I hope you never lose sight of the fact that we serve a miracle-working God. And God has not ceased doing these things. If they hear me, the whole basis of our faith. Is that God intervened in history and in our lives miraculously with the power of resurrection? Thanks for joining us today for the Summit Life podcast with J.D.
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Now, today, Pastor JD encourages us with a reminder that no matter where we find ourselves, our faith can glorify God and point others to the gospel. What might God do through us as we continue the legacy of these great men and women of faith? Let's join Pastor JD in Hebrews chapter 11. If you have your Bibles this morning, I'd love for you to take them out if you don't have them out already and open them to. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32.
Hebrews 11, 32. This is our final message, our... grand finale, so to speak, in our journey through Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith. You know, I think if I were a TV show producer, I would feel a lot of pressure. Bringing a show to a conclusion.
I've seen some really good ones and I've seen some bad ones. Breaking Bad, the series finale of Friends, the final episodes of The Office, those have been some of the best. The conclusions of Lost and Seinfeld were a couple of the worst. There were a few series that just seemed to kind of run out of money and had to abruptly end and tie off whatever loose ends were there. Arrested Development, Newsroom, and Jeff Daniels would be in that category.
As far as movies go, Inception has to be the greatest ending for a movie in recent history. I mean, does the top keep spinning or does it not? The official answer, by the way, is no, it does not. In the music industry, one of the best closures of all time, they say, was the Beatles' final concert given in January of 1969. I was not there for it, of course.
The concert was essentially spontaneous, completely unannounced. The Beatles just set up on top of a building in downtown London in the middle of winter. and started jamming. Neighboring office buildings and apartment complexes were startled by the sudden, though familiar, loud music. People walked out onto their balconies just to listen to how they all lived on a yellow submarine and stuff like that.
The concert ran for just 42 minutes before the police shut it down. A fitting end, many said, to the Beatles' mold-smashing career in the music industry. Hebrews 11, verses 32 through 40. Is the author's finale in his great hall of faith. All in all, he has given us 16 individual stories for the final episode.
He's got a special two-hour season finale. Don't worry, this message is not two hours. It's only an hour and a half. But he begins this way: verse 32, what he says, and what Shall I say? For time would fail me.
I'm out of time. To tell you about Gideon, in case you forgot, Gideon was the soft-spoken, somewhat cowardly man who defeated a Midianite army of over 100,000 with only 300 soldiers, some clay pots, and a few lighters. Then there's Bayrak, Bayrak, who, in case you are unfamiliar with him, he's the guy who, with the help of a couple of women, defeated the mighty armies of King Sisera with a much smaller force. Then there's Samson. He's the, you know, I killed a thousand Philistines with just the jawbone of a donkey guy.
And there's Jephthah, Jephthah, who defeated 20 cities of the Ammonites in the book of Judges of David. David, of course, you know, is the great king who, as a teenager, killed Goliath with just a sling. Then we got Samuel, and we got all the prophets who, through faith, conquered kingdoms. They enforced justice, they obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, Daniel, and the lion's den. They quenched the power of fire, that's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who walked through a fiery furnace unharmed.
They escaped the edge of the sword, they were made strong out of weakness. They became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. That's a reference, by the way, to the widow of Zarephath. whose son Elijah raised from the dead.
And then, right in the middle of verse 35. Right in the middle of verse 35, the tone suddenly changes. Again, just so you get it, the writer said, through faith, these mighty men and women of God conquered kingdoms. They stopped the mouths of lions. They literally walked through fire.
They were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women got their dead by resurrection, but.
Some were tortured. Refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered. mocking and flogging and even chains and Imprisonment. They were stoned.
That happened to at least Jeremiah and Zachariah. They were sawn in two. Psalm and two, that's a reference to the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah in your Bible, who, according to the Jewish Tammud. was captured by the evil king Manasseh. Who shoved him into a hollow tree trunk, and then King Manasseh ordered the tree trunk to be sawn in half.
They were killed with the sword. They wandered about in the earth in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. Verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy. Wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth, verse 39 is key. And all these.
All of these, that's a very important phrase we're going to come back to. All of these. Though commended through their faith, none of them received what was promised. Since God has provided something better for us. That apart from us, you and me.
They should not be made perfect. The last nine verses of Hebrews 11, the author presents to us Two distinct groups. of great faith. Let's call them Group A. and Group B.
Group A believe Group A Believers, excuse me. Found themselves in some impossible situation. facing some insurmountable obstacle. And they ask God for a miracle. And God did it.
God enabled them to sleep unharmed in a den of lions. He enabled them to defeat armies 100 times their size and literally to walk through fire. Group B. found themselves in a similar situation. And they probably asked God for those same kinds of miracles.
But to them God said, No. And they showed their faith by trusting God in the midst of unanswered prayer. And by proclaiming that knowing God was better than any other answer that God could ever give to their prayer.
Now, I know what you're saying. Please, Lord, let me be in group A. And that's how I feel too. And I pray that way. But the writer wants to show us that God at different points in our lives.
will call us to membership. in both groups. And the writer of Hebrews wants us to be ready to respond. to whichever assignment of faith God gives to you in that moment. There are three phrases I want to zero in on today.
Verses 39 and 38. All three of them were there. Verse 39. All these were commended through their faith. Also verse 39, all these did not receive what was promised.
And apart from us, they should not be made perfect. And then the third one, verse 38. of whom the world was not worthy.
Okay, phrase number one: all these were commended through their faith. There are. Two ways. That these great heroes showed faith. I referred to them as Group A and Group B just a moment ago.
Let's call Group A the God is bigger faith. And let's call group B. that God is better faith. God is bigger faith. is when you face some obstacle that is so much bigger than you.
And you got to trust God to overcome it for you. We all have to exercise this kind of faith. Listen. When we call on God to do a work in our hearts to save us and change us. Being saved means saying to God, I cannot save myself.
I cannot pay my sin debt. I cannot change my dead heart. I need you to do that for me. And to every single person that calls on God that way, God answers miraculously. For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Every salvation is a miracle of resurrection. God imputes Jesus' righteousness to your account, and He infuses the power of His resurrection into your heart. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead, even so we also are resurrected in the power of new life.
But see, that's not the only time. That you show that kind of faith.
Sometimes you need miraculous provision, or you need miraculous guidance, or miraculous healing, or you're asking God to do a work in somebody's heart. One of your prodigal children. Or somebody that you're sharing Christ with, or some unreached people group that one of our missionaries is. is engaging with even this morning. And God answers that prayer in a way that can only be regarded as miraculous.
I hope you never lose sight of the fact that we serve a miracle-working God. And God has not ceased doing these things. In fact, hear me, the whole basis of our faith. Is that God intervened in history and in our lives miraculously with the power of resurrection? He brought life from death.
He brought peace and chaos. He brought light into blindness. And God has not ceased bestowing that power as if that were a one-time thing. And now he's just the moral policeman up there keeping score. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, which means that the same miracle-working Savior that walked the streets of Jerusalem years ago still listens to me when I pray today.
And often he answers with miracles. In fact, just before he left, he said this to his disciples. One of the last things he wanted them to know, John 16:14. After them seeing all these miracles, he said to them, Hey, disciples, up until now, you've not asked for anything in my name.
So start asking and you will receive and then your joy will be complete. By the way, in your name, in your name means according to his will. This is not some kind of divine piñata that God is offering to you that you can whack with a faith stick and get out of it whatever goodies you want. Praying in his name means perceiving something God wants to do for his kingdom, and then you asking him to do the miraculous in pursuit of that. Before Jesus ascended, he said to his disciples, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Why would that be important for him to say that? Because he's telling them and us that he's got the authority to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Then he tells us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Later or earlier in Matthew, excuse me, he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
So ask of me, ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance. Hudson Taylor was the British missionary whose bold. Borderline reckless acts of faith. opened up inland China to the gospel. 19th century, early 1800s.
When everybody else said that it was impossible, Hudson Taylor said.
Well, nothing is impossible with God. He said, and I love this. He said there are three stages to every great work of God. First, it is impossible. Then it is difficult.
Then it is done. Because he and others like him. Believe God for the impossible. Get this. The church has grown faster in China.
In the last 150 years, than it has anywhere else in the world up until this point in history. Even with mouse and tongue. Even with President Xig. Even with all the communism. In fact, did you know this?
This past Sunday. This past Sunday, more Christian believers attended church in China than in all the countries of Europe combined. Try to say the number of practicing Christians in China right now is equal to the number in the United States. We need another generation. With Hudson-Taylor kind of faith.
Believing God for the gospel's advance in unreached nations today. or on college campuses or in career fields. or in your neighborhood. or in your home. Honestly, Summit, that's why we ask God to let us plant a thousand churches in our generation and send out 100 more to our overseas mission fields in the next three years.
We're not doing that because we're ambitious or trying to raise money. We're doing that because we believe that there are three stages to every great move of God, and that is impossible, difficult, and done. Yeah, these things feel impossible with us, but you know what? They're possible with God. Here's what Hudson Taylor said, another one of his statements.
I love this. All God's giants, all of them. All of them have been weak men and women who did great things for God just because they reckoned on God being with them. All the giants in history. Whether Hudson, Taylor, or all the ones we looked at in Hebrews 11, they're just weak men and women who had one conviction.
And that is God is with me. God is bigger than whatever obstacle stands in his way. Listen, Summit, listen, Summit College, listen to me right now. We need more of this kind of faith in our generation, so let's pray for it. People who trust God for impossible things, who press into unreached people groups with the gospel, into dark corners of our society.
I'm talking about things like the education realm, Hollywood, Nashville, Wall Street, Washington, D.C. Matthew 13:58 to me has always been one of the saddest verses in all of the Gospels. Matthew 13, 58 says simply, and Jesus did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. By the way, there. There was Nazareth.
Jesus's hometown. This hotel. I mean, of all the places in the world that Jesus would have wanted to do miracles. It would have been in his hometown, right? I mean, that was where a lot of his childhood friends were.
It's where his family friends were, teachers he had loved, but Jesus didn't do miracles there. Why? Because he had sovereignly decided not to. No. Because of their Unbelief.
That was it. The implication is that he would have he wanted to. But their unbelief stayed. the powerful hand of God. Oh, may that never be said of us Summit Church.
I do not want to get to heaven and have Jesus say I would have. I wanted to. But you just didn't believe me. All God's giants have been weak men. And women who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.
Let that be a summit church. Believing that Jesus really is the same yesterday, today, and forever, believing that the Lord's arm is not shortened, that it cannot be saved. and his ear heavy that it cannot hear. That we have not only because we ask not. And then let us ask boldly that our joy may be fulfilled.
Hey, you're praying for that son or daughter. You're praying for that unreached people group. You're praying for that breakthrough. You're praying for those walls of Jericho to fall down. Keep walking and don't give up.
In fact, let me just ask this right now. Where do you need trust? Where do you need to trust God like this right now? Where is He putting it into your heart to trust Him for a miracle? Maybe it's a financial miracle or a healing miracle, something for his glory.
God, give us more people with God is bigger faith. Amen? Who's a volunteer for God is bigger faith? Raise your hand, okay? Oh.
But there's another type of faith. The faith of Group B. God is. Better faith. If God is bigger, faith is when God shows off that he's bigger than any obstacle, then God is.
Better faith. That's when God uses you. To show off that he's better than any earthly outcome. In God is bigger faith. God shows off his power by giving you deliverance.
In God is better faith, you show off God's worth by your unflagging joy in the midst. of suffering and unanswered prayer. First, let's discuss the difference between happiness and joy. Because a lot of people get these confused. Happiness refers to a temporary emotional state.
Based on your happenings. In fact, that's where we get the word happiness. Happiness. is what you feel. when what you want to happen happens.
Happiness. Joy is different. Joy is an abiding peace. that is unrelated to your happenings. The Bible does not promise constant happiness.
At least in this life. What it does show you is how to find Joy. Which is way better than happiness. Happiness ends up being hollow and elusive. I mean, that's what all the movie stars and the rich people almost always tell us.
That's why I'm always quoting these stars to you. I can literally pull up a hundred of these kind of quotes. Katy Perry, Drake, Tom Brady, you name it. They say things like, I found so much of what I was looking for in life. Everything I ever wanted, I got, but it didn't satisfy me.
It didn't take care of my deep angst. It didn't fix my relationships. It didn't take away my insecurity or my self-doubt. It's because they're looking for happiness and they should have been looking for joy. The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs said that we're like kids chasing clouds.
Kid sees a cloud and he thinks man if I could just get up on that hill over there I could grab that awesome, puffy, marshmallow-looking cloud. Then he gets to the top of that hill, Jeremiah Burroughs said, and he realizes he isn't any closer to that cloud than he was before.
So he sees another hill and he thinks, well, if I could get to the top of that hill, I could get to the cloud then. But of course, it's the same there too. Jeremiah Burroughs said, That's our pursuit of happiness apart from God. And that's because we mistake happiness for joy. God offers us something better than happiness.
He offers us joy. And here is the thing the writer of Hebrews shows us, get this, that sometimes God withholds certain answers to prayer.
So that he can demonstrate to us that knowing him is more valuable and more joy-giving than anything else we might experience on earth. And it's how God makes himself known to others through us. Sure, I'm listening A miraculous answer to prayer can amaze an unbeliever. And sometimes I know stories of this in our church. Where a miraculous answer to prayer led to somebody else's faith.
But can I tell you what I've observed now? For many, many years as a pastor. Quite often. In fact, more often than not. The unbeliever Who was privy to the miracle?
finds a way to write the miracle off. to dismiss it. To convince themselves it was a coincidence or an exaggeration, or the doctor missed something, or that they're just missing some part of the story. What I've seen over the years that is much more convincing to the unbeliever. I don't know about just statistically.
What's much more convincing to the unbeliever is when a believer has joy in the midst of pain, an abiding and unshakable hope in the midst of tragedy, that shows them that there is something better, something greater, something more permanent, something that can give joy even in the midst of this temporary and decaying world. And that appeals to something deep in their heart and shakes them at their core and makes them say, I need that kind of hope. because one day I'm going to die and I need that kind of joy. About a decade ago or so, our church did this thing. called a cardboard testimony service.
If you've never seen one, they kind of work like this. To the backdrop of some worship song. Various church members walk out across the stage one at a time, each of them holding up, I think like a two by two square piece of cardboard. On one side of the cardboard, there's a few words describing their life before Christ.
Something like confused and afraid, or anxious, worried, and lonely, thought I would never be good enough. And then after a brief moment, they flip their cardboard over, revealing a brief phrase describing their life since meeting Jesus. Set free, secure and joyful, found real purpose in life. The best one I've ever seen was a young mom and a middle-aged man. who walked out together on stage.
She holds up her card and it says on it, diagnosed with MS. Then the older man standing beside her holds up his sign, which says. Doctor who diagnosed her. Unchurched. or atheist, something like that.
He then flips his card over. which reads, baptize this Easter. Then she flips over her card, which says simply, Worth it. Worth it. It wasn't because he saw a miracle.
It was because of her joy in the midst of suffering, her unquenchable hope, that he saw the reality of a God he had been able to ignore and marginalize up until that point. You see, sometimes God is glorified when sick people get well. But sometimes he is glorified when sick people Suffer well and die well. A quick break to remind you about our featured resource for October. You know, we're living in a time when standing for your faith can feel risky.
In his brand new book, Everyday Revolutionary, Pastor JD equips believers to engage our cultural moment without losing gospel clarity or compassion. This isn't a book about being louder. It's about being more faithful, more rooted, and more scent. If you're tired of being pulled between silence and outrage, this message is for you. Discover how to live boldly for Christ in everyday places, your work, your home, and your community.
Request your copy of Everyday Revolutionary Today when you give to this ministry. It's our way of saying thank you for helping us keep gospel-centered teaching like you're listening to today in front of people. Donate securely online at jiddygreer.com. The time is now to engage others in a loving way despite our differences.
Now that's revolutionary. Hi. I know we want God to give us the miracle. And I will pray with you for that. And I know that many of you have the faith for that miracle, but are you ready to show the faith that glorifies God even if you don't get the miracle?
To say, God, you're better than anything else that life could give or anything that death could take away. The verse says, verse 39, all these, all these were commended through their faith. All these, not just the ones that got the miracle, one that one group had faith and one group didn't. I know there's a lot of fake teachers out there on TV that say this kind of thing, that great faith will get the miracle. These both had faith.
Both the ones that got the miracles and the ones. Who were destitute, afflicted, and mistreated, and wandered about the earth in sheepskins and goatskins, saying they'd rather have Jesus than anything else on earth, and that he was enough. They were both commended for their faith because both of them showed the faith that pleases God. See, some of us show faith by believing what God can do.
Some of us show faith by resting in who God. Yes. That leads me to the second phrase. All these did not receive what was promised. Who does all those refer to?
You might think it refers to people in group B. Who didn't get the answer to their prayer? This last group didn't receive what was promised and they had to show faith anyway. But when it says all these. It's pointing to the entire chapter of Hebrews 11.
And it's saying nobody in this chapter, not one of them, fully received what was promised. And at first that might be a little bit confusing. Since some of these people did seem to receive the promise. I mean, Noah got delivered through the ark. Daniel slept through the lion's den.
Abraham got the promised land. David knocked down Goliath. But here's the question. You ready? What if the promise That's in view here was not a promise of temporary relief from pain or a temporary manifestation of power.
What if the promise referred to something more? Let me point out something obvious, but also a little bit eye-opening if you never thought about it.
Okay? All of Jesus's Healing miracles on earth were all Temporary. Lazarus was raised from the dead. But y'all, is Lazarus around today? Yeah.
You know what that means? That Joker died again. There came a point where Lazarus died a second time, and he was buried a second time, and it was probably in the exact same grave. And I bet he was probably even more nervous. about the whole death thing the second time.
Second time he dies, he opens his eyes at heaven and I imagine he was like, oh man. This again. He calls an angel over and he's like, Hey, before I get all excited and start setting up my mansion here, do you know if Jesus is planning on giving me another one of those callback things? Because I just want to emotionally brace myself if I got to go back to that again. Yo, every single person Jesus raised from the dead died again.
Every blind eye Jesus opened went blind again because when we die, we're all blind, right? No eye sees in death. In the same way, all the miracles recorded in Hebrews 11 were just temporary too. The object of their faith was never a temporary miracle. No, all these temporary manifestations of power served a greater purpose.
And that purpose was highlighting that God was coming to earth to take the penalty of sin and the curse of death into Himself so that all of us could be saved through resurrection. God's purpose has always been to show the world that, that he alone is the Savior. And that's what the writer of Hebrew means by: apart from us, they should not be made perfect. You see, made perfect means made complete. apart from us, apart from your faith and my faith.
All of these people, Abraham and David and Daniel and Noah and Jacob and Joseph, all of them are incomplete. You say, well, how? I mean, how would my life have faith? How would J.D. Greer's life of faith?
How does your life of faith? How does that make Abraham's faith complete? It's because we're completing God's great purpose on earth. And that is to show the nations of the world that God is bigger and that He is better and that He alone can save. Until that gospel is understood and believed throughout the world, that purpose is still incomplete.
And see, when you understand that as God's primary purpose in the world, that changes everything, doesn't it? It means the point of faith is not just to make your life easier. The point of faith is putting people In a place, putting you in a place where you can point people to the power and the worth of God that's revealed in the gospel. And that means that however God answers my prayer. And whatever role he calls me to play, my goal is to leverage.
That situation to display his power and his worth, whether in prosperity or in poverty. whether through popularity or through shame. whether in sickness or in health. Whether through rewarding relationships or dysfunctional ones, my primary question is: how can I use? This to point people.
To Jesus. What if that was your first question in every situation, every opportunity, every blessing, every difficulty, every obstacle? God, how am I supposed to use this? To direct people's attention toward Jesus? You see, in order to embrace this, you got to have what we call around here a Copernican revolution of the soul.
Copernicus, of course, was The guy who figured out that the Earth was not, contrary to popular opinion, at the center of the universe. Up until that point, almost everybody thought that the Earth was in the middle of everything and all the celestial bodies just orbited around us. I mean, It's what it looked like every single night, right? The stars move across the sky, sun moves across the sky. We just stood still and everything moves around us.
Oh no, oh no, said Copernicus. The Sun is the center of our solar system and we actually rotate around it. Isn't that a great metaphor for how humans just see life? We just assume everything rotates around us. Of course on the point.
And I interpret everything that comes into my life based on how it benefits. Me because I'm the point. In fact, I could summarize many of your prayer lives. I could summarize your prayer life like this: gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. Give me this, give me that.
God smite him for what he did to me. And God, could you just take her out of my life? Because she's a problem. Every blessing. Thank you, brother.
Every blessing that comes into your life. You commandeer it into the service of your personal little kingdom. Here's another moon to orbit my planet. And when something happens that doesn't serve the purpose of your little kingdom, then you're like, God, what's the deal? Have you forgotten me?
You need to have a Copernican revolution of the soul. You're not the center of history. Our little kingdom, our little contemporary happiness is not the point. God's glory and the story of what He's doing to save the world, that's the point. It's always been the point.
The analogy I've used over the years to illustrate that is: I tell you, think of your life as a movie. If you think of your life as a movie and you ask yourself, if my life were a movie, Who would the main character in that movie be? You say, well, naturally, if my life were a movie... then the main character would be me. But that is not the life of faith.
The life of faith means that you, like all these people in Hebrews 11, start to see yourself as a part of a larger story where you're not the main character at all. Your story plays a relatively small part in a much bigger plot, a plot all about. Him. And the movie example I use is this. I'll probably bring this up here every three years.
All right, here's what I say. 97% of you have no idea who Biggs Dark Lighter is. Unless You're a devoted Star Wars fan? The kind who dressed up in an extraterrestrial outfit to see the finale. You own your own personalized lightsaber.
You didn't go to prom, you stayed home and played video games. If that's you, Right. Then you probably heard of Big Dark Lighter. Otherwise, you probably never heard of him. And yet.
Without Big's Dark Lighter, Star Wars would have ended after the first movie. You see, Biggs Darklighter was the X-Wing pilot who flew his X-Wing into the path of Darth Vader's laser that was about to take out Luke Skywalker. And because he did that, Luke was able to fire the shot into the garbage container that destroyed the first Death Star. Without Biggs, the whole Star Wars saga. All 538 movies.
Would never have gotten off the ground. There would have been no successful rebellion. There would have been no reunion with Yoda, no Ray, no Finn, no Poe, no redemption of Kylo, no baby Yoda, no wandering Mandalorian plot. No happy ending in a galaxy far, far away. All of that exists because of Big's Dark Lighter, and yet most of you have never even heard of him.
But I bet I bet I bet if we could talk to old bigs Which we can't. Because spoiler alert. He died. An extra spoiler alert, Star Wars isn't real.
Okay.
Some of you need to hear that this morning, okay? That's God's word for you. But I bet if we can talk with Biggs Darklighter, he would probably say that he doesn't care. That we don't remember his name because he's not the main character of the Star Wars saga. Luke Skywalker is.
And Biggs's small section of the story only matters as it contributes to the plot surrounding the main character. The life of faith is an invitation to join with these great men and women of Hebrews 11 in a much larger story about Jesus. It's a story in which you have a role. Hear me. You've got a very important role.
You're the only Bible a lot of people are ever going to read. You've got a very important role. Sometimes it's to shine and sometimes it's to suffer. But it's always to bring glory to Jesus and help others know him.
So, Christian, let me ask you this. What are you going through right now? What difficulty? What unanswered prayer? Have you asked yourself, how might I use this to glorify God?
How might I use this to show people that I Have joy in something better than anything the world offers, something that's better than anything else life could give or that death could take away. There's a baton. That's being passed here at the end of Hebrews 11. You can almost see it. Just the writer of Hebrews 11 just kind of holds it out to you.
Apart from us, the race of none of these people in Hebrews 11 is complete. Because there's still so many people who don't know. Which leads me to the final phrase there in verse 38. of whom the world was not. Worthy.
Oh, I love that phrase. And I really want you to just let it sink in for a minute, would you? There is a generation of Christians. Of whom? God's verdict on their lives.
is the world is not worthy of him. I really want that to be true of this church. That we live in such a way that God would say that the Raleigh-Durham, the Chapel Hill, the Cary, the Apex, the Mebben, the Garner, the Fuquave Arena, and Knightdale communities, and all the others are not worthy of us. What characterizes that generation?
Well, they've given up personal ambition in life and they've said From henceforth, it is all about Jesus' story, his glory, and everybody in the world knowing about that story. And they believe that in everything that happens to them, whether good or bad, that God is fulfilling that good purpose of bringing salvation to the ends of the earth, and they yield themselves to that promise, come what may. They believe that God never wavers from that promise and never pulls back his hand from their lives. They reckon that in all things, God is with them. They believed that in their prosperity and they believed that in their pain.
They believe it when their prayers are answered. And they believe it during those times of soul-crushing waiting when it feels like nobody is listening. In all things, they keep their eyes directed upwards onto the promise, saying, I know, I know, I know that he will keep his promise, and I know that his kingdom is real, and I know that this life of faith is worth it. In Cairo, there is a small Dusty grave. in an out-of-the-way location.
I've never actually been there, though I hope to. One day. I've heard that you would never in a million years even know that grave was there. It's off on a little side street, they say, small. There's no signs, and a little cemetery is.
all overgrown with grass. But in that grave lies the body of William Borden, the heir of the Borden Milk Company. William Borden was born right at the turn of the 20th century. He had a life of luxury and power laid out for him. At the time, the Borden Milk Company was one of America's largest.
It was one of the most successful companies in America. early 1900s, think Apple computers or something like that today. William's parents were cultural Christians, but As a teenager, William had, he just really gotten saved. And when he graduated high school, he took a gap year and he traveled around the world. On that trip, he just became overwhelmed.
at the vast number of people around the world who had never even heard the name of Jesus.
So he came home from that around-the-world trip, and he Told his parents that he believed that God was calling him to take the gospel to Muslims, particularly that large Muslim population in the western part of China. His parents objected. and insisted that he take over the family business instead. It was his pedigree. It's what he'd been raised for.
They sent him to Yale. He graduated from Yale with honors, went on from there to graduate. from graduate school at Princeton also graduated with honors from there too. But still, this calling would not go away.
So he gave away the vast majority of his inheritance. He wouldn't even buy a car for himself. At the age of 24, he walked away from his inheritance entirely and he set sail for Cairo, where he planned to study Arabic for a year. And then he was going to head on to China where he planned to spend the rest of his life. As his ship pulled up to the shoreline of Egypt.
And you saw all the minarets of the mosque. Dotting the landscape, he dreamed of the day that steeples would cover the landscape of Egypt and China instead, pointing people to the gospel of Jesus. Upon arriving in Cairo, He contracted spinal meningitis. People in America heard about it. Began to pray for God to do a miracle, but young William never recovered and he died at the age of 25.
Only four months after he had Gotten to Egypt.
Somebody asked him in those final moments before he died what he thought about all of his decisions now. given how things had turned out. His biographer famously summarized his answer as this. No reserves. No retreats.
No regrets. On this out-of-the-way tombstone in Cairo, overgrown with grass, is a brief description of William Borden's life. And then a very simple phrase. Apart from faith in Christ. There's no explanation for such a life.
Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. Would that statement be true of you? Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for the decisions they made. Apart from faith in Christ, there's no way that would even make sense. That's the legacy of Hebrews 11.
But here's the thing. Apart from us, even William Borden's faith will not be made perfect. See, there's still lots of unreached people groups in the world. There's still lots of people left to believe. People sometimes ask me, they're like, when will the summit feel like they've grown enough?
I'm like, easy answer. when there are no lost people left in the triangle. Until then, we keep working and we keep going and we keep striving. There's still 6,000 what they call unreached people groups in the world, like the Muslims in China, that are regarded as unreached. In fact, they're called UUPGs, unengaged, unreached people groups.
That means that as it stands right now, the people there have no viable access to the gospel. Often they don't even have a Bible in their language. They're in what they call the 1040 window, which is between the 10th parallel. Below the equator in the 40th north of it, Right? These are people that...
Speak a language, but they just have no access to the gospel. And we cannot, we will not stop until the task is done. That's what it means to continue on in the legacy of Hebrews 11. Listen, the people of Hebrews 11 weren't perfect. We've seen that, right?
They failed a lot. But they kept their vision on one thing. The promise that God would bring his salvation to the ends of the earth. The promise that people from every tribe and tongue and nation on earth would have the chance to hear and believe. And now some of it falls to us.
For some of us, Our faith is going to manifest as the chance to believe that God is bigger than some obstacle that stands in the way of the advance of His kingdom. For others of us, it's going to come in the form of a quiet resolve to have joy in God even when your body is in pain. or your career has fallen apart, or your reputation is in ruins. That baton is handed to you. What are you gonna do with it?
I love the Olympics. I think I'm always the most nervous in the relay races. Because if one person flubs it one The whole team fails. I think my favorite moment of the Olympics this year was the women's 4x100 swimming medley. Regan Smith jumped out to an early lead in the backstroke.
But I was worried. Because both the Australian and the Chinese teams had incredibly, incredibly talented. swimmers later in the thing and the commentators just would not shut up about it. But the middle two American swimmers maintain that her little tiny lead. I was so nervous going into that last leg because Australia and China had their most famous all-star swimmer ready for that last leg.
The little Tori Husk was our last swimmer. I never heard her. I kept thinking, she's gonna blow it, she's gonna blow it. She didn't blow it. In fact, they beat the silver medalists, the Australians, by more than three seconds and beat the Olympic record by a full second.
See, somebody, I want us to play our part. I want us to finish our lap well. Let me change the analogy real quick. I'll stay in the Olympics realm though. Part of the lead up to the Olympics each year is the passing of the torch from person to person, from Greece to whatever.
city that the Olympics are being hosted in. It starts a year before the opening ceremonies and it usually takes a rather circuitous route around the globe. This year that included going 20 yards underwater and being cripwalked by Snoop Dogg.
Okay? But the climatic moment Always comes when that final runner. On the opening ceremony day, touches the official Olympic cauldron with the torch. And it burst into flames. The most epic one of those ever done was in Barcelona in 1992.
When a Spanish archer shot a flaming arrow into the cauldron from several hundred yards away, and it just lit up the sky in this fiery blaze. I mean, talk about pressure. How'd you like to be that guy? with one attempt to get that shot right. I want you to think of that bursting into flame as the nations all.
Around the throne of God, Revelation 5:9, people from every tribe and tongue and nation bursting into songs of glory, honor, and praise to the Lamb. The lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world around the throne of Jesus, you and I got a part in that. And that torch has been passed to us. And apart from us, that race is not gonna be complete. Are we going to be faithful like these people were?
You see, as for me, that's what I want. I want to run my life faithfully. I want to do my part, and I want you to join me. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And that faith that pleases God consists of believing that God is real, that his kingdom is real, that he always keeps his promises, and that seeking him is worth the effort.
Thanks for listening, and just a quick reminder that we are giving Pastor JD's newest book to all of our financial partners this month. In Everyday Revolutionary, Pastor JD reminds us that we're not called to win the culture war. We're called to bear faithful witness for Christ. We can live boldly and faithfully in the middle of a hostile world without compromising truth or compassion. Request your copy of Everyday Revolutionary when you make a donation at jdiegreer.com and discover how everyday obedience can become the loudest testimony of all.
Thanks for hanging out with us today. We'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Um
