Carrying The Word Of Christ

A number of you have met Paul already, but some of you have not, and I want to just take a few minutes to introduce him. Pastor Paul has been a dear friend of ours for a number of years. I used to refer to him as the coolest missionary ever, because he's really cool. but what I've appreciated about Paul is that he has been one of those colleagues who speaks truth to me and he makes me think and we have had tons of discussions over the years in which I've taken the opposite view and pretty soon found myself convinced by him I've always appreciated Paul's ability to take the word of God and think through issues with that.

He and his dear wife, Jill, along with their four children, served for 17 years in Kenya. And, man, I heard tons of great stories, but that's not neither here nor there. Paul has served as one of the pastors at Grace Covenant Church in Beaver Creek now for several years. And, I don't know, some of us know it, but it seems like half of the young people from our church have been through Grace Covenant.

I'm just thinking the other day, and I think I got everybody. Alicia Bennett was there, Greg Lynch, Dave and Kelly Miller, Emma, Lee and Lydia Parker, Jantz, I believe, was there for a while too. So, am I forgetting anybody? I'm trying to remember. It just seems like tons of our young folks have been through there and have appreciated the ministry of Paul and their lives and the church there.

Our conference so far has just been really good in terms of getting us to think biblically about missions and getting us to break out of the way our Christian culture has made us think about missions without thinking critically about that. And Paul's done a fantastic job of getting us to think, even a question like this, really, what does the Bible say is a missionary? Who is a missionary?

And that's just been tremendous for us. It's just been great for us. And so I'm going to ask Paul to come up and minister the word of God and help us to understand even more. Paul? Thank you, Tim. Well, it has been a wonderful experience, and we are very grateful for the Lord giving us this opportunity to be with you again.

Thankful for the Miller family and their hospitality and their wonderful home and their nice house. And just it's been great to be here with you, to get to know some of you for the first time. It seems like every time I come up here, there's new faces, but also for Jill and I to have the opportunity to rekindle some of those relationships. We're very thankful to the Lord for that.

But a missions conference would not be complete if you didn't have a cultural moment. So we're going to have a cross-cultural moment here. As Pastor Tim told you, we spent 17 years in Kenya. And one of the things that was important in the churches there was the opportunity to send and receive greetings. So I am bringing greetings to you from Grace Covenant Church in Beaver Creek.

And I need to know if you received those greetings. Do you receive those greetings? No, I need to know if you received those greetings. so you need to raise your hands and you need to shake them a little bit and then all at the same time we have to clap over our heads do you receive these greetings? I might as well leave now and I trust I can carry your greetings back to Grace Covenant Church as well So, you know, in Kenya, people lived far apart and the villages were a long, long ways from each other.

So when they had a chance to see one another, it was significant. And so to pass those greetings back to the churches was a very significant thing. And we see Paul doing that in his letters as well. So I am grateful for that. I would invite you to open your Bibles to Romans chapter 10 this morning. As we consider all the things that we've heard from God's word this weekend, I want us to turn our attention to this text from Paul's letter to the Romans.

And I would like us just to read Romans chapter 10 beginning in verse 14. I know your bulletins say all the way to 18, but I'm going to be speaking only to verse 17, because I know I'll run out of time. So Romans 10, beginning in verse 14, and this is the word of the Lord. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel For Isaiah says Lord who has believed what he has heard from us So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ Let pray together Father, we come to you as needy people.

We have no ability on our own to glean truth from your word. They're just letters on a page apart from your spirit. But we thank you that we can And come believing and come trusting that, Lord, you will teach us and yet you will guide us. And that your spirit will again have his way, Lord, and that you would conform us more and more into the image of your son, in whose name we pray.

Amen. So we began our time. I know there's some of you here who weren't with us when we started on Friday. But we started with a consideration of the final words of Jesus as he was ascending to the Father at the end of Matthew chapter 28. He had completed his work of purification and now he would sit down at the right hand of the Father. And from there, he now makes continual intercession for all the souls he purchased with his blood.

And he does this because he has commanded all those souls to go and make disciples of all the nations. And without his continual intercession, we can't hope to fulfill this command. So he is interceding for us so that we can continue to do this. This is important to note because one of the most profound aspects of the command of the Great Commission is its fulfillment.

We already read from Revelation 7 where John was given a glimpse of the church in heaven, but it's an encouraging passage. So we're going to read it again. You have your copy of the scriptures. You can turn to Revelation chapter 7 and we're going to begin in verse 9 where we read this. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. So Jesus Christ commands his people to spend their God-granted existence working to achieve something he actually accomplishes.

That's amazing. He brings it about. He brings it to fruition. On that day in heaven, he will receive the glory. Not us. I mean, we're not going to be standing around the throne patting ourselves on the back for a job well done on that day.

That's not going to happen. we are going to be in full amazement mode at what God accomplished as we think about what he says he's going to do so we should keep this straight right now all our strength, all our resources everything available to us needs to be focused on the task that God has already promised to complete Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 3 Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus and one of the things that he accomplishes in that letter is to convince his readers of the many things that God has already accomplished chapter 1 beginning in verse 3 we read blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Notice all the past tense, things he's already done.

Verse 7, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. God chose us. God predestined us.

And he will unite all things in Christ. He is faithful. He will do it. Look what he's done already. John chapter 6, beginning in verse 35, one of the most amazing chapters in all of scripture, I think. Much is said there, but some amazing things are chronicled in that chapter for us. but one of the things is what God has already accomplished and what he will accomplish in the future in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

In John chapter 6 beginning in verse 35 we read this Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out Did you get that All that the Father gives me, Jesus says, will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. We can be sure of that. and then in Romans 8 some passages there the truths there that have comforted me have comforted many believers over the years Romans chapter 8 beginning in verse 29 this is what God has accomplished for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he also called And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Beloved, where is your hope? Is it not in this that God has accomplished this? I mean, are these not breathtaking realities? These are the things that you have to sit and meditate on for long periods of time. Can we not see ourselves worshiping and calling upon God who is able to save to the uttermost while we are doing the work of making disciples? He is accomplishing that.

And we can do this because of the promise that we read in Romans chapter 10. As we think about the context of what we're looking at this morning. Romans chapter 10 and verse 13. 13, just prior to our text, Paul makes this bold proclamation. So if you haven't already, you can turn there. Romans 10, 13.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What is Paul saying here? Well, he's quoting from Joel chapter 2. It's the same passage, if you remember, that Peter used in his sermon at Pentecost. he drew from Joel chapter 2 and both the apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit are declaring the same message the same truth about the sovereignty of God in salvation whatever God has set about to do he will accomplish it the salvation of the elect is such a sure thing that this bold statement can be made everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

This is the message Paul preaches to the Philippians also. In Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, he says this. It's familiar to many of us. And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. The day of Jesus Christ is the same day that the prophet Joel speaks of, the day of the Lord. It's the day when God closes out history, when he brings every single bit of reality to culmination, when every promise and every prophecy in the redemptive history climaxes in heaven before the throne of God.

And as we have seen, a numberless multitude are there, right? The souls of those we were commanded to seek out. It's the ultimate fulfillment of the Great Commission. Now, in light of this great truth, some have been tempted to ask, well, if God is going to do this, we might as well just sit back and watch. That's just going to happen. The theologians have termed it hyper-Calvinism, right?

I term it normal religion for some folks. because even if they don't call it hyper-Calvinism their actions show that they must be just sitting back and waiting for God to do it because they're not doing it they're not involved actively they're not spending and being spent to see this come to fruition and I don't know that it's always because they have this understanding of the sovereignty of God I don't think that that's at the heart of it I think it's ignorance at best I think it's disobedience at worst. Among the many grave errors we commit, this one ranks pretty high, that we would say that, that we would think that, that God's going to accomplish this so we don't need to do anything. He has promised to complete the task of saving some from every tribe and nation and language, and he has chosen us to complete that task.

That's the simple truth. we who will ourselves be part of that great multitude are the ones who are sent to fulfill it. So here we are. We have the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. How many times have we heard of that, right? Sovereignty of God, responsibility of man. In this case, the elect of mankind.

So on the one hand, we've been commanded to go and make disciples and on the other hand, Jesus has made this promise from John chapter 6 again. A little bit further along. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

How sure is that? It's surer than anything we could even imagine. this is the hope that the apostle Paul had for the Jews even though most rejected the Messiah he prayed for them it is in fact the hope of all mankind as we will see so back in Romans chapter 10 just take a look at verse 1 with me so that we can sort of get up to speed because we need to understand what Paul is thinking about the Jews and what the Jews did and the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles But here Paul exposes his heart in verse 1. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, that is his fellow Jews, the fellow Israelites, is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And I was a real tight race between whether I was going to preach on verses 14 through 17 or verse 4.

Because we're going through Romans right now, Grace. and it's all about the righteousness of Christ and the fact that we receive that righteousness from him. And this is an amazing statement in verse 4. But we will resist the temptation to camp there just yet. But verse 5, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.

But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven, that is to bring Christ down, and who will descend into the abyss, That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. So they had the opportunity. God had given them the opportunity.

He had sent the prophets to them. He had given them the law. He gave them everything necessary. Everything that they needed. It was near them. And here's what should have happened.

Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified. With the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, the ancient words that were just sung to us. The scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.

This is an Old Testament scripture. This is the Old Covenant speaking as it looks forward to the fulfillment of it, the goal of it. This is verse 4 tells us in the New Testament. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame for there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. That's why it says everyone in verse 11. Jew, Greek, those are the two groups.

You fit into one or the other. for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him and then verse 13 he's read for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord they will be saved so here we have Paul the apostle to the Gentiles right burdened for the souls of his kinsmen the Jews and not only them but for all mankind Jew and Gentile alike the question is are we burdened do we have this kind of burden Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. Do we pray that for people? Do we pray that for the unsaved people that God has sovereignly put in our lives?

Do we walk around daily with that burden for them? Do we? Does it drive us to pray and to fast and to sin and to go and to preach? Because we know God will do what he promised to do. Paul is sure God will do what he is equally confident that God has chosen us as the means to do it. Both of those are a sure thing for Paul.

He's absolutely confident that God's going to do it, and he's absolutely confident that God has chosen us to do it. We share that confidence. so in these verses Romans 10 14 through 17 we have the unfolding of what the Great Commission looks like theologically but don't think that it's not practical because it is very practical as we will see but this is the theology of the Great Commission we could have titled the passage that but instead we titled it Carrying the Word of Christ because that's what's happening it's a beautifully woven tapestry of sovereignty and responsibility as only God can do it. In this brief passage, Paul works backwards through the five points of redemption.

Yes, the five points of redemption. We all know the five points of Calvinism, but here we have the five points of redemption. They're much more convenient. In order to find the doctrines of grace, you've got to go all over the Bible, and that's so tedious. so we have the five points of redemption all right here in two verses and paul works backwards through these five points of redemption ending with the declaration there in verse 17 that faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of christ the great commission can't be accomplished apart from the truth of scripture the actual words of the gospel the good news of Jesus Christ.

You cannot accomplish it any other way. And that's why over this weekend we've been talking about, you know, feeding programs and medical ministries and all of those things are wonderful and very needed, right? But they do not replace the ministry of the Word of God. You cannot go and do those things and say, I'm fulfilling the Great Commission. You're not.

You're simply not. If the Word of God is not there. Paul told Timothy that the church is the pillar and support of that truth the church there's no way around it you leave the church out and you are not fulfilling Christ's command I know that sounds But it's true. It's clear. It's serious. So let's take a look at this tapestry in Romans 10.

As we said, Paul works backwards in the sense that instead of starting with the sending, he begins with the calling, which is actually the end, as we will see, of the progression of redemption. in this context the calling is the proof that salvation has already taken place and Paul poses four questions that make it clear that each of these components are absolutely required to complete the task of Christ's commission you leave any one of them out and we're left with critical failure verse 14 how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? The answer is they won't. Sounds like a game show, right?

How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? They won't. How will they hear if nobody's preaching? They won't. And how will they preach if they are not sent? They won't.

It won't happen. The interconnectedness of each of these is unmistakable. you need each one, and they must unfold exactly the way God intends. Who says he hasn't given us direction, fulfillment of the Great Commission? And to help us see this clearly, we're going to look at each one of these in the order in which they happen in time. So we're going to have sending, preaching, hearing, believing, and calling.

We'll start with sending. and there were a number of times as we read the gospels becomes clear that jesus sent the disciples on missions trips of various kinds right he gave them a commission to go before he gave them the final command that he did before he ascended to heaven and after he had been raised from the dead jesus told his disciples in john chapter 20 and verse 21 peace be with you as the father has sent me, even so I am sending you. Trinitarian authority is behind us going with the Great Commission. Amazing.

That's the kind of authority we're talking about. They were to go and make disciples. And the main point here is authority. We have all been given the authority to go and minister truth in a world of lies, to shine light into darkness and to offer true food and true drink to those ravished by the famine of sin. And we have only one way to do this. There's not options.

To proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's what we do. That is the fulfillment of the Great Commission. And nobody can proclaim the truth without being sent. Acts chapter 8, we read the story of Simon the magician. You remember Simon?

He watched the bestowing of the Holy Spirit and said, hmm, I've got to have that. And he wanted to buy it. Remember? He wanted to buy that authority to bestow the Holy Spirit on people. But Peter set him straight. You can't buy this authority.

It is granted only according to the free and sovereign grace of God to the elect. And when we have been granted authority, we can go in confidence and herald the wonders of that grace that we've received. And we can carry the word of Christ to a desperate world when we see that we've been sent to do this with authority. How can they preach unless they are sent?

They can't. We can only proclaim Christ with authority when we are sent. And we've talked about the whole sending process and we've defined missionary as primarily the missionary is the elder who is going to oversee the work to provide the biblical leadership to that work. We also saw that there's a number of other people who are sent with them, and that it could be that the sending of teams is the optimal way to do that.

And while we reserve the term missionary for those leaders who are ordained by God to do that in the church we see that a host of other individuals are sent along as well And so when we talk about being sent with that authority we talking about everybody We're not applying the term missionary to everybody, but that's just a term. It's just a term to help us understand what God is doing and has done. So it's the same with preaching.

In the latter part of verse 15, Paul quotes Isaiah 52, 7. And how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. Now in the original context, this refers to the announcement of the return of Israel from the Babylonian exile. That was a big event. That was huge. Coming back from 70 years of exile.

And so this is an apt picture of the preaching of the good news of the gospel. Freedom from exile. Freedom from bondage. And it's only the cross of Christ that can free us from the bondage of sin. Now, some of us have heard that our whole lives. Haven't we?

We've grown up in the church. We've heard that. Only the cross of Christ can free us from the bondage of sin. The question is, do you believe it? You've heard it preached. But do you believe it?

Israel heard it over and over and over. and still they rejected it and it amazed Paul. It amazed him that they still rejected it. It was a beautiful thing to communicate forgiveness of sin and that's what that verse means. Using feet to describe this beauty is interesting because usually feet are anything but beautiful. I don't know about your feet but my feet aren't pretty.

Most of the time back in those days who are dirty and dusty and even stinky. I won't ask for a raise of hands who has stinky feet, because probably you'd be pointing to somebody else anyway, right? They have stinky feet, I don't. But God takes those stinky feet and cleans them up. Amen? Amen.

He does. Remember how Jesus watched the feet of the disciples? that was a picture of forgiveness a wonderful picture of forgiveness after that they were ready to carry the wonderful words of life to the dying that life ugly from sin is now beautiful and fully equipped to carry the good news to others so we carry it to those still in the ugliness of sin and it's only the word of Christ that's carried that's all we have to offer we don't have anything else to offer that will provide the opportunity to be among that multitude standing before the throne on that day. Nothing else.

How are they to hear without someone preaching? They won't. Preaching the word of Christ is the means God has chosen to give them something to hear. So when we talk about hearing, we're talking about hearing the word of Christ. When Jesus spoke the many parables he did, he would often finish, remember, with the words what? Let him who has ears hear.

Let him who has ears hear. Those ears are given by God. The ears that actually hear are the ears given by God, sovereignly bestowed. But you can hear without those ears, but it won't do you any good. You'll just be hearing. There's hearing, and then there's hearing.

There's hearing that leads to the next step that we're going to talk about. And then there's hearing that's nothing. Nothing happens. It's not enough to simply hear the word. As we have said, Israel heard it over and over again. And again, some of us here this morning have heard it over and over.

And yet you don't seem to have ears to really hear. Because if you did, you'd believe. Simply hearing is not enough. In John 6, the crowds following Jesus were hearing him speak. They heard his words. You can turn there again if you still have your finger in it.

Just listen, or you can listen, you can read. I'm going to start in verse 60. John 6, verse 60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying who can listen to it they were hearing it but they weren't hearing it but Jesus verse 61 knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this said to them do you take offense at this then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before It is the Spirit who gives life The flesh is no help at all The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. After this, this is one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

They heard the words. They floated into their ears, but that's as far as they got. so Jesus said to the twelve do you want to go away as well Simon Peter answered he was usually the guy that answered Simon Peter answered Lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God verse 17 faith comes from hearing and And hearing through the word of Christ. All Israel heard.

But most rejected. That's why both Paul and Isaiah lamented as they did in verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? Now we don't know who will believe and who will reject. We don't know that.

Right? Humanity doesn't walk around with an E stamped on their forehead for elect. It doesn't happen. We don't know that. That's why we faithfully obey and go and preach to who? Everybody.

All right? Everybody. We don't pick and choose who hears. Shamefully, that has happened over the years for some. God has already chosen who will believe, but that has no bearing on who we preach to. It remains only for us to scatter the seed abroad.

God will bring in the harvest since he's the Lord of the harvest, right? It's him. Verse 14, how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? So the hearing has to lead to believing, true faith. Even though hearing is not enough, true faith comes only by hearing the word of Christ. That's why Moses challenged the children of Israel with these words in Deuteronomy 32.

And when Moses finished speaking, this is Deuteronomy 32, 45 to 47. When Moses had finished speaking all these words to Israel, he said to them, take to heart all these words by which I'm warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. And then verse 47, For it is no empty word for you, but your very life.

Do we approach the word of God like that? Our very life. And by this word, he says, you shall live long in the land that you're going over the Jordan to possess. true belief, true faith is a matter of life and death and God has decided that only the word of Christ only the word of the cross will be used to create faith in the elect and that word alone must be heard when it is preached by those sent for that very purpose I hope we're seeing how defined the Great Commission is We can get very creative in how we do it, but the commission itself is very narrow, very defined.

This commission of Christ given to his bride, the church. And when that happens, the evidence of that true faith is calling on the name of the Lord. This is the evidence that belief is real. it started back in Genesis 4.25 and Adam knew his wife again and she bore a son and called his name Seth for she said God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel for Cain killed him verse 26 to Seth also a son was born and he called his name Enosh and at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord That when it all started Amazing Scriptures have these amazing anchor points for us.

That's when people began to call upon the name of the Lord. To call on God is to pray. In this context to pray is to have access to God by faith. And that faith is in the finished work of Christ. It's the only way we have access to God. Jesus himself said that no one comes to the Father except by him.

Because he's the way, the truth, and the light. Israel did not have that access because they rejected the Messiah. And that's what Paul lamented. They didn't hope in his righteousness alone, but in a righteousness secured by their own strength and their own religion that they made up. They were ignorant of true righteousness. They refused to hear the words of life carried by so many beautiful feet to them, the prophets.

But the redeemed call upon the Lord and are heard, not because of their own inherent goodness, but because of the righteousness of Christ. Think about that for just a moment. The redeemed call upon the Lord and they are heard. We can call upon God, the creator of heaven and earth, the maker of everything, and he hears. He listens. And mystery of mystery, he acts.

Psalm 5 was one of the early passages regarding prayer that God impressed upon me, maybe because it came first to me in the form of a chorus, right? Psalm 5, maybe you know that chorus, Give ear to my words, O Lord. You know that? Some of you know that. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

O Lord in the morning you hear my voice in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch does God hear you when you call on him can you say with confidence that God hears you if so you can know that he will complete your redemption just as he said he would and you will stand with that multitude in heaven on that day and you will cry with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. But if God is not hearing you, then you do not have faith. And if you continue in that deficit, you will not stand before that throne that day. the throne you stand before will be the great white throne of judgment.

And you will not be crying aloud about salvation. Your experience will only be weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity. But we who have truly believed are sent to carry the word of Christ so that they might hear and believe and themselves call upon the name of the Lord with the same confidence that he will complete the work that he began in us. Let's pray.

Father, we can only be amazed. We can only be amazed at you, at your plan. We thank you so much for your word that details these things for us in amazing ways. And we thank you for your spirit who opens your truths to us and teaches us and takes the things of Christ and gives them to us. Lord, you accomplish all of this. You have designed your great commission, the task of reaching all of the nations and making disciples from all those nations.

The father make us people of prayer. may we be people who call upon you and at the same time carry the word of Christ to the nations we'll thank you and pray these things in Christ's name Amen