“Accomplishing the Great Commission will not be easy, but we’ve been commanded by God to take the gospel to all people groups.” — David Platt
In his message at TGC’s 2021 National Conference, David Platt urges local church leaders and pastors to prioritize the 3 billion unreached people across the globe. He reminds these leaders that God has commanded their obedience in the Great Commission for the sake of his global glory.
Platt gives 10 ways church leaders and pastors can shepherd their people to obey this command:
1. Preach the unfading Word of God in view of the unreached world.
2. Call people to a supreme love of Jesus and radical identification with him, for missions is the overflow of that.
3. Reorient local discipleship around the global purpose of God.
4. Train and empower people to make biblical disciples and multiply biblical churches without dependence on performances, programs, and professionals.
5. Lead the church to pray and fast for that which can only be accomplished by the Spirit.
6. Send missionaries to the unreached from your local church.
7. Promote multiple avenues for people to go to the unreached (on short-, mid-, and long-term trips).
8. Give wisely, generously, and sacrificially from the local church to missions.
9. Prioritize urgent spiritual needs in the world, while providing for physical needs.
10. Prepare people to suffer and die and shepherd them amid suffering and death as they make disciples among all the nations.
Platt ends with an exhortation that we’re not living for this world—we have an enduring city to come. Platt says when our eyes are fixed on eternity and on Christ, whatever the Lord calls us to do for the sake of his name makes sense.
Transcript
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David Platt: Oh, God, we are so thankful. To even be in this room or online in this setting. We deserve to be in hell right now. And here we are talking about your grace and the gospel and making it known to more and more people being a part of your church gathered together with brothers and sisters. We don’t deserve any of this not not one of us. Myself, first and foremost, not one of us is in this place in this position where we find ourselves right now by any merit in us, but solely based on mercy in us. So we give you glory, we turn our eyes to you, and we praise you and thank you for your new mercies taught us today. For your goodness and mercy that’s been following us ever since we woke up this morning. Follow us all day long. And tomorrow. And the next day, we we love you, God, we worship you. We praise you. we yield to you. We want your leadership in our lives in every facet of our lives. And in the next 45 minutes or so, I pray for your Spirit to lead us. For your Spirit to guide and direct this time, I pray that you would keep me tethered to your word you would keep me from saying anything. It would certainly go against your word, but just anything that’s not in line with your word and your spirit and you would teach us by your Spirit. And these few minutes that this there would be nothing natural about this time we have together but it would just be supernatural in ways that lead to fruit in our lives and our churches, far beyond what we could ask or imagine. So with great anticipation, we pray for your leadership now in Jesus name. Amen. Oh, alright, got a lot to cover that I want to dive into. In this session for those of you in the room, we did something last night radical did something called the Great imbalance just out of curiosity, just by show of hands, how many of you are a part of that? Just give you a little give me a little picture.
Okay, good, decent number, but not certainly not everybody. And then obviously online. Raise your hand. Oh, okay. So good to know. So what I want to do is we there were a lot of things foundationally that we walked through last night and this event that we did that I’m going to hit on really quick at the very beginning just to get us all up to speed and then I want to so what we’re going to do is I want to walk through five foundations. And if you were here last night, you won’t be surprised I don’t think by any of these Things were gonna hit him pretty quickly. Five foundations to kind of get us on the same page for then a discussion of 10 Practical exhortation. So these are five. Yeah, biblical foundations, mainly, when we look at the world that will lead into 10 Practical interpretations, like my hope is that you would be able to walk away from thinking about the role of the local church and 21st century missions that you might even be able to take these 10 things. So this is an exercise I’ve done with groups of pastors, where we walk through these 10 sorts of things, and then kind of look and our local church and say, How are we doing scale of one to 10? Like 10? We’re nailing that one, or one, we’re not nailing that one, or I haven’t even thought about that one. So and in between, and so maybe just as a guide to, hopefully, fuel, maybe conversation over lunch as you think through. Okay, how do we put some of these things that we see in God’s Word into practice in the local church when it comes to 21st century missions missions today. So I’m gonna have some notes up here on the screen, because it’s a lot of content to cover. So hopefully, this will be helpful. So here we go. There we go. Number one. So these are five foundations to get us started. We’ll go through these pretty quick one. Christians have been saved solely by God’s grace and supremely for God’s glory among all the nations. Christians have been saved, we celebrate solely by God’s grace is his sovereign grace that saves us He calls us he chooses us by His mercy, for His glory supremely for God’s glory among all nations. So basically, here, the sole ground of salvation is the sovereign grace of God, the Supreme aim of salvation is the global glory of God, global glory. So many different texts we could go to at this point, I would argue from cover to cover in Scripture, no one is saved by anything but God’s grace. And it’s always for God’s glory among all the nations.
I was quoting last night from Ezekiel 36, maybe the clearest when God is recounting what he has done and what he’s about to do among his people. And the Old Testament, it says, it’s not for your Seiko house of Israel, that I’m doing these things. But for the sake of my holy name, which you profane among the nations where you’ve gone I will show the holiness of my great name, the name you profane them on the nations, the nations will know that I’m the Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes. God’s saying, I’m going to pour out My grace on you and discipline and in restoration, through exile and return, I’m going to do all of that for my glory. And so I just got finished through my old testament readings in time with the Lord in the morning, we just got finished reading through as a church Exodus. And I mean, clearly, God saves his people by His grace redeems them out of slavery in Egypt, for His glory among the nations when you get to Exodus, chapter 14, verse four, and remember, they’ve been brought out after all those plagues, they have, they’re being led by a pillar of cloud and pillar fire, and they get to the edge of the Red Sea, and Egyptian army is about to overtake them. And God says, I’m gonna gain glory for myself, by splitting the sea in half, sending you through on dry land, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord. That’s God’s showing grace for His glory. This is what all of history is headed toward Revelation chapter seven, verse nine and 10. People from every nation, tribe and tongue gathered around giving him glory. For His grace and salvation Christians have been saved solely by God’s grace and supremely for God’s glory among all the nations of the earth. Which is why number two, the church has been given a great commission to make disciples and multiply churches among every people group in the world among every nation.
So when the Bible talks about nations, it’s talking about ethnic groups, people groups at their linguistic groups, groups that share common language, cultural characteristics, if God has saved us for His glory among all the nations, and he’s given us a plan to make disciples and multiply churches among all of those nations among every people group in the world. anthropological missiological, scholars estimate about 17,000 people groups in the world, approximately 7000 of them Well, that’ll get to the jumping ahead. Let’s start with keeping them or to Great Commission, we have been commanded not generally just to make disciples among as many people as possible in Indianapolis or Washington, DC or wherever you serve. We have been commanded by Jesus to make disciples of all the nations of all the people groups in the world. And out of 17,000 or so people groups in the world, over 3 billion people in over 7000 people groups remain unreached by the gospel unreached, meaning they don’t have access to the Gospel, no one has shared the gospel with them. And practically the way that plays out out. When we talk about unreached people, we’re talking about people who are born, they live and they die. And the likelihood is they will never even hear the gospel. They don’t, they don’t have Christians and churches around them who can share the gospel with them. They’re unreached by it. And this is a map we looked at real briefly last night, but Joshua project puts out as we partner together with them, that just shows the state of the world when it comes to access to the gospel, and the green areas on this map, hopefully, you’re familiar with this map. But the green areas on this map show are areas that had been reached with the gospel obviously, does not mean that everybody in these places is saved as a Christian by any means. And there are, there’s certainly people in these places that still I mean, I think about major cities, communities that are represented around this room where there are people who have not had meaningful exposure to the gospel, but by God’s grace in these places where they’re green, there are Christians who know the gospel, there are churches that are proclaiming the gospel.
That’s what Trump said in the green on the yellow on this map are areas where there’s a weaker church presence, a weaker gospel presence, either the Gospels new in that place, and the church has just started to grow, or the gospel has waned. In that place. There was once gospel preaching Christians and churches in that place, but there are fewer and fewer there. So think about different parts of Europe specifically. So that’s yellow. But then the red areas on this map are the areas that are, for the most part unreached by the gospel. This is where most of those 7000 people groups are concentrated, where they don’t have access to the good news of how God loves us enough that he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins. Many of them have never even heard his name, the theme of this conference, Jesus is greater. We’re talking about people who when you walk into a village, and you say, what do you know about Jesus, and they look back at you, and they say, Who’s that is that it’s almost like you’re talking about somebody in another village, they have no idea who he is never even heard his name, or they’ve heard lies about him never heard the truth about who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done. And we know, based on all of Scripture teaches, specifically the book of Romans, which emphasizes this, that if they do not hear the gospel, they cannot place their faith in Jesus. And if they cannot place their faith in Jesus, then they cannot be saved. So we’re talking about 3 billion people in the world, who right now if nothing changes, will be born, live and die. And will go to an eternal hell without ever even hearing how they can go to heaven. So that’s, that’s foundation number three. Foundation number four, which is what we talked about a ton last night, we have settled with this great commission, as the church today for a great imbalance.
Approximately 99% of our missions resources, and approximately 97% of our missionaries are going to people in places that have been reached by the gospel. So if you weren’t here last night, just to make sure this is really clear, we’re talking about missions resources, we’re not just talking about giving in the church, back giving us hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars that we give to the church that we in the church give to things like budgets and staff and programs and all sorts of things, all sorts of ministries, many good things. But then we’re talking about the slice of that, that we give to missions, about $47 billion. And out of that slice that we give to missions, approximately 99% of what we’re giving to missions is going to places that are already reached by the gospel. And as we send out missionaries, from our churches to go to the nation’s approximately 97% of those missionaries are going to places reached by the gospel. So we can go back to this map. We’re basically sending our money and our missionaries when it comes to missions to these places in the world. While we’re ignoring the nations who need the gospel, most not there is not good work to be done. And many of these places are not brothers and sisters to come alongside and Latin America, South America and Sub Saharan Africa and parts of Europe. Yes, there’s, there’s so many good brothers and sisters and praise God for missionaries who have worked and have labored in those places. But at some point if we are going to be serious about the Great Commission, that we must take the Gospel to all the nations. We can’t settle for this great imbalance. As long as we settle for this greater balance, we will be disobeying the Great Commission in our day. In, which leads to foundation.
Number five. God has given pastors and church leaders, the undeserved privilege, unambiguous responsibility, and on precedented opportunity to rectify this great imbalance and obey this great commission. So I just every one of those words matters there in my mind. Thinking of pastors and church leaders, I’m assuming that because you’re at this conference, you’re either a pastor or a leader in your church in some way. God has given us the undeserved privilege. Just stop there. Think about my own life. I was I was born into a family where I’ve heard the gospel ever since I was born. And it just state the obvious. I had nothing to do with where I was born. That’s the pure mercy of God, like why was I not born into a remote part of the Middle East where the gospel is not yet gone? Why was I born into a place where I’ve heard the gospel my entire life. I have no explanation for that, but the grace and mercy of Almighty God. And I don’t know if your story is the same. But I’m assuming that if you’re at a gospel coalition conference, you’ve heard the Gospel before. If not, let’s just go ahead and get it out there. God loves you, He created you in His image, you, i All of us have sinned against God returned from God, His ways to our own ways, and we deserve judgment before God, we’re separated from God, the buyers then, and when we die, we will experience eternal separation from his love. But God loves us and doesn’t want us to die. Without him. He desires us to know him to be restored to him so much that He sent His Son Jesus to do what none of us could ever do to live the life we couldn’t live a life of no sin. And then even though we had no sin to die, he chose to die the death we deserve to die on a cross to pay the price for the sins of all trust in Him.
And then the good news keeps getting better because he didn’t stay dead for long. Three days later, he rose from the grave and victory over sin and death. And now he offers eternal life to anyone who will turn from their sin and trust in Him by grace through faith in Jesus is the greatest news in the world. So now, just in case you didn’t have it, now you have it. And that’s a picture of the mercy of God, that 3 billion people are still waiting to hear. And we have it. Talk about a privilege that we get to be in a room like this. That’s why I was praying. I was just thinking about this breakout, that we’re even a part of this conversation is mercy of God. And I don’t know why he’s given me us this mercy. As far as what grant just the grace, the found of grace and him, but I do know why in the sense, He’s given us this mercy for a mission. He’s not given us this mercy to stop with us. He’s given us this mercy to spread through us. And we have a privilege and unambiguous responsibility, meaning it’s crystal clear make disciples of all nations, he’s made it clear. He’s told us from cover to cover in Scripture. This is one of about making my glory known among all the nations, I’ve told you, this is where all of history is headed.
So if you want to, this is where the train of history is headed, then and you’re the people have God and jump on that train and live for that. unambiguous responsibility. Pastors, church leaders, we have the responsibility to shepherd the church to love and lead the church to make disciples of all the nations George Pentecost said about 100 years ago, at a prominent missions conference, he said to the pastor belongs the privilege and responsibility of the missionary problem. And basically, what he was saying is, missionaries can and should do this or that and mission organizations exist to kind of help facilitate this. But it’s the responsibility and privilege of every pastor, to shepherd every local church in such a way that leads to the spread of God’s glory among all the nations. Pastor, this is your responsibility as a shepherd in the church, to shepherd the church to make disciples of all the nations that’s unambiguous responsibility that God has given to us, entrusted to us, pastors, leaders in the church, and I’m convinced if we would just get this it would change everything. I talked to so many missions, pastors in the church, who have a ceiling over their head, because they’re trying to mobilize people to make disciples of the nations but the senior pastor lead pastors pushing back against that doesn’t have a heart for that. And brother pasture if you don’t have a heart for the spread of the gospel to all the nations then you don’t have the heart of Jesus. This is his heart. He wants He died to redeem people to ransom Men and Women for God from every nation and tribe and people in language, that’s what he died for. This is what we live for. This is what we lead for, we have an unambiguous responsibility and an unprecedented opportunity, the opportunity we have you and I, again, God’s grace. And this place in this room, this gathering right now with the resources, we have the technology, we have the ease of travel, we have the globalization of today’s marketplace, urbanization, the world is God brings and even different migration of peoples brings peoples to us. unprecedented wealth in the world. Why is God given all these things for the spread of His glory among all the nations, that steward this faithfully this unprecedented opportunity to rectify this great imbalance and obey this great commission?
So, alright, those are five foundations. So flowing from that and flowing from that here 10 Just practical expectations that I would give. So if these things are true, then what does that mean? I do week in and week out, we do as pastors and leaders in the church. So one, preach the unfading word and view of the unreached world. So preach the unfading word in view of the unreached world. So absolutely give, give them the word every week, give them the word help them to love this word. Help them to love this word so much that they that they digest it, and they memorize it and meditate on it. They they love this word. And and do that in view of the unreached world. So the reality is, so don’t just preach the Word, almost on the assumption that everybody has this. Because they don’t, because 3 billion plus people in the world don’t have it. Never even heard it. And so give them a love for this word that when they then start to see there’s 3 billion people in the world that don’t have it. They say, well, that needs to change. I love this word so much. I know this word brings life. It saves me It satisfies me. It corrects me it does all the second Timothy chapter three, verse 16, to 18 says it does like I want that for everybody. So they start to go I think about my time with the Lord this morning was in Psalm 19. And we know that the heavens declare the glory of God, this guy proclaims His handiwork just talks about the glory of God and creation. And then you know, that shift that happens around verse seven, when the Bible starts talking about yes, yes, God’s revelation and creation is awesome. But on an even greater level, the word of God the law of the Lord.
And it starts giving all those different descriptors of God’s laws true and clear and right and pure and radiant, how it revives and restores and gives light and lightens the eyes and leads to reward. It’s sweeter than honey, it’s greater than money. And the picture is clear. If people are going to know God, creation is insufficient. And you don’t get so far Romans chapter one, the reveal God’s internal powers His divine nature, clearly seen being understood was remade so the men are without excuse. But if that’s all they have, like, picture it I, I think about sitting in a village in the Himalayas. And you’re looking out at beauty. I just majestic beauty all around. You just want to take a picture everywhere you look but no picture does it justice. Just when you’re sitting at like 12,000 feet, and you’re like halfway up this mountain besides you. It’s crazy that majesty. And then you realize, it’s all these villages that have not heard the gospel, that all of this beauty is ultimately insufficient. You know what the effect of All That Beauty is ultimately, it dams. It’s enough to show that there’s a glorious God who made all of this, and we have sinned against him. And that’s it. Which means you come into that village.
You speak the name of Jesus and you tell the gospel, the truth about Jesus. You’re bringing beauty that all this landscape can’t even touch can’t compare with. And when people in the church realize we have that beauty here, and there’s 3 billion people who don’t have that beauty before them, they don’t have the word before them, they will go and you’ll be leading them to go and so preach the unfading word yes, in view the unreached world may unreached people groups be a common verbiage in your church. Why? Because Jesus has told us make disciples of all the nations. And there’s seven dozen nations groups of people yet to hear the gospel the Word of God. So may this be clear, lead them to pray, like when you’re gathering together, yes, spend, however long you spend proclaiming this word at some point, spend some time pleading for this word to go to people who’ve never heard it. I just pull up a unreached to the day app and Joshua project, just doodle on Sunday, just it’ll take you two minutes. I’m hard on people while of people in Ethiopia, so starts talking about all these indigenous peoples up in the northern part of Ethiopia. It’s really interesting. My lift driver yesterday was from this particular people group. But you notice 5.8 9 million people point 2%. Evangelical, we think of Ethiopia, there are a lot of followers of Jesus in Ethiopia, but particularly up here and the north, there’s a lot less and there’s more unreached people groups and some of the extreme parts of Ethiopia in particular. And this place, you’ve seen a lot in the news about the northern part of Ethiopia recently. We’re going to walk people through this is this a people group, there’s there’s 6 million of them. And there’s a handful of believers. Let’s pray right now, for the spread of this word to them. We love this word. We know they need the toilets pray for this you do that we can and we count things start to change, you start to get God’s heart for the nations in your church. So preach the unfading word in view of the unreached world. All right, number two, call people to supreme love for and round of radical identification with Jesus, supreme love for Jesus and radical identification with Jesus. So here’s why I emphasize this foundationally supreme love. The last thing we want to do in the church is try to manufacture a heart for missions and miss a heart for Jesus.
So don’t bypass that one. Like, start with just just nurturing the more people love Jesus, the more they will want Jesus to be made known in the world, and radical identification with Jesus. So the reason I emphasize that and even use those words, is because when you look at Matthew chapter four, verse 19, Jesus initial invitation to those disciples, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men, from the very beginning, to follow him would be the fisherman, that fishing would be the overflow of following in the same way that you get to the Great Commission, go and make disciples of all the nations. You think about it, these disciples did they have to be cajoled into doing that? No, they had to be told to not not do that too soon, I wait, you’re gonna mess this up, if you do this before the holy spirit comes. So So these guys had seen Jesus died across rise from the dead, but they were ready to go tell somebody about this. Why? Because they love Jesus, they were identified with Jesus and mission was the overflow of that. X when a makes clear that mission to the ends of the earth is the overflow of intimacy with the Spirit of God. So if we put all that together, we think we have to come to the conclusion, if we’re not making disciples of the nations, giving ourselves permission to the ends of the earth, fishing for men, among all the people groups in the world. If we’re not doing that, then there’s a problem with our following. There’s a lack of intimacy here with Jesus isn’t lack of intimacy with the Holy Spirit of God, because those who walk with us in the power of the Spirit of God are witnesses to the ends of the earth. And those who follow Jesus are fishers of men. Those who who are disciples of Jesus and love of Jesus are making disciples of Jesus among the nations. That’s what we see in God’s word. So that’s why I don’t want to just focus on the second part and bypass the first part. missions is the overflow of passion for Jesus Christ.
To live as Christ, that’s my life. He’s my life. sort of raised that people from that’s the case and then just kind of connect the dots, then what happens when we go to other nations, right? So we’re not just going to other nations and saying, hey, just say these words, pray these prayers, and you’re in and just kind of move on. Like the last thing that nations need is the exportation of nominal Christianity from us. They need extra Jesus is worthy of their lives. So so how can we in our churches then call people to supreme love for Jesus and radical identification with Jesus self denying people who were laying aside the pleasures and possessions and pursuits of this world to follow Jesus however, wherever it leads, and to make Jesus known Wherever they live and wherever God leads. So, third, reorient and related to this reorient discipleship in your local church around the global purpose of God. So I just want to be my hope it would my hope is coming out of these few minutes is that you will not walk away thinking, Okay, we need a better admissions program.
I mean, maybe maybe some of the practical things that go along there. But I was talking I’ll put it this way I was talking with a, she’s probably about 23 year old sister in Christ last week. And she is zealous for the spread of God’s word among the nations. She’s trying to discern what does that look like in my life, whether that’s through this in graduate school or live here live somewhere else in the world? She’s asking all kinds of great questions, but she’s zealous, what’s driving her is just how can I glorify God most among the nations with my life and my resources, my time? And I said, How did you like, get that zeal? And she said, Well, the person who led me to Christ, just from the very beginning started showing me this is what God is passionate about his glory among all the nations. This is just the way I understand Christianity. That that is, I pray for every member in our church. And one of the things that most excites me as a pastor is thinking about children. Any child who grows up in our church who goes through, I hope, a children’s preschool and children’s ministry, where they’re hearing about unreached people and the spread of the gospel, the nation’s and God’s passion for His glory, and how God saves us for His glory, to enjoy and exalt His glory among all the nations. And that, that is infused in the way they think about their lives. It’s elementary schoolers and middle schoolers and high schoolers so that when they go off to college, and they start to think through this, why we just started a gap year program is radical, because there’s so many decisions about you made about degrees that we’re going to get or people are going to date are going to marry and to say, less, every single one of those decisions need to be driven by zeal for the spread of God’s glory among the nations don’t yoke your life together with somebody else. It’s not zealous for the spread of God’s glory among all the nations and for parents to see, that’s what we need to be raising our kids for not to not to be great at sports and have great degrees or go to great colleges or good, great jobs.
It’s not that any of those things are bad. But if we leave them to do all those things, we run around town, getting to do all those things really well. It’s been so many hours, all these things, we don’t teach them to know God and love God and memorize God’s word and meditate on God’s word, and walk with God and share the gospel among the nations we’ve missed the point we’ve the point of parenting is to raise children to love a great God and accomplish a great commission. And we’ve been duped into thinking it’s all this other stuff in the world. Not that again, all those things are bad, but reorient discipleship and every facet of the church around the global purpose of God that it’d be, then it might be infused into the whole picture. Unless you think, well, you’re imposing something on the church that God doesn’t intend, just read the Bible. I’m gonna bless you, for the spread of my blessing to all the peoples of the earth. And so in the beginning of God’s people, all the way to the end, I’m bringing about a day when every nation, tribe and tongue and people sing my praise and give me glory, beginning to end and you mark it down all throughout, of all throughout Scripture, the global purpose of God has been resisted by the comfortable people have got.
So, so let’s not be that people. Let’s reorient what it means to follow Jesus around the purpose of Jesus in the world, where you are in discipleship in your local church around the global purpose of God, and that this affects the way we teach through about work and the value of work, retirement plans, dreams so much we can talk about there. But do people in your local church see following Jesus? See, see, making us I was among the nations as the fruit of just what it means to be a follower of Jesus, that just makes sense that we talked about taking the gospel of the nations praying to that end giving to that and go into that. And as God leads, number four, train and empower people to make disciples and multi make biblical disciples and multiply biblical churches without dependence on performances, programs and professionals. Here’s what I mean by that. And here’s why I put biblical in there. Just mainly because I see a lot in missions world that is unbiblical that’s attached to Christian or unbiblical that’s attached to church. And so I just want to make sure it’s clear that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about church, oh, yeah, wherever two or three gathered, that’s church and we kind of move on. Beyond the fact that that’s a total abuse of Matthew chapter 18. That’s not what the Bible defines the church, two or three people together.
So I’m talking about Biblical churches who are pursuing all the biblical traits of a church and biblical disciples, people who are following Jesus, we’re not just going in counting numbers in order to report back good numbers. So we’re making biblical disciples, biblical churches, but training empower people to do that without dependence on performances, programs and professionals. I feel like I probably need to get a couple of caveats here. But here’s what here’s what I mean. If we’re not careful, we’ll communicate in our churches. This is the way disciples are made, come to a large gathering where a couple people, one main person stands on stage. Some talented musicians also stand on that stage. And then to do that, and then, and then go participate in a children’s program, a youth program, a singles program, young adults program, seniors program, this life, age, age and life stage program, this age and life stage program, and most of those run by professionals. And think, Okay, well, this is how disciples are made. Now, I want to be really careful. So here’s the caveat. I’m not saying those things are bad. I’m certainly not saying corporate worship is bad proclamation of the Word, musical worship and seeing, and having intentional ways to help children in discipleship and come alongside parents in that way. And students and all kinds of different people going through all kinds of different things in life. So but what I’m after here is what happens when God does what He did an extra 13.
And he picks up somebody from your church, the church that I’m in and moves them to an unreached part of the world and says, I want you to, to live for the spread of the gospel there. I say all the time, in our church family, I want every member of our church, to be in a position where God could do that. And they would know when they get there, how to make disciples, Gather together, as the church and make more disciples and multiply the church with nothing, but the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, and the people of God. Without dependence on what I’ve called here, performances, programs and professionals. Like I want to, I want to raise up an army of brothers and sisters. And when I use army, I’m talking about spiritual war. It is a spiritual war, but who are ready for that battle? who know how to make disciples. Just the word of God in the Spirit of God as a part of the church. So how do we train and empower people to do that? Ton we could talk about practically, what does that look like. But that’s number four. Number five, lead the church, to pray and fast for that which can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God, and only be attributed to the glory of God lead the church to pray and fast for that which can only be accomplished by the Spirit of God and attributed the glory of God. So much we could dive into here, I’ll just give a confession and over quick overview of conviction in my own heart. So and I mentioned this real briefly last night, but I, I’ve been to South Korea on numerous occasions. But the last time I was there was in this church, these brothers and sisters, and I began to learn more about the history of the Church on the Korean peninsula. And a quick overview is around 1900, the percentage of Christians in on the Korean peninsula was less than 1%.
And what happened is, a few years into the 20th century, they had a meeting of pastors and leaders and missionaries who were working there. And at this multi day meeting. They all of a sudden began to break out and spontaneous confession of sin and reconciliation with each other. And honestly before God and audible weeping before God and prayer, and that sparked a movement that really marked the next century. And I’m oversimplifying a lot but marked the next century of the church, on the Korean peninsula. At the marks of the church, they’re just desperate prayer, prayer meetings every morning at four in the morning. All night prayer meetings on Friday nights that still continue are still happening today. I remember a seminary professor of mine, having gone to South Korea, and he was in this particular hotel, and it was about four in the morning, and he gets woken up by this noise outside of the hotel and he kind of walks over groggily, it’s like, crowd noise he walks over groggily opens the window. He looks there’s a stadium over here, and it’s full of people yelling And he was pretty frustrated, to be awake at four in the morning by this group of sports fans or whatever they were doing.
And so we the next, after a few hours go by he goes downstairs. He’s like, what sport do you guys play at four in the morning. And I said, Oh, that was not a sporting event that was the church gathering together to pray. And so I came back, I’ll confess I, up until a couple years ago, I’d never been a part of a all night prayer gathering. I never led the church to pray all night, or even like six to midnight, or even multiple hours, like, I’ve just not led the church Well, in this way fast and pray like this. And so we started making some major changes and having at least quarterly times where they either pray together all night or late into the night. And these are by far, my favorite times as a pastor now go back to Korea. turn of the century, 19 101, less than 1%. By 2000 100 years later, there were more than 10 million followers of Jesus in South Korea alone. And they’re second only in the United States when it comes to sending out missionaries around the world, which is pretty remarkable when you think about South Korea is the size of about Florida and California combined. I that’s a mighty move of God. His brain like we were praying last night for Afghanistan. I think of a country like Afghanistan, less than 1% Christian Can you imagine a century from now having 10 Millions followers of Jesus in Afghanistan? And they’re sending out missionaries all over the world? Can God do that? Absolutely.
God can do that. If his people will ask him to do that you have not because you ask not let’s let’s ask for God to show His glory among the nations. Let’s let’s set aside hours to pray and fast for God to do with only his Spirit can do and that which can only be attributed to his glory, not in a way that any personality any church would get credit that God alone can get the credit. I want to be a part of that. So let’s leave the church to pray and fast like that. Number six, got three minutes. Man. Alright, so six, send missionaries to the unreached from your local church, send missionaries, the unreached from your local church. If there’s 3 billion people haven’t heard the gospel, I think it would be shocking, shocking for any church no matter what size for God not to send somebody out, and an X 13 kind of way. So here’s practically how I would encourage you to do this. Like this is what we do least once, not multiple times a year, or we have a time where we just call the church, okay, this weekend, we’re going to fast anticipation of this Sunday, we’re going to pray and we’re just going to all put our lives I’m gonna put my life in a fresh round the table, you do the same, put our lives at the table and say God, are you leading us to go?
Are you leading us to your Well, that’s all just ask him. And then on that Sunday, you preach. So your preach this is not a once a year mission sermon, like mission spread of God’s going among all the nations integrating all year long, all over the world, integrating into the all the life of the church, but then once twice here, have some time where you say okay, who is he setting apart to move for the spread of the gospel of the unreached. And then you give people an opportunity to respond just at the end of that service? You say, Okay, we’re asking God to do this, who’s who’s calling out and he will call people out of a call if you give them an opportunity. And then you start to walk with them through that you start to shepherd them through a process, you say, Well, I don’t know how to do that.
Well then figure out how to do that. Is there anything that’s important to figure out how to get the gospel of the nation’s how to shepherd your church is part of what it means for us to be pastors and leaders in the church. Number seven, promote multiple avenues then for people to go to the unreached short term, mid term, long term studying working vacationing retiring as vocation through vocation point is there’s so many ways people can go, so many ways to go. So fuel healthy short term mission trips, where you’re coming alongside brothers and sisters in different parts of the world. And being a part of like, I think about trips I’ve been on and pretty unreached places where I can go in and I can do something and if I get kicked out, it’s not near as big a deal as if this person gets kicked out who’s living there. And so so there’s there’s all kinds of ways to fuel and a week or two work that’s going on long term and a particular place, short term, mid term. So think for a month or two or a year or two sort of to go and this is where college students high school students, there’s unless there’s an audible voice from God saying don’t go like why not look for an opportunity Need to go and be a part of the spread of the gospel among the nations for a concentrated time over a summer semester, year or two, and maybe God will lead you to come back mana reached and work here, you’ll have a totally different perspective on that.
Or maybe Maybe God will lead you to spend your life there. So when I think about people going on short term midterm trips, oftentimes God says, Okay, I want you to do this longer term. And there’s all kinds of avenues for people to go long term as their vocation through as a vocation, meaning I’m gonna go and be supported by the church as a missionary, or I’m gonna go through a vocation, I’m gonna get a job somewhere else in the world, why not train our college students to look for jobs around the world, particularly among the unreached are not just jobs studying, why not look for opportunities to study at least third semester, or maybe to get degrees, there’s some universities overseas that will give full scholarships to Americans who want to come study over there in the middle of unreached people, you get a great degree overseas while living for the spread of the gospel among the nations. That’s totally countercultural to the way we think. But it’s totally in line with what God is doing in the world. So many opportunities retiring, why not spend the last days before we see our Saviors face, instead of playing golf in South Florida, spreading the gospel in North Africa? What’s a better way to spend those days to think through multiple avenues and to promote those and the church and to get people thinking about all the different ways that’s what I love, the creativity of God? All kinds of different people in the church, I think about I’ll tell you one quick story. I don’t have time tell the story.
Okay. Number Number eight, number eight. Give wisely generously and sacrificially from your local church for God’s global purpose. Give wisely generously and sacrificially from your local church for God’s global purpose, meaning, meaning, like, if we’re going to correct this imbalance, we’ve got to give more wisely. We got to we got to get behind work among the unreached as part of why we started something called urgent and there’s so many different ways to do this, but but to say, how do we get behind brothers and sisters financially, who were doing work among the unreached generously give generously and sacrificially from our local churches for God’s goal, a purpose where your treasure is there your heart will be also what do our church budgets say about our heart for the nations? What is your church budget say about your heart for God’s glory among the nations where your treasure is there your heart is. So that’s number eight.
Number nine, prioritize urgent spiritual need in the world, while responding to urgent physical need in the world. Prioritize urgent spiritual need in the world, meaning people’s greatest need is the gospel. People’s greatest needs the gospel at the same time, we live in a world of urgent physical needs, urgent, physical needs. So last night, we walked through something called Stratus. And at the end of the session, if you forgot a minute to hang on, I’m going to show you a video that will introduce you to Stratos, but it’s basically a tool for the church to be able to see not just where the gospel needs to go in the world, but what are the needs and the barriers that are keeping the gospel from going, they’re actually doing a whole breakout session on Stratos, the next breakout session after lunch. So if you want to be a part of that, feel free to do that. But we’ve got to think wisely through if we’re gonna make disciples of the nations, there’s a lot of nations that are starving, there’s a lot of nations that don’t have clean water. There’s a lot of nations without any kind of medical care.
There’s a lot of nations without all kinds of need. And there’s all kinds of ways to go about approaching those particular needs with the gospel in our mouth, always prioritize urgent spiritual need in the world while responding to urgent physical need in the world. Number 10. Number 10. prepare people to suffer and die. And Shepherd people amidst suffering and death. As they make disciples among all the nations. Here’s why I want to make sure to land there, I just don’t, I don’t want in any way to give off the impression that what we’ve just talked about will be easy, or without cost. To those who go I’ve had enough conversations with family members whose spouses or children or parents have died on the field. Or conversations with brothers and sisters sent out from our church who have walked through all kinds of trauma and challenge unreached people are unreached for a reason. They’re hard to reach. They’re difficult to reach. They’re dangerous to reach all the easy ones are taken. So any church any Christian that wants to be serious about making disciples of all nations will experience exactly what Jesus told us.
We will experience opposition at every turn from inside from outside and I would also To say this for pastors and church leaders, I think about one pastor who is a hero of mine who I heard about this pastor initially. And I’m guessing very few of you probably even know his name. But I heard about him initially, from people I’ve met around the world who had gone through his church and shepherded to love God’s glory among the nations where they love their own lines. And I remember once I got to know him, just my respect for him growing, and he was it about its 30th year, and I said, Hey, one day I said, Hey, how are things going? He said, This has been the hardest year yet. And started talking about all kinds of challenges in the church. The hardest year yet, is that phrase sound familiar? And I got so discouraged listening to him, because I thought 30 years, and that was the hardest one. Like, it doesn’t get any easier. But that’s when I realized, David, you are foolish to think that at any point, as long as you are shepherding people to make disciples of the nations, that it’s going to get easy in this world. It’s just not. That’s the whole point. We’re not living for this world. We have an enduring city to come. And when our eyes are fixed there, then whatever the Lord calls us to do makes total sense. Let’s fix our eyes on Him and a Hebrews 12 kind of way.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
David Platt (ThM, PhD, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) is the pastor-teacher of McLean Bible Church, founder of Radical, and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. He has written several books, including Something Needs to Change and Radical. David and his wife, Heather, have four children.