The love and glory of Christ as the motive
Why go? The conference's answer was rarely duty alone. Ian Hamilton showed that the St Andrews Six went because the love of Christ held them; Michael Reeves showed Henry Martyn driven by a longing that Christ be glorified; John Piper presented the Judsons as servants of joy, bringing the nations into joys exalted as the heavens.
Delight in Christ comes before mission: we must glory in Christ before we can glorify him, and we cannot charge into mission with a God-forgetful heart. Missions is not the main thing; God is. Sending our best becomes an act of worship that says he is worthy.
in comparison to your love for him. You need to hate mother, father, wife, children. Take up your cross and follow him because if you don't, you cannot be his disciple. So the proximate reason was duty, and Chalmers was big on duty, but that was only the proximate or the secondary reason. There was a primary reason that Chalmers impressed upon them, and it was the love of Christ.
Ian Hamilton: the primary reason was the love of Christ.
Mission is the chief end of the Christian church in order that it might be the people of God that it's called to be, a worshipping God-saturated Christ rejoicing people. Mission, the chief end of the Christian church. So, one man's life and gospel passion impacted six young men and led them to give up their small ambitions and go out east and preach the gospel of Christ.
Alexander Duff: mission is the chief end of the church.
Send Your Best: Qualifications Matter
Aubrey SequeiraWorship is the fuel and goal of missions. Absolutely it is. Which means that sending our best is an act of worship, beloved. When we send our best, we are saying our triune God is worthy. Consider whom God sent.
Sending our best is an act of worship.
For God's Glory: The Mission of Henry Martyn
Michael ReevesMartyn's constant concern for his own personal integrity, his relish, makes that very clear. Cut him anywhere and Henry Martyn bleeds the truth that you cannot glorify Christ in an un-Christ-like way. You cannot charge into mission with a God-forgetful coldness of heart and think that you are glorifying Christ.
Michael Reeves: you cannot charge into mission with a God-forgetful heart.
And just so, delight in the glory of God, experienced through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, became the passion that fueled Henry Martyn's whole mission. That Jesus, this one he had come to delight in, might be glorified in all the earth.
The glory of God fueled Martyn's whole mission.
Q&A Panel
Chad Vegas, Brooks Buser, Kevin DeYoung, John Piper, Jonathan MasterWell, God is the main thing. And so you preach about him every Sunday. Missions is not the main thing. It's a means to the main thing. And that is really important to say because if you get them backwards, it's crushing. It just destroys your soul.
God is the main thing; missions is a means.
And why should we be unwilling to part with a few fleeting inconsiderable comfort for the sake of making them sharers with us in joys exalted as the heaven and durable as eternity. I have been accustomed to view this field of labor with dread and terror.
Piper: the nations are destitute of the joys that make us happy.
Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing know that the Lord is God. Psalm 100. It is God's invincible purpose in this world that his son have this happy reward for his sufferings. Why did he suffer?
God's invincible purpose that his Son have this happy reward.