Ten Compelling Motivations for Embracing the Heart of God for the Nations
Posted June 30 | Pastor Jess Smith
In Isaiah 54:1 Isaiah writes, “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. (ESV). What a glorious promise! But how will this be? Surely our great God will use his bride to accomplish His purpose in the earth (Matthew 28:19-20; Romans 10:14-17). This is the heart of God for the nations; that they would break forth in singing and worship because they know King Jesus. In the sovereign pleasure of God, He has determined that His people must embrace His heart for the nations for the task to be completed. How do we embrace His heart for the nations? The task is daunting and at times so frustrating when attempting to get our arms around the massive needs of the world. Two billion have never heard the name of Jesus, which means 1 out of 4 is cut off from the good news of the Gospel. Ninety percent of the poorest in the world live where there is the least access to the Gospel. Forty-thousand children die daily of malnutrition. There are 1,568 unreached people groups in the world. This means there are no Christians, no churches, no Bibles, nothing that would witness to the glory and majesty of the Lord Jesus. And what is more amazing and alarming is that out of every $100.00 spent on missions only 1 cent goes to reach these two billion. In the words of John Piper, “This ought not be so”!
I would like to encourage you to think through these ten motivations for embracing the heart of God for the nations.
1. We are under divine mandate and commanded to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We must either be goers, senders or disobedient. Certainly one can be both a goer and a sender but to not be one or the other is to be disobedient. Go, whether short-term or long-term. Send by giving, praying, helping, holding the rope for those whom God would send. But by the mercy and grace of God do not turn a deaf ear to the call to embrace the heart of God for the nations!
2. Become familiar with the Joshua Project and the Mission to Unreached Peoples websites (www.joshuaproject.net and www.mup.org). The wealth of information and direction for praying, equipping, serving and going is remarkable. These websites must become a part of your daily prayer time. The resources available to the church and it’s ministry in prayer for missions is invaluable!
3. Pray specifically that God will enlarge your heart for the nations. As you read through the Word of God in your daily devotional time look for the many references to the nations, the peoples, Jew and Gentile, and all the geo-political groups. The Gospel is universal in its scope, exclusive in its claims and powerful in its nature and announcement. Almighty God is no local deity. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. The heavens declare His glory (Psalm 19:1), the earth is His footstool (Psalm 110) and the universe is His dominion (Daniel 4:34-37). Our hearts and souls will grow and expand or shrink in relationship to the things we embrace and treasure. If our affections are set only on the small sphere of our living our hearts will shrink. But here is the amazing thing. The more we embrace, learn of and love the things God embraces and loves – the nations – the more we will love that which is immediate and local in the sphere of our living! Having a heart for the nations will only expand your heart for the many needs around you. If we are to be a blessing to the world then we must with great joy and delight embrace the heart of God for the nations.
4. Read great biographies! Outside of God’s Word there is nothing as instructive, challenging, convicting, thrilling and inspiring as a great biography. The lives of the saints lived out in the faithful fight against sin and at times their failure or defeat in that fight, help us to be courageous in our struggle against sin. They help us to see how critical it is to not fall prey to the idolatry of creature comforts so that we may use the resources God has given us to reach the two billion who have never heard the name of Jesus. Great biographies help us to see beyond ourselves and the mighty power of God working through ordinary men and women to accomplish extraordinary things.
5. Read David Platt’s book Radical!
6. Pray through the Scriptures. Look especially at the prayers in the New Testament – i.e., Matthew 6:7-14; Luke 11:1-13; Romans 15:30-33; Ephesians 1:15-23; Philippians 1:3-10; Colossians 1:9-14 and II Thessalonians 1:10-12, etc. Pray through the Psalms. Praying in this manner will not only change your life it will change how you think and relate to the world. This is what will form the foundation for enlarging our hearts for the nations.
7. Pray through the Valley of Vision. These devotions and prayers will cause you to think deeply and seriously about your sin and the awesome work of God in redemption to save and keep you. What a great tool to help in the process of sanctification and shaping our hearts to go hard after God!
8. Ask the Lord how he would use you in the great task of going into all the world with the Gospel. It does not matter what your vocation is. We need business men with broken hearts over the lost-ness of the world. We need engineers who will weep over people groups who have no access to the Gospel. We need teachers who will cry to the Lord over those who cannot read and pray that the Lord will raise up those who will teach them and then put a Bible in their hands. We need students who will say, “Here am I send me!” We need homemakers who will raise their children with a heart for the world and husbands and fathers who will erect altars of prayer in their homes to pray earnestly for the orphans, widows, fatherless, the poor, the sick, the persecuted, the despised and rejected! We need elders, ministry team leaders, Sunday School teachers, all the saints to fervently pray, pursuing God and His heart for the peoples!
9. Adopt children! Whether through literal, physical adoption, or provisionally through Compassion International or World Vision adopt a child or children. This is missions at its very core. What a difference this will make in the world!
10. Pray for revival and reformation. The need for the fire of God to fall on our churches is desperate. The Gospel is not even heard in many pulpits around the nation. The world system and its idolatry have invaded our churches like a foreign army. Entertainment has become the hallmark of successful churches, sin is no longer mentioned, sanctification is a strange and unknown word, God’s sovereignty is disdained and expository preaching is rare. Revival and reformation will awaken our churches to the grandeur, greatness and glory of God resulting in a new depth of worship and in embracing His heart for the nations!
These ten motivations for embracing the heart of God for the nations (missions), under the leadership of the Holy Spirit through and by the Word of God will change us individually and corporately for the glory of God.
Listen again to the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 54:2-3, as he finishes the statement he began in verse 1, “Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stances. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.”
Embracing the heart of God for the nations,
Brother Jess