Live Ready, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. And I have to wonder if we got a lot of people who sit in churches like this one who have lives that basically look good. They keep the commandments. They go to church. They even pay their tithes. But when Jesus comes back, he says, you wicked servant.

Yeah, you kept all the rules, but you didn't take what I gave you and use it for the purpose I gave it to you for. Welcome back to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author and theologian J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch, and I'm thankful that you're joining us today on the program. Pastor J.D. continues our new teaching series through the Book of Luke called In Step, where we're looking at what it means to live ready for Jesus's return. The question for today is how do we stay dressed for action like Jesus tells us to in the Book of Luke? How exactly do we stay awake to the reality that Jesus could return at any time?

Today, we're finishing up a message we started at the end of last week aptly titled Live Ready. So grab your Bible. We're in Luke Chapter 12 today as Pastor J.D.

continues. This is the task for the church right now. Our mission is to make disciples from every nation. By the way, the Greek word for nations there in that verse is not a reference to the 206 nation states that are in existence in the world right now. The word in Greek, pantata ethne, all the nations is a reference to the different ethnic and language groups. You can see that in the word ethne, pantata all the ethnicities, the different cultures and ethnicities.

Sociologists say that there are a total of 17,442 of those ethne in the world in existence today. Our task is not finished until there is a thriving church planting, disciple making, disciple movement among every single one of them. You want to know what God is mostly doing in the world right now, that's it. So the question you've got to ask yourself is, are you doing anything personally with that? Are you giving? Are you praying?

Are you going? You see, when it comes to the great commission, it's like John Piper says, you've only got three options, to go, to send, or to disobey. That's one of our tasks. Here's another one I think this passage points to, and that is meeting the physical needs of the people around us. Do you notice that in verse 42, in verse 42, Jesus describes the faithful and wise manager as the one who gives others their portion of food at the proper time. I think you can deduce from that that the faithful servant is the one making sure the physical needs of people around them are met. He is using his resources to make sure that the people around him are met.

He is using his resources to make sure that other people get fed. The unfaithful servants in this parable are those who, verse 45, begin to beat the male and female servants and to eat and to drink and get drunk. In other words, they use, they commandeer what God gave them to bless others to take care of only themselves. And I'm sure they're like, but well, this is mine. A lot of people today in our church, in any church, look at their money as their own.

They're like, I earned this. I work for it. It's mine. I can do whatever I want with it.

Right? And so, I mean, yeah, I'll give God his, you know, little tax and everything, but if I want to use all this stuff to buy a bigger house, better clothes, nicer stuff, that's my prerogative. Whose prerogative would it be? It belongs to me. I work for it. But friend, realize that is not how God sees your resources. Yes, you work for it. And yes, God wants you to enjoy it. But the master said, who is the one who you think gave you those talents, who gave you the opportunities?

You understand there's a huge difference between walking through a door of opportunity and creating that door in the first place. That air that you breathe, those talents you employ, that health you enjoy, the earth you walk on. Where did all that come from? God says, I gave you all that. I gave you the ability to multiply money.

I gave it to you with the responsibility to use it for my purposes. But you commandeered all of that and turned it inward on yourself. And you got besotted with the world's pleasures and thought only about your needs.

And you got drunk on the world and you were asleep at the task. Do not miss this. God considers us not using our resources to bless others as an act of grave injustice. It's not just a failure to be generous. It is an act of injustice. I've shown you this before, but the apostle Paul talks about our failure to share the gospel with the nations or the people around us.

He talks about it in terms of injustice. Romans 1 14. Paul says, I am a debtor. I am under obligation to people that have never heard the gospel. You have to ask, why would he be under obligation to those people? He never met most of them. Why does he say I'm actually in debt to them so that if I use my resources and my opportunities not to get the gospel to them, I'm actually reneging on my obligations.

Why would he say that? It's because he understood that with the privilege of hearing the gospel comes the responsibility to share it with those who have never heard. And Paul is like, it's not like I was a less bad sinner. It's not like I was more deserving of grace than anybody else.

When God showed me kindness and let me hear the gospel that came with it. The responsibility to share with those who have never heard. And for me not to do that is to fail at my task. It's to live unjustly. Friend, do you want to live justly? Do you want to walk in a just way before God? Then you got to use what you have to help meet the physical needs of others and make sure that they've had a chance to hear the gospel.

You got to wake up to the task. Summit Church, there are still 7,413 unreached people groups in the world today. Which is a group of at least 10,000 people or more, united by a common language and no viable Christian witness to speak of. They represent 3.23 billion people. 1.7 billion of those who've never even heard the name of Jesus. They say that if you lined up all those people that I just referenced in rows, five across, five feet apart, that group would circle the globe five times. I need you to imagine a throng of people marching headfirst into eternity with no chance to hear.

And every single one of those is, it's just like you or me, it's me, he or she is made in the image of God just like you. Every single one of them knows what it's like to be lonely and afraid and lost and going to hell for them is every bit the tragedy that it would be for you or for one of your kids. I think of a place like Northern Yemen where we're praying about trying to get people, some families, members there. It's got a population of 8 million. It's almost the size of North Carolina. Guess how many believers there are in that entire nation?

20. 8 million size of North Carolina, 20 believers total. Are they worse sinners than we are? Is it fair for us to know so much about the gospel and do so little to get it to them?

So we would say we owe it to them. Blessed are those who are active at their task and active in it, awake to their task and active in it when the master comes. What about you? Hey, do your friends know about Jesus? When Jesus comes back or you or they die, are they going to look at you one day and say, why did you never tell me? Is Jesus going to look at you one day and say, what were you waiting on?

Who were you waiting on? I remember hearing the story of two junior devils who were talking to Satan. This is obviously not a true story, but they're talking to Satan about how to destroy the church. And one says, I know. I told him there's no God. And Satan said, yeah, that's not going to get that many of them because instinctively they all know that there's a God. The other one said, well, I know. I'll tell them there is no hell.

So there's nothing to be afraid of. And Satan said, well, you're not going to convince that many either because most know instinctively there's got to be a punishment for sin. Satan said, no, no, no. If you want to really ruin the church, don't tell them there's no God. Don't tell them there's no hell.

Tell them there's no hurry. That's the church that I would say, that is the question I would say is most applicable to our church. You live in a state of readiness as if eternity is real and the gospel is true.

Your friends know? How much are you yearning to get the gospel to the nations? How are you spending your money? Do you really want to be caught hoarding money that he gave you for his task? Don't let him find you with all kinds of money stuffed in your bank account that he gave you to help relieve people from suffering and to hear the gospel not be heard. Don't let him find and to hear the gospel now. I knew a very wealthy man here at the Summit Church who was also very generous. And I asked him one time, I'm like, what, like, you just are so crazy generous. What motivates you?

I never forget. He looked at me. He said, my goal is to bounce my last check. Right before I die, I want to bounce my last check. I said, well, then would you please make sure you write your second to last check to the Summit Church?

Okay. But you understand the kind of what he's thinking, right? He's like, I don't want to go into eternity with a bunch of stuff that God gave me for the blessing of the nations. Number one, you're awake to your task.

Number two, you'll be confident in his return. Y'all, the servants who got in trouble were those who were either unsure of his return or they just forgot about it. When you're sure Jesus is coming back, see, you start to look at everything differently. And you start to look at sacrifice differently, don't you? You can endure sacrifices on earth if you know that life is temporary and short and eternity is forever.

But if you think of life as forever, then you're not going to be able to sacrifice. Today, it's really popular to talk about bucket lists. You know what a bucket list is? It just means a list of things that you want to do before you kick the bucket. Things that you feel like if I don't do them now in this life, I'll never have an opportunity for them to do again.

So going to a Bon Jovi concert, climbing Mount Everest, shaking Nicholas Cage's hand, at least those would be what were on my bucket list, okay? One of the questions that I asked in this book I had that just came out called, what are you going to do with your life is, does a bucket list really make sense for a Christian? I mean, think about it.

Just think logically. You see, the Bible teaches us that when Jesus comes back, he's going to restore the earth. He's going to bring a new heavens and a new earth, which scholars say means renewed. In fact, in Matthew, when Matthew records the same teaching of Jesus that we're looking at, Matthew 19, Jesus introduces it by saying that when he comes, he is going to bring the renewal, Matthew 19, 28, of all things.

Literally the word is the regenesis. He's going to recreate everything, and he's going to renew the earth, watch, and he's going to take the curse out of it. And that means that where we're going and where he's taking us, there's going to be a much better version of everything we love down here.

All the pleasures of the world with none of the curses. And that means that anything that I miss out on down here, I'm going to get to experience an abundance up there. So if you never make it to the earthly Hawaii, you're going to have your own oceanfront mansion in the heavenly one. And you think the earthly Hawaii is awesome. I can't wait to get my eyes on the heavenly one if the earthly cursed one looks like it does.

And when I bite into a ribeye steak here and I think, man, this ribeye is still part of the cursed creation. I can't wait for the heavenly one. And if I never get to fly on a spaceship to the moon, which is pretty likely, in heaven I will get to fly myself there. So I don't think the bucket list really makes sense for the Christian, do you?

Right? And if we really believe that Jesus is coming back, because if Jesus is coming back, then YOLO isn't true for the Christian. YOLO, you only live once. YALF is true for the Christian.

You actually live forever. And that means that anything I miss out on down here, I can experience an abundance up there, except for one thing. There's one thing, only one thing that I know of that I can do down here that I can't do there, and that is tell people about Jesus. So why would I not prioritize that with my time, my resource, and my opportunities?

If you're going to have a bucket list, put that in the bucket. One of my missionary heroes has always been Adoniram Judson, if I made my son after him. Adoniram Judson wanted to marry a girl named Ann, and so he wanted to ask her dad for permission to marry her.

Right? So he writes this dad a letter. Let me read you the letter, or at least an excerpt of it. I have now, this man's name was John, I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to never see her again in this world. Whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and probably a violent death. Can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of the glory of God. Can you consent to all of this and hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her savior from the lost who were saved through her means and her sacrifice from eternal woe and despair.

Now first dads, what would you say if you got a letter like this from a young man trying to date your daughter? John Hasseltine said yes and Anne and Adoniram got married and went as America's first missionaries across the seas to Asia. They went to Burma, now Myanmar of course. And get this, every single one of those terrible things that Adoniram predicted and many more came true. Why could Adoniram and Anne and their father-in-law John, why could they endure these things? Because they believed time was short. They believed earth was nothing, that eternity was real and the master was coming back soon. My challenge to you is that you live in a way that only makes sense if Jesus is coming back soon.

Because that's what it means to live ready. Number three, last one here, faithful to your charge. Most sobering in this parable to me is how Jesus describes the fate of those who neglect their master's return. They are, verse 46, given a severe punishment and assigned a place with the unfaithful. Now you need to note that these are not overtly evil people.

They're just servants who were asleep at their task. By the way, this is not the only place where Jesus taught this. Later in Luke, Jesus is going to tell another story about a master who goes away and leaves different sums of money with three different servants. Five talents, which is a unit of money. Five talents with one, two with one, and one with one. Well, the guy who has five invests it, multiplies it, turns it into ten. The guy who has two multiplies it into four.

The guy who has one is scared, doesn't want to lose money, so he digs a hole and he buries it. The master comes back, guy with five turns it into ten. He's like, hey, here it is. Well done, good and faithful servant. Guy with two does the same thing. Well done, good and faithful servant.

Guy with one digs it back up and is like, here you go, I was scared. What's most arresting to me about this parable is what Jesus says to that servant, you wicked servant. I read that and I think, what wicked thing had he done? It's not like he took the money and blew it on prostitutes or gambling. He didn't steal the money. He gave 100% of the money.

He gave it back to the master. What wicked thing had he done? The only conclusion is there's more than one way to be wicked. You can be wicked by breaking all the commandments.

You can also be wicked by keeping all the commandments but not using what Jesus gave you for his mission in the way or for the purposes that he gave it to you for. And I have to wonder if we got a lot of people who sit in churches like this one who have lives that basically look good. They keep the commandments. They go to church. They even pay their tithes. But when Jesus comes back, he says, you wicked servant.

Yeah, you kept all the rules. You didn't have all these egregious sins, but you didn't take what I gave you and use it for the purpose I gave it to you for. We live in a land of abundance and that is God's gift to us. But it is so easy for us to become besotted with the benefits and pleasures that come from success that we forget why God gave them to us in the first place.

C.S. Lewis famously said, wealth has a way of knitting a man's heart to this world. We forget that God gave us what he gave us for eternal investment, not temporary pleasure. Have you ever asked yourself why Jesus gave you what he gave you? Are you faithfully invested at college students, young professionals? Have you ever offered your career to him?

High school students? You ever said, Lord, what do you want me to do? If Jesus were to come back tomorrow, would he say to you why are you doing that? Did you ever even offer this to me and ask me what I wanted you to do with it? What resources, talking to everybody now, not just college students and young professionals, what resources do you have that if Jesus came back, he would look at you and say, why are you holding on to that? Didn't you even ask why I gave you that?

Have you ever even asked me why did I give you that? What are you doing with your life? Obviously, you know I've got a book that came out by just that title and it's the question I think every Christian should consider, especially if you're in college or high school or starting your career or nearing retirement.

It's something you need to ask. Are you wasting your life or are you fulfilling your purpose? Blessed are those, blessed are those who are awake to their task and active in it when the master comes. Now maybe you're sitting there and you're like, well this all sounds great. I'd love to live this way.

This is a lot easier said than done. Hey listen, best part of the message. In this parable, Jesus tucks in a couple of amazing things that actually give you the motivation to do this. For example, verse 37, I'll give you one of them. Blessed are those blessed are those servants who the master finds awake when he comes.

Watch this, watch, watch, watch. Truly I say to you that master will dress himself for service and have them recline a table and he will come, the master will come and serve them. Hey, what is the master doing serving the servants? That's crazy.

Nobody ever does that. When the master comes home, the servants serve him. Now you've got a master in this parable who's going to come back and he's going to get dressed for service and he's going to feed them food and he's going to watch their feet and he's going to take care of them.

See this is the kind of master we're talking about. This is the gospel. Our salvation is not about our service to him.

It's about his extravagant gift to us. This is a master who served you at the cost of his own life, though he was in the form of God. He did not consider equality with God something to be held onto, but he divested himself of it and took upon himself the form of a servant and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. That's the gospel. It's right there in this parable.

Plus what he offers you is extravagant. Look at verse 44. Truly I say to you he will set that servant over all of his possessions.

All of them? By the way, truly I say to you, that little phrase, that's a little clue whenever you're reading Jesus's words. Jesus didn't have to say truly I say to you because he was in the habit of telling lies.

He didn't have to stop and be like hey now I'm actually being serious. No, whenever he says that it's because what he's about to say is so mind-blowing that you're not really going to believe it unless you turn your faith actively on. Jesus is like this is really true what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to put that servant in charge of all my possessions. Y'all I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but God has destined you to rule. He's not talking about promoting you to a higher class of slave or servant. He's talking about making you a co-heir with Jesus, part of his family.

We're not talking about promotion. We're talking about adoption. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. Not the slaves of God, but the children of God. See you might read this parable as threatening.

This master's coming back and I'm going to be cut to pieces, but consider this friend. Undoubtedly every single one of us, me included, deserves the punishment of that wicked servant. What punishment were they supposed to receive? Did you see verse 46? They were supposed to be cut in pieces and given the domain of the unfaithful.

Isn't that what happened to Jesus when he came? He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The punishment of our peace was upon him. He was numbered with the transgressors so that by his stripes we might be healed. Friend, I don't fear the coming back of my master.

Not because I'm totally worthy. It's just that that I know that he came and was cut into pieces for me. And the first time he came, he came to serve me.

That's why he came not as a ruling king. He came as a servant who would die in my place by living the life I was supposed to live, then dying to death that I had been condemned to die. And I know that if he served me the first time by dying for my sins, when he comes the second time, he's going to serve me by establishing me as a co-ruler and a son. So how marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.

How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. No matter what season of life you're in, you can leverage it to seek first God's kingdom. I pray that you are inspired to make that leap of faith today. This has been a challenging message from Pastor JD Greer here on Summit Life.

If you've missed any of the messages in this new teaching series, you can find them online at jdgreer.com. Last week, we introduced a brand new resource to help us memorize 50 memorable, encouraging, and challenging verses in the Bible. Pastor JD, scripture memory can seem like an activity for kids. So why is it important for us as adults to keep up the practice?

You know, Molly, I could list probably a dozen reasons off the top of my head that this is an essential thing to do. It's one of the most neglected, overlooked disciplines in the Christian life. What I've learned is that the Spirit of God can do amazing things in your heart, but He cannot use what you haven't put in there. And so, scripture memory is something we want to encourage here at Summit Life. Jesus memorized scripture.

We know that because of how frequently He quoted it. And so we want to do it. If Jesus needed it in His life to do spiritual battle, then we certainly do as well. So what we've done is we've produced a scripture memory card set. It's 50 cards that have some just incredible promises, some warnings, some gospel truth that will counteract Satan's lies in your life. We would love to give these to you. Make sure you get a set of our new Summit Life scripture memory cards. They're different than the ones last year.

In fact, the ones last year were so popular, we did it again this year. You can get the ones for this year that will take you through one verse a week for the entire year of 2022. You can get yours today at jdgreer.com. Ask for your set of the Rejoice Always scripture memory cards by calling 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. Or request them when you give online or when you make your first gift as a monthly gospel partner at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us tomorrow when Pastor JD continues this study in the book of Luke and calling us to take a step of faith. He'll talk about the scandal of grace. Grace offends most people and particularly religious people. We are hardwired to think that our worth is a result of what we do.

Grace throws this whole system aside and thank God it does because without the scandal of grace, none of us would have any hope. That's Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.