06/30/2020 —  
The Church has been given a ministry of reconciliation, not a ministry of division. If a local congregation is not urging its own members and its mission field to be reconciled to Jesus, it is operating outside its God-given strengths and is destined to be less than it could be if were operating in God's will.

We are here to bring the message of reconciliation to others. It is our purpose. It is why we're here. The Cross must once again be lifted up, because it belongs to the whole world.
 
 
2 Corinthians 5:11-21
"Since we are those who stand in holy awe of the Lord, we make it our passion to persuade others to turn to him. We know that our lives are transparent before the God who knows us fully, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. Again, we are not taking an opportunity to brag, but giving you information that will enable you to be proud of us, and to answer those who esteem outward appearances while overlooking what is in the heart.

"If we are out of our minds in a blissful, divine ecstasy, it is for God, but if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us, because we are absolutely convinced that he has given his life for all of us. This means all died with him, so that those who live should no longer live self-absorbed lives but lives that are poured out for him—the one who died for us and now lives again. So then, from now on, we have a new perspective that refuses to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. For that’s how we once viewed the Anointed One, but no longer do we see him with limited human insight.

"Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new. And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God. In other words, it was through the Anointed One that God was shepherding the world, not even keeping records of their transgressions, and he has entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation to God. We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, 'Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.' For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him”(TPT).
 

• You have been given the ministry of reconciliation. If God was in Christ reconciling Himself to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit, then Christ is in you to reconcile the world  to the Cross of Jesus Christ, not to your cause, agenda or opinion.
• Jesus Christ was made sin. He became sinful. He didn’t just acknowledge our sin; He became it. He who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
•  If you are born again, then you are as righteous as you’ll ever be. You don’t grow in righteousness; you grow in holiness & sanctification. Just because you stub your toe and sin you have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous. 
• If He won’t hold your sin against you, how dare you hold you hold another’s against him or her? You have been given the ministry of reconciliation.
• Why are we here? For one reason: to spend our lives bringing the message of reconciliation to Jesus Christ and God the father by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our purpose, our mantra, our desire, must be ministry of reconciling men and women from sin to salvation.
• The cross is the central message of Christianity.
• There’s a lot going on these days to take away emblems of the past. It all began with the disappearance of the cross from our songs and worship, our hearts and actions, our preaching and our praying. 
• The cross must once again be lifted up because it belongs to the whole world - regardless of race, culture, creed, denomination or socioeconomic background.