The love of Christ should be all that Christians need to be compelled to help fulfill the Great Commission, observed an Alabama Baptist campus minister.
Matt Daniels, who serves on the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence, delivered the first theme interpretation on “Compelled to Live as New Creations” during the opening session of the Alabama Baptist State Convention on Nov. 11 at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville.
He reminded messengers that “Christ made us new. He didn’t recycle us. He didn’t refurbish us. He didn’t patch us back together. … He took what was old and made it new.
“He took what was dead and made it alive. He took what was hopeless and made it hopeful. He took what was full of sorrow and made it full of joy. … He took what was defeated and made it victorious in Him. That is the work that Jesus does.
“That’s the work that Jesus did through the death, burial and resurrection in His life on earth as fully God and fully man for a bunch of wretched sinners who didn’t deserve any of it.”
Daniels emphasized the convention’s theme of “Compelled” based on 2 Corinthians 5:14.
Christ died so those who repent and believe in Him can be new creations, he noted. “That should compel us to get up and do the work of helping other people to come to know this hope and this joy and faith that we have.”
As a campus minister, Daniels said he sees students share the love of Christ with fellow students. After sharing a few stories of students making a difference at UNA, he was joined on the platform by Conner Byars of Russellville, who is the current BCM president.
Daniels asked Byars what comes to mind when he hears the phrase, “compelled to live as new creations.”
“What comes to mind for me are people that are so radically motivated by the gospel that we love anybody that the Lord puts in our path.”
Byers shared a couple of stories about students he led to the Lord recently and the changes he has seen in them as they became new creations.
Daniels added that one of the young men that Byars led to the Lord was “cold and callous” when he arrived on campus. “Now, we can’t get away from Him,” Daniels said. “He just wants to talk and to love on you and that’s because of the love of Jesus Christ,” he said.
“That’s what Jesus does. He changes us, and He redeems us,” Daniels added.
Daniels asked Byars how he would encourage Alabama Baptists as we live lives as new creations.
Byars encouraged Alabama Baptists to “love on people, to be motivated by the gospel and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with anybody that God puts in our path.
He also challenged Alabama Baptists “to be a part of that by giving, sending, mobilizing, praying and going to those people who have no opportunity to hear the love of Christ.”
Daniels concluded his theme interpretation with a challenge as well. “I just want to encourage you that it is time for us to just stop sitting idly by and watching the world perish.
“We weren’t given this life as a new creation to sit around and hoard it for ourselves and feel good about what God has done for us. …
“We can love our campus, we can love our state and we can love our world as new creations so that those who are lost can be found and those who are dead can be made alive.”
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