve him not because we have to, but because we are compelled by his love. So let's let go of whatever it is that's holding us back.
[25:33] Let's reflect on the love of God and what he has done for us. Let's reflect on our condition before we knew him and realize that's the condition of the world, and that it is our privilege to represent him and to do whatever we can to get the gospel of the world, to use all of our resources not for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again.
[25:54] Let's passionately pursue our mission to get the gospel and glorify him in every tribe, every tongue, and every nation. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[26:11] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com, where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.