How Ordinary People Change the World | Pastor J.D. Greear

hey guys today we were talking about sending church plant a mobilization unreached people groups sending our best y'all that's our topic for today and I can't wait to introduce to you our guest speaker pastor JD Greer from the summit Church in Raleigh Durham many of you guys know that we were planted out of the summit we left there about six years ago Anna and I and many of our staff now had had been there even five years before that and pastor JD just really took us under his wing man taught me so much about preaching and so much about having a heart beat for the nation's and that is really coming to fruition here you guys know that we were part of a network the summit network we seek to plant a thousand churches in a generation but mercy Hill God has put his hand on us and to whom much is given much is required we want to plant 100 of those thousand before 2050 and so I couldn't be more fired up to have pastor JD come in and really just kind of hammer us on this idea of sending this idea of gaining about losing so you guys put your hands together and all the campuses for pastor JD if you know anything about our church the church that I pastor in the Triangle area is the Raleigh area is blessed I would say with a lot of college students within what they say a 20 mile radius of our churches front door are 120,000 college students that go to places like UNC Chapel Hill and Duke University in North Carolina Central North Carolina State and so over a lot of college students come to our church on the weekend which I always say means a couple of things about our church number one we are dirt poor as a congregation relatively speaking because college students they're just like they are here they don't show up with any money I'm just like Andrew did when he came to our church they show up with debts and so we don't have a lot of offering in fact I remember when college students first started to come to our church about a decade ago it was like one weekend like three of them showed up and just sat together and I guess they liked it because they they drove two cars three of them came they went back the next week 300 came in the same two cars and during that that little time period are our average attendance went like tripled and our average weekly giving went down $13.48 one of my favorite memories as a pastor is in between two of our services one of my our sirs comes back in the like backstage area and he's got a bacon he's got an offering bucket and a bacon egg and cheese biscuit in him from a college student they can make a little note on it that said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you and so we are dirt poor as a congregation but the flip side of that is we know that we have a lot of potential missionaries at our church and a lot of people that are ready to be sent out we have as a goal as Andrew said a minute ago a goal planting a thousand churches in our generation we teach all of our students that unless they have heard from God audibly by the time they graduate they need a plan on spending at least the first two years of their post god graduate the life serving in one of our church plants somewhere we tell them give us two years and we'll transform the world and we call that the Mormon ization strategy for our college students but it seems to be working pretty well for them I'm kidding we don't really call the Mormon strategy but the call to leverage that maybe this is serious the call to leverage your life for the Great Commission is not something is not a sacred experience that God extends to a select few the call to leverage your life for the Great Commission was included in the call to follow Jesus Matthew 5:19 Jesus said follow me and I will make you a Fisher of men which means when you accepted Jesus you also accepted the call to mrs. right it just just goes you know it goes along with it and so that's what we teach our students the question is no longer if you were called the question really is only where and how you are called we tell our students that figuring out the call of Jesus on your light basically means taking the statement whatever you're good at God made you good at something right and mutton baby may not be speaking or preaching or it made you good at something so whatever you're good at do it well for the glory of God and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God whatever you're good at do it well for the glory of God and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of job we tell them you got to get a job somewhere when I get a job in a place where God is doing something strategic like a church plant like Greensboro North Carolina lots of factors go into where you were going to pursue your career where your parents live where you can make money where you've always wanted to live why not let the largest of all those factors why not have that be where you can be strategically used in the mission of God y'all the more I study the book of Acts the more ice the New Testament the more I become convinced that Jesus's plan for reaching the world is not a handful of us growing really big churches and having large groups of people that come to listen to our teaching but it's raising up ordinary people and the power of the Spirit just raising of ordinary people in the power of the Spirit who will go and take the gospel everywhere they go so to that end I want to walk you through the story I talk with a pastor Andrew just about what maybe I could share with you and he said it he said this is what you could share all right act 6 and 7 so if you got a Bible this weekend I hope you do take it out and turn them on he's totally in pastor Andrews told me how sophisticated y'all are and scroll down to act 6 and 7 okay that's where we're gonna be act 6 and 7 and to our college students I know in our college service let me welcome you guys as well as well as all the campuses here at Mercy Hill I get your Bible out Acts chapter 6 and 7 I want to thank pastor Andrew personally for not asking me to preach in the sec's series that he is doing right now we're not gonna talk about that at 6 and 7 I want to show you the profile of a guy that God used and I'm not over saying this he used him literally to transform the world and this guy that we're gonna look at his story marks a turning point in the middle or right toward the beginning of the book of Acts and I'm going to show you that all right so Acts chapter 6 let me give you the context before we read the man's name is Stephen Stephen is not an apostle Stephen as far as we can tell is us an ordinary guy yet Stephens story marks the most significant turning point in the book of Acts you see up until this moment as far as we can tell the gospel movement the Gospel message has yet to leave Jerusalem even though Jesus had clearly told the disciples here to go to Jerusalem Judea Samaria that in most parts of the earth he clearly told him that yet after five six chapters they're still hanging out in Jerusalem holding hands singing Kumbaya and he wants the gospel to go to the ends of the earth now to be sure it's been an exciting ride with all the you know 3,000 people getting saved and baptized in one day and people you know miracles and people getting struck dead in the offering and whatnot but it's been exciting but the bottom line is the church still hasn't left the borders of Jerusalem well that's gonna change here in acts 6 and 7 with the story of Stephen and I believe that Stephens story is given to us in part in part as an example of what ordinary men and women and the church is supposed to look like because that's what Stephen is he's an ordinary guy and what will happen in the world when people in churches like this one in churches like the summit church begin to look like this Stephens story begins in chapter 6 where he is selected to help deliver food to the widows so that the Apostles can devote themselves more closely to prayer into the word Stephens job y'all in one sense is not really that important right I mean he wasn't elected group president he wasn't elected there teacher he's not considered to be one of the theological leaders in the early church he is just a table waiter that's it yet Acts six and seven tells us that Stephen does his job so well and his witness was so full of the Spirit that it got the attention of many in the community including many of the Jewish priests who began to turn in large numbers to faith in Christ well of course they got the attention of the of the Sanhedrin the religious leaders who began to try to discredit Stephen I love this first X 6:10 yet they could not withstand the wisdom or the spirit with which this ordinary layman this untrained guy was speaking he wasn't want to be apostles in act 7 they beat you bring Stephen before the Jewish Council where Stephen proceeds to give the longest recorded sermon in the book of Acts it's a pretty detailed history of Israel showing how the entire Old Testament points forward to Jesus and it comes to a climax in verse 54 of chapter 7 now when they had heard these things they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him but he being full of the holy spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said behold I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God verse 57 but they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they rushed together at him then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul Saul who would later become who we refer to as the Apostle Paul verse 59 and as they were stoning Stephen he called out Lord Jesus receive my spirit and then falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against them and when he had said this he fell asleep now watch this everybody ends the story right there but it doesn't in there you know the chapter breaks they're comin addition to the English Bible but in the original it just flowed right into the next and Steven story didn't really end until chapter 8 watch this chapter 8 verse 1 now there arose on that day that baby and of course the day of Stephens martyrdom there arose a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria look at this next phrase except the Apostles right they stayed in Jerusalem saying kumbaya verse 4 and those who were scattered went about preaching the word there it is y'all there it is the first time the gospel leaves Jerusalem is acts 8 verse 1 and I want you to let this sink in for just a minute not a single apostle is involved in that Stevens witness Stephen a layman's witness was the one that provoked the riot and of all those who left preaching the word Luke the writer of the book of Acts seems to go out of his way to note that not a single apostle was included by the way from this point on ordinary people are going to be at the forefront of the gospel movement there's guy named Stephen Neal he wrote a book called the history of Christian missions and in it he details what how the church spread in those early days and he said nothing is more remarkable in the spread of the gospel the first century then it's anonymity he said by the end of the first century you had three great church planting centers one in Antioch when in Alexandria and one in Rome he said what is remarkable about these three church planting sitters is we have no idea who planted the churches in Antioch Alexandria and Rome right that the founding of the church in Antioch is actually recorded in in acts 11 and all it says is some brothers who were filled with the Spirit came there and planted a church some brothers that's Luke's way of saying a bunch of guys whose names I'm not even going to tell you because they're not really that significant just some dudes came here and they planted a church when they came that church would one day send out the Apostle Paul as a missionary but Paul did not found that church the founding of the church in Rome is alluded to in acts 28 now Peters kind of famous with the Church of Rome but he didn't found it in fact on Paul Paul wants to found the church in Rome so for the last half of the book of Acts Paul is dead set on getting the gospel to run I got to get the gospel to Rome I got to get the gospel to Rome and it's quite a journey I mean shipwrecks and and beatings and snakes hand hanging off of his arm I mean it's it's quite an ordeal Paul finally acts 28 drags his tired old body into Rome acts 28 14 he finally gets in a room and he is greeted by the brothers saying group of unnamed dudes you're like hey man man we plan on a church it's going awesome why don't you write us a book or something that would be fantastic we would love that right nobody knows who planted these churches just ordinary people that went and carried the gospel with them and planted the greatest church planting centers in the world so let me give you the first of those four convictions four convictions of those who transformed the world that you see reflected in Stephens life number one beaten by the way these are really simple they're not that profound and they're not going to be that impressive okay number one God wants to use me God wants to use me ordinary believers have always been God's plan a for reaching the world like I just explained the gospel has always traveled around the world faster on the wings of business and commerce faster than it has do any apostolic strategy in fact here's what I'd love for you to consider this weekend for many of you God gave you a skill what if God's primary purpose in the skill that he gave you was for a gospel purpose I always tell our students this verse proverbs 20 to 29 do you see a man who is skillful in his work you see a man skillful in his work that man will stand before kings maybe God needs you really good at architecture maybe it's education maybe it's medicine some what if God gave you that so that you could stand before the kings of the earth and tell them who Jesus is that might be overseas by the way it might be overseas I was reading this mission journal the other day and it explained that in what we call the 1040 window do you know what that is 1040 window is between the 10th and 40th parallel where most of the people who don't know Jesus at all they live in the 1040 window places like India China Afghanistan those places and it said if you count up the number of missionaries in the 1040 window from all evangelical denominations the number is 40,000 now praise God we need 10 times that many 40,000 I said if you had a contestant the number of Americans working in secular employment in the 1040 window that number 2 million now if you take the same demographic stats that we kind of you know apply to the rest of United States that means that about 30 what's 36% of them identify as born-again why don't we just call a spade a spade and write off two thirds of them is not really serious about their faith at all that would still leave get this two hundred thousand practicing Christians right now in the 1040 window that means if they thought of themselves as primarily put there to be disciple making disciples in addition to doing their job you would take the mission force from 40,000 to 240,000 without spending another dime does that make sense yeah I saw this with my own on my own father my dad was the plant manager of a textile factory over in winston-salem and when my the day that my dad retired a few years ago his company rehired him like that afternoon for more money to go overseas into the 1040 window where they wanted to set up a plant over there so my dad my mom went over there lived for six months a year of actually ended up being about a year and a half and while they were over there he was able to rub shoulders with Asian businessmen that I'm telling you I could never get close to taking a mission trip doing an an English corner and handing out water bottles he was able to be there he was able to lead a couple of these of these Asian businessmen to Christ by the way total cost to the church zero dollars in fact we made money in the deal because he kept higher than the whole time that he was over there right that's what we're talking about it's just that that's why God gave somebody like that maybe some of you are gonna have a similar kind of maybe you got I read this thing in Forbes magazine the other day um but this comes out right 75 percent of college graduates believe they have a career that will take them overseas now we know that's not true that's kinda like it's the same stat like eighty seven point two percent of college graduates think they're above average at math you're like mmm some things are self-defeating so that's never going to happen right they're not all gonna go ever see spots it shows you that you're thinking that way right why not look at that skill as a key that God put in your hands not just to make money not just to make a living but he gave it to you as a key for you to stand in front of the kings of the earth and tell them who Jesus is right to follow Jesus means whatever you do do it well to the glory of God whether that's architecture or education or whatever it is and do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God that's what it means to follow Jesus we challenge our retirees at our church to give at least the first two years of their of their retirement to go in and being a part of one of these church plants maybe hear overseas the point I'm making is this if you are a so-called ordinary Christian you need to understand that God has a role for you in his kingdom and you got to stop sitting around waiting on not some warm fuzzy moment to call you into ministry that call was included when you accepted Jesus as your Savior and he said I want to use you as a Fisher of man we had this myth that this calling thing is like this weird at our church I call it the Cheerios method you know where you're waiting for your Cheerios to spell out like go to Afghanistan you're like oh I get it you know listen no I stare to my tears for years all they ever spot out was over and over again nothing spoke to me a mighty Rios the call for you to to leverage your life for the Great Commission that is the call to follow Jesus and if you feel like you're not that important or that talented that's all the more reason why you should expect God to use you because God has always delighted in using ordinary people to accomplish the most extraordinary things that's why Paul said not many wise not many noble not many that have great reputations they're not the ones that God used to build his church that's always been the plain in the ordinary and Noah pastor one-time who was a great leader chand he stood up in front of the congregation and he said how many of you guys were valedictorian or salutatorian at your your your school stand up and so handful of people stood up everybody cheered he said all right remain standing he said how many of you were an all-american athlete stand out and they stood up how many of you went to college on scholarship how many you Honor Society student body president just went through every you know accolades you could think of homecoming queen and homecoming king when he got done with this entire list he said it was probably a quarter of the audience were standing up he said write it right put your hands together for these awesome people I met cheered he said okay I for you who are standing up I got good news and I got bad news so for you who were standing up the good news is God can use you also the bad news is you're not his first choice my his first choice is all those people sitting down right there because God chooses to put extraordinary power into ordinary people that's always been his way which leads me to number two the second conviction is that the Holy Spirit fills me what makes Steven remarkable to me is his confidence a confidence that Steven apparently gained from an awareness of the fullness of the Spirit within him the most common characteristic repeated about Steven in these chapters is that he was filled with the spirit what gives ordinary people such extraordinary confidence and effectiveness is that get this knowledge of the power of the Spirit within them if you're a Christian you've already got the power of the Spirit in you it is the knowledge of that power and being in touch with that power and being sensitive to that power that's what gives you confidence right Jesus made oh he made such extraordinary promises such extraordinary promises about the power and the potential the Holy Spirit in believers in fact they're so staggering that sometimes I felt like we we don't even come close to taking them seriously let me just give you a couple of examples I'm John 16:7 I'll put it up here on the screen for you nevertheless he's a set I'll tell you the truth by the way stop I tell you the truth Jesus was not in the habit of telling lies he didn't have to stop and clarify like now I'm being serious and it's just he always uses that little phrase whenever he's about to say something that is so mind-blowing that if you're not really thinking about it it'll just go right over your head watch it is to your what's that next word say it's it advantage that I go away for if I don't go away the helper will not come to you to your advantage how absurd must that have sounded to those first disciples how awesome would it be to have Jesus Christ as your ministry companion how awesome would it be to walk around with Jesus for three years what's that experience like you mean you come back after a hard day of ministry you got a theological question BAM Jesus answers it you go to a party and they run out of checks makes BAM Jesus multiplies the checks make so there's a twelve baskets leftover your dog dies BAM Jesus raises the dog back from the dead your cat dies Jesus digs a hole to help you get rid of that cat bury forever amen by the way all those cat jokes there they're coming from me not from Andrew okay so just you feel sure of that okay that's probably not exactly what it we like to have Jesus as your companion but it had to have been amazing and he is telling them and he even clarifies them tell you the truth he's telling them if you really understood who the Holy Spirit was you would be glad that I was leaving because you got him does your experience with the Spirit of God justify that statement say that uh pastor Andrew got up here after I was done speaking and said I got bad news for everybody I'm being called away somewhere else in among your pastor anymore I'd be sad right but it'll be sad we've already got another candidate for senior pastor here it's Jesus of Nazareth right I'm sure his sex series has been great but Jesus's sermons gonna be a lot better than Andrews I can go ahead and tell you that right right you would be over the moon that Jesus was your senior pastor you'd be telling everybody are you as excited that you're gonna walk out of here this weekend with the Holy Spirit inside you as you would if you had Jesus in front of you if not doesn't that show you how far away you are from whatever Jesus was talking about and promising there in John 16 they say we don't understand that he is promising something of incredible value I'll give you one more matthew eleven i'm jesus said truly I tell you the same phrase I tell you the truth there has never been any one born among women greater than you know this this is the greatest preacher ever to live according to gee who was the greatest preacher ever to live according to Jesus starts with J runs with on the Baptist John the Baptist great guess alright John the Baptist according to Jesus he's the greatest preacher ever to live Jesus loved preaching to John the Baptist he podcast in John the Baptist okay um Jesus said but I take the truth right even though there's nobody ever been greater preacher than him but one of you watch this who is least in my kingdom is greater than John the Baptist least in my kingdom what does that mean least in my kingdom means you got the least talent you know the least about the Bible you got the worst personality right I mean least in the kingdom that's what that somebody in this room or in at our church campuses here somebody is the least of the kingdom of heaven at Mercy Hill right I'm not trying to be mean mathematically that has to be true right now you're sitting there thinking I think it might be me and God in heaven is like yep it's you it's you you're at the bottom of the bottle okay even even if that's true even if that's true and and you really are the least of the kingdom of heaven at Mercy Hill you have more power and potential in ministry than John the Baptist why cuz you got something he never had and that is you have the Holy Spirit of God after the resurrection permanently fused to your soul and at that point it is no longer about your abilities and preaching or ministry it is about your availability to the Holy Spirit because what you're gonna see in the rest of the book of Acts is you're gonna see that the Holy Spirit can accomplish more through one small act of obedience then all the Apostles could accomplish in eight chapters I give you a acts 8 in the the chapter acts 8 there is another layman ordinary guy named Philip and Philip is in a ministry in Samaria and the Spirit of God says I need you to go stand at this little crossroads this dusty crossroads out in the middle of nowhere that's once you stand there and so field was like why and the Holy Spirit's like I'm gonna tell you this go stand there you know what to do so he goes and stands there in obedience to the Holy Spirit and along by in a chariot comes a guy we now refer to as the Ethiopian eunuch and Philip because he's right there is able to lead him to Christ Eusebius the church historian tells us that Philip I mean the Ethiopian eunuch him and his whole little group was converted they go back and plant a church in sub-saharan Africa a church that is in existence up to this date what are you seeing you're seeing the Holy Spirit accomplished more through one ordinary person being obedient to the Spirit then all the Apostles have been able to accomplish in eight chapters with all of their best strategies the book of Acts is essentially the story of ordinary people following the spirit it's always been how God built his church my mind always goes back to when I was in college we uh college that was that we started this Bible study it we're trying to reach people for Christ and and I was starting to grow a little bit and so we decided we were gonna do a we're gonna like one big you know night where we invited all of our friends and I most people we'd ever have like 40 at our Bible study so we put up flyers we prayed and and we were the day before it was ready I didn't think things were gonna go well I thought was gonna be a disaster and so we were ahead metal planning group and we were at the the table in the lunchroom lunch room had probably people in it with this one girl on her team whose name was Amy and Amy was the shyest person I had ever met I mean she was just so quiet like just never you never she'd go in and out of rooms you wouldn't know she was there and so all of a sudden I'm talking over here and all of a sudden I hear this kinda like behind me and I turn around and Amy is on top of the table and I'm like what is happening you know so it's like is this just gonna end bad or what so she um she stamps her foot gets the whole place quiet the whole lunchroom just dead quiet and she says I know this seems strange she says but I want you to know that tomorrow night we're gonna have a big thing where we want people to come and hear about Jesus and we're gonna tell you how Jesus has changed our lives and it's not really that well produced but we just want to tell you and we really want all of you to come and none of this is weird not feel like an idiot but I just feel like you should come and then she sat down and I looked at her and it was just it was so awkward I was like what was that she said I don't know she said I just like the Holy Spirit told me to do that now I can't I do know this the next night we had 700 people show up at that Bible study and 50 people trust Christ it there and I have to think it had to do with one shy person obeying the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit can accomplish more through one act of obedience then all the talent and the world could accomplish in any number of years the question is are you listening to the Holy Spirit are you listening to the Holy Spirit because he is speaking 59 times he shows up in the book of Acts 59 36 of the 59 he is speaking if he is not speaking in your life and you're not walking with the same the same Holy Spirit that we see in acts Stephen knew that and he yielded himself to it so the Holy Spirit fills me number three third conviction third conviction is Jesus was to me so I will be to others y'all verse 59 might be my favorite part of this whole story because it gives us a window into Stephens soul at the very hour of his death it shows us in those fleet moments before he died what he was thinking about first fifty nine as they were stoning Stephen he called out watch Lord Jesus receive my spirit and then falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against them Lord Jesus receive my spirit do not hold this sin against them where have you heard those phrases before are they not identical to what Jesus said on the cross father into your hands I commit my spirit and Father forgive them for they know not what they do it seems pretty apparent that in Stephens dying moments Stephen was thinking get this about what Jesus had said on the cross Stephen had probably been there to see it he was thinking about what Jesus had said on the cross for him watch this and now in his dying moment he is praying for others what Jesus had prayed for him because see that's what it means to follow Jesus what it means to follow Jesus is to look at your life as a sacrifice for others like Jesus sacrificed himself for you so just consider this for a minute think about this where would you be had Jesus chosen not to come and die on the cross for you where would you be you'd be lost right there be no hope for you let me say that another way where would you be had Jesus chosen not to come and die on the cross for you you would be at exactly the same place that millions of people are in the world without you because like Martin Luther said it wouldn't matter if Jesus died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it Carl Sh Henry the gospel is only good news if it gets there in time the preaching of the gospel is the completion of the Gospel message it has to be preached before it can believe and see that comes with an obligation and Stephen understood that what I want to ask you is have you squarely faced the fact that there really are 2.8 billion people in the world that have never even heard the name of Jesus or have little to no access to the gospel and I plead with you now don't turn that number into a statistic right that's how we tend to think about these things well 2.8 billion people in 6500 unreached people groups I think it was Joseph Stalin who said I don't quote Stalin during sermons just for the record but Joseph Stalin said the death one is a tragedy the death of a million is just a statistic that's a chilly statement coming from him what he meant was this is that when you see the death of one you look into the face of somebody and see somebody like you when you think of them as a number that's all they are is a demographic problem to be solved not a person that is just like you I want you to think about the fact that all over the world right now are people that have little to no access to the gospel who are just like you just like your children I have the same one Steve's fears who know what it's like to be lonely and afraid for whom going to hell is gonna be every bit the tragedy that it would be for you or one of your children don't turn that into a statistic because it is the reality do you genuinely believe that and if so have you wrestled with the obligation that that puts on you Paul said I am a debtor I owe something to the world he'd never met most of the world what he owed them was something that he owed to Jesus he said if Jesus saved me when I deserved it then how could I not use what God has given me for their salvation the way that Jesus used his for me where would I be without Jesus I'd be at the same place other people are without my obedience and that transforms the way that I think about my life I realize I realize God has not called every person every Christian to go I'm still here pastor Andrew still here but it surely seems like he would have called so many more to go that are actually going why would the Holy Spirit leave so many and sin so very few I would say the burden of proof is on us if we choose to stay because there are so many in so many places with so little access to the gospel I want you to realize for some of you that you've got to offer your life and say God what do you want holy sphere where you tell me to go and maybe it'll be the first time you've asked a question like that realize some of you that got put in your hands a key to get there for some of you got placed in your hands wealth to get other people there I know a man who's chosen to remain here the United States but he says I'm working to be a we calls himself a reversed either he says reversed hi there means I want to keep 10% and give away 90 it says that I'm trying to work my way there I'm not saying that's God's plan for everybody I'm just saying that with the privilege of hearing the gospel comes and Legation to the gospel and Steven understood that and so Steven said as Jesus was for me that's all be to others number four fourth one here fourth conviction of Stephen as Jesus is worth it let's return one final time to Act seven as they begin to hurl stones at Stephen Stephen looks offers 56 and he says behold I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God scholars point out here that Stephens cite his view of Jesus standing is odd because everywhere else in Scripture we see Jesus at the right hand of God we see him sitting it's actually an important theological concept he's sitting showing that the work of salvation is finished so why in this moment is he standing there's only one possible explanation and that is he is standing to receive home his son in this moment the world has risen up against Stephen and with one collective voice both the Romans and the Jews are saying to him you're a fool you are a traitor your life is a waste and it's like Jesus it's almost like he can't help but he stands up in that same moment and he says no well done good and faithful servant they call you heretic I call you son and Stephen looks up and with face beaming with angelic brightness he just says with his life his last breath he says yes Jesus is worth it I'm telling you the only thing that will give you the conviction to go all the way in obedience for the Great Commission and where the God calls you to stay or go is believing deep in your soul that Jesus is worth it you know we talked about Jesus coming to bring peace into our lives fulfillment that's true but I'm gonna go ahead and tell you at some point listen to me at some point if you're serious about following Jesus obedience to him is going to take you a hundred and eighty degrees opposite of where you think you want to go and at that point you're gonna have to make a choice as to whether or not you think he is worth it and whether you would rather have him or whatever else your heart wants to go after and whether you gonna be like Stephen and say you can let the whole world throw rocks at me you can let everything go I'd rather have Jesus I've spent the first two years of my ministry over as a missionary in Southeast Asia and the day that I left I got visited by a guy that I've known for a couple years in fact let me back up remind a little bit a week before I left he and I had this conversation his name was Ishmael it's mild been my best friend there and he had helped me learn the language we go on fishing together dozens and dozens of times and he shared the gospel with him at least 12 times least a dozen times and he um every time I share the gospel with him he would say the exact same thing he would preach out he's like an Islamic youth pastor he reached I put his hand on my shoulder because I real touchy over there uncomfortably so and he would say um he would say JD my friend you are a great man of faith and you make your parents very proud I - a man of faith you are Christian because you were born as a Christian I am Muslim because I was born as a Muslim that my friend is how it is and how it will always be every time that's how I ended a week before our last I share the gospel in one more time and I'm telling you he said the exact same thing reached out put his hand on me Oh JD you were born a Christian I love you as a friend but I'm born a Muslim that's how it will always be he left my house he lived about an hour for me and so I didn't think I'd ever see him again shows back up the day that I'm leaving about an hour and a half before I had to leave you go to the airport he I can tell something's on his mind I said this man I need to talk he said yeah we go back in this whole back room he said I don't really know how to put words to this but he said after I left your house a week ago he said I am he said I I had this dream I guess you would call it a dream I he says I I don't know it was it was he kept using stumblers words that mean P was from a lie was vision of God he said let me tell you about he said in his dream he said I was in this field he's as far as I could see to the right to the left to the front to the back he said there was just nothingness he says I walked for what years for what it felt like years just walked in nothingness he said ironically that's how I feel about my life he said I am very committed to Islam but he said I feel like I'm wandering with no reason and I said I said okay he said he said so he said all the sudden is I'm in this field this here a voice behind me and he said you there was nobody there before that I turned around and there was this man he goes I guess it was a man he was there a tall figure he had clothes that spun at them at the haughty it meant show shone like the Sun I couldn't even look at his face you reached inside of its rob2 pulled out a copy of the injeel is there were four gospel she tried to hand me the Injil and i said no i can't take it hi muslim and he said the moment I turned it down I woke up and I knew that I've made a terrible mistake he said I went to sleep the second night he said I had the exact same dream again I walked for what felt like days did this field and again he said this voice called me and I turned around in there he was and this time he was holding out the guys when he said it's my el this is the only thing that'll get you out of this field so this time I wanted to take it JD I wanted to take it said I could see my hands he said it was just shaking and I wanted to reach up and take it but I couldn't get the strength to do it he said and when I couldn't do it he said a suddenly woke up and I knew I'd made a terrible mistake he said third night I did not even want to go to sleep he said because I knew and he said sure enough I close my eyes and sleep and I opened them in this field and there was no walking this time it was just me and him he looked at me right in the face and he said Ishmael 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 him was involuntarily as my hands reached up and took that copy of the gospel he said I pulled it into my chest he said and I hugged it and then I woke up the next morning he says now JD you tell me you are expert at Injil I hadn't actually told him that but he said here you are expert in jail can you tell me what my dream means now y'all I was raised in a really really conservative Baptist Church we did not do the whole dreams and visions kind of thing as part of our regular worship services but y'all I'm telling you in that moment I knew exactly what to say I was like bro you were so in love reinterpretations my spirits will get I walked him through the plan of salvation I remember I got to the part where I was talking about God dying in his place on a cross and remember he just spilled tears and he said you're telling me that God the creator of the world he died for asking yes that's what memory just kind of lifts up his hands he says Allah Akbar which means God is the greatest we get to the end of my little gospel presentation I said to you you want to become a Christian he said oh he said my friend with all my heart I said well I mean only know one way to do this every head bowed every eye closed let's pray the prayer so I started leading to this prayer and and I remember I got him about two sentences into the sinner's prayer Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner you know and I was like stop I say you stop I look up at me for a minute I said you understand that when you pray this pray you understand that this is a big deal we're gonna baptize you and you know that if you get baptized you know people in your society here they lose their job so I'm gonna get kicked out of their family you and I both know people that have been killed because of this I was like are you sure you want to do this he was like so why do you think it took me all week to work up the courage to come and talk to you he said but during that week he said I determined I knew that you were going to tell me that was Jesus in my dream and I knew you were going to tell me he was the son of God and I determined that if he did for me what you said he did then I would go with him regardless of what I had to leave behind and I said I think you need to leave me in the sinner's prayer because I feel like I need to get saved right now you and I we love stories like that we're like yes amen it's my hell it's worth it it's worth it I'm gonna make a big statement here it's kind of hypocritical for you and I to say amen to Ishmael Jesus is worth following even in the cost to your life when you and I are not willing to say yes to follow Jesus in doing what it takes to get the gospel to people like Ishmael 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 if they're going to be willing to follow Jesus like that ever there then of course we got to be willing to follow like that here and it means some of us leaving family and friends and our comfortable homes and some of us partying with large amounts of money so that we can see the gospel do what Jesus has told us he wants to do it and in that moment you're gonna have to be able to say you're worth it jesus paid it all all to him I owe I'd rather have Jesus than anything I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands that leather be led by his nail scarred hand we're the whole realm of nature mind that would be a present far too small love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life not all at some point obedience to Jesus is gonna take you a hundred and eighty degrees opposite of where you want to go and the only thing that you're gonna be able to go forward with is this conviction that Jesus is worth it some of you gonna have to disappoint your parents your parents are not gonna approve of you going to want these church plants are you going overseas they're not listen I I deal with this all the time and you're gonna have to say to him I love you mom and dad but at the end of my life you're not gonna be the one standing up at the right hand of throne of God to receive me home and I'm not gonna be around your throne for the rest of eternity proclaiming your praises there's one person who demands that kind of obedience in my life and it is Jesus and for some of you God's gonna tell you to leave something that's gonna be precious to you and it's gonna be painful and you're gonna have to say you're worth it at some point obedience to Jesus is gonna take you a hundred eighty degrees opposite of where you want to go and the only way for you to do that is for you to believe that he is worth more than anything for convictions change the world God can use me God wants to use me the Holy Spirit fills me as Jesus was to me so I will be to others and Jesus is worth it whatever the cost are those the convictions that define your life because they are the convictions of ordinary people that transform the world once you bow your heads at all of our campuses all of our campuses here by your heads I don't know where you are with this I don't know what the Holy Spirit is doing but I would encourage you to offer it up right now it's just an offering if you've never received Jesus as your Savior that's what this whole thing begins with you just receiving him and following him he died for you he died for your sin so that you wouldn't have to suffer for your sin eternally he died for you so that if you would receive him he would save you maybe just need right now to receive him as your Savior maybe he's speaking to you about somebody you need to share Christ with there's some offering you didn't make some sacrifice maybe it's to go in one of these church plants maybe it's just to give God a blank check and say Lord I don't know where you want to go go ahead and tell you yes right now blank check here's my name you fill in the amount location father we want to be a people this church wants to be a people that is surrounded surrounds the city and in the world with a declaration of the worthiness of Jesus Holy Spirit make this real drive it into our hearts I pray I pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Mercy Hill Church

Views: 18,307

Rating: 4.7547169 out of 5

Keywords: mercy hill church, mercy hill, jd greear, missions sermon, evangelism sermon, evangelism sermons, missions sermons, can god use me, jd greear sermons youtube, jd greear sermons

Id: KAarIMKFPeM

Length: 42min 41sec (2561 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 08 2018