MAN AS AMBASSADORS

2 Cor 5:20 So we are Christ's ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ's personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] {and} be reconciled to God.

Gen 18:19 For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach {and} command his children and the sons of his house after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous, so that the Lord may bring Abraham what He has promised him.

MAN AS AMBASSADORS
• a diplomatic official of the highest rank sent by one country as its long-term representative to another
• an official representative of an organization or movement
• visiting this country as an ambassador for a fund dedicated to saving endangered species
An ambassador is a diplomatic official accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of his or her own country. In everyday usage it applies to the ranking government representative stationed in a foreign capital. The host country typically allows the ambassador control of specific territory called an embassy, whose territory, staff, and even vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity in the host country.
Among European powers, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary (French ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire or German außerordentlicher und bevollmächtigter Botschafter) was historically deemed the personal representative of the Sovereign, and the custom of dispatching ambassadors to the head of state rather than the government has persisted.
Ranking below full ambassador are the rank of Envoy, Minister resident and Chargé d'affaires. They represent their government rather than their head of state. For further details, see diplomatic rank.
The formal form of address for an ambassador is generally the form that would be used to address a head of state: "(Your/His/Her) Excellency" followed by name and/or the country represented.
Myles Monroe says Ambassadors enjoy some of the following privileges: payment in their own country currency, their bills paid by the state, do not live according to laws of host country, uses state resources like cars etc,
• Man are leaders in their families
• Man is head of his wife, Christ head of man, God head of Christ
• Today families are in need of leaders
• Society is in need of leaders or true manhood
• Children in the street are a reflection of lack of manhood
• Some of the crime in the society is a reflection of lack of manhood
• Man young man are directionless because of lack of manhood
• Young people need mentors or leaders in the form of true manhood
• Women in homes need man leaders not just males
• Being a man or leader does not mean acting detector in the home!
• Many men because of their failure in leadership and or manhood had used wives and children as scrap goats when confronted by challenges.

How, Where & When Can We Represent Christ
• As ambassadors, man represent Christ in many different ways and places
1. In families, man are ambassadors for Christ. What kind of ambassador are you to your wife? Are you loving and caring? Do you project the love of Christ to your wife? Do you provide security, protection, material things, etc to your wife? If you are ruthless and beat up or abuse your wife, you are a bad ambassador. When your wife looks at you, does she a true reflection of a Christ like man? Do you represent us well as men to your wife?
2. Children. Do you represent Christ well to your children? Do you show love and provide for your children? Or you are a monster at home? Do you laugh and play with your children? Do your children experience love? Do you set an example of a father and man to them? Can they copy you?
3. Workplace. Are you a good ambassador of Christ at your work place? Can unbelievers see Christ through your life? Do you provide an idea of what it is like in the kingdom of God when unbelievers look at you? If you have girl friends and do carpet interviews at the work place, then you are a bad ambassador!
4. Church. At church are you the ambassador of Christ? Do young man at church who did not experience the love of a father feel your love? Can those that did not see or live with their fathers learn from your manhood? Do young women not yet married to desire marriage because of how you treat and show love to your wife?
5. Society. Do you represent Christ well in the society? Do young women where you leave see and respect you as a man or you are always showing interest in them?

• Can those that have never been to church and who do not understand or know anything about God, by looking and observing you have a proper understanding of how and who God is like?

Where are the man (Akuphi Amadoda? Barume Barikupi?)

Num 14:24, “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.”
Deut 1:36, 38 “Except [Joshua, of course, and] Caleb son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land upon which he has walked, because he has wholly followed the Lord. But Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.”

• Where are the men?
• Where are the men with true qualities of man hood?
• Where are the men who will leave a good legacy for the next generation to follow?
• Where are the men who will have balance in life, be sober and walk in sound judgment?
• Where are the men who are the true and right ambassadors for Christ?
• As mentioned above, men, we have responsibility for our lives, wives, children, church & society.
• Our place of responsibility will be affected by the way we present ourselves and what we do. Our lives, families, etc are affected by our “ways”.
• There is no magic or “miracle”, we have to do things right according to God’s instructions. Some of the things cannot be “prayed into being” but can happen only in response to our way of life or way we doing things.
• God says “because Caleb has done right, I will give the land and to his children”. What we do will invoke either blessings or curses in our lives and children.
• When God was punishing Korah, Achan, etc, they were being killed with their families.


Josh 7:20-25, “And Achan answered Joshua, In truth, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this have I done: When I saw among the spoils an attractive mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath. So Joshua sent messengers, who ran to the tent, and behold, the spoil was hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. And they took them from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, and the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him and those with him with stones, and afterward burned their bodies with fire.”

• So, we need to be careful about how we live & what we do.

1 Corinthians 11:30-32, “That [careless and unworthy participation] is the reason many of you are weak and sickly, and quite enough of you have fallen into the sleep of death. For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged {and} penalty decreed [by the divine judgment]. But when we [fall short and] are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined {and} chastened, so that we may not [finally] be condemned [to eternal punishment along] with the world.”

• The Word says we need to judge ourselves lest we be judged. As Christians we not exempt to judgment. Judgment can either be here in this life or at the last day.

Rom 2:6-11, “For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]: To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.
Rom 2:8 But for those who are self-seeking {and} self-willed {and} disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath. [And] there will be tribulation {and} anguish and calamity {and} constraint for every soul of man who [habitually] does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). For God shows no partiality [undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another]” The Word says “He will give according to our deeds”

• James says we need to live like those that we will be judged.

James 2:12, “So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].” Rom 6:15, “What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God's favor {and} mercy? Certainly not!”
• Being under grace does not mean that we are to live anyhow and do things the way we want. We are under grace so that we do things God’s way. We are given grace to please God and do things His way!

Mal 3:6-10, “For I am the Lord, I do not change; that is why you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? Will a man rob {or} defraud God? Yet you rob {and} defraud Me. But you say, In what way do we rob {or} defraud You? [You have withheld your] tithes and offerings. You are cursed with the curse, for you are robbing Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Hag 1:4-11, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways {and} set your mind on what has come to you. You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) {and} how you have fared. Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it]. You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it]. Therefore the heavens above you [for your sake] withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its produce. And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hill country, upon the grain, the fresh wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all the [wearisome] toil of [men's] hands.

• Israel had backslidden from God and His ways in Malachi. God says “turn to my ways” and the way they had backslidden was by not tithing and giving offerings to God (‘s work). And because of that they were cursed.
• The way to remove the curse was not prayer but to do the right thing, bring tithes and offerings to God. Many a times we try to “pray things through” instead of obeying God and doing what He instructs us.
• In Haggai the children of Israel were cursed because they were neglecting the house of God. The solution again was to build the Lord’s house not prayer and fasting. (I am not undermining prayer and fasting but these have their place in our lives but will never substitute our living right or doing things God’s way.)

1 Kin 11:6-13, “Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father did. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abominable idol of Moab, on the hill opposite Jerusalem, and for Molech the abominable idol of the Ammonites. And he did so for all of his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord, the God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice,
1 Kin 11:10 And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not do what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you are doing this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely rend the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant! However, in your days I will not do it, for David your father's sake. But I will rend it out of the hand of your son! However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to your son for David My servant's sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

• David lived right before God though he had his weaknesses. His living right affected his descendants.
• Solomon’s kingdom was established because his father had pleased God. But Solomon failed to maintain the standard. At the end of his life he sinned against God because he did not exercise enough discipline in his marital affairs. And because of that, his son lost the kingdom (10 tribes) to somebody.
• Even with Solomon’s sin God said He would not take the kingdom in Solomon’s days because David had lived right. Solomon inherited a blessing from his father but unfortunately left a curse for his son!
• What you do today, will affect you and those around or after you

Whether spiritually or naturally, we live something for our children and family whether good or bad, blessing or curse. We can choose that by what we do. A godly man will live a good inheritance for his children.

Here are some of the ways, qualities of a man that can be a good foundation and standard to start on:
1. Man must be a worshiper
2. Man must fear God
3. Man must be exemplary
4. Man must be a good leader
5. Man must have a vision
6. Man must be resourceful (to family, church & society)
7. Man must walk in wisdom
8. Man must study the Word
9. Man must be prayerful
10. Man must be faithful / honest
11. Man must walk in integrity
12. Man must be morally clean
13. Man must have self control
14. Man must be courageous
15. Man must be bold