Summit Life with J.D. Greear

The Bible is filled with fascinating stories about heroes and villains. Some are parables, but most are real-life descriptions of men and women who struggled just as we do. Did you know these stories aren’t intended just to teach us moral lessons or simply to entertain us? They’re ultimately designed to point us to the person and work of God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ! During this message, Pastor J.D. invites us to look at one of the most familiar characters in the Old Testament. His life teaches us that God can accomplish amazing things through ordinary people—when they submit to his leadership.

Man is incapable of constructing, or living up to, the true Gospel. In fact, left to our own devices we tend to twist and misconstrue what God designed as perfect. Our current series is called “Broken Saviors.”

This month, Pastor J.D. is walking us through the fascinating book of Judges. In this message, we’ll see how over and over again, God’s people substituted his plan for their own, with tragic consequences.

Do you have a tendency to take a bit too much credit for your success while overlooking God’s blessing in your life? Even with the best of intentions, the human heart always defaults toward pride. Beginning in Judges Chapter 8, we see how Gideon’s victory as a warrior began to inflate his ego. Rather than giving glory to God, he chose to act like a king who deserved special treatment. In a real sense, Gideon manufactured his own “broken savior.”

Being successful can sometimes be dangerous. Once we’ve scored a few victories and our leadership produces notoriety and fame, we’re tempted to give ourselves far more credit than we deserve. Pastor J.D. will show us that even our biblical heroes fell into this same trap. As we trace the footsteps of Gideon, we’ll discover how this successful warrior began to get puffed up and proud.

When God wants to use us he often humbles us. In this refining process, he shapes us into an instrument that can be used for his glory. The Bible often shows us how God uses flawed characters to accomplish amazing feats. In fact, behind every hero in the Bible, we see a God who remains faithful even though our heroes–and let’s admit it–we are often faithless. Good news for those of us who feel unworthy–thankfully God is the one who gives us value!

You know, everyone is a leader to someone, even if you don’t realize it. Whether you’re a mom or dad, a supervisor at work, or you’re volunteering to lead a committee at school, someone somewhere is looking to you for guidance. Pastor J.D. shows us how God can use anyone to accomplish his plan even when we feel stretched and afraid!

It was C.S. Lewis who once said, “Courage is one of the least talked about Christian virtues, but courage is essential to all the others.” Today, we’ll discover how God took a man like Gideon—a man full of fear and doubt–and transformed him into one of the greatest leaders of Israel. And the great news is that when God transforms our generation, he’ll use ordinary men and women just like Gideon; those who are willing to step up and take the lead.

We all know that feeling of being asked to lead a group. It can be a little scary and intimidating, but God assures us in his Word that he can use anyone to accomplish his purposes even when we feel insecure or unqualified. Thankfully, he’s not searching for experts. He’s looking for men and women who are willing and obedient. Today we look at the story of Gideon—one of God’s mighty warriors of the Old Testament—and we see that even he had doubts and struggles as he considered the mantle of leadership being handed to him by God.

In the Old Testament book of Judges, we find a fascinating story about two people named Deborah and Barak. A careful examination of their lives offers a powerful lesson on leadership. Pastor J.D. invites us to follow along as he teaches from the book of Judges, Chapters 4 and 5, as he shares five key points that will apply to both men and women in leadership.

When God inspires a woman to step forward and give leadership in ministry, how can the church help her become all God intended? Pastor J.D.’s response is informed by a fascinating story in the book of Judges.

When we suffer, we look for any means possible to escape. But according to Scripture, sometimes God uses our pain to draw us back to him. Today Pastor J.D. invites us to follow along as we trace the footsteps of an Old Testament character. His story helps us understand God’s compassion and love, even when he chooses to discipline us.

Today, we’re venturing into the book of Judges where God exposes the Israelites for their lack of courage. Through their example, we’ll discover how to overcome our fears and choose faith instead.

As flawed human beings, sometimes we get complacent about following God. Our failures defeat us. And before long, we begin to compromise and let things slide. Pastor J.D. explains how we can find power and freedom in following Christ.

On today’s program, we’re launching a new study in the book of Judges called “Broken Saviors.” Over the next few weeks, we’ll discover that we’re a lot like the Israelites who let their fear get in the way of their progress.

We all have days when we feel insufficient, like we’re not smart enough, strong enough, or talented enough to serve God. But the Bible says that in our weakness, God is strong. It’s not our own ability, because it’s all about God’s strength in us! That’s our subject on this edition of Summit Life, as Pastor J.D. concludes our powerful series titled, The Name.

Throughout history, people have invented and named mythological gods. But the God of the Bible was not invented by mankind, and unlike Zeus or Thor, he chose his own name. In this message, Pastor J.D. describes how knowing the name that God chose for himself will change our understanding of God forever. It’s part of our powerful study in Exodus 34 called, The Name.

If there’s one aspect of God’s character that most people wish they could erase from the Bible, it’s God’s wrath. In fact, the doctrine of hell is one of the most common answers people give when asked why they don’t believe in God. But as we continue our powerful series called The Name, Pastor J.D. explains that God’s wrath isn’t just something we need to accept; it’s actually a fact we can, and should, rejoice in!

Thomas Jefferson once famously took a razor blade to his Bible and cut out the parts he disliked. And while most of us haven’t literally chopped up our Bibles in that way, we often cut out certain passages in our minds, skipping past uncomfortable verses that talk about God’s wrath and the punishment for sin. But Pastor J.D. explains that the wrath of God isn’t a demeaning doctrine to be ignored. It’s a glorious reality!

Verses about God’s love, like John 3:16, tend to get repeated and memorized. They stir up warm, sentimental feelings and make us feel good about ourselves. But in this message, Pastor J.D. explains that God’s love has nothing to do with our worthiness or loveliness. It’s all about God’s compassion.

Have you ever wondered why so many movies, books, and songs are focused on romance? It’s because every one of us, in the deepest corners of our hearts, longs to feel loved and cherished. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we also know that we don’t deserve that kind of unconditional love. We know that eventually, we’ll fail everyone: our spouse, our family, and even God. And God knows all this, so why does he continue to love and pursue us? Pastor J.D. answers that question on this edition of Summit Life.

If you want to get to know someone, the first thing you do is introduce yourself, because knowing someone’s name is an important part of your relationship with him or her. And you’re never going to feel very close with someone if they always call you by the wrong name. So in this series, Pastor J.D. is helping us know God personally by knowing his name.

What do you think God’s most appealing attribute is? If you’re like most people, you’re probably attracted to his love and kindness, and you gravitate to verses that describe him as our Father and our shepherd. And God is definitely all of those things! But Pastor J.D. reminds us that God is so much more than just loving and kind. And if you really want to know God, you have to know everything about him, not just the parts that are appealing. So on this edition of Summit Life, we’re gaining a bigger view of God.

What is the presence of God like? Is it just a warm, fuzzy feeling, or an emotional worship encounter? For something we all want to experience, why can it seem so elusive? On this edition of Summit Life, Pastor J.D. takes us back to Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Zion. We’ll see how the presence of God changed Moses’ goals and desires forever. And it will change us, too.

Some people imagine God as an absentee “watchmaker in the sky” who set the world in motion and then stepped away. They think he’s probably out there, but there’s no way to know what he’s like. Others think of God as an unknown, impersonal force, without thoughts or emotions. But on this edition of Summit Life, Pastor J.D. kicks off a brand new series that’s all about knowing God intimately. He titled this series, The Name.

Like the disciples, we want to know the “how” and “what” of the Christian life. Pastor J.D. helps us see in this message that the Christian life, from start to finish, is a relationship with Jesus. Whatever you need, whatever you lack, wherever you are incomplete or broken, whatever you are missing in yourself or didn’t get from someone else, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

These days, it’s not exactly popular to claim the existence of absolute truth. It’s even less popular to claim that such truth is embodied in the person of Jesus, the one who is the only way to salvation. In this week’s message from John 14, Pastor J.D. shows us the importance of what is perhaps Jesus’ most controversial “I am” statement: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Yet, this statement isn’t primarily about a set of principles to live by, or even having the correct answers to every theological question. Instead, it’s about truly knowing and having a relationship with the Savior of the world.

Do you want to know how to find peace when you feel confused or afraid, when you don’t know what to do with your finances or your kids or a big decision? Pastor J.D. continues to teach in this message how, when we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Good Shepherd, we can rest in his promise to give us peace and lead us in the way we should go.

Without shepherds to care for them, the threats posed to sheep run the gamut, from losing their way to being attacked by other animals. Simply put, sheep thrive under the guidance and protection of their shepherd. In this week’s message from John 10, Pastor J.D. takes us through Jesus’ claim to be the “good shepherd.” What is so remarkable about this shepherd is that his love for the flock leads him to not only protect them, but lay down his life for them. As believers, then, we can fix our eyes not on any dangers that may threaten to harm us, but on our good shepherd.

Does it feel like you’re in a long “second day” of waiting before resurrection? In this message, Pastor J.D. looks at the story of Lazarus to teach us why sometimes God seems to delay his help or deliverance. One day soon, this whole veil of tears we call life will end in resurrection, and we’ll see that, even when life felt like meaningless chaos, Jesus was never absent in our pain.

If we’re honest, most of us have probably experienced disappointment with God at some point in our lives. We question why God didn’t cure our friend’s cancer, or why he didn’t provide for us financially when we really needed it. Pastor J.D. walks us through Jesus’ claim to be the “resurrection and the life,” from John 11. In Jesus’ response to the death of Lazarus, and to the pain of those close to him, we find a Savior who not only weeps with us, but meets us in our moments of disappointment and doubt. And, ultimately, we have a Savior whose resurrection will one day mean the end of pain and death—forever.

Most people think that surrender to Jesus means giving up our freedom. But when you surrender to Jesus and lean on him, it leads to freedom and abundance! Pastor J.D. continues in this message to show us how Jesus is a Good Shepherd who proved his commitment to us on the cross and now promises to use everything he lets into the pasture of our lives for good.

Doors and gates are things that we likely don’t give much thought to until they are in need of repair—and while the truth is that they are usually constructed to keep people or animals out, they can also certainly be opened to let them in. In this week’s message from John 10, Pastor J.D. explains perhaps the most overlooked of Jesus’ “I Am” statements: “I am the door.” Though most people recognize this as Jesus’ claim to be the only way to salvation—and it is—it is also a statement that is far richer and deeper than we may realize. Because while Jesus is indeed the only door to salvation, he is also the door that leads to a flourishing life here on earth.

Jesus said in John 8:12 that those who follow him will not walk in darkness, which means that our lives will radiate with his light. In this message, Pastor J.D. continues to share how to look to the light of Jesus to be saved and then live in a way that glows with the knowledge that you belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to you.

No matter what side of the “daylight saving time” debate we find ourselves on, we all have to at least acknowledge that light is essential for life, for a myriad of reasons. So Jesus’ declaration that he is “the light of the world” was truly a bold claim. In this week’s message from John 8, Pastor J.D. shows us how Jesus’ light is one that doesn’t merely reveal our sin, but ultimately, it heals us. As a result, we shouldn’t feel as though we have to hide in the darkness—on the contrary, we can be the ones who radiate the light of Jesus in the midst of this darkness.

If we were to trace some of our worst choices, our bad habits, our addictions, and even some of our emotional problems back to their source, we would find a deep and unsatisfied spiritual hunger. Pastor J.D. continues to teach in this message how Jesus satisfies that spiritual hunger we all have and the two things we need to feast on Jesus’ grace.

As humans, one of our most basic needs is food—when we don’t have it, we experience discomfort, irritability, or even sickness or death. And yet, as unbearable as physical hunger can be, it is our spiritual hunger that we often neglect to address, to our own detriment. As we begin a series looking at the seven “I am” statements made by Jesus in the Gospel of John, this message from Pastor J.D. explores the first of these, from John 6. Jesus’ claim to be the “bread of life” is a truth that we so desperately need in a world full of people who seek to satisfy their spiritual hunger with anything but Jesus.

Our emotions function like smoke from a fire—and just like you can follow a trail of smoke to figure out what’s on fire in your house, you can follow the trail of your emotions to figure out what is on fire in your heart. Pastor J.D. concludes with the emotion of shame.

We’re in the final couple of days of our series on difficult emotions titled, “Smoke from a Fire.” Or, to change the analogy—each of these emotions—depression, anxiety, anger, envy, and now “shame”—functions like warning lights on the dashboard of our hearts, indicating what is going on in the engine of our souls.

Sociologists say that envy seems to be a bigger problem for our generation than any before us, because social media seems designed to play on it! But when we look at other people’s lives on social media, we are seeing a filtered image. Pastor J.D. concludes his message on the difficult emotion of envy.

Envy surrounds us—and most of us don’t realize the deadly poison that envy is. We think of envy as a kind of petty jealousy that just comes from wanting a little more. But the Bible treats it as far more serious. We’re discovering what the Bible really says about our emotions as we continue our series called, “Smoke from a Fire.”

We seem to live in an angry society. Just turn on any evening news talk show. The issues change by the day, but the anger doesn’t. People seem queued up and ready to be angry—in the classroom, at work, on Twitter, and on the freeway. Pastor J.D. teaches how we can be angry like Jesus.

Remember that one time in the Bible when Jesus got angry? And he didn’t hide it? And he didn’t sin? Pastor J.D. is helping us see how we can be angry like Jesus, too. We’re discovering what the Bible really says about our emotions … as we continue our series called, Smoke from a Fire.

When it comes to money, parenting, marriage, education, career, and any of the other litany of things we worry about, God is not telling us to sit back and do nothing. He is saying that we need to do what we can—in obedience to God, to the best of our ability—and trust him with the results. Pastor J.D. continues our study of difficult emotions called, Smoke from a Fire, with the emotion of anxiety. While anxiety thinks too little about God, it also minimizes how much God thinks of us.

What brings you the most worry and anxiety? Is it your kids? Your job? Your finances? We worry most about what we are devoted to most. Jesus talks about the difficult emotion of anxiety by first challenging what we are most devoted to. Today, Pastor J.D. continues our series called, Smoke from a Fire.

For some reason, most of us tend to think of “good Christians” as those who’re always smiling and encouraging others. So whenever we struggle with depression, despair, or doubts about God, we think there’s something wrong with us or maybe we just don’t have enough faith. And it can be difficult to ask for help because we don’t want anyone to see us as broken. Today, Pastor J.D. addresses this very real struggle from a biblical perspective.

St. Augustine once said that our deepest emotions often function like smoke from a fire: They can indicate what is going wrong in our hearts before we can articulate it. In this series, Pastor J.D. shows us that the aim of the Bible’s teaching on emotions isn’t to suppress them or even to manage them, but to read them accurately, express them honestly, and allow the gospel to reshape them completely.

Death is never a comfortable subject, but in the back of our minds, we all know that death is eventually coming. So, what happens after? Pastor J.D. talks about the two eternal destinations as he concludes our overview of the Bible titled, The Whole Story.

In art and film, heaven is usually portrayed as this ethereal place in the clouds full of harps and chubby cherubim. But, is that really all we have to look forward to in eternity? In this message, Pastor J.D. gives us a biblical picture of the new heaven and new earth promised in the book of Revelation. It’s part of our series called, The Whole Story.

If you were to flip through the book of Revelation with no previous Bible knowledge, it would probably sound like a piece of science fiction or someone’s crazy dream journal. All that talk of dragons and beasts can be pretty confusing! But Pastor J.D. is walking us through this book of prophecy and explaining how God pulled back the curtain to give us a glimpse of the spiritual reality. It’s part of our series called, The Whole Story.