Podcasts about Lottie Moon

In this episode: John 3:16, greatest verse, love of God, Lottie Moon, missionary, Christmas offering, Jesus saviour of the world, Wycliffe translator, Belango people, plane crash, judgement, true faith, eternal life. Become a supporter and get unlimited questions turned into podcasts at: www.patreon.com/theologyandapologetics YouTube Channel: Theology & Apologetics www.youtube.com/channel/UChoiZ46uyDZZY7W1K9UGAnw Instagram: www.instagram.com/theology.apologetics Websites: www.ezrafoundation.org www.theologyandapologetics.com

Single and Ready to Mingle 3 Biblical Truths about Singleness and Dating: 1. Singleness isn't a sickness.  1 Corinthians 7:7  //  I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 1 Corinthians 7:32  //  I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. Singleness provides an opportunity for undivided devotion to the Lord. Famous Christians who were single: Amy Carmichael [1867 – 1951] Corrie ten Boom [1892 – 1983] C.S. Lewis [1898 – 1963] Dietrich Bonhoeffer [1906 – 1945] John Stott [1921 – 2011] Lottie Moon [1840 – 1912] While single, pray and pursue total devotion to the Lord. 2. Before you find the one, become the one. Genesis 2:15,18  //  The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Before marriage Adam had: Communion with God Calling in his life Discipline of Character Marriage doesn't change you; it magnifies who you already are. 3. The way you date either prepares you for marriage or practices for divorce.
 1 Corinthians 7:9  //  But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Don't date someone based on their potential. Date them based on their patterns. While dating, pray and pursue the following: Future Spouse Boundaries Spiritual growth together Romans 12:12  //  “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.”

Christmas is a celebration of God, the creator of the universe, taking on human flesh and coming to dwell with us. He felt pain, got tired, experienced hunger, was tempted yet never sinned. He could relate to everything that we experienced. As God sent His Son to dwell with us, He has called and sent all of us to be His representatives to others where we dwell. Some folks God gives a special call to leave where they dwell and go to others who are lost in darkness and need to hear the good news. We call these folks missionaries. Over the next few weeks we will look at three examples of missionaries who left their homes and took Jesus to dark communities. We will see how we can apply their examples to our lives, and we will ask ourselves if God might be calling us to go like they did. Today, Pastor Rich will examine the life of Charlotte Digges Moon "Lottie Moon", whom our special Christmas missions offering is named after. Galatians 5:13-15

Mission requires us to See Something Worth Sacrificing For ... I. See an All-Consuming Vision of God's Glory! (1-4) II. See the Depths of our Sin and the Breadth of our Redemption! (5-7) III. Hear the Call to Sacrificially Give, Go, and Send! (8-11) Practical Implications o How can you more intentionally seek the Lord? o What are your barriers to being open to go across the street or across the world? o How will you determine the Amount to Sacrificially Give?

In this latest episode, Erin, Jamie, and Evan are talking about the NOs of Mission Trips! You'll hear listener stories about praying over digletts, how Nickelback can impact our evangelism tactics, and (you knew this already) experiences with explosive diarrhea. Should you ever ditch someone on a mission trip, and is group nudity ever appropriate? You'll have to listen to find out!  MENTIONS Take advantage of that Patreon free trial: Listen to our Enneagram Roast with Liz Orr | The Spicy NOs of Mission Trips  Want to hear us talk more about missions? Listen to Who the Hell is Lottie Moon?  What's the deal with Bible tracts? Learn more here  The Faith Adjacent Seminary: Support us on Patreon.   Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith Adjacent Faith Adjacent Merch: Shop Here Shop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacent Follow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week and last week I've presented essays about a few of these female missionaries, including Elisabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael, and Gladys Aylward. These are ladies who seem to have done "missionary" right. There are some women who have not behaved well on the mission field, or whose motives for going became obvious via their words or their letters. Lottie Moon actually used the mission field to satisfy personal ambitions and to enlarge the career opportunities for women. Did you know that? Let's take a look.

Salvation only started when Jesus died on the cross, and it doesn't end there. Join Jesus in his ongoing mission to spread this incredible news of eternal life! -Sermon Transcript - As we come to the end of the Gospel of Mark this sermon... next sermon, there'll be one more summary at the end, God willing, we really come to the point of everything. We come to the point of it all. There is a purpose and a reason why God created the universe. We believe in eternity past, that the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit before anything was created at all, existed in perfect fellowship, in a loving fellowship, one with another. It was not out of need at all that He created the universe but out of a sense of generosity that He might create a context whereby He could reveal Himself to sentient beings, angels and humans who would be able to know and appreciate His glory and be delighted in it and be happy in it and have fellowship with Him. That is why God created the universe. But sin intervened, stepped in. Adam sinned on our behalf. And we all fell in Adam, we all sinned in Adam. We became what Isaiah 9 calls “the people walking in darkness”, the people who do not see the glory of God, do not understand it. But God sent His son to be the light of the world, and He has rescued us out of the dominion of darkness. He's given us spiritual eyes. The eyes of our hearts have been enlightened, if we're Christians. We have seen the glory of God in Christ. We have been saved, we have been redeemed, and though we see only a little of that glory... as it says in one Corinthians 13, "We see through a glass darkly," someday we're going to see it clearly face to face, and that brings us great joy. But why are we still here? Having come to salvation, having received the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith, having received the forgiveness of sins and adoption, why are we still here in this sin-cursed world? I believe that part of the answer to that is we are here for the glory of God in the salvation of others who have not yet crossed over from death to life. We're here to be witnesses. We're here to become fishers of men, that we will be instrumental in the hands of God to draw people out of Satan's dark kingdom. That is part of the reason why we're still here. "We are here for the glory of God in the salvation of others who have not yet crossed over from death to life. We're here to be witnesses. We're here to become fishers of men, that we will be instrumental in the hands of God to draw people out of Satan's dark kingdom." I also believe we're here to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ to become more and more conformed to Christ, to be like Jesus more and more in our minds, in our hearts and our lives to grow in holiness. Those things are not different from each other. They are conformed together, that we begin to see other people the way Jesus did. When He looked out at the crowds, He saw that they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and His heart went out to them, and He said, "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out labors into his harvest here." That was His heart when He saw them and He saw their true spiritual condition. The text you just heard read is one of five different versions of the Great Commission given to disciples at the end of the life of Jesus on earth. He commands us, His church, His people to go into all the world and preach the good news, the Gospel to all creation and to put people who hear that message at the fork in the road. If they believe and are baptized, they'll be saved. If they do not believe, they'll be condemned. That's the text we're looking at today, that’s the calling. I. Christ’s Mission Continues We come to the point of Jesus' mission, why He came from heaven to earth. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, period. That saving work of Jesus Christ was only begun during His time on earth. When He died and rose again, it only began. The blood of the Passover lamb that dreadful night, the night of the 10th plague in Egypt had to be shed, but then it had to be painted on the doorposts and the lintels of the house for the angel of death to pass over. The redemption by the Passover lamb had to be accomplished and applied. Also, Jesus' blood, having been shed, then has to be spiritually applied to sinners all around the world. That is the purpose of Jesus' continuing mission in the world, the application through the Holy Spirit of God, the application of His shed blood to individual sinners for their forgiveness. That is the work that we are about here at First Baptist Church. The unifying message of Mark’s Gospel, it starts Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” essential to the Gospel message, is the identity of this person, Jesus Christ, declared to be the Son of God. The whole Gospel of Mark unfolds details and dimensions of that truth, that Jesus is the Son of God. The NIV has the phrase, "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Other translation simply say, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."The word “gospel” means “good news”. The word in English accurately translates the Greek grammar in the simplest sense of, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does that “of” mean? It's either the good news from Jesus or it could be the good news that Jesus proclaimed, “of" meaning “origin” there; the message that came from Jesus or, as the translation says, it could be “about”. It's the good news about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the end both are true. This is the Gospel that Jesus proclaimed, but it is also the about Jesus Himself. It is marvelous then to think of Jesus not as merely the messenger of a message we now take on and proclaim, the good news that Jesus proclaim, but that He actually is the good news itself. He is the good news. He is the Gospel. In another place in Matthew 13:44, He said this, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hit it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." A treasure box hidden in the fields. I believe Jesus is that treasure, and I believe He is worth selling everything you have in your life so that you can buy that field and own the treasure. Paul said in Colossians 2:3, "In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." When you open up that treasure box, that box hidden in the field, you're going to find all wisdom and all knowledge. But wisdom and knowledge are not the only treasures you're going to find hidden in Christ. We also find perfect love. We find total forgiveness of sins. We find reconciliation with Almighty God. We find access to the throne of God. We find a promised eternal inheritance in heaven for each one of us who have believed. We find, in that treasure box, resurrection from the dead and life forevermore, and infinite other treasures besides. Christ is infinite and immeasurable treasure, most of it hidden from our minds in this world. We'll never get to the 1,000,000th of a percent of the treasure that Jesus is in this life, and therefore I believe in a eternal education, in the glory of Christ, in heaven. Forever and ever and ever we'll be learning how glorious He is. We'll never stop. Jesus is the treasure hidden in the field. The Gospel, the good news, is not merely a message that He proclaimed, He is the good news. His incarnation is good news. His perfect, sinless life, perfectly fulfilling the two great commandments, the only man that's ever done it in history, is good news. His astonishing miracles are good news. His astounding teachings, unlike any teacher had ever lived, is good news. His fulfillment of all of those Old Testament prophecy, fulfillment of prophecy is good news. His substitutionary death on the cross, giving His life as a ransom in your place is good news. His bodily resurrection from the dead, defeating death forever for us is good news. His promise to return to earth someday and establish an eternal kingdom, the kingdom of God is good news. Christ's mission to earth began in His life on earth almost 2,000 years ago, but it continues. Mark starts with a statement, “the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The Holy Spirit's not just saying through Mark that Mark 1:1 is the first of 679 verses that will come in the Gospel of Mark. This is the beginning. I think it's more than that. Rather, it's that Jesus' mission to earth was just beginning with His short, His brief life on earth. It was just starting. Jesus Himself had more work to do even at the end. Luke makes the continuation clear in Acts 1:1-2. There, he says, "In my former book, Theophilus," [Gospel of Luke], "I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach." I love that word, “began”. That was just the start, [Gospel of Luke] of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. In our text today, if you look at it, Mark makes it just as clear. Look at verses 19-20 of Mark 16, "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven. And He sat at the right hand of God. Then, the disciples went out and preached everywhere," listen, "the Lord working with them or worked with them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it." There's Jesus up in heaven continuing His work at the right hand of God. This is just the beginning, the beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is continuing His saving mission to sinners in this cursed world. II. What Christ Commands of the World What does Christ command of the world? There is a command given to the world shortly after that initial statement in Mark 1:1. He gives this command, Mark 1:15, "The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news." That is a command given to the world worldwide. "The time has come. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel." That's the command He gives. It's the command of the Gospel. From Almighty God through His only begotten son, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, through the church messengers to the world, this command is given, “repent and believe.” The Gospel is good news to be believed, but it's also a command to be obeyed. It is a command from God to sinners that they must obey. Paul picks up on this in Romans 1:5, "Through Him, and for his namesake, we," Paul and the other apostles, "we receive grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience of faith." Or one translation has “the obedience that comes from faith." Faith produces obedience to the king, to God, the king. Again in Acts 17:30, Paul preaching there says, "In the past, God overlooks such ignorance," idolatrous pagan religions, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent." This is a command from God to repent. When I meditate on this and consider myself and my role as an evangelist, I realize I'm an ambassador from almighty God and I'm going to a rebel, I'm not going there begging and pleading and sniveling, I'm going there as a messenger from God, the king who's commanding that sinner to repent. That doesn't mean you have to be mean or harsh or have an angry look on your face, none of that. But the fact is we are messengers of a God who is telling sinners to throw down their weapons of rebellion against His kingly rule. He's commanding them to repent. It's a command. These two commands of the Gospel, “repent and believe.” Those are the two basic commands of the Gospel, repent and believe. What does that mean? Repent literally means to “think differently.” That's the meaning in the Greek. It's the meaning also in the Latin that is the basis of our English word, “repent”. It means to think differently, have a different mind, a change of mind resulting in a change of life, a radical transformation of how you think, resulting in a transformation of how you live. That's what repent means, “to turn away from sin to God." “Believe” means, I think, “to see with the eyes of the heart”. I believe that faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities. It is the ability to see invisible things and to know that they're true. The invisible truths of the good news, of the Gospel, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, though you have never seen Him and you don't see Him now. Believe that He died on the cross in your place for your sins, though you didn't see any of that. Believe that He rose from the dead on the third day, though the only evidence you have for that is written in the pages of this book. You've never seen it, but you believe that it's true and that He offers full forgiveness of sins to any who will repent and believe. That's what it means to believe the Gospel. The reason for this is there's a sense of urgency. The time has come and the Kingdom of God is at hand, meaning it's right here. There is no time to waste. Time is of the essence. There's an urgency here. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "Today is the day of salvation." We don't know if we'll be alive tomorrow. As James says, "You don't know what tomorrow will bring." You don't even know if you'll be alive tomorrow. The Kingdom of God is at hand, coming. It's right here. It's not distant, it's right here. God, the king here, and He's calling on people to repent. Time is essential. Salvation is eternal, eternity in heaven, a place where there is no more death, mourning, crying, or pain; free forever from those things, an eternity in a world like that, a glorious world. But on the other hand, an eternity of condemnation for those who do not believe, who do not repent and believe. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. Condemnation, Jesus taught, is terrifying. No one in the Old Testament ever taught so clearly about hell as Jesus did in His teaching ministry. He was very, very clear about hell as a place of eternal conscious torment. Mark 9, "If your hand caused you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell where the fire never goes out." Five verses later, "Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, where existence is upheld by the sovereign God, and so also is the fire that brings about torment." If people say it's just a metaphor, it's like the reality is worse than the metaphor. It's terrifying. Jesus came from heaven to earth and suffered and bled and died on the cross so that people who believed in Him would not have to experience that eternal conscious torment. There is an urgency in this Gospel work. We're surrounded by people who are on their way to hell, surrounded by people who are on their way to being condemned justly for their sins. That's what Christ commands of the world. III. What Commands of His Church What does He command of us, His church? As I said, there are five great commissions, so-called, that have essentially the same message, but they're all different from each other. It's beautiful how Matthew's version is different than Mark's version, which is different than Luke's version, which is different than John's version. And it's different than the version given in Acts 1:8. They're all different, and they all contribute something, but they tell the same basic message. Our version here, Mark 15: 16, Jesus said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." He commands us to go and preach. Those are the commands given to the church, to go and proclaim the message. The proclamation of that Word, the proclamation of the words about Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection, and the theology of salvation wrapped up in Jesus' mission, those words are the power of God for salvation to sinners who believe. Our job is a words task. It's not the only thing we do, but fundamentally, the call here is to proclaim words. Paul says in Romans 10 very plainly, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." The universal statement to every human being in every context. "Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved." How then can they call on the one they've not believed in? Before they call, like the verse tells them to do, they have to first believe in the Lord Jesus. And how can they believe in one of whom they have never heard? You need the facts about Jesus before you can believe. And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? That's the work of the church, to give them the facts they need to be saved. And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” According to Scripture, we have been sent. Jesus said in John's Gospel, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." We are sent. Then a few verses later in Romans 10:17, it says, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Our task is to proclaim the words of the Gospel to lost people in the hope that they will repent and believe those words and be saved. The extent of the Great Commission is to go into all the worlds and preach the Gospel to all creation. That's Mark's version, all the world, all creation. Matthew's is probably the most famous of the five great commissions. Matthew 28, 18-20, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age." In Matthew's version, it's “all nations,” go and make disciples of all nations, with the end that having become a disciple, they obey all the commands. It's a comprehensive life obedience, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. This is going to happen in all areas of human history. "And surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age," all nations, all commands all time. In both Matthew and Mark, baptism is an essential sign of discipleship. Mark says it in verse 16, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Matthew 28 says, "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit.” A disciple is a learner, a follower of the master of Jesus, the great teacher. We're disciples. We follow him and not just cognitively agreeing or assenting to his teachings, but with our lives obeying and following his pattern. That's what a disciple is. But in order for that, we have to be obedient to the master, we have to be obedient to the king, and so an initial test of obedience is water baptism. We don't believe that water baptism is essential for salvation because a thief in the cross was not water baptized. Paul says, "God did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel." If water baptism were required for salvation, he would never have made such a careless statement. It's not water baptism that saves. However, having been genuinely saved, justified, forgiven, it is a first step of outward visible obedience to the commands of God, a willingness to do this simple thing. The word “baptism” means “to immerse or plunge in liquid.” To all my friends that think that sprinkling is baptism, it isn't. The word means “immerse”, and so it's a plunging into a vat of liquid, like a garment being dyed or a ship being launched or something like that, it's a plunging in liquid. For us, water baptism is an immersion in water as an outward and visible symbol of an immersion in the Holy Spirit that Jesus has done first. We are baptized by Jesus through the Spirit into one body through our faith in Christ. That baptism, real baptism having already happened, we then do the symbolic water baptism as an outward and visible sign. You don't have to be water baptized to be saved, but no, you can't refuse to be water baptized and think that you are saved. That is a clear essential first step of obedience. That's what we're called to do. The church, we, the members of this local church, and Christians worldwide are called to this great and glorious work. Go and proclaim. Make disciples. Baptize them, teach them, do the work of the great commission. That's what we're called to do. IV. How Christ’s Church Has Obeyed How has Christ's church obeyed? The church has been overwhelmingly and stunningly and gloriously obedient for 20 centuries. That's how we've gotten to this point in which there are hundreds of millions of Christians around the world. It says it right in our text. Look at verse 20, "Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere." It is very easy for us to be discouraged about our failures. I was saying to the staff this week, we were talking about it, it's like massive step down when Jesus said, "As the Father sent me, I'm sending you." The “me" is the only begotten Son of God who the Father chose and sent. He's sending people like you and me. It's part of God's plan to use weak, fragile, sinful, even vessels like us to do this Great Commission. Weak, fragile, sinful, broken people have done incredible things for 20 centuries to spread the Gospel as far as it's gone. In the first three centuries of church history, many unnamed, unknown Christians were willing to risk their lives under the oppressive Roman Empire to spread the Gospel and permeate that part of the world until the Emperor Constantine thought it, at least politically expedient, to declare himself a Christian. Whether he was genuinely converted or not, I don't know. Find out. If you get up there to heaven, you see Constantine, you'll know. But the point is that the Gospel had made such progress at that point that he thought it was at least beneficial. Many of his centurions, many of his soldiers were Christians. It's an incredible, spiritual conquest of the Roman Empire in three short centuries. And since that time, the missionary drive has only continued and expanded. Over the last two centuries in particular, it's been stunning how much progress missions has made. The Gospel spread through the Indian subcontinent, led by William Carey and others, spread through Burma led by Adoniram and Ann Judson and others, spread through China, led by Hudson Taylor and Lottie Moon and others, through Africa, led by David Livingstone and Mary Slessor and many others, through the steamy jungles of the Amazon, led by Cameron Townsend and Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and others, even to Erie and Jaya, led by Don Richardson and Mark and Gloria Zook and others. What an incredible story, the spread of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit has indeed come on the church and empowered the church and enabled us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Yet for all of that, we must admit tons of failure as well. Church history is a mess. I'm being honest with you. Battles with cults, battles with false doctrine, battles with decades of indolence and laziness. The Crusades, Ralph Winter calls, the most misguided conception of the Christian mission in history. That's big picture. What about individually? Do you not often feel like a failure in this topic? Isn't it easy to feel like a failure when it comes to witnessing? I do. When I look at the tens of thousands that live in the immediate proximity here, and I realize the level of unchurchedness and lostness coupled with high education rates and wealth, prosperity, and then others that don't have those educations or wealth; we're surrounded. They've lived near our church; now they live maybe a little further away from our church, but they're lost. There's darkness there. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But this is exactly what Acts 1:8 is all about. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you need that power. This is the call. Mark 15:16 is the call to our church now. This is what we're called to do with the rest of our lives in part. V. How Christ Confirms his Word Christ confirmed His word. Look at verse 19 and 20. Marvelous. We see Christ's sovereign power, which is essential to the spread of the Gospel. “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. And then the disciples went out and preached everywhere.” The Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it. What a beautiful picture this is. Jesus ascends, goes through the clouds, the cloud hides Him from their sight. He goes into the heavenly realms, He passes through the heavens, He goes above the heavens. He sits down at the right hand of Almighty God far above the heavenly realms. And Jesus said, "Therefore," in Matthew 28:18, "all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me by God." Or again in Ephesians 1:20-23, "God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one that come." It's hard to believe that Ephesians 1:21 is actually an understatement when it says, "Far above all rule and authority." Infinitely far above them. That's the great power of Jesus at the right hand of God. God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. This authority, Jesus' authority, to rule all things is essential to the spread of the Gospel over 20 centuries because every step of the way, the advance of the Gospel has been opposed by Satan and his demons and by human enemies of the Gospel. It's been a bloody advance, it’s been hard. The church is portrayed as taking enemy territory. He said at Caesarea Philippi, "On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it." The idea of gates is “we're storming the gates.” We're taking enemy territory. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe, but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and he divides up the spoils. That's Jesus plundering Satan's kingdom. We're part of that. But it's a dangerous, dangerous journey. And Jesus' sovereignty is essential to it. He's able to control the minds and hearts of the movers and shakers in every era of history. Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is like a water course in the hands of the Lord." He directs it whichever way He pleases. He's sovereign over even tyrants who hate the Gospel. He's able to direct their decisions. He says to the church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3: 7-8, "What I open, no one can shut. And what I shut, no one can open." Isn't that a great statement? “I know your deeds.” He said to the church of Philadelphia, "Behold, I have placed before you an open door which no one can shut." That's an opportunity for that church of Philadelphia to go through that door into Gospel fruitfulness. That's the sovereignty of Christ. The nations, there is nothing before Christ's power. Isaiah 40: 15, "Surely, the nations are like a drop in the bucket. They're regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. He sits in throne above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing." Jesus, therefore, is at the right hand of God. He is exerting his authority to spread the Gospel of salvation in every generation. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, delivers that power. The Holy Spirit is the delivery agent of the power of Jesus from the right hand of God down to earth. It is the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that Christ actively works in this present evil age to win sinners and spread the Gospel. He said in John 16:7, "I tell you the truth. It is for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And the spirit works that power in us. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth." Let's be honest, we are weak, we are frail, we are fearful, we are selfish, we are lazy. Peter's failure, the night that Jesus was arrested, is proof that we are all essentially frail and weak. In just a matter of a few hours, he went from that confident assertion, “even if all fall away on account of you,” to denying he even knew who Jesus was. Furthermore, the parable of the Good Samaritan depicts the priest going by and seeing the bleeding man by the side of the road, and he just keeps on going. The Levite does the same thing; sees the bleeding man by the side of the road, and he just keeps on going. How can we not, when reading the parable of the Good Samaritan with tears and brokenness, see ourselves in those two? Oh, Heaven forbid that you would ever say, "I thank you, God, that I'm not like the priest or Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan." Don't say that. Say, "Oh, God, show me how I'm like that." Especially spiritually, people are broken and beaten down and bleeding by the side of the road spiritually because of their lostness, and we know them. We work with them, we live around them, we shop with them. We are surrounded by that brokenness and that lostness. How can we just walk by on the other side? But that's our nature, isn't it? It's our nature. We need to be honest. It is our nature to be priest or Levite. Only the Spirit enables us to be different. He will enable us to be different. Again and again, He'll enable us to care, to cross over that road, to bend down, to say something to somebody, to ask what's going on in their lives, to get involved in the mess, to get involved in the brokenness, and to win people to Christ. And we will. And we're going to tell the story for all eternity in heaven. It's going to be an awesome story. It's going to be an awesome story. But in the meantime, there's so much sorrow. Jesus wept over Jerusalem's lostness. Paul wept over the lostness of his own Jewish nation. "I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit." Paul said, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish, for I could wish that I, myself, were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people. I would do it. I would lose my own salvation if they could be saved." There's that yearning and that brokenness. Jesus works and works and works and is by His Spirit to make us care about lostness, to care about people on their way to hell, and He moves us. He exerts power, conquering our fears. But He didn't just work in us, He works in them. He powerfully works in lost people, convicting them of their sins so that they can be saved. It says in John 16:8, "When the spirit comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. And He will give them the gift of repentance in faith." The Spirit has the power to do that. It's nothing the person can do for him or herself. The change is so radical, it's like a heart of stone being removed and a heart of flesh being put in. You can't do that to yourself, but the Spirit can. As Ezekiel says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I'll put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." As we're doing this witnessing, we're hoping that the Spirit will do that miraculous regenerating work that only He can do. It's not something we can do. The Spirit works repentance, the Spirit works, faith, and the Spirit calls to His sheep, unconverted elect. But the day has come, the day of salvation has come for them. And it says beautifully in John 10, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life. I call them by name, and they follow me." That's a beautiful work, isn't it? Don't you want to be there when that happens? Don't you want to watch it happen as somebody who is walking in darkness crosses over into the light and with tears coming down his or her face that Jesus is my Savior, He's my shepherd? How beautiful is that? The text says that Jesus confirmed His word by signs of the Spirit. Verse 20, "The Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it." The Lord worked with them. What a majestic picture of cooperation. As 2 Corinthians 5 says, "We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God." We're, again, working together with Him, then “… implore you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” This sovereign power of Christ is working in us. By the grace of God, we are what we are. And His grace to us will not be without effect. "We're going to work for the Gospel," as Paul said, 1 Corinthians 15. Concerning signs and wonders, it's very clear that that happened in the apostolic age. Look at verse 17 and 18, "These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name, they will drive out demons, they will speak new tongues, they will pick up snakes with their hands. When they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all. They will place their hands on sick people and they will get well." Those things all happened. That's not fiction, it's not myth; those things happened. We have a record of it in the book of Acts, many of them, except the poison part. But I'm sure that happened too, it's just not recorded. Paul testified to it as well in Romans 15: 18-19, “I will not venture to speak about anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit. From Jerusalem all the way around to the Balkans, to Illyricum, I fully proclaimed the Gospel of Christ.” Miracles following everywhere, healings, speaking in tongues, all of those things, even the serpent thing. Amazing. The miraculous signs confirm the truthfulness of the Gospel. In Acts 8: 6-8, “Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. And when the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. There's great joy in that city.” The signs also showed that Satan was being driven out of his throne in people's hearts. Jesus sent out 72 evangelists during His mission, and they returned full of joy. Luke 10: 17 -19, "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, 'Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.' He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.’" I've been thinking about that verse. This morning, we sang about martyrs who died. What's that whole, “nothing will harm you” thing? The martyrs weren't harmed by their death, they were ushered from this sin-cursed world by great sacrificial service, both to God and to sinners, into eternal glory and a martyr's crown. Do you think up in heaven they're thinking they were harmed by their martyrdom? They were not harmed. People were benefited because Tertullian said, "The blood of those martyrs was seed for the church,” and by their willingness to die to themselves, and even physically die, new Christians came. "The martyrs weren't harmed by their death, they were ushered from this sin-cursed world by great sacrificial service, both to God and to sinners, into eternal glory and a martyr's crown." VI. Our Part in This Work What is our part in this work? Obviously the most important thing anyone listening to me right now can do is make certain that you, yourself, have been saved, that you, yourself, have repented and believe the gospel for the forgiveness of your sins. Nothing's more important than that. The time has come. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news. But let's say you've already done that. What now? What is our work? Our work is to share the gospel with near neighbors and distant nations. This sermon and next week's as well, we're going to lay out specifics for FBC's members. The elders of this church are all unanimous that the single greatest area of growth for our church is faithfulness and fruitfulness in evangelism. We want to see far more baptisms happening in a year than we do. We want to see those kind of baptisms that happen in this pattern saying, "I was lost, I met so-and-so from this church, and now I'm here today to testify to my faith in Jesus." I want to hear that. Don't you? I want to be part of that. That's our calling. That's what we're called to do, to be fishers of men. We cannot sit comfortably in this beautiful sanctuary, hearing the Word of God week after week and not pay the price to share it with the thousands of lost people that are around us throughout the week. This area is going to grow. Estimates say we're going to add about half a million people in this region over the next 25 years. Most of those will be lost, unchurched. That's our field to work. This is our area to work. This is what we're going to be held accountable for on Judgment Day. We're called on to do evangelism. What is evangelism? Max Stiles says, "Evangelism is teaching the Gospel with the aim to persuade.” Teaching. We're going to teach concepts about people. We're going to explain theological truths to people who don't understand them. We're going to teach. What are we going to teach? The Gospel. God, man, Christ's response. We're going to say things about God, that He created the ends of the earth and that He's a king and a ruler, and He makes laws. We need to follow them. That man, that we are created the image of God for a relationship with Him, but we have broken His laws and we're rebellious against Him, and we stand in danger of eternal condemnation. Christ, that Christ is the Son of God. He came and lived a sinless life, He died on the cross and rose again. And response, repent and believe, as in Mark 1:15. We're going to teach the Gospel to people with the aim... We're going to have an aim. We're going to focus on winning, lost people to faith in Christ. It's intentional. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the loss. We have to have an aim, a purpose, and we're going to persuade. We're going to win people. We're going to persuade them to repent, to turn to Christ. We're going to use argumentation, we're going to use proofs, we're going to use passion, we're going to use persuasion. We're going to plead. I've never really pled with a lost person before. It's in Acts 2. I do a lot of airplane evangelism. I have yet to be broken down and, with tears, beg a lost person to cross over. Now, I think I probably would get arrested. But there is that passion in our hearts of pleading with people to be saved. Our goal is a culture of evangelism. What does that mean? A culture of evangelism. Max Stiles speaks of communal evangelism where it's a church-wide focus. We're going to hold one another accountable. We're going to strengthen our mutual resolve in evangelism. We're going to learn from each other. How do you do it? How do you do it in the workplace? How do you do in the community? How do you do hospitality? We're going to learn from each other. We're going to rejoice together in successes, and we're going to cry over failures and setbacks. We're going to bond through shared experiences in intense situations. What is a church culture? Isn't culture like shared ideas, shared language, shared behavior patterns, shared experiences, shared expectations? That's what a culture is. A culture of evangelism is motivated by love for Jesus and His Gospel. It's a culture that's confident in the Gospel as the power of God for salvation. We don't need gimmicks, we don't need entertainment, we don't need smoke machines. We don't need any of that stuff, we need the Gospel. We trust in it. It's a culture that understands the danger of this present evil age. A culture that sees people clearly, a culture that pulls together as one, especially in prayer, a culture in which people teach one another what the Gospel is. What is evangelism? What is conversion? How can we best share this Gospel message? That new converts are taught these things, and then they're sent out as messengers themselves. It multiplies. A culture that models evangelism. A culture in which people who share their faith are celebrated and learned from in this church. A culture that knows how to affirm and celebrate new life. A culture that does ministry that feels risky and is dangerous. A culture that understands that the church is the chosen and best method of evangelism in the world. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the chance that we've had this week, and God willing that we'll have again next week to look at our responsibility in the Great Commission. Help us, Lord, to be faithful. Help us, oh Lord, to be courageous. Help us to be humble and admit our weakness and our failure. Help us to help each other. Help us to ask each other how you're doing in evangelism. Help us to be involved in the summer's “Let's Go program” of going out on Wednesdays and sharing and being trained and doing prayer walking and doing prayer meetings and just being involved. Help us, oh Lord, to be more fruitful and faithful than we've ever been before. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Join Resident Bible Scholar Erin Moon along with Jamie and Evan as we deep dive Clement of Alexandria. You'll hear geography lessons, learn about some controversial theological views, and discover why Clement was called a “master of Christian philosophy.” Is Clement of Alexandria the Pedro Pascal of the second century, and what do potatoes have to do with all this? You'll have to listen to find out! MENTIONS Relevant Past Episode: Who the Hell is Lottie Moon? See us at The Popcast Live! Get tickets for Chicago and Dallas here.  Can I get a visual of Clement? Here you go!  Clement of Alexandria Deep-Dive: Explore his writings here Heretic Hoe Down: Listen to Erin talk about Marcion of Sinope on Patreon Hell Deep-Dive: Listen to SWDGISS: Hell What was that about Greek words and eternity? Read this article by Heleen Keizer Bible Scholar Resource: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr  BONUS CONTENT We have tons of additional content, including monthly Fellowship Hall gatherings, Office Hours episodes, and so much more! You can access them now with a 7-day free trial. You'll be able to listen to over 250 more episodes! Tuition is just $5 a month after the trial period. Become a Seminarian here! THE POPCAST Check out our other podcast: The Popcast with Knox and Jamie. It's a weekly show about pop culture where we educate on the things that entertain but don't matter. Here is our suggested Popcast starter playlist. Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith Adjacent Shop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacent Follow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lottie Moon nació el 12 de diciembre de 1840 en una familia rica y bautista. Ella era brillante, incluso dominaba 6 idiomas. Pero su corazón estaba lejos de Dios.Cuando ella era una adolescente un grupo de amigos oró por ella y continuó invitándola a la iglesia. Finalmente fue, escuchó el evangelio y entregó su vida a Jesús.La trayectoria de su vida cambió. Sintió un llamado a dar su vida como misionera compartiendo el evangelio en China. Como resultado, miles de personas vinieron a Cristo, Mucho dinero fue donado a misiones y se enviaron innumerables misioneros gracias a su legado.A medida que continuamos Ven y Ve, veremos a otra mujer que fue transformada por Jesús y se convirtió en misionera en su ciudad.Beber agua viva da como resultado Vivir enviado!

Not long ago, someone told me about a pastor who stood at the pulpit one Sunday and announced this to his people, "Folks, I have some bad news, some good news, and some bad news." He had everyone's attention. "The bad news is that the roof on this church is shot. We have to replace it. But the good news is - we have the money. The bad news is - it's in your wallets!" I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eternity Dollars." Interesting thought, huh? The money is there for the work God wants to do. But it's still in our wallets, our bank accounts, our toys. Recently, a friend who is the head of a major missions organization said, "It's taking our missionaries three years to get their support raised. And we've tried every creative means we can to change that, but nothing has worked." The experience of their missionaries is echoed by hundreds, and maybe thousands, of missionaries. Here they are ready to get to the people God has called them to reach - and they have to wait three years because they can't get enough financial support. Is it because there's no money to send them? Probably not. The money is there, it's just tied up in our wallets. And meanwhile, on the other end, people go on dying without Christ. In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:14, God asks a series of questions that are very revealing and convicting...uncomfortably revealing really. Pouring out His heart for the people who don't yet know His Son died for them, God asks, "How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?" Now where does this bottom line responsibility rest for whether or not lost people hear the Good News about Jesus? With the messenger? Not according to this. It's with the sender. God takes the process of the unreached hearing the message all the way back to its source - a sender. For 2,000 years the Great Commission of Jesus has depended on two kinds of people sacrificially playing their position - the senders and the sendees. In what could be the fourth quarter of God's game on earth, there is so much work to be done in Jesus' name. And it's going to take money. Money we may have tied up in things other than what God gave it to us for. He sacrificed His Son so the lost could be rescued. Many of His workers and messengers are willing to sacrifice to tell the lost about His Son. Rescuing the spiritually dying has always meant sacrifice - and no follower of Jesus is exempt. We can't delegate the sacrifices to a few spiritual warriors - God intends for all of us to spend and be spent in the cause for which His Son was spent. Lottie Moon was a great missionary hero, who made a real great impact on 19th-Century China. She asked some hard questions. She said, "Where is the silver and the gold that should be in the Lord's treasury to send out those men and women who are asking to be sent? Alas! Some are adding more fields to their broad lands. Some are spending on selfish indulgences. So these lost souls go down to death without ever having heard the name of Jesus. In the day of judgment, at whose door will lie this sin?" By God's grace, let's release the funds God gave us to send His messengers. Let's transfer funds in our account on earth to our eternal account in heaven. The soldiers of Christ are waiting for the bullets that they need to win this battle. It's in our hands!

Four of our pastors talk about some of their favorite toys growing up as well as those tear-jerker Christmas commercials. We also talk about the Lottie Moon offering and the importance of Missions.

As the Advent season unfolds, Jamie Naramore brings warmth to First Baptist with tales of the pure-hearted wonder children possess, especially at Christmastime. Their perspectives, honest and unfiltered, remind us of the profound beauty found in nurturing young minds with stories from the Bible. In an intimate conversation, we traverse the highs and lows of parenting  during the bustling holiday period, reflecting on the anticipation of Jesus's return and how the inspiring mission work of figures like Lottie Moon interweaves with the global celebration of Christmas.With a heart for service, I take you on a journey through my calling to minister in New York City's melting pot, serving particularly within the Muslim community. The cultural richness of traditions like Guatemalan Christmas adds vibrant threads to the tapestry of our discussion. The narrative of Acts 17 serves as an anchor, revealing how the birth of Christ catalyzed the spread of the gospel, a beacon of God's unceasing presence and benevolence across generations and nations.As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, join us in contemplating the transformative power of sharing the gospel. Stirring accounts of faith in action—from a former Bible study persecutor now seeking truth to outreach among Hindu roommates—illustrate the profound effect of living out one's faith. In this season of expectancy, we invite you to take inspiration from these narratives to convey the love of God to those around you, embracing the potential for the gospel to change lives and affirm our role in God's extraordinary plan for humanity.

In this conversation with Ed Smither, we delve into the evangelical tradition of honoring figures like William Carey and Lottie Moon, exploring how we can respect the past without veering into hagiography. Key discussion points include uncovering lesser-known missionaries who inspire, acknowledging the failures of past missions, and learning from historical examples, including Roman Catholic missionary monks. Ed also shares insights from his latest book, Missionary Monks, and the vital lessons modern evangelicals can glean from their legacy. Ed Smither is professor of intercultural studies and history of global Christianity, and dean of the College of Intercultural Studies at Columbia International University. He served for 14 years in intercultural ministry in France, North Africa, and the U.S. His books include Christian Martyrdom (2020), Christian Mission: A Concise Global History (2019), and Mission in the Early Church (2014). This show is brought to you in part through partnership with Midwestern Seminary. Learn more about Midwestern and their For the Church Institute at ftcinstitute.com. Believe in our mission? Support the show at missionspodcast.com/support. The Missions Podcast is a ministry resource of ABWE. Learn more at abwe.org. Want to ask a question or suggest a topic? Email alex@missionspodcast.com.

The Christmas season is incredibly busy. How can families intentionally help their kids to remember Jesus in the midst of it? Today's episode is designed to help you “prepare Him room” in your life and family this year! In “Headlines” (1:40), Amy Whitfield talks with Nathaniel Williams about her new children's book on Lottie Moon — and what listeners can learn from Lottie's life. In our “Christ and Culture Conversation” (8:10), Dr. Scott James chats with Drs. Ken Keathley and Benjamin Quinn about how we can find healthy rhythms in a busy holiday season. How can you develop family devotions? What would it look like for parents to disciple their kids well at Christmas? And what's the difference between Advent and Christmas? Finally, in “On My Bookshelf” (32:35), you get to hear from the Center for Faith and Culture staff! Lisa McKneely, Megan Dickerson, Rachel Smith, and Jacob Haley share their favorite Christmas movies. Learn more about: *The Lottie Moon Offering: https://www.imb.org/generosity/lottie-moon-christmas-offering/ *Lottie Moon: The Girl Who Reached the World: https://www.lifeway.com/en/product/lottie-moon-P005837020 *The Expected One: Anticipating All of Jesus in the Advent: https://www.bhpublishinggroup.com/theexpectedone/ Visit our website: https://cfc.sebts.edu/ Support the work of the Center: https://cfc.sebts.edu/about/give/ All opinions and views expressed by guest speakers are solely their own. They do not speak for nor represent SEBTS. Read our expressed views and confessions: https://www.sebts.edu/about/what_we_believe.aspx

This podcast was recorded live at FBC Hendersonville, NC during the Wednesday night Bible study on December 13, 2023.

1.  Seth continues a review of Matthew 26 examining Jesus at trial.2.No question in the inbox,3. Seth further discusses the annual Lottie Moon Christmas offering,

The Gospel must be preached to all nations because God has elected some from every tribe, language, people, and nation to be in heaven. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles if you would, to Mark, chapter 13, and you can also turn as well to Matthew 24. We're going to be looking at both of those places. The Scripture reveals that despite all of its swirling complexity, human history has a purpose. We are moving to a destination. We're going somewhere with all of this. It's not just random chaos, but God has a plan and a purpose. The destination the Bible reveals, to which we're going, is a perfect universe, a perfect world free from all sin and a beautiful radiant city. The New Heavens and the New Earth are that perfect universe and that radiant city is called the New Jerusalem. The Bible reveals that the light source of that new universe and of the New Jerusalem, according to Revelation 21 and 22, is the glory of God, the glory of God. Revelation 21:23 says, "The city”[the New Jerusalem] "does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and the lamb is its lamp." Again, in the next chapter, Revelation 22:5 it says, "They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light." But what is that? What is the glory of God? In my studies and my meditations, I've thought a lot, it's an important topic. I believe the glory of God is the radiant display of the attributes or the perfections of God. Sometimes it's just brilliant light, as 1 Timothy 6:16 says, "God dwells in unapproachable light." Well, think about that, unapproachable light. How amazing must that be? For this reason, the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision were constantly covering their faces, though they had no sin or guilt, but just in that unapproachable light, the presence of the glory, they were covering their faces. For this reason also, the theophanies, or the displays of God, where God shows up in human history are frequently attended by overpowering light, like in Ezekiel's vision of the likeness of the glory of God by the Kibar River east of Babylon. Ezekiel 1 says, "High above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. And I saw from what appeared to be his waist up, He looked like glowing metal as if full of fire. And that from there down He looked like fire and brilliant light surrounded Him, like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell face down." So radiant, light, brightness connected with the glory of God. Also at the time of the birth of our Lord in Bethlehem, an angel appeared to shepherds outside Bethlehem and it says in Luke 2:9-10, "There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over the flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified." This was a glory of the eye, not of the mind or heart. It was just bright light, and it stunned the shepherds that night. But the glory of God is seen not just in brilliant light, sometimes it's in the radiant display of the perfections of God, the attributes of God woven into the tapestry of historical events. That takes the eye of faith to see it, but it's there. The attributes of God woven into the tapestry of history. The perfections of God, attributes of God, include His wisdom, His power, His love, compassion, justice, patience, kindness, mercy. These are attributes. God has ordained history, the story of history, for this reason to put Himself on display in the sequence of events and unfolding history. He put Himself on display in a history, a story, that He predestined before Christ began, written in His own mind before time began. The sequence of events, this history, has all been written out by the author of history and it's intrinsically connected with the Christ event, the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said in Revelation 22:13, "I am the alpha and the omega. I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end." History is linear, and Jesus is history. Jesus is what the story is all about. The radiant display of the glory of God in heaven, I believe, will consist in part in a retelling of His mighty works in saving His people from their sins and in their individual context all over the world, across the centuries, a retelling of the mighty works of God and saving sinners. I believe it's the most glorious thing God has ever done. His glory is greatly on display in salvation. Revelation 7:9-10 says, "After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes, and they were holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'" "The radiant display of the glory of God in heaven, I believe, will consist in part in a retelling of His mighty works in saving His people from their sins and in their individual context all over the world, across the centuries." Here's a multitude, a huge quantity of people, from all over the world, every imaginable context, standing around the throne of God in heaven praising God for salvation. The specific stories of these individual people that make up these millions from every nation on Earth, will bring infinite and eternal glory to God. A few verses later, Revelation 8:13, "Then one of the elders asked me, 'These in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?'" As I've said many times before, that story will take forever to tell fully. It is so complex, but it is woven through with light, it’s woven through with glory. "These redeemed," who are they and where do they come from? Well, how long do you have? We have all eternity. So, pull up a chair and let's hear the story of how God redeemed this one and that one and the other one from all over the world. Heaven will be filled with the stories of the greatness of God put on display in the amazing tapestry of history that He wove in every century. This is the story of missions. The spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem to the ends of the Earth across every generation of history, that unspeakable glory as before us this morning. We're going to focus just on two verses of scripture. Mark 13:10, right in the middle of our Mark study, and then a parallel verse, Matthew 24:14. Mark 13:10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come." I want to tell you something about the science of Bible interpretation. The Gospels, there are four of them, three of them basically take the same approach to the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark ,and Luke. They're called synoptic because they see things from about the same perspective. Then the fourth Gospel, John, comes at it from a different perspective, but they all tell the same thing. We believe that all scriptures God-breathed is perfect, so therefore these are four perfect accounts of the life of Christ, but they have some differences with one another. When we have those differences between, let's say, Matthew and Mark, we harmonize. We don't pit them against each other, we put them together. We try to harmonize, and that's not always easy to do. Generally, I look on it as a two-for-one sale. I'm going to take both statements here as true, and if one of them tells me one thing, He said that and that's true, and if one of them tells something else, He said that, and I just harmonize, I put it together. I. Context: Jesus’ Prediction of the Destruction of the Temple Let's talk about the context here. We're moving through the Gospel of Mark. Mark 13 is Jesus's description of the history of the end of the world and the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the end of the world. It came from a statement Jesus made in Mark 13:2: "Not one stone will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down." This was a prediction of the destruction, at least of the Temple, but probably really of the whole city of Jerusalem and focused on the temple. It was the final week of Jesus's life. Things were hurdling to a conclusion, the dramatic turbulent events culminating in His arrest and His trial before the Jewish leaders. His condemnation by them is being handed over to Pontius Pilate for condemnation by the Romans and then His crucifixion by Pontius Pilate and the Romans. So that's where we're heading. Jesus has given a seven-fold denunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees, the spiritual leaders of the Jewish nation. It's fully depicted in Matthew 23. It's just quickly summarized in Mark. But it culminates in this statement in Matthew 23: 38-39, "Jesus says, 'Behold your house is left to you desolate.'" This is a very important statement—your house is left to you desolate. “Desolate” means “empty." The reason I'm saying that is, "For, I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say ‘Blessed is He comes in the name of the Lord.’" “Not seeing Me again” is the essence of your desolate house. That's what makes your house desolate. Then Jesus dramatically walked out of the Temple, never to return again. The disciples came up at that moment and chose that moment to talk about how beautiful the Temple was. We shouldn't be surprised at this. This is what the disciples, the apostles were like, frequently off message. This is who we are as well. “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ‘Not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down.’" That must've been incredibly distressing to them. They come to Him later, privately, when He's out of the city, He's up on the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, they're out of the city and they're there. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, Matthew 24:3, “The disciples came to Him privately. 'Tell us,' they said, 'When will this happen and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?’" Matthew 24 and Mark 13 cover roughly the same ground, but Matthew 24, in much more detail. There's almost nothing found in Mark 13 that's not found in Matthew 24, and there are other things besides in Matthew 24, so I have my eye on both. Matthew 24 has the full question the disciples asked and the fuller answer that Jesus gives. The three parts of the question in Matthew 24 are, "Tell us, when will this happen?" And, "What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" The complexity of Matthew 24 and of Mark 13 comes in discerning and kind of to some degree, unweaving the tapestry of Jesus's answer. What is He talking about right now in this part? Is He talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 870 AD by the Romans? Is He talking about the end of the world? What is it? They weave it through. Jesus, I believe, is giving a history of the world between His First and Second Comings. It's bigger than just the destruction of the Temple. Just to tell you, if you look at Mark 13:10, a key word for me in that is the word “first.” First. "This gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations." First before what? Before the destruction of the temple? That didn't happen. So clearly, Jesus's scope is bigger than the destruction of the Temple. He's looking at, I believe, all history, from the First to the Second Comings of Christ, and He's traveling and traversing that history. Look at verses 5-13, Mark 13. Jesus has said to them, “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming I am He and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There'll be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. You must be on your guard. You'll be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of Me, you'll stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them." Here's our focus verse, verse 10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given to you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents, and have them put to death. Everyone will hate you because of Me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Last week, we traced out those thirteen verses and looked at the whole answer. Just to summarize, it begins with a warning against false teaching. He goes from that to a prediction of the ordinary convulsion of events of history, wars and rumors of wars. That happens in every generation, almost every year of history, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. That's all the time. There'll be famines, earthquakes, various places. He calls all this the beginning of birth pains. The birth pains means a terrible convulsion or pain resulting in something beautiful and wonderful. We're heading to a good destination, but we have a lot of pain to go through first. That's what “beginning of birth pain” means. Then He mentions persecution. They will be handed over to the local councils. They'll be flogged in synagogues. These will be opportunities for them to be witnesses to Him. They will testify to Jesus. "On account of me, you'll stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them." The flow of human history is a canvas on which the masterpiece of redemptive history is being painted. These commonplace convulsions, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, arrests, trials, all of that is being sovereignly controlled to accomplish the spread of the Gospel, to accomplish the salvation of God's people, to accomplish the glory of God. That's what's going on here. It's amazing how God controls history even down to the micro-level, to achieve His purposes. I found a number of years ago a great example of this in the life of John Calvin. John Calvin is a great reformer who spent most of his life in Geneva, a great theologian, tremendous leader. However, he was not originally Swiss. Geneva is a city in Switzerland. He was French and he was basically a refugee, a religious refugee running for his life because he believed in the Reformation. The Catholic King of France was persecuting what they called Lutherans, and he was running for his life. By this time, he had already written a significant theological work, and he was on his way to the French city of Strasbourg. He had in mind a quiet life as a scholar. He was going to be quiet in his room and eat little bowls of gruel and write theology books, and that was going to be his life. That would've made him happy. He was that kind of person. At any rate, he was a scholar but already well known. Amazingly, en route to Strasbourg, he couldn't go there because an obscure war had broken out between the King of France and Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor. It's not at all one of the most famous wars ever. It's one of those wars and rumors of wars that Jesus talked about. But as a result, the straight road to Strasbourg was blocked with troop movements. So here, this fleeing man, this refugee has to divert through the city of Geneva. At any rate, there he is in Geneva, and William Farel, who started a Reformation work there hears that Calvin is there, and he thinks this is just the guy that we need for the Reformation here in Geneva. He was right, but Calvin had no such intention. When Farel came and said, "I want you to work here in Geneva," he said, "No, no, I'm going to go have a quiet life writing books in Strasbourg." He didn't say it just like that, but it probably went something like that. After Farel tried to persuade him and wasn't successful, Farel rose up in what Calvin called intemperate zeal and threatened him with the judgment of God if he chose a quiet life of academia rather than taking part in the Reformation in Geneva. Calvin was wired to fear that kind of thing and said, "Okay, I guess I'll stay in Geneva,” and he did. He was there most of the rest of his life. What's my point? Wars and rumors of wars for a purpose. "Are you saying that God orchestrated a war between Catholic King Francis of France and Catholic King Charles the Fifth, so that John Calvin would end up in Geneva and not Strasbourg?" Yes, that's what I'm saying, and other things too. Other things too, but at least that. That's what God does. Isn't it amazing that history has a purpose? Even as it seems to be churning and random and destructive, God is at work in the midst of all of it. The central work of all of this is, "You will be witnesses for me. You'll be my witnesses. You are going to proclaim this gospel." Look at verse 10, "And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." The power of the Holy Spirit is central to this mission. He said, "Do not worry ahead of time what to say, what to speak. It will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit." The Spirit is the driving orchestrator and force of the spread of the gospel, the third person of the Trinity, that is His role and He's extremely good at his job. As Acts 1:8 says, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes in you and you'll be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria to the ends of the Earth." In the midst of all this, there'll be a tremendous amount of pain for the witnesses, painful betrayals, family relationships will be compromised. Your own closest relatives will turn their backs on you. "Everyone will hate you because of Me," Jesus says. Intense persecution, and that's what makes this journey so glorious. The courage, the boldness, the suffering, the willingness to pay the price. That's the story. That's big picture. II. A Command in Mark Let's zero in on the command, Mark 13:10, “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations." In Mark's version, Mark 13:10, it takes a command form, effectively. It's a command in Mark. It uses the Greek word “dei”, which means “it is necessary,” but that's frequently a command, a sense of a command. It is necessary for the Gospel first to be preached to all nations. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the message of the kingdom of God with Jesus as the King of the kingdom of God. He's the centerpiece, he is the King, he's the Lord, he's the Savior. The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and all that that means. That's what the Gospel of Mark has been unfolding all along. It's a message about the kingdom of God, that God is King. "What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the message of the kingdom of God with Jesus as the King of the kingdom of God. He's the centerpiece, he is the King, he's the Lord, he's the Savior. The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and all that means." The kingdom is the spiritual realm where the subjects of the King are delighted to have God as their King, and they're pleased to obey Him and to follow Him. They're delighted about it. God's sovereignty over rebels is a different matter, but the advancing kingdom of God has to do with individuals who throw down their weapons of rebellion and come in gladly under the kingship of Christ. The Gospel is, as we've said before, God, man, Christ, response. That God created the universe, the heavens and the Earth, and as the Creator, He has the right to make laws and rules by which we live our lives. God, the Creator, God the King, God, the Lawgiver and God the Judge. That's God. Man, we are created in the image of God to have a relationship with Him, to have a love relationship with Him and to love each other, but we have sinned. We have broken the two Great Commandments. We have not loved God with all of our hearts, all mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We have sinned. Therefore, we stand under God's judgment, physical death, eternal death in hell. Christ is God's answer to that problem. The Son of God, fully God, fully man, born, took on human flesh. We celebrate it this time of year. He lived a sinless life under the laws of God. He died in our place as our substitute, a transfer of guilt effected. When we believe in Jesus, our guilt put on Jesus, He dies in our place, His righteousness is given to us, and that's the white robes that we're going to stand in on Judgment Day and for all eternity. The imputed righteousness of Christ, that's what Christ came to do. Then the response, we need to repent of our sins, turn away from our rebellion against God the King. Believe in Jesus, trust in Him, and we'll receive forgiveness of sins. That's the Gospel: God, man, Christ, response. It is necessary for that message to be preached, to be proclaimed to all nations. That's what He's saying. That has to happen first, before the end of the world. That's what first, first is tied to the end of the world. Why? Why is it necessary? Why don't I give you four reasons, four reasons why it is necessary for the Gospel. Let's keep it simple, because Christ the King commanded it. We'll start there. Christ told us to do this. These were his last words before He ascended back to heaven. The Great Commission, so-called, which is a commandment to all of His followers, to make disciples of all nations, is in all four Gospels, a different version but in all four Gospels and in Acts. The most famous version is Matthew 28, "Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I'm with you always to the very end of the age.’" To all nations in all eras of history, that's the Great Commission. It is necessary, therefore, that this happened because it is the will of God and of Christ for us. Secondly, it is necessary because the Gospel is the only way for sinners to be forgiven and reconciled to God. There is no other way. There is no other plan. The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Or as it says in Romans 10:12 -15, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, can they call on one they have not believed in and how can they believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they're sent?" As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring Good News?’” That's the logic of missions. It's a logical work that Paul does in Romans 10, using a series of rhetorical questions, assuming negative answers. The statement is made worldwide, anyone in any nation on Earth who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus in faith will be saved. But how can someone call on someone they've not believed in? They can't do that, can they? No, of course, they can't. No one can believe in someone they've never heard of, can they? No, of course they can't. And no one can hear without someone preaching or proclaiming the message. No, they can't. Absolutely not. And no one can do that preaching unless they're sent out. Hence, the need for missions. That's the logic of missions, and it's the answer to why it is necessary for this Gospel to be proclaimed. Thirdly, it is necessary for the Gospel to be proclaimed to all nations because God has chosen people in every tribe and language and people and nation. They're called the Elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. God wants those people reached. Jesus said in John's Gospel, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. They must be brought in, and there'll be one flock and one shepherd." Those are people, not just Jews, but all the ends of the Earth. God has people out there. There will be people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. It's been ordained. They were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless and they have to be brought in, and the only way they're going to be brought in is by the preaching of the Gospel. That's the third reason. The fourth, it is necessary for the Gospel to be preached for the maximum glory of God. That's the ultimate reason for everything. It is for the glory of God that this be done. Ephesians 1:11-12 says, "In Him we're also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him, works out everything in conformity to the purpose of His will, in order that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory, that we might be, exist, for the praise of His glory and that we might praise His glory, that we might ourselves notice His glory.” So we will be glory, and we will see glory, and we'll praise Him for it. That's the reason why. Or again, in Romans 15:9, "That the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." So those are four reasons why it is necessary for the Gospel to be preached. To whom should the Gospel be preached? What we've already said, to all nations. To all nations, the Greek is “panta ta ethne”. The word “ethne” is from which we get the word “ethnic”, and that's the key. We as Protestants, as Evangelicals, we have had a progressive, growing understanding of missions over the last 500 years. Little by little by little, we've understood more and more clearly our obligation in this matter. For the first three centuries, the church just exploded all over the Roman Empire. People were going everywhere preaching the gospel. Apostles, non-apostles, everybody, and it was spreading everywhere. It went as far north as Scotland, it went as far south as Sub-Saharan Africa. There's clear evidence of this. It went as far east as India. It went as far west as Tarshish, which is like Gibraltar. It was all over the place, and the Gospel was spreading. However, once the Dark Ages fell and politics wove together with some form of Christianity, Christendom came about. We had the Crusades, which are the most abhorrent misconstrued incident of mission that's ever been in history; we still paying the price. But there was this mixture of church and state, and it was a mess. To make matters worse, the Gospel itself, for the most part, was lost in a false “gospel of works" religion. The Dark Ages fell, but praise God, the Reformation came and scraped away all that darkness and the Gospel was reclaimed. The Gospel of justification by faith alone, apart from works of law, was shining in those Protestant churches, Lutheran churches, Calvinist churches, the Anabaptist churches. But those folks weren't doing missions initially. They were really just trying to survive. Missions, at that point, was done mostly by Roman Catholics through the Jesuits, who were spreading the power of the Pope and of their Catholic kings, like the King of Spain and the King of Portugal to distant places like Japan and other places. But they didn't bring the true Gospel with them. Meanwhile, the Protestants continued to establish doctrine and to reach their own countries, but not doing missions. But God worked in Protestant churches, little by little, a clearer understanding of our obligation concerning missions in four key steps. The first step, or insight, comes from William Carey. He was a Baptist, a cobbler, a blue collar guy, and he wrote an incredible work called An Inquiry into the Obligation Christians Have to Use Means for the Evangelization of the Missions to the Heathen. Heathen will be pagans or lost people. He was a trailblazer in Protestant missions. The insight is that we Protestants should do missions. We should go to distant lands and share the Gospel. Not just the Jesuits should do that, we should do it. That was step one. Step two came from a leader named Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China. He went on his first missionary trip and just like most missionaries did in the mid-nineteenth century, he stayed on the coastlands such as Shanghai, port cities. He had a vision for the inland regions of China, teeming hundreds of millions of Chinese that had no hope of hearing the Gospel. He founded something called the China Inland Mission. So step number two is, we need to get off the coast and go into the dark heart of Africa, the dark heart of India and of China, and find people there who have no physical access to the Gospel. Step two, inland missions. Step three came from a leader at the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century named Cameron Townsend. He was a missionary in Latin America and South America. He was working with some tribal people, and they were doing all of their work in Spanish, the trade language. At one point, one of these tribal men said, "If your God is so smart, how come he doesn't speak my language?" Good question, right? Good question. So Cameron Townsend started a ministry called Wycliffe Bible Translators to get the Bible into the heart language of people all over the world, and that work continues to this very day. Insight number four came in the middle of the 20th century from a missionary leader named Donald McGavran, and he began to see that the issue wasn't reaching political nations, like nations that are represented at the United Nations. It had to do with understanding the word ethne as a people group, a group of people characterized by a language and a culture and a heritage and a self-identifying focus. And so that started the people group conception of the work. “Panta ta ethne” means to all people groups. Now, how many people groups are there in the world? No one knows, only God knows. It's very difficult to see lines of border and demarcation between people groups. Donald McGovern did his work in India, and there are probably at least 5,000 people groups, if not more, in India, but there's a lot of overlap. Joshuaproject.net, which you can go and check that out, they say 17,446. As an MIT engineer, I'm like, "I don't think there's that many significant figures." I would say roughly 18,000. or roughly 16,000. I don't think we can get down to 17,446. However, there's a lot. There's a lot of people groups. IMB has a smaller number of people groups. Then you go to the next level, which is “unreached people groups.” What are unreached people groups? It's defined as less than two percent evangelical in that nation. When I was a missionary to Japan, the Japanese were the largest unreached people group in the world, less than two percent evangelical. Since then, they've been superseded by another group. But that's a people group. That's what “unreached” means. “Unengaged,” another U is added, meaning, as far as the IMB knows, there is no effort to try to reach that people group. There's no one working on that, as far as they know. So you've got the UUPG, which is unengaged, unreached people groups. That's the focus. That's where the work should go. It is necessary for us to do that, for the church to do that. It is necessary for us to reach them with the Gospel. And this stands as a permanent command from our Lord and King Jesus Christ. "If you love Me, you'll keep my commandment." That's Mark 13:10, the command. III. A Prophecy in Matthew Look over at Matthew, where it comes across as a prophecy, or perhaps a promise. I'm okay with either one. Look what it says in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as the testimony in all nations and then the end will come.” So prophecy, promise. What is Jesus saying there? "And this Gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as the testimony of all nations, and then the end will come." The preaching of the Gospel to every tribe, language, people, and the nation is as guaranteed as the end of the world is. They're equally guaranteed. It's going to happen. This is a remarkable assertion by Jesus, more remarkable than not one stone left on another. Picture Jesus on that tiny little rocky outcropping there in the Mount of Olives surrounded by a band of followers that were frequently off message. You know those guys. Surrounded by a very small number of people saying, "This thing that we're doing here is going worldwide, everyone on Earth will hear about this." All peoples on Earth, all peoples, all nations will hear. That's incredible. Effectively, then, “the Jewish conception of their own kingdom will end, the Messianic kingdom, and My kingdom will be established and will reign for all eternity." That's awesome. How does He know that? He knows it because He's God, but He also knows it because the Old Testament scripture predicted that this would happen. God willing, next week, we'll look at Isaiah 49, but in Luke 24, "This is what is written. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." It's going to happen. Which scriptures? Many. There are many scriptures. But I'm going to look at Isaiah 49 next week. Isaiah 49, 1 and 6, "Listen to me, you islands, hear this, you distant nations." Islands and nations, distant nations. God says to Jesus, "It is too small a thing for You to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You," [Jesus] "a light for the Gentiles that you may bring My salvation to the ends of the Earth.” Jesus is actually not saying anything different than Isaiah the prophet said or that many other prophecies gave. Friends, this is a great encouragement. How does a team play if it's guaranteed, if they think they're absolutely going to win? They're going to play better than if they think they're going to lose. How does an army fight if they think ultimate victory is guaranteed? They fight better. We are going to win because Christ is going to win. This gospel is going to win. The task seems difficult. 3,150 unreached, unengaged, unreached people groups. None of them are easy to reach, or they would've been reached. They're in very difficult situations or places. I went through and thought about some of our units. If you guys don't know what the word “units” means, it means either a married couple, like a family or single. That's why we use the word units because some of them are single men and women, but sometimes family. We call them a mailing address or a group, a family unit. That's what we mean by it. I was reading about units in Turkey, 1.29 million practice Shia Islam. They speak North Levantine Arabic, a significant minority in Turkey. Their goal is to keep their Arabic culture alive in the secular Muslim state of Turkey and pass that on to their children and grandchildren. They mix elements of Sufism, which is Islamic mysticism and Shia Islam. Then we've got Thailand, where we have some units, I won't say their names, but they're there working, and there are people there that are following a certain flavor of Theravada Buddhism. Then in Bangladesh, overwhelmed with poverty, where we have another family unit there. People there are practicing Sunni Islam. They're tragically poor, and they're in darkness, in the grip of darkness. When we think about how difficult it is, and how long it takes to learn a language well enough to share the Gospel in it, and how long it takes to learn a culture, and how long it takes to make friendships, and then that whole journey, and then how long it takes to see one person cross over from darkness to light, that's the challenge in front of us. We need to be encouraged. Remember the lesson of the fig tree that we preached on a number of months ago? Mark 11:23-24, "Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he has said will happen, will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mountain moving, faith-filled prayer is made for the Great Commission. That's the mountain that needs to be moved. Remember what I said about prayer at that time. Prayer is not you giving God an idea He didn't have before or persuading Him to do something He didn't want to do. That's not what prayer is. Prayer is you learning from Scripture what God is doing in the world and asking Him to do what He has decreed and ordained to do but hasn't done yet. That's what it is. God has decreed and ordained that people from every tribe and language and people and nation will be standing in those white robes around that throne. That's what He's decreed. It is encouraging to see the progress of the Gospel. Those other signs, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, those don't mark anything. They're characteristics of every generation. But the progress of the Gospel, that's like a ticking clock to the end of the world. If you were to put dots on a map all over the world of what we would consider to be healthy Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in the year 1550, where would you put the dots? It would be almost all Central and North Europe, 1550. If you advance 50 years later, [1600] you would see more dots in those same areas, but still nowhere else. If you put dots where you had healthy Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches in 1650, by then you would have to add some North American colonies, in Virginia, and New England, and other places, and more over Europe, but nowhere else [1650]. If you advance another 50 years, many more dots up and down the 13 colonies. Many more dots in Europe, and nowhere else. By 1750, by then you had the Great Awakening, lots of dots all over the 13 colonies that eventually became the United States of America. You have some dots in the Caribbean where some Moravian missionaries went and sold themselves into slavery to preach the Gospel to the slave population there. Then, of course, Central and North Europe, some in the Catholic areas in Europe as well, but nowhere else. By 1800, William Carey's in India. So you put a dot there. But all the rest, just more dots in those same areas. As the new country of the United States spreading westward, there's more dots there, et cetera. In 50 more years, unbelievable. The 19th century, called the great century of missions, and they started to explode. By this time you've got Hudson Taylor in the inland regions. You've got dots in China. You've got a lot more dots in India, definitely dots in Burma. Because by the time Adoniran Judson finished his work, there were 25,000 baptized Burmese Christians. Now in 1850 there are dots all over. And by this time you can start putting them in Sub-Saharan Africa and other places. Add another 50 years, 1900, the great century of missions has ended. You got churches all over Asia, Mongolia, India, Burma, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa. In 50 more years, post-World War II, you've got the Gospel spreading to the islands of South Pacific, Irian Jaya, and Papua New Guinea. Soldiers that had fought there then went back to some of those places with the Gospel. Remarkable. 50 years later, the year 2000, the map's covered with dots, the entire world map. There's not a political nation on earth that doesn't have a healthy church. Not one. All the nations, I don't know how many nations are in the United Nations,230 some odd, all of them have some healthy church planted. But still, you've got those unreached people groups. So big picture, I can't tell you this progression without smiling. We are winning, the Gospel's spreading. The Holy Spirit is good at His job. He puts a compulsion on people, and they go where He wants them to go, and they lay down their lives as He wants them to, and the Gospel spreads. But there's still work to be done. I'm not going to burden you with statistics, that would be hard to communicate. But there's been a kind of a flattening of mission endeavor over the last 10 or 15 years. It's a little discouraging as you look, and it's just a narrow window, but missionary thinker Ralph Winter said, "More of the same will not get it done.” The burden is laid on churches like us and many other churches around the world to recommit ourselves to missions, recommit ourselves to the work left to be done, and to give sacrificially as we are called to do. IV. Applications First and foremost, if you're here listening to this mission sermon, but you came in here not a Christian, your work is to believe in Jesus. No point in talking about missions if you're lost. First and foremost, you've heard the gospel: God, man, Christ, response. I'm calling on you while there's time, repent and believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. If you're already a Christian, understand both the command in Mark 13 and the promise or the prophecy in Matthew 24. Take it seriously. This is the command laid on us, but rejoice in the sovereignty of Christ to get it done. Be confident in the final outcome. The Lord is going to win. He will be glorified. I'm looking forward to all eternity of hearing those stories. It's going to be phenomenal. Pray confidently in the spirit of Matthew 9 for more laborers, laborers in the harvest field. Churches like ours send out two precious commodities to the mission field: people and money. That's what IMB does. We gather people, and we gather money from Southern Baptist churches and point them strategically in directions. The Lottie Moon Christmas offering that we take every Christmas, our goal is $150,000. The Southern Baptist Convention exists in part for that. It was originated for that, and it's why we do. It's the crown jewel, I think, of our cooperation with Baptist churches all over the country. We pool resources to do a job too big for any one church to do. We couldn't afford to send very many fully-supported missionaries, just one church, to these various places. So we pool resources with thousands of churches. Truly, 100% of the money you give to Lottie Moon goes to missions. I was a trustee for nine years. What that means is we take more money in than Lottie Moon. It takes more money than Lottie Moon to put those missionaries on the field. I don't know how they tag dollars that go... Whatever, it gets pooled. The point is, the budget is bigger than the Lottie Moon offering. Where does the rest of the money come from? It comes from something called the Cooperative Program, where throughout the year, 12 months a year, we pool resources and a chunk of that goes to missions as well. A hundred percent of your giving goes, and our goal is $150,000. What I always say to you as a member of this church is engage, pray about your financial giving. We also have the opportunity through our home fellowships and through just your own initiative to get to know our friends that are serving overseas. We live in an iPhone or a smartphone world. You can contact them and be with them real-time. I FaceTime with these folks. You can find out what they're going through, support them, pray for them. I'm going to end this time now in prayer, and then we can get ready for the Lord's Supper. Father, thank You for the message that we have heard, the Gospel message of the Gospel going to the ends of the Earth and to the end of time. Now as we turn our hearts to the Lord's Supper, we thank You for the Word that we've heard and for the ordinance we're about to partake in. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today, we're kicking off a new series called “Who the hell is…” in which we deep-dive into the biographies of famous Christians! Join Resident Bible Scholar Erin Moon along with Jamie and Evan as we discuss Lottie Moon. Why do we only talk about her around Christmas? Why is she associated with cookies? Is she the feminist icon of the Southern Baptist Convention? You'll have to listen to find out.  MENTIONS Learn more here: The New Lottie Moon Story by Catherine B. Allen Deep-Dive: Read about Lottie Moon on the IMB Website  Faith Adjacent Spotify Holiday Playlists: Party Playlist | Pondering Playlist  Advent is Upon Us: Listen to our Advent Season   Tell me more about Annie Armstrong: Learn more from the WMU What was that about a ribbon dance? Watch history being made here Lottie Moon Monument: See it here  Want to hear from some more missionaries? You can find even more clips here! BONUS CONTENT We have tons of additional content, including monthly Fellowship Hall gatherings, Office Hours episodes, and so much more! You can access them now with a 7-day free trial. You'll be able to listen to over 250 more episodes! Tuition is just $5 a month after the trial period. Become a Seminarian here! THE FAITH ADJACENT SHOP Looking for some additional resources? We have you covered from an entire Prayer Course all the way to a guide for the new year! Shop here. THE POPCAST Check out our other podcast: The Popcast with Knox and Jamie. It's a weekly show about pop culture where we educate on the things that entertain but don't matter. Here is our suggested Popcast starter playlist. Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith Adjacent Shop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacent Follow Faith Adjacent on Socials: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every year, Baptists across the nation celebrate the timeless legacy of Lottie Moon by giving to the annual Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. But how many of us actually know Lottie's story? In this episode, Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Unzicker sits down with Amy Whitfield, executive director of communications at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, to discuss her new children's book Lottie Moon: The Girl Who Reached the World. Aimed at elementary school students, the book tells Lottie's story in a way that reminds us all why we are on mission together.  Listen in as the two discuss the background of the book, the importance of Lottie Moon and more. 

Special Guest: D. Ray Davis, IMBSupport the show

Former SBC president Steve Gaines announced last week that he had recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer. Also, Amy Whitfield stops by the show to discuss her new children's book about Lottie Moon.

Jared and J Allen get together to talk about what's happening in Nashville, CP giving and Lottie Moon, and gas station food. Make sure you are following us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PotluckPodcastSBC

Welcome to an enlightening journey through the life of Lottie Moon, a trailblazing missionary and an extraordinary woman of faith. In this captivating podcast, we'll unravel the fascinating tale of how Lottie defied societal norms and embarked on a groundbreaking mission to China as one of the first single female missionaries in the Southern Baptist Convention. As we delve into her early life in Virginia and the transformative events that led to her missionary calling, you'll discover the profound impact of her dedication to the Chinese people, especially her heart for empowering women and children. Lottie's legacy extends beyond her tireless efforts to spread the Gospel; we'll explore her advocacy against harmful cultural practices and the enduring influence of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering on modern missions. Join us as we celebrate the life of this remarkable woman whose unwavering faith, sacrificial love, and lasting influence have inspired generations of believers to embrace the call of missions and compassionately serve the world. Be inspired to leave a lasting impact, just as Lottie Moon did in her pioneering work as a faithful ambassador of Christ in China.

By faith, the righteous desire a better kingdom. Looking at the life of Lottie Moon, you will be challenged to live on mission in every aspect of your life. Find a place to serve in the local church and around the world!

Today we are going to talk particularly about Southern Baptist missions and a missionary that is very well known to many, Charlotte Diggs Moon, known by most as Lottie Moon. It is hard to overstate Moon's impact on Southern Baptist missions. Our guest today is Dr. David J. Brady. Questions addressed in this episode: -What drew Lottie to China? Any major life events that led her down that path? -What was the IMB like at that time in its history? -If Lottie were here today, how would she challenge us and how would she encourage us? Books mentioned in this episode: -Send the Light: Lottie Moon by Keith Harper -Lottie Moon by Una Roberts Lawrence -The New Lottie Moon Story by Catherine B. Allen -A Journey of Faith & Sacrifice: Retracing the Steps of Lottie Moon by Jerry Rankin and Don Rutledge Follow Amazon the Himalayas on: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook For more information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu For information on Boyce College, go to BoyceCollege.com

Jesus, in his kindness and compassion, repeated the miracle of feeding thousands of people. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to the account you just heard read, Mark 8:1-10. One of the great challenges of our Christian lives is how prone we are to forget God's goodness to us in the past, how wonderfully He has provided for us, how completely and consistently He has met our needs. We tend to forget these things. These lessons God has crafted over the years of our experiences, and yet we are prone with each new challenge in our lives to look at that circumstance as unique, somehow different than anything we've ever faced before. The one that's going to finally sink us this time, and we forget God's faithfulness over our lifetimes. In His amazing kindness, God patiently orchestrates days in which lessons are repeated and then repeated again. We have the opportunity to learn from those lessons, God's faithfulness to heal your body when you're sick or injured. God's faithfulness to give you money that you might need for an unforeseen need time and time again. God's faithfulness in feeding your empty stomach day after day. You have to admit, dear friends, He has a very good track record in that over the many years and you can testify to it. The Psalmist testifies in Psalm 103 where it says so beautifully, "Praise the Lord oh my soul, all my inmost being praise His holy name, praise the Lord oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Forget not all His benefits.” That's why the feeding of a multitude is repeated in the Bible, I believe. Two separate occasions in the gospels, the four gospels, six biblical accounts in all. Two in Matthew, two in Mark, and then one each in Luke and John. Six times the same lesson's repeated for us about the greatness of Christ in feeding the empty stomachs of a multitude of people. It seems like the Lord through the Holy Spirit thought we needed to hear this. We have Jesus feeding a multitude again. I. Repeated Repetition The first point in your outline there is repeated repetition, which you would say is redundant. It's intentional. Again and again God teaches us the same lessons and this is a miracle repeated. This almost exactly parallels the earlier feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6. There are a lot of similarities between the two accounts. It begins with Jesus's compassion. Mark 6:34 tells us that Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Here again, this account starts with Jesus' compassion. The location is described as a deserted place in both cases, isolated, distant from a population center. The same question is raised by the disciples as to how they're going to feed such a large crowd in such a remote place. Jesus asks the disciples the same question about their resources, the exact same question, "How many loaves do you have?" In both accounts, there is the order to have the people sit down on the ground. In both accounts, Jesus takes the loaves, gives thanks, breaks the bread, and gives it to the disciples, to the people. In both accounts, there is a separate mention of the fish being dealt with as well, eaten as well. Also, in both times we're told that everyone in the crowd ate their fill. They were satisfied completely. Then both accounts narrates the broken pieces of bread and fish being picked up off the ground and collected in baskets. Both accounts give the number of the men who are fed omitting the women and children, and both finish with the crowd being dismissed and Jesus and His disciples moving on to another place along the Sea of Galilee to continue ministry. They're both the same, just a couple of chapters apart. This has led some critics, hostile critics of the Bible, to point this out as a prime example of the slapdash work done by the New Testament writers. These critics don't believe that these events actually happened, but these stories were fabricated and passed down, narrated and then woven together to make the myth of Jesus the God-man. They think we have these New Testament documents as a huge work of existing documents that were thrown together without any careful editing. The accounts of these two feedings are cited as proof of this. Mark, without much thought, just found, I guess a scrap of paper on his desk and just stuck it in here, not knowing he was really recording the same event as before. That's what these critics do. There are some key differences between these two accounts. Obviously there are details here that are different. 4,000 people fed as opposed to 5,000, seven loaves as opposed to five, a few fish as opposed to two fish, seven basketfuls gathered as opposed to twelve. On that last one, we have to note that the Greek word for basket was different in the two accounts. In the first feeding in the 5,000, the Greek word was “cofinos”, which is a smaller basket or container, like a pouch that you could probably wear on your belt, something smaller, enough food, let's say, for a single individual. In this account, the Greek word was “spuris", like a big hamper, much larger volume, two different words. If these had been copycat accounts, I think you would've just harmonized those details or they would've been exactly the same. Not at all. These two feedings actually happened and they happened in a relatively short amount of time; Jesus said so. Later in this chapter, the disciples are going to bicker between themselves about having forgotten to bring bread with them on the boat. God willing, we'll talk about that next week. Listen to Jesus' full answer. Look down at Mark 8:17-21, “Why are you still talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? Don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’ '12,' they replied. 'And when I broke the seven loaves for the 4,000, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?’ They answered, 'Seven.' He said to them, 'Do you still not understand?’” II. Why the Repetition? Oh, there's no doubt at all that there were two different accounts. Jesus uses that as an example and we'll talk about that next week of how they should have learned by experience. The question comes to me, as it always does in the Gospel of Mark, we look at the Holy Spirit's intention in all of this. Why the repetition? Why do we have these two feedings that are so very similar? Now, at one level, this question doesn't even need to be answered. Jesus did lots of miracles over and over and over again. There are only so many ways you can heal a crippled person or a blind person or a deaf person or a sick person. Generally Jesus touched them, maybe spoke a few words to them, healed them, and they went on their way. Basically it looked the same day after day. Scholars tell us that Jesus had about a three-year ministry and most of the days were alike, healing lots of people with a word or with a touch. Also, Jesus' teachings; we shouldn't imagine that He came up with new content every day. He taught essentially the same things, I think, day after day to the people. We have lots of different parables, lots of different sermons, but we do have some messages that are repeated for us. A very good example is what we know generally as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. We have the Sermon on the Plain, clearly a different occasion ed different location in Luke 6. Both of them begin similarly, "Blessed are the..." Et cetera, but there're actually significant differences between them. There's some overlapping teachings that are repeated and some differences too. It must be that, day after day Jesus did a lot of the same teaching and covered the same ground. He did different aspects of His ministry multiple times, including this feeding, which He did at least twice. Let's go beyond that into a deeper issue. That is our need for repetition. We need lessons repeated. It just isn't the case that you hear it once and then you've got it for life. It isn't the case that once I make a mistake and learn from it, I never make that mistake again. Would any of you like to raise their hands and say, "That's me to a core, I never make the same mistake twice." I don't think any of us would want to say that. We need the reminders, and the disciples' continual forgetfulness represents us. They stand in our place and they represent us. How do we look? Not great. These individuals had to be reminded of things again and again. We have to go through experiences again and again to learn from them. We are dull and slow to learn like they were. We need this. The Bible makes much of the need for reminding, a repetition of doctrine. For example, the Book of Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law. God didn't say you had it once, you have it for life, but they needed the details of the law repeated right before they entered the Promised Land. "We have to go through experiences, again and again, to learn from them. We are dull and slow to learn like they were. We need this. The Bible makes much of the need for reminding, a repetition of doctrine." Jesus would warn His disciples again and again and again about His own suffering and death that was about to happen in Jerusalem and they still didn't get it. They still didn't understand. Their hearts were hardened concerning the need of Jesus to go and die. Then more in general, the New Testament writers speak about our need for reminders, our need for repetition. Philippians is a good example: Philippians 3:1, "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you." Paul there in Philippians says, "I have to write the same things to you again and again to keep you safe from your own sin." Then in the next chapter, very famously, Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Well, Paul, you already said that in Philippians 3:1, "Again, I will say rejoice." We have in one verse repeated repetition of the same theme. Do you say, “I don't have to be told more than once to rejoice in the Lord. I know that Christ's crucifixion and resurrection is enough to make me joyful every day.” Do you have to be reminded again and again to rejoice in the Lord? Or again, Paul says earlier in that book, Philippians 3:18, "For, as I have often told you before, and now say again, even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ." He says, "I say these things to you guys again and again.” Peter talks about repetition also in 2nd Peter 1:12 & 13, "So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body." Peter is saying, "It's part of my job to just remind you of certain things again and again." Therefore, it's not part of my job as a preacher to come up with something new and fresh every time I get up here to preach. It's just impossible and it's not good for you either. It's going to be the same basic things that you've already heard in perhaps slightly different words. Why do we need this particular lesson repeated, this lesson on food, this lesson on God feeding our empty stomachs? I think this is vital because of some of the core flaws we have in our earthly condition. This is a central issue in our lives. Will I get enough to eat? Will I get enough to survive or not? Ecclesiastes 6:7 says, "All man's efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied." Everything you do is for your stomach and it never is done. Again, after the feeding of the 5,000 in John's account the next day, remember that the huge crowd came back for another meal. They wanted more. They wanted breakfast. They're back for breakfast. Jesus said, "Do not labor for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the son of man will give you." Then He goes on in John 6 to develop the whole theology, "I am the bread of heaven. I am the bread that came down from heaven. If you feed on me, you'll live forever." He's not speaking physical. He's saying, "The words I have spoken are spirit and they're life,”[ John 6]. He says, "Stop living for your stomachs. Stop living for your earthly appetites.” Then in Hebrews 12:16, we have a warning there, "Make certain that there's no one in your congregation who is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright for a bowl of stew because that was what he was all about." As Paul says in that same passage, Philippians 3:19, he says, "I've often warned you that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their God is their stomach." Therefore, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount warns us in the whole passage on anxiety, "Do not worry, do not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat, about your body, what you'll wear." He says later, "So do not worry saying, 'What shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." The overwhelming anxiety many have of having their bodily needs met must be met by faith in the future grace of God. God is going to care for me. He's going to meet my needs. With food and clothing we'll be satisfied, we'll be content and freed up so that we can seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and not be worried about our earthly bodily needs. We should learn from experience. God is faithful to His children. God is faithful to care for our needs. Psalm 37:25 the Psalmist says, "I was young and now I'm old. Yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. I have watched God be faithful to His children year after year." Christ in His kindness and compassion does this miracle twice. The Holy Spirit in His kindness and compassion has the doubled miracle recorded both in Matthew's Gospel and in Mark. In addition to the original feeding of the 5,000 in all four gospels, that's six accounts of Jesus' miraculous feeding of the empty stomachs of huge numbers of people. That's big picture. That's why the repetition. III. Jesus Speaks With Compassion Let's walk through the account again. It starts with Jesus' compassion. Look at Mark 8:1-3, "During those days, another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus has called His disciples to Him and said, 'I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a long distance.'" Now, as we've noted before, Jesus' compassion is the most common emotional state ascribed to Him. "Jesus' compassion is the most common emotional state ascribed to Him." Again and again, we have descriptions of Jesus's compassion or descriptions of Jesus being compassionate. This one time is unique, both in Matthew and in Mark's gospel, this second feeding, Jesus speaks it about Himself here. In all the other accounts we're told Jesus had compassion on the leper or He had compassion on the crowd, something like that. Here He says it about himself, "I have compassion on these people." Now, the Greek word in our account relates to Jesus's inner organs, His intestines, His gut, His stomach, the KJV says “his bowels”, that kind of thing. That's because we often feel things down here, right? We talk about having butterflies in your stomach. Or you talk about somebody's gut reaction or a feeling in the pit of my stomach, these kind of things. We have a sense that down here is where we feel the feelings. Jesus is moved here with the compassion of suffering people. He describes himself as compassion, "I have compassion on these people." In this way, Jesus is a perfect display of Almighty God's compassion. We should never think that God the Father, the God of the Old Testament is the God of wrath and judgment and terror, the God of Sinai and Jesus is the kind and compassionate one that talks Him into being kind. The God of the Bible, the God of the Old Testament is moved with compassion again and again. For example, in Exodus 2 when God looks down on Israel in their bondage and He sees their suffering because of their task masters, and He was concerned with them. "He looked on them and was concerned about them," [Exodus 2:25]. When He invited Moses up into the glory cloud on Mount Sinai and He wants to reveal Himself to Moses in a very beautiful way, Moses says, "Now, show me your glory.” He puts Him in the cleft of the rock and then He speaks these words, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness." This is the first thing that God tells Moses about Himself, "I'm a compassionate God." Even in that terrible book, maybe the worst book in the Bible, the book of Judges, that terrible cycle of sin that they go through when the Israelites are so corrupt and pagan in their worldview and in their lifestyles, no better than Sodom and Gomorrah, and God again and again sends them judgments in the form usually of Gentile invaders that come in and plunder them like the Midianites, et cetera. They cry out, and they're in grief and anguish and they put away temporarily their idols and they cry out to God. God is moved with compassion for them. It says in Judges 2:18, "Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, He was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, for the Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.” Perhaps one of the most striking descriptions of this in the book of Judges, Judges 10:16. There the people who have been unusually corrupt, very wicked. God gave them over and said, "Just run after the gods of the Gentiles that you've been following. Let them save you." There's condition. The Jewish condition got worse and worse. Then it says in Judges 10:16, "Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the Lord, and He, God, could bear Israel's misery no longer." It was harder on God than it was on them. He doesn't take delight in people's suffering; He takes delight in people repenting and turning away. He has compassion. We have again and again these statements of God's compassion. Psalm 103:13-14, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him for He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust." He knows your stomach cyclically gets empty and needs food. He made it that way. He knows how weak we are. He's compassionate. He knows what you need before you ask, or again, Isaiah 49:15 & 16, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will never forget you." Or again in Hosea 11:8, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?…My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.” It was compassion that caused God to send His son, His only begotten son into the world. That's why He sent Him. Jesus spoke powerfully to the compassion of God towards sinners in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15:20, "While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him, and he ran to his son and threw his arms around him and kissed him." That's the compassion of Almighty God towards sinners. Therefore, Paul calls God the Father of compassion. 2nd Corinthians 1, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles." Jesus is the incarnation of God's compassion. He's moved with feeling over other people's suffering. Look at the account again, verse 1-3, "Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus has called His disciples to Him and said, 'I have compassion for these people. They have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a long distance.'" We have this huge crowd from all that area. The Decapolis was a predominantly Gentile area. It seems that's where He is. Those people had never seen anything like what Jesus was doing. He was healing every disease and sickness among the people, effortlessly with a word. He was giving teachings such as they had never heard before, and they just stayed there. They just stayed there hour after hour, day after day, they didn't leave, and they were just so absorbed that they forgot their own bodily needs. Jesus knew they'd been with Him three days. They hadn't had anything to eat. Clearly that statement, “He’s on the third day,” showed that He's not feeding them every day. It was not his top priority to feed their empty stomachs. He could have done it every day, but it's not until the third day that He even addresses this physical need for them. But He says, "I have compassion on these people.” He knows their physical condition and without nourishment, and they're a long way, a long distance, maybe 10-15 miles from where they live, maybe more, if they don't get nourishment, they are going to collapse. The Greek word for collapse is that of a bow string coming loose, hanging loose on a bow. They'll just collapse to the ground if they don't get it. That's compassion. You're stepping into someone's situation, thinking about their circumstance and what do they need for this situation. That is the nature of Jesus' compassion. He affects the feeding. The feeding affected. Jesus involves his disciples. He expresses His compassion for the crowd to them. He wants them to know His concerns and He wants to teach them to imitate Him in that compassion. Like the last time, He wants them to feel the burden of their hunger of the problem. IV. The Feeding Effected Look at their response, verse 4, "His disciples answered, 'But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?'" I mean, do you ever wonder about that? Really? This is the question you're going to ask. That's exactly what they asked back in Mark 6, "Have you learned nothing?" Again, the disciples represent us. We're just like that. They hadn't learned the lesson of the loaves and they're going to prove it. God willing, next week we'll talk about it, they bicker about not having brought bread. They don't get it. They're slow to heart. They're dull. Then Jesus takes inventory of what they have. Verse 5,”How many loaves do you have?" Jesus said. "Seven," they replied. Like last time, He wants the disciples to provide what they have as a physical starter for the miracle. As I said in the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus clearly doesn't need that. He created the universe “ex nihilo”, out of nothing, by the word of His power, the universe. He doesn't need the starter kit of their bread and fish, but He wants to use it. I think that's instructive for us. We are drawn into the circumstance and we are called on to give what God's already provided to us to the situation. Then Jesus works out the logistics. Verse 6, "He told the crowd to sit down on the ground." Last time in Mark 6, the account goes into more detail than that. He had the people sit down in groups on the green grass, and they sat down in groups of hundreds and 50s. This was, as I said last time, perhaps for crowd control and organizational logistics. He doesn't go into any of those details this time in Mark 8, "Then He gives thanks to God and distributes the result." Verse 6, "When He had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people, and they did so." The thanksgiving is essential, looking up to heaven, just like He did when he healed the deaf-mute. Looks up to heaven. Everything comes from God. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights. "What do you have," Paul says, "that you did not receive?" Everything's coming as a gift from God. He just looks up and gives thanks for the loaves. Then somewhere in the middle of verse 6 comes the miracle. Do you see it? Look down at the text. See if you can see the miracle somewhere there in the middle. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people, and they did so. The miracles in there somewhere, I don't know where it is, but somewhere in there, barley loaves get multiplied. As I said last time, barley that never grew and was never harvested, never ground, and never cooked and never served, none of that. It just appeared ready to eat. It's a miracle. Then the fish comes along, the fish too. Verse 7, "They had a few small fish as well. He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them." Again, the fish are mentioned as a second act, and again, the fish flesh that Jesus created never grew or swam in the water. They were never caught by hook or by net. They were never sectioned and grilled or boiled or any of the things that people who like fish do to prepare it. As one commentator said, "They were created dead." It's kind of an interesting mind-blowing statement. The fish were created dead but not spoiled, right? Ready to eat. Then verse 8, "The people ate and were satisfied." The word could be translated they gorged themselves. They ate until they couldn't eat another bite like the fatted calf. They are full. It's abundance. Then verse 8, the pieces are collected as evidence, "Afterwards, the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over." Now, again, the word for basket here, the Greek word is like a hamper. Even though there's fewer numbers of baskets, there probably might have been more leftovers this time. Then we have the count in verse 9-10, "About 4,000 men were present. Having sent them away, He got into the boat with His disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.” We have 4,000 men, again, the women and children omitted in Matthew's account of the feeding, the 5,000 it says, "Plus women and children." So we have to imagine that's the same in every case. You have 4,000 men, plus women and children, a huge crowd. I don't know how many, 15,000 more, no idea, but a big, big crowd. This is an amazing miracle. 4,000 men, smaller crowd this time fed with more loaves. In my geeky math, it's like, "Oh, then this was an easier miracle then. Fewer people, more loaves." Don't think that way. It's a miracle. This is how many people there were to feed, and this is what there was to feed them, and He used it and fed them. Dalmanutha is another name for Magadan. It's the region between Magdala and Capernaum. Magdala is the place where Mary Magdalene came from. This is effectively Jesus's returned to Galilee now into ministry. The cross is now less than a year away. Jesus would finish His ministry there in the northern area of Galilee, and He would begin making his way down to Judea and to Jerusalem where He would die for the sins of the world. V. Lessons From this Second Feeding What lessons can we take from this second feeding? I would say not many different lessons than the lessons from the first feeding. Why should they be different? It's the same lessons. First and foremost, what does this miracle say about Jesus? It's simple. Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Trust in Him for the salvation of your souls. That's what this miracle says. It's the same as all the miracles. “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and believing may have life in His name.” We should worship Jesus and trust in Him and believe in Him. Jesus created all things out of nothing. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. Jesus is God and created all things. We should stand in awe and worship Jesus as they did at the end of Mark 7 when Jesus healed that deaf-mute and they said of Jesus, “He has done all things well.” Beyond that, in the first version of this particular miracle, Jesus links their need for physical nourishment to His death on the cross, as I said in “the bread of life teaching.” Listen to John 6:47-51, "I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Jesus is calling all sinners to come to Him and feed on Him for life. That's not just once. Yes, it's instantaneous. When you trust in Jesus, the moment you trust in Him, you'll be born again and all your sins will be forgiven, past, present, and future. But that just begins a lifetime of feeding on Jesus. Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. All of those words ultimately lead to Jesus as the bread from heaven. Feed on Him. "When you trust in Jesus, the moment you trust in Him, you'll be born again and all your sins will be forgiven, past, present, and future. But that just begins a lifetime of feeding on Jesus." Next, I would say develop a heart of compassion like Jesus. We all tend to play the role of the priest in Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We see hurting people in the world and just walk by them. Don't be like that. Say, "God, I confess that I don't care about suffering like I should. I don't care about temporal suffering like I should. People that are hungry, people that are hurting, people that are in disaster-stricken areas, people that have poverty issues even in our own city, I don't care like I should. I must confess that to you. Would you work in me a heart of compassion to meet people's physical needs?" We know that their spiritual needs are far greater because eternal suffering is far weightier than temporal suffering, no matter how bad it is. Eternal suffering is what awaits the damned. We are told in scripture that many are traveling the road to damnation, and they're around us every day. They're heading toward eternal torment, and we should care. We should have compassion on them because they're like sheep without a shepherd. We should speak the words of life to them. We're called on to meet physical needs. Jesus will say to the sheep, "I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me." That's physical ministry. We're called on to do that [ John 6], "as a vehicle to spiritual ministry." That's our desire. Finally, Jesus prepares His disciples for world mission. This is a Gentile area. Jesus began, as we talked about the Syrophoenician woman's demon-possessed daughter a couple times ago, and Jesus said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, but not ultimately to the lost sheep of Israel." Jesus will send His disciples out after His death on the cross and His resurrection to the ends of the earth. Jesus cares about Gentiles. These are probably Gentiles. He wants to feed them and care for them forever. In Mark 16, He says, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." Again, in Luke 24, “This is what is written, ‘That Christ will suffer and rise from the dead, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.’" Today is a time for us raising money for missions. We should at least, be sacrificial about giving money. It's not a hard thing for us. We have been abundantly blessed. I've been here 25 years, raising money for Lottie Moon as part of what we do every December. I can't remember any more than one time that we didn't meet our Lottie Moon goal. It's grown year by year. Not every year has it grown, but it's at $150,000 now. We can definitely meet that and more. This is my last year as a trustee of the International Mission Board. I can tell you all of that money goes to keeping missionaries on the field, so they don't have to come back and raise support. We have, I think a total of nine units. There were four that were sent out during the COVID year. We have nine units on the field, I think, by my latest count that consider us their sending church.Our giving keeps them on the field. Let's be faithful and give. Now, the time has come to prepare for the Lord's Supper. I didn't orchestrate that we would be talking about eating bread on the day we do the Lord's Supper. The Lord, for some reason, wants to link the feedings to this. I think the central lesson of my sermon today is repetition. Jesus said, "As often as we observe the Lord's Supper, we consider His death until He comes." This is a repetition ordinance for us. I'm going to close this sermon time in prayer, and then we'll have the Lord's Supper. We invite anyone who has already trusted in Christ and testified to that by water baptism, and partake. If not, we ask that you refrain. As you're doing, as you're waiting, ask the Lord to show you any sin in your life that He wants you to deal with it then partake with a commitment in your heart that you want to live a holy life. Close with me now in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to hear from you, hear from your written word, and we thank you for the power of the Word of God. We thank you also for the power of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Now as we turn our attention to this ordinance, help us, oh Lord, to learn its lessons and feed on it spiritually, even as we eat physical bread and drink the physical juice that we'd realize the spiritual lessons beyond it of the cross in the resurrection. In Jesus' name, amen.

1. Seth continues his review of Matthew 17 examining the end of the transfiguration. 2. Seth answers a question about editing at Pulpit & Pen.3. Seth discusses the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering,

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Join pastor Ryan Marcum and Ryan Allan as they discuss a sermon from Luke 2, Christmas Traditions, and Lottie Moon. Who is Lottie Moon? https://www.imb.org/about/lottie-moon/ Christmas Reading Plan: https://mmbcky.org/bible-reading-plan Mt. Moriah Baptist Church: https://www.mmbcky.org --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ryanmarcum/support

Over 100 years ago, Lottie Moon was called by God to take the gospel to China. What called her to go on this mission? It was a radical encounter with the glory of God. In Isaiah 6:1-10, Isaiah is taken into the throneroom of God. From this account, we see that, like Lottie Moon and Isaiah, when we encounter the glory of God and the grace of God, we are empowered for the mission of God.

The Oasis Church exists to glorify God through exegetical preaching, deep, relational community, and outreach to the world. Learn more about The Oasis Church at:www.theoasischurch.net

In season 4, Jordan and Luci are exploring contemporary saints from around the globe. Join them to hear discussions of history, weird facts, and even some advice for today's Christian feminists who are trying to pick up where these awesome church mothers left off. If you're enjoying expanding your ideas about Jesus, feminism, progressive Christianity, bad ass Bible ladies, the Episcopal Church, or anything else we've been talking about, get in contact! Email: twofeminists@gmail.com

This part 38 of a series of podcasts that will give you a snapshot of the No Name Heroes of the Faith. In this episode we learn about Lottie Moon, missionary to China.This story is taken from a wonderful children's book called, "The Smoke of a Thousand Villages" by David and Naomi Shibley.You can find it here:https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Thousand-Villages-Stories-Heroes/dp/0840771835/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21MFSEVTPP30F&keywords=The+smoke+of+a+thousand+villages&qid=1656933685&sprefix=the+smoke+of+a+thousand+villages%2Caps%2C89&sr=8-1

Lottie Moon's story shows us how God can save and use anyone! How will Logan respond to the bullies at school? Tune in to find out and hear the rest of Lottie's story. Copyright © 2022 Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the CEF Podcast, so you don't miss any of our episodes! kids #biblestories #goodnews #adventure

Lottie Moon doesn't think she needs God. How will she realize her need for Him? That's what Piper, Logan, and Uncle Mike are exploring today. Copyright © 2022 Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the CEF Podcast, so you don't miss any of our episodes! kids #biblestories #goodnews #adventure

After being bullied at school for going to church, Logan doesn't think God would want anyone that mean serving him. But, many people may have thought that about Lottie Moon. Join Logan, his sister Piper, and Uncle Mike as they explore an unlikely Good News Hero. Copyright © 2022 Child Evangelism Fellowship Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the CEF Podcast, so you don't miss any of our episodes! #kids #biblestories #goodnews #adventure

Did you know that Lottie Moon was only four feet, three inches tall, or that she was a major advocate for furloughs for global workers? While you may recognize her because of the Christmas offering that bears her name, this determined and courageous woman has left an incredible, far-reaching impact. In this episode, Denise and Sarah share about Lottie's childhood, calling overseas, and her work in China from 1873 until her death in 1912. What can we learn from this feisty woman? We can't wait to hear what you think about this story of Lottie Moon. Learn more about Velvet Ashes Follow Velvet Ashes on Facebook or Instagram Follow Denise and Sarah Featured music is "Daughters and Sons" by Eine Blume. Check out more from them on iTunes or wherever you get music! Check out the transcript for this episode. Check out Lottie's Tea Cake recipe Books: The New Lottie Moon Story by Catherine B. Allen Send the Light: Lottie Moon's Letters and Other Writings by Keith Harper Articles: Who Was Lottie Moon? What Lottie Moon Taught Me About Injustice and the Gospel Lottie Moon: The Rebel I Want to Be Why the Lottie Moon Offering is Collected at Christmas

Welcome to the audio digest of this week's issue of The Alabama Baptist and The Baptist Paper. Each episode features news headlines and feature stories read by TAB Media Group staff and volunteers. New episodes are released weekly on Wednesday mornings. Articles of Interest: South Carolina church exceeds Lottie Moon goal by more than $100,000 (4:58) Lovett to focus on pastoral encouragement and pickleball in new ministry season (10:03) Church and school join together (14:23) Visit TAB Media HERE Subscribe on iTunes HERE Visit Reliable Signs HERE

Charlotte Moon was born in 1840 to a plantation-owning family in Virginia, in the pre-Civil War southern culture depicted in Gone with the Wind. After a youthful rebellion against Christianity, she was converted in 1859. A woman well under five-foot in height, Lottie spent the Civil War helping her widowed mother manage the estate and teaching in schools. Lottie felt called to be an evangelist and church planter. However, her mission's policy prohibited a woman from preaching to groups which included men. Never one to suffer quietly, Lottie began writing letters and articles, many of which found their way back to the United States. Pointing out the shortage of missionaries and the extraordinary evangelistic opportunities available in China, Lottie pressed for women to be allowed to use any gifting they had for evangelism or preaching.

Notice the sequence in this verse:God's motivationGod's generosityGod's methodGod's purposeVerse 17 shows the importance of both a sender and a sent one in order for salvation to occur.As a church we need to identify with the nature and character of God:  see John 15: 10,11We have the same spirit, the same nature as Jesus. How is that developed and grown in us?First the natural then the spiritualGiving is critical, not the amount, but the heart attitude! We need to grow in this. See the Philippians church!We need to grow, both as individuals as well as a church. Giving a tenth is just the beginning of moving into spiritual blessing, both individually and as a churchThis is what we are doing as a church this year to reach our tithe, or beyond:Get some food on the tables in the back – help yourselves and leave nothing!Need to give a tithe from the church, and an increase in our income: The church gave to all who were in need. Sent funds to help with toys for needy children from the NetworkSent funds to help with Mathew 25 house – helping in a time of needWe will give food to our community on the 18thWe will also double whatever you give to Lottie Moon today! If you have no money, then write on the back of the envelope what you would like to give to support the IMB. Goal is double from last year of 700 to 1500 this year.    

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In this episode, Josh, Brent, and Lindsay discuss the first people to receive the Coronavirus vaccine, Middle America racking up a ton of new Coronavirus cases, Mardi Gras being cancelled, Biden's ‘skeleton staff', record unemployment claims, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, and a rare Christmas star. Lindsay also gives a rundown of this week's ERLC content including Jared Kennedy with "Two foundational truths to teach our kids about gender: Celebrating who God created us to be," Annie Kratzsch with "3 practical Advent practices to meet you in your suffering: Simple activities for your family from the “Unexpected Gift”," and C. Ben Mitchell with "What defines personhood? The distinct difference of humans." Also in this episode, the hosts are joined by David French for a conversation about life and ministry. About DavidDavid French is an American attorney, political commentator, and author. A fellow at the National Review Institute and a staff writer for National Review from 2015 to 2019, French currently serves as senior editor of The Dispatch. David is the author of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. David and his wife Nancy live in middle Tennessee with their three children. You can connect with him on Twitter: @DavidAFrenchERLC ContentJared Kennedy with Two foundational truths to teach our kids about gender: Celebrating who God created us to beA Parent's Guide to Teaching Your Children About GenderAnnie Kratzsch with 3 practical Advent practices to meet you in your suffering: Simple activities for your family from the “Unexpected Gift”C. Ben Mitchell with What defines personhood? The distinct difference of humansCultureA UK woman aged 90 was the first in the world to receive the Pfizer vaccine todayWilliam Shakespeare: to be vaccinated nor not to be vaccinatedMiddle America is still racking up a ton of new coronavirus casesNew Orleans Mayor Cancels Mardi Gras Parades In 2021Biden may start with 'skeleton staff'Explaining the Supreme Court lawsuit from Texas and Trump challenging Biden's winWeekly jobless claims surge to 853,000, highest since SeptemberUnemployment insurance claimsIMB missionaries and staff give more than $800,000 to LMCOJupiter and Saturn to align in rare 'Christmas Star'LunchroomLindsay: Why We Plan to Get Vaccinated: A Christian Moral PerspectiveJosh: One Year Pelaton Commercial anniversary: A year ago this week we all laughed at her. What did she know and when?Brent: AirPods Max Connect with us on Twitter@ERLC@jbwester@LeatherwoodTN@LindsNicoletSponsorsEnd of Year Giving: If you've benefited from the content shared on this podcast, would you please consider making a year-end donation? Any individual donations we receive, apart from the Cooperative Program, goes to placing ultrasound machines in pro-life pregnancy centers, advocating for religious liberty, and human dignity here at home and across the globe.Searching for Christmas by JD Greear. This book is perfect for giving to unbelieving friends and family this Christmas.

In this episode, Josh, Brent, and Lindsay discuss the highest day of COVID-19 deaths, UK and Russian approval of a coronavirus vaccine, COVID restrictions and court cases involving churches and private schools, President-elect Biden fracturing his foot, President Trump considering another presidential run in 2024, a 27-year-old embryo being born, Ellen Page now transgender, and Hawaii offering free round trips for remote workers. Lindsay also gives a rundown of this week's ERLC content including C. Ben Mitchell with "Who counts as a person? Today's question in the abortion debate," Amy Ford with "What you can do to help moms choose life: Getting the church ready to care for those with unplanned pregnancies," and Joey Kline with "Five things your kids (and you) should know about Lottie Moon." Also in this episode, the hosts are joined by Dane Ortlund for a conversation about life and ministry. About DaneDane C. Ortlund serves as senior pastor of Naperville Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is an editor for the Knowing the Bible series and the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series, and is the author of several books, including Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. Dane lives with his wife, Stacey, and their five children in Naperville, Illinois. You can connect with him on Twitter: @daneortlundERLC ContentC. Ben Mitchell with Who counts as a person? Today's question in the abortion debateAmy Ford with What you can do to help moms choose life: Getting the church ready to care for those with unplanned pregnanciesJoey Kline with Five things your kids (and you) should know about Lottie MoonCultureCoronavirus hospitalizations top 100,000 for the first timeHighest ever daily death totalUK authorises Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinePfizer says latest data shows its coronavirus vaccine is safe and 95% effectivePutin says Russia will begin large-scale COVID-19 vaccination next weekU.K. first nation to clear Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for mass rolloutAppeals court upholds Kentucky, Michigan COVID restrictions against Christian schoolsERLC urges court to block N.Y. pandemic orderJoe Biden's doctor says he suffered "hairline fractures" in foot after he slipped while playing with dogPresident Trump Seriously Considering 2024 Run As He Continues False 2020 ClaimsTrump legal crusade peppered with blundersCourt ruling on Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood praisedEast Tenn. baby breaks record after being born from 27-year-old embryoEllen Page is transgenderHawaii offers free round trips for remote workersLunchroomLindsay: What are you asking for for Christmas?Josh: College Basketball is back. Hillbilly ElegyBrent: Nine Non-obvious Ways to Have Deeper ConversationsConnect with us on Twitter@ERLC@jbwester@LeatherwoodTN@LindsNicoletSponsorsEnd of Year Giving: If you've benefited from the content shared on this podcast, would you please consider making a year-end donation? Any individual donations we receive, apart from the Cooperative Program, goes to placing ultrasound machines in pro-life pregnancy centers, advocating for religious liberty, and human dignity here at home and across the globe.Searching for Christmas by JD Greear. This book is perfect for giving to unbelieving friends and family this Christmas.