Global Gospel Advancement and Sovereign Grace Partnership

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps:

Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace Churches with our executive director. Mark, there's been updates over the last few years on this podcast and various places about the expanding global connections and work that God has given us. But we care about global missions, not merely because we want to see Sovereign Grace get bigger or because it's interesting work, we have received a charge from the Lord Jesus Christ. And you wanted to talk about that.

Mark Prater:

I did. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who gave us that charge. And some might think the great commission, there's the charge there. But I want to just read Acts chapter 1, verse 8. As you know, this is right before his ascension. And he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And Jesus said that before his ascension. And we've seen those words come true. The gospel has advanced throughout Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and now to the ends of the earth. We're seeing that in our day. So what Jesus called us to do, he gave us the power of the Spirit to accomplish and he sends us to do it. And that's why our small family of churches gets to play a small part in advancing the gospel throughout the world because we want to see more people come to know our Jesus and know him as Lord and Savior.

And I'm so grateful for how pastors in Sovereign Grace are working to advance the gospel. One of the things that's so interesting to me, anybody that's read Acts knows this, it's nothing brilliant. But as Acts develops, what you see is that partnerships are formed so that they can advance the gospel together. So Jesus gives these words to the 11 that are standing there and they go about advancing the gospel, but they form partnerships with men and other churches who are their coworkers. Paul becomes an apostle and he forms partnerships and churches working together, represented by men who are coworkers with the original 11. And with Paul, they advanced the gospel throughout the world. And that's still happening today. Not in big apostolic ministry. I don't mean that at all, of course, but churches partnering together to advance the gospel throughout the world.

And it's something that we get to enjoy in Sovereign Grace. It makes building relationally only sweeter as we get to know and serve brothers and sisters and churches throughout the world. And what I just said, we've all heard that before, but brothers, we can't take that for granted. What we have is precious, it's biblical, and it allows us to accomplish what Jesus sent his Spirit to do in continuing the mission that he has given us. So it's a glorious mission. It's a glorious cause, and the joy of it all is we get to do it together in Sovereign Grace.

Benjamin Kreps:

Amen. I'm so grateful, even as you're talking, so grateful that Jesus gave his original disciples the charge of Matthew 28 and Acts 1 because as they were faithful and invested in other men and transferred that charge to successive generations, that's the human reason why we're Christians here in America. So grateful that we get to actually join in that heritage of global mission is deeply gratifying. And you actually have some updates for us about pastors in the States and working with churches across the world.

Mark Prater:

Yeah, I just want to give a few updates of what's happening throughout the world. I haven't done that for a while. And as I do that, I want to illustrate how partnership in Sovereign Grace is happening. So you may be aware or not aware that recently we've added five churches from Pakistan as candidate churches in Sovereign Grace who are now pursuing a partnership, full partnership, with Sovereign Grace. And those five churches are led by men that we've built relationally with for years. And when I say we, I mean pastors in Sovereign Grace. So through our partnership with TLI Training Leaders International, there've been several Sovereign Grace pastors who traveled to the Middle East to sort of a safe neutral country where the Pakistani brothers joined them. And they went through several years of theological training. Men like Scott Crook made many trips. And then Greg Dirnberger and Dave Quilla and many more guys that are in the Midwest Northwest region. Scott's now in the Mid-Atlantic region, but the Midwest Northwest region, many of the pastors there have made trips to serving those pastors. And Dave Quila continues to serve the brothers there in Pakistan.

So it's another illustration of how partnership is working in Sovereign Grace to theologically equip pastors in Pakistan. And five of those are now going to pursue ordination as the next step to move from a candidate church to a full partner church. So it's just wonderful that we actually have five candidate churches in Pakistan right now. Just for the sake of security, I'm not going to use names or get very specific, but we have a Sovereign Grace missionary in Southeast Asia who's advancing the gospel there. And he just had an outreach last week, sort of a community picnic event where the community where he is at was gathered. There were opportunities to share the gospel. It does seem that there's interest in the gospel there and maybe even conversions; time will tell. But it's another illustration of how the gospel is advancing in areas where they've not even heard of Christ before. And the partnership aspect of that is this missionary was sent from a Sovereign Grace local church who continues to be involved in caring for him and his family, and that local church's region is involved in supporting him and caring for that family. So again, it's a wonderful expression of partnership and how the gospel is advancing in Southeast Asia.

Next month in March, Bob Kauflin will travel to Manila. Dave Taylor will travel from Sydney to Manila and join Jeffrey Jo where Sovereign Grace Music with Sovereign Grace Churches Philippines will have three different events and one of those events already has over 3000 people registered for it. And so those are opportunities to gather people. Many of them may be Christians, many of them may not be Christians, to hear the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's another expression of partnership, a partnership between Sovereign Grace Music and Sovereign Grace Churches. So Sovereign Grace Music isn't just about music. They want to see music help advance the mission of the gospel. And they aid Sovereign Grace Churches in doing that. In this case, Sovereign Grace Churches, Philippines.

Okay, one more illustration. Jacobis Aldana, who is the senior pastor of Iglesia Biblica Soberana Gracia in Santa Marta, Columbia, a church he planted eight years ago and is a candidate church in Sovereign Grace Jacobis, a very good pastor, very good leader, is working his way through our ordination process. He actually traveled to Bolivia to serve David Del Castillo's church, Iglesia Gracia Soberana. They had a big church retreat and Jacobis went there to serve and to preach.

And what's so cool about that is you're seeing partnerships that we've enjoyed in the States for a long time. They're beginning to form and build relationally throughout Latin America. And that's just one story, could tell you many more of how that's happening. So just a few stories and updates of what God is doing through our small family of churches throughout the world, and how partnership is such a vital part of that. And let's remember why we're doing it. We're doing it to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, that people who need the good news, just like we needed the good news, would hear it be born again and come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior, all for his glory.

Benjamin Kreps:

Yes and amen. It is wonderful to hear those updates. What a delightful charge that we have been given, that we get to participate in partnership and in the advance of the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so grateful for the many pastors in Sovereign Grace that eagerly and sacrificially travel, leave their families, to serve alongside brothers across the globe. So thanks for the updates and thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.