To Love Missions is To Love Worship

Missions exists because worship doesn't.

Because people bow down before wooden idols in self-love and pride, recognizing and seeing only lies and an exaggeration of self, denying the glory due the One who deserves all praise.

And because there is this lack of worship and people fail to bow down before their rightful Creator, missions exists. A call to the peoples to know and obey and love their Creator God, to bow down and give Him the praise and honor He deserves. To worship. 

And to love missions, to love the salvation of souls, to love evangelism and discipleship is to love worship and desire God's glory. 

The true heart of a missionary is that God be praised and honored above all things.

God is most honored when He is worshipped. Missions exists because He is not completely glorified among His creation. 

Yet, a lingering question still remains unanswered. How is God glorified? How is God most honored and most praised? 

To quote Piper directly, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. 

In order for God to be glorified, we must be satisfied with who He is and what He's done for us. We must be content in His power and majesty and sovereignty. We must find fulfillment in His plan for our lives and His control over every circumstance. We must rejoice and find completion in Calvary's blood shed for our sins and delight in the resurrection of Christ. 

We must realize that God is enough. Enough to conquer our sin and give us love, joy, peace, and strength for each day. Enough to sanctify us until we are made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, one day in heaven.

And when we find that God is enough, when God completely satisfies our desires, God is glorified and He is worshipped. 

But that leads us back in a full circle to missions.

In order for people to be satisfied in God, they have to hear of Him first. They have to grasp the enormity of the Gospel and Christ's sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection. They have to confess their sins and acknowledge Him as Lord of their life. And only then they can worship and glorify their Creator in full satisfaction in the knowledge of Him.

Missions exists because worship doesn't. Missions exists because we are not completely satisfied in God and fail to bring Him honor and praise.

Yet missions also exists because of our thirst to see God glorified and honored and praised in the world, from every tongue, tribe, and nation. 

Mission exists because our satisfaction in Christ causes us to worship. 

As a believer, how can we not desire that God be glorified? How can we not desire others to find true satisfaction in Christ? How can we not pursue and delight in the pursuit of missions, whether through praying, giving, sending, or going? 

Missions is a command. A command for us as believers to seek God's glorification that all people might come to worship God for who He is.

So prioritize missions, with a heart and passion and desire for God to be exalted above the earth. God is great, and it is our privilege to honor Him as best we can.

{Inspired by John Piper's book Let the Nations be Glad}