God's Risky Marketing Plan

I went to bed early last night, and now I am up early. Very early, 1:19 AM. And yet, instead of going back to sleep, I found myself learning a very valuable lesson from the Lord.

As many of you who read from this blog page know, I am in the process of publishing a book. And in that process, I have found myself engaging with a marketing company. Between my travel, work schedule, and commitment to ministry, I just could not see myself doing it all by myself.

Well, engaging a marketing team means they are supposed to help represent you and your voice. That's how it works. So in the process of this engagement and approvals, I found myself a bit apprehensive. Not because they did anything wrong, they are doing great. However, for the first time in my journey, I trust somebody else to speak on my behalf and multiply my voice.

I am very careful of one thing: that is my witness, as I genuinely desire to represent Christ in all I do. I know I am not perfect, but I embrace that my life is also not my own. I consider every word I put out, filter it through God's Word, study every background of activities I engage in and even careful with who I quote. I strive my best to avoid becoming a stumbling block for other people.

I don't live by a desire to please people. I live by the desire to please and honor God. And in that, I recognize that God's heart is towards His people and the world at large. And very early on, God has shown me how our lives can affect others with a rippling effect, good or bad (crippling effect). So I am careful not to be an accidental hindrance to somebody else's growth or coming to Christ by living a life that does not represent God well. I want people to come to know Christ and be drawn closer to Him, and it hurts my heart to see that I can be a stumbling block to that process. And regretfully so, I have been in some cases.

So as I laid there thinking about the thought of the team being genuinely able to capture "my voice," I was stopped by a mere whisper, "How do you think I feel?"

I graciously whispered back, "What do you mean, Lord?" and He began to teach me few essential things.

He showed me that He runs the riskiest marketing plan. He is entrusting the representation of more than just His voice, but His message, His heart, His character, and His perfect and Holy image to a bunch of imperfect, often wandering people and sometimes obstinate people. And yet, knowing all of that beforehand, He still made a decision to love us, save us, empower us by His Spirit and give us the privilege of carrying the most powerful message the world needs to hear.

2 Corinthians 5:20(a) ESV "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us..."

Knowing all our tendencies, imperfections, and all the mess we get ourselves in and out of, God still decided to entrust us with His Kingdom. We are His ambassadors. We are God's risky marketing plan.

In an age of social media and influence-driven generation, brand ambassadors carry out messaging and representation for products and companies. People that carry the style, the heart, the element, feel, look, and voice of the product.

It's all around us. And it does not make us as believers any more different; if not, it even makes what we carry even more so crucial than anything. We are more than brand ambassadors for a product. We are ambassadors for Christ. We represent more than an earthly company. We represent a heavenly Kingdom.

A Kingdom that carries a specific message. A Kingdom that has a particular mission and is ruled by one King. That is a powerful entrustment that must be taken seriously.

Our witness, the way we live our lives when we confess publicly that we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ directly affect how people perceive Christ and receive the Gospel message. Like it or not, that is a fact. We can either take that lightly or take it seriously.

When we receive Christ, we are no longer our own. We become a part of the fellowship of believers, and we have been transferred from darkness into light. We receive a new identity IN CHRIST. That comes with both privileges and great responsibility. We receive His Spirit, and now we become sons and daughters. We are adopted into the family of grace through faith by grace. No longer us that lives but Christ that lives in us, and the life that we now live, we live for the Son of Man who died for us. (Galatians 2:20)

Herein lies the call and crux to our maturity, to the death of ourselves, and the end of our infantile ways. This is not people-pleasing. This is true maturity and submission to our overarching corporate mission—Christ's Great Commission. And how we live affects the advancement of that message. If the world cannot tell the difference between how we think, speak, move, act, what makes us different

I want to highlight a few Scriptures that can unlock some things for our growth here today.

First, there is a call to maturity that is upon every believer. Second, there is the promise of God's help through His Spirit, our advocate, and comforter. Third, there is a decision and commitment on our part to engage and submit to the work of the Lord in our lives and The Body of Christ at large. Fourth, there is a call to persevere and overcome. Fifth, we are called to live differently. In spite and despite the world and our circumstances. Not in our strength nor might, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let's break these principles further.

1. A call to maturity - Hebrews 5:14 tells us that solid food is for those who are mature, by practice to discern good and evil. We are called to live in increasing awareness to accurately divide by the Word of truth, distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies, what is of God, and what is not. 1 Peter 15-17 tells us we ought to be holy for God is holy. That is not an old testament admonition. That is a very relevant call to holiness this very day. There is a call for all of us to be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. To be able to represent Him, His heart, His voice, and operate within His character. We are Christ's Ambassadors. We carry His name wherever we go.

2. Grace - we cannot fulfill that call to maturity on our own. God has afforded a way for us to walk in it. God the Father, has generously poured His love on the Cross for us through His Son Jesus, and in that generous outpouring of love also came the outpouring of grace and release of His Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, lives in us. We are not without help. God, Himself is empowering us. Philippians 2:13 assures that "for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." His Spirit is in you! That is excellent news. He can convict us, teach us all truth, and lead us into righteousness (John 14). Grace does more than saving. It is empowering, empowering us to live a life that is honorable and pleasing to God. We can be assured that God's Spirit will NEVER lead us into doing anything that contradicts the Word of God and violates the character of Jesus. So, receive the grace and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, allow the Word of God to wash you with truth, and allow it to transform and conform you into becoming more like Christ. God knows His marketing plan is risky, so He did not leave us without help. God offsets that risk by depositing His very Spirit in us so that we can represent well His Kingdom. God didn't just leave us with a mandate; He provided a Helper that equips us to fulfill that mandate.

3. Peter and Paul - there comes a time where we embrace Kingdom responsibilities along with the privileges of our salvation. This is not a gospel of works. There is NOTHING we can do to earn our salvation. That alone is given to us by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. IN CHRIST alone. However, faith without works is dead. Fruits ought to be discernable in our lives. There comes a time where we step in to that call of maturity. Both Peter and Paul experienced it. Peter's experience with Jesus in John 21 shows the call of Peter came with a call to maturity. "To feed the sheep" is a great privilege. God is giving Peter a Kingdom entrustment, a platform, an audience. But with that came a reminder "Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish." It is not just about Peter any longer. This is now about the Kingdom He is representing. Let's look at another example. Paul beautifully writes about love in 1 Corinthians 13, and that graciously he shows us that "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." Another picture of increasing maturity. To be mightily used by God means to die to ourselves radically. Embracing the Kingdom call that it is no longer about us. Because loving God means understanding His heart towards the salvation of souls. Love is eternal, and the maturing perspective of that love calls us to die to ourselves, lay down our lives for someone else. So that they, too, can experience the love that has set us free. That is easier said than done.

4. Enduring love - love is a choice. We get to choose to love God with all our hearts, minds, and soul or not. We get to love people as we love ourselves or not. Walking with Christ does not promise us the absence of trials, tests, nor consequences. The promise is that we always have help through the Holy Spirit, guidance through Scripture, and the assurance that Jesus sits on the right-hand side of the Father interceding on our behalf. Jesus said, in this world, we will have trials, but because He has overcome, we shall overcome. When He prayed in John 17, Jesus' prayer was not that we be taken out of the world, but that we are protected from the evil one. That His truth sanctifies us as He sends us out. "Set apart" to be "sent out." Did you know that that is what the word "apostle" means? Set apart and sent out. We are sent out as His representatives and yet not removed from the world. A call to be different, to endure. To be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in His work, knowing that our labors are not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58)

5. In the world but not of it - we are called to be different. We are a part of a different Kingdom. A heavenly Kingdom. God's marketing plan is that we, who have received salvation and grace, carry out that message in love to a world full of darkness. You are the light in that darkness, the voice crying out in the wilderness, the plumbline of God's righteousness. YOU! Yes, you!

Let's draw encouragement from God's Word in this. 2 Corinthians 4 and 5.

The Light of the Gospel

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Treasure in Jars of Clay

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same Spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Our Heavenly Dwelling

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

End of story.

We are God's risky marketing plan. You are God's risky marketing plan. The God of the universe, who is perfect and flawless, entrusting His message to an imperfect and flawed group of people. That's powerful; that's a humbling thought.

And yet, there is no plan B! We are it. God has deposited His very Spirit in us so we can do this and do it well.

So now what? Challenge yourself to represent well the heart of your King. In Christ, you have everything inside of you (His Spirit) to make a world of difference. God has branded you with His blood, sealed you with His Spirit. You are more than a product brand ambassador. You are Christ's ambassador.

Wear Jesus well today.

A fellow imperfect, completely flawed Christ Ambassador,