Cities Of Ruthlessness will Fear the Lord

Sunday morning I had the pleasure of hearing a message taught by the awesome John Piper.

He taught from Isaiah 25:1-8

"Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt you and praise your name,
for in perfect faithfulness
you have done wonderful things,
things planned long ago.
You have made the city a heap of rubble,
the fortified town a ruin,
the foreigners' stronghold a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore strong peoples will honor you;
cities of ruthless nations will revere you.

You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
For the breath of the ruthless 
is like a storm driing against a wall
and like the heart of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners;
as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
so the song of ruthlessness is stilled.

On this mountain the Lord Almight will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine-
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
One this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all people, the sheet that coers all nations; 
he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the 
tears from all faces;
he will remove his people's disgrace
from all the earth

This was at Summit Church in Rlaeigh/Durham, NC. He was there to encourage and fan the flame of Summit's vision to plant churches and be a blessing to 1000 cities by 2050. And while I don't normally go to Summit church I was still able to apply this to my upcoming future on the Race.
I want to be blessing to the 11 countries I'll be going to!

His first question was What is the greatest blessing you can be?
His answer: Awaken a city to have a passion for the supremecy of God, with joy, through Jesus Christ.
There is NO greater joy than to know God!!!
(Psalm 16:11) There is nothing fuller than full and nothing that lasts longer than eternity!!!

He said "these cities and these countries you're going to don't want you to come. They will not be waiting for you with open arms. There will be no welcome mat."
But we cannot lose hope. It is God's plan for us to go. God is a planning God. There is no Plan B because Plan A ALWAYS happens. He knows the future, not because he knows everything, but because he MADE the future. 

The work we do for the Lord is NOT in vain. No life, no prayer, no dollar will be wasted as it's used for the Lord. 

And even if we were to walk away from this journey, we will not jeopardize God's plan! We can't mess him up. He will rise up someone else to do it! We choose whether we want to be apart of what He is doing and if we want to join Him along the way. 

We are to bring warmth to those trapped in the icey glaciar of unbelief.

Piper encouraged us to be "white hot" for Jesus and melt away the cold in the hearts of the ruthless nations.

We are to spread His PASSION to people of the world.