The Five Convictions of Those Who Transform the World | Pastor J.D. Greear

[Music] after his resurrection and just before he was taken up to heaven Jesus gave his disciples one last promise you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth in that simple statement Jesus forever combined two distinct Ministries the local and the global he in essence said start where you are your Jerusalem and your Judea but don't stay there move into Samaria the cross cultural areas where you are and then take my message

to Nations who have never heard it Jesus forever combined two distinct Ministries the local and the global Jesus promised that his people would be like a city on a hill shining the light of the gospel for all to see and the light that shines the farthest will also Shine the brightest at home which means we don't have to choose between following Jesus here and following Jesus there we do both because Jesus called us to both Summit our mission never changes make disciples who make disciples Who make disciples whether it's in Raleigh or Durham night Dale

or Garner or the very ends of the Earth the holy spirit is still leading but we still need to ask ourselves are are we listening good morning Summit Church at all of our campuses in the Triangle Acts chapter 6 if you have your Bibles with you this morning Acts chapter 6 years ago I heard a true story about a man named Larry Walters who lived in Orange County California uh The Story Goes that one afternoon Larry went out to the Army Navy Army Navy Surplus Store he bought 42 used Army weather balloons and he attacked

ATT them to a lawn chair that he had secured to the top of his fiance's house then with the help of a few of his friends he climbed into the chair along with a peanut butter sandwich a sixpack of beer and a fully loaded BB gun and then he had his friends untie the Rope his idea was that he would lazily sort of saunter up into the atmosphere to the right altitude at which point he would use his BB gun to shoot out some of the balloons which would level him off then he could enjoy

his snacks from a spectacular View and then when it was time to come down he would take his Gun his BB gun and he would shoot out a few more of the balloons and just gradually descend back down to the Earth what could possibly go wrong with that plan two and 1 half hours later two and a half hours after they untied the Rope the Los Angeles International Airport reported an unidentified flying object in the sky above LAX at 16,24 FT lawn chair Larry as he came to be known now three miles into the sky

and over a 100 miles from his original launch site a 737 pilot who got a glimpse of Larry on his way into LAX said I'm not sure how to report this I just passed a guy at 16,000 ft in a lawn chair and I think he might have a gun what Larry had not anticipated was how fast he would Ascend when they untied the Rope his friend said that that when they undid the Rope he did not lazily saunter up into the sky as he had expected it said they said it looked like he had

been fired out of a cannon immediately he' taken out his BB gun to pop some of the balloons like he had planned on doing but his hands were shaking so badly uh that he after shooting 13 of them he dropped the gun at that point all he had was the peanut butter sandwich and the beer So he broke open the six-pack and chugged down four of the beers at which point he passed out uh from that point on Earth's atmosphere and the laws of gravity made the rest of the decisions in that faithful Journey rescue

teams were not quite sure what to do I mean how could they bring Larry down without toppling the chair eventually Larry's makeshift aircraft began to descend on its own and his journey ended when um he got tangled up up in some power lines just east of the LAX Airport Larry was unconscious when rescue teams found him but remarkably he came out of the ordeal otherwise unharmed on the ground after being revived back to Consciousness Larry was issued get this my favorite part of the story he was issued a $4,000 ticket by local police for the

obstruction of airport traffic and just otherwise being a public nuisance a local journalist then asked him three questions here they were question number one Larry were you scared and Larry said yes yes I was terrified question number two Larry would you do it again to which Larry said no no I would not do this by the way that's how we know he wasn't from Alamance County right y'all have been like I ain't scared let's go right question number three they said Larry why did you do it why did you do it and Larry said I

love these words they not funny but they're great words he said I just got tired of always sitting around now I know you hear that you say Pastor is that story true I mean of course I read it on the Internet it's got to be true right no for real I I am sure that some parts of that story have grown with internet Legend but most everything that I just shared with you is verified fact in the transcript this weekend I attached a BBC article and an NBC news report if you want to check it

out but I share that story because I believe it captures how many of us feel coming into a week like Liv sent week you see we sense that there's some bigger purpose that we're supposed to be a part of and we genuinely want to know what it is we want to know what our role is we want to make a difference in the world we want to do something with our lives that matters but we're not quite sure what to do maybe you're a college student trying to figure out what career path you're supposed to

take or maybe like me you're in your your mid-30s and you're trying To figure out what to do with the second half of your career but because you can't figure out what exactly it is like Larry you just turn to entertainment or toys or golf to fill up your time again this is Liv sent weekend and I want to talk with you today about discovering the purpose that God has for you in his Global Mission we are also in the midst of our 40 days of prayer and one of the things that we're praying for

is that during this season God would raise up a new Army of people to reach our community and at least a hundred at least a hundred who will go out from our church to take the gospel to some of the least reached places on Earth today I want to walk us through the story of the First Gospel expansion in history and I want to show you how God used an ordinary person much like Larry Walters much like you as the tip of his gospel spear the man's name was Steven and as I'm going to show

you in just a minute Steven's story marks the pivotal point in the book of Acts it's a very unique story and I believe it is given to us as the example of how God intends to use so-called Ordinary People to bring his power to the world let me give you the Context Steven was not an apostle a lot of people get that wrong but Steven was not one of the 12 he was just an ordinary guy and yet Steven's story marks the turning point of the book of Acts you see up until this moment as

far as we know the gospel movement had yet to leave the borders of Jerusalem even though even though Jesus had clearly told his Apostles that what he wanted was for his gospel to be carried from Jerusalem to to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth now to be sure those first five chapters of Acts have been an exciting ride with the coming of the spirit at Pentecost and everybody speaking in tongues and the 3,000 spontaneous baptisms in one day and people getting struck dead and the offering and whatnot I mean it has

been a full five chapters but bottom line is that in act six all the Christians are still in Jerusalem they're all meeting in small groups they're holding hands singing Kumbaya discussing Peter's latest sermon that all changes with the story of Stephen Steph's Story chapter 6 verse one starts with a good old-fashioned Church conflict some things never change about church and conflict is one of Them and that's what starts chapter 6 some of the helenistic widows in the early church helenistic means Greek culture widows they complained that they were being neglected in favor of the Jewish

widows there was a little Jewish privilege going on and so the apostles appointed seven men to deal with the problem it's the earliest version of what we now call deacons they did that so that they could focus more that so that the apostles could focus on the more important task of vision and word preaching the word and prayer step was one of the seven men appointed to deal with this problem so that the apostles can get back to the to the important work of ministry what you should hear from all that is that Steph's job

in one sense was not that important he was not considered to be one of the theological leaders in the early church Steph did not write any books he did not get asked to preach any sermons he did not sit on any advisory councils he was just a table waiter just a table waiter he was the Meals on Wheels of the early church he served chicken and shrimp to local widows and yet and yet acts 67 tells us that Steph executed that Task so well and his service was so full of the spirit that it got

the attention of many in the unbelieving community including many of the Jewish priests who seen this generosity on display began to turn in large numbers to faith in Christ well that got the attention of the Sanhedrin the ruling class of Jews who begin to try to discredit Steven they don't want all these Jewish priest converting to Faith In Jesus so they're like who is this guy what does he know I love verse 10 and yet they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which this ordinary untrained Layman who had never been to Seminary

they could not resist to him with all their training they couldn't resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking in Acts 7 they dragged Stephen before the Jewish Council the Sanhedrin where Stephen proceeds to give the longest recorded sermon in the book of Acts he basically gives an over of Israel's history accusing the Sanhedrin of turning their religion into an idol he's like you guys are super religious and you love this Temple but you don't actually know God at all he then brings his sermon to a climax by Saying you're just like

your wicked forefathers they killed all the prophets you killed the Son of God himself I should also mention it is the least Seeker friendly sermon in the New Testament verse 54 now when they'd heard these things they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him but he full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God verse 56 and then he said behold I see the heavens open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God now when they

heard that 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 of course who would One Day become the Apostle Paul verse 58 as they were stoning stepen 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 unfortunately when Steven Lon the 13th century Archbishop of Canterbury added chapter divisions into your Bibles he put one right here At the end of verse 60 you see up until the 13th century all the books in your Bible were just one flowing text they added chapter divisions later to help us navigate the text but I would argue that this is a terrible place for a chapter division because the first few verses of chapter 8 are actually the conclusion to Steven's story let me show you acts 8 vers1 there arose on

that day what day the day of Steven's martyrdom on that day there arose a great persecution against all the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria those are important words except the apostles those are really important words if you underl st in your Bible underline those three except the apostles verse four and those who were scattered went about preaching the word y'all there it is the First Time The Gospel leaves the borders of Jerusalem and I want you to note there's not a single Apostle involved in that

moment that is very significant you see let me explain something acts 18 is the key verse of the book of Acts it's the book's outline so to speak it's where Jesus tells his disciples right before he ascends to Heaven he's like you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my Witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and then the uttermost parts of the earth that's the plotline of what's going to happen in Acts Luke's repetition of those places in chapter 8 verse one when he says Jerusalem Judea Samaria signals

that Steven's story marks the pivotal moment for when that plot line moves forward and again I want you to let this sink in in that pivotal transition moment the most important Moment In the book of Acts where the gospel spreads around the world not a single Apostle is involved Stephen is an ordinary Christian and he shows you what ordinary Christians in the church are supposed to look like and what will happen in the world when they do so if you're taking notes here's what I want you to write down five convictions of those who transform

the world that you see in stepen let me give you a little advanced warning these are not deep they're very simple but each one of these is for you conviction number one God wants to use me I don't think I can convey to you how significant it is that the first Time the gospel leaves Jerusalem it's because of the work of an ordinary Christian not an apostle it's significant because it establishes the pattern for how the gospel will advance through the rest of Christian History Stephen Neil who's one of the previous generation's most noted Church

historians said in his classic book the history of Christian missions he said the only thing that is more remarkable than the rapidity the speed of the spread of the Gospel in the first century was its anonymity the only thing more amazing then how quickly it happened is how Anonymous it was by the end of the first century he says there were three great church planting centers that been had been established in the Ancient World Antioch Alexandria and Rome what all three have in common he says is that we don't have any idea who planted the

churches in any one of those places no Apostle planted any of those churches in fact acts 11 records the story of the founding of the church in Antioch and all it says let me just actually read it to you 11: 19 now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose Over Steven see the connection traveled to Antioch and the Hand of the Lord was with them and a great number turned to the Lord them I love that them Luke doesn't even mention their names you want to know why cuz nobody knew who they

were they were no bodies like stevenh in a movie these guys would have been bystanders number three four and five in the credits proud people and yet these ordinary dudes these unnamed them planted a church that would become one of the most significant church planting centers in the world a church Center that would one day send out the Apostle Paul as a missionary so here is my question for you what if you are part of this generation's them what if God gave you your skill your job to put you into places so that like stepen

and the Vim of Acts 11 you could make disciples wherever he puts you God was Sovereign in this persecution he's also Sovereign in the job and the skill that he bestowed upon you in his latter years right before he died Billy Graham kept saying that he was convinced that the Next Great Awakening would happen in the marketplace not in the stadium anymore but in the market place that means he puts you into a job into a place into a school into a Dorm into a neighborhood to make gospel impact there fact I can't help but

think of one of our elders a noted medical doctor in fact he is rated by the AMA as the top neurosurgeon in the country who gets sent every year by the local University that he works for he gets sent to put on a training in Southeast Asia for Muslim and Buddhist doctors over there and he said he told me he said I open up every class every year with my testimony of how I came to Jesus and an explanation of how the gospel now shaves my view of medicine I asked him I said I mean

that's awesome but is your University okay with that I mean they're not exactly Christian in fact if anything they're kind of on the other team to be honest with you he just smiled and said with a twinkle in his eye because he's a humble guy he says yeah he said but I'm really good at what I do he said I've been doing it a long time they can't stop me I think of that great verse proverbs 22:29 do you see a man skillful in what he does I tell you he will stand before Kings yeah

when you stand there you can tell them about Jesus it's your skill it's your ability that takes you places that enables You to make disciples there that's what Stephen's doing that's what the people in Antioch is doing are doing that's the future of missions so here's the question what if you stop thinking about me as the one in Ministry that you support and you started to see yourselves as the ones in Ministry that I support I say that because Ephesians 4:11 says that God put Pastors in the church to equip the Saints for the work

of the ministry that means you do the ministry I do the equipping it means when I accepted the call to be a pastor I left the ministry you do the ministry I support you the second conviction that goes along with that first one the first one's God wants to use me here's the second one the Holy Spirit fills me the most distinctive thing that Luke points out about Steven is that he was filled with the spirit it was not his talent or his intelligence or even his Bible knowledge that created the situation Stephen simply yielded

himself to be used powerfully by the spirit y'all I've said this multiple times already this year success in Ministry is not talented people doing great things for God it's very ordinary people like Step following the leadership of the Holy Spirit as he does great things through them y That's all the book of Acts really is it's just stories of ordinary people stepping out in obedience as they're led by the spirit youall might know that I spoke at our student camp this summer loved it by far my favorite week of the year my first calling was

as a youth pastor and I'm still a youth pastor at heart in fact let me just tell you a little trade secret here okay growing up my favorite week in church every year was the week that the youth pastor spoke in church it was the only time the sermon made any sense to me so when y'all called me as a pastor 20 you know what 22 years ago I just thought well I'm just going to be the youth pastor I'm gonna preach like the youth pastor every single week so every week I just try and

talk with the eighth graders and the more I do that the more y'all are like n somebody finally talking to me in a level I can understand yeah okay I get it I'm with you a few years ago I did a middle school camp and the last night of Camp I preached on David and Goliath my final challenge to those middle school students Was that they should obey God and whatever God had called them to do when when they got home and I told them that if they did they'd be a champion Be A Champion

like David well a few days after I got home I got this letter in the mail from a middle schooler named Laura Beth who was at the camp she told me how much my message on that last night had impacted her and she believed the Holy Spirit was leading her to tell the kids in her neighborhood about Jesus and she asked me if I'd pray for her I wrote her back immediately and I told her of course I'll be praying for you and I was so proud of her and that God's spirit was going to

go with her and it was going to be awesome well a few days later this second letter came in the mail I you just won't edit it I'm just going to read it to you all right she said dear JD letter number two I really don't think I'm going to be a champion for God I told the kids in my neighborhood about Jesus and they just didn't believe me they laughed at me and I felt like a jerk a fool and a stupid coward I didn't know what to do what really made me look like

an idiot was when I cried got on my bike and left and every time I Think about it I feel so bad and I don't want to ever go back up there again or see any of these people again when you wrote back to me I felt like all of this was going to okay it didn't Lura Beth I wrote her back immediately okay I'm I'm I'm a pastor I wrote her back immediately and I'm like no no no Laura Beth hey the win is in your obedience you don't control when the giant Falls you

just sling the rocks and God controls that you're a champion for God cuz you obeyed him letter number three comes in the mail dear JD I read the scriptures that you said on your letter in 1 Samuel was talking about David and Goliath David defeated Goliath with no armor because he knew he was protected by God well when I went up to those people I didn't feel it before I went up there I asked God to help me I asked for him to give me the strength the courage and the power to witness to these

people I felt it JD in my body that God was working inside of me but JD I went up there and I lost it l o s s e d I lost all of that feeling inside of me and then I freaked out when you said keep tossing the rocks and let the giant fall when God chooses never give up are You telling me to go back up to those people again I don't think so JD I mean if I try to go to another person to witness I'll probably just mess that up too the

lesson that was in your letter we go and people laugh but we don't care cuz the power comes from God J like I said I didn't feel it and I don't think I can witness to anybody ever again I'm sorry JD I'm a loser I said down and write her back I really did I said I got like a paragraph in but it took me like three days to write the letter before I could get the letter off letter number four comes in the mail okay dear JD it is a miracle all caps exclamation points

emojis you will not believe what happened to me JD I don't know what just happened to me 30 minutes ago but I I know God had to do something to do with it JD the people that I witnessed to came to me and I didn't even know why they were at my house but one of them said something like Laura Beth I want to tell you first that I'm sorry I laughed at you because you were trying to talk to us about your God but when you got into that part about hell and stuff it

kind of freaked me out so I kind of want to know about this God so I Said great and I ran upstairs to get my Bible and I showed them Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death but they GI for God as eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord and I explained that once you accept Christ as your personal savior he'll never kick you out of heaven if you steal drugs kill any of that stuff that is bad and wrong but you ask him for forgiveness he will forgive you but you just can't

do whatever you want that is bad like the examples I've given you and then say I'm sorry God forgive me amen and then do the same thing the next day let's say you just lied to somebody and don't confess when you're in heaven you're going to come before God and he's going to say why did you do that and you won't get an award but if you do get an award you're going to kneel down and place it at jesus' feet and I went on and then I saw that she was crying and tears were

running down her face and I knew that she needed somebody so I hugged her and she said Lura Beth I want God to save me so we said a prayer and I made sure that she understood what I just said to her and she did JD I owe you one man if you didn't get me back on track with God I don't know where I Would be right now and that girl wouldn't be saved today PS thank you JD you are the best friend I've ever had and I don't think I could ever ask for

a better one Laura Beth ain't that amazing so I will say it again success in Ministry is not talented people doing great things for God it's ordinary people like stepen and Laura Beth and you following the leadership of the Holy Spirit what that means is that you got to learn how to follow the Holy Spirit you know how to do that you know what it's like to be led by the spirit and where you go and what you say I would say that for many of us we have no idea what that means it's like

Leonard Raven Hill used to to say the Holy Spirit could totally depart from the church and a lot of us would have no idea he was even gone y listen to this the Holy Spirit shows up 59 times in the book of Acts 59 you can count them in 36 of the 59 he is speaking I get it y'all acts was a unique moment in Christian history the apostles were one-of-a-kind class and they were right in the Bible That's Unique but on the other hand you cannot convince me that the only book we have In

the New Testament that shows us what it looks like to walk in the spirit the book of Acts you cannot con Vin me that that book is filled with a bunch of stories of people with whom you and I have nothing in common John Newton who was a Puritan not some over-the-top Pentecostal by the way John Newton he wrote Amazing Grace he said how could it be that the leading of the Holy Spirit which was so essential to the success of the early church has become Irrelevant in ours y honest question when was the last

time that you asked the spirit what he wanted from your life what opportunities he wants you to be involved in what relationships he wants you to pursue have you asked the Holy Spirit high school or college student what he wants you to do on your campus have you asked him what he wants you to do with your life in the world have you asked him retiree what do he want you to do with your retirement that leads me to number three I'll start with the needs right in front of me that's where Steven started right

what stevenh did was nothing glorious or grand he just ministered to the needs of the widows in his community and I think there's Something instructive in there for us you want to know where to start start with the needs God has placed right in front of you missions you see missions is not something we go on special trips to do missions is just an extension of what we do right here in the Triangle we we always say there's no transformation by Aviation and in other words if you're not winning people to Jesus here why would

we spend several thousand do to send you over there to not do over there what you're not doing here instead what we say is the light that shines the farthest also shines the brightest at home and until it shines brightly at home it really shouldn't be sent far away missions is just an extension of what we do here so start with the knes right in front of you I heard a story from our U Church recently that I just love so much um at our Brier Creek Campus a couple of the Volunteers in our women's

discipleship Ministry reached out to Bethesda Elementary which is one of the closest public school in their area to see if there was anything they could do to help one of them was named Julie Schroeder she's on our kids team the other was Renee Hill Renee is 73 Years old Renee heard that 90% or so of the school population at Bethesda which is right there near the Brier Creek Campus are on free or reduced lunch so she approached the principal and just said hey how can we help the principal said well you could sub for some

of our classes over lunch so the teachers could get one break during the day and so she showed up her and Julie did and they showed up and they did that and they started inviting other women to join them and to do the same from there y all just kept building they started hosting lunches for the staff several times a year they begin coordinating donations for things that the teachers said they needed they were given more and more opportunities to serve the teachers and the kids there the ministry has grown over there so much that

somebody reached out to have Renee come to speak at the leadership conference for the entent ire Durham Public School System about how to better support and love our local schools and of course what Renee told them about is that the reason we do any of this stuff starts and ends with Jesus that is acts 6 and 7 she's gotten the attention of the unbelieving Community and she now uses that moment to tell them about Jesus hopefully the story won't end with them being stoned but the point is you start with the needs right in front

of you conviction number four as Jesus was to me so I will be to others verse 59 might be my favorite part of this whole story because verse 59 gives you a window into Steven's Soul showing you what Stephen was thinking about at the very moment of his death verse 59 as they were stoning Stephen he called out Lord Jesus received my spirit and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud vo Lord do not hold their sin against them Lord Jesus receive my spirit do not hold this sin against them where have

you heard those phrases before don't they sound identical to what Jesus said when he died father into your hands I commit my spirit and father forgive them for they know not what they do you see it seems that in Steven's dying moments he was thinking about what Jesus had prayed from the cross for him and now he is praying those very things for others get that in Stephen's dying moments he is attempting to do for others what he had seen Jesus do for him because see that's what It means to follow Jesus it means you

begin to look at your life as a sacrifice for others like Jesus sacrificed himself for you let me ask you a question where would you just a thought experiment where would you be without Jesus where would you be had Jesus just chosen not to come and die for you cuz he didn't have to do that where would you be with no Jesus here's one answer you'd be at the exact same place that millions of people are in the world without you because see people have to hear about Jesus to be saved by him Romans 10

faith comes by hearing and hearing only by the word of God and how can they hear unless people are sent it's like Martin Luther said it wouldn't matter if Jesus died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it gospel means good news but it's only good news for somebody if it gets to them in time you see that demands something of us some at church doesn't it have you wrestled with the obligations that you owe to the gospel this is a map depicting where the gospel is preached around the world anywhere that the gospel

is preached in a lot of places it's it's lit up based on how much is there we can praise God for What he's doing around the world right but what about these places the red boxes cuz it's what we call the 1040 window which is the part of the globe where the most unreached people live places like right here that's Yemen right there Northern Yemen which has a population of nearly 10 million people that by the way is the same population as all of North Carolina guess how many Believers are in that entire nation of

10 million 20 or 30 they say 20 or 30 are the people here are they less valuable than the people here this region has 2.8 billion people with little to no access to the gospel 2.8 billion by the way please do not turn that number into a statistic it's not a number Joseph Stalin who I typically don't quote during sermons but Joseph Stalin said the death of one is a tragedy the death of a million is just a statistic that is a chilling statement coming from him but I want you to think about it in

terms of the Gospel I want you just to imagine somebody you love a parent a child a friend that person's an individual to you they're not a statistic they're an individual with individual hurts and needs and fears I could not bear the thought of One of my kids spending eternity apart from God every person in the middle of that 1040 window is a person just like each of my kids each one of them made in the image of God just like one of my kids is each one who knows what it's like to be afraid

to be lonely for whom going to hell would be every bit the tragedy that it would be for one of my kids that demands something of us Sumit church if Jesus sacrificed himself to save us then we should sacrifice ourselves to save them let me say something to our high school and college students your generation is a caus driven generation I love that about you it's one of the best things about your generation you go into your adult lives with a desire for justice you want to extend human rights and you want to end suffering

and eradicate poverty and and save the turtles from plastic straws and most of those are good and worthy and some more important than the others but you understand that the worst kind of suffering is eternal suffering right the greatest tragedy is people die without Jesus John Piper says that Believers should give their lives to end all suffering We care about all of it but most of all Eternal suffering make no mistake about it the Bible presents the fact that so many people in the world don't have access to the gospel it presents it as a

matter of justice for Christians and that's just not mean being dramatic Paul said it this way in Romans 1:14 I'm under obligation in other words it's a matter of justice for me to get the gopel to those who haven't heard it's not fair he says for me to have received the grace of the gospel and not do everything I can to get it to those who haven't heard it yet why did I get to hear the gospel he asked was it because I was more worthy than other people I was less of a sinner than

they were no God gave the gospel to me and to my family as a gift of Grace and with that gift comes the obligation to get it to those who have not heard it yet I talked to so many Christians who just very complacently feel called to stay I'm not your judge because you just answer me this if we are all listening to the Holy Spirit why would God leave so many of us here in a place of so much access when there's so many over there with no access at all think for a minute

if you Will of all the ways that somebody can ask access the gospel here you can hear it in podcasts on radio stations TV programs campus groups books magazines there are churches on just about every corner there are over a thousand churches in the Triangle there are Christians in almost every neighborhood and of course there's so much more we need to do here but in these unreached people groups right there none of that exists none of it so again why would God leave so many of us here in a place of so much access when

there's so many over there with no access at all honestly is God that bad at math why would he keep so many in a place where there is so much and send so few to places where there's so little it cannot be that he's not calling it has to be that we're not listening and maybe we're not listening because we're afraid the price to get the job done is more than we want to pay but see every time we come into worship we say things like Jesus Paid It all all to him I owe if

he be God and died for me then there's not anything I should not be willing to do for him which leads me to conviction number five the final one Jesus is worth it let's Return one final time to acts 7 as they begin to hurl stones at Steven he lifts up his eyes and he says behold I see the heavens open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God now Scholars point out here that Jesus standing is odd because everywhere else in the New Testament we see Jesus at the right hand

of God we see him sitting It's actually an important theological symbol Jesus is seated at the right hand of God showing that his work and salvation is done so the question you're supposed to ask is why is he standing here well it's obvious isn't it he's standing to welcome home his son you see in that moment the world has risen up against Stephen and they're calling him a fool a traitor a bigot telling him that his life is a waste and it's almost as if Jesus can't contain himself as they rise up to Stone him

Jesus rises up at that very moment can you imagine Jesus standing for you he stands to say Well done good and faithful servant well done they call you heretic I call you son they kill you with stones I welcome you home and the world Reeds from Steven's sight I imagine that he can barely feel the stones hitting his Body anymore but because all he sees is Jesus at some point you're going to have to decide what success looks like for you in life because all of us are going to come to this moment yours probably

will not be this dramatic but all of us are going to pass into eternity just like Stephen did here's the question what's going to be waiting there for you I know for me it's not going to be somebody with a list of my accomplishments it's not going to be my fans it's not going to be my friends it's not going to be my critics it's not going to be books that praise me it won't be books that criticize me it's just going to be Jesus so I told you my mom and dad taught me two

phrases when I was young that totally shaped my life two phrases they drilled into me phrase number one Only One Life to Live will soon be passed only What's Done For Christ will last phrase number two JD there are only two things in life that truly last forever one is the word of God the other Are the souls of people make sure you build your life on both of those one day Earth is going to Reed from my sight and then I'll see him in our Hebrews 11 series we learn that faith is living today

in a Way that you know one day you'll be glad you did there's nothing or no one else that is worthy of me living my life for nobody's ever loved me or given His Life For Me Like Jesus nobody has ever been so faithful only one has conquered the grave which is my greatest enemy only one deserves the title King of Kings and Lord of lords that means one deserves the title of king of JD and Lord of JD for he is before all things and in him all things hold together he's the head of

the body of the church he's the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in everything Paul says he should be preeminent Jesus is the only one worthy of my life for from you are all things and to you are all things and you deserve the glory five convictions that shape those that change the world some may they be true of us God wants to use me the Holy Spirit fills me I'll start with the needs right in front of me as Jesus was to me so I will be the others and Jesus is worth it

so here's my question how's God calling you to apply this for some of you it might be to literally today go tell somebody about Jesus like Laur Beth my best friend labeth or to get involved like Renee in serving Our community for some of you I believe though that it's more than that for some of you I believe God is actually stirring you right now to become one of the hundred that we're praying for to go overseas so like I said at the beginning we're praying that God is calling at least a hundred of you

to take your life overseas there are close to 300 Summit members overseas now we're praying for 100 more and so to that end I got two very special guests with me the first first two missionaries that went out from this church after I became pastor of this church Kurt and janah K holiday are their names they served in South Africa for 25 years and they have just this year returned home to America we actually showed a longer video of them earlier this year so Kurt and Janet K if you will come on out here some

if you will would you put your hands together for them [Applause] [Applause] much much deserved you guys be seated here for a minute um so 25 years ago uh you stood on a stage was exactly a stage but early stages of The Summit Church we all look a little Different back then your beard was not as long not as gray I look different Jen you look the same okay so um can you just tell us kind of walk us through a little bit about how the Lord called you from some from homestead Heights to go

and live in Africa for 25 years yeah so at that point in time I love baseball tremendously loved Jesus a lot and uh got invited to go to a high school campus in Zimbabwe uh to basically teach them baseball and share the gospel and so I went uh literally instantly when I was in Africa my heart just changed for the African people and for that place and so from that point I I just continued to uh look for ways to get back to Africa whether it was for two weeks or whatever and and uh when

I got back uh Janek will pick up in a second but when I got back uh I read books like let the Nations be glad by Piper I remember chapter 7even of radical by David Platt and some good theological books like that but mainly I just dived into the word and saw God as a sending God more than I had up till that point in time and then I spent some time just talking to God uh in number seven uh it says Moses went to the temple to speak to God and he Heard from God

and he spoke with him and I think that's the key is just to spend time with God and talk to him and work through the call that he might have on your life that's what he did for me yeah and during that time when he was in Zimbabwe I went to visit my parents in Texas and I just remember at one time getting up from the table and uh just speaking out I think my mom was there uh but saying yeah Kurt's probably in Africa really loving it and wants to move there and um little

did I know that was God working in my heart and calling me as well and uh to the mission field so um I imagine if you're somebody let's say somebody's here today and they're thinking about this and there's something stirring in them they don't even know how to articulate it but there's all kinds of fear and there's all kinds of Doubt could you just speak to them for a minute about how to process that how to think about it what that means I I'd say you're normal yeah yeah very much so we're human we have

fears and we have doubts especially in big steps like that I mean change is difficult and um yeah the unknown is scary so yeah what would you tell them about Like how to process it I mean you know like it's if fear doesn't mean that it's not God working how do you press through those fears how did you work through those fears uh so as Kurt mentioned before just being in the word of God uh it seems like uh that in prayer seems like a generic answer uh and uh but it's such a powerful answer

so being in the word of God I found that the more I was in his word looking at who he was the more I began to trust him God grew my trust for him not only then but over the years uh exponentially and so that helped and it helped when I would hear from him because I trusted him and because I knew him that it made his voice I guess in a sense clearer as well I do think one other thing was we were very honest with our friends and they prayed with us and shared

with us the last time I preached at the summit uh a lady came up to us and told us we were out of God's will if we didn't get to Africa so not only had God called us it was obvious to us but our friends saw that call in us and told us we're out of God's will until we got to Africa which and that was somebody that would have wanted us to stay at the summit so I think those things really helped us process the call are you still friends with that lady today we

are in fact yes she okay with you being back that's right were you were you going to add something oh I was well I was going to say that we do ex do expect that the enemy is going to attack uh but the more that you are uh asking people to pray for you and hearing from them and being in God's word he will give you the strength and he will make his will known James tells us that if you like Wisdom ask God wants to give it to you and he wants you to hear

from him so uh let's rewind the clock 25 years and let's pretend that you and the younger version of you were sitting out in the audience right now what would you say to yourself 25 years ago uh I would say you can do this it seems scary it seems fearful it seems bizarre at times but you can do this God like acts 18 I will Empower you I will send you and uh I would say yeah God is going to be with you the whole time he's going to empower you it's not about you it's

about him and his glory I think that's important to know I would tell myself the summit's got your back you're not leaving the Summit to go to Africa Africa will have another presence of the summit and teams they send and prayer for you and all that kind of stuff and uh I don't know what else would I say that Jesus is worth it Jesus is worth it absolutely Jesus is worth it yeah would you say this Kurt uh looking at 25 years you it's not like your life is over but you've invested a substantial part

of your life you left a very comfortable life here in the triangle and a lot of things you missed out on that some people would say seeing what you've seen in Africa do you have any regrets would you do it differently at all I have no regrets I would do it again in a heartbeat gladly well we are super grateful would you put your hands together and thank them for thank you [Applause] guys you know it's the emotional welcoming them back because well one it's just good to see them of course but it does raise

the question that was one generation who's the next one right who's the next one they went out 25 years ago who is there that being raised up today that are going to go in the next 25 years listen when you came In today you got a handout one of these let me encourage you to take it out if you would on it on the front here you'll find a little QR code right if you're like a parent you're like QR code there's no hidden message in it don't stare at it it's not one of those

dot matrix things your kid will show you how to take your phone and you know it'll take you to a website you can go a and do that now if you want you can do it later but but what it's going to do is can going to connect you to a page where there are four main ways that you can get involved from today four main ways number one some of you have never been overseas on a on a mission trip in a mission capacity I'm not faing you I'm just saying that I want you

to consider going on a short-term trip to visit and encourage our missionaries not only is it amazing for them it's actually did you hear what Kurt said it was on one of those short-term trips that God opened his eyes to what God was doing and changed his life just a week just a week is what we're talking about think of it like tithing your year there's a box there on the website where you can indicate your interest in that and and then they'll just Get up with you and let you know what's available to see

what works for you here's number two there's a second box for those of you asking how you could use your professional experience your skill to advance the gospel like I talked about today you're like well I got some skill God made me good at this he didn't make me good necessarily what you do JD but he made me good at this how could I use that and what God's doing around the world we're actually going to host a conference here in November to help explore what what those possibilities could be right and so you can

check out all the details you go ahead and sign up for that conference if that's you you like well I know my skill wouldn't be you'd be surprised you should at least check it out to see how God could use it here's number three some of you need to get involved serving the community around you next Saturday every campus is going to be hosting events to help us get plugged into serving our neighbors I would love for us to have thousands of people show up for that now the light that shines the farthest also shines

the brightest at home so let's do that let's make Missions an extension of what we do here I want you to sign up for that that's box number three now here's the last one for some of you the Lord might be calling you to put your yes on the table and to truly let him put it on the map somewhere you look I'm incredibly incredibly grateful for the holidays all that they saw God do in South Africa it really is exceedingly abundantly more than we could ask or imagine but they've come home who's going to

replace them we're praying something incredibly bold and I want you to pray with with me that God would raise up a hundred people from The Summit Church to be sent overseas to join one of our teams over there to make disciples and plant churches who are that next 100 I've got a feeling that there's some of you listening to me right now it's stirring in you maybe you're not sure but there's something happening and you're like I it might I'm following Stephen I'm following the holidays and getting the gospel to the unreached places in the

world listen I don't call you the holidays don't call you God calls you do not resist him here's what we're going to do a lot of Times in our church we'll do what we call a stand and step kind of invitation if you think you might be in that number you're not sure but something started in your heart I'm going to ask you to come down here and pray about that with somebody you know sometimes we do this for baptism sometimes we do it for salvation sometimes we do it for prayers for healing this weekend

I want it to be for those those who might be considering long-term missions again you may not be sure but you're saying God I'm willing middle or high school student college student family single mom retiree I'm not sure but Lord here I am send me God I want to do something I want to do something I want you to come forward and tell that to one of our elders or our prayer team who will just pray over you bring your card with you right CU they're just going to make sure they get your name so

that we can follow up with you and at least show you what the next steps of that look like right now our elders and prayer team are going to get into a position at every campus they'll be right down front here and in just a moment I'm going to stand you up and if that's you I want you to come down and pray with One of these for others of you maybe there's somebody in your heart that you know that you need to share Christ with today like Laura Beth you got somebody and you just

need to come down here and maybe you don't need to talk to one of these but you just need to pray and just kneel down and say Lord help me give me the courage to share Christ with this person but listen if God's stirring in your heart and I know he is for some of you I don't call you God calls you come down and just pray with one of these people and let's pray and let's Commit This to the Lord okay bow your heads if you would father I don't call you Call so acts

13:2 like you stirred the church and raised up Barnabas and Paul would you do that again give them the ability to say yes give them the courage to take that first step to begin that incredible moment of following you in this path of obedience they don't have it in them I don't have it in me you're the one who gives the power to obey so do it right now be gracious to us in Jesus name in Jesus name amen you ready all of our campuses would you stand to your feet our worship teams are coming

right now right now If that's you you're something stirring in you would you just come and let's just pray together okay let's pray and let's at least explore it step out right now don't wait come on down take the hand of one of these people and uh let's pray this through you come as our worship teams come