The Rise of the Reconcilers

Well, you guys are in for a treat today. We have a wonderful guest speaker with us today. You know, occasionally people will ask me, "Why do we get guest speakers? What's going on with that?" And one of the many reasons that we do it is that we all benefit from hearing from different parts of the body of Christ. You know, we do not all have the same story. We do not all have the same experience. And when somebody who has a different story and a different experience comes and opens up the Bible, we learn things that maybe we have not seen before in God's Word.

And this morning our speaker Ephraim Smith is an absolute delight. He is one of the co-lead pastors at one of the Bayside churches in Midtown Sacramento. Prior to that, he was the president and CEO of an organization called World Impact, which has a heart and a passion for urban ministry, for leadership development, which is something he still has. And he lives in Sacramento with his family, his wife, his two daughters. He's completely outnumbered on the home front, and he would have it no other way. Let's welcome Ephraim Smith.

It is indeed an honor to be here at Twin Lakes Church. And, man, you're going to get two preachers out of the Bayside family, because you're going to get Andrew McCourt, my Irish brother, coming here in a couple weeks. And we're really close. We even have a t-shirt with both our faces on it, and it says "Black Irish Cream." It's all so awesome. So it's going to be great that you get both of us crazy preachers here in the same month.

I want to share with you a word from 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. There's a word for us today in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning with verse 14. Paul is writing, and it reads as follows. "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who lived should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

From this text I want to speak to you on the title, "The Rise of the Reconcilers." The rise of the reconcilers. God, I pray that this would be your message. Ultimately, you would be speaking, and I would just be the vessel, the vehicle that you've decided to use to say what you want to say to these, your beloved children, my sisters and brothers. God, I desire to be obedient to your word, so please let it be done. In Jesus' name, amen.

The rise of the reconcilers. Well, you're meeting me for the first time, so it might be good as we go through this message together to know a little bit more about me. I'm originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. That's where I was born and raised, and so I'm so glad God delivered me to California especially during the winter months. And another thing about me is I am really into superhero movies. Oh my goodness, I'm really into superhero movies.

I saw "The Avengers," "Infinity War," saw that twice, probably going to see it a third time, and I know that that's going to lead now next month into "Ant-Man" and "Wasp." That's going to lead next year into "Captain Marvel," and then that's going to lead us into "Avengers 4," and that's going to lead us into "Phase 4" of the Avengers universe. We're going to get a "Black Panther 2," we're going to get a "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Volume 3," and then we're going to get a whole new set of an "Avengers" team that is going to take us off into that universe.

We're also going to get a third reboot of "Spider-Man," and we've already seen that in the first installment or first part, which is "Spider-Man Homecoming," which takes us back to the origins of "Spider-Man" from the teenage perspective. Not to be outdone in the DC universe, I saw "Justice League" about three times, saw "Wonder Woman" twice. That's going to lead us into "Justice League 2." We're also going to get solo movies from the Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, a third reboot of a Batman trilogy, though we don't know if Ben Affleck's going to play Batman, Bruce Wayne, or not, and then that's going to lead us into another phase of the DC universe.

I do know some stuff about the Bible, too. But I'm into superhero movies, as you can tell. Now, this goes back to my childhood. Growing up in Minneapolis, I would meet my friends in the summer months at the end of the block on the corner where we grew up, and we would all bring our comic books. We would bring our Superman, our Flash, our Spider-Man, our Fantastic Four. One kid brought Archie, which really doesn't count, but we didn't want him to be left out, so we said he could come with Archie.

And so we had our comic books, and we were reading them, and we would trade them, but there was one comic book series I would not trade. I still have it today. It's a Superman series called Bizarro World. And the Bizarro World story arc goes a little something like this. There's this other realm, this other place known as Bizarro. It is an evil, backwards, upside-down world. It is so evil, so upside-down, that there's a person in Bizarro World who looks just like Superman, except he's as evil as Superman is good. And the backward, upside-down, evil state of a Bizarro is threatening to invade planet Earth.

So Superman decides to make a sacrifice of himself and goes into Bizarro World to take on this evil threat. Now to go with this story arc, you have to believe that for the most part, things on planet Earth are good. There's good families, there's peace, there's hospitality, there's generosity, there's compassion, there are great institutions, politicians work well together in solving issues. That would be planet Earth. Not really. You know, the truth is, we live in Bizarro World.

Now I know there are some places where there's good communities and good families and good institutions and people are gracious and loving, but there are far too many examples in our nation on this planet that shows us that we live in an upside-down Bizarro World. Violence is the primary means to solve conflict, broken systems, broken families, a disrespect or even disregard for the value of life. And so we live in this upside-down Bizarro World of poverty and division.

But there is some good news. Over 2,000 years ago, someone greater than any comic book superhero ever written about, his name is Jesus, came into this upside-down Bizarro World. And when Jesus came as the Son of God, this is what he did. He gave you and I a picture of what this Bizarro World, this upside-down world could look like if it was turned right side up again. And he called that the kingdom of God. And he declared that. And he demonstrated that. And then Jesus went to the cross on behalf of our upside-down Bizarro lives. He died and went into a borrowed tomb for our upside-down living. And he rose. And one day Jesus is going to return.

And when Jesus returns, all of creation, the entire universe, is going to be turned right side up forever. That is the good news of the gospel. At the end of the day, that's what evangelical means. To be evangelical, to have a journey of evangelicalism, is really supposed to mean a good news that turns everything right side up for eternity. So the question becomes, who is the church supposed to be until Jesus returns? How are we to live? Could it be that God has called you and I to rise as reconcilers, as great connectors to God, and to righteously connect divided people to one another until such time as Jesus returns to make everything right?

I heard an old preacher once say, "When Jesus returns, this is ultimate justice. But until then, it's just us." God has decided that it is you and I, the redeemed, the transformed, those that have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, those that have been reconciled to God. Our job is to live as reconcilers in a broken bizarro upside-down world. What does that look like? I believe that Paul helps us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He's writing to a church in a very diverse, yet very divided city, a multicultural city, but yet there are deep divisions.

And the church that has been planted that he's writing to, they're coming from all different walks of life. Some of them were religious before they came to know Jesus. Some of them were not religious at all. Some of them prayed to foreign gods, to multiple gods that they would find out really didn't even exist. Some of them questioned if there was even a god in the first place, and now they're together trying to be the church in a broken bizarro upside-down world.

In the first letter to this church, he talks about what it means for them to live together in community, that though there are many gifts, there is one Lord, and though there are many members, they are one body, and no member is lesser than, no member is greater than another member, and that faith and hope and love would sustain them. In this letter, he's focusing on who they are to be in the world, in their community, where they work, where they go to school, where they shop, who are they to be in that mission field, and maybe there are some principles that we can learn for how we live in our bizarro world.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, it says, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who lived should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again." Here is the first point. We must rediscover God's love. If we are going to rise as reconcilers, we must rediscover God's love. Why is that important? Because I've realized that there are certain things in this broken world I can do in my own power. I really don't need any help.

Watch, here's an example. Excuse me, sir, I don't like you. See? I didn't need to pray to Jesus. I didn't need to get in a small group. I didn't need to go on a men's retreat. I didn't need to fast and pray in my own power. In the name of Ephraim, I could look at somebody that I don't even know that doesn't look like me and just tell us, "I don't like you." See that? In my own power, I can be stubborn, I can be prideful, I can be arrogant, I can be selfish, I can be unforgiving, I can live in sustained anger. I can do this in my own power. I can decide to live out manhood the best way I know how. In my own might, I don't need God for that.

But to walk humbly, to love mercy, to do justice, to penetrate a broken world with compassion and generosity and new life and truth, I need God's love. I need to be showered by it. I need to be transformed by it. I need to be equipped by it. I need to be turned upside down by God's love. The best thing I can do if I want to rise as a reconciler in a broken world is to give God permission to love through me. I need to say, "God, you have permission. Love my wife through me, love my daughters through me, love my coworkers through me, love my neighbors through me, love my enemies through me." I really do like that. I'm sure we'll get along fine. Thanks for being a part of the sermon. I appreciate you.

But do you understand what I'm trying to say? I don't need God to be a bizarro upside down person, but to be a right-side-up transformative person, to be the man that God has created me to be, I need to rediscover God's dynamic, transformative love daily. I need to rediscover God's love. It also says here in verse 16, "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view." To rise as a reconciler, not only must we rediscover God's love, we must rediscover ourselves and others, rediscover ourselves and others.

What is Paul getting at here when he says, "We should no longer see ourselves from a worldly point of view"? He's saying to this church, if you are going to function as a healthy, thriving, flourishing church, if you are going to be transformers in a broken bizarro world, you need to see yourself differently. You need to live from the foundation of a new identity, and you must also acknowledge that there are systems, there are cultures trying to come at you to get you to live under a worldly, false, ungodly identity.

What does worldly identities look like today? Well, let me give you one example. We live in a world where, based on the color of your skin, your physical features, where you were born, your accent, your first language, whether your parents had money or not, whether you were born in a small town, a village, a nice suburban area, or the hood, we decide who's smart, who's dumb, who's fast, who's slow, who can clap on beat, and who shouldn't bother. We decide who should be revered and who should be feared just based on those characteristics. That is a worldly, ungodly, unbiblical, dysfunctional, upside-down way of looking at yourself and looking at one another. That is a worldly point of view.

Now, I'm not here to say that these dynamics aren't real. I mean, we live in a social world, and so social constructs have a tremendous impact on who we are and how we live. But here's the deal. There is an opportunity for us to get on a journey to rediscover who we really are so we can rediscover our neighbors. I am learning so much about myself through my family tree. On my mother's side, my great-great-grandfather was full-blooded Irish. Yes, he married a woman who was Haitian and Cherokee and a descendant of slaves in this nation. They married in Alabama at the time. That was way controversial.

But as I learned that, man, I get into that part of my family tree now. I mean, I'm Irish. I'm telling you, I'm related to Andrew McCord who's coming here in two weeks. I'm Irish. I drink green Kool-Aid on St. Patrick's Day. I mean, I'm Irish. But I'm also Cherokee. I'm also Haitian. I'm also a descendant of slaves. On my dad's side, we can trace our family tree to a cousin named William Billy Smith. He's a former governor, U.S. senator, some historians say member of the Ku Klux Klan. How did that happen? But he's in my family.

And what I'm learning is in my family tree, part of my identity, what I'm connected to, I'm connected to the oppressed and the oppressor. I'm connected to Cherokee and Haitian and Irish, and maybe God placed me in that on purpose so that I could stand before multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural congregations and preach the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ leaning into not who the world says I am, but recognizing the tree, the rootedness that God has placed me in. And that's not even more powerful than who I am in Jesus Christ.

What about you? Maybe it's time to discover who you really are. Maybe it's time to live beyond black, white, red, and yellow. Maybe it is time for you to know that you are more than white, more than red, more than yellow, more than brown, more than black, that there is a rich, rich, multiethnic, multicultural heritage that you have, and God put you in that so that you can make disciples of all people. You are more than the world says you are. And when you rediscover who you really are, and you pass that down to your kids and your grandkids, when you pass that down to your nieces and your nephews, we will understand the dynamic power that we have to be disciple makers in a divided, broken world.

Rediscover who you are, that you might rediscover others. When I know who I am better, I will look at people at the mall. I will look at people differently that look different than me. It also says here in the same verse as it closes out, "Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer." Point one, rediscover God's love. Point two, rediscover ourselves and others. Point three, rediscover Jesus.

Now, why does Paul say, "Though we once regarded Christ in this way," which means he's saying to the church, "We used to regard Jesus from a worldly point of view." Now, for Paul, that rang true because there was a time when he was actually going out and seeing to the incarceration, the persecution, even the death of people that followed Jesus, and he thought he was doing a righteous act by doing this. He saw Jesus from a worldly point of view, and so he wanted to take care of, in a negative way, the followers of Jesus until we read in the book of Acts on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus for real.

When he rediscovered Jesus, it changed his life. It changed his mission. He had to rediscover Jesus so that he could know who he really was. You know what? We still have examples of worldly Jesuses here today. Let me introduce you to some. There's the black Jesus, there's the white Jesus, there's the Democrat Jesus, there's the Republican Jesus, there's the American Jesus, there's the Hollywood Jesus, there's the genie rubber bottle when I want something Jesus, there's the casino Jesus, there's the celebrity giving me a jet Jesus, there's all these Jesuses out here, there's even the pretty Jesus.

Have you seen the pretty Jesus? Like the pretty Jesus, he doesn't have any acne, he doesn't have a mole, a birthmark, he's just so pretty. I don't even know if I can pray to him like Kenny Loggins Jesus. I mean, you've got to be a certain age to catch that one, get a certain age, catch that last one right there, Kenny Loggins one, yeah, I know. Explain it to your kids, watch Footloose, I don't know what to tell you. There are all kinds of worldly Jesuses out here. This is why it is important that like never before, we rediscover the biblical Jesus, the authentic Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, the Savior, not the one that I call on him when it's convenient, the one that calls me to be redeemed and righteous and holy and has already done the work for that to take place, the real Jesus.

The Jesus of John 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God and nothing came into being without him and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the Jesus of Matthew 1. In the genealogy, we discover that Jesus as a human being, walked the earth in his family tree, had the original inhabitants of what we call Israel, Palestine, Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, the Sudan, parts of Asia, major and minor, that means when Jesus walked the earth, he walked the earth as the Son of God and he walked the earth as a Hebrew, Jewish, Asiatic, African, multi-ethnic, multicultural human being.

If that is true, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, that was multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multicultural blood, we can say that Jesus died for all of our sins because all of us was pouring out of all of him. This is the Jesus we must rediscover if we're going to rise as reconcilers. And then in verse 17, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, and he is committed to us the message of reconciliation."

We must rediscover God's love, rediscover ourselves and others, rediscover Jesus and rediscover our ministry and message. If you're a Christian, you have a ministry. You don't have to be licensed, you don't have to be ordained, you don't have to have gone to seminary, you don't need a title in front of your name. If you've been redeemed, if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have a ministry and a message. There are people that need to know about the love of God and we can't wait for them to walk in this space. They're already in the spaces that you navigate outside this space.

And God has called you to carry the message, the ministry, the compassion, the love of reconciliation, of being connected to God through Christ Jesus. We have not been given the ministry of commentary on Facebook. We have not been given the ministry of judgment on Twitter. We have not been given the ministry of preserve whatever I believe right now with all my might, even if I can't find a scripture to back it up. We have been given the ministry of reconciliation, of love, of hope, of faith.

You know, there is one more point here that I probably should close on. It's way back in verse 14 where it says, "We are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who lived should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again." Not only must we rediscover God's love, rediscover ourselves and others, rediscover Jesus, rediscover our message and ministry, but rediscover life and death.

Man, I don't even like talking about death. But you know, if God asked me how I want to die, I mean, I would tell God. I wish God would ask me how I want to die. I would say, "God, thank you for asking. This is how I want to die. I wrote about this in my journal. On my 100th birthday, I want to wake up at noon." I mean, why get up early? It's my last day. I'm sleeping in. So on my 100th birthday, I wake up at noon. Check this out, God. And because my mom's from Alabama and my dad's from Louisiana, I want a southern meal that consists of fried catfish, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, yams, hot cornbread with butter and honey, and a tall glass of sweet tea, and I want to follow that up with a bowl of warm peach cobbler with three scoops of vanilla bean ice cream melting off the side of the bowl. Can you feel the Holy Ghost in here right now?

And I want to eat that entire meal. I don't care the calorie count. It's my last day. And then I want to fall into a deep sleep and wake up in heaven. That's how I want to die, just like that. Just like that. 100th birthday, wake up at noon, fried catfish, collard greens, macaroni and cheese, yams, cornbread with melted butter and honey, on a tall glass of sweet tea, bowl of warm peach cobbler, three scoops of vanilla bean ice cream melting off the side of the bowl. Fall asleep, wake up, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Streets of gold, just like that. The problem is God won't ask me.

But God does invite me to die to myself daily. God invites me to death daily, that I might decrease and God might increase. I wonder if to rise as the man or the woman God has called you to be, to rise as the teenager that God has called you to be, to rise as the elder that God has called you to be, I wonder if that is deeply connected to being willing to die daily. To say, "God, I give you permission to kill stuff in me, kill stubbornness, pride, sustain anger, unforgiveness. There's stuff in me, God, that doesn't need to be there. Do surgery, take it out, remove it." That compassion and love and joy and peace and determination and strength might flow through me.

And I'm finding that God will answer that prayer. God will invade that request. And I'm finding that God is killing me softly with His love, killing me softly with His love. You know, there was a singer named Roberta Flack in the 1970s. She had this song called "Killing Me Softly." It was followed up by a rap group called the Fugees later on. But I know I'm in church, but give me some grace here because I want to tell you what this song is about. This song is about a woman who's heavy-hearted, broken, and she walks into a club, into a bar, and with a drink in her hand, she's sitting down at a table and there's a guy on the stage with a guitar, and he's singing.

But she notices in a short period of time that the guy on the stage that she does not know is singing about her. She says, "He's telling me my whole life. He didn't even know me, but he's singing my life, and it's hurting me. It's killing me, yet it's healing me." And maybe that's what we need from Jesus in our lives right now. To allow God to sing a song into our soul that will kill things, it will be uncomfortable, but it will be liberating, it will be equipping and empowering if we sit under the song long enough.

Maybe that song needs to be your hymn. "Strumming my pain through his fingers, telling my life with his words, killing me softly with his song, killing me softly with his words, telling my whole life with his words, killing me softly with his song." God, I pray that we would allow your love, your grace, your reconciling spirit to penetrate our manhood and our womanhood like never before. Let this church be a shining example of rising in the midst of a broken, divided, lost world. And it would be through this movement at Twin Lakes Church that people would experience like never before. Truth, joy, love, freedom, new life. Let it be done. Amen.