“Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.”(Isaiah 25:3 ESV)
“Summit Church, your vision of planting 1,000 churches and blessing 1,000 cities is biblical. More than that, it is infallible. It cannot fail. It is from the Holy Spirit.”
“This cannot be the vision of merely your pastors and elders. It must become your vision. You must personally be committed to it.”
“These cities do not want you. They will kill you when you come. But you must come to them. And your efforts will not have been wasted. The Apostle Paul, through the Holy Spirit, assures you that not one penny given in Jesus name, not one drop of sweat or blood ever poured out is ever in vain.”
“Our eschatology tells us that the last days will become increasingly dark. But there is no reason to say that Raleigh-Durham can’t be an exception to that. As the glacier of unbelief and ungodliness sets in over the world, the flame of your witness can melt a whole in that glacier over Raleigh-Durham Chapel Hill to allow the glory of God to flood this area. Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill, even all of North Carolina could be aflame with his glory in the darkest days of the world.”
It is hard to put into words the appreciation we feel for the gift Dr. John Piper gave to the Summit Church this past weekend. As he spoke, I could feel the faith of our church soaring. He spoke life and courage into us, and lifted our vision beyond what is to what could be.
Summit Church, we are committed to making the gospel famous in Raleigh-Durham. I pray God lets us baptize 50,000 people in our church in our generation. We are committed to blessing the homeless, orphan, prisoner, unwed mother, and high school dropout. I am praying that we could start or sponsor at least 100 community blessing organizations out of our church. We are committed to planting 1,000 churches and blessing 1,000 “ruthless” cities around our world.
We cannot fail at this, because Jesus promised to build his church. He will give us all that we have asked for. Indeed, “exceedingly abundantly” above all we ask or imagine.
This was a sampling of the feast that is to come this week at Advance!
(Note: My quotes of Dr. Piper approximate some of his statements. While some are not word for word I believe I have preserved his intent.)
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