It’s one thing to tell people about Jesus. It’s another thing entirely to bear His family resemblance – to look like Him. To love like Him. To forgive like Him. Yet the first thing that people see of Jesus – is actually, the way we live our lives.

If there's one thing the world hates, it's a hypocrite. Particularly a religious one. And you know something, I think that's fair enough. Whether it's in business or politics or family or work. We hate it when someone says one thing and yet, behind our backs, does completely the opposite.

Of course none of us is perfect but by and large we want people to practice what they preach, right? So when it comes to sharing Jesus with others, if there are areas in our lives where we know things are wrong, well chances are we're going to be making lousy ambassadors for Christ.

"Oh great, so now what? I have to clean up my act as well, become perfect before I can be free to share Jesus with others." Well, it turns out God has a much better plan than that.

If I met the Swedish ambassador in my country my hunch is that I would expect him to be tall and blonde with blue eyes and a name like Sven and have a nice little Swedish lilt. And I guess if I met the Chinese ambassador, I'd expect the Chinese ambassador to look and sound and behave Chinese. And I'm sure if I met the Indian ambassador, I'd expect the same thing.

But if somehow the Swedish guy rocked up and said, "hi, I'm the Indian ambassador", well it just wouldn't work for me. I mean it just doesn’t gel does it?

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20. If you have a Bible that's where it is. He refers to himself and I guess to us too, as ambassadors of Christ. Now let me ask you, if the Swedish ambassador should look like a Swede and the Chinese ambassador should look like a Chinaman and the Indian ambassador should look like an Indian, what should an ambassador of Christ look like?

Jesus right? Passionate. Real. Honest. Humble. A servant yet knowing what they believe and knowing what God is all about. When it comes to sharing Jesus with others what we do, how we look to them, is the most important thing.

Because if I look Swedish and I claim to be the Indian ambassador. If I look like I'm not a Christian yet I claim to be the ambassador of Jesus Christ, it's not going to gel, it's not going to work. It will look hypocritical.

Now how we behave, that speaks so much more to people about who Jesus is than what we say. Now here's the dilemma, most Christians know that Jesus calls them to share Him and who He is with other people. And every Christian I know knows, hopefully they know, that they're not perfect, that there's areas in the persons life where they fall short of God and His glory and who He is.

Now have you ever tried to clean up your act in a particular area? It's one thing to say, 'Well I know I let myself down. I let Jesus down in this area or in that area of my life'. But when you try and clean up your act, something’s I guess you can do but others are completely impossible.

In fact I would go as far as to say we each have one or two things in our lives that we ourselves simply cannot clean up. And if we take the attitude that we'll strive and we'll work hard, it all becomes a work space thing, it'll be hard. And it ends up not being fun and it ends up feeling empty.

I once read a quote from someone, I don't know who said it but they said, "He who claims to be a self made man simply displays the horror of unskilled labour." We can say the same for a woman, "She who claims to be a self made woman simply displays the horror of unskilled labour."

I've tried it, it doesn't work. We can peddle as hard as we like but it doesn't work. Do you know why? Because God has a much better plan. The Apostle Paul writes something along these lines in the New Testament book, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

The Lord is the spirit and the Lord's Spirit sets us free so our faces aren't covered like Moses was when he went up the mountain and took the Ten Commandments. No, our faces, we look at God, they show the bright glory of the Lord as His Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord.

God has been kind enough to trust us with His Word, that's why we never give up, that's why we don't do shameful things that people have to keep in secret because it's God who commanded the light to shine in the darkness, who has shone in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

See what Paul is writing here is that it's the Holy Spirit that sets us free. As we draw close to God and His Spirit fills us more and more and more and we look upon God's glory, we see Him with our spiritual eyes, that glory bounces off us and it reflects off our face and other people see it.

It’s as though we were a mirror of God and other people look at the face and they think, "there's something different about that person, there's something, I can't put my finger on it but there's a joy and a peace and a goodness. Oh what has that person got because I want some of it."

See that's God's plan, to reflect His glory through us, through our attitudes, through our behaviours, through our countenance, through our words to other people. We gaze on the glory of God, He transforms our heart and our motivation and we end up looking more and more like Jesus.

Take all the effort and emotional energy that we would like to spend trying to change ourselves and spend that on being with Jesus in prayer and in reading the Bible and in worshipping Him. That's what makes us look like Jesus.

I believe that Churches are full of Christians who think that Christianity is a self help program. Listen to me, it's not. What if we went to Jesus with this prayer?

Lord, I have a friend or a family member or a loved one, who needs to know You and I look at myself Lord, in their lives I know that I'm letting myself down. I'm letting You down in this area or that attitude or this road block or that behaviour. I know that somehow that person is looking at me and they're saying, 'well if that's Jesus, I don't want Him'.

Lord, show me Your glory. Set me free. The reason I want this Lord is not for me to be perfect, the reason I want this is to shine Your glory into their lives. I want to glorify You with my life, stir my heart, pour Your presence into me every day starting today.

Lord, fill me with Your goodness, so full that I can't contain it. Fill me with Your Spirit, a flood tide that will bring a harvest for You.

What if we went to God with a prayer like that? Every day Lord change me so that You can use me in that person’s life. Do you think God would miss that or do you think that God would be so overjoyed? Do you think God would ignore it or do you think that He would act?

My life may be the only Bible that some of the people around me ever read. It's a sobering thought. Your life may be the only Bible that some of your friends and family and acquaintances will ever read. They know I'm a Christian. Most of them know that you're a Christian.

And they look at us and they go, "Well has that person got some stuff that I want? Does it work? Are they real? Have they got something I really want?" We are ambassadors of Christ. That means we've got to look like Jesus to other people.

And we can try and do that ourselves. I've got to tell you, there's a whole bunch of energy, a whole bunch of pain, a whole bunch of frustration because it will never, ever, ever work. Or we can pour our energy into our relationship with Jesus and let God's Word set us free.

Can I encourage you? God needs to set you free. God needs to change you into His likeness. God means to use you in other people’s lives. That's freedom!