Perseverance without visible fruit

But look at the other half of this, the other side, with all his energy that he powerfully works within you. Man's responsibility. God's sovereignty, working together for the glory of the king. God's sovereignty doesn't cut the nerve of missions. It is the nerve of missions. Sovereignty is the only reason someone can toil for 15, 20, 30 years among an unreached language group where no foundation has been laid and expect anything to stand.

God's sovereignty is the nerve of missions.

It would have been so easy for him to despair or burn out. But his perception of the excellencies of Christ moved him to rely on God, not himself. And so when he came to write of the advance of the gospel globally, he said this, he said, "It's not easy for God to do it.

Martyn: even if I never see a native converted…

Already given to Him, the connection of the Father's sending of the Son ought to give us such joy and stick-to-itiveness, optimism in carrying out the mission of the church. Because when the Son was sent, He had been given names. All those who had already been given to Him before the foundations of the earth, we are sent Because the Father first sent the Son.

The Son came with an elect people already given to him.

And they were willing to pay any price to go anywhere as long as they could, obedient to the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third thing that strikes me about them is, and especially the Scots, because they knew the words, that they were committed to a principle that Samuel Rutherford had expounded in a wonderful way. In one of his letters, when he said, duties are ours, events are the Lord's.

Rutherford: duties are ours, events are the Lord's.

So for you, well, you probably feel from time to time, particularly based on the other questions You asked like you're isolated and alone and almost feels fruitless but but you know that's not true because God's word gives you all these promises of glory of the glory of your work so that I'm quite confident if you persevere by God's grace in the work he's given you to do you will say what Paul was what Paul was able to say in the work which is I consider the sufferings of this present world aren't worth comparing with the glory that he's given you to do. So so I would we want to honor you the work that you're doing and and encourage you in

Jonathan Master to a missionary without visible fruit.

You know what's so great about this is you can't mess that up. The gospel you have to proclaim, the salvation you have to offer won't allow the mission to fail. I must have them. I must bring them. What a privilege it is that He enlists us in a mission, it can't fail, that we can be instruments of His sovereign grace in the lives of fellow sinners whom our Lord means to save.

Mike Riccardi: you can't mess it up, because the mission can't fail.

And if they don't, what I want to say to them is, OK, OK. I'm not telling you become an expert in missions. Just know your God and he needs to be really big for those marriages you're trying to save and for this global global vision. If you preach a big, glorious, sovereign, all-wise God for 5 years, your people will feel eager and natural in taking on the world. It's his he owned it. He bought his elect from all the peoples of the world.

Piper: preach a God who cannot lose.

So many have learned this lesson. You've learned it if you've lived long enough. deep darkness often precedes dawn. Glorious dawn. Life and ministry had been indescribably hard for 19 years in Burma. The first convert had been baptized six years after they arrived.

Piper: deep darkness often precedes dawn.