This One was Born in Zion | Dr. Steven Guest

Is your life aligned with God's missionary purpose? In Psalm 87, God names Egypt and Babylon, Philistia, historical enemies, and he says, this one was born in Zion. This means that no people group is beyond God's grace. No nation is outside of his saving purpose, And no person that you meet is insignificant to God. [00:28:44] (40 seconds)  #MissionsForEveryNation

This psalm ends with singing. This psalm ends with dancing because the people of God see a glorious future when all nations will stand before the throne. Let that future shape your present. Let it give urgency to your witness. Let it reorient your priorities and ask yourselves this question. Am I living for that day or only this day? [00:31:40] (40 seconds)  #LiveForThatDay

But imagine something even more astonishing. Imagine a nation announcing that not only immigrants, but even former enemies would be counted as native born citizens. Imagine the official record stating this one was born here even though everyone knew that they had come from somewhere else. That kind of declaration would be almost unbelievable. Yet in that, that is exactly the kind of announcement we encounter in Psalm 87. In this Psalm, God declares something that would have shocked the people of Jerusalem. [00:02:19] (49 seconds)  #InclusionAnnounced

This is the goal to which all of salvation history is directed. Are you looking forward to that day, dear brothers and sisters? God is. As a matter of fact, God can't wait to have all of us gathered together on that glorious day. He is working even now to call out people from the four points of the compass and from the four corners of the world. This is the work of missions. [00:23:28] (45 seconds)  #SalvationHistoryGoal

But to enter into that rest, you must come to Jesus acknowledging your sin and confessing that Jesus alone is able to save. You must place your faith in the substitutionary death for you on the cross as full payment for the penalty of your sin. And when you do this, as it says in Psalm 87 verse six, the Lord will register your name in the lamb's book of life. It will make a notation beside your name. [00:26:24] (43 seconds)  #FaithThroughChrist

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Psalm 87 makes it abundantly clear that God is building a people from every nation. And Jesus revealed that he desires to accomplish this through believers today. We are to be his witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That is to those who are near and those who are far. He has given us authority and has commanded us. [00:27:38] (42 seconds)  #WitnessToAllNations

As inviting and as promising as those words might sound to the thousands of potential immigrants around the world, the refuge offered through citizenship in The United States Of America is temporary. It's fleeting. The supposed promised land is fraught with danger and disappointment, and any anticipated benefits will only last for this lifetime at best. The far greater and more significant invitation of Jesus issued two thousand years ago continues to echo today. [00:25:21] (48 seconds)  #EternalInvitationNotTemporary

Dear brothers and sisters, what is described in the ancient word of God in these seven verses is so much more significant than citizenship ceremony in The United States Of America. As many of you know, there is a bronze plaque at the Statue Of Liberty inscribed with the following words, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send me these, the homeless, the tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door. [00:24:32] (49 seconds)  #GreaterThanStatueOfLiberty