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Voddie Baucham - Missions Part 1_ in the Old Testament · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Listen to this from Bruce Hunt in The Church and Missions.
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  Speaker 1: The work of the church is missions. That is, the
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  Speaker 1: work of the church is not primarily self-preservation, the perfection
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  Speaker 1: of organization and equipment, the improvement of the membership, or
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  Speaker 1: several other firsts that people might propose. That first and foremost,
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  Speaker 1: the church is about missions. Before the church is about
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  Speaker 1: anything else, the church is about missions. That's why we exist.
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  Speaker 1: That's who we are. We are a people on mission.
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  Speaker 1: How do we define this? I went back and I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to look at Webster's 1828 and see what they
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  Speaker 1: said about these words. First of all, mission. One, ascending
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  Speaker 1: or being sent. usually the latter, of being sent or
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  Speaker 1: delegated by authority. It comes from a Latin root. It
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  Speaker 1: means to be sent, to be sent as a delegate. Two,
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  Speaker 1: person sent, any number of persons appointed by authority to
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  Speaker 1: perform any service, particularly the person sent to propagate religion
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  Speaker 1: or evangelize the heathen. You can tell this is an
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  Speaker 1: old source when they use the word heathen in there.
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  Speaker 1: What about missionary? Missionary is one who is sent to
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  Speaker 1: propagate religion. So when we talk about missions, we talk
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  Speaker 1: about the propagation of religion or the propagation of the gospel.
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  Speaker 1: We talk about the proclamation of the gospel to all
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  Speaker 1: peoples in all places. We will not inculcate mission-mindedness into
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  Speaker 1: our churches and families because unless we first become convicted
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  Speaker 1: that the Bible teaches, encourages, and equips us for missions.
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  Speaker 1: And so let's look at what the Bible says. And
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  Speaker 1: usually when we think about looking at what the Bible
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  Speaker 1: says about missions, our first thought is to go where?
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  Speaker 1: Matthew 28, the Great Commission, right? We think about missions
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  Speaker 1: as this very sort of New Testament idea. When we
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  Speaker 1: think about missions, it's something that only came about in
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament. But what we're going to start with
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  Speaker 1: is missions in the Old Testament. Something that, for many Christians,
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  Speaker 1: we don't even, I mean, we think that's an oxymoron.
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  Speaker 1: Missions in the Old Testament. But why don't we see this? Well, first,
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  Speaker 1: our fixation on the Great Commission. It's so automatic that
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  Speaker 1: immediately we think to talk about missions is to talk
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  Speaker 1: about the Great Commission. That's the first place we go.
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  Speaker 1: That's the first place we think. And we believe that
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  Speaker 1: that was the inauguration of missions. a lack of familiarity
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  Speaker 1: with the Old Testament in general. And we've been talking
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  Speaker 1: about that as we have dealt with each of the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament books through which we have preached here, whether
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  Speaker 1: it be Genesis or Ruth or Daniel or now Exodus, whatever.
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  Speaker 1: We're just not familiar with the Old Testament. And part
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  Speaker 1: of that is a result of our dispensational bias. Most
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  Speaker 1: of us have come from dispensational backgrounds. and have been
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  Speaker 1: inculcated with a dispensational bias that sees a very hard
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  Speaker 1: line of division and distinction between Old Covenant, New Covenant,
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  Speaker 1: between Israel and the church. And this idea that basically
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  Speaker 1: Plan A was Israel. And then when plan A didn't
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  Speaker 1: go according to plan, plan B was the church. But
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  Speaker 1: the church is only a parenthetical pause as God is
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  Speaker 1: going to then rapture the church out of the world
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  Speaker 1: and then go back to plan A and finish plan
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  Speaker 1: A with Israel. And so we have this sort of
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  Speaker 1: dispensational bias, this dispensational understanding, and not a covenantal understanding
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  Speaker 1: of the continuity of God's plan and purpose. We have
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  Speaker 1: to understand that God has one people, not two peoples.
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  Speaker 1: God has one people, not two peoples, okay? So, the
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  Speaker 1: great clue is, There is a great clue that missions
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  Speaker 1: is not new or exclusive to the New Testament. Matthew 23, 15.
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  Speaker 1: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you travel
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  Speaker 1: across sea and land to make a single proselyte. And
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  Speaker 1: when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as
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  Speaker 1: much a child of hell as yourselves. Now, they might
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  Speaker 1: not have been going about things the right way, But
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  Speaker 1: the Pharisees would go across land and sea to make converts. Folks,
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  Speaker 1: that's missions. The Pharisees were mission-minded. Okay? But why would
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  Speaker 1: they have been mission-minded? Again, our understanding is that this
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  Speaker 1: is a New Testament concept. It's not a concept for Israel.
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  Speaker 1: Israel was God's chosen people, and it was all about,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Israel and nothing else and no one else. First,
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  Speaker 1: the dominion mandate was Genesis 128, God blessed them and
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  Speaker 1: God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill
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  Speaker 1: the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the
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  Speaker 1: fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens
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  Speaker 1: and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
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  Speaker 1: In the dominion mandate, we have the idea of mission.
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  Speaker 1: There is a mission. Adam and Eve are appointed to
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  Speaker 1: a mission and this mission is to subdue the earth
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  Speaker 1: and This mission is to spread the image of God
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  Speaker 1: abroad throughout the earth. This mission is about cultivating. And
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  Speaker 1: so this mission is not just about their lives as people,
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  Speaker 1: as individuals, but it's also about the culture that they cultivate.
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  Speaker 1: Culture and cultivate come from the same root. They're etymologically connected.
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  Speaker 1: The Abrahamic Covenant. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go
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  Speaker 1: from your country and your kindred and your father's house
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  Speaker 1: to the land that I will show you. And I
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  Speaker 1: will make of you a great nation and I will
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  Speaker 1: bless you and make your name great so that you
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  Speaker 1: will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
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  Speaker 1: you And him who dishonors you I will curse. And
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  Speaker 1: in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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  Speaker 1: That's mission. The Abrahamic covenant was not just about God
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  Speaker 1: blessing Israel as a people. There is inherent in this idea,
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  Speaker 1: God blessing all the nations of the earth and God
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  Speaker 1: using Abraham and his seed to be a blessing to
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  Speaker 1: all the nations of the earth. Folks, the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: was never about Israel being blessed and sitting on their
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  Speaker 1: blessing while the rest of the world rotted. Gentiles were
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  Speaker 1: not an afterthought. Gentiles are being spoken of here. Think
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  Speaker 1: about this for a moment. There's Abraham and his offspring.
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  Speaker 1: And so this blessing to Abraham is this blessing to
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people, but it's also a blessing through the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people. All the nations of the earth who are
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  Speaker 1: not Israel are Gentiles. So the idea of... God including
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  Speaker 1: and incorporating the Gentiles is not an afterthought. It is
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  Speaker 1: inherent in the Abrahamic covenant that God will bless Gentiles
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  Speaker 1: and Jews. The purpose of the plagues, just to go
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  Speaker 1: back to what we've talked about here since we've been
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  Speaker 1: dealing with Exodus. For this time, I will send all
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  Speaker 1: my plagues on you yourself. and on your servants and
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  Speaker 1: your people, so that they may know that there is
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  Speaker 1: none like me in all the earth. For by now
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  Speaker 1: I could have put out my hand and struck you
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  Speaker 1: and your people with pestilence, and you would have been
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  Speaker 1: cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I
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  Speaker 1: have raised you up. Why? to show you my power
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  Speaker 1: so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
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  Speaker 1: In all the earth. The purpose of the plagues were
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  Speaker 1: not just so that Israel, God's elect nation, could go
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  Speaker 1: and exist in peace and quiet by themselves in isolation.
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  Speaker 1: God's goal and his purpose was in Israel, with Israel,
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  Speaker 1: and through Israel, was that his name would be proclaimed
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  Speaker 1: in all the earth. What about Israel's place among the nations?
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  Speaker 1: Deuteronomy 28 10 and all the peoples of the earth
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  Speaker 1: shall see that you are called by the name of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord and they shall be afraid of you. 1
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  Speaker 1: Samuel 17, 46. This day the Lord will deliver you
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  Speaker 1: into my hand, and I will strike you down and
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  Speaker 1: cut off your head, and I will give the dead
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  Speaker 1: bodies of the host of the Philistines. This is David,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, with Goliath. This day to the birds
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  Speaker 1: of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: that all the earth may know that there is a
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  Speaker 1: God in Israel. Why is this happening? So that the
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  Speaker 1: earth will know. What about Israel's worship? 1 Chronicles 16.31.
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  Speaker 1: Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, and
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  Speaker 1: let them say, among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let
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  Speaker 1: them say, among the nations, the Lord reigns. How about
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  Speaker 1: the temple? 2 Chronicles 6.32-33. Likewise, when a foreigner who
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  Speaker 1: is not of your people, Israel, comes from a far
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  Speaker 1: country for the sake of your great name and your
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  Speaker 1: mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and
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  Speaker 1: prays toward this house, hear from heaven your dwelling place
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  Speaker 1: and do according to all for which the foreigner calls
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  Speaker 1: to you in order that all the peoples of the
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  Speaker 1: earth may know your name and fear you. as do
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  Speaker 1: your people Israel, and that they may know that this
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  Speaker 1: house that I have built is called by your name.
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  Speaker 1: So in building the temple, there is the understanding that
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  Speaker 1: this temple is not just about Israel. This temple is
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  Speaker 1: about a witness to the nations, that the nations might
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  Speaker 1: come and seek God and know God, and that God
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  Speaker 1: might be worshipped among the nations. In the Psalms, the
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  Speaker 1: Messianic Psalms, listen to this. Sorry. Psalm 27. I will
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  Speaker 1: tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you
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  Speaker 1: are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of
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  Speaker 1: me and I will make the nations your heritage and
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  Speaker 1: the ends of the earth your possession. Now, remember, the Psalms,
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  Speaker 1: this is what Israel sang. This is what God's people
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  Speaker 1: sang in worship. So when they worshiped God, they made
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  Speaker 1: proclamations and declarations like this. I will make the nations
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  Speaker 1: your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.
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  Speaker 1: Singing about the Messiah. You shall break them with a
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  Speaker 1: rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a
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  Speaker 1: potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned,
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  Speaker 1: O rulers of the earth. Psalm 22, 27 and 28.
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  Speaker 1: All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord. And all the families of the nations
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  Speaker 1: shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: And he rules over the nations. Again, the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. The ends of the earth. All the families
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  Speaker 1: of nations. Not just being defeated by the Messiah, but
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  Speaker 1: worshiping the Messiah. And in the divine declaration, Psalm 46, 10.
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  Speaker 1: Be still and know that I am God. We know
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  Speaker 1: that part, right? But what comes after that? I will
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  Speaker 1: be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted. In
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  Speaker 1: the earth. I will be. I will be. It's going
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  Speaker 1: to happen. Among the nations. Again. Not an afterthought. The
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  Speaker 1: Gentiles are not an afterthought. The gospel going to the Gentiles.
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  Speaker 1: Is not an afterthought. The psalmist's desire. Psalm 72. May
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  Speaker 1: he have dominion from sea to sea. And from the
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  Speaker 1: river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes
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  Speaker 1: bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust.
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  Speaker 1: May his enemies endure, I'm sorry, may his name endure forever.
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  Speaker 1: His fame continue as long as the sun. May people
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  Speaker 1: be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. Bless
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
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  Speaker 1: Bless his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be
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  Speaker 1: filled with his glory. Amen and amen. The prayers of David,
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  Speaker 1: the son of Jesse, are ended. So again, in the Psalms,
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  Speaker 1: we see very clearly this picture of mission, this global
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  Speaker 1: sense of mission. What about the prophets? Isaiah 2, 3.
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  Speaker 1: And many people... many peoples shall come and say, Come,
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  Speaker 1: let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: to the house of the God of Jacob. that he
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  Speaker 1: may teach us his ways and that we may walk
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  Speaker 1: in his paths. For out of Zion shall go the
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  Speaker 1: law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Many peoples,
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  Speaker 1: not many people, many peoples. These are tribes, language, kindred, tongues.
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  Speaker 1: These are ethnic groups. These are nations. So the prophets
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  Speaker 1: are prophesying that many nations are going to come and
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  Speaker 1: be blessed and Isaiah 24, 16. From the ends of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, we hear songs of praise, of glory to
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  Speaker 1: the righteous one. From the ends of the earth. So
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  Speaker 1: now there's a picture of all over the earth, God
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  Speaker 1: being praised. With the fulfillment of that, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah 60, verse 3. And nations shall come to your light,
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  Speaker 1: and kings to the brightness of your rising. Jeremiah 3, 17.
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  Speaker 1: At that time, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to
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  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall
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  Speaker 1: no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. Jeremiah 16, 19.
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  Speaker 1: O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in
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  Speaker 1: the day of trouble. to you shall the nations come
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  Speaker 1: from the ends of the earth and say, our fathers
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  Speaker 1: have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there
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  Speaker 1: is no profit. So these nations are coming to the truth.
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  Speaker 1: Micah 4.2, and many nations shall come and say, come,
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  Speaker 1: let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to
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  Speaker 1: the house of the God of Jacob. that he may
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  Speaker 1: teach us his ways and that we may walk in
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  Speaker 1: his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the
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  Speaker 1: law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Micah 5, 4.
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  Speaker 1: And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the
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  Speaker 1: strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure.
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  Speaker 1: For now he shall be great to the ends. of
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  Speaker 1: the earth. Habakkuk 2.14 For the earth will be filled
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  Speaker 1: with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as
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  Speaker 1: the waters cover the sea. Are you beginning to see
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  Speaker 1: a pattern, folks? Zephaniah 2.11 The Lord will be awesome
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  Speaker 1: against them, for he will famish all the gods of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, and to him shall bow down each in
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  Speaker 1: its place all the land of the nations. Zechariah 2.11,
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  Speaker 1: and many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in
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  Speaker 1: that day and shall be my people. Do you catch that?
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  Speaker 1: Who's God's people in the Old Testament? Israel. Let me
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  Speaker 1: read that again. This is Zechariah, the prophet in the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament. And he says, and many nations, when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about many nations, we're always talking about whom? Gentiles, right?
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  Speaker 1: Many nations. All the other nations are the nations of
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  Speaker 1: the Gentiles. Many nations, or Gentiles, shall join themselves to
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  Speaker 1: the Lord in that day and shall be my people.
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  Speaker 1: Where we get this idea that the Gentiles are an afterthought,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. It is obvious when you read the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament that God's plan from the beginning was to
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  Speaker 1: be a blessing to all the nations through Israel. And
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  Speaker 1: I will dwell in your midst and you shall know
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  Speaker 1: that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
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  Speaker 1: Malachi 1.11 From the rising of the sun to the
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  Speaker 1: setting of the same, he will be great among the nations.
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  Speaker 1: And in every place, incense will be offered to my name,
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  Speaker 1: and a pure offering. For my name will be great
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  Speaker 1: among the nation, says the Lord of hosts. Folks, this
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  Speaker 1: is why, and we talked about this when we were
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  Speaker 1: in Romans. This is why when you read in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament and when you read the epistles, and particularly
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  Speaker 1: when you read the Pauline epistles, Paul understands the coming
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  Speaker 1: of the Gentiles not as God doing something new and
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  Speaker 1: something different. He understands it as a fulfillment of what
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  Speaker 1: God has said all along. He sees himself as being
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  Speaker 1: right in the midst of watching God do what he
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  Speaker 1: said he was going to do, okay? And we've seen
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  Speaker 1: that so far. What about in the New Testament? Again,
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about missions in the New Testament, here's
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  Speaker 1: the great irony. We talk about missions in general, and
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  Speaker 1: as we've said, our immediate thought is the Great Commission.
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  Speaker 1: That's the beginning of missions, right? And so because of that,
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  Speaker 1: we don't think about the Old Testament in terms of missions.
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  Speaker 1: I hope we've dismissed that. Amen? But there's a second reality.
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  Speaker 1: We think about the Great Commission, and not only do
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  Speaker 1: we dismiss the Old Testament, we actually dismiss the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the New Testament as well. And we think about
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  Speaker 1: missions just beginning at that place. Listen to this in
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  Speaker 1: Matthew 6, 9 to 10. We know this, right? Pray
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  Speaker 1: then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
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  Speaker 1: your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as
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  Speaker 1: it is in heaven. Interestingly enough, when you look at
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  Speaker 1: the catechisms and they break down the Lord's Prayer into
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  Speaker 1: these various petitions, you see something very interesting. Question, what
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  Speaker 1: is the first petition? Hallowed be thy name. That's the
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  Speaker 1: first petition. Question, What do we pray for in the
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  Speaker 1: first petition? Answer, that God's name may be honored by
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  Speaker 1: us and all men. That's missions. That's missions. What is
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  Speaker 1: the second petition? Thy kingdom come. What do we pray
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  Speaker 1: for in the second petition? That the gospel may be preached.
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  Speaker 1: In all the world and believed and obeyed by us
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  Speaker 1: and all men. That would be? That would be? Right?
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  Speaker 1: What is the third petition? That will be done on
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  Speaker 1: earth as it is in heaven. What do we pray
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  Speaker 1: for in the third petition? That men on earth may
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  Speaker 1: serve God as the angels in heaven. That would be?
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  Speaker 1: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
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  Speaker 1: the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: And then doing what? Teaching them to observe all things
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  Speaker 1: that I've commanded you. That's what we pray for. And
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  Speaker 1: so we see in the first three petitions of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord's Prayer that even the Lord's Prayer is a missionary prayer.
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  Speaker 1: In the Gospels, Matthew 10, 18, and you will be
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  Speaker 1: dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear
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  Speaker 1: witness before them and the Gentiles. Matthew 24, 14. And
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  Speaker 1: the people of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the
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  Speaker 1: whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then
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  Speaker 1: the end will come. Again, based on what we've read,
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  Speaker 1: this is not at all new, is it? This is
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  Speaker 1: very consistent with what we've read in the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: Mark 11, 17. And he was teaching them and saying
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  Speaker 1: to them, is it not written, my house shall be
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  Speaker 1: called a house of prayer? Next phrase, for all the nations,
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  Speaker 1: but you have made it a den of robbers. Tell
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  Speaker 1: the truth. We forget that second phrase, don't we? We
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  Speaker 1: forget that second prayer. You know, we always say, well,
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  Speaker 1: my house should be called a house of prayer. God
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  Speaker 1: says this house should be called a house of prayer. No.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: He said his house should be called a house of
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: prayer for all nations. And this was in reference to
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the temple. This was in reference to the place where
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Israel went to worship. Again, this explodes that myth that
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: missions is just a New Testament idea and that it
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: didn't have anything to do with Israel and their understanding
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: of their relationship with God. Luke 2, 30 to 32. Again,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: speaking of Christ and his coming. Luke 10, 2. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. There's mission.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: John 12, 32. And I, when I am lifted up
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: from the earth, will draw all people to myself. There's mission. Now,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: we get to the Great Commission. After all of this,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and now we look at it in that context, go
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and behold, I am with you always to the end
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of the age. It begins, however, with all power in
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: heaven and earth, Being given to Christ. Mark 16, 15.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: He said to them, go into all the world and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Acts 1, 8.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: I'll just have to admit, you know, I don't do
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: this as much anymore. Of course, I don't have as
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: many of these conversations anymore. But, you know, there are
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: some of those people who are of the Pentecostal persuasion
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and believe that you're not really saved unless and until
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: you've had, and I quote, the baptism of the Holy
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. And so
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: there are people who wait for that. And again, you're
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: not you're not saved unless and until that happens. And
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: in some churches, they even have a place up the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: front for people to come. And they used to call
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it a tarrying bench. You come there to tarry or
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: to wait. Tarry is an old southern word. You come
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: there to tarry and to wait. Wait for what? Wait
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: for the Holy Spirit and wait for speaking in tongues
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: because that's the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Right?
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: And so there would be people and, you know, especially
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in my younger days, you run across a lot of
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: people from these circles and, you know, have you had
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: speaking in tongues? My response was always, nope, but I've
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: had the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of being a witness. Because the text says you'll receive
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. What's the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: purpose of the power? What's the purpose of the power?
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: That's the purpose of the power, folks. Here's the other
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: great irony. What was the purpose of tongues? Witness. The
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: purpose of tongues was witness. And so when the Holy
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Spirit falls on the day of Pentecost, and we see tongues,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: which is languages, people, languages. These people speak in tongues,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and they speak in tongues, and the miracle is people
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: hear them in their own language. So the gospel goes
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to the Gentiles. There are all these Gentile nations represented there, right?
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Why are they there? Why are they already there? This
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: is one of the three times a year that Jews
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: from all over the world come to the temple. This
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: is one of those three times a year when you come.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Pentecost is one of those three times a year that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: you come. So because Israel was mission-minded already, there are
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: people from all over the earth coming to the temple.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: They're there from all different language groups, and they come
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: to the temple. And so at Pentecost... The Spirit falls
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: on them, and they speak, and the gospel goes to
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: all of these nations that have already been reached by
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: God's people Israel. That's why they're at the temple, right?
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: And so the great irony is that even tongues, even
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: tongues had a missionary purpose. By the way, when do
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: you see tongues? And again, this is not a message
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: on tongues. But ironically, this is the thesis statement and
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: the outline of the book of Acts, basically. So for
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the rest of the book of Acts, what we do
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: is we see the gospel breaking these barriers in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and in the remotest parts of the world. You see
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: tongues in the book of Acts when one of these
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: barriers is broken. So when the gospel goes from all
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Judea to Samaria... You see tongues. And when you see
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: it going to the remotest parts of the world, you
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: see tongues. When you see this, you know, among Cornelius,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: you see tongues. You don't see tongues every time somebody
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: comes to faith in the book of Acts. You see
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: tongues when one of these barriers is broken as though
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: God were giving evidence that this barrier has been broken
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: and the gospel has gone to another area and had
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: an even further reach. Which means that even then, it's
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: connected to missions. It's connected to missions. This idea of
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: tongues for the purpose of self-edification is a very new
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: and recent idea. Okay? Every spiritual gift, for example, in
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is given
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: for what? For the edification of what? Of whom? Of God.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: The body. Every spiritual gift in those lists. And those
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: lists are introduced as gifts that are given for the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: edification of the body. But he who speaks in a
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: tongue builds up himself. If you're speaking in tongues and
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: it's not for the purpose of communicating linguistically, it's building
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: up yourself. Which means it negates the very purpose for
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: which every spiritual gift was given. Acts 13, 47. Again,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: when we've read those passages in the Old Testament, that's
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: so familiar. It's not new. Romans 1, 5. through whom
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: obedience of faith for the sake of his name among
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: all the nations. Romans 10, beginning at 12. For there
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: who call on him. For everyone who calls on the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: name of the Lord will be saved. That's a radical statement,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: by the way. That's a radical statement. That there's no
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: distinction between Jew and Greek. That's huge. How then will
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: they call on him in whom they have not believed?
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: And how are they to believe in him whom they
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: have never heard? And how are they to hear without
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: are sent? There's the idea of missions. There's the idea
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of missions. Nobody ever goes on mission. People are only
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: sent on mission. People are only sent on mission. As
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: who preach the gospel, who preach the good news. Yeah,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: you're right. They have to be sent on missions. And
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: we're all sent, right? No. No, we're not all sent.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Only those who are acknowledged and recognized and sent by
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the church are sent to mission. This is the pattern
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: that we see in the book of Acts. You don't
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: see people in the book of Acts just going all willing.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Paul is an apostle, and yet he is appointed for
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: his missions. He does not just up and say, I'm
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: going to do this. He is sent by the church.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: You must be sent by the church. You don't just
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: up and go and do whatever you feel like doing.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: We are sent by the church. Because we represent the church.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: And because we're accountable to the church in what we do.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: This is incredibly important. We must be sent. Galatians 3.8
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, And
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: you shall all the nations be blessed. So Paul is
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: pointing them back to the Abrahamic covenant saying, hey, this
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: is not new, guys. He was preaching the gospel beforehand, right?
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: He was letting us know beforehand that this would go
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: to the Gentiles. And it's very important because what's going
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: on in Galatians? The Judaizing controversy. Anybody know what the
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Judaizing controversy was about? What? Yeah, about whether or not
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: you need to become a Jew before you can be
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: a Christian, right? Do the Gentiles have to be circumcised
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: first before we can count them as Christians? By the way,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: this is why tongues were so important in the book
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of Acts, because basically that answered the whole question about
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the Judaizing controversy. He answered it preemptively. Well, and that's
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: why Peter says, hey, how do we withhold water baptism
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: from somebody who's been baptized in the Holy Spirit already, right?
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: God is answering the question. He answers the Judaizing controversy
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: by giving the same gift to these Gentiles that he
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: had given to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, okay?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: And so in Galatians, Paul's dealing with this Judaizing controversy
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: with these people who are saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: They got to become Jews before they can become Christians.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: And so this is when he goes back and his
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: argument is, folks, you don't even understand the Abrahamic covenant.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: If you understand the Abrahamic covenant, you understand that it's
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: for them as much as it is for us. Okay?
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: So context there makes that clear. Very clear. Verse 14,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: promised spirit through faith. In the Revelation, Revelation 5-9, and
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: take the scroll and to open its seals, for you
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: were slain by And by your blood, you ransomed people
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: And we know from the pattern in Revelation, we'll test
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: you here. Remember those numbers that are important in Revelation.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: One of those numbers that's important in Revelation is the
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: number four. Why is the number four important? Yes, the
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: directions of the earth. So whenever you get this number four,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: we're talking about the totality of the earth. So these
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: four references refer to the totality of the earth, the
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: peoples on all the earth. Revelation 7, 9. After this
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and languages. Standing before the throne and before the lamb
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: clothed in white robes With palm branches in their hands
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: So what's the takeaway? One God has always been on
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: mission God has always been on mission And his mission
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: was never just Israel that was never that was never
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: the totality of God's mission and Never, ever, ever. So
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: this whole dispensational idea, you know, that you had, you know,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: the Jews as plan A, the Gentiles as plan B,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: then we're going to go back and finish plan A,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: that whole, no. No, that's inconsistent with what we find
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: in the totality of Scripture. Two, God has always called, taught,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: expected his people to be on mission. Always, always, always.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: In other words, this was never the idea. The idea
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: was never, okay, the world needs to be reached with
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: the gospel. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: going to take a few guys, say the apostles, and
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: then the apostles are going to go everywhere. And as
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: the apostles go everywhere, they're going to establish churches, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: these churches are only going to think about themselves. They
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: don't have to worry about the mission, because they they
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: are an end in themselves and then these apostles they're
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: going to continue to go and they're going to continue
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: to carry what's the problem with that there's several problems
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: with that tell me a few Okay, go to the
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: ends of the earth. And? Come on. And? Why? Exactly.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: The apostles can only go so far. Even if that
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: were today and they had, you know, modern transportation, you know,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and you fly all over the world, that limited number
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: of apostles, you're not going to be able to establish
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: churches throughout the world with that limited number of apostles.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: So just from a logistical perspective, that doesn't work. Why
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: else doesn't it work? Right. Yeah, the apostles are going
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: to die. So then there would be an intermission with
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: the end of the apostles. Why else doesn't it work? Languages. Explain.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: They didn't speak all the languages of the world. Thank you.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: But they had tongues. That's one of the arguments for cessationism.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: That gift ceased. That gift ceased. It definitely ceased at
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the end of the apostolic age. But even before the
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: end of the apostolic age, you don't see that gift
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: being employed in missions. You just don't. It wasn't the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: norm that the apostles would go places and just speak
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: people's language. That was not the norm. And so we
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: saw that at the beginning of the apostolic age. But
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: toward the end of the apostolic age, we didn't see
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: it anymore. And again, there are people now who try
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: to adjust their theology on this. But in the Azusa
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Street revivals. You know in the early part of the
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: last century or in the middle part of the last
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: century when there was a revival of Pentecostalism They were
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: reading the text more honestly and understanding that these are
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: talking about languages So when they swimming when they saw
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: this sort of revival of tongue speaking, you know in
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: in their movement They sent people to be missionaries without
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: training them in languages. And of course that fell absolutely
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: flat right because they did not have that New Testament
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: gift and And so then there came a reinterpretation of
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: what it meant to speak in tongues. So yeah, people
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: speaking in different languages means that you have to multiply
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: people on mission. What else? What about all of us?
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: What about all of us? What about all of us? Yeah, yeah.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, still to this day. And that goes back
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: to what we heard earlier about the apostles die. Mission's
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: got to carry on. It's been thousands of years now, right?
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: But there's something else. And that is this. As we
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: read the scriptures, this is communicated to the body of
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Christ perpetually. Right? This is the mission of the church. So,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: you know, we can't then come and say, all right, well,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: once a church is established somewhere, those parts of the
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: scriptures that have to do with the mission of the
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: church no longer apply. Right? The whole of biblical revelation
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: is missional in nature and scope. You can't read the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Bible without reading mission. You can't understand the text of
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: the Old or the New Testament without understanding mission. Without
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: understanding that Christianity is a global movement. Okay. Okay. This
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: is significant for us in a number of ways. It's
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: uniquely significant to us in a number of ways. First,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you were even aware of this.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of this until several months ago, looking
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: at some stuff in the airport or something. I don't
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: even know where I was. But Houston, according to some estimations,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: is the most ethnically diverse city in America. Think about
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: that for a moment. More ethnically diverse than New York,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Los Angeles, than Chicago, Houston. The most ethnically diverse city
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: in America. What that means is At least in part
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: is that the nations have come to us There are
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: nearly 70 foreign consulates in Houston Who knew that you
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: know that did you Nearly 70 I think the number
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: 67 or 68 foreign consulates here in Houston I mean
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: there are people from all over the world who are
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: here in Houston a large numbers of those people go
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: back to to where they are in the world. A
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: large number of those people are from places in the
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: world where it would be illegal to preach the gospel.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: And yet when they're here, they're fair game. And then
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: they go back. Tremendous. Tremendous. We talked at our annual
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: meeting About the Igubnovs and how on Sunday afternoons they
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: go to a Russian church, a Russian-speaking church, a Russian-language church,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: and help and aid that church that's trying to reach
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: the Russian-speaking community here in Houston. And I talked about
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: how Alexander and I met, you know, because he was
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: a little concerned about, you know, moving in and being
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: a deacon. And, you know, his thinking was, you know,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a deacon and I won't be here,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: you know, be able to stay for prayer meeting and
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I'll be gone. And I'm also going to be helping
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: another church and this and that and the other. I'm
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: sitting there going, no, I see that. I see that
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the exact opposite way. I see that as more of
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: a qualification. Because when you look at the deacons in
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: the New Testament, they were on mission. They were on mission.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: You got Stephen preaching until they stoned him to death.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: You got Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. I mean,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: these guys were on mission. And so it's exciting to
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: think that there are people in this church, and over
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: the last six to nine months, if I'm not mistaken,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: God has sent us people from somewhere between six or
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: nine different language groups to this church. I'm not talking
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: about people whose great, great, great grandparents were from somewhere else.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about people who themselves were born in another
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: nation and speak another language and are part of another
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: people group. I don't think that's by accident. You know
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: that we prayed from the beginning of the establishment of GFBC.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: that God would send us people. And those of you
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: who've been here for a long time, and I'm seeing
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of faces of people who've been here for
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: a long time. One of our goals has always been
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: that we would have an impact and perhaps even plant
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: churches among various people and language groups right here in Houston.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: And we prayed about it. And it used to be
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: highlighted a whole lot more And then, you know, after
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: seven years of God not sending anybody, um, we didn't,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: we didn't highlight it as much. And if we're honest,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: we probably became a little discouraged because it was something
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: that we're passionate about. And yet it just wasn't happening.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: We couldn't figure out how to do it. What do
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: we do? What do we do? What do we do?
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden we just kind of
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: look up, you know, and one day, um, Richard Marcus
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: will remember this. It's about a, I guess it was
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: about a month ago. And, um, we had, we had
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: come back, uh, from Zambia. We've been back for, for
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: several weeks and I'm over here and there was a
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: conversation and, you know, we had, um, our Russian family
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: in the middle of a conversation with our Chinese grad
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: student and his German wife. Um, and then in the
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: middle of that conversation, a Frenchman walks up and they
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: start speaking French to each other. Um, the Frenchman's wife
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: and sister from South Korea. I turn around and I'm
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: walking over here and I look and there was a
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: couple from India who just became members, a guy from
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the Philippines, a guy from Central America, a guy from Taiwan,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and I forget who else it was right there, you know,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: before I walked off. And then I start walking toward
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the door, and I walk outside the door, and there's
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Alex and his family from Nigeria. And so, you know,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I pulled Richard to the side, and I said, Richard,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: we need to talk, man. I just run into Russian,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Filipino people. South Korean, French, German, Chinese, Thai. And I
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: ran off like nine different nationalities. I said, we're being overrun, man.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: You need to go get us some more Mexicans. But
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is, why is God doing that?
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: We don't know. It's not anything that we've done, right? Right?
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: It's something that we prayed for for eight years before anything,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: you know, began to happen. There are things that we've
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: done actively. I mean, at one point we were working
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: very actively with some folks to try to plant a
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Spanish speaking church because there needs to be a reformed,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: solidly reformed Baptist church. Spanish-speaking church here in Houston. And
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: we had some people come in and try to work
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: on it. It didn't happen. Never materialized. Does this mean
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: that all of a sudden all of our dreams are
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: going to come true and all of these things are
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: we going to... No, not necessarily. We don't know why
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: God's beginning to do what he's doing in that regard.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: But I do know this. We've always prayed that God
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: would send us to the nations. Amen? Amen. We're grateful.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: We're grateful that God is doing that. And we want
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: to be open and sensitive to how God is going
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: to leverage that for his glory. Because God's glory is
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: far too significant for us to be satisfied with it
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: being limited to us here and now. Do you have questions?
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: You've got a couple of minutes. Yes. Well, that's a
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: great question. The question is regarding a man being sent.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Would it be enough... that a man was ordained, um,
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: by the church, um, and they could go and do whatever, um,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: or would there need to be a, a, a sending
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: about that body? Um, yes and no. Um, when you,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: when you ordain a man to the gospel ministry, um,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: you do ordain him to, you know, to go and
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: do his gospel ministry. Um, But at the same time,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: that man is submitted to the church and to its eldership.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: And so there does need to be both of those
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: things happening. There does need to be a man exercising
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: his gift, you know, to the degree that he has opportunity.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: But there also needs to always be a man submitting
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: the exercise of that gift to those under whose authority
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: he ministers. So it's about then. It's not just, hey man,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: I'm ordained. That means I get to go do whatever.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Because again, Paul's an apostle, right? He can go do whatever.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: But there was still a sense of a calling and
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: of bringing that before the other apostles and the laying
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: on hands for him to be sent for the various
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: things that he did. But, you know, Paul's on his
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: second missionary journey, a third missionary journey. And, you know,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: he goes from, you know, Thessalonica to Athens. He didn't
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: have to go back and say, hey, man, did this
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: work in Thessalonica? You know, door kind of closed there.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: He was getting ready to go to Athens. Is that okay?
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: The world at that time wouldn't even have allowed that.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: But what he was doing was consistent with the ministry
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: for which he had been sent. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Other questions? Yes. You said that consent has to be
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: sent by a church. Would that be for, like, if
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: you go to another country and you're sent to a church,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: that would be sent by a church? No, for anything.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: But what about, like, say at school? No, that's different.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: That's not mission. That's apologetics, evangelism. You know, having a
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: conversation with somebody is different than, again, the conversation here
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: specifically is about mission. This is about us establishing the
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: work of the church. This is about us establishing the
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: ministry of the church. That's not the same as having
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: conversations with people in everyday life. We're obligated to do
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: that as Christians. You know, Peter, in 1 Peter 3.15,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: always be ready to give an answer to anyone who
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: asks you the reason for the hope that is in you.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: That's our obligation as believers. But that same person is
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: on the campus and wants to start a campus ministry.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: That's different than having a conversation. That you would need
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: to be sent for. Yes. In what context? Are you
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: talking about, I just talked about the establishment of that ministry? Well,
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: to me, it seems pretty simple. If I'm having a
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: conversation with somebody, I'm not establishing... You know, a ministry
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: of any kind. But if I say I want to
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: do ABC XYZ ministry to reach this campus, I'm now
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: establishing something. It's purposeful. It's organized. No. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and for that, you need to be sent. One of
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: the biggest problems we have today is this idea of
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: parachurch ministries that are not submitted to or under the
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: authority of any local church. Because today, when people see something,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: they want to do something. We have this churchless mentality,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: you know? This mentality that says, I'm a free agent,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: and I do whatever I'm led to do, right? Right.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: And so there needs to be this over here. I'm
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: going to go establish it and do it or whatever.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: And I only come to the church if I feel
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: like I need some money. I'll come raise some money
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: or whatever. But I'm sending myself. That's the, by far,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: that's the mentality that we have. And not a mentality
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: that says, if I'm going to preach, I need to
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: be sent. If I want to do this work, I
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: need to be sent. So I need to submit myself
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: to those who are in leadership over me and at
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: least get wise counsel about whether and how I should
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: be doing what I'm doing here. Yes. Great question. The
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: question is, you know, today there are a lot of
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: people being sent as missionaries who are not ordained elders
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: or pastors. And, you know, do I think that only
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: ordained elders or pastors should be sent as missionaries? Absolutely not.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not. The mission involves far more than just ordained
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: elders and pastors. When we sent the group to Conroe
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: to plant the church in Conroe, everybody who went was sent.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Only two of them were elders, right? But all of
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: them went on mission. They had various tasks that they
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: were doing there as part of that mission, but all
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: of them were sent on that mission. So, no. You
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to be an ordained elder or pastor
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: to be part of a mission or work like that.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: But notice what else happened. These people were sent with
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: ordained elders and pastors to do that mission. So it
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: would be wrong for someone who's not an elder to
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: go as hell from the church without a shepherd. Hmm.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Not necessarily. Not necessarily. And I'll give you a prime example.
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: A prime example is there are a lot of places,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of countries where you can't send
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: a pastor. But you can send a doctor. Right? You
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: send a pastor, they'll be turned back at the airport. Right?
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Passport doesn't get stamped. You go home, sir. But you
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: can send a physician. And you can connect that physician
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: to maybe some other work that's going on in that
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: place that's unofficial or whatever. So no, it wouldn't necessarily
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: have to be an ordained pastor. Yes. Yes. In the
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Gospel according to Mark, the Syrophoenician woman begs Jesus to
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: heal her daughter, and he says, you know, it's not
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: right for the children, you know, for the dogs to
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: have to pray before the children. And she says, well,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: even the dogs get prone, and he heals her daughter.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Can you just speak how that would line up with
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: covenant theology and his great mission? Because you have first
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Jesus coming with Jews, and then the world. Yeah. The
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: question is about Jesus first coming to the Jews and
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: then to the world. And that's absolutely the case, that
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: when Jesus comes, he comes as a Jew and he
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: comes to the Jews. And it would make sense for
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: a number of reasons. Number one, because, you know, from
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: Genesis 315 on, there is a line between that the
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: promised seed will come through, right? That's a Jewish line.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: And so Jesus comes to and through that Jewish line.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: So first and foremost, that's his context. Secondly, When it
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: comes to the law that he fulfilled perfectly in all righteousness,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: in order for him to do that, he has to
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: do that in a Jewish context. Otherwise, you know, he's
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: not going to do that. He's not going to be
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: part of a community that would even know or, you know,
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: have anything to do with that law. Thirdly, as he
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: does this and he's fulfilling these prophecies, he's doing it
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: among the people to whom these prophecies have been given. Okay.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: So he's doing it there. But even in that, in
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: his own lineage, there are non-Jews. In his own lineage, okay?
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: You know, Tamar, Rahab, these are non-Jews, right? Right? So, yes,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: it's absolutely true that this is where Jesus came because
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: that's what was foretold. That's the fulfillment of the prophecy
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: of the coming of this Messiah. That's how you know
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: where to look. Yeah, so that's absolutely true. But it
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with, you know, sort of a
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: priority of, you know, these particular individuals as it relates
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: to God's plan. And it has nothing to do with
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the idea that, you know, his goal here is to
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: offer the kingdom to the Jews. And if they're going
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: to receive it, then everything's done. That you don't find. Yeah. Right. Right. Right.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: This is the only nation that, yeah, has a one
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: true God. And so if he's, again, that's kind of
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: the point of if he's going to fulfill the law,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: you know, he's going to be a child in submission
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to his parents, for example. Well, if he's a child
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: in submission to his parents and his parents are pagans,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: then as a child, he's going to practice pagan worship
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: and he's going to violate the first four commandments. That's
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: not okay. You know, that's not okay. Yeah. Alright. Yes. Yes.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: It was really kind of God to give us a
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: son that was able to get out. Because as a missionary,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: you're too often thinking burnt out within a year or two.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, they're not just seeking financial support
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: from the church. They're also seeking the first word, encouragement,
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: and having a way to help you not feel weary. So,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a work you can do out there.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: yeah and the other thing too she's talking about the
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: missionaries and how difficult it is for missionaries in the
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: field on the ground um this is this is very
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: true and there are a lot of reasons for that
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: not least of which is that a lot of them
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: aren't even connected to a church you know those ordinary
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: means are important and so you know you leave here
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: and you go to you know some some part of
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: the world and you're not connected to to brothers and
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: sisters in christ um and man that's that's hard It's
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: not always possible either. Yeah, but that's hard. That's really hard.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: That's really difficult. We weren't built for that kind of isolation.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: So that's why those connections become all the more important.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: Connecting with people within their region or their area or whatever.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: If they're going to a place that doesn't have any
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: established work, especially among that language group. That's why that
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: becomes very important. All of the other connections that they
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: could possibly have become critical and essential. Yes? To what
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: degree do you think the church is kind of focusing
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: on their own thing, like you mentioned earlier, has kind
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: of impacted basically the explosion of rogue missionaries and character organizations? Yeah.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: The question is, to what degree, to what degree does
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: the idea of churches sort of focusing on their own thing,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: to what degree has that contributed to the kind of
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: explosion of rogue missionaries and other, you know, mission organizations
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: and things like that out there? I think it's kind
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: of one of those, you know, what came first, the
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: chicken or the egg things. Because the fact of the
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: matter is, in the mindset of the modern American Christian,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: if you see a need, Go fill it. The idea
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: is not if you see a need, go to the church.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: The idea is if you see a need, fill it.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: And so, you know, everybody's starting a ministry, you know.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Everybody's starting a ministry. Everybody's doing it through their church.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: And it doesn't even dawn on us that we would
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: do that. It's just not even a part. It's not
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: a part of our makeup. It's not a part of
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: the way we even consider things. Well, is it because
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: of a lack of attention from the local church to
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: those things? Or is the lack of attention from the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: local church to those things due to this mentality? I
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: think it's both and, you know. And I think what
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: that's done is it's created on the one hand the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: idea and atmosphere at the church that says, we're going
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: to concentrate on nickels and noses, you know, and what
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: happens between these four walls. And if something out there
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: is supposed to happen, God will call somebody and they'll
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: go do it. And if they need some money, they'll
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: come ask us. You know, you have that from the
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: standpoint of the church. And then from the standpoint of
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: people out there, you know, who have a passion, it's
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: I have a passion. I'm going to go do this.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: One of the things that that's done is there's been
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: a proliferation of ministries that have nothing to do with
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: the mission. And so now you've got people out there
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: who say they're missionaries, who say they're, you know, in ministry,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: and they're doing stuff that has absolutely nothing to do
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: with the mission. And, you know, there may be some
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: mercy involved. There may be some other things involved. But
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: you've got people running off in a thousand different directions.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: They have no qualifications. They have no accountability. They just
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: have the ability to raise funds. And they think that's
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: their validation. Because if God didn't want me to do it,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: then he wouldn't have let me raise funds. You know?
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: And so it's really a mess. It really is a mess.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, that's our time. Next week, we'll look
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: at another aspect of missions. And then, you know, one
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: more following that. Just to kind of get us to
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: thinking rightly about this issue. It is an issue to
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: say that it's an issue of utmost importance is really
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: to understate the importance of the issue. It's not an
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: issue of utmost importance. It is the issue that makes
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: us who we are. It is the issue for members
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: of the body of Christ. So let's pray.