(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

I'm a big proponent of the church, and today in the message, you'll hear why.

I believe in it, the Big C Church.

I believe in us.

I believe that God, when he calls people into fellowship and community, it's not by accident, and it's not just to sit in chairs on a Sunday, amen?

Amen.

It's to go out and change the world.

And so today, you can clap for that, it's okay.

It's all right.

Thank you.

Today, I wanted to start by showing you a picture, all right?

And so that's gonna pop up on the screen.

So I'll know it pops up when you start laughing.

Thank you, thank you.

This was me at 11 years old, right?

I know, yeah, some of you have kids, and you're like, oh, he's cute.

But I was a fat kid, all right?

I was the fat kid.

And I share this with you today, because again, it's gonna tie in like everything always does.

But growing up, I got made fun of a lot, right?

We all know, kids can be cruel.

We've all been there and everything like that.

But I got made fun of a lot.

And I remember one time, this was in first grade, where I was out on the playground, and somebody just walked up out of the blue and punched me in the stomach.

And he walked away and said, I just wanted to see if my hand would get stuck, right?

Again, it was difficult.

It's tough growing up, especially when you are the fat kid.

And because I got made fun of, okay, good, they took it down.

Because I got made fun of a lot, I was the shy kid, right?

I wasn't outgoing.

I didn't really wanna talk to people.

What I did is I focused on school, because what I found is that if I got good grades and I did what my teachers told me, and I did it well, that that's where I could get my praise from.

Even though all the other kids would make fun of me and put me down, I knew that in this one area, I could find acceptance.

And it's crazy as we begin today, and hopefully most of us understand, the lengths that we will go to just to feel like we are wanted, right?

Many of us have been there.

Many of us have just always wanted to just fit in, just to not rock the boat, but just to be able to sit in a place and nobody makes fun of us, nobody looks at us sideways, nobody says anything to us.

We just wanna fit in and keep the status quo.

And that's where I was in my life growing up.

When I was in the third grade, my grandma took me to church for the very first time.

Props to all the grandmas out there.

Come on, give it up for the grandmas.

Yes, yes, yes!

Woo-hoo!

My grandma took me to this, it was a little, tiny congregational church.

And if you don't know what congregationalism is, they wear the robes, they have choirs, it's very traditional, right?

And I know some of us have been in that background.

But she took me to this little, tiny church.

And when it was time to go to Sunday school, I'll be honest, I was terrified.

I was terrified.

I spent five days in school being made fun of.

I didn't need to add Sunday onto that.

And so I was a little leery to step into Sunday school.

And so I found this corner all by myself, and I just sat there, right, hands in my lap, like I'm supposed to, because I'm a good boy.

And all of a sudden, out of the blue, this group of boys comes up and they start talking to me.

And they ask me, what's your name?

And I tell them, and they start asking me all these questions, and they're interested in actually what I'm saying, and they're not making fun of me.

And they included me in everything that they did that morning as we went into class and as we studied the Bible and everything like that.

And then as church got out, they start running for the door, and they stop and they turn around and they say, Richard, why don't you come with us?

I'd never had that in my life before.

And you guys, from that point on, I was hooked.

I was hooked.

And I found a place where everyone accepted me for who I was.

They included me, they valued me, and honestly, I could not wait to go to church.

I would pray these crazy prayers to God, like God, why can't church be five days a week and school is only two hours on a Sunday?

That's how much I love this place.

That's how much I wanted to be at church.

And what I found is as I continued to go to church, what I found is that I started to learn more about this God.

Because I'll be honest, I didn't necessarily go to church first and foremost because of God or fancy preaching or great worship.

I went because the people cared.

And as I was there, as I was surrounded by these people who cared, what I found is I started learning about this God.

And the more I learned, the more I wanted to know.

And so it was by sixth grade, that little fat kid in the picture had accepted Christ into his life.

And again, it wasn't because anybody convinced me by any logical arguments, but it was because God's people loved me, they accepted me, and they valued me more than the world ever had.

And that's when I knew at that young age, right?

Sixth grade, 11 years old, I knew that this place, that the Bible called church was special.

I knew that it had this power and I couldn't explain it.

I didn't really understand what it was, but there was something about this church that was special.

It had the potential to change the world, right?

One shy fat kid at a time.

It had that kind of potential.

And I always wanted to be there.

And at the youngest of ages, right, 11 years old, what I realized is I saw the church at its best.

And I know many of us in here have seen the church at its worst, I've seen the church at its worst.

But when I was at a young age, looking to belong, looking for a place to be loved, I saw the church at its best.

And I saw the effect that it could have.

And I caught a glimpse of God's brilliant plan, right?

Because as we read scripture, this is what we know about God, is that he chose the church.

He picked the church to carry his message into the world.

And so at that young age, I caught a glimpse of God's brilliant plan to create a place that people could go, a place and a people that would reveal his will, his love, his purpose, and his power to a broken world.

And man, I just wanted to be there.

And as God continued to call me into ministry, this was something that remained a core belief of who I was and what I do and how God equipped me to serve people, is this understanding that, Richard, the church is special and the church is worth fighting for.

And the church, regardless of all its faults, I have put you here, Richard, because you've seen it at its best.

And I'm here to call it to the best.

I'm not here to settle.

I'm not here to settle for larger crowds or better music or more lights or anything like that.

I'm here because the church has been created to be a hope in a lost world.

That is what the church is for.

And I wanted to share a portion of my calling today with you that I don't know if I've ever shared from the stage before.

I know I've shared it with a few individuals, but this is gonna help you better understand, I think, understand me a little bit better, which that's a long book to read, right?

That's tough.

But to see the importance of what God is calling us to today.

And so, because I love church so much, because I always wanted to be there, my hope was always that God would call me into ministry.

And so when I was in high school, I talked to my youth pastor and I said, hey, I think God maybe is calling me into ministry.

And he said, Richard, if you think God's calling you into ministry, run away from it.

And I said, what?

And he goes, it'll be like Jonah.

If God needs you somewhere, he'll get you there.

And I said, okay.

So when I graduated high school, I enrolled in college, Cal State Long Beach, and I was gonna be a physical therapist.

Why?

Because I love sports, but I had gotten to that age, right?

And that time in a kid's life where I realized I'm not good enough to play anymore.

So I'll probably get a physical therapy degree, I'll jump on with the sports team, and I'll be around sports my whole life.

And I always prayed, God, if you want me to become a pastor, let me win the lottery.

This was before the days, right?

And I mean, for some of us, those days have not yet come, but for some people nowadays, ministry is a lucrative career and I haven't found that yet, but I prayed that prayer and I started college doing a physical therapy degree.

And I remember, it was my sophomore year in college and I was sitting in my dorm room doing homework, organic chemistry, which I hated, and it just hit me.

It was like the Holy Spirit came upon me and I said to myself, wow, what a stupid prayer, right?

Because if God wants me, he's gonna take care of me.

And so in the greatest example of be careful what you pray for, I said, God, if you want me, you can have me, but you've gotta make it clear.

Two months later, I was down in Mexico, okay?

During spring break, all right?

I was a sophomore in college on spring break on a missions trip, okay?

That's a weird story to start with, okay?

But I'm on this missions trip and the high school group that was at our church every year at spring break, they went down and did a missions trip down to Mexico and this year I volunteered to help and I ended up driving down this like 1972 orange Ford pickup full of everyone's stuff.

I was the supply truck driver and I'm driving to Mexico and I remember driving thinking, what am I doing here?

All of my friends are at the beach right now, all of them are having fun and I'm in Mexico.

And I love Mexico and I've learned to love Mexico even more, but there was one night where we came back at the end of the day and the youth pastor, the one who told me to run away, comes up to me and says, Richard, I need to let you know something.

He says, God is calling me to another church.

And man, I was heartbroken.

This guy had become a great friend of mine and I loved him and he was always there for me.

And I said, are you sure?

Like, you're doing such great work here.

And he said, wait, there's more.

And remember what I had just prayed, God, make it clear.

God wants you to take over for me when I'm done.

And you guys, I don't know if you've ever had a prayer answered in that type of way.

This was the first time that had ever happened to me.

Right, I mean, that was as clear as it got.

And I remember every night when we were at this, the big base camp, we would have a worship time and I remember singing these worship songs and all of a sudden my face just exploded in tears.

And I mean, I was ugly crying.

It was bad.

And it hit me that the creator of the universe wanted me to work for him.

And I felt so unworthy.

I felt so worthless and I didn't understand why, but I was so grateful.

And so I came home and like any great mountaintop experience, I let life just go back to normal.

And I remember one day praying, again, be careful what you pray for.

God, that was good, but give me something else.

Right?

Some of us, it takes a two by four, right?

Some of us, it's a gentle whispering of the spirit, others it's a two by four to the side of the head.

And I prayed this prayer and I kid you not, I had a dream and I'm gonna share this dream with you because this is what got me to finally listen and obey God.

In this dream, I was standing up on a mountain and I was overlooking this beautiful horizon and the sun was going down and I was with God.

He wasn't there physically, but I could feel.

And there was just this overwhelming sense of peace and protection and love.

And I didn't wanna move from that spot, but all of a sudden I hear this voice say, Richard, go down the mountain.

And I knew it was God, I knew it was God, I had to obey.

So I'm like, okay.

And so I start walking down this mountain and I come around this corner and there were millions of people trying to get up to where I was.

And I start walking through this crowd and I begin to notice that all of these people are hurting either physically or spiritually.

It's like I can see inside of them.

And so I start just reaching out and touching as many people as I can, just letting them know God loves you, don't give up, God's with you.

He's there for you, keep walking, you're gonna get there.

And I remember there was a man and he was carrying a little baby with him.

And his chin was cut open and he had bandaged it up and that's how vivid it was.

Like I remember the cut was bleeding through this bandage and I grab him on the shoulders and I said, God loves you.

And he begins to weep.

And I'm just sitting there and I'm holding him and I'm praying for him and I'm just letting him know how much God loves him.

And now my feet, all of a sudden I feel something wet.

And I look down and there's this old woman who looks like she has been living on the streets for years.

Hair's all matted, dark, dark tan skin, almost looks like an old leather wallet, right?

And it was like that.

And she's washing my feet.

And I touch her on the head and I say, thank you.

And her granddaughter who was sitting next to her looks up at me and says, you were once dirty but now you are clean.

And you guys, I woke up like that.

And I'm like, I gotta write this down.

And it was crazy because when I woke up, I could still feel the grease from the woman's hair on my hand.

It was that vivid of a dream.

And I wrote down every single word of that on this piece of paper.

And to this day, I have no idea where that paper was.

But I don't need it because it's in my heart.

And that next week I went to the college registrar and I changed my major from physical therapy to religious studies.

And I started being a youth pastor at our church that my wife and I grew up in.

And I haven't turned away since.

But it was crazy because 10 years later, once again, I was back in Mexico.

Right, again, I love Mexico.

And I'm sitting with a friend of mine and I'm telling him the story of my dream.

And he looks at me and goes, wow, that's pretty cool.

But what does it mean?

I'd never thought about that.

Like it was just my calling.

This is what got me into ministry.

And I thought about it for a while.

And here's what I know it means.

God has called me to the broken people of this world.

And here's what I know about brokenness.

All of us have experienced it, amen?

And so as I stand here before you today, here's what I want you to understand.

I have been called to you.

I have been called to be here to serve you and to let you know that there is a God that loves you.

There is a God that has not forgotten about you.

There is a God that if you keep walking, you are going to find him.

Right, it is no longer my job to stand on a mountaintop and bask in God's presence.

I'll be back there one day, I know it.

But for right now, my job is to be here with the people, letting them know that they are loved, letting them know that they're not forgotten, letting them know that God loves them.

And church, this is what I've been entrusted with.

This is the message that I think that God has for the church today, and one that we need to take up for ourselves, right?

This is who we are.

And I love that.

Because in my years of doing ministry, I have talked to so many people who have been so broken and so lost.

And the mere fact that I can just sit there and hear their story, and reach my hand over and say, I wanna pray for you.

God's been there.

God sees it.

He understands it.

And that's why he sent his son to die on the cross.

In 2 Corinthians chapter five, and this is the one passage I wanted to share with us today, because I think it shares Paul's understanding of the church's calling.

In 2 Corinthians five, starting in verse 16, it says this, so from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Though once we 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.

Church, this is us.

And the three things I wanna hit on really quick, number one, Paul says we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

I don't care who you are.

I don't care what you've done.

I don't care where you come from.

I don't care what your past has been like.

All I know is that your future is in God.

Amen.

You were created in God's image, right?

That's what it means to no longer look at anybody with a worldly point of view, not by how they voted, not by what race they are, not by what school they go to, not anything like that.

Paul says we're done with that.

As the church, we're done with that.

You were created in the image of God.

Now, that image might be tainted and twisted a little bit, right?

You might be a Cowboys fan.

You might be a Yankees fan.

You might be from California.

But you have been placed into the life of the church, into my life, so that I can encourage you that God has not forgotten you.

No matter how twisted that image has been, no matter how lost you have gotten, God has not forgotten you, and he has.

An incredible plan for your life.

No one is viewed from a worldly point of view.

Number two, God gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

And this is what got me hooked on this passage, is that word reconciliation, it means a restoration of the original understanding between people after hostility.

The original understanding.

And the reason I share that, the reason this is important is because we often think of reconciliation as, I messed up and God forgives me.

And that's part of it, but what we forget, and we talked about this last week, is God is seeking to get things back to the way that they were.

All of creation was in good standing with God.

All of us were created in the image of God, and God wants that back.

And so what does he do?

He entrusts his people with this ministry to go out into the world and say, God is beginning a job to heal things.

God is doing a ministry of reconciliation, meaning that you are a part of this.

So when Paul writes, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, he means this reconciliation, this fixing of what was broken belongs to everyone.

Everyone.

Your neighbor that you hate, yeah, him.

Right?

Crazy Uncle Larry, him too.

Right?

I mean, we live in this day and age where families can hardly get together anymore and have conversation because somebody's gonna start a fight.

That's not of God.

God says, I'm here to reconcile.

I'm here to fix, I'm here to heal, I'm here to let everyone know that this message of reconciliation belongs to everyone.

And that means that we do not get to decide who we share it with.

I don't get that decision.

It belongs to everyone.

God is reconciling the world to himself.

Why?

Because God so loved the world.

All of it, everyone, no matter how far away they seem.

And we will sometimes get so hung up on what people do and how they live and the decisions that they make that it blinds us to what God is trying to do.

Right?

We get so hung up on, oh, they believe this or they do that or they eat this food or not that food or whatever it is.

And we get so hung up on that and it puts up a dividing wall when what God is doing is he's trying to say, I'm trying to save these people.

I'm trying to do a work in these people and I need you, the church, to recognize that.

Because that's the blessing, right?

He has given us the opportunity to join him in his work.

And then third, the last thing I wanted us to understand is we are Christ's ambassadors.

And this phrase is, this is humbling.

As though God were making his appeal through us.

God is trying to use you to reveal himself to the world.

Right?

This is what got me to tears in Mexico when God answered my prayer.

God, how can you use me?

Do you know what I've done, God?

Do you know who I am?

Do you know what I used to be?

Do you know how much hate is in my heart because people have picked on me and made fun of me and abused me and everything like that?

Do you know what's in my heart?

And yet, as though God were making his appeal through us.

When I was young and just starting out at church and with God, there was this pastor at our little tiny church and his name was Marv Jacobs.

All right, just makes you smile hearing that name, doesn't it?

Marv Jacobs.

And Marv was the most joyful human being I had ever met in my life.

I don't think the guy ever stopped smiling.

I think he fell asleep smiling.

And he was always smiling, always joyful, always encouraging.

And every time that you talked to Marv, the conversation was always about how were you doing.

And after talking to him, you walked away feeling so uplifted.

You felt so encouraged.

You felt so built up.

And as a child and as a young Christian, to me, Marv was the epitome of what it looked like to be a Christian.

There was no one like him.

Right, and when I thought of Jesus, I thought of Marv.

That's exactly how Jesus was, I bet.

Just like Marv.

I thought he was the closest thing to Jesus I would ever meet in my life.

And so I used to pray this crazy prayer when I was just starting out.

God, I wanna be like Marv one day.

Right?

Because again, I didn't know what a Christian was really supposed to look like.

We get so many examples in our lives of people who say that they're Christians.

And so I didn't know what it looked like, but I knew I loved hanging out with Marv.

And so I prayed, God, I wanna be like Marv one day.

And I will let you know, I never expected.

I thought, man, I'll pray like this, but I'll set the bar a little lower.

Right?

I'll try and be like, I won't even mention names because I'll get in trouble.

Right?

Other people I knew at the church at the time.

Like, maybe if I just hit that, I'll be okay.

But, like I said, even though I prayed that, I never thought I'd get there.

And it was because I felt like such a failure.

I felt like nobody wanted me.

I was this little fat kid that people made fun of.

And I think that's the reality for many of us.

We might grow and gain confidence, but the reality is to this day, when I look in the mirror, I still see that little fat kid.

That's me now.

And after all that God has done, there's so much in my life that tries to trip me up.

But that's why what Paul says here is so important.

Yes, we've been given the ministry of reconciliation, but people need to see that lived out.

Right?

Your words will never matter to me or make a difference in my life if your life doesn't line up with them.

You can be a poet.

You can say the best and most encouraging, life-giving words.

You can quote scripture all day, but if your life does not back that up, I'm done with you.

But if your life is filled with joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the reality is you probably don't even need to use words, and I will be changed.

Do you see how God works, you guys?

This is what it looks like to be an ambassador for Christ.

Why?

Because I need to know what it looks like to live as a reconciled person in a broken, hateful, hurting world.

I need to know what that looks like.

And so what does God say?

You are Christ's ambassadors.

Your job is to remind those living in a foreign land, a land that is not their own, to remind them what it means to be a part of God's people.

And I don't do that with words.

I do it with my life.

I do it because I've been called to the broken, and I know that in here, that's every single one of us.

And so I've been called here, and you've been called here for this ministry of reconciliation to be an ambassador for Christ, and that is what an ambassador does.

They remind people living in a foreign land that they belong to the people of God.

They carry themselves in such a way that others notice.

People who walk with them feel valued.

They feel seen.

They feel important.

They feel like they belong.

They know that they matter.

And why do they matter?

It's because God has come and made a way.

You matter because Jesus, if it was only you, Jesus would have died on that cross.

If it was only you, you matter.

You matter.

The old is gone.

The new has come.

You are called to cast aside the hurt and the brokenness, to lay down the burden of sins, and to not see ourselves the way that the world sees us, but to glimpse the masterpiece that God is creating.

And I need someone to point the way.

I need someone to step up.

I need someone to encourage me to not give up.

And church, if we start seeing people this way and living our lives as ambassadors for Christ, nothing this world does will stop us.

Amen.

No law that they're gonna create, no amount of hate is going to stop us.

Why?

Because when people see us living like that, they're gonna wanna be a part of it.

Just like I wanted to be just like Marv, the world is crying out for somebody to stand up and live a life to be able to point to them and say, I wanna be like that.

I wanna have that kind of hope.

I wanna have that kind of joy.

I wanna have that kind of faith.

And church, that's what we have been called to.

And so how do we do that?

I was talking with somebody at our life group this past Thursday and they said, you know what, Richie, it seems so hard.

And yeah, if we think that it's about me doing what I'm, it's not.

It's about letting God do the work that he wants to do.

My prayer, God, let me be like Marv.

Right?

I didn't stand up every morning smile as long as I could in a mirror, right?

That wasn't it.

It was going through the ups and downs and it was learning to trust God through it all.

It was loving people where they were at.

It was caring for them.

And little by little, what I noticed is that this joy and this peace and this life that only God can give became a part of who I was.

And so pray that God would help you become the person he desires you to be.

Just pray, pray.

And if you need help with that, find yourself a Marv.

Right?

Find a Marv.

Marv's with the Lord now, so you're gonna have to find somebody else, but find yourself a Marv and let them guide you.

And then what happens is we start seeing others through God's eyes as the people he created, the people he desires to be reconciled to, right?

That's the world to create a space where everyone belongs.

Right?

The shy little fat kid, you belong here.

The broken lost drug addict, you belong here.

The marriage that's following apart, you belong here.

The lost, the lonely, you belong here.

And I'm gonna tell this church this too, because the people that honestly, I mean, we all need it here, but the people who need it most are our youth.

And they have to walk into a school environment every day and put on a mask so that they fit in a particular group so that they do not get cast aside, made fun of.

It is the hardest thing you're ever gonna do.

Church, our youth, Jared and Tasha, if there is an inkling of your soul that feels like you could impact, that you could be a Marv to some young person, talk to them and sign up to help out with youth.

My kids are in the youth ministry and I wanna surround them with great people who can guide them.

Why?

Because sometimes the reality is dad's the stupidest person that's ever been created.

All right?

I've got probably about five more years of that with one of them.

So we're good.

I called my mom when I was 21 and I told her, I said, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for the past seven years.

But church, we need to step up.

We have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation and I'm here to let you know that I am here to help as much as I can.

I'm here exactly for that.

And I'm here to encourage us and build us up so that we become the church that God created us to be.

Let me pray.

God, we love you.

Thank you so much, God, for who you are, for what you've done for us.

And God, I wanna thank you.

I wanna thank you for calling this little shy fat kid to serve you.

I still don't understand all the time why, God, but I know that it's real because I've seen the fruit that's been born from it.

I've seen lives change.

I've seen eternities change, Lord God.

And Father, that's what I want for this church family right here, right now.

I want us to truly take up this call that we have been given, the ministry of reconciliation, Lord, to look out at this world and not see brokenness and hurt, but to see potential, Lord God, to see life, to see the work that you are doing.

And Father, may we call people in here by the droves.

Lord, may this be a place where people are maturing.

And as we mature, Father, may we continue to bring the sick into this hospital, this spiritual hospital, Lord God, that you've called us to be.

Father, for the person today who needs to place their faith in you today, maybe they're not a little fat kid, but Lord God, maybe they feel like they have been cast aside by this world and they need to know and hear that you are there and that you love them.

Father, may their hearts prayer be this, Lord Jesus, I wanna respond to your love.

I wanna respond to your message, Lord God.

And may you come into my life as my Lord and Savior.

May I start leading a different life, a life that is filled with hope and joy and faith, Lord God.

And I know this is a journey, but Lord, would you walk with me on that journey?

May you surround me with people who will walk with me on that journey.

And Lord, for the rest of us as the church, may we take seriously this calling.

You're making your appeal through us.

Father, my words don't matter if my life doesn't line up.

And so may we take that opportunity, Lord God, to examine our lives and whatever's not lining up, may we lift it up to you, Lord God, to change, to pull us away from the world and into yourself, Lord.

We're ready, we're your people, and we wanna see the miracles that you have in store for us.

We pray all these things in your mighty name, and all God's people said, amen.

Amen.