Mission

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. You know this verse, Ephesians 4-11, God has appointed pastors and leaders and teachers for the equipping, right, the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. According to that verse, who does the ministry? The saints, that's right, you're the saints. Are you seeing God speak through you to others?

That is what God has put on you to do, and if you are not living that, you are not living the plan of God. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian, J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Today, Pastor J.D. addresses a common misunderstanding. Many believers think that ministry is a paid job for pastors and missionaries, and it's not the work of ordinary Christians, but the truth is there's no such thing as an ordinary Christian. As you're transformed by the gospel, you're empowered to do amazing things for God, and whether he's called you to go across the ocean or across the streets, every one of us has a mission and every one of us is a minister. Be sure to stay tuned to the end to learn more about our latest resource.

It's a video curriculum to go along with this current teaching series here on the program. Now here's Pastor J.D. continuing our study in John chapter 15. The revolutionary idea of the gospel is that we don't change by focusing on a list of what we are to go and do differently for God. We change by dwelling on the news of what God has done for us. The gospel changes us in a fundamentally different way because it changes our hearts. It changes our desires. We begin to do righteously and act righteously because we love righteousness and we crave righteousness.

We seek God because we desire God. The secret of growth in Christ, you ought to write this down, the secret to growth in Christ is that we grow more when we focus less on what we are to do for God and more on what he has done for us. The secret to growth in Christ is that we grow more when we focus less on what we are to do for God and more on what he has done for us. I've used a lot of analogies in this series, but one of the most important ones is the one that Jesus himself uses here in John 15, the analogy of spiritual fruit.

He says, if you abide in me, verse five, if you rest in my love, verse nine, you will produce abundant fruits. I've told you, think about that analogy of fruit. Fruits are not produced on a plant because the plant focuses on fruit production. Fruit happens because the plant is alive.

It's just a byproduct of being alive. I told you to think about it in the way that our physical fruit, human beings, how a child is produced. This is sort of an earthy example, but when a man and woman conceive a child, they're not thinking about the mechanics of making that child. They're not thinking, well, this chromosome goes here and the fertilized egg and plants here. They're not thinking about all that. The way God designed it was they come together, they're not thinking about the science or the biology of producing the child.

They're swept up in a moment of loving intimacy with one another, and the fruit of that is a child. Well, in the same way, we don't produce spiritual fruit by focusing on spiritual fruit. We become intimate with the doctrines of the gospel and the result of spiritual fruit. According to Jesus, right believing produces right behaving. And so whereas most of us have always heard this is how you're supposed to behave, Jesus said, if you believe rightly, you'll behave rightly. Now, let me deal with one objection real quick, because I know some of you have had it over the last several weeks. We all know people who say they believe the gospel, but don't bear fruit, right?

Right? Don't you know somebody that believes the gospel? Maybe you are this person, that you believe the gospel, but you're not producing spiritual fruit. That's because in the Bible, there are two different kinds of belief. There is mental acknowledgement, acknowledgement, the kind where you give mental assent to something, which the Bible says in James 2, even the demons have. They understand that there's one God. They understand that Jesus rose from the dead, that he is Lord, that he died on the cross for sins, right?

But they believe that so much they tremble. That's one kind of belief, but then there's another kind of belief in the heart, which is the kind of belief that Jesus is speaking about here in John 15. It's an intimate knowledge of and abiding in the truths of the gospel.

That's a whole different kind of belief. And when Jesus and the gospel have become a part of your heart, then spiritual fruit comes as naturally to you as roses on a rose bush. Today, we're going to look at how abiding in the gospel produces a fervency and boldness and mission. Those who believe the gospel become fervent in their commitment to take it to others.

We've used this analogy here of a wheel. At the center of the wheel is the gospel. And when the gospel is at work in our heart, it produces various things. It produces, John 15, a desire for prayer and to study the word. It produces godly character. It produces this desire to live in a loving body of Christ, the community. This week, we're going to look at how it produces a passion for mission in our lives.

Belief in the gospel produces a fervency and mission. I got inspiration for this message, brand new inspiration from The Strangest Place, and that is my daughter. My daughter. This happened recently. It didn't happen this week. It happened a little while ago. I've become friends with one of the local Muslim leaders here.

He's a guy named Abdullah. And our families have gotten to know one another. I've had him over for dinner, he and his family. So first time they came over for dinner, I kind of prepped my family as much as you can prep a seven-year-old, a five-year-old, a three-year-old, and a one-year-old about what Muslims are and what they believe.

Yeah, I prepped them, but they come. This guy has a wife, and he has two kids, one who's 11, one who's nine. So we get all in the dining room, and it's suddenly this thought. I was like, I said, Abdullah, when you and I get together for lunch, I pray and you pray, and then we eat together. I was like, and we're both cool with that. He said, but here, I'm in front of your family.

Is it bother you if I pray and thank God, or do I just need to kind of pull my family to the side and do that not in the presence of your family? He said, oh. He says, don't worry.

He says, I tell you what. He says, why don't my daughter, why doesn't she pray for our family, and then your daughter pray for yours? Now, my daughter's seven, okay?

And we've had no prep time, and I was like, that sounds like a great idea. And so his daughter launches, I mean, we all bow our heads. She launches into, I kid you not, a 45-second at least prayer that was all in Arabic. I have no idea what she was saying. In fact, it crossed that line of awkwardness to the point that I was like, is she going to recite the whole Quran?

I mean, it just kept going on, and I was like, wow. We get to the end of this 45-second thing that she prays, and then there's kind of a quiet moment, and I open up one of my eyes to look at my seven-year-old, who, again, we've had no prep time with, because I'm like, does she know that it's her turn? Her head is bowed, and all of a sudden, she looks up and she says, Dear Lord, thank you for sending your son Jesus to come to this earth to die on a cross for our sins so that we could be saved, and thank you for leaving us your holy Bible so we could all know about it. In Jesus' name, amen.

And it's one of those moments where I was like, I was kind of proud of her, and I was kind of like, land the plane, land the plane, but she's just, you know, she understands, right? She's like, this is the gospel. They need to know it, and if my dad's too chicken to tell it to him, I'm just going to pray it. I'm just going to pray it. It really is that simple.

It really is that simple. There is a fervency in mission that comes from just believing what the gospel says, what the gospel says. So we're going to look at John 15, 16, and I'm going to show you how real belief in the gospel produces this. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to read verse 16. Actually, we'll back up, start at verse 13, get a little bit of the context, and then it's like I've explained to you. John 15 is kind of the summary passage for a larger passage, which is John 13 through 17. That's all kind of one unit of Scripture. So we find Jesus' talk at a little more depth in some of other places of John 13 through 17. So we're going to start there in John 15, then I'm going to take you to a couple other places, and we'll go a little deeper. Let's start in verse 13. Jesus says, Greater love has no one than this. Then someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. Verse 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, so that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. There are three things that Jesus teaches us in this verse, that if you really believe them, if they intimately captivate your heart, will produce a fervency in mission.

I do not want you to leave here with a guilt complex, because it is very simple to understand that if you are not fervent in mission, it goes back to something that you don't believe. So let's keep our focus not on how much we stink in our behavior, but let's keep our focus on how belief in the Gospel produces these things. Three things that I see, I'll give them to you all front and walk them one at a time. Number one, God's plan. Number two, God's promise. Number three, God's love. God's plan, God's promise, God's love.

Let's start with number one, God's plan. Verse 16 says, he chose us for a purpose. He had a plan for us, and this was a big part of it, mission, that we were to go and bear fruit in the world.

This is not something for a few of us, this is for all of us. If you are chosen, and the way that you know that you are chosen, by the way, is you're a follower of Jesus. According to the Bible, you would never have sought God on your own, so the fact that you love Jesus and know Jesus and walk with Jesus is the sign that you have been chosen. If you are chosen, then one of his major purposes was that you would go and bear fruit, and that that fruit would take root in others, and that you would be successful in mission. We are God's plan for accomplishing his mission of reconciling others to himself. We are God's plan A, there is no plan B.

We are how God said he was going to bring about the completion of his mission on earth. So let's leave there, go back one chapter to John 14, and let me show you where Jesus goes at a little more depth here, saying the same thing he's saying here in 1516. We're going to go a little more in depth and show you a truly astounding statement that Jesus makes. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Nowadays, we hear lots of thoughts on how to be more holy, but learning to be holy doesn't necessarily come from just working on various aspects of your character. Instead, it comes by focusing on Christ, the true source of holiness. It's time to develop a better understanding of the gospel message and its implications for your life, and even more, it's time to replace empty religious practice with gospel-centered transformation. We'd love to send you an eight-session Bible study, including DVD video teaching and study guides. It comes as our thanks for your generous gift to the ministry today.

Reserve it right now by calling 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Thanks for being with us today. Now let's get back to the final moments of today's message. Here's Pastor J.D. All right, look at John 14, 12. Truly, truly, I say to you, by the way, when Jesus has to preface what he says with truly, truly, you should know he's not lying because he's the Son of God, but when he says, and I just want to throw in a truly, truly, just so you know I'm not lying or exaggerating because this is going to be really hard to believe. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Verse 14, if you ask me anything in my name, I'll do it.

Now could we be honest for a minute and admit that that sounds like a completely absurd statement, does it not? We will do greater works than Jesus? Seriously? Anybody here raised the dead?

Anybody? Anybody ever taken five loaves and two fish and fed 15,000 people? Anybody done anything that comes close to that? How could we possibly do greater works than Jesus? How can you do something greater than raise the dead? How can you preach with greater clarity than Jesus preached? How can you preach with more anointing? How can you have better fellowship with the Father? How can you receive more and better answers to prayer than Jesus had? How could we do greater works than Jesus did? What's he mean?

Greater is not greater in their quality, it is greater in their quantity. You see, he answers it in the context there. Jesus is about to go the Father. When Jesus was on earth, the Holy Spirit resided on him. And what Jesus is saying is that when he goes to the Father, the Spirit's going to come and it's going to reside in all of his followers. Listen, and the net effect of all of those followers ministering in the power of the Spirit would be greater than if Jesus himself remained on earth. Would you think about that for a minute? What if Jesus had stuck around where he preached every weekend and healed people? I think he'd probably be pretty effective. But even that, even Jesus personally staying and pastoring his own church would not have as much potential as 6,000 members of the Summit Church full of the Holy Spirit ministering in his power.

Isn't that astounding? Even Jesus himself would not be as powerful as all of us in the power of the Spirit, taking the power of the Spirit to those places. I think there's a question in that for our church, and I think there's a question in that for you as an individual. Here's the question for our church, and I'll just kind of let you behind the scenes. It's a question we as a staff ask together.

Here's the question. Are we structuring our church in a way that recognizes the reality here in John 14-12? You see, I feel like a lot of churches are set up as if the Spirit of God resides in a few gifted leaders, and the rest of you are supposed to be supposed to come and sit in the audience and just awe and bask in the anointing of these gifted, anointed few.

Now, you guys know that I don't want to take away from the fact that God has specially gifted a few of us in the church to bless you. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that God would do that. He appoints apostles and pastors and teachers. But that said, okay, even after recognizing that, the whole point of John 14-12 is not that the Spirit of God would reside only or even primarily in a handful of leaders, but that he would reside in every believer. That means if we really believe this verse, we are going to structure our church so that the focus is on equipping you from ministry, not just gathering you in here to listen to me minister.

Our greatest effectiveness is not what I do in here, it's what you do out there. I've often pointed out to you that Paul in Ephesians 4-11 says that God gave pastors and teachers for the, you know this verse, Ephesians 4-11? God has appointed pastors and leaders and teachers for the, for what?

Equipping, right? The equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. According to that verse, who does the ministry? The saints, that's right. Who are the saints?

You are, that's right. You are the saints. I'm not the saints. I'm not the saints.

You're the saints. You do the ministry, which is why I often tell people that when I became a pastor, I left the ministry. People always say I went into the ministry.

That's actually exactly the opposite. I left the ministry because I became an equipper who would equip you for the work of the ministry. It happens through you because God's Spirit is in you.

Here's a really practical consideration on this. You know that people who start searching for God today don't usually start in church. You realize that, right? Most people today are seeking spirituality outside the church. So the place where the power of Jesus first intersects with them is not through me in here, but through you out there. They are likely never to come and hear me in here until you have intersected with them and the power of the Spirit out there.

Here is the question for you. How much do you see this verse being played out in your life? Are you seeing God speak through you to others? Have you seen Him answer huge prayers through you? This is why God chose you.

That's what it says. He chose you to do this. He's like, I heard it described, He's like a spiritual tornado.

You see something gets sucked into a tornado, you know one thing, it's coming back out with almost equal velocity of what it got sucked in. If you get sucked into the vortex of God's power, His whole point is to send you back out. What God does is He enters and blesses so that He uses you in ministry. That is what God has put on you to do. And if you are not living that, you are not living the plan of God.

That's not a few of us, that's all of us. Because it's not about what happens through me in here, it's what happens through you out there. I want the Summit Church to raise you up. It's members to be filled with the Spirit, to change your world where God has placed you, because that's what Jesus promised. He shows us God's plan. Number two, He gives us God's promise. That's number two, God's promise. When Jesus says, I chose you to bring forth fruit, that's an implicit promise, isn't it? I will bring forth fruit in you.

I love that, because that gives me such confidence. John 17, if you flip over there for a minute, you'll see He even prays for that. John 17, verse 18, Jesus says, as you sent Me into the world, Jesus talking to the Father, as you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world, then He goes on to pray for it. Do you understand that Jesus is praying for you about this? That you would be fruitful in the context in which He has placed you.

That gets me fired up. Because right before I got up here to preach, Jesus kicked off in heaven, praying to the Father that I would be successful. How can I fail?

How can I fail? Because Jesus is praying for me. Boldness and mission come from believing the promise that Jesus attached to it. Here's another way of looking at this. Question, Christians talk a lot about the Great Commission, right? What word begins the Great Commission? What word begins the Great Commission?

We all want to say, go. That's not what begins the Great Commission. The Great Commission begins in Matthew 28, 18, and it goes like this, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, that's an important word, therefore, because you've heard this before. Anytime you see the word therefore in Scripture, you always look and see what it's there for.

And it's always pointing you backwards to the previous verse. All authority is given, therefore, go. The Great Commission begins with a great promise. And the Great Commission, you'll only have boldness in it when you actually believe that promise. The reason is because when Jesus says, all authority has been given to Me, and when Jesus says, I will build My church of every tribe and tongue and nation on earth, we believe Him because He's got that kind of authority.

In fact, let me show you something else here. Go back to chapter 15, verse 16, our kind of anchor verse. Jesus said, I chose you. This gets me super fired up. I chose you to the whatever you ask the Father in My name, He'd give it to you.

Isn't that amazing? God has appointed you to be in places where you will ask great things, impossible things, in His name. And in response to your faith, He will give it.

He put you there and said, ask Me great stuff. And in response to that, I'm going to pour out My power. There's a concept we teach at our church called intercessory faith. Intercessory faith is basically this.

We understand, you study the New Testament, that God's power is poured out in response to faith. You study the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You'll see how many times Jesus is going somewhere, minding His own business. Somebody comes up to Him with a need, and Jesus will do something almost rude to them.

I'll give you a great example of my favorite stories. Luke chapter 9, Gentile woman, Syrophoenician woman, comes up to Him and says, Jesus, I need you to heal my daughter. Jesus looks at her and says, woman, it is not right to take the bread that was intended for children and give it to the dogs. What are you saying? It's not right for me to take the bread, which was intended for the Jews, and give it to Gentile dogs. How rude could you possibly get?

Right? I mean, I've read commentators who try to point out that the word that Jesus used for dog meant little puppy. Maybe so, but it still means dog. And that's just never a compliment, especially in that day when you were unclean. The woman's totally undaunted, right? She looks back at Jesus and she says, yeah, that's right.

But you know what? In a rich person's house, even the dogs get to eat what falls off of the master's table. Translation, there is so much grace and mercy in your heart. There is so much bread of grace that it overflows off of your table that there's enough even for a dog like me. And Jesus says, I've never seen faith like that.

You have your miracle. Because she understood how gracious God was. Intercessory faith is us being in a place where we understand God's compassion, and we stand between God's infinite compassion and somebody's infinite need, and we bridge the gap. You see, God only pours out his power in response to faith. And where there is not faith, he's not going to pour out his power.

So he puts us places to ask on their behalf. That's intercessory faith. People talk about intercession and prayer sometimes like they think we're God's tattletale. Like we're telling God some stuff that he doesn't know. Like we're God's CNN news ticker reel where we tell God stuff and he's like, I had no idea that was going on.

Thanks for telling me. Now I'll go fix it. God knows what's going on. God puts us in places to believe in his compassion and by believing to release his compassion into a situation. That is intercessory faith. So what if the reason, here's the question, what if the reason that God is not working in your context is because there's just nobody there to believe him and his willingness to do so. Matthew 13 58, and he did not, Jesus did not do many mighty works there. There's Nazareth because of their unbelief.

What if the reason God was not working in your family, in your workplace, in your suite, in your dorm, on your campus is because there's just nobody there to believe him and thereby release his compassion and power into the situation. You see God's command for us to go is shrouded in promise. How can you be on mission in your family, your workplace, and your neighborhood? These are important questions to think about because the mission field isn't just overseas. It's anywhere that we meet people who don't know Jesus. You are listening to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. I'm excited to tell you about the incredible resources we have made available for you this month. The first is based on something we call the gospel prayer. This prayer is all about our identity in Christ. And to help these truths sink in, we have a simple book of the gospel prayer catechism.

And a catechism is a summary of Christian principles in the form of questions and answers used for instruction. We're sending a copy to all of our gospel partners this month to thank them for their ongoing monthly support. We would love to have you join that team of regular givers. We're also featuring Pastor JD's gospel video curriculum that goes along with our current teaching series. Each of the eight sessions begins with a video from Pastor JD.

The videos are 10 to 20 minutes long. And then based on that teaching, you'll open your study guide and Bible and work through questions and prayers together. For a gift of $50 this month, we'll send you the DVDs and five study guides to get you started. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or give online at jdgrier.com.

That's jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Let me leave you with this question today. Do you consider yourself a missionary? I'm sure you know how Pastor JD would answer that question based on today's teaching. So join us tomorrow as he shares more in our series titled Gospel. That's right here on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.