Out of this World Giving, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Be on guard against greed. Jesus doesn't say that about any other sin.

You know he doesn't say, hey be on guard against adultery. You will get to be a place and agree where it so consumes you that you don't even know you're there. Because you just so depend on it. Money seems like it's so essential that you end up doing all these things that justifies any disobedience.

You never even knew that it took over you. Greed hides itself. Jesus doesn't just expect his followers to give their tithe. I mean yeah that's a good place to start, but he really wants us to be out of this world generous. Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer helps us understand how being a spender, saver, or a steward defines what kingdom we serve and if we have truly surrendered our finances to God. Because if we're really giving God our first and our best as good stewards, we will amaze the world with our generosity.

Grab your Bible and pen and let's join Pastor J.D. as he continues teaching in Matthew chapter 6. Jesus expected his followers to be eye-poppingly generous. How we gave was supposed to amaze the world. It's not just that we Christians were supposed to be a little bit more generous and a little bit kinder and a little bit nicer.

It's that our giving was supposed to reveal that we have an entirely different kingdom. If you've been around here you've probably heard me tell the story of William Borden who in the 1920s, 1920 years ago, he was a Christian. He was a Christian.

19, 20 years old, was the heir to the Borden Milk Company, one of the five biggest companies in America at the time. So we're talking a young man who had literally the whole world, the whole world as his oyster. He had everything in front of him but he felt like God. He got saved in college and felt like God was calling him to go overseas to share the gospel specifically in the country of Egypt where very few believers at the time lived. So he had to sever all his ties and his family said if you leave then we're cutting you out and he said I've got to obey God.

So he severed his ties. He gave away his inheritance and he boarded a ship to go to Egypt where he was planning to live the rest of his life. On the way there he contracted meningitis and died within three months of arriving in Egypt because he only made it three months. Somebody right before he died, just a few hours before he died, asked him, they said do you feel like this is a mistake?

Do you feel like this whole coming to Egypt thing was a waste? He was so weak that he couldn't even talk but he got a little piece of paper and he wrote two words that have become rather infamous. He just wrote the words no regret, no regret. A couple hours later he died. He's buried in Cairo today in a little nondescript place out of the way. I've never been there and one of our teams there actually sent me a picture of his grave though. A little out of the way place, a little tombstone you'd never notice if you weren't looking for it.

All it has on it, one of the potentially richest men in the United States, all it has on it is his name, the years of his very short life and underneath it one little phrase inscribed in the tombstone. Apart from faith in Christ there is no explanation for such a life. In other words, his life screams if eternity is not real this is a waste. Here is my question for you and I think it's Jesus's question as well.

Would that phrase describe your life? Apart from faith in Christ there is no explanation for the way they lived. If eternity is not real what a waste. Or what did they say about you when you die? Would they say well he or she they were a little bit nicer, they were a little bit more generous than everybody. Are you living in a way that it just doesn't make sense if eternity is not not real? Are these the words we will write on your tombstone? Apart from faith in Christ there's just no explanation for such a life.

Let me see where the rubber hits the road here. Most American Christians in churches like this one give on average about two and a half percent of their income away to charity or the kingdom of God. The average secular person gives away 1.8 percent.

Now hey right I mean they're at 1.8 we're at 2.5 but does that really scream we live for a different kingdom? I bring it closer to home here only 19 percent of the people at this church only 19 percent of those here in our that come every weekend in the survey we did a few weeks ago only 19 percent say that they tithe. What does that say about what kingdom 81 percent of the people who were in this church are living for? Listen I'm not trying to guilt you into giving us your money I want you to understand that. I'm just trying to let that 81 percent I'm trying to let you know that you're missing out on something.

I'm trying to I'm trying to plead with you to not to not cling so closely to that confederate currency. My giving and your giving ought to scream I believe in eternity and I'm living for Jesus's kingdom not mine. That's what Jesus expected.

Look at what he says next. The eye of the lamp is the body. If your eye is healthy your whole body will be full of light but if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness so if the light within you is darkness whoa how deep is that darkness? Now at first that may seem like an odd analogy and you're like I don't have any idea not the foggiest idea how that's got to do with money. Here's what it means um the analogy is this um say you get up at night it's dark flip on a light if your eye is good then the benefits of the light benefit your whole body because now that you can see now your hand knows what it's looking for to you know get the milk out of the refrigerator to get something to drink the light benefits your feet because your feet it and running into you know it's the parts of the furniture and making you scream profanities in the middle of the night you know it's your whole body's benefiting from the light. On the other hand if your eye is dark meaning it's bad then your whole body doesn't get the benefit of the light and your hands don't know where to reach and your feet run into furniture. In the same way Jesus is saying right if your eye sees money the wrong way then your whole life is going to be filled with the kind of darkness.

If the way you see money is distorted it's going to mess up every part of your life if you serve money if you depend on money for security and you you look to money for happiness then it's going to make you make a lot of bad decisions. In fact some of you if you were honest could probably look at your life now and say I think that's true. I mean we'll take a rather a rather easy one like um some of you I've talked to men about my age who look back and say you know I just when I chose my career I chose it entirely based on where I could make the most money. It's not a career that fulfills me it's not a career that helps people it's not a career I even think that I'm particularly good at.

I certainly don't come home refreshed at the end of the day. I chose to do what I do simply because I could make the most money doing it and it it lasted that that adrenaline of making money lasted for about 10 years and now it just feels like a huge drudgery. Why did you make that bad decision?

That's because your eye was dark and because you so exalted and and valued that that you made all kinds of poor decisions. It's why some people will compromise their integrity. You realize that people that compromise and cheat relating to finances it's not because they're exceptionally dishonest people they're just like the rest of us. It's just that they got into a position where they knew they could not have both their money and their integrity and in order to hang on to the money they had they had to cheat a little bit or in order to get that money that they thought that they needed they had to cheat a little bit and faced with the prospect of of not having the money or losing their integrity they chose to lose their integrity.

By the way most of us have not been at that place and it's scary to think if we got in that place what might actually happen. What he's saying is the problem with all these things is that is that how you see money is off. That's why in Luke's account of this of this teaching Jesus follows up the eye metaphor by saying be on guard against greed. Jesus doesn't say that about any other sin. You know he doesn't say hey be on guard against adultery. That's not because adultery is not as bad of a sin. Why does he say be on guard against greed and not be on guard against adultery? Well here's why, because when you commit adultery you know you're committing adultery. You don't just look up and say hey wait you're not my wife.

Why did that happen? No, but that will happen with greed. You will get to be a place and agree where it so consumes you that you don't even know you're there because you just so depend on it. Money seems like it's so essential that you end up doing all these things that justifies any disobedience.

You never even knew that it took over you. Greed hides itself. He says you got to be on guard against it because it's going to darken your heart and you won't even know you're serving it. So verse 24, no man serves two masters you see. He'll hate the one, love the other, devoted the one, despise the other. You just can't serve them both.

They can both be present in your life but you can't serve them both. Again that word serve is a religious word. You worship it. You depend on it for provision, for security. It takes care of you.

So you obey what it demands because if you don't obey what it demands it'll desert you and then you'll be doomed. I've given you before three categories of people when it comes to money. Three categories that every one of you fits in. Some of you when it comes to money you are what we call a spender. For you money is happiness. It's significance.

It's creature comforts. The purpose of money is to make life better now. So when you get money you spend it. You spend it.

There's others of you. You are savers. The main value of money for you is not happiness now it's security later. So when you get money you save it.

You like to stockpile it because you never know when the rainy day is coming and you want to be able to make sure that you have a great you know inheritance to leave your kids later. So you're a saver. I've explained to you many times that the way God works is he always makes these two people get married to each other. Savers never marry savers. Spenders never they always marry each other and they drive each other crazy. And neither of you can understand why in the world why do you have such a problem with money. The answer is you both have the same problem with money and that is you both serve money instead of God because you're looking to money to do something that God is supposed to give to you.

And that's the third option steward. That's the person who looks to God as their primary source of happiness. God is their primary source of satisfaction and they look at God as their primary source of security. Right so yes they spend some money and yes they save some money but they hold their money loosely. All of their money is surrendered to God because they see money as the primary key neither to their satisfaction in the present nor their security in the future. God is in charge of those things so they're free to be generous with their money now and to trust God to take care of all that other stuff.

Look at what Jesus explains it. I love this verse 26 consider the birds of the sky I don't sow or reap or gather in the barns yet your heavenly father feeds them aren't you worth more than the birds? And consider the lilies of the field right why do you worry about clothes?

Well Jesus because I'd be naked without clothes. Well no no observe how the wildflowers of the field grow they don't labor or spend thread. Right I mean they just you know they're just there. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon all of his splendor was adorned like one of these. What you should do Jesus says verse 33 is instead of seeking seeking security like the birds instead of seeking beauty like the wildflowers you ought to seek God and let God clothe you the way he the way he clothes the wildflowers and take care of you the way he takes care of the birds. A couple things here to make sure you notice you know these two analogies I've told you correspond to the two different personality types of money worshippers you see that the birds the birds analogy is directed at you savers okay so if you're sitting by a saver poke them right now all right it's directed to you savers if you see money as security you say hey hey God takes care of the birds so he's going to take care of you so you don't have to look the money for this because God will do this for you spenders all right poke the spender back look at the wildflowers they don't worry about not having enough money to have the latest clothes or drive the nicest cars live in the luscious houses look how beautifully God has endowed them. Again it's not saying you don't spend any money it's not even saying you don't save any money what it's saying is that primarily God is in charge of those things and because God is in charge of those things I can hold my money loosely and I can actually put the kingdom of God first because I'm trusting that he's going to actually provide for me when it comes to satisfaction and he's going to provide for my security so I can make him first in a whole in all things see you see what's happening there this whole let's watch this this whole teaching is built on the principle get this of abundance in creation you see there's two ways to look at at the earth one is abundance as in we got a generous God who just multiplies there's plenty for everybody the other way is scarcity and that is there's not enough we better hoard we better hang on to it tight what Jesus is showing you here is hey you you serve an abundant God look at how abundantly he takes care of the birds and look at what he does with I mean the flowers is kind of wasted beauty look at all that creativity that God put in there it's just for flowers he just God is a generous God right I mean the whole Bible screams this the Garden of Eden that God put Adam and Eve in you know some of you when you think Garden of Eden you think that little postage stamp size thing in your backyard and here's Adam and Eve running naked through their little garden that's not the Garden of Eden you look at the it gives you the borders of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis it was the size of Yellowstone National Park so what you're dealing with is God put two people into Yellowstone and said hey this is the home I got for you anybody here live on a place equivalent to Yellowstone that's what God he's an abundant God he's blessed just pours it out right then you see it in places like the children of Israel wandering through the wilderness and God provides food for them and so he drops the stuff from heaven called manna right fresh bread from heaven every morning there's so much of it that everybody can go out and get as much as they want abundance just overflowing right when God provides meat for them quail just drop out of the sky so much they can eat it to the point they have the meat sweats is a translation of what happens there and it's just everywhere abundance simple man responds with scarcity so all the Israelites are collecting this manna and they're trying to hang on to it because I'm afraid God's not going to provide it tomorrow and God's like no no I'm a God of abundance that's what's happening in Matthew 6 a little confession here I used to read Matthew 6 really cynically cynically meaning I would be like God takes care of the birds I saw a dead bird on the side of the road the other day I guess God forgot that one maybe that's going to be me but you're misreading it what what he's saying is hey look at how bountifully God provides for the birds look at how beautifully God made the flowers don't you think that God a God of abundance is going to multiply and bless you don't respond with this fear of scarcity I've got to hang on to today what I got because hey God is actually there tomorrow and the God of abundance who's here today will also be present tomorrow look at the last verse in the sermon I'll show you I'll show you what he's saying like that therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow because tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble I love this Jesus is like don't worry about tomorrow and we're like why Jesus because tomorrow has a lot of problems and you're like ah well see that was exactly what I was worried about about tomorrow was I was gonna have problems and Jesus is like yeah tomorrow's got a lot of problems but tomorrow also has the God of abundance and the God that provided abundantly for you today and the God that takes care of birds abundantly today and the God that clothes flowers beautifully today hey that's saying God's going to be with you tomorrow and he will abundantly supply you then also so you put him first today and let him worry about your tomorrow just see that's the question I know that God is important to everybody in this room or most everybody in this room the question is is he first in your life do you serve first God or money if you are a spender then chances are you serve money thinking it is your primary key to satisfaction if you are a saver chances are you serve money primarily as your security if you are a steward you trust God for both of those things and you're very open-handed with your money and you're probably an extravagantly generous person last year to really drive this home I walked you through a little quiz right and it was the spender saver steward quiz and I'm gonna do it again because here we are a year later and we're gonna do a checkup okay so we're gonna go back and see if you've improved any so I'm gonna get I've reduced it to seven questions I just need you to be honest nobody you're not helping anybody out by lying okay I'm not gonna take this up you're not gonna get great I'm not gonna put it up on the screen okay I just want you to answer you may even jot it down your notes just jot down how many times you choose a b or c okay seven questions here we go number one which of these excites you most you to be honest gut reaction letter a a four-star vacation across Europe whoo b maxing out your retirement accounts for the year c dinner with your pastor who expresses heartfelt thanks for your sacrificial support of a successfully launched new ministry right right spender saver except for the dinner with your pastor part I just added that um steward all right because which of those which of those is your gut reaction this is what's most exciting all right number two you hear about a man who at age of 70 has managed his middle class income 70,000 a year say for all of his life through meager living and careful savings he has a current net worth of eight million dollars there are people like this your first thought when you hear about this guy is what a waste well spending it would have been so much more fun he's got eight million dollars now but he's 70 years old and how can he really enjoy it man think about all that opportunity he left on the table he just wasted it or is your answer b wow wow he really did well I hope I can do that too all right dave ramsey's gonna help me do this right here b letter c he may have missed some key opportunities to experience the joy of generosity I'm impressed with how he managed his money but he probably missed some key opportunities in his life to be generous in whatever god put in front of him right then number three success let's define success success looks like which of these three for you letter a experiencing great food and travel living comfortably driving a luxury car making sure your kids get to all the great places they can get to in the world is that success how about b retiring at age 50 man you see somebody that does that that's the person who's been successful and they they made themselves independently wealthy they retire to fit that success or is it c extending payoff on your mortgage and forgoing some luxuries in order to sponsor a missionary family is that success to you number four your annual bonus is twice as much as you thought it would be all right twice what's your first impulse first impulse is it a whoo I'm headed out shopping they're going on a vacation right is that it b I'm putting this on the mortgage we're gonna pay that sucker off early right it was gonna be 30 years that's gonna be 26 years c thank god for this provision I can't wait to give a chunk of this away you can enroll in any of those things but which is your first reaction um number five the spending in my life is effortless I love it I just it comes so natural I gotta I gotta be careful with it be bothersome oh I wish I could spend less by the way you spenders this literally does not make any sense to you does it like there are people I know people that like it just pains them to go out to eat because they're like I could be saving that money why do I have to go out to eat all right they're savers that's just because it feels better than security c controlled I feel good about the way it's you know I spend but it's controlled I've got it limited I feel good about the way it's managed number six the saving in my life the other side saving is bothersome it's an inconvenience it gets in the way of me having fun I do it because Dave Ramsey told me I had to and and I just feel like I got to but it's bothersome b it's effortless I love building wealth man my favorite thing to do every month is to transfer that money into that that that that 401k or that mutual fund or is it c purposeful I have healthy and reasonable goals for which I'm carefully working beyond that I plan to give all the excess away I've set what is a reasonable saving goal and I'm giving the rest away and number seven last one the giving in my life is obligatory happens it spikes every year that you do this series it spikes for a few weeks because it's obligatory I like to feel guilty b formulaic meaning you're the kind of person that just works it out and formula and plugs it in and just disappears out of your account every month and you feel good about it because you've fulfilled the formula is that it c joyfully overflowing now you don't have to be a genius to realize if you answered a on most of those you're a spender if you answer b you're a saver if you answer c on most of them you are moving at least very aggressively toward a steward spenders and savers both serve money there's nothing wrong with spending there's nothing wrong with saving a steward puts god first though a steward says hey the kingdom of god is first that's why you can look at my finances and it shows you that what I most love what I most trust in and the kingdom I'm most living for is the kingdom of god is that what your finances declare about you it's about making him first again I hope you hear my sincerity in this it's not about a financial goal it's why I've told you if we you know discover oil underneath apex campus and we're all fabulously wealthy at some point you know the church has more money it knows what to do with we would still do this we would still do this you cannot be a disciple of Jesus until he is first in your finances period no exceptions if you think that this is me manipulating you I need you to make him first in the area of your finances but I'm asking you give it somewhere else don't let your mistrust of church or me don't let that become an obstacle to you becoming an actual disciple so yeah I'm just giving you permission right now if you just can't get over that become an actual disciple you can't be a disciple unless he's first in this area by the way when I say that for some of you it'll reveal that all that is is a smokescreen that all this stuff is just because you don't want Jesus to be first there you make him first give it somewhere I'd rather you become a disciple then let that be an obstacle what does it mean for God to be first for you the way that we handle money is one of the most telling ways to demonstrate our devotion to him spend some time pondering that today if you missed any of this message you can always catch up free of charge at jdgrier.com while you're on the website you can find a whole host of resources including a weekly podcast called ask me anything jd can you tell us a little bit about it yeah you know this really has been if I if I could say this a great new resource basically short answers to questions that I get asked a lot right there's a lot of theology questions on there practical parenting questions or leadership questions I really try to give very practical short answers to common questions I'd love for you to check it out you can use whatever your favorite podcasting app is of course apple you've got stitcher and spotify and any others I think you can find it there just go to ask me anything look for my name and would love to have you connected that way as well I think it'll be a help to you a lot of our listeners will tell us that they'll hear one and they'll pass it on to someone in their life who is just asking that question thank you so much jd while you're checking out the site you can also preview our latest resource one of our goals is to equip everyone who listens to summit life to be disciple making disciples and developing healthy spiritual disciplines is an important part of that so we've created a pack of 50 memory verse cards for you to carry or display throughout the year helping you to remember god's promises and hide them in your heart we'd love to get you a set of these cards today and it comes with our thanks when you donate to support this program summit life is kept on the radio and online by listeners like you so when you tune in you've got another listener to thank for this message and you can extend that gift to someone else by doing your part to keep this program going give today and remember to ask for your set of the all things new memory verse cards call 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can donate and request the set online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich be sure to join us again as we continue our study of generosity pastor jd shows us how to view our possessions through a generosity matrix and apply god's wisdom to spending saving and giving so that we honor him with our resources we'll see you friday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries