How to Impact 20 Million People

In this message from Matthew 28:16–20, David Platt challenges his church to play their part in the spread of the gospel to all nations. 

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Transcript

Setting The Stakes In Matthew 28

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

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SPEAKER_01 0:09

Well, if you have a Bible and hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to Matthew chapter 28. Today is not the day we're gonna outline the specific plan for how we're gonna impact 20 million people around the world with the gospel. We'll dive more into that in the days to come. My aim today is much simpler and much more significant. So I want to show you from God's word that if this is gonna happen, if we are gonna impact millions of people around the world with the good news of Jesus, it's going to take each and every one of us, and it's gonna take a radically different understanding of Christianity than most Christians today have. And it will lead to greater life for you. That's what I want to show you today. Imagine the thing. A small ordinary group of men and women sitting on a mountainside. None of them powerful, none of them wealthy, none of them famous, none of them really even noteworthy. They were nobody fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, outcasts, all with complicated past, glaring flaws, hidden fears, and struggling faith. And this is the group that Jesus chose to change the world. Literally, days after conquering death, Jesus gathered them together, looked at each of them in the eye, and said, I'm gonna fill every single one of you, without exception, with supernatural power for a global purpose. He said, I'm inviting every one of you to experience a life with more meaning, that's more thrilling, and will be more rewarding than anything else this world can offer you. He told them, I want each of you to play a part in a movement that will topple every idol and transform every nation on earth. And this group of nobodies said, we're in. And it was on. Days later, the Holy Spirit of God descended on every one of them, and just like that, miraculously, they started speaking about God's love in languages they didn't even know when they woke up that morning. And thousands of people heard them and instantly turned from their sin and trusted in Jesus. And as they did, the Spirit of God fell upon every one of those people. And they started speaking about God's love, and thousands more started following Jesus. Secular and religious authorities alike tried to silence them, threatening them with death, throwing them into prison, trouncing them with stones, but they couldn't be stopped. Instead, they scattered from city to city. Again, ordinary people, every one of them filled with extraordinary power. And this story of Jesus that began in Bethlehem and blazed out of an empty tomb was spreading like wildfire across land and sea. The God who so loved the world that he gave his only son, so loved the world that he invited his whole church, including every son and daughter in his family, to find life and meaning and purpose and thrill and otherworldly joy in following Jesus and making him known among all the nations? So here's the question. How is it that 2,000 years after this world-revolutionizing movement on a mountainside began? How is it that there are more people in the world today who have never heard the good news about Jesus than ever before in history? What in the world are we doing? And the answer is we are settling. We are settling today for an unbiblical version of Christianity that would have been unrecognizable to those first Christians. While billions of people are dying without ever even hearing the good news about Jesus. So why are you coming, being baptized, and sitting in one location? You've been saved for so much more than this. For life, walking in the supernatural power of God as you accomplish the global purpose of God? Why would you settle for anything less than that? What in this world is more worthy of your life than that? To which so many today say, but I'm not a missionary. But what does that even mean? Why are we using missionary, a term that's never once used in the Bible, as an excuse for not sharing God's love with the world? But I'm a parent with so much to focus on in my home. I get it. But who told you that you raising the next generation meant you ignoring the nations? But I have a job where I have to work. Do you really think that Christians in the first century didn't have jobs where they had to go to work? But I have a lot of hard things going on in my life. Just imagine walking through those hard things, having never once heard about the hope of Jesus in this world. And by the way, why are we coming up with excuses for not spreading the greatest news in the world to the world? Why are we not eagerly jumping up and saying, yes, I'm all in for this? Like every single one of us, imagine for a moment that we collectively found the cure for cancer, for every kind of cancer. Would we not all say together, we gotta spread this to the world? Everybody in. How life-giving would that be for people around the world and for us? And brothers and sisters, we have something, someone who is infinitely greater than a cure to cancer. People who survive cancer will still die. People who come to Christ will never die. Not ultimately, they'll live forever and ever and ever. Why would we not all then spend our lives spreading the love of Christ in a way that's life-giving for the world and life-giving for us? And in all this, you might be thinking, what's up with the idealistic change the world speech you're giving today? To which I would respond, I'm not the one giving the speech. This is the speech that Jesus gives to us every single week when we leave these gatherings. Say it out loud with me if you know it. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That sounds global. He says it to us every single week. It's the foundation of the church. Go and make disciples of all nations. And the word there for nations is ethne. So it's not countries, like we think of the 200 or so geopolitical entities we might call nations today. This is ethnic groups. This is people groups, tribes, language groups, like the Uyghurs of China or the Berber of Morocco or the Pashtun of Afghanistan or the Fulani of Niger and Nigeria, West Africa, along with, depending on how you differentiate them, as best as we can tell, between 11 and 17,000 other ethnic groups in the world. And Jesus has told us, tells us every week to go and lead people to life in all of them. It's what we looked at last week. When Jesus told all of his followers in Acts 1.8, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. That sounds like supernatural power for a global purpose for everyone who's a follower of Jesus. Which then leads to, so remember, we looked at this last week, but I want you to notice something this week in Acts chapter 8, verse 1. Remember, the followers of Jesus hadn't spread out to Judea and Samaria until Stephen was stoned, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And those who were scattered went about preaching the word. So the gospel spread to Judea and Samaria, not through a special group of church leaders or missionaries. It was actually the apostles, the church leaders who stayed in Jerusalem. It was all the ordinary people who scattered and shared the word wherever they went. Which then leads to what we were at when we were talking about starting churches, the founding of the church at Antioch in Acts chapter 11, verse 19. Those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word of no one except Jews. There were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, these ordinary people, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenist also, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. Now let me ask you a quick trivia question. So a little audience participation, and there's a prize here. I will give a hundred dollars to every person, or to the first, not every person, to the first person, let's be clear, to the first person at every location who can shout out the answer to this question. Alright, you ready? So we just read, Acts 11, about the start of the church at Antioch, one of the most significant churches in the history of Christianity. So here's the question$100, the first person at every location who can shout out the answer. What is the name of the person who planted the church at Antioch?

unknown 13:50

We don't know.

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The Goers-Senders Problem

A Bigger, Better Strategy: All Of Us

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Looking for names. Looking for names. Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Yes, yes, yes, okay. Okay, true, but not like uh your reward is having Jesus at the forefront of your mind and everything. Um so yes, the person Jesus used, the name of the person Jesus used to do this. We don't know their names. That was a pastor juke on you, just like you tried to do a Jesus juke on me. So we don't know their names. We don't know their names. Just some guys. That's what it says. Some guys and cyber sensor, and obviously not men and women, like the whole picture. The whole picture of the start of the one of the most significant histories in the churches in the history of Christianity. Unnamed ordinary people with no church planning experience, no seminary training, just plain old people with extraordinary power. This is how the gospel spreads. And we talked about how this led to, so this is maps we started looking at last week. This is Antioch over here. Acts chapter 13. The church in Antioch sends out Saul and Barnabas, the red arrows of them going out, and they're sharing the gospel and starting churches in all these different places. Blue arrows of them coming back. Then after that, so that's Acts 13 and 14. And Acts chapter 16. Paul goes out this time from Antioch with Silas. They pick up Timothy along the way, some of the same places. Then God calls them through a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, Come over here and help us. So they start sharing the gospel in Philippi and Thessalonica and Corinth, all these different places that we read about in the Bible. They make their way down to Jerusalem and all these places, scattering. People come to know Jesus, spreading the gospel, they go back up to Antioch. That leads to a third journey. Paul again leaves from Antioch and he goes to all these same places. What's interesting is, so he gets on this journey to Ephesus, right in the middle of this map. And that's where, so Acts 19, if you want to follow along, you can see where this happens. He comes upon a small church there. It says there were about 12 men in all, so not a big church, but then watch this. Start reading in verse 8. He entered the synagogue there in Ephesus, for three months, spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of tyrannas. So they find this public place to gather to reason with people about the kingdom of God. And listen to what it says in verse 10. This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. That's awesome. Everyone in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. How'd that happen? Well, it wasn't Paul going to all those places. It was ordinary people, business persons, travelers, coming through Ephesus, this trade city on this trade route in the middle of this map. They're hearing the gospel and they're spreading it all over Asia. And it didn't stop in Asia. So you back up a minute when Paul got to Corinth over here on this third journey. Listen to what's going on here. Paul just recounted all the places he's been, from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, all over this map, all the places he's been. He said, I'm doing gospel work. But then he says, did you hear that? He says, There's no more work in these regions to be done. Now that's crazy. Like you read Paul's letter to the Corinthians, there's a ton of work to be done. That place was messed up. As well as many other places. Surely Paul's not saying everybody in all these regions is a Christian now. No more problems with sin there. Let's move on. No, he's saying the good thing is in all these places, there's now Christians and churches who can spread the gospel and we'll stay there sharing the gospel. But we need to work together as it's written, as God has told us, to tell people about Jesus who haven't seen. They hear, who haven't understood. That's the ambition here to see the gospel of Christ preached where he's not been named. Why? Because this is why we're here as a church. To keep spreading the gospel to people who don't have it. I'll show you one more map that'll help you understand this. Here's Antioch over here. I know you can't read all these cities. Here's Corinth right here, and here's Rome right there. So he's left Antioch. He's gone to all these regions. He's seen the church at Corinth started. He's on his way to Jerusalem, which is over here, to take an offering for the saints there. And he says, Once I do that, I want to come to Rome because I need you to help me get the gospel where? To Spain. Why? Because they haven't heard about Jesus there. And it's the responsibility of the church to work together, keep pressing on to get the gospel where it hasn't gone. We can't just focus on places where the gospel has gone. We gotta work together to get the gospel where it hasn't gone. And then you get to Romans chapter 16, and it's so great. Paul lists 26 names of people who are playing all kinds of different parts in this global purpose. Prisca, Aquila, these fellow workers who risk their necks for his life, the church in their house. Then he talks about Epennetus, the first convert to Christ in Asia, Mary who's working hard, Andronicus, Junea, fellow prisoners, Emplitus, this beloved brother, Urbanus, Staccus, Apollus, Aristobulus, Herodian, those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. That's an unfortunate name. Greet those workers of the Lord, Triphina, Triphosa, also not as fortunate. Anyway, Persis, Rufus, chosen the Lord, also his mom. Greet Rufus and his mom, who's been like a mom to me. Encycratus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrippus, Hermes, Philologus, Julia, Nereus, Olympus, all the saints who are with them, all ordinary people with extraordinary power, playing their parts in a global purpose. So to every Christian within the sound of my voice right now, God has not saved you to then sideline you in this purpose. This is the life he's made you for. This is Christianity. Following Jesus, making it known in the world. This is why. I mean, we want to be in heaven, don't we? We want to be with him. But he's left us here and given us all a little bit of breath and a little bit of time for an absolutely amazing purpose. Make his glory known in all the worlds. This is why we, this is not a program for a few people in the church. It's the purpose for which every one of us has breath. Now, here's the problem. And this is where I need to make a confession. Because pastors and church leaders, including me, and I say this as someone who is a who's been at the forefront of this and has led a mission organization in the past. So we have come up with and communicated a strategy that is woefully inadequate for reaching the world. So let me explain, and please hang with me, because what I'm about to say, I believe, is a significant part of the reason why so many Christians are sitting on the sidelines. And understanding what I'm about to say is key to unlocking your place in God's global purpose. So here's the world we live in. We've looked at this map before, just in case you've not been here. There's obviously three colors on this map: green, yellow, and red. The green areas of this map represent places in the world where the gospel has come in a way that there are sufficient number of Christians and churches in those places to spread the gospel to others. Obviously, it does not mean that everybody in these green areas is a Christian, or even that everybody in these green areas has heard the gospel. But it means there are there are Christians in these places who have the gospel, who are gathering like we are today, who can spread the gospel in the places around us. Doesn't mean there's no need, just like Paul was talking about. But by God's grace, there's Christians in churches, in green places, on a whole. And don't don't get too lost in a what about this little tiny part of this or that? Just overall, that's what the green represents. Yellow represents places where there's less access to the gospel, but there are still Christians and churches in those places, just less of them. But then there's the red zones. And these represent areas where there's the least access to the gospel. Now that doesn't mean there are no Christians in those areas. Think about India, for example. A lot of India is red on there, but India's a huge country with over a billion people. And so, yes, there are Christians there, but relative to the larger population, there's relatively few Christians in churches. And in some of the places in the red, there are no Christians. No churches. For miles and miles and miles and miles. The likelihood is if you live in a red zone in the world, the likelihood is you will be born, you'll live, and you'll die. And no one will ever share with you the good news of God's love in Jesus. You'll never hear about how your sin separates you from God. Yet God loves you so much, He has sent His only Son to die on a cross for your sin, to rise from the grave, conquer death, so that you can be forgiven of all your sin and restored to eternal life with God through faith in Jesus. No one will ever share that with you before you die. You'll either never hear about Jesus or you'll spend your life hearing lies about Jesus. You'll never hear the truth about Jesus. And as best as we know, there are approximately 3.2 billion people who live in red zones, and that is true of them today. So with this world around us and this word to us from God to go and make disciples of all the nations, I want us to think about two errors we have made, at least as the church in our country. First, we've created a missions program on the side in churches where we give relatively minuscule amounts to missions work around the world. So we spend the majority of our resources on ourselves, we give a small percentage of our resources to the church, and then we spend the majority of the church's resources on ourselves, on buildings and programs for us, and we give a small percentage to missions in other countries. But then you dive in and look at the data of the money that we and as churches in our country give to missions around the world, somewhere between 97 to 99 percent of that money actually goes to green and yellow areas in the world. Not the red. Which means a tiny percentage of a tiny percentage of our money as Christians actually goes to the red. According to one study, for every$100,000 a Christian makes, we give$1.83 to the spread of the gospel in red zones. It's less than a bottle of water at the park. You do the math and you round up, that's about 0.002% of our money. And there are many reasons why this is the case. Systemic reasons. Then think about it. This is not accidental. There are clearly spiritual forces and systemic factors at work that are keeping us from giving to the red. From the fact that many Christians don't even know these red zones exist in the world, all the way to our flawed focus on ROI. We want the most return on our investment, which leads us most often to invest in the things in this world that we can see. But even when we give to missions or church planting, we do so in green and yellow areas because we're able to get back a lot higher numbers of people coming to Christ and churches being planted than if we give to places like Afghanistan or Yemen or Somalia. Like it's a lot harder and it takes a lot longer to spread the gospel in those places. And American donors don't get the immediate gratification they're looking for when they give there. And American Christians are too addicted to over-inflated stats and quick success stories in the short term, that we don't have the stomachs to stick with slow, sustainable strategies over the long term in the hardest-to-reach places in the world. And as a result, so catch this. What all this means is that we're essentially ignoring the places in the world that need the gospel the most. You say, that sounds strong. Jesus said it, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We're essentially ignoring the places in the world that most need the gospel, but we're doing so under the guise of giving to missions. The devil has us patting ourselves on the back for giving to missions while$1.83 out of$100,000 goes to people who need the gospel the most. Then, so the other error we've made involves how we view and send missionaries. So basically we've said, okay, God's calling some people from the green to go to the red, so they're the goers, and the rest of us are senders. And I've used this language before, based on pictures like Acts 13 that we see in the Bible. But here's the problem that I'm realizing in a fresh way, because the way this plays out is almost every Christian who hears about the need for the gospel in the world pretty quickly concludes God's not calling me to go there. And by going, we think, leave my job, become a missionary, move to another country, learn another language with special training, adapt to a different culture in a red zone. I don't really see myself doing that, so this doesn't apply to me. And the result is, again, according to a study, one out of 42,000 Protestant Christians goes as a missionary to red zones. Strangely enough, that's 0.002% of us. And that number doesn't even take into account the data that shows how half of that number who go come back within five years for a number of different, including good reasons. And this is the church's strategy for how we're gonna get the gospel to all the nations? Like if we're being honest, this looks more like Satan's strategy for keeping the gospel from the nation.002% of the church are goers, while the 99.998% who are spenders spend a few a couple bottles of water worth of their money getting the gospel to people who have never heard it. No wonder there are three billion of them. A number that is continually increasing, because think about it, the population of red zones is increasing, and this strategy is nowhere near enough to keep up with that number. And take it a step further. Surely what we need to do isn't just to double down on this strategy, or triple it, or let's quadruple it so that our strategy is now 0.008% of us going as we give 0.008% of our money. This modern approach to the Great Commission in the church is not just woefully inadequate, it's practically absurd. And I've helped promote it. Now I want to be clear, what I'm not saying, please hear me. I'm not saying that it's bad to give to work around the world in the green, yellow, or red. I'm not saying that the 0.002% of people who go shouldn't be going or more. I know, I love personally, deeply, have such high regard for so many of those people, including some from our church family who I we love and support. I hope start a training center to equip more of them. I hope they train plane loads of them, but a strategy that revolves only around them or even mainly around them makes no sense. The church's strategy in the world can't be merely sending hundreds or even thousands more missionaries going to the nations. We need hundreds of thousands and millions upon millions of everyday Christians giving our lives, spreading the gospel to all the nations. And this is where you come in. Right where you're sitting right now, Christian, you are the Holy Spirit-empowered strategy for the spread of the gospel to all the nations. So don't check out when you hear about this need among the nations. This is your story. This is what you're made for, this is where your life is found. This is Christianity. Which leads to the question of how. Like, okay, okay, so what is that? What does that mean then? Like, how can my life be a part of making the glory of God known in this world, particularly among red zones? And I'm gonna hit this high level today, in the days to come, we're gonna unpack this over and over again, not just in sermons, but in everything we do as a church because it affects everything about our faith. But here's the how. How can you play your part in God's global purpose? Four words that answer that question. First word is by learning about the nations. Think about it, this is where everything starts. If you and I have been given a worldwide mission, we should at least know where in the world the gospel has gone, hasn't gone. Every Christian should know about these red zones, should be paying attention to what's happening in those places. If you care about the spread of the gospel to all nations, which the Spirit of Christ in you cares about, therefore you care about the spread of his love to all the nations, then you care about what's happening in Iran right now. And Gaza and Israel and Russia and North Korea. And you're not just looking at the world through the lens of American politics, you're looking at the world through the lens of a much bigger kingdom than that. And we need to learn about people groups. Have you ever heard of the sheikh of India? There's over a hundred million of them. That's about a third the size of the population of the United States. And 99.99% of them are Muslim. Most of them have never even had somebody share the gospel with them. We should learn about this. We should teach our kids about this in our homes, in our church groups. Let's talk about what's happening in the world. Why? Because we're working together on a worldwide mission, all of us. We need to learn about God's word and the world, which then leads to the second way we can all play our part, by praying for the nations. Do we realize the power of prayer? Like we read this this last week in our Bible reading, Exodus 8.13, and the Lord did according to the word of Moses. That is an amazing verse. Moses prayed, and God did what he said. And that is the same God who has invited you to pray to him this week. Knowing that your prayers affect what he does. Do you realize what this means? You can join with God and what he is doing. Even be a part of affecting what God is doing in North Korea this week before you even get out of bed in the morning. Or before you drift off to sleep as you lay your head on your pillow at night. And all throughout the day, we can't leave this privilege on the table. Let's take a serious look at our prayer lives and start participating, joining with God in what He's doing among the nations through our prayers. And let's pray for spiritual power. When the early church prayed, the places where they were meeting shook. And they spread God's word with power, and people came to Christ. May prayer gatherings at MBC in the days ahead be completely packed with people praying in such a way that buildings shake and the gospel spreads. This is the story we're made for. Which then leads to the third word. We all play a part in God's goal purpose by going among the nations. And as soon as I use this word, don't jump to the 0.002% and say, Well, that's not me, so this doesn't apply to me. Because this is, I hope we're seeing it. All of us. What he said, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. That's for all of us. We're all goers. And part of what I love about this verse, when Jesus says go, it initially sounds like a command, but there's actually only one command in this passage in the Greek, it's make disciples. Go is a participle, much like baptizing and teaching later. And a participle communicates ongoing action. And what that means is, it's like Jesus is saying, as you go, make disciples of all the nations. And when you realize this, you start to feel the wonder and meaning that Jesus is attaching to every day of your life in this world. As you go to work this week, make disciples of the nations. As you go to school this week, teenager, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, make disciples of the nations. As you go to the gym, make disciples of the nations. As you go to the store, that restaurant, make disciples of the nations. As you go to tuck your child into bed, make disciples of the nations. As you drive them to this field or that court, make disciples of the nations. As you go to gather with the church, make it make disciples of the nations. As you go on that trip you have this week, make disciples of the nations. Are you hearing this? You going this week is a part of God's global plan for your life. And that means the normal routines of your life every day are not a distraction from mission in the world. They're the place where mission in the world comes to life for you. So we're all going this week. We're all scattering. We're gonna scatter. Lord will like a few minutes from now throughout the city. Some of us are gonna go on trips to other places this week. And we're all gonna be going everywhere with the Holy Spirit of God in us. And keep in mind, our going is global here. Like we're not just going to people who look like us and think like us and talk like us. We're making disciples of nations, of ethnic groups, of people groups here. Most every Uber ride I take in the city is someone, not just from another nation, but someone from a red zone that God's put three feet away from me to share the greatest news in the world with them. This is why we cannot, as a church, just focus on reaching one type of people, where we all look the same, have the same preferences and politics. This is an epidemic problem across our country where the overwhelming majority of churches still segregate by our skin color. Do we really think we're gonna make disciples of all ethnicities from churches that divide over ethnicity? Please hear me. And I'm not arguing for a particular policy or for completely open borders based on the Great Commission. I'm simply saying that as God sovereignly oversees the nations coming to our neighborhoods, particularly from red parts of the world, let's love them and share the gospel of Jesus with them. What are we most concerned about? The preservation of our nation or the proclamation of the gospel to all the nations. This is our mission, church, not the conservation of a country that will not last, but the expansion of a kingdom that will never ever end. This is what we live for. And as we go among the nations here, we make disciples for the nations here. As we lead people to Jesus in our city, we tell them you have supernatural power now for a global purpose. We raise our kids to see the spread of God's glory in the world, not as a side thing if God calls them to that, but we tell them this is the reason for your life view, where you go to school, college, what degree you get, who you marry, all through the lens of a global purpose God has invited you to be a part of. We invite every follower of Jesus to get in on this action. And we do all of this going right here where we live, this week. And then we go wherever God may lead us from here. And please listen closely. God is likely not calling 100% of us to uproot our lives and move to the red. But if you are a follower of Jesus and you have never wrestled with, like give an honest, serious thought to whether God is calling you personally to move somewhere else to help reach the nations, then you're likely not grasping the Great Commission. God is absolutely sending, and could absolutely send any one of us to go anywhere in the world. Which means we all need to consider that. This is what it means for Jesus to be Lord of our lives. So are you a Christian who trusts in Jesus as Lord of your life? That's what I mean by a totally different understanding of Christianity. To see your life through this lens, I'm following Jesus as my Lord, and wherever he leads me, I'm living for his glory in the world. Whatever that means, no matter what that costs. This is what it means to be a Christian. And here's the deal: just think of all the myriad ways that he might lead any one of us to go. Think Ephesus and Acts 19. People coming through that cosmopolitan city, going throughout Asia. Now think Metro, Washington, D.C. So many people coming through this capital city, scattering around the world. Think of all the opportunities we have to go for a day or two, or a week or two, traveling on business for leisure, specifically going on a short term mission trip. You realize how long it took for Paul to walk from city to city, sometimes to go by boat, which didn't always work out well for him. He never could have fathomed a machine that can pick you up in the air, transport you to any major city in the world in less than a day with snacks along the way. Air travel is amazing. He never could have dreamed. Like we have opportunities to go all over the place for a few days or weeks or months, high school, college students with summers, semesters, spring breaks, fall breaks, Christmas breaks, where you can study overseas, work overseas, travel overseas, retirees, others who have flexibility and remote work to do the same. And then speaking of work, how many of you have jobs that pay for you to travel around the world? Some of you with opportunities to get a job transfer and work around the world. I think of one brother in our church family who said, This is incredible. My job is paying for my family and me to move to a red zone in the world. They're paying for me to learn the language and live there. Corporations and countries may not realize it, but they're funding the spread of the gospel to the nations. Why? Because God has this whole thing rigged. He's designed the globalization of today's marketplace for the spread of his glory in the world. If we as the church will open our eyes and see what he has done. And we haven't even talked about technology, how we carry a device in our pockets that makes it possible for us to share the gospel with people around the world in different languages in real time. Not to mention goggles to come, do we realize the day we're living in? What a time to be alive. We have more opportunities to spread the gospel to the world than our first century forebearers ever could have dreamed of. There's no reason why we as the Church of Jesus Christ today can't get the gospel to every person in the world soon. Which leads to this last word. How can you play your part? And God's global purpose by giving to the nations. So here's the beauty in this whole picture. God's global purpose, yes, involves each of us individually, but also all of us collectively. And we are part of a global family. Which means it's not just about us going to other places. It's about us coming alongside our brothers and sisters around the world who are already there. What if we don't all have to learn a new language and culture because we have brothers and sisters who already know that language and culture, or who are near that language and culture, and just need the resources of the global church to come alongside them? Just imagine what can happen in the world when 10,000 people who call NBC their church home, all of them, every single one of them, filled with supernatural power, rises up and says, We're all gonna steward this power for its intended purpose. We're all gonna learn about the nations together. We're all gonna pray for the nations together. We're all going among the nations every week, right here, and wherever God may lead us. And we're all gonna give to the nations. We're all gonna play our part in God's global purpose. And individually and together, we're gonna experience the life and meaning and purpose and thrill and otherworldly joy that's found in following Jesus and making him known in the world. We're not gonna stop, we're going to stop farming this out to 0.002% of us with 0.002% of our resources. We're all in on making Jesus known in Metro Washington, D.C. and from Metro DC to the ends of the earth with confidence. So let's end here with all the direction this world is headed in toward this day, that Revelation 7, 9, and 10 describes this way. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one can number from every nation. People from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Church, this purpose is worth your life. One other purpose in this world is worth your life. This is where all of history is headed. You want to live for what's gonna matter? Then jump on this train. As we reach one person at a time, as we start new congregations across our city that have this DNA, as we see discipling 10,000 in this church family as part of a global picture that has power to impact millions with the gospel. So let me just ask you to pray this today in light of all that we've just walked through. To just pray, God, I'm in. Use my life however you want with your supernatural power for your global purpose. Let's just pray that all together today, not knowing all that it means, but trusting the one who does. Even as I want to invite anybody who hasn't yet trusted in Jesus to pray similarly, God, I'm in. Save me from my sin through faith in Jesus and fill me with your power for your purpose. Now here's the deal. Both of these prayers are prayers God promises to answer when you ask it. So let's pray then. All across this room, other locations. Let's pray.

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