Ask the Pastor with J.D. Greear

This week, Pastor J.D. answers a question in his recent sermon: “What stands in the way of ethnic unity?” Show Notes: First of all, Satan. The next several chapters of Ephesians are all about how the demonic powers aligned against the church. Satan hates this kind of unity, especially in the church. So, you can be sure he’s going to oppose it. Let me tell you how he might do this to you: He’s going to suggest stuff to you this week about it being too hard. He’s going to whisper into some of your ears this week that this is all about politics even though I have said literally nothing about that. So, be aware who your enemy is in this and resist that Satanic voice Second, pride. Whenever we talk about this, what makes it difficult is it cuts all of us down at the core of our pride Beware where your own personal pride kicks into gear. Church unity, Paul says, is built only on humility. Third, preference. Our cultural preferences are not wrong. We all have them. It’s just sometimes for the sake of unity, we set them aside to help someone else feel more comfortable. Vance Pitman: “The way to know you are part of a truly multiethnic church is that you often feel uncomfortable.” Many of us, he says, say we want a multi-cultural church but we really only want a multi-colored one, with a bunch of people with different colored faces all doing things our way. People sometimes say to me, “Well, I don’t like it when we do that in worship.” And I want to say, “Well, maybe this whole thing is not about what you like. If you want to be somewhere where it’s all about you, go pay $800 for a night at the RitzCarlton where it will be all, entirely, exclusively about you. But this church is about the glory of Jesus and the urgency of the Great Commission, and so when you come here, that’s what you should expect it to be about.” Fourth, naivete. One of the things that my friends of color tell me is that many of us in the majority culture don’t think we have a culture. Other people have cultures; ours is the standard against which all others are measured. Or sometimes we refer to other people as having ethnicities. I hate to burst your bubble, but white, Caucasian is an ethnicity and has its own cultural perspective. We have our own, particular views of conflict resolution, romance, parenting and child-rearing; money; dress; music; time; respectfulness; family and so many other things. Some cultural perspectives are different; some are wrong; and some are right. The least we can do is work hard to understand the cultural perspectives we all bring into this place. Fifth, poor listening skills. For a lot of us, when it comes to discussions like these, our poor listening skills really begin to display themselves. James in the Bible tells us that we should be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger,” and If there were ever a place for us to apply this verse, it is in this area. Yes, there’s a place for you to speak. “Be slow to speak” doesn’t mean “never speak,” it just means that you listen far more than you talk. So, that raises these questions. When it comes to talking about this stuff: Do you seek to understand more than you seek to be understood? Here’s the question: What if we had a church where people listened to each other like that–where we gave each other the benefit of the doubt in these situations? And before you come back at them with a solution, or a reason why their pain is illegitimate, to at least validate it and sit with them in it. That’s what love is. We don’t want to be a church that focuses so much on this relationship (vertical) that we neglect the pain of each other here (horizontal). Paul tells us the gospel compels us to bear each other’s burdens, and that starts with listening to each other. Sixth, ignorance of our history. Many of us in the majority culture have proven woefully ignorant of how the racial situation in our country came to be. We barely understand what things like the Jim Crow laws were or what kind of societal disparities they created. I DON’T mean we embrace revisionist history like the 1619 project or adopt CRT approaches to politics or education—those approaches are often as worldly and problematic as what they are trying to correct. That’s not what I’m suggesting here. But don’t let the existence of other revisionist histories keep you from reading things that challenge your own revisionist view of history, which is what a lot of us learned growing up. Of all people, Christians should be willing to embrace the truth, and it shouldn’t surprise us to learn that many of our ancestors were depraved sinners. That’s what our gospel teaches us! We should acknowledge the truth when it comes to things like the history of the church. All cultures, all of them, have wrong assumptions and moral blindspots, and one of the values of being in relationship is you can point out those blindspots. Some of my cultural assumptions may make me blind to injustices happening around me that I’ve grown comfortable with because they don’t affect me directly. Others should point those out to me. We need to be willing to listen to each other and stand against unrighteousness wherever we see it, whether or not those concerns are usually associated with “our tribe.” As we’ve said, in here, we don’t primarily identify with the elephant or the donkey, but with the Lamb—and he’s on the side of ‘all things justice’. Y’all, is there any wonder our society can’t accomplish this? Our society wants this, but they can’t achieve it. But, as Paul explains in Ephesians, what the law is unable to accomplish, the power of new life accomplishes in 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. answers a question that was submitted by Jesse. She asked, “What does it mean to be “poor in spirit?” Show Notes: We all love the verse: Matthew 5:3. If you’ve grown up in church, you know it: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It sounds so poetic and idealistic… but I’m going to be honest with you. When I try to really get my mind around that verse, I don’t naturally like it. I’ve never wanted to be poor in spirit — I’ve spent my entire life trying to become anything but poor in spirit. I guarantee you also don’t really want to be poor in spirit. Maybe some of you listening really grew up poor, or went through a “poor season” (like college). When you’re poor, you feel helpless. It takes away your agency, your power, your freedom… it’s no fun! I’ve always wanted to be “capable in spirit” or “competent in spirit…” if anything, at least “middle class in spirit!” That’s just how we’re wired as people. So what does it mean to be poor in spirit and why do people say it’s so important? First, it means that you have no worthiness at all by which you can claim God’s blessing. When you come to God, there’s literally nothing about you that you can bring to God as a way of compelling him to bless you. Second, you realize that you have no ability to obtain God’s blessing. God only fills empty hands. God seems to have a way of bringing his people into a situation of helplessness before using them greatly. I think of the situation of Gideon and the Israelite army in Judges 7. God cut the Israelite army down from 32,000 to just 300… and even at 32,000, they would’ve been outnumbered 5:1 by the other army. And yet, God was making them totally dependent on him, and the Israelites won the battle miraculously without suffering any losses. At times, God creates in us a “poverty of spirit” so that we are reliant on him, and so that he is set up to perform a miracle. Every miracle in the Bible started with a problem that no person could fix… no problems, no miracles. Here’s a controversial sentence: in one sense, Jesus was the neediest person who ever lived. I don’t mean that he was sinful or didn’t have capability in himself, but that he demonstrated dependence on the Father. It’s why he was so often in prayer. He retreated to prayer to be able to obtain the resources of the Father. We have to understand how needy we are, but also how willing our Father is to help us in our need. God doesn’t delight in hurting us, but he delights when we trust him. So often, he’ll put us in the presence of a problem we can’t fix, and we’ve got no choice but to lean on him. When you’re flat on your back, you’re looking in the right direction. If dependence is the objection, weakness becomes your advantage. Scripture warns us to beware our strengths; not our weaknesses. A.W. Tozer said, “It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. It’s like Hudson Taylor said: “[God] wants you to have something far better than riches and gold—or personal charisma or talent—and that is helpless dependence upon him.” Dependence is the objective, so weaknesses become our advantage. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. answers a question that was submitted by Annie. She asked, “How should a believer handle guilt from sinning?” Show Notes: That’s a great question. To be very upfront, there are sins in my life that I would love to leave behind in the rearview mirror, and it’s not from a lack of sincerity or fasting and praying or accountability, but there are sometimes that we fall back into patterns that run deep. And they grieve me. It was very encouraging for me to learn that John Newton, and this was published in the book Letters of John Newton, talked about how as an 86 year old, he thought by at this point in his life (and this was the guy who wrote “Amazing Grace”) he thought he’d be past some of the struggles of sin, but he said some of them feel harder and more difficult than ever. It was encouraging to me to know that there’s not anything fundamentally wrong with me — or that I’m not saved. I wrote a book several years ago called “Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart,” all about the assurance of salvation, which is something I struggled with for a long time. And for a lot of people, one of the biggest reasons for that struggle is because of this – the fact that we still keep sinning after we’re saved. And then comes the guilt… And the enemy (after tempting us to sin) whispers, “If you were a REAL Christian, you wouldn’t have done that. No way God still loves you. No way you have this whole ‘salvation’ thing right.” So how do we handle that? And how do we differentiate conviction over sin post-salvation from not really being saved? There are two big things I’d say here: First, ask yourself, have you truly repented? Repentance of sin always leads to some kind of change in behavior.  It’s like sitting down in a chair… You can tell the chair how awesome it is and how beautiful it is, but until you’ve transferred the weight of your body to that chair, you haven’t actually sat down and trusted the chair. Belief in the Bible always implies action. So belief in the lordship of Christ doesn’t just mean with your lips saying he’s Lord; it means you are transferring surrender and your authority from yourself to him. Sometimes that doesn’t look like victory. Sometimes, it looks like bitter struggle. The struggle against sin is proof of the repentance, and the very fact that you want to escape it is an indication that your heart is turned away from sin, and that you want Christ to be Lord of your life, and that is a kind of repentance. I don’t meant to imply that this change means a complete change of behavior where you never struggle with sin again — sometimes it’s a kind of sin where you’re entering into that struggle… but there is some kind of change. Here’s the second thing: Once you know you’ve truly repented, you have to embrace that God’s acceptance is the power that liberates you. It’s not the reward for having liberated yourself.  It’s only the assurance of his love enables you to overcome. I often try to break the spell (materialism, lust, etc) of sin as a way of proving I’m saved and earning God’s love. But the gospel truth is that God’s love is given to me before I overcome, and stays with me whether I overcome or not. And here’s the irony, only by believing that will I develop a love for God that enables me to overcome.  The irony of the Christian life is that the only ones who get better/escape sin are those that realize that God’s acceptance of them has nothing to do with whether they escape sin/ get better.  So again: God’s acceptance is the power that liberates you from sin, and not the reward from you having liberated yourself. So in the end, once you understand that truth – that there’s nothing you can do to make God love you more, and nothing you can do to make him love you any less – that’s when you begin to understand the depth and the beauty of the gospel. Of course, you SHOULD feel conviction over your sin – but not the kind that crushes you; instead, the Spirit in us uses that conviction to bring about change in us while reassuring us of his everlasting love for us. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. welcomes back Pastor Tony Merida, author of Gather, to answer, “How do you find a good church?” Show Notes: J.D.: Every now and then on Ask Me Anything, I get the chance to sit down with someone who I think can answer a question a whole lot better than me, and that’s the case today. I’m sitting here with Dr. Tony Merida, the author of several books including his newest book, called Gather. Tony, the question today is, how should someone go about finding a good, solid local church? What qualities are underrated and which are overrated in looking for a new church? Tony Merida: The Reformers used to say there are two marks of a church: the right preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. Tied to the sacraments was church discipline. That’s not all there is, but those are two starting points by which, if you don’t have those, you don’t really have a church. If you don’t have the gospel, you don’t have a church. So the first question I’d ask is, what does this church believe that the gospel message is, and do they not just assume it, but preach it all the time? Is it the “main thing?” Beyond that, you might start with Acts 2:42-47. You have what seems like the “perfect” church. I think you can categorize what Luke describes in that church with four vital signs, so to speak. Biblical nourishment Loving fellowship Radical generosity Constant interaction (with each other) There’s also vibrant worship evident, and then there’s “word and deed” outreach — or mission. Evangelism seemed to be a daily thing. Those are some good starting points to look for in a healthy church. J.D.: So, you start with the right teaching of the gospel. How important is expository preaching? Tony: I don’t know that I would say it is necessarily expository preaching that is the absolute requirement; instead, I would ask, is the preaching substantive and is Christ exalted from his Word week by week? Or to say it another way, is there Word-driven preaching present? I don’t think you have to go through a book of the Bible at all times, necessarily, for it to be considered a Bible church (though I think a Bible-teaching pastor will eventually do a lot of that). I like to say expository preaching is the “meat and potatoes” of our preaching, but occasionally, we go out to eat. As far as community is concerned, it’s good to consider if the church is just a place where people simply come and go rather than thinking of the church as a people that we can serve. If I were looking for a church, I’d be in prayer. I’d do my research. I’d want to try to meet with pastors and leaders… It’s not easy. There’s a whole lot more to church than the website. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. answers a question in his recent sermon: “How does the church achieve diversity?” Show Notes: We must seek to reach all people in the Triangle, not just one kind.  It’s clear from what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 9 that he was focused on reaching different kinds of people in Corinth, not just one kind. You had Jews and people under the law; you had Gentiles and those outside the law. He was trying to reach them all. And that was HARD. Do you know how much easier it would have been for Paul to just focus on one kind of person? To go to one side of the city and plant a church focused only on reaching Jews, and then go to the other side and plant one that reached Gentiles? To the Jews, he said, I became like a Jew: Which means, I did Jewish things. I ate Jewish food. I listened to Jewish music. I entered into Jewish struggles. I wore Jewish clothes. He made all of these cultural adaptations to reach people.  Jesus died for all peoples at all stages of life. And to reach them, we all have to be willing to turn down certain things and lean hard into other ones, and, I’m going to tell you, that’s hard. It also means all of us are muted on some of our perspectives to keep from causing unnecessary division in the body. In 1 Corinthians 8-9, Paul was willing to be quiet, or muted, on secondary convictions he was fully convinced were right, because he thought the unity of the church and it’s evangelistic mission were more important than maintaining a uniformity of perspective in all things. We have people leave this church all the time because we don’t say exactly what they want on some political or social issue. We say too much about some issue. We don’t say enough. I’m not saying all perspectives are equally valid, and I’m certainly not saying we are ever muted or unclear about injustice or wrong—the sanctity of life; the evils of racism, equality under the law We see a great example of this philosophy at work in the early church. It’s such an important example, but so overlooked by so many when they read Acts. In Acts 15, Jewish and Gentile believers were so divided over a cultural issue that they could no longer worship together. Churches led by Gentiles were experiencing a “Jewish flight” and vice versa. So the church leaders came together to try to work something out. Their solution, however, at first, seems rather confusing. They basically said that Gentiles should (a) avoid sexual immorality and (b) avoid eating things that had died by strangulation (both of which were regularly practiced by Gentiles) (Acts 15:29). The reason for the prohibition on sexual immorality seems clear—stop going to prostitutes! But the prohibition on eating something strangled? Of the entire Hebrew law, that is the regulation they thought was essential to enforce? James explains the reasoning for these two regulations: “‘For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him …’” (Acts 15:21). In other words, in every city there were a lot of Jews; lost Jews—who needed to be reached for Jesus. And when Gentiles were in the parking lot barbecuing things that had been strangled, that would produce a major stumbling block for the Jews. The Apostles knew that if these unsaved Jews came into the church and Gentiles were in the back choking the gophers and throwing them on the grill, the Jews would not be able to stomach it. And then they wouldn’t get a chance to hear the gospel and be saved. The Apostles said, “Yes, you Gentiles have a right to eat choked gophers if you want, gross as it is, but we are asking you to forgo that right so that more unsaved Jews in your community can hear the gospel.” And then James, leader of the Jerusalem church, wraps it up by uttering one of the most important phrases in the whole New Testament for a church’s mission philosophy: “… we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles [or Jews] who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19 NIV).  Some of you are passionate about politics and which solutions are best for society—and I want to be clear: that’s a good thing. But in the church let’s not let a secondary, culturally-shaped perspective on the best strategies or candidates or particular interpretation of an event become synonymous with the identity of the gospel, because what’s when the gospel suffers and people stay lost. We do all this for the sake of the gospel, “that we might save some!” 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. is joined by Pastor Tony Merida, author of Gather, to answer, “Why is it important to go to church in person?” Show Notes: J.D.: Today on Ask Me Anything, we’re “flipping the mic.” I’m sitting here with Dr. Tony Merida holding in my hand two books. One is called Love Your Church: Eight Things About Being a Church Member. And then your newest book, called Gather. Tony, we know you’re passionate about the local church. So, what would you say to the person who, after COVID, feels like it just works better for them to watch church on their laptop or their TV. Do you think that’s a good idea? And if not, why not? Tony Merida: Technology can be a great gift. Our church benefited from it during COVID, and it gave us the ability to stay connected. I think you can do a lot of good information transfer and a lot of teaching online. I like to say it’s a good supplement, but it’s not a substitute for in person gathering. So I’m not negative towards it, I just don’t think it can do what embodied worship offers us. I think it’s different if we’re talking about shut-ins or people who can’t physically make it to the gathering, or people who are sick, and so on. Here are a few thoughts: Our habits form us. That’s true in any part of life. Missing worship in-person is going to have an effect. The sacrifice that it takes to be there in person really does have an impact on our lives. We’re made for embodied relationships. Jesus didn’t just Zoom us from Heaven… He dwelt among us. He walked among us. We were with him. The resurrection was a bodily resurrection, and there’s something theologically significant about being with each other in-person. I’ve always loved the ending of 2 and 3 John, where he says that he has much more to write to them, but he’d rather be with them so that “our joy may be complete.” “Don’t neglect to meet together.” That comes from Hebrews chapter 10. The author doesn’t say, “Meet together so you can hear the sermon,” or “to sing together;” he actually puts the emphasis on meeting together so that we can stir up one another. So, worship is not just about receiving or about listening and hearing — because yeah, you can do that at home. But, what are you giving in corporate worship? How are you contributing to the family of faith if you’re not there in person? You can’t do those things — at least not at the same level — if you’re tuning in from home. J.D.: Tony, what would you say to someone who’s saying, “That all sounds great if I had a really good church like yours (Imago Dei) near me, but I just get more spiritual edification listening to another church than I do from any of the churches near me.” What would you say to that person? Tony: Well, I think I would go back to how you can contribute to your gathering. Sure, your preacher may not be at the same level as someone else’s preacher. But, we’re called to live out all of the “one another’s” of Scripture… and there are a ton of them! And so many of them, we can do on a Sunday morning or whenever we meet for worship. Think about how you might honor and encourage one another at your gathering… which you can’t do on Zoom, at least not in the same way. So, you may not have the “dream church” you want near you, but there are probably still plenty of ways you could live out Scripture’s “one another” commandments… and that’s satisfying and fulfilling. J.D.: If you are talking about a church that is not a gospel-preaching church, then you should not go. But, a lot of times that is not the case… a lot of times, the church just isn’t what you want it to be. Tony: I’ve asked people at our church what the most important part of the church is to them… They never say preaching. It’s always about relationships. Community is what we’re built for. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. begins a two-part series leading up to Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The first question he answers is, “What gives you hope about the direction of the SBC?” Show Notes: The latest ACP report has some negatives, but also some big positives. In some areas, attendance is up – across the board attendance at SBC’s are up, which demonstrates a rebound after Covid. People are returning.  Church attendance is up. Many are saying that Gen Z as a culture are the most spiritually open generation that what we have seen in last several generations. In North Carolina, all of our three major gatherings in the past year were as high as they have been in 10 years. People want to be a part of something that is moving. Baptisms are up. This is huge and something we should celebrate. Small group/Sunday school attendance up. Remember for like 20 years this was something pastors were lamenting? It’s a big deal when this starts occurring. SEND Network and SEND Relief Renewed emphasis on leadership development within our convention. We are seeing churches starting residencies/internships to make future leaders. This was missing in past (which, downstream, led to our current crisis of pulpit-less churches). A new culture toward abuse. We have to stay the course on this. I know that there has been a lot of public conflict about this lately. I trust Marshall Blalock and the Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force, and in the most recent issue with Guidepost I think they demonstrated their willingness to listen to people in the interest of developing a tool that churches will use. They still have a long way to go.  But at the grassroots level everything I am hearing indicates an increase in churches who are proactively seeking to do this right. The state task forces are seeing tremendous movement on this where they are, and I am incredibly encouraged by that. That was the ultimate goal of everything we have been doing—that the churches would stop assuming “that will never happen here” and would do everything in their power to keep people safe. Yes, reform is hard, but we cannot let this unravel, we cannot go backwards.  There is a desire in so many to truly be Great Commission Baptists.  Again, sometimes it feels like there are two SBC’s: the kind committed to making us bigger and the kind focused on making us smaller. The shrinking ACP numbers… everybody wants to use them as if they’re a club to insist on what they want. They are in large part because of the death of cultural Christianity. I’m not trying to put a happy face on a drop in numbers; I lament them. But, I do think we need to rejoice where we need to rejoice (like the increase in engagement), while asking God to turn around the overall numbers trending downwards, with people that really are following Jesus.  Preparing for New Orleans: I hope we see continued resolve to have a culture that is committed to protecting our children and members from abuse, and to caring well for those who come forward.  I hope we can stand together and refuse to give in to the temptation to fight instead of being about the Great Commission. What can we do in this room do to help move the mission of the convention forward? Don’t be part of escalating the division. Remember the mission. Remember we are about cooperation.  We do not have a doctrinal problem. We do not have a missional problem. We have a cultural problem. We are too shaped by the godless ideology of division rather than our unity in Christ. We should be celebrating what’s working well and not allowing the loud vocal few set the direction. We need folks stepping up and leading. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. begins a two-part series leading up to Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The first question he answers is, “How should we think about disfellowshipping churches in the SBC that have women as pastors?” 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. answers the question “What does it mean that the sins of the fathers are visited on the 3rd and 4th generation?” Show Notes: There’s a phrase from Exodus 34:7 where God says that he will punish the children and their children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Let’s start with what it clearly doesn’t mean. The Bible says elsewhere that it would be unjust for God to hold the children guilty for the sins of the parents. What it is doing is stating that sins of the fathers affect the children. One of my mentors when I was in seminary said every single major Bible theme is introduced in Genesis and the rest of the Bible kind of just explains those themes. So take the Genesis story of Joseph: Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him and sold him into slavery. But that sin of jealousy didn’t come out of nowhere. Joseph was the son of Rachel who was Jacob’s favorite wife. Jacob had showed extensive favoritism to Rachel and Joseph, so the sons of Leah took it out on him. I’m not saying they’re innocent. I’m just saying that they were actually responding to anger and bitterness over the sin’s of their father. Our sin affects shapes our children. They learn to repeat our mistakes often to even greater degrees. I don’t know about you, but it breaks my heart when I see my idols replicated in my children. And I see it all the time. Things that have become a little too important to me manifest in them. If we worship the idol of success, then your kids will always have that pressure of feeling like they got to be first or best or top of their class. If there’s one big takeaway from this Ask Me Anything podcast it’s that sin is serious. It is deadly serious. It’s like John Owen, the Puritan always said, “You got to be killing sin, or it’s going to be killing you at any given moment.” One of those two things is happening and not just in you, and you and your children and those you influence for generations to come. I don’t want to end this on a really negative note. So let me say this: Exodus 34 also says that God keeps faithfulness with 1000s of generations. And what that means is that God is much more merciful and healing that our sin is damaging. So when you sow faith, you can actually break the cycle. God loves to help you break the cycle of sin. I can think of several examples throughout the Bible and in my own life. There’s a movie out right now called Jesus Revolution about the life of Greg Laurie. Greg Laurie was raised by a single mother who struggled with addiction and had multiple failed marriages. As a result, Greg Laurie himself experimented with drugs and lived a rebellious lifestyle as a teenager. In some ways, that’s her sin being replicated in him. But then Greg Laurie becomes a Christian and helps lead this Jesus movement. He becomes a pastor and founds Harvest Christian Fellowship out in California. So yes, it’s true that God sometimes lets the effects of our sin go into the third and fourth generation. But it’s also true that one courageous act of faith can change not just your life and your destiny, but the destiny of your children, your children’s children, and the lives of those you influence for generations to come. So for those that are known by God and loved by God, Romans 8:28 says that he can use all things for good, including the sins and the struggles that at one point in our life negatively affected us. God can reweave those for good in our life and produce the gold of his presence and and the brokenness of our sorrow. 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.

This week, Pastor J.D. answers the question “Why does God seem cruel in some parts of the Bible?” Show Notes: I always joke that if there are five questions I’m going to be asked on a college campus, this is one of them. I don’t want to give one general answer here. We’ve done episodes like that before where you have to press into the individual passage itself, and find within it the clues that shows you that the same God that we find in Jesus—the merciful God, the one who’s willing to die on the cross is the same God of the Old Testament. Sometimes people think Old Testament God is like God in His middle school years—He’s crank and then he basically gets saved and comes back as Jesus who is loving and gentle. But what Jesus said was far different. Jesus said that they really are the same. Let’s just take one example. David commits the sin in 2 Samuel 24 where he counts the people and God told him not to do that. David does it anyways, and because of that, God sends a plague where 70,000 people die. When you look at that, you might think, “What kind of god is this?” in response to something that wasn’t really even that bad. David just counted the people that God strikes down 70,000 innocent people. What we’re not going to dive into is why that sin was actually really bad, but let’s talk on the question of 70,000 people dying something that not even really their sin. The passage makes it clear: God was angry with the sin of Israel. And David was just his instrument for letting punishment come to Israel. What that means is that these weren’t all innocent people. And in a bigger sense, that’s the truth of the entire human race. All of us were not guilty of every sin, but all of us are guilty of enough sin that we stand under God’s condemnation. One time in the New Testament, there was this tower that fell on Jewish people and the disciples asked Jesus if they were the most wicked people in Israel? Jesus said, no. He said, “Truly, truly, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” So the question is, “Why are any of us still living today?” Whatever God is doing in the human race is in one sense justified. The second part of my answer is this: Others are not held guilty for our sins, but the Bible teaches that our sins do have an effect on others. I mean, we all know that right? If you have a father who is an alcoholic, then the kids suffer. The kids didn’t do anything wrong, but they suffer for it. If one marriage partner sins, then both the other spouse and the kids suffer from their sinful choices. There’s constant things throughout the Bible that just remind you that our sin affects people and when it’s the sin of a leader like David, then yes, people suffer. Innocent people suffer from my mistakes as a father and as a pastor. It raises the level of leadership. One more thing: You might say, “Well, that’s what I’m talking about, the 70,000 people didn’t just experience some negative effects of David’s leadership. They died, and that is just so ultimate.” It was really liberating for me when I when I finally got my head around it. In the Bible’s perspective, physical death is not ultimate in terms of judgment. Every single person in the story of David and the counting of the people are dead right now including David and Samuel—the most righteous people—all of them have passed away. The 70,000  just died early. To use Tim Keller’s phrase, “He collected a few people early for the sake of many people’s eternities.” That is hardly immoral. From an eternal perspective, physical death is not the ultimate judgment, eternal life or eternal death. That’s the ultimate judgment So you have to have an eternal perspective about this stuff. You have to realize that death looks big to us. But in light of eternity, it’s not that big and ultimate justice comes in either heavenly reward or it comes in an eternal punishment. God’s justice is like the ocean. You can never get to the bottom of it. And the one thing no one will ever say, when we get into eternity, is that is that God was wrong, or we were more just than he was. 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.