Below are excerpts taken from Chapter 1 of Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions by John Piper.

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.

Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal in missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God. ‘The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!’ (Psalm 97:1). ‘Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!’ (Psalm 67:3-4).

But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish. Missionaries will never call out, ‘Let the nations be glad!’, who can not say from the heart, ‘I rejoice in the Lord…I will be glad and exult in thee, I will sing praise to thy name, O Most High’ (Psalm 104:34; 9:2). Missions begins and ends in worship.” -pg. 11

Piper goes on to address specifics:

“The zeal of the church for the glory of her King will not rise until pastors and mission leaders and seminary teachers make much more of the King. When the glory of God himself saturates our preaching and teaching and conversation and writings, and when he predominates above our talk of methods and strategies and psychological buzz words and cultural trends, then the people might begin the feel that he is the central reality of their lives and that the spread of his glory is more important than all their possessions and all their plans.” -pg. 38

Here is part of Piper’s summary of chapter one:

“God is calling us above all else to be the kind of people whose theme and passion is the supremacy of God in all of life. No one will be able to rise to the magnificence of the missionary cause who does not feel the magnificence of Christ. There will be no big world vision without a big God. There will be no passion to draw others in to our worship where there is no passion for worship.

‘Great and wonderful are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages!
Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord?
For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you,
for you judgments have been revealed.’ (Revelation 15:3-4)” -pg. 40

Do we share the gospel often and does the frequency of our witnessing reflect for better or worse the intensity of our passion for God and his glory in our own lives?

I pray that the Spirit would help us to examine ourselves in light of these points with the end result being a greater love for and worship of God in our lives and a heightened effort to see him worshiped and glorified among all the peoples of the earth!!

~Nick Miersma for the Missions Team