[uplifting music] >> If you have a Bible, and I hope you are somebody who does. You can look on with, let
me actually invite you to turn and kinda be ready to look at three different places. So Matthew chapter 28
will be the first one. Then Romans chapter 15
would be the second one and then Revelations chapter
seven will be the last one. So Matthew chapter 28, Romans chapter 15, and Revelations chapter seven. While you're turning
there, I just wanna say it's an honor for me to be here at Biola. I've heard for years just
so much about God's grace in this place. And... And what God is doing here in ways that are resounding to
His glory far beyond here. And that's what I wanna speak to for the next few minutes now. When I think about, Dr. Tally
mentioned our four kids. We actually are in the process
of adopting number five, who is in China right now. We're supposed to have gone to pick him up at the very beginning of February. We're about two days away from flyin' out when we got a call that said
we couldn't go for reasons related to the virus, so. I was on a date night with my wife, Heather, just last week, was just like, "Babe, do I just need
to go like Tom Cruise, "Mission Impossible, and just [congregation laughs] "go for it, but I..." Even the story of our family, we prayed for years that
God would give us children, and He was not providing
in a way we were hoping. And so we didn't think we were able to have children biologically. The Lord used that process
to lead us to adopt our first son, Caleb, from Kazakhstan. And we came back from
Kazakhstan and about two weeks after we got back, I
got home late one night for a meeting in church
and my wife was still up. She's usually in bed earlier. She's like, "What's wrong?" She says, "You need to sit down." And I said, "What's goin' on?" She said, "You're not gonna believe this "but I'm pregnant." I was like, "How did that happen?" Well, I know how that happened but... [congregation laughs] Apparently what happened in Kazakhstan doesn't stay in Kazakhstan. Anyway, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. So... Okay, so we looked at each
other and we said, "Okay." And we've been just been
through this adoption process, been told every step of the journey, like, don't get your hopes up. You never know when
it's gonna fall through. And so we said, for
whatever reason for years, we haven't been able to have children. Like, "Let's just not get our hopes up." So we decided that day we're
gonna get our hopes up. So for next up, our hope's not up. Two months, three months, four months. Well, nine months later,
Heather was still pregnant, and our hopes were still not up. And so one night, again,
I came home late one night from church and she said, "'I'm not feelin' very good." We go sleep. She wakes up in the middle of the night. She said, "Don't get your hopes up. "I'm sure it's nothing,
but I think we at least "need to go to the
doctor, to the hospital." So it was a cold December
night when we went to the hospital. And I mentioned cold December night, because when we got to the hospital, they actually told us they
didn't have enough room for us. [congregation laughs] It's kinda like, oh, okay. [congregation laughs] You have a stable outside
with a manger, anything? [congregation laughs] So they set us up in this closet, and Heather hooked up
on a bunch of machines, and we're sitting there for hours. And then finally they come in,
they checked all these signs. And they're like, "We need
to get you into a room, "you're about to have a baby." And so that's when our
eyes locked and we decided it was time to get our hopes up. [congregation laughs] So they moved us in this room. And just a little bit about me, I don't do, this is not
good for me as a pastor, I'm don't do good in hospitals. I get nauseous, just the smell, even the thought right now of a hospital is making me a little quizzy. So Heather knew this and she
told me that she was praying for me, a couple of weeks before, that she was praying for
me and how I was gonna do in this whole birthing process, [congregation laughs] which was a bit of a
shock in my pride, like, that my wife's not for her
health or our child's health, but for my health in this process. And so we're getting things,
things are kinda getting set up in the room. And the nurse starts telling
my wife how the doctor, who's gonna deliver our baby,
actually lets the husband help deliver the baby if he wants. My wife does what you just
did, she just laughed. [laughs] My husband would never do that. Again, it was like shot
number two with the pride. And I decided this was my moment. And so it's one of those words where, one of those times where
words just start coming out of your mouth, I just said, "Well, I'll help deliver the baby." And Heather looked to me And she's like, "You will?" It's like, "Of course," like, "who wouldn't want to deliver a baby?" [congregation laughs] So the nurse says,
"I'll get things ready." I turn around I think, what
in the world am I thinking? Like, I'm nauseous standing in this room, now I'm about to deliver a child. So I decided, this is exactly
what went through my head, I decided I need to come
up with a game plan. And here was the game plan I came up with. I decided I was gonna look at this like it was a mission trip, okay? So follow with me. If you've been on a mission
trip to another country before, you do things you don't normally do. You eat things you don't normally eat. You drink things you don't normally drink. So when you're in Rome,
you do what the Romans do. When you're in the hospital,
you do what doctors do. That what they do in this country; they deliver babies, so
that's what I'm gonna do. Besides, I have a doctorate. [congregation laughs] Granted it's like in
theology in preaching, but what does it really matter? In the end, it's all the same. So that was my picture. I'm in another country. So the time comes, this
doctor comes in the room. He gets in my face. He puts a mask on me, gloves on me. He gives me that 60 seconds
worth of medical jargon that I don't understand. He said, "Do you understand?" I said, "Yes, sir." And he said, "All right, it's time." And so he said, "You should
be standing right behind me, "I'll tell you what to do." I said, "Okay." And so I was standing right there, and all of a sudden he's like,
"All right, just reach down, "put your right hand on
top of your left hand." It was like Tom Brady. [congregation laughs] I got nurses flanking me, you right here, you right here, here we go. And out comes this little child, and like time stands still as
this child we've prayed for for years I pulled out and
placed on my wife's lap as our child from Kazakhstan
is in a room beside. Well, over the next couple of years, we obviously knew we were able to have children biologically. We also knew we wanted to adopt again. So we adopted our daughter from China and then got back from adopting her, and three months later
Heather was pregnant with number four. And then we thought we're finished until about a year ago, on a date night, God just met us at a dinner table in a way we had not planned. And that turned our hearts toward adopting our child from China. So we have a three-year-old
and a three-year-old son in Northern China right now. I shared that just because
as I was praying for you this morning and for this time, my mind just immediately
went to what I pray. I pray over my kids every night Psalms 67, verse one and two, may God be gracious to you and bless you and make His face to shine upon you, that His ways remain down on earth and His saving power known
among all the nations through your life. The reason that came to my
mind when I thought about Biola is because I know that this is a place, I trust you realize where
God has given much grace. Just the gospel presence on this campus, biblical conviction in this campus. Just different people from so
many different backgrounds. Like God has given so much grace. I'm here just for some
time today and tomorrow and I was praying that God would cause some Psalm 67 connections to happen, that you'll realize that God
has given so much grace to you. But it's not ultimately for you, it is for the spread of His
glory among all the nations. So that's where I wanna
camp out right now, later tonight, tomorrow. And so here, let me set
the stage with God's word on these three texts. So I wanna read three passages and then I'm gonna time
together with five truths, and then have you out at 10:15. So here's the three texts:
Matthew 28:16 to 20. I trust you're familiar with this text. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which
Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they
worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and
on earth has been given to me. "Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, "baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son "and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. "And behold, I am with you
always, to the end of the age." This is what Jesus said
before ascended into heaven to His disciples. Now, Romans chapter 15. Romans chapter 15,
we'll start in verse 18. Paul writes, "For I will not
venture to speak of anything "except what Christ has
accomplished through me "to bring the Gentiles to
obedience, by word and 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 Illyricum "I have fulfilled the ministry
of the gospel of Christ; "and 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, "'and those who have never
heard will understand.' "This is the reason why I
have 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 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 there by you, "once I have enjoyed your
company for a while." Now Revelation chapter seven, verse nine. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that
no one could number, 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, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our
God who sits on the throne, "and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were
standing around the throne and around the elders and
the four living creatures, and they fell on their
faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! "Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor "and power and might be to
our God forever and ever! "Amen." >> Woman: Amen. >> God, I pray that You
would take Your word by the power of Your Spirit, and speak to us now. If I could be so bold, O God,
I pray that You would speak to us in a way that would change, alter the trajectory of lives in this room for Your name's sake among the nations. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Okay, here's what I wanna do. I wanna tie these three texts together with five truths, and I think they'll be
up here on the screen. There we go, all right, so five truths. Here we go. Number one: The end
goal of God is His glory known and enjoyed among all the nations. That's truth number one. End goal of God. So what is God's goal? His glory known and enjoyed
among all the nations. So I would argue, this is the theme of
Scripture from cover-to-cover in the Bible. Just a side note. I will never forget, as a college student, sitting in a breakout
seminar at a conference where Jeff Louis, who's
sitting down here on the front, was leading a small breakout. There was like 10 people in the room. And he just opened up the
Bible and walked from Genesis to Revelation, and he showed this truth. And I remember exactly
where I was sitting. I remember people getting up
after the breakout was over and just kinda walkin' out. And I'm sitting there
with my jaw on the ground because I'm realizing if this is true, this changes everything. That the end goal of God is His glory known and
enjoyed among all the nations. I would say that from that point, seeing that in a word, in God's word, altered the trajectory of my life. So I prayed what I prayed earlier. So I wish we had time to
go from cover-to-cover in Scripture but I trust it's evident in these passages. Jesus has said, "Go make
disciples, proclaim the gospel "in all the nations." The missionary impulse
of Paul in Romans 15, "I wanna see Jesus known and praised "where He's not now known." And then Revelation chapter seven. I mean, if this isn't convincing enough, all of history is headed toward
the day when every nation, tribe, tongue, people group
gathers around the throne of God seeing His praises. And who designed it that way? God designed it that way. God is orchestrating all
of history to end in Him being glorified. Just think about all of Scripture. I'm reading through the Psalms right now in my personal time with
the Lord each morning, like, the Psalms, what
an interesting book. Like, God has given us songs to sing to Him. Like, imagine, right? My wife and I just celebrated
our anniversary not long ago. Imagine me going to her
on our anniversary saying, "I have a gift for you. "I have written 150 songs
about how great I am." [congregation laughs] Like, in all of my diverse
attributes [chuckles]. And I want to give them
to you as a gift to you and you can read them to me. If you'd like, you can put them to music and sing them to me. Let me tell you what gift
I'm not giving my wife. For so many reasons I'm
not giving her that gift. But this is what God has done. Just think about Psalm 70 this morning. Just praising God for the
way He hears my cries, the way He hastens to
help me when I'm in need. And I'm just worshiping Him for that, knowing and enjoying God. And this is God's goal
that we in this room would know and enjoy Him. Now just know Him, but know and enjoy Him in a Psalm 63 kinda way. You're my God, I seek you. My soul thirsts for You. My body longs for You
in a dry and weary land where there is no water. My soul is satisfied with You more than anything else in this world, when the richest of foods; with singing lips my
mouth will praise you, Known and enjoyed. But not just you and me
knowing and enjoying God, every single tribe,
every single people group on the planet knowing and enjoying God. That's the goal that drives God. So we make sure when I
mentioned nations up here that we're thinking
Revelation seven kind of way as well as a Matthew 28 way, when Jesus says, "Make
disciples of all the nations," the word He uses there for nations, I trust many of you know
is ethne, so ethnic groups. So it's not just thinking
like geopolitical nations that we might think of 200
or so, United Nations today. So certainly that but
much deeper than that. We know that, well, in our
nation there are many different ethnic groups represented. In the church I pastor we have over 100 different countries, and all kinds of different ethnic groups among those countries. On this campus there are all kinds of different ethnic groups. So when you think about the world, think about the world
not just in 200 or so geopolitical entities,
think about the world in terms of thousands upon thousands. Some say over 11,000, some say over 16,000
distinct people groups. And the Bible is teaching that however many of them there are, there's coming a day when
every single one of them will be gathered around the throne of God singing His praises in Christ. And that is God's ultimate goal. So that's truth number one, that then leads to truth number two. If that's true, then the
end goal of every Christian, every local church, every church leader is the spread of God's
glory among all the nations. So if God's goal is His
glory known and enjoyed among all nations, every
nation, tribe, tongue, people group worshiping Him, if that's God's goal, then those who are worshipers
of God have that same goal. Just like natural logic, commonsense. If this is the God I
worship and that's His goal, then that's my goal. So I would ask you, is
that the goal of your life? Like the overarching goal of your life? The spread of God's glory
among all the nations. If that is not your goal
and it is God's goal, then I would just ask,
whose goal needs to change? This is the goal that should drive every
single follower of Christ in this room. I remember when this
really came home to me was when I was in seminary. So I've gone to college
at University of Georgia, I'd begun to see God's zeal
for His glory in all nations, had a desire to lead in the church, so I went to seminary. And the more I saw God's zeal
for His glory in all nations, the more I learned about
the nations and the number of people groups in the world that had yet to be reached by the gospel, I thought, it's a no brainer, I need to be a missionary. I need to pack my bags and move where the gospel's not yet gone. And so I remember, one day I, the president of a large international missions organization, called the International Mission Board, he was coming to speak
in chapel on our campus. And I was invited to
take him to breakfast. And so the night before, I looked at my wife Heather and I said, "I'm taking the president of the IMB, "International Mission Board, "I'm taking him to breakfast tomorrow. "I think I'm gonna tell him
we're ready to move overseas. "Is that okay with you?" And she was like, "Yes,
that's okay with me." Like, "We've prayed through
this, we've seen it." Like, "Yes." And so I take him to
breakfast the next morning. I sit down. We prayed together before I go off. I go to breakfast, I sit down, and I just say, "Dr.
Rankin," was his name, I said, "I see this all over God's word. "I see the need in the world. "It's a no brainer, my
wife and I are ready to go. "So how do we become a missionary?" And he looked back at me
and for about 60 seconds encouraged me in what I had just said. And then he spent the rest
of breakfast talking with me about the need for pastors
to shepherd, lead churches among the reached for
the spread of the gospel to nations that have not been reached. That's what he talked to
me the whole breakfast. I was so confused. [congregation laughs] Like, I went home that
day and Heather was like, "How did it go?" And I'm like, "I think
the president of the IMB "just talked to me out of
becoming a missionary." [congregation laughs] And she was like, very
disappointed, like, in me, like, "What'd you do? "You blew it, man." Like [congregation laughs],
"He doesn't want us "because you obviously didn't," so anyway, I was like, I don't know what to think. So looking back at that
day I am so thankful for that breakfast conversation, 'cause here's what it did. Dr. Rankin in that conversation, that it created a category
in my mind that I don't think was there before. I'm looking back, I don't
know why it wasn't there but it wasn't there before. So here's the category. So there's actually a type of person who is zealous for the
spread of the gospel and the glory of God among the nations. Like, zealous, like, their
heart beats for that. But they don't become a missionary. And then I begin to think, well, of course there's a category for someone like that. It's actually called a Christian. [congregation laughs] Right? Christian, do you have the
Spirit of Christ in you? The Spirit of Christ is
zealous for the glory of Christ among the nations. So every follower of
Christ should be zealous, like driven with zeal for
the spread of God's glory among the nations. This is what drives us day in and day out. This is not just for missionaries. This is for followers of Jesus. And it totally changes the
trajectory of Christianity when every single one
of our hearts is beating for the goal of God. So is your heart beating
for the goal of God? That's the question. Regardless of how that leads,
how God leads your life, how the Spirit of God leads your life. Maybe into serving as a
missionary somewhere in the world. Maybe into serving as
a pastor of a church. Maybe serving in engineering. Maybe working in teaching
or medicine or mathematics. For those of you God has
given a passion for Math. Like, all of it is for
the spread of His glory among all the nations. To see your life this way. Like, you were created
for a global purpose. You've been saved by God
with a global end in mind, and you have a part to play
in making His glory known among all nations in a
way that should drive you from the moment you
wake up in the morning. And the way you should drive
everything you think about in your degree here. How do I excel in this way
for the spread of God's glory among all the nations? That changes things when
you're thinking that way. That leads to then number three. So how do I do this? How do spread God's
glory among all nations? So the means for accomplishing this goal is the Great Commission. So this is what Jesus is giving
us in Matthew chapter 28. He's giving us instructions
for how to glorify God among all the nations. Make disciples. So I've put here "Making disciples and
multiplying churches". So making disciples,
that's leading people, leading other people to follow Jesus, teaching them to obey, being baptized, identified with Christ,
teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded. So do this work, disciple
making among all the nations. It'll make sense. The more people come to know
the grace of God in Christ, the more the glory of God spreads. When you think about
that happening right here in Southern California, think about that happening in
Washington, D.C. where I live, and think about that happening
to the ends of the earth. The more people come to faith in Christ, the more the glory of
God is known and enjoyed. And not just people
coming to faith in Christ, but then those people
gathering together in churches. This is exactly what the
New Testament is about. It's why I mentioned Romans chapter, why we read Romans chapter 15, just to put up here on a map, if you remember, we
talked about this maybe a little bit more tonight. But over here on the
right side of this map, so the Eastern portion of this map, you see Antioch there and you
see kind of a pinkish arrow going out from there. That represents Acts chapter
13 when the church of Antioch was worshiping and fasting and praying, and the spirits set apart,
Saul and Barnabas said, "Go where the gospel has not yet gone." And so they began to travel out. Those pinkish arrows kinda
represent where they went as they went out. The blue arrows represent
where they, how they came back. And all these cities
where they were going, what were they doing? They were proclaiming the
gospel, leading people to Jesus gathering those people
together and the churches and then moving on, doing
the same thing in new places where the gospel had not yet gone. This was the spread of God's
glory among the nations. Acts chapter 13 and chapter 14. And we could go on, maybe we talk about a
little bit more tonight, but how this continued
into new places after this. And part of what Paul is writing in Romans is we've got more places to get to, namely, Spain where they've
not heard the name of Jesus. So the whole story of the New Testament is the spread of God's glory through disciples being made and churches being
multiplied among new places, among new groups of people. So this is the means for
accomplishing this goal. So this just gives meaning
then to sharing the gospel right here in this community. Because as you share the gospel and you lead people to draw it to Jesus, you are participating in the plan of God for the spread of His
glory among the nations. And God's doing that right here. Like, right here. I'll tell a quick story. Like, two, three weeks ago, I was, I had to fly out really early and had to switch around some schedules. Long story, but that, man,
I had to get in an Uber like three o'clock in the morning to get through airport that's farther away from where I live. And so I jumped in this
Uber for about an hour drive and not really excited about
being in an Uber at three in the morning. But about five minutes
in the conversation, the guy asked me what I do, and I tell him I'm a pastor
of a church and he said, "I can't believe this." He said, "I gotta tell you something." Now this guy is a Muslim
man from the Middle East and he said, "I need to tell
you about a dream I had." And he said, "I had a
dream and this dream," so remember Muslims don't
believe that Jesus is God. They believe Jesus is
a prophet, a good man, but not God in the flesh. So he says, "I had this dream. "There was this little
baby, a tiny little baby "speaking like an adult. "And the baby said, 'Do not underestimate "'what God can do.'" And he was like, "Do you
know what this dream means?" And I'm thinkin', now just a side note. My little name is Joseph, but
anyway that's kind of side, side thing. I said, "Man, I know exactly
what this dream means. "Like, God loves you and God
has done the unthinkable. "He has come to us in the person of Jesus. "Like, Jesus is God in the flesh. "He was born a baby to
save you from your sins." I begin to share the gospel with him. As I'm sharing the gospel,
he's like crying upfront, and he was like, "I'm
so sorry I'm crying." And I'm like, "Just always
keep your eye on the road. "Like, you can cry." I'm crying back here, this is unreal. I'm in an Uber but I'm starting to think I'm like in Ethiopian
chariot or something, like, what is happening? Where is the water on the side? Anyway, we get to the
airport and I'm like, I said, "Listen, man,"
we walked to the gospel. I said, "Do you believe that Jesus is God "who came to save you from
your sins and he's worthy "as Lord of your life. "Do you believe this? "And will you follow Him
as Lord of your life?" And he just drew tears,
he was like, "Yes, yes." And so all I had to say, like, this is glory of God being known and enjoyed and spreading. And we get the opportunity to
be a part of that right here. So do that right here
with a view toward seeing His glory known and enjoyed
among all the nations. That's the picture. You make disciples right where you leave with an openness to
wherever God might lead. So I gotta move on. I've got six minutes. Okay, here we go. So here's then truth number four. So bring it to a head
here, because this is where it's gonna really rub
against the way I think we're wired to think. If we haven't already rubbed anywhere. So truth number four: The Great Commission, this means for the spread of
God's glory among the nations, is not just a general
command to make disciples and multiple churches among
them as many people as possible; the Great Commission is a specific command to make disciples and multiply churches among all the nations. Now that's really important,
because if we didn't go to this truth and see
like Jesus' specific command, "Make disciples," panta ta
ethne, "of all the nations." See, the end Revelation chapter seven, every nation, tribe, tongue, and people gather around the throne. Like, that's the goal of God. This is the command of God. It's very specific. Go to all the nations, all
the peoples in the world, then we might be tempted
just to make disciples right where we live and
not keep pressing on to where Christ has not been named. But that is not an option
for followers of Jesus. That's is not an option
for us as the church. We have been given a specific command to make disciples among all
the nations of the world, which means we must keep
pressing on to nations, tribes, tongues, people,
groups where the gospel has not yet gone. So this is where I mentioned
11,000, 16,000 people groups, however you do define them. Over 6,000 of them right now are classified as unreached, today. Spanning about two billion people. It's two billion people or
6,000 people groups right now, who are now unreached,
doesn't just mean lost. So people are just as lost and, yeah, this community as they
are in Saudi Arabia. Just as lost. The difference is what
makes them unreached is there's access to the
gospel in this community. There are churches. There's thousands of
Christians on this campus who know the gospel,
who proclaim the gospel. When you're in Saudi Arabia, there are very few
Christians, very few churches. The reality is you're
born in Saudi Arabia, the likely it is you're gonna be born, you're gonna live, you're gonna die, and you'll never even hear the gospel. So we're gonna dive in tonight to what that means
practically and theologically, and eternally. But suffice to say at this
point, that's why we have what Paul is writing in
Romans 15 specifically, they need to hear the
gospel in order to be saved. And so we must work together again, every single one of us working
together to see God's glory, know it and enjoy it among all the nations in places where the gospel's not yet gone. Picture it like this, like
there were soe tornadoes recently in Nashville, and
maybe you heard about it. I don't know if you've ever
seen the effects of a tornado. Tornado's very different from a hurricane. Hurricane just affects
a large swathe of land. Tornado is much more selective. Tornado can go through,
it can hit one house and another house right next to it, and not affecting it at all. It can hit one neighborhood, neighborhood right next to it, just fine. So I want you to imagine
with me for a second that a tornado has come through a region and hit all kinds of
different neighborhoods, different areas. And you are, in horrible ways, and you are head of rescue
operations on the ground. And you get to the first
neighborhood you come to, and there are more needs
in that neighborhood for you to meet. More people in need of
rescue than you and your team can even begin to help all of them. And then you know that
miles away there's another neighborhood that's also been ravaged, and then many more miles
away there's a whole another neighborhood that's been ravaged too. So if you are head of rescue
operations on the ground, you're thinking, oh,
there's more people here than we can even begin to address. So I'm just gonna stay focused here, because once we start to scatter we're gonna lose time, energy, resources. Who knows if we can even get there. Let's just work as hard as we can here. And what if you even, not
only know that there cost to getting to these other places, but that neighborhood
that's farthest away, there's actually word that
those people will resist you if you try to come help them. So if that's the case, commonsense say you just stay right here. The only reason you would scatter your forces from this
neighborhood to go to this one and even to the places
who might resist you if you resist you if you
try to get there would be if your commanding officer has said, "I want people rescued
from every single one "of these neighborhoods." This is what our Commanding Officer Jesus Christ Himself has said. He said, "I want my rescue,
my ransom, my redemption "known in all of the people
groups in the world." That means we don't have
the option of just staying focused right around us. We have been commanded to take the gospel, even to people it will be hard to get to and people who will resist
us when we get there. This is a specific command. And I mentioned that, say it
kinda goes against the rub, because you look up this map up here? This is the progress of the
gospel in the world right now. The green areas on this
map represent places where the gospel has gone and
churches have been planted. Again, obviously, those are
not all Christian places. United States and many other places. But the gospel's there. Churches have been planted there. Yellow areas on this map are areas where there's a smaller,
lesser, even nominal Christian presence. So they're just weaker maybe
presence of the church there but there's still some gospel access. Red areas on this map represent places where the gospel has not yet gone, where they're predominantly
unreached by the gospel. You know what's interesting though, when you look at that map and you look at the landscape of missions in
the church in North America, 90 plus percent of our resources, when we are focused on missions, is actually aimed at
green places on that map. We're all about going to Latin America, South Saharan Africa. And it's not that there's
not work to be done in those places to strengthen
come alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ. But let's not fool ourselves thinking that if we're just going to green areas that we are accomplishing
what Jesus has told us to do. He has called us to go to the red. Which leads me to truth number five. Now let's close with this. If then we are not living and
leading to spread God's glory among all the nations, then we are disobeying
the Great Commission and disregarding the goal of God. I would just humbly say
based on what I believe Scripture clearly teaches
to every single person in this room, if you are
not living and leading for the spread of God's
glory among all the nations, then you are disobeying
the Great Commission and disregarding the goal of God. Or maybe if I could close
on a more positive way to put that, I would encourage you to follow Jesus by
letting His global cause dictate everything you
think, desire, and do. I just wanna exhort you. And your life as a single
brother or sister in Christ, let the global cause of Christ drive you. I wanna encourage you as
you think about marriage, do not marry someone whose
heart does not beat like this. Let this drive who you marry. When you think about your discipline, your school, your work, let the global cause of
Christ dictate the way you think about everything
you do on this campus. And then beyond this campus, let the global cause of Christ
dictate everything you do in your life. [uplifting music] >> Presenter: Discover
who you're called to be at Biola University, a leading
Christ-centered university in Los Angeles; with programs on campus and online. Subscribe for more of
our videos and learn more at biola.edu.
