Alrededor del Mundo Como en el Cielo, Mayo 17, 2026

It's so good to be here with you all this morning. Thanks be to God for another opportunity to gather together. As Alfredo mentioned earlier, last week we concluded our series called At Home As It Is In Heaven. And we spent five weeks talking about how we glorify God in our homes and in our neighborhoods. And this morning we're beginning a new series called Across The World As It Is In Heaven. So for the next several weeks, we're going to be talking about how God's will for our lives also includes making his glory known among the nations. So if you have your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 67. This is a missionary song and prayer because it reveals the global purpose of God and the part that we play in his global purpose. And I'd love for us to stand as we read this aloud together. Daniel will read it for us in Spanish. English speakers can follow along in your Bibles or on the screen. Amen. You can be seated. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to gather this morning. Thank you for your word. It is a precious gift to us. It reveals to us who you are and what your mission is. To be glorified among all peoples. Father, thank you for being gracious to us and blessing us for your glory among the nations. Please bless the reading and teaching of your word this morning. It's in your precious name. In your name, Lord, we pray. Amen. So according to current statistics, there are nearly 3 billion people in the world with little to no access to the gospel. There are approximately 3 billion people on the planet who have no access to the gospel. Or like 8 billion people.

And nearly 3 billion of them still have no access to the gospel. There are over 1,600 language groups with no scripture. So that's millions of people with no scripture and no translation happening. And a lot of these language groups live in areas where it's extremely difficult to be a Christ follower. And in some of these places, you can be executed for following Jesus or talking about Jesus. So how will they hear about God and His saving power? And how will they hear about Jesus? So how will they hear about God and His saving power? How will they call on Him and be saved? How will they praise and enjoy the one true God? This psalm tells us how this happens. I want us to notice the structure of this psalm as we walk through it together. Look at verse 1. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us. So the psalm begins with the request for God's grace and blessing. This is a request for God's grace and blessing. Because without God's grace, we are completely hopeless and powerless. We all desperately need God's grace. And grace is God's undeserved favor toward sinners. None of us deserve His grace and divine blessing. God doesn't owe us anything. Because we've all sinned and rebelled against Him. We've all fallen short of His glory. We all deserve eternal condemnation. And without His grace, that's exactly what we receive. But God, because of His great love for us, He didn't leave us to ourselves to die in our sins. He sent Christ to suffer and die for our sins. And on the cross, Jesus received the punishment that we deserve.

So that we can freely receive what we don't deserve, which is grace. By his grace, we are saved. Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. You know this. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We are saved by his grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And as a result of this, we get to enjoy all the blessings and benefits of Christ. His righteousness, his honor, his freedom, his strength, his comfort, his peace. It's all ours because of God's grace to us in Christ. Not because of anything we have done, but only because of what Jesus has done for us. It's only because of his amazing grace. And this is something we should praise God for every day, brothers and sisters. But we must see why the psalmist is requesting God's grace and blessing. Because he didn't just have himself and Israel in mind when making this request. What was the ultimate reason for this request? Why is he asking God to be gracious to us? Verse two is the answer. That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. So we have the reason for God's grace and blessing. And this is why we cannot disconnect verse one from verse two. Let me say that again. We cannot disconnect verse one from verse two. Why is God gracious to us? Why does he bless us? So that we will make his way and his saving power known among all nations. This is why we're here. This is why we exist. This is our purpose in life. To know him and make him known.

God saves us by his grace and for his glory. So that we will live for the spread of his grace and glory among the nations. Let me repeat that. God saves us by his grace and for his glory. So that we will live for the spread of his grace and glory among all nations. We have the greatest news, the most important news in the world. And it's news the world must hear. Why must everyone hear the Gospel? Romans 10, 17. Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. The Gospel is news to be announced. People must hear it. But how are they to hear unless someone preaches it? And how are they to preach unless they're sent? Missionaries and teams can't send themselves. They must be sent by the church. And this is one of the reasons I love our church. We're not just focused on making disciples in central Arkansas. But we're a church focused on making disciples who live by His grace and for His glory around the world. And we're passionate about this because God is a global God. And God is passionate for the praise of His grace and His glory among all peoples. But here's the question we must ask ourselves. What part am I playing in this? What part are you playing in this? Because every single person saved by grace plays a part in making His grace and glory known. It's been said that there are only three kinds of people. There are senders, there are goers, and then there are the disobedient. So the question we have to ask ourselves is which one am I?

Are you a sender? Are you a goer? Because being disobedient is not an option. Teams and missionaries cannot be sent without the financial support of people sending. This is why giving is so important. When you give to the church, your giving helps support missionaries and church planters who are spreading the gospel among the nations. The only way Fellowship can continue to send and support missionaries and teams is through your cheerful giving. But even if you're unable to give at this time, you can still pray. Being a sender also means being committed to praying for God's glory among the nations. He told them to pray for the Lord to send out laborers to the harvest because the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. Prayer is powerful and it's something that every single Christ follower can do. All of us in this room can pray for more laborers. And all of us in this room can spend time praying for our global partners. This is one of the reasons we send prayer cards home with you every month. You've been receiving these cards with information about our partners and ways to pray for them. So here's a really simple thing we can all do. If you're not already doing it, hang them on your refrigerator. Put them in the center of your table. And then commit to praying for them on a regular basis as a family. This will not only bless our partners, but it will also bless you and your family as you do it. Not all of us can go, but all of us can pray. All of us can pray for God to be glorified among the nations. This is part of being a good sender. I want you to see an example of this. I want us to watch a short video, and I think this will encourage you. Take a look at this.

Good morning. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Good to see you. Lewis and I usually meet at the end of his day, which is the beginning of our day because of the time change. I'm taking notes as Lewis is talking to me about what happened this past month, what are the plans going forward, what is your family need, and what can I communicate to the church. Each time, we'll talk about prayer needs. I know Lewis, and I know his wife, and I know the children, and I know what their mission is. As soon as we're finished, I transcribe that, send it to Rick at missions so that the team itself can know what the Kobos situation is like up to date. So I brought you into the sunroom this morning so you could see where our global missions pastor Rick sat when he talked to me about serving on global missions. The great commission says go, and I thought that my life was ended because I couldn't go anymore. My spine is in such bad shape, and my heart has failed. So my dreams of being on a mission field myself, even for a short term, I had to kind of put that back. It's not realistic. But the commission is to all of us to do it, and to then find where we fit. I came from responsible jobs with exciting things that happened all around, and now I find that I'm kind of a fingernail in the body of Christ. But the fingernail still has a task. I thought that I would stay in this room forever and die in this room. I'm now alive in fellowship and in this world because of that short hour that I had with Rick here. I encourage anybody to think about what

but your particular mission is, and then to act on it. Then I speak again to those folks that are about my age. You and I cannot do what we used to do, but there are still many things we can do. And one thing else that we can do is we can smile because we love Jesus and we want to share the love of Jesus with this world. Amen. Amen. I love that so much. Ingram might not be able to get on a plane and go, but he understands that God is a global God. And he knows that he still has a part to play in making Jesus known among the nations. So what part do you play? This is something I really want to encourage you to think about and pray about. Because what happens when God's people are devoted to making him known among the nations? De darle a conocer en las naciones. He will be praised and enjoyed. That's what happens. He will be praised and enjoyed. Look at verses three through seven. Daniel will read these first. No. Déjame buscarlo. Okay, del tres al siete dice, Te den gracias los pueblos, oh Dios. Todos los pueblos te den gracias.

Alegrense y canten con júbilo las naciones porque tú juzgarás a los pueblos con equidad y guiarás a las naciones en la tierra. Te den gracias los pueblos, oh Dios. Todos los pueblos te den gracias. La tierra ha dado su fruto. Dios, nuestro Dios, nos bendice. Dios nos bendice para que le teman todos los términos de la tierra. So this is the result of God's grace and blessing. As the church continues to make his grace and his glory known to the ends of the earth, then it will inevitably result in the praise and enjoyment of his grace and glory. And this is why we do it. Because he is worthy of all of our praise and worship. There is no one like him. He is holy, holy, holy. He is just. He judges the people with equity. He is gracious. He is merciful. He abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is the awesome God who's to be feared among all peoples. All other gods that the people worship are worthless idols. Only our God is worthy to be praised and worshipped. And this is the ultimate goal of missions. The ultimate goal of missions is worship. In the words of John Piper, missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.

Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. So the reason that we pray and we send and we go is because we want God to receive the praise and the worship that only he deserves among those who aren't worshiping him. His global purpose, the global purpose of God is to be known and praised and worshiped among the nations. So until Christ returns, then our mission remains the same. Go to the ends of the earth, proclaim the gospel, and call people to repent and beg them to praise and worship the one true God who is worthy of their praise and worship. He is the only one worthy of all praise, glory, honor, and worship. As the worship team prepares to come up, I want to close with this reminder. That Psalm 67 is a prayer that will be answered. This will happen. God will be known and enjoyed and praised by all peoples. And the nations will be glad and sing for joy. So we can pray this prayer with confidence that it will be answered. How can we be certain? Because the Bible tells us so. Look at Revelation 7, verses nine and 10. Look at Revelation 7, verses nine and 10. After this, I looked and behold,

a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Who's worshiping the Savior? People from every nation, tribe, and language. That's heaven. That's heaven. This is what we're praying for, church. For His kingdom to come. His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So as we spend our remaining days here praying and sending and going, we can be sure that our efforts are not in vain. The Lord hears our prayers. His Word will go forth. And it will not return void. It will accomplish His purpose. And people will hear and respond by His grace. And it will result in the eternal enjoyment and praise of our glorious God. So we're going to take the next few minutes to pray together. I want you to pray with your family or with the people sitting next to you. And here are a few things that I want us to pray for. Let's pray for the Lord to send out laborers to the harvest. Let's pray for laborers to be sent to those who've never heard. Let's pray for Bible translation. Let's pray for His grace and His glory to be praised and enjoyed among the nations. I also want us to take a minute to pray for our team going to Honduras. Our team will be visiting and serving in Pacto Church. So let's pray for that time that it will glorify God. So let's take the next two to three or four minutes and pray together. And then we'll prepare to come to the Lord's table together. Let's pray.