Day for the Nations 2026

1:12A family in America befriends and witnesses to international students. A truck driver responds to an international disaster to meet physical and spiritual needs. A parent serves as a team. Manager and a de facto chaplain for a youth sports team. A plumber completes a job well after dinner in order to ensure that a family can have water for the house. All of these people are missionaries. We know this because every Christian has the mission to make disciples.

2:00Matthew writes, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. My hope this morning is that you, children, students, and adults, will take this truth from this day for the nations. That being missional, which is the subject of this sermon, means to be missional in your Jerusalem or in your Judea or in your Samaria. It's understanding. It's applying. It's fleshing out what our Lord and Savior said to his disciples. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.

3:08To know right now what it means to be a sent people, not just overseas, but sent in your home, sent to your neighbors, sent to your school, sent to your community, and sent to your city. All of us are to be missional wherever we go. So, as we look at our text this morning, Paul explores three things that are helpful to us in understanding the truth of being missional everywhere. He talks about our missional motivation, our missional message, and our missional ministry. It's our motivation, our message, and our ministry. Notice our missional motivation. Look at verse 17.

4:10Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. Let me make three comments about being a new creation. First, being a new creation. Is a way of saying that salvation involves a radical change in a person. It is a change that leaves someone fundamentally different than they were before. That point is often made in the Bible and probably never more memorably when Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that for a person to enter the kingdom of God, he or she must be born again. The fact that one must be born again means that what a person is by birth and by nature isn't good enough.

5:12What you as a human being, fallen as human beings are, won't get anything but God's judgment. You must be changed. There is something seriously wrong with you, and God will have to make you over from the inside out. Now, brothers and sisters, people don't like to hear that. And that's why many choose not to be followers of Jesus Christ. Because being a new creation means that we must accept that there is something fundamentally wrong with us and that we can't fix it.

5:54Second, being a new creation means that we are recreated. The very being of who we are is transformed. We are not who we were before we were in Christ. We are new creations. We are completely remade. And as such, let me ask this question: Has your profession of faith in Jesus Christ, all of you who have made such a profession, has that profession transformed you? Is your life different? Because each of us should look at our own lives. And if we've made such a profession, but our lives are no different, they haven't been transformed, we haven't been recreated, we may not yet be born again.

6:56That's the question each of us should be asking. Because being a new creation means we have been recreated. Third, being a new creation gives us the motivation to be missional. We now have a new set of priorities. We are owned by another. Another has called us, redeemed us, and now indwells us by his spirit. We've been called out of this broken world into that new creation. You now belong to him. There's a whole new set of values that now define you and me.

7:47There's a whole new way of thinking, a whole new purpose, which happens to be God's purpose, which is all about restoration and the redemption of sinful man, and ultimately, the restoration of all things in the new heavens and new earth. This mission, his mission, must motivate us because his mission now must become our mission. Young people, there's a story of a one-legged school teacher from Scotland who approaches Hudson Taylor, who offers himself as a missionary to go to China.

8:33Now, some believed it's really too hard for a one-legged person in the 1800s to go off to China. And in fact, it's probably not God's will because God would not want a one-legged person going off to China. So the teacher named George Scott was asked by Taylor, Hudson Taylor, with only one leg, why do you think you can go as a missionary? The teacher named George Strait replied, I do not see those with two legs going, so I must.

9:07And Hudson Taylor brought George Scott along. Young people, there is nothing about your size, your set of skills, your height that can prevent you from being a missionary for God locally, domestically, or internationally. That's our missional motivation. We are different. We have been called to His priorities. Now, let us consider our missional message. Now, some argue that the church should argue for social and political change to change or force morality. Not that. Others insist that the church's message should be so inoffensive, so upbeat, so affirming, so positive, that non-believers will feel welcome and not threatened.

10:08And others will believe that their church's primary task is to defend its theological distinctives. This passage clearly articulates a different argument. Look at verse 19. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. Not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Our responsibility is to proclaim the message of reconciliation. So, what is the message of reconciliation? At the core, it is the gospel, it is the good news that sin-devastated relationship between lost sinners and God can be restored. Through God's plan of reconciliation, all the estrangement, all of the hostility, all of the alienation separating God and sinners is now vanishing. Those who were once his enemies are now going to become his friends. And the high calling and the noble privilege we have of proclaiming this message of reconciliation is now our responsibility.

11:38In this text, Paul gives a comprehensive statement of how God made this reconciliation possible. This text reveals that God, that reconciliation is by the will of God. Verse 18 clearly tells us. That reconciliation is what? From God. Unregenerate people have no ability to appease God's anger against sin, satisfy His justice, or conform to His standard of righteousness. The deception of all false religions is that sinners, based upon their religious and moral efforts, can reconcile themselves to God.

12:32But God alone designed the way of reconciliation, and only He can initiate the reconciliation of sinners. Thus, reconciliation is not something man does, but what He receives. It is not what He accomplishes, but is what He embraces. Reconciliation does not happen when man starts to stop rejecting God, but when God decides to stop rejecting man. It is a divine provision by which God's holy displeasure against alienated sinners is appeased, His hostility against them removed, and a harmonious relationship between Him and them is established. It is to all reconcile. People that God gives this ministry of reconciliation. All right, young people, I have a demo for you. Noel and Archer are going to come help me.

13:45This is actually, I'm doing a demonstration that Dr. Lewis Sherry Sperry Chaffer used. So, if you all would hold your hands, representing God and representing man. All right? In the beginning, God created man in the garden, and it was like this: their hands are together, men and God are face to face in perfect fellowship with one another, and then comes the fall, and man turns his back on God. This is what Isaiah says, isn't it? All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. So, God, because he's a God of justice, and his justice requires that he respond, God turns his back on man. And man has been alienated from God ever since. But in the work of the cross, God Desires to be reconciled to man. So God turns back to face the man again. And the message that he sends out to all men everywhere is: if you will but turn back to me and be reconciled, then peace can be restored. And that's the mechanism of reconciliation we send out. And when we send that message out and man responds in faith, reconciliation can be re-established. Thank you.

15:43Reconciliation is by the will of God, not the will of man. It is initiated by God. It is not by man. And I hope, young people, that demo shows you it's God moving first, not man moving towards God. Reconciliation is by the will of God. It is also by the work of Christ. The phrase verse 19 in Christ, the phrase verse 18, through Christ, identifies the Son of God as the agent of reconciliation. God reconciled believers to himself through Christ. That is, he did it as His own expense. God, and for his own purpose and as by own will, designed the sacrificial death of his son to reconcile believers to himself. Now, Christ did not die for all men without exception, but for all men without distinction. The world in this context indicates the sphere in which the reconciliation takes place. It denotes the class of beings with whom God seeks reconciliation. People from every nation, racial, and ethnic group. Christ's death does have infinite and unlimited value because he is the infinite Son of God. His sacrifice is sufficient to pay the penalty of sins for as many or as few as God chooses to save. And because of the intrinsic merit of Christ's death is unlimited, the general call to salvation goes out to all men. Reconciliation is by the will of God. It's by the work of Christ. It's also by the word of faith. While it is true that God alone is the reconciler, reconciliation does not happen apart from the sinner's faith. Because believers are his ambassadors, more about that later, it is though God were making an appointment. Appeal to the lost through us. We beg unbelievers on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. And this begging of the people to be reconciled makes it clear that the sinner is never delivered from wrath and judgment to blessing and reward without a personal response to the truth of the gospel through the means he has provided, faith. That is our missional message. There is no higher calling, no greater privilege, no more urgent task than the ministry of reconciliation God has entrusted to us as believers. That's our missional message. Now I want to consider our actual mission. Notice the first part of verse 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, he be reconciled to God.

19:07Our mission is to be ambassadors of reconciliation. We declare what God has done. We declare what we have received in Christ. And we declare that man must be reconciled to God. But this really kind of begs the question, doesn't it? What is an ambassador? Our understanding of this term ambassador will go a long way to understanding our role in this world. In fact, I believe that the term ambassador is probably the defining term to explain what our role is in this world. So, what is a modern-day ambassador? What's a modern-day ambassador look like? A modern-day ambassador is the highest-ranking diplomat representing their home country's government and interests in the host nation that they are at.

20:12A modern-day ambassador serves as the official voice and representative of their head of state to the host country that they're in. A modern-day ambassador advocates for their home country's policies, representing, negotiating international agreements, managing bilateral relationships with that host country that they're in. They, the modern-day ambassador, assist citizens from those home country who are living, working, and traveling in this host nation. Modern-day ambassador analyzes the host nation's political, social, and economic language. Landscape to report findings back to the home government. And the modern-day ambassador organizes events to foster goodwill, cultural exchange, and economic ties between the nations.

21:15So, what is a modern-day spiritual ambassador? Modern-day spiritual ambassador is a messenger from God to a lost world. We are to be ministers of reconciliation. We are to beg others to be reconciled to God. A modern-day spiritual ambassador is a representative of God who becomes the incarnate representation of the gospel for those who do not know Christ. A modern-day spiritual ambassador is one who lives in what? A foreign land. We are citizens of heaven. We represent God in this world where we are aliens and strangers.

22:14And this is where we're going to land for a second. And a modern-day spiritual ambassador is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We do not get to choose when we are on or off. Duty. So kind of, let me give you an example. I'm a modern-day ambassador, and I just happen to be, I'm going to pick Egypt. I'm the modern-day ambassador to Egypt. What happens if I, after hours, are seen coming out of a gentleman's club?

22:52What would happen if on the soccer pitch my kids were getting calls against them, maybe because they're Americans, and I'm yelling at the referee and I'm kicked off the pitch? What happens if I'm going to an event as the American ambassador and I'm lazy and I don't do anything at that event? What happens if I'm taking a graduate class to learn something in Arabic and I'm cheating? What happens if they see me walking down the street yelling at my kids? Can that ambassador say, excuse me, I know you saw all these things, but I was off duty. You know, I'm only an ambassador from eight to five.

23:43What I do before and after hours, what I do in my home, what I do on the soccer pitch, that doesn't matter because I'm off duty. The reaction is actually not correct. Why? That ambassador is the representative. Representative of the government 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter what they're doing, where they are, they are never not an ambassador. Likewise, this analogy is very important. Each of you in the room who professes faith in Jesus Christ, children, students, adults, when are you an ambassador? You are an ambassador in your homes, in your schools, in your neighborhoods, your workplaces, your social circles, when you're in your sororities, when you're on the softball field, when you're in your chat groups. You are an ambassador 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The world is watching what you're doing, and your goal is to put forth the message of reconciliation. And you don't get to choose when you do that and when you're not. We are to proclaim continually to the lost, perishing souls of this fallen world the good news that they can be reconciled to God. And if that ministry comes from God, that means you and I are responsible to Him and not to anyone else.

25:28I also want to say. Say to young adults and to children. When Paul went around the Roman world, he did not have to check in with the 12 apostles in Jerusalem to get permission to go to another country. He didn't get the commission from them, he got the commission from God. Likewise, you young people, you students, you do not have to get permission from the pastors or elders here at New Life to have a ministry in your home, in your school, in your neighborhood, on your softball team, on your soccer team. You don't need their permission. It's your responsibility, if you profess faith in Jesus Christ, to be a minister of reconciliation in every aspect of your life. He gave you the home, he put you in that school, he put you in that neighborhood, he gave you that social circle. He asked you to reach out to those who are around you. And he's given you the ministry of reconciliation so that you do it as if it's being done to God. The reconciliation begins with God. He sent us, he commissioned us, and God makes it clear that God reconciles first so that we do not go with anything that we have not already experienced ourselves. So as you have experienced that reconciliation, share that message of reconciliation to your fellow friends. Friends. And remember, you are an ambassador 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And that means everyone's watching you. That's our mission. The great 19th century Princeton theologian Charles Hodge made this statement. He said, The evidence that the death of Christ has been accepted as an atonement for sin of infinite value and efficiency is the fact that God commissioned his people to announce to all men that God is reconciled and ready to forgive, so that whosoever will may turn to him and live.

27:49God commissioned us, God reconciled us. It's what we're called to declare. But building on that of the 24-7 ambassador, it's also what we're called to live. Notice what he says at the end of verse 20. He makes this interesting statement. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now, why would he say that to them? Aren't they believers? So I doubt they're not believers because he says at the beginning of 2 Corinthians that they were the church of Christ. They might have been messed up. Saints, but they were still saints. So, what's he saying when he says, I implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God? Could it be that the Corinthians to whom he was writing were not fully living out the implications of the reconciled life with God? And the evidence of that is the way they were acting in the Corinthian church. And the evidence of that may also be that they were treating the Apostle Paul, and this is one of the sections, if we had studied 2 Corinthians, where Paul is having to defend his very apostleship.

29:10The Corinthians are not living out their lives as if they are reconciled to him. Now, there are those who have misinterpreted this passage by saying what Paul is calling is he calls us to be ministers of reconciliation, but we're supposed to be working on horizontal reconciliation. This passage isn't about horizontal reconciliation. This passage is about us being reconciled with God vertically. This passage is about calling us to be reconciled with the one true and holy God. So, yes, brother and sisters, we are to be reconciled because that has additional implications. We must live out our lives in a way that is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

30:00It's not just our words that we are saying, people, be reconciled. It's our actions and how we live. It's how we live in our homes, our school, our neighborhood, our social circles, at church, in the workplace, and in our cities. This is because we are ambassadors for Christ in word and in deed, making his appeal of the message of reconciliation to all men. Let us pray. Father, we adore you. It is because of your incredible love for us that while we were yet sinners, while we were yet alien to you, you sent your Son to pay for our salvation.

31:07And we confess that we who have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ are often lazy because we want to be ambassadors who only get to work so many hours a day. And when we're off the clock, we say, Simply do not want to be that messenger of reconciliation. But we thank you that each one of us has been called to be a missionary, to be an ambassador. And we thank you that this church has chosen to send out and to support those who are in South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia. But we also thank you that this church has chosen to support local ministries.

32:17And we are grateful that they are getting ready to go at spring break to South Texas. Because our mission field is Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the utter parts of the world. May this church, and may we as members of this church never forget that we are called to be messengers of reconciliation, to be ambassadors in every aspect. Aspect of our life because this is what missions is all about. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas.

33:20For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.