Missions Emphasis Month 2012

Fourth Sunday Message

Committing to God’s Heart for All Nations

Matthew 24:14

Truth: God’s heart is for all nations.

Introduction

Commitments are part of people’s lives. Like for example married couples, they

make a commitment to stay together for life. Then there are people who make a

commitment to work for a company for a certain number of hours and for a certain

number of years.

In the Christian life, we also make several commitments. However, one such

commitment is for us commit to God’s heart for all nations. Today, let us see what God’s

heart wants for all nations.

1) God’s Heart: Wants to bless all nations.

“You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness." (Acts 3:2-26, ESV) It is always God’s intention to bless and the Church is God’s new Israel whereby the nations will be blessed today. Let us therefore commit ourselves to be instruments of the Lord to bless the nations because God’s heart wants to bless all nations.

2) God’s Heart: Wants to save all nations. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV) The desire or will of God is for every people, that is, all nations to come to Him in repentance and experience His fullness of salvation. The Church or God’s people must have the very heart of God to be able to continue proclaiming the gospel of salvation to lost and unreached peoples of the world.

3) God’s Heart: Wants to have disciples from all nations.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV) The Great Commission shows us another desire of God, that is, to see disciples from all nations. In this respect, the church must obey the great commission and commit herself to making disciples of all nations. Therefore, the church needs to have disciplers

in the church in order to make disciples. This way the church continues to do discipleship and have more disciples for the Lord. 4) God’s Heart: Wants to bring all nations to His heavenly kingdom.

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10, ESV) The vision of John helps us see the desire of God, that is, a great number of people from all nations will be in His heavenly kingdom. The great multitude comes from different nations, tribes, peoples and languages. The church, therefore, must commit herself to help and facilitate the salvation of persons from all nations, tribes, peoples and languages of the world. Conclusion In view of God’s heart for all nations, what will the church do? The church must continue to help in the proclamation of the gospel until the end of time. God’s word says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14).