Stewardship

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D.

Greer talks about stewarding our resources. I can't tell you what God wants you to give. I can just encourage you to listen to him. And when you've listened to him and you've obeyed him, you don't have to feel guilty because you're obeying God.

Be settled in your own heart. I just want you to ask the question, because if you're going to walk with Jesus, that's part of the process. If you ever just laid it all at his feet and said, Jesus, everything I have is yours. You tell me what you want with everything I have. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. And a special thank you to everyone who participated in Giving Tuesday yesterday. Gosh, what a blessing it was to have you join in with us to support the global mission of God among Afghan people.

We hope to give you a report soon of all that we were able to give as a Summit Life family to this project. Today, Pastor J.D. dives into a tricky issue describing what the Bible really says about our finances. You know, whenever a pastor starts talking about money, people usually start screaming in their seats. It's such a touchy subject. And it's also an area where a lot of people have felt manipulated or taken advantage of in the past.

But the fact is that Jesus talked more about money than almost any other subject in the Bible. So it's not a topic that we get to avoid. Pastor J.D. titled this message Stewardship.

All right. This week, I want us to consider a question that has plagued me for years. To be honest, I have been in quite a bit of misery about it. And you guys know me whenever I'm in misery about something, I just drag you guys right along with me.

So that's what we're going to do this weekend. And that is the question of how much I am personally responsible to give. How much am I personally responsible to give? You see, here's my problem.

A little confession time from your pastor. On the one hand, I am a legalist, which means that no matter how much I give, I always feel guilty and like I should be giving more. You know, I'm kind of the gold star, kind of type A person.

I'm like, hey, what's the gold standard? How much do I got to give? And I always feel like I ought to be giving more. But the second thing is I'm also a materialist, which means I love my money and I don't like to give it away.

And so you got this poisonous cocktail that is in my fallen heart. And I find that, if we're honest, I'm not really alone in those things. In fact, I will tell you that I find that Christians usually fall into one of three different errors when it comes to giving. The first error is you got Christians who just don't give. They don't believe that their commitment to Christ includes a radical sharing of their resources. Even though Jesus had more to say about money than he did about heaven and hell combined, they just kind of opt out of that and be like, well, I don't like those verses, so I'm not gonna apply them to me.

And by the way, a lot of times they're the ones who get all bent out of shape when you talk about this because it reveals their hypocrisy. The second error is what I call the tithe Christians. Tithe Christians. These are the Christians who, you know, give 10% to God to fulfill a rule. It's kind of like a God tax.

You know, you pay God your tax and you pay God off and you just get past it. Now, that's also a pretty significant error, as I'll explain it here to you here in a few moments. The third error is, or what I call the always feel guilty Christians. No matter how much you give, it's never enough, right? So no matter what you have, you always feel like, oh, I probably should have given more. Every time you start to enjoy something, you feel guilty about it because there's always, and I say this sensitively, I'm kind of, you know, but there's always an orphan in India who, you know, what you spent on dinner last night, you could have fed him for three months, right? So no matter what you, no matter what you are doing, you always feel like there's something that you really ought to have done.

You ought to have given more. Now, I've been your pastor long enough to know that many of you are like that last one because you really are generous people, some of you, but you still wonder, you wonder, am I giving enough, and how do I know when I'm giving enough, and how do I know when God said, that's it, that's enough, I'm pleased with you. At different points in my life, I have been in all three errors, in fact, usually a mixture of all of them, and so I want to share with you some scriptural things that God has taught me over the last few years that have really helped me form what I believe to be a more balanced view of money. So I hope you found 2 Samuel by now. King David is our character. King David showed us what it looks like to go all in with your resources. You ought to pay attention to this because, I'm telling you, the conclusions of this might surprise you.

This is probably not going to end where you think it's going to end. 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verse 1, now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. What has happened at this point in David's life is that God has established his kingdom and given him peace all around.

It's been quite a journey. God took him from being a shepherd and a pastor. He anointed him king. He made him a national hero with the whole Goliath incident.

He exalted him to the kingship. David established a prosperous kingdom. David conquered all of Israel's enemies, and so now David is sitting on his balcony, sipping a decaf latte, looking over the city, and he's seeing that God has brought just incredible blessing to his life, and he's overwhelmed with this sense of gratefulness. And then David's eyes fall on the tabernacle. Now the tabernacle just means the tent, and it was a tent that God had instructed Israel to construct for him where his presence would dwell.

It was done exactly according to the specifications of God, but it was still just a tent. So David says to Nathan, who's like Israel's pastor, he's like, you know, this isn't right. I live in a nice house that smells like cedar, and God lives in a tent.

I think I'm going to build God something nicer to live in. Well, Nathan responds like any pastor would respond when somebody who is really wealthy comes up to him and says, I want to do something for God. Nathan says for three, all right, my brother, go, write the check. Do all that is in your heart. Write the check.

Do all that is in your heart. Verse four, now comes the plot twist. But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought the people of Israel up from Egypt to this day.

I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? David, do you think I need you to build me a house? David, did I ever say to you, David, I'm tired of this drafty old tent. Could you spot me some money so I could build a new house and get out of this place? David, do you think that I need you to provide me a house of cedar? Cedar is for hamsters, David.

My streets up here, they're made of gold. There's a certain playfulness in this. Don't you see it?

I think so. Now watch this, verse eight. I took you from the pasture, David, from following the sheep, and I made you the prince over my people Israel, and I have been with you wherever you went, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.

And I will make for you a great name, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. You see who is building whom a house here? David is not building one for God. God is building one for David. God did not choose David because David had some stuff that God needed. God did not look down from heaven and was like, oh, that guy, he's got a lot of money.

I'm gonna choose him to be on my team because I think I need some of that money so I can build my kingdom. God created it all. At no point, at no point has God ever been in need. I love this, verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, sat before the Lord, and he said, who am I, Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far?

And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, oh, Lord God. And what more can David say to you? Because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it.

If you underline stuff in your Bible, and I think you should, you should underline the word sat in verse 18 and the word no in verse 21. David started this discussion feeling like he needed to do a favor for God. He ends it by sitting in wonder at the provision of God. You see, the whole salvation experience is not primarily about us doing something for God. Salvation is about knowing something about God and sitting in stunned awe in the presence of that God, amazed and overwhelmed and grateful for what he has done for us.

Yes, you will end up doing a lot of stuff for God, but it's just a response to the things that he has done for you. The house that God would build for David was so far beyond anything that David could see or dream up. The house that God's building for David is not a building made out of bricks and wood, it's an eternal dwelling that was built by the blood of Jesus Christ.

All right, I share this with you because it debunks one of the greatest misconceptions about money. And that is that we need to give because God needs our money. God needs our money. That is the posture of so many pastors. And I'll tell you, I preached like that for a while because I thought it motivated people.

I thought you could really like, you know, just, but I've come to see that it is harmful. Our God is not a weak, poor God who needs stuff. God made everything with the word of his mouth. God is a limitless supply of resources for his mission. He proved this to his disciples over and over, did he not? They need money to pay a tax bill, so what's he telling them to do?

Go throw a line in the water, catch a fish. Oh, there's like $10,000 stuff in his mouth. That's not because Jesus was the fish whisperer, right? He created that money in the mouth.

He can do that whenever he wants. Jesus takes five loaves and two fish and he multiplies it and feeds 20,000 people. Jesus can do more in five minutes with five loaves and two fish than Bill and Melinda Gates could do in 10,000 lifetimes. At no point has God ever been in need, never, and God never approaches us with needs. If God had a need, he certainly would not come to us with it. Look, Psalm 50, this is great. God says, if I were hungry, I would not tell you because the world and all its fullness are mine. I wouldn't come to you if I had a need.

I could just speak a word and create a whole new universe full of you's if I wanted. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, perform your vows or your obligations to the most high. What God wants from us is an offering of thanksgiving for what he's done for us.

He wants us to sit in stunned awe at how great his salvation is and then just respond to that. Look at this, and call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. You're not going to deliver me and get me out of the financial jam that I'm in.

I didn't come to you because you're like, hey, that's a group of American people that got a lot of money. That's why I'm going to choose them because I think they can probably build my kingdom on earth. That's not how you're going to glorify me. I'm going to deliver you and you're going to glorify me.

That's why I choose people like David who've been in the pasture so I can make them king so that then they would realize that I'm the one who built this house, not them. How is it, Summit, that we glorify God? Do we glorify him by all the great things we do for him?

No. We glorify him by calling on him in the day of our trouble and allowing him to work through us and then acknowledging the great things that he has done for us. God doesn't need our money. God does not need our money. He makes that crystal clear to David.

I want to make it crystal clear to you. You do see with David three exemplary things in David's attitude toward his money in that chapter that are worthy of our emulation. David did three things with his money that I think are worthy of you and me, worthy of me imitating.

Number one, eternal investment. David wanted to leverage his money for God's eternal kingdom. You see, David knew that God's house was the only house that would last. David knew that the house that God was building was much more important than the house that David was building, so David wanted to give to God and God said that was a good thing. In fact, I'll prove that to you. 2 Chronicles 6, 7, Book of Chronicles is like a parallel with 2 Samuel.

It's like the director's cut. Chronicles says this. God says to David, because it was in your heart, David, to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. In other words, David, it was a good thought. And then what God tells David is I'm not going to let you build the temple. What I am going to do is let you collect all the materials that your son Solomon will need to build the temple. That's what you can do. And so David's response was this.

I love this. David said, quote, Solomon, my son, is young and inexperienced. In other words, I know he's going to end up being the wisest guy who ever lived and all, but right now he's a teenager and he can't remember to feed the dog or he can't balance a checkbook.

So for right now, I'm going to take care of him. So David says, I will therefore make preparation for it. So David provided materials in great quantity before his death. David wanted to invest his money in God's eternal kingdom and God said that was a good thing. Randy Alcorn, who wrote one of the most formative books that I've ever read on money, it's called The Treasure Principle, he says this. He said, financial planners tell us that when it comes to your money, you shouldn't just think three months or three years ahead, you should think 30 years ahead. Christ, the ultimate investment counselor, takes it farther.

He says, don't just ask how your investment will be paying off in 30 years, ask how your investment will be paying off in 30 million years. Jesus told us plainly in Matthew 6, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth because that's where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. David was an example and God commended him because he says, hey, I'm not gonna let you build the temple because I don't need you, David, but the idea that you want to leverage what you have to be a part of my eternal kingdom, that's a wise thing and it's very good. Number two, offerings of gratefulness. Offerings of gratefulness, what you see there is David is so grateful to God for the grace that God has shown to him that he wants to give something to God to show his love for him. He looks around at all that God had done for him and he just, he wants to say thank you. In fact, one of the best illustrations of this in David's life happens at the end of his life, at the end of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 24, God reveals the plot of land that they're supposed to build the temple on and this guy named Aranah owns it. And so David approaches this guy and says, hey, God has told me that I can buy this field so that I can provide it to my son so that he can build a temple on this land. And Aranah, who I guess is a pretty good guy, says, oh, David, don't worry about it, man, you don't have to pay me for that, let that be my donation. And David says one of the most remarkable statements about giving anywhere in the Bible, 2 Samuel 24, 24, 24, the king replied to Aranah, no, I insist on paying you for it because I will not give unto the Lord my God that which costs me nothing.

That's amazing. David insists on paying for it because he knows the issue is not providing something for God that he needs, the issue, the main point is the statement that David's gift is making to God about his worth to David. Does that make sense? David says I cannot give this free because I'm not trying to provide God something that he needs, I'm trying to make a statement to God about how valuable and about how worthy he is to me, so I've got to pay you for it. There's a statement I've been meditating on for a while, it's not a Bible verse, but it summarizes this point right here and I'm gonna give it to you, I'll probably bring it back up over the next couple weeks. Listen, there are some gifts that are valuable for the good that they can do in the world and there are some gifts that are priceless for the statement they make about the heart of the giver and the value of the God they serve. There are some gifts that are valuable for the good they can do in the world and there are some gifts that are priceless because of the statement they make about the heart of the giver and those are the gifts that please God because this whole thing is not about God needing your money, it's about God wanting to captivate your heart.

Do you come to a point where you just look up at God and say, God, I am just so overwhelmed at the grace that you have shown to me that I have to give you something and I'm not gonna give unto you that which costs me nothing. You see, I would very humbly say that for many of you, even those of you that give faithfully to God, many of you, your gifts actually cost you nothing. It's like the woman in John chapter 12 who, you know the story, Jesus is sitting down to eat and this woman who has been a prostitute that Jesus has saved and forgiven, she comes in and she's so overwhelmed with emotion at the grace that God has shown to her that she begins to weep and she begins to wash Jesus' feet with her tears and clean off his feet with her hair and then she takes this alabaster flask which would have been her greatest treasure and she shatters this alabaster flask which would have been worth, in our terms, they say about $20,000 and she breaks this perfume over his feet. There are some gifts, listen, that are valuable for the good that they can do in the world and there are some gifts are priceless because of the statement they make about the heart of the giver and the value of the God that they serve. Jesus looked at this woman's gift and he said as long as the gospel is preached, what that woman did right there will be talked about because it's not like God needed her gift but it made a priceless statement about her love for Jesus. I mean the good that the gift did, I mean it sweetened the air for 20 minutes, big deal, but it made an invaluable statement about her heart toward God. Here's my question for you, if David was grateful to God because of what he'd seen God do, how much more grateful should you and I be who have seen the other side of how this temple would be built? That it wouldn't be a temple that was a massive building project, it would be a temple that would come as a human being who would be crucified for our sins, whose body would be ripped open so that you and I could live eternally with God. There ought to be something inside of you that rises up when you see that that says God I just have to show you how much I love you and I will not give unto you that which costs me nothing. In fact what really moves me on this is you know you know the story of the prodigal son where you got the father watching and the son comes home, of course the son represents us coming back to God and the father when he sees him runs out and when he grabs him and he begins to smother him with kisses and put the nicest robe on him and puts the nicest ring that he owns on his finger. To think that God felt about me so strongly that God saw me and when I came home he just had to pour out his greatest blessings on me. That ought to do something in my heart. My heart says God I've just got to give something to you that shows you the love that I have for you.

It's not like you need this but I need to make a statement about how I feel about you. If we were to take your gifts over the last year what kind of statement do your gifts make about the value of God to you? Right you understand what I'm asking? It's like um you know I think I've told you this before this is an illustration I think of a lot though it's like um the uh you know I've told you that if you're out and you come home there's a friend sitting on your porch and your friend tells you that while you're out a man showed up at your house because you owed him money but your friend says don't worry about it I took care of it and I paid the man for you. I asked you what kind of response do you have to that man and your answer should be it depends on how much he paid because if he paid the postman who came because you forgot to put the correct postage on a letter you mailed he paid 32 cents for you then you pat him on the back and you say hey man appreciate that but if he says well actually it was the IRS you owed nine hundred thousand dollars in back taxes and I just wrote a check and paid for all of it they were going to haul you off to jail but I paid your tax debt in entirety at that point you don't slap him on the back and say thank you you fall at his feet and say command me right because the price you just paid for me demands a different kind of response. Are you looking for a motivation to go all in for Jesus he's worthy of it he's worthy of it because of the grace that he's shown to you that's what David saw with his money he says it's it's given to me as a tool that I can make a statement about your value to me.

Number three obedience to God's spirit obedience to God's spirit David did with his money exactly what God instructed of him you see David recognized that all that he had belonged to God and so of course he would do with with his money whatever God said this is an an overlooked element in giving and we're going to talk more about it next week but you see the spirit of God is deeply involved in the Christians giving process whenever you look at biblical stories about people giving it almost always says things like this God stirred up so and so's heart to give in fact when Moses started to collect to build the tabernacle what he said was let each one give according to what God puts on his heart Paul and 2nd Corinthians let each one gives as he purposes in his spirit in other words let each one gives as the spirit of God lays it on his heart giving is supposed to be a spirit thing a spirit driven thing in which the spirit moves in your heart and you listen to him and then you just obey as he directs sometimes I think the reason that a lot of us don't know what to give to God is that we've never simply asked him what he wants us to give I think the reason a lot of us don't know what we should give to God is that we've just never asked him have you ever done that have you ever laid at God's feet everything you have everything you are everything you own and just said God it's all yours you tell me what you want to do with it now let me tell you something that you should probably not need to hear I am not the Holy Spirit which means I can't tell you what God wants you to give I can just encourage you to listen to him and when you've listened to him and you've obeyed him you don't have to feel guilty because you're obeying God be settled in your own heart right you don't answer to me you ask this question to God I just want you to ask the question because if you're going to walk with Jesus that's part of the process if you ever just laid it all at his feet and said Jesus everything I have is yours you tell me what you want with everything I have where are you finding your security today that's the question Pastor JD Greer is asking on Summit Life given the past two years that we've all just lived through there has never been a better time for the church to determine what defines it as well as what a Christian life on mission looks like so we're offering a study guide that's all about joining God in what he's doing right now now JD one of the things I'm always curious about when I buy a book or a Bible study online is the format what exactly will I hold in my hand when I receive it you know it's a great question the study call it's called be the movement it's it's essentially a four-part study with an introduction and a conclusion the book ends it each part's gonna have a few pages of teaching from me and our team here at Summit Life written out followed by a handful of questions every once in a while Molly we get the critique here at Summit Life that I talk a little quickly I tell people I just sort of automatically come at 1.5 speed and so yeah if that's you and you're like how do I slow this down the great news is this book is for you and then there's this there's a pretty robust prayer section that gives you prompts to help you respond to what you've just spent time studying by the way another question we get a lot here is like I want to have a prayer time this will help you actually put some structure to it so that you can you actually move along with the Holy Spirit and scripture in prayer and I think it'll help you have a more fulfilling prayer time we'll send you a copy of this new of this new study today as our way of saying thanks when you donate to support this ministry just give us a call at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can give and request the Be the Movement study online at jdegrear.com I'm Molly Vidovitch and I'm so glad to have you with us today join us tomorrow when we'll continue our discussion on stewardship listen Thursday to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.