Vision Weekend, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D.

Greer, and I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You're joining us today as we've just begun a new teaching series called Scent. We're taking a fresh look at what it means to be on the mission field. And if you're like most people, you probably think that being on mission is something for super Christians or those with a special calling or gifting. But today Pastor J.D. is giving us a whole new perspective.

So get ready to be challenged. We're in the book of Acts chapter one, verses one through eight. Are we as a church just doing ministry? We run in an institution or are we part of a movement? For you personally, the question is, is the church a place that you attend? Is it a place where you have religious services provided to you? Or is it a movement that you personally are a part of?

Movements move, and if you're not moving, you're not part of the movement. So let's go to the scripture, and I want to show you how all this started. Acts one, let's jump down to verse six, and we'll start there. Jesus had just resurrected, and now he's standing from on the hillside with his disciples, and he goes through this. Verse six, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

Verse seven, he said to them, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria into the ends of the earth. And after he'd said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. That's where it all began. Two thousand years later, here we are, still reveling in the movement that was started on a hillside with 11 fishermen, carpenters, tax collectors, and it's still reverberating. Two important things about that movement that made it move. Number one, the message captured their hearts and minds.

The message absolutely captured their hearts and minds, so my question for you is, has it captured yours? They'd seen this Jesus command hurricanes. They'd seen him converse with angels. They had seen him control demons, walk on water, heal lepers, and raise the dead. Yet in the hour he needed access to those powers the most, he turned his back on them willingly so he could offer his life as a sacrifice for their sins, and they said that is a God who needs to be glorified and known throughout all the world. Right, so here's my question for you.

It's very simple. Do you actually believe this testimony? Do you believe it? Has it captured your heart until you can't shut up about it?

Are you willing to go anywhere with it and give up anything for him? Because if not, you're not part of the movement. Here's number two. The apostles yielded themselves to the leadership of the Spirit. Have you yielded yourself to the leadership of the Spirit? The assignment they were given was extraordinary. They never had a more important assignment being given to a less capable group of people.

How would they accomplish it? The clue, very important clue, is given to you in verse one. People always overlook this word. In the first book, Acts 1-1, Luke, the writer, what's the first book he's referring to? The Gospel of Luke. Luke acts as like a two-volume compendium. So in the first book, Luke, Gospel of Luke, old Theophilus, who's Theophilus?

It's a skeptic that Luke is writing the book for. I've dealt with all that Jesus, look at this word, began. That's a very important word, began to do and to teach. Began implies continuation.

It wasn't that, now watch this, subtle but it's huge. It wasn't that in the Gospel of Luke you see Jesus teaching and now in Acts you see the church teaching. What you see is Jesus began to do and to teach in the Gospel of Luke through his fleshly body and now he continues to do and to teach through his churchly body. That's why Jesus, after giving them the Great Commission in Acts 1-8, tells them to wait, which I've told you before had to be the hardest assignment for some of them. Because I mean when you get that kind of assignment you're like, wait, we don't have time to wait and we got books to write. We got preaching conferences to organize. Peter and Peter's got to preach and John's got to write a book.

Several of us got to write a book. What do you mean wait? Wait.

Wait for an indefinite amount of time because I need you to sit on your rear end and understand that this is not something you're going to do for me. This is something I'm going to do through you and that's going to be a huge distinction and so in every chapter of Acts as you read it you're going to get the sense that the church is just following the Spirit. The Spirit is the real mover. He's working in people over here and he's moving believers from one place to another. They're just yielding themselves to him as he goes about building this church.

So the question is have you yielded yourself to him to be used by him? You know I pointed out to you before that the book of Acts if you read it to the end it has no real ending. It's a cliffhanger.

You know what a cliffhanger is? That's how Luke ends the book of Acts. Why did he end it that way? Because the movement had just begun. It wasn't the end.

It was the end if anything of the beginning and so the movement continues to move. The Spirit of God is moving you into people's lives to complete the Great Commission. So believer I want you to read Jesus's promise in verse 8 as a direct promise to you. So whenever I get to the word you in verse 8 I'm going to read it again. I want you to insert your name in your mind okay but you come on all of you but will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon and will be my witness. You your name is in that verse. Two ways I want to identify the Spirit's power comes upon you. The first one is spiritual gifts. Every believer has one.

I wish I had more time to talk about it but I don't this weekend. There are various gifts. Things like hospitality, serving, preaching. God gives every believer one for the sake of his purposes of the mission.

Here's a question. Do you know what yours is? If you cannot tell me what your spiritual gift is there is no possible way you're walking in the power of the Spirit. How could you if you don't even know what gift he's given you? Right now there's a bunch of different gifts. They're very varied.

You got you know again hospitality all the way over to preaching but they all have one kind of general purpose and that is propelling the mission of Jesus forward. A friend of mine illustrated it this way. I don't have time or actually the ability to do this on our stage. He brought up seven people from the audience and he had them stand behind them and he had them act out a fire truck like they all had jobs in the fire trucks. You got a guy driving, you got the co-pilot, you got the guy with the hose and then you got the guy you know in the back who's like steering whatever that thing is in the back and and so he goes through and he tells them their assignment has them acted out and they're looking all ridiculous up there and everybody's laughing and then he goes and he goes one by one he said I know what's your purpose? I drive. What's your purpose? I steer the bag. What's your purpose? I take the hose and make sure that it gets to you know to the fire and he goes through all of them and he says okay he says I actually tricked all of you because your purpose is to put out fires and all these different things that you're doing there are really not into themselves they're part of the mission the most important mission of that fire truck is to put out fire so the purpose of all these spiritual gifts is to propel the mission of Jesus forward as he makes disciples of all peoples on earth the second thing the spirit of God did for these believers beyond giving them spiritual gifts listen to this is he empowered each of them to testify all of them the Holy Spirit did a lot of different things in Luke and Acts but the main thing he does is he fills people to preach in fact write it down anytime you see the spirit of God fill somebody in the book of Acts or Luke it always comes out here and they start proclaiming the word of God when the spirit of God fills here the word of God starts spouting out here every time Luke 1 15 John the Baptist being filled with the spirit proclaims the coming of the Lord Luke 1 41 Elizabeth being filled with the spirit proclaimed blessing never married Luke 1 67 Zechariah filled with the spirit prophesied about the coming glory of Jesus Acts 2 4 the Holy Spirit filled the apostles and they declared God's praises in multiple languages Acts 4 8 Peter is filled with the spirit and preaches to the rulers that Jesus is their only hope of salvation Acts 4 31 the disciples are filled with the spirit they speak the word of God boldly in the face of severe persecution Acts 9 20 Saul who's been saved about two weeks is filled with the spirit and immediately he begins to preach in the synagogues you're gonna kind of getting the point there is that you is that you do you regularly proclaim God's Word to others and do you bring them to Jesus because listen to me if you are not you are not filled with the spirit because the spirit of God never fills here without the word of God coming out here now I'm not an imposter a long time okay I'm relatively very young so I have not been a pastor a long time but I've done this long enough to know what the excuses I get let me go through a few of them well I just don't have what it takes yes you do because you've been given the spirit of God that's what it takes Peter's sermon in Acts 2 was that the spirit of God had come according to the prophecy of Joel on your sons and daughters who will prophesy being a prophet in the Old Testament was a big hairy deal your name was Elijah and Elijah and you got books written about you and Jesus or Peter said listen this God promised that every Christian every Christian your sons and your daughters all of you are going to prophesy like they did in the Old Testament see that which was reserved for heroes in the Old Testament becomes the standard fare of believers in the new in fact Jesus would say this here's a question who's greatest prophet who ever lived not counting Jesus Bible trivia time who did Jesus say was the greatest prophet who ever lived John the Baptist exactly right John the Baptist it in the God and the gospel of Luke Jesus said John the Baptist was the greatest prophet who ever lived who ever lived but I'm telling you the least in the kingdom his kingdom is greater than John the Baptist you realize okay least in the kingdom somebody here is the least capable and least talented in our church I mean just mathematics tells you that has to be true right some of you like I think that's me and God up in heaven's going yep that's you you are the least in the kingdom right I mean it has to be true if I everybody turn and point to the person you think that is true now I'm kidding but Jesus said that you are greater than John the Baptist why because you've seen Jesus and because you have the spirit of God so do not tell me you have what it takes because you are greater in your potential than John the Baptist Rupert Leary one of our pastors on staff here says there are only two convictions of an effective witness only two once you get these two things piece of cake he says your first conviction is that the spirit of God is constantly at work around you preparing people he's always working and so you're just figuring out where he's going to work and you're going to join him and you're asking questions to figure out where that is he said number two the spirit of God uses you to speak the word of God if you are convinced the spirit of God is at work around you and you are convinced the spirit of God is in you to speak the word of God he said you'll become a natural and very effective witness regardless of your personality or how awkward you feel around people right people say this well it's not my spiritual gift yes there are certain people who have an extraordinary endowment of that ability the gift of the evangelist but there is a difference between a gift given specially to some and a responsibility given to all believers and that is a command that's given to all not a gift that is given to a few people say this one i hear this one all the time oh i witness with my life and i always want to be like how do you do that because the gospel is not a like a message about how awesome you are as a person the gospel is a message about what jesus did 2000 years ago it's the story of what jesus came to do that you couldn't do so how do you demonstrate it by what you do right how i mean i realize you can you can be a good example of it but you can't actually preach it without doing it trying to be a witness with just your life is like trying to watch a newscast with the sound turned down i'm like that dude's excited about something but i don't know what he's talking about right how it's a message you can't do it with your life you know the the statement that always gets attributed to francis of assisi preach the gospel when necessary use words i've told you that's like me telling you tell me your phone number if necessary use digits your number is a series of digits you have to use digits when telling me that you see the gospel is a message so you have to use words yeah i'm glad that you share your lunch i grew up with christians who were like yeah the way i witness is not drinking beer at dinner in front of my business co-workers i'm like yeah that's supposed to tell them about the sacrificial death of jesus now i resurrected from the dead to forgive their sins and put their lives back together that makes sense don't drink your beer you're doing your job what is he talking about i'm gonna get angry um how about this one i don't have time i don't have time i get up i go to work come home try to play with my kids watch a little tv go to bed get up do the thing the next day watch ranch repeat i don't have time i love what daniel simmons our north raleigh campus pastor hello daniel he says oh you're busy really jesus was busy too saving the world and everything watch it this is a great statement but he was busy with people he was busy with people in fact when jesus gave the great commission the way it literally reads in greek is as you're going as you're going throughout life make disciples as you go friend of mine tim chester says this y'all write this down evangelism is doing normal life with gospel intentionality evangelism is doing normal life with gospel intentionality does it make sense i once heard a lady say this one time she's like yeah i quit being able to take my son to soccer practice because i had too much ministry to do at the church and my response to her is why don't you look at taking your kid to soccer practice with all the unbelieving people you're going to meet as the ministry of the church because you know what i mean you can hang out with with save people all day long but that's not the great commission that's why we don't try to hyper schedule you here at this church we don't want you involved in 85 different programs here at the church i'd rather you be hanging out with people who don't know jesus i already know jesus i don't want you to hang out with me i mean i like you and we'll hang out sometimes we'll do this i love this but why are we going to hang out with that when the great commission is out there right so yeah go be busy but be busy with people be making disciples as you go all right how about this one talking to other people about jesus makes me feel weird of course it does i've heard evangelism defined before as two very nervous people talking to each other right that's true for me but see here's the thing it's you got to ask this is the message important enough to be worth a little weirdness to be honest sadistically i'm kind of looking forward to hearing you explain that excuse to stephen or paul and when you get to heaven oh why didn't you why didn't you bring him by christ this made me feel awkward and weird oh yeah well i got stoned i got beaten with rods three times got my head hacked off because you felt weird yeah that's a good excuse evangelism is always uncomfortable but it's worth it it's worth rethinking your career it's worth rethinking where you live people that go into places like afghanistan and turkey and indonesia don't go there because they have a flare for living overseas they go there because they know that they could live 15 minutes from their parents but they know that there are people around the world who've never heard about jesus and it just seems worth it to them when i thought i was called to the mission field i told my mother i'm like you know what you and dad you love and you know jesus and there's a bunch of people around the world who've never heard about him we get eternity together we get to rejoice in eternity forever and if god is going to take me to a place where we've got to tell other people about jesus it just seems like it's worth it to go through a lot of weirdness and a lot of discomfort down here so that we have eternity with the souls of people there you see once all the excuses have been brought forward and vetted the real question that remains is simply this do you want to bring other people to jesus because if you did you figure it out if you did you figure it out you ever heard you ever heard the statement that necessity is the mother of invention that's true in evangelism too see be honest with yourself it's not a technique problem it's a belief problem or it's an apathy problem how possibly could you say you believe the gospel and had even the slightest shred of compassion and be quiet about it charles furgen said this if jesus is precious to you you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself you'll be whispering it into your child's ear you'll be telling it to your husband you'll be earnestly imparting it to your friends without the charms of eloquence you will become more than eloquent because your heart will start to speak and as you do your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love every christian here is either a missionary or an imposter you either try to spread abroad the kingdom of christ or else you do not love him at all movements move and if you're not moving have you really believed the message those are the two principles that launch the movement radical deep-seated belief in the message and yielding themselves to the spirit who moved them so in light of that summit listen here's how i see our church we want to be a movement plain and simple and by the way let me go ahead and let this cat out of that i don't care if we grow huge doing it because movements tend to become huge right listen i'm wrong with small church a lot of churches and acts start small but when the movement starts to move they tend to grow big like i don't like being a part of the big church well you wouldn't like being a part of the church in acts two three four and five either peter's preaching to three thousand people are getting saved they're trying to figure out how to baptize them all then about time they get that under wraps and they got half of them baptized five thousand more people get saved they're like peter would you stop preaching right we're trying to get organized here you wouldn't have liked it then oh and by the way not to be unfair you're probably not gonna like it in heaven either i don't like worshiping in large crowds have you read revelation five we want to empower and release you to follow the spirit i've told you before that there are 40 miracles in acts 39 of them happen outside the church i'm glad you think the power of god anoints my sermons i'd much rather i see 39 out of 40 miracles in the summit church happen outside these walls so my point is not for you to just come sit here and listen to me be filled with the spirit of god my point is to see you filled the spirit of god and take his healing power everywhere in our community that it doesn't exist right i heard old southern Baptist pastor saying this the other day he said and he meant what i mean well he was on the radio and he said um he said the church is not a cruise ship totally agree with that church is not a cruise ship but then he said this he said the church is a battleship almost because about a battleship what's it do it goes and parks itself in front of an island and then obliterates obliterates the island right that's not what a church does a church if you're going to choose a ship i would say an aircraft carrier because an aircraft carrier equips planes to go do the battle somewhere else when the battles are happening on an aircraft carrier that's bad right the aircraft's purpose is to equip and send so that the battle is taken to where the battle needs to be fought we never want to become just a Christian ministry that takes care of our own needs or a place that people attend it's why we end every one of our services by standing you up and not saying you are dismissed but you are what that's right you are sent it's why we push our small groups to multiply i realize it's more comfortable for you to get to know one group of people and hang out with them for the next 30 years while you sit around and stare at your navels i know that that's more comfortable but we also know there's a lot of people in our community that don't know Jesus and it's worth going through one comfort because God is the way of God's like a spiritual cyclone he never draws you in without propelling you back out and that's never comfortable but the message is worth it it's why i'm challenging your small group to go on a mission trip this year together that you become a you become a small group that is committed to being sent are you engaged are you moving and by the way it's not always in an organized ministry i talked about church member the other day he was talking about a homeless guy that he met led to Christ and has seen his life get put back together he didn't do that to the homeless ministry he did it because he loves know Jesus has access to the power of the spirit and saw a guy in need are you engaged because he this there is nowhere that's going to be revealed more accurately than in how you pray when you're following Jesus your prayers cease to be can i say it stupid and they start to become about the mission if God answered all the prayers that you prayed last week here's our vastity if God answered all the prayers you prayed last week in one fell swoop how many new people would be in the kingdom this week see that's a barometer it shows you where your heart is on all this the church is a movement and guess what movements move if you're standing still have you really embraced the message let me encourage you to engage in the mission of God today you're listening to summit life with pastor jd greer if you missed any part of this first message in our series you can listen again free of charge at jdgrier.com as pastor jd was speaking today did you resonate with some of those excuses do you want to move closer to living a life free of regret that pleases God if so we'd love to get you our latest bible study inspired by the series we just wrapped up this week titled something better something greater a study of Elijah and Elisha the secret behind Elisha's power here on earth was his fierce devotion to the God of heaven Elisha left behind an amazing legacy and not because he was thinking of this life but because he was focused on the greater things that were ahead this is an eight-part study with interactive workbook style questions and scripture throughout we'll send you a copy of something better something greater as our way of saying thanks when you donate to support this ministry the suggested amount is 25 or more and just so you know every penny goes towards reaching more people with gospel-centered bible teaching so join the team that makes summit life possible and remember to ask for your copy of something better something greater i'd also like to personally invite you to become a gospel partner gospel partners join our team by giving a regular automatic monthly gift to the ministry this empowers us to boldly proclaim the gospel through radio podcasts online and print resources we'd love to welcome you to the family today when you give us a call at 866-335-5220 that number again is 866-335-5220 or go online and give and request your copy at jdgrier.com or if you prefer to write you can mail your donation our address is jdgrier ministries p.o box 122 93 durham north carolina 277 09 and be sure to include a note asking for the book something better something greater and if you don't receive our e-newsletter yet be sure to stop by the website to sign up you'll get ministry updates sneak peeks of our new resources and pastor jd's latest blog post delivered straight to your inbox sign up today at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich be sure to join us tomorrow as pastor jd talks about the coming of the holy spirit and the birth of the church a pretty dramatic scene we'll see you friday on summit life with jd greer jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries