July 5, 2021 9:00 am
When something goes wrong in the world, we tend to look for someone to blame. But Pastor J.D. reveals that the blame doesn’t lie with a political party or system; it’s in all of us.
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Today on Summit Life, a compelling message from Pastor JD Greer.
As Americans, we're the can-do people. I read my Bible. I don't cheat on my taxes.
I didn't cuss this week. Therefore, I'm okay. And all that checklist does is cover up the fact that our hearts don't love and desire God at all. We're spiritually dead and we can't do anything for ourselves. We need a God who can make a life. Welcome to a new week of teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer.
As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. You know, when something goes wrong in the world, we tend to look for someone to blame. Lately, it seems to be the other side of the political line, but it can also be a corrupt business practice or a flaw in the education system that makes things go haywire. But today, Pastor JD reveals that the actual problem with the world isn't found in one political party or a flawed system.
It's inside all of us. Today's teaching is part of our series called Mystery and Clarity. And if you've missed any of the previous messages, you can catch up right now at jdgreer.com. Now here's Pastor JD with a message from Ephesians chapter two titled, But God.
I feel I have to do something on the surface very negative. But before I do, I want to tell you that the backdrop of this verse is really positive. And that's one of the things that makes the negativity of this verse so shocking to us. Ephesians two one, you have your Bible, I certainly hope you do. If you will open it to Ephesians, chapter two. Ephesians two, verse one says that we as a race are dead in our sins. But the backdrop of that as a race are dead in our sins but the backdrop of that verse is actually very very positive because it is that God created us good that's one of the things that makes this verse so shocking you see we were created in God's image and because we were created in God's image we are capable of extraordinary acts of goodness and courage and kindness and love we all see that we see a man selflessly taking care of his wife in their old age we know people who have sacrificed their lives for their friends sometimes even for complete strangers I see it all the time right here in our church just last week I see the way that so many of you responded to now there's five areas I've put out in front of us the five areas and if like God has given us as a church to to pray about it to dream about what we can do in these areas I mentioned the homeless and the orphans the foster kids the prisoners the unwed mothers high school dropouts and how we could make a difference in those in those areas and just the way that you respond to that some of you that are coming and saying look I've got an idea about this and I want to know how I can be a part of that now look at how you respond with just such generosity and selflessness and we see the goodness that God created us with and that's because you were created in the image of God and again that's one of the things that makes Paul's indictment so shocking here in verse 1 you were dead in your trespasses and sins it is offensive and I want to focus on two words in this verse that dispel two very ingrained myths in our culture about evil and what makes this so offensive to us these two words at the beginning here are gonna correct that the first word is the word you you were dead in trespasses and sins not other people but you you were dead you see we recognize that some people are bad but we always think it's somebody out there who is really bad so we put locks on our houses to keep the bad people out we put locks on top of those locks and then a security system on top of the two locks and then a dog on top of the security system and some of us buy guns in case the dog and the locks and the security system doesn't work keep the bad people out whatever culture you're in you tend to look at people outside of that culture as the bad ones other nations people of other religions they're the ones with the problems so we need a strong national defense to keep whole nations of people out let me give you an example right here in our own country if you were raised as a religious conservative as I know that many of you were it's the it's the people outside of that tradition that are the ones of the problem it's the dirty libs right Hollywood MSNBC all the ladies on the view except for Elizabeth Hasselbeck right they're the depraved ones they're the ones destroy and family values they're the ones undercutting the backbone of society of course the ironic thing is that they're all sitting around this morning thinking about how bad we are people in the church or are judgmental and proud and and they cause strife and war and in a lot of ways honestly Jesus agrees with them Jesus taught that religion brings out the worst in people religion has a tendency to make people proud and that's the mother of all sins it was religious people who led in the crucifixion of Jesus or a lot of time we think a lot of times we think it was people who lived a long time ago who are outside of our our time period they're the ones who had the problems oh but now we've progressed and we're educated and globalized and sophisticated and of course there are some ways that that's true when it comes to issues like the equality of women or racism we certainly have progressed a little bit but there's a whole new set of vices now that we celebrate religious people are more fundamentalist than ever people are more violent than ever people are greedier and they crave power more than ever we got sexual depravity and family dysfunction worse than other plus we're the proudest and most self-sufficient generation ever to walk the face of the earth and for all of our progress the bloodiest century of mankind in recorded history was a 20th century the Bible teaches that as a race we're not getting better if anything we're getting worse I don't believe in evolution I believe in devolution if anything I don't believe we came from monkeys but it certainly looks like we're headed there now we're getting worse the point is there are no categories in the Bible there's not religious people or irreligious there's not primitive or in advance there's not educated or backwards there's just bad people in Jesus that's it well let me show you this one other way whenever we have a problem in a relationship we usually think that it's the other person who has the problem not us I have yet I've yet in all my years of counseling I've yet to do a single marriage counseling session where a couple came in and sat down and both of them said to me sincerely no no no it's not her it's me I'm the one who's got all the problems no it's always the other person Elizabeth Taylor has been married eight times and after each one of course if you listen to her it was always her husband's fault and after a while you're like you know the common denominator here is you for many of you in every broken relationship of your past you always see yourself as the victim your parents were idiots your boss was a jerk your roommate was unreasonable some of you college girls are on your fifth roommate in two years and each living arrangement ends in disaster and you're like what you don't understand this girl was a slob miss other when she was jealous all the time miss other when she talked too much and this one she was way too impatient with me you know again the common denominator is is you you know that conversation you have where you break up with somebody you're like you know it's it's not you it's me you gotta say in here no no it's not me it's you you're the problem I've noticed that I get most annoyed at things and others that I freely do myself for example I'm sitting at the light this happened this week light turns guy in front of me doesn't go and I'm like what's the problem and then I look and I can see in his rearview mirror he's texting and in all my righteous indignation I just lay on that whore like how dare he if anybody knows me in this church you know that I am the last person on earth who has the right to be righteously indignant at somebody who is texting while driving right were you 40 or so cops that go to here to our church that that's totally a thing of my past okay as of right now I don't do that anymore all right here my daughter's yelling at each other this happened this week to that you're yelling at each other upstairs and so I go upstairs and I scream at him we do not talk to each other like this all the problems all the dysfunction of the world is not out there it's right in the mirror you you are dead that's what he says the second key word that challenges how our culture looks at sin is that word dead you see this refutes the idea that sin is primarily something that we do rather than who we are most of us think of sin as a set of bad things that we do adultery stealing racism watching Grey's Anatomy whatever all right but the word dead shows us that sin is not an action sin is a condition of our heart it's not that we do bad things and therefore that makes us bad it's that we do bad things because we are bad it's not that we steal and cheat and therefore that makes us greedy we steal and cheat because we are by nature greedy in other words we're not sinners because we sin we sin because we are sinners I see this in my kids nobody has taught my kids how to be jerks to each other they're just born experts at it nobody taught my youngest daughter nobody taught her to lie she did not get that from her environment you're like my kid my two-year-old takes her food and dumps it on the floor that doesn't come from her environment but Veronica and I don't do that she's not like watching us like oh that's what you do with your food I mean we don't do that my wife and I don't run around our house you know screaming mine to each other she didn't get that impulse from her environment that's her nature she was born a center a varsity level center sometimes it amazes me how much I have to tell my two-year-old no I'm gonna take a string for an hour I don't say anything but no I don't ever walk around the house saying to her yes right yes yes keep that up good job I'm just like no no don't punch your sister don't destroy that tower of blocks they're building why do you get so much pleasure in that don't take their favorite outfit and throw it in the fireplace no no it's just their nature we are in our nature's dead and I don't know if you've ever embraced what that means but that means that there's nothing you can do you are helpless you see Americans prefer to see sin as an action rather than a as a condition because if sin is an action then we feel like we can cure it with our own checklist of good actions as Americans we're the can-do people I read my Bible I don't cheat on my taxes I didn't cuss this week except for twice and that's because the roads were icy but you know that's excusable therefore I'm okay and all that checklist does is cover up the fact that our hearts don't love and desire God at all we're spiritually dead and we can't do anything for ourselves we need a God who can make alive you ever you ever open your refrigerator and you see that little Tupperware thing at the back of your refrigerator and you're like I wonder how long that's been in there and you pull it out you kind of look at it from the side and you you open it up and you smell it and then like four hours later you wake up you know and you're like what was what just hit me now when that happens how many of you your response back to that situation is like I know the problem is that doesn't have enough spice it needs a little black pepper sauce or a little ketchup and it's gonna be just fine no you don't cover that up the problem is it was dead when you put it in the refrigerator at least I hope it was dead when you put it in the refrigerator it was dead when you put it there the curse of death was already in it and now what's happening is it just takes a while but then that stench just takes over everything we are in our nature already dead and we are rotting we might smell okay for a while we might learn to cover up areas of stench in our lives with religion or manners or culture or self-discipline but we are in our nature's dead verse 2 he describes what that spiritual death looks like he's gonna give you three phrases in the next few verses and all basically say the same thing verse 2 there are sins in which you once walk following the course of this world what's the course of this world what does the world follow st. Augustine said this 1,500 years ago three things the world follows money sex power money most important thing in all the world so the world says get all you can and hold on to it sex nobody should be your boss in the sexual area you know what you need you know what you want nobody should tell you what to do power world says get all you can if you can be the richest do that if you can be the most beautiful use that whatever you can do to be better than others major on that because that will give you power or leverage over others our world lets these three things rule them rather than God they value these things more than God they seek these things more than God second phrase following the prince of the power of the air that's a reference by the way to Satan the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience now I say to you somebody following Satan or somebody filled with the spirit of Satan and you get the image of a guy with a bunch of tattoos out in the woods somewhere sacrificing animals but what this verse tells you is that money sex and power that's what Satan is working in he is the one making those things appear attractive the one following Satan is not the one sacrificing kittens at midnight it's the one who is living for money for sex and for power what that tells you Satan's behind a lot of what we call entertainment because these are the themes of most of our shows that we watch it's making it appear more attractive than it is he's at work verse 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind again this is just another way of saying that the same thing the other two phrases said our lives are controlled by the desires of our body and our minds rather than by the will of God our body says have sex and we obey it our body says spend a bunch of money on meat and we obey it our body says live a life of luxury no matter how stingy you have to be or who you have to hurt and we obey we don't want anybody to make the rules or to control us I teach my kids that sin is the big I problem it's the middle letter of the word sin I it's that I want to control my life rather than God I want to call the shots my desires are more important and more controlling to me than the will of God is we have expressed our self will but in terms of omission and commission commission are the things that we do that we should not do omission are the things that we failed to do that we ought to have done we almost always think of sin in terms of commission things that we do that we shouldn't have done but the much bigger sins are ones of omission it's not just that we're selfish and we steal and we do things to hurt others we have failed to love God supremely in our hearts and to love others like we love ourselves and it's the sins of omission that are behind the sins of commission he goes on he says and we were what's this some of you are not gonna like this but you need to learn to love it because it's the truth we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind like children of wrath wait a minute are you sure that's what it says in Greek maybe it should maybe it says children of sadness or maybe confused children or the lost kids or something like that no it says wrath children who deserved only God's wrath I know that it's horribly offensive you were by nature a child of wrath why because what we have done what you have done is cosmic treason we kick God off the throne and put ourselves there in his place and then in every possible way we minimized him and we glorified ourselves we served ourselves not him we exploited creation for our purposes not his we made our desires the Lord of our lives not his will even our sins of that come from a lack of self-control or blasphemy you say how how does that work but give you think of it like this a guy who has a problem for example looking at pornography he's not sitting around thinking you know I'm gonna do this to blaspheme God but he is blaspheming God let me let me prove it to you I always tell guys who struggle with pornography who say they feel like they can't control themselves and they get this design they can't control they have to look I'm like you could turn off that desire like a light switch they're like you're crazy there's no possible way that I could do that I'm gonna guess you could I'll prove it to you I say you're sitting there you know by your computer it's like midnight you're you're looking at pornographic images you feel like you can't stop and then all of a sudden the door behind you opens and your mom walks in BAM off like a light switch that desire why what just happened it's not that you quit lusting for women it's not that you know you suddenly develop a self-control plan it's at the presence of your mother right was greater than even your desire for these images the embarrassment that you would feel in front of her the fear of what she might say or what she might think that greater fear over comes this desire well think about that in terms of God you know that God's always watching you know that God is displeased but you don't care what he thinks you have so minimized him that he's lower than your mother because if you did care what he thought you would know that he was watching and you wouldn't want to do that in front of him so you've minimized him in every possible way and that unspeakable blasphemy that cosmic treason deserves God's wrath where our culture says well God should just get over it though I mean forgive and forget but we want God to be mad at everybody else's sin we see injustice in other places and we think God should be mad at that we see greed and exploitation on Wall Street we say that should be punished we see injustice taking place in parts of Africa and China and we say that ought to be punished we're okay with God being mad at others we're okay with God being mad at Satan at least I hope you're okay with God being mad at Satan we're just not okay with God being mad at us we said well God should just forgive us didn't know what like God does you know and then his job but for God just to turn his back on our sin and not make it right would be unjust and we love justice don't we we always cry out for it when somebody treats us unjustly the bank makes an error and you lose 10 grand you go down to the bank and you demand justice it's why there are horns on our car we want to let people know what you just did that was transgression and you were in sin and I'm going to punish you with noise we love justice we deserve to be punished there's nobody we can pass the blame to we can't blame the world for being a bad influence on us because who created the world system we did we can't blame Satan because he never forces us to do anything he simply baits the hook and lets us bite it you say but haven't we all done good things I'm a big History Channel guy my inner nerd one of the most you know as I watch one of those confusing and disturbing images that keeps getting repeated on the History Channel to me probably seen this is that little clip where Adolf Hitler plays with the kids you've seen that and the reason it's disturbing is because it actually looks like he likes them he looks like he loved he looks like a time it looks like my granddad playing with these kids he enjoys them and you're like that's really kind but it's hard for you to see that and call that good in the light of the rest of his life his life is one that is so atrociously evil that even his good things don't really seem to be that good what if our rebellion to God was the same way in God's sight what if our cosmic treason means that the whole bent of our light is so evil that it's hard to even call our goodness actually good we deserve the wrath of God and I notice again some of you don't like to hear it but you need to hear it and you need to learn to embrace it and to love it because it is the truth and only by knowing the truth can you ever be set free we deserve God's wrath our blasphemy against God deserves the eternal punishment of hell yes here is a tale is a terrible place it is so offensive to educated people but hell is not one degree hotter than we deserve it to be verse 4 verse 4 begins with the largest conjunction in the universe but God would you stop just let that sink the force of that sink in for just you are helpless yes but you are not hopeless but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he has loved us many theologians and Christians talk about salvation so coldly and doctrinally as if it was some kind of ritual or rite of passage our salvation is bathed in tender love by grace you have been saved through faith and it's not on your own doing it's God's gift one of the greatest truths found in Scripture today on summit life with pastor and author JT Greer we want everyone to be able to dive deeper into the gospel at any time but this mission is only possible because of friends like you who give generously to support this ministry when you donate to summit life you're really giving to your fellow listeners and making it possible for JD's teaching to be heard all across the country and even around the world and as our way of saying thanks for your gift to the ministry we'll send you an exclusive new summit life study named after our current teaching series here on the program called mystery and clarity we'd love to get you a copy of this new resource today ask for mystery and clarity a Bible study through the book of Ephesians when you donate at the suggested level of $25 or more by calling eight six six three three five fifty two twenty or give and request your copy online at JD Greer comm I'm Molly Benovitch so glad to have you with us today to kick off the week and be sure to join us tomorrow when pastor JD reveals how we can be made alive in Christ as he continues our series titled mystery and clarity join us Tuesday on summit life with JD Greer today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer ministries
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-08-17 15:13:28 / 2023-08-17 15:23:52 / 10