World Evangelism Podcast

The Call to World Evangelism: Answering God's Big Plans for You

July 31, 2024 • W. Austin Gardner • Season 1 • Episode 34

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Have you ever wondered how your dreams and aspirations align with a higher purpose? Join me, Austin Gardner, on a transformative journey as we explore how recognizing our God-given identity can fuel monumental achievements for His kingdom. Through the inspiring stories of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and King David, we'll uncover how their dreams and visions led to extraordinary milestones. I'll also share my personal adventure from childhood dreams of becoming a missionary to the fulfillment of living out that vision, illustrating how understanding our identity in Christ empowers us with confidence and purpose.

In this enlightening episode, we shift our focus towards living intentionally for God by aligning our hearts and minds with Jesus. Discover the profound importance of dedicating our time, talents, and treasures to God's service. Drawing from scriptures like Colossians 3:1-2 and Philippians 3:17, we'll discuss setting our affections on things above and following the passionate pursuit exemplified by King David. Together, we'll learn to love Jesus deeply, seek His kingdom fervently, and let our dreams be shaped by a desire to honor and glorify Him. Tune in and be inspired to live out your divine purpose!

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W. Austin Gardner:

This is Austin Gardner, welcoming you to the World Evangelism Podcast. I am so excited to have the opportunity to talk to you. It is my heart's desire to inspire you to do your part in world evangelism, world missions, and to empower you to do just exactly that. I'm so excited I get to talk to you on a weekly basis and to share lessons with you that the Lord's taught me over the years, and so today I wanted to share with you an idea about getting a vision about what God can do with your life, dreaming about what God might do with you. The Bible says in Acts, chapter 2 and verse 16, that it will come to pass in the last days that he will pour out his spirit upon all flesh and the young men will see visions and old men will dream dreams, and then he says to them at the end that's where we are now. We're living in those days that God is doing just at that, just exactly that, biblically and historically, god has done that In the life of Abraham. Abraham dreamed of having many children. He and the Lord talked it over, and the Lord promised him that he'd have the children as the sand of the seashore. So he lived his life fully anticipating that God would work that out for him. And Joseph knew that he was to be the leader of his people and the leader of his family. And even as a boy he had these dreams and he said you know, mom and dad and my brothers, you're going to all bow down to me someday. Little did he know God would take that dream and do so much more with it as he took him on to be second to Pharaoh in Egypt and to literally save the known world. At that time I think about Moses, you know, being raised in the home of his actual parents, by his mother, and I wonder what they discussed with him. I wonder if they explained to him about his miraculous birth and the fact that he was able to escape alive and they put him in the basket and how he was miraculously rescued. I wonder if they prayed with him together about how God would use him. All I know is this by the time he became a full-grown adult, at 40, you know what happened he decided he wanted to do exactly what his mom and dad had dreamed about and what he had dreamed about and what he'd heard about, and he proceeded then to go and become a person that would lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, as you well remember, and so that was an exciting time to see God doing all of that, and so I want to go with you. I want to go with you through your own stories and your life and help you think about you. King David dreamed that he would build a house for God to be worshiped in. There's a biblical idea that you just might get a vision from God about doing something for God, about being used greatly of God.

W. Austin Gardner:

I don't know that my story is of any real value, except that it's me, but as a little boy, before I was ever called and maybe before I was saved because it's hard to remember those dates and what happened back then but I can remember in vacation Bible school in my little country church, hearing the story of the need of people to have a preacher in foreign lands, and I thought to myself I would love to be that person. I would love to do that. I grew up hearing about missionaries. I grew up reading the stories about missionaries and then, at 11 years of age, I went to camp and surrendered my life to be a missionary. I never dreamed of anything else. I've sometimes wondered as I got older, you know, I could have dreamed about having a job, making better money. I could have dreamed about a job that let me accomplish things that would make me known in the world. But I never dreamed those dreams. But I'd read the stories of all these missionaries and dream that I could be like them. I would dream that maybe God would help me translate the Bible, or maybe God would help me to preach where Jesus had never been preached. I even dreamed that I'd be caught and held in a Chinese torture camp or a Russian torture camp, because those were famous stories when I was a boy. And then God called me and allowed me to go live that dream. And it has been the most wonderful thing in my life to learn another language, to cross cultural barriers, to take the gospel to the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything or anybody at all. So I just thought I'd go through some things with you today that you might consider.

W. Austin Gardner:

The number one way to dream a dream is to realize who you are in Christ. You need to know who you are. See, when you get in alignment and alignment with the Lord Jesus and you line up with him, then you know who you are, then it helps you to know what you are up with him. Then you know who you are. Then it helps you to know what you are to do. You got to know who you are to start with In Colossians, chapter 3 and verse 1,. We are risen with Christ. We have died to sin, been raised again, and we are to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Being risen with the Christ, we learn that this world is not our home. We are strangers and pilgrims.

W. Austin Gardner:

The Bible says in 1 Peter, 2 and verse 11, and there are this world wars against us, the fleshly lust and what a human might want to do, wars against us and what God would have us do. In Hebrews 11, 13,. The people believed the promise and they confessed the promise and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And in chapter 13 and verse 14, they had no continuing city. They were looking for one to come. You see, they knew who they were. That's what you got to know.

W. Austin Gardner:

If you're going to be dreaming to do something for God, you got to know who you are. We are new creatures. God has replaced our present and our past and our future, with all of Jesus and what he did In 2 Corinthians 5, 17,. It says that we are new creatures and old things are passed away and all things are become new. You know that the Lord took my sin and all my failure, and there's a mountain load of it, and he placed all that on Jesus and he took the holiness of Jesus and he placed that on me and on you. He is our identity. Jesus Christ is our identity. We are in Christ and Christ is in us.

W. Austin Gardner:

In Colossians 1.12,. He has made us meet or made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance. I don't belong, I don't fit in, I should never be considered. But he made me considered and he made you that. He has that plan for your life. And he changed kingdoms. He took me out of the kingdom of darkness and he translated me into the kingdom of his dear son. Colossians, chapter 1 and verse 13. And my sins are forgiven. He has erased my sins. I am complete in him. You know you are not like any other normal human being on this planet. You do not belong to you. You do not belong to you. In Romans, chapter 12 and verse 1, we are to be living a living sacrifice. We're to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

W. Austin Gardner:

You want to dream, you want to know what God would have for you. Then find out who you are and connect into who you are and walk into who Jesus is and live there, and as you do that, you can find the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You are not your own. Your time, your talents and your treasures they belong to Jesus. You and I march to the beat of a different drummer. We seek the kingdom of our God. He is more important than anything else in the world to us. We are servants of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and so we are allowed to dream of what you can do and what he can do with you and through you for his honor and his glory. Dream about living out who you are. Get a vision of being the new you in all that he has for you. God has big plans for you. You don't have to settle. God has big plans for you.

W. Austin Gardner:

Now, once you know who you are and you realize you've risen with Christ, the second thing you do is you seek those things which are above. You see, I know who I am. Now I'm going to go, look for who I am, and I'm going to live it out. The Bible says in Colossians, chapter three and verse one if you'd be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. That means I'm to desire it, I'm to have a desire, I want to experience it, I want to live it out. It's the idea of attempting to realize your dream, your desire and your want. That's an important verb and it's an imperative verb. It's a command verb. It's the desire, this dream, that's above everything.

W. Austin Gardner:

It's a hunger to know Christ and desire to please him. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 9, wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now I'm accepted in the beloved. He saved me, he put me in the family. But, man, I just want to please him. I want to do all I can for him.

W. Austin Gardner:

Romans 14, verse 18,. For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God. I give my life in service to Jesus. God likes that and I know this. Without faith it's impossible to please him. For they that come to God must believe that he is and he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. That's the thinking of my heart, that's the thinking of his heart. That's the desire of his heart. That's the thinking of his heart. That's the desire of his heart, that's his desire and his goals. It's turning from my own heart and my goals and my desires to his heart, his mind and his goals.

W. Austin Gardner:

While others focus on this house, we want to focus on his house. While others focus on earthly possessions, we want to lay things up in heaven. What would happen if you really started thinking about who you are and then invest a great effort into knowing Jesus more? The dream is to focus on Christ. Seek him so that you dream of him and you dream of his cause. Seek him so much that you're constantly thinking about it and what's happening with him. So now we are risen with Christ and we seek those things which are above and we set our affection on things which are above.

W. Austin Gardner:

In Colossians, chapter three, in verse two, he said Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. And so we set our affection. That means that we ponder and think about and fix our attention on things above. It's an imperative verb, it's a command verb. Austin, you're risen with me, you're to set your affection on me. You're to seek those things which are above. You're to be setting your affection, your heart, your mind, your everything, on the things above, not the things on this earth. It's our placing our heart, predetermining our love.

W. Austin Gardner:

I love Jesus and the things of God. It's applying ourselves. It's directing our minds. It means we're going to do the opposite of what most people do. We're going to have a different focus than what most people have as their focus. We want to be followers of Jesus. They're so worldly focused they have no heavenly good. I want to be so heavenly focused. I'm no worldly good, but I'm God good. I want God to use me. In Philippians 3, 17, paul said hey, be followers of me and mark them that are doing what I do. There are others that are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Don't be like them. Their God is their belly and they mind earthly things. These people were focused on the earth. We're focused on the things that are above in Jesus Christ. We have Bible examples of what it means to set your affection.

W. Austin Gardner:

David did that when he wouldn't allow Goliath to mock God. He just walked up. He had no dream about killing a giant. He had no dream about being a big warrior that day. But he was like I love Jesus and you will not do that. David was thinking about the things of God when he said I want to build God a house and then he spends his entire life putting everything together to build him that house.

W. Austin Gardner:

What would happen if you decided that you wanted to do something for God and, like David, you ask him if you could? People say to me well, those are God-given dreams. I don't know they are. I know that At the same time, I know David walked up to God and said God, I want to build you a temple. And the prophet said well, that's a good idea. And then he said nope. God said you're not allowed to. Your son is. But David had it in his heart I want to build something for God. I want to do something for God. If you had it in your heart to do something, would a dream or a vision begin to develop in you? You never know, but you often dream about what you think about so much. What consumes your thoughts. Fall so in love, intentionally, that you dream about what would please Him. Hunger to do something that's just for His glory. Fall in love With Jesus. Fall in love with God. You want to dream dreams. You want to get a vision. You want to have a plan about what God could do with you.

W. Austin Gardner:

Live like the Bible is really true and that your life is hid with Christ in God. He is your life Again. Colossians 3, verse 3,. You are dead. Your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, get the truth that he teaches us here You're dead. It's not about you. Your life as a lost man is over. That's not who you are anymore. You're now alive in Christ, but your life is not about you. Your life is hidden with Christ in God, so that you're not living your life. You're living for him. Oh, you're going to want to, and you're not living your life. You're living for him. Oh, you're going to want to and you're going to enjoy it. You're going to have a blast, I promise.

W. Austin Gardner:

In Galatians 2.20, he said I am crucified with Christ, but I'm alive. But it's not me, but it's Christ living in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. You see, I'm not alive, but I am alive and I'm not living for me, but I am living for me. Christ is in me and together. Together, he's doing a work. When he comes back in glory and power, you'll be right there with him. Since you don't have a life, how would he want to live his life through you? He came to die to save sinners. He came to give his life a ransom. He came to lay down his life and pay our price.

W. Austin Gardner:

Will you give your life for lost people? Will you give your life for sinners? Will you spend and be spent to reach lost people? If you really are lost with Christ and God, then how does that affect your thought life? You see, we're focused on him and we have our mind focused on him. Perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on him? You see, I want to learn to meditate on the word of God and to think about the Lord Jesus.

W. Austin Gardner:

I'm learning more at the age of 69 than I think I've ever learned about my father and how he loves me. I want you to. Are you filling your mind with scripture? Are you praying for his will to be done in your life here on earth as it is in heaven? God, I want to be used to you. Are you dreaming of whatever he might have you to do? Are you sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?

W. Austin Gardner:

Stop it with all the excuses. Stop saying I haven't been called and ask him if you can build him a temple. Say here am I, lord, send me. I'd just like to say I have met and known of great preachers that said you know, I never really felt called, I just wanted to serve God. I struggled with being called because I was expecting it to be an earth shattering, knock me in the head and force me to do it kind of thing. But instead it was just this intense desire and hunger to use of God and to serve God.

W. Austin Gardner:

You might have that. There are countries all over the world in need of the gospel. Japan needs a preacher today. Japan needs a preacher. Jamaica needs a preacher today. You realize that all over the world, go to operationworldorg. All the countries in the world are listed and you can pray about that. You can pray about where God might use you.

W. Austin Gardner:

You were meant for more. God has bigger plans for you than you ever dreamed. He has great things for you to accomplish. You're not a normal guy. You're not average. He has big plans for you. Let God do them. I want you to know that God loves you and he cares about you and he has a great plan.

W. Austin Gardner:

Oh, if I could go back. I loved being a missionary. I loved learning another language. Yes, I had difficulties. Yes, there were struggles, but I promise you it was the most worthwhile, fun, exciting thing I've ever done. I made friends that changed my life. Dream a dream. Why don't you ask God for a dream? Why don't you ask God for a vision? Why don't you say God, how could you use me? Don't you realize that God's looking for Hudson Taylors again? Don't you realize that that's you? He doesn't want another Hudson Taylor. He wants you. He has a plan for you and the purpose here at the World Evangelism Podcast is to motivate you and to motivate other young people to give their lives to carry the gospel message of Jesus Christ. I beg you, consider what God might do with you. What is it God might do with you if you would just let him? He has big plans.

W. Austin Gardner:

I want to thank you for listening to the World Evangelism Podcast. Boy, you could help me if you would just share this with some people. If you give it a like, maybe send me a comment. Let me know you listen. I sure appreciate you listening. I'm honored that I get the chance to talk to you briefly like this, and I am grateful to God for allowing me to be here on the World Evangelism Podcast talking to you about God, who I love more than my very life, talking about world evangelism, which is the greatest part of my life. God's allowed me to be involved in it and I want to challenge you to get involved. Thank you very much and I will look forward to talking to you next week. Reach out to me at any time you'd like. I'd love to hear from you. God bless each and every one of you.