J. D. Greear - "Four Convictions of Those Who Turned the World Upside Down"

amen act 6 if you got your Bible with you this morning if you take it out and open it there I'm gonna looking forward to this for a long time dr. Muller says it is the obligation of the Southern Baptist Convention president to preach at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary truth is I've been begging that dr. Mohler to let me preach here for quite some time first time I met dr. Mohler I just graduated from southeastern with my PhD and I met him and I said hey I'd love to come up I love to preach at Southern Seminary he said son Southern Seminary is a little different than South Eastern seminary and I just don't think you're ready for Southern Seminary quite yet so you get a few reps under your belt so I started pastoring and started to grow a church to published as he mentioned a couple of books and I sent him a copy of the book said hey I'd love to come to Southern Seminary and talk about some of the themes I have in this book he said so I read the book I've listened to a few of your sermons and and you're not ready for Southern Seminary quite yet so I got elected president the southern bounce convention and I immediately reached out to dr. mold and said I'd love to come preach to Southern Seminary he said I just don't feel like you're ready to preach the Southern Seminary I said dr. Mohler I don't understand I mean I pastored a church and I've written books and I got elected president I just why can't I come for free he said now you are ready to come and preach to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary so I'm just grateful to be here from whatever circumstances the church that I am privileged a pastor in the Raleigh area of North Carolina has been blessed you might say with a lot of college students with within about a 20 minute drive of our central campuses front door as UNC Chapel Hill Duke University NC State a number of other places they say 120,000 college students are a part of our our local community which means that an unusually high percentage of those who come to the summit church on the weekend are in that college-age demographic which I always explain to people means a couple of things about us number one church unity is absolutely a mockery during this time of year as I'm sure you might understand here by the way I picked Louisville to go all the way the Final Four in my bracket so thank you for that but you know it's just UNC and Duke and we had one of our worship leaders was backstage the drummer we were about to walk onstage and he had a t-shirt on that said go to hell Carolina and I said bro you can not leave worship with a thing that tells anybody to go to hell he said it's different I said it's not different you got to change that sir alright so church unity is a delusion I always said number two it means that we are relatively speaking dirt poor as a congregation we when college students first started to come to our church it was about a little over a decade ago and I remember the first morning they showed up two cars pulled up five college students got out I guess they liked the service because they went back to their campus and the next week same two cars showed up this time five hundred students piled out of those two cars and during that season in our church's life I think our attendants basically tripled and our average weekly giving went down $13.48 so you understand in fact one of my favorite all-time memories as a pastor is in between two of our services one of our Usher's comes into my little backstage area and he's got a man offering bucket and in it is a bacon egg and cheese biscuit from a college suited with a little note on the top that said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give on unto you so we're dirt poor as the congregation but the flip side of that is we know that we have a lot of potential missionaries and so we have set as a goal for our church of planting a thousand churches out of our church within our generation we teach all of our students that unless they've heard from God audibly by the time they graduate or turn thirty years old whichever one comes first that they need to plan on spending their first two years on one of our church planting teams around the world give us two years and we will change the world we call that our Mormon ization strategy in the summit church and it's catching on a little bit I'm joke we don't call the Mormon ization strategy but one of our core convictions at our church is that everybody is called everyone is called I think the Christian community in large part has bought into a very dangerous myth about calling and that is that galling calling is something that God reserves for a sacred few people that he is on the upper crust of the spiritual tract and they're the ones that he calls they have what I often referred to as the Cheerios methodology of discerning the will of God like when God wants to call you you know you're steering into your Cheerios and it just magically spells out what he wants you to do pastor or missionary or Afghanistan or something like that I always tell our college students I stared at my tea rias for years and all they ever spun out was over and over and over again that's not the way I was called the call to leverage your life for the Great Commission in the most basic sense the call to leverage your life or the Great Commission was included in the call to follow Jesus right Matthew 4:19 jesus said follow me and I will make you a Fisher of men which means when you accepted Jesus you accepted the call to missions we tell them the question is no longer if you are called anymore the question really for every follower of Jesus is simply where and how not if but where and how because he's called you to become a Fisher of men we tell our students that figuring out the call of Jesus on your life begins with applying this statement very simple statement whatever you're good at whatever whatever God made you passionate about and good at whatever you do do it well for the glory of God but you should also do it somewhere strategic for the mission of God I mean you got to get a job somewhere right why not get a job in a place where God is doing something strategic and you can be a part of that lots of factors go into where you choose to pursue your career why shouldn't the largest factor in every follower of Jesus's set of factors for where they're gonna pursue their career why wouldn't it be where they could be a part of something that is strategic in the kingdom of God and just last month by God's grace because of this and it's not just college students or senior adults and pretty much everybody in between we just sent out our 1100 member from the summit church just a few months ago to go overseas or to go somewhere in one of our church planting teams about 40% of those by the way are seminary students the other 60% are normal church members so to speak I'm going to be one thing that is a painful painful moment because in case you haven't figured this out the kind of people that volunteer to go on church plants are usually not sideline people they are people that are leading ministries they are people that are big givers every year when we stand up that group of a hundred or so that is leaving our church to go out and plant churches it is one of the most painful moments of my life as a pastor but in another sense it is one of my most joyful moments because our studies show that for every one member that we have sent out from the summit Church we have 20 new people that are worshipping in churches that we planted in North America or around the world now they have together planted a total of two hundred and fifty-two churches and that is our great joy and in fact the more that I've studied the book of Acts which is what I want to talk to you about today the more I've the conviction that Jesus is planned for reaching the world is not gathering large groups of people to bask in the anointing of one prophetic teacher his plan his plan a his way to go was raising up ordinary people in the power of the Spirit and sending them out so to that end I want to walk you through the story of when I would just call an ordinary guy in Scripture who literally changed the world and I don't even think that's an overstatement or just you know kind of rhetoric he really changed the world his story's gonna come in a very pivotal moment the book of Acts that we usually overlook and I want to show you why it is so pivotal and then I'm going to show you four convictions that shape this man's life but I think should not only shape yours that are going into ministry and most of you but should also shape the lives of those that you lead because this is a story about ordinary people it's not a story about pastors and apostolic leaders small a this man's name is Steven his story begins in chapter 6 let me give you the context Steven was not an apostle Steven was just an ordinary guy yet Stevens story is gonna mark a turning point in the book of Acts you see up until this moment in Acts chapter 6 as far as we know the gospel moment gospel movement has yet to leave Jerusalem even though even though Jesus had clearly told the Apostles that he wanted his gospel to be carried to the ends of the earth starting in Jerusalem in Judea then Samaria than the other most parts of the earth now these chapters have been exciting to be sure it's been a great ride all the miracles and the baptisms and the people getting struck dead in the offering and such but the bottom line is by Acts 6 the Apostles are still meeting in small groups in Jerusalem holding hands and singing Kumbaya and enjoying their life as in the church there that's all gonna change with the story of Stephen in chapter 6 Stephen gets selected to help deliver food to widows so that the apostles can devote themselves to prayer into the word what you should hear from that is Stephens job in one sense was not that important Stephen was not elected teacher he wasn't elected group president he didn't write any books he was not considered to be one of the theological leaders of the early church he was just a table waiter he was the meals on wheels in the early church but acts 6:7 tells us that Stephen did his job well and his witness was so full of a 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 that of course got the attention of the religious establishment who begins to immediately take to the airwaves to try to discredit him I love this verse but they could not withstand the wisdom verse 10 could not withstand the wisdom or the spirit with which this ordinary layman was speaking in acts 7 they dragged him before the Jewish Council the Sanhedrin were Stephen proceeds to give the longest recorded sermon in the book of Acts it's basically a detailed history of Israel showing how all the Old Testament points to what they had experienced in Jesus the Sermon comes to a a climax so to speak in verse 54 of chapter 7 now when they had heard these things they were enraged when he got to his conclusion about it all being about Jesus they were enraged and they ground their teeth on him but he being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and 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 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 whom you of course recognizes the future Apostle Paul and as they were stoning Stephen 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 and when he had said these two things he fell asleep unfortunately in our English Bibles there's a chapter break right there I don't think that there should be one or less people who put those there any more about the Bible than idea but I don't think it's a great place for a chapter break they of course they're not inspired chapter breaks we added those later because the reason I think you should go on is because the story of Stephen is not over this is a pivotal moment and it connects the chapter to start a separate connects to what hit ends chapter 7 look at this acts 8:1 there arose on that day what day the day of Stephens martyrdom a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem okay what's this and they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria do you recognize those two terms that's what Jesus has said the outline of the book of Acts was going to follow in acts 1:8 Jerusalem Judea Samaria first time they get mentioned here now what's the next phrase except the Apostles Luke goes out of his way to point out they weren't scattered verse four and those who were scattered went about preaching the word there it is brothers and sisters the first time that we know about that the gospel leaves the borders of Jerusalem and I want you to let this sink in for just a minute not a single apostle is involved in the story not one it is Stevens witness that provokes the riot and of those who leave preaching the word Luke the author of Acts seems to go out of his way to show you that not a single apostle was included for those reasons I believe Stevens story is given to us as an example of how the gospel is supposed to explain expand globally most of us know that acts 1:8 is the key verse in the book of Acts it's the outline Luke's repetition of the places in 8:1 in chapter 8 verse 1 is his signal that Stevens story is the pivotal moment in this plotline Steven is a picture of what so-called ordinary Christians in the church are supposed to look like and what will happen in the world when they do so let me give you the first of the four convictions of those like Stephen who transformed the world commissions we ought to be cultivating in the lives of those that we leave this is kind of my blueprint by the way for how we disciple people at the summit church number one God wants to use me by the way this is not profound if you're looking for something really for a foul this is not the sermon for that okay these are very painfully simple conviction 1 God wants to use me historically ordinary believers have always been the tip of the gospel sphere you go back and study any great expansion of the church and you'll see that the gospel has traveled around the world faster on the wings of business than it ever has to apostolic effort Stephen Neal has wrote a classic book called the history of Christian missions he points out that the only thing that is more remarkable than the speed at which the gospel spread in the first century is its anonymity he said by the end of the first century you had three major church planting centers in the ancient world Antioch Alexandria and Rome he said what is amazing is we have no idea who planted the churches in Antioch Alexandria in Rome you actually see the story of the planting of the church in Antioch in Acts 11 and all it says is this some brothers who were filled with the Spirit came to Antioch and planted a church some brothers is Luke's way of saying a bunch of guys whose names I won't even tell you because you're never gonna hear from a begin anyway and they're not really that significant yet they planted a church it would one day send out the apostle vol the plant theme of the church in Rome we know that Paul it seems to want to be a part of that one because he's trying for the last half of the book of Acts he's trying to get the gospel to Rome I gotta get the gospel room I gotta get the gospel to Rome and so you know by the way what a journey it is right I mean beatings and shipwrecks and vipers dangling off of his arm I mean it's quite a journey and he drags his tired old body into Rome in acts 28 you ever see this ex 28:15 where he is promptly greeted by the brothers similar group of unnamed dudes who showed up there and they greet Paul at the gate and they're like hey man welcome to Rome we're so excited we got a church going we'd love for you to come and preach maybe sometime maybe write us a book that would be helpful probably for the church for the rest of the history Peter would one day leave that church but Peter did not plant that church nobody knows who planted that church the gospel spread in the first century through ordinary brothers and sisters whose jobs carried them to Roman jobs carrying them to Antioch and they planted the church where they went the same thing is true by the way today I read this recently an emissions journal absolutely blew me away if you count up all the number of evangelical missionaries from every denomination and really being gracious on this with the word evangelical if you count all of them up from every denomination that are at work in the 1040 window the total number is 40,000 by the way praise God for that and we need that to be 10 times that number this same article went on to say though if you add up the number of just Americans United States citizens who are employed in so-called secular vocations in the 1040 window just in the 1041 that number is 2 million now I want you to think with me for a minute let's say that the same demographic trends that are true here hold there and I don't know why they wouldn't that means what 36 37 percent of them identify as born-again let's just write off two-thirds of them like the total attendance of the Southern Baptist Convention at what 16 million members we don't even know where they are or what they're talking about so well it's just right off two-thirds of that and let's just say no they're not really born again let's just leave that what ten percent let's say ten percent that are active church-going evangelicals you realize that if they saw their primary job in life as being people who were to become disciple making disciples we would increase the mission force in the 1040 window from forty thousand to two hundred and forty thousand without costing the church another dime that is why we say the future the Great Commission is in the hands of ordinary people we hear a lot of talk today about the lack of funds and getting missionaries overseas I'm telling you they're already there they just don't know why they're there I got to see this in my own household my father never been ordained to ministry never called the ministry was a plant manager of a textile factory in North Carolina the day that my dad retired vedais his company rehired him that afternoon to go overseas in the 1040 window to oversee construction of a plant and help set it up over there for a year and a half so for 18 months my dad and my mom went over to live in the middle of the 1040 window making more money than he had made when he was employed in the United States and while he was there he rubbed shoulders with Southeast Asian businessmen that I'm telling you I could never get to on a short-term mission trip doing an English corner and an ax cafe he led a couple of these businessmen to Christ was part of a early church a new church plant over there total cost to the church zero dollars in fact we made money on the deal because he kept hiding while he was over there so it actually was a net positive for us what if all of this lack of funds what if what if the reason behind that was God was returning in us to a very simple conviction conviction that propelled the early church forward when a bunch of blue-collar people without money or power or any representatives in Congress or any book deals or organized leadership strategies or big conferences turn the world upside down and what if we just taught people that that's how they're supposed to think I read another article recently Forbes magazine said that 75% of college graduates in America anticipate that at some point their job will take them overseas now what's humorous about that is the forbes art magazine point out that's not really true that's because you know american college students are very self confident about their futures it's like the same you know group says the 86.2% of them i think that they're above average at math and you're like i had sort of self-defeating right there just that statistics so we know that's not really true okay but but what if those that were going understood that god's purpose in putting these keys in their hand was proverbs twenty two twenty nine you see a man that is skillful it is work i tell you that man will stand before kings and when you stand before that king you can be there to tell them who jesus is go back and study the moravian movement one of the fastest global expansions of the gospel in history the most successful church plants were done by those who went with the trading company not the mission board the first conviction in the heart of ordinary people that fuels the gospel move it is the conviction that god intends to use me by the way that conviction is what is behind you may have heard about this this who's your one initiative that we've launched here over the last few weeks basically it's the idea is telling every southern baptist person one of you and one person that you were praying about an intentionally building a relationship with and reaching out to for the sake of the gospel to invite them to your church and to begin to share christ for them it's building this conviction that ordinary people that that that god's plan for reaching the world is not convention initiatives it's not even improved sermons by the pastor it's certainly not in better programs by the church it's in sacrificial love and witness on display by our members you see in addition to knowing that god's plan for reaching the world's ordinary people the other thing that i realize as a pastor myself is that in today's culture more and more people are gonna have to be reached outside the church we live in a culture where the nuns in oh nes the people who check nun on a religious census survey are are increasing at an astounding rate every year here's the thing about nuns they don't just casually come into church steve tennis a friend of mine over in england says it like this and again england's probably several years ahead of us in terms of secularization but he said that a side of the study that seventy percent of British people seventy percent say they never anticipate stepping foot inside a church it's not that they're mad at the church and it's just that why would i go and they won't go for a wedding a funeral nationally sieze he said so that means if you're depending on improving the quality of your product in church to reach those people you've got a great product for people who will never show up hey I think of it I used to dr. Mohler mentioned I was a missionary I'm when I was a missionary over to Muslim area there was a mosque 200 yards from my house it was pretty it was nice very easy except foot in that mosque not one time I would not have gone if I was lonely I would not have gone if the Imam was doing a helpful series on relationships I would not have gone if their guest services were disney-esque I would not have gone if they'd added a rock and drum loop to the prayer chan none of those things would have driven me into that Moss it's just a different world why would I go there so that's how people are beginning to think about the church thus if we are depending on improving the quality of the product in the church to reach people then we are what we're gonna see is fewer and larger mega churches fighting for larger and larger pieces of a rapidly shrinking pie and there's some of us I got to grow the pie and the way to grow the pie is not by improving just what happens here the way to grow the pie is by equipping people to go out and know that they're the ones that God intends to use to change the world they are God's plan a God intends to use me of the second conviction because hand in hand with that first one number two the Holy Spirit fills me what makes Steven remarkable is his confidence a confidence that he apparently gained from an awareness of the fullness of the Spirit within him the most common characteristic repeated about Steven 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 Christians have the power of the Spirit of course it is the knowledge of that power that is the key that unlocks it y'all Jesus made such extraordinary promises about the power and the potential of the Spirit in believers honestly they sir so staggering that if you don't watch yourself you don't take any of them seriously and that's not an insult I'm just saying I give you one of my favorite ones just to kind of drive this home John 16:7 never that you know this verse by heart you probably should this is a promise to you nevertheless I tell you the truth by the way stop there nevertheless today the truth Jesus was not in the habit of telling lies he didn't have to stop me like okay now I'm serious that's his trigger that's his trigger that whatever he's about to say after that is so mind-blowing that if you don't turn your mind and your faith on it's just gonna go right over the top of your head which is what happens it is to your what's this word everybody say it advantage advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper the Holy Spirit will not come to you how absurd must that have sounded to those first disciples it is to my advantage that you how awesome would it have been to have walked around with Jesus Christ for three years what is that experience like you come home after a tough day of ministry and you got a theological question BAM Jesus answers it he gives you the daily briefing every day or right on every time right you go you run out of chex mix at your small group BAM Jesus multiplies to Chex Mix oh there's 12 bats that's left over your dog dies BAM Jesus raises your dog back from the dead your cat dies Jesus digs a hole to bury the cat get rid that any forever all right all right that's it's probably not exactly what it's like to walk around with Jesus but the point is it was awesome and he's saying it's to your advantage that I go away what did he mean by that and they ask you this does your experience with the holy spirit does it justify that statement would you say it is to your advantage that he went away which would you be more excited about Jesus coming to teach here at Southern Seminary Jesus coming to Pastor your church if you got a call today that said hey bad news our pastor dis resigned you're sad I don't know good news though good news bad news we got a new application for a new pastor it's Jesus of Nazareth he's gonna come and start the Sermon on the Mount starting next week man you would just be out of your mind with joy right think about what's gonna happen in our city Jesus is preaching are you as excited that you were leaving this place now to go back to a group of people that are filled with the spirit because if not you have no idea what Jesus was talking about in John 16:7 because he said it's to your advantage because the power of the Spirit in ordinary believers is even greater than if Jesus himself had stayed does our church strategy does it - have we done it in light of that promise I'd say most of our church strategy flips out on its head because we celebrate growth in churches as a group of people that are coming to sit under the anointing of one particular person that is not Jesus's vision for the greatness of the church if they Jesus said I love this another one and Matthew 11:11 Jesus said truly I tell you again there's his mark the the greatest in my kingdom the greatest one ever born to women which is everybody the greatest one is whose according to Jesus who was the greatest preacher ever to live name starts with J rhymes with on the Baptist John the Baptist excellently guess John Jesus loved John the Baptist Jesus podcast is John the Baptist he loved John the Baptist he said I say the truth the one who is I love this least in my kingdom is greater than John the Baptist but what is least in my kingdom me it means you've got the least talent right you means you you're the least intelligent you got the worst personality you know the least about the Bible somebody in this room here at Southern Seminary is the least of the kingdom of heaven in here you know the least about the Bible you got the least talent nobody's excited about you right I'm not trying to be mean but mathematically that has to be true somebody is least right now one of you out there saying I think it might be B and God in heaven is like yep it's you bottom of the pile what's he saying this even if that's true you've got more potential and ministry than John the Baptist why because you got something John the Baptist never had and that is first-hand knowledge of the resurrection and you've got the Spirit of God permanently fused to your soul in the New Covenant which are two benefits and John never experienced personally and what that shows you is that with the Holy Spirit inside you spiritual power is no longer going to be about ability it's gonna be about availability you're gonna see throughout the rest of the book of Acts that God can do more through one willing vessel than all the talent arrayed in the universe that you got a great example of this right after this story to kind of show you that I think I'm interpreting this correctly first international mission trip a dude named Philip another ordinary guy not an apostle gets told by the Spirit of God to go stand up in the middle of nowhere a little dusty crossroads where he didn't know why's there you know the story is he standing there all the sudden a chariot comes by and it's got a guy in it we now refer to as the ethiopian eunuch philip at the right time goes up with there it explains what the gospel is the guy comes to faith in Christ gets baptized by the way Eusebius the church historian tells us that that Ethiopian eunuch goes back and to sub-saharan Africa where he is from and he plants a church and a church planting movement that is still in existence today an ordinary believer doing what the Spirit of God told them to do accomplishes more through one act of obedience and all the Apostles have been able to accomplish in eight chapters here's a very simple practical question I want to be very careful with this one but I think it's worth asking are we teaching people in Southern Baptist churches to listen to the Holy Spirit's and to move with him and operate in his power the Holy Spirit by far the main character in the book of Acts shows up in the book of Acts 59 times 59 times in 36 of the 59 he is speaking now let me tell you what's frustrating okay it almost never tells us how he speaks acts 13:2 the Holy Spirit said to the church separate Barnabas and Saul for the work of the ministry well how did he say that well what do you mean he said that everybody had the same thought at once if I got a text message did it just appear on the the PowerPoint screen how did he say it I don't know and I think that ambiguity is intentional because more habit gets reached wreaked in the church following the words God just told me than any other phrase right and so there supposed to be some humility there supposed to be some ambiguity that we don't give the confidence to how the spirits leading us that we would get to the Scriptures so how he speaks is a little unclear but that he speaks is abundantly clear and it means that if you want to see a gospel movement that is going to take off you're going to have ordinary people who believe they are following the Holy Spirit's and where he tells them to go and how he tells him to speak another way I read something else the other day that has really got to me on this little confession time here this this one these missions journals said that do you know what denomination does the best job mobilizing its people for missions which one what do you think not I know what I thought I thought well clearly Baptist because I mean we got David Platt we got John Piper we got a great mission speakers they're all Baptist in your mind just at least nine out of ten of them are I'm like we got that reformed guys Baptists guys that's our that article said you might think it's a Baptist to perform people because they had the best theology he said but no the Pentecostals by far do a better job of mobilizing people for mission per capita they said why is that so well one of the reasons may be that the emphasis in Baptists and Reformed churches is the weightiness of the task which we need to talk about so many people apart from Jesus the emphasis in these Pentecostal missions movements is the Holy Spirit's empowerment in you and the article said maybe being gift driven is even more motivating than being guilt driven and maybe when you are teaching people that yes the world is lost but God wants to use you and they just say yes Lord maybe you'll see a missions movement that is propelled faster than even by continuing to put up charts and maps and tell people how lost the world is we need to do both but the point is that is a crucial element of Stevens life now it is 1051 I'm so Swede I'd at 10:15 they told me I could go rubber time until 1055 so I'm gonna try to honor that which means I just got to give you the last two and sort of not at it and then you invite me back later dr. Mohler and I'll come again for free and I'll do number three or for number three as Jesus was to me so I will be to others no verse 59 might be my favorite part of this whole story because it gives us a window into Stephens soul it shows us what Stephen was thinking about at the very moment of his death as they were stoning Stephen 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 aren't they almost identical to what Jesus said when he died on the cross father into your hands I commit my spirit and father forgive them for they know not what they do it seems that in Stephens dying moment Stephen was thinking about what Jesus had said on the cross for him things that Jesus had prayed for Stephen and now Stephen is praying those very same things for others make sure you let that sink in for a minute cuz I think it's crucial in Stephens dying moments he is attempting to do for others what Jesus had done for him because he that's what it means to follow Jesus to look at your life as a sacrifice for others like Jesus sacrificed himself for you where would you be without Jesus short answer same place millions of people are without you Martin Luther used to say it wouldn't matter if Jesus had died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it because the preaching of the gospel is an essential element into believing of the gospel and that demands something of us it demands something from those that we lead it means that we have to wrestle with the obligations of the gospel wrestle with the fact wide-eyed unflinching that there are 2.8 billion people who have never even heard the name of Jesus or at least have little access to the gospel and by the way don't you dare turn that into a statistic that is 2.8 billion people who are made in the image of God who are just like you or your children who know what it's like to be lonely and afraid for whom going to hell is every bit the tragedy that would be for you or one of your kids Joseph Stalin who I typically don't quote during sermons but Joseph Stalin used to say the death of one is a tragedy the death of a million is just a statistic and what he meant by that was when you see the death of one you're looking into somebody that reminds you of you and when you turn it into a million people all you now as a demographic problem 2.8 billion people is not a demographic problem it's people like you who need Jesus like you and it means that that demands something to me to say where would I be had Jesus not given his life for me that's the same place people are with unless I give what I have for others that applies to us as ministers it applies to people and we have to teach people to start thinking about that with the resources I got several stories here I only do one and I hit my last point I'll be done I learned something recently and you may know this but it was about the English Reformation I thought this was amazing um everybody knew his famous name in the English Reformation is William Tyndale right guy translates the Bible gets it into the english-speaking hands and so being burned at the stake rate story we're terrible story but you know great effects of the story God never heard about in this that William Tyndale one of his first converts was a guy named Humphrey Monmouth and I'll be honest how many of you have heard of Humphrey Monmouth I know a handful of you have but all right so not a whole lot you would not be sitting in this place if it were not for Humphrey Mon month Humphrey Monmouth was not a businessman or not a preacher he was a businessman Tyndall leads him to Christ monmouth owns this gigantic fleet of ships and is really wealthy and so immediately after they translate the bible he's the one that got it into every corner of the English Empire so that when the King said we're gonna stamp out this Reformation we're gonna kill Tyndall and we're gonna end this thing nip in the bud there was no possible way to do that because a businessman had realized that God gave him what he gave him for the purposes of gospel Proclamation and then the king was totally unable to stop what God had started well you see is that there is a partnership between those of us in the pulpit and those out there that God intends for everybody to think like gospel people number four again don't have time to go deep into this one but number four is the last convictions that Jesus is worth it you go one for one final time to Act seven as they begin to hurl stones at Stephen Stephen says behold I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God I mean you know this scholars point out that Stephens standing here is odd because everywhere else we see Jesus at the right hand of God he is seated and that's right it's kind of a important theological concept Hebrews explains because it's a picture of the completeness of salvation so here at the risk of messing up a theological picture you see Jesus standing why is he dandy there's only one possible explanation and that is it's like he can't help himself in this moment the world has risen up against Stephen to say you're a fool you're a coward you're a trainer and Jesus it's like he can't help himself he stands up and says no they call you fool I call you faithful servant they call you traitor I call you son and Stephen looks up and with eyes beaming with angelic brightness he looks up and these weren't the words exact words he used but what he basically says is Jesus is worth it we'd like to talk a lot about coming to Jesus bringing peace in our lives fulfillment that's all true but at some point if people were serious about following Jesus obedience to him listen goes opposite the way of fulfillment and happiness and peace at some point coming to Jesus I've told my congregation this almost every week at some point coming to Jesus is going to take you a hundred and eighty degrees opposite the direction you want to go and in that moment there's only gonna be one thing that compels you forward and it's not that Jesus is the answer and the missing piece and and you know kumbaya I love to be but it's not that doing thing will compel you forward as a vision of Jesus being absolutely and totally worth it listen I hope you'll just give me the benefit of it out on this I'm all into church growth as dr. Mullen mentioned our church will be what you would classify as a mega church I love preaching practical sermons that meets needs I love sermons of drawing crowds I love it when people come up and say pastor you're answering the questions I'm asking and that's why I brought my friend today and they're coming - I love all that but I am in far more interested in I'm interested in far more than church growth in a single location I am interested in I think you should be also in a gospel movement and that means a generation of Stevens who will leave the church and go around the world carrying the gospel even a great personal cost of themselves and the only thing that will produce that is not sermons that answer every question they're answering the thing that will produce that as a vision of the crucified and glorified Jesus so I am committed to reaching in a way that puts his full splendor on display which means preaching in a way that revels in the beauty of our Savior preaching that it's less about ten practical steps to having a good marriage int it less about that and more about ten thousand steps that our saviors took to come and save us preaching sermons where at some point like D Martyn lloyd-jones used to say the pin goes down and the eyes go up and we stop saying oh my God look at all these great things I need to do for you and we start saying oh my God look at this awesome thing that you have done for me I want a congregation full of members like Steven that can Walter the stories of the Old Testament and show how they all point to Jesus because those are the kind of believers who changed the world God wants to use me the Holy Spirit fills me as Jesus was to me so I will be to others the Jesus is worth it these are the convictions I believe we ought to be cultivating and believers and Stevens who will change the world much about man let me pray for you but I pray for these men and women here at Southern Seminary and boys college and gotta pray for myself because I realize even as preaching these things these are convictions that I go back on and compromise almost on a moment-by-moment basis I lean more into the power of the flesh then I do the power of the Spirit I think more about what ministry can do for me how I can benefit from it then pour my life like out like an offering God I'm compelled by earthly reward rather than the worthiness of Jesus so I got to pray for all God I pray for all that you would give them eyes to see and ears to hear conviction God that will open the heart and bring us to repentance where God these will be the things that form the core of who we are God give us eyes to see God I do believe that there are some that you were calling today to change ministry tracts they've been thinking about ministry in one area but you're telling them maybe it's to go overseas to go to a place that's uncomfortable and difficult where they may even lose their lives give them the courage in the faith to obey that voice and the clarity to hear it I pray in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Southern Seminary

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Keywords: SBTS, Chapel, Southern Seminary, SBTS Chapel, Seminary Chapel, J. D. Greear, Acts 6

Id: hHiZqTohPPE

Length: 39min 25sec (2365 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2019