June 2, 2022 9:00 am
Do you know any “zombie Christians,” who look and act like they’re saved but are only going through the motions? Pastor J.D. explains the vital signs that reveal whether or not you’ve been born again.
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Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Are you following me to be with me? Because really following me means going with me through the highs and the lows. Not because of what you can get out of it, but for who you get to be with. Peter, is there a limit to, is there a condition on your surrender to me? Write this down. Salvation is free.
It costs us nothing. But following Jesus will eventually cost you something. Welcome back to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Today we've come to the end of this short teaching series called Phantom Faith. Pastor J.D. 's been talking about zombie Christians, people who look and act like they're really saved, but just like a zombie, they're already dead and just going through the motions of looking alive in their Christian life.
So the question is, does that describe you? If you've missed any of the previous messages, you can hear them online at jdgreer.com. And make sure you listen all the way to the end today because it is the final day to request our new 15-day devotional called Devotions for the Distracted Family and the matching set of conversation cards. Now here's pastor J.D.
with the final message in our teaching series. He calls it follower or consumer. I want to look at what is perhaps the biggest contributor of them all to Phantom Faith is the idea that you can be partially committed to Jesus. The misconception begins with how most people came to God. Most of us, you see, came to God as a consumer and we felt like God had something that we needed. God uses our need to show us that we can't make it on our own.
That's the way that he works. But here was the mistake that we made. We thought that Christianity primarily consisted in us getting something from Jesus rather than surrendering ourselves to Jesus. We assumed that Jesus was someone that we could add to our lives rather than someone to whom we offered our lives. Jesus seems to have dealt with that all the time. The reason I say that is because what we're going to look at today in Mark chapter 8 is a series of statements that every single gospel writer includes which may not be that significant to you but realize how many things didn't get included in all four gospels. John 3 16 only appears one time.
God so loved the world he gave his only son. I'm just trying to make sure that you don't lose the shock of what Jesus said because Jesus uses this image to confront a satanic perversion of faith. The one that is still commonly held by Christians. Christians who have the cross tattooed to their body or wearing it around their neck or have it hanging up in their home. A satanic perversion of faith.
One that is held even by Peter at this point in his life. It is called consumer faith. Consumer faith and it has three elements.
Here they are if you're taking notes. Number one, you have consumer faith if you expect Christ to remove all hardship from your life. When you discover when you find out that he may not remove every problem from your life you're going to go through a defining moment in your faith. You're going to go through a test like Peter did and that test that defining moment is essentially this question. Why are you following Jesus?
Are you following Jesus because of something that you thought that he could do for you or are you following him because you believe knowing him was more valuable than anything else that life could give? You see every single one of us has certain expectations when we come to Jesus. Your expectations are not the same as Peter had. I mean Peter believed the Messiah would overthrow Rome and give freedom to Israel.
Most of you didn't grow up dreaming about war with Rome unless you're like a video gamer and then you probably thought about it a lot. But most of us did grow up with a view of Jesus that corresponds to our American consumeristic culture. Our American consumeristic Jesus was part genie in a bottle. He's part therapist. He's part life coach.
He's part personal cheerleader and part financial advisor. He's a Jesus who exists for our purposes. A Jesus who completes our life. A Jesus who makes everything better. A Jesus who is at our beck and call.
Here is the question. What are you going to do? What are you going to do when Jesus doesn't quite live up to those expectations? There's going to be a moment of truth.
If you haven't gone through it already you're going to go through it. Are you going to throw up your hands and walk away? It doesn't record this here but at another point in the gospels when Jesus said this a lot of Jesus' disciples just turned around and left. They quit following him and Jesus turns to Peter John chapter 6 and says Peter are you going to quit following me too?
And y'all it's honestly it's not very inspiring. Peter goes where else am I going to go? I already left the fishing business.
I got nowhere else to go. You're the one with the words of eternal life. In other words no you haven't lived up to my expectations and there's some things I don't understand why you didn't do them and I don't understand why you say them and I don't understand why you didn't do this but I don't know anywhere else I can go because I know that ultimately life means knowing you and that everything without you is nothing and I've got to know you even if it means it cost me everything. Peter passed his test.
Are you going to pass your test? Because if you haven't gone through it yet you're going to go through it where he doesn't do something you thought he should do. The cancer doesn't go into remission. The marriage never gets better. Your husband never comes back. Your kids don't quite turn out the way that you thought they were going to turn out. You don't get the job.
You don't get the raise. Whatever it was that you thought he was going to give to you and that you can't understand why he didn't give to you. If you love me why wouldn't you give me this?
And at that point it's going to be a defining moment. Why are you in this? Because it's a test from him. Are you in it because you were in it for him or are you in it because of something you thought he could give you? Because the greatest gift he gives is himself.
Here is number two. You have consumer faith if you think of discipleship in terms of self-fulfillment instead of sacrifice. Peter thought of the Christ as somebody who would make his life better. But now Jesus is talking about willingly picking up a cross.
Why are you into this Peter? Are you thinking that following me completes your life or are you thinking of following me as being an offering of your life for others the way I'm offering mine for you? When you came to Jesus are you ready for this to be the picture of your life?
What did you think Jesus purpose was in saving you? Many people assume that it's just becoming a Christian means you clean up your life a little bit morally and in response you get God's help and he takes you to heaven. Jesus said that coming to him means offering your life to him without restriction. Offering up your life for the world in sacrifice and service the way that Jesus did his.
Here is my question. I know you say you come to Jesus. Have you ever offered yourself to God this way? You see some of you came to Jesus because you're like I need the sun to shine on my career. I need the sun to shine on my family. I need the sun to shine on my relationships and Jesus said nice start but that's not anywhere close to being complete. You don't come to me to add me to your life. You come to offer me to your life.
You don't come to get me in orbit in your life. You come to say God everything I have belongs to you and I want to know what you want to do with it and I have no expectations because I'm laying it down as a sacrifice in front of you. Consumer faith says God I need you to give me this. Discipleship says it all exists for you and I offer my life as a blank check to you. Or to quote my friend David Platt Jesus did not save us to disinfect us and put us on the sanctified shelf. Jesus saved us to put us into service. My question for you is have you ever offered yourself to God this way? Is Jesus someone that you tried to add to your life or is Jesus somebody to whom you offered your life?
Here is number three. You have consumer faith if your obedience to Christ has limits. You're a consumer of faith if your obedience to Christ has limits. Peter had been excited about following Jesus when it meant healing and power and popularity and if you remember he'd been willing to pay a hefty price to be identified with Jesus. He'd walked away from a lucrative fishing career.
He's not JV. I mean he's left everything but now Jesus is talking about following him into a life of suffering, a life of sacrifice, a life of service, a life where you give everything and get nothing back. And so Jesus confronted Peter with a question. Peter are you following me because of what you thought I could do for you? Are you following me to be with me? Because really following me means going with me through the highs and the lows not because of what you can get out of it but for who you get to be with. Peter is there a limit to is there a condition on your surrender to me?
Write this down. Salvation is free. It costs us nothing but following Jesus will eventually cost you everything.
Or let me rephrase it. Following Jesus will eventually cost you something. Maybe everything. Salvation is free. It's a gift that he gives you. It costs you nothing but following Jesus will eventually cost you something.
Maybe everything. You see at some point your desires are going to go one way and Jesus is going to take you to go the other. And at that point you're going to have to decide how valuable Jesus is to you. Jesus said when you come you don't come with a bunch of expectations.
You don't come with a bunch of conditions. You come to lay down your life and at some point I'm telling you salvation is free. It costs you nothing but at some point following Jesus is going to cost you something. Obedience to Jesus is going to take you in a direction 180 degrees opposite of what you want and in that moment you're going to have to answer the question did I come to Jesus to get something from him or did I come to offer myself fully to him? Jesus demands on you are total and y'all that's huge.
It's huge. It's the biggest thing that you've ever been asked in your life and if it doesn't scare you to death you haven't taken it seriously. And so Jesus uses three motivations to try to move you to it and that's the last several verses. There are three motivations. The first one's in verse 35. You see whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake though and the gospels will actually save it. Let me focus on the last part of that verse.
Here's letter a the first motivation. God brings life through obedience. So do you think you're losing your life? It feels like death but actually that's how you gain your life. It's how I give life. Obedience to Jesus y'all listen sometimes feels like death. Obedience to Jesus sometimes feels like death but through that obedience God brings life.
I don't want to be a part of a community that has problems and is messy but God uses that as a way of bringing life to you and your family. Obedience sometimes feels like death but it is through that death that God brings life to you. That's his first motivation.
Here's the second one verse 36. For what is a profit a man anyway to gain the whole world if he loses his soul? What would a man give in return for his soul?
Here's his second motivation letter b. You can't hold on to it anyway. Whatever you're holding on to that keeps you from full surrender to Jesus inevitably at some point you're going to lose.
And so let me just ask you a very logical question. Why would you what would you hang on to now that you're going to say then was worth your soul? Fast forward your life to five minutes after you die. What is there you held on to in life now that you're going to look back then and say yep that was totally worth it. I'm glad I forfeited my soul for eternity so I could hang on to that while I was alive. Because whatever you're hanging on to you're going to end up losing anyway. I heard a guy say the other day he says you know when they bury you they put you in a death suit.
A death suit looks like real clothes but a few differences it doesn't have a back and number two it doesn't have any pockets because you can't put anything in your pockets and carry with you into the grave. Whatever you're trying to hang on to you're not going to be able to hold on to anyway in eternity. You're listening to a message titled follower or consumer here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. We'll rejoin this teaching in just a moment but I wanted to tell you about a daily email devotional available from Pastor J.D. I know the busyness of life can quickly choke out any joy we feel in our walk with God so why not infuse each morning with a word from the Lord. The devotionals even follow along with our current teaching here on the program so you can stay plugged into the teaching regardless of your schedule.
To sign up for this free resource visit us at jdgreer.com slash resources that's jd g-r-e-e-a-r dot com slash resources. Now let's get back to the conclusion of our series once again here's J.D. You know Jim Elliott the missionary who was martyred in Ecuador had that famous statement he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. You're not a fool to give up what you can never hang on to to gain what you can't lose.
You are a fool however. You are a fool however if you give up your soul in order to hang on to something that you can't hang on to anyway. Essentially what Jesus says in Mark 8 37 is there's a lot of people who are giving up far far more to gain far far less.
What are you holding on to that you're going to say is worth your soul? You know the answer the answer is nothing there's nothing that's worth your soul and so Jesus pushes that logic on you now and he says think about it now what are you hanging on to that is really worth the cost of your soul of rejecting the lordship of Jesus. There's a final motivation that he gives you it's there in verse 38 for whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and simple generation of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with all the holy angels.
Here's the third motivation let her see Jesus was not ashamed of you. You see there was some irony in this verse and that irony is that Jesus who should have been ashamed of us wasn't. Jesus should have been ashamed of Peter. Jesus should have been ashamed of all the disciples. He should have been ashamed of you and me but the cross that he picked up for us was voluntary. Jesus was the only one with nothing to gain and everything to lose.
I have to obey Jesus because he's God. Jesus didn't have to pick up a cross for me because I was just a rebel he could have destroyed me yet out of love for me he identified himself with me and said I refuse to be ashamed of you and he picked up a cross to save me. And the implicit question and what Jesus says is is not this a God worth leaving everything for? What else would you want to give your life to? Here's God who didn't have to pick it up out of love for you. Why wouldn't you offer your life without restriction to him? That's a God you can trust. That's a God that's worthy of your life. Time I felt like I understood this again let me go back to the mission field.
I've been there about a year no excuse me I've only been there about four months and I got a call from a friend who was a Christian. He lived three hours south of me. He said man I need your help with something.
I said what is it? He said I can't tell you on the phone. So he said come down to where I am. So I got in a bus that night and I drove three hours down to where he was. He had me meet him at a coffee shop after midnight in a back room. It was just me and him one other guy that I'd never met. My friend says this guy tell him your story and this other guy said he said he said my name is he told me his name he said I'm 32 years old I've been a Muslim all my life.
I have no ambitions of being anything but a Muslim. He said about a month ago he said I just had the strangest and most disturbing dream. He said in this dream he said I awoke as it were in this field where as far as I could see in front of me behind me to the left and to the right he said it was just an expanse of nothingness and I walked what felt like years. He said you know this said this kind of felt like my life I just walked with nothing. He said and so I just kept walking and kept walking and he said after what felt like years suddenly I heard a voice behind me call my name. He says I turned around and there was somebody there who hadn't been there before and it was a man he said he said he was dressed in radiant white clothing his face was shining like the sun and he said he he called my name and he reached inside of his robe and he pulled out a copy of the Injil which is their word the Arabic word for gospel. He reached this out to me and he handed to me and he said he said this is the only thing that will get you out of this field. He said immediately I recoiled because that's a Christian a Christian book and I didn't want anything to do with a Christian book. He said and when I recoiled immediately I woke up it was three o'clock in the morning and I knew that I'd made a terrible mistake. He said the second night I went to sleep and I had the exact same dream same deal walked for what seemed like days again he calls my name I turn and he hands me the copy of the gospel and he said this time though said this time I wanted to take it he said but I just couldn't I couldn't do it I couldn't get the willpower to reach my hands up and take it so I just stood there paralyzed he said and then I woke up he said it was again middle of the night and I knew that I was making a terrible mistake he said third night I went to sleep he said there was no walking to the field this time I just appeared in the field and there he stood right in front of me and he called my name and he said this is the last time I will tell you this is the only thing that can get you out of this field. He said this time I watched my hands he said they were just shaking and it was like it was involuntary I just reached up and I took this copy of the gospel and I took it and I clung it to my chest he said then I woke up he said I woke up I was in a cold sweat he said now my friend here tells me that you are from America and you are an expert at the gospel at the end jail he says can you tell me what my dream means now I grew up really conservative Baptist we didn't roll with the whole dreams and visions thing we didn't have a class on that in seminary and so I was like well I was like bro you are so in luck dream interpretation is my spiritual gift um and for the next uh the next two hours two hours I just sat there and explained to him what the gospel taught and I got to the part about God dying on a cross for our sin and he remember he stopped me he said you mean you're telling me that that the creator God Allah Allah actually you're saying he died on a cross for what I did wrong I said yeah that's what the bible teaches I remember he had these big tears welled up in his eyes and he kind of just looked up and he just said he said Allah which means God is the greatest now explain explain what the gospel was what it meant and after again about two hours I said man I said do you want to you want to trust Christ as your savior he said I do I said well um every head bowed every eye closed I mean I guess we do this the same way over here and he bowed his head and I began to lead him in the sinner's prayer which is what I do with you almost every weekend here give you a chance and go through the familiar phrases Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner I know that you died for my sin I got about two phrases in and I said stop I said man I'm sorry I could look up here at me I said you know what this means right this means that Jesus is Lord and the first command he gave is for you to be baptized and you know in just a minute after this is over you're going to need to get baptized and you know you and I both know that sometimes in your country that leads to you being kicked out of your family it probably is going to mean you lose your job in fact you and I both know stories of people who've lost their lives when this happened I said are you sure you want to do this he goes oh yeah yeah I'm sure I said man aren't you scared y'all like you're the worst evangelist I have ever heard I said aren't you scared he said yeah I'm scared he said why do you think it took me a month to work up the courage just to talk to you he said but here's what I decided in that month I knew that you were going to tell me that that was Jesus that appeared in the dream I knew that I knew enough of what Christians believe and I knew I knew that Christians believe that Jesus was somehow God and what I decided in that month is if Jesus really did do what the Christians said he did and that is he died for my sin and he had died to save me and he was calling me to follow him then I would go with him no matter what I had to leave behind and if I lose my family I'm not going to want that and if I lose my job I don't want that either and I certainly want to lose my life but I'd rather have Jesus than any of those things and if I can't have Jesus and those things I'll take him over those things when he said that I was like I feel like I need to receive Christ could you pray for me I know your conversion was not that dramatic but the substance of it is the same what it means to come to Jesus is that you come saying I'd rather have Jesus than anything I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold I'd rather have Jesus than riches untold I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands I'd rather be led by his nail scarred hand I'd just rather have him and I don't care what I leave behind it's just a blank check because I just want him have you ever come to Jesus that way you see for Peter he would pass this test one day he would actually get a real cross he would actually die on a cross upside down it's going to cost you something eventually we have people in this church that are like oh I can't believe you're asking me to switch services again seriously my small group is no longer meeting on the night that is preferable for me I'm gonna quit going I can't believe this church is volunteering in the nursery the nerve of those people parking cars giving some of my money are you crazy I'm like are we even having the same conversation you're talking about I don't want to follow Jesus through inconvenience and meeting on a different night or going to a different service or making a financial sacrifice and Jesus is talking about having your hands nailed to a cross and leaving and giving up your life and I want to say do you even understand the conversation that we're having I don't really want to get wet in front of a bunch of people I might then I don't even feel like you're serious yet because if you can't follow Jesus into a tub of water then you certainly can't follow him to the ends of the earth with the gospel if any man will come after me let him pick up his cross and follow when Jesus bids a man to follow he bids him come and die so are you prepared to surrender everything most of us have never truly had to face that question because we live in a culture where Christianity is at least accepted but the question remains would you if you had to today we wrapped up the teaching series called phantom faith here on summit life with jd greer if you've missed any of the previous messages you can listen again online free of charge just visit jdgrier.com jd now that we've completed this study can you help us take a step back and remind us what this teaching series phantom faith was all about phantom faith is the idea that it's not enough to simply go through the motions of Christianity you've actually got to possess the new heart that Jesus forms in us most people in church know how to act the part but there's no real joy or life in their faith something seems missing this series is going to show you what that is and then help you you trade out that phantom faith for the faith that that truly lives the faith that is alive our new resource that we're going to provide along with this series is focused on helping you and your closest community dialogue about your faith it's one of the ways that it becomes real you know for whatever reason talking about our faith even with our close relationships our family or our close friends can can feel awkward at times we got a set of conversation cards that will help you begin that dialogue you're going to find that not only is your knowledge of the bible enriched but the joy you feel sharing that with those closest to you that's going to deepen as well i would love to give you a copy of these two things these conversation cards along with a set of 15 devotionals on faith and rest and hope that we would would love to give to you if you would go to jdguere.com and you can become one of our gospel partners and get this resource and a lot of other things that we would love to to partner with you in so go to jdguere.com today and let's start that start that conversation remember this is your last chance to get this set of two resources give and request devotions for the distracted family and your set of conversation cards when you call 866-335-5220 or you can request them both when you donate online at jdguere.com you don't want to miss out so be sure to contact us today i'm molly vinovich encouraging you to join us tomorrow as we kick off a new teaching series in the book of judges called broken saviors see you friday right here on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries
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