How Can I Grow a Heart for the Nations?

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How Can I Grow a Heart for the Nations?

David Platt:

All right, how can I grow a heart for the nations? 15 minutes go. I want to give you one foundational truth and then seven exhortations when it comes to growing a heart for the nations.

The foundational truth is this, to be a disciple of Jesus is to let his global cause dictate everything you think, desire, and do. So that’s the foundational truth that everything else I want to talk about is based on.

And it goes back to the panel discussion we were having last night with the purpose of our lives. I’ll say it again. If you’re writing it down to be a disciple of Jesus, let me make sure it’s clear what’s not coming after that is not to say a prayer and move on with your life.

It’s not to go to church and coast this thing out until you get to heaven. It’s not to fill in a lot of different blanks. To be a disciple of Jesus is to let his global cause dictate everything you think and you desire and you do and his global cause for his global glory among the nations that this should drive everything we as disciples of Jesus think and desire and do.

It should drive the way we think about our lives, our priorities, our desires, who we want to marry. Do not wedge your life to someone whose heart doesn’t beat for the global cause of Jesus.

It affects who you date, who you marry, the plans, and dreams you have for your life, and what you study. All driven by, how can my life make your glory known in the world with the gifts, skills, and talents you have entrusted to me? Like, that is the foundational truth that if we had more time, we’d just walk through from cover to cover in scripture and show you.

But I would point fundamentally to Matthew chapter four and Matthew chapter 28, Jesus’ initial call to his disciples, follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. To be a follower of Jesus is to be a part of his purpose in the world, to lead more and more people to him.

That’s his first words to his disciples, bookended with his last words to his disciples in Matthew 28, go make disciples of all the nations. This is what I have saved you to do. So I would just pause there and ask, is the global cause of Christ dictating everything you think and what you desire, everything you do?

Meditate on the Word

So with that foundation, how can I grow a heart for the nations, his global Cause? Actually I said seven, I meant eight. So eight exhortations practically one, meditate on the word, meditate on the word.

Now obviously I already talked about that this morning, some from 1 Corinthians chapter two, but specifically when it comes to God’s heart for the nations, see from cover to cover in scripture, God’s passion for his own glory among all the nations. I remember where I was sitting in a breakout session, although there were like 10 people in this breakout session, and the guy who was leading it said, open up your Bible to Genesis.

And for the next hour, he walked from Genesis to Revelation and he showed all over the page of scripture, God’s passion for his glory to be made, known, and enjoyed among all the nations. And I had been a Christian for years at that point, had been in church most all my life and maybe somebody had shown me this and I’d missed it, but it was like I was seeing the Bible for the first time in this way, and I remember the breakout session finished and my jaw was just on the ground, and I just thought, if this is what the Bible’s about, God saving people for his own glory among all the nations, then this changes everything about my life.

And I would say the trajectory of my life went a totally different direction in that moment. So that’s why when I think, how can I grow a heart for the nations, the first thing that comes to my mind is meditate on the word.

Make Disciples in the World

See all over the pages of scripture, God’s zeal for his own glory to be known and enjoyed among all the nations. So that’s number one. Number two, so meditate on the word. Number two, make disciples in the world.

So how can you grow a heart for the nations by doing what Jesus has called us to do among the nations? Make disciples who make disciples. This is the beauty. Every one of us can do this like you.

Wherever you live right now have been put there at this moment by the sovereign hand of God for the spread of the gospel in that place. So do it. Make disciples in that place. And as you do what Jesus has called you to do, then your heart for the global cause of Christ will grow.

It all grows in the context of obedience. So don’t wait. Don’t wait until you’re in this country or you have this opportunity or you get to this point. Just right now, I think about one story from our church family just over the last couple of weeks.

This is a family who is Malaysian. Their parents live in Malaysia and just got covid over the last month and we’re both, they’re an animistic family in Malaysia, not the one in our church just coming to know Christ, but his parents are animistic, worship ancestors and all kinds of different spirits, gods and idols.

And as soon as they found out they had COVID and they had it pretty bad and they’d been sharing the gospel with their parents for years and his mom put her faith in Jesus. And that was right before they went to the hospital.

As soon as they went to the hospital, her mom stayed there in that hospital room with her dad, with his dad and her husband. And he came to faith in Jesus. And it was a powerful picture like here’s a woman who’s known Jesus for a day, leading her husband to faith in Jesus.

You don’t have to have a certain level of biblical knowledge or training or all you need is the word of God and the spirit of God, and you’ve got that. So make disciples in the world. If you want your heart to be captivated by the global cause of Christ, then obey the global command of Christ.

Pray Specifically

Make disciples number three, pray specifically, pray specifically for unreached people. I mentioned earlier before we prayed for the Turkish people of Turkey to pray specifically for unreached people unreached to the day app.

If you’ve not already downloaded it, let me encourage you, maybe listen to the rest of what I’m saying. But mostly just pull out your phone and download that app like right now to your phone, unreached of the day.

You can pull it up like the Gil Bedwin of Morocco today. It’ll tell you about in this people group with 49,000 people, 0.0% followers of Jesus gives you some information about them as Bedwin and their lifestyle gives you scripture to pray for them.

Just spend some time every day praying for unreached people. I mentioned also stratus earth. And if you go to Stratus Earth, you’ll see a map of the world and you’ll see unreached people in the world.

You can click on different countries, learn all kinds of information about those countries, including specific prayer points, their prayer videos that go with a lot of those countries like pray specifically for unreached people, ask God to save unreached people. And the reality is you have, you and I have the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in Turkey, in Morocco, in Afghanistan.

We were praying at the end of the on-deck session. We have the opportunity to be a part of what God’s doing around the world from our bed before we get up in the morning. Like what a privilege.

Give Sacrificially

So the more you pray for the spread of the gospel among the nations, the more your heart will begin to grow for the spread of the gospel among the nations. Number three, pray specifically. Number four, give sacrificially, give sacrificially.

What does Jesus say in Matthew chapter six, where your treasure is there, your what will be also your heart. So how can you grow a heart for the nations? Give your what to the nations, your treasure to the nations. Your heart follows your money.

Don’t be surprised when you spend all your money on stuff in this world and your heart is for the things of this world. Start spending your money on the spread of the gospel in the world and your heart will start to be for the spread of the gospel in the world.

We live in one of the wealthiest places to ever exist on planet Earth. And I know you don’t always feel wealthy like ramen noodles for every single meal doesn’t lead to like, oh, I feel like a king right now.

But the reality is the fact that we have clothes and food and clean water and medicine and education we’re able to have in this room. We are incredibly wealthy and don’t think, well once I make a lot of money, once I get that some of you were like listening to Luke earlier this morning, like 20 years old, six figures.

I need to talk with Luke about that. So don’t think once I get that salary, then I’ll be able to give. That’s a lie straight from the adversary. Are you giving sacrificially what you have now? If you’re not doing what you have now, what makes you think that the more lure of money comes into your life, then you’ll be all the more giving? This is a heart issue, not an amount issue.

Reach the Nations Right Where You Are

So give sacrificially now, is it hurting you in any way to give for the spread of the gospel among the nations? If not, what would that look like to give sacrificially toward the sin? Number five, reach out across cultures, reach out across cultures.

So you want your heart to grow for the nations. Open your eyes and see the nations are right here. God has brought all kinds of different people groups to our front doors, to our campuses.

This is one of my biggest regrets. So my two biggest regrets when I was in college, even as I say that, I’m like, well no, then I regret a lot of other things too. So anyway, two of my biggest regrets.

One, I never got plugged into a local church and I deeply regret that. And two, I totally missed the most ripe mission field on my campus and that was a 30,000-member state school and thousands of international students in my last semester because of a school project I had in a class, I had to do some work with a group of international.

And I realized I totally missed it. Like these men and women who God has brought here, including some of you who are here or even at this conference whose God’s brought here that had little to no knowledge of the gospel that I could have been reaching out to and loving and caring for with all kinds of physical needs and social longing for community.

And I totally missed it. So if I were to go back and do it over again, that would be eyes wide open from the very beginning. How can I be a part of reaching the nations right here? So grow heart for the nations by reaching the nations right where they are.

Go to Other Countries

That’s number five. Number six. So reach out across cultures, other cultures, number five. Number six, go to other countries. So go to other countries, look for opportunities to go somewhere else with the gospel during your time.

JD talked about a little bit last night, what we tell everyone in our church from the time they graduate as a high school senior to the time they graduate college, unless God tells you otherwise, spend at least a summer, if not a semester or a year or two, somewhere else in the world where the gospel has not yet gone.

The opportunities are there for you to spend a summer, a semester, a year or two, somewhere else in the world where the gospel hasn’t gone, and look for those opportunities, find those opportunities and take them and the Lord and may use that to lead you to go long-term there. Or if he doesn’t lead you to go long-term, he’ll lead you to totally have a different perspective on your life as a sinner here.

So go and be a part of what God is doing among the nations. I got a video just the other day, somebody sent it to me and it was a girl who was just graduating high school and she’s Mormon, so she believes a false gospel that condemns, and she’s sitting there with a piece of paper and she’s reading it and it’s the letter from Mormon leaders telling her where she’s going to go with the next year of her life before she goes off to college.

She’s going to go a year spreading a false gospel somewhere. And she’s reading it like she’s shaking with excitement. She gets to the point where it says where she’s going and she reads it, she smiles and the camera pans out just like an iPhone.

Video camera pans out and there’s a whole group of men and women, parents, friends who start shouting and cheering. And I’m thinking, why in the world has a cult with a false built-in expectation that everybody’s going to spend at least a year making that false gospel known in the world?

And we’re sitting here with the true gospel, and that’s not the default for every single one of us. We have the true gospel that saves. Why is this not expected of all of us at some point, unless God against says otherwise, that the default would be spent at least a semester, at least a summer, if not a semester, a year or two, somewhere in the world where the gospel has not gone.

Read Biographies

It’ll totally change your heart. That’s number six. Number seven, read biographies. Read biographies. Here’s a few that I would encourage you to read. If you want your heart to grow a heart for the nation’s.

Read The Shadow of the Almighty about Jim Elliot by Elizabeth Elliot. All of these will mess you up. So in The Shadow of the Almighty To the Golden Shore, probably my favorite biography ever, it’s a little bit longer than The Shadow of the Almighty, but To the Golden Shore by Courtney Anderson about EIR Judson, John Patton, Missionary to the New Hebrides.

That’s an autobiography of a guy who went to a cannibalistic people for the spread of the gospel. I’m tempted to tell you all their stories, but I don’t want to give you the spoilers and all these things.

​​Hold Your Life Loosely

But so read biographies of people who have gone and taken the gospel of the nations. Those are three that I would put at the top of the list. That’s number seven. Number eight, how can you grow a heart for the nations? Number eight, hold loosely to your life.

Hold loosely to your life. I want to encourage you, maybe I’ll close with this. I’m totally out of time. Lemme just give you three words, three words when it comes to holding loosely to your life. Surrender, abide, and rest. So here’s what I mean by that.

Surrender, like lay your life down and say, okay, here I am God, whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, you want me to spend my life in Louisville, Kentucky, I’ll do that. You want to spend my life in Somalia, I’ll do that wherever. Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. Total surrender.

My life is yours. Which may sound like a big commitment, but this is the essence. This is elementary. What it means to follow Jesus. If you’re not going to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.

You’re not actually a follower of Jesus. This is not extreme Christianity. This is basic Christianity. Your life belongs to Jesus. Surrender then second, abide. So be in his word, follow him, be holy, obey his commands.

Make disciples just live out a faithful life right where he has you. And I’m just convinced that if you surrender to him and abide in him, then you can rest. He’s going to lead, guide, direct your life in ways far beyond what you could ever plan or dream or ask, or imagine.

He wants this mission to happen in your life more than you do. He’s put his very spirit inside of you to make it a reality. So just surrender to him, abide in him, and rest in how he leads you. And in the process, he will give you his heart for the nations. There we go.

Emcee:

Alright, thank you brother so much. Okay, we’re going to have a few questions, so if you have a question, run to the mic real quick. It’s right there. So my question for you, David, you’re talking about if they have a semester or a summer, we’re going to move this right now, we’ll just scoot over here a semester or a summer to go somewhere strategic and unreached.

How might they think about doing that? That feels kind of overwhelming. It’s like where do I go? Do I just open Google Maps and just pick some places? How might they know and how might they be resourced and equipped to do that?

David Platt:

So two things. One, go to your local church, say, Hey, church leaders, help me. How do I do this? Help me do this, and would you encourage me, support me in doing this? If they look at you and they’re like, you got some things to work on before we send you out as a representative of Jesus, then you want to hear that from them.

So spend some time with church leaders along those lines. And then I would encourage you, whether with your church or as you start exploring on your own, that’s where these exhibitors come in.

So many of them can help provide connection points for you to be a part of. And there’s all kinds of healthy ways for you to do that in a summer semester or year or two. And there’s also unhealthy ways for you to do that. So do that with your local church and with some people who are on the same page when it comes to the gospel and church and mission.

Emcee:

Alright, praise God. That’s super helpful. Okay, tell us your name and where you’re from.

Michael:

My name is Michael, I’m from Paynesville, Ohio. My question is how would you recommend we get involved with local ethnic groups? For example, I lived in Dallas for a while and it has the second-largest Ethiopian community in the US and I always found it very challenging to plug in with them even with the local church.

David Platt:

Yeah, that’s great. So I would say, well start with again, part of my default you’ll hear is like, okay, go to your local church leaders. How can we reach more Ethiopians, for example? How can we reach people of different ethnic groups that are around us?

And maybe that’s okay, me and my small group doing that or starting there, or I would look oftentimes, I mean this is so hard because there’s so many different circumstances, but look, are there any churches that are doing a good job in reaching out to those particular people groups? And maybe you come alongside what that church is already doing.

So if you see a pocket of, I was just talking with some folks about a city in Michigan with a lot of Yemenis and burgers, and so the whole picture was, okay, what church is doing a good job working, reaching out to them and come alongside that church? So don’t try to reach out to that people and bypass the church in the process.

So either with your church or alongside another church and other believers look for opportunities to intentionally reach out and do some, this is where a lot of those different organizations can be helpful. Get some help in cross-cultural disciple-making because there’s unique challenges that come that we want to be sensitive to and wise and when it comes to reaching out across other cultures.

So that’s one way. The other thing is just start befriending even when I think about your campus, getting to know people and letting, just seeing where that leads the doors that God begins to open up. Maybe it’s just your neighbor next door who is from a different ethnicity. Oh, sorry, I talked so long. We got

Emcee:

One more question and I would just say this, J. Mac Styles’ book on evangelism, the red book is super helpful. He addresses that. So I’d encourage you to buy it very short. It would be great. Name and where you’re from.

Clayton:

Yeah, my name is Clayton, I’m from Tuscaloosa. I was just wondering, I know John Piper talks about this in the beginning of Let the Nations Be Glad, how the prosperity gospel and different false doctrines have kind of pervaded other parts of the world as reaching people groups. Should we consider those people groups unreached? Or how should we approach that with what kind of urgency?

David Platt:

Good question. I would say bottom line is to the extent of which a people group does not have access to the true gospel, the gospel, we’re celebrating in this conference, the gospel that we see scripture not come to Jesus and get with health, wealth, prosperity, come to Jesus and get Jesus like gospel.

To the extent with which a people group does not have access to that gospel, they would be considered unreached. So that’s where I think, I’ll give you a phrase maybe to stow away the state of the church in an area determines our strategy for mission.

So if the gospel, if there’s zero knowledge of access to the gospel, then that affects our strategy when we’re going to that place. If a place has heard the gospel, but it’s gotten perverted, diluted, distorted, okay, then that’s going to affect our strategy.

So, alright, there’s something there, but we got some corrections to make. We got some things, or maybe it’s farther along and we’ve got, alright, we’re pouring our ourself into really strengthening healthy churches right here.

And so the state of the church, so if the Prosperity Gospel is invaded a particular place, then that’s going to affect our strategy. Okay? We got to come in and think through how to overcome that barrier. And then when it comes down to it, are they unreached? The question is, do they have access to the gospel?