LYNCHBURG, VA — Imagine what God may be pleased to do throughout the world over the next 50 years with the lives of 10,000 college students in love with Jesus and aimed at the nations.
John Piper addressed such a hungry crowd this morning at a convocation at Liberty University. He was asked to speak for their twice-annual missions week, which was established to inspire and mobilize minds and hearts and lives to take the gospel to all people everywhere.
Piper’s question for the students was this: What do we need to believe — really believe — in order to love the nations enough to lay down our lives for the sake of their salvation? What truths give us the freedom to suffer in far away places for the sake of the gospel — and not just suffer, but suffer with joy? Walking through highlights from Hebrews 10–13, Piper wanted the students to discover and deepen roots of love for the nations that bear fruit in joyful sacrifice.
Jesus became our punishment, our perfection, and our all-satisfying Pleasure. So we can say, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” This is the great root of radical devotion to missions where the people who need you most don’t want you to come.
Listen to Piper’s half-hour summons, titled “The Cost of Love in the Call to the Nations.”