How to Make a Difference in a Broken World

Austin Huang:
David, everywhere we look, we see brokenness, just poverty, injustice, persecution. How do we avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the needs that are around us?

David Platt:
God’s not calling us to do everything. As we go into a world sharing the gospel to bring people from everlasting death to everlasting life, then along the way we’re going to encounter massive physical needs and suffering.

Austin Huang:
What is the balance between caring for people’s eternal suffering, their spiritual suffering and their physical suffering?

David Platt:
We don’t have to choose between, “Do I care about physical needs or spiritual needs?” Like yes, we care about people, and so how do I serve, build you up not in a way that comes back to me? To truly be selfless, to die to self in that, I think it’s going to look very different from the rest of the world.

Austin Huang:
David, everywhere we look, we see brokenness, just poverty, injustice, persecution, all consequences of the fall and sin. And sometimes these problems seem so massive that we just don’t know where to start. So as believers, how do we avoid feeling overwhelmed by all the needs that are around us?

David Platt:
Oh man, it can be paralyzing, but I really believe it’s a lie from the Devil that, “I can’t do everything, so I won’t do anything.” God’s not calling us to do everything, ’cause part of that paralysis can even come from some pride in us. I mean, “Well, I can’t do it all.” Well, of course you can’t do it all. So the humility says, “I can play a part.”
And so yes, I can’t solve this world problems. We talk all the time about 3 billion people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel, but I can say, “God, I just want to play my part. This is on your shoulders, your sovereign over the world and all the suffering in the world. Only you can carry the weight.”
I think about just the weight of physical suffering in the world, the weight of spiritual, eternal suffering, but God’s not called us to carry that weight on our shoulder. He has called us to be faithful to do what he’s called us to do today, and in each of our lives with the grace he entrusts to us.
So, I think that then should hopefully lead us, here’s where it leads me just to say, “God, I want to play my part. I want to play my part. Whatever you want me to do in this world, making disciples of the nations, making your love known in a world of urgent, spiritual and physical need, I want to play my part today.” And then big picture of my life, the trajectory of my life, I’m going to play my part.

Austin Huang:
Yeah. Have you ever personally felt overwhelmed by needs around you, whether as a pastor or someone just in ministry, and how did you or have you wrestled with that tension between wanting to help and feeling like there’s just so much to do?

David Platt:
Yeah. Well, there’s a sense in which I feel this all the time. I felt this in my time with the Lord this morning, just being a parent for six kids, I feel like, “God, I need your wisdom. I need your strength. I need your help.” So take it from that all the way to, man, being in South Asia. I’ve told this story for written about, but being at this place called Pashupati where there’s these funeral pyres set up over this river that they believe is holy. And burning bodies, just the smell and the site of bodies of people, who just 24 hours before were alive, and now they’re dead and they’re experiencing eternal judgment, and I’m looking at a physical picture of a spiritual reality.
These are people who are experiencing eternal judgment right now. That feels like overwhelming. And there’s countless people around me, and they’re in remote villages for miles and miles and miles up into these mountains around me. There’s all kinds of questions I’m wrestling with in that moment, but when it comes down to it, it’s like, “Okay, so what can I do today? Who can I share the gospel with here? Who’s working here for the spread of the gospel that I can come alongside and help?”
Because even I feel in common in that moment. I don’t even speak the language of most of the people who are standing around me. So I can’t even share the gospel, but I can say, “Okay, who here is sharing the gospel? Where is the church here? How can I come alongside the church here, pray for the church here? How can I support the church here? This is part of what we do radicalizing, and trying to help make ways for brothers and sisters to get behind brothers and sisters in parts world where the gospel has gone.
Get behind places, brothers and sisters, in places where the gospel hasn’t gone, to support them, to encourage them, to pray for them, to send resources to them, to help fuel the work there. And then it’s just like, “Okay, yes, that’s part’s the part I can play.” So, all that comes back to, whether it’s parenting all the way down to just massive needs in the world, “Okay, God, what have you called me to do in this? And help me to do it in your strength and faithfully according to your word.”

Austin Huang:
Yeah. I think when we hear influential pastors like John Piper, one that you’ve taken a lot of inspiration from, and I have, and so many people in this world have, one thing he says is that, “We care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.”
But at the same time, what is the balance between caring for people’s eternal suffering, their spiritual suffering and their physical suffering? Is that the role of going overseas and being a missionary, is to care for all of the suffering that they’re experiencing?

David Platt:
Yeah. I think the way we view the world is through an eternal lens, like everlasting eternal life and death, everlasting joy and suffering are at stake, and that’s right around us today. That’s right around us where you and I are today. So to think through, “Okay, how can I be…” This is one of the things I love about God’s grace, and you Austin, just a zeal to share the gospel today with people right around me today. Because I can address spiritual suffering wherever I am in the world, even the most affluent place we might be in the world, and I do think that is primary. This is what’s going to last forever.
But as we go into a world sharing the gospel to bring people from everlasting death to everlasting life, then along the way we’re going to encounter massive physical needs and suffering, and poverty, and just social injustices of all kinds, like evil and wickedness, and the effects of sin in this fallen world. I just think about one place I was recently where just so many natural disasters have hit those places, and the effects of all of that and the suffering of people.
And that’s where, yes, then as we’re sharing the gospel, which is primary, we’re going to be caring for people’s needs and we’re going to look for ways to do that, and how to come alongside the church in doing that, and being the Body of Christ in particular places. That’s why as we share the gospel, people come to know Jesus, come together in churches who have the compassion of Christ, send them to help meet these needs around them. It all flows together. So, we don’t have to choose between, “Do I care about physical needs or spiritual needs?” Yes, we care about people. And as we share the gospel, the way I sometimes phrase it, as we proclaim the justice and mercy of Jesus, then we do justice and show the mercy of Jesus. We proclaim it and we do it. Yeah, and God calls us to do both.

Austin Huang:
He’s called us to be the hands and feet of Jesus in James 2:16, and one of you says, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you don’t give him something to eat, what good is that? And I think that’s where we get so caught up in this, I don’t know if it’s a Western ideology of just like, “Okay, well let me just pray for you. I’ll just pray for you.”
But then I think that’s honestly a cop-out answer sometimes, because we say that, “Oh, I’ll be praying for you, brother,” but then do you actually even pray? Because do you actually believe that prayer works? And at the same time, did you just say that just to end the conversation and move on?

David Platt:
And to what extent is God calling you to be an answer to that prayer, somebody who’s in need of food that you can actually do something about. And to realize, yeah, they go together. They’re not in contradiction with each other.
Because as we share the good news of Jesus, of course it makes sense for us to work to help people we’re sharing with be free from trafficking or to have needs met. And as we’re meeting needs and we’re working for people’s good and doing justice, then of course we proclaim the justice and mercy of Jesus in the gospel. They go together. We really don’t have to separate these two.

Austin Huang:
David, switching gears a little bit, are you familiar with a YouTuber named Mr. Beast?

David Platt:
I am. Yeah.

Austin Huang:
So you know that he is all about giving away money and competitions, and it’s just helping people in some capacity. But I think that he’s criticized often for gaining from doing these so-called good deeds. He’s giving away money, he’s helping these orphans, and building wells in Africa.
He’s doing these things, but then people are criticizing him like, “Well, you’re just gaining followers and you’re making money off this video. So are you actually doing good things?” And so as the church, how do we actually help people without benefiting from them? Or is that wrong? How do we navigate that?

David Platt:
Well, I’m not going to presume to know Mr. Beast’s heart and comment on specifically him, but for us as followers of Jesus making disciples of the nations, we are servants for Jesus’ sake. This is, “So how do we serve?” Look, not only to each of you should look, not only to his own interests, but to the interests of others. Take the attitude of a servant. This is all Philippians 2. You’re living for the benefit, the building up of somebody else.
And so, that should be our posture. That should be the fruit of our lives. Like, “I’m living to build you up, period. That this is not for self-interest. This is for your good.” The only thing I would give a slight caveat to that, and this is not on a monetary level, but this is actually where life is found.
So this is going to be really good for us on a self-interest level. Joy, life, fullness is found in serving others. I just think this is Jesus, “I came not to be served but to serve.” And how he does that in our lives and then he calls us to follow his example. “The greatest among you will be your servant.” So just to picture yourself as servant.
And I think it’s wise for us to check and guard our motives at every point because, man, there’s ways I can try to serve others so that I’m seen as a servant, like, whoa, that’s not. That’s a dangerous motive. Or, serve others so that I benefit in this way or that way, like you’re talking about.
So we’ve got to check our, “No, I’m serving others for Jesus’ sake. My whole goal in a John 3:30 kind of way, ‘May he become greater, may I become less,’ in every way that that means.” And so how do I serve, build you up in a way that is good for you to the glory of God, period. And not in a way that comes back to me. To truly be selfless, to die to self in that, I think is going to look very different from the rest of the world.

Austin Huang:
Yeah. Yeah, because it’s the motivation of the heart that you’re kind of touching on. A worldly person could do so many great things, and a lot of them do. I think of billionaires who have the money to fund great projects, but you don’t know their heart.
And so I think that’s something that we wrestle with, this tension between flesh and spirit of, “How do I walk by the spirit and not gratify the desires of the flesh, but also help people but also kind of feel good?”
Because I think there’s this pride that inherently bubbles up, “If I give money to a homeless man. And there’s some great conversation, and maybe I could share the gospel and then I leave.” How do I navigate feeling good about that and not prideful?

David Platt:
Yeah. I think the way to navigate it is to constantly check what’s the end of all this? And I just think about Ephesians 1. All of God’s love toward us ultimately echoes to the glory of his grace, resounds to the glory of his grace. So in a similar way, “How am I doing this ultimately that God would be glorified for his grace?”
And so, I think that’s the check on the motives. We want to do good things in a Matthew 5 kind of way, good works that shine, so that people see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. That’s what it’s about.
So, I think it’s great to feel joy in seeing somebody who is in physical need or suffering needs met to the glory of God, to where they praise God, thank God for his grace. And even if they don’t praise God, that that’s what you are doing it for, to point them to him instead of pointing them to yourself.
Because that where, even if we’re not careful, yeah, good humanitarian work, while it can meet needs, if it just ends in humanitarian, human, if it just ends in credit to man or more trust in man, then it’s not actually serving what people need most. People need to see God in all his glory and praise him for his grace, and trust him for eternity. So if that’s the end, and to always got to check our motives, is that the end of what I’m doing?

Austin Huang:
Right. And for the believer who is maybe feeling convicted by what you’re saying, and they feel this draw to help or to make a difference, what is one encouragement that you want to leave them with as they examine the needs that are around them?

David Platt:
I would say I start with just trust. God’s put you where he is put you right now. He’s put you in a world of needs right around you, so just start there and just say, “Okay, God, what part are you calling me to play?” And yeah, serving and meeting needs around me spiritually and physically, and don’t choose between the two. Don’t choose.
Well, I don’t want to say it’s easy to meet physical needs. That can be hard, that can be costly. At the same time, I just think about when Jesus said, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, so you’ll be witnesses.” They wouldn’t receive Holy Spirit power just to go out and do good things. If they did that, they’d have been fine in the Roman Empire. As soon as they spoke the gospel, they were losing their lives.
And so speak the gospel. Don’t do justice and mercy without proclaiming the justice and mercy of Jesus in the process. So start right around you. And then lift your eyes and look beyond in a world where there’s no followers of Jesus who are looking at those kind of needs around them, and just say, “God, how can I be a part of…” And do research about needs, physical needs and spiritual needs? And that’s part of what Stratus.earth is, “I hope helpful toward the end of helping people see.”
But do research, learn about the world. Watch some of these hard-to-reach videos and say, “Okay, God, I’m going to start praying for then. And is there anything I can do, any part I can play?” And just trust. Yeah, we can’t do everything, but we can do something. And as we’re each doing whatever God calls us to do, he’s going to use us in ways together in ways far beyond what we can imagine and in far greater ways than we could do any one of us on our own.

Austin Huang:
Thanks so much for joining us today on Everyday Radical. We pray that this conversation stirred your heart and strengthened your faith. There’s so much more ahead, so go back and catch any episodes you might’ve missed and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s ahead. Let’s keep making Jesus known everywhere. Until next time.