# Sunday Setup – 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2

Sermon transcript from Cross Church Surprise.
Series: Sunday Setup
Date: August 7, 2025
Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/surprise/episodes/sunday-setup-2-corinthians-516-62

## Summary

What does it mean to truly be a new creation in Christ? How can we embrace the ministry of reconciliation in our lives? Are we ready to forgive and be forgiven, opening the door to healing? Let's dive in together!

## Transcript

[Music] 
 [Music] 
 [Laughter] 
 [Music] 
 Hey, Cross Church. Welcome to the Sunday 
 setup. This is the time where we have 
 the opportunity to digitally gather our 
 together on YouTube and Instagram and 
 Facebook and our podcast where we get to 
 just read through the passage that we're 
 going to preach through this Sunday. And 
 as we read through it, we have some 
 prompts that we will pray through. And 
 the goal of this is to prepare our 
 hearts, to prepare it for Sunday, that 
 when we gather together, that God's 
 spirit is working in us and his word can 
 hit us where we are with what we need to 
 hear so that we can live out and we can 
 make Jesus known in our community. Today 
 we're going to continue on in 2 
 Corinthians and we'll be in 2 
 Corinthians chapter 5 looking at verse 
 16 and we're going to read verse 16 of 
 chapter 5 through chapter 6 and verse 2. 
 But it starts out in 2 Corinthians 5:16. 
 The Apostle Paul writes this. He says, 
 "From now on then, we do not know anyone 
 from a worldly perspective. Even if we 
 have known Christ from a worldly 
 perspective, yet now we no longer know 
 him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is 
 in Christ, he is a new creation. The old 
 has passed away. And see, the new has 
 come. Everything is from God who has 
 reconciled us to himself through Christ 
 and has given us the ministry of 
 reconciliation. 
 That is that in Christ God was 
 reconciling the world to himself, not 
 counting their trespasses against them. 
 And he has committed the message of 
 reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are 
 ambassadors for Christ. Since God is 
 making his appeal through us, we plead 
 on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to 
 God. He made the one who did not know 
 sin to be sin for us so that in him we 
 might become the righteousness of God. 
 Working together with him, we also 
 appeal to you. Don't receive the grace 
 of God in vain. For he says, "At an 
 acceptable time, I listen to you and in 
 the day of salvation I helped you. See, 
 now is the acceptable time. Now is the 
 day of salvation." 
 Paul and then this small little passage 
 really just hits on this theme that 
 we're going to study more this week, but 
 he talks about this message of 
 reconciliation that he says that Christ 
 uh through God, he has he has reconciled 
 us to God that because of what Jesus 
 did, he became sin on our behalf. We are 
 now have restored in our relationship to 
 God. And I want us to start with kind of 
 this prayer of thanksgiving, this prayer 
 of praise to our God. is God, thank you 
 for reconciling me despite. God, thank 
 you for reconciling me despite. This 
 could be despite the sin you have in 
 your life. Uh despite the ways that you 
 have turned away from him in your early 
 years, is God still loved you? He still 
 pursued you. He still died for you and 
 he rose again to defeat your sins. Is 
 God thank you for reconciling me 
 despite? 
 Pray that to our God. Heat. Heat. 
 [Music] 
 Heat. Heat. 
 [Music] 
 [Laughter] 
 [Music] 
 And God, thank you for reconciling us to 
 you despite the fact that we are 
 sinners, that we are born into our sin, 
 that we have continued in our sin, that 
 in the only nature we know in our flesh 
 is that of sinning, of turning from you, 
 of making choices that push us farther 
 away. But despite that, you have 
 revealed yourself to us in the form of 
 Jesus Christ, that you died for us, that 
 you raised again. And we thank you that 
 despite the bad choices we make, despite 
 the sin that is in our life, despite the 
 mistakes that we make, you have 
 reconciled us to you through your son 
 Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for 
 that. But we not only thank you that you 
 have given us uh this reconciliation to 
 you, but Lord, that you've also given us 
 this me me this uh message of 
 reconciliation, this ministry of 
 reconciliation that we then get to live 
 out in loving the people around us. in 
 in verse 20 when he talks about us being 
 ambassadors of Christ that we now get to 
 reconcile with other people. We now get 
 to share the good news of salvation that 
 he talks about in verse two of chapter 6 
 with the world around us. And in this 
 prayer as we prepare our hearts is here 
 is where we turn our attention to other 
 people. And for this time, I want us to 
 get personal and for you to think about 
 someone in your life and think about 
 maybe people in your life that you need 
 to be reconciled to that you need to 
 forgive in your life. 
 And here's our prayer is God soften my 
 heart to reconcile with. God soften my 
 heart. Because often we don't reconcile 
 because our heart is hard that we don't 
 want to just give up. maybe say sorry or 
 we don't want to forgive someone that 
 has wronged us is God soften my heart so 
 that I can reconcile with pray that to 
 our God. 
 [Music] 
 Heat. Heat. 
 [Laughter] 
 [Music] 
 God, we are so thankful that you have 
 reconciled us to yourself, that you 
 forgave us of our sins. And God, as we 
 think about the other people who maybe 
 we have hurt or that have hurt us, God, 
 we ask that we can forgive, that we can 
 be forgiven by other people, that we can 
 repair relationships, we can reconcile 
 relationships, so that not for selfish 
 reasons, not just to like bury the 
 hatchet, but so that salvation can be 
 made known to the people around us. God, 
 I just ask that we can forgive others so 
 that we can then make you known and we 
 can give you the glory for it. That as 
 we prepare for Sunday, God, we think of 
 the people that in our lives with strain 
 relationships and maybe those that don't 
 know you yet. And Lord, you just use it 
 as a foothold to make your name known. 
 That you use it as a ministry, God, for 
 us to proclaim the good news of Jesus 
 Christ. And Lord, I just ask that you 
 move in our hearts in this time. God, 
 you prepare us through the rest of this 
 week. And that as you bring us together 
 Sunday, God, we can be part of the 
 movement of reconciliation, our world, 
 the forgiving movement that we see 
 inside the church and through the church 
 to the world around us. God, we thank 
 you for this time and we lift all this 
 up in Jesus's loving, forgiving, and 
 reconciling name. Amen. 
 Hey guys, thank you for joining us 
 today. We'll see you on Sunday. 
 [Music]