Don’t be a hater
Watch David Platt discuss how the Great Commission practically intersects with and shapes the Christian life. In this video: David Platt, Mark Mellinger Permalink: tgc.org/resources/a/dont_be_a_hater
David Platt:
That is the ultimate goal of missions: 2 Corinthians 4:15 sums it up. ( For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.) It’s all for the sake of people, coming to Christ, more and more people, the grace of God extended to them, so they might give thanksgiving and glory to God. This is what drives everything we do in our life, ministry. We want God’s grace to extend to more and more people, for the glory of God among all peoples.
„Believing, automatically leads to speaking. Believing the Gospel automatically leads to sharing the Gospel. The two are inseparable. Sitting idly by, in comfort, is the height of arrogance and the epitome of hate.”
Question: What does a professing Christian have to make of his life if he’s not sharing, or she’s not sharing ?
Platt:
I think it calls for 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine our hearts. (Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!) Do you really possess this faith in Christ? Do you really believe that Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave? So, ask, „Do I really believe this?” Then, to begin to look, what are the reasons why I’m not making that connection between believing and proclaiming. It’s something we see all over Scripture, in the Gospels: to be a disciple is to make disciples. „Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” „Go and make disciples,” and so, if we’re not doing that, then what in our lives, what areas of sin, or fear, or whatever it might be, keeping us from carrying out the clear followthrough that comes from believing in Christ.
And, I don’t wanna say this is easy. Even when I wrote ‘Radical’, just to go back a little bit, part of it was just an overflow of a journey, saying, „Alright, if I really believe this book (the Bible), then the ramifications are astounding. There’s billions of people that don’t believe in Christ, all of them are on their way to hell. If that’s true, it’s not possible to sit back in a nice comfortable Christian spin of the American dream. But, we must give our lives. And there are churches to go and make this news known. I need to that in my life every day.
- Do I believe the person next to me, in this conversation, that I know doesn’t know Christ, do I believe they’re going to hell?
- If so, do I believe there are eternal implications for them for not believing the Gospel?
- If so, I must speak this Gospel.
It all goes back to a heart issue. In my heart, is Christ Lord? Do I want His glory, more than I want my own life? Do I want His glory, more than I want to preserve my own reputation? To be comfortable, to avoid awkwardness. Do I want His glory in the world, more than I want my own dreams, missions, plans, possessions, whatever it might be? So, to investigate our hearts, examine our hearts and say, „On the supremacy of Christ, is He supreme in my affections? And what I believe, what I feel, as a result, and how can I put this into practice where I live?
Not compelled by guilt. (But) we need to be convicted if we’re not being obedient, when it comes to the great commission. At the same time, it’s not what’s gonna sustain obedience. What’s gonna sustain obedience is a passion to see the Gospel spread, and more, and more people, so that God receives glory from the people.
We encourage our folks to ask these questions:
- How can I pray?
- How can I go?
- and even on going: How can I go short term?(1 to 2 weeks) How can I go midterm? (2 months – 2 years) How can I go long term? (spend your life somewhere.
And then, that, not even in just traditional missionary routes; it is still something we need to do, through the business vocation kind of thing to do in different parts of the world. When we ask these questions, I think we want to tell our folks: „Surrender and abide.” So, surrender, put the check on the table, with your life, with your family, with your possessions, with your dreams, with your ambitions, „Lord, whatever you want to do, no strings attached, wherever you want to go.” And if you’ve got a blank check on the table, and then you are abiding in him, walking in His word, in prayer, praying for the nations, given to the nations, and going, making disciples right where you live, and as God leads… If we’re surrendered to Him, abiding in Him, I think we can have full confidence that the sovereign God of the Universe isn’t gonna let us be in the wrong place in this mission. He’s gonna make it clear. He’s gonna transform our minds, our desires, in the context of community and the church, and He’s gonna make it clear when He wants us to do something other than what we’re doing.
Praying for the nations, yes, the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest. Pray, give, especially in this context, we are incredibly wealthy as compared to the rest of the world, and to think through that where our treasure is, our heart will be also. I wanna think through, how can we give to the nations? But, when it comes to going, what I love about the Great Commission is all of us are involved in global mission, as we’re making disciples right where we live. I mean, Jesus spent the majority of His life in an isolated geographic part of the world. And He poured Himself into 12 guys. And the result is 2000 years later, you and I are celebrating His Gospel together at this conference. So, there’s a multiplication that happens when we’re making disciples. So, I’d wanna tell that guy, „Make disciples right where you are. You’re part of a global plan to see the Gospel multiplied to all peoples. So, make disciples to right where you are.” And (be) always open, the Lord may lead you to somewhere else, maybe not- you may spend all your life right there, exactly where you are.
But, even when I think about this in my own life. I pastor in Birmingham, Alabama. Talk about reached. We got Gospel, we’re like at the heart of it. And this is where I wanna kind of debunk the idea that, „Oh, so those who are passionate about the nations, go to the nations, and, those who are passionate about the locals stay here. No. We’re all passionate about the nations. We want the glory of God in all nations. That’s the way we live. We pray, we give, we go, making disciples right where we are, and then, the Lord will call different people to do different things. And, we don’t need to compare what He’s doing in anybody else’s life and feel we’re any less, or any more spiritual. I mean, we look at Paul and Timothy, for example. Timothy was a pastor in a church. Paul is moving from one place to the next. I mean, he’s a pioneer, going to new places, planting churches. Timothy, staying in Ephesus. There’s a place for both in the kingdom of God. That’s what I love, the creativity of God in the Great Commission; how He will lead us in different ways, to be a part of this Great Commission to all nations. And the way it will look in my life and your life is different. But, the same things will be there. We’ll be making disciples, we’ll be praying, giving, going, however the Lord leads, and until He comes back.
I didn’t think I’d be in Birmingham, and I would love to pastor this church for the next 30 years, however long the Lord gives. At the same time, if He redirects tomorrow, I would… I remember a pivotal point in my life, I was talking to a president of a mission board, and my wife and I had been praying about going overseas, and we were ready. And so, I sat down and I had an opportunity to say at breakfast, and I said, „I think my wife and I are ready to go.” And he said, „Oh, that’s great, David. You know, at the same time, there’s a real need for pastors to shepherd churches, to go to the nations here.” And he began to talk to me for the next hour about that. I went home, told my wife- we had prayed about this conversation, we were ready to go, I said, „I think the president of this mission board just talked me out of going overseas. It was odd.” But, I hoped that that what the Lord was doing. So, anyway, who knows what this will look like in my life in the days to come?
Question: What happens when you’re in that pulpit?
Platt: There’s a power and authority in the word, that I don’t have in myself. And a boldness that I don’t have in myself, and a confidence that I don’t have in myself. It’s all in the word. I pray for the presence of God. I pray for anointing upon the Word, for the purposes of God. I pray for that. I long for that.
On the key to driving more people to missions: Platt: I think the key is we’re not going to be content, but global missions, the Great Commission as a side thing over here in the church. This is what’s gonna drive us. And we’re not gonna have missions weekend once a year, a missions committee over here, who does a little bit of stuff. At the heart of the church, we want the glory of Christ to the nations. So, it’s gonna infiltrate every week preaching. I’m gonna connect God’s glory to the nations. We’re gonna celebrate when people are going in Birmingham, going around the world. And at all those levels at the church, how we plan fasting for the spread of the Gospel to the nations, we wanna be intentional about giving, we have so ah… That’s been part of our journey at the church. We have so much room still to grow, but, you look at the budget of the church and it doesn’t reflect the passion for the nations, so we try to shift our budget to say, „How can we spend less on us, our stuff, and more on getting the Gospel to the nation,” and encourage people to do that. And then, encourage a sending culture in the church that says, „We really do, we wanna do less for our seating capacity and more for our sending capacity into Birmingham, North America and the nations.”
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/65323723]
24 După aceea, Ben-Haded, împăratul Siriei, strîngîndu-şi toată oştirea, s’a suit şi a împresurat Samaria. 25 În Samaria a fost o mare foamete, şi atît de mult au strîmtorat -o încît un cap de măgar preţuia optzeci de sicli de argint, şi un sfert de cab de găinaţ de porumbel cinci sicli de argint. 26 Şi pe cînd trecea împăratul pe zid, o femeie i -a strigat: ,,Scapă-mă, împărate, domnul meu!„ 27 El a răspuns: ,,Dacă nu te scapă Domnul, cu ce să te scap eu? Cu venitul ariei sau al teascului?„ 28 Şi împăratul i -a zis: ,,Ce ai?„ Ea a răspuns: ,,Femeia aceea mi -a zis: ,Dă-mi pe fiul tău să -l mîncăm astăzi, şi mîne vom mînca pe fiul meu.` 29 Noi am fiert pe fiul meu, şi l-am mîncat. Şi în ziua următoare i-am zis: ,Dă pe fiul tău să -l mîncăm.` Dar ea a ascuns pe fiul ei.„ 30 Cum a auzit împăratul cuvintele acestei femei, şi -a rupt hainele, cînd stătea pe zid. Şi poporul a văzut că pe dinlăuntru avea un sac de păr pe trup.31 Împăratul a zis: ,,Să mă pedepsească Dumnezeu cu toată asprimea, dacă va rămînea astăzi capul lui Elisei, fiul lui Şafat, pe trupul lui!„32 Elisei şedea în casă, şi bătrînii şedeau lîngă el. Împăratul a trimes pe cineva înainte. Dar înainte ca să ajungă solul, Elisei a zis bătrînilor: ,,Vedeţi că acest fiu de ucigaş trimete pe cineva să-mi ia capul? Ascultaţi! Cînd va veni solul, închideţi uşa, şi opriţi -l la uşă; nu se aude oare sunetul paşilor stăpînului său în urma lui?„33 Pe cînd le vorbea el încă, solul se şi pogorîse la el, şi împăratul a zis: ,,Iată, răul acesta vine dela Domnul; ce mai am de nădăjduit dela Domnul?„
Photo Reuters via 
