A Burden to Evangelize the Lost

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles, this morning to Romans chapter 9. Romans 9, I do want to encourage you to make plans to be with us tonight for our praying as We Should night where we come together as a congregation, all the care groups essentially come together in this building tonight at 6 o'clock for us to have a corporate time of prayer where we seek to pray in the Spirit, being guided by Him and we're crying out to God and at the same time, we're Seeking to be guided by the Spirit to such a degree that we're listening to each other's prayers in the hopes of discerning.

Aspects of the heart of God for Cornerstone. So come and be a part of this amazing journey that we are on, as we come together to pray in the Spirit, and we'll open up the floor, we'll have microphones, you're welcome to come up and, and, and pray and read scripture.

I, it's just an incredibly edifying, instructive, time for me and for all of us that are a part of this, this journey of, of prayer. Also, the, the reading. for the summer advance, the reading assignments are in your bulletin and take a look at that. We're encouraging all of our, church members to at least sit down.

We know that you're reading other stuff and doing other things, but if at least 3 times a week you sit down and read a chapter of 1 Samuel by the end of the summer, you will be You will have read through the entirety of the book of First Samuel, and we're especially encouraging our dads and our single moms and their family worship times to sit down and even husbands and wives to sit down and And read through first Samuel with your families and your family worship time and there's resources that we commend to you and you'll find those spoken about in the handout that's in your bulletin.

Anyway, Romans chapter 9 for a time of study in the word, we, spent about a year and a half, as you'll recall, studying through Romans 5 through 8, a journey to the heart of the gospel, and we have learned many things along the way. We've gone deeper in terms of understanding. And celebrating the realities that are true of us who are believers in Christ, and we have amazing realities.

That we ought to be thanking God, for. we've learned that in Christ because Jesus died and was raised and is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us because of the person and the work of Christ, when we believed in Him for salvation, we were forgiven of all of our sins, and we were declared righteous by God, who decided at that moment on, he would forever think of our sins as forgiven. And think of us as righteous with the very righteousness of Jesus. As a result of this, we have peace with God, we experience luxury in our relationship with, with God, and we stand under grace.

We are under the good favor of God all day, every day, good days and bad days, waking or sleeping 24/7 solely based on the performance of Jesus and not our own. We don't deserve it. And we're just learning to get over that fact, but it is ours in Christ because of him and what he has done. And we've also learned in Romans 7, Romans 6 that we're free of sin's power, free of sin's guilt.

Romans 7, we learned that we are free to face our sins squarely and honestly because we know that we are accepted by God. Coming into Romans 8, Paul makes an amazing statement at the beginning of the chapter that there is no condemnation. Literally, there is not a single condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation, no guilty verdict upon our lives.

Many of you who follow the news know that I think it was yesterday, Jerry Sandusky was found guilty of 45 on 45 of 48 charges that were brought against him for the awful crimes that he committed against young people. but yesterday I was on the internet and reading the news and I, I came across the Drudge Report and this is essentially what I saw, just a darkened shadowy, sinister picture. Of his face and then I, I counted, I think it was 25 times under his name was the word guilty, guilty in all capital letters, bold and underlined.

And when I saw that visual, it resonated with me because my thought was, my goodness, that's, that was me.

That was me. Before I came to Christ, there would be a million guilty verdicts of every sin I committed guilty, guilty, guilty, all of them underlined in bold and all capital letters. But when I came to Jesus, when those of us in this room came to Jesus with our sin sick selves, with a load of our guilt, and we put our trust in Him, instantly, we were declared not guilty of all of our sins to where not a single guilty verdict remains, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. And our screen would look very different now.

It would have millions of not guilties underlined and in bold in all capital letters. This is what Paul is celebrating in Romans chapter 8 and life and the spirit, and he goes on just relishing the wonderful realities that are true of us in, in Christ. Well, we've studied all of that. what we're doing now is we're asking a question.

So what? What, what do we do with these things that we have been learning? It may surprise you to know that in Romans 5 through 8, all the stuff that is in there, there's really only 3 imperatives, only 3 commands. In Romans 6:12 to 13, I believe.

so it's more just data that Paul is giving us that he's downloading into our hearts and minds, and there's not a lot of direction, by way of explicit command that he gives to us. And so he does that later in the book of Romans, but what we're doing, having finished studying this section of Romans, is we're asking what then shall we do? We've already learned a few weeks ago. That one point of application is we need to let the Spirit have his way with us, living life in the Spirit, letting him have his way with us, and we looked at a number of ways that we can do that.

Today, the answer that we're going to examine is this, what shall we do in response to these wonderful gospel realities that are true of us in Christ? Answer number 2 is let yourself, let ourselves be weighed down. With a burden for the lost. This gospel that exalts us and elevates us with joy, also is intended by God to weigh us, to weigh upon us, and to induce in us a burden for the lost.

So if you want to give a title to the message, it would be a burden to evangelize the lost, and we're going to see Paul's example in Romans 9. Now, before I read the verses, Romans 9:13, just think about what Paul does in Romans 5 through 8 very quickly. He starts off, just celebrating the realities we have in Christ and chapter 5 verse 2, he says, we exalt, chapter 5, verse 3, we exalt, chapter 5, verse 11, we exalt. Paul literally almost begins Romans 5, the section of Romans jumping up and down for joy.

As he comes into Romans 8 and through the length of that chapter and then comes to the end of this chapter. there's no other way to describe Paul's state of being than what John Calvin says when he says Paul is in a state of ecstasy. In the final verses of Romans 8, just God is for us, who can be against us? Who's gonna lay any charge against God's elect?

Absolutely no one can lay any charge against us that will stick. Who's going to separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. And no one can or will.

In fact, in all separating circumstances, we not only conquer, we more than conquer through Him who always is loving us. Absolutely nothing in the past, present, or future will ever separate us from the love of God. Paul, as he comes to this climax of gospel meditation, is very obviously experiencing great joy. If we did a survey this morning and I, we read through Romans 8, I, I, and I, I were to ask you, what is Paul feeling as he speaks these words at the end of chapter 8?

All of us would say, well, he's got to be feeling joy, confidence, courage, boldness, ecstasy, and all those would be right answers. And so it's actually surprising. To come into chapter 9 verse 1, and hear what Paul says, where he pulls the curtains back and he says, let me tell you something I'm feeling right now. In the heights of gospel meditation, if you came to Paul at the end of Romans 8 and said, Paul, what are you feeling?

He would say, let me tell you what I'm feeling. Chapter 9, verse 1, I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me and the Holy Spirit that I am having great sorrow.

And unceasing grief in my heart. Paul in his moment of great joy is seized at the same time. With a deep grief, teaching us that joy and grief are not incompatible with each other. They're not mutually exclusive emotions.

In fact, teaching us that joy in the gospel contains inside of itself a grief for those outside. Of the gospel. If you wish to drink deeply of the joy that is in the gospel, you must go here and drink also of the sorrow for the loss that is contained within this joy. Teaching us also that the same gospel that produces in us joy, it's the same gospel that shatters us with a burden for the lost.

Teaching us as we look at Paul's heart exposed here in verse two, that if we don't feel a similar burden for the lost, Then that is likely an indication of the fact that we have not gone as deep into the gospel as Paul has, and we've not allowed the gospel to go as deeply into us as Paul has allowed it to enter into him. And so what we're gonna do, guys, there's a whole theological train of thought that Paul launches into in chapter 9, verse 1 that travels through the length of the chapter and chapter 10 and chapter 11, and we're not going to be examining that today.

All I want to do is just stand on the sidelines and make a few observations about Paul and his burden for the lost, this gospel-induced burden that Paul had for the lost, and with the time we have, we're gonna try to make 6 observations regarding Paul's gospel-induced concern for the salvation. Of the lost observation number 1, as we've already indicated, is that Paul grieved deeply and constantly over the lost.

He says in verse 2, I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. he's, he's saying, I, I have sorrow. This word denotes the idea of, of heaviness. I feel a heaviness in, in my spirit that will never entirely go away.

And it's not just a small weight. He says literally, it's a mega sorrow. Our expression mega comes from the word, the Greek word that is translated great here. It's a mega sorrow.

If you spend any time with the apostle Paul, you would notice that yes, he's passionate and excited and filled with joy in Christ, but he is also a man weighed down with a mega sorrow. He also says that I am having unceasing grief. I have a grief and a mourning and a weeping that is in my heart that won't cease, it won't go away. There's no therapist that can take this away from me.

And he says, this is for the sake of my kinsmen, according to the flesh, and he's speaking specifically about the Jewish people. Now I think what Paul is saying here regarding his loving concern, we could, we could happily include Gentiles as subjects of his concern. but as Paul ministered the gospel, more Gentiles were believing in Christ, so there was more to rejoice about. As Paul preached the gospel to Jews, as a nation, by and large, they were defiant and rejecting this gospel.

And so there was more to mourn about and to be burdened, by as Paul witness this defiance and rejection. Paul had a burden for the lost and in particular, he is confessing to his great sorrow and unceasing grief, his burden for the Jews. What this indicates is that like when, when Paul evangelized others, he didn't do so simply because he was commanded from the outside by Christ to do that. When Paul shared the gospel with the lost, in part, he did that to relieve his heart of his burden.

He did it to unburden his heart. He was driven to this from a deep burden to where he had to share. It was a way of lightening the burden that was in his heart. You may say, man, I don't, I don't grieve deeply and constantly over the loss like this, but what, I'm really challenged by what you're saying, Pastor Milton, and I'm gonna make it my goal this week.

I'm going to weep over the loss. It's gonna be number one on my list of things to do. I'm gonna weep over the loss. I'm gonna make myself cry over the loss.

No, that's not the goal to walk out of here with. The goal to walk out of here with is, I want to know what Paul is into here when it comes to the gospel. I want to live in the good of the gospel and to meditate upon the gospel the way Paul is doing in Romans 5 through 8, and I want the gospel to enter more fully into me because that's where this burden by and large comes from. But if we as a people, imagine here at Cornerstone, that, that every member in the Cornerstone family that all of us had, we woke up tomorrow with this unceasing grief and this heavy burden for the lost.

How would we live? How would we relate to other people? What choices would we make if we felt this ache that Paul is confessing to In Romans 9:2. And then when we shared the gospel with lost relatives and co-workers, and they witnessed the fact that we're, we're coming to them and speaking to them.

Out of a great burden that we're sharing with them in a sense because we must unburden ourselves. I must share this with you, because I am so concerned. Motivated by love for you. the reason we don't evangelize like we should is not because of a lack of training, it's because of a lack of burden, the gospel-induced burden that Paul confesses to here.

But what a difference it can make, just, quick story, Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, he died in 2005, but, the Lord used him in a great way. Before he went to China, he was getting training as a medical doctor and he was working in a hospital and there was a patient there at the hospital who had gangrene in, in his foot, and he was suffering horribly as a result of that. This man was also an avowed atheist. and when a pastor, from the town had come to visit him, this man spit in the face of this pastor.

When someone came into the room just to read scripture, he screamed them out of the room. And as Hudson Taylor was working there as an intern, they assigned this man to young Hudson Taylor. And so he just told himself, I'm going to minister the gospel to this man in deed and in word, and he said, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to preach to him right away. I'm just going to take care of his physical need first.

And so each day he, he cleaned the wound and, and took care of this man's foot, and after a few days, this man's pain had lessened considerably, and this man was very grateful and thanked him profusely for the way that he was serving him. It was at that point that Hudson Taylor decided, what, I'm gonna to minister to this man each day, but before I leave the room, I'm going to speak some succinct word to him about Christ that hopefully God can use to further him in his journey towards the saving knowledge of Jesus.

And so he did so with fear and trembling because he knew what this guy had done to this local pastor earlier, and this other person who read scripture in the room. And so he took care of this man's needs and right before he left the room, he shared a brief word about Christ.

As soon as Hudson Taylor mentioned Jesus Christ, this man's countenance changed from one of gratitude to one of sternness. And he turned over in his bed and faced away from Hudson Taylor and did not say a word in reply. Hudson Taylor left the room and the next day came in, ministered to the man physically, and then at the end before he left the room, shared a brief word about Christ. The man did exactly the same thing.

And Hudson Taylor, undaunted, did that day after day after day, and it was always the same response from this man. Well, there was one occasion where Hudson Taylor finished taking care of this man's needs and he just felt a prompting. That he thought maybe was from himself, like, what, I'm just not going to say anything today. Maybe I'm just hardening this man's heart by what I'm saying, and I don't want to do that.

And so he just decided today I'm not going to say anything to this man. But that was hard for him to do because he was so burdened for him, and so he took care of the man's physical needs and then he left the man and began to walk out of the room and when he got to the doorway, He turned to look back at the man, and this patient to Hudson Taylor's surprise, was looking at him with a surprised look on his face like, what you're not gonna say anything to me? And so Hudson Taylor, then the burden overcame him, and let me let him tell you what happened next.

He said, I could bear it no longer.

Bursting into tears, I crossed the room and said, My friend, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear, I must deliver my soul, and went on to speak very earnestly with him, telling him with many tears how much I wish that he would let me pray with him. To my unspeakable joy, he did not turn away, but replied, if it will be a relief to you, do. I need scarcely say that I fell on my knees and poured out my whole soul to God on his behalf. I believe that God then and there wrought a change in his soul, and within a few days, he definitely accepted Christ as his savior.

Oh, the joy it was to me to see that dear man rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. He had not entered a church for 40 years. Years later, Hudson Taylor is reflecting back on that incident and he says this, I have often thought since in connection with this case and the work of God generally, of the words from the Psalm, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire.

Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit. The hardness of our own hearts and our own feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our lack of success. Beautifully stated, Paul's heart though was broken, it was not hardened, and he confesses here to the constant grief that he felt in his heart for the Jews, his kinsmen according to the flesh. There's a second.

Observation that we can make regarding Paul's concern for the loss that was induced by the gospel, and that is he testified to his loving concern for the lost and for their salvation. notice how Paul begins in verse one. he doesn't just say in verse one, and he could have, he could have just said, I want you guys to know I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart for the Jews. He could have just said that, but he doesn't notice what he does in verse one.

He prefaces it by saying, I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that. Now that right there, just what he says in verse one, ought to give us an indication of something.

If I came up to you, today, and I said, I'm, I'm gonna tell you something. And you say, OK, what is it? And I, I say to you, I'm telling you the truth in Christ. You're like, OK, and I say, I'm not lying.

You're like, OK, what is it? And I say, my conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit. If I prefaced whatever this news is that I have to tell you with that language, You almost certainly would infer that I'm about to tell you something that you're going to find difficult to believe, right? Something that may be shocking to you, that you may be surprised that it's actually true and that's exactly what is happening here.

Paul knows that there are some who will not believe what he is about to say when he confesses his burden. For his fellow Jews. Part of the reason for this is Paul is an apostle to the Gentiles. That's what he refers to himself as and that's what his calling predominantly is.

If Paul would have said, I have a great loving burden for the Gentiles, everyone would have said, yeah, we know that, you're, you're spending time with Gentiles and leading them to Christ and preaching to them and all the churches that you planted are heavily populated by, many Gentiles and very few Jews, so we know that Paul. And so Paul doesn't really need to confess to that. The thing that some doubted was his loving concern for the Jews. And the reason for this is because Paul in his ministry, as he rightly articulated sound theology, and God's view of sin, and God's view of salvation and how it is that God tells us that we can be saved.

And it's not through the law, but it is only through Christ. And therefore, the Jew has no advantage over the Gentile, and we don't have to follow the law of Moses in order to be saved. It's all through Christ, as Paul rightly articulated sound biblical gospel theology. There were people who twisted what he said.

And took him to be speaking against the Jews. They took Paul to be a Jew hater, a hate monger because of the truth that he was speaking. In fact, later in Paul's ministry when he is seized in the temple, and Acts 21:28, the Jews who seize him say, this is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people, and against the law and against this place, which is the temple. In other words, the Jews, there were many Jews who would hear Paul speaking and teaching, and they assumed he was against the Jews.

He hated the Jews. To where Paul has to defend himself and say, listen, I'm telling you the truth. I call Christ. To the witness stand, my conscience to the witness stand, the Holy Spirit to the witness stand, they can validate the truth of what I'm saying when I defend myself by saying, I love the Jews, and I long for their salvation, I am not against them.

John Piper says regarding the language of verse one, why is all this necessary? Because some doubted Paul's love and the genuineness of his sorrow. Why? Because Paul has said things that could be taken as anti-Jewish.

He's not anti-Jewish, but people twisted his words to be anti-Jewish. I simply make this point today. Guys, because we live in a day today where if we as Christians simply live out what God has called us to live out, if we open our mouths and we speak truth about God and about sin, and about the only way of salvation through Christ, we may do that flawlessly, lovingly, and beautifully. But there will be people who twist our words and respond to us and say, you're full of hate.

You're a hate monger. You are against people. And if and when that happens to us, and it's happening to Christians everywhere, we need to take some comfort in the fact that exactly the same thing happened to Paul. And it's in those moments where we do well to say, no, no, you're misjudging my heart.

I love the very people to whom I'm speaking and about whom I'm speaking. But this is the truth of God that I speak in love. And Paul here is insisting in the form of a courtroom testimony. On the truth of his heart, and he's not gonna let anyone take that away from him.

I love the Jews. I'm burdened for them. That leads to a third observation, and that is that Paul did not let persecution from the lost, especially from the Jews, diminish his loving concern for their salvation. Paul experienced a lot of persecution almost from day one after believing in Jesus to the day that he suffered martyrdom.

For his faith. Most of his severe persecution came from the Jews. And even often when it came from Gentiles, it came from Gentiles because the Jews who were his enemies stirred up the Gentiles against him. And so they assaulted Paul, they hounded him sometimes from city to city.

On one occasion, he was in one city for just a few weeks, and the leadership of the Jews rose up against him, stirred up the people. Paul had to flee the city for his life. He went to another city and the Jews from the previous city found out he was there and then followed him to this other. City and they hounded him from place to place and ultimately on one occasion they stoned him, stirred up the people to where he was stoned and left for dead.

Look what he experienced at the hand of the Jews in 2 Corinthians 11:24. He says five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. So on 5 occasions, imagine this, that you have to suffer the indignity and the pain and the torment of 39 lashes. 3 times I was beaten with rods, and then he says, once I was stoned, and that was an incident recorded in the Book of Acts that was caused because the Jews had stirred up the people against Paul.

Paul suffered a lot at the hands of the Jews. If anyone had a right to be embittered against them, Paul did. And if Paul at this point of his ministry, didn't want anything to do with the Jews and said, what, I'm fed up with you, I'm done with you, and I'm only going to Gentiles and I, I'm closing my heart off against the Jews, we would all say, wow, that's wrong, but we can understand why he would go that way. But after all the defiance that Paul has witnessed and experienced and all the persecution and mistreatment that he has experienced, Paul says, I have an unceasing grief in my heart and a heavy.

Sorrow on behalf of these very people that persecute and are so defiant against me and who twist my words. John MacArthur in one of his resources makes this admission that I find meaningful. He says, frankly, I stretch to grasp even the fringes of this hard attitude. I really do.

he really loves these people. He's not bitter against Jewish people. His heart is broken over these people and he calls everything he can to attest to the integrity of his heart and says, I have great heaviness, great heaviness in my heart on their behalf. Imagine that there's someone in your life who torments you.

And hounds you and harasses you and persecutes you day after day after day, and they don't know Christ and God calls you to evangelize them. What would your heart attitude be? And would you have this burden that Paul has for the Jews, not against them? This type of love, this type of burden can only come from us living inside the good.

Of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it filled Paul's heart. We're all pretty loving towards the lost, and CS Lewis says, I'm a pretty loving guy until you annoy me. and we could all say, yeah, we're all for evangelism and we're all for reaching the lost except those that annoy us, those that are defiant of us, those that persecute us. Paul never closed his heart to those that treated him in this way.

There's a 4th observation we can make regarding Paul's gospel induced burden for the lost, and that is that he was willing to endure any separation for the salvation of the lost. He was willing to endure any separation for the salvation of the lost. He says in verse 3, for I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul saying, you want to know how much I love them, how deep my burden is for them?

I would be willing if it were possible. It's not possible to be separated from the love of Christ. And even if I could, it would have no saving value. for the Jews, but if it did have any significance that would further them towards salvation, and if it were possible, I would even be willing to be separated from Christ for the sake of the Jewish people.

Some are troubled by what seems to be revealed on the face value. In terms of what Paul is saying here, but what he's, what he's saying is no different than like what Moses said in Exodus 32:32. Where God is saying, I'm gonna wipe out the Jewish people because of their sin, and Moses, who led them, said, God, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, block me from the book, which thou hast written, banish me for eternity, if you will not forgive them. These are the people who were so defiant against Moses and complained and criticized and were stubborn and stiff-necked against him and his leadership under God's command, and yet here he is advocating for them in this way.

What Paul is admitting to and sharing with us in terms of his heart for the Jews is no different than what Christ himself did. think about it. There was a point where Jesus Christ looked upon us in our lostness, and he said to his father, basically, Father, I am willing to be accursed, separated from you for the salvation of these people. And he paid the ultimate price of not only his life, but the price of separation from his father during those awful moments when he was on the cross.

And here, the gospel of Jesus Christ is doing such a work and Paul. That Paul is mimicking this very willingness to sacrifice for others. Please note also, guys, that Paul is denoting the extent of separations that he's willing to undergo. the most valuable thing in Paul's life was Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ would be the hardest thing for him to ever let go, but he's willing for that to happen for the sake of his brethren. For Paul to speak the way he does would obviously then include every lesser thing of lesser value to Paul that he would be willing to part with for the salvation of the lost. And so if Christ is on one end of the spectrum, what are all the things on the other end that are of less value to Paul that he obviously happily would be able to dispense with?

Paul would say, I'm willing to, be separated from ease and from comfort and from calm and from peace and freedom and from the acceptance and tolerance and affirmation of, of the world and of the lost.

I don't mind being separated from those things. I may value them on one level, but I would happily be separated from these things if it would lead to the salvation of others. Paul would say I would, I would happily be separated from respect. And food and from clothing and from money and from physical health and from security and from safety.

I would happily be separated from reputation in this world, my privacy, my comforts, my luxuries and the fineries of life. And Paul ultimately conveyed by his own life and his own example, I would happily be separated from my own earthly life. If in the living of my life and doing what God has called me to do, I can further the salvation of the lost. All of this is included.

And for those of us that are married and have children, are we willing to experience separation, for example, from our children, in order that the cause of global evangelism would be furthered? What would you do, parent, if your 18 year old son came to you and said, Mom, dad, I, the Lord is, I believe is calling me to Iran. I want to go to Iran and I want to preach the gospel. Everyone I meet.

How, how would you respond? Would you be willing to allow that separation to occur? See what Paul's example challenges us with is the fact that here's what we often do. We're all for evangelism.

If I ask for a raise of hands, how many of you want to see the world evangelize, every hand would go up. How many of you believe that it's your calling to evangelize the world and to do your part, all of us would raise our hands, we're all for it. But what we really do often is we we're basically by our actions saying I'm all for evangelism, but how can I do evangelism and experience as little separation as possible between me and the things I value? How can we pull this off and at the same time not be separated from ease and from comfort.

And from our luxuries, and from money, clothing, from the acceptance and the respect of the people around us. How can we pull this off and never have to experience any separations. As Paul lived his life, he experienced many separations, and he was fine with that. The world is under evangelized from a human standpoint, I think because there are too many Christians who aren't willing to experience the requisite separations that would come their way if we were really committed to this.

David Platt in his book Radical Together talks about being on the most unevangelized island of the world. There were 45 million people that live on this island. And he said there are some millions of people that are unreached on this island. There are many on this island, millions of them that have never even met a Christian, never heard the gospel.

And he says what's startling about that is the fact that one of the largest tribes on this island is full of believers. They've got seminaries and training institutions and, and multiple churches, but he says the problem is that the rest of these tribes predominantly are Muslim. And this group of Christians, over a million of them, they're not reaching out to these Muslims because to do so would be sacrifice. They may lose their lives, suffer persecution.

David Platt talks about the fact that how obviously Muslims they don't eat pork because they believe it's unclean and if you want to reach out to Muslims, it's probably wise for you to abstain from pork when you're in front of them. But he said these Christians on this island, they love their pork. And they don't want to be separated from their pork. In fact, he says one of these Christians said to a friend of mine, these words, I would rather a Muslim go to hell than for me to stop eating pork.

Now that's a stunning statement. But how do we make the same statement with our lives? Maybe it's not pork, but by our lifestyle and by our actions, are we saying I would rather the loss go to hell than for me to be separated from, and then fill in the blank. What are those things we value so much that we're afraid to be separated from them and thus we don't evangelize the way that God has called us to.

That's the problem. As one writer says, Alan Carr, he says, I wonder if we have ever been to a place where we would be willing to pray a similar prayer to Paul. I wonder if we are burdened enough for the lost sinner that we would pray for the Lord to save them regardless of what it took to do it. Could we say, Father, if it means that I must be stricken, or even if I must die, save them from hell.

When our burden grows to the place that it consumes us with its weight, we will pray that prayer. When we get that serious, we will see the Lord speak to hearts. I just, I don't think the world is all that impressed with a gospel message spoken by people who are unwilling to experience any sacrifice in order to get that message out. But those who sacrifice much, To relieve their heart, to unburden their heart, and to share Christ with the lost is a message that likely will resonate more in the providence of God.

God is calling all of us to be a people that are willing to separate ourselves from things that we may value in order to serve the cause of reaching the loss with the gospel of Christ. You may say, Pastor Milton, like think about it, if, if God came to you and said, I want you to reach out to this group of people over here, but I'm going to tell you in advance, it's going to cost you your life, you're going to die. But people will be saved. How would you respond?

How would I respond? And you may say, well, I, I don't know what I, I do with that because, and it's not even just selfish. I'm a, I'm a husband, I'm a wife, I've got responsibilities and, and they need me, and I've got children, and I've got other people that are depending upon me. My life isn't expendable because others are looking to me and they need me.

And so I, I would be reluctant to do that out of love and consideration for these other people that need me. Well, I get that on one level, but The question would be, whose life is expendable? Who would God ever go to that here's that same offer and they're like, what, I don't know anyone on the planet and no one's depending on me. I have no spouse, I have no children, there's no one who cares about me.

And what, I'm in a very unique situation where my life is actually expendable. There's no one like that. And yet throughout church history, God has called thousands and millions of Christians to pay the ultimate price. And what, God is sovereign.

God is sovereign. And he takes care of those that end up being left behind. We need to be grateful for Christians like this, like the apostle Paul. Every Christian that exists on the planet today exists and knows the Lord because of the sacrifice someone has made.

In some previous era, namely the apostle Paul, Jesus Christ, we live in the good of a gospel that is based upon a willingness of the parties involved to experience separation from what they valued that we might be saved. And we do well to model that same, to embody that same spirit. We're out of time, but let me, let's finish this off. A 5th observation that we can make regarding Paul's burden for the lost, and that is, he, he took his burden for the salvation of the lost to God in prayer.

He took his burden for the salvation of the lost to God in prayer. In chapter 10, verse 1, he says, brethren, my heart's desire, my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. So if you have a burden for the loss, there are many people in our church that are crushed with a burden for unsaved relatives and friends and coworkers and And you're going before God in prayer, you, you, you may be like, what do I do with this burden and Paul would say, just, just go to God with that burden, pour out your heart to Him in prayer.

What do we do with this burden for the loss?

God would say first come to me, come to me, and then go. To the lost. Bring your burden to him, and I would also recommend if you're here today and you lack a burden for the loss that you should have, bring your unburdened heart to God and say, God, look at me. I, I need help.

I need you to do a miracle in me. Could you do a miracle of grace and begin to cultivate within me a burden for the loss that begins to approximate the burden that Paul expresses in Romans 9. A 6th and final observation that we can make regarding Paul's gospel induced burden for the loss is that Paul eagerly evangelize the loss. Back in chapter 1, he says, I'm under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I'm eager, literally I'm passionate towards preaching.

The gospel. And again, this eagerness came not so much and only because he was commanded from without and told to do something, though that's a part of it. Paul was eager to evangelize because he was eager for opportunities to unburden himself, because he was driven by this love, this gospel induced love for the lost. My challenge to all of us is to go deeper in the gospel, let it go deeper into us so that this burden can be cultivated.

Ask God to give you this burden for the lost, pray for people, many of you already are doing that, but try to grow that list and try to own certain situations and people, and people groups and just say as a family, as an individual, we're gonna pray. For the salvation of these lost people, and I would also recommend be willing to experience separations from things you value for the purpose of seeing the lost reach with the gospel. And start with small separations. What are little things that you would be willing to make a conscious choice, I'm going to separate myself from this in order that I might be more effective in reaching the lost or supporting the cause.

Of gospel missions around, around the world. Just a simple thing like maybe you have Starbucks twice a week and you get a $5 coffee or frappuccino and, and I'm not recommending you do exactly this, but just to get our wheels turning, if you just say, what, I'm gonna do without that once a week, at the end of the month, that's close to $20. And if you do something like that with some intentionality, and then what do you do with that $20? And you say, I want to support Vince Green and his, his wife as they go to the Philippines and train national pastors and I want to support the work of the gospel that's being done there.

That's a conscious choice to make a sacrifice, to separate yourself from something, to serve the cause of global evangelism. There's much greater sacrifices God calls us to, but It includes large and small. Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. Let's just ask God to help us to To live this out.

It may seem counterintuitive, but, but we just need to ask God, I believe, to make us a burden people. That we would find inside of our joy in Christ, a deep burden, where actually Christ is bringing us into his own heart and letting us feel his heart for the lost. Lord, we just come to you this morning and we ask that you would make us a godly people, a gospel people. Make us a people, Lord, who were seized with amazement over the glories of the gospel, and we, we cultivate this exaltation and rejoicing in the gospel.

We allow it to enter deeply into us and us into The blessings that belong to us in Christ and Lord, we ask your Spirit through Through Jesus Christ to grow within us. This heartfelt burden for the loss that cries out for resolution, that must find release. And in this way, make us a gospel burdened people. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you at this moment, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, and all God's people said,