It’s “On Us”
He then addressed a common objection which says that it is unloving for God to send people who have never heard of Christ to Hell.
Tim’s response to this objection was two-fold. He first reminded us that we are in no place to judge God and call him unloving. God demonstrated his love by sending his Son to die for his enemies. Sadly, we may be tempted to accuse God of a lack of love, and yet remain unwilling to cross an ocean (or even the street) to reach out to our fellow man.
Secondly, Tim directed us to 2 Corinthians 5:18 where Scripture says that says that God gave us the ministry of reconciliation. The Lord gave his Son as a sacrifice for sins and then tasked us with getting this message to the world. So, if we fail to do this, we have no right to blame God, but instead we ought to admit our own failure. He said that if the unreached do not hear the Gospel, it’s not on God, “It’s on us.”
In addition to the needs of those on the field, Brooks shared with the congregation that he never had a “missionary call”. He never looked down in the sand at the beach and saw the words “Papua New Guinea.” He never heard the voice of God outside of “this Book” he said as he held up his Bible. He went on to say that he has asked many missionaries if they ever received some type of “call” and 98% of them said “no” – they never had some type of mystical experience or call that had led them to field. Instead, it was the simple words of Jesus who said, “Go out into all the world and make disciples.”
There seemed to be a sobriety in the air and in having conversations with people afterwards, I dare say that concern for the safety of one’s children may be one of the biggest barriers to getting people to the field. Going from one country where safety is not as big of a concern as it should be, I realize that I have reentered my own country where concern for safety is suffocating concern for Gospel advancement.