Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries, the teaching ministry of Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub. On today's program, Pastor Jeff begins his message, Fight for the Kingdom, from the series Waging War, and shows you why advancing Christ's kingdom begins with a biblical worldview and a new identity in him.

Our mission is to challenge people like you to respond to the Word of God. So if you're looking to grow in your walk, you're in the right place. We invite you to visit pastorjeff.com where you'll find a wealth of resources to equip you in your faith. While you're there, you can sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails delivered right to your inbox. Now, let's hear today's message from God's Word with Pastor Jeff.

Pastor Jeff: We've been doing this series called Waging War Against Our Enemy and we spent the first four weeks talking about how to prepare for this battle and what all of that looks like. Then last week, we began to talk about what it is we're going to fight for. Last week, we talked about why we should fight for the church, how the church is the primary vehicle for what Jesus uses to gather his saints, to equip them, to send them on mission.

Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." The church is Jesus Christ's idea. The church is not a building. The church is not a place. The church is God's people who have gathered to put the Lord Jesus Christ on display, to ask to hear him, and then to be sent out into what we call the mission field, sent out into our culture.

Today we want to talk about what we fight about next because what I believe is that even if the church is doing a good job and churches are doing what they're supposed to, it doesn't always translate into what the purpose of the church is. The purpose of the church is not just to gather the saints; the purpose of the church is to build up the saints because we're an army that's supposed to go out and transform the culture for Jesus Christ.

The very things that are happening here when we pray, "Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on the earth as it is in heaven," God is wanting and desiring to use us to go out into the culture so that what is being done in heaven is also done in the earth. So today we want to talk about why we should fight for the kingdom.

The kingdom by definition is God's visible manifestation for all of his comprehensive rule on this planet. It's where we see a visible demonstration of how God is at work through all of his people. When people see God's people, they have a visible demonstration or a manifestation of Jesus Christ into how each and every area of life is supposed to work.

It's one thing to come to Christ and be a Christian. It's another thing if you're a married man, what does it look like to be a godly husband? Or if you're a married woman, what does it look like to be a godly wife? Or if you're a single woman or a single guy, what does it look like to be a godly single? Or if you're a kid, what does it look like to be a godly child? Or if you're an employer or an employee, how do I live out the very values that God teaches me in his church when I'm out there so that I'm living out the values in front of people and I'm telling people this is where I get my values; I get my values from Jesus.

If the church doesn't live on mission, then the culture is never transformed. Culture is what we celebrate and what we tolerate. Here's the thing: when it comes to our culture, you have to understand it is so clear that people are either dead and apart from Christ or they're alive and they're in Christ, and there is no in-between.

A majority of the culture is made up of those who are dead and apart from Christ, and so what they celebrate and what they tolerate is different than what born-again believers celebrate and tolerate. If we as a minority are going to impose our values on a culture that's hostile to them, wouldn't you like to know how to fight for the kingdom? Wouldn't you like to know how to do that?

As far as as many opinions as there are on the church, there's just as many opinions as to how we should get that work done. So I think it's important that we look in God's Word and let him tell us how he wants us to get the work done that he desires. To do that today, we're going to be in the book of Second Corinthians.

Second Corinthians chapter 5, we're going to be in verses 16 to 20. It's one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. I know I've preached this here before, but I think it fits everything that we're talking about probably better than any other passage that I could have picked for today. As we read this, then we're going to clarify five areas that God wants us to understand if we are going to fight for his kingdom. If we're really going to pray the prayer, "Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," what specifically am I praying for and what does God expect of me?

Hear the Word of the Lord from Second Corinthians chapter 5 starting in verse 16. He says, "Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he's writing to defend his apostleship, and he's writing to correct things that were going on in the church so that they would be aligned. But really nestled here, what he's going to show them is here's how you fight for the kingdom. Here's how you live the values that Christ wants, and he clarifies these five areas.

I want to clarify all five for you this morning. If we're going to advance Christ's kingdom, if we're going to be people that live out the kingdom in front of others and tell others where we get our values, it starts with a proper understanding first of your view of the world. Your view of the world. Everybody has a view of the world. It's called a worldview. We have to understand who created this place, why am I here, what's the problem in the world, where is all this stuff going?

How you answer those questions determines your worldview. A biblical worldview would be God created all of this place in six literal days, he created all of us, he wanted us to respond to him, we're here because he's chosen the time and space exactly for us to live, and he sustains our life.

The problem is that we're sinners and we're separated from Christ, so we need to repent and believe in Jesus, and this is all heading towards culmination when Jesus Christ is going to come back and judge both the living and the dead and set up and rule his kingdom. That's a biblical worldview. But we have to understand our view of the world matters. How we see the world matters.

Notice what the apostle writes to the church as he's telling them here's how you should see the world. He says, "Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh." We don't recognize anyone according to their worldview. We don't recognize anyone according to their status. We don't recognize anyone according to their political party that they affiliate with. We don't recognize anybody by how they define their gender. We don't recognize anybody by what they say they believe. We don't recognize anybody by the amount of money they make, the status they have, the groups that they run in. We don't group people that way anymore.

He says we even used to group Christ this way. When we knew him first, all we knew him as was a religious teacher and a good man. We know him that way no longer. We know that he is God in flesh. We know he's the resurrected, glorious Christ and because of that, we know he created the whole world. So here's how we see the world, and you need to see the world this way too.

You need to see every single person that you run in and every single group of people as either apart from Christ and in desperate need of him, or in Christ and in desperate need to grow in him. Those are the only two groups on our entire planet. There are no other groups. One of the reasons we have a hard time fighting for the kingdom is we in our sinful nature have a way of trying to group people by categories according to what we see by our eyes, and oftentimes we're wrong.

Most of the time we're wrong. When you group all people and you say things like, "All Baptists are, all Catholics are, all white people are, all black people are, all Republicans are, all Democrats are," you're going to make an error no matter what you say next. We can't group people according to the flesh. We need to look on people as individuals because every single person was created by God and every single person matters to God.

So when you come into contact with somebody, here's your worldview: I'm meeting them and I know they're either in need of the grace of Christ for salvation or they're in need of the grace of Christ for growth. And I'm bringing both. That's what you think. That's how you view the world.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. Man, today's message, Fight for the Kingdom, from the series Waging War, shows you why advancing Christ's kingdom begins with a biblical worldview and a new identity in him. We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in just a moment, but first, listeners like you make this ministry possible.

When you give this month to help share bold biblical truth with people around the world, we'll thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's powerful booklet, Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission. This Scripture-filled resource unpacks what it really means to be transformed by Jesus because when you're made new in Christ, everything changes: your identity, your purpose, and your calling to advance God's kingdom. Request your copy today when you give to Pastor Jeff Ministries at pastorjeff.com. Now, let's get back to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jeff: The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, it is not your own doing, it is a gift of God so no one should boast." It's a gift. God wants to give all people that gift. Or Titus 2:11, it's the grace of God that teaches us to say no to unrighteousness and worldly things and live self-controlled, upright lives.

As believers, we need the same grace to grow us, and that's how we have to see the world. If you don't start there, you'll miss advancing the kingdom because you'll start with your prejudice or you'll start with your opinions or you'll start with your false ideas and you'll lob verbal assaults or grenades against groups of people, and they won't be able to hear your love of God for them in the conversation. Amen?

It means everywhere you go, no matter where you go, you can be at a sporting event, you can be at a grocery store, you can be in a shopping center, you can be at a restaurant, you can be in the church, outside the church—every single person you meet is in need of Jesus for salvation or growth. Every one. Why? Because Jesus Christ is Lord over all.

He's telling us change your worldview, change your view of the world. It means every single person that you meet, it means this: they're needy. Every single person you meet is in need. I'm in need and you're in need. Every single person you meet is in need. Sometimes people can be so hostile that you'll miss the fact the reason they're being hostile is because they're in such desperate need.

When you respond to their hostility or their violence or their vitriol with violence and vitriol, you miss out on the kingdom. The kingdom is understanding Christ died for them and they're in need of salvation or they're in need of growth, and everybody you see has that deep need in their heart and God's put you right in their sphere of influence so that you can do that.

By the way, let me just tell you this: every one of you has a different sphere of influence. I don't have influence with the people that you have. You have influence with people I'll never have, and the people you have influence with, I won't have influence with and vice versa. So God brings people into our lives so that we can live this out before them, amen?

So when you start thinking about the world, it's easy the longer that you walk with Christ and the more you see the cultural values that don't reflect the kingdom to get angry, to get mad, to get upset, and then start launching out against groups of people rather than remembering that every single person in that group's in need of Christ for salvation or growth. Don't ever forget that. Your view of the world matters.

Second is this: not only does your view of the world matter, your identity in Christ matters. Your identity in Christ matters. The next verse, probably one of the most shared verses in the New Testament, certainly one of my favorites, says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

I've memorized this in so many different versions, I don't know which version I share when I share it. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. When a person is transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, when they exit the kingdom of Satan's power into the beloved arms of Jesus, everything fundamentally changes.

The Bible says you're a new creature. In the same way that a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it's fundamentally altered. Now the reality is, physically we look exactly the same. Wouldn't it be cool if when you got saved, everything outside changed? Like as a guy, you go home at night and you look like Thor for your wife? She'd be like, "Baby, what happened?" "I got saved. Aren't you excited?" Right?

Nothing happens on the outside. But fundamentally, more transformation like that happens on the inside than what we realize because the Holy Spirit comes and makes a deposit in our life and he owns us forever. Jesus Christ comes to live his life through us, and we're new fundamentally from the inside out and we belong to Jesus in a way that we've never belonged to him before. Everything about us is fundamentally changed.

That's why when Jesus talked to people, I mean Jesus, think about this: when Jesus entered the world, he's the only living being. The Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and sin is what leads to death and that we're all dead in our transgressions and sins. So spiritually Jesus Christ as a God-man is the only one who's spiritually alive during his ministry, and yet how did he view the world?

As people in need of him. So even people that were hostile towards him, what did he do? He loved them. He spent time with them. But he was truthful with them too because when people didn't respond, he said, "You're right, your father's the devil." Why would he say that? Because you're still in the realm of darkness with your father Satan, the enemy of our soul. That's your dad. That's why you see the world the way you see it.

Apart from Christ, you cannot see a biblical worldview. Apart from Christ, you can't understand what the world is supposed to look like. It's impossible. The reason we know that is before we were saved, we all had our ideas of what the world should look like too. We all had our own opinions about what the world was supposed to look like. Too, as a believer in Christ, if we're open to the Word, our worldview begins to change because Jesus has a lot to say about what the world is and how we're to live in the world.

We can't expect people who are unsaved to create a godly culture. It can't happen. They can't do it. Ungodly people cannot create a righteous culture. Only the church filled with born-again saints can advance a culture of righteousness. So if you're waiting for others in the world to change things, you can wait till Jesus gets back and they're never going to change.

The only people that can change the world are those who are born again and bought by the blood of Jesus. That's why the church is imperative that we're here being taught and we're a team together so that when we go out in the world, we know how to fight for what's real. Here's what the Bible says: you're a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have been made new. You're fundamentally different in every single possible way.

You're not the same as you used to be, and you need to own your identity. We use the letter R to be resolute in your identity. I'm preaching to your identity. I'm not preaching to your behavior. I'm not telling you change all your bad behavior and become good. I'm not saying you used to be bad and now you're better. I don't care about your behavior. I care about your identity because I know if you get your identity right, all your behavior will catch up and follow.

I'm telling you who you are in Christ. You've been given a new name. Even in my Bible, and I believe we have this out at our resource center—the fact I'm telling you that means they're going to run out this week—but we have a card. It's called, Who Am I? I have it in my Bible. Listed probably 50 different Bible verses. I'll pull this out from time to time just to read and remind myself what I already know: that I'm a child of God, and I'm Christ's friend, and I'm part of Christ's body, and I'm a saint, and I'm a holy person, and I'm God's masterpiece and his handiwork, and I'm born again in Christ and the evil one, the devil, can't touch me, etc., etc. But when I live that way as to who God says I am rather than what I see in the mirror, everything about me begins to change.

For too many of us, because the devil's constantly lying when he loses you from his kingdom and to Christ's kingdom, he lies to you in Christ's kingdom and says, "You haven't changed that much. You're the same loser you used to be and yeah, you go to church, but if everybody knew who you were, they wouldn't really like you because you say this but you act like that."

Anybody ever heard that lie? 100% of you have heard that lie that are born again. That's why we need to go back to our identity and say, "No, that's not who I am; that's who I was." And I'm forgiven. I'm completely forgiven. God can't love me any more than he already does and I'm a saint, and I'm holy, and I'm totally forgiven, and I can't screw this thing up because I'm not the one that gave it to me, Jesus did. That's my identity, amen? One of the reasons we have a hard time advancing the kingdom is we really don't believe who God says we are.

Here's a little free tip: if you go out and tell people how miserable, lonely, lousy, awful, and all these things that you are and then ask people, "Would you like to become a Christian too?" you're probably not going to have great results with that. Right? It's when you go out and people are like, "Yeah, I know you; I knew what used to be in you," and you're like, "You're right, that's what I was, but I'm not that anymore. And even in the areas God's working on me, I was dead and now I'm alive, I was lost and now I'm found. God's made me part of his family. You can be part of it too."

That's a different type of gospel share. When we go out and advance the kingdom, we're not telling people, "Change all your ways and become like me," we're saying, "There's a better way. You're in need. I know you're in need because I was in need too, and Jesus is who you are looking for." Amen? That's living out your identity.

Your view of the world matters, your identity in Christ matters. Let me give you a third: your position in the family matters. Your position in the family matters. Notice what he says in verse 18. Where do we get all this stuff? This new identity, this new name, this new view of the world?

He says clearly to us, "Now all these things are from God." Who's the one that gives us all good things? God. Who's the one that saved us? God. Who's the one that deposited his Holy Spirit? God. Who's the one that promises to be with us forever? God. Who's the one that's changing us from the inside out? God.

All these things are from God. They're not from you. You can't hand out the gospel. You can proclaim the gospel, you can live the gospel, but you can't make somebody a Christian. All that is from God. He does all the work. "Now all these things are from God, who did what? Who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ."

Now this tells you about the lordship of Jesus. Jesus didn't become God; Jesus is God. In case you want to become God, here's one thing you need to put on your resume: that you've always existed and you're self-sufficient. That would be the first plank of that resume. That's what you need. Jesus has always existed, he's always been self-sufficient.

Second person of the Trinity always existed. Nearly 2,000 years ago, he put on flesh and came and lived among us. But God was in Christ because Jesus is God reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins or trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now reconciled, reconciled, reconciliation—what's that? Reconciled means this: it's the restoration of a relationship to a harmonious state after a dispute. So reconciliation is coming back after a dispute to a harmonious state. It's more than saying, "I forgive you," it's being, "We're good." Right? That's what it means. God made a way for our relationship with him to be good.

Here's why it's grace. Here's why it's different than other relationships. If you've lived for a while, you have relationships. Inevitably in those relationships, they get strained. If you're married, your marriage relationship from time to time will get strained. If you have kids, your relationship with your kids from time to time would get strained. This is a great place for amen. I'm not preaching to myself, am I? Okay.

They get strained. Well, even when you're the one that caused it—which in my marriage, I've caused some problems from time to time, I'm just being honest—when you're the one that caused it, even when you recognize what you've done wrong and even when you say, "I'm the one that did it," and even when you say, "I'm the one who's sorry," it doesn't necessarily mean that everything is just immediately, "Oh great, awesome, thank you." Sometimes there has to be some work to prove that, hey, I meant what I said.

Now here's what's true about our relationship with God. The problem in our relationship with God has always been us; it's never been him. From the time that God created the planet and created human beings, the problem has never been God. The problem's always been you. The problem has always been me.

For we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We're the ones that have turned our back on him; he's never turned our back on us. He's the one who's desired a relationship, even though we're the ones that when he sent his Son, spit in his face and scourged him and put him on a cross. Even though it was our sin that put him there, God never stopped loving us.

So reconciliation between these two parties means when you repent and say, "It was me, I was wrong," and you by faith put your trust in Jesus, guess what happens? Immediately you're reconciled. Immediately there's harmony. Immediately there's nothing you have to keep working off. There's nothing else you have to do. God's like, "I'm totally pleased now. We're good. We're family."

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, Fight for the Kingdom, from the series Waging War, showing you why advancing Christ's kingdom begins with a biblical worldview and a new identity in him.

Thanks for joining us for today's program. Before you go, just a quick reminder: when you give a gift of support today, we'll thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's powerful booklet, Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission. This Scripture-filled resource will help you understand what it really means to be made new in Christ, how your identity, your focus, and your mission are transformed when you surrender your life to Jesus.

Request your copy today when you give to help others hear the truth of God's Word. Just visit pastorjeff.com. That's pastorjeff.com. We'll see you next time.