Embracing Our Identity as Citizens of God's Kingdom

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Mark 1:14-15 (ESV)**
> "Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'"

2. **Colossians 1:13-14 (ESV)**
> "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

3. **2 Corinthians 5:20 (ESV)**
> "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

#### Observation Questions
1. According to Mark 1:14-15, what was the central message Jesus proclaimed as He began His ministry?
2. In Colossians 1:13-14, what significant change happens to those who believe in Jesus?
3. What does 2 Corinthians 5:20 say about the role of believers in relation to Christ?

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does the concept of the "already but not yet" Kingdom help us understand the current and future aspects of God's reign? [40:38]
2. What does it mean to have a new identity as a citizen of God's Kingdom, and how should this identity influence our daily lives? [46:38]
3. How can believers effectively fulfill their role as ambassadors for Christ in a world that often promotes self-sovereignty? [54:51]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on your current life. Are there areas where you have not fully submitted to God's authority? What steps can you take to bring these areas under His reign? [49:35]
2. Think about your daily interactions. How can you better represent the values and priorities of God's Kingdom in your workplace or community? [55:17]
3. Identify one specific way you can grow in knowledge of God's word this week. Will you commit to a daily Bible reading plan, take notes during sermons, or join a study group? [57:56]
4. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge. Can you recall a recent situation where you needed wisdom? How did you handle it, and what would you do differently now? [01:01:57]
5. Character is crucial for an ambassador. What practical steps can you take to walk more closely with God and avoid sin in your life? [01:07:21]
6. Ambassadors need accountability. Do you have someone in your life who can help you stay accountable in your walk with Christ? If not, who could you approach to fill this role? [01:09:57]
7. The sermon emphasized the importance of prayer and fasting. How can you incorporate these practices into your life to draw closer to God and better fulfill your role as an ambassador? [01:14:23]

Day 1: Embracing Kingdom Citizenship
The Kingdom of God is a present reality and a future hope, where God's authority is recognized. It is not a physical location but the realm of God's reign. As citizens of this Kingdom, individuals are called to live in a way that reflects the values and priorities of this Kingdom, which is fundamentally different from the world's systems. [40:38 <0XkEG9gg0qo>]

Colossians 1:13-14 - "For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
Reflection: How does being a citizen of God's Kingdom influence your daily decisions and interactions with others?

Day 2: Identity Transformed by Faith
Upon embracing faith in Jesus, one's primary identity becomes that of a citizen of God's Kingdom. This new identity should influence every aspect of life, leading to a transformation that aligns with the character and teachings of Jesus. The old ways of defining oneself are replaced by this new, all-encompassing identity in Christ. [46:38 <0XkEG9gg0qo>]

2 Corinthians 5:17 - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
Reflection: In what ways has your identity in Christ challenged or changed the way you view yourself and your purpose?

Day 3: Continuous Kingdom Representation
Being an ambassador for Christ means representing the King in a foreign territory—the world. This role is not limited to certain times or places; it is a continuous representation of Jesus' love, grace, and truth in every aspect of life. Ambassadors carry the message of the Kingdom wherever they go, making disciples and influencing the world for the Kingdom. [54:51 <0XkEG9gg0qo>]

2 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."
Reflection: What are some practical ways you can be an ambassador for Christ in your everyday life, both in actions and words?

Day 4: Pursuing Knowledge and Wisdom
Knowledge and wisdom are indispensable for ambassadors. Knowledge of God's word and His ways is foundational, while wisdom is the practical application of this knowledge in daily life. Ambassadors must continually seek both, through study, experience, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to effectively communicate and live out the truths of the Kingdom. [01:02:30 <0XkEG9gg0qo>]

Proverbs 2:6-7 - "For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless."
Reflection: How can you actively seek God's wisdom in a specific situation you are facing right now?

Day 5: Character Reflecting the King
Character is the truest reflection of an ambassador's effectiveness. It is not enough to know the right things; one must also do the right things. This involves walking closely with God, avoiding sin, and being accountable to others. As ambassadors work on their character, they become more authentic and powerful representatives of the Kingdom. [01:05:09 <0XkEG9gg0qo>]

Titus 2:7-8 - "In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us."
Reflection: What is one area of your character that you feel God is calling you to develop, and what steps will you take to grow in that area?

Blessed, you can be rich, but if you're without God, what do you have? You have nothing. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "Instruct those that are rich in this world's goods not to be proud. Don't fix your hopes on the uncertain things that money can buy. Fix your hope on God."

Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Put God first; God will take care of the rest. But if you put money, pleasure, and power first, you're going to be deceived. You're going to come up empty; you're going to come up short-handed.

Right, man? So I got to give you a little bit of a disclaimer. I was told after the first service that Brent is spicy today. I don't really know what that means, and I'm going to try and keep things mild, but I guess things are getting a little spicy today. So we're going to have some fun because it's a new year. It is a new series right here at the beginning, and that's always fun. You know me; I love to kick off new things.

We are starting a conversation right here at the beginning of 2024 that I really do think is going to shape all of the conversations we're going to have over the course of this year because we are going to be talking about the kingdom today and over the next couple of weeks. This concept of the kingdom is by far the thing Jesus talked about the most. He talked about it more than he talked about love and forgiveness. He talked about it more than he talked about money, more than he even talked about heaven or hell. He talked about the kingdom a lot.

In fact, the New Testament talks about the kingdom about 160 times. Jesus is responsible for 80% of those. It's like this is the thing he talked about more than anything else. In fact, he opens up his ministry on Earth by talking about the kingdom. He's baptized by John, he's led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast and pray and be tempted for 40 days. How many of you are glad our fast is only 10 days and not 40 days? Thank you, Jesus.

He comes back from that time of fasting and steps into Galilee into ministry with a message about the kingdom. This is what it says in Mark chapter 1: "After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.'"

But this wasn't just the message that he had for Galilee; it's actually the message that he took into every place he went. It says in Luke chapter 8, "Soon afterward, he went on through cities and villages proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God."

He didn't just talk about the kingdom; he actually told his followers this is the priority. This is most important. It's a passage we've already looked at a bunch today, but it says in Matthew 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Before you do anything else, your life should be focused on the kingdom.

In fact, it's the focal point of the prayer he taught us to pray, right? Think about it. Matthew 6:9 says, "Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The kingdom is a pretty big deal.

It's the focal point of so much. In fact, the kingdom is how Jesus himself summarizes the reason why he came to Earth. He says in Luke chapter 4, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, for I was sent for this purpose." This is why Jesus came—to tell us about the kingdom of God. That means this message is pretty important, don't you think?

So then the question is, what is it? Because I think we run into this thing sometimes where we talk about something as if we know what it means, but we don't really know how to describe it or explain it. And so we just kind of gloss over it. Every time we read in scripture about the kingdom of God, we just kind of like, "Oh yeah, the kingdom, that thing that exists," and then we move on.

So today, I want to do my best—and I say that laughing because this is going to be a tough challenge—but I want to do my best to explain what the kingdom of God is all about. I say this is going to be a challenge because how many of you know that Jesus told a lot of parables? That was like his main delivery method of getting information to people—was telling a parable.

What you may not know is that 30% of his parables were trying to describe what the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is like. He says it's like leaven, it's like a pearl, it's like a treasure in a field, it's like bridesmaids, it's like a feast, it's like talents. He uses all kinds of different language to explain what the kingdom is like.

In fact, just in Matthew 13, you might want to take note of that and go back and read it later, there are seven parables in a row about the kingdom. He says, "The kingdom is like," and then he goes on to describe it.

Now, the reason why this is a challenge today is because usually what would happen after Jesus's parable or after his explanation, the people left confused. And not just random people, but even his closest followers, even his disciples. He would tell a story, and they would ask him, "What are you talking about? What does that even mean?"

So if the people had a hard time understanding Jesus when he talked about this thing, I don't know, man, this kind of feels like it might be above my pay grade. So I'm going to do my best; I'm going to try, but we'll see where this goes.

We're going to start with this theological concept known as the already but not yet kingdom. When we talk about the kingdom of God, it's important to understand that it is this idea of the already. The kingdom of God is already here to a degree, but not yet fully come. The reason why we say that is because Jesus, on one hand, says that the kingdom of God is at hand; the kingdom of God is here. And then he tells us to pray that the kingdom would come.

How can something come if it's already here? Well, it's only through this theological understanding of the already but not yet kingdom. To make things even more confusing for you, sometimes Jesus says "kingdom of God," and sometimes Jesus says "kingdom of heaven." The truth is they're both the same thing. They're synonyms.

How we know that is because there's one story, I think it's the rich young ruler, where Jesus uses "kingdom of God" at the beginning of the conversation and "kingdom of heaven" at the end of the conversation. But it's the same conversation, talking about the same thing. In fact, I think it's Mark and Luke use "kingdom of God," and Matthew uses "kingdom of heaven" in telling the exact same stories—like the same illustration, the same story, the same moment. They interchange them.

So it leads us to understand that "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" are the same thing. But the phrasing "kingdom of heaven" leads a lot of people to look at this as a physical location. That when God is, or when Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, he's talking about heaven up there somewhere. We don't really know where that is, but it's a location in our mind.

But that's not what the kingdom of God is. It's not about heaven because in the Greek, if you look at it, the word actually isn't about a location at all. It's actually better translated as the reign of the king. So it's not about the location of the king; it's a word that's used to depict the power and the authority of the king, not the location of the king.

So that means a better way of understanding this is that the kingdom of God is God's authority and his right to rule. You can't really put a location on that, can you? I mean, think about it. He is the creator of heaven and earth; he's the God of the universe.

So the realm in which God exercises his authority and his right to rule would then be everything—like all of it, right? If the kingdom, if the king's domain—like if we take the Latin roots of the word "kingdom," it's the king's domain—then this is not like Mufasa's "wherever the light touches is his kingdom." No, no, no. It's all of it, right?

God's domain in his power and his authority is everywhere. It's everything. It's all of it. So what does that have to do with us? Thank you, Kia, that's a great question. I'm glad you asked it. It has everything to do with us because here's what Paul says in Colossians: "God has delivered us from the domain of darkness, from one kingdom. He's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son."

So you were a part of one kingdom, and God picked you up and moved you over and brought you into a brand new kingdom. You aren't just a part of this kingdom; you are actually a citizen of it. That's what Paul says in Ephesians: "You are no longer strangers and aliens; you're not outsiders anymore. Now you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."

You are a citizen of the kingdom of God, which means you have rights and responsibilities as a full citizen. I love how Paul puts this. He breaks it down in 2 Corinthians: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

So let's try and put these three passages together because what happens here is you've been transferred into a new kingdom. You've been given citizenship within that kingdom, which means you have a new identity. You are a new creation. You have a new identity as a citizen within the kingdom of God.

This kingdom identity should shape everything about you. And when I say everything about you, you know what I mean by that? I mean everything about you.

And see, here's the thing: the world loves to make sexual identity, gender identity, political identity, or national identity, ethnic identity the most important thing about you. But it isn't. See, Jesus only gives you one option: to lay down those identities and pick up the identity of Christ. You have one option, and it's to become identified with him.

In fact, Galatians, Paul says it like this: "You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ." That's when we take on the identity of Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, in Christ, it doesn't matter what used to be your identity. It doesn't matter what you used to be. It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Greek, or a slave or free, male or female; you are all the same in Christ Jesus. It doesn't matter what your identity used to be. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are given a brand new identity that is immeasurably more important than any other identity you may have once claimed.

You are now, first and foremost, a child of God, a citizen of his kingdom, and that identity should shape every single thing about you. It should shape what music you listen to; it should shape what shows you watch; it should shape the language that you use, the things that you talk about. It should shape the way you live your life, the way you handle your money. It should shape the way you work. It should shape literally every single thing—how you parent, how you are a spouse—every single thing about you should be shaped by the identity that you now have as a citizen of the kingdom of God.

So when culture tries to say, "Hey, we're going to live a certain way," you go, "Whoa, wait a minute. No, no. Your kingdom may operate that way, but I'm a citizen of a different kingdom, and my kingdom lives a different way."

So why is the kingdom of God so important? Well, because it's within this context that we find our purpose and our identity in life. Everything is shaped by this one thing. See, the world tries to tell you that you're the king, so act like it. Jesus says, "I'm the king, so act like it." And there's a big difference between those two things.

You are now a citizen of the kingdom of God—a kingdom with a king that ain't you. So either you got two options: if you're a citizen of a kingdom and you ain't the king, you got two options. You can submit, or you can rebel. But this kingdom does not offer dual citizenship. There is no provision within the kingdom of God for part-time Christianity or sometime Christianity. This is an all-or-nothing proposition.

And it may be a preacher quote, but Jesus is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all. There you go. I couldn't even get the preacher quote right.

So I got to ask you the question, though, and this might be where people are like, "Brent was spicy." Here's the question: How much power and authority does God really have in your life? If the kingdom is about God's power and authority, how much of that is being exercised in your life?

It's the already, not yet. So he's king, but have you submitted? And have you submitted everything to his authority? Are you still trying to have God take a little bit of partial rule? Because I think some of us, we operate like, "Jesus, I submit to you. I give you everything. I just want to, you know, hold on to this little piece."

No, God, you're in control of everything; just let me choose who I date. You don't need to involve yourself in that. I want to choose who I find most attractive, and I don't care about anything else.

Say, "God, I submit everything to you, except for my bank account, because that's how I live." And so, "God, I'm submitted to everything, but don't come for my money."

We say, "God, I'm submitted totally to you as long as you don't ask me to change too much about me because I'm kind of comfortable with the way I live my life and the things that I do."

So, God, I'm submitted to you as long as you don't make me change. Is your life part of the domain of the king, or are you just trying to be an independent territory with good trade relations?

Spicy? That spicy might be spicy, but good trade relations just means I want the benefits of being in a relationship with God, but I don't want to have any of the responsibility of it. I don't want to be held accountable to anything; I just want the relational part.

So while you wrestle with that for the next little bit, we're going to be talking about the kingdom over these next couple of weeks and really what does this mean for the way we live our lives. How do we look at finances through this lens? How do we approach work through this lens of our identity in the kingdom?

So today, with the 20 minutes that I have left, I just want to address what I would view as the most important aspect of our identity within this kingdom, and that is your job title. How many of you know that when you became a citizen of the kingdom, you also got a job? It's a really fancy one. We should make business cards because it's a really cool title.

See, after Paul tells the people in Corinth that they are now a new creation, he goes on to say a couple of verses later in verse 20, "Therefore, in light of this new creation that you are, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us."

So that's your new job title. Welcome to the team! You are all ambassadors, and your salvation came with this new job title and a new job description. You are now his ambassadors sent from his kingdom, where you are now a citizen, back into the old kingdom that he pulled you out of. Now he sent you back into it to be a reflection and a representation of him to others.

So we started 2023 talking about this word discipleship. This was the focal point really of the entire year here, and we made this our focal point because we believe that we're not called to just be another Christian. We are called to more than just following Jesus as an optional weekend activity. We are committed to being fully made disciples of Jesus Christ—that we submit everything we are to him and we sit at his feet to learn from him and to be as close to him as we possibly can.

That's what it means to be a disciple. Throughout this year, we shaped really everything that we did around helping you become better disciples. We shaped our sermon series around it, so we taught you how to pray as disciples, and we taught you how to walk through the New Testament to get a better understanding of God's word. We taught you how to look at work from this kingdom perspective and from this discipleship mindset.

We walked through all of these things and so much more. But then we also added a few things for you. We added a podcast called "Between Sermons," where we could continue the conversation from Sunday during the week to give you practical ways to actually take what we talked about and live it out.

Then we added another thing called Life University, where we could give you some meat to go deeper in your faith and deeper in your knowledge and deeper in your understanding of what it looks like to be a disciple. We did all of that, and we're doing more because really discipleship is not a 2023 thing for CLC; it's just a CLC thing. It's just who we are. We're disciples.

So we're going to continue adding things and doing everything that we can to equip you to be better disciples. But right here at the start of 2024, I felt it was appropriate to tell you the other side of the coin. We never even told you that it was two sides of this coin. We just said this is about following Jesus.

But following Jesus is the coin. One side you have discipleship; the other side of it you have ambassadorship. So we approach Jesus, or we sit at the feet of Jesus as disciples, but we go into the world as ambassadors. It's two sides of the coin of relationship with Jesus.

When you are in relationship with him, you are both a disciple and an ambassador, and it's just a matter of which direction you're heading. When you're heading towards Jesus, you're a disciple. When you're back in the world, you're an ambassador.

As ambassadors, oh, I guess I should say one of the cool things about this is that when you become a better disciple, it makes you a more effective ambassador, right? Like they work together.

What becomes so important about this is our function as ambassadors actually mirrors the natural definition. The natural definition of an ambassador is someone who is an authorized messenger who represents their head of state while in a foreign territory. That applies to you as well.

Who is your head of state? Jesus! You were a little slow on that one. We'll kick things into gear. He's our head of state, and so we represent him while in a foreign territory. What's the foreign territory? The world, right?

And it's a foreign territory because you're no longer citizens of it; you're citizens of the kingdom. That's why for some of you, you go out in your workplace and you're like, "Man, these people are weird. Stuff doesn't make sense, and I don't know why they're listening to that music, and this stuff is just garbage. I don't fit in anymore."

You're like, "Why don't I fit in in places where I used to fit in?" It's because you're not a part of it anymore. You're a new citizen of a new kingdom, and that kingdom is different. So it's okay to feel like you don't belong in places where you don't really belong.

But you have to understand that you were sent there as an ambassador. In fact, that's why Jesus articulated it like this in Matthew 28: "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore." So in light of the authority, go and make disciples of all nations.

That's what a king does. A king takes his authority and then commissions ambassadors to go and represent him, to stand and speak on his behalf. So you come to Jesus as a disciple, and you go back into the world as ambassadors. Everywhere you go, you are on assignment for your king to represent him to the world and take the same message of the kingdom that Jesus came to preach.

You're taking that same message into the world to share it with others. If you know Jesus, it is your job to tell the world about him. It's as simple as that.

My dad used to love telling this story when he was preaching about a little girl who was having a rough night. There was a storm, and she was afraid, so she called her mommy in to read her some stories. She read a story, and then the little girl asked for another story. Any parents in the room know what happened next? They asked for another story, and then a glass of water, and then, you know, all of the things to just delay the bedtime.

It was all because this little girl just didn't want to be alone. Her mom finally had enough and was like, "Okay, you need to go to bed. I need to go to bed. It's going to be okay." She said, "But mommy, I'm scared. I just don't want to be alone."

Her mother, being a good Christian woman, had a great response to that. She said, "But Jesus is with you. He's always with you. He'll never leave you. Jesus is even closer than I'll ever be."

To which the little girl replied, "But mommy, I need Jesus with skin on." And you know what? The world needs Jesus with skin on.

And God knows that; that's why he sent you as his ambassador. You get to be Jesus with skin on for the world around you to represent him to the people around you.

So if we're going to do that and we're going to do that effectively, then there are three things that we need. I'm going to hit these as quick as I can.

The first thing you need is knowledge because you can't represent what you don't know, right? So if you're going to represent Jesus to the world, you need to know what Jesus said, what he did, what he likes, what he doesn't like, what he wants, what he doesn't want. You need to know as much about him as possible so that you can represent him to others.

Now, there are a lot of resources out there to help you gain knowledge of God. I want to highlight three of them for you. Number one is start with your Bible. Okay? If you want to know God, open up your Bible. If you want to hear God speak, open up your Bible. If you want to know what Christianity is all about, open up your Bible.

There is no substitute for it. If the only Bible you're getting this week is what I put up on this screen today, that is not enough scripture for you to make it to next Sunday.

As ambassadors and as disciples, we need to be obsessed with his book. Stick to the book. It needs to become the most important thing. And so we've given you tons of resources over the years on how to study scripture. You can use—we use the SOAP method around here: Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer.

If you got questions about that, ask us. Find a translation that makes sense for you. Get a devotional that will walk you through scriptures. Open up the Bible app every morning—whatever you got to do—but get scripture into your life because if you want to know more about Jesus, you need to read what was written about him.

The second thing you need to do is take notes. Like on Sundays during sermons, take notes. And that isn't just for my benefit. Anytime you're listening to a sermon—if you're listening to a sermon on YouTube, if you're going to another church, wherever you are—you should be taking notes.

I see a few of you doing that right now. We try and make it really easy for you, give you an app where you can take notes right in the app. But here's the thing: if you were in school and you had a really important class, would you take notes? Yeah, because you got a test coming, and you want to make sure that information is still fresh.

The purpose of a sermon is not 35 minutes of entertainment; it is the equipping of the saints so you can do the work of the ministry. We give you something to chew on, something to think about, something to kind of push you when you're getting a little bit lazy, a little bit like, "I don't know if I really want to."

We give you a little bit of a kick in the pants, a little motivation, and send you out. Then from Monday through Saturday, you should be living out what we've been talking about. Then you come back on Sunday for us to do it all over again.

In this equipping, we should be taking notes because there's going to come a time when somebody's asking you a question, and you're like, "My preacher was just telling me about that the other day. Let me open up my notes." Otherwise, you're going to be like, "You should watch the sermon for yourself. I don't remember what he said."

Here's the thing: I don't even remember what I said half the time, so I don't expect you to either. But I do expect people to take notes because if it's important enough for me to say it, it's probably important enough for you to write it down.

In fact, today I gave you Matthew chapter 13—seven parables. Did I tell you any of those parables? I didn't tell you a single one. I didn't have time for it. But you know what you got time for? You got time to read it for yourself. Write a little note: "Check up chapter 13," and read the parables.

And that is your job. You want to gain knowledge? Take notes.

And number three—this is totally a shameless plug—use Life University. We've got 16 courses to help you gain knowledge and understanding. There's another 16 that are going to be happening throughout this year starting in March. These are for your benefit. You can go on the website and find information about it. Message me, ask me how you can get access. We give it to everybody through Right Now Media for free, and then you can take the live classes if you want in March.

But use Life University as a resource to help you gain knowledge. But I will say knowledge alone is not enough. You need to add something to your knowledge. You know what that something is? It's called wisdom because wisdom is knowing when, where, and how to apply the knowledge that you've gained.

The most consistent prayer that I've prayed in my life—I started praying it as a teenager. I'm pushing 40 now; I'm still praying it today. The prayer is, "Holy Spirit, give me wisdom."

Here's the deal: I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a nerd. I like to read; I like to study; I like to gain information just for the sake of having information. It's trivia; I love it; it's awesome. I know how to study and learn. I know how to gain knowledge all on my own.

But what I need is for God to give me the wisdom to know what to do with that knowledge because knowledge is great, but it's not enough on its own. You need the wisdom to know how to apply the things that you know—not just know them. We're not puffing up our heads so we just have lots of information; we need the wisdom to know what to do with it.

So three ways you can do that:

Number one, ask for it. There is a supernatural component to wisdom, I'm convinced. And so you have to ask for it. It's not something that just comes without asking. We see that in scripture. In the Old Testament, Solomon is told he can ask for anything he wants. What does he ask for? Wisdom. And God gives it to him.

In the New Testament, Jesus's half-brother James says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, what should you do? Ask for it, and God will give it to you." So if it works in the Old Testament, it works in the New Testament. I am fairly confident it still works today.

So there's a supernatural component of wisdom where we need to ask God and ask the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it's in the moment when you're like, "Oh my goodness, this person just bared their soul to me. I have no idea how to respond to this. Holy Spirit, give me wisdom."

The second way that we gain wisdom is through experience. Yes, it's supernatural, but it's also experiential. We gain wisdom when we pay attention. Here's how this works: you're going through a situation, and you take some knowledge that you have and you apply it to that situation.

When it goes well and you were paying attention, guess what? You just gained wisdom in how to use that piece of knowledge. Same situation; you apply your knowledge to it, and it goes poorly. If you're paying attention, then you have just gained wisdom on how not to use that piece of knowledge.

But as ambassadors, we need to have wisdom in every conversation that we have because you could walk up to a stranger on the street and say, "You're a sinner going to hell unless you repent." And from a knowledge standpoint, you are correct. But let me just say there's not a whole lot of wisdom in approaching people that way.

So as ambassadors, we need knowledge, and we need wisdom. We ask for it; we pay attention, and then we have it imparted into us from others by asking questions. This is when we sit at the feet of a mentor or a leader or somebody that has already had some experiences that you don't have to go through because they did it for you, and now they can give you the wisdom that they have gained.

That's why it's so important for you to get around other people so that their wisdom can be imparted into you. But it doesn't happen by osmosis; it happens when you ask questions.

Okay, so we got knowledge, we got wisdom, but the most important thing that we need is character because as ambassadors, you have to walk the walk. If it is your job as an ambassador to represent Jesus to the world, what happens when the world looks at you and all they see is a reflection of themselves? You have failed to represent Jesus.

When you lose your temper and you cuss somebody out, how well does that represent Jesus? When you're greedy, when you lie, when you cheat, when you steal, when you gossip, when you're controlled by lust—when these things happen, how well are you representing Jesus in that moment? You're not.

Let me make it super practical for you. What do you think would happen if a U.S. ambassador showed up to work drunk? What happens when a Jesus ambassador shows up to work drunk?

Here's the challenge for you: there are no days off as a kingdom ambassador. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You don't get an off day. You don't get a day to say, "Well, this is just me today. You know, Jesus, I had to put him on the shelf because, man, today is just a rough one."

No, you don't get that. There's no free pass, right? If you're on this fast and you're getting hangry because you haven't been eating, and then you just lash out, they don't say, "Oh, well, they're fasting, so I understand."

No, you represent Jesus on your best day, and you represent Jesus on your worst day, and every day in between. You represent him as an ambassador.

Now, are we perfect in that? No. And you will mess up, and you will have moments where you give Christianity a black eye, and you're looking around and you're going, "Man, I really hope that people are not seeing me right now because, man, I'm a mess."

But we own those mistakes. We own those failure moments. We repent. We go to the Holy Spirit and say, "I'm messed up, and I need help. I need to get back on track."

We exercise this idea, this concept of getting better and better. No, we're not perfect, but I'm going to be better today than I was yesterday. I'm going to be closer to Jesus by the end of this day than I was when I started this day—every single day. That's our endeavor.

So three quick ways you build your character:

You got to walk closely with God. I found that the closer I am with God, the better my character is. When I start drifting away from God, I don't have those times with him as much; my character is the first thing to take a hit.

I've also noticed that, you know, somebody else can look at my life and say, "Oh, he's so good, and he's doing all the right things here and there." The closer I am to Jesus, the closer I am to God, the more it's like a magnifying glass on the little imperfections in my life—like the little things that nobody even notices.

Man, it'll keep me up at night because as I get closer to God, it's like, "This man, he is so perfect, and I'm so not." It just illuminates the things in my life that I need to work on. I need to speak with better grace in that moment. I need to control my temper there. I need to walk closer to him so that I can be a better representation of him.

Put it like this: you've probably done a lot of things that you regret doing in your life. Some of those things—I think last service I said all of those things, and some people were like, "Nah." But most of those things, if your mother was standing in the room with you at the time, would you have still done it?

I don't think you would. Not with Mom right there. My mom's on the front row. Let me tell you some things in my life I would not have done if Mom was in the room at the time.

Well, as you walk close to God, guess who's in the room with you every single time you're about to do something foolish? Look, God loves you more than your mama does, but just like your mama, he don't play.

So walk closely with God.

Number two, stop entertaining sin. I don't have a softer way to say this—just stop. No more excuses. No more trying to justify it. Sin is sin, no matter how you justify it.

So stop entertaining sin. And again, are we perfect? No. Are we going to sin? Yes. But there is a huge difference between entertaining sin in your life, becoming comfortable with sin, and having a mistake, having a weak moment, messing up, and then repenting and trying to do better.

There's a mile of difference between those two. If you're entertaining sin in your life, you know it's something God doesn't want you to do, and yet you are comfortable doing it every single day, all I can say is you need to repent because there is no room for ambassadors to entertain sin in their life.

Number three, stay accountable. I don't think we build character in isolation. We need accountability. We need people in our lives to encourage us and to challenge us and to point out those little things called blind spots.

You might think you're doing all right. You might think that your character is above reproach, but there's some people around you going, "Man, that guy's a jerk. Man, the fruit of the Spirit—he's missing like six of them."

We need somebody that can point out those blind spots and say, "You know what? Hey, there's an area that we need to work on, and we're going to work on it together." You may find that kind of relationship within your life group. You may find it with a fellow ambassador in the room.

But you need relationships that will hold you accountable and help you grow in your character.

All right, this was a lot, and it was super fast, so I hope you took notes because there's a lot for you to do. But here's the thing: you are a citizen of a kingdom, and while you aren't the king, you are his ambassador.

Our goal, our purpose in life is to represent the king well, and we do that with knowledge, wisdom, and character.

I got one last passage for you as we close. This is Matthew 9:35. This is, I think, kind of a blueprint for how we operate as ambassadors.

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages. Where did he go? Where the people were, right? Guess what? You can't be an ambassador if all you ever do is go to church. The church doesn't need you to be an ambassador here. We need you to be an ambassador out there.

You come here for training, and then you go out there where the people are, where they need to see you reflecting Jesus. It says he taught in their synagogues and told the people the good news about God's kingdom. That's your message. That's what you do. You bring the message that Jesus preached—the good news of the kingdom.

Then it says he healed all kinds of diseases and sicknesses. For us, I think there's two components to this. There's the supernatural side, and there's the natural side. On the supernatural side, when somebody's sick, you lay hands on them; you pray for them to be healed because miracles still happen today. The Holy Spirit's still moving; healings and miracles still occur.

So we pray for people to be healed. But what Jesus was actually doing in that moment was he was meeting someone's need. I think that there's a natural component to us being able to meet the needs of people in our community around us.

You can meet somebody's needs with some money. You can meet somebody's needs by cooking a meal. You can meet somebody's needs by buying a cup of coffee and just sitting and listening to them tell their story. You can meet somebody's needs by being the shoulder for them to cry on when they need help.

You can be the answer to some of their prayers without the Holy Spirit having to step in and do something miraculous just by being someone who is there for someone else. You need to do good just like Jesus did.

Then it says Jesus saw the many people, and he felt sorry for them. I love the ERV—it's the easy-to-read version. That's what we're using for this translation right now. I hate this specific translation of it, though, because "felt sorry for them" makes it kind of a negative thing. I was like, "Oh, those poor people. I feel so bad for them."

But that's not what the word was. The word that was translated there is compassion—that Jesus saw the people, and he felt what they felt. He felt for them.

I think our job is to not go in the world and feel sorry for those poor sinners and all their mistakes. No, no, no. We go in, and we have compassion because we know what it feels like to not have hope in Jesus. We have compassion because we know what it's like to be trapped in sin and not feel like there's a way out.

So we go with compassion for them because the people are worried and they're helpless. Does that sound like 2023, 2024? Like people are worried out there. There's a lot of anxiety in the world around us right now. There's a lot of people that just need help right now, and he recognized that, and we need to as well.

They were like sheep without a shepherd to lead them. Jesus said to his followers, "There is such a big harvest of people to bring in, but there are only a few workers."

There's a lot of people out there that need the message of Jesus, but there's only a few ambassadors going. And God owns the harvest, so ask him to send more workers to help gather his harvest.

Starting tomorrow, we're going on 10 days of prayer and fasting, and this scripture is kind of going to shape that 10 days that we have together as we pray this prayer to ask God to send more workers.

But the irony of it is, while we're praying that prayer, we also recognize that we are the answer to the prayer we're praying. So in one breath, we say, "God, send more workers," and in the next breath, we say, "Here I am, Lord. Send me."

So starting tomorrow, we're going to spend 10 days in prayer and fasting together. My hope for all of us is that we would participate. I'm not telling you how you need to fast; that's totally up to you. I would just ask that you do something, right?

You could do a Daniel fast; you could choose certain meals to skip; you could not eat for certain days or certain food items—whatever that looks like for you that works for me. My wife and I are doing a liquid fast over those 10 days. You can join us in that, but no pressure. Just I want everybody to do something because it's about sacrificing something your body wants.

It has to be sacrificial. It's not a diet. We don't start the year off trying to get, you know, this is our health plan. Like, "Yeah, I need to lose weight, obviously. I see it." But that's not what this is about. This is about replacing something that my body wants for something my spirit needs.

So we aren't just saying no to foods; we're saying yes to God. We replace that time we would have been eating with the Holy Spirit. We replace that time we would have been eating with prayer. We replace that time we would have been eating with time with God.

We spend these 10 days just drawing as close to him as we possibly can. There's this really cool thing that happens in your body when you fast: you get hungry. I don't know if you've noticed that before, but your stomach will growl, right?

As it starts to eat itself because it's like, "You're not giving me anything. I'm angry." But every time your body does that, every time your mind wanders and you start thinking about that food that you're not eating, every time, man, your sense of smell is going to be amazing. You're going to smell food from like three blocks away. It's awesome.

But what that is, is that's a natural trigger for a supernatural moment. So every time your stomach growls, that's my cue to pray. Every time my mind starts wandering thinking about the coffee that I'm not drinking or whatever it is, that's a way for my spirit to say, "Hey, take some moments to be with God."

Because you could either spend the next 20 minutes complaining about what you're not eating, or you can spend the next 20 minutes reading scripture. But we replace something our body wants for something our spirit needs. That's what fasting is all about.

To help you do this better over these 10 days, we're going to have some prayer gatherings. So every weekday from 12 to 1, and then on Saturday from 9 to 10, we're going to be right here in this room or online at live.clc.tv for an hour of prayer and worship and a short teaching together as we just pour into this moment and say, "God, whatever it is you're wanting to do, here I am. Send me."

We need workers to go. So that's what we're going to do. The challenge is that we would take this call to be ambassadors seriously because there's a world all around us that desperately needs to know about Jesus.

You may not even be aware of how many people in this area. So I mentioned this at the New Year's Eve service, but I ran the numbers, and there's roughly two million people that live within 15 miles of this building. Chicago land is pretty dense—two million people.

The most conservative numbers would say that 70% of those two million do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That means when Jesus says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few," he means it.

Your job is to be an ambassador, represent Jesus to the 1.4 million people just within 15 miles of this building—to represent him in our community. The harvest is plentiful; the workers are few. So what are you going to do about it?

As we close, I want to pray for you, but I'm going to ask if you're here and you're saying, "You know what, Brent? I'm with you. I'm committed. These next 10 days, I'm with you. I'm going to be praying with you. I'm going to be fasting with you, and I'm going to take my job as an ambassador seriously."

If that's you in the room, I want to invite you to stand as a declaration of saying, "I'm with you. I'm here in this." For those of you online, you can drop down in the chat and just say, "Hey, I'm standing at my desk," or "I'm with you," or fire emojis—whatever you got to do.

There's a lot of workers. I think that's awesome.

So, Father God, we just thank you right now for every single person that is committing to these 10 days, saying, "God, you are important enough for me to push away from the table to say I want more of you in my life."

So I pray right now for every single person that's taking this commitment to pray and to fast. I ask that you would just be with them, give them strength, give them courage to be able to stand out there as ambassadors.

Give them the wisdom to know what to say. Guide them in their knowledge-seeking of you, that you would bring the right resources around them, the right people around them. I pray for character to be developed in this church, that there would be a standard of living at CLC that is just different than the rest of the world.

When people look at us, they wouldn't see us; they would see you. That we would be your ambassadors to the world, representing you well. In Jesus' name, amen.

"We need relationships that will hold you accountable and help you grow in your character." [01:10:28 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"You are a citizen of a kingdom and while you aren't the king, you are his Ambassador and so our goal, our purpose in life is to represent the king well and we do that with knowledge, wisdom, and character." [01:11:02 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"You can't be an ambassador if all you ever do is go to church... you come here for training and then you go out there where the people are, where they need to see you reflecting Jesus." [01:11:33 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"If you want to know God, open up your Bible. If you want to hear God speak, open up your Bible. If you want to know what Christianity is all about, open up your Bible." [58:31 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"The closer I am to Jesus, the closer I am to God, the more it's like a magnifying glass on the little imperfections in my life... it illuminates the things in my life that I need to work on." [01:07:48 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"Stop entertaining sin... there is a huge difference between entertaining sin in your life, becoming comfortable with it, and having a mistake, having a weak moment, messing up and then repenting and trying to do better." [01:09:25 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"The most important thing that we need is character because as ambassadors you have to walk the walk if it is your job as an ambassador to represent Jesus to the world." [01:05:09 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"You represent Jesus on your best day and you represent Jesus on your worst day and every day in between you represent him as an ambassador." [01:06:17 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"Knowledge is great but it's not enough on its own; you need the wisdom to know how to apply the things that you know, not just know them. We're not puffing up our heads so we just have lots of information; we need the wisdom to know what to do with it." [01:02:30 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)

"The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are given a brand new identity that is immeasurably more important than any other identity you may have once claimed." [46:38 <0XkEG9gg0qo>] (Download)