June 26, 2024 • 27 mins
Join Pastor Brad Thomas and I for PART 2 of our conversation as we uncover the transformative power of integrating faith with business, challenging the traditional distinction between secular and sacred work. We'll explore how business professionals, by leveraging their unique skills and resources, can significantly impact God's mission globally and locally. Discover the biblical perspective on work, reminding us that God is a worker and calls us to be co-workers in His divine mission.
We dive into the heart of compassionate missionary work, sharing inspiring stories from Pader and India where long-term commitments have led to flourishing communities. Understand why compassion is crucial, especially in regions dominated by other religions, and learn how you can live purposefully and compassionately in every aspect of life. Every place can be a mission field, from your local community to the farthest corners of the world, as we strive to build God's kingdom.
As we address the current state and future challenges of the global and American church, we'll confront the alarming statistics of unreached people groups and the increasing influence of cultural over spiritual engagement. Are American Christians ready for potential persecution? We'll explore themes from James 1, encouraging resilience and growth through trials, and emphasizing the importance of seeking God's presence and wisdom. Concluding with a heartfelt prayer, we invite you to deepen your engagement in God's mission and integrate your faith into every aspect of your life and work.
Follow @unreachedpodcast on Instagram for more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, dustin Elliott,your host on the Unreached
podcast, I'm back, I'm allsmiles.
I'm here with my man, bradThomas.
This man has been such anincredible influence on my life
(00:50):
and hopefully you got us twoweeks ago, got an episode going
and just got rolling and justhave so much content to cover
with Brad and some things thatwe want to transition into today
.
We were talking about the globalmissions work that we've been
doing with the Ridge in China,india, in Africa, in Padere,
uganda specifically, and there'sa lot more to this story.
(01:13):
There's a lot of what we thinkabout when we think about
missions in terms of kind oflike varsity Christians and
missionaries and just this wholebody of work being totally
ministry focused.
But the gospel is kind oftraveling farther and faster
today on the wings of businessthan just on the wings of
mission in terms of ministry.
And so let's pivot a little bit.
(01:34):
Brad, thanks for being backwith us.
I want to talk about how youknow how we're using, how the
church is utilizing andequipping and harnessing the
decision-making gifts, the powerand the discipline in our body,
right Sitting out in front ofyou in the pews.
How are we using businessleaders today in the church and
(01:55):
equipping them to go take thegospel to the nations?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah.
So I think churches are a lotlike universities you go to a
certain university because ifyou want to be an accountant
McCombs Business College, utthat's where you go.
I think churches have certainspiritual gifts that God brings
that are different from otherchurches at times and one of the
things we've seen here atAustin Ridge he has brought
businessmen and women from alllines of work and backgrounds
(02:21):
that are very good, verytalented at what they do, and I
started seeing these men andwomen come and I believe and
I've said this before I wouldlike to apologize to businessmen
and women, because I thinkchurches have done a horrible
job of leading them intoministry, and this is what I
mean by this.
Hey, you can make money.
Why don't you write a check tothe church?
(02:41):
That's what we need from you,and it's such a sad state from
the church to make businessmen.
When we say that, because Ibelieve that your work is your
mission, it's a cop-out on bothsides and your mission is your
work On both sides.
Yeah, so let's use these giftsby these men and women, not just
write checks.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How does a businessperson, incorporate
their faith seven days a week.
Incorporate their faith sevendays a week.
And then, if they've ran abusiness locally and they're
thinking about expansion, howshould they be thinking about
that?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, if it's a Christian, who's thinking all
right, God, what do you want todo with your business?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
and your money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So let's start with that it's your business, it's
your money.
What do you want to do?
It's not how do I make moremoney?
It's not how do I make moremoney, it's how do I make more
of you, how do I make morekingdom?
And so we've had businessmenand women in our church who have
started asking questions hey,I'm great at art.
What can I do with art to reachpeople for the glory of God all
over the world?
Well, that's the first questionto ask, because your gifting is
(03:41):
never localized.
Your gifting is alwaysinternational.
And your gifting is neverlocalized.
Your gifting is alwaysinternational.
And your gifting is not justalways international.
Your gift is always aboutbuilding kingdom.
And so whatever God has givenyou the ability to do, he didn't
give you the ability to do itto make your life just more
comfortable and to hoard more.
He gave you the ability to dothat for other people in counter
him.
Let's unwind a few things Ithink the church has complicated
(04:03):
over the years.
Let's start with this thatthere's no separation between
the secular and the sacred whenwe're talking about the gospel.
So I think a lot of Christianbusinessmen and women think
where I've got my work, I've gotmy real world and then I've got
the spiritual world.
If those two worlds stayseparate, you'll never see your
(04:26):
work as mission.
But when those two worldscollide and you start to see
there's no separation betweenthe secular and the sacred, then
you start to realize not onlyis there no separation, but God
didn't create work just to bework.
God created work to be sacred.
And when work becomes sacrednow I'm on mission, and when I'm
on mission then I've gotsermons to preach.
When I'm on mission I've gotdisciples to make.
(04:47):
So we talked about Genesis,chapter 2.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, how's God feel about work?
Verses 1 through 3.
How did he build this wholething right?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
He mentions work three times in the first three
verses of chapter 2.
He worked and then he rested.
He worked and then he rested,he worked and then he rested.
And what's interesting is,anytime your Bible, you see a
word three times, just like theTrinity Father, son, spirit.
It's important.
(05:14):
So God, the Father, sets outright at the beginning of our
Bible that he's a worker.
And not only is he a worker,but he's also a master.
What that means is he hasworkers.
Well, who are those workers?
Well, right after Genesis 2, hetells Adam you're going to keep
the garden, you're going totend the garden and you're going
to name the animals.
You've got work to do.
I'm a worker, you're a worker,and because I'm a worker and
you're a worker, there's a taskto do.
Now the question is what's thetask?
(05:35):
What is the task that God'sgiven us to do?
If we're a business man andwoman, you're a worker.
It's not just a worker to work.
You're a worker because thesacred and the secular are the
same and you've got to figureout what the task is that God's
called you to do.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
How is it that the church is not just working with
the business people in thechurch, but how are we divvying
up or how are we thinking aboutthe support of local ministries
and businesses and globalministries and businesses?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I think one of the things the church
complicates again is you have achurch budget, right?
So we have money given to thechurch, that's the church budget
.
And then we start saying, okay,what do we use this money for?
Most people think, well, we'vegot a building, we've got to pay
for the building, we've got topay for the water, pay for the
power, pay for the employees Atthe Ridge.
What we like to do is all right, God, what do you want to do
with your money?
So again, that's principlenumber one is your money.
(06:24):
These people are giving themoney.
It's not their money, it's yourmoney.
What do you want to do with it?
We know what God wants to dowith his money.
He wants to reach people forthe glory of God, and so I
personally believe that everydollar that's given here is
missional.
Every dollar is given asmissional.
We do youth group ministry.
That's group ministry.
That's missional.
Now, all those missions havebusinessmen and women in them on
(06:45):
mission.
Now, what the church is famousfor is staying within its four
walls, right?
So we say all the time thatchurch does not exist for the
people that are already here.
Church exists for the folks whoaren't here yet.
Please don't miss that.
And once we say that now we'retalking missions outside of our
walls, there you go.
Once you start talking missionsoutside of your walls.
The purpose of the church isboth local, the city, the
(07:07):
community that God puts you in.
We've got to make sure we takecare of our Jerusalem right, our
Judea.
What about Samaria?
What about the people we don'tlike?
And what about the?
outermost parts of the earth.
Well, those are people that Idon't know anything about.
Well, god knows about them, andif I know God intimately, that
means I need to know about them,that means I need to be
(07:27):
intimate with them, and that'swhy we do missions every dollar.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
If we understand that the task remaining is to reach
every tribe, tongue and nationwith the gospel, if we
understand the book ofRevelation, as we say on our
intro and outro, member of everytribe, tongue and nation in the
throne room before the lamb,there is a task remaining.
It is to get the gospel whereit's not, it is to share the
good news Then one cent out ofevery dollar today is going to
(07:51):
that task.
Less than one cent In fact.
A small, single-digitpercentage of missionaries are
among unreached people groups.
The vast 99.
9% of resources and people arewhere the gospel already is.
How do we shift that paradigm?
How do we shout this from therooftops?
You have said you don't prayfor revival.
(08:14):
Prayer is revival.
Help me start this.
Help Andrew Scott, who's beenon here, start this revival of
finishing the task remaining.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So we know, biblically speaking, that where
your money goes is where yourheart goes right.
So if you want to follow themoney trail, you see what
people's values are.
I'll ask them, hey, do you wantJesus to come back soon?
And they'll say, oh yeah, youreally do, I really do.
What are you doing missionallyaround the world to make that
(08:43):
happen?
Because we've got to reacheverybody and then he's going to
rip the sky open.
That's what we want.
If we want that, if that's thegoal, that we want Jesus to come
back, why are we slowing thisprocess down so much?
Why are we saying heaven, waitjust a little longer.
We're not quite ready for youto come back and start kingdom.
We're just not there yet.
So again, here's the root issueback and start kingdom.
(09:06):
We're just not there yet.
So again, here's the root issueDo we really care about people?
That's the question.
Do we really care about people?
And the truth is, the Americanchurch often cares about the
American church, pastors oftencare about pastors and employees
often care about employees.
Do we really care?
And so, until we really care,until we value people, it's not
going to matter.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Maybe every church needs to just sit down, have a
little offsite, right, if youwill, and just get back to
basics.
Okay, what are we here for?
What's our real purpose?
What's our real mission?
And if we start with the enduser in mind and the end user is
the people that are not inchurch yet, right, how are we
going to reach those people?
I would be willing to bet wewould not stick with the same
(09:45):
four-wall strategy that we areall living in today.
I would be willing to bet itwould look very different.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well, the way the church has been doing that task
is let's water down the truth sowe don't offend people, and
then more people will come.
Well, how's that working outfor us?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, isn't that what Jesus did, right?
He gave them free food and thentold them to come back for more
free food and ice cream, yeahtotally.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And here's the deal Bars are crowded.
That doesn't mean anythingspiritual is happening.
So just because the parking lotis full doesn't mean something
spiritual is happening.
I would say give me 10 peoplewho want to see the world change
for the glory of God, insteadof 10,000 people who want to be
entertained on a Sunday morning.
A lot of that's what we caremore about.
(10:26):
If we're honest, we reallydon't care about someone else
that we'll never meet, fall inlove with Jesus.
But here's the deal Once youget close to Jesus, you start to
love the things that Jesusloves.
And when you start gettingcloser to Jesus, you abide in
him.
He abides in you.
If he's going to abide in you,he's going to make his home in
you, what he wants it to beright we always talk about.
Do you rent a house or buy ahouse?
(10:47):
If you rent, you can't tear thewall down, you can't paint it.
If you buy it, it's yours, youown it.
Well, he owns us.
If he owns us, then we're goingto have a heart for the nations
, because that's what his heartis.
And he didn't get us saved justto give us fire insurance.
He got us saved to be a forcefor the gospel.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Not to just give us fire insurance insurance, but to
be a force for the gospel.
How does Austin Ridge go aboutvetting and selecting?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
the nonprofit partners that we do support.
Yeah, I don't know of all theintricate details of it, but I
do know this we have certainvalues that if we're going to be
a partner with someone, we wantthem to be about the gospel, we
want them to be about biblicalChristianity.
Those things we go through awhole interview process of
vetting those agencies.
We want them to be aboutbiblical Christianity, those
things we go through a wholeinterview process of vetting
those agencies.
We say no a lot more than wesay yes, because obviously you
(11:36):
could do everything everywhereand not do anything well
anywhere.
We've decided we want to makesome major, deep impacts in some
places, like Padere.
We've been there for almost 15years.
That's not just a missionarytrip, that is a life in Padere.
We've been there for almost 15years.
Like that's not just amissionary trip, that is a life
in Padere.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Deep roots planted, now branching out.
Now they're making disciples,they're building churches,
they're expanding.
Yeah, same in India for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So we see where God's at work and then we take our
resources and we say, okay, weneed to be there because God's
there, and we go do it.
We stay there a long time,however long it takes.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So if we were to look at the world's major religions,
how would another church, howwould you suggest they think
through that and engage in thatand pray through that?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
You know what's interesting about other
religions?
I've actually had people in ourchurch tell us at times why
would we send resources to aMuslim country?
Why would we?
It goes back to what you saidabout Ephesians 6.
The enemy is not flesh andblood, it's against
principalities and powers of thedark forces.
So when we see people as theenemy, they're lost.
(12:43):
They're captive in those falsereligions.
It's not the truth, right,right.
And they're devout in thosereligions and they're sincere in
those religions and they'redevouring those religions and
they're sincere in thosereligions and they're lost in
those religions.
So if that doesn't move yourcompassion meter, then you
probably don't have one right.
And so that's true the persondown the street from our church,
that's true, that my next doorneighbor, and that's true the,
(13:03):
the buddhist monk in northernindia, or wherever they may be.
If you don't have compassionfor those people, then you have
to start to question do I knowJesus?
That's the truth.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So if you don't have compassion for those people and
you are questioning that, whatshould you be doing?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Well, again, this whole podcast is about.
What are you going to do, Right?
What are you going to do tobuild kingdom?
Get in the game.
You're not alive for yourself.
You're not alive by chance.
You're alive on purpose.
You're alive on mission, andGod's got you in a mission field
, and that mission field isalways meant to have a heart and
a compassion that grows foranother mission field around you
.
I never thought I'd be inAustin Texas.
(13:45):
Why am I in Austin Texas?
Why is a South Carolina kid inAustin Texas?
I've never been west of Atlanta.
That's because God loves peoplein Austin.
But it's not just about Austin.
It never is.
It's about people in India now.
It's about people in Africa now, and that's the way it is in
all these listeners' worlds.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
If we think about our definition of people groups,
right, we kind of look to theJoshua Project and their study
of about 17,000 people groups onearth.
We say 10,000 are reached,7,000 are unreached and 700 are
unengaged.
And Clint and I have said thisfor almost a year now.
I can't wait to say thosenumbers with a six and a five
and a four in front, right, like, let's prayerfully, let's
(14:22):
change it.
Yes, that starts to change inour lifetime.
What do you think?
Well, let's go all the way back.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
We all come from two people Right, adam and Eve, and
then we all come from one family, on a boat.
There you go, noah, and thenthose languages are diversified
at the Tower of Babel.
So everybody comes from that.
But here's the truth.
Does God's heart wane after theTower of Babel, or is it just
as strong as it was after theark, as it was after the garden?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Never cast a shift in shadow.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Never changes, so why would ours change Just because
someone's different?
And so again, the church exists, the same reason that Israel
exists in the Old Testament tobe a light in the darkness of
the nations.
You talk about Genesis 12, theAbrahamic covenant, land seed
blessing.
Here's a promise.
Here's the problem, though.
A bunch of folks took thosepromises and they started
(15:11):
thinking this is about us, andthen they lost the mission.
Same thing that we see in thechurch today.
It's about us.
We lose the mission.
We would rather be politicallycorrect this fall than to
actually reach someone thatdoesn't know the gospel this
fall.
That's a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Where's the church headed?
Where are we headed globally?
Like?
What's next that we're notaware of?
That you're maybe getting aglimpse of.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
When I think about the global church, I think more
persecution is coming, and Ithink it's going to be a center
of that is going to be theUnited States of America.
I've said before you've heardme say for 20 years now that I
think in my lifetime I'll bearrested for preaching the Bible
, arrested for preaching theBible, and I fully believe that
I'm 55 next month and I believein my lifetime I could easily be
arrested for preaching thegospel.
(15:54):
So we're going to, we're goingto find out who wants to play
ball, we're going to find outwho wants to attend church and
who actually is the church.
And so I believe God isstarting, has started and is
leading out a persecutionprocess.
He always purifies his churchand he's going to purify the
American church and he'spurifying the church worldwide.
So, as we think that we'restill the mission agency of the
(16:17):
world, the reality is the worldis now the mission agency to the
United States, and so he'spurifying his bride.
That's what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
As we're going to go through this, I think we're
going to see the church incertain parts of the world where
persecution is greatest.
It goes underground and oftenit grows the fastest.
What type of persecution is theAmerican church willing to
withstand, right?
I mean, how many guys reallyare going to stand up and put
those handcuffs on and not bend?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Historically we've seen persecution.
As we look historically throughthe church, it starts as verbal
, it becomes financial, then itbecomes physical.
Um, we are right at thedoorstep of the physical in the
united states of america.
How do we equip?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
ourselves.
What are we?
What are we doing as the church?
Because I mean, look, 62, 65percent you know, brent was on a
couple weeks ago and and we'retalking about kind of the amount
of americans that callthemselves Christians.
But I mean, really, you knowwhat is the faithful remnant in
America today?
I don't know what that numberis, it's not 60.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We do know the scriptures say that the road of
righteousness is narrow, if youwill find it, and the other road
is broad and most will find it.
So we know that's true, right.
So we also know a lot of peopleproclaim something that, when
push comes to shove, it may ormay not be true.
Proclamation does notnecessarily mean transformation,
(17:38):
right.
But I do believe thatpersecution gets an opportunity
to find out who is.
It gives you a chance to getsqueezed and see what comes out.
And that's what God's doing tothe American church and will
continue to do.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
You talk about often the two volume knobs in a
person's life right the volumeknob of culture and the volume
knob of scripture.
You talk about view culturethrough the lens of scripture,
not scripture through the lensof culture.
If we're not taking the time tobe intentional, that volume
knob of culture is going todrown everything else out.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, think about when I was growing up I grew up
Southern Baptist.
You're in church Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night.
You're in Wednesday night andyou have vacation, bible school
and you have RAs and GAs andacteens and blah, blah, blah,
blah.
We see a person come to churchonce a month For an hour.
So already we're taking thevolume knob of the world and
(18:29):
making it a lot larger, andwe're taking the volume knob of
the spirit.
Not that the church is the onlyplace you can hear the spirit
of God talk.
But if we are more in the world, let's say social media, let's
say movies, let's say technology, let's say podcasts, let's say,
if we're more listening tovoices other than the voice,
more than we used to and thevoice less than we used to, what
(18:51):
are we going to be hearing?
All the voices?
Right, and so it's no wonderthat the church is watered down.
It's not even just a pastorissue, it's a people issue.
One of the phrases I hear a lotis we hear it more and more
that people have church trauma.
Yeah, church trauma, sure, andI hear, I hear probably weekly
like well, he doesn't come tochurch because he thinks it's a
big business, he doesn't come tochurch because they kicked his
(19:15):
mom out when he was 12 and henever forget the church.
We don't have church trauma.
I don't believe there's a suchthing as church hurt.
I know people use it all thetime.
What we have is people hurt.
People are the issue.
The bride of Christ has neverhurt a human being.
The bride of Christ is there toencourage a human being.
People mess it up and so whatwe try to do again.
(19:42):
These are hard questions, andhow do we reach billions and
billions of people?
I start by reading my Biblethis morning.
I start by being a good husband.
I start by giving.
You see, if we don't teach ourchildren to tithe and we don't
give consistently andsacrificially, world missions
will never happen financially atthe church either.
And that's why you know, whenpeople say I don't want to just
write a check to the church,it's not just a check to the
church, it's a mission to thechurch.
And so if we don't do thesebasic, this is a basketball,
(20:05):
this is running this is jumping,this is shooting.
How in the world are we going toreach billions of people?
You're not.
But if you do that every dayand you do it every day that's
what we've been doing here for20 years at the Ridge If you do
it every day, you start to haveopportunities in India, you
start to have opportunities inAfrica and you start to see a
Padere people group get reachedthat wasn't reached before.
And then you look back afterwalking that consistent walk
(20:28):
over and over and over and over.
You look back after a while andgo, wow, look what God's done.
Now, if every church does that,that's how you reach the world.
You know, Dee, I will say thistoo it's easy to get overwhelmed
when you start thinking aboutworld missions.
I get overwhelmed thinkingabout it, sometimes Like gosh.
More people are being born thanwe could ever reach.
So we're falling behind everyday of how many people like.
We hear the stat of 150 peoplemoving to Austin every day.
(20:49):
If we start a church every day,we're not going to reach Austin
doing that.
So it's easy to get overwhelmed.
But again, what is my job?
My job is to spend time withGod this morning and do what he
tells me to do today.
That's my job, and then my jobis to have as much compassion
for the lady who messed mycoffee order up as I have for
(21:10):
you as we sit across the tablefrom each other, and to have
just as much care and concern.
And when that starts happening,then you start thinking about
countries that you've never beento.
Then you start praying aboutpeople groups you've never heard
of.
Then you actually start valuingand I tell you it's hard to
pray for someone and not care.
So I start praying for peoplegroups I know nothing about and
all of a sudden I start thinkingabout those people groups all
the time.
(21:30):
Go on a short-term mission trip,Give to your local church,
Serve.
Don't tell me you're ready formissions if you won't work in
the nursery.
Don't say you're ready todisciple people if you won't be
in a dGroup or a small group toget discipled.
Let's do these baby steps.
Let's learn how to eat breadbefore we start chewing on the
ribeye.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I love that.
And for the listener, I wantyou to be encouraged.
Brad has been an incredibleencouragement in my life and in
the lives of thousands andthousands of people in our
community.
God has grown this particularlocal church and the Bride of
Christ because of faithfulteaching behind the pulpit, more
than anything.
(22:08):
Sure, we've got a lot of thingsthat we do for the community.
We've grown, we've expandedinto some other communities but,
man, the fact that you open abook and you start in the first
chapter and you work throughevery single verse and you don't
skip around and you don't leaveout the hard, stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And I would say for any pastors that listen to this
I know several do I think wecomplicate church and it's not
complicated.
Take a book of the Bible andteach it verse by verse.
I understand, hey, if I doeight topical sermons in the
next eight weeks, then maybesomebody new will come.
The only thing we know that Godwill bless is the teaching of
his word.
We know he'll do that, so whywouldn't we do that?
(22:46):
I mean, don't preach 18-minutesermonettes for Christianettes.
Teach the Bible.
And who cares if your churchdoubles in three years or not?
That's not the goal.
The goal is to be faithful,growing the church.
That's God's business, hisbusiness.
He'll grow the bride where hewants to grow, how he wants to
grow it.
He's not growing the churchhere because I'm here.
He's decided to grow the churchhere.
(23:10):
But I do believe when you teachthe Bible it grows hearts and
that's what matters and that'swhat changes people missionally.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know Brad for those of you that don't know had
a pretty serious medical eventlast year, last summer.
We I mean we nearly lost you.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
We thought we were going to lose you yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Man had two strokes playing golf with his dad.
I'm going to call Clint out.
Clint said that's a newtwo-stroke penalty.
Right there in golf we had tojoke about it a little bit
because we didn't know what elseto do.
But God's not done with you,man, he's not.
He's healed you back up.
He's got you back behind thepulpit.
I know at times you can feelthat medical event not feeling
(23:45):
as sharp as you have been atother times.
But this church hadn't sloweddown one bit, dude, it hasn't.
And we're so grateful for you,we're so grateful for your
commitment and Courtney and yourfamily, we love you.
Thank you, thank you.
I think you're better than ever.
I think you're more.
You were bold pre.
Now you're like I'm not holdingback.
I'm fitting to tell them whatGod put on my heart Win, lose or
(24:09):
draw.
They're going to deal with itfor the rest of this week.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Well, what's the worst thing that can happen?
They kill me and I go to heaven.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's a good deal either way.
Or he'll say, man, I've beendealing with this all week.
Now I'm about to put it ony'all, right, like thank you.
Some lonely, some in community.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Understand the importance of your presence.
Your presence means you're onmission, and if you're breathing
, that means God wants you to bea witness to somebody.
Today, every day, you wake upin the morning all right, god
didn't take me home, so there'ssomething else to do today.
And when you start to have aheart for people and a value for
people and you start to caremore than just about your
(24:54):
self-preservation, god willstart to move in ways and you
start to see the miracles.
People always say.
I want to see the miracles ofthe New Testament.
We see it every day.
The fact that I'm saved and I'ma Christian today.
That's the biggest miracle ofanything else in the Bible.
Today.
That's the biggest miracle ofanything else in the Bible the
fact that he got my heart and ifhe got my heart, he can get
anybody's heart.
And if he got your heart andyou're listening to this podcast
(25:15):
he's got work for you to do, solet's get after it.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Let me pray for us, father, thank you, thank you for
Brad Courtney, our church, ourlocal, our local four walls that
we bust our way out of at yourwill, at your discretion and in
service to you, for your gloryalone.
Lord, you've brought greatpeople here.
You've got great people inother places.
(25:38):
You've equipped us, you'vegiven us everything we need.
We have your word, we havecommunity, we have fellowship,
and in some ways we havepersecution.
In some ways we have strife andwe have obstacles that you've
put in front of us to overcome.
And we know James 1, consider itpure joy when those troubles
come our way.
We know that our faith will betested, we know that our
(25:59):
endurance will have a chance togrow and we know that when it
does, we'll be perfect andcomplete, needing nothing.
And Lord, be with us.
I know you will, but be with usthrough those steps.
Be with us.
Give us peace.
I know you will, but be with usthrough those steps.
Be with us, give us peace thatonly you can bring, that we
can't comprehend.
Give us strength, give uswisdom and discernment, lord, as
(26:20):
we continue to pursue you, aswe continue to imperfectly try
to align our lives with yourwill.
And thank you.
Thank you for giving us anopportunity to play on your team
and get in the game, and it'sin your name we pray Amen.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
(26:42):
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, d groupwherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You.
In Revelation 7, john shares his vision of heaven
with members from every tribe,tongue, people and language
standing in the throne roombefore the Lamb.
Yet today there are still over7,000 unreached people groups
around the world.
For the last six years, myfamily and friends have been on
a journey to find, vet and fundthe task remaining.
(00:28):
Come journey with us to theends of the earth as we share
the supernatural stories of Godat work for the men and women he
has called to reach theunreached.
Hello friends, dustin Elliott,your host on the Unreached
podcast, I'm back, I'm allsmiles.
I'm here with my man, bradThomas.
This man has been such anincredible influence on my life
(00:50):
and hopefully you got us twoweeks ago, got an episode going
and just got rolling and justhave so much content to cover
with Brad and some things thatwe want to transition into today
.
We were talking about the globalmissions work that we've been
doing with the Ridge in China,india, in Africa, in Padere,
uganda specifically, and there'sa lot more to this story.
(01:13):
There's a lot of what we thinkabout when we think about
missions in terms of kind oflike varsity Christians and
missionaries and just this wholebody of work being totally
ministry focused.
But the gospel is kind oftraveling farther and faster
today on the wings of businessthan just on the wings of
mission in terms of ministry.
And so let's pivot a little bit.
(01:34):
Brad, thanks for being backwith us.
I want to talk about how youknow how we're using, how the
church is utilizing andequipping and harnessing the
decision-making gifts, the powerand the discipline in our body,
right Sitting out in front ofyou in the pews.
How are we using businessleaders today in the church and
(01:55):
equipping them to go take thegospel to the nations?
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah.
So I think churches are a lotlike universities you go to a
certain university because ifyou want to be an accountant
McCombs Business College, utthat's where you go.
I think churches have certainspiritual gifts that God brings
that are different from otherchurches at times and one of the
things we've seen here atAustin Ridge he has brought
businessmen and women from alllines of work and backgrounds
(02:21):
that are very good, verytalented at what they do, and I
started seeing these men andwomen come and I believe and
I've said this before I wouldlike to apologize to businessmen
and women, because I thinkchurches have done a horrible
job of leading them intoministry, and this is what I
mean by this.
Hey, you can make money.
Why don't you write a check tothe church?
(02:41):
That's what we need from you,and it's such a sad state from
the church to make businessmen.
When we say that, because Ibelieve that your work is your
mission, it's a cop-out on bothsides and your mission is your
work On both sides.
Yeah, so let's use these giftsby these men and women, not just
write checks.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
How does a businessperson, incorporate
their faith seven days a week.
Incorporate their faith sevendays a week.
And then, if they've ran abusiness locally and they're
thinking about expansion, howshould they be thinking about
that?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, if it's a Christian, who's thinking all
right, God, what do you want todo with your business?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
and your money.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
So let's start with that it's your business, it's
your money.
What do you want to do?
It's not how do I make moremoney?
It's not how do I make moremoney, it's how do I make more
of you, how do I make morekingdom?
And so we've had businessmenand women in our church who have
started asking questions hey,I'm great at art.
What can I do with art to reachpeople for the glory of God all
over the world?
Well, that's the first questionto ask, because your gifting is
(03:41):
never localized.
Your gifting is alwaysinternational.
And your gifting is neverlocalized.
Your gifting is alwaysinternational.
And your gifting is not justalways international.
Your gift is always aboutbuilding kingdom.
And so whatever God has givenyou the ability to do, he didn't
give you the ability to do itto make your life just more
comfortable and to hoard more.
He gave you the ability to dothat for other people in counter
him.
Let's unwind a few things Ithink the church has complicated
(04:03):
over the years.
Let's start with this thatthere's no separation between
the secular and the sacred whenwe're talking about the gospel.
So I think a lot of Christianbusinessmen and women think
where I've got my work, I've gotmy real world and then I've got
the spiritual world.
If those two worlds stayseparate, you'll never see your
(04:26):
work as mission.
But when those two worldscollide and you start to see
there's no separation betweenthe secular and the sacred, then
you start to realize not onlyis there no separation, but God
didn't create work just to bework.
God created work to be sacred.
And when work becomes sacrednow I'm on mission, and when I'm
on mission then I've gotsermons to preach.
When I'm on mission I've gotdisciples to make.
(04:47):
So we talked about Genesis,chapter 2.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, how's God feel about work?
Verses 1 through 3.
How did he build this wholething right?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
He mentions work three times in the first three
verses of chapter 2.
He worked and then he rested.
He worked and then he rested,he worked and then he rested.
And what's interesting is,anytime your Bible, you see a
word three times, just like theTrinity Father, son, spirit.
It's important.
(05:14):
So God, the Father, sets outright at the beginning of our
Bible that he's a worker.
And not only is he a worker,but he's also a master.
What that means is he hasworkers.
Well, who are those workers?
Well, right after Genesis 2, hetells Adam you're going to keep
the garden, you're going totend the garden and you're going
to name the animals.
You've got work to do.
I'm a worker, you're a worker,and because I'm a worker and
you're a worker, there's a taskto do.
Now the question is what's thetask?
(05:35):
What is the task that God'sgiven us to do?
If we're a business man andwoman, you're a worker.
It's not just a worker to work.
You're a worker because thesacred and the secular are the
same and you've got to figureout what the task is that God's
called you to do.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
How is it that the church is not just working with
the business people in thechurch, but how are we divvying
up or how are we thinking aboutthe support of local ministries
and businesses and globalministries and businesses?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I think one of the things the church
complicates again is you have achurch budget, right?
So we have money given to thechurch, that's the church budget
.
And then we start saying, okay,what do we use this money for?
Most people think, well, we'vegot a building, we've got to pay
for the building, we've got topay for the water, pay for the
power, pay for the employees Atthe Ridge.
What we like to do is all right, God, what do you want to do
with your money?
So again, that's principlenumber one is your money.
(06:24):
These people are giving themoney.
It's not their money, it's yourmoney.
What do you want to do with it?
We know what God wants to dowith his money.
He wants to reach people forthe glory of God, and so I
personally believe that everydollar that's given here is
missional.
Every dollar is given asmissional.
We do youth group ministry.
That's group ministry.
That's missional.
Now, all those missions havebusinessmen and women in them on
(06:45):
mission.
Now, what the church is famousfor is staying within its four
walls, right?
So we say all the time thatchurch does not exist for the
people that are already here.
Church exists for the folks whoaren't here yet.
Please don't miss that.
And once we say that now we'retalking missions outside of our
walls, there you go.
Once you start talking missionsoutside of your walls.
The purpose of the church isboth local, the city, the
(07:07):
community that God puts you in.
We've got to make sure we takecare of our Jerusalem right, our
Judea.
What about Samaria?
What about the people we don'tlike?
And what about the?
outermost parts of the earth.
Well, those are people that Idon't know anything about.
Well, god knows about them, andif I know God intimately, that
means I need to know about them,that means I need to be
(07:27):
intimate with them, and that'swhy we do missions every dollar.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
If we understand that the task remaining is to reach
every tribe, tongue and nationwith the gospel, if we
understand the book ofRevelation, as we say on our
intro and outro, member of everytribe, tongue and nation in the
throne room before the lamb,there is a task remaining.
It is to get the gospel whereit's not, it is to share the
good news Then one cent out ofevery dollar today is going to
(07:51):
that task.
Less than one cent In fact.
A small, single-digitpercentage of missionaries are
among unreached people groups.
The vast 99.
9% of resources and people arewhere the gospel already is.
How do we shift that paradigm?
How do we shout this from therooftops?
You have said you don't prayfor revival.
(08:14):
Prayer is revival.
Help me start this.
Help Andrew Scott, who's beenon here, start this revival of
finishing the task remaining.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
So we know, biblically speaking, that where
your money goes is where yourheart goes right.
So if you want to follow themoney trail, you see what
people's values are.
I'll ask them, hey, do you wantJesus to come back soon?
And they'll say, oh yeah, youreally do, I really do.
What are you doing missionallyaround the world to make that
(08:43):
happen?
Because we've got to reacheverybody and then he's going to
rip the sky open.
That's what we want.
If we want that, if that's thegoal, that we want Jesus to come
back, why are we slowing thisprocess down so much?
Why are we saying heaven, waitjust a little longer.
We're not quite ready for youto come back and start kingdom.
We're just not there yet.
So again, here's the root issueback and start kingdom.
(09:06):
We're just not there yet.
So again, here's the root issueDo we really care about people?
That's the question.
Do we really care about people?
And the truth is, the Americanchurch often cares about the
American church, pastors oftencare about pastors and employees
often care about employees.
Do we really care?
And so, until we really care,until we value people, it's not
going to matter.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Maybe every church needs to just sit down, have a
little offsite, right, if youwill, and just get back to
basics.
Okay, what are we here for?
What's our real purpose?
What's our real mission?
And if we start with the enduser in mind and the end user is
the people that are not inchurch yet, right, how are we
going to reach those people?
I would be willing to bet wewould not stick with the same
(09:45):
four-wall strategy that we areall living in today.
I would be willing to bet itwould look very different.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well, the way the church has been doing that task
is let's water down the truth sowe don't offend people, and
then more people will come.
Well, how's that working outfor us?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, isn't that what Jesus did, right?
He gave them free food and thentold them to come back for more
free food and ice cream, yeahtotally.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
And here's the deal Bars are crowded.
That doesn't mean anythingspiritual is happening.
So just because the parking lotis full doesn't mean something
spiritual is happening.
I would say give me 10 peoplewho want to see the world change
for the glory of God, insteadof 10,000 people who want to be
entertained on a Sunday morning.
A lot of that's what we caremore about.
(10:26):
If we're honest, we reallydon't care about someone else
that we'll never meet, fall inlove with Jesus.
But here's the deal Once youget close to Jesus, you start to
love the things that Jesusloves.
And when you start gettingcloser to Jesus, you abide in
him.
He abides in you.
If he's going to abide in you,he's going to make his home in
you, what he wants it to beright we always talk about.
Do you rent a house or buy ahouse?
(10:47):
If you rent, you can't tear thewall down, you can't paint it.
If you buy it, it's yours, youown it.
Well, he owns us.
If he owns us, then we're goingto have a heart for the nations
, because that's what his heartis.
And he didn't get us saved justto give us fire insurance.
He got us saved to be a forcefor the gospel.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Not to just give us fire insurance insurance, but to
be a force for the gospel.
How does Austin Ridge go aboutvetting and selecting?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
the nonprofit partners that we do support.
Yeah, I don't know of all theintricate details of it, but I
do know this we have certainvalues that if we're going to be
a partner with someone, we wantthem to be about the gospel, we
want them to be about biblicalChristianity.
Those things we go through awhole interview process of
vetting those agencies.
We want them to be aboutbiblical Christianity, those
things we go through a wholeinterview process of vetting
those agencies.
We say no a lot more than wesay yes, because obviously you
(11:36):
could do everything everywhereand not do anything well
anywhere.
We've decided we want to makesome major, deep impacts in some
places, like Padere.
We've been there for almost 15years.
That's not just a missionarytrip, that is a life in Padere.
We've been there for almost 15years.
Like that's not just amissionary trip, that is a life
in Padere.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Deep roots planted, now branching out.
Now they're making disciples,they're building churches,
they're expanding.
Yeah, same in India for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So we see where God's at work and then we take our
resources and we say, okay, weneed to be there because God's
there, and we go do it.
We stay there a long time,however long it takes.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So if we were to look at the world's major religions,
how would another church, howwould you suggest they think
through that and engage in thatand pray through that?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
You know what's interesting about other
religions?
I've actually had people in ourchurch tell us at times why
would we send resources to aMuslim country?
Why would we?
It goes back to what you saidabout Ephesians 6.
The enemy is not flesh andblood, it's against
principalities and powers of thedark forces.
So when we see people as theenemy, they're lost.
(12:43):
They're captive in those falsereligions.
It's not the truth, right,right.
And they're devout in thosereligions and they're sincere in
those religions and they'redevouring those religions and
they're sincere in thosereligions and they're lost in
those religions.
So if that doesn't move yourcompassion meter, then you
probably don't have one right.
And so that's true the persondown the street from our church,
that's true, that my next doorneighbor, and that's true the,
(13:03):
the buddhist monk in northernindia, or wherever they may be.
If you don't have compassionfor those people, then you have
to start to question do I knowJesus?
That's the truth.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
So if you don't have compassion for those people and
you are questioning that, whatshould you be doing?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Well, again, this whole podcast is about.
What are you going to do, Right?
What are you going to do tobuild kingdom?
Get in the game.
You're not alive for yourself.
You're not alive by chance.
You're alive on purpose.
You're alive on mission, andGod's got you in a mission field
, and that mission field isalways meant to have a heart and
a compassion that grows foranother mission field around you
.
I never thought I'd be inAustin Texas.
(13:45):
Why am I in Austin Texas?
Why is a South Carolina kid inAustin Texas?
I've never been west of Atlanta.
That's because God loves peoplein Austin.
But it's not just about Austin.
It never is.
It's about people in India now.
It's about people in Africa now, and that's the way it is in
all these listeners' worlds.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
If we think about our definition of people groups,
right, we kind of look to theJoshua Project and their study
of about 17,000 people groups onearth.
We say 10,000 are reached,7,000 are unreached and 700 are
unengaged.
And Clint and I have said thisfor almost a year now.
I can't wait to say thosenumbers with a six and a five
and a four in front, right, like, let's prayerfully, let's
(14:22):
change it.
Yes, that starts to change inour lifetime.
What do you think?
Well, let's go all the way back.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
We all come from two people Right, adam and Eve, and
then we all come from one family, on a boat.
There you go, noah, and thenthose languages are diversified
at the Tower of Babel.
So everybody comes from that.
But here's the truth.
Does God's heart wane after theTower of Babel, or is it just
as strong as it was after theark, as it was after the garden?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Never cast a shift in shadow.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Never changes, so why would ours change Just because
someone's different?
And so again, the church exists, the same reason that Israel
exists in the Old Testament tobe a light in the darkness of
the nations.
You talk about Genesis 12, theAbrahamic covenant, land seed
blessing.
Here's a promise.
Here's the problem, though.
A bunch of folks took thosepromises and they started
(15:11):
thinking this is about us, andthen they lost the mission.
Same thing that we see in thechurch today.
It's about us.
We lose the mission.
We would rather be politicallycorrect this fall than to
actually reach someone thatdoesn't know the gospel this
fall.
That's a problem.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Where's the church headed?
Where are we headed globally?
Like?
What's next that we're notaware of?
That you're maybe getting aglimpse of.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
When I think about the global church, I think more
persecution is coming, and Ithink it's going to be a center
of that is going to be theUnited States of America.
I've said before you've heardme say for 20 years now that I
think in my lifetime I'll bearrested for preaching the Bible
, arrested for preaching theBible, and I fully believe that
I'm 55 next month and I believein my lifetime I could easily be
arrested for preaching thegospel.
(15:54):
So we're going to, we're goingto find out who wants to play
ball, we're going to find outwho wants to attend church and
who actually is the church.
And so I believe God isstarting, has started and is
leading out a persecutionprocess.
He always purifies his churchand he's going to purify the
American church and he'spurifying the church worldwide.
So, as we think that we'restill the mission agency of the
(16:17):
world, the reality is the worldis now the mission agency to the
United States, and so he'spurifying his bride.
That's what he's doing.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
As we're going to go through this, I think we're
going to see the church incertain parts of the world where
persecution is greatest.
It goes underground and oftenit grows the fastest.
What type of persecution is theAmerican church willing to
withstand, right?
I mean, how many guys reallyare going to stand up and put
those handcuffs on and not bend?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Historically we've seen persecution.
As we look historically throughthe church, it starts as verbal
, it becomes financial, then itbecomes physical.
Um, we are right at thedoorstep of the physical in the
united states of america.
How do we equip?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
ourselves.
What are we?
What are we doing as the church?
Because I mean, look, 62, 65percent you know, brent was on a
couple weeks ago and and we'retalking about kind of the amount
of americans that callthemselves Christians.
But I mean, really, you knowwhat is the faithful remnant in
America today?
I don't know what that numberis, it's not 60.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We do know the scriptures say that the road of
righteousness is narrow, if youwill find it, and the other road
is broad and most will find it.
So we know that's true, right.
So we also know a lot of peopleproclaim something that, when
push comes to shove, it may ormay not be true.
Proclamation does notnecessarily mean transformation,
(17:38):
right.
But I do believe thatpersecution gets an opportunity
to find out who is.
It gives you a chance to getsqueezed and see what comes out.
And that's what God's doing tothe American church and will
continue to do.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
You talk about often the two volume knobs in a
person's life right the volumeknob of culture and the volume
knob of scripture.
You talk about view culturethrough the lens of scripture,
not scripture through the lensof culture.
If we're not taking the time tobe intentional, that volume
knob of culture is going todrown everything else out.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, think about when I was growing up I grew up
Southern Baptist.
You're in church Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night.
You're in Wednesday night andyou have vacation, bible school
and you have RAs and GAs andacteens and blah, blah, blah,
blah.
We see a person come to churchonce a month For an hour.
So already we're taking thevolume knob of the world and
(18:29):
making it a lot larger, andwe're taking the volume knob of
the spirit.
Not that the church is the onlyplace you can hear the spirit
of God talk.
But if we are more in the world, let's say social media, let's
say movies, let's say technology, let's say podcasts, let's say,
if we're more listening tovoices other than the voice,
more than we used to and thevoice less than we used to, what
(18:51):
are we going to be hearing?
All the voices?
Right, and so it's no wonderthat the church is watered down.
It's not even just a pastorissue, it's a people issue.
One of the phrases I hear a lotis we hear it more and more
that people have church trauma.
Yeah, church trauma, sure, andI hear, I hear probably weekly
like well, he doesn't come tochurch because he thinks it's a
big business, he doesn't come tochurch because they kicked his
(19:15):
mom out when he was 12 and henever forget the church.
We don't have church trauma.
I don't believe there's a suchthing as church hurt.
I know people use it all thetime.
What we have is people hurt.
People are the issue.
The bride of Christ has neverhurt a human being.
The bride of Christ is there toencourage a human being.
People mess it up and so whatwe try to do again.
(19:42):
These are hard questions, andhow do we reach billions and
billions of people?
I start by reading my Biblethis morning.
I start by being a good husband.
I start by giving.
You see, if we don't teach ourchildren to tithe and we don't
give consistently andsacrificially, world missions
will never happen financially atthe church either.
And that's why you know, whenpeople say I don't want to just
write a check to the church,it's not just a check to the
church, it's a mission to thechurch.
And so if we don't do thesebasic, this is a basketball,
(20:05):
this is running this is jumping,this is shooting.
How in the world are we going toreach billions of people?
You're not.
But if you do that every dayand you do it every day that's
what we've been doing here for20 years at the Ridge If you do
it every day, you start to haveopportunities in India, you
start to have opportunities inAfrica and you start to see a
Padere people group get reachedthat wasn't reached before.
And then you look back afterwalking that consistent walk
(20:28):
over and over and over and over.
You look back after a while andgo, wow, look what God's done.
Now, if every church does that,that's how you reach the world.
You know, Dee, I will say thistoo it's easy to get overwhelmed
when you start thinking aboutworld missions.
I get overwhelmed thinkingabout it, sometimes Like gosh.
More people are being born thanwe could ever reach.
So we're falling behind everyday of how many people like.
We hear the stat of 150 peoplemoving to Austin every day.
(20:49):
If we start a church every day,we're not going to reach Austin
doing that.
So it's easy to get overwhelmed.
But again, what is my job?
My job is to spend time withGod this morning and do what he
tells me to do today.
That's my job, and then my jobis to have as much compassion
for the lady who messed mycoffee order up as I have for
(21:10):
you as we sit across the tablefrom each other, and to have
just as much care and concern.
And when that starts happening,then you start thinking about
countries that you've never beento.
Then you start praying aboutpeople groups you've never heard
of.
Then you actually start valuingand I tell you it's hard to
pray for someone and not care.
So I start praying for peoplegroups I know nothing about and
all of a sudden I start thinkingabout those people groups all
the time.
(21:30):
Go on a short-term mission trip,Give to your local church,
Serve.
Don't tell me you're ready formissions if you won't work in
the nursery.
Don't say you're ready todisciple people if you won't be
in a dGroup or a small group toget discipled.
Let's do these baby steps.
Let's learn how to eat breadbefore we start chewing on the
ribeye.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I love that.
And for the listener, I wantyou to be encouraged.
Brad has been an incredibleencouragement in my life and in
the lives of thousands andthousands of people in our
community.
God has grown this particularlocal church and the Bride of
Christ because of faithfulteaching behind the pulpit, more
than anything.
(22:08):
Sure, we've got a lot of thingsthat we do for the community.
We've grown, we've expandedinto some other communities but,
man, the fact that you open abook and you start in the first
chapter and you work throughevery single verse and you don't
skip around and you don't leaveout the hard, stuff.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
And I would say for any pastors that listen to this
I know several do I think wecomplicate church and it's not
complicated.
Take a book of the Bible andteach it verse by verse.
I understand, hey, if I doeight topical sermons in the
next eight weeks, then maybesomebody new will come.
The only thing we know that Godwill bless is the teaching of
his word.
We know he'll do that, so whywouldn't we do that?
(22:46):
I mean, don't preach 18-minutesermonettes for Christianettes.
Teach the Bible.
And who cares if your churchdoubles in three years or not?
That's not the goal.
The goal is to be faithful,growing the church.
That's God's business, hisbusiness.
He'll grow the bride where hewants to grow, how he wants to
grow it.
He's not growing the churchhere because I'm here.
He's decided to grow the churchhere.
(23:10):
But I do believe when you teachthe Bible it grows hearts and
that's what matters and that'swhat changes people missionally.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You know Brad for those of you that don't know had
a pretty serious medical eventlast year, last summer.
We I mean we nearly lost you.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
We thought we were going to lose you yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Man had two strokes playing golf with his dad.
I'm going to call Clint out.
Clint said that's a newtwo-stroke penalty.
Right there in golf we had tojoke about it a little bit
because we didn't know what elseto do.
But God's not done with you,man, he's not.
He's healed you back up.
He's got you back behind thepulpit.
I know at times you can feelthat medical event not feeling
(23:45):
as sharp as you have been atother times.
But this church hadn't sloweddown one bit, dude, it hasn't.
And we're so grateful for you,we're so grateful for your
commitment and Courtney and yourfamily, we love you.
Thank you, thank you.
I think you're better than ever.
I think you're more.
You were bold pre.
Now you're like I'm not holdingback.
I'm fitting to tell them whatGod put on my heart Win, lose or
(24:09):
draw.
They're going to deal with itfor the rest of this week.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Well, what's the worst thing that can happen?
They kill me and I go to heaven.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's a good deal either way.
Or he'll say, man, I've beendealing with this all week.
Now I'm about to put it ony'all, right, like thank you.
Some lonely, some in community.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Understand the importance of your presence.
Your presence means you're onmission, and if you're breathing
, that means God wants you to bea witness to somebody.
Today, every day, you wake upin the morning all right, god
didn't take me home, so there'ssomething else to do today.
And when you start to have aheart for people and a value for
people and you start to caremore than just about your
(24:54):
self-preservation, god willstart to move in ways and you
start to see the miracles.
People always say.
I want to see the miracles ofthe New Testament.
We see it every day.
The fact that I'm saved and I'ma Christian today.
That's the biggest miracle ofanything else in the Bible.
Today.
That's the biggest miracle ofanything else in the Bible the
fact that he got my heart and ifhe got my heart, he can get
anybody's heart.
And if he got your heart andyou're listening to this podcast
(25:15):
he's got work for you to do, solet's get after it.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Let me pray for us, father, thank you, thank you for
Brad Courtney, our church, ourlocal, our local four walls that
we bust our way out of at yourwill, at your discretion and in
service to you, for your gloryalone.
Lord, you've brought greatpeople here.
You've got great people inother places.
(25:38):
You've equipped us, you'vegiven us everything we need.
We have your word, we havecommunity, we have fellowship,
and in some ways we havepersecution.
In some ways we have strife andwe have obstacles that you've
put in front of us to overcome.
And we know James 1, consider itpure joy when those troubles
come our way.
We know that our faith will betested, we know that our
(25:59):
endurance will have a chance togrow and we know that when it
does, we'll be perfect andcomplete, needing nothing.
And Lord, be with us.
I know you will, but be with usthrough those steps.
Be with us.
Give us peace.
I know you will, but be with usthrough those steps.
Be with us, give us peace thatonly you can bring, that we
can't comprehend.
Give us strength, give uswisdom and discernment, lord, as
(26:20):
we continue to pursue you, aswe continue to imperfectly try
to align our lives with yourwill.
And thank you.
Thank you for giving us anopportunity to play on your team
and get in the game, and it'sin your name we pray Amen.
Thank you for listening toUnreached.
Our sincere desire is that whatyou've heard today will cause
you to see the mission of Goddifferently and your role in it
more clearly.
If this adds value for you andwe hope it does would you please
(26:42):
rate and review the podcastwherever you listen.
Also, share with your family,your friends, your church, your
life group, small group, d groupwherever you do life, and if
you want to connect with us,find us on Instagram at
unreachedpodcast, or email us atunreachedpodcast at gmailcom.
You.
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