john piper is sooo encouraging to go overseas! this book is filled with sermons exhorting us biblically to share he gospel to the unreached nations, here are my fav points.
-we need a holy ambition to preach the gospel- being shaped, informed and transformed by the word until it burns in our hearts, we have an immeasurable need where love needs to abound, and a global strategy- to cross cultures and to break through years of darkness and the reign of Satan over a people who do not know the savior of the world
-the goal of missions is the global worship of Jesus by his redeemed people from every tribe tongue and nation. The outcome is all peoples delighting to praise Jesus. Be sent out to make a personal connection and substantial investment of time. There will be suffering and persecution but he will be with you
-By nature there is something wrong with us, we do terrible things, and regard true things as foolish. God wants his name to be exalted through the worshipping of Christ. This is not self centered but virtuous and loving. But we were designed to enjoy God. He will satisfy every longing. Being saved does not mean we are glorious, it means we will are going to glory in the redeemer. He means to magnify themselves. We are meant to get our deepest and most profound satisfaction from him. When God says fear not, you have done all this evil.. that is gospel- undeserved mercy and grace. My sin is so horrible that it requires the death of the son of god for god to be vindicated in saving of my soul. God gets the glory, we get the mercy
-Advance in the joy of your faith. Those who are of faith and believing in Christ makes us children and heirs of God. We are beneficiaries to His promises. Justification can take away your fear of meeting God loaded with your sin. God reckons me as righteous and does not hold it against me. Only the Spirit can take away the fear of death and hell and replace it with the hope of eternal life. Christ unites us to God. FAITH ALONE.
-A vision of the greatness of God can flow down to my vision and zeal for missions, Jesus is the Shepard. Some sheep are Christs and some are not. The reason some sheep belonged to Jesus was so that he could call them his own and that God the Father has given them to His Son. Jesus knows who are his and calls them by name because they are already his and they follow. Jesus will lay his life down for his sheep, and on the basis of this sacrifice, Jesus gives eternal life to his sheep and it can never be taken away. Dont turn Christianity into a in house elitist doctrine for the private comfort of the chosen few with no burden to reach the nations of the world. Do missions confidently because Christ has other people, they are scattered, God has committed himself to the lost sheep, he brings them and they will come.
-God displays his manifold wisdom, gathers the global church, preaches Christ's unsearchable riches, and sends out ordinary missionaries.
-In one way, be thankful and rejoice that people are repenting and are being blessed by the gospel. They believe, receive, embrace, and treasure him and live forever. In another way, know that while it may be a sweet fragrance before God, to others it may only smell like death- no life, no future, no hope. Christ is not precious and do not see his suffering as a treasure. We are not sufficient, sufficiency comes from God. Do not peddle his word, speak from sincerity, speak as from God, speak as before God, speak as in Christ.
-A forgiven heart is a compassionate heart. Tend to believers and unbelievers. Tend to the poor.
-Jesus never lies, his promise is sure. The ransom has already been paid for those people among all the nations. The glory of God is at stake. He is sovereign. We are not meant to be safe in the call of God. We must reverse our self centered priorities- comfort, security, ease, safety, away from stress, trouble and danger.
-Here I am. Send me. Be a fearless witness in the face of danger. Cross a culture to plant the church where the gospel has not already taken root, Keep winning people to Jesus. Keep on evangelizing. There is a cost of being arrested by authorities, of family betrayal, being hated by all, being persecuted and driven out of town, being maligned, being killed. There are BLESSINGS. Being sent by Christ, being given words by the Spirit, experiencing God's fatherly care, salvation at the end of it all, knowing that the Son of Man is coming in judgement and mercy, belonging to Jesus household, knowing that the truth will triumph, having an immortal and indestructible soul, having a Father who sovereignly rules the small details of life, being valued by God
-Declare God's glory, summon the nations to join in, warn them of judgement . We are speaking of glory not boring or ordinary workds. We have tasted and seen that this God is greater to know than all other greatness.
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