Have you ever pondered how the vast cultural tapestry of the United States impacts the mission of spreading the Gospel? Our latest episode takes you on a journey through the unique challenges and bountiful opportunities for evangelism within America's borders. With an eye on the diversity that defines this nation, we dissect how the wealth and resources at our disposal can magnify our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. We offer prayers for our leaders and churches, and we confront the tension between cultural Christianity and the authentic message of Jesus, guided by the powerful narrative of Exodus 9. Discover the profound implications of God's sovereignty and His desire for His name to be proclaimed globally, amid a world teeming with man-made idols.
The path of a missionary is often misunderstood, paved with expectations and misconceptions. In this heart-to-heart, we extend a hand of understanding and grace to those brave souls, affirming that they are not just bearers of faith, but learners and nurturers amidst the fields of diverse cultures. We address the joys and pressures of their calling, the sustaining power of prayer, and the wisdom to be harvested from historical figures like Zinzendorf and transformative principles such as the Treasure Principle. Join us in a respectful and loving tribute to the missionaries and their supporters, as we underscore the importance of sowing the seeds of the Gospel with a spirit of joy and unity.
Have you ever pondered how the vast cultural tapestry of the United States impacts the mission of spreading the Gospel? Our latest episode takes you on a journey through the unique challenges and bountiful opportunities for evangelism within America's borders. With an eye on the diversity that defines this nation, we dissect how the wealth and resources at our disposal can magnify our efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. We offer prayers for our leaders and churches, and we confront the tension between cultural Christianity and the authentic message of Jesus, guided by the powerful narrative of Exodus 9. Discover the profound implications of God's sovereignty and His desire for His name to be proclaimed globally, amid a world teeming with man-made idols.
The path of a missionary is often misunderstood, paved with expectations and misconceptions. In this heart-to-heart, we extend a hand of understanding and grace to those brave souls, affirming that they are not just bearers of faith, but learners and nurturers amidst the fields of diverse cultures. We address the joys and pressures of their calling, the sustaining power of prayer, and the wisdom to be harvested from historical figures like Zinzendorf and transformative principles such as the Treasure Principle. Join us in a respectful and loving tribute to the missionaries and their supporters, as we underscore the importance of sowing the seeds of the Gospel with a spirit of joy and unity.
I want to welcome you to the World Evangelism Podcast, and we're on episode number four, and I am excited to watch how God is slowly growing our channel. I am here to help you, to bless you, to add value to you, because I want to help you inspire others and yourself towards missions and help us learn to empower others so that we can all be doing whatever it is that God's called us to do to get the gospel message of Jesus Christ around the world. I am excited because God loves the world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. So anybody can be saved, all can be saved, because Jesus, god loves the world and Jesus gave his life. So I come to you each week and I'm going through several different things, and so today I'll start with our country of the week, and our country of the week is the United States of America. Now, that may shock you, because this is a world evangelism, but you know the United States is the third largest country in the world evangelism. But you know, the United States is the third largest country in the world and we have over 340 million people living in our country, 340 million people, and every one of them are important to Jesus. What's really exciting is there are currently 176 language groups in our country, and that means God has brought the foreign world to the United States of America so we can start Spanish churches, and well, what is it altogether? Another what? 175 different language groups. I have a friend working in Chinese group, so it's just a little bit of everything that can be done to get the gospel message.
Speaker 1:
Our country is only 77.6% Christian. These facts are these things. I get them from OperationWorldorg. I challenge you to go there and look them up. Look up the country of the United States and you'll find these statistics there. Country of the United States, and you'll find these statistics there. 28.9 percent under 29 percent are evangelical and our largest religion is Christianity, but I fear that much of it is cultural Christianity. I just saw where Dawkins made the comment that he is a cultural Christian, made the comment that he is a cultural Christian. He's a cultural Christian, and he said I don't believe one thing they teach, but I prefer living where Christianity is at least a part of the culture.
Speaker 1:
And so I would like to say to you there are many cities that have no gospel witnessed, or very little per capita. I would like to say to you that there are areas of our country where we have stopped evangelizing, stopped telling people about Jesus. Currently, operation World only counts at 2% of the United States as being unevangelized, and people can get to the gospel message here. But we, at the same time, we want to get everybody the gospel. The large cities of our country need the gospel and even some rural areas need the gospel. But you know, one of the things that's most important about the United States of America is God has given us wealth and God has given us all the comforts which would allow us to have a major part in getting the gospel to the world. So I want to ask you to pray for the United States of America. Pray that the pastors and preachers and teachers of the true gospel would be blessed. Pray that our churches would advance, that others would hear about Jesus. Pray for the leadership in our country that they would honor God, that some of them would be saved and some would begin to follow Jesus. Pray for all these people that are coming in from all over the world. It gives us a chance. We didn't go to the field, so God's bringing the field to us. So I just want to challenge you to be involved in praying for the United States of America. That's our country of the day.
Speaker 1:
Now let me move with you to our verse of the day, and it might shock you, but I'm going to take you all the way back to the Old Testament again. We're going back to Exodus, chapter 9, and I want to read to you the passage of Scripture for today. God is speaking to the Egyptians and he's going to tell Pharaoh why he raised him up. And he's going to tell Pharaoh what he's doing in his country. He's going to tell what he's doing with the nation of Israel, and the goal will be that the entire world know about the one and true and only God of all the universe, the God of heaven, the creator God, the God that made the earth, the God that loves everybody, the God who sacrificed himself, the God who gives and doesn't take. That's the God who wants his name produced all over the world. He wants everybody to hear it.
Speaker 1:
The Bible says in Exodus 9 and verse 14, and I'll put some of this in Tennessee Hillbilly for you. But it says For I will, at this time, send all my plagues upon thine heart, I'm going to put my plagues on your heart and on your servants and on your people. And this is what he says. That put my plagues on your heart and on your servants and on your people. And this is what he said. That thou mayest know. There's none like me and all the Pharaohs, so you will know, there's no other God like me. I am the only God. He will destroy all the false gods, all the man-made gods. He will bring all of nature and everything else to heal and say I am God Because there's only one God, everything else to heal, and say I am God Because there's only one God. India has over 300 million gods, but there's only one true God.
Speaker 1:
Man wants to know God. He makes up religions, but God loves and sends Jesus to die. So in verse 15, he stretches out his hand and he sends all that. He smites the people and he sends pestilence and he says you're going to be cut off, you're going to die, pharaoh. Then he says, and in very deed this is verse 16, for this cause have I raised you up? This is why I raised you up to show in you, in thee, my power, that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. God wanted the whole world to hear the name of Jesus Christ. God wanted everyone to know that God, the Creator, god is the only God, and so we don't serve today in world evangelism, because that's a New Testament idea. It was prior to the nation of Israel, it was the nation of Israel and it is for us today. So I challenge you to be able to look up for those verses where God says I want my name declared to the whole world because God is in the building, the name of Jesus ministry. That's one of the things he is at work doing all over the world.
Speaker 1:
So I hope you'll get involved in that and, as you read your Bible, be on the lookout for those verses. I'd be glad to have you send me some. Maybe I'll miss some, and so you can pick some up for me. Now I've shown you the country of the day, the United States, and I've given you the verse of the day, exodus 9, verses 14 through 16. And now what I'd like to do is take you over to the book of the day or the week the Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn. I won't be able to show you every book all the time because a lot of my books are involved in a Bible software program I use called Logos, and that's where I read a lot.
Speaker 1:
But this is a life-changing book. It's a book that ought to be read in your home with your family. It's a book that every husband and wife ought to read. It's a book that ought to be discussed in every Sunday school class. It says here, right on the front, unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving. God called his people to be generous, and we're to be a generous people and we're to give. There's only six short chapters. This is a small book. The dimensions of the book are small, it's only 120 pages long and it's going to take you all the way through your attitude so that you will learn to be a giver and give from your heart. And then it's got questions that you can ask God here in the back about giving. So it's a tremendous book. That's the book of the week Now, when you become generous, you'll support your local church and you'll help them do the ministry where they are, because we've got to reach our communities.
Speaker 1:
After all, our country today is the United States and your church is probably located there or wherever you are in the world. Your church needs your financial support. Whether you're in Great Britain or whether you're in Kenya, whether you're in the Ukraine, you're going to need your local church to do its job, and then, after that, you can give above and beyond to get the gospel message around the world through your missions program. I want to challenge you to do that Now. Let me take you to the historical person of the week. Each week I try to bring somebody to you. You've probably heard of most of them, but I want to bring some things to you that would be of interest, and so today I want to bring to you Zinzendorf, count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
Speaker 1:
And he was born into a rich family. He was called a nobleman, but Jesus saved him and burdened him and worked in his heart, and he became greatly involved in the cause of world evangelism. He helped send out missionaries, he was a primary helper and protector of the Moravians. He was a part of forming the Grain of Mustard Seed Society, the Society of the Grain of Mustard Seed, or the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed, and he said that God had taught him to love the whole human family. Now, what was interesting? He wasn't really that interested in missions until he met a converted African slave, and that African slave talked to him about Jesus and the world, and so the very next thing he does is motivate his people to send missionaries out to these islands and then out to Africa and to all the world. Now, his life motto was I have one passion. It is he and he alone. Now I want you to write that down. Listen to that. I have one passion. It is he and he alone.
Speaker 1:
This was a great time in world evangelism history. They had one missionary for every 92 members of their local church in the Moravians. Now, you know everybody when you look at them from the, you know, from our perspective today, we can see the good. There's also one big mistake that he made, and that mistake was that they often pursued getting the gospel of the world to the expense of wife and children, even leaving their wives and children behind and going off and doing things, and so I would challenge you that that is never who we want to be.
Speaker 1:
Now I have added a couple of things to our podcast that I want to bring to you, and so the first one is I want to talk to you about a challenge to our senders, to our supporters, to people that help the gospel message go forward. So I want you to know some things that missionaries are feeling so you can pray for them better, love them more and be more open and transparent with them. Did you know that they often feel a constant need to prove themselves? It's kind of like maybe you doubt them and you don't believe in them and if they don't see enough people saved, if they don't see enough churches started, they think maybe you won't love and respect them. They have this need to say I am worth the money you're giving me. We need to help them with that. So, just to be honest with you, all they can do is serve God, and you'll hear what I say to them about this in a minute. But I hope you'll never be a part of putting undue pressure on our missionaries.
Speaker 1:
Another thing is they fear your reactions to their life on the mission field. They're afraid to let you know. You do realize that a missionary just moves from one place to another. So you might understand that if you move from the suburbs of Atlanta, georgia, to the suburbs of Philadelphia, or if you moved to Los Angeles or Chicago or Birmingham, you might understand it. But when a missionary moves. They move into a house and they want to have all the comforts anybody else would want to have. They want to have nice furniture. They want to have all the things that you would want to have. Missionaries don't live in thatched huts with dirt floors very rarely. If it happens, and I don't think it ever needs to happen but they're afraid.
Speaker 1:
So if they post on social media we went out to a restaurant or I'm a member of the gym or this is what my family's eating some people get real judgmental. I just want to challenge you not to put that pressure on them, and I think they'd all want you to know they're not super saints. They don't any of them consider themselves to be super saints. They're not super saints. They're just people like you that love Jesus and God is working in their lives to help them carry the gospel message around the world. So I hope you can take that and see what it's worth and maybe let that be a part of how you relate to missionaries. Don't make them feel like they have to prove themselves. Don't put them under a microscope watching the way they live. Don't be highly critical if they post something on Facebook where it seems like they're enjoying it. Sometimes it's people are almost like you acted like you enjoy being a missionary and you're not supposed to. Well, I think they really are and remember, they're just people like you, they're not super saints.
Speaker 1:
Then I'd like to say a word to the missionaries that might listen, and I hope you are listening and will spread this, but I want you to know that you might just imagine too much about what they're thinking. I just spoke to them and I want to speak to you, and sometimes missionaries it's like I don't know if it's the devil or self or your negative, critical self speaking to you, but you begin to think that everybody's judging you. I don't think that's really true. To be honest with you, they don't think about you as much as you might like to think they do. They don't think negatively or positively, and I don't think about you as much as you might like to think they do. They don't think negatively or positively and I don't think they're really trying to make you start that church as quickly as you think or produce numbers or get out into some kind of fake it till you make it setting. I had missionaries come to me and say can I take pictures of your work so I can present them, because they felt like churches would judge them. Don't fall into that trap.
Speaker 1:
Then I'd like to say to you to get your expectations in check, live where you are and get rid of the what would you call it the emotional side of missions, or where you read about it in books and all that Remember. I told my wife more than one occasion how great these missionaries were, and she said well, when I write a book about you, it'll be great about you. And I know she's not going to write a book, but there you go. The whole point is, maybe you have a romantic view of the mission field. Get your expectations in check. Your job is to sow the seed, water the seed, and it is God who will give the increase. And you're not expected to be God, you're not expected to build a church. It's God who builds a church. Yes, he'll use you, but maybe you're putting undue pressure on yourself. And then I want to remind you that every man is your teacher. God is going to use that national brother to help you learn the culture, help you learn the language. Don't be so defensive. Let people help you. That senior missionary that can seem to be cranky and pushy, maybe just loves you and wants to help you. So would you just at least consider that and take that into account and think that maybe people are trying to help you and it might help you have a more productive ministry that I know you want to have. Man, I love all of you. I am so excited that you get to be a part, and I want to remind you to pray for the country of the week, the United States, and consider Old Testament verses about world evangelism.
Speaker 1:
Get your copy. Get your copy of the Treasure Principle. I'm showing it to you right now on YouTube. Get your copy of the Treasure Principle. I'm showing it to you right now on YouTube. Get your copy of it and then study Zinzendorf. His name will be in the notes so you can look him up if you're on YouTube or if you're on my website for the podcast. And then, mr Aries, I love you and I just want to help you. And supporters, I love you. So, goers, you're loved and respected. Senders, you're loved and respected. We have a great deal to do for Jesus. Let's do it with joy in our hearts, because Jesus loves us, he loves the world and you're not on your own. He's doing a work through you. God bless you. Thank you for listening to the World Evangelism Podcast with your host, alistair Gardner, and I pray that you will get help and that you will.