The Power Of Persuation

Introduction

A. What costs over $1 million and lasts for 1 minute?

1. The answer is a commercial during a Super Bowl game.

2. The goal: to persuade you to buy that particular product.

3. Companies spend billions of dollars advertising their products in order to persuade you to buy them.

B. Our goal as Christians should be to persuade people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

1. That is what this church is all about.

2. That is what our lives, as Christians, should be about.

C. In 2 Corinthians 5:11-17 we are given several motivations for being a witness for Christ.

1. Paul summarized his life with three words, ''we persuade men...'' vs. 11.

  2. Everywhere Paul went he attempted to persuade people to turn to Christ.

3. That should be our determination as well ---- WHY?

  4. We should be persuasive because of:

I. Our Accountability. Vs. 11-13.

A. Paul, through the term, therefore’ refers back to what he said in vs. 10.

1. We will all stand before God and give an account.

2. The terror of the lord. The judgment of God.

B. One reason we witness is because of the judgment of the lost.

1. ''It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living god.''

2. Do we still believe men and women who reject Jesus spend eternity separated from God, in a place the bible calls hell.

 C. In this verse the phrase deals with believers.

1. The awesome prospect of standing before the judgment seat of Christ should compel us to be a witness.

  2. The judgment seat is not a heaven/hell judgment.

3. As believers our lives will be brought into accountability.

A. Faithfulness to the lord.

B. Words spoken.

C. The impact of our lives.

D. Our faithfulness as a witness.

E. We are not afraid of the Lord hurting us; we are afraid of hurting the Lord.

F. Our witness should be:

1. Sincere. Vs. 11.

A. Our motivation in life should be a sincere desire to see men and women being changed by Christ.  

B. Our lives must back up our lips.

C. If people can see the difference Jesus makes, you will not have to cram Him down their throats.

2. Enthusiastic. Vs. 13.

A. There were those who thought Paul was insane.

B. He had been a high-ranking Jewish official who was climbing the ladder religiously and politically. He hated Christians and Christianity.

C. Now, he is as adamant for the gospel as he was antagonistic against it before his conversion.

D. The world looks at spiritual zeal and cannot understand it.

E. You can be excited about sports, and you are called a fan.

F. You can be excited about business and that is appropriate.

G. But, be excited about Christ, and those outside of Christ believed there is something wrong with you.

I. Rudyard Kipling was on a train with General Booth of the Salvation Army. When Booth entered the train a little band of Salvation Army folks played their instruments. This disturbed Kipling and he said so to Booth. Booth responded, 'Kipling, I want to tell you something. If standing on my head and beating a tambourine with my feet would win one more person to Christ, I’d gladly do it!''

II. Accessibility vs. 14-15.

A. The accessibility of the love of Christ.

B. Christ’s love compels us or urges us on.

C. These two verses, 14 and 15, are speaking primarily about Christ’s love for us.

D. The writer is drawing us a picture of Christ’s love.

1. A little kindergarten child was drawing a picture. When the teacher asked what he was drawing he replied, ''a picture of God.''

The teacher told the child, “No one knows what God looks like.”

The child replied, “when I get done, they will know what He looks like.''

    2. God's picture is of Christ dying for us. That is what a picture of God looks like.

E. Notice how it unfolds.

1. He died.

 Christ chose to die. He was not forced to do so. He willingly went to the cross.

2. His death is a substitution. Christ died so we could live.

  He died for us. All of us. No one is left out. He died for you. He died for me.

 He died for everyone.

When we understand his love for us, what should our response be?

Our response should be that, because He died for us, we want to live for Him.

III. What does this change look like?  Verses 16-17.

A. The change Christ can make is a powerful motive to share Him.

B. We either see people as they are, or as they can be.

1. Vs. 16 speaks of people as they are.

2. Vs. 17 speaks of people as they can be when Christ changes them.

IV. Responsibility. Vs. 18-21.

1. We live in one of these two verses – as we were without Christ – or as we are in Christ.

    Being in Christ requires:

 2. We are called to be ambassadors. An ambassador is a representative.

So, we represent Christ in this world – in our daily living surrounded by people who are not in Christ.

When we leave this place this morning we will scatter out across Princeton, Gibson County, all of Southern Indiana.

We have a responsibility to represent Christ well wherever our day leads us.

We have a responsibility to represent him by the way we live, and by what we say.