Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Through these different moral things that Paul is going to discuss, he is going to intermix six reasons why Christians act righteously. And these six reasons are again what makes this different than what other religions teach.
So if you're going to write down an outline, this is it. Six reasons that Christians act righteously. Welcome back to Summit Life with J.D. Greer, lead pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh, Durham, North Carolina.
I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. If you're joining us for the first time today, we are in a study from the Book of Ephesians. And Pastor J.D. has been showing us that God isn't just concerned about our actions on the outside. He's concerned about reshaping our hearts and desires from the inside.
And today we're going to see a practical example of how that plays out in one of the most intimate parts of our lives, our sexuality. Here's our question. What, if anything, makes Christianity different from other religions? Our culture that we are in believes that all religions are essentially the same.
Different brands, same product. And that's what we hear at just about every turn. In chapters four and five of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, that Paul talks about a lot of different Christian behaviors. And candidly speaking, candidly speaking, on the surface, there is nothing particularly remarkable about that list. It's got things on it like honesty and hard work, kindness, loving your family, loving your wife, generosity. All religions teach those, don't they? But what I showed you is remarkable is why a Christian does those things. Paul shows you that the Gospel makes us the kind of people who want to do those things. Woody Allen once made a statement that the heart wants what it wants.
And believe it or not, the Gospel agrees with that. The heart does want what it wants. And so if you force the heart to do what it doesn't want to do, it's going to feel like it's in captivity. And that's religion, which is why a lot of people resent religion.
It's not a drudgery to people. It's forcing you to do stuff that you don't really want to do. And then threatening you with eternal damnation or bad karma or whatever if you don't do that. Well, the way the Gospel changes us by contrast, Paul says, is to change our heart so that it begins to want what God wants. So for the first three chapters in Ephesians, Paul gives you one of the deepest explanations of the Gospel that is recorded anywhere in the Bible. Before he gives you the first one of these moral prescriptions. Three chapters of deep Gospel doctrine followed by three chapters of intense application joined by a single word. Therefore, therefore in light of the Gospel that I have walked you through for three chapters, therefore your life will be like this. The behaviors flow out of the Gospel's work in our heart.
It changes us internally and then our behavior changes naturally. The opposite of that is a word that I taught you last week. The word was moralism. Moralism is emphasizing external obedience more than internal disposition. I told you that many of us grew up in churches that were just like this.
Where we were told constantly that we were to do this or to do that. I compared it last week to stapling roses on a dead bush. You're trying to figure out how to make it look alive. And so you go out and buy a dozen roses and you cut off the roses and you staple them onto the branches of that dead bush.
It may make it look good for a little while, but it's just a dead bush with some live looking fruit on it. Right? Or you remember that movie, that 80s movie Weekend at Bernie's?
Anybody remember that? You got the dead guy that you make look alive. That's what religions are doing. Religions are making dead people look like they are alive by making them do things at their home. That's why religion is such a drudgery to many people.
Gospel change is exactly the opposite of moralism. Your behavior changes because you change. You're made alive so you act alive.
The fruit tree does not need to be commanded to bear fruit. It just does so naturally. Living people don't need to be commanded to breathe. They just do that naturally.
You don't tell a kid, they just do that because they're alive. And if they don't do that, it's because they're not alive. So how does the gospel bring that kind of change into our lives?
You can't just command your heart to change and start to love something it doesn't love. What it does is it shows you the beauty of God and then it gives you an appetite for it so that you begin to desire God more than you do sin. You see the gospel, unlike other religions, is not primordial.
It is primarily a prescription of what you are to do. The gospel is a story that reveals the beauty of God by telling you of God's great love for you that he showed for you when he purchased your salvation. You see every religion in the world tells you to obey and if you obey then you will be accepted. So you obey in order to gain God's acceptance but the gospel declares no you are accepted not because of anything you have done but because of what Christ has done.
And in response to that, go and obey. We call that gift righteousness. This is one of the most important elements of Christianity that most people don't get and that is that God's righteousness is given to you as a gift not as a reward for what you have earned. In response to that, in response to seeing the beauty and the power and the grace of God freely given to you, you change.
You begin to love God and you begin to love what is good and what is right. We're going to continue this discussion here in chapter 5 because Paul is going to give you some more things that Christians ought to be doing, ways they should be behaving. But I don't want you to hear this, it's just a to-do list because intermixed through these different moral things that Paul is going to discuss, he is going to intermix six reasons why Christians act righteously. And these six reasons are again what makes this different than what other religions teach. So if you're going to write down an outline, this is it. Six reasons that Christians act righteously.
Okay, here they are. Ephesians 5, 1 is our first one. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children.
Here is number one. As beloved children of God, we imitate our daddy. As beloved children of God, we imitate our daddy. Imitate means we act like him.
We respond how he would respond to situations. But notice, we don't imitate God to become his children. We imitate God because we are his children. You see, most religions teach you that if you imitate God enough, you will become his child. He might give you the heart to desire what they desire.
Imitation becomes wearisome. You ever get around somebody that you really admire and you really want to be like and you want to imitate, but you just don't seem to be made up the way that they are made up? Maybe they're just like a great student or they're a great worker and you're like, I wish I was just like them.
That happened to me recently. I was around the guy who is just, I mean, he was just so good with people. Whenever you got around him, he just like, he had this contagious kind of you're the most important person I've ever talked to kind of attitude. You just feel good about yourself when you're around him.
He's always, you know, putting his hand on you and you just, he just excited about being around people. And I was like, man, I want to be like that. So for a while, I came back and I tried to be like that. I was like every person I'm talking to, you're the most important person to me.
And I'm really excited just to know you and just to be a part of your life. And then after a while, I realized it's like, I just don't like people as much as this guy does. I think that's the problem.
It got wearisome to me. I need to activate that guy's behavior. I need his heart.
That's what I need. More than we need to try and act like God, we need to love in the depths of our hearts. We need to love what God loves. I asked you last week, why does God do righteousness? Why does God do righteousness? Is it because God feels like he's going to be rewarded and blessed if he does?
I mean, of course not. I mean, he's blessing himself. He's not going to bless himself more if he does righteousness and therefore he does it to earn that. It's not because he feels like he's going to look bad in the eyes of all the other neighborhood gods if he doesn't do righteousness.
He's trying to keep a reputation. It's not that he's afraid he's going to throw himself into hell if he doesn't do righteousness. No, God does righteousness because he loves righteousness. He does good because he is good. And that's why it never gets tiring to him.
It's always what he wants to do. So again, here's the question. Where and how do we learn to love righteousness like that? God produces that in us as he makes us his child. He puts his spirit in us. He gives us his desires.
He helps us see who he is and what he did for us so that we are so overwhelmed with what our daddy did to rescue us that we start naturally to love what he loves and to want what he wants. And naturally we begin to imitate him. So it's not that we imitate him to become his child. We imitate him because we have become his child and we love him.
So don't get the cart before the horse. It's not that imitation brings salvation. Salvation produces a desire for imitation. Imitation does not bring salvation. That's what other religions teach you. The gospel says no, salvation produces a desire for imitation as beloved children of God.
Not in order to become children of God, but because you are children of God, imitate him. In every situation ask, how does God feel about this? How does he feel about this show that I'm watching? How does he feel about this joke that I'm telling or laughing at? How does he feel about this relationship? How does he feel about this attitude, this activity?
Does God enjoy this? to you through these valuable tools and this daily teaching. And before we continue with the rest of today's program, I wanted to share with you another way to stay connected with Pastor JD and hopefully deepen your understanding of God's word. Have you checked out the Ask the Pastor podcast yet? It's a great resource where Pastor JD answers your questions on all sorts of topics from theology to Christian life to relationships. And right now we are in a summer series recapping some of our most listened to episodes, so it's a great time to jump in.
You can access it online at jdgrier.com slash podcasts or download it from your favorite podcast app or watch us on YouTube by searching for j.d.grier. Stay informed on all the hot topics and grow in your faith by tuning into the Ask the Pastor podcast today. Now let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Number two, verse two, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Number two, we live lives of love and sacrifice for others because that's what Jesus did for us.
It is a response. We get so overwhelmed with the love that Jesus showed to us that we begin to act that way toward others. You see, when you study the Gospels, you see how love burst through every part of Jesus' life. You see it when he's talking with the woman who was caught in the act of adultery and rather than joining in her rightful humiliation, rather than joining in her condemnation, he looks at her and talks to her the way a father would to a daughter and says, Neither do I condemn you.
Go and sin no more. He looked at her with love even though she was guilty because that's what he felt for her. You see it coming through when he weeps with Mary and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus because he feels their pain. You see it coming through in the Garden of Gethsemane when he wept for us, when the horrors and the hell of Gethsemane were pressing in on us, and when he subjected himself to Roman whips to be torn apart, and when he let Roman nails tear through his skin and put him on the cross. It was love that was bursting through. And when you see that and when you are encountering that in the pages of the Gospel, what you are put face to face with is tender love, and we respond to that.
We say this all the time. If you have been changed by Jesus, you will show it by forgiving others, by loving others, by being generous to others, by serving others, by serving our city, by meeting the needs of the people around you. And if you do not do that, it means you have not been changed by the love of Jesus. You see, in some places where you and I grew up, we were taught that being changed by Jesus meant you got your hair cut, you quit listening to rock music, and you didn't watch Terminator 2. Maybe some of those things are right.
Maybe you shouldn't do that. But what I'm saying is, that's not the sign that the Gospel has changed you. What the sign of the Gospel is, is that you begin to love others. Deeds of great mercy, acts of sacrifice and forgiveness and love and generosity for the people around you is the inevitable sign that you have encountered the grace of God.
It is a response. One more thing let me point out in this little verse, because it's just a great image. Living this way is a sweet fragrance to God. And if you love God, you want to be that way to it. There's nothing worse than encountering a foul odor.
Would you agree? I mean, your day can be ruined by sitting next to somebody on a plane or maybe here in this church who has a foul odor. Maybe they're closed, they just didn't dry them right and they get that sour smell and every time they shift in their seat you're like, you know, it makes you wince. Or you get next to a close talker who's got bad breath and you're just, you know, on the other hand there's nothing better than a sweet fragrance that reminds you. For example, every once in a while I'll encounter some fragrance that reminds me of my mother making cookies when I was five years old. And I get taken back into my childhood by this fragrance.
There's nothing sweeter than that. He's saying this kind of life is a fragrance to God. Verse three, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let's talk about that word proper for a second.
Proper here means that it doesn't go along with or it doesn't fit. Sexual immorality and covetousness, he says, do not fit with the character of God. So there's reason number three. Christians do righteousness.
Here's your third reason. We do righteousness because living impurely does not fit with those who love and are loved by a holy God. We do righteousness because impurity does not fit with those who love and are loved by a holy God. Let's look at those two things mentioned in those verses, sexual immorality and covetousness, and let's ask why don't they fit with somebody who loves and is loved by a holy God.
Let's take them one at a time. Sexual immorality. Sex is not supposed to be selfish and it is not supposed to be self-serving.
And where you do it just because it meets a need or it fulfills a desire in your life, it is being done selfishly. Sex is supposed to be oneness of your bodies that is accompanied by oneness in every other area. Listen, I don't want to go all PG-13 on you or get graphic, but when you are in the midst of sex, your bodies literally have become one.
You're very open. You're very vulnerable. Your bodies literally interlock. You have become one person physically. That is to be matched, that physical oneness, by oneness in every other area.
It is to be matched by oneness emotionally, oneness spiritually, oneness financially, where you have become part of that other person completely for life. When you have sex outside of marriage, you are taking physical oneness from them without giving them the rest of yourself. And it's unbelievably selfish because your body is telling them one thing. Your body is saying, I'm yours. But that's not really true because you are not really joining the rest of you to them. You're like, oh, but I do, I love them and that's why we're having sex.
Well, marry them and become one for life. You and I both know that when you're having sex outside of marriage and you're not married, you can walk away at any point. Sex is a powerful gift from God. And in the right context, it is a wonderful, loving blessing. But out of that context, it is selfish and it is destructive. The analogy I always use here is I ask you, do you want fire in your house?
And if you're smart, the answer is it depends on where you want to put it. Fire in the fireplace is awesome. It's a nice, you know, accent to your house. Fire in the sofa, not so good. Sex in the right context is loving and it's wonderful.
And out of that context, it is destructive. Do you remember a few years ago when I did this? Do you remember this? And I got tongue tied and I said, sex in the fireplace is awesome.
Not talking about that, okay? Fire in the fireplace is a metaphor, okay, for sex in the right place. Paul says sexual immorality should not even be named among you because selfish sex does not fit with a holy, loving, sacrificial, give myself completely to others, God. When you are having sexual relations, when you are enjoying sex with somebody outside of the confines of marriage, it is by definition selfish. I know that takes a bunch of you off, but I don't care because that's exactly what it says.
Sexual immorality, when it is not accompanied by oneness in every other area, is saying, I will take this from you without giving you the rest of myself. Oh, but I want to give them the rest of myself. Then do it. Come to me and we will have you married by the end of the week, I promise.
If you are like, well, we just can't quit, then fine, we will just get married right here, right now. It says it should not be named among you. It should not be practiced, fantasized about, longed for, or even named.
I love how the NIV translates this verse. It says there should not even be a hint of immorality. Not even a hint.
What does that mean? Not even a hint means that we don't flirt with it. The question I get from teenagers, Christian teenagers and Christian college students all the time is, well, how far is too far? Draw the baseball diamond. How many bases can I go around before I start sinning?
Where do we go foul? That very question, for some people, betrays that they don't get the point. You're not trying to see how close you can get to impurity without falling into it. The point is to be as pure as possible.
I understand that if you're in a relationship that is headed toward marriage, that the occasional show of affection is not inappropriate. But there is a difference. And you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Don't say you don't. I'm saying that you should not be lighting a rocket you do not intend to launch. Okay? You should not... Is that bad?
You should not be writing checks with your lips that you don't intend to cash with your body. Alright? In fact, this verse has made me think a lot this week about my own viewing habits and what I watch and what I listen to. I don't have time to get into this too deeply, but I'm just going to say many of us really need to think about what we watch and what we view.
And again, it starts with me. I realize it is impossible for us to live in this world and not come into contact with things that are simple. I realize that.
And Paul is not saying that you isolate yourself from the world and that you're completely and totally removed from everything. But I also know that some of you, the shows and the movies that you watch and the books you read are so filled and dominated by sexual humor and by sexual themes that your mind is saturated with it every night before you go to bed. It has become a part of you and it is a hint of immorality in front of you. It's not even so subtle of a hint.
It's what you fill your mind with. You know by the time the average kid graduates from high school? The average kid by the time he graduates from high school will have seen no less than 14,000 depictions of and references to illicit sex on television. Not even a hint means you should not even have it in your mind.
Not even a hint means you don't talk about and joke about improper sex. Verse 4, look at this. Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place, but instead there ought to be thanksgiving. Like Pastor J.D. Greer just taught us, we live lives of love and sacrifice for others because that's what Jesus did for us.
This was a challenging message today on Summit Life. If you happen to join us late or if you'd like to catch up on previous messages in our study of Ephesians, you can find them online at gdegreer.com. And for those who are more visual learners, much of our teaching is available in video format as well as having the option to download the complete, unedited message transcripts for further study. We have so many free resources available on our website, but we also curate a special featured resource each month for our financial supporters and gospel partners. The incredible group of people who give generously each month to make this ministry possible. This month's featured resource is a gospel flip book through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. Think of a set of spiral bound flashcards that you flip through as you work your way through each of these four books of the Bible.
Included, you'll find a reading plan through each epistle along with information about each letter and the churches that they were written to, key themes and passages and reflection questions to help you dwell on what you're reading. We'd love to send you a copy with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. And if you missed the first gospel flip book, we'd be happy to send it to you as well for an additional donation. To give, call us at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give online at gdegreer.com. While you're on the website, you can also sign up for our email list to get ministry updates, information about new resources and Pastor JD's latest blog post delivered straight to your inbox. It's a great way to stay connected with Summit Life and it's completely free to subscribe. Sign up when you go to gdegreer.com. That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R dot com. I'm Molly Bidevich. Be sure to tune in again tomorrow when Pastor JD Greer describes the key to being more like Jesus. Sounds like something we all need. See you Friday right here on Summit Life. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
