Follow Me and Multiply

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. God does not come to give us suggestions and then recalculate based on your response. He comes for total surrender and we always want to know the what, the where, and the how of God's will and God says all you need to know is the who. You're asking what and where and how and God says I'm not gonna tell you that. I just want you to follow because I'm God. Just close your eyes and take my hand. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Today we begin a new teaching series and Pastor J.D. looks at the life of Abraham, a man who gives us a picture of how God wants to use all of us. Abraham believed God for the impossible and as a result, God multiplied his life. God wants to do the same in our lives too but that journey begins by taking our hands off of everything we own and love and trust in and venturing into the unknown. Sounds a bit scary, doesn't it? Well, in a way it is but in an even greater way it's not. We're learning to follow God in a deeper way each day on this program so let's listen in to this teaching that Pastor J.D.

titled Follow Me and Multiply. Personally, I love the story of Abraham because Abraham is a guy that life did not just happen to him. Abraham happened to life. He didn't just go with the flow. He stood against family and society and culture and literally redefined the future for all of us.

I like people like that. Abraham was a man who multiplied his life and in so doing he gives us a picture of how God wants to multiply us and use each of us in the world. But when Abraham's story begins, he's got nothing. There's a little tragic irony in fact in how the writer sets up the life of Abraham. Abraham's name literally means father but he's 75 years old and he doesn't have any kids. Later on he's going to lengthen his name to Abraham which means the father of many.

In other words, Abram means daddy. Abraham means big daddy but he ain't got no kids. His life is like a cruel joke. He seems to have this destiny written into him but he's nearing the end of his life and he's got nothing.

It's almost like life is mocking him. I want to convince many of you that you're in the same spot as Abraham. God has destined your life to have eternal significance and maybe it's not written into the name that people call you but it's in your heart. You know that God has created you to have an eternal significantly impact but many of you look around and you you don't see it happening yet. Abraham is going to have to walk a path towards significance and multiplication and it is the same path that you're going to have to walk also whether you're young or middle-aged or old. I know that many of you yearn for this. You want your life to make a difference.

You don't want to just go through life and feel like it just amounted to nothing. Over the years one of my favorite stories that really kind of captures this is the account of the crazy flight of a guy named Larry Walters who lived in California and went out to the army navy surplus store and bought 75 used army weather balloons so that he could, in his own words, could observe the neighborhood from a slightly different perspective. And so on the fateful day he gets into the lawn chair. He, with the help of a few friends, unties the ropes so he can, you know, kind of go up to the altitude where he can see the neighborhood.

He takes with him a six-pack of beer, a BB gun, and a peanut butter sandwich. Two and a half hours later the Los Angeles International Airport reported an unidentified flying object at 12,547 feet, 300 miles from where he began his journey. Larry Walters, the pilot of the 737 who radioed in what he saw, he says, well I'm not quite sure how to report this but I see what looks like a perfectly steel figure lying in, is it a lawn chair? I'm not sure. I think he might be dead.

You probably need to send somebody up here and take care of this. By the way he has a rifle. What his friends tell us he had intended on doing was he thought that when he untied the rope that he would sort of lazily saunter up to a nice altitude at which point he would take the BB gun and he would shoot the balloons to keep him at the proper altitude, eat his peanut butter sandwich, drink his beer, have a great afternoon, then pop the other balloons so that he could lower back down and land back down on the ground.

What could possibly go wrong with that plan? His friends say that he didn't lazily saunter up to a nice altitude. They said that when he untied the rope it looked like he'd been shot out of a cannon and so he did, at that point he was so afraid he didn't want to shoot the balloons because he thought he'd turned himself over so he did the only thing he knew how to do in a stressful situation and that is drink beer.

And so he passed out because the blood alcohol level all that deal and so that's how he got in the situation he is. Well and with a rescue stunt that would have made Chuck Norris proud, the Los Angeles International Airport police sent up a couple helicopters, somehow managed to lasso Larry and get him into one of the helicopters, get him back down on the tarmac, revive him. The first people to confront Larry were not the reporters who wrote this story about the police who issued Larry a ticket for the obstruction of airport traffic to the tune of four thousand dollars.

He would later get it plea bargained reduced to fifteen hundred dollars but that's still awesome. The second group of people to get to Larry were the reporters and they asked Larry three questions. Question number one is, Larry were you scared? And Larry said, yes I was very afraid. Question number two, Larry would you do it again? And Larry said, no I would not do it again. Question number three they asked Larry is, Larry why did you do it?

Why did you do it? And Larry said, I just got tired of always sitting around. Now undoubtedly there are some of the details of that story that have probably grown with internet legend but the core of the story is true. I know I read it in an article on the internet but I've always thought that what Larry said there captures how many people feel in their lives. They're just tired of sitting around and they just don't want to get to the end of their life and feel like their life just accounted for paying bills and and just kind of recycling everything and that's the end of all that they did. That's the end of all that they did. You want your life to eternally count.

I know that because that's how I feel. And so Abraham's going to give you a path that shows you what that looks like. Genesis 12, this is where people always start Abram's stories, Genesis 12 but it really begins back in Genesis 11. So scroll back up just a couple verses and look at Genesis 11. This is the story of the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel was a project that symbolized humanity's rejection of God. The building of the tower was their declaration of independence from God and it represented humanity's wholesale worship of idols.

In other words spiritually this was a very dark age. There is one family line that belongs to God, only one, the descendants of Shem. But by the end of chapter 11 they live in a place of idolatry called Ur and they're just consumed by it.

They've compromised to it. The final guy in this line Terah has one son Abram and Abram is childless. In other words this looks like the end. Terah's name in Hebrew means literally moon which was a Hebrew metaphor for the end.

It's like us saying the caboose. Furthermore in Ur where they live people worship the moon so the fact that Terah is named moon means that his family had succumbed to the idolatrous climate and they've become idolaters themselves. So as Genesis 11 ends the last candle seems to be flickering out. The only godly family on earth has capitulated to idolatry and they aren't having any more kids.

The darkness is about to completely swallow up the light and there's no hope. Chapter 12 verse 1, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great and you will become a blessing and in you Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed. In the midst of this great darkness God calls a man who barely even knows who God is and one who is childless to boot and tells him that he's going to make from him a great nation of people who will worship and follow God and bless the whole earth with the knowledge of God. That is a promise that you and I inherited because you see to make a long story really short one of Abraham's descendants was Jesus Christ. In fact you can make the whole Old Testament really short in one sentence and that is one of Abraham's descendants would be Jesus Christ and in Christ God was going to offer salvation to the whole world and we who are in Christ are now commissioned to bless the world by taking the news about Jesus to all the families of the world. You see it's really interesting in Matthew's gospel the first gospel in our New Testament where it's where we get the clearest expression of the great commission which is the commission of the church to preach the gospel in all nations. Matthew opens up that gospel by tracing the family line from Abraham to Jesus. In other words the great commission is an extension of the promise given to Abraham. So Abraham's promise becomes our promise his command becomes our command and how he responded to that promise and command serves as a model for how you and I respond to God's promise in our lives. All right and so Abraham's experience is going to ask you three questions that you need to ask about your own life. Here is question number one, am I really following God? Am I really following God? This is a question about who is really in charge of your life.

Are you in charge that you let God be an influence in your life and he influences you to do good not bad or is God the one who owns your life? Last week we talked about it as offering a blank check to God. A blank check which means no restrictions no limitations all I am all I have all I ever hope to be I offer without reservation now and forever to you God to do whatever you want with it. One of the ways we say it around here is you put your yes on the table and you let God put it on the map. You see God's command to Abraham listen to this was intentionally open-ended. Go to the land that I will show you later and Abraham says where are we going and God says don't ask that I'll tell you that later and God says Abraham says to God will you tell me I'm gonna have a kid how's that gonna work because I'm 75 my wife is 60 and God says I'm not gonna answer that either. I love how John Calvin summarized Abraham's interaction with God is he says God says back to Abraham just close your eyes and take my hand.

I love that statement just close your eyes and take my hand but God what about this and how's this gonna work and he says just close your eyes and take my hand. I see so many people who are unwilling to do this because when God starts to work in their lives as he does in many of your lives and God begins to call them they got all these questions they would say well God if I surrender everything to you where are you gonna make me go am I gonna have to become a missionary do I have to change careers what am I gonna have to break up with my boyfriend what if you tell me to change some part of my life that I don't know how to change or don't want to change yet. God am I gonna become one of those annoying people who puts bumper stickers on their car and tells everybody to have a blessed day and who self-righteously corrects people at Christmas time when they say happy holidays and I say no it's merry Christmas am I gonna become one of those people God I don't want to be one of those people. I used to try to answer those questions for people when they would ask me until I realized that it was usually just people wanting to know where God was going to take them before they agreed to follow him. In other words they wanted to follow God without relinquishing the driver's seat in their life and that's an impossibility. God doesn't come to you to say hey let me be a good influence and then you can decide in a minute if you want to follow this. He says you come and you agree to follow or you don't come at all. He doesn't come to you to serve as an onboard navigation system whose suggestions you can take or leave as you choose. He comes as the new car owner. Thanks for tuning in today to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. For more information about this ministry visit jdgreer.com. Okay wait just a second can you feel it that festive cheer in the air that's just starting to spread? I sure can and I love the Christmas season the music the lights the gift giving there is so much to be excited about and for all of you who are looking to spread the joy of Christmas in a fairly traditional way we have a special featured resource this month. It's an exclusive set of 20 Christmas cards for our Summit Life family and these aren't just any cards they point to the true meaning of the season with a beautifully crafted gospel centered message on each card.

Plus there's plenty of room to include a personalized handwritten note to your friend or loved one inside. You can get your set today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. To give call us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. Now let's return to today's teaching once again here's Pastor J.D.

right here on Summit Life. Shortly after we got married my wife and I had an argument in our car that was one of our first one of our first marriage fights and after a few moments of awkward silence because she disagreed with something that I thought we should do and after a few moments awkward silence I thought of something I thought well this will be cute this will relieve the tension I said you know I think our marriage will go a lot better if you'll become like my other favorite woman in the world she said who is that I said the little British lady that lives in my dashboard it's our navigation system because when she makes a suggestion to me and I don't take her suggestion she doesn't get mad she just kind of sighs and says recalculating I was like if you would do that with me you would give me a suggestion if I don't take it don't get mad just recalculate that was not the greatest thing to say in your marriage I would not suggest it God does not come to give us suggestions and then recalculate based on your response he comes for total surrender and we always want to know the what the where and the how of God's will and God says all you need to know is the who you're asking what and where and how and God says I'm not gonna tell you that I just want you to follow because I'm God just close your eyes and take my hand now let me point out one other thing before I go on to number two because I've never seen it before in this passage and I found it this week and I wanted to think it really furthers what we're talking about this is a decision you got to make personally here's why I say that you go to the end of chapter 11 and what you find watch this is that Tara Abram's father actually began the journey he brought the the family out from Ur and brought them toward Canaan where Abraham was going to go but he stopped at Haran it was like the halfway point and so when Genesis 12 opens Abraham and God are in conversation and God is saying I want you to go and Abraham says but you know we've already come halfway none of the family wants to go they like Haran we want to stay here and so literally what God says in Genesis 12 if you transliterate from the Hebrew what it literally says is then go yourself out in other words get out yourself is basically what God says to Abraham the point is listen to this at some point you got to make your own decision to follow God it's not enough to be in a Christian family it's not enough to be attached to a Christian movement here at the summit church we're trying to do a lot in God's mission my question for you is are you personally engaged in it you see we did a church survey recently that revealed something really encouraging about our church the majority of you the vast majority are really excited about what we're doing as a church and where we're going right here was what was less than encouraging not nearly as many of you are personally engaged in what we are doing people love to watch our videos or hear me talk and they're like woohoo I love to hear stories about people coming to know Jesus yeah orphan care prison ministry mission trips volunteering man I sure hope other people will keep doing that so we can keep these stories coming God does not reward you for associating with the right group you can't piggyback on our engagement in the mission you have to do it yourself movements by definition move and if you're not moving personally you're not part of the movement even if you sit here every week are you engaged in the mission because the choice to multiply your life is a personal choice that you have to make and act on number two second question presented Abraham is what is your security where's my security you see God was not calling Abraham to make God a part of his life or to add a few tweaks to his morality he was calling him to a whole new basis of security in life you can see that in what he asked Abraham to leave in those days your family connections and your land that was everything it'd be the equivalent of God asking us to renounce our education walk away from our career and and uh and walk away from our extended family the question that it presents to you is are you willing to put everything on the table even those most precious things to you our former missions pastor was a guy named Kurt Allen he and his wife Hillary rewind the clock about 10 years ago they sat here as a this is called a normal triangle family they had two kids and they were he had a great job in a large company with a lot of room to continue to grow he was an executive he was making a lot of money um when God began to do the unthinkable with him here at our church began to put on his heart um all these unreached people groups around the world that had never heard the gospel and he said this sounded crazy you might as well have told me that I needed to raise you know billy goats in my backyard or um that's probably not that uh much of a stretch for some of you but I had to raise wild elephants in my backyard uh he said he said it just sounded crazy to me he said so my wife and I are wrestling with this and Hillary his wife would later write a book called sense that it all came to a head she said in one sermon at the summit church and she's our pastor she was you know talking about me was um preaching and he did some at the end of the sermon that I thought was really cheesy which offended me that she said that um but it just transformed our lives she said she said at the end of the service he said he had the whole church I had the whole church take their hands and extend them like this and in their mind put in their hands that thing which was most precious and most important to him which they held on to for security to put it in their mind into their hands and she said for me I knew it was my husband and my children that was my whole life you know for Kurt for her husband he's putting his career in there it's not that he doesn't love his wife and kids but for him his ability to take care of his family that was that's kind of what was most important and he said you know I asked them to take their hands and to clasp them around that object symbolic of how tightly they hold on to it because how important it is she said now then he's then I said imagine Jesus coming to you and asking you to unclasp your hands and your control on that thing and she said that when I said that she said I couldn't unclasp my hands I just started to squeeze tighter because I couldn't imagine ever letting go and she said I must have squeezed too tight that there was no more blood left in my hands she said and right then at the very end I just forced myself and said okay God you can control this and even this is on the table everything I am everything I have everything I hope to be I'm going to put under your full and complete discretion and Kurt did that with his career and he said that's when God began to just dramatically change our lives to take us into people who begin to bless the world through what we were doing and following him have you ever opened your hands on everything in your life have you given God surrender of those things that you hold on to for security here's how you know what you hold on to for security it's that area that you won't obey God in it's that area where you say no God you're not allowed to talk about that no God don't give me suggestions here no God you can't say anything there because I've got this and I'm not going to let you touch it is he the basis of your security and do you show that by your obedience number three have I offered my blessing back to God to be multiplied for his kingdom have you offered your blessings back to God to be multiplied for his kingdom because you see becoming a Christ follower means viewing everything in your life as something given to you by God to be multiplied for his kingdom there's a key passage we're going to go in and out of for the next several weeks the second Corinthians chapter 9 verse 10 where the apostle Paul says the one who supplies seed to the sower God will supply and multiply your seed for sowing question listen according to that verse why has God multiplied and increased your seed there's one reason what is it it is for sowing that's right for why does God increase your capacity it is to give you a larger reach to be able to impact and bless the world with the blessing of Abraham that's why you see there's two things you can do with a seed most seeds most seeds you can grind up for food think grain that's how you make bread you take the seed you grind it up you produce bread or you can take that seed and you can plant it in the ground and it produces more bread why does God increase the seed that he gives you is it so that you can just create more bread no it is so that you can multiply what he's given you so that it can feed the world with the blessing of salvation God is a rich giver God loves for you to benefit from what he gives you but listen to this God has not blessed you and increased you so that you could increase your standard of living he's blessed and increased you so that you could increase your standard of giving that's exactly what Paul says there now I know some of you are like wait a minute JD I'm not really blessed financially I'm really struggling and my life is filled with all kinds of difficulty I don't care who you are God has put things in your life that he intends for you to multiply the woman that Jesus told the story about who has only had two mites to her name two mites means two eighths of a penny she brings that to God and she says God here it is you're going to multiply it and Jesus said she gave more than all the rich people combined because she'd just taken what she had and said God it all belongs to you how do you want to multiply if God has put pain in your life God intends for you to multiply the blessing that comes through that pain by turning it into testimony of God's goodness and his faithfulness in the time of trial you see what it means to be a Christ follower as you say God if you give me prosperity I'll leverage that prosperity for the advance of your kingdom and if you give me pain then I'll turn my pain into a testimony of your goodness and faithfulness in the worst situations in life in the Christian life nothing is wasted everything that God gives to you can be multiplied for his kingdom and Paul says that's what God is doing in your life and when you do that when you begin to multiply it will increase the harvest he says of your righteousness you will be enriched in every way to be say the word together generous in every way which through us is going to produce thanksgiving to God because you give yourself to be multiplied listen to this other people will start to thank and worship God because of what you did God I'm ready to follow please multiply me is that your prayer you're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer and if you missed any part of today's teaching remember that you can always listen again for free at jdgreer.com I want to say a very special thank you to all of you who so generously gave yesterday on Giving Tuesday to help fund the translation of the Bible into a language that doesn't have access to scripture it's not an exaggeration to say that we have had the opportunity to change lives this week thanks to you and I want to remind you about this month's premium resource that we are offering to all of our gospel partners and anyone who makes a one-time donation of $35 or more to this ministry it's a set of 20 beautifully designed Christmas cards that you can send to your friends and family this Christmas each one has a gospel centered message on the front pointing us back to the reason for the season and plenty of space to write a handwritten note of encouragement and gratitude Christmas is coming quickly so you'll want to act fast on this to give and receive your set call us right now at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always visit us online at jdgreer.com I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us Thursday as we learn more about what it means to trust God and multiply see you tomorrow on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.