The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a very popular time for Christian conferences geared toward college students. Many of them are excellent. Some are not. But when I first read about the CROSS conference in the early Fall I was admittedly intrigued. The stated mission of the conference is “the global purpose of magnifying the kingly majesty of Jesus Christ. Our focus is on all the unreached peoples of the world where Jesus is not worshipped as God and Savior. To that end CROSS aims to mobilize students for the most dangerous and loving cause in the universe: rescuing people from eternal suffering and bringing them into the everlasting joy of friendship with Jesus.” Now that’s a conference vision I can get excited about! So when one of the students at Redeemer Church approached me about going to the conference I fully supported it.
On December 27th eleven people from Redeemer Church (including the 5 Limbaughs) packed into two vehicles and drove to Louisville, Kentucky for the four-day conference. Over the last sixteen years of ministry I have had the privilege to attend a lot of conferences. But this conference was the best! It was targeted, passionate, prayerful, biblical, applicational, diverse, and thoroughly Gospel-fueled. Our group learned much every single day. And collectively we are motivated to magnify the kingly majesty of Jesus Christ to all who do not know Him. Over the next week or so I plan to post a series of blogs on what I learned at the conference and how I plan to apply it.
Today I’ll start with John Piper’s message “The Chief End of Missions: The Supremacy of God in the Joy of All Peoples.” Dr. Piper asked and answered this one question, “What is the chief end of missions?” The short answer is the supremacy of God in the joy of all peoples. He spent the rest of His message explaining and applying that answer from the Bible.
One profound principle that impacted me is this: The world will see the supremacy of God when they see us value Him supremely. Read that again. In other words, the more I value God in my own heart, the more the world will clearly see the worthiness of God to be worshiped. The more the local church prizes God’s glory above all other competing glories, the more the lost world will have a clear view of the powerful Gospel.
Trying to do missions without valuing God supremely in our hearts is like going to war with weapons but without ammunition. Our guns and tanks and fighter jets may look really impressive on the outside, but they’ve got no effective power because they’re empty on the inside. My attempt to reach people for Jesus Christ starts with me valuing Jesus Christ above all other things in my own heart. That’s exactly why Peter instructs us to “sanctify the Lord Christ in our hearts” first, so that we can “always be ready to give a defense” of the Gospel (1 Peter 3:15).
Therefore, I will make it my aim to worship Christ through reading about Him in Scripture, praying to Him, meditating on Him, and choosing Him over all the competing treasures and glories this world offers me every single day. And in doing this I know that I am choosing supreme joy for myself and a clear picture of Christ’s supremacy for the world to see.