I Think I’m a Sender?

The following is a lightly edited transcript provided by a transcription service. Please check the video before quoting.

David Platt at CROSS CON2019

I tell you what, if you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you do that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to two places. So we’re going to start in Acts 13 and then we’ll go from there to Romans 15.

So it’s not too far apart, but Acts 13 is where we’ll start and then we’ll go to Romans 15. I tell you what, why don’t we pause in your turn and pray and ask God to speak during this time? We would totally waste this time if he didn’t do the speaking. So let’s pray.

Oh God, we praise you for the privilege of opening up your word and reading revelation of who you are and how you work, and for the privilege of doing that as your children with your spirit inside of us, your spirit inside of me as I speak inside of us, as we listen. So God, please, please, please keep my words tethered to your word.

Please help me to speak only that which is in line with your word. Please keep ears all across this room tethered to your word and to your spirit. We pray that you will take your word by your spirit and apply it in our lives. Help us to hear.

Lead Our Thoughts, Transform Our Minds

From you, lead our thoughts, transform our minds, our desires, and our wills to align with yours. I look across this room, God, so many different people from so many different circumstances, so many different places, you know all of them.

You know what you are doing in their lives, where you are leading their lives, how you are directing their lives, what part you have for them to play, and your plan to make your glory known among the nations. So please pray.

Use this time your word by your spirit to further lead and direct their thoughts and desires, conform their wills to yours. So with anticipation of this encounter with you in your word, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen. Acts 13, we’ll go to in a minute, lemme start with a couple of stories from my own life personally that inform how I want to approach this topic if I think I’m a sender. So

God’s Passion and Glory

I mentioned the first night that in college I was exposed to God’s passion for his glory in all nations which only grew through reading books like that. The nations are glad to learn more and more, diving more and more into the world.

So by that time, I wanted to go to seminary, so I went to seminary. I’m studying seminary and studying in seminary, and the president of the International Mission Board, one of the organizations that’s in the back was coming to our seminary to preach and I was asked to take him to breakfast.

His name’s Jerry Rankin. Dr. Rankin was president at that time. And so I told Heather the night before, I said, I’m taking the president of the International Mission board to breakfast. I think I’m going to tell him we’re ready to go overseas as a missionary. I mean we’re seeing it in the world.

A Chat with Dr. Rankin

We see the need in the world. So I think I’m going to tell ’em we’re ready to go. Are you okay with that? And she said I’m okay with that. So I go to breakfast the next morning with Dr. Rankin before he can even sit down.

I’m just pouring out my heart, Dr. Rankin. I see from cover to cover in scripture, God’s passion for his glory among the nations. I see the need for the unreached. So my wife and I are ready to go. And so he listens and then looks back at me for about 60 seconds.

He encouraged me and what I had just said, but then for the rest of breakfast, he talked to me about the need for pastors to shepherd churches here among the reached for the spread of the gospel to the unreached. And I was so confused. I went home that night and Heather was like, how did it go?

Did I Get Talked Out of Being a Missionary?

I’m like, I think the president of the International Mission Board just talked me out of becoming a missionary. And she was really disappointed in me like, what’d you do? You blew it, man. We were going to the nations until you messed it up.

I’m like, I don’t think I’m, I tried. I don’t know. But I’m so thankful for that conversation with Jerry Rankin that day because what Dr. Rankin did was put a category in my mind that I don’t think was there before looking back. I don’t know why it wasn’t there, but it wasn’t there at that moment. And here’s the category.

So there apparently is a type of person who is zealous for the spread of the gospel to the nations and sees it in God’s words, sees the need in the world, and wants to live for the spread of God’s glory among the nations, but doesn’t become a missionary and doesn’t move to another nation for the spread of the gospel.

Being Christan

I don’t think I had that category in my mind and looking back, I don’t know why I didn’t have that category, because that category is called a Christian. A Christian, every follower of Christ is intended to have zeal for the spread of the gospel to the nations regardless of where they live, regardless of whether or not they move here or there.

The spirit of Christ wants the world for Christ. Does the spirit of Christ dwell in you? Then you want the world for Christ. You want to see the nation’s reach for the gospel. This isn’t just for a few, this is for all of us.

We are created for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. That’s part of the thrust behind this conference. So that means then everybody’s got a part to play. This is what it means to be a Christian.

This is not just a niche for a few Christians, this is for all of us to have a zeal driven with zeal to see the gospel spread to the ends of the earth. This is for all of us. But then there comes a point when some of us go to a place where the gospel’s not yet gone. That’s why I have you in Acts chapter 13.

The Church at Antioch

Now, there were in the church at Antioch, and this has been referenced at different points. This text prophets and teachers, Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, a lifelong friend of Herod, the Tetra, and Saul, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I’ve called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Cia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus and thus began the first missionary journey of Paul. Notice that God did not call everybody in Acts 13 to be sent out like this to go like this. He called Paul and Barnabas to go and he called the church at Antioch to send them. This is the basis for which we are using terms for senders and goers.

We all go in a Matthew 28 sense and make disciples of all the nations. That is for all of us. We live with a zeal for the spread of the gospel to the nations. But there comes a point where some go out from where the church is to move their lives to where the gospel is not church is not to preach the gospel and plant the church.

Those are what we’re calling goers and senders are those who help make that happen. Lay hands on them, send them out, pray for them, and give support to them. Some of the things we’re going to unpack practically in a minute. So I just want to show you that picture. So I was thinking in that conversation with Jerry Rankin, I’m supposed to be a goer, he says, maybe, but God’s calling some to send as pastors in other ways.

Pastoring in Alabama

So then fast forward to a few years ago as a pastor, at that point I was pastoring a church in Alabama and I hope faithfully pastoring and sending out brothers and sisters among the nations. I would go overseas three or four times a year by myself.

And I was on one particular trip in Nepal, hiking through trails, coming face-to-face with urgent, spiritual and physical needs. So massive poverty. In the villages we were in at one point, half the children were dying before their eighth birthday.

By half the kids, I’ve got four kids, can’t imagine two of my kids not making it to eight. One woman had 14 kids, two made it to adulthood. It was just massive poverty trafficking.

An Urgent Spiritual Need

I mean there was one village where there were hardly any girls between eight and 15 years old. They had all been taken from that village and were serving men in cat mandu and other cities that they had been trafficked to in South Asia. S

o urgent physical need and urgent spiritual need. Walking up to people saying, what do you know about Jesus? And then saying, who’s that? Almost as if, are you talking about a guy in another village nearby?

No knowledge of Jesus, not even hearing his name. And so God did a work in my heart on this particular trip where I started to wonder, okay, is it time for me to be a goer, to stop being the sender and become the goer and I am wrestling just in prayer with the Lord through that journaling the whole trip. By the end of the trip, I’m asking the brothers and sisters that I know live there in Nepal, what does it look like to live here?

Was God Leading Me to Nepal?

I start asking all the questions. I know Heather’s going to ask me when I get home and be like, ah, I think we might, God may be leading us to Nepal. So I got home, and it was late in the night when I got home. Heather and the kids picked me up from the airport.

I hadn’t been able to talk with them for most of the trip because we were very remote. And so Heather’s like, tell me about everything. How did it go? And I was like, ah, let’s wait until tomorrow morning when I’m a little more fresh and we can talk. Then she’s like, no, I want to know now. Okay, so this is the way it played out.

We’re laying there and I’ve got my journal. We’re just laying there in bed and I’m reading through a journal and just kind of walking through the progression and I get to the point where I say, maybe the Lord is leading us to go to Nepal, and here’s what happened.

The True Story of Jet Leg

I pause and Heather starts to have tears coming down her eyes and I fall asleep. And so I tell the true story of jet lag. It’s so brutal. And so there’s, my wife just heard that maybe we’re going to Nepal.

She’s got tears. I’m snoring over her, she’s on my shoulder, literally, I’m out, totally out. We wake up the next morning, she’s like, we need to pick up where we left off last night. And so we started having a conversation.

We start praying, is this God leading us to go and start exploring talking with folks about what that looks like at the same time we’re doing that? Then the International Mission Board, at that time, the president had just stepped down and they called me and said, Hey, would you be willing to consider stepping into this role and leading the International Mission Board?

My first thought was, I want to go to Nepal, but I remember I was reading in my Bible reading in Luke 17, Luke 17, verse 10.

Follow Your Commands

So you also, after you’ve done all that you’ve been commanded to do, say, we are unworthy servants. We’ve only done what is our duty. And I just remember falling on my face and saying, God, I just want to do whatever you want me to do. I want to do my duty.

Whatever you want me to do. If that’s to stay here and pastor this church in Alabama, I love this church. I would love to continue to pastor and shepherd them for the glory of your name among the nations. If that’s going to Nepal, I want to go to Nepal.

If that’s go to the IMB, I want to go to the IMB. And so Heather and I began fasting and praying with the elders of our church about that. And during that process over the coming months, God made it clear that he was indeed leading us to go to IMB.

God Leads Us

It was kind of like, why would you be willing to go to the IMB and not be willing to step into the role to mobilize others to go? So God ended up leading us to IMB and that’s where I served for the last four years.

And then God directed from there during the middle of that to begin preaching and serving alongside this church in greater Washington DC and then through a lot of fasting and a lot of praying, made it clear that he was leading me to shepherd this church in Washington DC.

And so all that to say, I’ve wrestled almost constantly with this tension between going and sending and not just in the past, it’s in the present in a way that I think is healthy for any follower of Christ. And by that, I mean not that we’re always asking, okay, what do I need to be doing?

God Guides Us

What am I worth? I believe God has me pastoring a church in greater Washington as best as I can, and this is where we’re going to end today just with some practical encouragement along these lines.

But I believe as best as I know that I’m where God wants me to be, shepherding a church in Washington DC. I hope to live for his glory among the nations.

From there at the same time there are always open hands to say, when is the one-way ticket and open to God may be doing that. And I would say that for any singer in that sense, those open hands should always be there even when there’s confidence that you are where God has you right now.

So what I want to do is based on this picture then, so in my own life, act 13, that’s how this has played out. I basically feel like the way I would describe it is I’ve wondered with the church at Antioch is God calling me to go and to this point that God has not said, okay, I’m setting you apart to go in this way. So he’s called me to be a singer at this point.

Romans 15

What I want you to do now is fast forward to Romans 15, and I want you to see how this plays out not just in Paul’s life but in a lot of other people. And along the way, what I want to do is I want to encourage you, especially as you’re discerning whether or not you’re a sender or a goer, and if you are a sender, what does that mean?

So Romans chapter 15, John Piper mentioned this on the panel on the first night. I’m sure it’s been mentioned at other times and he’ll be preaching on Romans tonight. I’ve got a feeling it’ll be mentioned then. But Romans chapter 15, verse 14, well just read it with me. This is Paul’s summary of his ministry up to this point and his ambitions from this point.

He says, I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another on some points I’ve written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus, to the Gentiles, to the nations in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles, the nations may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus, then I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

Christ Accomplished Through Us

I will not venture to speak of anything except for what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word, indeed by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God.

So that this is what John mentioned the other night from Jerusalem all the way around to a lyric, I fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. I finished the work there. Thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation.

But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see, those who’ve never heard will understand. This is the reason why I’ve so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any more work in these regions, since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey, thereby you once.

We Must Share Our Spiritual Blessings

I’ve enjoyed your company for a while at present, however, I’m going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints for Macedonia, and I have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem, for they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them and material blessings when therefore I have completed this and have delivered them to them what has been collected.

I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you, I’ll come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.

Then I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints so that God’s will by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So let me give you a summary of what just happened even geographically. So picture it and make sure I do this map from your perspective. So I’m in the east right now, is that right? Which one’s east and which one’s west? If you’re looking at the same, I’m in the west.

Am I in the West? I’m in the east right here. Okay, alright. Alright. So I’m in the east, okay? Yeah, I’m in the east. So this is Jerusalem. Okay, Jerusalem. And right here in Antioch. So Paul and Barnabas are sent out from Antioch and they start planting churches all in this region right here, going different places, making disciples, planting churches.

The End of A Missionary Journey

After the end of their first missionary journey, they come back around through Jerusalem, back to Antioch, and they encourage the church there. That’s at the end of chapter 14. In chapter 15, at the end of that chapter, Paul goes out on a second missionary journey this time, not with Barnabas, but with Silas, and they pick up Timothy on the way and they go back and revisit the places that they’ve planted.

Paul’s planted churches, and this is where they start in Acts chapter 16, they get a call to go to Macedonia where the gospel’s not yet gone. So they go up into Macedonia, a kind of new region. They’re planning churches up here and including a place called Corinth.

Then they go back through Ephesus down to Jerusalem and they come back to Antioch at the end of the second missionary journey. Then Paul goes out, sent out from the Church of Antioch on his third missionary journey. He comes to Corinth and while in Corinth he writes a letter to the church at Rome that’s right here. And he writes this letter because he wants to take the gospel to places it’s not yet gone, including specifically Spain, which is right here.

Pauls’s Letter from Corinth

And so Paul writes this letter from Corinth to the church at Rome because he wants help in getting to Spain, which makes sense geographically, right? If he’s looking for a church that’s going to help him get the gospel to Spain, he’s not going to go back to Antioch over there. He wants to go to Rome to get to Spain.

The only thing is though, he has an offering that’s been collected from these churches that he wants to take to Jerusalem. So he says, I’m going to Jerusalem with this offering once I give this offering in Jerusalem. My plan is to come to Rome, see you for a little while, and then get the gospel to Spain.

So hopefully that gives you a little summary geographically of what just happened and even why Paul is writing the letter to the church at Rome. He’s writing a letter at the church in Rome to say, God is calling me to get the gospel to those who’ve never heard it and I need you to help me get there to support me.

On the way says in Romans chapter 15, verse 24, to be helped on my journey there by you and the word that he uses for help, there is a reference to even physical help. Help me physically get there, support me going there.

What I want you to notice is Paul doesn’t say again, and this is what John was talking about the other night, that everybody from this region needs to be going to Spain. He says, there’s no more work for me to do there.

God’s not calling me to do more work there, but there’s more gospel work to be done there. But Paul’s saying the gospels preached, the church has been planted in these places. They’ve been reached with the gospel. I am wanting to, in my life, God’s calling me to go where the gospel is not yet gone to move there with my life.

A Missionary in Spain

So I’m going to go to Spain. So not every Christian is supposed to leave this region. There are senders here. And then even when he writes the letter to the church in Rome, he doesn’t say, so everybody in Rome needs to go with me as a missionary to Spain.

Now certainly he wants some to go along with him, but not everybody. And so this letter, the book of Romans is a letter written to senders to people in Rome who are going to help him get the gospel to Spain.

I don’t know if you have ever written or received a missionary support letter. Sometimes when people are going as missionaries, even on a short-term trip or maybe longer, they’ll write a letter and say, Hey, I’m going to this place and I would love for you to pray for me, and if God leads you to help me get there financially.

A Missionary Support Letter

So the book of Romans is one big fat missionary support letter. I’ve never seen another one written this well, but that’s what it is. I need your support in getting the gospel there. So it’s two sins.

Now here’s what I love with that background. Then you get to chapter 16 and he starts talking about a bunch of individual people. I commend to you our sister, Phoebe, a servant of the church at Kenry, that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and help her in whatever way she may need from you for she’s been a patron of many and of myself as well.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risk their necks for my life to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also have the church in their house. Greet my beloved Eita, who is the first to convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary who has worked hard for you.

Greet Andronicus and Juah, my kinsman and my fellow prisoners. They’re well known to the apostles they were in Christ before me. Greet us, my beloved in the Lord, greet urbanists, our fellow workers in Christ, my beloved stack us. This is the point. If you’re reading through the Bible, you just kind of skip through verses, right?

Who’s Approved in Christ?

Greet those workers in the Lord. Sorry, I missed a couple of green apples, who’s approved in Christ? Greet those who belong to the family of aristo. Greet my kinsman, Ian, and greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of narcissists. That’s an unfortunate name.

Greet those workers in the Lord. Trina and Tsa. Greet the beloved Perus who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Russ, and choose the Lord. Also, his mother has been a mother to me as well. Greet and ous, fla on Hermes, rabbis. Hermes.

And the brothers who are with them greet PHUs, Julia and his sister, and Olympus and all the saints are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. 26 different people that he lists who are playing different roles in the mission of the church. You see this, you got Priskin Aquila who served with Paul and Ephesus and now are in Rome.

You got Eita the first to come to Christ in Asia. This other couple is in prison for Christ along with Paul. You’ve got men, women, families, households, single married, young, old, rich, poor. You got Rufus and his mom like Flagon Phil, I know people named Paul in Barnabas. I do not. I’ve yet to meet a Flagon or Phil. It’s one of those awkward moments. Is anybody named Gon here?

Passing the Holy Scripture

You’re not really. Okay if you are, that’s awesome. I’ll never say that again that I’ve never met. But I mean these are names that didn’t carry on in history that we’re still naming people after, but they had a strategic part to play in mission such that they’re mentioned here in holy scripture as a part of the church on mission to the nations.

And so in, I want you to see this is the picture I have all across this conference and not just this conference, this room right now, obviously, I don’t know all of your names, but I really believe that every single person in this room right now has a strategic part to play in the spread of the gospel to the nations.

And some God will lead from this conference to go to be Paul, to take the gospel to Spain where it’s not yet gone, but God will also call some to make disciples right where you are right now and help send Pauls.

So here’s what I want to do based on this picture in Romans 15 and 16. I want you to see, I think it’s three things that are common to all of us and then some things flowing from that that are a matter of calling for each of us.

So you have the categories common to all of us. So whether you’re a sender or you’re a goer, these things are realities in our lives. And then for those who go or sin, these are things that might be different.

So we’ll start with what’s common to all of us. Three things. One, we all pray. We all pray. Paul appeals to them in chapter 15, verse 30 for the church in Rome to strive together with him in prayers to God for the church, for the church in Jerusalem, for him, for the loss, for the unbelievers in Judea.

The Church will Receive Paul.

He’s asking the church of Rome to intercede so that this church will receive Paul when he comes to pray for him, they will receive this offering. Be encouraged by it. There were major threats against Paul waiting for him in Jerusalem, threats that were found because Paul was eventually arrested in Jerusalem.

He ended up coming to Rome, not quite in the way he intended it came as a prisoner. So this picture here is huge. Paul’s saying, so Paul, the goer here is saying to this church in Rome on this mission, I need your prayers.

The church needs your prayers. Unbelievers need your prayers. Strive to God on behalf of all these things. And so this is where, and Jeff mentioned this the first time, he let us in a prayer time, this is where we see the work of God in missions begin on our knees and on our faces and striving together on behalf of the church around the world, on behalf of the lost around the world for the spread of God’s glory around the world.

This seems super basic, but I believe it is underestimated and we are not taking full advantage of the opportunity and privilege before us in prayer. Do you realize that before you wake up in the morning before you roll out of bed, you can participate with God in his work in North Korea?

You Don’t Need A Passport

That’s amazing. You don’t have to have a passport. You couldn’t get into North Korea with a passport, but you can through your intercession for our brothers and sisters, it was just there at the border a month or two ago. I’m looking out and seeing our brothers and sisters there like we can join them, we could strive together in prayer on their behalf as they’re in those reeducation labor camps, their bodies wasting away day after day, working all day long.

We can strive together in prayer for them and not just for them, but for the unbelievers in North Korea, for when we have the opportunity to talk to the omnipotent God of the universe. And here’s the picture. God has ordained our prayers to be a means by which his purposes are accomplished there.

This is where I just don’t think we realize what a privilege, what power is available to us because of God’s design in prayer. Like picture Exodus 32 in your mind, remember that passage when God, Moses met with God on the mountain, the people of God at the bottom of the mountain create a golden calf, start worshiping it, bowing down to it, indulging in all kinds of immorality. Sexual immorality is the picture there.

And God says, these people deserve my wrath, my judgment, I’m going to destroy them. That’s what you see in Exodus 32. I’m going to show my anger. What does Moses do?

Moses stands in the gap and he calls out to God and says, God, remember your promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to save a people for your glory among the nations. He says, remember to God, that’s a bold thing to say to the omniscient God of the universe. Remember, don’t forget you’ve promised to save them.

So he stands together and he pleads for God’s mercy to be shown among them. And what happens? It’s one of the most theologically baffling texts in the Bible when as a result of Moses’ intercession, God relents and doesn’t pour out his wrath on his people. They’re saved from judgment that day.

Did God Change Their Minds?

Did God change their minds? There are many kinds of theological questions. We don’t have time to dive into ’em all, but I just want you to see that passage. God’s will purpose and plan are as fixed as it is anywhere in scripture because yes, absolutely these people deserved God’s judgment.

At the same time, God ordained an intercessor named Moses to stand in the gap and tread on their behalf. And God ordained those prayers to be the means by which his wrath was averted among those people. It’s the same thing Matt preached on last night.

Nineveh deserved the wrath of God. Judgment was coming. God ordained a prophet to go preach, to save them from judgment. God ordained that. It’s the same thing and it’s the gospel. We are under the wrath of God. God ordained an intercessor named Jesus to stand in the gap for us to pay his price for our sins so that we might be saved.

God Has Given Us Opportunity

So realize this, we are praying for these unreached people you realize that God has given us the opportunity to do what we are doing when we’re praying for the people, for Uyghur people, for the Kurds and central Kurds in Iraq, what we are doing is we’re standing in the gap?

Here’s a people here who are separated from God by their sin under the judgment of God, and we’re standing the gap we sin. Remember, revelation five, Jesus, you purchased people for God from every tribe and tongue and language.

You love these people. Second Peter three, nine. So we’re asking you to show your salvation among them and to think that God will use our intercession as a means by which his wrath is averted and his mercy is made known among those, this is an awesome privilege that we, I just don’t think to realize. I would just ask you before you came to this conference, your prayer life, how much intercession has been happening for unreached people in the world?

And I hope the picture in your life is different as a result of this conference in the days to come, that you see yourself as an intercessor for unreached people, for the spread of the gospel to them for the church. I mean this is what Jesus said.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers of few. So he didn’t say, therefore go to the harvest. He said, therefore, to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field. This is Mind Boggling too.

Why not just go? He says, ask to go. This is what God has told us to do. He’s told us to ask for laborers to go to pray for the gospel to spread there. We pray like this. So here’s what I want to invite you to do. I may mention this tomorrow, but okay, if you could pull out your phone and not be distracted by anything else, then do this.

The Joshua Project

If you can’t, it’s totally fine. But go to the app store and download the rest of the day. If you search unreached the Day, Joshua Project, that’s an app. We’ve been using it in our prayer times in the morning here. I use it on pretty much an everyday basis.

I say I’m a hundred percent, but pretty close to it. It’s on my home screen here. And so it’s unreached of the Day by Joshua Project. You click on that app and immediately what pops up is an unreached people group for that day. And it just gives you information about it. Today the Song people from Central Hong Shui in China, 1.1 million Joong people.

He gives information about them. Or China’s largest ethnic minority group, plains, dwellers practice, rice, farming, traditional religion, and polytheism. They believe that many spirits, often malicious spirits who control the events of their lives must be appeased.

How do You Appease the Spirits?

Can you imagine thinking all these spirits around me, I got to appease them? got to do different things otherwise they’re going to come after me. This is what Fe Foe has been for a long time. So they are 0.9% gospel-believing was interesting when Jeff and I were praying together for them this morning, he was just praying and remembering how a decade or so ago this number for the win was 0%. Now it’s 0.9%.

So almost one. So do you believe that your praying can actually be a part of God’s plan to see that number go up? If you believe that, then at some point during the day, this is going to be, we spend hours on these things, right?

Hours on these devices doing all kinds of meaningless, worthless stuff. So why not spend two minutes interceding for this wrong and we can be a part of what God’s doing in central Hong Shuin China, like this remote area?

They’re very remote. They’re very remote people. Group this particular one. So do we realize this? In fact, let’s do it. We’ve been doing it all at conferences. Why not right now, right now, all across this room, let’s all, instead of doing it in groups, just everybody at the same time out loud, let’s pray for those wrong people.

Let’s intercede for the wrong people in China and not like a whisper-humid of prayer. Let’s pray like we’re calling out to you picture like we’re singing, but you can sing your prayer, but that loud, you don’t have to sing, but just carry to God for the Song people all, let’s go just for the next couple minutes right now, all across this room allowed at the same time. Oh God, we pray for the please God, please remember your promise. You love this group of people. You desire their salvation.

Be Patient

You are patient not wanting any to perish. You have created them for your glory. Oh God, you’ve created them to know you. You’ve purchased them, Lord Jesus for the Father. So please, oh God, cause your son to be proclaimed.

Cause the gospel may know Jesus’ name to be made known among us. Wrong. We pray we are standing in the gap right now all across this room, hear our voices. God, we are asking you please, please, please hear us and answer our prayers. Show your grace in the song. We praise you for what you’ve done over the last 10 years. We pray for those believers who are there, please strengthen them.

Oh God, give them the boldness to proclaim the gospel. Give them grace to know how best to do that in the context of where they live. God, we pray for the health of the churches that are there. Please raise up pastors who are preaching and teaching your word and shepherding your church and making disciples and multiplying churches. God, by your spirit, only your spirit can do these things. Please, oh God, cause your name to be hallowed. Among the wrong we pray, God, we pray these things together.

We praise you for the privilege of intercession. Hear our prayers, relent your wrath. Show your mercy we pray, and Jesus’ name, amen. It’s a good use of two minutes in your day. So we all pray, we’ll pray for the church, for the lost, for the unreached. We all do that. And I would just add that alone will begin to have a massive transformative effect on your heart.

We All Follow God’s Command

So second, we all give, we all give. We’re all compelled and we’re being commanded to give to. I am going to put this in two categories and show it to you in the text for the spread of the gospel and to serve the poor, particularly our impoverished brothers and sisters. So we’re going to see in this text the spread of the gospel and serving the poor.

So both these things are evident here in Romans 15 and 16. As’ve already mentioned, Paul says at the end of chapter 15, that he’s writing this letter because he needs help in getting the gospel to Spain. Help on my journey there. And what he’s talking about is physical help in getting there. But then what’s interesting, so this is really interesting, don’t miss this Paul. He wants to see the gospel go to Spain. It’s not gone to Spain.

Jesus’ name is not known there, and yet he doesn’t go directly to Spain. Instead, he goes this way to Jerusalem. Why? Well, because the saints in Jerusalem were experiencing famine. They were starving the brothers and sisters there where this whole picture of the church had started.

And so what he’s done is he’s collected an offering all throughout these churches where he is planted in Macedonia Naiah and he’s now taking that offering to the church in Jerusalem to help them. So I want you to see, that we’re talking a lot about getting the gospel to unreached peoples, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not important to also consider, pray for, and give to our impoverished brothers and sisters where the gospel has gone.

It’s entirely right and biblical even for Paul as a governor here to also be passionate about serving the church, helping build up the church where the church is starting, where the church is suffering.

I trust we realize this is a reality around the world right now for many of our brothers and sisters across Sub-Saharan Africa in the Middle East, various remote places, central Asia, and places particularly where Christians are persecuted as a result of following Christ. They don’t have any. So persecution is not just the threat of martyrdom.

So yes that, but then also if you’re a follower of Christ, you’re not going to be able to get this job. You’re not going to be able to have this land. I think about villages in South Asia where if you become a follower of Christ, you’re no longer allowed to use the water source in that village and that’s your pipeline to life and you’re now ostracized because you’re a follower of Jesus.

We All Spread the Gospel

So this is what we all do. We all give all the spread of the gospel. So this is, well, let’s start here to serve the poor, particularly our impoverished brothers and sisters. And this is where we just must come face to face with reality. And by God’s grace, it is a reality. We are some of the wealthiest people to ever walk planet Earth.

And I know you probably don’t always feel very wealthy, but the fact that we don’t have to worry about the purity of our water, the fact that we’re confident in the amount of food we’re going to have today and tomorrow a, and the next day and the next day, the fact that we have clothes and roof over our heads and transportation and education, we are now in the upper echelon of the world.

And it’s not that we should feel bad about that. We should thank God for that. We should thank God for that. At the same time realize that God has not given us all of this just for us.

He’s Given Us Worldly Wealth For What Purpose?

He’s given us worldly wealth for what purpose? This is where seeing this in scripture, is why everyone walks through Genesis and revelation. When we see this in scripture, it changes our understanding of finances because we realize Psalm 67, may God be gracious to us, bless us, make his face shine upon us.

That’s actually a prayer for harvest, a prayer at harvest time. It’s a prayer not just for spiritual blessing but for physical blessing. You see that further on in that psalm. So may God be gracious to us in all these ways so that your ways may be known on earth and your saving power is known among all nations.

God physically blessed us for the spread of your ways and your saving power among the nations. So God gives us worldly wealth for the spread of his worldwide worship. I trust we realize that goes totally against the grain of everything. Our culture is selling every single one of us all day long, every day.

Everything in our culture shouts, shouts, get more, get nicer, get better, get newer. Get this, get that. We are swimming in an ocean of deceit. A culture that says the more you get, the better, the happier, the more comfortable, more fulfilled you will be. Don’t buy it.

It is totally deceptive. This world is saying to all of us, that our hearts and our lives will be glad to get more. God says the exact opposite. You were made, you were designed, your heart was formed by God to be glad in giving more,

He Gives Generously

Giving generously and willingly and sacrificially, cheerfully all the words that we see in two Corinthians eight and nine when Paul’s talking about this offering. He took up such a great text. He’s talking about the offering he took up. He says these impoverished churches in Macedonian and Kayah were pleased to give. They gave far beyond.

They were begging for the opportunity to give more. Just picture that when was the last time you went to church? Everyone’s like, when’s the offering this is going to be so awesome, sooner the better. And then it says, give cheerfully The word in two Corinthians nine is hilariously, how about that during the offering? This is awesome.

Everybody’s passing it and we almost created a culture where we almost apologize for giving in the church. Okay, we’re going to ask for giving, but that’s not the way Christians approach giving. We enjoy giving.

We’re created to give God’s gift to us. Of course, we give. This is not an obligation, it’s not a duty. This is a delight for us. We live like that. Let’s live like that giving for the support of our impoverished brothers and sisters man, so that our dogs and cats eat better than our brothers and sisters in South Sudan. Give us the right perspective.

On resources and not just giving for the support of the church particularly need, but for the spread of the gospel. God has given us so much wealth. Why? What if it is because he wants his glory known in all nations?

My Time in Korea

That’s what he’s given it to. I mentioned I was in Korea and I went one day, it’s my last day there I was in a cemetery. It was an awesome picture. So this cemetery, the Korean church, has been preserved because it houses the graves of some of the earliest missionaries who came to South Korea, the beginning of 1900 when the church there was less than 1% and people started coming and giving their lives there and they’ve preserved the cemetery.

And so you walk around the cemetery, I mean it’s kids who died at one month, six months old because of dysentery or other diseases.

It’s husbands who died and their wives carried on the work after them or vice versa. So it’s all these different graves. There was one section in particular though that was really convincing and encouraging. So the Underwood family had four generations represented in the cemetery, four generations worth of their family who had served for the spread of the gospel in Korea. Do you know how their lives and their work were financed there In Korea?

The Underwood family was supported in Korea as missionaries through the Underwood typewriter. So I’m not expecting most people in this room to know what that is, but John Underwood produced the first successful modern typewriter just before the turn of the 20th century.

By 1939, he produced 5 million of them. So picture John Underwood, Steve Jobs, Underwood, typewriter, MacBook, and iPhone like he used technology to create this. And then what he did is he used revenue from typewriters to support the spread of the gospel through four generations of his family in Korea.

Where does Money Come In?

So this is where sometimes when we start talking about money, people kind of get the idea. So it’s bad to make money and so I shouldn’t get a good job. I shouldn’t get a good degree and get a good high-paying job.

That’s bad in some way. I would say we definitely need to listen to Timothy 6 and God’s caution, the lure of money and its strength, how it takes hold of our hearts, and how it leads down a road of ruin and destruction. We need to hear that caution.

At the same time, let’s realize when God gives money. If we have a mindset that he’s not giving it just for us, he’s giving it for the spread of his glory among the nations, then it’s like make a lot of money, get a really good degree, get a really good job and make tons of cash and then leverage it for the spread of the gospel among the nations. That’s a good way to send, be underwood, and do some awesome things and then use those resources for his purpose.

The Grace of God in My Own Life

So personally, and this is just to show the grace of God when I think about this in my own life, I wrote a book. The first book I wrote was called Radical. I wrote in the front of that book, it’s never written anything before.

And I wrote the author’s royalties from this book will go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations. So basically any money that I would make goes towards promoting the glory of Christ in all nations. Now that may sound noble, but I actually thought my mom and a few people would buy this book.

I didn’t think anybody would read it. Well, over a million people read it and it’s like, huh? Now I’d like to think I still would’ve written that in the front if I’d known that. I think I would’ve. I hope I would’ve. But I sure am glad God didn’t even let me know that he kind of protected me from that.

And so I just be honest, it’s made a lot of money and I can’t touch a penny of it. I can’t touch a penny of it. And so anything else I’ve written, you’ll see that in the front of the book. And so I just finished writing a book. It’ll come out this next year and I hope a lot of people buy it,

The Glory of Christ in All Nations

But not so that I can make anything like it. I want to see money used for the glory of Christ in all nations. I want to leverage my life anyway. So I just say that personally, what is God calling you to do in your life? If you’re a sinner, then how is God calling you to leverage the opportunities right around here and to build in?

So maybe it’s not you got to write something in the front of your contract with your company, give all of my money away or something like that, but build some safeguards into your life that keep you from being lured away by that and say, okay, I want to thrive in whatever resources and don’t think if it’s this much or this much, whatever it is to say I want to give for the support of the church and the spread of the gospel among the day.

That’s why I’m here. Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. So don’t destroy treasures and earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Destroy it for yourselves. Treasured in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break into a steal. Live for what’s going to matter.

Don’t just think in worldly terms. People say investment makes a lot of money, but if you put it in investment, then it’ll grow over time. So that’s the best way. You’ll have this much money in the end and then you’ll be able to do all kinds of things for the kingdom. Well, maybe, maybe, maybe.

Yes. So it’s not that that’s not a potential route. There are also other potential routes. IE invest in a church planter going to the Uyghur people in China and you spend money on helping support that person there.

The Church Will Always Send Missionaries

And then, yeah, you won’t have this growing investment account right here, but you will have over here, Lord willing, a church planted that’s sending out missionaries to start other churches and other churches. You have a people group that’s being reached with the gospel because of an investment there that’s also a wise wise investment.

So we all pray, we all give and then well unites us all together. We all go. We all go. So this is like, wait a minute, I thought this was goers and senders. No, this is where we have to be really careful with that language because we all go in a Matthew 28-19 sense, we all go. So here’s the way I would put it. We all go right where we live and wherever God leads, we all go right where we live. So wherever God has you or me right now, we are there for the purpose of making disciples of the nations.

So we made disciples right there and dove into this yesterday and broke out here. So I won’t dive into this but don’t underestimate it. When you are making disciples, you are a part of God’s plan to get the gospel to the nations. So making disciples on that college campus with a few other people, it’s kind of like what Jesus did with 12 other people.

He’s just making disciples. And he says to his disciples, now you go doing, go do the same thing. So make disciples right where you live, the sender does not mean you are now farming out the great commission to others. No, you’re a vital part of the great commission making disciples where you live and wherever God leads. So that’s where you’re making disciples, where you live and you have an openness to going wherever he leads, both right there where you live.

God Calls Each of Us

And then this is where, okay, so these are the things that are common to all of us. I’m running out of time. So we all pray, we all give, and we all go right where we live, wherever God leads. Now what is a calling for each of us? And by calling how I’m using that term right now is in an Acts 13 kind of sense.

When the spirit set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work to which I’ve called them and he sent them out from there, that was a calling that was unique to Paul and Barnabas. That was not for everybody at Antioch. So what’s the matter of calling? Well, a matter of calling when it comes to where we go, it’s going to come down to, well, yeah, that’s what it is as we go. Where we go is a matter of calling. We stay right where we are, we go to this place, to that place.

God’s not calling everybody to go to the Uyghurs. God’s not calling everybody to go to the Kurds. So that’s going to vary how long we stay. God’s going to call some to go and spend their entire lives among the Uyghurs God may call others to alongside those who are serving among the Uyghurs.

Spend a week or two a summer or two a semester or two, a year or two among the Uyghurs. This is where I would encourage, unless God says otherwise to at least at least for, if you’re in college especially, or graduating high school, in college, spend at least a summer or a semester somewhere else in the world, sharing the gospel where it’s not yet gone.

The unique opportunities that are there for you right now. I thought about being in an Uber the other day, and there was a guy, I was telling this to the leaders yesterday.

The Morman Church

There was a guy, the guy who’s driving me, he is head over the mobilization of teenagers for missions in the Mormon church in his region. And he was telling me about all the thousands that were going. And I was so mad that they were going then I was so convicted. Why is it that they have built into the very culture of their families and their church?

Not really churches, but you know what I mean. The groups built into the culture an expectation that everybody is going to go for a year before they go to college. Everybody’s going to go, it’s expected. They’re doing that with a false gospel that the dams, and we have the true gospel that saves why should that not be all the more the expectation in us? So this is a calling picture. So I can’t go to a verse that says, spend a summer, spend a semester, spend a year or two somewhere else.

Short Term Missions

But the opportunities are there. So where you might go, how long you might stay, that varies. And to Me’s point last night as he was talking about the dangers of short-term missions done wrong, there are opportunities to do short-term missions, right?

In ways that fuel long-term disciple-making processes in churches toward planting churches around the world. So maybe God calls you to do that and God doesn’t call us to do that. All I mentioned, this is where I as a sender try to spend three or four trips a year. I’m not saying that’s a number, just as I work this out in my life to be a part of the spread of the gospel where it’s not yet gone and trying to serve partners in different places.

So it’s going to look different in all of our lives where we might go, how long we might stay, how we might get there. Some will be supported by the church, some will have jobs to take them there. This is where things really start to vary. Once we realize though, we’ve all been commanded to go where we live and wherever God leads. So here’s where I want to close. Here’s where I want to close.

How do you know if you’re a cinder or a goer? How do you know? And it’s not even, how do you know right now it might be different five years from now, it might be different 10 years from now. It might be the exact same, but how do you know? I just want to give you three practical words that I hope will encourage you. T

here practical words that have helped me. Number one word. So here’s how, in a sense, the first word is surrender. Surrender. And by that, I mean open hands with your life before God. I want to go, I want to make disciples of all the nations, wherever you might lead me, wherever. And if that means right where I am, then I want to do that if that means North Africa, I want to do that wherever you want me to go, to be surrendered.

Surrender to God

And that’s a daily thing. But I hope, I mean what I mean these words summarize what I’m praying for brothers and sisters all across this conference. But there would be a spirit of surrender that just says, God, I really want to do whatever you want me to do.

And this is basic Christianity, right? This is not like the depth of Christianity. This is if you, anybody’s going to come after me, must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. So just to say, just continually, I want to do whatever you want me to do. So that’s the first word, surrender. The second word is abide. Abide.

John 15:5

John 15:5. You remain in me and I remain in you. You’ll bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing. Abide in me, I abide in you. So abide by the spirit of surrender, fix your eyes on Jesus, and pursue him with zeal, passion, and discipline. So by abide, what I mean is be in the word.

That’s what he says later in John 15, you remain in my words, remain in you. So be in his word. Have a regular way where you’re not just reading, but meditating on memorizing scripture. His word remains in you. You’re abiding by his word.

You’re abiding him through prayer. You abide in him through this what he goes on to talk about in John 15 through obedience. So obeying his commands. So when we’re asking what is God’s will for my life? And JD is saying it’s not lost because it’s in God’s word.

We know his will. Think one Thessalonian 4, this is the will of the Lord. Your sexual purity, that is the will of the Lord for you so that you walk in holiness, that you think in ways that honor Christ, that you desire what honors Christ, that you speak in ways that honor Christ, like sanctification is God’s will for your life in my life.

So abide in him as well. And what that means is also obedience. Obedience to the command of Jesus to make disciples. And so do that again, right where you live. So I am just convinced that if you are, if I am surrendered to Jesus and abiding in Jesus, then the third word can be a reality. And the third word is rest.

Surrender to Jesus

Rest. And by that I mean when you’re surrendered to Jesus and abiding in him, obeying him, doing what you know His will is for your life, seeking him, praying, fasting in his word and continual basis, just growing into Christ. If you surrender to him and abide in him, then you can rest. He is going to lead you.

He’s going to guide you. He’s going to transform your thoughts. He’s going to transform your desires. He’s going to lead your steps and you can rest in that. You don’t ever have to worry. Am I doing what God wants me to do? If you are surrendering him, abiding in him, just know God wants his will to happen in your life more than you do. He wants his glory among the nations more than you do. He wants his will to happen so much in your life that he’s put his very spirit in you for that purpose.

So rest in him. I remember when I was making a tough decision about whether or not to do this or that in my life, and I had people encouraging me both ways. And so I was seeking out counsel from the church and I was getting both.

And so I ended up making this decision, this decision Heather and I made together and fast and prayed, to make this decision. And a brother over here who had been particularly strong in this side of things, he said to me as soon as I told him, he said, well, I trust you’re doing what God is leading you to do.

And I looked back at him and said, I don’t even trust myself that much, but I am trusting Jesus in me. I’m seeking him. I want to honor him in every way I know abiding in him, and I just don’t believe he’s going to let me go in the wrong direction.

Are You a Sinner or a Goer?

So the beauty is so you’re like, okay, well, so what is the answer? Am I a sinner or a goer? Lay your life down. Pursue him and what’s going to happen as you’re pursuing him? And just say, God, do you want me to go or am I sin or goer?

I think we’re about to have a break and you’re going to have some kind of free time that hasn’t been there the last couple of days tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to have a time where we say, okay, who thinks God may be leading them to be a goer? And you’re kind of, is that me or not? Here’s the beauty.

Press into Jesus. Seek him. God, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? And yes, seek counsel from the church, but go to the word of prayer to time with the Lord.

Seek him. And here’s the beauty. Here’s the beauty. At some point, I don’t know if it’ll be an hour into that or it’ll be a day into that, it’ll be a week into that, or a year into that journey of pressing into him, surrendering to him, abiding in him.

When he gets clarity, it’s kind of cloudy and then all of a sudden it opens and it’s like, okay, I think I’m supposed to do this. I don’t know when that point’s going to come, but here’s the beauty. When that point comes, you’ll realize something.

You’ll realize that the goal was not an answer to whether or not you’re a singer or a goer. The goal was deeper intimacy with God. Don’t miss this. God could right now, we could all close our eyes and say, God, show us. And he could pop into our minds, goer, sender.

Abide by Him

If you’re a goer, here’s where you go in this country. Here’s your assignment. He could do that. He could give us all a vision tonight and a Macedonian-type vision. And sometimes we kind of wish he would, don’t we? Yeah, it’d really kind of save a lot of trouble, a lot of agony.

But actually, God’s designed this process for you to seek him. You’d put aside food and fast and say, God, I want your will more than I want food. I want you. I want to know you. I want to obey you. And what happens, this is, and every big decision I’ve ever made in my life, that I’ve walked through this kind of process of seeking him, abiding in him.

In the end, when I finally make that decision, I’m far more in love with Jesus than when I started that decision-making process because I’ve been pressing so hard on him.

So see, in decisions we make, are just a beautiful design of God. He could reveal it to you tonight. Instead, he’s given you something better. He’s given you a relationship with him where you come to know him and enjoy him.

And in the process, he leads and guides you for his glory among the nations, every single one of us, according to the leadership of His spirit. So may it be so if God calls you to stay and send, then do it on your knees, praying, giving sacrificially and cheerfully, and going right where you live with an open hand to go wherever he leads. Let’s pray.

Let God Guide the Way

God, we pray that you would indeed lead guide, and direct our steps. Lord, I pray for every brother and sister in this room right now that you would give them a spirit of surrender. I pray for that in my own life, not just theirs. A spirit of surrender, passionate, disciplined, abiding in you, and a rest that flows from this in you, trust in you. Help us to trust in you with all our hearts, not to lean on our own understanding and all our ways to acknowledge you. And we believe we trust you’ll make our paths straight. So please, oh God, guide, lead, direct our paths for your name’s sake among the nations, all of us we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.