Dessert and the Great Commission

This week, our church hosted a missions-centered dessert night in which we heard from several speakers regarding their experiences with world missions, prayed together over the nations, and were challenged to live with God's heart for the world.

 

We were seated at round tables in groups, and each table represented a specific county. When the desserts were served, I began to notice that there was something deeper and significant going on.

 

The United States table was loaded. Their server brought a cart filled with rich desserts and just kept putting them on the table until there was no room left. Then the server started placing desserts in the hands and laps of the people sitting around the table.

 

When the server came to my table, which represented Russia, one person got a real dessert and the rest of us recieved a tiny cup of gummy Warhead candies. Some tables got nothing at all.

 

Of course, the Unites States table got up and started passing out their desserts to the rest of "the world".

 

Once the desserts had been delivered, each of the servers explained the representation.

 

"The desserts represent the availability of the gospel to your table's country. The Unites States has unlimited access to the gospel and gospel-related resources."

 

When the microphone was passed to Afghanistan, the server said, "No one in Afghanistan recieved any dessert because the gospel is not available at all. The churches must meet in secret and at the risk of their very lives."

 

Some countries receieved crackers because their faith was stale. Others got baby food because of the immaturity of the churches. My table, Russia, got warhears because of the religious strife and tension that characterize the country. Only one person got a real dessert because that represents the percentage of the population that has access to the good news about Jesus.

 

Most of the tables were like this: only a select few received dessert while the rest were left with nothing.

 

Unreached people groups are real ethnic groups where there is no indiginous, self-propagating church movement. They can also be defined as groups in which less than 2% of the population is Christian. Some unreached people groups have literally never heard the name of Jesus. They do not have the Bible in their own language. And no missionaries are trying to reach them.

 

And just like the dessert demonstrated, the United States has enough resources to share the gospel with the entire world. If only we get up and do it.

 

During the event, we watched the following short John Piper video.

 

This is why Paul said, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known..." (Romans 15:20) And this is why I want to be a missionary.

Please join me in praying for the nations of the world, and specifically for the unreached people groups. (Operation World has an excellent prayer resource.) Pray for God to send workers into the harvest, and pray that He will show both you and I where we must go and what we must do to be a part of His great commission - to spread the great news about Jesus Christ to every tribe, tongue, and people.

In the United States, we hold the sweetest, richest news about Jesus so abundantly that it spills over our table and into our hands and laps. Now let us get up and share this treasure with the whole world.