Joshua from Fort Collins, Colorado writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, where did you get your foundations for such a global vision of ministry and missions?" My father's prayers, when I was a little boy, were laden with the glory of God. And I give thanks to my dad to this day, or thanks to God for him to this day.

His life was a witness to the nature of the universe as the fallen creation of God in desperate need of rescue by the gospel. In other words, I grew up in a home with big things going on. You know, the home was not about the latest TV show. It wasn't about the latest political shenanigans.

It was about the latest rescue from hell for heaven for a glorious God who made the universe, who exists for his glory. And so I absorbed these things little. And then comes, in my 20s, Jonathan Edwards' book, The End for Which God Created the World. Oh man. And that book just simply blew me away with the God-centeredness of God's purpose in this universe.

So from creation on, bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who's called by my name, whom I created for my glory. And then I began to see it everywhere from eternity to the second coming. Ephesians 1, 6, predestined to the praise of his glory.

The incarnation, John 12, "Father, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Glorify your name." Or the propitiation on the cross in Romans 3. This is to demonstrate God's righteousness or the giving of the Holy Spirit. He will glorify me, Jesus said. Or the living of the Christian life.

Let your light shine that then may see your good deeds and glorify your Father. Or dying in this world, Philippians 1, 21. I want my Christ to be magnified in my body when I die. Or the second coming of Christ, when he comes on that day, to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed.

So all over the Bible, I just began to see it everywhere after reading Edwards that God is God-centered. God does everything for the glory of God from eternity to eternity. In the new heavens and the new earth, God himself is going to be the sun and the lamb will be the lamp.

So Edwards expanded, just blew up my view of God to its proportions where it belongs and brought, ironically, brought the world to its appropriate tiny size. "Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as dust in the scales." So the key to a global vision of Christianity is not to think much about Christianity, but to think much about God.

And then came, then came the connection between God's passion for his glory and the nations and my Christian hedonism. Back in 1983, I was preaching the series of messages that became Desiring God, and the church asked me to preach the message on missions for the first time. I'd been there three years.

I'd never preached on missions. Shame on me. I took the challenge. I called the message, "Missions, the Battle Cry of Christian Hedonism," and everything came together at that moment between God's pursuit of his own glory, my pursuit of my joy, God's pursuit of the nations and how that would be the capstone to have all the nations worshiping him and all the nations satisfied in him.

And for the next 10 years then, Tony, from '83 to '93, I just threw myself into working out the global dimensions of this, and finally in 1993, published a book, Let the Nations Be Glad. And what I saw in that process was that there was a primal aim in choosing Israel that they would, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

And then there were promises all over the Psalms and all over the prophets, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations shall worship the Lord." And then there was the accomplishment of that on the cross where Jesus ransoms people for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, Revelation 5.

And then we get our marching orders after the cross, "Go with all authority, make disciples of all the nations." And then we get a rock-solid promise from Jesus that this gospel will be preached throughout all the nations, and then the end will come. I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

So it seems to me that unless or until your life is grafted into this global purpose of God to be glorified through the worship of all the peoples, you're missing one great, joyful reason for your existence. This is not just for an elite group of frontline missionaries. This is for every Christian to be linked into in one way or the other, be drawing strength from and pouring prayers and money and time and effort and love into.

So very practically, Tony, I would say to those folks who care about this or need to care about this, get a copy of Patrick Johnstone's "The Church is Bigger Than You Think," and let your vision just be blown wide open. That book just blew me away a few years ago when I read it, and I think it's still in print.

"The Church is Bigger Than You Think," and get a copy of Jason Mandrake's "Operation World," and begin to pray through all the nations of the world. I prayed for Nepal this morning as I worked my way through this and saw the stunning work of God that he did. I think there were about 20 Christians in Nepal back in the early '60s.

Today, there are over 800,000 Christians in Nepal under this Maoist kind of government. God is doing stunning things in the world, and so add that to all the theological foundations. Those are amazing stats. Thank you, Pastor John. And you can find more information about Pastor John's two books mentioned here, "Desiring God" and "Let the Nations Be Glad," and you can find more information on those at DesiringGod.org.

You can also listen to that original sermon recorded on November 13, 1983, under the title "Missions, the Battle Cry of Christian Hedonism," and close out this podcast. Here's a short clip from that message. Missionaries are not heroes who can boast in great sacrifices for God. They are the true Christian hedonists.

They are the ones who know that the battle cry of Christian hedonism is "Missions!" They are the ones who have discovered the simple truth that there is 100 times more joy, 100 times more satisfaction in leaving home for Christ and the gospel than a life devoted to security, comfort, and worldly advancements.

I do not appeal to you this morning to screw up your courage and make any sacrifice for Jesus Christ. I had enough of that preaching when I was young that said constantly, "Do God's will, not your will," and never told me that my will might be thrilled to obey God, which it is today.

I appeal to you to renounce everything in order to have the pearl of pearls. I appeal to you to count everything as rubbish for the surpassing value of standing in the service of the King of Kings. I appeal to you to give up all your tattered store-bought clothes in order to clothe yourself with the royal robes of the ambassador of the King.

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