Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on Summit Life with JD. Greer.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
When God opened my eyes to how many people in
the world were without the Gospel, it felt to me
like I was standing beside a railroad tracks, and on
the railroad tracks was a little kid who was crippled,
couldn't get off the railroad tracks, and here comes a train.
At that point, you don't ask God what his will is.
You know what his will is. Pick the kid up right.
You don't have to find it. The Lord is not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. And what you ought to be saying to
(00:24):
God is this here? Am I sending me?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor JD. Greer. As always,
I'm your host Molly Videvich. Okay, honesty time. Have you
ever wanted to take a mission trip, but for whatever
reason haven't yet? Maybe you just don't know where to begin,
or it could be that you're waiting for God to
present the right opportunity. Well, today Pastor JD explains what
it takes to be sent. We're continuing our study in
(00:58):
the Book of Acts, but after our program today, we're
going to take a little break from this teaching series,
but don't worry, we'll return to it this summer. You
won't want to miss a single message, So if you
need to catch up, you can hear previous broadcasts online
at Jdgreer dot com. But first let's join Pastor JD
for our final teaching for now. It's a message he
(01:19):
titled the first Short Term Mission Trip.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Verse twenty six. Now, Angel the Lord said to Philip,
rise and go toward the south, to the road that
goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. And so he rose
and went, and they're passing through Gaza. Was an Ethiopian,
a eunuch, a court official of Candace, who was Queen
of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of
her treasure. This is one powerful dude. For whatever reason,
(01:47):
he had become curious about the God of the Jews,
all right, verse twenty eight. And he was reading the
prophet Isaiah. And then the Spirit said to Philip, now
stop real quick. Here's what I want to ask you.
How did the Spirit say had to Philip? We don't know,
we don't know. It does not tell us. But one
of the things that you're going to find in Acts
(02:08):
is that the Holy Spirit speaks to the church, and
not just the apostles. He speaks to guys like Philip.
So he said, go over and join this chariot. So
Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the
Prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading? And
he said, well, how can I unless someone guides me.
So he invited Philip to come up, come up in
(02:31):
there and sit with him. All right, here's what you
should see. God calls Philip to walk one hundred and
sixty five miles down to a nasty little town called Gaza,
because there he has been preparing one guy, one guy.
And if I could just say this really quickly to
some of you, you're like the Ethiopian Eunuch, and there
(02:52):
have been things that have been happening in your life,
questions that have been coming up in your heart, and
you're not even sure exactly why they're there. See the
point though, that I want to make I want to
make sure that those of you who are not believers,
I want to make sure that you hear this is
you understand that none of this is random. That God
has been seeking you the way he's been seeking the
Ethiopian Eunuch. All right. Now, The passage of the scripture
(03:14):
that the unuch was reading was this, like a sheep,
he was led to the slaughter, and like a land
before its shear, is a silence. So he opens not
his mouth, and his humiliation justice was denied to him.
That's a quotation from Isaiah fifty three, which was written
about eight hundred years before Jesus was born. And it
is a prophecy that the Messiah, the Messiah would stand
before his executioners, he would be accused of the most
(03:35):
hanous crimes, yet he would remain silent. So Philip opened
his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him
the good news about Jesus. And as they were going
along the road, they came to some water, and the
eunuch said, see here's water. What prevents me from being baptized.
And he commanded the cherry to stop, and they both
went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and
he baptized him. See salvation is very simple, doesn't require IRONI,
(03:58):
doesn't require church, doesn't require confirmation, class, doesn't require a priest.
Baptism we described like the wedding ring. It's did by
wearing this wedding ring does not make me married to Veronica.
He just shows you that I am married. Right when
you get baptized, you are saying to the world, I
have decided to sit down and to repent and believe
in the finished work of Christ verse thirty nine. And
(04:19):
when they came up out of the water, this spear
of the Lord carried Philip away, and the unitch saw
him no more, and the unit went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip found himself at Azotos. First of all, what
just happened to Philip? I mean, can you believe this?
This is pre star trek teleportation, which is great for
Philip because he didn't have to walk one hundred and
(04:40):
sixty five miles back to Jerusalem. But also consider this,
this had to be a great platform from which the
Ethiopian unit got to explain the gospel of the guys
in the chariot, right because they hadn't heard the conversation
because they've been up there. But all of a sudden,
there's two guys in the water, and then one guy
flies away, and the Ethiopian Unich says, you want to
know what just happened? I can tell you what just happened,
(05:00):
and so for eleven hundred miles, that's how long they
had to go. This eunuch shares the Gospel with these servants.
Here's why I say that. The ancient historian Eusebius says
that this eunuch and his band of servants went on
to plant the very first church in Africa. Isn't that great?
And here's why I tell you that, because every once
in a while you hear some under educated PhD at
(05:23):
a secutar university say that Christianity is a Western thing.
But you can see that's not true. It started in
the Middle East, then it goes to Africa. We relate
to the game. Here's the major point I'm trying to
make in all this, God used an ordinary guy for
his first international mission trip. God prepared Philip, God prepared
(05:45):
Unich the eunuch, and then he brought the two together.
The fact that it is a layman, not an apostle,
that first carries the Gospel internationally, I would ask you
again to consider, is that not an indication to us
by the Holy sphere of how he will spread the
Gospel around the world. I've explained to you that before
(06:06):
that one of the most curious things to me in
the Book of Acts is how Luke seems to go
out of his way to make this point that the
cutting edge every time the Gospel will expand somewhere Acts eight,
Acts eleven, Acts thirteen. It's always unnamed regular Christians who
are going first. I say that because many of you
(06:27):
have jobs, Many of you listening to me right now
have jobs that naturally put you next to some of
the most unreached people on the planet. You were the
ones that get to go side to side with Ethiopian eunuchs.
I've told you before my dad and my father, when
he retired, was rehired by his company to go over
(06:47):
and oversee some work going on in East Asia. And
there my dad was able to rub shoulders with businessmen
that I'm telling you us me the Summit Church we
would never be able to get close to, no matter
how many English corners and Internet cafes we start in
that part of East Asia. None wrong with those things.
We're going to keep starting them. But God gave him
a platform. He was able to lead a couple of
those businessmen to christ see because God gave him a
(07:11):
platform by means of other things besides apostolic kind of ministry,
and I want you to learn to take advantage of
that because see, one of the challenges right now in
international missions is how we can support all the missionaries
that need to be supported. Our church gives a lot
to a bank called the International Mission Board. It's the
largest mission organization on the planet. Has about forty seven
(07:31):
hundred missionaries, which is fantastic, right, but they've been stymied
at forty seven hundred for about five years. And so
the answer to how to increase that number is that,
you know, people say, well, you got to give more,
and we do need to give more. We need to
give more money so we can send more missionaries. But
here's my question. What if there's a way to go
from forty seven hundred missionaries to forty seven thousand missionaries
(07:54):
and not spend another dime. And the way that you
do that is you take phillips who are already naturally going,
and you equip them to carry the gospel as they go,
and you get IBM to pay for it. For McDonnell
Douglas or one of these places, of these international places,
we have a young man from our church who got
a law degree from one of the law schools here,
very prestigious, could have worked just about anywhere he wanted.
(08:16):
He chose to go get a job in a law
firm in the Middle East because he knew that there
he would be able to partner with one of our
church planning teams over there. That's not his preference for
where he wants to live, but it's the place where
he knows he can be most useful. I've told you
before about the guy who's opened a sports marketing firm
and a part of the Middle East that there. He's
(08:37):
there now kind of supporting himself, not kind of he's
supporting himself, not just himself, he's supporting other people on
the team, and he's doing it in a way that
is enabling us to get more people there without spending
any more money. We have men in our church using
their expertise in agriculture to help us develop farming projects
in Kenya. Did you know that today most of the
countries in the world that are in the greatest need
(08:59):
of a guy presence are also those in the greatest
need of business development. Muslim war is a great example.
Twenty percent of the population of the world is in
Muslim countries. Only four percent of the trade comes out
of those countries. We're talking a huge opportunity for gospel center,
god loving business people to be able to develop things
(09:22):
that we just cannot do. See, and what I want
in this church, what I pray for, is that some
of you will look into your hands and you will
see that God put a key into your hands, and
that key is some so called secular skill, and God says,
I put that in there to unlock the nations, and
I want you to take it, and I want you
to begin to use it. We want to equip you
(09:44):
so that as God takes you these places you can go.
We also want to send you on mission trips. Philip
did not go specifically on business. You can't really read
that into Acts eight. He went because the spirit of
God sent him. So at the Summit Church, I want
to send a lot of trips to our day's version
of Ethiopia. We put it, we send a lot of
(10:05):
mission trips. Are kind of Ethiopia is what we call
the ten forty window. It is where the majority of
the unreached people on the planet live. And we send
a lot of mission trips to those places because there
are Ethiopian eunuchs there. I'm telling you you were going
to encounter people like the Ethiopian eunuch, because when we
(10:28):
talk about the unreached peoples in the world, I'm not
thinking about a statistic, I'm thinking about him. I mean,
I can stand up here and tell you that there
are According to missiologists, there are one point four billion
what they call unreached peoples, which means people that have
no access to the Gospel, not in their language, and
(10:49):
I'm a Bible in their language, there's no way they
could get it even if they wanted it. There are
three point zero six unreached peoples hear this who have
little access to the Gospel, which means it's highly unlikely
they'll ever even hear it because while it may exists
in the language, it's just not in a place where
they're going to have access to it. That's not a number.
(11:11):
Those are individuals. They're individuals all over the world that
God created in his image and that God cares as
much about as I care about my children, if not
a million times more. They are girls that are caught
in the sex slave trade. They are orphans that do
not have homes. They are people that are yearning for
God and don't even know what to call him. And
(11:35):
God has created us like Philip, to be able to
be there to take the gospel to them so that
when He works in them, that we are there so
that we can speak the words of life to them.
Did you know that in China listen to this, there
is one Christian for every seven hundred thousand people. Let
me put that in perspective for you. In a five
(11:55):
mile radius of where I stand right now, there are
one hundred and twenty nine churches are Christian organizations. That
breaks down to one Christian organization for every three hundred
people in Durham, one paid Christian worker for every four
hundred and fifty people one to seven hundred thousand, one
(12:18):
to four fifty. Is God really that bad at Math?
I don't think so. I think what is happening is
the ones that God has told to go. Many of
them are content to stay. Now. I don't want to
overwhelm you. Listen. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty.
I'm just trying to open your eyes.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Thanks for listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD. Greer. Okay,
listen up, this is important. Today is your final day
to get a hold of our latest featured resource. It's
Pastor JD's new book, Twelve Truths in a Lie, answers
to life's biggest questions, complete with a discussion guide crafted
to help you talk about the book with those around you.
(13:00):
Twelve Truths in a Lie tackles some of the biggest
questions we all face. How could a good God send
people to hell? How should Christians handle political differences? How
can I know that I'm going to Heaven? Anyone who
gives thirty five dollars or more to this ministry or
joins us as a monthly Gospel partner will receive not
only Pastor JD's new book, but also a family friendly
(13:22):
discussion guide that we've created to help you talk through
the book with your loved ones, so it would even
be a great Mother's Day gift. Join us as a
Gospel partner today by calling eight six, six, three three
five fifty two twenty or by heading over to Jdgreer
dot com and go ahead and take care of it
right now, because again, today is the last day to
(13:43):
get twelve Truths in a Lie and the discussion guide
that goes with it. Now, let's get back to today's
teaching once again. Here's Pastor JD.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
There's a lot of positive things happening. Do you know
that when Paul died, there was one church for every
twelve unreached feeble groups. Today there are six hundred eighty
churches for every one unreached people group. Can we not
do this? Six hundred and eighty churches per one? Can
we not do this? Can we not get people into
(14:15):
these places to be able to live out and to
preach the gospel? I think that we can, and I
want us to be a part of it. I want
us to do what we're supposed to do. Here's the problem. Listen,
only five percent of the world's population lives in North America.
Five percent, Yet ninety one percent of all paid Christian
workers and ninety five percent of every dollar given in
(14:39):
Jesus name goes to that five percent. I just can't
see that as being the plan of God. And I
bring this back around to this. Some of you have
never been on a short term trip, You've never done
anything to engage in nations. I'm not trying to make
you feel guilty. I'm just trying to give you some
(15:03):
does not the lostness of the world demand that we
do something about it. If you lined up every of
the three point zero six billion, if you line them
up two feet apart in a single foul line, they
would wrap the globe twenty five times. The equator does
not that demand a different perspective. We're not just trying
(15:26):
to send you on exotic vacations. We're doing this because
we believe the gospel, and because we believe that God
cares about the Ethiopian Unit, and so yes, we will
leave awesome things that are happening in Samaria, and we
will go one hundred and sixty five miles on foot
if that's what it takes, because God has put somebody there.
I'm going to ask many of you, it's not going
(15:48):
to be all, but many of you, to commit to
the process of going on one of these trips. You
may not have all your questions answered, but us want
you to commit to the process and see where it goes.
It might take you a couple of years and make
it happen, but you're going to start the process today.
For others of you, God is stirring in you about
something longer, because maybe you've already been on a short
(16:08):
term trip now God's asking you for something more some
a church. We got a vision to plan a thousand
churches by twenty fifty and to send out five thousand
people from our church and a midterm or long term capacity.
And some of you already know this involves you, because
the spear of God has been saying it to you.
And I just want you to come forward and say yes,
(16:29):
or at least start the process and see where it leads.
Some of you are called to stay here, but I
think you should be just as sure that God has
called you to stay as those who are called to
go are sure of that. See, here's the issue. Many
of you have always thought of missions as something that
somebody else does. Here's a prayer that I prayed when
I was a junior in college that revolutionized my life.
(16:50):
Up until this point, I've been a Christian for about
three years. I'd always been like, God, if you tell
me you know here in the sky and tell me
to go to the mission field, I'll go. When God
opened my eyes to how many people in the world
were without the Gospel, I told you this for it.
It felt to me like I was standing beside a
railroad tracks and on the railroad tracks. Was a little
kid who was crippled, couldn't get off the railroad tracks,
(17:12):
and here comes a train. At that point, you don't
ask God what his will is. You know what his
will is. Pick the kid up. We got three point
zero six billion people in the world and no access
to the gospel, and we're like, God, what's your will
for my life? I want to find God's will. God's
will is not lost, right, you don't have to find it.
The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. And what you ought
(17:33):
to be saying to God is this here? Am I
send me? I'm not sure he'll send you. That's up
to him, and you don't want to go unless he
sends you. But I'm saying there's something fundamentally wrong, and
we're like God, here we are, send somebody else. It's
got to be Lord. Here, Am I sind me? And
then you follow God where he leads you. And when
He leads you to stay right here and work in
one of these ministries here, then praise God. You do
(17:54):
that with all your heart. But you need to come
to a place where you give God a blank check
and you say here, am I send me? Have you
ever give God that blank check? Blank checks are scary,
aren't they. You ever give a blank check to somebody
who's got to pay something for you and you kind
of trust him, You're like, uh, could you call me
as soon as you know? Fill that out, just so
I can know. To give a blank check is scary
because you don't know where they're going to cash it
(18:14):
or how much you're gonna write it for. If you
give a blank check of God, I realize that's scary
because God might cash it in Afghanistan. You don't know
where he's going to cash it. But I would just
encourage you to think about the one in whose hands
you're placing that blank check and think that surely, if
you could trust him enough to save you from hell,
you can trust him with the rest of your life.
And that's the one place that a blank check is
(18:37):
always going to be safe. College students, I got a
special invitation for you. I want you to come and
spend your summer with us. We do this thing called
City Project, another one called Second City. We got partners
through the church like Crew and Campus Salary. They got
great options too, where you take a summer, you learn
about ministry, you go on mission trips, we train you
in theology and apologetics. Listen, I did this in my summer,
(18:59):
and not obviously here this church for somewhere else. Great's
decision I made in college. Hands down. You're like, oh,
but I get to get an internship and I need
a job to make some money. Hey, Matthew six thirty three,
why don't you seek first the kingdom of God and
his rightness and let him add all those things to you.
Why not give God a summer to form you and
give you a vision for the nations, and then see
where God takes you with that. No, real quick, before
(19:20):
I give you a chance to act, let me just
deal with like I do with baptism. My time's gone,
but let me just do this real quick. I got
to deal with the objections that just popped up in
your heart because I know what they are, because I
have one of you. All right, here are the objections.
You're like, why I'm not qualified. I'm like, I'm an introvert. Well,
you're exactly who should go. Because God doesn't call those
that he's equipped, He equips those he's called. So when
(19:41):
God calls Abraham He sends him out to a place
he doesn't know where he's going, completely incapable of accomplishing,
and then God equips him along the way. That's how
God works. You got to take the step and then
God will equip you. You say, I'm not comfortable with
sharing my faith. Hey, good news, we will train you.
Leading up to this trip, we notice the most incredible
transformation who go on mission trips. I don't know what
it is, summit, I do not understand it. But there's
(20:03):
something about going over there that you go over there
and start doing over there what you should be doing here.
When you get back from there, you do here what
you just learned to do there that you ought to
have been doing here all along. I don't know how
that works, but it does. And so, yes, we will
train you to share your faith. You say, ah, but
there's so much need here. I can't afford to go
to the nations. In the sense of Todd, yes, there
is a lot of need here. We're not going because
the work here is done. We're going because God gave
(20:26):
to every believer this desire to be a part of
what God was doing globally. And so in the portfolio
of the mission of your life. You ought to be
involved here, but every believer in every culture ought to
have an a vested interest in what God's doing around
the world. You say, well, I can't take two weeks
of vacation. That's why we have weekend trips and seven
day trips. And yes, I'm going to say that some
(20:47):
of you ought to use part of your vacation. Why
not use part of your vacation for the glory of God.
You say, well, I don't have the money. We will
train you in raising support. We are experts at asking
people for money, all right, and I will tell you this,
this is a great chance for you to watch God provide.
In fact, we got a girl at our church. She
only got saved here about three years ago. Some incredible stories.
(21:08):
She tried to commit suicide. She knew a girl in
a business place that invited her to the church. Happened
to give her a copy of my book Gospel. She's
in the hospital recovering from this traumatic event that she
put herself through. The doctor says, hey, I've been to
this church, I've read that book. They have a conversation
about it. Long story short, she becomes a Christian shortly thereafter,
God says to her, I think I want to use
(21:29):
you over in India. She says, I don't have any
Christian friends yet. I mean, I'm just getting to know
people at the church. My parents aren't I don't have
any network to raise money from. And we're like, well,
I won't you just give it a chance to see
what God does, because God just does amazing stuff like that.
Leading up to this trip to India, not only did
she raise enough money to pay for herself, she paid
for half of somebody else. Now this summer, she is
(21:49):
going on her third trip to India because God took
somebody that was completely outside and he gave them a
vision for the rest of their life. I realized that
not every Christian is going to be led to go
long term. I realize there are some of you that
are in a place in life where you just can't
go yourself. See, I want to challenge you to ask
the question. I leave you with the story that my
(22:11):
friend who has working over in Central Asia, who got
a job offer here in the United States. A Christian
offered him a job. There's a very great job. And
the guy said this. He said this to my friend.
He said, hey, I've got one hundred resumes on my
desk of people who want this job. But I believe
that you're the man that God has chosen for it.
My friend said, when I heard that, here's how I
(22:32):
heard it. If I don't take this job in the
United States, there are one hundred people in line ready
to take the job. He looked at me, and he said, JD.
If I leave this spot here in Central Asia, there
is no one on the planet in line to take
this job. Nobody, he said, So I will turn my
back on where I am needed to stay, where I
am irreplaceable. God wants to use you.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Doesn't the urgency of the Gospel demand this of us
to be available to be used by God? So where
is the Lord calling you? Whether it's across the room
or across an ocean, do what you do well for
the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for
the mission of God. You are listening to Summit Life,
the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author and apologist JD. Greer,
(23:21):
Pastor j D. Today is the last day for our
listeners to get your latest book, Twelve Truths in a
Lie and the Accompanying Discussion Guide. Some of our listeners
may already have a copy of it, so tell us
why do they need another copy.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, that's a fair question.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Well, I would say it's because I wrote this thinking
that you would be able to walk a friend who
has these same questions through it with you. What we've
done here exclusively for our Summit Life audiences, We've provided
a discussion guide that you could give this to a
friend and then use the discussion god to navigate. I
think it'll strengthen your faith, and my hope is that
(23:58):
it enables you to better reach out to somebody with
more confidence to be able to meet them where they
are and help them on that road that the Holy
Spirit has them on and bringing them to Jesus. Hey,
you can reserve your copy of both the book and
the discussion Guide. You can get it today at Jdwreer
dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
To give call us now at eight six six three
three five fifty two twenty that's eight six six three
three five fifty two twenty, or head over to Jdgreer
dot com and remember today is your last chance to
get a hold of it. I'm Mollie Vitovich. Be sure
to listen Tomorrow, as we kick off a new teaching
(24:34):
series called Something Better, Something Greater. Pastor JD examines the
life of one of the greatest profits in all of scripture, Elijah.
That's Tuesday on Summit Life with Jdgreer. Today's program was
produced and sponsored by Jdgreer Ministries.
Today on Summit Life with JD. Greer.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
When God opened my eyes to how many people in
the world were without the Gospel, it felt to me
like I was standing beside a railroad tracks, and on
the railroad tracks was a little kid who was crippled,
couldn't get off the railroad tracks, and here comes a train.
At that point, you don't ask God what his will is.
You know what his will is. Pick the kid up right.
You don't have to find it. The Lord is not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. And what you ought to be saying to
(00:24):
God is this here? Am I sending me?
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor JD. Greer. As always,
I'm your host Molly Videvich. Okay, honesty time. Have you
ever wanted to take a mission trip, but for whatever
reason haven't yet? Maybe you just don't know where to begin,
or it could be that you're waiting for God to
present the right opportunity. Well, today Pastor JD explains what
it takes to be sent. We're continuing our study in
(00:58):
the Book of Acts, but after our program today, we're
going to take a little break from this teaching series,
but don't worry, we'll return to it this summer. You
won't want to miss a single message, So if you
need to catch up, you can hear previous broadcasts online
at Jdgreer dot com. But first let's join Pastor JD
for our final teaching for now. It's a message he
(01:19):
titled the first Short Term Mission Trip.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Verse twenty six. Now, Angel the Lord said to Philip,
rise and go toward the south, to the road that
goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. And so he rose
and went, and they're passing through Gaza. Was an Ethiopian,
a eunuch, a court official of Candace, who was Queen
of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of
her treasure. This is one powerful dude. For whatever reason,
(01:47):
he had become curious about the God of the Jews,
all right, verse twenty eight. And he was reading the
prophet Isaiah. And then the Spirit said to Philip, now
stop real quick. Here's what I want to ask you.
How did the Spirit say had to Philip? We don't know,
we don't know. It does not tell us. But one
of the things that you're going to find in Acts
(02:08):
is that the Holy Spirit speaks to the church, and
not just the apostles. He speaks to guys like Philip.
So he said, go over and join this chariot. So
Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the
Prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading? And
he said, well, how can I unless someone guides me.
So he invited Philip to come up, come up in
(02:31):
there and sit with him. All right, here's what you
should see. God calls Philip to walk one hundred and
sixty five miles down to a nasty little town called Gaza,
because there he has been preparing one guy, one guy.
And if I could just say this really quickly to
some of you, you're like the Ethiopian Eunuch, and there
(02:52):
have been things that have been happening in your life,
questions that have been coming up in your heart, and
you're not even sure exactly why they're there. See the
point though, that I want to make I want to
make sure that those of you who are not believers,
I want to make sure that you hear this is
you understand that none of this is random. That God
has been seeking you the way he's been seeking the
Ethiopian Eunuch. All right. Now, The passage of the scripture
(03:14):
that the unuch was reading was this, like a sheep,
he was led to the slaughter, and like a land
before its shear, is a silence. So he opens not
his mouth, and his humiliation justice was denied to him.
That's a quotation from Isaiah fifty three, which was written
about eight hundred years before Jesus was born. And it
is a prophecy that the Messiah, the Messiah would stand
before his executioners, he would be accused of the most
(03:35):
hanous crimes, yet he would remain silent. So Philip opened
his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him
the good news about Jesus. And as they were going
along the road, they came to some water, and the
eunuch said, see here's water. What prevents me from being baptized.
And he commanded the cherry to stop, and they both
went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and
he baptized him. See salvation is very simple, doesn't require IRONI,
(03:58):
doesn't require church, doesn't require confirmation, class, doesn't require a priest.
Baptism we described like the wedding ring. It's did by
wearing this wedding ring does not make me married to Veronica.
He just shows you that I am married. Right when
you get baptized, you are saying to the world, I
have decided to sit down and to repent and believe
in the finished work of Christ verse thirty nine. And
(04:19):
when they came up out of the water, this spear
of the Lord carried Philip away, and the unitch saw
him no more, and the unit went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip found himself at Azotos. First of all, what
just happened to Philip? I mean, can you believe this?
This is pre star trek teleportation, which is great for
Philip because he didn't have to walk one hundred and
(04:40):
sixty five miles back to Jerusalem. But also consider this,
this had to be a great platform from which the
Ethiopian unit got to explain the gospel of the guys
in the chariot, right because they hadn't heard the conversation
because they've been up there. But all of a sudden,
there's two guys in the water, and then one guy
flies away, and the Ethiopian Unich says, you want to
know what just happened? I can tell you what just happened,
(05:00):
and so for eleven hundred miles, that's how long they
had to go. This eunuch shares the Gospel with these servants.
Here's why I say that. The ancient historian Eusebius says
that this eunuch and his band of servants went on
to plant the very first church in Africa. Isn't that great?
And here's why I tell you that, because every once
in a while you hear some under educated PhD at
(05:23):
a secutar university say that Christianity is a Western thing.
But you can see that's not true. It started in
the Middle East, then it goes to Africa. We relate
to the game. Here's the major point I'm trying to
make in all this, God used an ordinary guy for
his first international mission trip. God prepared Philip, God prepared
(05:45):
Unich the eunuch, and then he brought the two together.
The fact that it is a layman, not an apostle,
that first carries the Gospel internationally, I would ask you
again to consider, is that not an indication to us
by the Holy sphere of how he will spread the
Gospel around the world. I've explained to you that before
(06:06):
that one of the most curious things to me in
the Book of Acts is how Luke seems to go
out of his way to make this point that the
cutting edge every time the Gospel will expand somewhere Acts eight,
Acts eleven, Acts thirteen. It's always unnamed regular Christians who
are going first. I say that because many of you
(06:27):
have jobs, Many of you listening to me right now
have jobs that naturally put you next to some of
the most unreached people on the planet. You were the
ones that get to go side to side with Ethiopian eunuchs.
I've told you before my dad and my father, when
he retired, was rehired by his company to go over
(06:47):
and oversee some work going on in East Asia. And
there my dad was able to rub shoulders with businessmen
that I'm telling you us me the Summit Church we
would never be able to get close to, no matter
how many English corners and Internet cafes we start in
that part of East Asia. None wrong with those things.
We're going to keep starting them. But God gave him
a platform. He was able to lead a couple of
those businessmen to christ see because God gave him a
(07:11):
platform by means of other things besides apostolic kind of ministry,
and I want you to learn to take advantage of
that because see, one of the challenges right now in
international missions is how we can support all the missionaries
that need to be supported. Our church gives a lot
to a bank called the International Mission Board. It's the
largest mission organization on the planet. Has about forty seven
(07:31):
hundred missionaries, which is fantastic, right, but they've been stymied
at forty seven hundred for about five years. And so
the answer to how to increase that number is that,
you know, people say, well, you got to give more,
and we do need to give more. We need to
give more money so we can send more missionaries. But
here's my question. What if there's a way to go
from forty seven hundred missionaries to forty seven thousand missionaries
(07:54):
and not spend another dime. And the way that you
do that is you take phillips who are already naturally going,
and you equip them to carry the gospel as they go,
and you get IBM to pay for it. For McDonnell
Douglas or one of these places, of these international places,
we have a young man from our church who got
a law degree from one of the law schools here,
very prestigious, could have worked just about anywhere he wanted.
(08:16):
He chose to go get a job in a law
firm in the Middle East because he knew that there
he would be able to partner with one of our
church planning teams over there. That's not his preference for
where he wants to live, but it's the place where
he knows he can be most useful. I've told you
before about the guy who's opened a sports marketing firm
and a part of the Middle East that there. He's
(08:37):
there now kind of supporting himself, not kind of he's
supporting himself, not just himself, he's supporting other people on
the team, and he's doing it in a way that
is enabling us to get more people there without spending
any more money. We have men in our church using
their expertise in agriculture to help us develop farming projects
in Kenya. Did you know that today most of the
countries in the world that are in the greatest need
(08:59):
of a guy presence are also those in the greatest
need of business development. Muslim war is a great example.
Twenty percent of the population of the world is in
Muslim countries. Only four percent of the trade comes out
of those countries. We're talking a huge opportunity for gospel center,
god loving business people to be able to develop things
(09:22):
that we just cannot do. See, and what I want
in this church, what I pray for, is that some
of you will look into your hands and you will
see that God put a key into your hands, and
that key is some so called secular skill, and God says,
I put that in there to unlock the nations, and
I want you to take it, and I want you
to begin to use it. We want to equip you
(09:44):
so that as God takes you these places you can go.
We also want to send you on mission trips. Philip
did not go specifically on business. You can't really read
that into Acts eight. He went because the spirit of
God sent him. So at the Summit Church, I want
to send a lot of trips to our day's version
of Ethiopia. We put it, we send a lot of
(10:05):
mission trips. Are kind of Ethiopia is what we call
the ten forty window. It is where the majority of
the unreached people on the planet live. And we send
a lot of mission trips to those places because there
are Ethiopian eunuchs there. I'm telling you you were going
to encounter people like the Ethiopian eunuch, because when we
(10:28):
talk about the unreached peoples in the world, I'm not
thinking about a statistic, I'm thinking about him. I mean,
I can stand up here and tell you that there
are According to missiologists, there are one point four billion
what they call unreached peoples, which means people that have
no access to the Gospel, not in their language, and
(10:49):
I'm a Bible in their language, there's no way they
could get it even if they wanted it. There are
three point zero six unreached peoples hear this who have
little access to the Gospel, which means it's highly unlikely
they'll ever even hear it because while it may exists
in the language, it's just not in a place where
they're going to have access to it. That's not a number.
(11:11):
Those are individuals. They're individuals all over the world that
God created in his image and that God cares as
much about as I care about my children, if not
a million times more. They are girls that are caught
in the sex slave trade. They are orphans that do
not have homes. They are people that are yearning for
God and don't even know what to call him. And
(11:35):
God has created us like Philip, to be able to
be there to take the gospel to them so that
when He works in them, that we are there so
that we can speak the words of life to them.
Did you know that in China listen to this, there
is one Christian for every seven hundred thousand people. Let
me put that in perspective for you. In a five
(11:55):
mile radius of where I stand right now, there are
one hundred and twenty nine churches are Christian organizations. That
breaks down to one Christian organization for every three hundred
people in Durham, one paid Christian worker for every four
hundred and fifty people one to seven hundred thousand, one
(12:18):
to four fifty. Is God really that bad at Math?
I don't think so. I think what is happening is
the ones that God has told to go. Many of
them are content to stay. Now. I don't want to
overwhelm you. Listen. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty.
I'm just trying to open your eyes.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Thanks for listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD. Greer. Okay,
listen up, this is important. Today is your final day
to get a hold of our latest featured resource. It's
Pastor JD's new book, Twelve Truths in a Lie, answers
to life's biggest questions, complete with a discussion guide crafted
to help you talk about the book with those around you.
(13:00):
Twelve Truths in a Lie tackles some of the biggest
questions we all face. How could a good God send
people to hell? How should Christians handle political differences? How
can I know that I'm going to Heaven? Anyone who
gives thirty five dollars or more to this ministry or
joins us as a monthly Gospel partner will receive not
only Pastor JD's new book, but also a family friendly
(13:22):
discussion guide that we've created to help you talk through
the book with your loved ones, so it would even
be a great Mother's Day gift. Join us as a
Gospel partner today by calling eight six, six, three three
five fifty two twenty or by heading over to Jdgreer
dot com and go ahead and take care of it
right now, because again, today is the last day to
(13:43):
get twelve Truths in a Lie and the discussion guide
that goes with it. Now, let's get back to today's
teaching once again. Here's Pastor JD.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
There's a lot of positive things happening. Do you know
that when Paul died, there was one church for every
twelve unreached feeble groups. Today there are six hundred eighty
churches for every one unreached people group. Can we not
do this? Six hundred and eighty churches per one? Can
we not do this? Can we not get people into
(14:15):
these places to be able to live out and to
preach the gospel? I think that we can, and I
want us to be a part of it. I want
us to do what we're supposed to do. Here's the problem. Listen,
only five percent of the world's population lives in North America.
Five percent, Yet ninety one percent of all paid Christian
workers and ninety five percent of every dollar given in
(14:39):
Jesus name goes to that five percent. I just can't
see that as being the plan of God. And I
bring this back around to this. Some of you have
never been on a short term trip, You've never done
anything to engage in nations. I'm not trying to make
you feel guilty. I'm just trying to give you some
(15:03):
does not the lostness of the world demand that we
do something about it. If you lined up every of
the three point zero six billion, if you line them
up two feet apart in a single foul line, they
would wrap the globe twenty five times. The equator does
not that demand a different perspective. We're not just trying
(15:26):
to send you on exotic vacations. We're doing this because
we believe the gospel, and because we believe that God
cares about the Ethiopian Unit, and so yes, we will
leave awesome things that are happening in Samaria, and we
will go one hundred and sixty five miles on foot
if that's what it takes, because God has put somebody there.
I'm going to ask many of you, it's not going
(15:48):
to be all, but many of you, to commit to
the process of going on one of these trips. You
may not have all your questions answered, but us want
you to commit to the process and see where it goes.
It might take you a couple of years and make
it happen, but you're going to start the process today.
For others of you, God is stirring in you about
something longer, because maybe you've already been on a short
(16:08):
term trip now God's asking you for something more some
a church. We got a vision to plan a thousand
churches by twenty fifty and to send out five thousand
people from our church and a midterm or long term capacity.
And some of you already know this involves you, because
the spear of God has been saying it to you.
And I just want you to come forward and say yes,
(16:29):
or at least start the process and see where it leads.
Some of you are called to stay here, but I
think you should be just as sure that God has
called you to stay as those who are called to
go are sure of that. See, here's the issue. Many
of you have always thought of missions as something that
somebody else does. Here's a prayer that I prayed when
I was a junior in college that revolutionized my life.
(16:50):
Up until this point, I've been a Christian for about
three years. I'd always been like, God, if you tell
me you know here in the sky and tell me
to go to the mission field, I'll go. When God
opened my eyes to how many people in the world
were without the Gospel, I told you this for it.
It felt to me like I was standing beside a
railroad tracks and on the railroad tracks. Was a little
kid who was crippled, couldn't get off the railroad tracks,
(17:12):
and here comes a train. At that point, you don't
ask God what his will is. You know what his
will is. Pick the kid up. We got three point
zero six billion people in the world and no access
to the gospel, and we're like, God, what's your will
for my life? I want to find God's will. God's
will is not lost, right, you don't have to find it.
The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. And what you ought
(17:33):
to be saying to God is this here? Am I
send me? I'm not sure he'll send you. That's up
to him, and you don't want to go unless he
sends you. But I'm saying there's something fundamentally wrong, and
we're like God, here we are, send somebody else. It's
got to be Lord. Here, Am I sind me? And
then you follow God where he leads you. And when
He leads you to stay right here and work in
one of these ministries here, then praise God. You do
(17:54):
that with all your heart. But you need to come
to a place where you give God a blank check
and you say here, am I send me? Have you
ever give God that blank check? Blank checks are scary,
aren't they. You ever give a blank check to somebody
who's got to pay something for you and you kind
of trust him, You're like, uh, could you call me
as soon as you know? Fill that out, just so
I can know. To give a blank check is scary
because you don't know where they're going to cash it
(18:14):
or how much you're gonna write it for. If you
give a blank check of God, I realize that's scary
because God might cash it in Afghanistan. You don't know
where he's going to cash it. But I would just
encourage you to think about the one in whose hands
you're placing that blank check and think that surely, if
you could trust him enough to save you from hell,
you can trust him with the rest of your life.
And that's the one place that a blank check is
(18:37):
always going to be safe. College students, I got a
special invitation for you. I want you to come and
spend your summer with us. We do this thing called
City Project, another one called Second City. We got partners
through the church like Crew and Campus Salary. They got
great options too, where you take a summer, you learn
about ministry, you go on mission trips, we train you
in theology and apologetics. Listen, I did this in my summer,
(18:59):
and not obviously here this church for somewhere else. Great's
decision I made in college. Hands down. You're like, oh,
but I get to get an internship and I need
a job to make some money. Hey, Matthew six thirty three,
why don't you seek first the kingdom of God and
his rightness and let him add all those things to you.
Why not give God a summer to form you and
give you a vision for the nations, and then see
where God takes you with that. No, real quick, before
(19:20):
I give you a chance to act, let me just
deal with like I do with baptism. My time's gone,
but let me just do this real quick. I got
to deal with the objections that just popped up in
your heart because I know what they are, because I
have one of you. All right, here are the objections.
You're like, why I'm not qualified. I'm like, I'm an introvert. Well,
you're exactly who should go. Because God doesn't call those
that he's equipped, He equips those he's called. So when
(19:41):
God calls Abraham He sends him out to a place
he doesn't know where he's going, completely incapable of accomplishing,
and then God equips him along the way. That's how
God works. You got to take the step and then
God will equip you. You say, I'm not comfortable with
sharing my faith. Hey, good news, we will train you.
Leading up to this trip, we notice the most incredible
transformation who go on mission trips. I don't know what
it is, summit, I do not understand it. But there's
(20:03):
something about going over there that you go over there
and start doing over there what you should be doing here.
When you get back from there, you do here what
you just learned to do there that you ought to
have been doing here all along. I don't know how
that works, but it does. And so, yes, we will
train you to share your faith. You say, ah, but
there's so much need here. I can't afford to go
to the nations. In the sense of Todd, yes, there
is a lot of need here. We're not going because
the work here is done. We're going because God gave
(20:26):
to every believer this desire to be a part of
what God was doing globally. And so in the portfolio
of the mission of your life. You ought to be
involved here, but every believer in every culture ought to
have an a vested interest in what God's doing around
the world. You say, well, I can't take two weeks
of vacation. That's why we have weekend trips and seven
day trips. And yes, I'm going to say that some
(20:47):
of you ought to use part of your vacation. Why
not use part of your vacation for the glory of God.
You say, well, I don't have the money. We will
train you in raising support. We are experts at asking
people for money, all right, and I will tell you this,
this is a great chance for you to watch God provide.
In fact, we got a girl at our church. She
only got saved here about three years ago. Some incredible stories.
(21:08):
She tried to commit suicide. She knew a girl in
a business place that invited her to the church. Happened
to give her a copy of my book Gospel. She's
in the hospital recovering from this traumatic event that she
put herself through. The doctor says, hey, I've been to
this church, I've read that book. They have a conversation
about it. Long story short, she becomes a Christian shortly thereafter,
God says to her, I think I want to use
(21:29):
you over in India. She says, I don't have any
Christian friends yet. I mean, I'm just getting to know
people at the church. My parents aren't I don't have
any network to raise money from. And we're like, well,
I won't you just give it a chance to see
what God does, because God just does amazing stuff like that.
Leading up to this trip to India, not only did
she raise enough money to pay for herself, she paid
for half of somebody else. Now this summer, she is
(21:49):
going on her third trip to India because God took
somebody that was completely outside and he gave them a
vision for the rest of their life. I realized that
not every Christian is going to be led to go
long term. I realize there are some of you that
are in a place in life where you just can't
go yourself. See, I want to challenge you to ask
the question. I leave you with the story that my
(22:11):
friend who has working over in Central Asia, who got
a job offer here in the United States. A Christian
offered him a job. There's a very great job. And
the guy said this. He said this to my friend.
He said, hey, I've got one hundred resumes on my
desk of people who want this job. But I believe
that you're the man that God has chosen for it.
My friend said, when I heard that, here's how I
(22:32):
heard it. If I don't take this job in the
United States, there are one hundred people in line ready
to take the job. He looked at me, and he said, JD.
If I leave this spot here in Central Asia, there
is no one on the planet in line to take
this job. Nobody, he said, So I will turn my
back on where I am needed to stay, where I
am irreplaceable. God wants to use you.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Doesn't the urgency of the Gospel demand this of us
to be available to be used by God? So where
is the Lord calling you? Whether it's across the room
or across an ocean, do what you do well for
the glory of God, and do it somewhere strategic for
the mission of God. You are listening to Summit Life,
the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author and apologist JD. Greer,
(23:21):
Pastor j D. Today is the last day for our
listeners to get your latest book, Twelve Truths in a
Lie and the Accompanying Discussion Guide. Some of our listeners
may already have a copy of it, so tell us
why do they need another copy.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, that's a fair question.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Well, I would say it's because I wrote this thinking
that you would be able to walk a friend who
has these same questions through it with you. What we've
done here exclusively for our Summit Life audiences, We've provided
a discussion guide that you could give this to a
friend and then use the discussion god to navigate. I
think it'll strengthen your faith, and my hope is that
(23:58):
it enables you to better reach out to somebody with
more confidence to be able to meet them where they
are and help them on that road that the Holy
Spirit has them on and bringing them to Jesus. Hey,
you can reserve your copy of both the book and
the discussion Guide. You can get it today at Jdwreer
dot com.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
To give call us now at eight six six three
three five fifty two twenty that's eight six six three
three five fifty two twenty, or head over to Jdgreer
dot com and remember today is your last chance to
get a hold of it. I'm Mollie Vitovich. Be sure
to listen Tomorrow, as we kick off a new teaching
(24:34):
series called Something Better, Something Greater. Pastor JD examines the
life of one of the greatest profits in all of scripture, Elijah.
That's Tuesday on Summit Life with Jdgreer. Today's program was
produced and sponsored by Jdgreer Ministries.
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