The Making of a Witness, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If salvation belongs to God, then prayer, asking God to do what only God can do, should be our greatest resource. Now here, Jonah's not an example for us. Jonah wasn't praying for the nanomite's salvation. In fact, he was praying against it. So here's a question. You ready for this? If God answered right now, in one fell swoop, every prayer you prayed last week, would anybody new be in the kingdom? Welcome back to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich, and we are glad that you're back with us to start the week. Since the internet boom of the 90s, top tech companies across the country have employed a buzz worthy business model of schmoozing clients and entertaining audiences to promote their goods, services, and company brands across the globe. Called the art of evangelism, this method of pushing products and services has revitalized the tech industry. But today, as Pastor J.D. continues our study in the book of Jonah, he reminds us that biblical evangelism isn't about schmoozing or entertaining.

In fact, there's really no art to it at all. It's simply about sharing God's free gift of salvation to those in need. Remember, you can always catch up with our past teaching by visiting us at jdgreer.com. But right now, go ahead and grab your Bible. We are in Jonah chapter three. Verse three. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey and he called out as he went, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and they put on sackcloth and from the greatest of them to the least of them, the word reached the king of Nineveh and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth. Verse seven. And he issued a proclamation and published it through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them, he says, call out mightily to God and let everyone, says the king, turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Who knows? God may turn and relent from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Verse 10.

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them. All right, there's a lot of different directions we could take this passage but I want to use this passage to reflect a little bit on the nature of how God uses you to work in people's lives. God using you to bring people to himself is what we call evangelism. Becoming an effective evangelist comes from believing two things, two very simple things, both of which you're going to see in this story.

All right, here's number one. Number one or letter A, salvation belongs to the Lord. It comes from believing that salvation belongs to the Lord, Jonah 2 9. It's like I showed you in this text, Jonah's sermon was not even that impressive.

Five words long. His heart wasn't even in it. But God used it.

Why? Because God is the one who works salvation. John 6 44. Nobody comes to me unless the father who sent me draws him. That means that people can't come unless God draws them and if God's drawing them, they'll come.

Now that might make your mind hurt but it should also make you relax because that means the weight is off of your shoulders. It's not on you to convince them. God does the drawing and the convincing and the persuading. You can give the finest presentation of the gospel ever and if God is not working in their hearts then what you said won't have the slightest effect. At the same time, you can give the lousiest presentation of the gospel and if God is working in their hearts like Jonah gave the lousiest presentation of the gospel ever, God will use it because salvation belongs to whom? To God. Salvation belongs to God.

Number two or letter B. Faith comes only by hearing. Faith comes only by hearing. That's Romans 10 17.

Now that's not obviously in Jonah but you see it there in Jonah 3. God's instrument of life is his word. The word of God is not just information that God wants us to know.

It's not commands. The word of God has a power in it. The word of God is a power.

So here is the important part for you. The word of God cannot do its work where people haven't heard it which means that our objective is to get the word of God into people's lives to get them in the presence of it because then and only then can God do his work. You see God is at work all around you like he was in Nineveh but there's a part that only you can do. You study the book of Acts. The only beings who preach the gospel in Acts are humans. If you've never seen this, there's this big point trying to be made.

I'll give you some examples. Acts chapter 8 there's a guy that they call Ethiopian eunuch who's reading the scroll of Isaiah and he comes to the part in Isaiah 53 about you know Jesus dying for sins and he's like I don't know what this means. Okay so what God does is rather than like appearing as an angel to him and explaining to him what that means he gets Philip from over in Samaria and he teleports him teleports him out into the desert so that Philip can expect feels like what am I doing here he said just hang on just wait he's like oh I know why I'm here and he shares the word of God to him. Now why would God if a God who could do anything why would he just like save Philip the trouble let him stay there in Samaria if he's going to go to all the magic stuff why not just do it himself the only human being can do it. Acts chapter 9 Paul Saul at this point Jesus appears to him and says Saul what are you doing it's hard for you to kick against the the prodding of the Holy Spirit and Saul's like oh I'm sorry you know so what does Jesus tell him to do he says go talk to Ananias and Ananias shares the gospel with him. The point that's being made dramatically is that the word of God has to be spoken to the lips of a human but God is all around you doing the rest. See if you would just open your eyes to those two facts that salvation belongs to God and that faith only comes by hearing and hearing only by you it would have the most profound effect on you. Believing those two things makes you into a bold confident and effective person who shares the word of Christ with others.

I've seen so many illustrations of this through my life. Years ago I had a part-time job as a I worked in yard and yard maintenance and I worked with a group of guys that were just very very rough you know just and they cursed like I mean like nobody's business I got I mean I learned some new this they could creatively cuss I never realized it was an art you know these guys it was like man I need to write that down that's totally foul but that was that was great right so they would cuss all the time. This one guy who was the the leader of it I never even learned his real name we called him Ivan because he looked like a big I don't know where his ethnicity was from he looked like a big Russian guy he's huge guy and he just cursed I mean he could not speak a sentence without you know dropping all these foul words in it and one day he got on a kick saying like the queen mother of all curse words you know I'm talking about g d that one and he just and just I'm just I'm just it's stuff coming out of his mouth about God and I was provoked and I was like I was sitting there and I was just I mean I was boiling the way that just the disrespect he was showing toward God and finally I felt like the Holy Spirit rage into my chest and I turned to him and I was like I was like Ivan you need to shut your mouth I was like I put up with all this other stuff and that didn't really bother me honestly all that much but here you are blaspheming God and one day you're going to stand before God and one day you have to look at his face and you do not want to stand before him having treated him with the disrespect and having taken his name in vain the way that you do so casually then the Holy Spirit completely left me right at that moment just all by myself I'm out you know and I turned and I started to walk away and he I heard these big feet running he comes he says what did you say to me and I repeated the gist but in much gentler tones of what I had shared with him and and he says he says you know he said I've known that something is not right between me and God but I just don't I don't know and I'm condensing a long conversation he says I haven't really known who to ask or where to start and this led to this conversation that took place over several days where I kept talking to him about this and I remember being in the midst of this thing and he revealed to me that that he had just been diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer he didn't know he was causing all this chaos in his life and he and his girlfriend that he lived with were starting to ask these questions and and I remember sharing with him one afternoon just talking to him and there was this not far from where we were this huge accident where I don't think anybody ended up dying in it but it was bad and and this this truck had flipped over on its side and there was a kid trapped on the end and so we're all there's two or three guys trying to lift the truck up I mean he goes tearing across his field he comes out of this truck and he hits it like just knocks that truck up on its side just he was a beast and he it just it was this moment where where he's just he was after seeing this kid and looked like he was dead and he's just like he he was just overwhelmed with emotion and he we're standing there we have to wait for the police to come since we were witnesses of the accident he's like he looks at me like he was like six six six or something he said he's like hey you think God's trying to speak to me I was like no man I think God's screaming at you I think it's probably time for you to listen it was very shortly thereafter that he his girlfriend trusted Christ God is all at work around you but see there's a part that only you can do it's speaking the word of God in that moment God is salvation belongs to him to the part that he's given to you that only you can do that only you can do does that make sense I got more times than I can tell you where I was doing something sharing Christ and I ended up like it ended up being for the purpose another person I was talking to but somebody that was listening in now I was on a bus trip one time and I'm sitting there and I was talking to this person next to me and the conversation turns to the gospel it's like an hour and a half trip and man I just was like I was just going after this person like you know because they kept arguing and it was so cynical and I was just explaining to them and this this person's heart was so hard and they kept asking me snide comments and all these attacking things at the end of like an hour and a half with the bus stop we're both getting ready to get off I'm thinking like you know um total failure uh I stand up and the girl behind us stands up she's got big tears in her eyes and she says that was awesome I call that ricochet evangelism where God's word bounces off one hard heart and like goes into another one this morning I don't know how it all works I just know that there is a role that God has given to you see and if you understand that it should lead you to do two things constantly all right number one to get the word of God into people's hands now what do I mean by that I'm not talking about the whole remember that first week I talk about tracks you know where you like leave random gospel pamphlets in restrooms and with the you know to waitresses you're like hey here's a tip try Jesus and it's a fake $10 I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the word of God in the context of a relationship where you speak the word of God to people in the context of relationship because that's always how you see it you put the word of God in their hands and then you guide them all right I'm gonna give you a really simple idea to help you with this all right listen make a list of verses for this person verses that are very significant to you right and then give them to them and say here's a list what I want you to do is read two to three of them a day and I want you to write out in one sentence what you think it means and then write out what it means to you what does it mean and then what is it saying to you and then in another week we'll come back together and we'll discuss some of these verses get them in the presence of the word of God and let God's word do the work just get them in the Bible sometimes you carry this like weight of like oh I've gotta like I gotta be ready to answer all the questions you don't you're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer to find out more about this ministry and our vision visit jdgreer.com we'll return to our teaching in just a moment but I wanted to quickly tell you about our brand new featured resource that actually is available for the first time today you know one of those foundational things we can do to carry our faith with us is knowing the word of God so once again we created a pack of 52 scripture memory cards for you to use this next year they're perfect to use for quick memorization or to have around the house for daily encouragement the cards are small in size for quick reference putting on the fridge or even sticking in your wallet you could even give them away in greeting cards to encourage others and we like to start off every January by reminding us all of the importance of hiding God's word in our hearts and this set comes with your generous gift to the ministry right now give us a call at 866-335-5220 or you can always partner with us by visiting jdgreer.com now let's get back to our teaching for the day here on Summit Life once again here's Pastor J.D. the second thing that you will do is you will pray like crazy pray like crazy if salvation belongs to God then prayer asking God to do what only God can do should be our greatest resource now here Jonah's not an example for us again Jonah wasn't praying for the nanomite salvation in fact he was praying against it Jonah wasn't praying for the nanomites get this but Jesus was you know how I know that because Jesus when Jesus was on the cross what'd he say over and over again father forgive them by the way John Stott says that in Greek it's written in the clause which means that he repeated that it wasn't he didn't say father forgive them one time he prayed it over and over and over and over again Jesus prayed for the nanomites and what you essentially do when you pray is you join your faith to Jesus's faith that's pretty good company to be in I've described it before like a laser you know how laser works she got like a light wave and then you amplify it by adding another light wave look at Jesus prayer father forgive them as one wave and then what God is allowing you to do is join your wave to his and that becomes a laser of God's power into that person's life father forgive them you are joining that God let them see God do what only you can do by the way you want motivation to pray realize that when Jesus prayed that father forgive them he was praying for you because he prayed for you that gives you the ability to pray for the nanomites Jonah didn't think he needed prayer Jonah thought he was the prophet if he'd understood that Jesus had prayed for him that would have created in his heart the love to pray for Nineveh so here's a question how many people are you praying for right now to be brought into the kingdom or here's a question ready for this if God answered right now in one fell swoop if God answered every prayer you prayed last week would anybody new be in the kingdom if like in one fell swoop God said I'm going to answer every single prayer you prayed last week would anybody new be in the kingdom I say this gently but if not shame on you what are you doing who are you who is Jesus to you what is the gospel to you if you understand what Jesus has saved you from then you understand that what he saved you too is for you to preach to people that were in the same way that you were when I say preach I don't mean what I do I mean just sharing God's word to them my whole point is that God is all at work around you God wanted to he could save the Ninevites the obstacle was Jonah God wants to and he can save people all around you for many of us the obstacle is us we've just never shown up and given the word of God to them now before I close this really quickly I want to deal with one objection because some of you have the opposite problem of what I'm saying you're like well I've been giving this person the word and they're totally closed nobody listens to me what does that mean right all right follow me ready when you have a time of fruitlessness in your life you can have one of three reactions to it one of them is bad two of them are good all right one of them is self-doubt you're sharing with somebody they're not listening and so what do you conclude there's something wrong with me my Christianity something God's mightily displeased with in me and that's why I can't be fruitful you ever felt that I have there are times I've been struggling and I thought I'm spiritually sterile of course the gospel is that there was something wrong with you and you are spiritually sterile and God was mightily displeased with you and God gives his grace to those who acknowledge that so of course you're spiritually impotent that's gospel 101 and when you get gospel 101 you can understand that the gospel is for those who embrace that God gives them his power not as something they are but as a gift in fact only those who are spiritually sterile will have access to the mighty power of God those who believe they have internal spiritual power will end up impotent so that's one you're self-doubt here's the second thing it could lead you to it can lead you to make more demands on God's grace that's good now I use that word demands on purpose even though I know it's going to make some of you uncomfortable because you're like well we shouldn't be demanding anything of God let me tell you this some of the greatest movements of God came from a bold presumption on God's grace somebody's saying God don't you care I've told you before Charles Spurgeon had this way of praying that kind of creep people out around him because he'd be like God don't you care about the situation I care about it I know you care about it because you're a love more loving father than I am how can you watch this and not do something that's presumption and that's the kind of thing Jesus actually really likes he said the kingdom of heaven is taken by force by people who understand these things and ask for them think of Jacob wrestling with God remember this Genesis where he holds God down the angel down and says I won't let you go until you bless me that sounds sacrilegious but God was pleased with it Moses I won't go up unless you go with me Luke chapter eight verse 44 the woman who comes up and presumptuously grabs a hold of Jesus garment even though she was ceremonially unclean because she said I know how loving and compassionate he is the woman who you know goes up to Jesus and says hey come heal my daughter he's like I can't you're a gentile and it's not right to take the bread that was intended for children and give it to dogs I was like dang did Jesus call her a dog you know I've heard scholars by the way who are like oh no no what he meant there was little puppy okay yeah but he still called her a dog even if it's a little cute little dog it's still a dog but she didn't she didn't blame because she says yeah but even the dogs get to eat what falls off the master's table in other words there's so much grace on your table Jesus there's enough even for a dog like me you understand the depth of God's grace and you make demands on it Luke Luke 18 Jesus compares prayer to an annoying widow who won't let the judge go until he gives her what she wants these are the metaphors Jesus chose for prayer I read this story this week you know who Tony Evans is African-American pastor out in Dallas um fantastic speaker was doing um this big rally uh big evangelistic meeting whatever down in South Carolina it was open air several thousand people there um right before they're getting ready to start these huge rain clouds come billowing in and it's raining and the people on the news are like it's 100 chance of rain so all the pastors that are part of this get together and they all start praying and Tony Evans said everybody's praying these nice little kind of polite you know God we want your will and God you can do what you want kind of you know prayers and everything and it was all you know theologically correct and they're going around he said this woman he gives her the name Linda I don't know if it's a real name but he said he said I'll never forget she stood up and she said this right with all these pastors she says Lord thousands have gathered to hear the good news about your son it would be a shame on your name for us to have all these unbelievers go without the gospel when you control the weather after all and you don't stop it in the name of Jesus Christ address this storm that ended the prayer meeting everybody goes out takes her places under the dark sky a resident stage all these pastors all these umbrellas start opening up because the the rain's coming this woman Linda sat on the stage and she's like uh-uh I'm not putting up an umbrella you see he said was one of the most bizarre things he'd ever seen he said this huge storm it comes right over to where they are he said it literally split in two and went to the right and to the left he said not a drop of rain touched anybody he said now why was it that she prayed like that why was it that God heard her prayer see is because there was a shameless boldness in it prayer you see is not overcoming God's reluctance prayer is laying hold of God's prayer is laying hold of God's willingness the floods of salvation come when you presume upon the compassion of God when you hold up God's compassion in front of his face that's what we're supposed to do Jesus I know how compassionate you are intervene here's the last thing a little letter C third third this is also a good response wait upon God some of the greatest movements of God happened after somebody labored for years with no fruit I had an armed Judson for whom I named my son first American missionary was in Burma for seven years now Myanmar but that time it was called Burma for seven years not a single convert he said but after he labored he kept holding this up in front of God's face and said God you care about these people conversions he said came like rain so don't give up there's nothing wrong with you the gospel doesn't address in Christ there's nothing you could do to make God love you anymore nothing he could do could do that would earn his power anymore the gospel is that God cares for people presume upon that and ask God because salvation belongs to God and faith comes only by hearing y'all the bottom line is this Jonah is what stood in the way of Nineveh's forgiveness their sin was not the obstacle Jonah's failure to get them what the word of God was I told you Jonah 2 8 was a key verse in Jonah you remember this those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs from Jonah 3 what you see is those who cling to worthless idols forfeit not only their own grace they also forfeit grace that could have been other people's too who is there in your life that is not experiencing the grace of God not because God's not willing or able but because you have never simply spoken the word of God to them you've never put them in a place for God to be able to take five words and open their hearts salvation belongs to God faith comes only by hearing that's where you are you understand that you should pray like crazy hit the word of God don't give up on the one that you're praying for continue to ask God for their salvation and give the word of God to them a challenging teaching today from pastor jd greer on summit life well jd here we are in the new year one whole weekend and one of the things i love about summit life is that we are so committed to the word of God to the point where we emphasize memorizing it each year why do we always start here each january molly in short because i can't think of anything that will better shape your year than putting the word of God so deeply inside of you that it just it comes out in how you talk and how you think it is perfect to start the year with that of all the resolutions you can make this is probably i think the most significant one right you know one thing i've learned about following jesus over the last um really three decades of following him is that you follow jesus one step at a time one act of faith at a time one act of obedience at the time and each of those steps of faith and obedience are shaped by and guided by and empowered by the word of God and so what we do and we've done this at the beginning of of every year for the last several years is we put together 52 memory verse cards memorizing one verse a week is that's not hard anybody can do that but what if next year this time you knew 52 verses that you did not know before can you imagine how that's going to shape your faith and your hope and your prayers and what you do in difficult situations or temptations so don't hesitate if you love the word of God and you want to see it make a difference in your life head on over to jdgrier.com and reserve your set of summit life memory verse cards today let's start 2024 with God's word etched into our hearts ready to face whatever comes our life thank you jd ask for your set of scripture memory cards by calling 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or request them when you give online or when you make your first gift as a monthly gospel partner at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich inviting you to join us tomorrow when pastor jd continues this study in the book of jonah calling us to a whole new kind of obedience that's tuesday on summit life with J.D. Greer today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries