Our Heart for the Nations

There are encroachments on the corner shop, and we could never see you enough. Those differences were awesome. You deserve all the glory, heaven and on earth. We pray, Lord, that Your will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Would Your will be done for the month in the lives of my brothers and sisters here today? We ask You to change us and make us more like a stranger. Give us Your heart; give us Your eyes. We bless You.

Good morning! If you are new to the church in the last couple of weeks, let me introduce myself. I'm Pastor Miles, the lead pastor here at the church. Welcome to Cross Connections! I am so glad that you're here. I am blessed to be back. My wife and I had the privilege of traveling in Europe for the last couple of weeks, teaching at a conference. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment.

If you've been a part of our church for any length of time, you know that our vision here is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. That last little statement, connecting with the world through Jesus, is essential to who we are and what we do. We are privileged and pleased to partner with ministries and servants of the Lord who are serving God throughout the world, bringing the gospel to people all over the place. We realize that there are many people in need of the gospel around the world.

Today, I want to introduce you to a couple of those missionaries, those servants of the Lord that we've been connected with for the last several years. Their names are Bubba and Kathy Holzer, and they are here. We have a video interview we want to show you to give you a little bit of insight into who they are, and then we'll introduce you to Bob and Kathy.

We have been working for the last 11 years in South Sudan, which was Sudan and then became South Sudan. We have worked in both countries and have been busy doing quite a few things. We have lived in several different places and have been able to see many people's lives impacted by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That has been a great blessing to us both. I was involved in running a large clinic and health program for the last four years, which God really used to bring opportunities for us to share with many.

We were privileged to see several thousand Muslims come to Christ through our ministry and discipleship program. We were also heavily involved in a small refugee church, mostly composed of Nubian refugees. I participated in team leadership and construction, but my favorite thing to do was to come alongside the chaplains at the clinic, support new church leaders, and disciple them. One of my favorite aspects was working with the new women who were coming to Christ and helping them understand the Word of God. Most of them could not read, so we focused on simple Bible stories. It was great to see them grasp the truth and, little by little, be set free and develop a stronger relationship with Christ.

However, everything was going smoothly until this past Christmas when a disagreement arose between two powerful government agencies in our area, leading to war breaking out on Christmas Day. We were on the ground for two and a half days amidst intense fighting. I had lived in the Middle East for about seven years and experienced civil war, but this was different. The fighting was about twenty to thirty feet outside our door, and I had never heard so many bullets going off. There were thousands of bullets, and it was quite frightening.

The hardest part came after we were evacuated on December 27th. A few days later, shortly after we returned to Kenya safely, we found out that our homes and ministries had been completely looted and vandalized. As if the fighting wasn't bad enough, we were back to square one again, starting from zero. This was the fourth time we had lost everything we had. It was painful to know that the people we loved and served had gone in and taken everything they could. They destroyed what they didn't want, and that was very difficult to bear. I’m not saying that everyone we loved did this, but it was a rough time in South Sudan, and it still is. South Sudan is in a very bad place right now and could really use your prayers, as there is famine in the land, continued fighting, and a lot of hurting.

Before the fighting broke out, Cathy and I both had a lot of responsibilities. We had grown in the community and were involved in various projects. There were many things tugging at us, and it was really hard to balance our ministry, marriage, and relationship with God. We knew that we had to change something even before this happened.

Interestingly enough, while we were waiting in Kenya to see if the team was going to go back into Nora, we thought we were going to return to South Sudan. However, we started losing peace. We took a trip to Jordan in the Middle East and spent ten days there, which was quite a wonderful time filled with a lot of revelation from the Lord. During the time that we were out of the field in South Sudan, the young churches we were involved in, along with the clinic, continued without us. We saw this as a great release from God in that field and a sign that it was time for us to transition into a new one.

We are quite excited about moving to the Middle East, where there are still millions upon millions of unreached people groups. Our target is to move in August of this year, and we will need to go back to school to learn Levantine Arabic. Currently, we speak Modern Standard Arabic and Sudanese Arabic. We will be there for a year to familiarize ourselves with the land and explore how we might reach out to these unreached peoples in our area.

We want to take that first year of language learning to also make the transition from Africa to the Middle East, allowing God to show us the avenue He would have us use in our future before we get fully involved in ministry. Our heart is to reach out to one particular people group in the south, where there are very few workers. We would appreciate your prayers as we enter this new field, learn another language, and acclimate to a whole new country with a different culture.

We want to have eyes to see what God has for us, focusing not just on the needs but also on hearing His voice regarding what He wants us to do. We know that our lives and ministry will be totally different in Jordan because it is not legal to evangelize. Therefore, we will first need to find a way to be there.

Before the government, there is a way to enter into communities and reach the people we want to connect with through the gospel. We have some ideas, and we are now praying for confirmation from the Lord about it all. We couldn't do any of this without your support, so we thank you so much for praying for us, supporting our work, and loving us. It would be hard without you being a part of our ministry. We know that all these things are necessary; being out there alone is not possible for us. We appreciate all your prayers, support, and care, especially whenever we return. We just want to thank you.

Bub and Kathy are two amazing missionaries, and we are blessed to have them here this morning with us. I will pray for them, and I invite you to welcome Bub and Kathy F. It is our tradition here at Cross-Connection that when we have brothers and sisters like Bub and Kathy, we want to invite anyone who would like to come up and pray with us for them and for the work they are doing. God is opening new doors and closing some others, and despite the difficult circumstances, it is a blessing to partner with you and be a part of the work you are doing.

Let us pray. God, thank you so much for this couple and the work you have been doing in and through their lives for many years now. We are privileged to partner with them, even if it sometimes feels like a small way. We know you are doing a work in and through their lives, and they are ambassadors of your kingdom and of this church. We ask, God, that you go before them as they transition from Africa to Jordan. It seems funny to think of cold weather in the Middle East, but we pray for them in every way—physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Go before them and open doors that no man can shut. We pray for wisdom and vision in how they can reach the people they will be connecting with, and we thank you for their efforts in reaching the unreached.

It's hard to imagine that two thousand years after the Commission you gave, there are still unreached people. However, there are still over six thousand distinct unreached people groups. We pray, God, that you would be with them, that you would bless them, and that you would provide for them in every way possible. Lord, support them and help them to know that we are with them and praying for them. We commit them into your hands. Thank you for the work that they are doing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

God bless you all. If you can, please remember to keep this off social media. Thank you for keeping it on the down-low; this is only for you if you're here. Bubba is going to be sharing with our men tomorrow at our men's barbecue in the evening, so come on out. You'll hear a little bit more from Bubba about the work that they are doing there and what we will be doing here. It's pretty awesome.

I had a message prepared this morning from the book of Hebrews, as we've been studying through it. However, after Pastor Nick sent me the video to preview yesterday afternoon, I realized that there is a different message the Lord wanted me to share. My wife and I were just in Europe. For the last three years, I have gone to speak at a conference in Northwest Germany with a church I have been connected with for about thirteen years. I taught at a Bible school there for a year in Vigan, Germany, and I have returned quite a bit over the last thirteen years, especially in the last three years, to speak at a Christian Leadership Conference in Northwest Germany for people throughout Western Europe.

There were about four hundred people gathered at this conference. Many of them were from the church in Vigan, Germany, but there were others from France, the Netherlands, and Austria—all over Western Europe. People have been saying for a long time that Christianity is dead in Europe. I am here to tell you that this is not true. There was a Reformation there five hundred years ago, which we are celebrating this year as the 500th anniversary. Christianity has been moving throughout Europe for two centuries, and God is still doing a work. He has an amazing ability to revive things that are dead. So when people say the church is dead in Europe, that is just not true. God is doing an amazing work, and I have been able to be a part of it and see it. We, as a church, are a part of it, and it's awesome to see.

As we were getting ready to fly over there, we went up to Los Angeles and stayed overnight at a hotel right next to the airport.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a kind of funny story when we got to the hotel at LAX. There were some pretty interesting-looking characters outside of the hotel. They looked like individuals similar to Rahab in the Bible. As we went into the hotel lobby, we saw people with whips and leather, which was kind of strange. When we got up to the counter, Andrea asked the person at the counter if there was some sort of convention going on. She said, "Yes, this is the dominatrix convention at the Hilton Hotel." It was interesting, so we went up to our hotel room and didn't leave until the next morning.

While we were in the hotel room, I was preparing to speak at a conference. I'm always grateful when I speak at any church or conference that they provide me with a theme or a passage ahead of time. This way, I don't have to come up with something out of the blue. I knew that the theme for the conference was going to be "For the Nations," and they had given me a couple of main sessions to teach at, along with a workshop. They had provided titles for those main sessions, but when we were getting ready to leave, I had no messages prepared. I didn't know what I was going to share. The title they gave me for my first message was "Our Heart for the Nations." That's all I knew.

On the 19th of May, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, it was a little bit after midnight. I was setting an alarm to wake up at 5:30. After I set the alarm and laid down, I prayed, "God, you have to give me a message. I don't know what you want me to share." Five hours later, at 5:30, my alarm went off. It was a song from my playlist that I use as an alarm to wake me up. The chorus of the song, which may be familiar to you, says, "Give me your eyes for just one second. Give me your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing. Give me your love for humanity. Give me your arms for the brokenhearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. Give me your heart for the ones forgotten. Give me your eyes so I can see."

Hearing those words at 5:30 in the morning instantly made me aware of what my message would be about. I was very grateful that God came through on that prayer request and provided me with a message right there. Although I had heard those words before and they were not new to me, they reminded me of a very important point at that early hour on May 20th. Point number one on your outline is that I don't naturally have a heart for the...

I don't naturally have a heart for the nations, and frankly, neither do you. It's not natural for us to have a heart for the nations. By nature, we don't have love, compassion, mercy, concern, or care for the peoples of this world. It's not something that is naturally in us; it's severely lacking.

Even though we do see it, it would be ignorant of me to say that people who are not Christians do not have mercy, compassion, or care for others. It would be absolutely ignorant to say that it's not there. It is there, especially when we see terrible events like what you probably saw on the news in London last night or what happened in Manchester a couple of weeks ago. We are confronted every single day with the brokenness of this world, and we see it in news stories. Normally, it's at a distance. We are so privileged and fortunate to live here, where we are largely sheltered from the brokenness of this world.

However, we see it, and it affects us. It scares people and challenges us. When we do see the brokenness of people in the world, our hearts are moved by compassion. That's not natural. In fact, when you talk with the atheistic community, we have a growing atheistic community in Western Europe and the United States. Those who are self-avowed atheists are evangelistic in their atheism.

There are two major questions that they wrestle with in their atheism. Every person of faith, whether atheists or persons of faith, understands that they have faith in something different than what a Christian might have faith in. But every person of faith has questions that they wrestle with; that's a normal part of being a person of faith.

The first major question that atheists wrestle with has to do with the fine-tuning of the universe: Why does life even exist? There are more than 200 parameters that need to be perfectly adjusted for life to exist on this planet in the way that it does. Atheists wrestle with that question.

The second major question that atheists wrestle with is: Why do we even have a compelling sense of mercy or compassion for people? That just doesn't come about by random chance and mutation over billions of years. Where does that come from?

Now, the Christian, the believer in the Bible, has an answer to that question. The reason that even people who are not followers of God have this sense of compassion is part of the larger conversation about our shared humanity.

This world has any sort of push to have compassion or mercy for people who are hurting in other parts of the world because it comes from God. We are created in His image and His likeness, and that is why we even have that inclination. However, even though we have this merciful compassion for the hurts of other people far from us, it is severely lacking. Prophetically, the Bible says that Jesus indicated that as time goes on, love for other people will grow colder and colder. We are witnessing this phenomenon.

One of the reasons why love grows colder is a diagnosable condition recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. This condition affects people in service industries, such as those in emergency medical services, nurses, doctors, police officers, and sometimes even those in ministry. It is called compassion fatigue. When you are constantly giving out mercy and compassion, you can become fatigued, especially when you are overwhelmed by the brokenness of this world. We are indeed being overwhelmed to the point where we hear leaders in our nation and leaders in other nations saying we need to forget about all those other people and focus on taking care of ourselves. This reflects a growing coldness in our love for others, which is prophetic, as Jesus spoke about this in the Gospel.

This love for people is severely lacking in our society, even though there is still a heart for people in the nations. Interestingly, people in the world, including human governments and non-governmental organizations, are sometimes compelled to provide humanitarian aid to other countries. In fact, part of our taxation goes to help other countries deal with issues such as hunger, clean water, education, and medicine. Social justice and various other concerns are addressed by our governments, especially in Western developed nations, which aim to alleviate the suffering of humanity.

What is remarkable is that nearly every nation or non-governmental organization compelled to address the social problems of humanity comes from Christian-influenced nations. Almost without exception, it is the influence of Christianity that drives these efforts.

Compelling people to look out for the needs of humanity is a good thing. It is truly a good thing that we should be concerned about the care and feeding of people who don't have what we have in other parts of the world. We should be compelled to do that. Christians are, and nations that are affected by Christianity are as well.

However, the Christian has a concern that goes beyond just earthly matters. Christians have a heart; they have a compelling desire to meet the needs of humanity that extend beyond hunger, water, medicine, education, and social justice. Christians are concerned not just with the earthly needs of humanity but also with the eternal needs of humanity. In fact, that is point number two on your outlines: Christians have a heart for the earthly and eternal needs of humanity.

Those in our increasingly secular society look at this and say it is absurd. They argue that it is good to be concerned about water, food, education, and medicine, and we should be concerned about those things. However, when Christians express that they are concerned about these issues but also about the eternal problems of humanity, they are often dismissed. Secular society may say that this is foolish because, in their view, when you die, you die; there is no need to be concerned about anything beyond this life.

Yet, for some reason, Christians have a heart for the nations, not just regarding their earthly issues and problems but also their eternal issues. The Christian understands, by reading the Bible, that earthly problems—such as lack of food, lack of clean water, lack of medicine, and health issues—are symptoms of a much deeper problem rooted in an eternal issue. All of the brokenness in this world, including people dying because they lack access to clean water or good food sources, or because they are under oppressive governments, finds its roots in sin. The brokenness of this world exists because of sin. As Romans chapter 5, verse 12 says, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all humanity."

The Christian has a compelling desire to deal with the brokenness of this world and all its symptoms. However, deeper than the symptoms, they want to address the root problem. Christians have a heart for the earthly and eternal needs of humanity.

Now, the questions we will address in our time today are: What exactly is this heart for the nations? Where does this care and concern come from? Why do Christians have it, and how do we display it? In the remaining time we have, I want to explore these questions.

First, what exactly is a heart for the nations? I define it as a deep care, concern, and love for the peoples of this world and their eternal salvation. Our heart for the nations needs to primarily focus on the salvation of the lost. If you are a follower of Jesus today, it is important to understand that our heart for the nations should primarily be for the salvation of the lost.

This does not mean that we are not concerned about access to clean water, food for those who are hungry, medicine for the sick, and education for those around the world. We should also be concerned about these issues. Jesus provided us with an example; He healed the sick, gave to the needy, and fed those who were hungry. We see this example in the Scriptures.

There is a segment of the church, and there are Christians today, who argue that our focus as the church should be on addressing the social needs and problems of the world. They often call themselves "Matthew 25 Christians." The reason they use this title is that in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 25, Jesus teaches about giving water to those who are thirsty, food to those who are hungry, clothes to those who are naked, and helping heal those who are sick. He emphasizes that in as much as we have done this for those in need, the least of these, we have done it unto Him.

There is a segment of Christians who say we need to be focused on social issues and problems in the world. They identify as Matthew 25 Christians. Some of them have gone so far as to say that it doesn't even matter if Jesus rose from the dead because the core of the Christian faith is dealing with these problems. Some have even claimed they do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

I don't think you can be an Orthodox Christian and not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they are not exactly Christian as we would understand an Orthodox, Bible-believing Christian. They have a Christian ethic and want to minister to the problems of humanity, which are all good things that Jesus taught. However, the primary driving force of the Christian Church should be, and has been for 2,000 years, the salvation of the lost.

Why do we have this focus? We have this because Jesus prayed on the night that he would be betrayed. He said, "Father, as you have sent me, so I send them." Jesus came to this world for a purpose, and do you realize that in the Gospels, he articulates for us on several occasions exactly why he came to the world? In John's Gospel, John 10:10, he says, "I have come to give life and that more abundantly."

Those who would call themselves Matthew 25 Christians would look at that verse and say, "Exactly! Jesus came to give life and that more abundantly." They interpret that abundant life as bringing education to the world, better forms of government, releasing the oppressed from oppressive governments, providing food to the hungry, bringing medicine to the sick, and supplying clean water to those who don't have it. They believe that is how we give an abundant life.

While that may be one way to interpret John 10:10, we must also consider the other statements Jesus made regarding his purpose. Another mission statement of Jesus can be found in John 12:46, where he says, "I have come to give light to those in darkness." This aspect of Jesus's mission to bring abundant life to those who lack it involves bringing light to those who are in darkness, which seems to speak to more than just social needs like food and water.

In the education of medicine, I came to give light to those who are in darkness. Mark chapter 10, verse 45, is another one of Jesus's purpose statements. He says, "I have come to give my life a ransom for all." He came to give abundant life, to bring light to those who are in darkness, and to give His life a ransom for all.

Furthermore, we find in Luke chapter 19, verse 10, Jesus says, "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost." Pastor Mark gave a great message a couple of weeks ago about seeking that which is lost: the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son, as described in Luke's Gospel. A couple of chapters after the passage he was in, Jesus meets a man—a wee little man was he—who climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see. His name was Zacchaeus. If you've been in children's ministry, you know about Zacchaeus. In that story, Jesus says, "I have come to seek and to save that which is lost."

He prayed for you, for me, for His followers 2,000 years ago on the night before He was betrayed and crucified. He said, "Father, as You sent Me, so I send them." To do what? To bring abundant life to those who do not have it, to bring life to those who are in darkness, to seek and to save that which is lost, and in some part, to give our lives for other people—to lay down our lives for others.

Why do we have this concern? Why do we have this care for other people? Because it comes from our Lord. He gave us this concern. Where does it come from? It comes from Him. The Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 14, says, "It is the love of Christ that compels us," that pushes us to do these things. That's where it came from.

So we know what this care and concern for the lost is: it comes from the Lord. It is supernatural; it's beyond our natural tendency. It's not our natural tendency to have a heart for the eternal and earthly needs of people. It's supernatural, and it comes from an outside source. God is the one who gives it to us.

One of the most well-known statements about God, which even many non-Bible readers and non-Christians know, is a simple three-word statement: God is love.

A lot of non-Christians even know that now. Hopefully, if you're a follower of Jesus, you know where that came from. It comes from First John, chapter 4. God is love, and in that same passage, in First John, chapter 4, verse 8, that's where that comes from. The previous verse says this in verse 7: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God."

If you don't know these songs, you should sign up for children's ministry. You would learn them really well, and we could use your help in the children's ministry.

So, where does this love come from? It comes from God—a heart for the nations, for their earthly and eternal needs. It is something that is given to us by God. Why do we have it? Why do Christians have this?

Point number three on your outline: Christians have a heart for the nations because of a new creation and a new commandment. What does that mean? Well, in the very same passage where Paul said that it is the love of Christ that compels us to go preach the gospel, he said a few verses after that in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17: "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

Now, those words "in Christ" describe the Christian experience. If you're a follower of Jesus today, if you're a Christian, then the Bible describes you as being in Christ. Paul says that if anyone is in Christ, they are a Christian, and they have become a new creation. All the old things have passed away; behold, everything has become new.

Well, that leads to a question: What exactly becomes new in the person who is in Christ, the Christian? What is it that is new? I think one of the answers to that question is given to us by an Old Testament prophet by the name of Ezekiel. He lived about 500 years before Jesus came, and in Ezekiel, chapter 36, God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel. God says in Ezekiel 36, verse 26: "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take out of you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in..."

My statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. We have this heart, this compulsion to meet the earthly and eternal needs of humanity and the nations of this world because of a new creation. If you're in Christ, God has given you a new heart, and in this new heart, His Spirit resides, compelling us.

This all happens at a time in the life of a Christian that's called the new birth. Jesus spoke with a very religious man in John's Gospel, chapter 3, and He says, "You need to be born again." If you're a Christian today and you put your faith in Jesus, at that moment, you're born again, and God gives you a new heart. There’s this compulsion, this compelling desire that happens. It's one of the signs, one of the evidences that you're a new creation in Christ. You have this push from the new heart and the Spirit of God because of the new creation to share your faith with other people.

This drive exists so that they would experience a new life, moving from darkness to light, from being lost to being found. There’s this drive in the Christian to want to meet those issues, those earthly needs, but also eternal needs. Only the Christian has this. We have this because of the new creation, but we also have this because of a new commandment.

On the night that Jesus would be betrayed, He gathered with His disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem. This event is described in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In John's Gospel, chapter 13, the story is told that Jesus is with His disciples on the night before He is crucified. He did two very interesting things.

First, He instituted what we call the Lord's Supper, where we partake of the bread, which reminds us of His body that was broken, and the cup, which reminds us of His blood that was shed for us. We still do that here at Cross Connection every seven Sundays. We do that together to remember His body and His blood that were given for us.

Then, He did something curious. He got up from the table where they were eating, put a towel around Himself, and washed His disciples' feet. This action kind of weirded out a few of them; they were a little concerned by this because, in their culture, what Jesus was doing was outside the bounds of what they thought would be okay and normal.

After Jesus had partaken of the Last Supper with His disciples and washed their feet, one of the last things He says to His disciples is...

Recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 13, verse 34, Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." Here's the thing: that was not a new commandment. Every Jewish child, from the time they first began to speak, was instructed with these words: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength," from Deuteronomy chapter 6. They were also taught from Leviticus, "And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." They knew those words; they were to love one another.

So, Jesus says to his disciples gathered there in the upper room, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." That's not new. But then he says this: "As I have loved you, I want you to love one another." Just a little bit after that, on that same night, Jesus said to his disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, than that a man would lay down his life for his friends." Maybe the greatest expression of human love is to lay down your life for a friend, someone you already love.

We have no problem giving to people we love, the lovely. But in Romans chapter 5, Paul says, "God demonstrates his love for us, that while we were his enemies and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." You see the example, the demonstration of God's love, Jesus's love, is that he died for his enemies— you and me. He says, "I want you to love others as I have loved you." It's not just his example; it's actually his commandment in his teaching to his disciples.

In a passage of Scripture called the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus said to his disciples in verse 44, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you." Love your enemies. That is a far-out teaching that is not natural to me, to you, or to any of us. By nature, we want retribution on our enemies, don't we? I see it in myself. If someone does something to me, I want to fire right back at them. That did not go away when I became a Christian. I wish that it did, but it did not. And I thank God that...

There is some form of restraining influence that prevents many of us from acting out on our urges for retribution. I don't see that restraining influence necessarily in my almost four-year-old son, and I'm thankful that he's little because sometimes the restraining influence needs to be me or my wife. Our natural inclination is retribution.

Now, I might actually pray for my enemies. The Bible says to pray for your enemies, but if I follow my natural inclination, I pray the prayer of David in the Psalms: "God, break their teeth in their mouths." Has anyone ever prayed that? Don't raise your hand; never mind. We have a natural inclination, a desire for retribution, but Jesus says to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you.

Jesus prayed for His enemies while He was on the cross, saying, "God, forgive them, for they know not what they do." You might say, "Okay, well, He's the Son of God; of course, He would do it." But Stephen, the first martyr of the church recorded in Acts chapter 7, prayed for his enemies as well, asking God not to hold their actions against them. This is a marvelous transformation that comes about through God's transforming power.

Just think, if you have read through the book of Acts, about the transformation that took place in Saul of Tarsus—Paul the Apostle. Saul was breathing threats and murder against those he considered to be his enemies before he met Jesus. After that encounter, he would say of those who counted him as an enemy, "God, I wish I could give up my salvation so that I could be a curse for them." That's phenomenal! That is a transformation that only God can bring. He is the one who brings about this change through the new creation and the new commandment.

During the Civil War, the hatred between the North and the South was so great that there came a point when some critics of Abraham Lincoln were very upset that he would speak benevolently about those in the South. One of his critics stood up to him at one point and said, "How dare you speak so kindly of them? Don't you realize that they are our enemies and need to be destroyed?" It is recorded that Abraham's wise response was, "I destroy my enemies by making them my friends." Do you realize that's what Jesus teaches?

Did He destroy the enmity between us and God by dying for us to make us His friends? He said, "As I have been sent by You, Father, so I send them."

Point number four on our outline is that our heart for the nations must extend even to those counted as enemies. I think it's impossible for us to hate someone while seeking to do them good or to pray for their salvation. It's amazing that in this moment, and you couldn't get a more appropriate example than what sadly happened last night on the streets of London, we are being told by influencers of our culture that we need to hate a certain segment of our society.

I understand the politics behind it, and I understand the natural inclination for retribution. However, it's an amazing thing that almost all of the unreached people groups, unreached by the gospel of Jesus Christ today, are in what are referred to as majority Muslim nations. We, the church, are being told to love our enemies, and it's a hurdle for us.

I had a conversation with a brother here in the church right in between the first and second service. He said, "Okay, wait a minute. Are you telling me that we're supposed to love ISIS? Don't we need to deal with this?" God instituted human government to deal justly with the workers of evil.

Now, you can make the argument that many of the human governments in the West have not been dealing with that evil, and that's fine and good. We live in a society where we are given the authority and the opportunity to vote in new governments to address that. But as a Christian, the Bible calls me to love my enemies too, to seek their blessing, and to pray for them.

I don't say this to puff up our good friends Brett and Cassie this morning, but what God has wrought in their hearts is remarkable. Enemies came in and destroyed their ministry and work in South Sudan, yet they want to go back and serve those people. It's an illustration of the heart and...

The love of God that He has planted in us is a wonderful challenge. My inclination is to think, "Let's get rid of these people; let's deal with this." Do you realize that Saul of Tarsus was a terrorist in his day to the church? God transformed that terrorist into one of the greatest apostles that ever lived. It's phenomenal, and we often struggle to wrap our minds around that. We don't write stories like that; that's what God-inspired stories are. It's an amazing thing.

Our heart for the nations, for their earthly needs and their eternal needs, must extend even to our enemies, as hard as that may be. This brings me to the last question: How do we display this heart for the nations? How do we display this loving concern for the nations?

Point number five: Christians display a heart for the nations by practicing and preaching the gospel. I am not saying— and this is exceedingly important— that we, as the Church of God, both locally and globally, should not be interested in the social issues and needs of the world. We should be concerned about issues of clean water, health, food for those who are hungry, and non-oppressive governments. We should be contending for those things; that is how we practice the gospel.

Jesus taught us to give a cup of cold water to the one who is thirsty, to give food to the one who is hungry, and to clothe the naked. In doing so, we serve Him. We should be wholly committed to these things, but in doing so, we cannot miss the bigger issue of preaching the gospel.

You see, Jesus fed the hungry and healed the sick. His ministry grew in popularity because of these acts. Early on, Mark's Gospel tells us that multitudes of people were coming because of the food He was providing and the healing He was offering. His disciples came looking for Him, wanting to capitalize on this opportunity with the multitudes. They found Him in the wilderness, and when they found Him, it is recorded that He said...

Mark 1:38 states, "He said to them, 'Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose have I come forth.'" You can add that to the list of purposes for why Jesus came: I came to preach the Gospel. This is why the Apostle Paul, in his ministry, said in 1 Corinthians 9:16, "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel."

I'm sure that Paul gave to the poor and sought to feed the hungry, but he didn't set up a soup kitchen; he preached the Gospel. He said to the Colossians, "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily."

Listen, church, we need to be those who are committed to practicing and preaching the Gospel. We can't outsource it to a couple of people and just say we're going to let another country do it for us. Yes, we should support and pray for missionaries like Brett and Kathy and the work that they're doing, but right here, God has called us to practice and to preach the Gospel.

We are to love our enemies by being concerned for their earthly and eternal needs. By God's grace, help us, Lord, to do that.

Now, would you stand with me as we pray? We ask God for His help because I think we need His assistance to do this. Jesus, would you give us your grace to have this heart, this concern, and this love for the earthly and eternal needs of those here locally and around the world?

Lord, because of the work that you've done in making us new creatures in Christ and because you've commanded us to love our enemies, help us to have this heart that extends beyond those who might look at us as their enemies. Help us to practice and preach the good news of who you are, to bring light to those who are in darkness, and to seek and to save that which is lost.

May they have abundant life in Christ that extends beyond the 70 or 80 years that we might live here. Do a work in us, your church. Give us a heart for those who are forgotten. Give us eyes, Lord, so that we...

We can see how God works in us. We pray and ask this in Jesus' name. All those who agreed said, "Amen."

Let's sing to learn.