Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

This week, Pastor J.D. answers a question about why biblical church discipline is a necessary—and even a loving—thing to do. Show Notes: Four reasons for church discipline from 1 Corinthians 5:1-13: For the sake of the sinning brother (5:5) The hope, the goal, is always that they wake up from their sin; that the pain of being removed from the blessings of the church wakes them up and brings them back to their senses. For the sake of other believers (5:6) The Bible uses the analogy of yeast. Just like a little yeast quickly spreads through the whole lump of dough, a little sin in the community quickly infects everybody. For the sake of Christ (5:7-8) Christ died, Paul says, to get rid of sin. So why would his church tolerate in their midst those things that put him on the cross? For the sake of the outside world (5:9-10) Paul says that these steps are important because we need to give the outside world an accurate picture of Jesus. Most of the world will never read the Bible—they read the lives of Christians. Therefore, we have to present Christ accurately. And here’s a special promise: Jesus promises to be with us, in a special way, if we do this. Look at Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” The context of Jesus’ statement is when you choose to go through the messy process of lovingly trying to restore someone caught up in sin. He wants you to know that he’s with you. When you’re doing the hard work of being family, he says, “I’m there for that. In an unusually powerful way.” Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this episode of the Ask Me Anything Podcast, Pastor J.D. talks about whether or not the Bible teaches that men should have long hair. Show Notes: With passages like 1 Cor. 11:14, you can go wrong in one of two ways: You can over-apply it, or you can under-apply it. Here’s another example from 1 Cor. 16:20: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”  In those days, it was a common way to show friendship. But should we still be doing this today? No, in our culture that would be quite odd. And yet we should not let go of the principle of the verse and we should still greet one another warmly, like family. The same is true for long hair. In that day, long hair for men communicated femininity in a way it does not now. The same concept applies to women wearing head coverings (mentioned in this same chapter). While the cultural practice may not apply to us today, the principle Paul is making in these verses still does. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this episode of the Ask Me Anything Podcast, Pastor J.D. talks about the Bible verses that seem to imply you can lose your salvation. Show Notes: There are all kinds of warnings in the Bible about how you must continue on in your faith to be saved. And yet, like we talked about last week, the Bible also clearly teaches that once you’re saved, you’re always saved. So how do these sort of verses square with each other? Do they contradict? Well, no, they don’t. But they do teach you something important about the nature of saving faith: Saving faith endures to the end. So why are “eternally secure” believers given warnings about enduring in the faith? I believe it’s because these warnings are not only to awaken those with false assurance about salvation but also to spur true believers onward in their faith. The Bible clearly teaches that believers cannot lose their salvation. Yet these warnings ought also to be taken at face value: If we fall away, we will not be saved in the end. The only way those two statements can both be true is if a failure to heed them demonstrates that we never possessed that saving faith to begin with. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this episode of the Ask Me Anything Podcast, Pastor J.D. answers the question of whether or not you can lose your salvation. Show Notes: At first glance, Hebrews 6 seems to say that not only can you lose your salvation, but once you do, you can never get it back! So what does it mean? This is important: I believe the writer of Hebrews is giving a general, pastoral warning to his congregation rather than attempting to delineate how the processes of regeneration, justification and eternal security work together. So, the warning here is a statement to believers and unbelievers alike about the importance of the gospel. Hopefully, it will rouse unbelievers out of their slumber. To the believer, we know that God will use it to keep his believers tethered closely to the gospel. Warnings like this one are one of God’s means of keeping believers awake to the gospel. If you persevere to the end, that proves you had the salvation you could never lose. If you don’t, it proves you never had that faith to begin with. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this episode of the Ask Me Anything Podcast, Pastor J.D. answers the question of how to respond to hypocritical Christians. Show Notes: This question is valid. Jesus said he died to create a new breed of people. But so many aren’t any different than the world. So how do you handle that? First, realize hypocrisy is more about being human than it is a particularly Christian thing. Second, hypocrisy doesn’t invalidate the message. Lastly, look at Jesus! The church is supposed to adorn Jesus, and it’s tragic when it fails happens; but when they fail you, look at him. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

In this week’s episode, Pastor J.D. is joined by special guest Trillia Newbell to talk about whether or not Christians should be colorblind. Trillia just released her new children’s’ book, The Big Wide Welcome, and is also the author of God’s Very Good Idea. These books teach so many important lessons about how God has created us and the unity he desires us to have. Show Notes: J.D.: Trillia, one question related to your book that we hear all the time at our church: should Christians be “colorblind?” What I mean is, should we as Christians not be “seeing” the color of peoples’ skin? Should it be irrelevant? Trillia: Often, this is very well-intentioned. It’s a way of saying, “I love all people.” But the Bible paints the picture of heaven in such a way that shows that even there, God will not erase our different races, cultures, etc. Over and over, we see the nations reflected in the Scriptures — different from one another but all united around the gospel. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Show Notes: Divorce is not the unforgivable sin. Look at Jeremiah 3:8 where God says, “For all her adulteries, I gave faithless Israel a certificate of divorce.” God has the audacity to call himself a divorced person. Now, of course, there was no sin on his side of the divorce, and maybe there was on yours. But in the cross and resurrection, Jesus puts away the sin done by you and he overturns the sin done to you. I feel a special word for some people out there going through real marital trouble—God is going to do something amazing if you trust in him and give him time. He wants to do something amazing in your marriage that makes it far stronger and more beautiful than anything you’ve ever imagined—even better than when you were newlyweds. God can bring beauty and redemption even out of our biggest mistakes if we trust it to him. In the cross, we find forgiveness for the sins done by us and healing for the ones done to us. The empty tomb is the answer for the empty soul ravaged by divorce. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question. As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Show Notes: The answer to this question comes from the lips of Jesus, the most compassionate person ever to live. Marriage is a covenant you make with your spouse before God. God created it in Genesis 2 as a union where two literally become one, and death is the only thing that can dissolve that covenant (with a couple of death-related exceptions which we’ll talk about). So, is it ever OK to divorce? Jesus says in Matthew 19 that you can do it in the case of adultery. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 7, is going to expand that to say desertion by an unbeliever. Why are those exceptions? The logic is very important. In the case of both desertion/abandonment and adultery, they both kill the covenant. That’s why I called them “death-related” exceptions earlier. So, you say, what about the case of abuse? Or what if the spouse is involved in some illegal activity that they refuse to stop and it’s putting our family at risk? First, if you are in an abusive situation, you need to get yourself to a place of safety immediately. Talk to your church, let them help, or if you’re not feeling safe reach out to the Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE. Second, I would argue that the logic of Paul and Jesus’ exceptions applies also to divorce in the case of a spouse who is doing something that makes them unable to be lived with and puts the family in danger. Creating in abusive environment also kills the marriage covenant, and you are no longer bound to it. Lean not on your ability as a parent; lean on God’s grace as the hope for your child. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question! As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Show Notes: This brings us to one of the “big 10” — the 10 Commandments. There are a couple of things to understand starting with the 10 commandments are divided into two sections. The first four deal primarily with our relationship with God. The last five deal with our relationship to each other. Honoring your parents is the “hinge” in the middle, so which group does it belong to? Well, both. It’s the bridge between the two categories. When we’re young, our parents stand in for God. By submitting to our parents, we’re learning to submit to God. To “honor” your parents means to recognize parenthood as the temporary stand-in for God that it is, and you respect your parents accordingly. When you’re young, that means obeying them, and for your whole life it means respecting them. If your situation is abusive, you need to get yourself out. Call 800-799-SAFE, the domestic violence hotline. If your situation is not abusive, understand that you can respect the institution your parents represent even when you don’t represent them as individuals. When honoring your parents, you are honoring the God behind your parents whose authority is represented by them. Honoring your parents is really a means to honoring God. Lean not on your ability as a parent; lean on God’s grace as the hope for your child. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question! As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Show Notes: We should be as intentional with our families as we are with our jobs. There is a sense that, on one level, I as a parent affect the faith journey of my kids. But on another level, there is a limit to the responsibility parents have for the choices our kids make. God has made them as individuals. A lot of godly parents will have a child who wanders. And it’s not because they did something wrong. Think about it: God was a perfect Father. And the only two humans he “fathered” directly (Adam and Eve) both rebelled. It wasn’t because of deficiencies in God’s parenting. There are decisions only our kids can make. Even under the best of circumstances, they can decide to pursue things that are contrary to what God would have for them. Pray for your kids. Speak truth to them. But ultimately, know that God wants us to lean into his grace. God cares more for our kids than we do and he can pursue our kids in ways that we can’t. Lean not on your ability as a parent; lean on God’s grace as the hope for your child. Want to ask J.D. a question? Head to our Ask Me Anything hub to submit your question! As always, don’t forget to rate and review this podcast! Find Pastor J.D. on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.