Can y'all hear me?
I'll never forget one time I was preaching up in Rocky Mount
and the auditorium held 1,700 people
and as I got up behind the pulpit, Jeff, my mic went out.
You can laugh, yeah, it was funny.
For y'all, it was funny.
But by the time I finished that sermon, I could not talk.
That's how loud I had to speak.
Just want to make sure you can hear me.
If you can hear me, wave your hands.
Okay, praise the Lord.
It was our joy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ
and it was the humor of God, I believe God has a sense of humor,
that he would call an American pastor after 27 years of ministry
to go to Asia and to work with, I think,
the finest missionaries in the whole world.
Jonathan and Kelly, where are y'all?
Y'all are here somewhere, aren't you?
Serving with them.
They were our FPO cluster leaders in Richmond, Virginia.
Little did I know that we would fall in love with these families
that we served with and they become your family overseas.
The Lord allowed us the privilege.
Let me just say this.
We did not know what we were doing.
We were being trained by the greatest missionaries, I think, in the world.
I was an American pastor.
I had American context and it was so different over in India.
And the Lord put us on.
Our church adopted an unreached, unengaged people group
called the Mahar Koli, the Koli people.
And all we knew was that they lived along the coast of Mumbai.
They were fishermen, we thought, at that time.
And we went.
Barbara and I went.
Barbara was just coming off of having her kidney removed from kidney cancer.
Four months after her kidney was removed,
we were on the ground in India as missionaries.
And so life was moving fast for us.
And again, I'm not trying to sound humble.
I'm telling you the truth.
It was just really, you know, I mean, God gives you an assignment.
Go reach a people that no one's reaching.
And so, you know, just go do it.
And we really had to pray and trust God a lot
and rely on our leadership
and rely on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to lead us.
And the Lord, because of the victories that we saw,
we saw our people group removed from the UUPG list,
which was the greatest sense of victory that I had in my service to the Lord.
They were removed from the Unreached Unengaged People Group.
I remember being in Delhi,
Jonathan talking to Joey Gordy at the transit house.
And I said, Joey, I'm looking for our people group on the list,
and they're not there.
I mean, is there a mistake?
Where's our people?
And he said, oh, you haven't heard.
They're engaged.
I said, oh, tell me who.
I want to know who these people are that have engaged them
because I want to partner.
I mean, I want to learn from them.
He said, it's you.
And so I said, it's me and Barb.
And we had started doing ministry among the Maharkoli,
who are rice farmers in the mountains of Tane District
in northeastern Maharashtra.
And there's so many stories that I could tell you.
When I was here last year,
I had the joy of being in that Sunday school class,
and I got to share some of the stories of how I almost got beat,
beat, almost had my legs broken
by a village leader who was very upset with us sharing the gospel.
I could tell you how the very first converts from that tribal group
came to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
I could tell you about how the Lord led us to partner
with an Indian church planning ministry.
I could tell you about how my daughter got sick,
and we had to come home, and my head was spinning.
And I didn't know what in the world the Lord was doing
because there was fruit, and there was success on the field.
And now here we are back in the States with our very sick daughter.
I just did not know what in the world God was up to.
And the Lord led us to resign,
which was the hardest thing I've done in a long time,
to resign a work that we loved,
to leave a team that we loved,
the Mumbai IMB team there in Mumbai, India.
And now to see my national partner
doing such a great job in the field,
the guy that we discipled, that we raised up,
is now the face of the ministry.
And I've talked to the couple that replaced us,
and they're working in that same ministry, seeing fruit.
Just got a Facebook message
that they had done an evangelism,
an event among this Unreached People group,
and they had people that came to Christ,
and now they're planning discipleship and church planning.
So I could tell you all those things,
but I don't have time.
So I've got to share with you
what the Lord burdened my heart about,
about coming to this missions conference,
what message the Lord put on my heart,
and it's to the church corporately.
First of all, I want to say to you
that the Lord is a passionate God.
God has a passion for the world.
In John 3, verse 16,
we see the passion of God in this verse
that we all know so well.
In fact, I don't even think you need to look
in your Bible at John 3, 16,
because you probably have it memorized.
Many of the children here could probably quote John 3, 16.
But in John 3, 16,
we begin to see the passion of God
for this lost world,
where John writes,
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only gotten son.
You see, it doesn't say for God loved the world,
but that he so loved the world.
And that little word so speaks of the passion of God
and the willingness and the extent of God,
how far God was willing to go
to show his love to this lost and dying world
that he gave his only begotten son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life.
And I want us to connect this morning
with the passion of the God that we claim to worship.
The heavenly father that we love,
that we know in our heart,
I want us to connect and to touch his heart
for this lost world.
Maybe your heart's like mine,
and we need to have our hearts stirred this morning.
Will you quote John 3, 16 with me out loud
if you feel comfortable doing that?
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son,
that whoever believes in him
should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
You see, God is a passionate God.
His heart is for the world.
Look what 2 Peter 3, verse 9 says,
that the Lord's not slack concerning his promises,
some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering toward us,
not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
Do you see your father's heart?
That he's patient with this world.
The only reason Jesus Christ
has not returned to this world
is because of God's love and suffering
for the lost of this world.
He wants all men everywhere to repent.
He's not willing that any should perish,
but that they should repent.
Look what Mark 16 says.
Jesus said to his followers,
to his disciples,
go into all the world and preach the gospel.
The King James says to every creature,
a better translation is to all people.
Jesus was saying,
go and preach the gospel to all people.
Who is he speaking to?
He's speaking to followers,
those like us that believe in him
as Lord and Savior.
This command is to us,
to go into the world,
to take the gospel to all people.
You see, the passion of God
reveals the plan of God.
And the plan of God
is for the world to hear
the gospel of his son and be saved.
Look what Acts 1.8 says.
But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
And you shall be witnesses to me
in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the ends of the earth.
Notice the geographical nature of God's plan.
We understand his passion
that he so loves this world.
But look at the geographical nature
of his strategy, his plan.
He said that we would be witnesses
in our own Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where they lived.
It's where the disciples were living.
It's their own hometown.
It's their pickings, South Carolina.
It's the upstate of South Carolina.
That's what this literally means
is that we would be witnesses
in our own locality.
But he didn't end there.
The geographic strategy continues.
He said that you would be witnesses
into the region in which you live
and the nation in which you live
in Judea and Samaria.
And then you would be witnesses
to the ends of the earth.
Now, the problem with most churches
that I have seen
is that we tend to focus
only on local missions,
which is great.
We should be a witness to Pickens.
We should be a witness to Easley
and to the upstate of South Carolina.
But it doesn't end there.
The command of our Lord Jesus Christ
is to take the gospel
to the ends of the earth,
to those who've never heard his name.
You see, if you look at these verses,
you begin to see a pattern
where Jesus, in his last words,
before he leaves the world,
before he leaves his disciples,
before he ascends up in the clouds to heaven,
he gives his followers this mandate
to go to the nations,
to make disciples.
And here in Acts 1-8,
to do work in your own locality,
your own Jerusalem,
your own community, your city,
and then to go into your region,
your nation,
and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
So we see God's passion
reveals God's plan.
And God's plan is not just local.
God's plan is global.
Look what Matthew 28, 19-20 says.
Jesus speaking to his disciples,
he says,
Go, therefore,
and make disciples of all the nations.
Now when we hear the word nations,
the English word nations,
of course the Bible was written,
the New Testament was written in Greek,
the Old Testament in Hebrew,
little parts of Aramaic here and there.
But in the New Testament,
when we hear the word nations,
the Greek word here is ethne, ethnos.
And it speaks more clearly of people groups.
When we hear nations,
we think of geopolitical boundaries of land,
like China is a nation,
geopolitical boundary of land.
Canada,
the United States of America.
You can picture the shape in your mind of the map.
But when Jesus uses this word that was translated nations in the English,
he's speaking more clearly of people groups.
Now people groups are groups of people on the earth
that have a common language,
a common culture,
a common religion.
The UN estimates that there are nearly 16,000 people groups on the earth today.
And so when Jesus tells his followers to take the gospel to these ethne,
to these people groups,
what he's literally saying is,
take my gospel to the families of the earth.
Now for those of you that are Bible students,
you probably remember that term families from an Old Testament reference
where God told Abraham that through his seed,
the Messiah,
Jesus Christ,
all the families of the earth would be blessed.
You see,
God sees the earth,
not as geopolitical nations.
God sees the earth as groups of families of people.
And hence you have the term people group.
Now according to the best missions research that is done,
the IMB,
by the way,
every time you give your Lottie Moon offering at Christmas time,
you support the greatest missions agency on the face of the earth,
the International Mission Board.
And according to the best research that the IMB has produced
and Joshua Project has produced and Finish the Task has produced,
we understand that of the people groups of the earth,
there are 6,000 people groups that are unreached people groups,
which means they have little to no access to the gospel.
There's no churches that they can go to.
There's no Bibles they can buy at Walmart.
They hope they don't have Walmart,
by the way,
but there's no Bibles they can buy.
They're very limited in access to the gospel.
I had a guy tell me this.
He said,
why are you going to India,
Jack?
There's lost people right here.
And he was 100% correct.
And I said,
well,
let me tell you why God has burdened my heart for the Koli people in India.
It's because they're lost,
just like there's lost people right here.
But the people who are unreached have no access or limited access at all to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You see,
a lost person here can turn on a TV and hear the gospel,
can turn on a radio and hear the gospel,
can go buy a Bible at Walmart,
can walk down on the corner,
almost a church on almost every corner,
and be invited into a church to hear the gospel.
There's access.
And the reason that most people,
not all,
but the reason that most people in our locality,
in this culture is not Christian,
is because they choose not to go,
or not to listen,
not to hear,
not to respond to the message of Christ.
But people who've never heard,
people who are unreached with the gospel,
have no access.
And if you're unreached and unengaged,
that means no one's going to tell them.
No one's going to tell the 3,500 UUPG peoples of the earth.
There's nobody that we know of,
no missions agency,
nobody from the IMB,
nobody from any missions agency,
no churches,
no pastors,
going to tell the unreached,
unengaged peoples of the earth.
Well, that's a problem.
That's a problem.
There's only one thing worse than being lost.
It's being lost and having nobody care that you're lost.
Could you imagine if you had a child that became lost on a camping trip?
Raise your hand if you have a child,
if you're a mother or a father,
raise your hand.
I mean, most of us.
Could you imagine you go camping,
and one of your little ones wanders off?
Now, what would be your state of mind, I wonder?
What would you be thinking?
How would you react?
Would you go about his life as usual,
business as usual?
Hey, let's start the fire.
Let's have some s'mores.
Would you do that?
No, you would be frantically searching and calling out for your lost child's name.
In fact, you would be enlisting as many people,
friends and strangers,
who are willing to help you look for your lost child.
You see, these unreached people groups of the world,
these unreached, unengaged people groups of the world,
are like they're lost,
and many people are not even aware that they even exist,
and some don't even care.
They just want to go through life as usual.
But our Father's heart longs for the lost.
He longs for His children to be found,
and He is speaking to us, His church, His children.
Find my lost children.
Find those who are lost and bring them home.
Who else would God speak to?
Who else would Jesus command and mandate to do this task?
Us, His children, His family, His followers.
So the Lord Jesus Christ has called us,
and God, Jesus has commanded us,
He's mandated us,
and He's called us to go and find those who are lost.
Now look at this next verse on the screen,
because I want you to see that God's plan is a global plan,
and I want you to see that God's heart is not just for people in the West or white people.
God's heart and His plan is for all people.
In Revelation chapter 7, verse 9,
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude,
which no one could number,
of all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages, or tongues,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
We see this picture in heaven at the end of time,
of people from every language,
every nation,
every tribe,
and every people group,
before the throne of God,
giving worship to the Lamb of God.
This is the heart of God.
This is God's global plan of redemption.
Now, with all of that in mind,
what is our response?
We must respond.
We cannot take this information in
and just go on as business as usual
unless you just don't really care about who's lost,
unless you don't really care about the heart of your Father.
God's passion mandates that we respond.
Those of us that are Christ followers,
we must respond to this burden.
Taking the gospel to those who have never heard
is the priority of all believers
in every gospel preaching church.
Now, what does that mean practically?
Well, three things.
First of all,
his passion and his plan
has to be our first priority.
His passion,
for God so loved the world,
his plan,
go and make disciples of the ethnosis,
of the nations,
must become our priority.
We must realize the fact
that we have 6,000 unreached people groups,
3,500 unreached, unengaged people groups
is a problem.
And this is not a problem for the IMB
or for missions agencies.
This problem belongs to the local church.
You see, the IMB is a great entity.
It's a great institution,
an agency
for helping local churches
engage in reaching the unreached.
But the burden of the Great Commission
doesn't belong to the IMB.
It belongs to the church.
And the IMB was raised up by God
to help facilitate the local church
to own the burden for the lost.
Not just here locally or regionally,
but to own the burden internationally
to take the gospel to those who've never heard.
Now, how can we make this priority
our priority?
Well, number one,
let's look at what we can do.
First of all,
every people group here
should be what is on our heart as a church.
We want to be used by God.
We may not be able to reach all people groups,
but we can reach one.
We can pray for one.
And possibly we can go
and assist in helping to reach one.
There's something that we can do.
We may not be able to do everything,
but only God knows that we can do something.
Amen, church,
to reach those who've never heard.
You've heard the story of the man walking on the beach.
And he walks off,
walks up on a bunch of,
I think the story says starfish
that have washed up on the beach during a storm.
And he starts throwing the starfish
back into the ocean.
And a little boy walks up
and says,
it won't do any good.
You can't throw them all back in.
There were thousands that had washed up.
And the fellow said,
well, I may not be able to do them all,
but this one is going to be saved.
And he threw it back in.
We may not be able to reach every people group,
which I know you won't,
but we can do something.
We can interact with the agency of God
and the burden of God
and the urgency of God
in reaching those who are unreached.
So first of all,
every people group here.
Secondly,
every believer shares.
This is part of the solution
to this problem.
Part of the solution
is that believers have stopped sharing,
especially locally in the West,
in the United States.
Very few people are sharing
their faith with others.
That's why we've seen a decline
in Southern Baptist life
of baptisms and church membership.
And we've seen declines across the board
because we've stopped sharing.
We've lost the vision
and the passion of God for the lost.
Listen,
God loves a lost man in Pickens
just as much as he loves a lost man in India.
God doesn't love the Indian people
more than he loves a person
that lives right on your street
or your neighborhood.
God expects us as believers
to share,
to share our testimony,
to share what God has done
in our lives.
I want to share with you a verse
in Acts chapter 19, verse 10,
which really helps us to understand
how powerful this is
if every believer would begin to share
and every disciple would begin
to make disciples.
I want you to see what happened
in Acts chapter 19, verse 10.
It says,
And this continued for two years.
What continued?
Paul's teaching in Ephesus.
Continued for two years
at the school of Tyrannus.
And look what happened.
So that all who dwelt in Asia,
now Asia in this context
is Asia Minor.
It's not like Asia, China, Asia,
or Thailand.
This is Asia Minor,
which would be modern day Turkey.
But still,
let this sink in.
In two years,
every person in Asia Minor
heard the word of the Lord,
both Jew and Greeks,
or Gentiles.
Gentiles.
Now, how in the world
did the Apostle Paul
teach the young disciples
there at Ephesus
and in other places
to do this in two years?
They didn't have roads.
They didn't have computers.
They didn't have airplanes
or buses
or printing presses
or Bibles.
They didn't have money.
How in the world
could Paul lead
the early church
to do such a feat,
to reach such a large group
of people
in two years?
Let me tell you how.
Every person shared
who was a believer in Jesus.
Every disciple of Jesus
discipled someone else.
That's how the gospel
is meant to go forward
in our lives
and in our churches.
Every person must share.
Every disciple must multiply.
So what do I share?
First of all,
you share your story.
When you talk to someone
who lives on your street
or that you go to work with
or a family member
who doesn't know Christ,
you want to share your story.
Remember,
the gospel is always
best presented
on two legs.
Two legs we carry
the gospel.
On one leg,
we call it our story,
which is our personal
interaction with Christ.
How I came to know Christ,
my life before Christ,
how I met Christ,
my life after Christ.
We share a testimony
about Jesus Christ.
Or maybe God
has brought a healing
in your life
or God has done
something for you
that you can brag
on God about.
That's your testimony.
You share something personal
about your relationship
with God
through Jesus Christ.
Secondly,
you tell your story,
you tell God's story,
which is the gospel message
that Christ died
for our sins
and he was buried
and on the third day
he rose again.
So with two legs,
we carry the gospel message.
Every believer shares.
Every disciple multiplies
or makes another disciple.
That's what God
has called us to do.
That's how the task
will be completed.
I want to show you
the power of this
in scripture.
Look at the power
of personal testimony.
Mark chapter 5
verses 18 through 20.
And when he got
into the boat,
speaking of Jesus Christ,
Jesus got into the boat,
then this man
who had been demon possessed,
who Jesus took
the demons out of,
he cast them out,
he begged Jesus
that he might be with him.
Jesus, let me go with you.
I want to follow you.
I want to go with you.
But look what Jesus said.
However, Jesus did not
permit him.
Jesus, I want to follow you.
Jesus said, wait a minute.
I've got something
for you to do.
But he said to him,
go home to your friends
and tell them
what great things
the Lord has done for you
and how he has had
compassion on you.
Verse 20.
And he departed.
This man departed
and began to proclaim
in Decapolis
all that Jesus had done
for him
and all the people marveled.
You see, Jesus said,
go back and tell your family,
your friends,
what God has done for you.
That was his testimony
and how he shared the gospel
that 10 cities,
Decapolis, 10 cities
heard the gospel
of Jesus Christ
because of this one
formerly demon possessed man.
The power of your
personal testimony.
Listen, believers.
Listen, Christians.
Open your mouth
and tell people
about what you know
about God.
brag on God.
Right before we went to India,
Barbara had kidney cancer
and it was an awful situation
for us.
I mean, we,
man, we're on the threshold
of going to India
and my wife
is hit by a Chevrolet Silverado
right in her driver's door,
45 miles an hour.
And they airlift her
to Pitt Memorial Hospital
in Greenville, North Carolina
and she's got internal injuries
and I walk into the room
and I'm thinking,
you know,
she's busted up inside
and the doctors say cancer.
And I went,
what?
She had a car wreck
and you found
seven centimeter tumor
in her right kidney.
Well, I'll just be honest with you.
I wish I could sound
real spiritual
and say,
well, we trusted God.
We were going to India.
India was out.
It was my wife's life
and I wasn't even thinking
about the Coley.
I wasn't thinking
about UUPGs.
I was thinking
about my wife dying.
Are you with me, church?
God delivered Barbara
of cancer.
If we would have went
to India
before the car accident,
she would have become
terminal on the field.
It goes to your bone
and your lung,
that kind of cancer.
And my wife
would have died in India.
But because God allowed
that truck
to hit that car,
have you ever heard
of Romans 8, 28?
I think that's still
in the Bible, right?
For all things
work together for good?
Because the Lord allowed
something that we saw
as bad,
but He meant it for good.
It saved my wife's life.
And guess what?
Four months after
her kidney was removed,
four months later,
we might be crazy for this.
You might think,
you're crazy.
And we probably are.
We hit the ground
in Mumbai
to take the gospel
to this unreached people group.
So I'm just telling you
that the power
of what God has done.
Now my wife is able
to share with people
how God saved her life
through this tragedy
of a car accident.
It's a testimony
she can share naturally.
By the way,
when you share your testimony,
don't share a canned,
memorized.
That sounds so phony.
Share something fresh.
Share what God's done for you.
Share how God saved you.
And then couple it
with the gospel.
And see what the Lord does.
Look at another example.
John chapter 4.
The power of personal testimony
in the woman at the well.
Verse 39.
And many of the Samaritans
of that city
believed in Jesus,
believed in him,
because of the word
of the woman
who testified.
He told me all
that I ever did.
You see,
many people in her village
believed in Jesus
because of her testimony.
Now was she a big famous person?
No.
She was actually considered
a shameful woman.
She would go to the water well
in the heat of the day
to not be able to face,
to not have to face
the other women
and their looks.
Because she is on
her fifth husband.
But look who God used
in that village
to bring that village
to Christ.
He used this woman
who would go to the well
at noontime
to be the agent
to carry the gospel
and the message of Christ
back to her village.
And it says here
that many of them believed.
You don't have to be a preacher
to tell your testimony.
You don't have to have
Bible college.
You don't have to have
a seminary degree.
You don't have to be
a natural speaker.
Just open your mouth
and watch God work
through your testimony.
My priority.
My priority is to share.
To share my story
and to share God's story.
So just to recap,
our priority.
Number one,
every person hears.
Number two,
every believer shares.
And number three,
every disciple multiplies.
Or to say that more practically,
every disciple makes
another disciple.
And then you teach
that disciple
to make another disciple.
And then exponentially,
we can reach Pickens.
We can reach South Carolina.
We can reach the world
if disciples would follow
these three simple axioms.
every person hears.
Every believer shares.
And every disciple multiplies.
So the Lord Jesus Christ
gave us the command
to go and make disciples
of all the nations.
To baptize them
in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And to teach them
to observe the things
that He has commanded.
Jesus said.
Now as we go to do this,
as we lead someone to Christ,
how do we disciple them?
What do we do?
Do we go buy a book
at Lifeway?
I would advise not to do that.
Because anything that you can do
that's just rigid,
just invest your life
in the life of that person.
Spend time with them.
Come to church with them.
I've got an acronym
that helped me in discipling.
In fact, I'm discipling a man
right now.
And this acronym
is very helpful.
And it came from a ministry
called Verge
on the internet.
But that's where I got this.
And it's the BLESS acronym.
And if you're working with someone,
trying to disciple them,
just use this acronym
in your life.
First of all,
begin your time with prayer.
When you meet with them,
begin with prayer.
Secondly, L in BLESS.
Listen.
Listen to them for opportunities.
Ways that you can minister
to their needs.
In doing that,
you can show Christ
to their life.
Third, E.
Eat with them.
I like that point.
I like to eat.
You eat with them.
Spend time with them.
Don't just meet them
at church.
Have them at your house.
Bring someone to your home.
Eat a meal with them.
Get to know them.
S.
Serve with them.
Find ways to serve.
Now, this is a person
you're discipling.
Find something to do.
Here at First Baptist,
other opportunities,
look for something to do.
Share.
The last S.
Share your story
and God's story,
which means teach them
how to share their testimony.
Let them see you do it.
And in doing that,
you make a disciple,
someone who can follow
your example.
You've multiplied your faith
in someone else.
His passion
and his plan
must be our priority.
Jesus' last words
on the earth
to his church
to go and make disciples,
to be witnesses
in Jerusalem,
Judea,
Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.
His last words
must be our first priority
as a church.
We must give.
We must continue to give.
I know First Baptist gives.
And many of you give
sacrificially to missions.
Continue to give.
But we can't stop there.
We've got to own
this responsibility.
We must go.
I heard Jeff talking about
going with Carpenters for Christ,
going and doing
these mission trips.
Go.
Continue to go
on trips
and short-term trips.
We must send
people from our congregation
who are called to God,
called by God
to go to the mission field.
We must continue to send
and we must pray
and continue to pray.
But it doesn't stop
with going,
giving,
sending,
and praying.
We who are followers
of Jesus Christ,
His church
must own
the responsibility
of the burden
of our Father
for the nations,
for reaching
the unreached
and unengaged
of our world.
And we do this
by making it a priority
in three specific areas.
And I end the message
with this.
First of all,
church,
I'm speaking to you
corporately.
We must be aware
of the need
and aware
of our Father's burden
for the nations.
That's part of what
this message is about,
is awareness.
Letting you know,
giving you some information,
letting you think
and ponder and pray,
hopefully,
about the need
in our Father's heart
for the lost
and for the nations.
Secondly,
we must seek out
opportunities
to further educate
ourselves
in the overall need
and what we can do
to be a part
of the solution
to see the nations
come to Christ.
Number three,
we must move
to action.
We must
become personally
involved
and it's funny
to speak to a church
corporately
and say you've got
to be personally involved,
but the church
is a body
of Christ
and the church
must have
a single heart
about what God's
heart is for,
which is the nations.
become
personally involved
as a church
in a call
to action
to adopting
an unreached
people group.
You say,
well,
where do we begin?
First of all,
be made aware
of who the unreached
people groups are.
What can we do?
The IMB offers
an intensive,
a mission summit
that they're willing
to come
and send a team
to help educate
further on how
churches can engage
the unengaged.
Churches have to
invite them.
They won't force
their way,
but that's a way
that we can become
more personally
involved as a church
in adopting
this unreached
people group.
Now,
let me say this to you.
I'm either right
and I'm on
bullseye
with the word
of God
and the heart
of God,
our Father,
or I'm just a crazy man
who's completely
missed it.
I believe
with all my heart
I'm right.
God has grabbed
my heart
for the unreached.
I'll never be the same.
Jeff said I'd served
as an American pastor
for 27 years
and I did
and I thought
I really had
a good grasp of missions
and I did
in a conceptual way,
but when I went
to India
to live in India
and to work
among a people
that no one
had ever worked
among,
it really,
God's passion
for the nations
became my passion.
I began to have
my Father's heart
for those who had
never heard
the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
So I just want
to submit to you.
I hope I'm not
out of order
in doing so.
I'm just delivering
the burden
that God put
in my heart
to give to you
this morning
that we become aware
and we look for
further ways
to educate ourselves
in relation
to the burden,
the need,
and then we have
a call to action
which could lead
to the adoption
of an unreached
people group
and how that
fleshes out
and how that
works out
is between
your church
and God
and the IMB
is more than
willing to be
helpful to come
and assist
and to facilitate
but we,
the church,
have to own.
We can't just
pay the IMB
to do our work.
We want to
be a part,
personally involved
in the work
of Jesus Christ
and the passion
of God
for the nations.
Let's bow our heads
and close our eyes.
Dear God,
thank you for the
opportunity
to come here,
Lord,
and to expound
on your heart
for those
who are lost.
Help us to remember,
Lord,
that it's not just
about overseas.
Lord,
we should be
sharing here.
We should be
sharing our testimony
here with people
that we work with,
that we see
at the restaurant.
People maybe
we live on the
same street
or we go to
a ball game with.
Lord,
it's not just
about doing
missions overseas.
It's about doing
it here in our
Jerusalem,
doing it in our
region and nation
and doing it,
of course,
to the ends
of the earth.
But Lord,
help us in doing
missions.
Help us not
to forget
the ones
who've never
heard,
Lord.
Help us never
to abandon,
Lord,
those who've
never had a chance
to respond.
Lord,
who's going
to take up
that burden?
Who's going
to take up,
Lord,
that responsibility?
It's got to be
us,
Father,
your people.
Would you
re-familiarate
our hearts
with your heart,
God?
Would you
re-familiar
our hearts
with yours?
Would you
pour into
us,
Lord,
your passion
for the nations,
God?
Especially for
those who are
unreached
and unengaged,
God.
Surely,
Lord,
we can't
do everything,
but we
can do
something,
Father.
So,
Lord,
lead this
precious church,
this precious
pastor and
staff.
Lead them,
Lord,
as to what
you would
want them
to do
and continue
to do
as they
do missions
well.
Lord,
continue to
do the
things that
they're doing
well already,
Lord.
God,
I just pray
your blessings
on First
Baptist Church
Pickens,
Lord.
Put this
message deep
in our soul.
Don't let
us easily
forget it,
Father.
In Jesus'
name I
pray.
Amen.