Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Let me ask you, have you wrestled with the obligations that you and I owe to the gospel? Have you squarely faced the fact that 2.8 billion people in the world have little to no access to the gospel? People who were no more unworthy of the gospel than you or me? People that are made in the image of God like us. Welcome back to another week of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So have you ever wondered what your purpose in life really is? What is it that you're here for, especially as it relates to our spiritual life? When it comes to our spiritual lives, sometimes it's easy to think about missions and evangelism as a task for elite Christians who God calls to be pastors or missionaries. But today, Pastor J.D. shows us that God wants to use all of us to live on mission for Him. It's the conclusion of our study called Be the Movement.
Remember, if you missed any part of it, you can catch up online at jdgreer.com. Right now, let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in Acts chapter seven. God wants to use you. Historically, ordinary believers like Stephen have always been the tip of the gospel spear.
He's got an intention to use you in the life of somebody to bring them from darkness to light. If you go back and you study, if you study Christian history, what you'll see is that the gospel has always traveled around the world faster on the wings of business than it has through apostolic effort. One of my, there's a writer named Stephen Neal. He's a church historian. He wrote a classic book called The History of Christian Missions.
And he said the only thing that was more remarkable than the rapidity of the spread of the gospel in the first century was its anonymity. He said, by the time you get to the end of the first century, 99 A.D., he said you've got three major church planting centers, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. He said what they all have in common is that we have no idea who founded the churches in Antioch, Alexandria, or Rome.
No idea. No famous apostle founded any of those churches. The founding of the church in Antioch is actually recorded for us in Acts 11.
You could read it later. All it says is some brothers, some brothers moved to Antioch, and the hand of the Lord was with them when they planted a church in Antioch. Them means a bunch of guys who's, they're like the credits at the end of the movie, like bystander number three, a bunch of guys whose names I'm not going to mention because you've never heard of them, and you probably won't hear about them again anyway, just ordinary guys. Yet these ordinary men and women planted a church that would one day send out the apostle Paul and become the greatest mission-sending church in the first century. Ordinary people, see?
Them. Like good news, we're all part of the them. You haven't all been to seminary. You don't have a professional ministry job. It's you're part of the them, and that means you're God's plan A for impacting the world. Hey, I would tell you the same thing is true today.
The same thing is true today. You look at where Christianity is spreading fastest in the world. You won't find people like me.
You'll find people like you. Here's your vision for following Jesus. Whatever God made you good at, and he didn't make all of you good at being preachers, public speakers, or worship leaders, or writers, whatever he made you good at, you should do that well to the glory of God, but why not also do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God?
Of all the factors that go into where you pursue your career, why wouldn't the kingdom of God be the largest of those factors? All right, that's living sin. Here's the second conviction that we see from Stephen's life that's going to go hand in hand with the first one. Number two, the Holy Spirit fills me. You know what makes Stephen remarkable is his confidence, a confidence that stares down the Sanhedrin, a confidence that he apparently gained from an awareness of the fullness of the Spirit within him. The most common characteristic that is repeated about Stephen was that he was filled with the Spirit. What gives ordinary people such extraordinary confidence and effectiveness is the knowledge of the power of the Spirit within them. All believers, of course, have the Holy Spirit, right? So you have that, but what gives you confidence like Stephen is your awareness, your knowledge of the Spirit within you. You know, I'm going to get on very familiar territory here for the Summit Church, but you know, Jesus made such extraordinary promises when it comes to the power and the potential of the Spirit in believers.
They are so staggering that if you don't consciously pay attention to them, they get right over your head. I'll give you one, one of my favorites. If you've been around the church, you've heard me talk about this one. John 16-7. Jesus said, John 16-7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
By the way, stop right there. Jesus was not in the habit of telling lies. He didn't have to clarify like, hey, actually, I'm about to be serious. No, whenever he says something like that, it's because what he is about to say is so kind of mind-blowing.
If you don't turn your mind on, it'll go right over your head. And that's what happens with this verse. It is to your, see the next word, advantage. It's to your advantage that I go away because if I don't go away, the helper, the Holy Spirit won't come to you. Now, here's the question that we ask about this verse.
Put yourself honestly in this situation. How absurd must that have sounded to those first disciples? It's to my advantage that Jesus, how awesome, think about it, how awesome would it be if Jesus was your ministry commander or your roommate, right? You come back in after a tough day of ministry and you got a theological question about Calvinism, bam, Jesus answers it right there.
He gives you a perfect answer, right? At your small group, they run out of checks mix. Bam, Jesus multiplies the checks mix so that there's 12 baskets left over. Your dog dies, right?
You're sad. Bam, Jesus raises your dog back from the dead. Your cat dies. Jesus digs a hole, buries that cat, gets rid of it forever. That's like my favorite joke to tell at the Summit Church. And I know some of you are already composing an angry email, but yes, Jesus loves cats, but not as much as dogs and surely not as much as people.
But you know what I mean, okay? That's probably not exactly what it would be like to walk around with Jesus, but the point is it would have been awesome. If you had a chance to be friends with Jesus, side by side with Jesus, how awesome would that be?
Yet Jesus is telling them and he said, I'm not even exaggerating that if you understood who the Spirit was and if you understood what the potential of the Spirit was, you'd be more excited to have him inside of you even than me besides you. I mean, if I told you guys that I was resigning, I'd hope you'd be sad, you know, if I was your pastor, right? I hope you'd be sad, but if I'm like, I don't worry about it, next week God's going to teach on the live stream is Jesus of Nazareth. He's going to be the new pastor.
I mean, you'd be calling all your friends, right? Like, oh, you're not going to believe that Jesus is going to be our pastor. You're way better than our other pastor. Are you as excited that wherever you are, you've got the Spirit of God in you as you would be if Jesus came to be your new pastor? If not, doesn't that show you that you haven't grasped whatever it is that he is promising there in that verse? God's plan to reach the world is just ordinary people filled with the extraordinary Spirit and just walking in obedience to him. And he says that they're going to have a collectively greater impact than if Jesus himself stayed.
Stop thinking about how incapable or unqualified you are. Don't you understand that because the Holy Spirit is in you, because it's the Spirit of God who does it through you, don't you understand that it's now more about your availability than it is your ability? Because see, the Holy Spirit can do more through one surrendered vessel than the most talented and richest people in the world could accomplish on their own. By the way, we got a really good example of that in the last part of Acts 8.
There's Philip, who's another ordinary guy, not an apostle, who's directed by the Spirit to go up in obedience to the Spirit. He goes up out in this little dusty road out in the middle of nowhere. And he's like, why am I here? And the Spirit of God is like, just trust me, just stay here for a minute.
And he's kind of standing there looking around. All of a sudden, the guy comes down the road that is in a chariot that we call now the Ethiopian eunuch. And the Ethiopian eunuch is reading from the book of Isaiah and doesn't know what he's reading. And the Spirit directs Philip to go up in the chariot with him and explain the Gospel to him. And that guy gets saved and he gets baptized.
Eusebius, who was the third century, fourth century church historian, says that that Ethiopian eunuch went back to sub-Saharan Africa where he was from and planted a church and started a church planting movement that is still in existence today. One act of obedience by an ordinary person, the Spirit used that to accomplish more than all the apostles have been able to accomplish in seven chapters up to that point in the cause of world missions. I need you to understand that he is, the Spirit is still doing that today. He's still using ordinary people just like you and just like me to do extraordinary things if they'll just listen to him.
So that's my question. Are you listening to him? The Holy Spirit shows up 59 times in the book of Acts.
59. In 36 of those 59, he is speaking. I've told you what's frustrating about that is it doesn't always tell us exactly how he speaks.
It doesn't say like, you know, everybody, like you got a message on your, you know, cell phone or everybody thought the same thing at once or, you know. It just says he speaks. By the way, I think that ambiguity is intentional because Scripture never, God never wants us to put as much confidence in what we think the Spirit is saying as what we do, what the Bible actually says. But he speaks.
Acts 13 2, the Holy Spirit said to the church, separate Barnabas and Paul for a missionary calling. There might be ambiguity in how he speaks but there is no ambiguity in whether he speaks. And I would even say right now he's speaking to some of you.
Right? You listening to him? He's stirring in you. And he's like, hey, I got something for you. Can you just respond and say, yes, Lord, I'm ready. I'm ready to go where you tell me to go.
Here am my Lord, send me. Conviction number three, let me keep moving. Conviction number three, as Jesus was to me, so I will be to others. Verse 59 might be my favorite part of this whole, of this whole, of this whole passage.
Look at this. Because what it does, before I read the verse to you, it gives you a window into Stephen's soul, showing you what he was thinking about at the very moment of his death. Verse 59, as they were stoning Stephen, as the life was literally draining out of him, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Question, where have you heard those two phrases before?
Right? Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit and Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Are they not almost identical to what Jesus said when he died on the cross? Jesus said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit and Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. You know, it seems that in Stephen's dying moments, Stephen was thinking about what Jesus had prayed on the cross for him. And now he is praying that for others.
Right? Get your mind around that. What Stephen saw Jesus do for him, he's now doing for others, because that's what it means to follow Jesus. It means to look at your life like a sacrifice for others, the way that Jesus sacrificed himself for you.
Let me ask you a very practical question, okay? I want all of you to think about it. Where would you be, where would you be if Jesus chosen not to come and die for you?
He didn't have to. If he'd chosen that, where would you be? Let me give you a sort of a twist on the answer.
You'd be at exactly the same place that millions of people in the world are without you. Why do I say that? The act of salvation is not complete until people hear about it. They have to believe, they have to hear to believe, they have to believe to be saved. It's like Martin Luther used to say, it wouldn't matter if Jesus died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it. Carl F.H. Henry, a theologian, said the gospel is only good news for somebody if it gets to them in time. If it doesn't get to them in time, it's not actually good news.
And see friends, that demands something of us. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. Before we get back to today's teaching, I wanted to make sure that you knew about this month's featured resource that we're sending to all of our gospel partners and financial supporters. It's a set of Christmas cards designed to help you encourage your friends and family this Christmas season. We brought these back after they were so popular last year.
And of course, they feature a whole new set of designs. Each card has a message on it that reflects the true meaning of the season. Never underestimate the power of a simple handwritten message. It's a way to remind someone that they are known, loved, valued, and remembered. In each card, you'll have the chance to plant seeds of hope and encouragement.
So don't wait. Christmas is coming quickly. You can get your set with a gift of $35 or more to this ministry.
So call us now at 866-335-5220 or head to jdgreer.com to take a look at these beautiful cards. Let's make this holiday season one of love and connection and transformation. Now let's return for the conclusion of our teaching series. Once again, here's Pastor Judy. Let me just ask you, have you wrestled with the obligations that you and I owe to the gospel? Have you squarely faced the fact that 2.8 billion people in the world have little to no access to the gospel? People who were no more unworthy of the gospel than you or me, people that are made in the image of God like us. I think of a place like northern Yemen has a population of 8 million, almost the size of North Carolina. You know how many believers there are in that whole nation of 8 million?
20 or 30. Every single one of them is made in the image of God like you. They know what it's like to be afraid.
They hurt like you. They know what it's like to be lonely and lost. Is it fair for you and me to know so much about a God who did everything and do so little to take the gospel to people who know nothing? I think sometimes about being in heaven and meeting somebody up there that is there because I shared the gospel with them or because I sacrificially gave and somebody else shared the gospel with them. These people I'm going to spend eternity with and they're going to be my brothers and sisters and I'm going to learn over the course of 10,000 years to love them. And sometimes I think like, won't I be grateful then when I've gotten to know and love this person that I did what it took to be able to get that gospel to them? I mean I know them that well now may never see their face but I know I'll be glad then that I did what I needed to do so they could be saved.
Don't you think that's the way that you're going to feel too? See friend, if Jesus sacrificed himself to save us it makes sense that we ought to sacrifice ourselves to bring salvation to them just like Stephen did for his countrymen. For some of you that means that you're going to leave here and move somewhere to take the gospel.
For others it means you're going to give like crazy so that other people can go. So conviction number three is as Jesus was to me so I will be to others. Conviction number four, last one. Conviction number four is that Jesus is worth it.
Y'all let's return one final time to act seven. As they began to hurl stones at Stephen, Stephen says verse 56, behold I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Scholars point out that Stephen's standing here is odd because everywhere else in the Bible that we see Jesus at the right hand of God he is sitting. It's actually an important theological point because it's showing that he is finished with the work of salvation, yet here he is standing. Why is he in this one place standing? Well the only answer is he is standing to receive home his son. The world it seems has risen up in unison against Stephen to tell Stephen that he is a fool, a traitor, that his life is a waste. You know and it's almost like Jesus can't contain himself.
He stands up and he says no. Well done good and faithful servant. They're calling you heretic.
I'm gonna welcome you home. Y'all and Stephen looks up with face beaming with angelic brightness and Stephen says in essence, yes I see him it's worth it. I'll tell you the only thing that will give you the power to live a life of truly being sent is a deep conviction in your soul that Jesus is worth it. Whatever you got to walk away from, he's better and he's worth it. And we like to call him the devil.
He's better and he's worth it. And we like to talk here in this church about how coming to Jesus brings peace and makes your family whole and brings fulfillment and that's all true. But at some point you understand if you're really serious about following Jesus, obedience to him is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of the direction that you think you want to go.
And in that moment, in that moment the only thing that will compel you forward to go all the way is the belief that Jesus is worth it. And there's a story I love to tell here and I'll tell it but I think it just so encaptures this and some of you heard this before but I spent the first two years of my ministry over in one of these unreached people groups over in Southeast Asia. After I've been there a few months I got a call one night from a Christian friend who lived about three hours south of me and he had a guy with him and he said, hey I need you to come and I need you to meet me at the place.
I was like who is it? He said you know, he got real quiet. He's like you know they're listening. It was true because our phones were bugged and he said just meet me at the place. I knew where that was but it was three hours away so I had to go out find a bus middle of the night three hours down to this place go to the place and I go in and these two guys are sitting there and my friend looks at this guy and says okay tell him what you told me. This guy's name was Fajar.
Fajar was a 32 year old Muslim and Fajar said he see he starts to say to me through the language because I was still learning he didn't speak English so he says through my friend he says he says he said well he said about a month ago I had this I don't know what you call it dream it didn't really wasn't really like a dream he said but in this dream I was standing in this field and as far as I could see in front of me behind me to the right to the left he said there was nothing and I walked for what what felt like days in this field and he stopped and he said he said I you know that that I felt like that field is supposed to represent my life and because I just feel lost he said after walking for what felt like days I suddenly heard a voice behind me heard a voice behind me and I turned around and there was this I don't know what you call him a man he's towered above me he was dressed in this white robe his face is word to use I remember that it meant like the sun it just shone in its brilliance and he uh he reached inside of his robe and he pulled out a copy of he called it the Injil that's their word for gospel pulled out a copy of the gospel and said Fajar this is the only thing that will get you out of this field he said I pulled back because that was Christian and I am Muslim and I could not touch it he said I woke up immediately and I knew that I made a terrible mistake he said next night I went to sleep I had the exact same dream again I walked what for what felt like days in this field and again this man appeared and reached out the Injil and said take this it will get you out of this field he said this time I wanted to take it I wanted to but I couldn't get the strength in my hands to do it and he said I woke up suddenly he said I knew I'd made another terrible mistake he said third night I didn't even want to go to sleep he said I was afraid and he said sure enough moment I closed my eyes and sleep it was me and him in that field and this time there was no walking just me and him and he looked at me and said this is the last time I will tell you this is the only thing that will get you out of this field he said I watched in my dream my hands they were trembling he said I wouldn't even felt like I wasn't even in control of them they just reached up and they took that copy of the Injil he said I pulled it in and I hugged it into my chest he said I woke up peacefully in my bed the next morning he said looked at me and he said now my friend tells me that you are expert at Injil he said please tell me what my dream means now y'all I grew up in a a really conservative baptist church okay and I'm just going to tell you we didn't do dreams and the interpretation thereof on the reg but I knew exactly what to say in that moment I was like bro you were so in luck dream interpretation is my spiritual gift and I was like translate that there so I sat there listen I sat there for the next two hours till the wee hours of the morning explained him just really just going from genesis of revelation how Jesus had done everything and and who Jesus was and I got to the part in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus dies on the cross and I'll never forget these big old tears I see them well up in his eyes and he says you're telling me that this is God the creator that is dying for me and I said well yeah I remember he just said he held out his hands he said Allahu Akbar which is their way of saying God is the greatest I was like well we got some discipleship to do but anyway it was awesome and uh and he said he said God is the greatest and we get to the end and I was like do you want to trust Jesus as your Savior you want to become a Christian and he said oh with all my heart and I was like well I mean I only know one way to do this you know every head bowed every eye closed let me lead you in the sinner's prayer he bows his head and I start leading him in this sinner's prayer we get about two phrases in about two phrases in and I was like I was like stop I was just kind of overwhelmed I said Fajar you understand that this is a big deal when you trust Jesus your life changes when your life changes you get baptized and if you get baptized you know that you might get cut off from your family and you might get lose your job and you you and I both know people that have been killed because of this in this city and never forget he looks up a big old smile he says of course I know that he said why do you think it took me a month to work up the courage to come and talk to you he said but in that month I decided that if this Jesus was who you Christians said he was right and if Jesus did for me what you Christians said he did then I would go with him listen to this I would go with him regardless of what I had to leave behind in the heart of every true Christian when I tell that story there's something in you that rises up and says yes yes yes Fajar he's worth it even if it cost you everything let me just say this and I say this as humbly but directly as I can to the summit church it is hypocritical for you and I to say amen to Fajar and then not be willing to do what it takes to get the gospel to people like Fajar the cost to follow Jesus in places like southeast asia is severe the cost to get the gospel to places like southeast asia is severe and the only thing that will compel you to go all the way to do the hard work to leave your family and endure the hardships and loneliness of missionary life is a site of the worthiness of Jesus is he worth it at some point you got to decide who is is worthy or what is worthy of the offering of your life if Jesus is worthy of your absolute total and unconditional obedience listen what is it that you're trying to please what's waiting for you what's standing by the throne of God your parents love you but Jesus created you and then Jesus died to redeem you I'll tell you your parents are awesome but they're not going to be waiting for you at the end to receive you into eternity and you're not going to be standing around their throne proclaiming their worthiness for eternity a job is a great thing to pursue and it can provide a lot of benefits but it's nothing to give your life for your parents are precious your dreams are important your career hopes are are bright but none of those things is worth the offering of your life Jesus is worthy of it he's the only one that is worthy you only got one life and you only got one life and you gotta you gotta dedicate it to something you gotta give it away to something you gotta make it count what is God calling you to will you go where he tells you to go and do what he tells you to do a convicting and challenging message for all of us today here on Summit Life. Pastor JD, one of my very favorite things about the holiday season is getting Christmas cards in the mail from close friends and family and even a few I wasn't expecting to get from people I may have lost touch with you know molly I couldn't agree more most of us know what Christmas is generally about right but having somebody say hey I'm thinking about you and and you're important to me and I love you what better way to represent and communicate what Christmas is about than to say hey God loved us and gave his son to save us I'm thinking about you and I want to be here to serve you and to help meet your needs also I'm at jdgeer.com we've made it really really simple for you to be able to do this we've designed a set of Christmas cards that you can accompany um your own personal message with some kind of inspirational verse or thought about Christmas and you can send that to that that person so hey what are you waiting for reserve your set of these one-of-a-kind Christmas cards at jdgeer.com today and Molly you know what I love about these is that they're unique to Summit Life if you get these they're going to you're going to be the only person giving these out so hey what are you waiting for reserve your set of one-of-a-kind Christmas cards at jdgeer.com today thanks JD Christmas is coming people and it's time to get started on those Christmas cards so why not send someone you care about something that's more than just a greeting but a meaningful message of hope we'd love to send you this new set of Christmas cards right now with your gift of 35 dollars or more to this ministry to give just call us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can give online at jdgeer.com i'm molly vidovich inviting you to join us again tomorrow when we kick off a new teaching series titled help we hope you'll join us Tuesday here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries
