Making God’s Glory Known Among the Nations

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

God’s Glory Among the Nations

Sit down, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise them in the heights above. Praise ’em all as angels. Praise ’em all you heavenly hosts. Praise them. Sun and moon. Praise them all. You shining stars. Praise them.

Your highest heavens and your waters above the sky. Let them praise the name of the Lord. For he commanded and they were created. He commanded they were created. He set them in place forever and ever.

He gave a decree that will never pass away. So praise the Lord from the earth. You great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding. You have mountains in all hills, fruit, trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth in all nations.

You princes and all rulers on the earth. Young men and maidens old men and children, let them all praise the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted. His splendor. His splendor is above the earth and the heavens and he’s raised up for a people of horn, the praise of all his saints of Israel.

The people close to his heart. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing the Lord a new song. His praise and the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their maker. Let the people of Zion be glad in their king. Let them praise his name while dancing. Make music for him with a tambourine and heart to listen to.

The Bible says The Lord takes delight in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor. Sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples to bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with shackles of iron to carry out the sentence written against them.

This is the glory of all the saints. Praise the Lord. So I will stop there for one more chapter. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the harp and liar. Praise him with a tambourine and flute. Praise them with the clash of symbols. Praise them with resounding symbols. Let everything that has breath.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. You have breath tonight. Ever thought about that last phrase, what would it be like? That last phrase in the book of Psalms was switched around. What? Instead of saying it, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. What if it said, let everything that praises the Lord half breath?

How many of you would be alive right now if your every breath was dependent on it being lifted in praise to God?

I submit to you that the God who we’ve gathered together to worship in this room tonight is worthy of nothing less than every single breath and it’s on his glory and living for his praise that I want to

It Starts With One

Set your sights on his word tonight. Lemme give you a picture before we open the word. Lemme give you a picture and maybe kind of stick with you as we walk through his words tonight. When I was in high school, I was a senior in high school. I was on the high school baseball team, which might make you think I was a good baseball player, but that’s not true. I was not a good baseball player.

You say, well, how are you on the team? Our team was very bad and that’s how I got to be on the team. And so we were a very bad baseball team all season long. We lost every game until near the end of the season. We were playing another bad team.

I thought maybe we got a chance on this one. I think this mic is moving out a little bit. Or do you want me to just hold one? I see a screen saying my mic is scratching my face and I appreciate the information. I’m not sure what to do about that because I’m kind of stuck with my face.

So all right, we’ll go with this. Where were we? Baseball is a bad baseball team. Thank you. So we’re playing another bad baseball team near the end of the season and it was a close game, two bad baseball teams playing each other.

It got down to the last inning and it was all tied up and we kept them from scoring in the top of the last inning, which meant going into the bottom of the last inning. We were running off the field to go to bat and we actually had a chance to win a game.

And I remember a coach met us out in front of the dugout and he said, again, gather around guys. He said, we actually have a chance to win a game. And he said, and we need to do it right now. If we go into extra innings, what’s going to happen?

We’re all like, we’ll lose. He said, yes, we’ll lose if it’s going to happen, it needs to happen right now. And so he looks at me and points his finger in my face. He says, David, you’re up first. He said we need you to get to first base.

Once you get to first, we’re going to steal you over to second. Once you get to second, all we need is one hit. You’re round third come home, we’ll win the game. I’m thinking, yeah, right, we’ll win the game. That doesn’t happen and it’s dependent on me. Getting to first also does not happen.

But all the guys were like, come on David, just get to first base. And I was like, okay. So I go in, I put my helmet on, I grab a bat, I walk out there and I’m just praying like, God, I know you love everybody on this field, but would you just grant me an extra measure of grace and at this moment, use this for their sanctification.

Just help me get to first base, please God. So I step into the paddock box and by the grace of almighty God, I draw a walk. So apparently it was too much for a little power to hit, so just make sure he didn’t throw me a strike.

So I walk down to first base. Once I get down to first base, I look over the third base coach and he’s giving me the steel sign. So I’m like, ah, I like the walking thing better now I got to run. And so I take my lead off first, pitcher, wines, and throws.

I turn and I break toward second base, running as hard as I can. I get about five feet away and I start this headfirst slide and the guy catches it and tags me. What do you think? Safer out. Who was right in here? The first person to yell out, just out.

You have no confidence. I got wheels. All right, I was safe. So alright, so I’m in second base now. The next guy up to bat strikes out Big loser, didn’t walk like I did. So what that means is now there’s one out in the game and if you know much about baseball, if it’s going to happen, it needs to happen right here because if they get a second out, they don’t have to worry about me as much as a runner.

This is the moment when it needs to happen. So the pitcher throws the guy up to bat, hits the ball in between the third baseman and the shortstop and I turn and I watch it go in front of me into left field and I start hauling toward third base. And I look up and I see my third base coach, Does anybody know what he’s doing?

Oh, he’s doing this all the way down the line faster than I ever could. I’m like, why don’t you do this coach? So he’s going down, give me the ghost signs. So it’s like, all right, here we go. So I touch third base and I look up and 90 feet in front of me, there is a dude who’s much bigger than I am and he’s got all this equipment on, he’s got his mask off and he is standing over the plate just waiting for me.

And I decided this was my moment. I start running as hard as I can just to watch a movie. All the guys are out of the dugout jumping up and down, screaming. All the fans are going nuts. So there’s only two people there, but they’re going nuts. I’m telling you, not even our parents would come to watch us play.

We were so bad. But everybody who’s there is going crazy Again. I got about five feet away and I started this slide and it was like a movie. My hand brushes past the plate, right as this catcher catches the ball, puts it down on my shoulder and we look up in the dust of the umpire to see what he will say.

I’m not going to ask you what you think. Umpire yells, safe, safe. All the guys come running out of the dugout, they jump on top of me. You’d think we’d won the World Series, we’d won a game.

And it was one of the greatest, the only great moments of my entire sports career and it’s like pure joy reliving it with you right now. But let me ask you a question. Lemme ask you a question.

What would you think of me as a baseball player if when I was rounding third base I touched third base and I thought I’m kind of hungry right now and I just ran over to the concession stand to order a hot dog or what would you think of me if when I was rounding third base I were to look over into the stands and for some reason, a cute teenage girl has come to watch us play and I think, well she looks better than he does.

So I just go running over to the fence to talk to her about my awesome walk or whatever or what would you think of me as a baseball player for when I was rounding third base? I look up, I see the coach passionately going down the line and I think I’ve not really spent a lot of time with him recently and I just go over to him and put my arm around him and be like, coach, calm down bro.

How are you? And you say, well of course you can’t win a baseball game. Why? Because you missed the whole point. You got distracted. The point wasn’t to get first or second or third. The point was to score a run. The point was to win the game.

You missed the big picture, you missed the whole point. So that was a game, it didn’t really matter. But I want to put that picture in your mind because I want to talk about your life, my life, our lives because there is an adversary in this world who wants you to miss the point, to miss the whole point and not just in the world but for those in the church to miss the point.

And I want to walk us through some things in the world and the world that may uncover some ways we’re missing the point. And I just want to ask you to open yourself up to the spirit of God right now just to let you know where all this is headed. After we’ve walked through God’s word and heard from him, we’re going to have time to respond to him. And I’m going to invite people to come all across the front of this room.m

God Leads Our Prayers and Confessions

And to kneel down from all ages, from the youngest in this room to the oldest in this room to say, God, I don’t want to get to the end and have missed the point. And I’m assuming that God will lead us into prayers of confession in different ways in our lives. I hope, I pray prayers of salvation, some tonight realizing the point of your life for the first time and others just a deeper prayer of surrender in your life to live for the point.

So what’s the point? If you have a Bible and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with, lemme invite you to turn to me to Revelation chapter seven. Revelation chapter seven, and I’ll have some of these things up on the screen at a couple of different points.

But Revelation chapter seven verse nine and the reason I’m going here and we’ll turn to a couple of other places along the way, the reason I’m going here to reveal the end of the Bible is to show us where all of history is headed. So picture, rounding the bases and looking toward home. Here’s what’s at home plate. Revelation chapter seven verse nine.

After this, I looked and beheld a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands or crying out with a loud voice.

Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Oh God, we pray that you would help us to fix our eyes on where all of history is headed according to these two verses. And God, I pray that because of what you do in this room tonight, there will be some people for the first time experiencing your salvation and knowing they were going to be around the throne on that day.

God, I pray that not one person in this room and other places where we’re gathered would not be around the throne on that day. And God, if I could be so bold, I pray that you would move in the next few minutes through your word, by your spirit in such a way that those in this room and other locations would play a pivotal part in seeing more nations and more tribes and more peoples and more languages gathered around your throne on that day.

I pray that there will be ripple effects among nations and tribes and peoples and languages because of what you do in the next few minutes. God, I pray that in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Purpose of God is for All Nations to Enjoy and Exalt Him Forever

Okay, so what I want to do with this picture in mind of where all of history is headed today when every nation, tribe, people, and language will stand before the throne of God for the lamb, a reference to Jesus singing salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

With that picture in mind, I want to walk us through five truths based on Revelation chapter seven and a variety of other places in the Bible that I hope will help us to get the point. So here’s truth number one, and I’m going to put ’em on the screen. They’re kind of wordy, but I don’t know how to make ’em shorter. So here they are. Number one, the purpose of God is to bring people from all nations to enjoy and exalt him forever. This is the purpose of God.

This is the point toward which God is driving all history and we see this from cover to cover in the Bible. So here in Revelation chapter seven, this is just fulfillment of what started in the book of Genesis all the way back in the beginning when God created man and woman in his image for the display of his glory I mean picture Genesis one and two, Adam and Eve created to enjoy him and exalt him as image bearers.

And you get to a place like Genesis chapter 12 and God says, Abraham, I’m going to bless you and through you, all the peoples of the earth will be blessed, all the nations. And this is the fulfillment of that promise in Revelation chapter seven in between is the story of God bringing people from all the nations to enjoy him and exalt him forever. So let’s kind of go from the back here to exalt him.

So the Bible is teaching here that the purpose of God is to exalt God. So God lives to exalt God, God exalts himself. And you might be thinking, wait a minute, are you saying that God is self-centered?

The Purpose of Our Lives is to Enjoy and Exalt God Forever

And I want to be really clear like I’m not saying God is self-centered. The Bible says God is self-centered. You say if that rubs you wrong in any way, I would just ask the follow-up question, who else would you rather him exalt you? This is that.

I mean if at any point he were to exalt someone or something else, he would no longer be the God who’s worthy of all exaltation. That’s what it means to be God. There’s no one else worthy of centering around.

He is God. And the beauty is he exalts himself by inviting people to enjoy him forever. This is the gospel. How has God most glorified himself by sending his son to live the life we couldn’t live to die, the death we deserve to die, and then to conquer the enemy? We could not conquer sin and death itself.

God glorifies himself by sending his son to die on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to enjoy God forever and ever. There’s no greater news in the world than this. Enjoying God and exalting God go together And haven’t we experienced this even in this room tonight when we sing to God, it is joy, it’s delight, it’s not duty.

This does not have to be, this is delightful. I think about the Psalms. So we were just walking through Psalms 1 48, 1 49, 1 50, the Psalms, I was, they were in my Bible reading, walking through the Psalms not long ago. What an interesting book. God has given us a whole book in the Bible that revolves around songs to himself. I think about my marriage a couple of months from now and I have an anniversary and I’m trying to think of a gift for my wife. Lemme tell you what I’m not going to give her.

Babe. I have taken the time to put together 150 poems about how great I am in all of my attributes. And I just want to give them to you as a gift and you can read them back to me, put them to music even, and they will bring such joy to your heart. But this is true of God. It’s not true of me. It is true of God.

Our Souls are Designed to be Satisfied in God

Our souls are designed to be satisfied in God, not in the stuff of this world we were created to enjoy and exalt. This is the purpose of God. He wants you. This is awesome news, right where you’re sitting, God, though you have sinned against him and you deserve his eternal judgment.

God wills that you might enjoy him, he desires you to enjoy him as you exalt him for all of eternity. This is great news and it’s not just for us, it’s for, if I could emphasize this, all the nations, every nation, tribe and tongue and people and language, all of them.

And we know when we see nations in the Bible, just remember it’s not talking about countries, we might think of nations today, 200 or so in the United Nations. Those nations like the United States of America didn’t exist at this point and a variety of other nations like we might think of today.

Instead, the word that’s used here for nations most commonly in the New Testament is ethnic from which we get ethnic. So think of ethnic groups or people groups. And we realize even in one nation like the United States of America, there are many different ethnic groups. There are many different people groups.

So there may be 200 or so countries in the world, but anthropological biblical scholars estimate over 16,000 people, groups in the world, and distinct ethnic groups that share common languages and cultural characteristics. And the purpose of God is to bring people from every single one of them to enjoy and exalt him forever.

Every single people group in the world, not just one type of person, every type of person in the world, there’s no king like that who deserves the praise of every single people group in the world. So this is truth number one.

We have to move a little faster if we’re going to get through this. So that’s truth number one. So keep going then truth number two, the purpose of our lives is to enjoy and exalt God forever. We’ve already talked about that. I want to bring this into your lap though.

The purpose of our lives is to enjoy and exalt God forever and to lead people from all nations to enjoy and exalt God forever. So yes, you were created to enjoy God and exalt God forever.

And I might even rephrase this, but it’d be a lot longer. The way you enjoy and exalt God is by spreading the enjoyment and exaltation of God among more and more people. So joy is contagious like that. When you love something, it flows out of you that you love that thing. When you love God, it flows out of you.

You want others to know the goodness that you’ve experienced in God. So the purpose of our lives, that’s a big sentence right there. The purpose of our lives, your life. My life is to enjoy and exalt God forever and to lead people from all nations to enjoy and exalt God forever.

So maybe I just pause here and let’s take a look at our lives. Would you say coming in tonight? Yep, that’s the purpose of my life. That’s what I’m living for every day. That’s what I wake up for every morning to enjoy and exalt God.

And I want to lead people from all the nations to enjoy and exalt God because revelation seven makes clear, that this is where all of history is headed. It’s the purpose of God. And so if we are worshipers of God, then wouldn’t it make sense that we would have the same purpose as God does?

If God’s goal is for all nations to worship him and our goal is something different, then whose goal needs to change?

God has Specifically Commanded Us to Make Disciples Among All Nations

And this is the purpose of our lives, to see God enjoyed and exalted among all the nations. Now I remember when this really hit home in my life. So I had finished my undergraduate degree and had gone to seminary and I was learning more and more about places in the world and people in the world where they have never heard the gospel.

We’ll talk more about that in just a second. I’m reading in the Bible says, God, his purpose for his glory is to be known as a gospel, to spread to all the nations. We’ll talk about the great commission in a minute. And I started thinking, well, if that’s the case, then I need to move to another nation to make the gospel and the glory of God known in places where they don’t know the gospel.

And so I remember there was a particular day when the president of an international missions organization was coming to our school to preach and I was asked to take him to breakfast.

And I thought immediately I thought this was my chance. I said the night before, I said, Heather, I’m going to take this leader of this mission organization tomorrow, and we of course have been talking, praying through this in God’s word. And I said I’m going to tell him we’re ready to move to another nation and go as missionaries.

I said, is that alright with you? And she’s like, yeah, that’s alright with me. So we prayed that night. The next morning I go off to take him to breakfast. We sit down and I just start pouring out my heart.

I see this in the world, I see the need in the world. My wife and I are ready to go. What do we do? And he looked back at me for about 60 seconds, encouraging me on what I just said to him. And then he spent the rest of breakfast talking to me about the need for pastors to shepherd churches where the gospel has gone for the spread of the gospel where it hasn’t gone.

That’s what he talked about the whole breakfast. And I was so confused and I remember leaving breakfast and I went home and Heather was like, how’d it go? And I’m like, I think the president of this mission organization just talked me out of becoming a missionary.

And Heather’s face dropped and it looked like she was disappointed in me. I had done something wrong. I was like, I don’t think I did anything wrong. But as I process that, here’s what I’m so thankful that God did in my mind and my heart that day He showed me that there’s a type of person who is passionate about the spread of God’s grace and God’s glory to all the nations, but doesn’t become a missionary, doesn’t move to another nation.

There’s a type of person who is zealous to see the glory of God among all the nations, and all the peoples but doesn’t move to another nation. I don’t think that category was in my mind, but the more I thought about it, I thought, well, of course, there’s a category for that. It’s called a Christian right? Do you have the spirit of Jesus Christ in you? Because the spirit of Christ wants the world of the world for Christ.

He wants the nations for Christ. And if the spirit of Christ is in you, then you are zealous for the spread of God’s glory among all the nations. It’s what drives you because it’s what drives the spirit that lives inside of you.

God help us. We’ve taken a global mission and turned it into a compartmentalized program in the church over here for a select few people who are called to that: you got a global mission, you got worship, you got children, you got students. We’ve taken the purpose of God in history and turned it into a program in the church.

It’s not a program in the church. It’s the purpose for which we have breath to see the nations know the glory of our God, all the peoples of the world to praise his name. That’s the purpose of our lives, to enjoy and exalt God forever and to lead more and more people from more and more people, groups from all the nations to enjoy and exalt God forever.

That’s truth number two. So keep going. Truth number three, then God’s purpose is accomplished through God’s people obeying God’s commission to make disciples and multiply churches among all the nations.

So you can turn there if you want or maybe some of you might know it. But Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20 is known as great commission. Jesus says to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.

And surely I’m with you always to the end of the age. Jesus tells his disciples, go make disciples. And I’m adding multiple churches here. I’ll show you why in a second. But primarily because as disciples are made, they gather together in churches that then make more disciples and gather together in churches that then make more disciples and gather together into more and more churches. So God’s purpose is accomplished through God’s people obeying God’s commission to make disciples and multiply churches among all the nations.

Make Disciples Where There are None

So think about it this way. I’m going to put a map up here on the screen. Acts chapter 13. If you read that chapter in the Bible, you’ll see the very beginning, the church at Antioch. And here’s Antioch right here is worshiping and fasting and praying.

They’re having their saturate week, week and the spirit of God says, set apart for me, Saul, and Barnabas for the work to which I’ve called them. Now here’s a place where disciples have been made and the church has been planted, but in all these other places, there are no disciples and no churches.

And so these pink arrows illustrate where they went out of Antioch and they came down to Cyprus right here. And you know what they did? They proclaimed the gospel, they led people to Jesus and they gathered ’em together in a church. Then they moved on, they went north all the way up into Pasid, Antioch, then down to Econ and Lira and Derby.

And in all of those places, they were proclaiming the gospel, making disciples gather together in churches. And then what happens is they finish in derby and then they go back and they strengthen and encourage all these different churches.

And as you look at this picture, realize what’s happening, the purpose of God is playing out on the picture of this map. Because in all of these places where there was nobody who knew and enjoyed and exalted God, they’re coming to know Jesus.

They’re hearing the gospel, they’re entering into a relationship with God, and his church is being planted for the display of his glory. And this place and this place and this place and all these different places, the glory of God is spreading more and more people knowing and exalting God as more and more disciples are made and churches are multiplied. And this is the story of the New Testament, this happening, and we’ll dive into this even more in-depth in just a minute in many, many different places.

God’s Purpose is Accomplished Through God’s People Obeying the Great Commission

And this is how God’s purpose is accomplished in our lives. God’s glory spreads in metro Jacksonville through brothers and sisters from the church of 1122 and other churches and going out and the power of the Holy Spirit leading people to Jesus, leading people to know and joy and exalt God.

Whether it’s planting campuses, or planting churches, the gospel and the glory of God are spreading through God’s people, obeying God’s commission. And every single follower of Jesus is called to be a part of that mission. There are no spectators in the great commission. God has not saved any one of you to sideline you.

He has invited you into the greatest mission in the world, the spread of his grace and glory among all the nations through disciples made and churches multiplied. I would encourage you for some, maybe the surrender tin, tonight is God, and I want to get engaged in making disciples.

I want to lead somebody to Jesus, God to help me. I have the confidence to proclaim the gospel and share the gospel with my neighbor coworkers I’m trusting God’s going to put some people in your hearts tonight to come back with you tomorrow night and the next night to hear the gospel from your lips.

Multiplying Churches Among Nations

Tomorrow, God’s going to draw people to himself through you because of the work he’s doing in your heart right now as you join in this mission making disciples, and multiplying churches among all the nations. That leads to truth number four.

And this is so critical and I think for the most part, okay, I’m following, but this is the truth. I think we’re missing big time in the church. Number four, God has not generally commanded us to make disciples and multiply churches among as many people as possible. God has specifically commanded us to make disciples and multiply churches among all the nations.

I know that’s a lot to write down and to soak in, but I want us to think about what this is saying and it’s based on what we just quoted from in Matthew chapter 28. Go and make disciples of all the nations. It’s what we read in Revelation chapter seven, verses nine and 10, every nation, tribe, tongue,e, and people, is going to be gathered around that throne. God has not just said, make disciples and multiply churches in Jacksonville or Washington, DC God has said, make disciples and multiply churches everywhere on the planet, among all the nations, among all the people groups.

Turn one other place with me, go with me to Romans chapter 15. You’ve got to see this. Romans chapter 15. And again, if you don’t have a Bible, I think I’ll have it up here on the screen, but I want you to see this.

Romans chapter 15, verse 18. Paul writes a letter to the church of Rome talking about the need to take the gospel to more places, to new places where it hasn’t gone. And he’s asking for their help. Listen to what he says, Romans 1518, Paul says, for I will not venture to speak of anything except for what Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word deed by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God.

So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to a lyric, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. Verse 20, listen to this language. 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’ve never been told of him will see and those who’ve never heard will understand those who’ve never been told of him.

We’ll see those who have never heard, we’ll understand that’s the reason why I’ve so often been hindered from coming to you. But now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I’ve 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.

I have enjoyed your company for a while now, this is a fascinating passage of scripture. So lemme set the context now that we’ve read it for what Paul just said. Remember this map, Antioch, and they go out. This is known as the first missionary journey of Paul. They go out in all these places, plant churches, and then the kind of purple arrows are them coming back and they come back to the church of Antioch, encouraging the church there.

And then Paul gets sent out on a second missionary journey. Again, he starts in Antioch, he goes north. You’ll see into many of the places he’s already been. But then Acts chapter 16, God speaks to him, a vision from man, from Macedonia saying, come over here and help us.

They conclude God is calling them to preach the gospel in new places where the gospel had not gone. And so they go further northwest up into Philippi, Thessalonica down to Corinth. You recognize these places from the New Testament down to Ephesus, then all the way down to Jerusalem and then back up to Antioch, see the plan of God, the purpose of God playing out disciples being made, churches being multiplied in more and more places among more and more nations.

That leads to a third missionary journey. Paul again, goes out and leaves Antioch. But you’ll notice as you look at this journey, he doesn’t cover any new ground, does he? He’s going back to all the same places.

And when he gets to Corinth right here, he sits down and he writes a book or letter called the Letter to the church at Rome, Romans in your Bible. And he says there, did you hear what his language was? He said, there was no more work for me to do in these regions. Are you serious?

There is Always Work to Be Done

Like Corinth, have you ever read the first or second Corinthians? There’s work to be done there. Places messed up. There’s work to be done in all. I mean, did that mean all of these places, everybody was a Christian here? No, of course not.

There was still all kinds of work to be done there. But disciples had been made, churches had been multiplied. Churches that were doing that work, Paul said, we’ve got to keep going to where the gospel hasn’t gone.

This is the impulse of the spirit of God and the people of God. We don’t stop with just going to places where the gospel is gone. We keep pressing on to where the gospel hasn’t gone. So Paul writes this letter. So one more map that’ll kind of illustrate a broader picture. Here’s Antioch again over here. Here’s Corinth right here, and here’s Rome. So Paul left Antioch and came to Corinth.

He’s on his way down to Jerusalem to take an offering to the church there in Jerusalem in the middle of a famine. And then he says, from Corinth, once I go to Jerusalem, I want to come to you in Rome. Why? Because I want you to help me get to Spain. Why? Because they haven’t heard the gospel in Spain.

And we must as the people of God with this purpose of God for all nations to know and enjoy and exalt him forever, we’ve got to keep pressing on where the gospel hasn’t gone. We can’t stay and just focus on places where the gospel has gone.

And that’s the great commission Jesus has said, make disciples not just among certain types of people, but among all types of people everywhere. A specific command makes disciples of all the nations. You say, well thanks for the New Testament history lesson, but what does this matter for the purpose of my life?

Here’s how it matters. Here’s a map of the world today and on this map of the world, you’ll see three main colors, green, yellow, and red. The green areas of this map represent areas in the world that are classified as reached by the gospel. Meaning there are disciples who’ve been made and churches have been planted in those places.

Again, obviously, that doesn’t mean everybody in these places is a follower of Jesus, it doesn’t mean there’s no need. We know, you know there’s a need in Jacksonville, there’s a need in Washington DC without question.

And by God’s grace, there are churches in Jacksonville, Washington, DC that are spreading the gospel and these places that are green and the places that are yellow, there’s still a church presence, but a more either nominal church or a weaker church. So there are churches, but maybe the gospel’s not being proclaimed in them or Christianity has been on the decline, but there’s still gospel access in those places.

When you get to the red, those are places in the world that are classified as unreached by the gospel. Now let’s clarify what we mean when we say unreached. Unreached doesn’t just mean lost. People are just as lost in sin apart from God if they’re in Jacksonville or if they’re in Saudi Arabia. So people are just as lost.

What it means to be unreached is it means you’re lost and you don’t have access to the good news of God’s grace in Jesus. Nobody’s told you, and you don’t have Christians and churches around you that can tell you that if you’re unreached, the likelihood is you’ll be born. You live and you’ll likely die without ever even hearing the gospel, meeting a Christian, encountering a church.

So don’t say, I don’t know why we talk about unreached people around the world. I mean there are unreached people in my office or there are unreached people in my neighborhood. It’s not true. Those people are not unreached. So how do you know? Because they’re in your office, they’re in your neighborhood, they have access to the gospel. You speak, but they have access. We’re talking about people in the world.

Share the Gospel

Who doesn’t have access, who doesn’t know a Christian who can share the gospel with them? Don’t have a church that’s gathering together on a Wednesday night to sing and celebrate the gospel and spread it. They’re unreached.

You say, well, how many people are in that category? Approximately 3 billion out of 16,000 people groups, approximately 7,000 people groups in the red. Now with that picture in your mind, people who’ve never heard the gospel, and I should, this would be like a whole nother sermon.

But when you hear somebody’s born and live and die without ever hearing the gospel, there’s a prevailing thought, I think in many Christian’s eyes, that surely they will be able to go to heaven even if they’ve never heard the gospel. But if that’s where your mind goes, which I feel the emotional pull there, I mean they’re talking about 3 billion people, but if they go to heaven without ever hearing the gospel, how’d they get to heaven?

Apparently, Jesus was not necessary. You’ve just gone to a place that you don’t want to go. Biblically, theologically and Jesus is not necessary,y or hearing the gospel is not necessary. Let’s just follow that out for a second. If that were true,

Well, then what’s the worst thing we could do for those people? Take them to the gospel, right? If not hearing the gospel classifies you for heaven, then the last thing we need to do is go tell them the gospel and be like, thanks a lot. You were a hundred percent going to heaven. Now we might go to hell.

Certainly, that misses the whole point of the New Testament. This is why Romans were written. How will they believe if they don’t hear? And how will they hear if somebody doesn’t go to them? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. They need to hear the word of Christ in order to be saved.

Jesus is Necessary for Salvation

Jesus is necessary for salvation. The proclamation of the gospel is necessary, but feel what that means though. We’re talking about 3 billion people who are on a road that leads to an eternal hell and nobody’s even told them how they can go to heaven, all who have the spirit of Christ in you hear that? But don’t just hear it, feel that.

And then lemme take one step deeper. So we in our churches, I’m talking broadly in churches, either 1122 NBC where I pastor or wherever it might be, we give hundreds of billions of dollars in churches to all kinds of things to building staff, programs, all kinds of things. And then a small portion of that in collective churches goes toward missions. This compartmentalized program we have over here missions, but you do the research, we’ve done the research,

And what you’ll find is that out of the money churches give to missions, 99%, approximately 99% of those resources, do you know where they go? They go to green areas on this map. We think of missions, we think of Latin America, we think of these parts of Africa, these parts of Asia, maybe even some parts of Europe.

Approximately 99% of our resources are going to places where the gospel has already gone. And I want to be clear, it’s not that we don’t want to come alongside our brothers and sisters in those places, nor that there’s good work to be done in those places. Sure there is, but we’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re obeying the great commission when we’re ignoring the nations that most need Jesus.

We’re not obeying the great commission. We are disobeying the great commission. If that command is just to make disciples among as many people as possible, well then sure we are. I mean, if you go to these places, you can get a lot more numbers. People saved in churches planted. You go to Afghanistan, you go to Saudi, you go to Morocco, you go to Pakistan, you’re not going to have a lot of great numbers to report back.

You might even have declining numbers. Just got to report this week from work we’re doing in Afghanistan, house churches, his dad and his nine-year-old daughter came to faith in Christ, became a part of the church, and the dad’s wife and the mom and the daughter went, got her father and her brothers and came back and they killed her infidel husband and her nine-year-old daughter. These places in the world are unreached for a reason.

They’re hard to reach, they’re difficult to reach. They’re dangerous to reach. All the easy ones are taken. And if we as the church and we in our lives don’t focus on getting the gospel to them, then we will be found in our day to be missing the whole point. We’ll get to the end. We realize we missed the point.

It’s not that there’s not a lot of good things to do by any means. So many good things by God’s grace we’re doing. But if we’re not living for the purpose of God to see all the nations, all of them, all of the peoples of Afghanistan, the Pashtun Afghanistan and the Somalis and the Berber of Morocco, the way of East Asia,

Don’t Miss the Purpose of Your Life

Yemeni Arabs, if we’re not living to see the gospel go to them, if that’s not what we’re doing with our lives and our churches, we’re missing the point. Which leads to truth number five. If you are not living and dying to enjoy God and exalt God among all the nations, then you are missing the purpose of your life.

If you are not living and dying to enjoy God and exalt God, just like we started, like you’re made to be satisfied in God, not the stuff of this world, it’ll all fade away. It’s all going to burn up in the end. You’re made to enjoy God and exalt God among all the nations. This is where all of history is headed. The train of history is headed toward there. If you don’t jump on that train, you miss the point altogether.

You’re missing the purpose of your life. Or maybe if I were to switch that around and make it a little more positive, if you are living and dying to enjoy God and exalt God among all the nations, you are experiencing the purpose of your life and that’s the purpose, God and his word is calling all of us too.

You say, well, wait a second, I thought my purpose was to love my spouse, I love my kids and do this and that and be a faithful member of the church. Yes, yes, yes. A million times, yes to all these things because this is what it means to enjoy God. It means to walk with God and obedience to his commands, all of his commands.

Yes, enjoy God. But it’s not just about you. You have the greatest news in the world and 3 billion people in the world don’t even have access to it. So what do you do? This should change the way you pray. You start thinking, wait a minute, are you saying we all need to move overseas? No, that’s the whole point.

That was the old story from the beginning. You have the spirit of Christ in you. Just say, that’s what some need to just come and fall on your face. And I say, here I am. Spin me for this purpose however you want, whatever that means. That means I stay here. That means I go there. But just think this could start.

Pray for the Spread of the Gospel

You can be a part of fulfilling this purpose before you get out of bed in the morning, like the alarm goes off, hit it and pray for the spread of the gospel in North Korea you say, I mean, just pray. Yes, just pray. God has ordained our prayers to be the means by which his purposes are accomplished in the world.

You look in Exodus 32, oh, that’d be a great text to dive into. We don’t have time to, but in Exodus 32, Moses is interceding on behalf of a people who are under God’s wrath. Moses says, please don’t show your wrath.

Do you know what God does? He relents and he doesn’t show his wrath In response to Moses’ prayer, you pray, God acts. That’s the way it’s designed. You say, well, I prayed for a lot of things that God didn’t act on. Well, oh man, I’ve dove in way too deep here. That’s true. But God’s working in all kinds of ways. We can trust his wisdom and His power. But the whole point is the whole point.

Matthew 9:37 to 38, the harvest is plentiful. Workers are few. What do you do? Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers into his harvest field. You and I can be a part of what God’s doing in Somalia from our knees every day, and what God’s doing in North Korea from our knees every single day.

The question is, is that what we’re doing every single day, or are we so focused on our lives right here that we forget to pray for the purpose of God in the nations, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name? Your kingdom comes.

Your kingdom comes in Pakistan, your kingdom comes in Afghanistan, your kingdom, come here in all these different places, your glory, your name, be hallowed. This is what we pray for God to cause your name to be known as holy and cause the name of Jesus to be exalted.

I think I was in South Korea not long ago when that country went from being less than 1% Christian, around 1900 to having 10 million followers of Jesus in 2000. Just imagine that. Imagine a country right now that’s less than 1% Christian like Afghanistan a hundred years from now having 10 million followers of Jesus.

How is that possible? The story of the church in South Korea is a story of a church that prayed. They fast and pray. They pray all night together. They rise at four in the morning to pray together every single day, and they’ve seen God move in power. Don’t underestimate what you can do as an individual and as a family.

Gather around with your kids, and plead for the spread of God’s glory among the nations. Tell your kids they can be a part of what God’s doing in Afghanistan from their knees and do that as a church.

And then praying and giving. God has put us in one of the wealthiest places ever to exist on planet Earth. Why has he done that? He’s not done it so we can have more stuff. He’s done it for the spread of his glory among all the nations. That’s his purpose.

So God helps us to use our resources toward that end for his purpose and then the opportunities we have to go. Like Paul, he’s writing this, and Corinth, he’s about to get on a boat to go down to Jerusalem.

He has to get on another boat eventually and change to get to Rome, and we can fly anywhere in the world in 24 hours. We can be a part of what God’s doing in the world in so many different ways. So yes, starting right here. Yes, one, God has brought the nations to our front door.

Reach Out to People Who Don’t Look or Talk Like You

There are all kinds of people groups represented in a city like Jacksonville. Don’t just reach out with the gospel of people who look like you, talk like you think. You reach out to all the people around you. Make disciples who make disciples, lead people to Jesus here who follow in Jesus for the spread of his glory among the nations.

And then be open to wherever God might lead you. I heard students mention earlier tonight that, like students, I will give you a picture of Mormon high school seniors. Almost all of them when they graduate are planning to spend a year of their life somewhere else in the world spreading a false gospel.

If they’re that committed to spreading a false gospel, then what are we doing in the church of Jesus Christ with the true gospel? Why are we not raising our kids to spend years of their lives not pursuing this or that, but pursuing the spread of the gospel among the nations? And where are the parents who are going to be bold enough to raise their kids to go to those kinds of places?

And then college students, anybody in college here? Is there anybody in college here? Okay, few of you. I don’t have a direct word from God for you, but I have something close to it. I can’t point you to a verse, but sometime in this unique time in your life, spend a summer semester, a year, or a couple of years, somewhere else in the world where the gospel hasn’t gone. And maybe, I mean, God will use you during that time.

Maybe God will work in your heart in such a way that you decide to stay there. And I’m sure this church will send your bags to you. You don’t even have to come back or maybe you come back but you live in Jacksonville or wherever else. God might lead you with a totally different perspective on life and your purpose in this world and all the way up.

I think about professionals around this room, and the opportunities there are to work around the world, among the nations for the spread of God’s glory to leverage business, nursing, engineering, and teaching. And why is the default work here when that many people have never heard the gospel? And then retirees, what if Uncle Sam’s paycheck is not intended just for golf?

What if it’s intended for the spread of the gospel to people who’ve never heard it? What do you want to be doing in your last years before you see your savior’s face? I read the other day about Malaysia. They’ve got a whole, one of the most unreached places in the world, malaise some of the most unreached people in the world.

They have a whole retirement plan set up to try to lure Westerners to come retire over there. So go live it up in Malaysia for the spread of the gospel there. This should not be an abnormal kind of conversation. This should be an everyday conversation for the spirit of Christ and people who are living for the purpose of God in the world.

I let me, lemme close with this, lemme close with this, and then I want to lead us and to just time for you to respond. However, God is leading you to respond. I’m guessing there are some of you who are thinking. I mean really what kind of difference can I make among nations? 3 billion people

And obviously, not one of us is called to reach 3 billion people. This mission is on God’s shoulders and he’s invited you and I to be a part of it. But if you’re thinking, I don’t know, I mean, what role could I play?

Really, I want to show you that map we looked at has Antioch over here in Corinth and Rome, if you’ll notice, and it’s probably really hard to see, but there’s a little bit of yellow around some of these places like around Rome, a little bit of yellow there around Antioch, a little bit of yellow and around Jerusalem or yellow.

That yellow represents areas that were known to contain Christians at the beginning of Paul’s ministry at the beginning of Acts 13 when that church sent out two people. Now, in just a second, I want to show you a map that shows the areas known to contain Christians at the end of Paul’s ministry. And I want you to see if you can tell the difference.

Are you ready? See all that yellow light up those places where the gospel hadn’t gone now had gone, disciples have made church has been multiplied, but you’ll notice what’s not yellow on this map, right, Spain?

From all we know, Paul died in Rome without ever getting to Spain. So does that mean you failed, Paul? You tried, but we really didn’t have the impact that you wanted to have. Well, before we draw that conclusion, I want to show you one more map that shows the regions known to contain Christians within two short centuries after Paul’s death.

And I want you to see if you can tell the difference. Look at this map with me. And as you look at that map, I just want to encourage you, don’t underestimate for a second what God will do through a heart, totally committed, surrendered to his purpose in the world. Don’t underestimate for a second, don’t underestimate for a second the impact God wants to use your life to have on that map. On this person or that person in that manner.

Pray to Be in Line with the Spirit of God

So Will you pray with me? God, I trust we’ve heard from you. God, I pray that everything I’ve said has been in line with your word and your spirit. So now we come to this time to respond, and God, we want to respond. However you’re calling us to respond, God, we want to do whatever you’re calling us to do.

God, there is a confession in our lives that needs to happen. We pray that you will lead us into confession right now. God, I pray for people all across this room and other locations for anyone who has never put their trust in Jesus, that tonight would be the night when they come to know and enjoy you, that they would come to the front, even just fall in their face and say, God, I want to know you.

I want to try. I don’t want to miss the point. And God, for your church to say in a fresh way tonight, much like Acts 13, worshiping and praying, fasting, we would come before you and your spirit. Even right now, God, would your spirit be set apart? Some Pauls and Barnabas are in this room? Would you bring people to a place of deeper surrender to your purpose?

In such a way that days, months, years, decades from now, there will be people on that map hearing the gospel for the first time because of what you did in this room tonight. God, we pray for that, we pray that you would give us the courage to respond and obedience to the leadership of your spirit and your word right now.

We pray this all together in Jesus’ name, amen. You stand with me. As you stand, these altars are going to be open, and I want to invite you just to start making your way down to the front if you need to get alone with the Lord. Or maybe it’s not just alone. Maybe it’s you and your spouse.

Maybe it’s you and your family, you and a friend, and just to come before God and say, God, here we are. We need to confess sin in this way. God, we need to be saved from our sins. God, we want to surrender our lives to you.

I invite you to start making your way down to the front as we sing in worship, to the God who’s worthy of all the praise and all the nations. I want to invite you to respond, cry out to him, and surrender to Him according to the leadership of the Spirit in your life in this room right now.