Global Sunday 2023

Praying for Laborers

Matt. 9:36-38
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The size of the harvest is bigger than you can imagine, but there are few workers. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest.”

“Unreached People Groups” “The 10-40 Window” “The Unfinished Task” These are all various names people in the mission world use to describe those who have not met Jesus and because of one reason or another, may not ever even meet a Jesus-follower. In this day and age of social media and smartphones that seems remarkably hard to believe. But here we are in 2023 and over 42% of the world’s population falls into this category. An overwhelmingly ‘unfinished task’ indeed.

As daunting as this may seem, this passage in Matthew shows us how Jesus responded to this very same situation.

“Now, when Jesus saw the crowds…” My first observation is that Jesus saw the crowds. It may seem like a small thing, but I think about how easy it is to go about my day and not ‘see’ anyone. I can check off things on my to-do list, run errands, even do churchy things, and get to the end of the day without truly seeing another person. To see someone implies that Jesus understood their situation. Our first step is to ask Jesus to open our eyes. If there are 7,400 unreached people groups ‘somewhere, out there’, what can we do to bring them a little closer to home? The Joshua Project is a wonderful tool that provides detailed information about unreached people groups. I encourage you to check it out and just start seeing a few of them.

“...he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd…” Jesus was working- he was preaching, teaching, and healing. Yet instead of being frustrated by these sheep-like people, (which, if you recall from Pastor Ryan a few weeks ago, is not a good thing!), he had compassion on them. Compassion is the right response to those who do not yet know Jesus.

“...plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers for his harvest.” Jesus then tells his disciples to pray. The task is daunting- but think about how much more so back when Jesus gave this instruction to his disciples. This should be part of our prayer for every unreached people group or place. Ask the Lord to stir the hearts of his people and send them to areas of urgent spiritual need. Eventually, we want indigenous believers making disciples and multiplying churches, but until then, pray that the Lord would send workers from near and far to make Christ known.

(If you would like to join a group that prays regularly for unreached people groups and workers, check out our Global Focus Groups that meet on Monday and Wednesday nights)

The Outreach Team

by The Outreach Team

God Moves People Groups

Acts 17:26-27
From one person God created every human nation to live on the whole earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us.

In his address to the cosmopolitan people of Athens, the apostle Paul gives us an incredible picture of the sovereignty of God over all the people groups in the world. God made “every nation” from one man, Adam, which means all people groups are part of the same race, the human race. We have different ethnicities, languages, and cultural backgrounds, but all people groups are made by God. And God has even determined “allotted periods” and the “boundaries” of where they live.

Consider what this means for today’s refugee crisis and the unprecedented movements of people across the globe. Even in a world tainted by sin, where a variety of sinful factors cause the displacement of people, God is ultimately sovereign. And he is able to redeem all situations to draw people to himself. When you look at the world through this lens, you realize that the movements of people are not an accident. There is a sovereign God who desires all people groups to know him, and sometimes he brings these people groups right to our doorstep. Whether it’s international students, families fleeing violence in their home country, or simply individuals looking to build a better life, the “nations” are right around us.

So let’s take advantage of these sovereignly-orchestrated opportunities to make disciples of all nations right where we live, work, and play. This means being alert to those of different ethnicities in our communities and being intentional about demonstrating and sharing the gospel with them. We might be their first opportunity to meet a Christian face-to-face. The movements of people might be one way that God provides unprecedented gospel access in our day.

The Outreach Team

by The Outreach Team

The Language Barrier

Genesis 11:7
Come, let’s go down and mix up their language there so they won’t understand each other’s language.

Revelation 7:9
After this, I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could number. They were from every nation, tribe, people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

Did you know there are over 7,300 languages in the world? One obstacle to the Gospel spreading is language barriers. From the tower of Babel in Genesis, we see humanity divided by language and relationships broken as a consequence of sin. And with over 17,000 people groups identified today, the world is still very much divided. However, we know how this story ends- with every people group and in every language, praising the Lamb of God.

The gospel still needs to be proclaimed and translated into thousands of different languages. Sadly, many unreached people groups lack a full (or, in some cases, partial) translation of the Bible. Even if they did respond in faith to a gospel presentation, they wouldn’t be able to experience the growth that comes from regularly reading God’s word.

Supporting Bible translation and distribution has been a big part of Emmanuel Faith’s outreach endeavors. EFCC missionaries are working on translation projects for a remote tribe in Papua New Guinea. Others are involved in paraphrasing passages for ethnic minorities in India. Another assists with mapping the progress of translation around the world.

Let’s pray that the Bible would be translated into every known language and that people groups from every corner of the globe would be able to meditate on and be transformed by the Scriptures.

The Outreach Team

by The Outreach Team

Image Bearers of God

Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.” Genesis 1:26

Let’s start at the very beginning: God created humanity and purposefully created us as his image-bearers. The ramifications of this choice echo throughout history and serve as our earliest ‘why’ for missions. Why send missionaries, why plant churches, why send money, why pray for foreign tribes, why care about someone half a world away? Why?- because God created humanity as his image-bearers.

The intrinsic value of each human life is our why. What then does this compel us to do? Well, our charge to join Jesus in bringing his kingdom to all nations ties right back to that identity. As his image bearers, we bear his witness so that all may know and recognize their true identity. We do that through care for the whole person- for their physical, mental, emotional, economic, and spiritual needs. Because God created us image-bearers as complex creatures. Humanity alone reserves the privilege to relate to God, worship God, walk and talk with God, and enjoy God.

As this is true of you and me at Emmanuel Faith, this is true of every person of every culture, language, ethnicity, and background. So as one image-bearer to another, let’s encourage each other to look beyond our church buildings, our neighborhoods, and even our nation. Let’s ask God to give us greater compassion for those who are far from us, but are still made in his image. May he open our eyes to opportunities to serve them.

-The Outreach Team

by The Outreach Team