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Recharge | The Global Church: The Great Commission · Sermons | FBC Boerne

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Wednesday, church family.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: So glad that you are here.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have my normal stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: Church, are you not glad that wherever we meet, that we are the people of God, that we are the living temple of God?
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: That we sing his praises and God inhabits his people, that he is amongst us.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And are you not equally glad that 800 of our youth are gonna hear the gospel of Jesus Christ tonight?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So grateful.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Continue to pray all night long, right?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just as you think about the accessibility of our God.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: The King Jesus drew near, that he laid down his life.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: When we were his enemies, he pursued each of us, and he is accessible.
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  SPEAKER_00: He is a God who is near.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
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  SPEAKER_00: All right, on Wednesday nights for recharge, we've been walking through a picture of the global church, whether you know it or not.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: We've been building a theology that's been moving, and I'm trying to expand our biblical knowledge, but I want us to continue to think globally.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to think globally about the church.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
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  SPEAKER_00: And tonight we're to an incredibly important scripture in Matthew 28.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get there in just a second, right?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But throughout history, uh throughout history, people have been fascinated by people's final words.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's because at the end of life everything is stripped away.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: There is no reason for pretense left.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's just, you say what matters.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been lucky enough to be around a loved one that knew that death was at the door, right?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: You call in the most important people to your life and you tell them you love them over and over and over again.
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  SPEAKER_00: You repeat shared memories.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the times that we had.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, throughout history, there have been many famous people that tried to give all that they had if they might get just one more day, just one more season of life.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Queen Elizabeth I famously quoted that she would give all of her possessions for just a little bit more time.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the great evangelist D.L.
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  SPEAKER_00: Moody was laying on his deathbed in 1899 with his son beside him, and Moody suddenly his eyes opened and he said, This earth recedes and heaven opens before me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: His son thought he was dreaming.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Moody turned to him and said, No, heaven is here.
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  SPEAKER_00: God is calling me and I must go.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: See, our last words matter.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the Gospel of Matthew, uh, Matthew has made that poignant, especially poignant with the resurrected Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: After he died for us, and after he had risen from the grave, and after he had appeared to the disciples multiple times, he had a climactic final moment where he wanted to speak to his disciples and commission them.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: We know this as the Great Commission.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 28, and listen to what he says, starting in verse 18.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.
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  SPEAKER_00: And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, here on Wednesday nights, we've been making a theological progression, a movement.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Again, looking at the global church, and here's where you know you need to know that it started.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: All the way in the garden, all the way in the very beginning.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: When God made Adam and Eve, God gave Adam and Eve a commission that as image-bearers of God, they were to leave the garden and they were to fill the earth, be fruitful and multiply, spread the image of God across the earth, and exercise your God-given dominion and put your rule over the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: That meant to organize, to engineer, to create art, to do what man does because we are made in the image of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay, to work and to create just like God.
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  SPEAKER_00: We just don't create from nothing.
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  SPEAKER_00: But we were to carry God's rule and God's image bearers across the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: Fill the earth with the knowledge and the glory of the Lord.
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  SPEAKER_00: But Adam fell.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then if you fast forward in the scripture, as we've walked through on Wednesday nights, we looked at Israel.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what I wanted you to see repeatedly was that Israel was never supposed to be a special nation on their own.
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  SPEAKER_00: No, they were supposed to be a light to the entire world.
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  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the nations were supposed to look at Israel and say, Why are you so blessed?
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  SPEAKER_00: What is going on in this nation?
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  SPEAKER_00: Who is your God?
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  SPEAKER_00: But what did we see repeatedly?
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  SPEAKER_00: Like Adam, Israel failed.
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  SPEAKER_00: And just like Adam was kicked out of the garden, Israel was exiled from their own land.
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  SPEAKER_00: They did not accomplish.
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  SPEAKER_00: But as good Bible readers, we know what?
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  SPEAKER_00: That everything was pointing towards and longing for the one true Son of God who would come.
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  SPEAKER_00: The true Adam, or the second Adam, or the true Israel that would come, the one who would be able to do and accomplish everything with complete righteousness, which man could never do on his own.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that rescuer would lay down his life and die in our place.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he would be resurrected on the third day, proving that he was the Son of God.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now, at the end, before he is ascends to heaven to sit at the Father's right hand, he commissions his followers, his people, go, make disciples of the whole earth, of all nations, of every people, because I have all authority, all authority has been given to me, Jesus says.
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  SPEAKER_00: Therefore you go and you make disciples.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the image of God is spread through the people of God wherever they go and wherever they meet, and as they share the gospel, the gospel goes to the ends of the earth and accomplishes what God had planned all along, but you and I know can only be fulfilled because the Son of God did what we could never do.
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  SPEAKER_00: And now you and I are called to be God's image bearers through the Son, and we are called to make disciples.
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  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere we go, we are called to represent the rule and the reign of Christ, to shine his righteousness, to accomplish what could never be accomplished through any other means.
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  SPEAKER_00: Think about what I'm saying.
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  SPEAKER_00: That it's the means of the gospel, the simple declaration that by faith God has accomplished for you what you could never do on your own, and his spirit comes to indwell you, and now we can finally represent the holiness of God and the love of God and the rule of God in our lives and around us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus gives us the Great Commission.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, three quick points and I'm done.
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  SPEAKER_00: When we think about the Great Commission, number one, the mission continues through you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Through you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at your neighbor and say, through you, you knucklehead.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: That means you, as incomplete and quirky and goofy as you are, are called up into the mission of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: As his disciple, you are called to be a disciple maker.
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  SPEAKER_00: And there is no plan B.
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  SPEAKER_00: There is no, like, I don't know if you think it's a good idea, but it doesn't matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because God thinks it's a good idea that you are going to represent him, and the way that Bernie's going to be reached for Christ, and the way that Texas and the nations are going to be reached for Jesus Christ is through us.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so, listen, some disciples are called to go across the street, some disciples are called to go to San Antonio.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some disciples are called to go cross-cultural, and some are called to go across oceans.
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  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
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  SPEAKER_00: Every one of us is called.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every one of notice I didn't say, you know, only the professionals that have been to seminary.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: We got some degrees behind us.
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  SPEAKER_00: The rest of you guys quit monkeying it up for us.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what he says, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Every one of us is called to go.
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  SPEAKER_00: That God has given you relationship influence, people in your life that I will never have access to, and you will be the only Jesus that they ever come in contact with or see or know.
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  SPEAKER_00: And God is calling you to be his image bearer, to cover the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: You see, the mission and the mandate continues.
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  SPEAKER_00: Number two, make disciples is much bigger than share the gospel.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because to make a disciple means you teach someone what it means to follow Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: It starts with telling them how you find Jesus, that it's all by faith in the finished work of Jesus.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it also means that you teach them what it means to walk with him.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: And God has placed that burden on every one of us because again, there are people in your life that may not darken the doors of First Baptist Bernie.
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  SPEAKER_00: But you can walk alongside them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right now, my my uh wife is starting a Bible study at her work and rounding up a couple ladies that that she knows, and they're at different parts of their walk, and they're just they got a Bible study and they they sit and they read together and they talk about what this means and they talk about how to apply it to their lives.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right?
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  SPEAKER_00: No professional degrees or any of that.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just reading God's word, asking each other, how can I pray for you?
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  SPEAKER_00: How can we walk this thing out?
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: And number three, the mission continues through us.
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  SPEAKER_00: So the mission continues through you, and the mission continues through us as a church.
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  SPEAKER_00: What this means is as a church, we cannot be satisfied to be in our Bernie bubble.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a great place to live.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's awesome.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can't be satisfied with that because the mission is to the ends of the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: That all nations.
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  SPEAKER_00: And truth be told, God has given us a lot of resources and a lot of privilege.
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  SPEAKER_00: And to whom much is given, much is owed, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: We have responsibility to go to the ends of the earth.
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  SPEAKER_00: And we want to be about that as a church.
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  SPEAKER_00: We have the gospel, we have incredible resources in both finances and talent that God has gifted us with mature believers that are able to do much in so many areas of life, and we want to be a part of that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, uh, one of the areas that Pastor Chad and I want to go with this series is, and I'm gonna give you a little taste of that right now, is I want you to understand a little bit about global missions, and that is that did you know that certain groups who have been tracking the Great Commission actually believe that possibly by 2033 we could fulfill the Great Commission?
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  SPEAKER_00: That the gospel would go to every tribe, tongue, and nation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Every people.
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  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that there are people right now who have never heard the gospel?
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  SPEAKER_00: That there are entire people groups and languages that have not heard the gospel?
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there are 7,000 distinct people groups that are considered completely unreached.
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  SPEAKER_00: That means they have no Christian witness in their language.
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  SPEAKER_00: There's no church, no local presence.
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  SPEAKER_00: 7,000 of those distinct groups.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nearly 2,000 language groups that do not have the Bible or the gospel in their native tongue.
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  SPEAKER_00: But, praise God, as much as we lament all the uh advancements in technology, okay, whatever can be used for evil can also be used for good, and that is that Bible translations are rapidly increasing, and our ability to actually reach every tribe, tongue, and nation can be accomplished by 2033.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
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  SPEAKER_00: In our lifetime, the Great Commission could be fulfilled.
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  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever imagine that?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's close, it's possible.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you uh two quick graphs.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is uh this is a map of evangelical uh uh the gospel, what we would call evangelical churches in the United States.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Pastor Chad told you guys um last week uh that him and Pastor Daniel had just come back from Boston looking at us uh partnering with uh churches in the Northeast.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, why do you think we chose the Northeast?
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  SPEAKER_00: Why do you think we chose Boston?
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  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty obvious, isn't it?
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
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  SPEAKER_00: We're also looking at like like up in Seattle.
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  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because there's so many people that even in our nation that speak our native tongue, right, who who those areas have become post-Christian.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: One other graph I want to show you to kind of whet your appetite is this is a graph of uh remember I just told you 7,000 people groups do not have the gospel, but 300 of those 7,000 are the largest people groups.
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  SPEAKER_00: In fact, of all the unreached, 80% fall within this 300.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the largest people groups.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do you notice about this graph?
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  SPEAKER_00: Where are the largest number of the unreached?
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  SPEAKER_00: Say it loud.
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  SPEAKER_00: India, that's right.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: If Pastor Chad would on stage, he would he would tell you uh mission organizations.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you come to them and you say, I'm called to missions, but I don't know where to go, their reply would be, I know where you're going.
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  SPEAKER_00: You're going to India.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: That that's actually why we have recent partnerships.
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  SPEAKER_00: Uh last fall I went to India.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um, and praise God, the gospel is moving in ways like like the book of Acts, like like we've never seen in the history of the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing, it's awesome.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and we have subsequent trips planned.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because of this.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because we as a church want to be strategic with our resources and what God has given us and gifted us.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So just a little taste.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna continue to chase this thread throughout the rest of our picture of the global church.
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  SPEAKER_00: We want you guys to become aware of where we are in the mission of the Great Commission and get excited about that.
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  SPEAKER_00: But to close, let me take us back to the Great Commission.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, the Great Commission, right?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Go therefore into all nations and make disciples, right?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus did not say at the end of that, and good luck.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, what did he say?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be with you.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, church, don't worry.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be with you.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now think about who he was up on that mountain with.
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  SPEAKER_00: A bunch of fishermen, ex-tax collectors, a bunch of uneducated Galileans in the corner of the Roman Empire.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't wealthy, they weren't educated, they were world changers, were they?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, they were.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because look at what we are now.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, All authority has been given to me, and guess what?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
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  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you.
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  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the great commission.
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  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that the gospel of Jesus Christ will go to the ends of the earth, that you will save from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've seen the picture of the end in Revelation 7.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: That everyone, uh that every nation and every tongue and people are going to be represented around your throne, that you have purchased for yourself, and that you are worthy, and that we get to be apart.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we praise you for that.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you for that.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to get excited about going to the ends of the earth and going across the street.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to get excited, each one of us.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: We know that you have gifted us in so many different ways, but every one of us play our part.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to understand our giftings and our part and help us to see your magnificent vision that the whole earth will be covered with the glory of the Lord.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.