Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
This podcast is a production of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, USA. Watermark exists to be and make more fully devoted followers of Christ, looking to God's Word as our only authority, conscience and guide.
**Timothy Ateek:** Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Welcome to church. I'm so glad you're here. If this is your first time ever with us on a Sunday, thank you for trusting us with your Sunday morning. We really want this to be a place where you feel the freedom to take either your first or your next step with Jesus, so I hope you settle in and enjoy yourself.
I'm very excited about what we're going to get to experience together today as a church family. Before we get there, let me just remind you… As I've said almost every Sunday in 2025, this is the Year of the Word where we, as a church, are reading cover to cover through the Bible. Nine months in, we just started the New Testament this past Monday, which felt good. I'm just going to be honest. Like, it felt really good.
It was so enjoyable to step into Matthew and, honestly, make some connections between the Old and New Testament that I had never made before, and I hope you're experiencing similar joy. If you're not tracking with us right now, it's not too late to start. You don't need to catch up. You can just jump in right where we're at. Tomorrow we'll be in Matthew 18, and I would strongly encourage you to jump in with us and read the New Testament throughout the remainder of the year. Let's finish 2025 committed to God's Word.
As we said last week, we want the Year of the Word for us to be the year of someone else's first word. We talked last Sunday about God's heart for the nations. We want to be a people whose hearts are synced up with God's heart. It's very clear, as we open up God's Bible, that his heart is for the nations. As we established last week, there are 7,000 different languages in the world today, and only 10 percent of those languages, under 800 of them, have a full Bible. That's a problem, and we can do something about that.
So, last week, this week, and next week… We, as Watermark Community Church, are entering into partnership with Seed Company, which is a Bible translation organization. We, as a church family, are leaning in together, because we do want this year, the Year of the Word, to be the year of someone else's first word.
I introduced you last week to Davis Powell, who's the CEO of Seed Company. He's also a Watermark member. He and his wife Kate have been members here for 10 years. They've served in Merge. They've served as Foundation Group leaders. They are heavily invested here. I want to welcome Davis back to the stage today. He's going to share with us from the book of Matthew, and he's also going to acclimate us more to the work of Bible translation. So, would you welcome Davis Powell to the stage today?
Davis shared in the first service, and it was so encouraging. It was excellent. I'm so glad, Davis, that you're here today. Davis and I have been friends for a long time, and it's a joy to have him sharing and inviting us into this amazing work God has already been doing for a long time. So, just as we do every Sunday, I want to invite you to pray for yourself. Would you take a moment and say, "God, would you speak to me this morning?" Then, would you pray for the people around you and ask God to speak to them as well? Then, would you pray for Davis and ask God to speak through him to you?
Lord, thank you for Davis. I'm thankful, God, for the love he has for you and your Word. I pray right now that you would fill him full of your Spirit, that you would speak clearly and confidently through him. I pray, Holy Spirit, would you prepare our hearts for your Word? Just as Matthew 13 talks about the sowing of the seed of the Word, I pray right now, may your Word, as it is taught, only find good soil in this room. Use this time for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.
**Davis Powell:** My wife Kate and I have been a part of Watermark for nearly a decade now, as TA mentioned. I know many of us in this room who are part of the body could not imagine what our lives would look like, what our marriages would look like, what our community would look like if it wasn't for TA, the elders, and the staff of Watermark. Can we just thank them for the way they lead and serve us every single week?
So, Kate is from Dallas. I'm from South Carolina. Apologies for any accent that might show up. Do we have any other Texas transplants in here? Yeah, a couple. Love that. You know, I tried to buy some cowboy boots, but I bought some with zippers on them and quickly learned I'm still learning. In South Carolina, our favorite Tex-Mex is Taco Bell. "Live Más." Anybody? Glad I saw the light on _that_ one. We're just so thankful to be in Texas, so thankful to be a part of this body.
We have a few little ones. This picture was taken a couple of months ago. We have our 4-year-old daughter Hartley and our 2-year-old son Wes, who we affectionately call _Wild, Wild Wes_ for many reasons. Then, two months ago, we added our third daughter Hunter. Thank you. Thank you for that "Aw." That is so sweet. She is definitely in the "Aw" phase. She's not at the "Wild, Wild Wes" phase, so it's great.
Just as each of us have, we have a bedtime routine. We kick off the bedtime routine typically with trying to put pajamas on Wild, Wild Wes. Sometimes it's a _WWE SmackDown_ match. I know some of you understand that. We're coming through the day when it has just been beautiful chaos, but we come to a moment where we typically read a story, we pray, and then, as we're tucking our kids in, we sing a song. It's a song a lot of us know. It goes like this: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Even my daughter last night, tucking her in, singing that back. It just hit me so hard over the summer that that's such a reality, that for us in this room, we have God's Word in our heart language, so we can know that Jesus loves us. TA already mentioned a few of these numbers. I'm going to mention them again because we could hear them again. It's a lot to take in. Right?
There are 7,000 languages in the world today, and 769 of those have a full Bible translated. English is one of those. Thousands are somewhere on their journey. They have portions of Scripture. Maybe they have a gospel, they have parts of the Old Testament, they have parts of the New Testament, or they have a full New Testament, but not all of Scripture. Then, as the blank Bibles in the Town Center note, there are 511 languages that are still awaiting their first verse.
So, we're going to jump into the Word of God this morning. I encourage you, whether you're pulling it up on your Bible app or whether you're opening up Scripture… Maybe we just take a moment. Just feel the pages and thank the Lord that we have God's Word in our language. You can go ahead and flip with me to Matthew 1. That's where we're going to spend some time this morning.
I want to remind us, before we start reading verse 1 in Matthew 1, the journey we've been on. We've been in the Year of the Word. Love it. Nine months in the Old Testament. So, I just want to remind us where we've been, because the reality is the Old Testament is not just all of these random stories that were kind of thrown together, and then, okay, we can kind of forget about the Old Testament now that we're in the New Testament. No. It is all leading us toward this moment where we began reading this week in Matthew.
So, I just want to remind us. We open up in Genesis 1. "God created the heavens and the earth." He created the mountains we stand in awe of. He created the oceans whose depth and creatures we still can't even comprehend. Think about that. There are things the Lord created we are still comprehending, figuring out. The universe is beautiful.
Verse 3: "God said, 'Let there be light.'" Then he formed humanity, Adam and Eve. We talked about this. We read this back in January. He formed humanity to be in perfect relationship with a holy God. We had every single thing we needed back in that garden. _Everything_. It was just as it should be, but we still decided to go our own way. We still decided to eat of that one fruit when the Enemy whispered, "Hey, you should try this instead of listening to your Creator. You should go your own way instead of trusting that this holy God who created you is good."
All seemed lost, because our relationship with God was completely severed, because a broken humanity can't be in the presence of a holy God. It's totally incompatible. So, all seemed lost, but we know God did not abandon his people. Amen? So then we continue on. Genesis 12. We get to Abraham, where God gives us the Abrahamic covenant between Abraham and him where he says, "Hey, all nations are going to be blessed."
Then Exodus and Leviticus. Remember reading Exodus and Leviticus? You're getting through all of the laws. You're getting through all of the sacrifices. You're trying to make sense of it. All of that pointed to a time where we could get back into relationship with God through the sacrifice, through the following of the law, trying to be righteous through that.
But even in that, even keeping the law, even with all of the sacrifices, it was still limited. Only the priests could draw near, and only in specific ways. But there was a day coming, a day when any person, any one of us, could approach the throne of grace boldly, a day when a greater sacrifice would open the way back to God forever.
Second Samuel 7. Do y'all remember reading the story of David? David was a man after God's own heart. There was another covenant that God made between David and himself, and it said, "Hey, through your line there will be a true king." With Abraham, the covenant was "All nations will be blessed," and through David… "Hey, through your lineage there will be a true king." And not a king that fades away or passes away like David and Solomon and all of the kings we read through in the spring months, but there would be a true king who would reign on the throne forever.
Then, after a couple months of reading through Scripture, we got to Isaiah. Isaiah is filled with prophecy of this Messiah, of the Savior who was to come. Isaiah 53 says he would be wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, that the Savior would live the life we could never live, die the death we deserve, and would raise from the dead.
Isaiah 25:8 declares, **"He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…"** Then we elaborated a little bit over the last couple of weeks on the last few books of the Old Testament that are all pointing toward this moment. "Hey, a Savior is coming. Hey, a Messiah is coming. He's going to make it all right. He's going to make it all right." Then, on Monday, we opened up to Matthew 1.
It's so interesting, because when we read Matthew 1 this Monday, it doesn't start with a story from Jesus. It doesn't start with a parable from Jesus; it starts with a genealogy, a lineage, Jesus' historical record. It's important for us to realize that Matthew doesn't start with this simply to say, "Hey, here's the historical record, and you need a census." No, he starts with this because he wants us to recall many of the things I just mentioned and way more; to say, "Hey, that coming Savior? This Jesus is him. That true King is him."
Right off the bat, Matthew opens up this genealogy to proclaim that God's promises have been kept. So, read with me in verse 1 of Matthew. **"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."** I don't know what a lead story is in your mind this morning. I know, for me, I opened up the _Wall Street Journal_ and saw plenty of things that said they were the lead story. Some of you may have opened up Instagram, and you have something going on in your mind, saying, "Yeah, this is the lead story. This is what I need to be consumed by today. This is where I need to put all my attention."
But right off the bat, verse 1 of the New Testament, the author is saying, "Hey, I don't know what you think the lead story is, but Jesus is the lead story." Even for us right now, what's in your mind? Remember, Jesus is the lead story. It immediately takes us back to David and back to Abraham, that "Hey, this Jesus, this true King, is the one the Scriptures have been talking about. Through him all nations will be blessed, and through him, he will wipe away every tear."
I really wish we had the next couple of hours to walk through the genealogy. I would encourage you, even though we've already read through it this past week, these first 17 verses… There are so many great resources. Dig in this week, because every single name in Scripture is declaring that this Jesus is the true King. So just take a moment. There are a lot of cool videos and resources for you to dive into why this genealogy has so much meat.
I want to just call out a few verses. Let's go to verse 5. **"…and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse…"** Do you remember Ruth? A woman outside of God's people but brought near to God by her faith, foreshadowing that Jesus will welcome all nations to him, making outsiders family.
Verse 11: **"…and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon."** Do you remember Josiah in 2 Kings? An 8-year-old who was in God's temple and came across the Law of the Lord, God's Word. He recognized, "Hey, I haven't been following this," and it says he tore his clothes. In that time, that was saying, "Hey, I'm so ashamed of the way I'm living." This 8-year-old took back the Word of God to his people, to the nation, and called all to repent to the Lord. One name in this genealogy, but God has been in control the whole time.
Let's go to verse 16. **"…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ."** Mary… We all know the story. Right? A humble, most likely teenager, who didn't operate out of fear but had faith, and through her, Immanuel, God with us, came onto the scene. Jesus is the lead story. Everything in verses 1-17 is just pointing us back and proclaiming that God's promises have been kept.
I've heard it said before (I first heard this from a friend a couple of years ago) that reading the New Testament without the Old Testament is kind of like walking through your living room with the lights off. You all get me. My wife Kate and I do this all the time. We put the kids down. We're trying to keep them quiet, and we're trying to tiptoe out of the room wherever they are. You kind of know where the coffee table is, but every time, you still hit it with your knee. Anybody tracking?
I know, for us, if we forget to put up a Lego, it's game over. We lose our foot for the whole week if we step on that bad boy. Right? You kind of know where things are. You kind of know the context. You can pick up on it. But when you read the Old Testament with the New Testament, the New Testament in light of the Old Testament, it's like you're walking through the house with the lights on. You see everything just as it should be. You see all the full context.
I love this graph we're going to show on the screen. It depicts all of the cross-references in Scripture. If you look to the far left, that first white vertical bar is Genesis 1, and all of these chapters are listed throughout the Bible all the way to Revelation on the far right. That long line in the middle is Psalm 119, the length showing the longest chapters in the Bible, and then all of the arcs you see are communicating when Scripture is referenced someplace in Scripture to another.
So, maybe a covenant that was set up in Genesis 12 is being called back to in the New Testament. You would see that arc. Maybe it's a prophecy that was declared in the Prophets, and it's coming to life in the New Testament. Maybe it is Hebrews, and everything you're reading in Hebrews being called back to Leviticus. Hey, news flash. When we get to Hebrews, go back and read Leviticus. When it says Jesus was the sacrifice, it's going to come alive. There's a whole new meaning in it. There are over 63,000 of these references in all Scripture. It makes me think of 2 Timothy: "All Scripture is God-breathed." Amen? It's absolutely amazing.
Now that we see that God's promise has been kept, we have to respond. For so many of us in the room, we _have_ responded. There has been a moment in our lives, and we could go around for days and describe our story after story after story of coming to know the Lord. But in so much of a summary of it, it's that we recognize that we brought nothing to the table. There's no good deed within us.
There's no cleaning up that's good enough. There's no moral code to live by that's ever going to get us back into that right relationship with the Lord, as was in the garden, because we could never clean up enough to be in a right relationship with a holy God. Rather than me continuing to describe what our stories could look like, I just want to read Scripture over us to remind those of us in Christ where we've come from. Ephesians 2:4:
**"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith."**
Amen? I hope this is stirring something in you. **"And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."** Man, that's so many of our stories. Then, for others of us in the room… Maybe this is your first time in church ever. Maybe you just decided to come last night. Maybe you've been coming the last few weeks.
If you don't hear anything else this morning, I want you to hear this. The God who created the universe created you, and he knows you detail by detail, from every cell in your body to the most intricate, intimate part of your soul that you don't think anybody knows, and if they did, they surely wouldn't love you. He knows you that deeply, and he loves you with everything he's got.
If you jump into Matthew tomorrow, like TA said, you're going to read about the parable of the lost sheep where the shepherd, reflecting Jesus, left the 99 to come after the one. Maybe you're feeling like that one this morning, that no one sees you. If anyone knew what was really going on…man, you shouldn't be here.
No, you're supposed to be here. You're here for a purpose, and you can come before the Lord and say, "Lord, I've got nothing to give. I could never be cleaned up, but because you lived the life I could never live and died the death I deserved on the cross and rose victoriously, I surrender my life to you, giving you everything I've got."
Know that that is available to you today to respond to. There's a team down front after every gathering. They would love to pray with you, love to share more, love to answer your questions, love to hear your story. We're going to talk about the nations in a minute. We're going to talk about a lot of things, but if you're here and don't know the Lord, don't leave without responding. He sees you, and he loves you. For those of us who are in Christ and have responded in that way, we know, as TA declared, that we have a response toward the nations. Matthew 28:18-20:
**"And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'"**
So, at the beginning of Matthew, we see God's promises have been kept. At the end of Matthew, we see very clearly our mission is set. We don't have to wonder this morning, "Hey, am I called to the nations? Maybe I need to pray about it." This is one thing you really don't need to pray about. If you are in Christ, you're called to the nations, just as we see. The reality is there are a lot of missions and visions that we kind of have to wonder, "Hey, is this going to come true? Is this vision going to become reality?"
We see John, in Revelation 7:9, declaring what that end day before the throne will look like. Read this with me. **"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands…"** Every language is going to be represented. I don't know if you know what the Greek word for _every_ is but it's _every_. Nobody is left behind.
Last week, we introduced a partnership between Watermark and our Year of the Word, reading through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, and the fact that this could be someone's year of their _first_ word, year of their first New Testament, year of their first full Bible. Over the next few moments, I'm going to talk about what the journey of Bible translation looks like and how we can be invited into this vision of all Scripture going to all people. All Scripture, all people.
When we were talking about that phrase as a team a few months ago at Seed Company, we were getting really fired up around it, and one of our team members said, "Huh. That's kind of like God. What a cool acronym…_ASAP_…because we want to get there as quickly as possible." All Scripture, all people.
Last week, we defined _heart language_. The _heart language_ is the language your mother spoke to you since your birth. That's why it's sometimes called your _mother tongue_. It's the language you cry out in, the language you pray in, even if it's to foreign gods. It's the language where when someone says it and you're in a different country or a different place, you immediately turn, because you say, "Oh, I feel like home." It's so important for God's Word to be in your heart language.
Seed Company is currently serving in 1,400 languages around the world today, active translation happening, but for this example, I want us to zoom in on East Africa (one of my favorite places in the world; I know many of us have been there) to Kenya. In Kenya, the majority language is Swahili. Do we have any Swahili speakers in here? Okay. (24:50) Good to see you. Praise the Lord. That's awesome.
Hey, I'm going to make us feel really good about ourselves. Has anyone seen _The Lion King_? Raise your hand for _The Lion King_. Come on. Love that. All right. _Simba_ in Swahili means lion. There you go. We're on our way. _Rafiki_ means friend. So, when you see somebody in the Town Center, just be like, "What's up, Rafiki?" It's cool. I mean, it's Swahili. It's good. _Hakuna matata_ means…? Thank you. We're paying attention. Come on. Love it. We are on our way to being Bible translators. Not really, but I wanted us to feel good for a moment.
So, this girl in the picture lives in northern Kenya. She lives in the Rendille language community. Rendille is a language community that's nomadic. They move around in different areas throughout Kenya. The reality is this little girl, who you just saw, doesn't speak Swahili. She lives in Kenya. Swahili is the national language, but she does not speak Swahili. She speaks Rendille.
Over 20 years ago, there was not even a single verse of Scripture in Rendille. One of the first processes we have in Bible translation is to identify a leader of the translation team, someone who can help translate God's Word for their people. All of this changed when we identified that leader named Lebon (26:17). Lebon said yes to translating. He's right there in the middle. Everybody say, "Hey, Lebon." He appreciates that. Lebon became a believer through missionaries who came and visited the Rendille decades ago.
Ideally, we find individuals who already know the Lord to be a part of the translation team, but sometimes, in closed contexts, we can't find any believers. Sometimes we have to find, like Luke 10 says, people of peace, people who maybe follow another religion culturally but are interested in this Word of God, are interested in being a part of this process. I was just in the Middle East several months ago with people whose husbands and wives had no clue what their job was because they had to be in such secret.
So, the translation team is formed, and then the next question is, "Well, where do you start?" For the Rendille, they started in the New Testament. They kind of knew about Jesus, so they kicked off with a gospel. For some others, one of the books that most resonated with them was Leviticus. In northern Ghana, this people group's whole community was built around sacrifices, a really, really dark belief system, so Leviticus stood out the most to them. Sometimes in the Middle East we start with the Prophets, because they're familiar with that, and then move into the ultimate true King, Jesus.
So, we begin drafting. Just really quickly… I know I've been asked since last week, "Hey, are you guys using AI?" I know TA has been asked a lot of times, "Hey, are you guys using AI?" So, for those geeks, 60 seconds. Here we go. For everyone else, I'm sorry. I apologize. We will go back in a moment.
For those who love AI, yes, we _are_ using AI. Eighteen months ago, we were using AI to draft five different languages. We were taking languages that had a New Testament, allowing the AI engine to ingest that New Testament and learn the language, and then to start drafting the Old Testament. Today, that has gone from five languages to 200 languages around the world right now.
We're also working with several languages in the Pacific that don't have any data. There has never been anything translated. So, we're working with them to see how much data, how many words need to be collected in order that translation can begin. AI never replaces the translation team; it's just an amazing tool on the tool belt. You have to have a soul to really lean in and discern how to translate God's Word, because what if you're struggling with some words in your language? What if there's a language…?
This wasn't the case for Rendille, but other languages that are very nomadic and in an arid, desert situation, and they've never seen a boat… Is a boat pretty important for the Bible? Yeah, you can think of a few places. Maybe they've never seen a camel. Well, that's kind of easy. You can show a picture, so that kind of gets there. But think about "For God so loved the world…" There was a language in the Middle East we were working with, and they had a really hard time translating John 3:16.
"For God so loved the world." Does _world_ mean the earth? Dirt? For God so loved dirt? Is that what we're trying to do? No, it's people. "For God so loved the people of the world." And then _love_. In this context, there was no word for love. There was actually no reflection of love. Husbands didn't love their wives. Wives didn't love their husbands. They didn't even love their kids. Kids were just seen as their retirement, taking care of them when they get older. There was no context to love. They have to figure this out.
To help them do this, in every single project, what we call a trained _translation consultant_, typically a PhD linguist, comes in and works with these translation teams, like the Rendille, to ensure that every single word is accurate back to the original languages. It takes some time, sometimes weeks, sometimes days. So, that's part of the process.
After that, they have what we call _community testing_, where they go out to the community and read God's Word, because you want to make sure God's Word is not just accurate back to the original languages; you want to make sure it's natural. You want to make sure it's communicating what it's supposed to.
I love this story from Ghana. It was the Twi Ashanti cluster, and there were about 200 people gathered together to listen to Scripture. For this people group, it was the first time they had ever heard God's Word. Can you imagine that? Just think about that for a moment, if we had walked in this morning and began reading from God's Word and this was the first time you'd ever heard it. That was the case for this people group.
They started with Matthew, and they began playing Matthew out loud on a device. They got to the end of verse 17, to the end of the genealogy, and the community leader stood up and said, "Hey, can you play that again?" So they rewound it and played it again. They got to verse 17, and the community leader stood up and said, "Hey, one more time. One more time. Can you play that again?"
The team that was over the recording thought, "Well, typically, we don't get asked to play the genealogies over again. Typically, it's maybe two times speed." I'll just let that sit for a moment. They played through it again, and the community leader stood up and said, "The king of our people group only knows their lineage back six generations, but this Jesus knows their lineage way more. He must be someone we should learn about and maybe follow." All Scripture is God-breathed.
So, then you get to a certain point where you have… And you've been releasing Scripture while it's done. You don't wait until a New Testament. You release Matthew. You release Acts. But when you hit a major milestone, like a New Testament or a full Bible, there's an absolute celebration in the community, something we call a _dedication_. A couple of years ago, the Rendille received their New Testament. Take a moment and check out what this moment was like.
\[Video\]
This is the Rendille New Testament. This is it. They have God's Word in their language. One callout. Who saw the camel carrying the Bibles? This is a nomadic people group, and typically, when they would get to a new watering hole, they would allow the men to drink first, the camels to drink next, and then the children and the women.
When God's Word came, the children and the women drank first, then the men, and then the camels. God's Word changes everything. You can pray for their community, because right now in our project plan together, they are hoping to have their full Bible completed in September 2027 with another dedication in the spring of 2028. So, you can pray with them as they continue on their journey.
I want us to go from Kenya to Nepal. The Limbu is a people group in Nepal with 400,000 speakers who live in the foothills of the Himalayas. I know some of us have been in Nepal. It's such a beautiful country. In March 2023, we gathered to celebrate the full Limbu Bible being dedicated, the first time that all of Scripture has been available. It was the 744th Bible. Amazing. We're at 769 today, but they were 744.
It's hard to experience what happens in a dedication. Just like we saw with Rendille, it was very similar, but I will say that with the Limbu dedication, it was a really long dedication. You typically have a translator sitting beside you. He was translating from Limbu to another language into English, and at some point, he was just getting tired. I was like, "Hey, man. It's okay. You can stop. Take a break."
At one point, one of the community leaders right here… Also, just take a note and look at that blazer. Come on. I need one of those. I do have a hat that I wear on date nights sometimes. We'll make sure TA gets a blazer like that one of these days. But he stood up, and he held this Limbu Bible, and he said, "So many believe that Buddha is god of this country, but Buddha is in the ground. We have God's Word in our language, and we know that Jesus is not just the God of Nepal; he's the God of the world, and he is not in the ground. He's alive." Amen? Amen.
I love this next picture. These were three of the translators on the Limbu team. They had a fourth translator who passed away right before the full Bible was dedicated. We were standing right here in this spot after the dedication and just talking to one another, and one of our team members said, "What are you going to do now? Your life's work is complete. You've spent decades working on this full Bible. What are you going to do?"
With a grin, he responded in Limbu, "Oh, the work is just beginning." I love that, because we do not translate God's Word to get a book on a shelf. We don't have God's Word in _our_ language to keep it on _our_ shelf. We translate God's Word because we want to see open Bibles in people's hands because we know the Word of God never returns void and transforms everything.
We've gone from Kenya to Nepal, and now I want us to take a short flight to Guatemala. Anybody been to Guatemala? Love that. Yeah, Guatemala is amazing. This is a picture of the Tz'utujil full Bible dedication that took place last year. Can everyone say, "Tz'utujil"? Amazing. Love it.
So, the Tz'utujil community gathered together in Guatemala, and it's such an interesting experience, because you're in Guatemala, Spanish speaking for the most part, but I'm having a conversation with community members, and they're having to go from the language of Tz'utujil to the language of Spanish to English. It's a surreal experience, absolutely surreal.
This picture is of the lead translator and his family. You'll see on the far right his name is Antonio. He's celebrating the dedication with his wife Mercedes and his family. This picture is from one of our professional photographers, but I was standing right beside the photographer and just snapped a picture and sent it to Kate as she was in the middle of screaming babies at bedtime, I'm sure, and just said, "Hey, we're about to kick off. Thanks for praying. Thanks for allowing me to be here."
She texted back, and I just want to read her text back. "I have tears in my eyes. Those kids are the first generation to have God's Word. Imagine what will change." We have had God's Word in our language, if English is your heart language, for generations, and look at what has happened. Look at the church. Look at our gathering. Look at discipleship. But for these kids… First generation. Amazing.
Another passage we read from this past week was Matthew 13. It's the parable of the sower. Something that's really interesting… We remember that the seed is sown on thorny ground, rocky ground, and ripe soil where it grows up, but something the parable doesn't talk about is the sower taking much time to assess the soil before he sows.
Have you ever thought about that? He's not like, "Huh. That looks kind of thorny, so I'm just going to go over _here_." No, he just sows. That's the opportunity we are being invited into, trusting that the Lord is going to till the soil. The Lord is going to transform hearts, so we can sow and pray to see God's Word go to the nations.
I'm just thinking about those 511 languages without a single verse. I'm thinking about communities like the Rendille who do have a New Testament. I don't know about you, but I just cannot wait until that day when every mother and every father can read a story to their kid, can pray to the Creator of the universe, and as they're pulling the covers up, can just whisper in their kid's ear, "Hey, Jesus loves us, this we know, because the Bible in our language tells us so." Amen? May it be.
For this next story, I'm not going to share it with you. I want you to hear it from my friend Layla. We're going to show a video in a moment, and that video really depicts and kind of is from the perspective of what it looks like to translate in the area she's from, one of the most persecuted areas in the world, the Middle East.
That video also gives us a moment to get a screen onstage to keep her safe and secure because of all that she has sacrificed. You'll get to hear more of her story. You're still going to be able to see her a little bit through the screen, particularly on the sides. That's okay. We just ask that you don't take pictures. We really wanted to make sure, particularly for the livestream, that we are keeping her safe. So, enjoy this video.
\[Video\]
**Male:** I cannot tell you my name. I cannot show you my face. Even speaking these words is a risk, but I must tell you what God is doing. I live where war is constant, where following Jesus is dangerous, where a Bible could cost me everything. Still, I translate word by word, not for me but for my people. They deserve to hear God's voice in the language they dream in. I do not fear death; I fear silence. I fear that my people might never know God speaks their language. There are many of us, whispering prayers, trusting the Spirit to go where we cannot. This is dangerous, but it is holy, and we will not stop until every person in every language has all of God's Word.
\[End of video\]
**Davis:** Can you help me welcome Layla here with us today? Layla, English is the fourth language you've learned, so thank you for today taking time to share in our heart language. It means so much.
**Layla:** Thank you, Davis, and thanks everyone for having me today. It's such an honor for me to talk about God's Word and God's work on the other side of the world.
**Davis:** We're so honored to hear your story, because we know there has been so much sacrifice. You came to know the Lord in literally one of the most persecuted areas in the world. I know I've mentioned that a few times. I don't say that for dramatic effect, just so you know. I say that because it's really, really true. So, Layla, can you share a little bit about what it was like coming to faith, a little bit more of your story?
**Layla:** Yeah, sure. Well, I feel truly blessed to have come to know Jesus as my Lord at a very young age. I was born and grew up as a girl from a tribal background, speaking a different language and belonging to a minority group in society. My extended family first heard about Jesus through my cousin and his wife, and by God's grace, almost half of our family gave their hearts to him.
Even my grandmother, though she was elderly and uneducated, became so thirsty for the Word that she began listening to audio recordings of the Bible, even though they were in the official language of the country which she didn't fully understand. From the very beginning of our faith, we were taught two important lessons. First, never deny Jesus in any circumstance, and second, take every opportunity we can to share him with others.
For example, one place my sister and I often went was the hospital, where we met people who were hopeless and in need of comfort. On one of those visits, while we were praying for the sick children and sharing copies of the New Testament along with a video of Jesus' life, wrapped as gifts, we were arrested by the intelligence service of our country. Not long after, our house church was raided, and all Christian materials were confiscated.
During interrogation, we were threatened that our citizenship rights could be taken away, such as the right to education and work. In fact, they stopped me from continuing my education. They also said they could separate our family. Sadly, they succeeded when we were forced to leave our homeland, leaving our parents behind. The threats even went as far as putting our lives in danger. All this ultimately led us to flee our country and seek refuge in a neighboring land.
**Davis:** Thanks for sharing, Layla. I don't want us to miss it. Layla and half of her family came to know the Lord through missionary activity and then felt so called to go into a hospital and share, taking Scripture from the majority language, and were arrested for that and ultimately had to flee. And when you fled, you heard through a series of people about Bible translation and that you could be a part of translating God's Word for your people. What made you say yes to that?
**Layla:** Well, Davis, I should say that the only reason we had to leave our motherland and endure life as Christian refugees was our desire for everyone to hear the good news of Jesus, especially those who feel unworthy of him because they've been ignored and rejected by the world during the times. Yet my heart still carried a burning flame to share God's salvation with the people of my own tribe.
That is why I became involved in translating the Bible into minority languages, including the one my community spoke, often overlooked, spoken by people who might not even believe they are worthy of being saved. For us, this was not a burden but a privilege, a chance to take part in evangelizing even from a distance, working alongside a professional team under the guidance of a dedicated and faithful leader.
**Davis:** Thanks, Layla. I love something you said, that this was an opportunity for you to evangelize even from a distance because God's Word could go where you couldn't. It's beautiful. Now that people have the New Testament in their language, what's a prayer you have for them as they encounter it?
**Layla:** I definitely pray that God will bless this translation so that many may hear his truth. Just as my grandmother now listens daily to the recorded Bible in her heart language, I long for others in similar situations to experience the same blessing. May God continue his amazing work among smaller communities through Bible translation so that even those who cannot read or who are blind may listen to his living and transforming Word. May their lives, once black and white apart from God, be made colorful through the power of his Word.
**Davis:** That's so good. Who can testify to that, that our lives were black and white before God's Word, and then it became color? So, Layla, one more question for you. What's a message that you have for us, as the body of Watermark? What's something you'd like to share with us?
**Layla:** I, as a witness of this amazing work, believe the voice of the translated Bible in people's heart language is far louder and more powerful in their ears than in any other language. I've been an eyewitness to how the Word of God is truly living and active, piercing to the division of soul and spirit when people hear it in the language of their hearts. Translating God's Word is an everlasting mission that bears fruit from generation to generation independent of our presence in this world.
Bible translation is a powerful testimony that God delights in revealing his steadfast love and in restoring dignity to minority communities who have faced the discrimination of this world. When people hear a Scripture in their own language, they trust it, they believe it, because it carries a familiar voice, as you mentioned earlier. As Jesus says in John, "My sheep know my voice," and in this way we more deeply understand the meaning of the word "He became like one of us."
**Davis:** Amazing. Can we thank Layla again? I'm going to invite TA to come up and pray for Layla and her country before we continue on.
**TA:** Would you guys thank Davis for sharing with us today? I'd like to pray for Layla now, and then after I say, "Amen," I want to share with you the part we can play in Bible translation. As we pray for Layla, you can pray with me. One of the ways you can do that is you can just extend a hand toward her. There's nothing magical or mystical about doing that. That is just one way that you can say, "I'm praying in agreement with you for Layla." So, let's just pray.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for the way you have captured Layla's heart, that you called her to yourself, and now we share the same salvation, God. We have the same Spirit living inside of us. Thank you, God, for how your Word… Thank you that no government can restrain the spread of your Word. Lord, we pray that over the next five years, people from her country, in all 22 languages there, would have access to the full Bible.
Lord, I pray that you would bless Layla's work. I pray that you would just continue to use her in amazing ways. Lord, we pray for people from her country, for revival, and, Lord, that your Spirit would move in miraculous ways in such a way that stories would just ripple throughout the globe. We love you. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Our production team was wondering, "How are we going to get this off during your prayer without the noise?" I said, "Just leave it." One of the reasons I told them to leave it is it's a great reminder that what we're about to talk about is us sacrificing financially, but there are people who have already made the choice that they're willing to sacrifice their lives, if that's what it takes, to get the Word of God into the heart language of those in their country, which is an amazing thing.
As we talk right now, just for a few minutes, what I want to make sure you know we're talking about is the reality that during our lifetime, we have a privilege, as a generation, that other generations that have gone before us didn't have. In our lifetime, we truly could see all Scripture in all languages. Like, all 7,000 languages could have access to the entire Bible. That's what we get to be a part of.
So, let me just tell you, here's the partnership that Watermark and Seed Company have formed. You can go to [watermark.org/seed](https://seed.bible/campaigns/watermark), and you can see different opportunities that you and I have to give. Let me just show you the website. This is before we started last week. Let's check in on how much has been raised as of this very moment. Currently, \$46,000 has been given, which is amazing. It's amazing because up until this morning, we really hadn't asked you guys to give yet. Now we are asking you to give.
I want to make sure you know what the opportunity is. If you were to go to the website and scroll down, we've actually spelled out seven different opportunities that build upon one another. So, the first opportunity can be unlocked when we give \$100,000, and then the second opportunity gets unlocked when we have raised \$250,000 total. It's not \$250,000 in addition to the \$100,000; it's \$250,000 total. They build upon one another.
So, let's just say we raise \$100,000 total. If we raise \$100,000, we are going to provide access to the Word of God for 332,200 people, which is incredible. With \$100,000, that will allow us to get first Scripture into one language. That means people who have never had access to one verse are going to get their first Scripture. We will complete one New Testament in a language, we will complete one full Bible in another language, and then we will get the Bible into one sign language.
Now, this has been interesting. If I were to ask you how many different sign languages exist in the world, what would you think? Some of you would be like, "I think there's one. It's called _sign language_." No, there are actually 350 different sign languages in our world. Do you know how many have the Bible currently? One. It's American Sign Language. So, we have the opportunity to provide the full Bible in another sign language. That's if we raise \$100,000.
Now, we've provided seven different opportunities that get unlocked the more we raise. If you scroll down to the bottom, let's just look at what is possible. If we, as a church family, raise \$2 million, we will reach 51 different unreached people groups, which account for 12,471,597 people. We can help over 12 million people have access to God's Word in their heart language.
If we give \$2 million as a church family, we will unlock eight first Scripture engagements, people getting their first access to God's Word. We will complete nine New Testaments, we will complete two full Bibles, and we will complete three full sign languages. That's what we can do as a church. Just right here at Watermark, we have the opportunity to get the Word into languages that will reach 12 million people.
We're talking about people groups in some of the hardest-to-reach places. We're talking about getting the Word of God across Asia, in the 10/40 Window, in the jungles of South America…some of the most remote places in the world. Here's what we've seen in 25 years as a church: together, we can be a massive force for good. We _can_.
So, what's the goal? Did we make seven projects with the total at the bottom being \$2 million? Is that our goal? No, that's not our goal. We actually don't have a goal, because we don't know how much God wants us to give. One person today could write a check for \$2 million. If that happened, on one hand, that would be amazing.
At the same time, if it was only one person who gave \$2 million in our church, which is comprised of thousands, in the end, that would be an amazing thing for Bible translation, and it would be a complete loss for Watermark Community Church, because we don't know how much God wants us to give collectively.
If you want a goal, here's the goal. The goal is 100 percent participation from Watermark members. If you're not a Watermark member, you are totally invited to be a part of this, but the goal is 100 percent participation from Watermark members giving prayerfully and open-handedly, not impulsively.
What I totally could do is I could have the band come out, and I could say, "Hey, give me some of that sentimental padding," and they could strike the right keys that would really tweak your heart. I could change the tone of my voice to the point where I'm like, "Now get out your phones, and let's give." We could totally do that. We're not doing that, because we're not giving impulsively.
In fact, I'm going to ask you _not_ to give right now until you've asked God how much you should give. Please don't give until you ask him, because I don't want you giving as a response to me. I don't want you giving as a response to Layla or to Davis. The win is for you and me to respond to God. The win is for you to give generously, not impulsively.
You need to remember generosity in God's economy is not nearly as much about the amount as it is about the heart. When Jesus celebrated generosity, he celebrated a woman giving two small copper coins that were really insignificant, but they were all she had. It was sacrificial giving. Do you know what that means? It means someone here in this room could give \$100,000 and it wouldn't be generous. Someone else could give \$10 and it absolutely _would_ be generous. God celebrates generosity. You should give what God calls you to give. That's the win.
I want to encourage you to sit with God this week, hold your Bible in your hand, and answer this question: "How would my life be different if I did not have access to the Word of God in my own heart language?" Then just ask God, "How would you have us respond to this opportunity?" Look. If you have kids, invite them into this. You, as a family, might have a garage sale this week. They might set up a lemonade stand. You might skip Starbucks a few times. You might choose to not go on a trip as a family because that's how God is leading you to give.
You might get with your roommates and say, "Let's do this together." You might give with your Community Group. You might look at how much is left to unlock the next opportunity, and your group might say, "I think we can do that. Let's unlock an entire opportunity together." Pray and give, but don't give until you've prayed. When you're ready to give, go to [watermark.org/seed](https://seed.bible/campaigns/watermark), and you can give right there on the website. If you want to give by check, there are directions to do that.
Here's what I want to make sure you hear. If you're tuned out, please don't miss this. Watermark doesn't see a dollar of this. When you give, you're giving directly to Bible translation through Seed Company, and we trust Seed Company. They're doing amazing work. They have been for a long time. So look. Watermark family, as we said last week regarding the nations, you are either praying, giving, going, or disobeying. This is an opportunity for us to give. We believe that all Scripture is for all people. It's for you too.
Let me say this. If you're here this morning, and you don't own a Bible, we would love to give you one this morning. Last Sunday, we gave away 100 Bibles. So, if you're here and you don't own a physical copy of the Bible… What I _didn't_ say is if you're just looking for a new one, if you're like, "Yeah, you know what? Let's see what you got." We'd love to give you one. You can just come down front afterward, and it would be our joy to give you one. Watermark family, let's translate the Bible together.
I'm going to pray. When I say, "Amen," we're done. I'm going to say, "Have a great week of worship," and you should totally go out to the pond, because right after this, Amber is going to testify through baptism that she has been raised from death to life. Let's pray together, and let's ask God to have his way in our church.
Lord Jesus, you're the King, and this is your church. It's not mine. It doesn't belong to the elders. It's yours. This is Christ's church. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would be glorified in this place by your people giving generously to see your Word go to places in the world where it has not yet been accessed. I pray that we would treasure your Word more this week individually. By your Spirit, may we be transformed through the reading of your Word. If there's anyone here this morning who doesn't have a relationship with you, I pray that they would respond in faith to your lordship, Jesus. We praise you and we thank you and we love you. In Jesus' name, amen.