Pastor Gillmore: We'll look at Romans chapter 10 in a few minutes here as we spend our time together. It's a joy to have you all here and to be part of this. I want to, as we begin here, introduce you to a dear friend of mine.

And his name is Christopher. Christopher was saved the moment, or down in that lower right-hand corner, was the day Christopher got saved on January 2, 2014. As a preacher, African friend of mine, and I preached the gospel in a small village called Bombay, just about ten days later, on January 12, we baptized him.

And that a few weeks, a few months later, I was there and I recorded this testimony from him.

Participant: Let's go. I was trying to rush behind them. I asked them, "We take a decision we are able to do." They are not baptized all the small children.

Because our baptism is the real one. Because you are able, you have made a decision, how can you fall back? I was praying to their houses, preaching to them, bringing them back to God.

I'm even glad when I see them. Even if I cannot see anyone that has absenteeches, I'm very, very interested in it. I'm not going to be able to do that.

to see that after church services, I go to the house and ask them why have they not come to church. The old man was telling me, the old man was telling me, he had no reason to tell me, but I was telling him, it is laziness. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

That says the scripture. Make your mind, don't work on Sunday day. When you get up, you go to church and not even with the stereo head. So after this age,

one early morning morning one of my child was sick i had only three thousand pounds with me so oh my wife came to me i said go to the hospital on the way going to bali that child affected by concussion that child nearly dead but a young man just met my wife and took the child to the hospital and my child was well and she came back with the baby another one again he came back on morning other one was sick again on Thursday.

I said, "What a great thing is this." I continued praying to God that, "Oh God, this burden, you see it in your word. Those who carry heavy load will come unto you and he will give them rest. I don't have any power to do anything, but on your own power, you will frame me." I continued praying, praying, praying.

As I see the improvement of the church and let Pastor Mark have come back, I'm very grateful to see that Christians and the life of the church, or baby lover future is increasing. So I'm very, very grateful for seeing it grow.

Pastor Gillmore: Christopher joined us in January of 2015, almost a year later, as my son and I trekked to new villages. Then, in June of 2015, a whole group of BCM students and opportunities like this are part of our college. We went over to Aquia, and we split into teams.

One team was a team that I was in, and in this group of people was Christopher. Christopher was the believer right here, and he was part of our team as we went around preaching the gospel. Here was the key men who'd been come.

Christopher is standing right there in the middle. We preached the gospel. You see Christopher on the right-hand side of the page leading men to Christ.

In December of that year, 2015, we gathered together. We taught men how to lead their churches. We taught them through the book of Ephesians.

At the end of that time, we recognized their hard work and graduated them from that short course. Then a year later, December of this past 2016, my wife and I returned, and lo and behold, Standing there was a church building that Christopher himself had seen through to completion. We were there and we built some, had some bricks and prepared it further.

Here's a testimony of Christopher at that time.

Participant: I'll be happy to see how people have been gathered around my company, even children from God, I'll come back to the camp and the play will be sister, sister Bettina and sister Elizabeth.

So I thank God so much because it will be out of my way without this church and without me being someone, I will be nobody being known inside the community but before God I've been known inside the community because they don't bring my fellow Christians and my pastor and And I look very grateful for staying with them. And so I will look at this verse, and I will look at these on good things.

These verses encourage me, but also not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a manner of some, but exerting one another as we see as they are approaching.

Pastor Gillmore: Whenever Christopher gives a testimony, it's always with a word of Scripture that is just so spot on, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. He said, I was a nobody in my community. He literally lived on the outside of the village, which itself was on the outside of humanity.

You can't get much more humble than Christopher. We taught him the hour of prayer, and they actually called the church to a day of fasting and prayer. In this testimony, then I'm going to skip past.

He just talked about how that day was, he wasn't even hungry. God had just strengthened him in that matter of prayer. And this here is his wife, and he had twins, bless and blessing.

and he was just so filled with joy. I remember all the way back to three and a half years ago when we first began to work with him. And I tell you about him today.

Because two nights ago, he went home to be with the Lord. he talked about how he took his little daughter and rushed to the ball in clinic praying for her and god healed her that's what someone did with him just two nights ago got a fever was vomiting they rushed him down to the bush clinic and about two in the morning he passed away 42 years old the average lifespan in cameroon is about 55 out where he lives it's probably about 45. And he's in heaven.

He's with Jesus. Do you know the first person who preached the gospel in his village was a teenager? The first person was a teenager.

My son Stephen was on that team, and Bombay was so inconsequential. Bombay was so, it wasn't even on the map. We'd been through several villages, and we just walked into that village, and we preached the gospel and left the next morning.

And God put it on my heart, if we don't go back, who will? If we don't go back, who will? And so we returned on January 1, 2014, and Christopher was saved on January 2, 2014.

now he's in the presence of the Lord with Chief Assange and my mother and sure is worth it isn't it you know young people that each one of you has in you a treasure, that you could walk into any village on earth and you would have more Bible knowledge than that whole village of persons combined. You would have the ability to teach them the gospel and disciple them with what you already know. You could plant a church.

you could you say I don't know you know plenty for God to use you in that way and what is God doing in our world today I would just take the area of China do you know that in China Before I do that, let me ask something here. How many of you here have led someone to the Lord? If you've led someone to the Lord, would you stand up?

In your lifetime, you have led someone to the Lord. Okay. Okay, that's fantastic.

Okay, here's what I want to do. I want every one of you who has led someone to the Lord to find someone sitting down who maybe has not had that opportunity and sit down beside them. Okay, so you can move around a little bit right here.

If you are standing, find someone who is seated. Okay, now we're going to get confused. Okay, all right, stay standing, actually.

if you were standing, find someone, sit next to them who's sitting, and stay standing if you are standing so we can make sure we find someone here. And I want teams of two here between someone who's led some of the Lord and someone who hasn't. So move around, find someone if you have to.

Go. Everyone who's led some of the Lord, find someone who hasn't and sit down next to them. Okay, stay standing if you have led someone to the Lord, okay,

Participant: so we can see who needs a partner here.

Pastor Gillmore: Okay, everyone got a partner? Okay, who doesn't have a partner? Who doesn't have a partner?

Okay. All right, now, if you don't have a partner, just find one. It doesn't matter who, okay?

If you don't have a partner, okay? Got it? Okay, now you all may be seated.

Okay, sit down there. What I want to do here is I'd like to dedicate this next time here to Christopher and to another 300 million people who are like him. You see, in our world, we have 7.5 billion people, 40% it's estimated who have never heard.

If they all heard, at least 10% would believe. That's 300 million. Do you believe that if they all heard, 10% would believe?

Out of those believers, some 10% would become gospel laborers. That's 30 million gospel laborers in the harvest field of our world today. How many do we have in our room right now?

Well, we've got about 300 gospel laborers. How many Jesus teams would that be? How many apostolic teams would that be?

Jesus sent people out two by, the apostles went out two by two. Okay, so how many teams do we have here in this room right now? We have 150 teams, and you are the harvest.

God's brought the gospel to you. Now you're 150 gospel teams. And I want you to think with the person seated next to you just for a moment.

Here's a question. If the two of you gave yourself in gospel effort to reach a region over the next 30 years, how many people could you influence with the gospel? Ask the person, your team member, what that would be.

For the next 30 years, you and the two of you went to a region or regions. How many people could you get the gospel to? We'll come back to that in just a minute if we do have time.

We'll see. If we got the gospel to everyone, would 10% believe? Well, I really believe way more than 10% would believe.

You know, Jerusalem at the time of Christ likely had a population of about 100,000. How many people were saved at Pentecost? 3,000.

A chapter later, it says that the number of the believing men were 5,000. Believers more added. Multitudes.

There's easily over 10,000 believers in Jerusalem, which is 10% or more of Jerusalem was reached with the gospel there. And now I want to ask you about China. How many believers are there in China right now?

You know that every day, if you average out what's happened in China over the last 30 days, every day in China, there have been between 10,000 and 25,000 people come to Christ in China. There's areas of China that are 18% Christian. The area of Henan, another major coastal city.

And this map here shows you in the deeper colors the more reached areas of China. There are more Christians than Communist Party members in China. Out of a total population of 1.3 billion, the estimates of Christians is between 100 and 130 million believers.

That's about 10%. Would you like to just see what that is like? Here is just a little bit of the underground church in China.

Participant: A few places in the world are seeing the explosion of God's power like the underground church in China is experiencing. And in the last 60 years, China's communist government has done its best to wipe Christianity off the map. What you are about to see is some of the rarest footage on the planet.

In this church, the people wake up at 4.30 to come together for two hours to pray and worship. They do this every day. This church meets in the only place they are safe.

A cave. This church meets on a farm, far away from prying eyes. Here's an example of an underground church outreach.

The people sitting are Christians. The people who are standing are not. In this particular meeting, over 1,000 people became Christians.

In Shanghai alone, there are over 3,000 house churches, just like this one. One thing Dennis pointed out to me was that most of the underground churches in China are actually led by young people. These kids have all come out of the communist system, and they want nothing to do with it.

They only want to spread the love of Jesus to everybody they meet. One thing I quickly realized about the Chinese church is that it's a lot different from the American one. For one thing, they think a four-hour sermon is short.

In this church service, it's 120 degrees inside the building. The people meet for 12 hours straight. Dennis told me one story about a time he went to a very remote village in China to preach.

He was led into a large room where the people were packed so closely together that he had his back to the wall and could reach out and touch the row in front of him. Everyone stood. There was no room to sit.

He asked how long he should preach for, and they told him from 8.30 to 7 at night. Then they asked him, if it wasn't too much trouble, could you come back tomorrow and preach from 8.30 to 7 again? And then, very sheepishly, they asked again, If you'd be so kind, could you come back the day after that and preach from 8.30 to 7?

He asked how often he should take breaks, and they told him not to stop. The people awake. Then he asked them what he should preach on.

Everything, they replied, from Genesis to Revelation. And then it dawned on him. These people had no Bibles.

After the death of Mao Zedong, the Chinese people, cheated by a false god, began to search for the true God. For the first time in their lives, people from the lowest levels of society came face to face with God's unconditional love, with Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and with the knowledge that in God's temple they had value and dignity, how could they not rejoice, like everyone who has received the most precious gift in the world? The first time I went to church.

I felt the atmosphere there was really good. I found true meaning in life. I found a peace that I never felt before, peace in the Lord.

So I can sleep without reservation. I will follow God for the rest of my life. After the service, my soul felt especially sweet and joyful.

Lord, how wonderful it will be if we can meet like this every day. I lay away for three nights, overwhelmed with joy. I thought, Lord, what have I received?

Why am I so filled with joy? I have no way. I have no family.

I have nothing. See what the hell is the Lord's joy? And you know, I was absolutely sure that this joy came from heaven.

Pastor Gillmore: Hmm. What if we were as passionate in prayer as they were? They are passionate in praise.

The power of God is there a the most challenging region of mission work in the world has been called the region of Uttar Pradesh, which you have the map in front of you, the state on the north side of India right up against Nepal. Some years ago, I was interested in what God was doing there. God led me to an indigenous missions movement that their goal is to see that region of India 10% Christian.

And you see map, that's the counties, the blocks of that region where they have begun for houses that are open for prayer, the number that have been discipled, and that is exactly the will of God. I think at this point they maybe are reaching close to 2%, and 10% is their goal. Look at Romans chapter 10 and verse number 1.

Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. We get a glimpse here into Paul's heart, but we also get a glimpse into the heart of God.

Because Christ came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be to seek and to save the lost. He was on a mission. And the mission was not one of condemnation.

The mission was one of salvation. And we know that right now Jesus Christ is seated on the throne of victory and he's transferred that mission to you and I. See, the very same mission Jesus was on, he is on in our lives.

We have a mission. The mission is straight from the heart of God. There were successful and experienced church planters.

They were planting a church in an island in Asia. And they began to fast and pray as a body saying, God, we are desperate for you. We want to know your heart.

Reveal to us your heart. And they fasted and they prayed to draw close to their father's heart. It completely transformed their church.

They began to have a heart for the nations. In fact, they began to send missionaries, pray for the unreached, pursue partnerships. And one man they partnered with was Toshi, an Asian who was focused on the unreached people groups in Africa.

Well, he was encouraging local African pastors to launch missions near him. They adopted this church in Asia, a missionary church. Now they're going to the world.

they adopted a Muslim people group that lived in several islands. They were Arab descendants intermarried with African women, so they had a combination of Islam and African customs like worship, ancestor worship and witchcraft. Toshi organized several prayer walks through these villages, and at one time he had really an unpromptu gospel meeting or gospel preaching in a town where the chief happened to be.

He heard the gospel, and he said, I open my islands to you. I want you to take this message to all of the Uslamu Islands. He numbered off 12.

Well, they left that meeting, and the storm came up and pushed their boat to an island they tried to avoid. When they arrived there, they found it wasn't really an island they were supposed to go on. The chief hadn't even numbered it because it had a bad reputation.

But as they sat there and warmed around a fire, they sang a song and began to preach the gospel using simple laminated gospel cards. And the island elder said, you must come again. and share more with us.

As Ken left the island that day, he said, if I don't go back, who will? If you don't go, who will? Well, they began to pray through a strategy of prayer support, gospel story sets, translators, transportation.

Within a few weeks, they produced a booklet called The Jesus Story. Their language. After several months, Ken went back to his church in Asia, wrapped that ministry up, put it in national hands, and himself came back to this work to see it established.

They had 20 men soon studying the Bible. Many prayed to receive Christ. They began to inquire about baptism.

Well, they encouraged these men, you return to your home. Tell your wives about your intention to forsake your old ways and follow Christ. Well, when they gathered them for baptism, more than 90 islanders showed up to be baptized.

The following weekend, 35 more were baptized. God did amazing things. One of the islands was actually eroding and sinking, and in a prayer meeting, God actually, his spirit met with him.

The process was reversed, and for three years, the island allowed the people, it was stable, and they allowed the people to fully relocate. Ken said, we're only here with you for a few years, so you have the responsibility to take the gospel to your people and beyond. There are others waiting to hear that we must go to.

God's laid them on our hearts. They employed two main primary principles of disciple-making. Number one, they always said this, what you learn today, you must put into practice today.

Obey. The second principle was, you should go and teach someone else today what you just learned. They equipped a core group of emerging leaders, employed a simple, consistent structure of worship meetings.

There was one chief who forbid them to come on his island for a time. Some of the promising leaders fell into sin, but they overcame the work of Satan. And today, this is a fully indigenous movement, over 8,000 believers, 150 churches, and 200 house gatherings.

Additionally, the movement has reached beyond themselves now to two other unreached people groups. So the heart of God is for reaching. But I just want to go through this passage here just for a moment here and just look at something here.

I'm going to just call it the, we noted the love of missions. I want you to notice the lost of missions. Look at verse 2.

I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but not according to what? For they being what?

Ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness. They've not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. So what is it that the lost have?

What problem do they have? They have the problem of? What do they have?

The problem of? Ignorance.

ignorance no one ever told them isn't that it they're ignorant and it goes on and it describes here Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes Christ is the full solution but look at verse 5 Moses describes the righteousness of the law that the man which does these things shall live according to them but the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this way do you realize that most of the peoples of the world have an approach to righteousness that

is law-based.

It's works-based. All the religions are works-based. Whether it's a Christian religion or a non-Christian, it's all works-based attempts at righteousness.

But look at verse 6. The righteousness which is of faith speaks in this way. Say not in your heart who shall attend into heaven.

That's to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep. That's to bring Christ up again from the dead.

Do you realize that all of the false religions of the world put on people, catch this, impossible demand? Pastor Daniel, a man I met in Mandalay in Myanmar, says he goes to Buddhists and says, what are you trying to do? Tell me how you're living.

And they'll list all of the standards of righteousness in Buddhism. And he says, how are you doing? You meeting it?

No. He says, well, let me tell you God's standard. He gives the Ten Commandments and says, do you meet those?

No. Well, let me tell you another way to meet God's standards. All the peoples of the world are taking extreme measures to try to attain God's attention and attain God's acceptance.

And this verse says, don't say in your heart any longer who's going to go to the extreme height or the extreme depth to reach Christ because, folks, the good news is there's someone who did the extreme for us. There's someone who went to the depths of hell for us. There's someone who came from the heights of heaven for us.

The extreme has already been done. Now people just have to discover and hear that it's been done. God sent his son.

He became one of us. He's the eternal God, but he became a man, and he lived as we live, and he did that for every man and woman, every nation on earth. He did the extreme.

And you know what salvation is? It's so simple. I can't see through my tears.

It's so simple. Look at verse 8. What says it?

the word is what? near you even in your mouth and in your what?

heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shalt believe in thine heart God raised him from the dead there's the difficult part thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes with the mouth confession is made for the scripture says whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed you know that there's not a single person who's ever believed on Christ that didn't make it to heaven there's not a single person who

heard about Christ believed on him that isn't a part of that full righteousness Christopher is in heaven today because he called on the name of the Lord and it wasn't hard it was simple someone just had to say if I don't go who will salvation is not difficult the difficult the extreme work was done by Christ the whole world is trying to do an extreme work to go tell him that it's been done by Jesus Christ.

Then, look at verse 12. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

You realize the limitless possibility of the gospel. You can't tell the gospel to a wrong person. You can't preach the gospel to someone who isn't capable of receiving it.

The Lord is rich unto all. I don't care what religious background there is, folks. There is a gospel bridge into the heart of every man, woman, and child on this planet.

If you get serious about it, God will show that to you. This is the loss of missions. They're really lost for two reasons.

They're lost for two reasons, and that's this. They're lost because of the reason of blindness and the reason of silence. Silence is what we're talking about.

We've never opened our mouths. That's why they're still lost. There's another reason why, and that's the issue of blindness.

The God of this world has blinded their eyes, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should. So what side of gospel labor is that talking about? We must open our mouths and speak, but we must get on our knees and pray.

There's the two coordinate sides of the spiritual battle of why people remain ignorant is because of the blinding work of Satan and the silence, non-work of God's people. If I were to tell you what's happening in places where the gospel is exploding, and we talked about the prayer habits of these people, a survey was done in India as well as in Africa among multiplying indigenous work and the leaders in India pray in personal prayer three hours a day. They fast a day a week.

Teams pray for three hours daily. One week in a month they're fasting and in prayer. They're becoming people of prayer, mobilizing others to pray.

100,000 intercessors among the Bojpuri people. The leaders in Africa, personal prayer one to three hours a day. fasting, family devotion centered on discovery and prayer, regular all night six hour prayer vigils.

Okay folks, what if we stopped playing games and actually began to actually use the weapons God's given us? What would happen? What would happen if we took prayer seriously?

What if we took our mission seriously? So the loss of missions. And then there's the logic of missions.

By the way, just a thought. On the side of the courageous witness, God says, I'm going to send you as lambs among wolves. Remember that in Luke chapter 10?

Lambs among wolves. See, a lot of times we want to try to become a wolf, and then I'll be a good witness. No, you and I just go as lambs.

A lamb is a meek animal. You know that you and I, when we go out to witness, we're not going out to pick fights.

you know that I think sometimes Satan deceives you into thinking that you know if I try to start speaking to my my fellow my neighbor the kids at school whatever they're going to all get angry at you do you know that that's actually not the plan of God you say well they're going to get angry you and I don't go out picking a fight or expecting one you know if we go out picking a fight or expecting one on that human level We're actually missing

the point of our own spirit.

You know, when it comes to the human side, we're going out to actually share the love of God, aren't we? We're actually going to go and tell the good news that just changed my life completely. I'm going out with this sincere but compassionate witness.

I'm not going out to blast someone. I'm going out to… I was sitting just in a coffee shop when I found out about Christopher, Just on Tuesday, the guy was next to me, and I said, I just found out my friend in Africa died.

He said, oh, I'm sorry. He said, yeah, I've been there handing out the gospel and Bibles. I said, you read the Bible much?

He said, not as much as I should. I go to this Lutheran church. I said, are you ready to die?

I gave him a track. and he took it. It wasn't a battle.

Not on the human plane. God is, we just need to open and share what God's doing in our hearts. Sincerely, genuinely.

God will give you the words as we already heard the message about the fear of man, isn't it? Don't let the fear of man bind you. the logic of missions.

The logic of missions is down in verses 14 and 15. How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Here we have a logic.

Some of you maybe like logic or not. Logic can be flawed sometimes. here's a logical statement if teens drink coffee it will stunt their growth Tristan's growth seems to be stunted Tristan must have drank coffee is that an accurate syllogism there?

hey young man you're smart there someone's got no way that's not accurate syllogism how about this one the more cheese the better pizza. This pizza is cheesier than the rest. This pizza is better.

That's correct. And on probably a couple levels. All right.

So here's what we have in front of us. We have logic. And that logic basically says, if they never believe, they won't call.

If they never hear, They won't believe. If there's no preacher, they won't hear. The premise is your response that if you go, they'll hear.

But if you don't go, they never will. I think we've got the logic messed up. Because this is our logic in missions.

Some are surely going to die having never heard. That's our logic. Some are surely going to die having never heard.

You see, we actually don't have accurate missions logic. And it's a stunning thing to actually wake up to the fact that the way we've been thinking about missions in the Great Commission is absolutely dead wrong. That we've actually forsaken the logic that's in the Word of God in regard to the Great Commission.

James Frazier was a student in a university, brilliant musician, engineer, and one day he picks up this pamphlet written by a missionary to China. And listen carefully to this. He said this, The command has been given.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It has not been obeyed. More than half the people in the world have never yet heard the gospel.

What are we to say to this? Surely it concerns us Christians very seriously, for we are the people who are responsible. No one else is.

The angels aren't. The unconverted aren't responsible for that command. They have much to answer for, but not for the neglect of the heathen.

The charge has been entrusted exclusively to us. What then can we say if our master returns today and finds that after 19 centuries, more than half the world is utterly un-evangelized? The gospel to every creature, a plain command.

Millions have never heard it, a simple fact. What are we going to say? You know what?

if our master returned today to find millions of people un-evangelized and looked as of course he would to us for an explanation I cannot imagine what explanation we would have to give. Of one thing I'm certain most of our excuses we're accustomed to make with such a good conscience now we'd be wholly ashamed. We'd be wholly ashamed of them.

See when the Lord said get the gospel to every creature, he actually meant it. He meant it. Which means the logic of missions is this.

If I've heard, and I've believed, and there's those who've never heard, that just changed the plans for my life.

that's the logic of mission if I have heard and I've believed I have eternal life do you realize each one of us is actually existing on the other side of our death when Christ died who died whose death whose hell yours and he's alive and you're in him and you are in eternal life and you will never perish you are living forever and you are never going to die and that defines you that's who you are and there are people around you who've never heard

how that could happen to them and you and I are obligated to be see missions is the obligation of every believer in Christ.

And missions is the obligation, the prime obligation, for young people who are believers in Christ. You say, can young people change the world? Listen, the greatest missions movements have been youth movements.

in 1844 a 21 year old man in London began to speak to another man about his soul before long he had a small group and they met kind of in a business facility well somehow God began to work and before long meetings like that speckled the landscape of London it leaped across to Europe and before long a movement was in place that that is that became the Young Men's Christian Association, the YMCA.

In the course of 50 years, from 1844 to 1894, at the 50-year anniversary of a movement that was far more than what it is today, it was spawning missions movements around the globe. Coming out of that was something called the Student Volunteer Missionary Union that began in 1885 and 1886, and after 15 years, 10,000 young people were enrolled, and one-tenth of them went into missions. After just 12 years, that movement of 1,400 young people saw 300 to 400 from England alone going into foreign missions.

Another movement that is actually more stunning than that began in 1880, and this one outpaced them all. It began with a single church that had a revival among young people. The pastors were very concerned that what God was doing in the hearts of the young people would not fade away and get lost like it normally happened.

They had a Sunday school, they had other church prayer meetings, but they knew that the characteristic was that what has happened to young people when they got on fire is that they would diminish from that. And they sought the Lord specifically. And they gathered these young people together in a meeting at the pastor's home on February 2, 1881.

They put together what they called a young people's society of Christian endeavor. And in it, they had an agreement among these new believers, and at the center of it was this, what they call a prayer meeting pledge. Well, before long, they said God's answer to our prayer because these young people aren't losing what's God done.

They had a consecration meeting. They had a specific program that was part of the weekly experience of this Christian endeavor. And the whole goal was it that the ones who would sign it would be involved in Christian ministry and would not drift away.

Well, before long, churches began to get a hold of what God was doing. And a remarkable spread began from that point forward. Just a few years later, there were 14,000, 15,000 young people, some as far away as Fuchao, China, and Honolulu.

Hundreds of thousands of young people, thousands in Great Britain, and all the missionary lands. And the story is that at the 1895 gathering in Boston, there were 56,000 young people. There were 13 different countries represented.

And at that meeting, they established what they would call, they moved from a prayer chain to what they called a quiet hour prayer. In 1900 by 1900, which is when the report I'm drawing from was written, there were 48,000 societies, mostly local church-based groups, over 7,000 of them in foreign lands, and a total membership of 2,800,000 young people who pledged to meet weekly for purposeful prayer and had been challenged in regard to an hour with God in prayer. This is what God wants in our generation.

We have, we call this cola clash, but what we're calling about this is actually the annual missions convention of the generation. We have the responsibility to be part of the greatest missions movement in world history. We have the responsibility to be part of the greatest missions movement in world history.

And young person, it's an inescapable responsibility. The logic of missions demands that you respond as Isaiah, I'm standing right here, Lord, I'll go send me. Here am I.

And folks, it also demands this. The logic of missions demands that what you will become one day, you are today.

you say well one day I'm going to go to the unreached I walked across my street it was a Monday or Tuesday and a a worker had driven his truck into my driveway not into my road it's a dead end road and so he was waiting there because he had to back back out in Appleton so he's just standing there and waiting I walk up to him and talk to him His name's Peter, young man, lives in West Bend.

Invite him to church and give him the gospel track. And he says, you know what? My wife and I, we just had our baby.

She's three months old. We're going to come. I told her about just our family ministry here.

He said, we're going to come and check it out. And it was as sincere and open as engagement as any time. Okay, so I could have walked by, but here's my question.

If I didn't talk to Peter, who would? if you don't talk to that next door neighbor who will yeah if you don't go someday who will but if you don't speak today who will see the mission is today the mission goes on today and God wants each one of us to surrender to this mission today so how many would you and your partner reach? Our time is God.

I want to add up all those numbers. I don't think we'll have a chance. How many will you and your partner reach in the next 30 years?

I wonder what that number would be. Someone tell me what your number was. Tell me what your number was.

What was the number? You get a number? Who got a number?

What was you and your partner? What was that? 100,000.

Fantastic. What was another number? I love that.

One person a day for 30 years is what? 10,950. Fantastic.

What was your number? Say that again. Half the size of China.

Well, yeah, fantastic. Wonderful. Someone else?

What was your number? Yes, okay. A minimum of 15,000 heard the gospel, 5,000 read.

Okay, there's just a few numbers. What if we actually added up the potential here? Do you get the idea that this room's talking about a lot?

Do you get the idea that God's probably thinking in terms way beyond what we are thinking? if we gave our lives to it and lived on mission what would god do well it's not what would god do it's what are we obligated to do right we've missed it when the lord said you go and get the gospel to every creature he wasn't saying sit back and wait for me to do it. Right?

He gave you an obligation. He gave you a responsibility. Completing the Great Commission so that every person hears the gospel.

And I want to tell you, if you come to Baptist College of Ministry, we'll tell you a lot more about how that works because the Great Commission can be completed in our generation. and not everyone sees that but it's there if you want to see it but it begins with a choice and a decision let's bow our heads here for prayer There's two questions here.

First question is, I offer my life to go to those who've never heard according to what God wills and leads in my life. I offer my life to go to those who've never heard. If that's your choice, would you just stand where you are?

Praise God, you may be seated. Second question. I will become today what one day God wants me to be.

And that is this. I will open my mouth and speak to those around me now who've never heard. And my intent is that by God's grace, I want to witness and engage people at least on a weekly basis in my life.

And since this is not my mission, it's my Father's mission, I can only live this life if I'm walking with Him. So I will spend daily time in prayer so that God can lead me every week to reach those around me who've never heard. So this is specific intent in this question, and that is I will become today what God wants me to be for the sake of those who've never heard.

my intent is that I will seek to witness weekly and I will seek to walk with God daily so that God can use me in that way and this begins today if that's your heart would you also would you stand at this time Dr. Jim, if you'd come up this way, I would just want to have a word of prayer, and then I'm going to let Dr. Jim likewise close as he leads.

Let's pray. Lord. Lord, we are weak and frail vessels in your hand.

I'm aware of that, Lord, but your mission stands in who you are and what is your intent for our world. We're humble before you, and at the same time, we're so grateful for every step of obedience that you have brought to pass in our life. I give you the glory that right now in your presence is Christopher, and he'll be with you forever, and he and I will walk the streets of gold together.

I'll rejoice today that you gave the grace to say, if I don't go, who will? Lord, I've disobeyed you many times. I ask, Lord, that you work in my heart, that I too would be part of this generation, part of this decision, that together we may be able to walk with you daily and speak for you, weekly, certainly, even daily, that, Lord, we might be able to stand before you one day and not have to make excuses that on that day will fall so shamefully short.

Please, Lord, start a youth missions movement. Please, Lord, take these lives that are standing here. I don't know many of them.

I talked with young man Corbin just last night, and Lord, I know that what we talked about today is in his heart. There's a lot of young people here right now who mean exactly what they're doing when they're standing. And Lord, I ask that you'd fall upon them at the power of your spirit, that their surrender would be matched by your perfect, sovereign, powerful hand.

Lord, may they win the spiritual warfare and have the greatest joy on earth of bringing the gospel to those who otherwise would never have heard. Lord, we'd be glorified in these lives and may the mission of Jesus be accomplished in our day, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.