So, what is an everyday life? Revolutionary.
Well, let's ask the guy that wrote a book by that title. His name is J.D. Greer, longtime friend, Pastor J.D., you've done it again, brother. You've written a new book. You've written a bunch of books.
Tell us what's special about this one. Yeah, you know, some books you feel like you spend a year writing. This one, I feel like the Lord has been writing into me for about 20 years because it really is like, I mean, a lot of Christians want to be bold in a cultural moment like this, but they can feel kind of the world around them shifting. I mean, if anything, the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk showed us that Christians are in a different place where people are not just seen as like one religious option among many, they're seen as the enemy.
So, what does faithful response look to in that kind of time? Is it simply that we kind of take to the airwaves and launch culture war and we match their politics with our politics and all that kind of stuff? Or is Jesus calling us to something that goes even beyond that? The subtitle of this book is How to Transcend the Culture War and Transform the World. What Jesus calls us to, Stu, is not less than clarity.
About social issues, what he calls us to is something even much more than that. You know, Jesus' glory is that he was filled with grace and truth. You know, he wasn't like half filled with each, or he didn't toggle back and forth. He was filled with grace and truth. He was so truthful that they killed him for it, but he was also so full of grace that sinners clamored to be around him.
That's what our ministries are supposed to be like in this day and time. And so, everyday revolutionary is for everyday Christians about how they can live that way, whether they teach third graders at school or whether they're sitting on the corporate board of a multinational conglomerate. And JD, people see you, they're like, well, this guy's radical, man. He's sharing the gospel. He had this overseas thing before becoming pastor here.
And his church is planting churches. And they say he's radical. But when you read the Bible, when you look at the book of Daniel, you talk about Daniel a lot in this book. This is like normal Christianity. How have we gotten to the point where we have all these, you know?
Hashtags or descriptives and adjectives when this is just like what it means to follow Jesus. Yeah, you know, you can almost hear when I talk about Jesus being full of grace and truth. They're like, well, yeah, that means that's Jesus. I'm not Jesus. The book of Daniel, Daniel's an ordinary guy.
I mean, he got into some extraordinary situations, but he's an ordinary guy. And again, I just want you to think about the effect he had on Babylon. He was so courageous with his truth-telling. That he ends up in the lion's den. And yet, He is so beloved, by the king who Whose wicked decree threw him there, that the king stood outside the lion's den all night long, hoping against hope that Daniel would make it through the night.
I don't think he was doing that, Stu. I don't think the king Darius stood there because he was like, he missed, he simply missed Daniel's prophetic rebukes. I think he did that because he knew Daniel was his friend, that he loved Babylon, and that he couldn't, and the king could not imagine Babylon without Daniel.
So, the question is: how do you become like that in our society?
So, what I try to do in this book is I outline five different practices that. That believers can do every single day, regardless of their job, that can that make them like Daniel and like Jesus in this culture. I want to break each of these down, but it's fascinating you mentioned Daniel because he's kind of like one of your exhibites in this book. He is, of all the people God would use to deliver one of the most important prophetic. And historical narratives in the whole Bible.
That impacted all kinds of cultures. I mean, all those guys, he's like the connector between all of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah. He influenced the wise men that came to Jesus. He is like, you can't teach Revelation, which you're doing right now, without Daniel. But here, here, God used a government bureaucrat.
to be the the model of Of a godly prayer life. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean, that's exactly it. I mean, what do you know about Daniel? Means what should be known about us.
One of the prophets, I think it was Ezekiel, that even referred to Daniel as one of the three most righteous men that had ever lived. That's a guy who never went to seminary. It's a guy who grew up essentially without parents because his parents had been, you know, had been killed. And he grew up in Babylon where he was called by a Babylonian name. They called him Beltashazzar, which means something like the moon God is the right God or something like that.
But here you got Daniel that was faithful despite really bad situations and circumstances. Through the Holy Spirit, we can do that too. And this book's broken down. I like how it's broken down into sections. Everyday Revolutionary is the book.
The pastor is, the author is Pastor J.D. Greer. He's also a pastor of the Summit Church, which God's using him to plant a lot of churches. And he's one of those guys that just speak to this. You're like a big sea church guy.
Like you find out another church is doing well. And you get excited. What happened to the competitive spirit? How dare they use my stuff? Talk about that in how you talk about it in some of your other books, but how that's important to be an everyday revolutionary.
Yeah, I mean, you know, so what's our end game? What's our goal? For years, I prayed that God would just bless the summit church beyond our wildest imagination. And, you know, Stu, I'm not trying to be a, you know, full-on Pentecostal here, but in one of those moments where God spoke to me, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a voice that was as clear as had it. Had it been audible, it could not have been any clearer.
The Holy Spirit said, okay, what if I say yes and I do send a revival to Raleigh? But what if your church is not the one that grows as a result? What if somebody else's church grows?
Now, I know the right answer. Oh, yes, Lord, you must increase and I must decrease. That's the right answer, but that didn't reflect my heart. And God had to say, hey, is this about your kingdom or is this about mine? I think for believers who aren't in ministry.
That's what you got to ask about the prosperity he's given you, the income he's given you. Is he doing that for your sake, or is he doing that because he wants you to be a channel of blessing to others because you care more about his kingdom than your own? I love it. JD, you break this down in three parts: this book, Everyday Revolutionary. First part, I'm going to read each part.
I'm going to say them, you give me a quick one or two sentences on them, okay? Yes, sir. First section is part one: honor Christ. Yeah, so I built this book off of the phrase in 1 Peter where he says, This is what testimony in Babylon looks like: honor Christ means that you recognize our role. Our primary role as believers in Babylon is keeping the name of Jesus holy, to keep people understanding the truth about Him.
I'm not solving. My first concern is not political, political victory. My first concern. I'm not saying it's no concern, I'm just saying my first concern is the holiness of the name of Jesus. Part two, live quietly.
Kalos life. I probably mispronounced that. No, it's okay. Yeah, Kalos is the word that Peter uses. Live quietly is actually Paul's term.
And that's what he counsels believers to do: to live quietly, which might seem odd. Coming from the guy who stood in an Ephesian amphitheater and shouted down the crowd and told them they were worshiping a God that was no God at all. You're like, that guy says live quietly. That doesn't seem legit. But that's exactly what he said.
And he's going to break that down into different components and how you see your job, how you see relationships, how you see your possessions. And a lot of these titles of chapters: creation fulfilling, excellence pursuing, holiness reflecting, redemption displaying, mission advancing. This is very much. The Christian life, but it's the heart driven by the Holy Spirit. Final one.
Part three, testify loudly. Yeah.
Now, this is your, now you're amping it up. I can't imagine a J.D. Greer testifying loudly about anything. Yeah, so some people here live quietly and testify loudly and think those are opposites, but for the apostles, they're actually one and the same. It is your quiet life, the way that you bless those around you, the way that you are to your Babylon, the way that Daniel was to his.
It is when you live that way that you get an opportunity, Peter says, to proclaim loudly the hope that's in you. And you do that through your radical generosity, your hospitality, your courage, your mercy, your forgiveness, and even through miracles that God does in answers to prayer through your life. And you close out with when heaven gets loud. When does heaven get loud? Yeah, so that's when you pray bold things in the name of Jesus.
It's what James says. Hey, Elijah was a man just like you, and his prayers literally changed the weather. And then James says, hey, that's not something that was a one-time thing for an Old Testament prophet. People should see that kind of stuff through you and glorify your God in heaven, just like they glorified Daniel's and Elijah's. I just heard one of your sermons on Daniel where you talk about how there's 3,000 promises plus in the Bible, how we should not just read through the scripture every year, we should pray through the scripture every year.
These are promises that are there, that God's made available to us. This is a massive bank account, but believers, we got to go there, right? We got to tap into that thing. Yeah, I do think sometimes when we're in heaven, the thing that we will look back on and regret most is how much available outpouring of power we left on the table because we just didn't believe Jesus. Jaden, one sentence, everyday revolutionary.
What do you want to happen with this book? Folks listening and say, hey, I want to grab a copy of that. They're going to see it everywhere. We'll take a picture here, you know, with my big six foot seven-inch selfie stick holding this book up. What's the takeaway?
What's the bottom line? Yeah, Gen Z's coming back to church. Praise the Lord, right? We all see the studies on that. Are we going to enlist them primarily as soldiers in the culture war or primarily as gospel witnesses?
Okay, no, most folks go to the Dean Dome for a big Carolina Duke basketball game or for a massive concert, you know, one of the largest universities, one of the most famed places to play basketball. Named after Dean Smith. Y'all had church at the dome. What in the world is going on, J.D. Greer?
Are you losing your mind? Are you losing your marbles? There you were. And someone touted it as one of the biggest non-sports events in recent history at that venue.
Well, it was in 15 years the largest non-basketball event that had taken place at the Dean Dome. And more than 20,000 people came together. And, I mean, Sue, we just preached the gospel and we worshiped like Jesus was coming back. And 367 people got baptized that day and another 100 that said they wanted to start a conversation about it. Unbelievable.
There's a revival. You mentioned Gen Z. There's a revival happening on these campuses. God is working. Kids are getting baptized.
They're realizing all these other things are not fulfilling them. Speak to that real quick. What's God doing in this generation? And then speak to many who are listening about how they can get involved. You know, we got a lot of folks sitting on the bench, on the sidelines, listening to this right now.
Call us into the battle, will you? Yeah, I mean, yeah, Gen Z is, I mean, they are coming back, and there are opportunities that we have to be bold. And I think God has put it right here in front of us. Are we going to squander that or are we going to capitalize on it? The reason they're coming back, Stu, is because.
It's almost like imagine you were standing on a cliff, and Jesus is on the other cliff, and you got to jump to him. And the leap of faith, but the cliff you're standing on, you look at it and you realize it's crumbling beneath your feet. That's what's happened to Gen Z: they've realized that all this secular progressivism that they've been sold is a fake bill of goods, and it's crumbling, and they're looking for something solid. And we have that answer in Jesus Christ. That's Pastor J.D.
Greer. If you haven't heard this guy teach the word of God, you need to dial him up and listen. Listen to him on the Truth Network. Many of the great stations that are brave enough to carry this program, carry his show. We'll make this a podcast, share with everyone, and get a hold of this book, Everyday Revolutionary.
Best way, JD, to connect with you, connect with your ministry. Folks can obviously Google Amazon, all that stuff. But what's a good website where they can grab the audio, hear some of your sermons, and stuff like that? Yeah, and probably the easiest one is just JD Greer, J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R dot com, and there's all the sermons and all these kind of stuff. Most of it's free.
That's the best part. True top Why?
