Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Welcome to another day of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. So we've all heard it before, imitation is the highest form of flattery, and it's something we should aspire to in our relationship with God. After all, being like Jesus shows a watching world how much He means to us.
But let's be honest, that's a whole lot easier said than done. Today, Pastor J.D. describes the key to being more like Jesus as he continues our study of Ephesians called mystery and clarity.
Remember, if you've missed any of our previous messages, you can always find them at jdgreer.com. But for now, grab your Bible and a pen as we join Pastor J.D. for a challenging message today in Ephesians, chapter five. Verse four, 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.
I really struggled with this for a while this week, too, because I thought, do I really, do I violate this? Because I don't really have what you would call it, you know, as a Victorian sense of humor. You know?
I mean, sometimes I think crude things are really funny. You know, I was with a group of pastors this week who are all pastors of churches our size or larger, and one of the guys, he's in his like late 40s, brought one of those little, what do you call those, trying to come up with a polite word, flatulation simulation machines. How's that, okay? You mean a little remote control thing? And so he's putting it around the room and, you know, making this thing go off. And I'm like, I thought this was funny in high school.
I think it's funny now, you know, watching this thing. That's crude. Is that what he's talking about? Am I in violation of his verse?
No, okay? Honestly, I'm not. Because it's not what he's talking about. It may be in poor taste. It may be in poor taste, but it's not what he's talking about here. When he says crude jokey, he's not talking about making jokes about flatulation. He's saying that we should not joke about sexual immorality.
That's what he's saying. In other words, guys, we should not ever make jokes that objectify women, or we should not talk about sex with women who are not our wives, or for you girls. It means we shouldn't read and discuss trashy romance novels or TV shows or movies like he's just not that into you.
That's what it means. Our language and our behavior should not be like that of people who are enslaved to sensual lust and saturated by self-serving desire. There should not even be a hint of that in us, but instead we should sound like people who rejoice in and love in and delight in God.
Verse 3, again, look at this. Covetousness. The other thing that should not be named among you is covetousness.
Covetousness means desiring intensely something that you don't have to the point that you couldn't imagine being happy without it. Why is that not proper? Well, the same reason it would be improper for me to talk with my wife about how awesome another woman was. Imagine if every night I talk with my wife about how awesome somebody else's wife was. I was like, wouldn't it be great to be married to her? I bet life with her is awesome.
Or if we walked past a girl in the mall and I'm like, man, I would love to come home to that every night. That's not proper for a guy who is married. In fact, it insults my wife. It's even more improper if I sat around and talked that way about her to you.
You'd probably be like, man, Veronica's not much of a woman if JD is always wishing for another. It dishonors her. And the same way for you to sit around all the time and covet things that you think you need to be happy is an insult to God. Verse 5, the next verse Paul calls covetousness idolatry. That is, we let something play the role of God in our lives. God in His presence should be the one thing, the only thing that we absolutely must have to be happy and content in life.
When your attitude is, I just got to make this much money or I can't be happy or I just got to get into this school or I've got to have that job or I got to get this promotion or life is no good if I can't have a relationship with Him or if I can't lose this 20 pounds. That is improper because it is insulting to God you have given God's place to something else in your life. When you are not joyful in some circumstance that you're in, you insult God in the eyes of the world because you're telling Him He's not enough.
I'm not saying you're never sad or disappointed about certain things, of course not. I'm saying that underneath even your sadness and your disappointment is a joy that you belong to God and God belongs to you and that can never be taken away. So Paul says, see verse 4, instead our speech should overflow with thanksgiving and joy in God.
You see how they're opposites? If you really worship and value God in whatever circumstance you're in, you'll always be giving thanksgiving. You won't be coveting another situation.
You'll be giving thanksgiving because wherever you are and whatever you're going through, you have the presence and the love of the Almighty God. Verse 5, here's your fourth reason Christians do righteousness. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God. Number four, if we haven't given up our idols for God, we are not saved.
Just to put that on me kind of plainly. If we haven't given up our idols for God, we're not saved. See, Paul is talking here to a church.
Keep that in mind. Evidently, a lot of people in the Ephesian church thought that they had an inheritance in the kingdom of God, but they've not given up their sexual sin. They thought, yeah, we know. We want God to be a part of our lives. We want to be saved. We want to go to hell.
But we'll just keep doing this stuff over here on the side because after all, everybody's doing it here at Ephesus and it's not all that bad. And Paul says, verse 5, let nobody deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. There is an age-old deception that our enemy has put in every generation of the church and that is that you can be a Christian and still do all those things. In other, in churches today, you hear it said like this, accept Jesus, pray this little prayer, hear the ABCs of Christianity, admit, believe, call. One day you might learn to obey Him, but that's later. Right now, you just need to trust Jesus.
Paul says it plainly, you cannot become a Christian and continue to practice idolatry and pursue sin. In fact, there's a story, it's a pretty disturbing story from the life of Jesus where a guy comes to Jesus who looks like he is a prime candidate to be a Christian. They call him the rich young ruler. He is young, he is successful, he is rich, he is moral, he knows religion, he can spout Bible verses off to you. If that kind of guy came into most of our churches today, you would put him on a leadership track, you would make him a small group leader, put him in the pipeline to become an elder.
He's got everything. Jesus looks into his heart and sees that even though everything's right on the outside, this guy loves money more than he loves God and so Jesus says, fine, give up everything you have and come and follow me. And the guy can do it because what Jesus realizes is that there is a condition on his obedience. And even though he's going to live like a model Christian deep down in his heart, there is something that conditions his obedience that he won't obey Jesus in. And Jesus says to him, if I can't be Lord of all of your life, I won't be Lord of any of it. So he says, renounce all you have and follow me. Now understand, he's not saying every follower of Jesus as a rite of passage signs away all their possessions to the poor.
Some of them might. He's not saying everybody does that. But he is saying that following Jesus means that nothing, nothing could ever get in the way of your obedience. And if God commands you to give all of it away to the poor, you do so without question. If he commands you to tithe, you do so. If he tells you to go to Africa, then you go.
If he tells you you should not be dating this boy or you should not be sleeping together, you obey. The only way to come to God, only way, is with absolute and unconditional surrender. Other religions teach you that if you do more good than bad, you're fine. The gospel says the only way you can come to God is complete surrender. And Paul says, let nobody deceive you with empty words.
Let me speak candidly to you for a minute. Unfortunately, a lot of churches have grown huge audiences with the preaching of empty words. And we have told you, accept Jesus. In fact, even that word, accept Jesus, it's like A.W. Tozer says, as if Jesus is sitting around with his hat in his hand, needing to be accepted by us. He doesn't need to be accepted by us.
He's not sitting around wondering if he's got good self-esteem and needs us to accept him. We need to be forgiven and accepted by him. He's the Lord. We need his forgiveness. I even heard one girl say one time, well, yeah, I've accepted Jesus as my Savior. I've just not accepted him as my Lord yet. I was like, it's not a solid bar.
Right? You don't take parts of him and leave parts of him. He is the Lord and the only way you come to him is in absolute surrender. When Jesus calls followers, called followers, he told them, take up your cross.
You know, for us, that's become a sentimental symbol and rightfully so. But for the people that first heard that, that was an instrument of torture and execution. It would be something like saying, take up your electric chair, strap it to yourself, hook on the things that would show electricity in your body and follow me. He said, renounce all that you have, which means nothing could ever come in the way of your obedience, not even precious relationships to you like family. You got to admit, take up your cross, renounce all that you have. That's pretty different than admit, believe, call, pray this prayer and everything's going to be fine.
Isn't it? And maybe we pastors have preached empty words to fill up our churches, but we are filling it up with people who have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now listen, I'm not talking about those of you who genuinely struggle with sin, who've got something in your life you just keep struggling with. I'm talking to those of you who think you belong to God, but refuse to give up something you know that He has forbidden. You will not walk away from a relationship that is wrong. You will not walk away from adultery or a porn habit. You think you've come to God, but you've never taken repentance seriously. And let me give you a crystal clear warning. I want you to hear it as clear as I can say it. If you have not repented, you are not saved.
You have no inheritance. And yes, this applies to a lot of us that are in these rooms that I'm talking to right now. You're playing games with God and my prayer is that you better wake up before that illusion gets shattered before the throne of God. Do not be deceived by empty words. You practice these things. You are unrepentant about these things.
You have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Before we continue with today's teaching, I want to tell you about our new featured resource for this month. It's the second book in our Gospel Flipbook series, and it's designed to guide you through the four epistles of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians in a unique and interactive way. This spiral bound tool includes key passages to focus on from each book, historical information for more context, a reading plan to take you through all four books and guided prayer prompts to help you pray through what you're reading. Whether you're looking to grow in your faith or simply want to learn more about the gospel and what it means to follow Jesus, this resource is sure to be a valuable tool for you. We'd love to send you your copy when you support the ministry with your gift today. So call us at 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com and ask for your copy of this brand new Gospel Flipbook.
Now let's get back to today's teaching here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor J.D. Verse seven, reason number five.
Look at this. Therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them. Two things that are going on here in these verses. Verse number five. We do righteousness because we realize the sinful idolatrous world is doomed. We do righteousness because we realize the sinful idolatrous world is doomed. See verse 11, it says unfruitful works of darkness.
Unfruitful literally means futile, useless, or having no point. What's going on here is we realize that there's no point in investing our lives in the sinful passions of this world because they have no future. When I first came to Christ when I was 16 years old, this is exactly what I saw. I didn't know this verse but this is what I was seeing.
I saw that the works of darkness were unfruitful. I realized that, first of all, I had a couple things I thought. If there is a God then he rules for all eternity and if there is a God then those who live for themselves ultimately have no future beyond the grave and ultimately only those who live for God will have a future in eternity. The second thing I realized was if there is a God and he is the creator then ultimately his way is best. As a 16 year old I didn't know that in my heart. I didn't sense that yes I just desire God. I didn't wake up one day and thought man I just want to have my quiet time today and I want to spend time with God and not spend time doing sin. I didn't think all that.
I just knew it to be true. I saw that it was unfruitful. And the reason I say this is some of you are wondering what's wrong with you because you're like well I don't really feel it yet. You're like you're always talking about there being more joy in God but to be totally honest I feel like there's more joy in sin.
I wish I felt like you but I don't. What starts this is an understanding, a belief that the works of darkness are unfruitful. And sometimes it is a faith commitment where you realize that something is leading nowhere even when you don't feel it. Now 20 years later I can tell you there's more joy in God than there is in sin. But I didn't know that starting out. I had to recognize it was unfruitful and take a calculation. See faith is living today in a way that you know there comes a day when you'll be glad that you did.
That's what faith is. Or just think of it like this. Picture a scene with me. Imagine you got a great job on one of the top floors of New York City's nicest buildings. You got a cup of coffee in your hand. You're making a huge salary.
You're leaning back in your chair. You put your $600 Italian Pirelli shoes up on your desk and you look out your window from the top of Manhattan there and you think about how you've got it all. Money and power. What else is there? One more detail.
This scene is taking place in tower number one of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 at 8 a.m. It changes everything, doesn't it? What good is all those things that are only going to last a few more minutes? Coming to God means saying, God, I believe that you are God. And I believe that ultimately all the works of darkness are leading nowhere. And even though I don't feel that right now, even though I don't sense it, I choose to believe it's true. And I arranged my life around that. For example, when I gave you that reasoning on sex, maybe you don't track with that. Maybe you're like, that doesn't make any sense to me.
I feel like sex outside of marriage is actually really good. I think it's okay. Fine. Place your bet against God. But see, what you need to realize is that even if it doesn't make sense to you, ultimately God's ways are the right ways. And if you believe that, then you bring your heart into conformity with that even when you don't feel it.
Again, faith is living today in a way that you know one day you'll be glad you did. One more thing in this passage I want to show you, and this is number six. We want to honor God before a community of people who dishonor him. That's the final reason Paul gives you to obey. You see there in verse 11, we want to honor God before a community of people who dishonor him. Verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. You see, we know we live in a doomed world, and most people live in darkness. And so we want to live, Paul says, in a way that others see the light of God in the midst of their darkness. It's kind of like we're the moon. You know, when the moon comes out at night, when it's dark, it's dark all around, but you can look up and you can see the moon and reflected off of the moon is the light of the sun.
And the light of the sun, even though you can't see the sun, the light of the sun coming off the moon is a reminder that the sun is coming back on in a few hours. Believers ought to be like that in a world of darkness where they have the light of Jesus reflecting off of them so that others are reminded that God is coming back and that it is God's world. And the only way that you can do that is by being up close to unbelievers and having the kind of life that puts the light of God on display.
Being up close to unbelievers and having the kind of life that demonstrates and puts God on display. See, sometimes people have used this passage, I've heard this passage preached before, as an excuse for believers to sequester themselves off from unbelievers. They go back to where it says, you know, have no partnership with the works of darkness. Well, see, we shouldn't be anywhere around unbelievers. We need to be a way so that we don't have any fellowship and we need to rebuke the works of darkness. And I've heard that used for Christians to stand in their pulpits in churches and rebuke the world. Don't get close to it, rebuke it.
Don't get dirty. That is definitely not what that word means. In fact, the word literally is expose. Expose the works of darkness. You live in a way that exposes the darkness therein. You live in a way that demands an explanation and then you're able to give that explanation. And you've got to be close enough to them for them to be able to see that. Expose does not mean you're walking through the mall, you know, rebuking like you were dressed like a skank and God is not pleased with that.
That's not what he's talking about. Expose means you live in a way that begs a question. And everything you do, you put them on display in your generosity, in your love, in your holy living, in our worship. It's like the old phrase that some of you have heard goes, you're the only Jesus some will ever see and you're the only Bible some will ever read. So church, that's the final question for us. What kind of reflection are you giving about the nature and the beauty of God? This passage would warn us that when you and I joke about sin, when we are stingy with our money, when we do sloppy work, when we're short-tempered, when we worship apathetically and lackadaisically, we obscure others' vision of God. Churches, I've often told you we are the ultimate apologetic for the Gospel in a skeptical world. We have to show people the difference that the glorious Jesus makes in our lives.
That's what we do. So these are the six reasons he gives you to obey. We imitate God because we love him, we're responding to the love of God. We realize that if we are pursuing idols that we're not really believers. We realize that we're putting God on display. We realize the sinful, idolatrous world is doomed.
We put God on display in the midst of a dark world. So I've got an assignment for you this week. I want you to make a list and I want you just to think through these areas and the Gospel in these areas in your life. And I want you to ask whether or not you're imitating God, whether or not you're putting God on display in these areas. In fact, I want you to write them down right now, write them down and then rate yourself later, one to ten. Ten being the best, one being the worst about how well you display God in these areas.
And then I want you to get your spouse to rate you, okay? Generosity, patience, what you talk about, what you watch, your work ethic, what you do with your free time and ask, do I demonstrate the glory of Jesus to the world in those areas? Wherever God has put his finger in your life, whatever area he has placed it on right now, to God I want to put you on display in this area. I want to demonstrate you.
But let me take it back one step farther while some of you are doing that. The question is, have you ever received the Gospel? As I explained at the beginning, this is a free gift. God's acceptance of you, his forgiveness, his righteousness, the right to be his child is given to you as a gift. Have you ever received that gift? If not, you can do that right now, right now.
It's not something you earn. You just say, Jesus, I received the gift you offer. I receive it and I yield full control of my life to you. Jesus, say this in your own words, Jesus, I received the gift that you offer and I yield full control of my life to you.
All I have is yours. Now change me. God, it has been my prayer that we would be people that are Gospel-saturated, Gospel-loving, that we would be changed by you. I pray that you would do that for the glory of Jesus and for the sake of a dark world who desperately needs to see who he is. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. We're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D.
Greer. If you happen to join us late today, you can listen again right now at jdgreer.com. So J.D., in addition to this daily teaching program, you also have a weekly podcast called Ask the Pastor.
Can you tell us a little bit about it? Yeah. You know, it started as Ask Me Anything, and it really came because I just got asked a bunch of questions. First, it was on college campuses.
Then it was just after church. And I noticed that people were asking a lot of the same questions. And so we started with a podcast that said, what if we could have a five to 10-minute podcast that just said, here's what I'd say if you and I sat down after church real quick. Most of the questions come from our audience, from you. In fact, if you have a question, we would love for you to submit it. You know, we did one recently on how Christians ought to think about Israel and stuff going on in Gaza right now. A lot of people, this is always encouraging.
I find them passing it to other friends and say, you know, I think you helped me and then helped explain this to a friend. So you can watch it on YouTube. Just go to J.D. Greer dot com. You'll see a little thing there about how to enter your question.
And yeah. Thanks, Pastor J.D. You can listen to Ask the Pastor anywhere you stream your podcast or on our website, J.D.
Greer dot com. Now, I wanted to make sure that you heard about our new featured resource. The second part in our Gospel Flipbook series is available today for those who support this ministry with a gift of thirty five dollars or more. It takes you through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. You'll find info on each church and letter, a reading plan and key passages and reflection questions to help you apply what you're reading. To get your copy, simply call us at 866-335-5220 or visit our website at J.D.
Greer dot com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. I am so glad you joined us this week. Join us next time when Pastor J.D. reveals that the Christian life is far from boring, like some people think. In fact, it's an all out war with a whole lot of action. Learn more from our study of Ephesians next week on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.
