Six Defining Characteristics of the Successful Life, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. In the last speech that Paul gives to these people, the last thing he says and the last speech he gives is about generosity. Because Paul knows, listen, that what it really means to follow Jesus is to have a life that is defined by generosity, because that's what defines Jesus' life.

Does that quality define your life? Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. For the past two months, we've been in a teaching series called The Whole Story, an overview of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how every page from beginning to end is pointing to Jesus and revealing the Gospel. Today, we're in the New Testament looking at the life of the Apostle Paul, a great example of how the Gospel transforms our priorities and our definition of success.

So let's jump back into a message we began yesterday on the program. We're returning to the book of Acts for the six defining characteristics of the successful life. Here's Pastor J.D. In Acts chapter 20, Paul is giving us a farewell speech in which he summarizes what I think are the six values that Paul has built his life around. Acts chapter 20, let's begin in verse 20 here, and I'll give you the first of these six statements. I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Here is number one value for Paul.

I made sure that my generation, I made sure that my community knew the truth. And for Paul, this was very serious business, which is why he says in verse 26, I am innocent of the blood of all. Paul is likely here thinking about a passage in the Old Testament where the prophet Ezekiel said it this way. Ezekiel 33, eight, God speaking through Ezekiel. When I say to the wicked, you wicked person, you will surely die. And you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways. That wicked person will die for their sin. They're gonna die because of their iniquity, but I'm actually gonna hold you responsible for it.

Why? Because I had a message to give to them, and you never gave it to them. Here's your question. Does your community, does your generation know the truth? Have you made it clear to them? Does your family, does your school, does your community, do they know the truth?

Have they felt its weightiness? Paul says, number two, I directed people's attention towards Jesus, not toward me. Notice verse 19, what Paul says, I serve the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials. Now, that's not typically how great leaders describe themselves, is it? Leaders like to talk about their victories.

They wanna talk about their accomplishments, their strengths. In fact, that word humility right there in verse 19, that word is a word in Greek that was usually used as an insult. It meant low, defeated, weak. Yet in the Bible, it's used 200 different times, and it's almost presented not as an insult, but as a virtue. Now, why?

Here's why. It's the counter cultural gospel message. Christian ministry at its core is not about extraordinary men and women of great power that you should emulate. At its core, Christianity is about a great savior who can save and then use the weakest and most broken and most guilty of sinners. Paul does not wanna leave these people with an example to admire.

He wants to leave them with a savior to trust in. And weaknesses and trials and tears are how God demonstrates the sufficiency of that savior. The gospel is not about how awesome I am or how awesome you can be. The gospel is about how awesome Jesus is. Paul said, number three, I invested deeply in God's community, the church. In verse 28, Paul, talking to the Ephesian elders, the leaders of the church, he says, verse 28, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To care for the church of God, watch this, which he purchased with his own blood. Paul says, if Jesus Christ shed his blood for the church, I'm going to give my life to the church. Now I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, I understand your role is not the same as the apostle Paul's, but I will tell you without any question or hesitation that the church, if Jesus poured out his blood for the church, the church ought to be the center of your life. The church, Paul tells us, is Christ's body.

It is the means by which Jesus does his work on earth, which means if you separate yourself from the body, you separate yourself from Jesus, right? That analogy, Paul says, is how God works in the world. When God wants to work in your life, rarely does he just answer with a zap from heaven.

That's what you want. Oh, just zap it down, and God's like, that's not the way I work. It's a body, which means if I got something to say to you, I probably won't say it to you whispering in your heart. I'll probably use somebody in the church to do it. God has a body.

God has a body, and that is the locus, the central point of what he does on earth. And if you and I understand that, like Paul, we'll figure out our role in it and we'll be deeply committed to it. Number four, Paul says, I've been faithful to do all that Jesus told me to do.

Look at verse 24. Paul said, I don't count my life of any value, nor is precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. Paul was very personal about his ministry assignment.

My course, the ministry I received. Paul felt like he had been given a personal assignment from God. God does not give the same assignment to everybody.

But listen to me, follower of Jesus, listen to me. God has given you a particular assignment in the mission of God and the body of Christ. And at the end of the day, you're going to answer to him for what you did with what he gave you. The point is not, you know, you don't really control what assignments you get. The point is, are you faithful with what you've been assigned? Where has he called you to be faithful? There's number five, Paul says, I finish strong.

I finish strong. Again, verse 23 and 24, Paul in verse 23 is going to explain all these bad things are going to happen to him. It's not encouraging. I'm going to be beaten. I'm going to be stoned and then people are going to hate me. And then he says, verse 24, none of these things move me.

None of these things move me. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, I want to finish. And another place Paul is going to say, you know, if you're racing somebody, it doesn't matter how well you start the race matters, why you finish the race. A lot of people start well in the Christian life. You know, this breaks my heart because I see it happen so many times in our church. They just don't persevere on to the finish. They're like the one hit Christian wonders, the Mark Ronson or Carly Rae Jepsen of Christians or Milli Vanilli for those of you whom the last time you were current with pop culture was the 1990s.

All right. There's one hit Christian wonders. Then it really breaks my heart because they come, they get super excited. They join a small group. They usually sit in one of the first five rows here, no offense to y'all, but they sit there in the first five rows, make sure I see them every week.

Their hands are up in worship and they're just like super Christian. And then it just fades away and it fizzles out. I've noticed it usually happens for one of a handful of reasons. Sometimes it's just the pain of obedience, making the decision felt awesome. Didn't it? Oh, so good.

Remember it's just like you cry and it's so cathartic and my life is awesome. And I remember when I made like one of these, you know, one of the moments where I made this big decision that I was going to give it all to Jesus. It was, it was with a bunch of college students. It was in an outdoor service. They had a big bonfire built. The speaker got up, we sang a bunch of songs, made her by feel emotional.

And then it given us all a stick and we're supposed to walk forward at the end and throw our stick in the fire to show that we're giving everything for Jesus. It felt awesome. I was with a bunch of college students and our arms around each other and we're throwing sticks in the fire and we're singing.

Yeah. I've decided to follow Jesus and Kumbaya, you know, whatever. And it just, it was, it was a magical evening.

And then we went out to pizza afterwards and I'm like, that was an awesome time. What was not awesome was when I actually had to live out what that commitment symbolized. When you're giving your life away and said, I'm just going to, that, that doesn't feel awesome.

I'll just go ahead and tell you. And Paul called it this in Romans 12, one, Paul said, I I'm a living sacrifice. You ever think about the oxymoron living sacrifices are supposed to be dead. And it's good thing sacrifices are dead because when the flame starts to burn, the sacrifice is dead and sacrifice doesn't move. The dilemma of a living sacrifice is that the sacrifice wants to keep getting up off the altar. If I'm a living sacrifice, then when the flame gets hot, the sacrifice gets up and walks away. Paul said, I've got to live out the sacrifice. It's not in a moment of an emotional commitment that feels awesome.

It is daily living out, dying to myself and giving myself away. And sometimes people just aren't ready for that. They like the emotional catharsis. They don't, they're not ready to follow Jesus for others.

It's just that they never really considered the cost. I mean, they love what Jesus had to offer, but what inevitably happens, I've told you is that at some point, at some point, obedience to Jesus is going to take you 180 degrees opposite of where you want to go. And in that moment, you're going to have to decide how valuable is Jesus to me. Cause see what you wanted is you wanted Jesus and comfort. And you thought Jesus would actually help you get more comfortable. You wanted Jesus and your viewpoint on a particular thing, Jesus and this relationship, Jesus and your hopes of what your life would be. And at some point you're going to have to choose when it's not Jesus and those things it's Jesus or those things you're going to have to choose, which is more valuable to you. Sometimes people give up just from fatigue and just don't see the payoff for all their sacrifice. Like I'm not seeing the fruit.

I don't feel the multiplication. Paul felt like that. In fact, you know, for being a hand chosen instrument preacher of God, Paul got some weird reactions to his sermons. I mean, often his sermons ended with people trying to stone him. One time it ended with a guy getting so bored in his sermon that he fell asleep in a window sill, dropped three stories and died. And I've had a lot of weird reactions to my sermons. I've never had that happen. Fall asleep. Yes.

Fall off your chair and die. No, not yet. And Paul said, yeah, I know what it's like to labor and not see results. I know what it's like to follow Jesus and experience pain and suffering, but none of that stuff moves me. What does move me is when I look up the track and I see the one standing at the end and I see the Lord Jesus and I see that at some point I'm going to stand face to face with him.

I want to hear from him. Well done, good and faithful servant. And that's what moves me.

Not all these other things. In another place, he tells a group of really tired Christians. First Corinthians 15. They're tired. They're tired of the sacrifice. They're tired of the fruitlessness.

They're tired of the suffering. He says to them, he says, you really got to decide in your heart of hearts. You got to decide if you really believe that Jesus rose from the dead. He said, because if Jesus, he said, first of all, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, he said, first of all, we apostles are liars. We're not good religious teachers. We're not nice men.

We're a bunch of phonies and frauds. Secondly, if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, you're still in your sins because the resurrection was the proof that God had accepted the sacrifice of Jesus and he didn't rise from the dead. Then you're really no better off than being saved was just an illusion. He said, thirdly, if Jesus didn't die from the dead, all the people that have followed God throughout history, Abraham and Moses, they all wasted their lives and they're no better off than if they hadn't. He said, lastly, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then all these sacrifices we're making, they're absolutely worthless and it's useless.

We are of all men most to be pitied. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, it's all wasted. But if he did rise from the dead, then that changes everything. If Jesus really rose from the dead, then he really is sovereign over everything. Not a cup of cold water is going to be wasted in his name. And he's going to turn all your death and suffering into resurrection. So what you really got to decide, he tells them, is you got to decide whether or not you actually believe that. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. For more information about this ministry, visit us online at jdgreer.com. Our website is full of free resources available to anyone who visits, but I want to call out one specifically right now. Are you looking for a way to deepen your walk with God each day?

Do you struggle to spend time with him and you're not even sure where to begin? Well, we have something for you that just might help. Summit Life offers a free daily email devotional. These devotionals bring a fresh word from the Lord each morning, helping you stay connected to him even in the middle of life's chaos.

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That's jdgreer.com slash resources. And while you're there, check out our past messages, transcripts, and other tools that will help enrich your faith as well. But right now let's finish up this week's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD.

Paul says, as for me, first Corinthians 15, three, actually believe it. He goes, he was beaten and he's tortured. And just to make sure that he was dead, then they shoved a Roman spirit through his heart. And then they put him in a grave and they covered him up and they put a Roman garrison in front of him.

And three days later, he came out, moved the stone and walked around and we saw him. By the way, how freaky, how unnerving would that be? Let me just think, I'm just going to get out of the Bible mode for a minute. Just think about that. You go to a funeral last week and at the funeral, you see the guy that you knew him, you know, you look at the viewing, you, you, you watch the funeral, you watch them put them in the ground, you throw dirt on the coffin, you watch them get covered up.

Then next week at Starbucks, he comes up to you and he's like, Hey man, how you doing? That is unnerving. Paul said it is unnerving. And it changed everything about how I saw life. I really believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

And because of that, everything is different. Some of you listen to those who are struggling with finishing Trump. He said, you got to decide if you believe that. And you got to renew that vision in you because the problem, listen with a lot of us is that we've never actually come to that conviction in the core of our hearts. You've never really kind of wrestled with, do I actually believe that? And if I do, what does that mean? You're just kind of gone along because it's the thing to do. There's a story I tell to our staff that goes like, it's not a true story.

I don't think, but it still illustrates. You got a grandfather and a grandson sitting on the grandfather's porch, just out in the middle of the country. And the grand dad's got like 10 dogs and the dogs are under the porch and all of a sudden one of the dogs kind of perks out, lets out a little bark and takes out across the field. And then all other nine dogs, they all kind of hop up, they give out a bark and they take off after it. And the grandfather says to the grandson, so let me tell you what's about to happen. In just about 10 minutes, one by one, all those last nine dogs are going to come back one by one with the tails out and the tail between the legs or their tongues out and the tails between their legs. And they're going to come back and they're going to take their spot back here to the porch and they're going to go back to sleep.

And in about 10 minutes, they'll all be back. He says in about 45 minutes, the first dog will come back and he's going to have the rabbit in his mouth. He said, do you want to know the difference between the first dog and the nine dogs? He said, the first dog is the only one that actually saw the rabbit. All the others are just barking and yapping and running because somebody is excited. The church in some ways is exactly like that.

There are a bunch of people who are here and they're a part of the movement because they're like, oh, everybody's excited. Let me bark and yap along with everybody else. But you never actually make it because you've never seen the rabbit. The rabbit in this analogy is the conviction that Jesus actually rose from the dead. And when you see that rabbit, not even hell itself will get you to back away because you'll look forward and you'll see him at the end of the finish line. And you'll say, if God turns Jesus's death into a resurrection, he's going to turn my sacrifices.

He's going to turn my pain into resurrection victory also. So I'm in for the long haul and I'll keep going. So what that means is some of you listen, you started to follow Jesus.

All right, awesome. You started well in faith, now finish strong. Some of you men, you've gotten bored in leading your family and bored in serving in your job.

Do not be men, listen please. Don't be one of these ridiculous guys who gets bored in his life, in his 50s, buys a sports car, unbuttons his shirt down to his navel and then plays golf all the time. Finish in faith what you started in faith. Mother, some of you are tired, raising your kids. You gave up your career.

You feel like to spend more time with them. And this chapter is hard and it's unrewarding. Finish what you started in faith. Nothing he says will be wasted. Paul ends 1st Corinthians 15 by saying, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because your labor is not in vain because Jesus sits on the throne.

It's not how you start the race, it's how you finish. Number six, Paul says here at the end, I gave more than I took. I gave more than I took. Look at verse 33, I coveted no one silver or gold or apparel.

No, I worked hard in this way. We must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. I want you to think with me for a minute. A man's last words are probably the thing that are most significant to him.

Fair? It's what's most on his mind, the last thing he says. And the last speech that Paul gives to these people, the last thing he says and the last speech he gives is about generosity. Because Paul knows, listen, that what it really means to follow Jesus is to have a life that is defined by generosity because that's what defines Jesus' life. Everywhere you look in Jesus' life, you're gonna see someone who is giving, not receiving. Even one of the best examples to me is what happened on the night before Jesus died. Well, what did Jesus do on the night before he died? He washed his disciples feet.

I'm gonna go ahead and tell you guys, let's just get this clear right now. If God tells me I gotta die for you tomorrow, if God says tomorrow, you're gonna die for the people of the summit church, then the night before that, I'm gonna be like, you know what? This is some me time, okay? I'm gonna focus a little bit on me tonight because tomorrow's about you. But Jesus in the night before he died said, no, it's still not about me, it's I'm gonna wash my disciples feet because it is more blessed.

Blessed is the word makarios, which means happy. It's just happier to live in a way where you're focused more on giving than you are receiving. Does that quality define your life? Let me start with your most basic relationships in your marriage. Is your marriage more about giving than receiving? Do you prioritize the preferences and comforts and dreams of your spouse more than you prioritize your own? And your friendships, are they more characterized by giving than receiving?

And in your relationship with your parents, is that more characterized by giving than receiving? How about in your career? And one of the things that we frequently ask at this church is your career. Is your career basically a tool that you use to get all you can? Or have you asked how your career might be used in a way that gives to the mission of God? Because to follow Jesus in your career doesn't mean you become a pastor necessarily.

It just means you ask, what has my career been given to me for as a way of giving in multiplication? In my little backstage area, I have two of my most favorite prized possessions that have been given to me over the years. They're two pages of old Bibles. When I say old, I mean like, well, one of them is from the 14th century. It was from a Bible in England. It was called the Chained Bible because it's in Latin. It was chained to the pulpit in the churches in England because, you know, church leaders didn't want normal people reading the Bible, never know where that leads.

So they chained it there. And so I have a, it's called the Chained Bible and I have it framed back there. Right beside that, I have a copy of a page out of the first English translation of the Bible by William Tyndale, who put it into the vernacular.

And it's an amazing story. William Tyndale was this priest who reads the Bible, basically gets saved, says, everybody needs to know this. So he starts translating the Bible in English. Church leaders didn't like it, said, no, we chained the Bible for a reason. And so they bring him up in court and William Tyndale says, they said, you better stop.

And he says, well, we'll tell you when I'm done, by God's grace, the plow boy in England is going to know more about the Bible than you corrupt priests do. Well, they didn't like that. So they strangled him strangled him and burned him at the stake. Not one or the other, they had to do both. So they strangled him and burned him at the stake.

His last words that he gives as he's dying is, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. Now that's the part of the story I knew. I learned that one in seminary. What I didn't know was something I read in the book a while back that made the story even better. There's a missing component in that story. And the missing component is a guy named Humphrey Monmouth. Humphrey Monmouth was a merchant, a very wealthy merchant who owned a fleet of ships. And what Monmouth did is he had been led to Christ by Tyndale.

And he said, you know what? Not only can I finance the translation of this Bible and the publishing of it, I can use this fleet of merchant ships to get this Bible into all the corners of the English empire. Because he did that, when they burned William Tyndale at the stake, they were not able to destroy the Bible that he had translated. It was already out. And because of that, you got a copy of it sitting right in your hands.

It goes back to William Tyndale's translation. There was a man at a particular time who understood that his career had been given to him by God in order to be able to be used for the mission of God. My question I want all of you to consider is how can your career be used for the mission of God? We put out in front of you things like, hey, maybe you can move in one of our church plants. Maybe you can use your career as a way of being a part of gospel proclamation.

Maybe you can go to one of what we call our global cities initiative, which is where you go to one of these unreached places in the world. And you live on your career and you tell people about Jesus who wouldn't otherwise hear. Maybe you've made a lot of money in your career and praise God for that.

God doesn't begrudge that at all. He gave you that ability, but maybe, maybe he gave you that ability to make money. Maybe it wasn't just so you could increase your standard of living.

Maybe he gave it to you for the purpose of multiplication. Maybe you ought to say in my career, it's more blessed to give than just to receive. Maybe you're entering retirement right now. Maybe you're entering retirement early.

I don't know. Are you the kind of person who are going to retire and say, finally, I get to make it all about me because the gospel is that if I am financially independent and I've achieved this place and I'm just freer now to be able to live places where I can share the gospel more strategically in this chapter, I want to give more than I receive. What do you, what you do with your money in retirement? I talked to a really wealthy guy in our church, older man who said, I thought this was awesome. He said, JD, he said, my goal, my goal was for the last check I write on earth to bounce because I gave it all away. I told that to one of our pastors and one of our pastors was like, huh, I'm way ahead of that guy.

I'm already already bouncing right and left right now. It's more blessed to give than to receive. This is the last thing Paul says to them. And it's arguably the most important question because it's the most fun question of discipleship. Do you look at your life as given to you to multiply because that's what it means to follow Jesus.

So there it is. That's Paul's philosophy of life. I'm going to make sure my generation knows about Jesus. It's a high calling to make sure our generation knows about Jesus, but it's our only goal today and every day here on Summit Life with JD Greer. One way we can stay focused on that calling is by turning to God in prayer, especially when we're facing life's most difficult challenges. Pastor JD, how can our new five-week prayer guide help someone struggling with difficult emotions? Yeah, Molly, each week we tackle a specific emotion, anger, depression, anxiety, envy, or shame. And we provide a roadmap for spiritual growth from that emotion. Your emotions can be tools that help you understand your heart and help you apply the promises of the gospel to your heart. We give you daily scripture readings and prayer guides that will help you reflect, journal, and apply God's word to your life.

The gospel is central in this study, reminding us of Christ's power to transform even our most challenging feelings. An important part of this resource has given you the tools to lean into community and accountability, understanding that you're not alone in this and that other people can help remind you of the gospel. I think this resource could be really transformative for some of you, and I would love for you to get it. You can receive it when you donate, when you help us take these messages to other people.

When you give, this is our way of saying thank you, is giving this to you. You can do that at jdgrier.com. Give today and we'll immediately email you the Smoke from a Fire digital prayer guide. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or you can donate online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Be sure to join us again next week as we near the finish line of this teaching series called The Whole Story. We're headed to the final book of the Bible right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.