Imagine for a moment that you are in a room filled with people who are, you included, starving to death. Suddenly, by no merit of your own, you are chosen out of the crowd, given food to eat and then commanded to begin distributing food to all the others who are starving. Immediately, you go to work. You take a basket filled with bread and you go to the first row of people and give them bread, some take it, some refuse it. You keep distributing the bread regardless of the response. After some time, you have offered bread to the first ten rows of people and yet ten rows of people remain. So, you get more bread and instead of going to the back ten rows, you return to the first ten rows and begin to distribute bread again. After you have completed a second distribution of the first ten rows, you do it again. You begin to think of what a great job you have done in distributing bread to the first ten rows and how you have been faithful to offer the bread even when refused. Yet, what you are missing is that among the back ten rows, there are people dying of starvation, and as the bread distributor, you have neglected the commander’s orders to distribute bread to all of the people.
Prior to our Lord’s ascension, he said that we are to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). He said that we are to make disciples of ALL nations (Matthew 28:19). That means we are to spread the gospel here in our town and state, but we are also to spread this gospel to the ends of the earth, that the glory of God may be known among all the nations of the world.
Our International Mission Board has identified 3800 people groups remaining in the world that have been classified as untouched and unreached, meaning they have never heard the name of Christ, have no current access to the Gospel, and there is no current strategy to reach them. Left alone they will die in their sins apart from Christ. I don’t know about you, but I cannot be satisfied with continuing to give bread to the first ten rows while neglecting the back ten who are starving. And the reality is, this is a problem for which we cannot hire enough missionaries. This will take every church getting involved. As the pastor of Walker Baptist Church, I do not plan to stand around and do nothing. My plan is for our church to be involved. The goal of the Southern Baptist Convention is to have at least 3800 churches adopt one of these people groups. I am asking you to join me now in prayer as we seek God’s plan for our involvement. I will also be attending a conference on September 7 in Marietta. I would invite as many of you as would like to go with me. The conference will better inform us of ways we can be involved in this global effort. Let me know as soon as possible if you will join me for this event. The cost is $20.
Brothers and sisters, this is a very serious matter. We have been commanded by our Lord to spread the gospel. Will you join me and the rest of our fellow SBC churches as we together embrace the ends of the earth and do our part to finish the Great Commission. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt 24:14, ESV). I love you all.
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