Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

First Kings chapter 8, verses 41 through 43.

Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel,

comes from a far country for your name's sake,

for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand and of your

outstretched arm. When he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place

and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order that all the peoples of the earth

may know your name and fear you, to your people israel they may know

that this house that i have built is called by your name oh listen closely to what first kings eight

41 through 43 is teaching us. As Solomon is dedicating the temple, this place in Jerusalem where the glory of God would dwell in the middle of the people of Israel, it is abundantly crystal clear that the purpose of the temple was not just to be a place of worship

for the people of Israel. It was to be a place where to use the language in First Kings, 841,

a foreigner, where the peoples, verse 43 says, the nations would come together to worship God for his glory.

So in the outer court of the temple, it was called the court of the Gentiles, the court of the

nations, this place designated by God for people from beyond the people of Israel to behold the glory of God,

to call on the name of God, that they may know, Solomon says, this house is built not just for your

people, but for all peoples, that your glory is not intended to be known just by your people,

but by all peoples. This is the missionary impulse that we see all over Scripture, so it's not just the

great commission, go and make disciples of all nations. It's not just Acts 1-8. You will receive

power when the Holy Spirit comes upon. You'll be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. This is from cover to cover in the Bible, and this is one of the places we see it.

In First King's dedication of the temple, God is clearly calling his people to make his glory known

among all peoples. God clearly desires his name to be praised among all the nations of the earth,

which is why we must look at our lives and our churches. And we cannot see missions, the spread of the

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