A Global Christian

Welcome to this edition of Power Point with Jack Graham. A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's book, A Man of God. But first here is his message, A Global Christian.

For God. Now that's important. You know in our current international community businesses are multi-international. Many of you are part of businesses where you travel around the world.

You are connected. The internet has made the whole world viable and visible to us. We are living in a generation in which literally the world is at our fingertips. The world is at our doorstep. And the fact is God loves the world and everyone in it.

Everyone on the planet is personally, passionately loved. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And He told us five times actually recorded in the scripture. He told us to go into all the world and to make disciples. To deliver the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To tell the world that God loves them and has a marvelous wonderful eternal plan for their lives. Jesus said if you're going to follow me I will make you fishers of men. And He changes our world from becoming just sort of casual bystanders to engaged fully alive believers in Christ making a difference in our generation for Christ. We have too many casual, convenient, comfortable, cultural kinds of Christians in churches today. And if you're a cultural Christian, if you're a casual Christian, it's all about you.

What can God do for me? What can my church do for me? It's a consumer kind of religion and many are into consumerism and that kind of idea. It's all about me. What can my church do for me? And it becomes so self-absorbed.

And a casual, comfortable, cultural Christian is all about being a greedy getter. No wonder people are bored. You know we have the nice house in the suburbs. We've got the great career. We're making money. But we're still not happy. To what end?

To what purpose? We keep asking ourselves, when is my life going to be significant? When am I going to make a mark? What's my legacy in life going to be?

Will it be just like a rock thrown in the ocean to make a little blip and then gone? What's my life? How can I make an internal impact?

How can I mark my generation? Well, to do that you must be a global Christian. You must be a Christian committed, called to share the good news of Jesus Christ. And we're all called.

We're all commissioned. Go, go, go, go into all the world. And in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, and that's our text for today, Jesus has gathered his disciples for the last time. He is about to ascend into heaven only to return one day. But he is ascending into heaven and before he left he said, But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

You will be my witnesses. That means that we can get up every day excited about life, elevated with a purpose, energized to do what we do because we know that we have something greater than money, greater than the stuff we may accumulate. We have the opportunity to be a part of God's global plan. His kingdom mission. And can I say that there has never been a better time than right now and a better place than right here for us to go global for God. The world is wide open and God is at work strategically, sovereignly, supernaturally. God is at work in the world. God hasn't gotten old and can't do the things He used to do. No, our God is alive. Our God is active and He is working in ways that we could have never imagined even just a few years ago.

The fact is that there were many parts of the world closed off to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But now God has blown the doors open wide. And we have this season. We have this window of opportunity. We know that the times are urgent. We don't know how much time we have left. But we do know that right now we have an opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, no more excuses.

No more excuses to say, well, I'm too young or I'm too old or I'm too tired or I'm too busy or all the excuses. Away with that. Because when you receive power, the power of the Holy Spirit, you will know to all the world. Churches today are so often distracted and divided and discouraged in their mission.

I've never seen so much first-class energy wasted on so many secondary causes. God has called us to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing for God is His love that need him and his desire that people are born again into his eternal family. So let God's people rise. Let the church arise. Let's get back in the gospel business, in the people business.

Let's get the go back in the church. I heard about a little boy. He had one of those wind up toys for, he got one of those for Christmas and before long it was broken. Somebody asked him, what's wrong with your toy?

He said, the go is broke. Our go is so often broken as Christians and as churches today. So how do we become global Christians?

How do we get into the action? How can we make a team impact for Christ? In the most cooperative, not the competitive way in which we often work in the Christian community today, but in the most cooperative way that we can. Let me give you four ideas that I believe will help you become a global Christian right out of our text. Number one, make it personal.

Make it and take it personal. He said, for you will receive power and you will be my witnesses. Now this is not an option.

This is an opportunity, but it's not an option. If I want to live under the lordship of Christ, if I want to be an obedient, spirit-filled Christian, then I will take seriously the commandment of Christ to be a personal witness for Christ. Everyone's a witness of course.

You're either a good witness or a bad witness. You're either witnessing positively for Christ or negatively for Christ, but we're all witnesses of Jesus Christ. And not only are we to witness with our lives, but we're to witness with our lips. If we want to live a significant life and get beyond ourselves and our own little world, then we will do what Jesus said to do, and that is to be salt and light.

As a matter of fact, He said it in words which emphasize the you. He said you, yes you, I'm talking about you, be the salt of the earth. You be the light of the world. It's as though God is putting His finger on every one of our noses and saying you are my light, you are my salt. Salt penetrates the culture and light illuminates the darkness.

And every one of us can be salt and every one of us can be light right where we live. You say, well I don't really have a witness. I don't have that great a testimony.

I just don't know if I have that much to say. When I was a little guy in our church, a little southern Baptist church in Arkansas, we had as a part of our children's work there a thing called the sunbeams. We were the sunbeam band. We had a song that we would sing, a sunbeam I will be, a sunbeam I will be, a sunbeam for Jesus, a sunbeam I will be. I love that song.

Because it reminds me that no matter how small a sunbeam I may be, no matter how little my light may be, that I can penetrate the darkness for Jesus Christ. And we're all called to do it. So I'm saying, first of all, you've got to make it personal. You've got to take it on for yourself. You, yes you, are my witnesses.

Don't leave it to the pros. Don't leave it to the missionaries. But say, here am I, Lord. Send me. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, A Global Christian. June 30th is PowerPoint's financial year end and we need your help. A generous friend has offered to match every gift given to PowerPoint this month. So any gift you give to PowerPoint will be doubled, allowing us to keep the hope of Jesus Christ coming your way and going out to millions more all over the world.

And when you give, we'll say thanks by sending you Dr. Graham's book, A Man of God. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131.

Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional. Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, A Global Christian. But not only make it, take it personal, but if you want to go global for God, then be prayerful. Jesus told these disciples that, I want you to go back to Jerusalem.

I want you to wait until you receive the power of the Holy Spirit. And they did exactly what he told them to do. They went back, they waited, and while they waited, they prayed. And on the day that God had a sign, the Holy Spirit came, ignited them, lighted their fire, and sent them out as witnesses around the world.

They turned the world upside down. But if we're going to do the same, we must also wait on God and be prayerful in his presence. That means to pray passionately that the Spirit of God will fill you on a daily basis that you will say, Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to wear me like a suit of clothes.

I want to be your instrument. I want to be used by the Holy Spirit today to touch my neighbor, my friend. I want to touch that person for Jesus Christ. I want you, Lord, to be Jesus in me through my life. And that's how we pray. And we're to do this in such a way that the gift of God's Spirit is stirred up within us.

If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives within you. But what you need to do is stoke the fire. You need to fuel the fire. Paul said to young Timothy, who was a young man, wondering if he could get the job done.

He was wondering if he had what it took to be an effective man of God. And that's when Paul encouraged his young protégé and said, look, stir up, rekindle. It means to stoke a fire. Stoke a fire. You know, a fire goes out, there's just a little ember left. If you stoke it, the fire blazes again. Some of you, the fire has gone out, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit of God to rekindle love and passion and excitement and enthusiasm and your witness for Christ.

You've been cold and casual and indifferent for too long. Ask God to give you a burden for people. Most of us, frankly, we pass by hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities every day to share our faith with somebody else. But we're too caught up in our own world and our own stuff because we haven't prayed and gotten in God's plan for our life that day. Ask God to give you a burden, a brokenness. Ask God in prayer to get rid of anything in your life that is a hindrance that keeps you from following Christ.

So many of us, we're just too busy. We've got things that consume our time and our energy, and we just give God the leftovers. What did Hebrews 12, 1 say? He said, leaving those things which were behind, those hindrances, and the sin which such easily besets us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily holds us back. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, what's holding you back from really letting go and letting God use you?

What is hindering you from being the witness for Christ that you ought to be? This is why we need to be prayerful. We need to get in the presence of God each day, ask Him to search our lives and prepare us and fill us that He might use us. Be prayerful.

Ask God that He would give you creativity. I mean, we all have our own way, our own gifts, our own talents that we can use. We're not all to witness in the same way. Not everyone can go knock on the door. Not everyone can engage a person one-on-one in a conversation, perhaps like others, but everyone has a witness and you ought to find out what you can do and use your gifts and your talents for the glory of God. So if you want to go global, first of all, take it personal. Secondly, be prayerful.

And thirdly, think eternal. The disciples said, Lord, are you going to restore your kingdom at this time? And Jesus said, That's really not your business right now.

I'm coming again, but your business is not to know the times or the seasons. So many people are interested in figuring out when the second coming is going to happen. We love to study the end times, but Jesus said, Really, don't be overly concerned about that. I want you to take care of my business, which is to be my witnesses. Think eternally, because the fact is there are six billion people now on earth and they will spend, each one of them, an eternity either in heaven or in hell.

That's why we can't wait. That's why we must go. And so rather than filling our life up with stuff that's going to waste away or be given away, instead of just making life all about now, the global Christian understands to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you. So whatever you have, if it's money, use it to the glory of God to reach people for Christ. If it's a business, use that business to reach people for Christ. Can you imagine what would happen if businessmen and women started thinking globally and eternally like that, that we could cooperate with the church, how many resources could be available if some of you men and women would appeal to the leadership of your companies to start investing in the kingdom of God, the stuff that's going to last, and not just money, but people who are engaged in the opportunity? That is thinking eternally.

And that is more important than any of the accolades and any of the achievements and any of the advancements that you have in your life. There are six billion people on earth today. They will spend eternity in either heaven or hell. We must think about eternal things. Our goal is to take as many people with us to heaven as possible. What a privilege to be ambassadors for Christ, to be co-laborers with Him, to be partners together in the gospel, to be the servants of Jesus. That's thinking eternally.

I could say so much more about that, but finally, if you want to be a global Christian, if you want to go global for God, then start local. There it is. It's very simple, really. Jesus said, make it personal. You go. You are my witness. Be prayerful. Wait until you're endued from power, with power. Think eternal. And then start local, beginning with Jerusalem, right where you live. It's where the disciples lived.

It was their hometown, Sumerian, Judea, and all the rest. Do it today. Do it now. Dare to dream. Care about what Jesus cares about. You know, the message of Jesus Christ can't go from land to land until it goes from life to life. Can't go to the nations until it goes to our neighbors.

It can't go across the seas until it goes across the streets. So you start where you are. That's what Jesus said. He said, start at Jerusalem, where you are right now. And then go beyond.

March off the map for me. That's what we want to do. We want to care about what Jesus cares about. And what Jesus cares about is people who need him. I read the newspaper and I read the stories of people's lives and terrible events, even in our own community, that we scratch our heads in wonder, from violence and murders. And you read obituary columns and you see death and you realize that people are so desperately alone without Jesus. That hole is in their hearts. It's in their soul.

And guess who gets to give them good news? We do. And when we start telling our families and our friends and our fellow students, our campuses about Jesus, then life takes on a new aliveness. I mean, we get our life back.

We get life back in life when we do what Jesus has called us to do. So if you're bored and tired and sick and tired of being sick and tired and just warming up a pew, if you want to make a difference in the world for Jesus Christ, then start sharing your faith and doing what Jesus has called us to do and commissioned us to do and do it to his glory. Let his name be heard throughout all the earth.

Let his name greatly be praised. And then your life, your life will take on the joy of living and the excitement of being truly alive. You see, our goal is to take as many people with us as possible to heaven.

And we're not going to back up or let up or shut up until we're taken up to be with him. I read an article in the Houston Chronicle, saw a photo in an article, it was an older lady who had her head bent down over the chest of a younger man in a hospital bed. When you read the caption of the story, you realize that the young man in the bed had received the heart of another young man transplanted into his chest.

And that older woman was the boy's mother who was listening to the beating heart of her son in another man's chest. Would to God that he would give us his heart, the heart of Jesus beating for the world, the heart of God's son in us. Jesus said, I've come to seek and to save that which is lost. He said, as the Father has sent me, so send I you.

Would you right now as a Christian, ask him to fill you with his spirit, to get you out of your rut and routine and ritual and move you into the reality and to the resilience of a life that is alive and witnessing and sharing Jesus Christ wherever you go. It's all around this love of God. Let's make sure people know just how much and how God loves them. Some of you today, you've heard the gospel and it's clear to you now how that hole in your heart can be filled, that you can't earn your way or deserve your way to heaven, but that Jesus died on the cross to bridge the gap, the brokenness, the separation.

And that because of God's love, you can be forgiven and changed and cleansed and made brand new, transformed by the power of his grace. If you will invite Jesus Christ confessing your sin, turning from your sin, that's repentance, and receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, who's knocking at your door today. He said, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in. Invite Christ to come into your life right now. Just pray that prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. I believe you rose again, and right now, I turn from my old way, my old way of life, and I trust in you. I receive you as my Lord, my Savior, my Master, my friend. The Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, so call upon his name.

Just say, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, come into my life right now. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, A Global Christian. PowerPoint is coming up on the end of our financial year, and we've got some exciting news to share with you today. Some friends have stepped forward with a $180,000 matching grant, which will double any gift you give this month to help PowerPoint finish this financial year strong. With more people than ever searching for what only Jesus can provide, your gift today is nothing short of vital to help ensure PowerPoint remains a beacon of hope in the year ahead. And we'll say thanks for your gift today by sending you Dr. Graham's book, A Man of God, for you or someone you know. So call now to have your financial year-end gift doubled and request your copy of A Man of God as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org, where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily e-mail devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today? Becoming a global Christian starts with your own personal commitment. Each one of us who love Jesus Christ, who love the Word of God, every man, woman, boy, girl, young person needs to make and take our personal witness for Jesus Christ seriously and personally. Acts 1-8 says, Acts 1-8 says, And if you want to live under the lordship of Christ, if you want to be an obedient Christian, a Spirit-filled Christian, then you must take seriously the call of Christ to be a personal witness for Him. Now, everyone's a witness of course. You're either a good witness or a bad witness. You're either witnessing positively for Christ or negatively for Christ. But either way, we're all witnesses for Christ. But we're not only witnessing with our lives, but we're to witness with our lips. If we want to live a truly significant life and get beyond ourselves and our own little world, we will do what Jesus said that we're to do, and that is to be salt and light. Salt penetrates, light illuminates.

And every one of us can be salt, and every one of us can be light right where we live. So you may be thinking, I really don't have a witness. I don't really have that great a testimony. Well, let me remind you of something very important.

It doesn't matter how small you think your life is. God can use you, and you can penetrate the darkness for Christ with your light. And besides, you are commanded and called to do it. So today it's my prayer that you will make and take your witness for Jesus personally, so you can be the global Christian that God has called you to be. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's powerful book, A Man of God, as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627.

That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 313131. Text PowerPoint to 313131. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how to trust God's blueprints for your life. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries. .