The Sprint To The Finish with Doug Cobb

We talk with Doug Cobb about why the Great Commission has clear finish lines and why the global church may be closer to them than most people realize. We dig into Scripture, modern missions strategy, and practical ways to join the sprint with prayer, giving, and going. 
• Revelation 7 as the north star vision for the nations 
• Matthew 24:14 and the link between gospel proclamation and Jesus’ return 
• Three finish lines: every nation, every language, every place 
• Bible translation momentum and why language matters 
• Technology, transportation, media, and collaboration as accelerants 
• The Finishing Fund approach to funding first engagement efforts 
• Indigenous missionaries and near culture workers as the growing mission force 
• What the American church often misses about cross-cultural responsibility 
• How to hold urgency without unhealthy end-times pressure 
• Finding your lane: pray, give, go, including diaspora ministry and online discipleship 

Find Doug Cobb's book "The Sprint To The Finish" on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Finish-Complete-Commission-Generation/dp/B0FSJKT1YW

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Transcript

Heaven’s Vision And The Unreached

SPEAKER_00 0:05

In Revelation 7, John shares his vision of heaven with members from every tribe, tongue, people, and language standing in the throne room before the Lamb. Yet today, there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups around the world. My family and friends have been on a journey to find, vet, and fund the task remaining. Come journey with us to the ends of the earth as we share the supernatural stories of God at work with the men and women He has called to reach the Unreach.

Doug Cobb And The Sprint Goal

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Over the past several seasons of the Unreached Podcast, we have come across men and women who are carving out unique and creative pathways to fulfill the Great Commission. They are authors, innovators. We like to call them Trailblazers. And this is one of their stories. So today, enjoy this episode of Unreached Trailblazers. Hello, friends. Welcome to another episode of the Unreached Podcast. I'm Clint Hudson, your host, and today we have an incredible guest. Doug Cobb is the managing partner of the Finishing Fund and the author of an incredible book that we're going to talk about today called The Sprint to the Finish. Doug also is an elder and a Bible teacher at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, and we cannot wait to have this conversation with him today. Doug, welcome to the podcast. Clint, it is so good to be with you. Thank you for having me. Oh man, excited you're here. Okay, so just a little bit of a brief recap for all of our audience. Over the last five seasons, Dustin and I have come in contact with some of the most incredible stories we've ever heard, but also some new methods for reaching the unreached that we never knew existed. And because of that, we have become increasingly more convinced that we can see the Great Commission fulfilled in our lifetime. We've said that on the podcast multiple different times. He and I've kind of had this discovery, and lo and behold, we have a friend out there in Louisville, Kentucky that we hadn't even met yet that's written a book to that end. And so, Doug, your book, Sprint to the Finish, is specifically about seeing the Great Commission being fulfilled in our lifetime.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

Yeah, I caught the vision for that from my mentor, a guy named Paul Eshelman, who was the first executive director of the Jesus Film Project and later led a ministry called Finishing the Task. And I was privileged to know Paul and he really influenced my life. And Paul was persuaded that ours could be the generation to see this task completed. And I believe that too. Based on what I know that's happening around the world, all the efforts that are underway. There's a lot left to do, um, but there's a lot of momentum toward the finish line as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

There's a phrase that you used um specifically that really caught my attention, and it's that the most important thing happening in our world today is the nearing of the Great Commission. Talk a little bit about that for us.

Matthew 24:14 And Jesus’ Return

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Well, um, that's based on my understanding of you know what Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse 14. That that whole chapter of Matthew is about the return of Christ. It begins with the disciples asking him, you know, when are you coming back? Uh, in verse three, uh that's a paraphrase. He gives a lot of things that will happen before and around the return, but in verse 14, he says, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. I I see it as the clearest predictive statement in the Bible about the return of Jesus. When will Jesus come back? Not until we have finished the work he's given us to do of taking gospel to every people group and every place on the planet. So if it's true that we're getting close to the completion of the Great Commission, I'm hopeful that we're also getting close to the return of Jesus. And that would be the most important thing that's ever happened in the history of the world. So um, I just think the two things are connected, and hence I think this is the most important thing that's happening today.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Doug, that's incredible. Um, I I think I'm I'm really wrestling with or trying to understand some more about what that passage in Matthew looks like. I think there's different schools of thought in it. Let's specifically talk about how you address that in the book when you reference the different finish lines and what the different finish lines look like, because it talks about every nation, every language, every place. Walk us through what those three finish lines are.

Three Finish Lines Explained Clearly

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Yeah, you know, most people don't know what the Great Commission is, much less that it has a finish line at all. I think that in the Bible, Jesus the Father, gives us three different finish lines. They're not separate from one another, they relate and overlap. God often does that in scripture to make sure we get his point, right? He'll he won't tell us once, he'll tell us several times in slightly different ways to make sure we understand. Um, so I think of three finish lines. Um, Matthew 28, 19, go and make disciples of every nation. In that sentence in the Greek, uh, nation is the word ethnos. It describes uh a people group um that share a common culture, history, language, geography, ancestry. Uh that's you know, people groups. The Bible tells us that the uh the researchers tell us that there are somewhere between 12 and 16,000 of those, depending on which methodology you use to count. That's what we've been working on, the finishing fund for the last eight years is funding the missionaries who will go for the first time to those people groups. We've helped to do that about 800 times. And from the list we use, um, we think we're now down to well under 100 people groups that don't have an active effort underway. Wow. So, you know, finish line one, every nation, we believe that we're getting really, really close uh on that. Uh, but the Bible also talks about every language. Languages are slightly different from people groups. Every language has at least one people group, but some are shared. So there's about 7,300 languages. But when John has his vision of the great multitude around the throne of God in Revelation, he specifically points out that it's not just people, groups, and tribes, but also languages. And so there's uh an effort underway to translate the Bible into every language on the planet. Uh, there's some brilliant people working on that, a lot of collaboration that has come into that effort over the last 10 years or so, a lot of resources being mobilized for that effort. And those guys have set 2033 as their deadline for seeing the Bible in every language on the planet. So a few years further away, maybe than the people group uh line, but not much further, you know, within just an another few years. And then third, um, the Bible talks about every place. The New Testament, probably the clearest case of that is Acts 1.8, where Jesus says, You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the of the earth. That's not uh an ethnic presentation, that's a geographic presentation. And so it suggests, you know, not just every people and every language, but every place as well. And right now, um there's a growing effort being mobilized called Achieve, a church in every village everywhere that is aiming through church planting movements and disciple making movements to literally see the gospel go to every place on the planet where there are human beings. Um there are millions of those places, and there's millions that don't have churches. Uh, but that effort is is underway. It's mobilizing, and by God's grace, we think the deadline for that may be similar. You know, maybe in the next eight to ten years it's possible to see that goal uh accomplished. So uh I think God tells us three finish lines, so we'll get his point, which is every nation, every language, every place, the whole world.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Man, that's how could you not get excited about that? The more I discover in this, I the more I say, how could you not want to give your life to this? And and there's so many people who are.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

And Clint, as you probably know, I mean, your church seems like it's you know really key keen on this topic, but most of our brothers and sisters just are so unaware of these of these things, you know. Um the surveys say that most people can't give you a really clear definition of what the Great Commission is. It's kind of muddy for people, kind of you know, tell everybody about Jesus. And that's right as far as it goes. But you know, the Bible has a lot to say about this this topic. And I think especially given what we've already said about our generation, you know, this is something people don't want to miss. Like if we're the ones that finish, you don't want to miss the chance to be a part of the the sprint to the finish.

Technology And Collaboration Speed Missions

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Absolutely. I I think back to a quote that one of our friends and and uh and a former guest uh has said multiple times. His name's Todd Aaron, but he says that we spend more money in the United States on Halloween costumes for our pets than we do to mobilize the people towards the unreached. And that's first of all, that's alarming. But that's one of the things that we and among others, just like you and like the achieve and so many different things that you just mentioned, we are actively trying to make sure that we can play a part uh in seeing the gospel uh proclaimed to the unreached. So one of the things that I think is so unique that's happening in our lifetime that hasn't happened previously is we have this unique uh combination of uh collaboration and technology where everything's coming together kind of at the same time. What things are possible now for technology that were not possible uh with just a couple years ago. And I think that's part of what's creating this the word use, a sprint towards the finish. We're like, guys, we we have the tools, we can do that. Talk a little bit about some of the technology and some of the tools that you're seeing that have been employed in reaching the unreached.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Well, you know, we have uh an amazing capacity to absorb and and quickly become blasé about new technologies, right? Uh we, you know, it it doesn't take us even a couple of years to start to think, well, well, that's we've always had that, right? But, you know, um I'm old enough to remember when it was hard to find books and articles uh when you had to do a paper, you know, for college. You, you know, you went to the library and hoped they had the thing you were looking for. Today, you know, we all have all the information in the world literally in our pocket on our phone. Um, and so, you know, that's just a breathtaking change in, you know, just the last 25, 30 uh years or so. But it's even more than just that. It's it's more fundamental things like automobiles and airplanes, you know, um, getting to remote places is so much easier today than it was, say, 150 years ago. It's you know, I just can't even imagine what Hudson Taylor and and RM Judson would think about our ability to hop on an airplane and be anywhere in the world in in 24 hours. You know, they they spent months on a boat to get to India or Burma or China or wherever they were were going. And so, you know, we are we are tremendously advantaged by transportation technology, communication technology, media uh technology, information technology. So, you know, those are huge accelerants to the you know the effort to the sprint uh that we're seeing in our day.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Why sprint? Why are we at a point now where we're like, okay, it's it's time to dig in, run fast.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

I was never much of a runner. That wasn't my strong suit, but I know that when you run, you know, the at the end of the race, you run the fastest. You know, you're you're sprinting toward the finish line. I think of this Great Commission as being, you know, a marathon that's been going on now for almost 2,000 years. Uh and you know, sometimes the pace has been fast, sometimes it has been almost barely a crawl. But now what we're seeing is just acceleration across every aspect of the work over the course of the last, you know, 10, 20, 30 years, um, thanks to technology, thanks to collaboration, thanks to you know, awareness about these things, so many different factors at work. But, you know, I just see this as you know a great analogy for where we are. This is the, you know, the the finish lines in sight. Let's speed up and get there as fast as we can.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

It's time to turn it up. Like turn it up, let's get moving. Turn it up. That's right. Yeah. I love that. Walk me through some. You said that eight, was it 800 projects that you guys have been funding with the finish fund? Walk me through a couple of those stories of some projects that you guys have done and some of the work that you guys have been doing with Unreached.

Finishing Fund And Near Culture Workers

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Yeah, we're a little bit of an unusual ministry in that you know, the finishing fund, we we don't actually do any field work. We're uh we're a financing ministry. We raise money from our partners and then allocate that to projects that will engage in an engaged people group for the first time. So we're we're kind of like a foundation. And so our job is to identify the right ministries and projects and then help to provide the financial fuel that's required to get it done. We've now helped get the gospel to 793, I think it is, maybe 94 people groups in 60 countries around the world, um, Brazil, Colombia, over to Laos and Indonesia. I'm headed in a few weeks to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand to see some projects we have underway in those places, in India, of course, Nepal, China, you know, all the places you would expect. You know, the way that works is we identify a ministry that is working near or uh in close by to a, you know, a people group that hasn't been engaged, and we challenge them. Sometimes they come to us and you know, uh make the proposal, but we put a plan together to send workers for the first time uh to that people group to evangelize and plant churches and make disciples. Mostly that work is being done these days by indigenous missionaries. So it's not people from America or Europe who are going to these remote places. It's people who are nearby. You know, we we call them near culture workers. Uh, so it's Indian believers going to unengaged Indian people groups and Chinese believers going to unengaged Chinese groups. It's a tremendous advantage. Um, those folks are much more culturally connected to the people they're trying to reach, not identical, but very close. They already know that you know the weather's it's hot, right? They already like the food. Um, you know, Westerners can be uh kind of fragile about those things sometimes. And, you know, maybe best of all, uh, it means that the economics are really favorable. You know, it can take$100,000 to send a Western family overseas just to get them to where they're going and get them established. In the finishing fund, we can support two national missionaries for three years for about a total of$30,000. So because the economics are the economics of those countries instead of, you know, America, uh, it's just enormously financially efficient. So yeah, it's it's been amazing to see how God has worked, uh, you know, and and it's been a huge privilege to be a part of making that happen.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

That's amazing. Uh, we are huge advocates here at the Undereach Podcast for Indigenous-led churches and having indigenous-led missionaries going, reaching the people that are on the fringes that don't have the opportunity to understand the gospel and don't have a thriving church in their environment, maybe you've never even heard the gospel whatsoever. I think that's a fantastic strategy. We've seen it work time and time again for all the same reasons that you just said, which is really encouraging to hear. I one of the statements that I go back to that we heard early on, I think it was Kirby Holmes that may have said it, a former guest that we had, but he said that the former mission field has become the new mission force. And specifically saying that it's not just a bunch of Americans saying, hey, all right, here we go, we're going to the unreached, but it's like, no, let's equip and then actually we actually move them into the mission field that's right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Most folks in America are not aware that you know the church really exists now in every country on the planet. I mean, there's some places where it's underground and has to be very quiet and careful. North Korea, uh, Eritrea, you know, Saudi Arabia, but it's everywhere. And um, and it is the primary tool for evangelism in its own in each country where it exists. Westerners can help. We're good at certain things. We have money we can certainly support. We're good at reporting and project management. You know, it's kind of culturally connected uh for us. But uh really the primary effort at this point is that near culture church that is reaching out to the not quite but close by people groups that um are in its own backyard.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

I love that that term near culture. I think that's that's really a clever way of being able to say that, and it's really intentional. There's a couple different ways that we've also seen the gospel being taken into cloth behind closed doors. So some difficult environments to be able to reach where you can't just say, hey, we're gonna send a mission family or even an indigenous-led church because there's not one that exists there. We've seen technology that's made an impact there. You know, big plug for our friends at apologist.ai. They're doing some incredible things to be able to create some AI chatbots behind some closed countries that we get an opportunity to be able to communicate the gospel in that way. Also, we just see, you know, uh the way that Dustin likes to say it is that the gospel rides on the wings of business, and we see so many businesses that are welcomed into these countries, and it's led by believers who can then earn the right over time through relational proximity to be able to communicate the hope of the gospel, which is just so so incredible. And I think all of these things cumulative together are creating this opportunity where we truly feel like we can see the Great Commission being fulfilled. Talk to the American church. A lot of times we're really good to maybe send our dollars or be like, maybe that's something that can happen later. What's the call to the Capital C church here in the US that you want to see uh happen over this next couple years?

SPEAKER_02 17:46

So, you know, I I believe that this Great Commission task was uh given directly to the apostles by Jesus. Uh, we have that record in the in the gospels and in in the book of Acts. And has been handed down from them generation to generation uh through the church to us today. So it is the responsibility of Jesus' church to get this task done. Interestingly, you know, he told us that he would be with us uh and that he had all authority. So when we go, we are you know we're well empowered, but he gave us the responsibility for getting it done. No doubt God could have gotten this task done a lot faster and a lot better than he could if he'd just done it himself than by trusting it to us. You know, we are knuckleheads, we get tired, you know, we get afraid, we you know, we get distracted, uh, we have all kinds of weaknesses. But he gave it to us. It's our job to see it, uh, to see it done. And you know, I think what the American church, one one thing the American church often misses about the task is its cross-cultural nature. We tend to think that when we're evangelizing within our own culture, that's the Great Commission. And and it is certainly an aspect of the Great Commission. Everybody should share their faith. And our churches should, you know, be places where people can meet Jesus and you know, come to know him, uh, come to know the Father through him. But that's not sufficient. You know, there's there's much more to the task than that. And so if all of our efforts are going to evangelize our neighborhoods and our neighbors, uh as important as that is, we're missing a key part of the task. We need to be involved in this every nation, every language, every place part of the of the work, the places we probably aren't gonna go. Uh, it's gonna be hard to see, but nonetheless, that's where the where the action really is taking place.

The US Church And Cross-Culture

SPEAKER_01 19:43

That's awesome. Let's nerd out on some of the theology here behind this passage in Matthew 24. Uh kind of a big question for me. So I think a lot of people they to be able to tie the the fulfillment of the Great Commission to the impending coming back of Christ and that essentially one thing leading to the other. There's a couple different schools of thoughts. I want to know what yours is, but really the question for me is like, how should believers hold on to like urgency with the Great Commission without slipping into like an unhealthy end times pressure?

Healthy Urgency And Undoing Babel

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah, it's a great, it's a great question. You know, um every generation probably has had it its sense that ours might be the last, right? And that's a lot of generations going back back 2,000 years. There are certainly are signs that, you know, in addition to the Great Commission, that seem to suggest that for us that's a much more realistic uh probability. The the regathering of Israel, for instance, is just a great big deal biblically, prophetically. And the fact that that has happened is it's kind of like a stopwatch has been has been started, in in my opinion. Not everybody agrees with that, but you know, it seems pretty clear biblically to me about that. And there's other things as well to suggest that, you know, that would be uh that we're living in that time. But Jesus explicitly said, like we talked about earlier in Matthew 24, 14, he's explicitly linked to these two things, the completion of the Great Commission and the coming of his uh of his return. It ties in a little bit, Clint, to what we said uh just a second ago, that this is a task that Jesus assigned to his church, right? It's it's the church's job to make the church, the church being the global multi-nation kingdom of God. Some people think that the rapture will happen and the church will be gone, and God's going to finish the Great Commission in uh the tribulation. That is a very common, uh, one very common view of how these things will unfold. I can't get my arms around that because you know, the church is the global church, and I can't see God taking it out of the world until it is complete. Uh, right. One thing I talk about in the book is I I see the Great Commission as God's great undoer. Of what happened at the Tower of Babel. You know, at Babel, the world was divided into nations and languages. And what God is doing through the Great Commission is He's reuniting the world, every nation and every language, under the headship of Jesus Christ. And so that task won't be done until it is completely done, until every nation, every language, uh, every place are reached. And so I just see that the urgency of working on the task. One other thing, uh, there's a great verse in 2 Peter chapter 3. That whole chapter begins talking about the end times, um, you know, where's this promise of his coming? Scoffers will come, and you know, God is patient. There's a lot of great content in those early verses. But in verses 11 and 12, Peter asks and answers a rhetorical question. He asks, you know, given that all this is coming, what kind of people ought we to be? And his answer is he says we should live holy and godly lives. Check, check, okay, we get that. Looking forward to the day of God and hastening its coming. And so you might think, well, what can we do to hasten the coming of the day of God? How is it possible? Doesn't God already know when that's going to happen? And the answer, yes, of course he does. He's omniscient, he knows everything. But the one thing I can think of that is, you know, responsive to that is if Jesus tied his return to the completion of the Great Commission, the only thing that I can think of we could do to speed that day up is to accelerate the sprint to the finish, run faster uh toward that uh finish line. God in his sovereignty and his wisdom already knows how it's all going to play out. You know, that's above our pay grade. But one thing we can do, if Jesus said we we got to finish before he'll come back, let's put everything we can into finishing uh so that we can be the generation to witness that return. Won't that be awesome? I mean, you know, there's some generations going to get to see that. They're gonna get to, you know, transition directly from life into eternal life and not have to go through that intermediate phase of death.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Man, wouldn't it be cool if we could be the people that um got to experience that? That's got me excited about it. Man, that's amazing. I I love that I love that illustration about the the Tower of Babel, what it did to separate the nations and separate you talked about the three finish lines about every place, every people, every language. And now this is like a reunification. The Great Commission is a reunification of that. Yeah, God is undoing Babel.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Uh, you see that in Ephesians chapter two, where you know, Paul talks about those of you who are near, the Jews, and those who were far, the Greeks, the Gentiles. And he says, you know, he you're being brought together into one body, the church, and in that one body you're being reconciled to God. I I think you know, Paul's context for that was a church where there were Jewish and Greek believers, but I think though that idea of those who were far applies to every uning uh every people group that other than Israel in the world. And, you know, God is doing that. He's making us all one body, and through that one body of the church, he's reconciling um uh us to himself. And, you know, when that's done, uh, it'll be time for Jesus to come back and establish his kingdom on earth.

Find Your Lane Pray Give Go

SPEAKER_01 25:08

So I don't I don't want to give any spoilers for the the sprint to the finish of the book, uh, because I do want people to go and purchase the book, but what what's one of the practical calls to action for us that you highlight in the book?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

I actually, you know, have a chapter about finding your lane because I think that's really important. It's it's one thing to know about this stuff, but then what are you gonna do about that, right? I think that's really important. And I I mentioned three things that I think are you know the way people should think about this. One is uh praying. Uh praying is easy, everybody can do it. You don't have to have a passport, you don't have to have a big wallet, but you know, even five minutes a day praying for you know God's kingdom to come, his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, that's a powerful force. This is a spiritual war being fought in the spiritual realms uh behind the scenes, and we have to fight it with spiritual weapons. So prayer is is essential. That's number one. And number two, I talk about giving. Um, you know, and uh as Americans, you know, we get lots of appeals for our giving. But what's remarkable is so little resources go uh to the edge, the frontier to the unreached places. So little goes there that even a small uh gift from a lot of people would make a lot of difference. You know, if you know a typical person could just find$10 a month or you know,$20,$25 a month that they could send to one of these, you know, toward one of these finish lines, the aggregate of that would be a staggering uh difference in the amount of money that's available to see the task uh completed. And then the third thing, so pray, give, and then the third thing is is go. Uh, and you know, obviously that's a harder one. Not everybody can do that. One thing we talk about in the book is um this idea of the great coming, how God has brought the nations to the West over the course of the last 10 or 20 years. We always think about that politically or economically, and it's no doubt it has those aspects, but there's a tremendous kingdom impact to that as well. God has brought some of people from some of the least reached places on the planet right into our backyards. And so, you know, going doesn't mean you have to get a passport and head to India or Nepal or, you know, some faraway hard place. You just get in your car and drive 15 minutes across town to the places you don't normally go where there are Afghans and Syrians and Indians and Pakistanis and, you know, people from almost every unreached country on the planet. And those people need help. They need help with English, they need help getting their driver's license, they need help figuring out how schools work, and you can build relationships and show the gospel. So going, you know, it may be the hardest of the three, um, but it's even that has been made easier in these in these final days of the sprint.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

So I think there's also like this discernment and this desire to be able to be aware of the people that are already around you. We've heard so many different stories. We did an episode with the Joshua Project where they were telling us about uh within Manhattan, within New York, how the different how many different people groups there are that are specifically now, they've moved from their original country of origin and they only exist in New York. And so you're totally right about the ways to go doesn't necessarily mean you have to hop on a boat like Hudson Taylor did and go over to India. It's a different, it's a different way to be able to go, not only uh being able to physically go, but being able to reach across lines through technology and being able to connect with people that way too.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

So there's some great ministries that are using the internet to do evangelism, and those folks need online disciplers and and counselors, people who will answer questions and you know help um when they when somebody expresses an interest in faith. And so, you know, even that that doesn't even require you to leave your house. You just sit down at your desk and turn on your computer, right? So there are all kinds of ways to be involved as a goer that are much simpler than you know disrupting your whole life and send it taking your family to a faraway place.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to give just a next step for some some of our listeners. Uh, take an opportunity, go and find the book. Where can people find the book?

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Yeah, Amazon, right? Almost everybody buys their books on Amazon these days. So you can find it there. Your church book store or your neighborhood bookstore may very well have it, or you can ask them for it. They'll certainly get it for you. Uh, it's available to them. Um, but most people buy books on Amazon, so that's probably the best place to go look.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Awesome. So, next step specifically go and find the Sprint of the Finish by Doug Cobb. Doug, thank you so much for talking about the book. Man, I'm incredibly thankful for the work that you've done, the research that you've done, but also just creating a tool of motivation to get the church in the game, like get people in the game. We can do this thing together. I hope so, brother.

Book Link Prayer And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 29:46

You know, there's so many things that discourage people these days, you know, whether it's politics or economics or the culture, or, you know, Christians are kind of woe is me, what's happening in the West? You know, and I think that, you know, knowing about and being connected to what God's doing at the edges in the corners is a great antidote for that, right? Like, yeah, maybe things aren't the way we'd like them here, you know, all the time, but God is winning unbelievable victories in the darkest, hardest places in the world. His kingdom is expanding at an astounding rate. You know, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, therefore we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, because what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. And we have a tendency to get our eyes fixed on the seen things, right? You know, the stock market, you know, the political polls and all that stuff. The unseen stuff, the far away, the spiritual, is so much more important. And it's going to last forever. And if we can just get ourselves to take, you know, our eyes off the immediate stuff and look past that to the unseen things, man, it's just great for our faith and for our encouragement.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Amen. Amen. Well said, man. Uh, Doug, we always ask our guests to just pray for our audience. I think there's a lot of things that you can pray. There's some really cool, exciting things that are happening, but I think I'd love to just have you pray for ways that people can get plugged in. Yeah, I'm happy to do that.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Thank you, Clint. So, Father God, we just uh come before your throne of grace right now in the name of Jesus to lift up the folks who are listening to us on this on this podcast. Lord, we pray that you will get this to people who need to hear it and that people, Father, will uh having heard it, will be motivated to find their place in the sprint to the the finish. Lord, you have gifted them with spiritual gifts. You have given them experiences and and um uh and abilities. Father, some of them have resources that they can invest, some of them have time. Father, all of them can pray. I pray, Lord, that um hearing about these things will motivate them to want to step in and be uh be a part of the sprint to the finish. Not just a spectator, but a runner in the race, Father, as your church uh approaches the finish lines of the Great Commission. We ask that in the name of Jesus. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Amen. Let's get running.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

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