The gospel message is that if you will expose your sin to Jesus, if you will just expose it in all its ugliness and all its messed upness and dysfunctionality, if you will just expose it, he will receive and forgive you. If you keep it covered, you're on your own. Thanks for joining us today for the Summit Life podcast with JD Greer. I'm Molly Bidovich. Before we get to our teaching today, let me tell you about something really helpful and totally free.
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Receive this completely free download to help you steer group conversations on Pastor JD's new book just released. You know, we are hardwired to think that our worth is a result of what we do. Do good things, get good rewards. Do bad things, get bad consequences. And in many ways, that is true, but God's grace kind of throws that whole system aside, giving us good things in spite of what we do.
Thank God for that because without the scandal of grace, none of us would have any hope apart from Jesus. Also, turn to Luke chapter 7 for a familiar message that Pastor J.D. titled The One with the Pharisee, the Prostitute, and Jesus.
Well, listen, Joby Martin, whom some of you know that name, is one of our favorite guest preachers here at the Summit Church. He tells a story about the early days of his ministry. Joby was a youth pastor at a church in North Myrtle Beach, but because the church could not pay him full-time, he took a second job working at a gym right there on the strip there in North Myrtle Beach. He said the gym owner was a pretty smart guy, and so he walked right across the street to the Crazy Horse Gentleman's Club and offered all the ladies that worked there a free membership to his gym. He said, all of a sudden, all the men in the North Myrtle Beach area started coming to his gym to work out.
Joby said that when business was slow, because he worked there at the gym, he would do some of his sermon prep in the smoothie-making area, he said. And so I got to know some of these women. He said, I learned that they had names. He said, their real names were not Bimbi and Cinema, names like Carla and Sharon. I learned that they all, he said, I had a few things in common.
He said, at least the majority of them, maybe not every single one, but they all had a few things in common. He said, first, none of them wanted to have the job that they currently had. He said most of them had taken the job thinking they would do it only for a short time. In order to get out of some financial crisis issue that they were dealing with, and then they planned to leave. He said, for most of these ladies, those financial issues had something to do with being abandoned by a man.
He said, most had kids, and they didn't want their kids to know how mommy made money. And he said, all of them, he said, had to drink or take some substance before they perform. Joby said he invited one of these ladies to come to church with him one weekend. He said it was pretty obvious just by the way that she was dressed who she was or at least what kind of work that she was in. He said that when she came in and sat down with him, a lot of people in this small little Baptist church that he was youth pastor at were whispering and kind of pointing her direction.
He said at the end of the service, one of the deacons asked to speak to me. As to speak to me in the pastor's office, and he said, when I got there, we were joined by the pastor and a couple of other deacons. The deacon explained that the purpose of the church was to protect its members, and especially their children, from women like that. Joey said that when he walked back to the car, he said she was sitting inside the car crying. He said, I tried to lie and tell her that the discussion wasn't about her, but she wasn't stupid.
He said she knew that the meeting had been about her. And he made this statement. He said, How was it not heartbreaking? that a woman like that feels the most degraded when she walks into a church. And that she feels more love and acceptance dancing in front of drunken men on vacation than she does in a place that bears Jesus' name.
And by the way, let me just say, if that's you today. Let me briefly pause just to say two things. First, I am deeply sorry that you have been treated that way by people in the church. That is wrong. And Jesus is quite the opposite of that.
Second, I hope today to demonstrate to you that we don't feel that way about you either. Years ago, Philip Yancey wrote a book called What's So Amazing About Grace, in which he explains what a lot of us know all too well, and that is a lot of our churches have been very poor stewards of grace. I read that book right after college. I graduated from a Christian school where everything was all about dressing right and talking right and listening to the right style music, where the length of your hair and the translation of the Bible that you used were more important than what was going on in your heart. And where people often got defined by their mistakes and reduced to labels, divorced.
drunk, pregnant before marriage. That created a community that was a part of that school that looked great on the outside, but was filled with a lot of brokenness where people hid on the inside. And so Yancey's book, What's So Amazing About Grace, really resonated with me. And my guess is that that message probably resonates with a lot of you as well. Many Christians seem totally devoid of the one thing that is supposed to characterize our experience with God.
And that is grace. What saves the Christian is grace. What sustains us is grace. What fuels us and motivates us is grace. What secures our future is grace.
For it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and not even that is of ourselves. That's the gift of God, not of works, so that nobody can boast. It is by faith that we have access into this grace now in which we stand. From start to finish, our walk with God is grace. Grace.
Grace that is greater than all our sin. C.S. Lewis once walked into a room at Cambridge where he was teaching at the time where a group of his fellow professors were discussing world religions. And he said they had written all the characteristics of world religions down on a chalkboard, and they were trying to show that all these religions basically taught the same thing. And so they saw C.S.
Lewis walking by, and they said they always called him Jack. Jack, come in here for a minute. And you're a Christian. Tell us what is it that is in Christianity that's not already in all these other world religions. Story goes that C.S.
Lewis looked at the chalk more there for about Five seconds and said, Oh, that's easy. You missed the most essential element of Christianity. And that is grace. In every other world religion, acceptance is given because you keep the rules well enough. It's wages, it is merit.
If you do and you do well enough, you will be accepted by God. But in the gospel that is flipped on its head, its acceptance is given as a gift, as grace. And in response to that, as a response of gratefulness and worship, you obey. Grace, a real experience with grace. is the most transforming power on the planet.
I'm going to say that some of you feel like something is missing in your spiritual life. You lack passion. You see other people with their hands up and they seem to mean it, and you just don't feel that in your heart. You feel spiritually dry. I want to show you, hopefully, today that losing touch with grace is at the root of all of that.
Luke 7, verse 36. This is such a beautiful passage. Charles Spurgeon preached five sermons on this passage. He loved it so much. I've only got one, so I'm sorry about that.
But here we go. Luke 7, verse 36. Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee's house and he reclined at the The table. Can I just say, real quick?
Jesus had this thing about eating with losers. All throughout the Gospel of Luke, you're going to find him in the homes of of let's just call them unpleasant people. Tax collectors, self-righteous religious hypocrites, prostitutes, people with problems. I point this out because some Christians seem only to want to hang out with people who have it together. They actually think this is best for their family.
Jesus was not like that. Jesus did life with broken and messed up people. And anywhere you look for Jesus, you're going to find that kind of person around him, not the people who have it all together. Verse 37 again, and a woman. In the town, who was a sinner.
By the way, a woman who was a sinner is Bible speak for prostitute. She found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisees' house, so she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them. With the perfume, kissing and anointing his feet.
Aside from just kind of being gross, that was also deeply suggestive. In those days, taking off your veil and letting down your hair was something that a woman did only in her home around her husband. Clearly, this woman had not gotten the memo on how to act when the preacher came over for dinner.
Well, everybody feels awkward and embarrassed, except for Jesus. He seems quite pleased, and so. Verse 39, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, He said to himself, well, Well, if this man really were a prophet, He would know who this, who and what kind of woman this is, and who is touching him. She's a sinner. Jesus replied to him, Simon, I got something to say to you.
By the way, There's a little prophetic irony at work here. Because you see what just happened? Simon just thought to himself, silently in his head, he thought, if Jesus were actually a prophet, he would know what kind of woman this is, and he would send her away. Jesus reads Simon's mind. And diagnoses his thoughts and heart, which would be.
another way of indicating that he was a prophet.
So I feel like he answered Simon's question pretty thoroughly there. Simon said, well, say it, teacher. A creditor had two debtors. One, Jesus says, owed 500 denari guy. That's about a year and...
A half salary, and the other 50. Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both.
So, which of them will love him more? Simon answered, Oh, I suppose the one who. Oh, he forgave Morris seems kind of a begrudging answer, doesn't it? You have judged correctly, Jesus told him. Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman?
I entered your house, yet you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she hasn't stopped kissing my feet since I came in. You didn't anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. Therefore, I tell you, her sir many sins have been forgiven. That is why she loved much.
But the one who has forgiven little loves little. Then he said to her, Your sins are forgiven. Verse 39: Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, Who is this man who even forgives sins? By the way, that's a good question. If Jesus is not God, how is he forgiving sins?
Sins are committed against God. Right? Sins are committed against God, which means that only God can forgive them. If I'm standing next to you and somebody walks up and smacks you in the face, And I look over at them and I say, oh, I forgive you. You're going to say, That was my face that got smacked.
That means it's my prerogative to forgive, and you would be correct.
So, see this for what it is. In forgiving sins, Jesus is identifying himself as God, and everybody understood that. Verse fifty, Then he said to the woman, Your faith has saved you. Go in. Peace.
The scandal. of grace. Grace confuses and offends religious people because people who have worked hard. and kept all the rules. Don't like it when those who have not worked as hard or broken some of the rules, when they get the same reward that the person who worked hard and kept all the rules gets.
Martin Luther, the reformer, said, Since the fall, our hearts have been hardwired with we called a wages mentality. Wages means you do, you get paid. It means that we get what we deserve. We are worth.
however well we perform. And so, if we do good things, then we get good outcomes. If we do bad things, then we get bad outcomes. It's karma.
So, if somebody does bad things and then gets good outcomes, well, That's insulting. But that is the economy of grace. And it is a scandal that we should thank God for. Because if God did not relate to us by grace, none of us would have any hope. You see, the point of this story is not that this woman is a sinner, and Simon just needs to learn to deal with the fact that Jesus loves sinners too.
The point is that Simon is a sinner just like this woman. The only difference is that he doesn't realize it. Ironically, she's got a leg up on him because she realizes her sinfulness and he doesn't. Because of his upbringing, or because of his privileged place in society, or because of his good education that his parents were able to get for him, he might have learned to cloak his sinfulness better than she has. And he might have learned to kind of harness his behavior into more socially acceptable patterns, but his heart has the same sickness as hers.
Think of it like the coronavirus. One of the strange things they say about this disease is how varying the symptoms can be. And so, some who contracted have only a slightly elevated temperature and a little fatigue. Others, especially if they are older or they're weaker, they develop serious lung problems and their vital organs start shutting down. But it's the same disease.
If a babysitter walks into your house and picks up your baby and says, Oh, by the way, I've got coronavirus, but don't worry. Don't worry, my symptoms are only mild. My guess for you parents is that's not okay. You don't want that disease anywhere near you. God's revulsion against our sinfulness is 10 billion times stronger than the thought of a diseased person holding our baby.
In the sight of God, we are all in the same category as this woman. We should thank God that He receives and forgives and embraces sinners because that's all any of us are. The scandal of the gospel is not that not that Jesus loves bad people too The scandal of the gospel is that Jesus only loves bad people. Because that's the only kind of people there are. And so, if you don't think of yourself as a bad person, then you're not a candidate for the love of Jesus.
One of the most important and ironic aspects of Jesus' ministry is that sinners felt safe around him. Look at this woman. She feels totally comfortable around him. You see what she's doing here? is very symbolic.
Like I explained to you, this was a symbol of intimacy, something women usually only felt comfortable doing in front of their husbands. But clearly what she's doing here is not sexual. What she's doing represents an intimacy of soul before God. She is saying to Jesus, you see all of me. And accept me just as I am.
And I can let down my hair because I feel safe with you. One of the most ironic and most beautiful aspects of Jesus' life is how safe. sinners felt around him. In fact, You could say that the safest place in all the universe for a sinner to be. is to be completely exposed in the presence of Jesus.
The gospel message is that if you will expose your sin to Jesus, if you will just expose it in all its ugliness and all its messed upness and dysfunctionality, if you will just expose it, he will receive and forgive you. If you keep it covered, you're on your own. This woman symbolically exposes her brokenness of soul to Jesus, and all she finds. is love and acceptance.
Now, Jesus' acceptance of her didn't mean, of course, that he affirmed her lifestyle choices. Or that he was content to leave her where she was. Her experience of grace changed her. In fact, if you're taking notes, write this down. Grace does not mean accepting or embracing somebody's sinful lifestyle.
Grace means loving and embracing them despite their lifestyle. I say that because our society teaches us that when it comes to somebody's lifestyle, You've really only got two choices. Right, this is whether you're watching Oprah or Ellen or Bill Maher or anybody. Here's your categories. You can have affirmation or alienation.
You can either affirm that person fully. Or the other option is you can reject them. But Jesus. Shows us a third option that is neither affirmation nor alienation. It is speaking truth with grace.
Speaking God's truth to them, but... Not in a way that pushes them away. or that shuts off the relationship. One of Jesus' most misunderstood teachings in our day is what he says in Matthew 7. Judge not, lest you be not judged.
People always assume that that means you should never tell somebody what they're doing is wrong. Or if you do. If you do, they're going to say, well, who are you to judge? This is the one verse in the Bible that Bill Maher seems to know. But is that really what Jesus meant?
is what he meant, don't tell other people they're wrong. We I mean Think about it. Didn't Jesus spend an entire lifetime pointing out people's wrongness? Wrongness in what they think, wrongness in what they believe, wrongness in what they're doing. And so did the apostles.
So not judging somebody can't mean not speaking the truth to them. No, judging them is what you do after you speak the truth to them. After you speak the truth to them, do you cast them away or do you draw them close? You see, judging means pushing somebody away, condemning them, and shutting them off. And that condemnation just means I'm breaking the relationship because you're bad.
You see, even when Jesus spoke truth to people, he drew them near. He radiated acceptance and love. Jesus said in the Gospel of John that he was not sent into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. In John 12, he said that while he was on earth, he would not judge anybody.
Now, one day, one day he'll come back as the judge, but during his time on earth, he wouldn't do it. Because he'd been sent out only to extend the acceptance of salvation to all who would receive it. And of course, that's true of us too for our time on earth. That means no matter what somebody has done. It means no matter what they've done until their dying breath.
We extend God's acceptance and embrace to them, and we model that. That is our only posture toward the world. That is the scandal of grace. That is the heart of the gospel. And see that scandal.
Produces three things in us. Three things that religion by itself. with all of its laws and all of its commands and all of its disciplines. can never produce. I don't care how intense your religion.
how deep or thick your Bible knowledge is. Forgiveness and grace are the only things that can produce these three things in your heart. Number one, White hot worship. Go if this woman demonstrates anything else. It's an uncontrollable passion for Jesus.
She weeps over her sin. She adores with tearful thankfulness her salvation. She pours out a bottle of expensive perfume on his feet. Her love is so strong that she can't. seemed to even constrain herself.
Here's Simon. The Pharisee, for all of his knowledge and all his religion. He didn't have any kind of emotion like that in his heart. Let me ask you, are you more like Simon or are you more like her? When was the last time that you wept?
Over your sin and salvation. Hey, if the answer is never. I would just say very humbly that you've got a problem. If the fact that God Himself Took on for you an eternal hell that you had brought on to yourself. Or the fact that he sought you.
when you were running as fast as you could the other direction. If that's never brought tears to your eyes, then you've got a serious problem. You say, well, I'm just not that emotional of a person. You don't have to be emotional for that to bring tears to your eyes. You just have to be human.
With some semblance of understanding. And everybody here, as far as I can tell, is human. Which means that if you haven't wept over your salvation, I'm questioning whether or not you actually understand it. Jesus said, Those who are forgiven much, which is all of you, Love much.
So, if you're not loving much, it must mean. You don't really understand forgiveness. Again, let me be clear. Let me be very clear. The point is not that this woman needs to be forgiven of a lot.
And the Pharisee only a little. No, both are in a great need of forgiveness. Because one, the prostitute, tried to find security and happiness apart from God in prostitution. The other Simon thought he could win God's approval by showing how much better he was than everybody else. Both rejected God in their own way, and both needed to be forgiven.
Her advantage. Is that she realizes it and he doesn't? Which is why she loves Jesus passionately and he doesn't. You know, this time of year is really critical for organizations like Summit Life, and that might be a bit surprising to you if you don't know what it takes to fund a ministry like this. You see, when you give to Summit Life, you're making sure that costs doesn't get in the way for anyone who wants to learn and grow in their faith through this teaching.
We don't operate like a normal commercial podcast. We don't sell ads to fund the program. We rely on the generosity of God's people who have a heart to reach the lost world around them.
So your generous gift ultimately helps people all over the world dive into the message of the gospel.
So we would love for you to consider joining with us today in that mission. And guess what? We'll also send you our ever popular Summit Life 2026 day planner as our gift to you. You can visit us online at jdgreer.com to take a look and make your donation today. Friend, if your faith is cold.
If your heart is hard, If your worship feels perfunctory, Then you need to pray that God opens your eyes to see how amazing grace is, to see how high and wide and deep and long God's love is for you. Because when grace is amazing to you, Worship won't feel like drudgery. Worship will be your delight. Coming to church to celebrate God's grace. with other people.
It's not going to feel like something you got to get dragged to. How long can I use the coronavirus as an excuse not to gather with people and to And there are people that do it for safety reasons, and there are people that just feel like, I just don't know, I'm just not that compelled to do it. It won't feel like that. It'll feel like something you can't wait to do. And if you're in a circumstance where you can't do it, the cry of your heart will be: I can't wait to be around other people to celebrate.
The grace of God. White hot worship. That's your first effect of knowing you've been forgiven. Number two. Acceptance of others.
Around the summit church, we always say those who believe the gospel become like the gospel. The acceptance that we have received from Jesus forever redefines how we receive others. I mean, I don't feel like this woman in the church from this point on would find herself looking down her nose at other people in the church and wondering, I wonder what his story is. Oh yeah, I've heard about that. I knew about that guy's marriage.
I knew about what went on in her life. I don't think she was like that because. Every time she walked into church, all she could think about was where she was when Jesus found her. In fact, I think it's kind of important how Luke, who obviously was a member of the early church, how Luke refers to this woman. Verse 37, he calls her a woman.
Who was a sinner? He calls her first a woman. He identifies her first as a woman, a human being with inherent dignity. She's somebody's sister, somebody's.
somebody's daughter, somebody's mother perhaps. That doesn't mean she's not also a sinner. It just means he sees first in her something he can relate to. He sees first somebody made in the image of God, like him, who came into the world just like he did, with the same needs, and hurts, and desires. In fact, if you give me a little a little Artistic license here.
I can't help but wonder how this woman. became a prostitute. We can't be sure, it doesn't tell us. It's possible. It's possible that she chose this path despite a loving father and mother who raised her the right way and provided for her.
That is a possibility. But it's unlikely. Right? We'd have to admit that. That's very unlikely.
What's more likely? Is that something happened to her?
Something happened to her life at some point that totally derailed her. Maybe she got raped. May your husband abandon her with no way to. pay off her debts or No possibility of owning land in first century Israel, no way to get remarried now. That's how a lot of women in those days.
became prostitutes. In fact, maybe even Darker because we know this happened. Maybe her dad sold her off as a little girl to pay some debts. That happened? And maybe she tried for a while to make money in other ways, but there just finally came a day when she got so desperate that the thought crossed her mind: well, There's always that way to make a living.
At least I wouldn't starve. And then she meets a man who didn't care about what her name was, didn't want to know her name. She walked away after being used with enough money not to starve. And then She went there again and again and again, and every single time the shame increased, and eventually the shame becomes unimaginable, and the pain becomes unbearable. She just got into a cycle that she didn't know how to get out of.
Now hear me, I'm not saying our actions are justified. I'm not trying to excuse. Hmm. I'm just saying that those of us who are not currently walking down a path. of darkness might consider That the darkness that some of the people around us have experienced.
is what has led them to those paths darkness you and I have never had to go through. Or the undeserved graces that God gave us to keep us out of that darkness. We ought to consider that. To this woman, Luke says, I see you first as a woman. I see you first as somebody whose pain I understand, as somebody who is made in the image of God, just like me, who's not made of any different substance that I'm made of, whom God loves and whose pain breaks his heart.
You see, for those of you who come in here, you've got mistakes and shame and pain. I want you to hear from me directly. You are not your divorce. You are not your rape. You're not your abuse.
You're not your pride. You're not your addiction. You're not your pain. You're not your sin. You're not your past.
You're not your future. You're not your stupidity. You're not your bad choices. You are God's child. That is who you are.
By the way. Scholars point out that this story ends with a question. It never totally resolves. After Jesus accepts this woman, The question is, does everybody else? The story never tells us.
Luke never tells us what happens. Did Simon say, hey, okay, pull up a chair and let's talk theology? What did the disciples do? We just don't know. See, some at church, that's a question for us.
How are we going to receive sinners? Look at your own circle. I know it's easy to kind of nod your head and be like, yep, that's right. I don't care if they sit seven rows away from me. That's going to be great.
I'd love to be a part of a church like that. Look at your own circle. Who is in your circle? How many broken, messed up people are a part of your circle? To what tarnished, broken person that other people kind of shake their heads at and tell jokes about, to which of those people are you showing the acceptance of Christ?
And some, let me just say it. If we're going to be a church that stewards grace well, we're going to have to get used to our church feeling a little messy. Because I'll tell you what I've learned in two decades as a pastor. People who actually have broken past don't get like automatically sanctified when they walk into the church building. And I'm sure this woman brought all kinds of baggage into the church.
All we get is this little story here, but you can't tell me this didn't take years to deal with. Counseling and just dealing with some of the pain that she was bringing into the church.
Sometimes people like this don't know the right things to do in worship. And, like this woman, they do something that is awkward and borderline inappropriate. We're having a A little conversation.
Well, it wasn't exactly a conversation. It was right after I preached a message. I think it was at the Briar Creek campus. Man walks up. And you can just tell looking at the guys like, church is not a typical place for this guy to be.
He walked by me very quickly. And then he turned around, he turned around, he saw he had. Big tears in his eyes. And he just stuck out his hand very. quickly little bit awkwardly.
And just said, Pastor, That was the best bleepity bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep sermon I have ever heard. And I literally did a double take. I was like, what? And the first thought in my heart was, you know, that might. That just might be the most authentic expression of praise uttered in this place this morning.
God might be more pleased with that sentence than He did anything that I said. I'm not saying that the language that that guy used was okay. He'll figure out soon enough that. We don't all talk like that. At some point, he's going to be sitting in the service looking at the words on the screen of the.
You know, the song be like, Why don't they use curse words in those songs? He's going to have that thought. I'm just saying that when lost people find Jesus, it's messy. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that, are you?
All right, number three, last thing here, extravagant generosity. I don't overlook that. In this story, this woman, as an expression of worship, pours out a I mean, what other words are you used for? Scandalous. Outpouring of generosity.
She kneels down weeping at Jesus' feet. She lets down her hair, and then she breaks open an expensive bottle of perfume. These perfumes that were kept in alabaster flasks. If you've been around church, you've heard this. They were precious and very expensive.
They say about a year's salary. for the average person. There was something you kept for a lifetime, used very sparingly if you used them at all, and you left them as an inheritance for your kids. Yet, here we have her in one motion break the entirety of the bottle and pour out the content on Jesus' feet.
Something that would have lasted, an aroma that would have lasted no longer than a couple hours. We know from other accounts that some of the disciples thought this was an incredible waste. And they were like, look, if anything. And she really wanted to give it. She should have given it to the poor.
But Jesus rebuked them. He said, no, you don't get it. You don't get it. This was worship. This was pure worship.
Jesus is like, Look, I can multiply bread and fish to take care of the poor, I can do that. This kind of extravagance is right. In light of the extravagance of the forgiveness I've given to her, I don't need her money. This expression of her worship is right. But write this down.
Some gifts are valuable. Because of the good they can do in the world. Others are valuable for the statement they make about the heart of the giver and the worth of the God to whom they are given. Generosity is first and foremost a declaration to God about how valuable He is to you. We have wanted to give in a way that shows that Jesus is first in our lives.
I've told you various stories. I've told you one about. one of our pastors who determined that he was going to make his giving. The giving from his family, the largest expense his family had every month, bigger than what they paid for their mortgage, bigger than what they were saving for retirement or for college. Bigger than their vacation or car expenses in order to do that, he said.
We had to make some lifestyle changes. That's one way to do it. One way to do it is to To rearrange your budget that way. My question for you is not: are you doing it that way? My question is: what does it look like for you?
It's how you're giving, is how you're using your resources, your time, your talent, and your treasure. What kind of declaration is it making to God about his place in your lives, about how grateful you are of grace, how much you understand grace? Maybe some of us will realize, I brought this up, that there's something in our lives that we're holding on to.
Something in what we call stored assets that we just realize God's saying, Why are you hoarding that? I gave you that to transfer into my kingdom. You can trust me with your future. You can trust me with. With right now, she don't live for that.
Invest this in my kingdom. Use it eternally. There's going to be some gift that we offer as an act of worship that declares that Jesus is first.
Some gifts are valuable. Because of the good they can do in the world. That that's true? But the more important gifts are valuable for the statement they make about the heart of the giver. And the words of the God to whom they're given, what kind of statement about Jesus' value.
There's your gimme make. I've told you, listen, if resentment floods up in your heart and you just kind of bow up a little bit at this, I'm not. Honestly. I'd just rather you kind of deal with that on your own. I'm not asking for anything from you.
The Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. And if your heart is not cheerful when you hear about these things, and you're probably. Not in a place for me to hear that. You've got to deal with some questions on your own. For those of you that don't have that reaction, I just want to ask you to pray through and consider this.
Told you that we're a very key point in the ministries of the Summit Church. There's a lot of new ministry opportunities in front of us.
So, I would just ask you to say, Jesus, it's all yours. What do you want with it? I want to make an eternal investment. I want to do this in a way that declares you're my significance and my security. And I want to do so in a way that.
Shows the value. I want to declare this to my friends and my family. I want to teach my children this. I want to show our church this. I want to teach the world this.
This is the value I have. It's for those of us in the midst of an uncertain time, we believe we don't. Cower backwards in fear, we walk forward boldly in faith. This is the time to make that kind of declaration. Hey, let me let me close.
of pointing out that these three things. White hot worship. acceptance of others. An extravagant generosity.
Some of the more astute of you notice that they correspond to three of our discipleship identities. If you've been doing the groundwork study, worshiper. Family member, that's the acceptance of others. And steward, that's extravagant generosity. We see all three of those identities.
In this story, what is most important, listen. Is how are these produced? How is worship acceptance as a family member? How does extravagant generosity, where does that come from? Answer?
A deeper awareness of grace. That's why we say here that you never grow in the Christian life by resolving to do better. You don't grow just by doing a groundwork study. Right? You grow by going deeper into the wonder of your salvation.
We say that growing in the gospel is like drinking from a well. You don't get the best water from the well by widening the circumference of the well, you get the best water from the well by going deeper into the same well. That means if your heart is cold and the Christian life feels like drudgery, ask God to open your eyes to the wonder of grace. He'll do it. And when that wonder fills your heart, passion for the Christian life will follow as naturally as roses on a rose bush.
Let's bow our heads right now. Let me get you to do that.
Okay, just bow your heads wherever you are. As you're doing that, let me say to those of you who find yourself, maybe like this woman. Maybe a life filled with regret over mistakes. Maybe you're aware of your sin, unsure about how God feels about you. I need you to understand that the arms of Jesus stand open wide for you.
You say, no, no, no, I've made too many mistakes or my mistakes are so bad. That he couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't receive me. No, Jesus said that as long as you're on earth, he stands arms open wide, not in the posture of judge. That's why we say in one of our songs: if you're not dead, God's not done. Or to quote an older song.
Dark is the stain that you cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson tide, whiter than snow. You can be today. Grace, grace, God's grace.
Grace that can pardon and cleanse within, grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all my sin, or in the words of another song that you might have heard, just as I am without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Thanks for joining us. A quick reminder that we have officially launched our 2026 Summit Life Day Planner. Don't wait to reserve your copy at jdgreer.com.
You'll find a place to plan the events of the day, but also a daily Bible reading plan featuring one Old Testament and one New Testament reading each day. Reserve your copy with the gift today. See you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Yeah.
