Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

If you’ve heard Pastor J.D. preach, you’ve probably heard him talk about Nicolas Cage. So, what’s the deal? Does he really think Nicolas Cage is the greatest actor of all time? Find out in this light-hearted episode!

Show Notes: Who do you feel the closest kinship with? Who do you spend most of your time with? The lesson from Lot’s life is that you have to make up your mind from the beginning: Who do you really want to be? If it’s with the world, go there 100%. If it’s with God, go with him 100%. What do you love? What does that say about what your heart really desires? Are you trying to get as close to the world as you can without becoming it? So how can I be around “Sodom” but not make the mistake Lot did? It has to do with who you choose to make your close friends and your community. Those are the ones you become like—just like Proverbs 13:20 tells us. The most miserable person in the world is the half-committed Christian. 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: It depends on what you mean by “demon possessed.” It’s never used in the Greek language that I know of, and it’s not in the Bible. The word in the Bible is “demonized,” which actually broadens it a little bit. So, if you mean, “Can a demon so overtake a Christian so that they have no will left and no ability to choose right from wrong,” the answer is definitely no. But if you mean, can a demon influence us or afflict us, Scripture I think indicates yes. But their entry into our lives comes from listening to the lies Satan tells us. We’ve got to “talk back” to Satan’s lies with the truths of Scripture and 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: A theologian named Michael Byrd breaks down theological truths into three primary categories. First, there are matters essential for salvation. On these matters, we have to have agreement. These include the person of Christ, the way of salvation, etc. These are things absolutely worth dividing over, and I would not partner with someone in ministry in an area like this where we disagree. Second, there are matters that are important to the faith and the church but not matters of salvation. These things are also things where you need a relative amount of unity. They’re almost always spelled out in Scripture. Third, there are matters of indifference. Those are non-essentials, debatable things, preferences, opinions, etc. You’ve got to know what category different truths go into. Romans 14 says we are not to divide over inconsequential, disputed matters. Wisdom is knowing what to unite around and what things are worth dividing over. 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: When we think “idol,” we oftentimes think of a statue that you bow down to. But there’s more to it than that, and idolatry actually occupies the first two of the ten commandments, so you know it’s important. We often have a “root idol” that controls a lot of the way we live our lives, whether that’s power, control, comfort, or approval. In order to stop looking to these idols to meet our needs, we have to give God the ultimate weight in our lives. Idols are not usually bad things, they’re often good things that we’ve given God-sized weight in our lives. 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: Rebecca, today we’ll answer another question from your book, Is Christmas Unbelievable? In the book, you answer the common question, “How can you believe in a virgin birth?” A lot of people would say the virgin birth is a supernatural bridge too far. And I guess I can see why people say that, but in reality, if there’s a God who made the entire universe and everything in it, it’s actually sort of illogical to think that the same God couldn’t perform miracles, including having Jesus be born differently than everyone else. The virgin birth has always been a miraculous claim—not just because of what modern science has told us. But I happen to personally know some of the top scientists in the world who are believers and do, in fact, believe in the virgin birth. So, I don’t think we need to be concerned that the belief in the virgin birth is only for the scientifically uneducated. Some question whether it really makes a difference if Jesus was born of a virgin or not. In fact, it is completely fundamental to our faith that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. It’s not an optional extra or a “nice to have.” The frame of reference we need to have for Jesus should so blow our minds that the reality of him being born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit is just one of many angles of the extraordinary reality of who he is as God made flesh. The claims about Jesus that the gospels make are completely miraculous from his conception onwards. I don’t think we should be abashed about believing it all. Check out Rebecca McLaughlin’s new book, Is Christmas Unbelievable?, today! 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: Rebecca, in your book Is Christmas Unbelievable, you answer some questions about the supernatural parts of Christmas. So much of what we know about Christmas, of course, comes from the gospels. But can we really trust them? A lot of people say the gospels are unbelievable because they’re written decades after the events happened. But first of all, the gospels are not like you or I being asked what we had for breakfast last week. It was the disciples’ job to learn Jesus’ teachings. They rehearsed these stories for decades after his death, every day—that’s what they did all the time! Then, there were hundreds of other people who traveled around with him and saw the miracles he did who could attest to what he taught and did. We actually have a rich source of witnesses to the events of the gospels, not just the recollections of one or two guys 30 years later. The gospels have proven to be impressive historical documents time after time—so much so that we should feel comfortable giving them the benefit of the doubt for historical facts that can’t be proven with other sources. The gospels all testify about Jesus’ divinity in their own unique way. Check out Rebecca McLaughlin’s new book, Is Christmas Unbelievable, today! 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: First of all, we have to acknowledge that Satan is, indeed real. We have to take him seriously. But some people are guilty of not taking him seriously at all, and some are guilty of blaming every bad thing in life on him. A lot of people don’t know that the phrase “demon possessed” is actually not in the Bible. The phrase “demonized” is, instead. I don’t believe that a demon can actually come in and possess someone who is a believer, but I do think demons can afflict a person who is a believer, especially when they’re not walking in obedience or saturated in the Word. We need to be alert and sober-minded, like Peter says. When you look at the totality of human history, you would be naive to attribute some of history’s greatest tragedies to anything other than the influence of Satan, the prince of this world. Fortunately for believers, the blood of Jesus covers us and anything covered by Jesus blood is safe from Satan and his attacks. Second, we have God’s Word itself. When Jesus was tempted, he quoted Scripture back to Satan and if it worked for Jesus, we can know it’ll work for us. That’s why I work to memorize Scripture. I think Satan LOVES social media, it’s designed to magnify our self-obsession, which is Satan’s calling card! 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: I think the first thing that stands out is that character really does matter. In 1 Tim. 3, when Paul talks about qualifications for ministry, he doesn’t just list talents—he talks about character, as well. Second, we really do need accountability. Dr. Paul Tripp told me about two things he’s seen that lead to a ministry leader falling. The first one is a lack of peer community. The second is a lack of seriousness about the power of indwelling sin in all of our live’s. Third, we never graduate beyond the local church. My wife and I have found that our own personal happiness is best reflected by the quality of our close, local relationships within the local church. Sometimes we get so enamored with someone’s talents that we promote them beyond their character. Paul warns us directly against that. 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.

Pastor J.D. answers a question about what it really means to be a Christian. Show Notes: Everyone has a different assumption of what it means to be a Christian. In the Western world, a lot of people have the assumption that if you’re not a Jew, not a Muslim, and not an atheist, you must be a Christian.  Some people think it means a certain amount of “religiosity”—a certain amount of church attendance, a desire to live by the Golden Rule, to do good to others, etc. The problem there is, “how much is enough?” At what point do you become good enough to be a Christian? There are two defining marks of a Christian to point out: First, a Christian is born again. To be born again means that you’ve come to a point where you recognize that your sin has separated you from God and there’s nothing you can do that would ever make you good enough to be accepted by God. Then Jesus, in your place, lived a life you were supposed to live, died a death you were condemned to die, and was then resurrected from the dead. He wants to take away the penalty of your sin by applying his death on the cross to your account and put the new life of his Spirit into you. Second, a Christian is a disciple of Jesus—which means you follow him, do what he did, live like he did, and obey his commandments. You devote your life to him. That’s what it means to make him Lord of your life. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, which means we should live our lives as disciple-making disciples. 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.