Practical Christianity

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Understanding the gospel fills you with a sense of wonder and worship that makes you want to obey God. So it is as you come to know the glorious gospel that has been given that you will then find that these things that he's going to command in Hebrews 13 come naturally. Immerse yourself deeper in the gospel because that's where the power to do these things comes from. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So just like an electric lamp needs to be plugged into an outlet to give light, we can't shine for Jesus unless we're plugged into the right power source. And what is that power source? It's the gospel. But what does it look like on a practical level to be plugged into the gospel? How does it change the way that we live?

In our jobs, our marriages, or our relationships? That's our topic today as Pastor J.D. Greer nears the end of our study in Hebrews called Christ is Better. If you've missed any of our previous messages, you can always catch up online at jdgreer.com.

So let's get started. Pastor J.D. titled this message Practical Christianity. We are on our last week in our study of the book of Hebrews.

Personally, I thought you'd be a little bit more disappointed than that, but I know that you're crying in your heart. But beyond that, Hebrews 13, the final chapter of the book of Hebrews is a laundry list of things that the writer wants us to do as a result of reading the book of Hebrews. It's really, honestly, it's very practical, down-to-earth advice, which sometimes, you know, like the book of Hebrews is kind of out in the clouds somewhere.

And you're like, what does this actually look like day to day? That's what Hebrews 13 is about. Now, one important thing I want you to notice before we jump into it is how Hebrews chapter 12 ends. Because Hebrews 12 sets up Hebrews 13. And one of the last verses in Hebrews 12 is this one. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. Now, in the original writing of this, there was no chapter break.

That's something that was added later. So chapter 13 flowed right out of that statement so that the instructions that he's given you in Hebrews 13 are how we worship with reverence and awe. You see, this is all supposed to be a response of worship. And Christian living is always a response to something. You worship something when you're amazed by it, when you're overwhelmed by it, when little Gabby Douglas does her perfect floor routine and you want to stand up and cheer.

That's a mild form of worship. That wasn't something that you were forced to do by command. It was something you wanted to do.

It just grew out of your heart. Well, understanding the gospel that he's explained to you for 12 chapters fills you with a sense of wonder and worship that makes you want to obey God. So it is as you come to know the glorious gospel that has been given that you will then find that these things that he's going to command in Hebrews 13 come naturally. Immerse yourself deeper in the gospel because that's where the power to do these things comes from. All right, here we go.

Here's the first one he brings up. Practice hospitality. Practice hospitality. Let's start in verse 1. Let brotherly love continue and do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Now, in Greek, there is a play on words that you might miss in your English versions there.

It says literally this in Greek. Let philadelphia continue, brotherly love, and do not neglect to philozania, show love to strangers. So he is talking about a love that starts among the brotherhood and just spills out into the streets.

You show me a place where the gospel is really at work and I will show you a place that is characterized by such graciousness, by such patience, and by such generosity that it starts with people on the inside and just flows into all the streets of the community. He goes on. For thereby you see some have entertained angels unawares. Now, that's a great statement, isn't it? You're like, what does that mean? And so the writer, listen, the writer is not trying to tell you this happens all the time. He's not trying to tell you that that guy you talked to at the Starbucks this morning was probably Jesus or an angel. But he's just saying you never know. You never know. And Bill Lane, the New Testament scholar, says this.

This is really important. Bill Lane says that the author's real point here is that showing hospitality is a kind of sacrament, meaning that by doing it with others, you are doing it directly to Jesus. That's what Jesus said in Matthew 25. Do you remember this?

On the last day it says Jesus is going to look at the church and he's going to say to different members of the church, when I was naked, you clothed me. When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you visited me.

And the people that he's talking to are going to be surprised because they're like, uh, really? I don't remember you showing up at my house asking for a spicy chicken sandwich and a Diet Coke. I feel like if you'd showed up, I would have remembered that. And Jesus says, yeah, yeah. As much as you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you actually did it to me. That's the same point that's being reinforced there in verse 2. Showing hospitality is a way of responding directly to Jesus. Verse 3, remember those who are in prison. Brothers and sisters, he's talking about in Christ who are there because of their faith, like you were in prison with them.

Notice he's not talking about a charity where you give money to them, but where you take their pain upon yourself like you were in prison with them. And those, he says, who are mistreated since you also are in the body. You're to feel the pain of those who are mistreated in Christ's name as if it were happening to your own body. Did you know, did you know that last year 200 million Christians were persecuted in 131 of the world's 193 countries? Persecution being defined as being denied the most basic human rights. 176,000 were killed in the name of Christ last year. In 2010, 80% of all religious violence in the world was carried out against Christians. Some of you, that's the first time you've ever heard that. I'm not sure if you're not familiar with this, I'm not sure you could really say that you're fulfilling what he's talking about there in verses 2 and 3.

Is that fair? We are connected like a body to people in places all over the world that have never heard the gospel and people are suffering and dying for their faith. You cannot really call yourself a part of the body of Christ, a part, a follower of Jesus and not be intimately connected to what God is doing in some of these places that do not have the freedoms that you and I have.

Church, here's the thing, listen to me. Our belief in the gospel is demonstrated by our hospitality. Because you see, our salvation was in a sense, think about it, it was God's hospitality to us.

In fact, when God saved Israel, this is what God said, Deuteronomy 10, 17. God, I execute justice for the fatherless and the widow. I love the stranger, providing him with food and clothing. Therefore, you must love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

You were, you were the fatherless, you were the widow, metaphorically speaking, when I took you in, when I purchased you with my blood. So of course we spend our resources on the outsider. Of course we turn strangers into guests and friends and ultimately brothers and sisters because that's the whole basis of our salvation. And us doing that with those that are on the outside is a way of us saying thank you to Jesus directly.

Practice hospitality, here's sermon number two. He says avoid immorality, avoid immorality, verse four, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled because God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. Now some of you think sexually immoral and adulterous sounds redundant. But adulterous means to be married and to have sex outside of that marriage covenant. Sexually immoral is the Greek word porneia and it means to not be married and to have sex outside of the marriage covenant that you don't have yet.

Okay? And it says God will judge because God does not take that lightly. Here's what I want you to notice because I don't have a long time to spend on this. I want you to notice that in the first four verses the top two things he brings up are Christians loving the poor and sexual purity. Because those are the two things that make the church distinctive from the world that it lives in.

Saint Augustine said 1,500 years ago in a book called The City of God, he said the things that set the church apart from the world is how the church relates to the two things that are most important to the world, money and sex. He said people in the world are promiscuous with their beds and stingy with their money. Christians are stingy with their beds but promiscuous with their money.

They're just giving it out everywhere. It's like treated like it's nothing. Then the world has exactly the opposite relationship with those two things. There are some Christians who love the poor but don't seem to care about sexual purity. There are other Christians who love family values but don't seem to care about the poor.

But true followers of Jesus always care about both. I had another pastor, local pastor, tell me recently that our church's teaching on sexual morality, our church's teaching on sexual morality was placing an obstacle to people in our city coming to Christ. He said it's just making people mad and you should instead of preaching against sexual immorality, you should just be serving the poor.

I said amen, we should be serving the poor. But just because our teaching on sexuality makes people mad doesn't mean we're saying something wrong. Like John the Baptist had his head cut off by Herod for preaching against open marriage. And Jesus didn't say, John you totally blew that one.

If you just stuck to love and peace and the evils of corporate greed and the need for racial reconciliation and recycling, you probably would have won over Herod's heart. No, he called John the greatest prophet to ever have lived. To follow Jesus means that you will preach against sexual sin and you will love and you will serve the poor.

Not to mention that sexual sin is the greatest contributor to poverty in our country. We're nearing the end of this study in Hebrews here on Summit Life and we'll return to our teaching in just a moment. But I wanted to be sure to tell you about our featured resource this month. One thing that Hebrews has been telling us over and over in this series is that we're supposed to keep fighting for our faith and never give up. We'd love to get you a copy of this newest Bible study that follows along with our teaching right now. We'll learn that Jesus is greater than every other hero of faith. He is our prophet, our priest, and our king. Request the Christ is Better Bible study with your gift to the ministry right now by giving us a call at 866-335-5220.

Or you can give online at JDGrier.com. Now let's return for more practical instruction. Here's Pastor JD. Don't be an ignorant 21st century American who thinks that you're the first people ever to be offended by something in the Bible. People are like, oh, now we're educated, now we're global, now we've been tutored by Oprah, and now we know that a lot of these things are archaic. I mean, get over yourself. The Bible's been offending people in every generation, in every country of the world since it was written.

Usually in different places. You know, if you were in the south in the 19th century, then what the Bible taught about racial equality and the equality of the sexes offended you. If you're in an Islamic country, then what it teaches about forgiving the adulterer offends you because you're like, if you forgive the adulterer, then the whole fabric of society is going to unravel.

We're offended by what it teaches about sexual purity. The Bible is an equal opportunity offender, all right? Different places, different times, but at some point you've got to decide whether or not you're going to take your cues from the cultural ethos you're living in or from the Word of God.

You just got to make that decision. Because if the Bible is not contradicting you and making you mad, then you are definitely not reading it right. Because there is some things that are about us as people and our culture always prioritizes a few of them that you've got to say God's Word is what's true. I don't care what the rest of the society around me is like. Love the poor, avoid immorality. Number three, third sermon, flee materialism.

Flee materialism. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have because He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? There are two things in there that you ought to kind of circle. One is contentment, the other is, in verse six, confidence. Those are the commands, be content and be confident.

But notice that these things, again, listen, are in response to something. They are in response to the Gospel. Verse five, I will never leave you.

Be content because Jesus has said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. By the way, if you've got your Greek New Testament, you'll notice the Greek literally says right there, look at it. I'm going to read this in English but I'm going to transliterate it from the Greek. I will never ever leave you nor will I never never never forsake you. In Greek, in that sentence, there are five negatives which is bad grammar in Greek and it's bad grammar in English but it makes a point. It's like Brian Regan who said that, you know, what is the rule for when you should ask a woman if she's pregnant?

If you suspect it, never, never, never, never, never, never, you just never do that. He's saying Jesus will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you. And what he is presenting that with is, listen to this, if you have God, if you have God, then is there really anything else you could ever be deprived of that would devastate you?

I know you want to nod your head and kind of say amen to that but I just need you to think about that. If you have God, is there anything else you could ever be deprived of that would devastate you? The one who has God and nothing else on earth doesn't really have that much less than the one who has God and everything else. And a lack of contentment shows that you don't put proper weight on the value of Jesus to you. So if you're not content, the answer is not to just make a resolution to be more content, the answer is come to know the treasure that is Jesus Christ.

Learn to put value on him and you will be content if you understand what's in verse 6 which is the second part of this. Because the Lord is my helper, the God who loved you so much that he would not even let death or a tortured cross stand in the way of him rescuing you. That God walks with you now. That God lives inside you. That God promises to provide your need. That he didn't turn his back on you when you were crucified.

Do you really feel like he will neglect you now? I read this a few weeks ago to you, Charles Spurgeon. Listen to the voice of the Lord speak, I will help you. It's a small thing for me, your God, to help you.

Consider what I've already done. What not help you? I bought you with my blood.

What not help you? I died for you. Since I've done the greater, would I not also do the lesser things for you? God has proven once and for all his willingness to help us at the cross. And he has showed us that we can be content and we can be confident because he, the God of the universe, the universe promises to never leave us or forsake us and to always help us in our hour of need.

So let's do a little calibration here. Just ask yourself these questions. Are you content? Are you content? Listen to this, a poll in 2011 revealed that 84% of Americans say they are content where they are. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? You should say no. A Gallup poll taken the same year revealed, get this, a Gallup poll taken in the same year revealed that the number one concern Americans have is they don't think they have enough money.

Would somebody kindly put those together for me? 84% of Americans think they are content, but the same group of people thinks that their number one concern is they don't have enough money. I want to do a new poll is, do you think you understand what the word contentment means? Contentment for us is always about six months out, is it not?

I'm so close to being, I'm so close I can call myself there. I'm content, but I'm going to be content when I have about 10,000 more dollars. If I were to ask most of you, if I were to ask most of you, if I were to say, okay, how many of you are content? I would bet most of you would kind of raise your hand and say, yeah, I think I'm a content person. If I said, how many of you, if your salary got raised about 15% next year, all your financial problems would be over.

You'd probably raise your hand again. It's always about six months away from us, so you're thinking, I'm almost content as soon as this gets resolved. As soon as I get married, as soon as we have children, as soon as they get out of the house, as soon as my fourth child is out of diapers, my life is going to be set.

Please, God, let it come today, all right? It's always about six months away when I graduate, then I'll be happy. When I get a real job, then I'll be happy. When I find somebody to date, then I'll be happy. Contentment grows out of a proper understanding of the Gospel, because contentment is understanding that in Christ you can be satisfied with exactly what you have, because in Christ you have all that you need. Are you content?

Here's the second one. Are you confident? Are you confident? Are you one of those people who goes up and down based on what is happening to you at the moment? Are you a drama queen? Are you sitting next to a drama queen? You can nod your head on that one, right?

Or whatever guy version of this is, drama king or whatever, drama prince, I don't know. But are you the kind of person that's like, oh, it's awesome, I love it. And then like, oh, it's terrible, and you're up and down all the time. That just shows you don't understand the unchanging nature of Jesus, because when you understand the never-changing love and presence of Jesus and His promise, your walk with Him is steady.

When you don't understand those things, it's less like a walk with Jesus and more like a pogo stick ride with Him. Oh, it's awesome. Oh, it's terrible.

Oh, it's awesome. It's because life is going up and down, and you're going up and down with it. But when you understand that Jesus never changes, that He never ever leaves, that He is your helper, life may go up and down, but you won't. Because you're not hooked to the circumstances of your life, you're hooked to Jesus Christ who never changes.

One quick word about confidence, especially to you guys. I know a lot of guys, once you have a job, who are constantly worried about what they're missing out on. So, for example, Saturday morning, you know, your kid's got a soccer game, but you also know that the boss is getting a few guys together to play golf, and you're like, well, my kid's a soccer game, or should I go play golf with the boss, because this might be my chance to get in his good graces where he'll give me a raise, or I'll connect with a client, and then everything's going to happen.

And so you live in this kind of fear of what you're missing out on. See, that shows that you don't understand that Jesus is your helper. Because if I am confident that Jesus is my sufficiency and my helper, I can go to my kid's game and not be thinking about what I'm not doing. Or trying to figure out a way I can go to half my kid's game, make sure they see me, and then run over to play the last nine holes of golf. Because I know that going to my kid's game pleases Jesus, and he'll make sure that I'm taken care of. So I can be confident, and say, well, I'm doing what Jesus wants me to do, he's my helper, I'm not worried about what I'm missing out on because I'm just pleasing him and he's going to take care of the rest. Some of you college students are completely freaking out about what's going to happen next year.

You're going to say, where am I going to get a job? That's because you don't understand that he's your helper. Listen, God lost confidence in your decision-making ability and the Garden of Eden.

And at that point, he was like, ugh. He chose an analogy for you, and the analogy was sheep, right? Bad news, sheep are idiots. Good news, the shepherd's awesome, and if sheep get to where they need to go, it's not because of their skill and acumen as sheep, it's because of the wisdom and the compassion of the shepherd. He's your helper.

He's going to help you in that time to go where you need to go so you can quit worrying about it and you can walk confidently because he never changes and he promises to help you. Sermon number four, last sermon, honor the church. Honor the church. What follows, you guys, I don't know if we've been here, but hang with me on this one.

This is an important one. What follows in these verses are a set of ways that you should relate to your church. It's kind of a report card for a church, what I'm about to give you. By the way, for those of you that move away from here and have to go to a new church, people always ask me, what should I look for in a church? These things that he's about to give you are what are important in a church, and these are the things that you should be looking for. This is the church's report card.

We're going to move through them quickly, all right? Here's number one, verse seven. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Number one, observe the life of your leaders and imitate their faith. Hopefully you are attending a church where the pastors are examples of integrity, sacrifice, and faith.

Is it the kind of church that values pastoral care? You see, one of the things we know at this church is that effective discipleship is not just hearing somebody teach no matter how good that person is. Effective discipleship only happens by observing somebody's life up close. There are certain things that can only be done life on life. It don't matter how many podcasts you listen to or how good the preacher is, there's only a certain level that you can get from this angle.

Here's the analogy we use in our church. What I'm doing here right now, think of this like air war. If you've ever studied any kind of battle strategy in modern warfare, air war never wins a battle totally. Air war can weaken the defenses of the people who hold the ground. But they're going to dig in, they're going to go into caves, so you can weaken up their defenses through air war, but then you've got to send in the ground troops to go in and actually secure the area. So what I'm doing here on the weekends is I'm just doing air war. You're bringing your friends and I'm just carpet bombing them.

I'm blowing stuff up. But if their lives are ever going to change, it's because you are going into the caves of their life, metaphorically speaking, and you are showing them this is how the gospel addresses this particular situation. Brotherly love was a distinctive feature of the early church, and it's been the mark of a Spirit-filled church in every generation since then. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D.

Greer. If you missed any part of today's message, you can hear it again online at jdgreer.com. J.D., can you tell us about our newest resource that we're actually offering completely free of charge? You know, when you get up in the morning, I feel like the first thing you could use if you're like me is some encouragement from God's word about His promises, His faithfulness, and how when you feel overwhelmed and you feel defeated, He never feels that way, and that He's already secured the victory. So we have a new daily email devotional that will align with what you're learning and hearing here on the program Summit Life. It'll just reinforce some of the concepts, gives you some scriptures to begin your day meditating on.

What a great way to start the day. I don't like excess email, but when somebody's going to put in front of me God's word and God's promises, that's a great way to start the day. So I'd love for you to go to jdgreer.com and sign up for this daily devotional.

It's a great way to catalyze that daily quiet time. So again, sign up for this free resource at jdgreer.com slash resources. After you sign up for Pastor JD's free daily devotional, take a look at the beautiful new Bible study that we are offering this month. The Christ is Better Bible study drives home that Jesus is worthy of our trust and devotion, and it's available for only one more day.

It's our way of saying thanks when you donate today to support Summit Life at the suggested level of $35 or more. This ministry is made possible by partners like you who come alongside us with financial support, enabling people across the country and even around the world to hear this program on the radio and web. Call 866-335-5220 or give and request this new resource online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Bidevich reminding you to join us Thursday for the conclusion of this study in Hebrews called Christ is Better on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.