Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.
Paul says when you get your mind around the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of God's love, then the Spirit fills you. You can cope with life's difficulties. That's a much better way to deal with life's problems than getting jacked up on Grandpa's old cough medicine, isn't it? Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D. Greer.
I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Now, there's no doubt that we'll all have hard days. In fact, sometimes hard seasons. So when life is inevitably difficult, where do you turn for comfort? Some people lean on alcohol or sex. Others turn to more subtle crutches like binging TV shows or overeating. But no matter what form our vices take, they're never really going to fill us the way we want them to.
And they most certainly won't remove the difficulties. So today, Pastor J.D. reveals the only true cure for our broken and hurting hearts. It's part of our study in Ephesians called Mystery and Clarity.
And Pastor J.D. titled this message, Life is War. If you are going to grow with God, it's not going to happen naturally. You've got to intend to do it. You've got to choose to do it.
If you're going to grow with your family, you've got to choose to do that. You don't just have extra time laying around to figure out how to do that. It's like your budget. You're going to tithe. You don't wait to how much money you have at the end of the month. You do it at the beginning. Do you see what I'm getting at? If you're going to get to know unbelievers, if you're going to share Christ with people, you've got to intend to do that. You've got to choose to do that. Otherwise, just the tedium of the world takes you the opposite direction because it doesn't value God. And you hear what I'm saying, right? I'm not saying that, you know, you're not going to do this because you're out worshiping Satan. I'm saying you don't do it just because you lose time.
Stay at home, Mom. If you're going to grow with God, it's not just going to happen because one of your kids is always going to need your attention. It's going to be because you established that that is a big rock and you were going to devote time to it. Y'all, Jesus told the disciples to pray that they would not enter into temptation. Remember this? Garden of Gethsemane? They slept because they were tired and as a result, temptation overcame them when it was presented to them.
It's the same still for us today. If you don't take time for God to search your heart, if you don't devote attention to prayer, you are dead. That's what happened with the disciples. That's what's happening with you. You've got to be intentional about those things.
Is this making sense? Number three, so far, how to engage in warfare, point one was to look carefully and how we walk, point two is to be intentional with our time. Point three, verse 18, do not be drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit. Number three, choose the Spirit, not the spirits, to deal with life. Choose the Spirit, not the spirits, to deal with life.
Check this out. Life is hard. Anybody disagree with that? Lots of pressures. If you don't believe that, then just have kids.
You'll change your mind. Lots of pressures, lots of disappointment, and most everybody learns throughout their life that life is difficult. Paul identifies the two ways people most often deal with life's pressures and anxieties. By the way, when I say alcohol here, I'm not saying, because some of you are like, well, I don't have a problem with alcohol, so this doesn't apply to me. This is really anything that is a means by which you cope with life's pressure. So it may not be alcohol for you, it may be busyness or something else, but just let me use alcohol since that's what he used. The first way that people deal with life's pressures is alcohol. The second is the Spirit of God. Now, there's a lot of similarities to what the Spirit does in your life and what alcohol does in your life. Do you believe that?
Check this out. People drink because they're worried. The Spirit of God gives you the peace that passes all understanding. Some people drink to get courage.
Well, Acts says that when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they were filled with boldness. Some people drink because they're having problems, and alcohol for them becomes an escape. Romans 5 says the Spirit of God sheds a broad God's love in our hearts and assures us that we are the children of God, and that is our refuge. Some people drink because it helps them open up and be vulnerable, well, about their feelings to others.
Well, the Spirit gives you the security by testifying to your spirit that you are a beloved child of God, and that gives you the security to let others see your weakness. Alcohol and the Spirit both produce some of the same things in you, but they do it, get this, in entirely different ways. Alcohol is a depressant that dulls your senses to reality. Alcohol makes you less aware of your surroundings. The Holy Spirit, by contrast, is a stimulus that makes you more aware of reality. Both alcohol and the Spirit give you a way to cope with life's difficulties, but they do it in entirely different ways. One dulls your senses to realities. One awakens your senses to greater realities.
Does that make sense? Say you were a soldier and you were fighting in a battle. You were in a foxhole.
It was just you and like three other guys. You're in this foxhole, and suddenly you get word that two miles away there are 200 enemy troops. You are all by yourself, and they are coming, and they are going to kill you. How do you get the courage and the confidence to be able to fight them in battle with just four of you and the 200 of them out there?
How do you do that? Well, a lot of people would use alcohol, or you would dull your senses so that you would be brave and you could meet them with confidence. But what if you did a little reconnaissance and you found out that a half mile away there were 2,000 friendly troops, and they were headed to you, and they were going to surround you and protect you from the 200 enemy troops? That would give you a joy and a confidence in the midst of that foxhole.
You see what I'm getting at? In one of them, you got confidence and bravery by dulling your senses to reality. In the other one, you had a greater sense of reality that gave you confidence to face the same thing. The Holy Spirit gives you a way to cope by opening your eyes to the reality of God. Alcohol gets rid of worry by making you forget. The Spirit gets rid of worry by helping you remember. Alcohol gives you courage by making you unaware of the dangers around you. The Spirit gives you courage by making you aware of how much larger God is than the fears that are around you. Alcohol adds excitement to your life by giving you a cheap thrill. The Spirit adds excitement to your life by bringing you into the presence of God where there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
You don't need a fifth of Jack. You need a villain of Jehovah. Commentators point out that Ephesians 5, 18-20 and Colossians 3, 16, and 17, one of Paul's other letters, are parallel passages.
In order to understand the one, you got to understand the other. Ephesians 5, 18-20. Be filled with the Spirit, watch this, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's Ephesians 5, watch this, Colossians 3. Colossians 3, 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, now watch, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Did you hear that? Same passage, same one, except for one phrase. And that one phrase is in Ephesians 5, he says be filled with the Spirit, and in Colossians 3 he switches it to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. You know what that shows you? It shows you that in the mind of Paul being filled with the Spirit and having the word of Christ dwell in you richly is the exact same thing.
That's very important. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. In Ephesians 3, watch this, Paul had prayed in Ephesians 3 that we would be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be, see this phrase, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. How are you filled with all the fullness of God? You comprehend what is the breadth and length and the height and the depth of God's love for you.
Do you get that? You're like what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It's to have a knowledge, a present knowledge of how much God loves you. You're like what do those words mean, length and breadth and height and depth, length of God's love?
In Ephesians, Paul has explained that God has loved you from eternity past and will love you for eternity past, that there was never a time that God did not know about you and love you and that there is nothing you can do in the future to change God's love for you. That's the length of God's love, the height of God's love. Psalm 103 says as high as the heavens are above the earth, that's how great his love is for those of us who are his children. What that means is when you get out your telescope or you look at some of these images from the Hubble telescope and you see the farthest star, that is the dimension God used to measure the intensity of his passion for you, how much he cares about your pain, how much he cares about you. The breadth of God's love, what's that a reference to? Well again, Ephesians 1 has explained that there's not a molecule in the universe that is outside of God's control and that God has marshaled every molecule in our universe for your good and his glory, which means that you never have to worry about something happening to you that is going to derail his plan for your life. The breadth of God's love is as wide as the universe.
God controls everything for the purposes that he has on earth. The depth of God's love, what's that? That's a reference, Ephesians 2, to the fact that God reached down into the grave to the sin that we had rebelled against him with and came to earth to live a life that we should have lived and then to die a cursed death that we should have died so that he could save us. It refers to how deep God had to reach to save you and Paul says when you get your mind around the height and the depth and the length and the breadth of God's love, when that word of Christ dwells in you richly, then the Spirit fills you, you can cope with life's difficulties. You see that? That's a much better way to deal with life's problems and getting jacked up on grandpa's old cough medicine, isn't it?
Right? We need to be filled with the Spirit so we won't turn to things like alcohol or pornography or overworking or mindless tedious entertainment or extramarital affairs to deal with life's pressure and that's why Paul gives you the commands of the next verses. It's a unique and interactive way to engage with these four key epistles found in the New Testament.
This new spiral-bound resource has a ton of helpful features like a reading plan through each book, key passages and themes from each book, a bit of history and so much more. It's available exclusively to You Our Summit Life listeners when you support the ministry with your gift today. To get your copy, simply call us at 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Now let's return to today's message here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Number four, verse 19. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
Here's number four, sing a new song constantly in your heart. I love this. Verse 19, look at this. He's telling them to remind themselves constantly of God's great love on their behalf. Here's what's interesting.
Watch, watch, watch. It's interesting that he tells them to do it through music. He doesn't tell them to listen to sermons on your iPod, but he chose music.
Why? Why would he choose music there? Is that because he's a worship pastor and he's got a, wants to really exalt music?
No. It's because songs communicate emotion and worship. Remember a few weeks ago I explained to you that gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in your hearts? It's only when the beauty of God captivates your heart that you'll actually change. And when a heart is captivated by beauty, that is better represented by a guy with a song in his heart than it is by a guy who can quote verses or explain doctrines. To be saved means that you are in love with Jesus, not knowledgeable about doctrine only. That's why I have told you I want you to study Jesus, but not like the seminarian studies doctrine, but like someone would study a sunset that left them speechless. Or the way that a man who was in love with his wife studied his wife until the music of her beauty burst alive in his heart, and his rapture with her beauty drove out all the other enticements for other women. That's what it means.
That's why Paul's saying that, because to be saved means you get swept up into a song that becomes so beautiful to you and so forming in your heart that it makes you dull to the music of the world around you because you've got a greater beauty. The other day I was driving down I-40 and I saw the little summit church sticker on the back of a car and I didn't recognize a car so I thought I'm gonna go see who this is because I always want to freak people out. I like drive up by them and I kind of look at them and they recognize me as the pastor.
I just kind of shake my head and keep driving. So I pull up next to this guy and this guy, I don't even know who he is. He might be here. I didn't recognize him. I mean just clearly in his car worshiping at the top of his lungs just singing and moving and I was like I was trying to get his attention because I was like I know this will humiliate him if he sees me seeing him do this and he would not pay any attention to me or anybody.
He was oblivious of what was going on. He's just so caught up in the midst of this moment and I thought not that that's you know you have to do that everywhere you drive around but I thought that's actually a really good picture of what it means to walk with Jesus is that your heart is so captivated by beauty that you're not really aware of a lot of other things because you're swept up into this beauty of this God that you have suddenly become a part of. That's much better than what happened to me by the way a little while ago. Listen, I'll tell you the truth about it. About every six months I listen to one of my own sermons. Only every six months because I do it because I like to hear all the little annoying speaker things that I do and you can hear that when you listen to yourself. So I was doing that only every six months and I was in my car and I had the windows down so I had to have it turn up really loud I mean clearly right you know so had to have it turned up loud well I come up to a stoplight before I have time to turn it down somebody from the summit church pulls up next to me with their windows down and there's me sitting in my car listening to myself at full blast. I was like no no no no I'm scratching my nose not picking I promise look it's look you know and I don't have whoever you are I'm not nearly as narcissistic as that made me seem okay only every six months but the point is look to be saved means you get swept up into the beauty of worship. So we are commanded to sing a new song constantly in our hearts and we're also commanded number five to sing that new song to others see that verse 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs like what does that mean you know I mean it's like it's like we're in a musical. I went to see Wicked the other night at the Durham Performing Arts Center and my wife and I we there was a like Durham had a baseball game and it was a mess downtown so we were late wasn't our fault we were late so if you don't get there on time for this particular show they actually hold you out until about 10 minutes out and so my wife and I are sitting out with a small group of people who we're all got their labor sitting out there you know ashamed and uh and I'm you know like no big deal it's like whatever you know and uh this girl beside me um who didn't come with us she was I mean she was distraught she was crying she said you gotta let me in she's like I don't know what's going on what if I miss something what if I miss part of that and I was like look plot movements in these things take about 45 minutes one guy makes one statement then they all dance around about it for about 45 minutes right you're not missing anything I promise he's not saying your life is a musical where you sing to each other all the time what do you say watch it what he's saying is our love for Jesus is constantly put on a display in a way that entices other people to the beauty of Jesus that's what he means so we're singing this song to others that happens in a big way right here in worship we see this all the time a lot of times I cannot tell you how many times somebody who is not a Christian comes and they're not persuaded to open their heart to Jesus through a sermon that I give or through the logic of an argument but they're persuaded when they are captivated by the beauty of Jesus they see put on display in worship for example Anne Lamott which if you're into literature you know who that is a popular novelist for a while she was an adamant non-Christian recently became a Christian and she said she was first attracted to God through the music of a local church she said before she could even stand to sit through a sermon the music revealed to her God's beauty and redemptive power she said and I quote when I was in the worship service something inside me that was stiff and rotting would feel soft and tender somehow the singing wore down all the boundaries that kept me feeling so isolated sitting there and then eventually standing with them to sing sometimes so spiritually aching and sick that I felt like I might tip over as I sang God's praises I began to feel bigger than myself like I was being taken care of it was almost like I was being tricked into coming back into life God was tricking me through music y'all we see this all the time at our church in fact some of you it's exactly why you're here right now there's something that is curious to you and there's a beauty that you're hearing it's echoing in your heart and it's not becoming because of the force of my logic it's coming because your heart is hearing a tune and I'm speaking yes metaphorically it's hearing a tune of beauty and that's happening through worship that leads me to the last thing I'm going to tell you here number six that means you got to be around the people of God that's the last command for being involved in this warfare be around the people of God verse 19 you got to be close enough to the people of God that you can hear the song in their hearts Ephesians chapter five is one of the 58 one another passages in the by in the new testament love one another pray for one another admonish one another here it is address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and guys you can only do this if you are around so the implication for many of you is clear you need to get off the sidelines and get involved in the church some of you've been here for entirely too long as a spectator and you've got to get connected some of you need to join the church this is not a membership drive okay I'm not talking about you know all right we need to have you on the roll I mean you've got to become a part of this place and not just somebody who's it's an audience you're going to join up with a small group that told you you can only have access to the power of God when you are intimately connected to the people of God because the people of God are the means by which God's power flows see you need to get connected here frequenting the community of God is the only answer to gradual backsliding so there you have it life is war these six ways you get them look carefully in how you walk be intentional with your time choose the spirit sing a new song sing to each other and be around the people of God that's how you engage in warfare you get this if you coast you die if you coast you die now some of you're like yeah I don't get this though I mean I can do these six things but I don't have a song coming out of my heart if anything the music in my heart is more like a groan it's more like confusion it's more like pain and I don't want to become a hypocrite I don't want to fake I don't want to pretend like everything inside of my heart is beautiful when it's not I understand let me tell you where that starts that song begins to change Hebrews 2 Hebrews 2 says that Jesus one of the main things that he did when he saved us is he put a new song in our heart and when the writer of Hebrews says that he quotes follow he quotes Psalm 22 because the last verse of Psalm 22 says that Jesus will put a new song in the congregation Psalm 22 is the song that Jesus quoted on the cross Psalm 22 1 my God my God why have you forsaken me Psalm 22 is a song of abandonment Jesus quoted that song because he was living that song he was being abandoned by God because of my sin he was suffering the penalty that I had brought on myself which brought into my life all that confusion and all that pain watch because Jesus sang the song of abandonment for me I can sing the song of reconciliation and joy in him you want to know where that song changes in your heart it's when you receive the fact that Jesus sang the song of salvation for you when you realize that he sang the song of abandonment for you your heart will be filled with the song of joy you want to know where to start you start with the gospel it's where you always start you having trouble saying no to sin in your life you want to know where to start you grasp that Jesus the reason he sang that song of abandonment was because of your sin and as the weight of that salvation comes into your heart it will drive away your enticements for sin because you'll be captured by the beauty of the love that God showed you in the cross start with the gospel always start with the gospel and let it change that have you experienced the love of Jesus in your life if not let me encourage you to learn more about what it means to be a follower of Christ by visiting our website or giving us a call you're listening to summit life the bible teaching ministry of pastor and author jd greer you know jd one of my favorite things about the book of ephesians is how it holds up the mystery and the majesty of the gospel well yeah i was really hoping you'd say the mystery and clarity of the gospel i can say again okay well say that yeah because that's the name of the series mystery and clarity in one sense peter is going to say that the gospel is so deep and so profound that even the angels peter says long to look more deeply into the gospel right and that's what ephesians that's what it does is it kind of gives you this glimpse but then in chapter four paul suddenly takes a turn and says now let me tell you what this means about getting along with people that aren't the same race as you what it means to get along with a bad boss or a bad employee what it means to get along with a spouse or a rebellious kid or um somebody in your neighborhood that you are just on the outs with you know what we want to do is help make this as practical as possible and this gospel flip book series will help you do that um it'll ask you the questions give you the historical insight it's our way of saying thank you when you become a supporter of our ministry and by the way and by the way thank you for those of you that do that that is um you enable us to stay in the air and to be able to do what we do here so thank you to get your copy simply call us at 866-335-5220 or visit our website at jdgrier.com and before we go i want to give a special shout out to all of you who support our ministry on an ongoing basis our gospel partners we owe so much gratitude to this incredible group of people and if you would like to become a gospel partner and give an ongoing monthly gift contact us today i'm molly vidovich be sure to listen tomorrow when pastor jd greer reveals that god actually has a bigger purpose for our marriages than just our own happiness that's wednesday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries
