End Game

Years ago, Sarah and I took a course to learn about God’s heart for all the nations of the world and why we do missions. Missions in and of themselves is a strange concept to most. Some of us think of the Mormon elders who show up at your door on bikes. Some people who grew up in the church may think of that strange family who lives in a third world country and take up a weekend service once a year to share a bunch of pictures of a far-off land and the new friends they’ve made and the work they’re doing. 

As people of God and followers of Jesus, we are not afforded the luxury of merely coexisting and keeping our religion to ourselves. It was very much at the center of Jesus’ ministry to share the “Good News of the Kingdom” (Luke 4:43) and if we are called to follow in our Lord’s example, we are to do the same. 

Being a fairly critical thinker, I always ask the question, “to what end?” If you’re anything like I am, you like to understand the goal that you are shooting for. I need vision to see what it is we are trying to accomplish. I fully believe that God understands this and has given us plenty of vision but I want to share one passage that I believe lays out the vision of sharing the Good News of the Kingdom succinctly:  

1 ”May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2 that your way may be known on earth,

your saving power among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!”

- Psalms 67:1-3 (ESV) 

This has been the passage of Scripture I have chosen to wrap my life around. Here is why: 

We often feel very comfortable receiving the blessing of God as laid out in verse 1. We love the grace that God gives us because we are forgiven when we should be punished; we are redeemed when what we deserve is to be cut off. Thank God for His grace! Yet, we receive God’s unmerited favor for a reason: We are to share that grace with those far from God so that they would know Him, His ways, and His saving power. 

Finally, we see the end game. It’s not only that we would hear of God’s saving power and understand His ways; it’s that we would worship! “Let the people’s praise you, O God!” Just as Louie Giglio phrased it in his book, The Air I Breathe, “Worship is simply about value. The simplest definition I can give is this: Worship is our response to what we value most.”

As we worship, we respond to God in song, telling of Him, living as He lived and tells us to live, and living in the utmost joy in relationship with Him. In short, God blesses the church therefore the church blesses those who are far from God so all the nations would worship God. 

As we come together this weekend, let’s live in the promise that this will be fulfilled as we worship together. We will start off our set with We Won’t Stay Silent, once again because we need God to stir desperation for His name sake among all people. We will then sing This I Believe to reaffirm in our hearts who we are and who Jesus is to us. Finally, we will end our set with a new song called Jesus Saves, to live in the promise of redemption for those far from God. We will also have a special song this weekend called My Story to remember that our story is wrapped in the greatest narrative; His story.