Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What We Do, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, Pastor JD Greer talks about our purpose in life. I'm just like, I'm just not sure if things going anywhere. I'm not sure what my life is doing. I wasn't eaten right. I wasn't taking care of myself. I generally had a bleak outlook on life. It was this truth right here that brought me out of that because I can remember the evening that God just kind of opened this up to me.

I was like, wait a minute. I am the son of a king. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with JD Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Bidevich. In the book of 1 Peter, Christians are called to be aliens on this earth. And that may make for a pretty cool bumper sticker or a catchphrase, but what does it actually mean? What does it look like practically to live as a citizen of heaven and not of earth? Pastor JD Greer answers that question today as he finishes up his teaching titled, Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What We Do. So grab your Bible and meet us in the book of 1 Peter chapter two. Here's Pastor JD. I recently read a copy of a book that my BFF, Tim Keller, is releasing in the book. He gives four different attitudes that Christians have when it comes toward culture and politics.

Here they are. Number one, he said, first of all, we've got what we call a pietistic stance. They're like, you know what? We're all just going to be raptured anyway, and everything is going to be burned up in the end. So our main focus really ought to be on just converting as many people as we can as fast as we can. Second group, he comments on what he calls the conservative activist group. This group believes that the problem with our culture, the main problem with our world, is that our culture has lost its moral absolutes, its bearings. The third group that he highlights is what he calls the evangelical relevance. These are guys that usually have a lot of piercings, a lot of tattoos, they wear sort of grunge jeans, and they say frickin' a lot, okay?

That's sort of this personality. They're like, no, no, no, no. The problem is that the church is too removed from culture. Here's your fourth group he highlights. It's what we call the counterculturalist group. God's arena is not the world. God's arena is the church. So that's where we ought to be focusing is this counterculture sort of thing in the church. All right, so here's my question. Four groups.

Which one is the right one? The answer is there's truth really in all of them. And all of them can find some biblical support and there's a sense in which none of them really capture the role that God's people are supposed to have in the world. Here we go, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. Peter discusses the identity of the people of God and what they're to be doing in the world as a result of their identity. And he does so by giving you several different word pictures.

Several different word pictures and we're going to look at those and then what they mean for you. All right, so verse 9. Here's our first one. But you are a, here's your first one, chosen race.

You underline stuff in your Bible, underline that or write it down. Chosen race. Every race has certain characteristics that define it.

I don't mean just skin color and that sort of things but cultural things. We tend to take pride in those things. God says, I asked you where you think that but no, therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness because you are a stubborn people.

You realize what he's saying to them? You're like, hey, what was it about me that made me chosen? What caused me to be chosen?

He's like, there's really nothing about you. Just wanted you to know that. You weren't chosen because you're special. You're special because you're chosen. That's a whole together different ball game.

That's not just a play on words. That's the essence of the gospel. In fact, in fact, in fact, he says this, look at this, all right, verse nine, God chose us to proclaim the excellencies of who?

I wasn't chosen because I was more moral or more intelligent or part of the upper class. God said his grace on me when I was spiritually a prostitute. I'm not a natural saint.

I'm a spiritual prostitute who's been made a saint by the gift righteousness of Christ. And so the gospel has produced the most radically diverse and inclusive community that the world has ever known. I'm like, every group is exclusive. Every group has defining characteristics about whether you're in or you're out. So yes, Christianity is exclusive, but it is the most radically inclusive exclusivity there has ever been because it has nothing to do with accomplishments or characteristics. It has to do with grace that is given to all people and all kind without measure, right? So they're a chosen race.

Here's the second thing. A royal priesthood. You are a royal priesthood. Are we reflective of God to people? Now, priests not only represented God to people, priests represented people to God, right? They would go before God and they would take the cases of people and they would present them to God. God puts me in situations because I am the one who knows him.

He puts me between his infinite compassion and somebody's great need and bridges the gap between those things. One more thing on priests here because I feel like people overlook this all the time. Priest's primary responsibility was not anything in relation to people. Their primary responsibility was something in relation to God. When God called these priests out, one of the things they did is they offered sacrifices continually to God. Their focus was loving and adoring God.

This goes all the way back to the Exodus. Americans have such this view of worship that is so self-centered. How do I feel?

Do I feel like raising my hands? The point is not how you feel. The point is what he's worthy of. And so we give a sacrifice of praise that is befitting the King of all the universe who died for us. It's a sacrifice.

It's first God-focused. Even the people we win to Jesus. Romans 15, 16.

Paul says that the people we win to Jesus, Romans 15, 16, are a sacrifice of praise to God. What is the motivation for what you do? What's the motivation? Why do we give our money at Christmas time so that the poor can be empowered and that the lost can be saved?

Why? Yes, it's compassion. Yes, our hearts break when we see people without Jesus and in need. But there's a higher motivation and that is just a sacrifice of praise to Jesus of love. So we are a priesthood. Now, look at the word. Go back to the verse.

Royal. Let me tell you what's interesting about that word in front of priesthood. In the Old Testament, you would never find those words together because kings could never be priests. There are only two kings that tried it, okay? One of them was Uzziah. And the moment he went in to offer a sacrifice, he was a king, God smote him with leprosy from his head to his toe.

That was a bad day, right? Then you had Saul who offered a sacrifice and God rejected him from being king for that. Kings were never allowed to be priests. In Christ, you had the first king priests and now us and him, we are royal priests because we have the access to God of a priest but the status of a king. That doesn't mean that you and I walk around ordering everybody around and making them serve us because we're a king like Jesus who came not to be served but to serve, all right? But it ought to change, watch, it ought to change your mind about your position and your status and your privilege before God. You are a king and a queen.

Paul uses this when he's talking to the Corinthians about how idiotic they're acting. He's like, you know, you can't get along. You're always fighting about stuff. Don't you understand you people are going to judge. Angels, quit acting like children. You are a king and you are a queen. People are like, oh, no, I'm just a worm before God. Yes, there is a part of that that is true. You are a worm before God.

That's only half the gospel. You're a worm that God has given the status of a king and queen in him so start carrying yourself that way. I remember when this truth really came home to me. It was right after I graduated college. It was a season after college where I was just very insecure. I was just like, very insecure about where I was going, about what my gifts were, about whether or not I had any real future. And I just was kind of, I kind of went into a funk that lasted for several months. It wasn't clinical depression, but it was just, I was just like, I'm just not sure things going anywhere. I'm not sure what my life is doing. I wasn't eating right. I wasn't taking care of myself.

I generally had a bleak outlook on life. It was this truth right here that brought me out of that. Because I can remember the evening that God just kind of opened this up to me.

I was like, wait a minute. I am the son of a king. Other people would have, if they were on assignment from the president, would have confidence and they would have courage and purpose. I am on assignment from the king of kings. I am blessed, favored, forgiven, and loved. And yes, I am a worm before God, but God has set his love and his purpose on me. And if other people would feel privileged because they had an appointment from the governor, how should I feel with an appointment from God almighty? That truth should affect how we pray to God. It should, get this, it should astonish people how bold you are in your prayers. It ought to, it ought to seem almost to them blasphemous. I used to see this with Muslims when I lived among Muslims.

Having the kind of intimacy and familiarity with God that a Christian is supposed to have is blasphemous to them. Because there is an intimacy that you have, that you have just because of what you know that he's made you. He's made you royal.

Right? My children, it doesn't matter who I am with and what I'm doing, whatever my kids need, they feel like is the most important thing on my agenda at that moment. You know, like, Daddy, I need you to turn the TV down. I need you to turn on the TV. I need you to do that. I was with somebody in my house the other day having a conversation that I thought was kind of important. And I hear my three-year-old from the bathroom just holler out, Daddy, come wipe me.

Get up, you know. That is the kind of confidence that you approach God with because you are a royal son or daughter. You are a royal priest. So some of you need to quit playing the humble game, which is really the unbelief game, and believe that God has made you his chosen royal son or daughter and you ought to come to the throne boldly to say, God, I am your child. And God, I have no questions about your willingness.

I have no questions about my prerogative to ask. And I'm asking you to do this because you promised you would do it. It should astonish the world how bold you are in your prayers. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online anytime at jdgreer.com. Before we get back to today's teaching, I wanted to take a moment to remind you about an extremely helpful resource that we offer our listeners in addition to this daily teaching. If you have questions about life, theology, or the Bible, you won't want to miss Pastor J.D. 's Ask Me Anything podcast. In each episode, Pastor J.D. answers real questions submitted by listeners just like you using biblical wisdom along with practical advice that he's gleaned from his many years as a pastor.

The best part? It's completely free. You can access Ask Me Anything with J.D. Greer by visiting jdgreer.com slash podcasts or by searching for it on your favorite podcast platform. Don't miss out on this great resource by subscribing to the podcast today. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.

here on Summit Life. By the way, one more thing on this. There are some traditions that have a set class of priests. I mean, you're familiar with those. Some of you came out of this. I mean, maybe it's still part of this. Let me tell you why our church does not.

There are two reasons. Number one, I don't need a human being as a priest to tell me what Jesus has already told me in His Word. So when a priest comes to me and says, I forgive your sins, I'm like, you know, Jesus forgave my sins when I repented and believed the gospel.

Acts 10 44, Acts 16 31, Romans 10 9 and 10, Romans 10 13, and about 500 other verses. Why do I need you to tell me what Jesus has already told me? It's almost like you come up to me and say, I declare your name to be Greer. I'm like, awesome.

You know, my dad gave me that aim 38 years ago, but I appreciate it, you know. I don't need a human being to tell me what God's Word has already told me. That's number one. Number two, you're all priests.

That's why. It's not a special class of us that went to seminary or got some kind of degree. I'm washed in the same blood that you are. You're washed in the same blood as I am. And it's not my seminary degree that gives me access to God. It's not my calling.

It is the blood of Jesus and you have the same blood of Jesus that I do. Therefore, we don't set a separate class of priests as if they had special privilege to God because you have access by the same precious blood that I have access to, which is why there is no distinction between a priest and a non-priest. We're all priests. You're a royal priesthood, right?

Here's the next one. A holy nation. Holy nation. A nation within a nation.

A nation within a part of a new nation. By the way, you'll notice this is why you don't have an American flag in here. It's not that I'm not patriotic.

I am. I'm very patriotic. It's just that in here, there's a unity around Jesus and around nothing else. It's not a unity around the American flag. It's not a unity around politics.

It's a unity around Jesus. And when people come in here, they ought to enter an entirely new nation. Think of it almost like an embassy. An embassy represents one country, but it's actually the territory of the other country within this country, right? And so when you go into that embassy, you talk to the representatives of that country. If the embassy is bad, if it's all disheveled and dirty, you get a bad impression of that country. Well, in the same way, when people come in here, they should have an impression of what heaven is like because this is not an American outpost.

This is a heaven outpost. That's why Peter is so concerned about what they're living like. He says, verse 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds instead and glorify God. That word conduct, by the way, is used 13 times in the New Testament. Eight of those times are right here in the book of Peter, because Peter is just very concerned about this. I want your conduct to reflect heaven. And what he's going to do for the next two or three chapters, or we're going to look at in the next few weeks, is he is going to show them what that's like.

But for right now, he just summarizes it in one word. Go back. Holy. Holy. You're going to be a holy nation. Now, remember I explained to you what holy means. I told you there are two things to know when it comes to the word holy. Remember this?

Don't break my heart. First of all, the word holy, the first image you ought to get, comes from the Hebrew word. Remember the Hebrew word? Oh, come on. You want to say it again?

I know you do. That's weak. If the person in front of you is not wiping stuff off the back of their hair, you didn't say it right. And it literally means separated. And so when you think holiness, the first thing you think is separation, separated from all that is impure. So holiness is separation. But I told you there's another dimension of holiness in the Old Testament. And we see that in the English version of the word holy.

It's not in the Hebrew word, but it's a Hebrew concept. And that is wholeness of beauty and love. So you've got separation from all that's impure and then perfection of love.

So that, watch, the holiest person who ever lived, Jesus, was not separate from the problems of the world, but actually entered into their pain, touched lepers, healed sinners, forgave them, and mixed with them. And I told you that holiness, a lot of Christians only think about holiness in terms of the first, separation. It's like when you get saved, you get dipped in this Holy Ghost Sanitation Lysol oil, and you get put in the church, and you just have no contamination with the world. Right?

No. Holiness is like Jesus, which means that if you were not, watch this, soiled with the pain of the world, you are not holy. Because holy is not just separation, it's, let me actually define this, I wrote this down. Our separation is not isolation, it is contact without contamination. Holiness is demonstrated by living among the pain of the world and keeping yourself free from the corruption of the world.

Like C.T. Studd, one of my favorite missionaries, used to say, he said, some people want to live in the sound of chapel bells, I want to run a mission a yard from the gates of hell. Because to follow Jesus, who was ultimately holy, means that you are among the pain.

Jesus taught about this in a great way in the Sermon on the Mount when he unfolded this whole new nation concept. And he gave two images that are awesome, that you got to put together. You get one without the other, this is where you get messed up. Right? First image he gave was your salt.

The other one's going to be light. Now, salt works best when it is scattered. Right? You don't want salt all together. I love salt. I ate way too much salt, put salt on everything. But even I don't like just get a bowl of salt and just eat it.

Right? Because that's bad. But when you sprinkle it out, it adds flavor, it adds beauty to food. Jesus said there's a dimension to the church that is not to be gathered, it is to be scattered because you are to be bringing healing, you are to be bringing beauty and justice and mercy into all arenas, culture, the movies, music, art, politics, all of it. You are scattered. He said, but there's another dimension, light. Light actually works better when it's gathered. If you gather all the light together in one place and it creates a light that is able to help other people.

Right? So if you had a bunch of candles, you put them together and then you can send a signal out to a ship that's coming in when light is concentrated. So there's a dimension to God's people that when you come together, you radiate the light of his glory by your love for one another, by your fellowship. That's what we do in here is we come together as light and we are Jesus' words, Matthew 5 16, a city set on a hill, the glory of which cannot be hid.

See? So there's a gathering and there's a scatter. There is, Jesus actually gives you a really good picture of both of these in the Sermon on the Mount. Right before he gives the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 4 23 says he's down among the people touching and it says all kinds of diseases for all kinds of people.

Salt everywhere, he's in everywhere. But then he comes up to do the Sermon on the Mount onto a mountain so he pulls up and pulls the people up and teaches them the beauty of the commandments of God, that's light. Now in my opinion, the church is a whole lot better at the gathering than we are at the scattering. And I would say we're not being a church until every single broken hurting part of Raleigh-Durham has a representative of the Summit Church in it being the salt of Jesus Christ to preserve and beautify. So scatter and then come together like this and we're going to put Jesus on display when we worship. But it's both of them together.

We're a holy nation. All right, last one here. Actually there's like one and a half more but the half one's real short. Okay so when I do this next one I'll be like, oh you promised to be done and you didn't. Okay here we go. Here's a people of his own possession. A people for his own possession.

This is my favorite one because some of your translations say coveted. You're a people for God. You're a people for God. You see this is going to become the wellspring of everything they're going to be able to go through because listen God cares about them.

Remember that verse from Hosea? God cherishes you. God cares about you. God set his love on you. Who cares if the world around you hates you? Who cares if everything falls apart?

God cares about you. Does that make sense? My neighbor took me out to dinner the other night and told me the most amazing story. He said about 15 years ago I was doing a lot of international travel and I was in London and I got in the airplane to fly home. You know I was in business class or first class and I'm sitting there and nobody is you know in the seat next to me and I said I was kind of excited about that until right at the last minute before they shut the door of the plane this girl runs onto the plane sits down right beside me kind of out of breath and I he said I was kind of bummed out because you know I don't have an open seat next to me anymore and I was like dude you're flying in first class get over yourself. So so he says so she's sitting there and he said so I'd struck up a conversation with her I'm like you know what are you doing in London? She said well actually I'm part of this a movie shoot that they're doing out here. He said well what movie is it?

He said well it's a remake of an old movie Peter Pan. He said oh well is there like anybody famous in it that I would recognize? She said yeah Robin Williams is in the movie and she named a couple other actors and he looked there he said that's great that's so good that's big for you isn't it?

I mean this is like a what a privilege and a responsibility you have. He gets up goes to the bathroom his friend run back to him and says do you know you're sitting next to Julia Roberts? And he's like who's Julia Roberts?

You know and so he goes back to her and you know knowing now that she's kind of you know famous but totally clueless as to who she is you know and now here's a question do you he said what was amazing was she was just so non-plussed about all this she's just you know whatever you know the she was already established okay pretty woman you know she's already established the fact that somebody who was who was culturally out of it didn't know who she was didn't bother her because her identity is already firmly established. See what I'm saying to you is God cares about you. God cherishes you. You are coveted by God.

Who cares what a bunch of Noah Count earthlings have to say about you? You're a people for his own possession. And so Peter says this is your identity. Church this is who you are.

This is who you are. You are a people that are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood.

You are a holy nation. You are a coveted people of God's own possession and you got a chance to build your life in a way like Jesus life that is permanent and that brings life and blessing to the world. And Jesus life brought life. That's what my life gets to be. I get to be used here on earth as insignificant as anybody might think my life is. I get to be a part of a building that lasts forever and brings resurrection healing to the earth.

That is something that gets me out of bed in the morning. You know Jesus told us to go and make disciples but that requires us to be intentional about having gospel-centered conversations with the people that God has put around us. People like our friends, co-workers, family members, and neighbors. So this month we chose our premium resource specifically because we believe it'll help you do that both practically and strategically. It's a book called Scent Living a Life That Invites Others to Jesus by Heather and Ashley Holliman. In Scent you'll learn how to introduce gospel conversations throughout the course of your everyday life. And the goal is to tell people about Jesus as you go. You'll find out what kind of gospel witness you are, find ways to pray for the lost, and read about some of the best questions to ask anyone to help jumpstart conversations about the gospel. We'd love to send you a copy with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

To give call us right now at 866-335-5220 or visit jdcreer.com. We'll also send it when you become a monthly gospel partner with us today. Our gospel partners are an integral piece of everything we do here and in fact we couldn't do it without them. We're adding more radio stations all the time and every new station means more people can hear this program but every new station also means new expenses. Unlike traditional radio we don't make money from advertisements.

We rely solely on God's people to help fund this mission. So join the family right now by signing up for an ongoing monthly gift of $35 or more. Call us right now at 866-335-5220 or visit jdcreer.com. Before we close let me remind you that if you aren't yet signed up for our email list you'll want to do that today. It is the best way to stay up to date with Pastor JD's latest blog posts and we'll also make sure that you never miss a new resource or series.

It's quick and easy to sign up at jdcreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovich and I am so glad that you joined us today. Be sure to tune in again tomorrow for teaching about the biblical response to authority. That's Wednesday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.