Unreached by the Gospel

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Unreached by the Gospel

Well, if you have a Bible and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to Romans Chapter One is where we’re going to start and we will land in chapter 10. And while you’re turning there, I just want to say that it is sincerely an honor to be at College Park this morning.

Specifically, I want you as a church family to know how thankful I am for your pastor and his encouragement and example to me and friendship with me, especially amidst a variety of challenges over recent years and then even beyond a personal level, weep with me and dark clouds, deep mercy have ministered to me and my family and ways far beyond what he could ever know. My wife has given out dark clouds, and deep mercy to so many people that I sincerely believe Mark owes us a portion of those royalties.

In all seriousness, I’m thankful for Mark Vega and for this church for your perseverance in the gospel over the years, even in recent years, and for the privilege of partnership together in the gospel.

As Nate mentioned, just knowing how this church has given by God’s grace, millions of dollars to work around the world to this Christmas offering over the years and so to have the opportunity with radical to partner together, specifically doing ministry on the front lines of urgent, spiritual and physical need in places like Afghanistan in the world whereas Nate mentioned, you can’t do some of the traditional sorts of things, but there are ways that we can and must work together to use our resources to get behind getting the gospel to people who’ve never heard it in really hard places.

This leads right into what I want to speak about this morning, and I only have a few minutes to address the greatest injustice in the world. So I’m going to jump right in and tell you where all of this is going at the end of our time together in the world, a few minutes from now, I’m going to offer you a specific invitation to stand right where you are in this room.

If you would be willing to put a stake in the ground today and say the following, I’ll put it up here on the screen. If you would be willing to say, God, I will do whatever you call me to do, no matter what it costs to get the gospel to people who have never heard it.

God, I will do whatever you call me to do, no matter what it costs to get the gospel to people who have never heard it. So the key words in this statement are, God, this is you potentially standing before God.

This is not about standing because someone else is standing or you think you should stand or you would feel bad sitting. This is about you soberly saying to the God who made you, who loves you, saying you will do whatever, no strings attached. God, I will pack my bags and move somewhere else, anywhere else in the world if you want me to.

Commitment to God Requires Sacrifice

That means selling my possessions, that means to rearrange the plans I have for my life or my family or my marriage or parenting, and making major decisions in my life now, in the future, and for the rest of my life. This is saying God, whenever, wherever, however, whatever you call me to do, no matter the cost, knowing there is absolutely no way for you to carry out this commitment without cost, without sacrifice.

This is not for everybody. Many of you are not ready to say this, so don’t stand. We’re talking about sacrifice. To do what? To get the gospel, the good news of God’s love in Jesus to people, to women and men and kids and young adults and senior adults and students.

People just like you and me who follow this have never heard it. People who’ve never heard the gospel. So lemme show you a map up here on the screen that some of you may be familiar with.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you should be familiar with it. So there are three main colors on this map, green, yellow, and red. The green represents areas that are classified in the world as reached with the gospel.

Obviously that doesn’t mean that everyone who lives in these areas is a follower of Jesus. We know that, but these are places in the world where the gospel has come and disciples have been made and churches have been planted and people have access to the gospel.

People have others around them or their individual Christians or churches that are proclaiming the gospel, singing, celebrating the gospel like we are today. Yellow areas on this map are places that are less reached by the gospel usually in one of two directions.

Either there used to be more access to the gospel there. Think about places in Europe for example, and there is less and less access to the gospel.

Fewer Christians, fewer churches proclaim the gospel or maybe they have recently come to that area. It’s starting to grow and be more accessible, but there are still a variety of people who’ve not been reached by the gospel in the yellow. And then you have the red and the red is where we see unreached people in the world, people who don’t have access to the gospel.

Let’s be really clear, when we use the word unreached, we don’t just mean lost, so people are just as lost in Indianapolis as they are in Saudi Arabia. If you’re in sin apart from God, apart from faith in Jesus, you’re lost.

The difference is in Indianapolis, there are Christians in churches proclaiming the gospel so you have access to it. If you are in Saudi Arabia, there are very few Christians, very few churches, so you don’t have access to the gospel. This is why we 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. You say, how do you know? Because they’re in your office,

They’re in your neighborhood, they have access to the gospel. You’re it. We’re talking about people. So practically, if you live in the red, what that means is you’ll be born live, and die. And the likelihood is you’ll never even hear the gospel. Nobody will tell it to you.

And in this red area in the world, there are approximately 3.2 billion people, 3.2 billion people who are being born and living and dying without ever hearing the gospel. That will continue to happen until somebody goes and tells the gospel to them or if the few believers who are there don’t get help and support. And here’s the deal, I actually believe we can reach these areas of the world in our day, not any one of us individually, but together as the church.

Think about the world we live in today, globalization, urbanization, ease of travel, and new technologies. We have more opportunities to spread the gospel in the world than ever before in history, the church in the first century could have only dreamed about the opportunities we have to reach the nations.

It took them months to sail from one city to the next. We can get to the other side of the world in a day. They had to write letters that would take weeks, or months to be delivered via social media, translation software, and the metaverse, we can communicate with people around the world in real-time from a device in our pockets.

I look out across this room, I obviously don’t know all of you, but I see people with all kinds of different jobs and degrees and resources and opportunities that can open doors for the spread of the gospel in the red. So for medical students or nurses or doctors in the room, I could point you right now to just about any job you could want in the heart of the Middle East if you’d be willing to go there.

The same is true for teachers engineers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders and fitness specialists that could go on and on. So many opportunities in the middle of the red in addition to jobs that we can get here in one of the wealthiest places in the world where we can give and sacrifice to support the spread of the gospel there.

But it all starts with saying, God, I will do whatever you call me to do no matter what it costs to get the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. And in order to lead to this invitation, for some of you to stand and to say this, I actually want to do something a little different.

What Happens If We Do Not Follow God’s Calling?

I want to flip the idea around a moment and ask the question, what if we don’t stand and say this? In other words, what if we don’t do whatever God calls us to do? What happens if we don’t sacrifice?

We don’t get the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. What happens to 3.2 billion people when they die if we don’t get the gospel to them? That’s a pretty important question, isn’t it?

For 3 billion people in the world, and I think for most Christians in America where the gospel has come, either we don’t realize there are 3 billion people in the world who’ve never heard the gospel or we think they’ll be okay when they die, they’ll go to heaven. That’s the only answer I can come up with for why we are not talking about this all the time in the church and in Christianity here.

If we believed 3 billion people were dying and going to hell without even hearing about heaven, I think we’d be talking about this all the time. We got to do something not just a couple of times a year and not just a few people who are going to focus on this.

This is all of us. We’ve got to pull together our resources. This is not tolerable. 3 billion people in the world going to hell. They’ve never even heard how to go to heaven. We can’t just turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this.

We long for justice, right? Is there any greater injustice than 3 billion people going to hell while all the people who know how to go to heaven sit back and do little to nothing?

Which is by the way, what we are doing. We’ve done the research we spend, we know most of our money on ourselves and what we want in this world that’s not going to last. And then we give some of our money to churches or ministries, which we then spend on making church comfortable for ourselves, but then a small portion of our giving individually.

And then this church goes to what we call missions like work around the world in other countries, a very small portion. But did you know even out of that small portion, approximately 99% of what we give to work around the world actually goes to green places on this map?

Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, parts of Europe and Asia. God opens our eyes even when we pat ourselves on the back because we’re giving to missions, we’re still ignoring the 3 billion people in the world who most need the gospel, which makes sense I guess if the people in the red are going to heaven, but it makes no sense if they’re going to hell.

So what does the Bible say? What does God tell us in his word happens to them? And I just want to show you what the Bible says about them, what God tells us about them in a way that should leave us with a clear answer to what happens if we don’t do whatever God calls us to do, no matter the cost to get the gospel to them.

Lemme encourage you to write this down either physically or at least imprint it on your mind and your heart. What God tells us about these 3.2 billion people in the world. So first thing we know about them is that they have knowledge of God.

So if you want to follow along, Romans chapter one, verse 18 says, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godless and wickedness of men who suppress the truth of God by their wickedness. Since following this what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them for sins to creation of the world.

God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse for although they knew God, they have knowledge of God. Plain and simple, every single person in the red, regardless of where they live in the world, has knowledge of God.

Now, of course, they don’t all acknowledge or believe in God, which leads to the second truth. They have all rejected God. Verse 21, for although they knew God, they neither glorified him, has God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened, although they claimed to be wise, they became fools in exchange for the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies of one another. They exchanged following the truth of God for a lie and they worshiped served, and created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Amen.

Now to be clear, this is not just talking about them, this is talking about us and every single person in the world, whether you’re in the green or yellow or red, this is the reality of sin in every person’s heart, in your heart, in my heart and in every person around the world, we have all sinned against God. We’ve all turned aside from God’s ways to our own ways, from God’s truth to our own thoughts, which then leads to truth number three, again talking about those in the red, but in a way that applies to all of us.

None of them are innocent before God. These initial verses in Romans are some of the most sobering in all of the scripture from Romans 1:18-16. The Bible talks about the sinfulness of the Gentiles, the people outside of the Jewish people, and then verse 17 of chapter two, God begins to talk about the sinfulness of the Jewish people all the way to chapter three verse eight.

And we get to chapter three verse nine. It says, what shall we conclude? Then in light of all this, it is written, that there is no one righteous, not even one, no one who understands, no one who seeks God all have turned away.

They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. None of them are innocent before God. All of them are guilty of sin before. Oh, holy God.

And here’s why this is so important, because the way this question is most often asked, someone will say, well, what happens to the innocent man or woman or child in this part of the world who’s never heard the gospel? What happens to them when they die?

And if you were to ask me that question, I would say in response without hesitation, 100% confidence that that person, even though they’ve never heard the gospel, will go to heaven when they die. I mean, if they’re innocent, they have no need for good news about someone to save them from their sin, of course, they’ll go to heaven.

The only problem is they don’t exist. There are no innocent people in the world just waiting to hear the gospel. You see how we bias the question toward ourselves and away from God from the beginning as if God is doing some unjust thing to innocent people like you and me.

There are no innocent people in the world. There are guilty people all over the world. That’s why they need the gospel. None of them are innocent before God, which leads to truth number four, they all stand condemned for rejecting God.

The Whole World is Held Accountable to God

It’s Romans 3, 19 20. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that follow this, every mouth is silenced. The whole world is held accountable to God.

No one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law, rather to the law we become conscious of sin. In other words, not only are people guilty, but there’s no amount of good we can do to overcome our guilt.

All people are condemned for rejecting God and following this. This is true regardless of whether or not people have heard the gospel. And that’s really important because I think many Christians have the idea that these people in the red will go to heaven because they have not rejected the gospel.

They haven’t even heard it. So surely God is loving and will let them into heaven. But if that was the case, if they’re not hearing the gospel gives them some sort of pass into heaven because they never had a chance to hear, then what’s the worst thing we could do for their eternity?

Go tell them the gospel. Right before we got there, a hundred percent of them were going to heaven because they hadn’t heard the gospel. Now that we shared the good news with them, they could go to hell.

Thanks a lot. They would say, just keep the good news to yourself. Now, this would undercut the whole command of Jesus to make disciples of all the nations. The reality is even if people haven’t heard or rejected the gospel, they stand condemned for rejecting God.

Again, these are some of the most sobering verses in the Bible. I just picture Paul in Romans chapter three, verse 20 in tears overwhelmed by the sinfulness in his own heart and in the world. But then I picture him wiping the tears, picking back up the pen, and writing. But now a righteousness from God apart from the law has been made known.

And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe there is no difference for all have sinned and what fall short of the glory of God and our don’t just memorize the bad news like the good news, they are justified. See it freely by his grace through the redemption that came from Christ Jesus.

That’s worth memorizing. Don’t just memorize the bad news, the good news is truth number five about them. God loves them and God has made a way of salvation for them. Just as God loves us, God loves them.

This is the gospel. It’s the greatest news in the world. God has made a way for us to be saved from our sins. Jesus has come. He has lived a life we could not live a life of no sin. And then even though he had no sin for which to die, he chose to die on a cross to pay the price for sinners.

Then the good news keeps getting better because he didn’t stay dead for long. Three days later, he rose from the grave conquering sin and death so that anyone anywhere in the world, no matter who you are or what you have done, if you turn from their sin, and put their trust in Jesus, they’ll be forgiven of all your sin and restored your relationship with God for all of eternity.

This is the greatest news in the world. I think about being in one of those places in the red and sitting outside a temple and it was a temple to this one particular religion. And I’m talking with two guys, one who goes to that temple, another one who goes to a temple for another religion, and then me.

So the three of us are talking and they keep telling me, they say we believe, we call, we believe different things, but fundamentally our beliefs are the same. We may use different terms and have different practices, but our religions are the same.

I’m just listening. Finally, I said, it’s almost like you guys picture God or whatever you want to call him at the top of a mountain and we’re all at the bottom of a mountain and I may take this path up and you may take this path up, but in the end, we’ll find ourselves in the same place.

And they smiled. They said, exactly, you understand? I said, lemme ask you a question. What would you think if I told you that the God at the top of the mountain didn’t wait for us to find a way up to him, but he actually came down the mountain to where we are and brought us to himself?

They said that would be great. I said that is the difference. Let me introduce you to Jesus. God has made the way of salvation for us. It’s the greatest news in the world. And that good news is not just for us, it’s for them, which leads to truth number six, they cannot come to God apart from faith in Jesus.

It says Romans 3 27 through 30 where then is boasting, it’s excluded. A what principle that of observing the law. No, but that of faith. If we maintain that a man is justified and made right before God by faith, apart from observing the law, not based on what we do, based on trusting in who Jesus is and what he has done is God.

The God of Jews only. It’s not the God of Gentiles two, yes of Gentiles, citizens. There’s only one God who will judge the circumcised Jewish people by faith and they uncircumcised the Gentiles through that same faith.

How Can People Put Their Faith in Someone They Have Never Heard of?

This is how people can be saved from their sins by faith in Jesus. But that brings us back to the question, doesn’t it? How can people put their faith in Jesus if they’ve never heard of Jesus?

That’s the exact question that Paul asks in Romans 10 that we heard read and Mandarin just a few moments ago, starting in verse 13, he says, everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they’ve not believed in and how can they believe in the one whom they’ve not heard?

And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? The picture here is crystal clear.

People can’t put their faith in Jesus. They can’t call on his name if they don’t hear about Jesus. If they don’t hear about him, they can’t call on him and they can’t be saved from their sin. So get the picture. 3 billion people cannot go to heaven if they don’t hear about the one who makes heaven possible.

It’s simple logic they won’t hear unless somebody tells them, which leads to the last thing about them. And it’s where you and I come in. Jesus has left us in this world to get the gospel to them. Jesus has left all of us, not just a few special ones, all of us in this world to do whatever he calls us to do to get the gospel to them right?

Before Jesus went to heaven, what did he tell his followers to do? One thing, not just a few of his followers. All of his followers make disciples where among all the nations, he said, I’m going to give you my spirit.

I’m going to put my spirit inside. Not just a few of you, all of you. You’re going to have my spirit on you. So you’ll be what? You’ll be witnesses where to the ends of the earth. Not just in one place, but in every place among every group of people, all the nations.

Lemme show you this and what we just read in Romans, look at the verbs and this passage in reverse. And as you do, you’ll see God’s plan for making the gospel known to all the nations. Follow this with me.

We’ll start here with sending. So it all starts with Jesus sending his followers, not a few, all of his followers sending them out with the gospel to do what? To preach it. Now, when you hear preach, don’t picture standing behind a podium in front of a large group of people like yes, that.

But on a very basic level, just looking at somebody else in the eye and telling them the good news, proclaiming the good news of how they can be saved from their sin. That’s preaching.

That’s what Jesus sends all of his followers to do, to be witnesses, to preach. And what happens when we preach what will happen? People will hear. So unless we’re just speaking to a wall or to ourselves, people will hear and if they hear what will happen, they will believe.

Now, obviously we know not everyone who hears the gospel believes, but we know how the end of this story goes. Revelation chapter seven verses nine and 10 says, one day a multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language is going to gather around the throne of our God praises for his salvation.

You know what that means? That means all those people groups that are represented on that wall out there, you can go to any single one of them. You can proclaim the gospel and somebody’s coming out, somebody’s going to believe from, they’re all going to be around the throne.

So people will believe and when they believe, what will they do? They’ll call. And everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be what? Saved. Saved. So here’s the plan. So let’s look back then and ask, where could this plan break down?

Will those who call the name of the Lord be saved? Yes, everyone. Will those who believe call in his name? Yes. Will those who hear believe, again, not everybody, but some will guarantee.

Is Jesus Still Sending Followers?

When this good news is proclaimed and preached, will people hear it unless we’re talking to a wall? Yes. Is Jesus still sending followers? Is she taking a generation off? Has he said, Hey, most of you just sit back and coast through this comfortable Christianity?

This will be for a few people. No. The only potential point where this whole plan breaks down is when followers of Jesus sent by him do not give their lives no matter what it costs, getting the good news to those who’ve never heard it.

That’s the only potential breakdown. When followers of Jesus say, we’re just going to live our lives in places where the gospel has gone and we’re going to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to them, we’re going to create a whole culture of Christianity that practically ignores them. This is what we have done.

And I want to urge you today, not a special group of people when I say, God, I’ll do whatever you call me to do, no matter what it is called. This isn’t a signing up to move overseas tomorrow. This is a saying.

If you want me to do that, I’ll do that. If you want me to stay here in Indianapolis, I’ll do that. I’ll do whatever you call me to do. If you want me to pack my bags and move to the Middle East, I’ll do that.

You’re willing to say that to Jesus. I mean, just say, if you’re not willing to say that, you need to ask the question, are you actually following Jesus? Because this is what it means to follow Jesus. Anyone would come after me.

He must deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. You’ve sacrificed the right to determine the direction of your life. This is not just prayer. Prayer goes through casual, comfortable Christianity until you get to heaven.

That’s not biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity says I’ll do whatever you call me to do. This isn’t just for a few missionaries. This is for followers of Jesus to say, here’s my life, spin me however you want.

This is why I’m all on this planet. I want to make this good news known among the nations. This is why my marriage exists. I want to glorify your name among the nations. Psalm 34, verse three. This is why exists.

I want to raise kids who love Jesus and want to accomplish a great commission more than they want great money, great careers, great jobs, anything else in this world. This changes the way we view Christianity.

And I’m urging you today based on the authority of God’s word to refuse to settle for a casual, comfortable Christian spin on the American dream and to spend your life doing whatever God calls you to do, no matter what it costs you, whether here or anywhere else in the world, getting the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. You say, well, I’m only one person.

What can I do? And I would just say, of course, you are. God made you that way. You’re one person. But so I know I’ve mentioned 3 billion over and over again, but these are individual people. See them. We’re talking about Afghanistan.

Her people group is P, and it’s the largest people group in Afghanistan. She and her close-knit tribe live by a code of protecting each other’s honor, and showing generous hospitality. She works hard for her family day in and day out in a barren mountainous region where she lives.

We’re talking about the heaingl in Somalia. He lives in the capital Mogadishu port city just north of the equator on the Indian Ocean. Many of the men he knows have left Somalia, but he stayed in this impoverished country convinced is the best way he can care for his parents, his wife, and his kids.

We’re talking about Amir and Aaliyah and Yemen, older brother, and younger sister. They still possess childlike zeal for life even though they live in the middle of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world right now, surrounded by civil war and conflict that they were born into with parents who struggle every single day to find food for them.

Can we just hear what Jesus is saying about each of them? They all ra to heal Amir and Aaliyah, they all have knowledge of God. They have all rejected God. They’re all guilty of sin. They all stand before God condemned for their sin.

Yet God loves each one of them. God loves a Jira. God loves to heal. God loves Amir. God loves Aaliyah so much that he sent his son Jesus God in the flesh to give his life so they could have eternal life with him.

But they can’t experience eternal life with him if nobody tells them about Jesus. And Jesus is saying to his church right now, I’ve left you here for a reason. And it’s not to spend your life on stuff that won’t last.

Open your eyes and see what matters. 3 billion Haas, Haas, and he heals and Amirs and EIRs on our road right now that leads to an eternal hell. And nobody’s even told them how they can go to heaven. And some of us are still thinking, but how can that be just of God?

And it is just like us in our sinfulness to question the justice of God as we directly disobey the commands of God. See it. Do you want justice? Give your life. Do whatever he calls you to do to alleviate eternal suffering, eternal poverty, eternal slavery to sin for billions of people.

That’s the invitation for you no matter who you are, what age or stage of life you are in, you to put a stake in the ground and say, I will do God, whatever you call me to do no matter what it costs to get the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. So will you bow your heads with me?

I want to invite you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I really want to challenge you to keep your eyes closed during this time. These kinds of things. There’s just such a temptation to look around at different points.

Pray For Missionaries

But this invitation is about no one else but you and God right now. This is not about seeing how anybody else responds and it’s sure not about letting how they respond affect the way you respond as best as you can. I just want to help you look to God alone right now.

He’s the one speaking to your heart, like tune everybody else out, everything else out in just a moment. I’m going to ask you to stand if you would say, God, I will do whatever you call me to do, no matter what it costs to get to gospel people who’ve never heard it.

And really, I really want to encourage you to stand only if you’re willing to put a stake in the ground and say that before God. And some of you, for a host of reasons right now, are not at a point where you’re ready to say that at the same time.

Others of you, maybe you’ve said something like this in the past. And I want you to feel free to stand and say in a fresh way, that stake is still in the ground in my life. God, here I am. Whatever you call me to do, you alone know what God’s doing in your heart and your life right now.

But I’m praying that God will raise up a wave of Christians who will say, we’ll do whatever you tell us to do to get the gospel. People have never heard of it. And today is an opportunity for some of you to join in that.

So, God, I pray that you would help every person in this room to respond with honest authenticity and humble courage in this moment. So right now, before God, just you and God, if you would say, God, I’ll do whatever you call me to do, no matter what it costs to get the gospel of people who’ve never heard it, would you just quietly stand up where you are again, just eyes closed, like between you and God?

If you’d be willing to say that, would you just quietly stand to your feet, just you before God see him standing before him? Oh God. You see, even more than a physical eye could see right now. You see the hearts of every single person who’s standing right now.

And we pray that you are pleased, glorified, and honored with the surrender of our lives. I pray over every single person who’s standing right now for the spirit of bold faith in this moment. God, I pray that they would in a deeper way right now, just have a spirit of faith to trust in you, to lead them, guide them, direct them however you desire.

And God, I pray over them this first step. I pray over them for the next step and the next step, the next step that you will lead and guide God as long as they’re here in Indianapolis, wherever they might live if they’re visiting you, that they would make disciples of the nations wherever you have them,

And God that you would transform the way they pray for the nations, the way they give the spread of the gospel of the nations, the way they live. God, as long as you leave any one of us here, we pray that it helps us to live sacrificially here for the spread of the gospel to people who’ve never heard it.

And God, I trust that some who are standing you will lead to go in different ways, maybe even short-term trips or longer than that some to move to parts of the red. We say whatever you want us to do, God, we want to be so bold as to ask that there would be people in the red who hear the gospel for the first time from lips and live in this room.

God, we pray that the fruit of the feet who have stood, that have stood today, that the fruit of that would be good news being proclaimed in the red disciples being made and churches being planted and multiplied among the unreached God, bring it about, I pray, spend our lives however you will, and keep the adversary from distracting and diverting these who are standing in the days ahead. They would not settle for anything less than everything you call them to.

And God, I pray, I pray for those who are sitting for so many different reasons. I don’t presume to know God. I pray for anyone who’s not put their trust in you, Jesus, that they would know that you love them and you’ve made a way of salvation for them and that they might even today put their trust in you, Jesus.

And then God, for any followers of Jesus who are sitting, God I pray, I pray that you would help them remove whatever’s, keeping them from denying themselves, taking up a cross and following you. Help them to see that you’re worthy of trust, that they can trust you to save them for the next 10 trillion years, and that they can surely trust you to lead them on this earth.

And not just to lead you, lead them, but to satisfy them every step of the way and pray that you would give them faith in the days to come. They would lead to this kind of surrender. And in all of this, God, we pray that in our day, you would help us to steward this short life you’ve given us, these resources you have given us for the spread of the gospel to people who’ve never heard it.

God, we pray that there will be a massive change in the red and our day because of your grace in our lives as your church. In Jesus’ name, we pray and all God’s people said, amen. Would you all stand with me?

Let’s stand and let’s sing about the name of Jesus, about our desire to see and speak the name of Jesus, not just in our lives and our families, but over the nations. Amen.