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| It's All About Him and Not About Us... and It Never Was By Dr. Roscoe Brewer; Founder and International Director, EPIC International |
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 When God put human beings on planet earth he had one purpose in mind—that His creation would worship and bring glory to Him. God’s first command was to “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1: 28). The inference being to “spread out and diversify.” From the very beginning, God intended us to be different. He wanted mankind to be a variety of cultures with different foods, different music, different clothing, different languages and different customs. Why? Because the greater the diversity, the more glory God will receive when He is worshipped.Mankind, however, had a different mindset. We did not diversify. To the contrary, we rebelled. Genesis 11 opens with “the whole earth was of one language and one speech.” The Tower of Babel was a monument to our rebellion. It was being built to show man’s greatness and not that of the Creator. God, however, spoiled our intention and stopped the project by confusing the languages. By this He also accomplished His original purpose of dispersing the people to attain diversity. This was the beginning of what are now described as “people groups.” God did in an instant, what He had intended and what naturally occurs over the course of many years. Genesis 10 lists 70 different people groups that were created on that day. From out of these 70 people groups or “nations,” God chose a man named Abram (later changed to Abraham) to build a nation called Israel. They were to be His representatives in the world. God’s purpose was to use this new nation to reveal Himself and draw the scattered peoples of the world to Himself for worship. God promised to bless Israel so that they in turn would be a blessing to others, “and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12: 1–3). Israel failed. Instead of addressing the beauty of diversity, and being a blessing to the nations, Israel became haughty, self-centered, full of national pride, and replete with inward attention. They misinterpreted the reason for God’s blessings. The children of Israel thought it was all about them and not about Him. Then God entered human history. Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, God made a way for all men to accept the Gospel and worship their Creator. Jesus’ parting instruction to His church was to make disciples of all the “nations” or “peoples.” These instructions carried with them the promise that He would be with us until the end of the age. This command appears five times in the New Testament and is the main topic of conversation during Jesus’ post-resurrection ministry. It is also a major reason for the Holy Spirit’s coming in Acts 1:8. Most of the recorded events in the New Testament center on the founding purpose for all of God’s people. Like Israel, the church has one all encompassing responsibility—“Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvelous works among all nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised” (I Chronicles 16: 24, 25). This temporary existence we call “life” is not about us. It’s about Him. Like Israel, the church is blessed to be a blessing. When God gathers worshippers together to make up His bride, there will be people from “every kindred, every tribe, and every language” (Revelation 5:9 and 7:9). We use words like “missions,” “missionaries,” or “Great Commission” (none of which are in the Bible) to describe our purpose. But in reality, it’s the “worship” part, not the “gathering” part that is our purpose. God’s ultimate plan is for every “nation” to worship Him. We need to get involved in “the uttermost” regions of the world, not because we have lost our burden for our “Jerusalems”, but because of God’s heart for the “nations.” Our vision should not only be “filling Jerusalem with our doctrine” but also “turning the world upside down” as God seeks worshippers from among every nation. |
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