Mission Accomplished

Good morning. It's my privilege to share from the word this morning as Pastor Milton is actually out of town teaching at a conference, and so I get the opportunity to talk, from the Word. we wanna encourage you to open up to Psalm 67 to start with. Psalm 67.

The title of this morning's message is Mission Accomplished. We're going to be talking about, the concept of missions. And worship. What do missions and worship have to do with one another, and we'll start our line of thinking here in Psalm 67.

Where the psalmist says in verse one. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, that thy way may be known on the earth, thy salvation among all the nations. Let the peoples praise thee, oh God, let all the peoples praise thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.

For thou wilt judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Let the peoples praise thee, oh God, let all the peoples praise thee. The earth has yielded its produce God, our God blesses us. God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

In this Psalm, we have expressed through the prophetic song of the psalmist, we have expressed the heart of God. And that is that God desires to have worshippers, those that would praise Him from among all nations. Verse 4, let the nations be glad and sing for joy, let the peoples praise the, oh God, this is an expression from the Holy Spirit on the pages of Scripture of the heart of God, that God desires to have people from all nations worship Him. And we also have in here a hint of the means through which God will gain worshippers from all nations for him.

If you look at verse 6, we see what this blessing is about. The Psalm starts with the, the, the plea, God bless us, cause your face to shine upon us. Verse 6, it echoes that the earth has yielded its produce. God, our God bless.

This is material blessing, produce. God blesses us with material wealth. Why verse 7, God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him. God wants to be worshiped by all peoples on the earth.

And he blesses his people with material wealth, in order that we can be a means of participating in gaining more worshippers for God Almighty. And so this morning, what I'm gonna be proposing to you is basically God's plan, God's program of missions throughout the world, which really is God's program of gaining worshippers from people, from all nations. We're going to look at 4. theological concepts or, or for, summaries of scripture teaching on this topic.

Before we get into the first, subject or the first, point. I just wanna ask, has anybody heard the recent sermon by David Platt called Divine Sovereignty, the Fuel for Death-defying Missions? 1, anybody else? 2?

OK, so once you're done listening to this message, I'll post this other message online. Go listen to that one and you'll be like, wow, OK, that was preaching, OK. And then, you can also listen to another message I'll post online by John Piper on a very similar topic, just the connection between worship and missions. In fact, John Piper says this, this is a very famous quote from John Piper in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad.

That missions exist because worship doesn't. Missions exist because worship doesn't. You see, God has been seeking worshippers from all tribes, tongues, and nations. And because that does not currently exist, missions exists.

Once we are all in heaven. in the eternal state, missions will cease to exist because the goal will be accomplished, the mission will be accomplished. So therefore, worship is really the first priority of God and it's the first priority of the church. But the means to gain worshippers is through missions or through the great commission.

And so let's look at 4 points that will help develop. OK, what is God doing? What has he been doing in the world to gain worshippers from all peoples, all tongues, all nations, and how does that connect to what our philosophy or drive of missions ought to be here at Cornerstone? The first point we want to make here this morning is that God has chosen worshippers out of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Now, when we talk about mission this morning, we're talking about it from the perspective of mission accomplished. From God's perspective, this is, there's no doubt as to who's going to win, right? We don't have to wait to see who the winner is. Newsflash, Christ wins.

Newsflash, there will be worshippers from all people, tribes, tongues and nations of Christ. So as we, as we look at mission from missions from God's perspective, we start with this idea before God created anything, he had chosen worshippers out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. How do we know this? In Ephesians chapter one, in the very opening chapter, we see God's choosing of people.

Now, just before we read this passage, let's remind ourselves of the theme, one of the main themes of Ephesians, which is this, Paul's writing to a bunch of nations that are not Jews, we call them Gentiles. You have the Jews from an Old Testament perspective, and then there's everybody else, right? Those are the Gentiles, those are the nations. And the book of Ephesians comes along and says, Paul says, what, I'm gonna reveal to you a mystery.

This is something that was hinted at, but it was cloaked in the Old Testament. But now it's been blown open and revealed to me, the apostle Paul, and I'm gonna reveal it to you and it's this. That the nations get to be on the same footing shoulder to shoulder with Jews, as we come to worship Christ in the body. We're not second class citizens.

God had a plan for the nations all along. And this was hinted at in the Old Testament. But now it has been fully revealed here in the New Testament. And let me talk to you about the grand scheme in the mind of God and how he brought about this plan to gain worshippers.

So looking at verse 7, Ephesians 1:7, in him, we have redemption through his blood. Now when Paul says we, this is a big deal. Because Paul, a Jew is talking to Gentiles, and he's saying in him, we all have redemption through his blood, Jew and Gentile, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace, that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of His will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.

Notice will, purpose, pleasure. This is all God's sovereign rule type of stuff, verse 10, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment. OK, now Paul's, the time has come now for this to be fulfilled, to bring all things in heaven. And on earth, under one head, Christ, all things that that includes all peoples in heaven, all peoples on earth are going to come under one head, Christ.

OK, how did this all get going, Paul? In him, we were also chosen. Notice the we, not just Jews. All people from all nations were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him, who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that purpose clause, who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory.

Now let's go back and, and tear apart the kernel of verse 11 here. What's he saying in verse 11 in him, we were also chosen. Paul, why were we chosen? We were chosen in order that we might be for the praise of His glory.

You Gentiles and me, a Jew were chosen that we might worship God. In eternity past, God had chosen some from among you Gentiles, and he chose Jews, some from among the Jews, to praise Almighty God. Missions starts in eternity past in the mind of God. God chose nations, Gentiles, from among the worlds, every tribe, tongue, people, and nation that they might be for the praise of His glory.

So this is where missions begins. It begins in the mind of God, as he is choosing people to come and worship Him. Secondly, a second point that we see in the pages of Scripture from God's perspective, is that Christ has purchased worshippers out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. He has ransomed them.

This is all, this has already happened. It happened when Christ died on the cross. And we see it in the song of those in Revelation 5 that are gathered around the throne. You guys will be reading the full section here in your care groups.

But as they're gathered around the throne, there are elders, and there are angels that begin to sing. And here's part of their song, they say, worthy are you to take the book, Jesus, the Lamb and to break its seals, for you were slain. And purchased for God with your blood, men, ie, this means individuals from every tribe, tongue, and people and nation. Jesus Christ purchased with his blood, men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

So God chose them, and Jesus purchased them. You get what's going on here? This is stuff. This is not stuff that might happen.

This is stuff that will happen. God has foreordained it. God has made sure a ransom was paid. And so we come to our third point.

And that is this, how is this, what is the means of this mission? How is this going to happen in Earth's history? Christ will call worshippers out from every tribe, out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. Christ will call worshippers out of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

How's he doing that? He told us what his plan was when he left the disciples at the end of chapter 28 or 28 Matthew. He's speaking to the disciples, some of his final instructions. And Jesus said and spoke to them, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Reflection that that sounds like Ephesians, all authority has been given to me. I have all power. There's nothing that can thwart the authority and the divine sovereignty of Jesus Christ. And then he ushers this command in light of his sovereignty, go therefore and make disciples of just the people in Riverside.

No, go and just make disciples of people in California. Go make disciples of people just in Jerusalem, according in the disciples context. No, go on. make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you and low, I am with you always.

The sovereign Lord Jesus Christ has been given all authority will be with you always, even to the end of the age. And so Christ has decided in the councils of the triune God, that there would be authority given to Christ to commission his vice regents, that is the disciples and the church to go out and make disciples of all nations. When you read nations, don't just think political groups and borders, think people groups, think languages, think tongues, think nations, all those things that are listed.

In other contexts.

And so Christ has given the job to the church to go out and call people, call these worshippers who have been chosen, who have been purchased, and now we go and call them to come worship God Almighty, who has had them in mind from eternity past. Mission accomplished. Think about this. This is, this is pretty amazing.

Here we are sitting in Riverside. In the year 2012, where did this whole gospel proclamation making disciples thing get rolling? Way over in a country called Israel, Palestine, in this little place called Jerusalem, 2000 years ago, there's a few people that go out and start telling people about Jesus' death, bury, and resurrection. And here I am standing here today.

In a foreign country. I don't speak their language. My ancestors were cutting themselves, tattooing themselves and worshiping Thor in the forest in Germany, right? That's my ancestors.

And then somebody came and proclaimed the gospel to them and they got saved. And then somebody else heard the gospel, somebody else heard the gospel, somebody else heard the gospel, then I was born, and then my live-in babysitter came in and shared the gospel with me, and I got saved in Anaheim, California. Thousands of miles from Jerusalem, different culture, different language, different time period. I'm a product of this gospel call, right?

That for 2000 years, the church has been moving along and carrying the torch that was passed from generation to generation, this mission that is being and will be accomplished. And we see in the pages of scripture that Jesus prophesized that this will be accomplished, right? Matthew 24:14, when Jesus and the all of it discourse, he's talking about future times, and one of the things that he prophesized is this, this is a promise, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

This is not a, I hope this happens, or if you do your job, then this will happen.

This is a promise. This is a prophecy from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. This will happen, mission accomplished. we need to be careful as we talk about the subject of missions into making it some guilt trip in which there's a very needy God, a very feeble Lord in heaven, who's been trying his very best to reach out to the world, but just can't get enough of our help.

We have to be very careful about that. I love, I'm gonna read a quote. I don't even know if you guys can see that very well. But a quote from AW Tozer in his book Knowledge of the Holy.

Says this This is back, I forget when Tozer's writing, is it the 50s? Anybody remember? this is a while ago, OK? Almighty God, just because he is Almighty needs no support.

The picture of a nervous ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one. Yet, if we look at the popular conception of God, that is precisely what we see. 20th century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable to believe that we are necessary to God.

Probably the hardest thought of all for a natural egotism is to entertain, to entertain, is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent him as a busy, eager, eager, somewhat frustrated father, hurrying about seeking help to carry out his benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world. Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heathen, but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support.

I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service for no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten him into and his limited abilities seem unable to get him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable Idealismsm and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much of Christian activity today. Folks, we need to have a high view of God, a high view of God's program for the world that missions did not begin when you and I went to our first missions conference.

Missions did not begin the first time I read Matthew 28, 1819 and 20.

Missions began in the mind of God and eternity past. And Christ came and purchased the people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. And God is the one who has organized this means through the church that the church would go out and spread the gospel. And we're all here because this plan has worked to this point.

God does not need Mike Barry. He's doing just fine. But God is pleased to allow me to get in on his program and allow me to share in bringing people to worship Him and to experience the glory of that. We don't want to motivate one another by guilt.

We want to motivate each other with the glory of the gospel of God Almighty. That we get to enter in, we're joining a team that is a slam dunk to win. All we need to do is jump on the train and be willing To suffer like Christ. There's the kicker, right?

We get to participate in the glory of Christ, which means we get to participate in his suffering. We'll talk more about this as we move along, but if we're gonna be part of God's program, if we're, if our lives are gonna mean something for eternity. It means that by grace, we're gonna come along and suffer for Christ and for the gospel in this life, knowing that there is a greater prize ahead of us, there is a greater home in heaven, this world is not our home. And that brings us to our fourth and final point from the scriptures that we're gonna have 4 applications.

The fourth point is this, is that Christ will be worshiped by individuals out of every tribe, tongue, and nation. God chose people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Jesus purchased people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. He put into this plan, he put the plan into place to call people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and it will be accomplished.

How do we know this? We'll consider Revelation chapter 71 place after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing. Before the throne before the lamb clothed with white robes and palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the lamb. We see here in Revelation, this future scene of every tongue and every tribe and every nation worshiping God Almighty, and singing to him, we're saying and salvation belongs to our God.

We see in Revelation 15, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the saints, who shall not fear you, oh Lord, and glorify your name, for you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. This is the plan. This is the program of God, that God desires to be worshiped. He wants the nations to find their joy and pleasure in Him.

And he has provided everything necessary for people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to come and worship Him. He has chosen them. He has ransomed them, he has called them. And he has prophesized that this will occur.

And this is the grand scheme that God, the Trinity, the triumph God has put into motion. John Piper says this all history is moving towards one great goal, the white hot worship of God and His Son among the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means for that reason.

It is the 2nd greatest human activity in the world. Missions exist because worship does not yet exist in every tribe, tongue, and nation. But there's coming a day when there will be people from every tribe, tongue, and nation that will be worshippers of God Almighty. And so we see in this, we see God's plan for missions, we see God's plan for worship.

And this is the plan that we pray that by the Holy Spirit, we will more and more get caught up with. There's a grand question that must be asked. If God chose people from every tribe, tongue and nation, and if Christ ransomed individuals from every tribe, tongue and nation, and if we know that they're being called, and we know that the end is success, What is going on between now and the completion? Is it true right now, as we sit here in this church in Riverside, California, is it true that Christ has worshippers from every tribe, tongue, and nation?

Have we completed the mission? Have we made disciples? Of the nations. Answer?

No, not yet. Doesn't seem that we have. We know that it will be accomplished. It hasn't yet been accomplished.

So what does that say to us as those that have joined Christ's team, it says, by God's grace and for His glory, we have more work to do. It is estimated that there are 2 billion people in the world today who would be classified as unreached people. What do we mean by unreached? These are not just people who have heard the gospel and not come to Christ, or they just haven't gone to church.

This is 2 billion people who will be born, who will live and die unless something changes in their culture, without any opportunity to talk to a Christian, visit a church or have a copy of the scriptures. 2 billion people who don't know Christ, and we know what the Bible says that there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved. And so without a knowledge of Christ, people die, and they go to hell. The Bible indicates that people do have a basic knowledge of God in Romans one, that people know about God from creation, and inside of them, but they suppress that knowledge, and they worship the cre the creature rather than the Creator.

You say, well, what about the innocent man in Africa, who hasn't had the opportunity to hear? Is he going to die and go to hell? No, the innocent man in Africa will die and go to heaven. Problem, he doesn't exist.

There is no innocent man in Africa. They are all corrupt. They've all despised the Lord. They've been revealed a basic knowledge of God, but they suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

They turn away from God. Without Christ, there is no hope. That's why John in the book of Revelation chapter 5, when the angel says, who or the Lord says, who is worthy to take the scroll? And you look around and nobody's worthy to take the scroll, and John begins to weep.

Because if there's nobody worthy to go take that scroll, we're all doomed. But Christ, the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world rises up, and he's able to take that scroll. And he was slain, and he ransomed his people because of Christ, there is hope for people from all nations. And so we need to bring the gospel out, not because God is weak and desperate, because he's called us to go out and do his sovereign bidding.

To call his worshippers to come and worship him and to be with him for all of eternity. There's 4 applications that we want to talk about in light of this morning's topic. The idea that God has been seeking worshippers, he has a mission and that this mission is accomplished. The first application is this.

is we can pray with confidence that God will be worshiped among all peoples. This is a prayer that we can pray with confidence, and we should pray with confidence. Isn't that part of the whole heart of the Lord's Prayer? Hallowed be Thy name, We want his name to be hallowed to be worshiped.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank you so much. Thy word, thy word be done on earth as it is in heaven. not just Thy will be done.

In my home, not just thy will be done in Riverside or in Cornerstone or California or the US, Thy will be done on the earth. Thy will be done in Iran, Thy will be done in Yemen, Thy will be done amongst the Ingariko, Thy will be done throughout the earth. That's what we pray. And we can pray these things with confidence because we know that these are things that God wants to do, and he wills to do, and he will accomplish.

A second application, and by the way, and so when I, when I say that we can pray with confidence, part of the application here is is we should make this an intentional part of our prayers, of our family worship, to pray for the nations, a regular part of our prayers as a church. It's something that we can grow in, even as leaders. I, I believe just in studying this week, I've been convicted over and over again that I can do a better job in praying for the nations, by myself, in front of my family, with my care group.

with the church, we can pray.

A second thing application is that we can give with confidence, knowing why God has sovereignly blessed us. We can give with confidence to this because we know this is something that's going to succeed. This is a good investment in eternal things. Remember what it said in Psalm 67:6.

The earth has yielded its produce. God, our God blesses us. The psalmist says, God blesses us. And when he's saying blessing, he's not just talking about generically, no, he's blessed us with material wealth, he says.

And then in verse 7, he answers, why? God bless. Blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear him. I like the way the new American Standard puts this.

There's a causal connection between our material blessing and God's desire to have all people worship him. Why is it that Mike Berry was born in this country. The most wealthy nation in the world, the most wealthy nation, prosperous nation in the history of mankind. Why was I born in a country where the gospel freely flows?

And I was able to hear the gospel from a live-in babysitter and why did I respond to the gospel? And why did God allow me to be born into a family where parents provided for me materially and taught me to be responsible and, and why is there the ability for us to earn wealth in this country, so much wealth, even in these hard times, we are still very wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Why has God given us such blessing? Well, at least one of the answers, according to Psalm 67, is that the ends of the world may fear him.

That means that God has given us material wealth, so that we would use that wealth to create or to help the gospel to go out, so that there would be more worshippers throughout the world. Not just in California, not just in the United States, but that we would participate in this mission that God has been doing from eternity past. And we can give confidently to that. We can give confidently to that program because we know that God is going to accomplish it.

A third application Is this, and that is that we can send with confidence. We can send with confidence. speaking from the side of human responsibility and the role that we play as humans, Paul says, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed?

How shall they believe in him? Of whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they are sent as it's written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.

We can send people out to go preach to people who have never heard the gospel. Think about it in A study that I was reading about this week, Yemen has approximately 8 million people. In the country of Yemen, there are no more than 30 Christians, as far as we can, as far as we know. We have more than 30 people that come to the Sunday school class.

And yet, most people who live in Yemen will be born, will live their lives, and will die without ever having spoken to a Christian. That's, that's the reality today. And there are 2 billion people around the world in that same type of circumstance. And yet we can send people out with confidence, knowing that God is going to accomplish his purposes.

This is one of the reasons why we're so excited about the greens and about sending them. We are sending the Greens to the Philippines, which technically is on the edge or just barely inside of what we call the 1040 window, 1040 on a map. these are the most unreached people groups in the world. They're unreached for a reason.

They're very hard, to get into, very hard to evangelize. There's lots of potential for suffering. And while the Philippines doesn't fit that traditional model, what you think of as like an Islamic country or whatnot, let me tell you what's so exciting about the Philippines. One, in the Philippines, you have literally hundreds of indigenous Indigenous groups that speak totally different dialects.

Not everybody speaks, Tagalog. Not everybody speaks English, but you have all these pastors all over the place that are in contact with little islands that are still unreached groups. There's hundreds of islands in the Philippines that still don't have a gospel witness. And Vince, hooking up with Shawn Ransom with the Expositors Academy, have the opportunity to come and train these pastors who are able to speak to people who know these dialects, and they know some of these dialects themselves and go train people with the gospel.

So Vince and Sean are training these Filipinos, helping them understand the Bible, helping them understand the, the true gospel. And giving them the equipping they need to go out and reach the Philippines for Christ. That's one aspect of their ministry. The other reason that Sean Ransom felt so compelled to go to the Philippines is because of the strategic nature of the Philippines and the proclamation of the gospel throughout the world, particularly the 10:40 window.

It just so happens that the Philippines send out the most overseas workers in the world. In other words, Filipinos are the ones that are traveling to Saudi Arabia and becoming nannies. They're traveling to Saudi Arabia and becoming yard workers or computer specialists or doctors. They're able to get into some of these countries, and it's not just that they're able to get in.

God has blessed the Philippine. Filipino people with an amazing ability to adapt that's very unique amongst other ethnic groups. They learn languages tremendously fast. They're able to adapt the culture wherever they go, and they have, they're tremendously strategic in the 1040 window.

God's using all kinds of peoples, don't get me wrong, but God is beginning to use the Filipino people, Filipino Christians in a very special way. With their adaptability because they have to learn so many different types of languages in the Philippines. Once they move into, an Islamic country, they're able to learn Arabic faster than just about any other people group in the world. Arabic's not an easy language.

And so this is a very strategic place in the world to have men that are training. Vince could not just go into Saudi Arabia and just be a pastor and start preaching. But he can train pastors who are training people who are gonna go to Saudi Arabia as overseas workers. And so we're very excited about sending the Greens to this part of the world and to be able to impact 6000 people groups that are still unreached, 2 billion people in the world that are still.

Unreached, that's not a mission board problem. That's not a mission agency problem, that's a local church problem, that's a pastor problem. We are the ones that need to answer the call of 6000 people groups that are yet unreached of 2 billion people in the world that have yet to hear the name of Christ, and part of the way that we're trying to accomplish that is through Vince Green. And we, everybody in this room can participate in prayer.

Everybody in this room can participate in the sending process in encouraging the greens. Every one of us has the opportunity to give to the greens. People in this, in this congregation have varying abilities, but I just wanna ask everybody to pray. I know that many of us are already given to the Greens.

We were hoping to get them out quite frankly a year ago. And, and, and we're, we're thinking now maybe we'll be able to get into the field by January of 2013. I know it's, it's tough times. They're on the East Coast right now trying to raise the rest of their support.

Vince is finishing up his degree, his doctorate, but would you please pray. Maybe you're not able to give it this time, but you can pray that the Lord will provide. Would you do that? Pray that the Lord will provide for the greens so that we can get them to the field as quickly as possible.

And a final application that we want to mention this morning is that we can go with confidence. Jesus says to the church, all authority has been given to me, go therefore make disciples. This means, part of what this means is that some of us are not just going to go to our family, some of us are not just gonna go to our community. These are very important works.

It's important that we have Timothy's that are doing the work, the hard work of local church ministry. It's important that we have fathers and mothers that are discipling their kids. The truth is, however, that there must be some among us that are going to go, like the greens that are going to go into the world, and the Lord is calling them to make an impact and to call worshippers in unreached people group areas. We have people in our church who have been involved in going.

We have the Tay family. Moses right now, he's been called to go. We have the Greens that we're sending, they've been called to go, but there are others, no doubt, in this congregation, maybe someone who's just 4 or 5 right now. Maybe someone who's 1819 or 20, maybe someone who's about ready to retire, and they're wondering what does the Lord want them to do in their golden years.

God is calling some of us to be Timothy's, but he's calling some of us to be Paul's. The Church of Antioch and Acts 13 prayed and fasted, and the Holy Spirit said to them, set apart for me, Paul and Barnabas, and Paul and Barnabas began to go into areas that had not been reached with the gospel. They went into hard areas, and we're willing to suffer, and we're willing to be persecuted, and even willing to die. As a church, we need to be willing to raise up, grow in our vision, to get people out there, and we need the Holy Spirit to follow up on people that are willing to go to these unreached areas of the world and willing to suffer for the name of Christ and the honor of Christ, so that Christ may gain worshippers from every tribe, tongue, and nation throughout the world.

Let me tell you a story here, as we begin to close. There was a, a, a couple, a family who answered the call to go in the 1930s, they went to preach the gospel in Japan. And when they went to Japan at that time, I guess technically you could have called it an unreached people group or or the people they were working with. While Japan did have quite a movement of evangelism in the 1500s, that movement was utterly wiped out by the emperor, and they crucified everybody that proclaimed Christ and had them crucified them on the beach and allowed the waves to roll in and they were drowned.

They totally wiped out the faith. There were some movements in the 1800s, but that was wiped out. So, in the 20th century, there was a renewal of some possibilities of outreach. The Cavels were ministering in Yokohama, and then World War II starts to break out, and they moved to Manila to try to minister to Japanese expatriates in Manila.

Then when the Japanese took over the Philippines, they went up into the hills and were ministering to people up in the hills during the war. When the Americans came in and began to take the Philippines back, a number of the Japanese soldiers moved up into the hills in the north. They discovered the cavels up there, found them with a radio, assumed they were spies, tried them on the spot, and beheaded them. Up in the hills above Manila.

Well, her daughter, Margaret Cavell, finds out about this in America, an 18 year old girl. And at first, it's just filled with hatred for Japanese people. But the Lord soon began to get a hold of her heart as she began to contemplate, no doubt, the attitude that her parents had right before they were beheaded. She could imagine them praying for these people before they were beheaded.

And so she found out about a POW camp, prisoners of war, Japanese prisoners of war, and began to go to this camp and minister to Japanese soldiers who had been taken captive. And she began to speak the gospel to them and speak kindness to them. And she began to speak to a, a sub-lieutenant named Katzuo Kanagasaki. And Katzuo and some of his friends said, why are you doing this?

Why are you so nice to us? And she said, it's because Japanese soldiers killed my parents. But the Lord has given me a heart for the Japanese people, and I want you to become worshippers of God. I want you to know Christ.

Now, Katsuo did not come to know Christ, but he later traveled back to Japan and one of his friends named Mitsuo Fujita found him on the docks when he arrived back in Japan. And Katzua relayed this story to Mitsuo Fujita about Peggy Cavell, and Mitsua was so overcome by the story. He said, this beautiful story overwhelmed me and made me ashamed. And that began his path on the way to salvation into a belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It just so happens that Mitsu Mitsuo Fujita was the lead pilot in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a war hero well known throughout all of Japan. And when he came to Christ, it was head first page news all over Japan. And as he began to go speak for Christ, thousands of people came to hear what he had to say.

And many, many Japanese people believed. You see God doing his thing, calling worshippers to himself. Who would have thought that the cavels being faithful to go minister and Yokohama, Japan and beating the ground, the hard ground, not seeing any converts, and then they get run out of town because of the war and they get beheaded. Who would think that that would lead to their daughter speaking to someone who didn't even become a Christian, who then relays the story to Mitsuo Fujita, who leads hundreds of Japanese people to Christ.

God is in He's, he is active, and he is drawing all peoples to himself. And if we will make ourselves available, and if we would even be willing to suffer for his name's sake, God will do great things through us, not because he needs us, but because we will get the privilege and the glory of suffering with Him is Christ suffering. This is God's plan. The final thing I want to say before we pray is we are sending a team of 6 people to go minister in the Philippines with Vince Green.

Part of the vision for this is for us as a church to have a personal connection with what's going on in the Philippines and the training that's being done there. And we would like to have many of these trips in the future. Myself, Biblia Kim, Hannah Harmon, Jason Wy, Joshua Berry, Susan Meyers. We're all going, we're gonna be ministering to the ransoms.

We're gonna be ministering to street kids in Batangas south of Manila. I'm gonna be preaching to some of these pastors. That are training people in indigenous areas and we would ask for you to pray for us and and we're gonna have an offering here in a moment and anything that you give to the Agape Fund offering this morning will help fund this team but more than that we'd love to bring a financial gift to be a blessing to the ransoms when we go, what the devaluation of the dollar, what the ransoms used to have in support, the peso there used to be 66 to the dollar, it's now around 33 to the dollar.

So just imagine losing about 50% of your income because of devaluation.

We would love to be able to go and minister to them, but also bring with them, as Paul was bringing money to the poor in Jerusalem, we'd love to bring a gift to the ransoms and to be a blessing to them when we go. So pray as you give this morning, you can put in the Agape, you can put Agape Fund, you can put Mission Vision fund in the memo, you can also give to the Agape Fund later. We'll talk about that. But let's, let's pray for this team.

Just, I have to end it right here. One thing that was just really encouraging to me, and, I get home last night from doing some sermon preparation, and, it's about 10:30 at night, and my son crawls out of bed and he says, hey, Dad, I was preparing my sermon for the Philippines. Oh really? Yeah, yeah, I'm preparing to preach proverbs to the street children.

because he knows he's, he's gonna have some opportunity to share the gospel. And that's, that's part of what we're talking about here is all of us can participate. no matter how young you are, how old you are, we can all participate in this grand thing that God is doing. Let's do it together.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much. For your goodness. We thank you for the opportunity, Lord, that we have to be part of this plan that you've been, you've been orchestrating since eternity passed.

You don't need us, but you're pleased to use us. We thank you, Jesus, that you've purchased people, worshippers from every tribe, tongue and nation. We thank you that we get to be part of this call. And we thank you that we will one day be some of those people from every tribe, tongue nation that we, Christianity didn't begin with us.

We're products of missionary ventures, we're products of 2000 years of missionary service, and here we are, and here we stand. We pray, Lord, that we would carry the torch and that we would Get on this program, Lord, that you are doing that you will accomplish, that we will be part of that mission accomplished. We pray, Father, if it's your will that you would bless us this morning in our giving, that we would be able to be a great blessing to those in the Philippines. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.