He Is Faithful

Renewing Your Mind today celebrating the faithfulness of God. Recently we hosted a special call will go to hell. The Lord is used or supported in 2020, and to celebrate the Lord's faithful and would like to share with you highlights from the call to encourage you to let you know how this regular, supportive, Renewing Your Mind is helping reach millions of people, especially during what has to be one of the most challenging years in recent memory. We begin with our president and CEO Chris Larson talking to the chairman of Lincoln was born Dr. Monica Dr. Godfrey. I know a lot of people have been aware of so many of the different challenges that churches have faced over the past few months.

It seems that in California particular, there has been an acute need for the church to think through how they should continue to honor the government and yet still strive to obey God. It's been challenging for so many Christians the world over what word of encouragement or even focus. Would you have for us as we think through how to glorify God and live faithfully in these challenging times is so important to have a strong local perspective.

But these are hard times for many people, but a lot of people in this treatment kind of puts it much harder times and it it made me think about how important it is to be prepared to be prepared particularly logically to face the times in which God may place us and I thought how what a blessing Lincoln or into so many people in helping them prepare anyone we didn't even know we needed to prepare the crucial things at this time are arch remember the sovereignty of God, our God is in charge of all things are God is not forgotten. Also forsaken earth.

God has a purpose in what he's doing and that's so crucial that we hold on to their confidence that God is in charge and he does all things well and he'll bring all things together for good for us and we know that we can be assured that particularly when we think about how he displayed his love for us in his son and mixture Jesus again. Of endearment return Jesus, our Savior, Jesus, our assurer, our comforter, that he is with us that he cares for us, that he'll never go and don't be so the great truth delete be ready to to speak to the many around us who don't have that confidence who don't know that Savior sewing in these times it's so important to hold under the sovereignty of God to the love of Christ and to our our hope for the future. Having data show that we don't live just for the present. What wonderful things are promised to us in Christ when he returns to make all things new. So we need to keep our eye on the future. Good Chrysler, current present evil age. This present time of suffering cannot be compared with the glory that will be revealed. That's our hope and utter confidence in that we hold onto in these difficult days versus we know that Christ continues to build his church and as the senior pastor at St. Andrews Chapel. What you think the church is learning through these trials we been facing throughout the Bible we have just beautiful examples of how the church cares for itself and I think that that is one of the things that the church most desperately needs in our country and throughout the world.

And so I think that what we been learning is is how we can care for one another how we can love one another and it's not been easy because I can speak for many pastors and elders throughout to our country that largely what we've been trying to do is just keep people loving each other in caring for each other and praying for each other and we have to constantly remind ourselves that our God is faithful we can trust him and that we as God's people are his people and that he will sustain us that he will preserve us and that he won't let us go really. It's into this tumultuous time that God's word has gone abroad in God's timing and providence. He has raised up liquor ministries to serve in the season and we have step forward into it. We've leaned into it to try and see whatever we could to through all of our broadcasting and publishing and even some new online activities to help God's people because it's really just trying to get people anchored to his word because his word never fails because he's the God who makes promises and his character is such that he cannot lie, and he has pledged covenant faithfulness towards his people and what her choice and comfort. That is, it gives us great confidence Chris. It really does you know I'm astounded I me.

Looking back, 20, 25 years. We were pretty small ministry and all that we've done by Dr. Sproles leading an example. All we've done is given people the word of God and God has blessed us.

There's really nothing novel or innovative that were doing here because RC really wanted us to stay focused to stay focused on the gospel to be rooted to the history of Christian theology and a lever getting ready to turn the page to our 50th year of the ministry's anniversary and spheres ago, I think it was around the 40th anniversary 2011.

I sat down with RC and I asked him where he wanted to see link near B and 25 years or so, the vast majority of people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year manner. One year plan, and at the same time vastly underestimate what can be accomplished in five years and so the trajectory that legionnaires on the Lord Terry's 25 years from now if legionnaires faithful to its foundations and I believe will be that we should have ourselves in the middle of the worldwide renewal of the reformed faith that we can even begin to anticipate from this perspective today.

So for 2020. The update for you are loved ministry partners is just to be able to say that is just been a year of doing what we've always done what Ebola founder Dr. Sproles set out for us to do.

Way back in 1971 to unashamedly proclaim the gospel of grace in the whole counsel of God and the Lord over the years has blessed that tight focus and he has continued to do so in this past year we saw expansive growth for this ministry. Exponential outreach happened and so much demand for this ministries teaching and in a day and age where I think a lot of Christians have a hard time finding who it is they can trust and it's been RC's faithfulness over the years and our desire to continue that mission and that focus that the Lord has allowed us to continue to reach many people. In fact, last year, we've reached over 25 million people around the world.

And so it's been remarkable to see through all of the hours that we've broadcasted through our radio broadcast of the podcast to the thousands of pages that we've published the millions of resources that have gone out over the Internet this past year. It's really been with one focus to lift up the glory of God above all else. As we strive to serve God's people, and to help them to grow to be faithful disciples. No matter what age or season. They live in. A few of them leave Rodin and just express their appreciation.

I share with you our ministry partners because you really share in this ministry. This is your ministry that you enable your prayers and we mean that your praying for the word as it goes out in your faithful financial support is what makes ministry happen.

Just listen to this. There's administrator from a prep school. Dr. Godfrey out there in California who wrote to inform us that they been using for their 11th and 12th graders doctors. Teaching series foundations which is an overview of systematic theology and reading Dr. scroll and their Christian theology class. Fiona is someone who attended our conference in the UK over in London last year and there she picked up tabletop magazine and began receiving that and she just wrote in to express her heartfelt gratitude for the ministry and she said I cannot even begin to explain how the Lord has used it to enrich my soul.

It's overwhelmingly I'd like to say that these are unique testimonies but we get these every single day. People writing in and again we share this with you our ministry partners with just our gratitude for you and how you have come alongside of us this year and really enabled us to step forward with strength and we praise God for you to produce some challenges this year than the quarantine of the virus in terms of how we did ministry we had to do some pivots along the way including their way back in March with a national conference Chris we did hand at national conference within a weeks time. We had to reconfigure it to an online event and we didn't exactly know how that would go well.

The Lord did. She's not been surprised by quarantines, of course, and the gospel is not quarantined, and so we focused on creating an eight hour teaching event and we reached over hundred thousand people around the world. Just within a few hours after broadcasting that and so stunning to be able to see the multiplying effect of technology and so we've continue to use that we've done an apologetics training event for high schoolers and we string that around the world in the Spanish-speaking world and Portuguese speaking world.

We did a full seminar on Romans eight going verse by verse through Romans eight and that was just a few weeks ago and we've had several video calls and things that we streamed online with our teaching fellows just checking in with God's people around the world and just like were doing tonight just encouraging God's people to stay the course and and then the decision was made that early on to open up our teaching series library to the really was and I'd love for Nathan Bingham, who heads up so many of our Internet outreaches. He's our director of communications Nathan fill our friends and just on and at that moment and it was very exciting for us to think there is a new way to serve yes Chris.

We made that decision really in faith to open up our teaching series library and like many of our results is free to serve God's people in that time of of need and uncertainty in those early days was a decision made in faith trusting the Lord to better provide that we can serve in that capacity.

So really do want to thank Al ministry partners and friends listening you. You enabled us to do that. And the Lord blessed your faithfulness you're giving your prayer, fullness, and is Chris said we reached over 25 million people this year, more new people contacted Lincoln near ministries this year than any year in our history and as a result of making so many of our resources available for free online video views across all of our online platforms increase 2 1/2 times with its own league and aired out older Amazon prime or YouTube. We made Al study guides available free to download and of the 660,000 study guides have been downloaded this year and and then I'm really encouraged by this outlook and your connect online learning platform has a group study feature and knowing that the church couldn't get together for Sunday school and Bible studies. We make that group study feature free and almost 25,000 Bible study groups were created and people using that to be able to gather around God's word virtually and online were talking about this growth and increased reach. I want you to know that this reach is not just getting wide is getting deeper, people are more and more engaged with these resources around God's word time on Lincoln's website doubled this year, so it's not just that were reaching more people there actually more more engaged with the content and a taking time to study God's word video views on our YouTube channel tripled this year so just such encouraging growth. Dr. Steven Nichols, the president of RBC is here with us if you will save give us an update on on what's going on on campus and and how you all are doing over there. Glad to Leah love talking about the college but I especially enjoy talking about the college to you dear folks are ministry partners as everyone has said we can't do here at Ligon near what we do without you and that is especially true of what we do over at RBC. One of the things that this was a catalyst for Lee was back in March and April. We were able to launch our foundation. Your online program and is quite an endeavor and we were able to roll that out and we started in August, we weren't sure what we would get.

We had 89 students join us from across the country and this just enabled us to extend our footprint to provide that theological higher education, and I hope you'll notice this curriculum over there at RBC. This was designed a curriculum designed by RC and so we are able to serve the students here in our campus but also now to extend her footprints as very exciting. Meanwhile back at the ranch on the campus with her highest headcount this year made 141 on our campus and one really exciting piece of news. In addition to be able to have our international students join us in the foundation your program. We just received notice that we have our S CVP approval. What that means is we can now have international students come and join us on campus and earn our four year bachelor of arts in theology degree. So starting in the fall, 20, 21, we will be welcoming internationals alongside of our students here on campus. We are really grateful for God's blessing were were brimful of God's blessing over there at RBC and we just serve as a beachhead.

I see us as a beachhead. We've got students were training them or grounding them in theology and the word of God and we soon to send them out for a lifetime of service, and you are ministry partners you're doing this. It's you that is standing with us and helping us educate and disciple this next generation if some of you might recall, one of our big initiatives that we were able to launch last January was being able to broadcast Dr. Sproles teaching series into Iran over satellite television and so people were seeing RC and hearing him in Farsi and this was on a prime time and it has continued to bear great fruit in the testimonies coming from people in Iran there some missiology us to believe that the fastest growing evangelical church in the world is in Iran and so being able to reach these ancient Persian peoples with the message of God's grace has been something that we believe is going to bear great fruit and truly after darkness. There will be light just listen to two testimonies that came in office and I wrote to tell us it is hard to find good biblical and theological teaching in Farsi. I'm very happy to see this marvelous study guides and teachings. Now I am really blessed by using the Farsi website and I shared it with my friends. Thank you Ligon your for all you do for God's kingdom and God bless you all and another are some also glad to have reformed resources in now in Farsi think that he so blessed he can learn from the best performed teachers of God's word and share these with his family and friends. These resources can prepare the next generation of Farsi speaking ministers and this is the multiplication of the word of God as it goes out. God is building his church in Jesus Christ is continuing to raise up more and more of his people to serve the next generation. It was so neat to be able to bring some of these international updates to Dr. Spruill in the years before he died and went to be with the Lord, and he would just light up when he would think about these resources really finding new life and new lands reaching people have never heard these things before. And of course RC wasn't trying to do anything new. He was trying to introduce people to the answer truth of the church that the church is always believed and taught, but more more we just recognized and RC was able to see it that were no longer in English only ministry.

In fact, even now, today we have websites in five languages, Spanish, Arabic, French Farsi, like I mentioned, and most recently Chinese just watching that we had prayed for many years so that we could have a dedicated looking at website and Mandarin Chinese and by God's grace.

It is here if and if you want to dial it up on your web browser and you can go to the H.Ligon air.org that's the H.Ligon air.org and it contains a wealth of dub video teaching articles digital books historic creeds and confessions and a lot more is coming so just imagining now reaching well over a billion Chinese speakers around the world inside and outside of China.

Work is getting underway on editions of the Reformation study Bible, and French and Arabic. Both of these languages are strategic languages because they are spoken throughout Africa, North Africa, West Africa, and our vision is really to blanket the entire continent of Africa with the Reformation study Bible and the native language that is spoken in each country.

That's a huge task in front of us, but we're well underway and so encouraged I like our friends just to hear from Matt McGee, Matt, heads up, not just the French language outreach, but his primary focus has been reaching Spanish speakers throughout the world and many of our friends have supported the work of getting the Reformation study Bible into Spanish met tell us how that launch has gone. It has exceeded our expectations.

I can remember sitting around the same table last year and I had in my hands.

A copy of the proof that the typeset proofs for the book of Philippians and Chris. You had me read from Philippians 413 and six weeks later, we would send that to the printer and that another six weeks after that. Essentially we we entered into a global pandemic and we we reconfigured some things in terms of our launch and the launch has exceeded anything I can imagine. I think anything that we can imagine here at Ligon here. By the time we went to release date.

We had Artie had to secure a second printing so the release has gone wonderfully to see the Bible in the hands of people on the photos on social media to receive testimonies of pastors and laypeople and Sunday school teachers using it to prepare sermons and small group Bible studies has been a wonderful experience and I am at a loss of words to express my thanks to each and every person involved in making this possible is been so encouraging to hear from from those in the Spanish-speaking world who have taken advantage of these resources, including the Reformation study Bible. If you will say in Spanish what that the title I glad to live evenly on this through. The other letter form what it love it. Leave these testimonies, just remind us that we have a tremendous work in front of us.

Yes we celebrate the fact that we have been able to reach more than 25 million people a year, but all of us have to realize that with 8 billion souls on this planet.

There is so much work to be done there so many people living in darkness and that doesn't daunt us at all because we know we serve a mighty and sovereign God and so we press forward with this mission and it is remarkable to think now here we are again you made to turn the page, the 50th anniversary year.

Where might we be in for another 50 years. Where might this ministry be in another hundred years and if the Lord should allow us to continue to serve God's people. If we are faithful as you heard RC say earlier we indeed may be able to reach well more than a billion or a couple billion people and it's not beyond the realm of imagination for us to really think in those terms. Because we know that this is truth that we are trying to get to as many people as possible. And that's been in our mission statement for decades now, and as many people as possible that we have a pretty big imagination of what that might be so. We can't wait really get into next year and Dr. Godfrey as we do turn the page and 20, 21 to the 50th anniversary of the ministry.

Tell us about what you're thinking about it as a church historian and what you're thinking about for the future Ligon or ministries. This just amazing to me.

I met RC a little more than 55 years ago to see how this ministry from very small beginnings has now grown most rapidly. Perhaps since RC 100 be with the Lord and now 50 years of ministry. We received a very short time in the in the whole of church history.

But what a remarkable thing that for 50 years this ministry has remained faithful rock solid in its commitments to Christ and to his word and I hope that this 50th year will be a time of celebration.

Remembering God's great faithfulness to us and dedication to remain faithful to him.

So I'm really excited looking forward to next year and to the years to come.

This is an important time of the year where we are making all of those important plans for how we will strive to serve, Lord willing.

In the next 12 months and wondering even now, what updates will be be bringing to you next year at this time. Let me give you just some sense of some new things that are coming just to whet your appetite a little bit. I miss you partners will be really excited to hear about a new podcast that features the exclusive teaching of Dr. scroll you all can certainly hear him most days on Renewing Your Mind.

But we have a new podcast that we've pulled out shorter little snippets of Dr. Spruill and it's gonna launch in January, so be looking for that. We also have in the works.

A new edition of the Reformation study Bible, but this one is for high schoolers for students for junior hires for college students really trying to pass on the treasures of reformed theology to the next generation is RC who said that you are ministry partners are the backbone of this ministry and he loved to champion you because you really saw the vital link between what we seek to do as a ministry in your faithful financial support. Thank you for praying for this ministry and we look forward to giving you future updates in the months and weeks to come. While we hope you been encouraged by how the Lord has blessed this ministry over the past year and that you share in our anticipation of even greater outreach in 2021. If so, let me encourage you to come alongside us with a generous year-end gift you can do that online@renewingyourmind.org and I joined Chris Larson and thanking you for your continued support of this ministry, as we prepare for Christmas and just a couple of weeks.

It's important for us to understand what we are really celebrating. Who is Jesus and how are we to understand what he did for we will feature several messages from Dr. scroll on the person and work of Christ, beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind