Be Different, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. The way of Jesus is countercultural in every society, just in different ways. Truly following Jesus was countercultural in the 1950s, though countercultural in different ways than it would be in 21st century America. We always say the Bible is an equal opportunity offender.

In fact, if you're not offended by it, then you're just not paying attention. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author and theologian J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, we should see our lives as beacons of hope in a world of despair because let's face it, the world we live in, like Daniel's, is often very dark and hostile to the message of God. But thankfully, he doesn't call us to escape this world. He calls us to transform it.

Today, we'll learn that the power to make a difference is only found in the commitment to be different. And one thing that definitely describes Daniel is he was different. So let's put ourselves in his shoes as we travel back to the ancient near east and are dropped in the middle of Babylon.

Ready to go? Open your Bible to Daniel, chapter one, and let's get started. If your life is shaped by the Bible, you're going to be stranger and more offensive to those people around you than Daniel was in Babylon. And not because you use weird Christian phrases or listen to Christian music all the time or because you dress like a weirdo.

It's going to be because you are opposite of the world and the three things that are most important to them. And you just look strange and offensive. I've heard it described like this. Imagine you're watching a big marching band on a football field. There can be like a couple hundred people out there on that field. If you've been in a marching band or you've watched one, you know that in the band, everybody in the whole place is looking one place. All the eyes are trained on the one guy or girl, that conductor, and they are marching in beat with their baton. But say you've got your binoculars out, you're in the stands, and you look out there in the middle of that marching band and you notice that there's one guy who's not looking at the conductor. He's got his AirPods in and he's listening to Drake or Lil Wayne on a radio station and he's marching to that beat.

How's he going to look? Strange, chaotic, out of control. That's not because he doesn't have rhythm. It's not because he's actually chaotic at all. It's because he's dialed into music from another place. The question is, what are you dialed into?

What baton are you watching? If you are marching according to heaven's values, you're going to look strange. Before I go on to our second thing, let me show you some really practical places. This will show up, and I want to press this because I really feel like this is kind of the bread and butter of it all for you college students and young professionals. If you are living by the principles of Babylon, then you will approach your career the way that every Babylonian approaches their career. Every other Babylonian in college is like, what career is going to make me feel the most fulfilled?

What career is going to get me the most money? That'll be your approach. If you're shaped by the Bible, you will ask first, what career, which career can best serve the Great Commission? We always say to our students around here, the question is not if you're called.

The question is only where and how. The call of Jesus to leverage your life for the Great Commission was not a special mystical thing that was given to just a few of us who went to seminary. The call of Jesus to leverage your life for the kingdom of God and the Great Commission, that call is given to everybody. Follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. So now if you don't have a gift to be up here or be in full-time Christian ministry, then you should think through your job, through the lens of how does my job serve the Great Commission?

We always say you got to get a job somewhere. Why not get a job in a place where you can be a part of what God is doing strategically in his kingdom? So we challenge our college students and our young professionals to participate in something we call go-to, which is to take at least the first two years after you graduate and spend it on one of our church plants somewhere around the country. We've sent out 1400 of our members on that kind of program who are just saying, hey, I'm going to pursue my career where I can be a part and leverage it so I can be a part of what God is doing. It's how you approach your career, fundamentally different than the other college students around you. If you're saved by the Bible, it will be.

All right, let's go to the other end of the spectrum. For those of you approaching retirement, if you are shaped by the Bible, then you're not going to be thinking, finally, when you get to retirement, finally, I got enough money where I can just get up and do what I want to do all day with no obligations. Instead, you will think, okay, how can I use this chapter where I have the arguably most to contribute and the least financial need, how can I use that season to invest in Jesus's kingdom? Some of you who are retired or about to retire need to think about what you have to offer.

I mean, really, you don't have financial need anymore because you've saved wisely, right? And now you're at a place where you've got a lot to contribute because you've got a lot of wisdom. And you understand that Jesus didn't bring you here to this chapter of your life to spend the next 15 or 20 years on vacation before you go into eternity. Here's another way to think about that. Is the trajectory, this would apply to all of you, is the trajectory of your life right now, is the trajectory going towards suffering or away from suffering? The people of Babylon use their power and their money to take them away from suffering. That's the point, right?

Nice house, comfortable, everything. I'm moving away from suffering. They want to isolate themselves from suffering. For the follower of Jesus, it's the opposite. The trajectory of their life moves towards suffering. That means the more power and the more money that you have, the more you're freed up to bless others and more capacity to bless them with.

If financially I am in a place where I can retire early, that means I'm freed up to serve in a new capacity. We never really retire because there are always people who need Jesus. You understand the American, what's called the Babylonian dream and the gospel mission will take you to two entirely different places. How you process these values will show what kingdom you belong to. Those values will show up in how you manage your Christian business or your business if you are a Christian. I know of a Christian business owner who, for example, has committed to invest 10% of all his profits back into God's kingdom. Listen, that is not a requirement nor is it a formula that God guarantees will make you successful. I know another man who feels like God has called him to invest 90% of his profits. All I'm saying to you is you need to prayerfully discern what God is calling you to do.

You've got to ask that. The point is you live by a different set of values. For those of you who are not business owners, these values will show up in how you manage your personal budget. I've explained this to you before, but if you're committed to follow Jesus with your money, you will be at least three steps behind everybody else who makes the same amount of money as you. Here's one thing I've learned about human nature, and that is we all know kind of instinctively who is about the same income level as us, and we are always comparing ourselves to them and how they live, right? Well, how do they afford that? They must be house poor.

Well, clearly they spend all their money on clothes. See, the Bible teaches us three things about our money that will distinguish us from everybody else who makes the same amount that we do. Number one, it tells us don't go into debt.

They say the average Raleigh citizen lives about five percent above their means and is somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 in unsecured credit card debt. The Bible says you're following Jesus. That's not going to be what you're trying to do. Number two, it tells us to save. The book of Proverbs tells us that the wise man saves. Number three, it tells us to be generous. Ten percent is generally the starting point for that. That means if you are following biblical values with your money, you're going to be at least three steps behind everybody else that makes the same amount of money as you because you're going to not be willing to debt. You're going to be saving.

You're going to be giving away about 10% or more. And when you're living three steps behind everybody who makes the same amount of money as you, that's noticeable. Does your life look different in these areas? Number two, we show that we are different by refusing to compromise our integrity. These four Hebrew young men did not compromise their convictions, even when doing so threatened to cost them greatly. For the follower of Jesus, convictions are not something that can ever be set aside because everything that we do is done first and foremost as an offering to Jesus. It's only secondarily as a means of obtaining a bottom line. Pastor Brian told me about a hotel owner at his previous church that chose not to offer pornography as an option on the TVs at his hotel, even though that is one of the most lucrative things that a hotel owner can do.

It brings in, they say, about $100,000 of profit, just profit per year, even for a small hotel. And he said, I can't do it because it's just hard to see me offering that money as a sacrifice to Jesus. Or maybe you've heard the story of Eric Little, whose story was featured in the movie Chariots of Fire. Eric Little was an incredible, incredible runner who was also a very committed Christian.

He would end up going to China as a missionary and dying there in China in the 1940s. But in the 1920s, he was recruited for the 1928 Olympic team for Great Britain. He was a 100-meter sprinter.

Everybody thought, man, he's going to win gold. But when he gets to Paris that year, he is told that the 100-meter qualifying event to get into the finals was going to be held on a Sunday. And his convictions were that he shouldn't run on Sunday. He considered that work. His convictions were that the Lord's Day was for the Lord and that it was dishonoring to God for him to run on Sunday. So the British team appealed to the Olympic committee to change the day to the heat, but the Olympic committee wouldn't budge. So then they appealed to Eric to just like, man, it's not going to hurt anything.

Just do it this once. But he wouldn't budge either. And it became this huge scandal. The British media just skewered him.

He was like a worldwide laughingstock for a few days. His team, not knowing what else to do, just switches him over to the 400-meter race. But those of you that have run track, you know that that's a totally different race and you train for it in completely different ways. But against all odds, in an almost unheard of miraculous way, he wins. And after he wins, he says, he says, the reason I won is because scripture says those who honor God, he will honor. Now again, that is not a promise or a magic formula.

Cause like I said, you're going to see this. Sometimes you do the right thing and you suffer. Books like Daniel show us that God often uses your refusal to compromise as the vehicle through which he will show off his power and glorify his name. Number three, we show that we are different by conforming to scripture, not to culture. The way of Jesus is counter-cultural in every society, just in different ways. Truly following Jesus was counter-cultural in the 1950s, though counter-cultural in different ways than it would be in 21st century America. We always say the Bible is an equal opportunity offender.

In fact, if you're not offended by it, then you're just not paying attention. In some cultures, it is the scripture's teaching on the sanctity of marriage that offends the culture. But in others, it's the scripture's emphasis on grace and generosity and giving away power that offends. In some cultures, it's Jesus's emphasis on the equality of all peoples as made alike in the image of God that offends the culture because that threatens to overturn the power structures. Yet in other cultures, it's God's authority over his creation that offends, like the fact that God says he made male and female differently, and we can't overturn the system or reassign our gender because it feels right to us.

One of the great tragedies, the great tragedies of the church in the West is how often and how consistently we have conformed to Babylon. In my library, I'll give you an example. I've got a three-volume history of slavery in the world that's written by an African-American scholar. One of the things that he points out is that slavery was present in almost every culture in history. He says, one of the common characteristics of sinful, fallen men is that we tend to use whatever power we have to exploit those who are less powerful. One of the primary expressions of that throughout history has been slavery. So you study all these cultures in history, and you're going to find that that's present in all of them. It was true in Asian cultures. It's been true in African cultures. It's true in European cultures. Numerically, he points out, the largest slave trade took place in Arab cultures.

The terrible European slave trade trafficked 11 million Africans, but twice that many, north of 22 million, were bought and sold on the Arabian Peninsula during that same time period. He says the real tragedy, the real scandal, though, is that Western cultures espoused a gospel. They alone espoused a gospel that undermined the very nature of slavery, a gospel they had to willfully blind their eyes to in order to participate in slavery. That's because their conformity to Babylon was stronger than their convictions in the Bible. Our gospel taught that all people were made in the image of God.

Therefore, one shouldn't own the other. It taught us that Jesus died for all people equally alike, and thirdly, that it was the responsibility of the strong to lift up the weak, not oppress them, like Jesus did for us. And yet, we find the church in the West not only complicit in slavery, we find them as a defender and proponent of it in several places.

What happened? They conformed to Babylon, and that left a legacy of damage both in our society and to the credibility of the church's witness that we still have not recovered from. Now, do not get all sanctimonious right now and say, well, we learned our lesson there.

We're not going to do that again. Don't you see the church doing it again in other areas? For example, as Babylon shifts its views on sexuality and gender, any study you look at will show you that many in the church are going right along with it. You can go home and just Google.

It's not hard to find. You see attitudes within the church on things like same-sex marriage changing right along with the culture. I got a friend who teaches a religion class in public school. He's not a Christian. He says, you know, it's interesting just watching. He said, you know, I've taught now for 30, 40 years. He said, so 15 years ago, if you were to ask like who thinks that like same-sex marriage isn't God's plan or is it, you know, is it right? He said about, it was about 50-50. He said that was pretty much the line between those who went to church and those who didn't. He said about five years ago, I noticed it was shifting to about two-third, one-third. He said now. He said it's one, maybe two, sometimes no kids in the class that will say, yes, I think that is wrong. He said that's not because any fewer of them go to church. It's simply because it's just they're just modeling what the rest of the culture is saying.

It's caving. It's conforming to Babylon. And listen, do not congratulate yourself because you get the slavery question right or because you're so bold about the wrongness of discrimination. Nobody really debates that anymore. I'm not saying that we have achieved a racially just society or that there is not more work to be done because there is. I'm just saying that very few overtly embrace racism anymore. The question is what you're going to do with those things that our culture today requires us to conform to.

What you're going to do with those royal foods it requires us to eat. There's this famous line that's attributed to the reformer Martin Luther. He says the courage of the soldier is tested in how well he stands where the battle is the hottest. Not in how brave he postures himself where the battle is passed. You don't show the courage of a soldier by going to the place where the battle used to be and being like, man, I would have stood right here and this is, I'm just here and I've got my thing and I'm ready to fight. You show your courage by what you do where the battle is the hottest. Stop thinking you're so righteous because you virtue signal on things that are not really controversial anymore.

If you want to be like Daniel, you take your stand at those places where doing so puts you most out of fashion with CNN and the New York Times and the culture around you. Where people say, well, oh, you're on the wrong side of history. And you're like, well, I don't care what side of history I'm on.

I'm on the right side of Jesus. That's what I care about. And I'm telling you, if the church in 1860 had done this, we'd be in a different place today. And if the church today will do that, future generations will be in a different place also. What are you going to do when abstaining from the King's table cost you? For some of you not conforming to Babylon and these things might cost you your job.

For Daniel not conforming to Babylon threatened to cost him his life. And please don't think that I'm talking about just right or left issues as if I'm trying to push you from one political leaning to the other. Being shaped by scripture is going to put you out of fashion with both the political left and the political right. I'm not saying that both these platforms are morally equivalent or that there's no wiser choice between them.

I'm just saying that neither for us fully captures the essence of the kingdom of God, because both of them are the political parties of Babylon. There are many things that are associated with the political left that we must profoundly reject. How they treat unborn human life like a commodity to be discarded at will for the sake of convenience. How they reject Christian understandings of morality and gender and call that oppression.

How they leave no room for disagreement on these matters and threaten to cancel you if you object. But there are many things associated with the political right that we must also reject. Some on the right go way beyond a healthy patriotism and an appreciation for American freedoms. They go to an unhealthy embrace of Christian nationalism, sentimentalism, and outright lies about the history. Where we are urged to place our hope for the future and American exceptionalism and military might.

Some on the right speak as if our only responsibility is to protect our own rights and pursue our own interests and don't have any responsibility for less privilege around us. A follower of Jesus is going to look different from all things Babylon. And that's because ultimately he's part of a different kingdom, not a better version of a Babylonian kingdom. The Christian doesn't belong to the donkey. The Christian doesn't belong to the elephant. The Christian belongs to the lamb and that's a whole different animal. And you're going to see a difference.

That's our main idea. You're not going to make a difference unless you're different. In the New Testament, Jesus compared it to being salt. Salt, he said, preserves the food that it's in and it also brings out the beauties of flavor in the food. In other words, Jesus is the truer and better lowry seasoning salt.

Write that down, okay? But Jesus said if the salt loses its saltiness, what good is it? It's worthless. Just throw it out. Just white powder.

Sand. Same thing is true, he said, of the Christian that conforms to the world. They neither help preserve the culture they're in nor do they demonstrate the distinctive beauty of Christ in the culture. And as such, they become useless to God and useless to the world for that matter. One of the great ironies of Christian history in our country is that around the 20th century, mid 20th century, as our culture began to change its opinion on Orthodox Christian teaching and Christian morality, you found that a lot of these, what they call mainstream churches, big denominations, they changed right along with it.

And you can go back and read their justification. They said things like, well, if we don't change our old fashioned outdated views on these things, we're going to be so offensive to culture that we'll just lose all influence. And yet, these churches and those denominations that did that, well, they've been the ones that shrunk the fastest.

Today, their numbers are incredibly small and they've become altogether irrelevant. If you want to make a difference, you've got to be different. The gospel is counter-cultural in every culture and it's always going to be offensive at some of the key places, but it has life in it. And it's from a different place and there's a kingdom. And all of a sudden you're preaching and God's given life through it. The best example of this is Jesus. Jesus' ministry was a paradox, right? Because there's never been anybody who's so exalted, God's standard of righteousness. Jesus said that sooner would heaven and earth pass away than he compromised one jot or tittle of God's moral code. And yet, and yet at the same time, never has there been anyone who so effectively gathered in the outcast and the non-religious beside him, be they the prostitutes or the tax collectors, all of them wanted to be around him.

Why? Because his life pointed to an entirely different kingdom, a heavenly kingdom of purity and wholeness and grace. And so watching his life was like watching somebody dance to a different beat, a heavenly beat.

You can't even hear it yet, but you know what's wonderful? The point of Daniel, the point of Daniel is not Daniel. That's what Daniel's really about somebody else. The point of Daniel is not that Daniel and his friends could ever be righteous enough to win Babylon back to God.

Point of Daniel is that not that you can be either. Daniel's life is itself a prophecy about a savior who would come, a savior who would perfectly display the kingdom of God, a savior who would not defile himself with any of Babylon's delicacies, though it cost him his very life. You see, unlike Daniel, Jesus wasn't just threatened with death for doing the right thing. Jesus actually suffered it. And then in the ultimate act of courage, Jesus displayed the kingdom of God by offering grace and salvation to those who had killed him. And God did not simply make him look better and healthier after 10 days of righteousness.

God raised him from the dead after three days. And see now because of that, because he's demonstrated the victory for us as we follow his pattern, we can demonstrate the beauty of God just like he did. We're going to see some great things in the book of Daniel. But hear me, the point of Daniel is not dare to be a Daniel.

The point is not be brave like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The point is Jesus has been the one who demonstrated the perfect beauty of God. And it was through his death and his resurrection that he showed who had the victory. And it is through those things that you and I have victory.

And we can just imitate him now. And now he wants to use us like he's going to use Daniel and Babylon while he used Jesus in the world. He puts you here to make a difference. He puts you into Babylon and you'll make a difference by being different, not being a slightly more religious version of the same. Are you willing to be different to make that difference?

Ask God to make you different. Pray and ask him for the strength and courage to transform the world, not run from it. Be a beacon of hope for others.

You're listening to Summit Life. And if you'd like to listen to this message again or share it with a friend, visit jdgrier.com. As we live our lives in Babylon, we pray for its security and welfare. We look for ways God is at work there and join him in his mission in the world. We recognize how he is at work in us and setting us apart as we become more like him, even as we intertwine our lives with unbelievers. We make Babylon our genuine home and maintain pursuits that add to its wellbeing.

For as it thrives, we thrive. That's what we should walk away from the book of Daniel with, a better understanding of how to live and thrive as exiles. We have a brand new Bible study designed specifically to help you process this exact message, to help you examine the scripture and apply it to your life.

It's a workbook that will teach you how to study the Bible on your own. And we'll send you a copy as our thanks when you give to Summit Life. Call right now 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220. Or if it's easier, go to jdgrier.com. And if you're not signed up for our weekly e-newsletter, be sure to do that today. You'll get information about new resources, as well as blog posts and devotionals from JD.

It is the best way to stay in touch and it's completely free. Sign up online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich, encouraging you to join us next week when we continue our new teaching series, The Book of Daniel, Shining in Babylon. Be sure to join us again Monday right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.