Stewardship, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer talks about the relationship between our finances and our faith. There is nothing wrong with a nice car or a nice house, but that should not come before being rich in good works. And that's a challenge, by the way, a direct challenge for some of you.

You should start reallocating your money until it could be said of you that you are the richest in good works, and only secondarily, a distant second, are you rich in cars and houses. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. You know, there are a few topics that are a bit taboo for party talk. And at the top of the list is money, right up there with politics and religion. But today, Pastor J.D. is diving into this sensitive subject about our financial resources. He's describing the biblical principles for handling wealth, and you might be surprised by a few of them. It's part of our teaching series called All In, so if you've missed any of the previous messages, you can catch up at jdgreer.com. But right now, let's get right into the message titled Stewardship.

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. Have 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.

David was an example of that. God gives you the money, number one, to invest in His kingdom. He gives you the money to pour out as a thanksgiving offering to Him. And He gives you your money to do with what He tells you. Those three principles undergird every biblical teaching on money. All right.

Real quick. Let's go to the New Testament. Because I want you to see Paul pick up the same three things exactly in his teaching on giving.

This is going to be the lightning round, so you've got to hang with me. Paul will take all three of these things and he'll say the exact same thing. First thing with these six.

As for the rich in this present age. Right? Huh? Pay attention. Because he's about tall to rich people.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them. What? Double?

No. He's like, tell them. Charge them.

What is it? Wait for it. Charge them not to be haughty. Nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God. You see, riches have a way of stealing away your heart from God. Riches very quickly become the thing that you hope in. Riches very quickly have a way of becoming to you the thing that you feel like you absolutely have to have to have a good life. There are some of you that could not imagine a life being good unless it is filled with a lot of money. Or riches become the thing that you feel like you have to hope for the future. In other words, for you to feel secure about the future.

There's no way I can face the future with confidence unless there's a pretty big fat bank account. And very quickly, money replaces God as our primary source of treasure and security. But God, you see, is supposed to be our primary hope. God is the one who is supposed to give us our fundamental identity.

God is the one who provides our most stable security. And what Paul is telling them is he just charged the rich because wealth has a way of knitting a man's heart to this world. Wealth has a way of stealing away their heart from God.

Make sure they understand that God is to be their treasure and God is to be their trust. And wealth, more than anything else, is going to steal away God's place in their heart and it's going to replace it with an idol. That's what you've got to warn the rich people because the issue is not that God needs their money, the issue is that God wants their heart.

And most rich people, the reason it's harder to go that camel through the eye of a needle than it is a rich man to go to heaven is because wealth has knitted their heart to this world and money has become their treasure. That's what makes them happy. That's what they work for. That's what they're driven for. Wealth is their security. That's what they trust in. That's what they hope in and that's why they'll be condemned, not because they have a lot of money, but because they wrote the first commandment and because they didn't love God above all those things.

You understand what I'm saying? In fact, when Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6, was confronting a group about their worship of money, I think I've told you this a lot because it's so significant. He identified two personality types who have a problem with money who are totally different and I find this fascinating. First, he says, Matthew 6, there are some who look at money as their source of beauty and significance. For them, money buys the good life. So they work hard for their money and when they get it, they spend it. These are those of you who are in credit card debt right now. You've got to spend your money because nice stuff makes you feel beautiful.

It makes you feel important. You know what Jesus' counsel for you is? He says, consider the lilies of the field. They neither toil nor spin, yet even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed as beautifully as one of these. You know what he's doing there? He is pointing you to a beauty and a significance that God gives that's way beyond anything that money can give.

He's saying God can be a better source of beauty, God can be a better source of identity, God can be a better source of significance than bling can be. Or a nice house or a nice car. That's one personality type.

But then there's another personality type he looks at. Those are those who think that money is their security. Money for them is their safeguard against a rainy day. So when they get money, they don't spend it. They what? They save it. And I've told you in God's sense of humor, these two kinds of people always get married to each other. Don't they?

And then they get an extra thousand dollars and one of them is trying to buy a new TV and the other one is trying to put it in the bank. And God just did that to you to make fun of both of you. You know what Jesus says? You know what Jesus says?

I love this. Consider the ravens. They don't pack for the future but God takes care of them. Are you not, Jesus says, are you not of more value to God than ravens? By the way, ravens. Ravens. Ravens are not good birds. Nobody's got a raven for a pet, right? Ravens are dark, ugly, ominous birds who show up saying nevermore and you know, portending death.

Right? Nobody likes ravens. They're considered to be pests.

Unless you're a sports fan, although this season I wouldn't even say that but you know what I mean. His point is, if God even takes care of the nasty old ravens, of course he'll take care of you. In other words, God gives us security way beyond anything money can give. Two personalities, the saver and the spender, very opposite from one another but united by one thing, they worship money. And money has taken the place in their heart that God should have as their primary security and their primary treasure. And what Paul says is tell the rich to make sure that they set their hope on God, not on the uncertainty of riches.

He continues, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Now, I love that because see, it's not that money is bad and you need to feel guilty about it. God gives money as a blessing and God is glorified when we enjoy the money that he's given us. By the way, that verse right there gave me the ability finally to start to enjoy some of the blessings that God gave to me without guilt.

You want to know how I realize this? I'm a dad and I love to buy my kids gifts and I love it when they enjoy the gifts that I give them. The Heavenly Father gives blessings and one of the blessings that he gives sometimes is money. And God loves it when we enjoy the blessings that he's given us and you should enjoy it and not feel guilty. Verse 18, they are to do good. By the way, when Paul says do good, he's always talking about taking care of the poor. They are to do good. They are to be rich in good works. That's an interesting play on words, isn't it? Rich in good works.

Here's a question. If we could apply the word rich to only one area of your life. If I could apply the word rich to only one area of your life, what area would I apply that to? Rich in what you drive? Rich in where you live? Rich in the clothes you have on? Or would we say rich in good works, rich in giving money away? Folks, hear me. There is nothing wrong with a nice car or a nice house, but that should not come before being rich in good works.

And that's a challenge, by the way, a direct challenge for some of you. You should start reallocating your money until it could be said of you that you are the richest in good works. And only secondly, secondarily, a distant second, are you rich in cars and houses. That if we could apply the word rich to only one area, we would say the richest thing they are is they're rich in good works and in giving money away. Tell them to be generous. Tell them to be ready to share.

Actually, in Greek, it says eager to share. Is that you? You an eager sharer or are you a begrudging one? Or are you like, all right, the giving series.

I've been waiting all year for this one. I'm an eager sharer. You giggle when the offering plate goes by. I just love to put my money in. How much planning and coercion does it take for you to share? He says, tell them to be eager. Tell them to have loose hands with their money, that they just see a need and it just goes. Thus, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. Again, you see that? It's her eternal investment. He says, give away your money to what truly matters, that which is truly life. You see how these are the exact same things that we're learning from David?

To the chagrin of all you rule following type A, get the gold star legalist. How many of you guys are in the house? Raise your hand.

I'm one of you. To the chagrin of all you rule followers, God never once gives us a fixed command, a set amount on how much money we should give away. And that's because he does not need our money. God sneezes out fully furnished universes at will.

He does not need our money. God's focus is always on our hearts. So rather than rules, rather than rules, what God's word does is it just asks us questions. Watch, about what our money says about our heart.

Here are an example of the questions that scripture poses to us. What does what I do with my money show that I delight in? What does what you do with your money, what does it show that you delight in? Because you understand that your mouth can talk a big game, but your wallet tells the truth about you. What does what I do with my money show that I trust in? What is where I spend, what does what I do with my money show that I really trust in? Because again, your mouth makes a confession of what your God is, but your pocketbook tells the truth about it. What does what I do with my money indicate about what kingdom I'm really building? What does the trail of your checkbook, what does the trail of the money you spend and the money you save, what does it say about the answer to those three questions?

Friend, quit kidding yourself. The confession of the mouth is cheap. The confession of the wallet, the confession of the pocketbook, that's what tells the truth. A lot of people will be condemned because of their use of money.

And that's because their spending indicated a severe fixation on themselves. They're condemned not because God needed their money, they're condemned because they broke the first commandment and they love something more than God and they trusted something more than God and how they spent their money showed that. Thus, God invites us toward generosity so that we can go to war against the idolatry that corrupts and destroys our hearts. Generosity is not something that God wants from us. Generosity is something that God wants for us. God doesn't need our money. God is concerned with the idols of our hearts. Or here's the statement I gave you last week. The primary purpose of giving is not that God will get the money out of our pockets. The primary purpose of giving is that God will get the idols out of our hearts.

In light of that, let me, let me identify. Just, I'm going to give them to you as kind of bullet points. The first one I've got to talk about just a tad. But I'm going to give you five bullet points of five different kinds of financial gifts that in light of this, Christians should make. Five different kinds of gifts.

Again, I'm not going to have time to explain most of them, except for the first one. Here's the first, in light of what we just learned, here's the first kind of gift that Christians should make. First fruit giving. First fruit giving.

I told you from the David story that your primary obligation is to do with your money what God commands you to do. Well, the first command that God gives us in regards to our money is to give the first fruit of it back to God. Now, first fruit is a crop term.

And because most of you in here are not farmers, let me explain it to you. It referred to the fact that when God gave you a crop, you acknowledged that it came from him by giving the first portion of it, the first fruits, back to him. In the Old Testament, that first fruit offering was almost always ten percent. Now, people say, well Ty, the tithe is not really taught in the New Testament.

We are no longer under the law. And that is true. But the principle of first fruit giving is a universal biblical giving principle. And in the Old Testament, they gave ten percent, so we say ten percent is a great place to start. In fact, God went so far as to say that the first fruit belonged to him and that when his people kept it for themselves, he considered it stealing from him.

He's like, you shouldn't touch the first fruit. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to me. That is a principle my parents taught me from the time that I got my first allowance when I was three years old. They're like, here's your forty cents. By the way, four cents of that belongs to God. So here it is in pennies. So you can take your four cents and give it back.

I kid you not. And I am very grateful they taught me that. Because that first fruit was a way of saying, God, everything I got comes from you. Now, I know that's kind of negative.

So let me flip that around and give you the positive promise that's attached to it. Namely, that God multiplies what you have when you give the first fruit back to him. Numerous places in the Bible talk about this. I used to, as a serious theologian, be embarrassed of these. But you know what? They're in the Bible.

And so I've got to tell them to you. Deuteronomy 14, Malachi 3, 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Here's one from my quiet time this week. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer. Another withholds what he should give, and yet only comes to poverty. That means when people say to me, I can't afford to give the first fruit back to God, my response to them is, you can't afford not to. Because God has promised that when you acknowledge that it comes from him and you give that first fruit back to him, he multiplies the other 90% that you keep.

There are too many stories that I know personally where I've seen them. In my own life, in college, there was a semester where I was working a little bit and I was trying to save up to go on this mission trip. That's a good thing, right? And I thought, I really can't tithe because I can't afford it. And so what I did is, I was like, God, I'm just not going to tithe. I'm just going to take a little break. And I just really felt the Holy Spirit saying, nope, that's the first fruit.

Don't touch it. It belongs to me. And so I dutifully and a little bit begrudgingly wrote God his check out of that and did that. Well, it came time for the first down payment for this mission trip to be due. Actually, excuse me, it was the final payment. And the day came and I was like, God, I just don't have the money. And in my heart, I was like, if I hadn't given the tithe, I wouldn't have the money to pay for this mission trip. And I kid you not. Some of you are skeptical.

You're like this. The day, the day, I had to mail it off that afternoon to get it in on time. That morning, the job that I'd worked at six months before calls me up and says, or actually didn't call me up, sends me a letter. They say, we had a miscalculation.

We underpaid you when you worked here on something. Here is a check for the exact amount to the dollar that I owed on this mission trip. Except that it had 32 cents. It was that amount of dollars plus 32 cents, which I concluded was God sending me money for the stamp to mail it in.

I kid you not. And I have heard story after story of people in our church that tell me equally wacky things. I'm telling you, God has a sense of humor and God loves it. And that first fruit tithe, we say, ought to be given to your church. Because in the Old Testament, they gave to God's chosen instrument of work on earth. And in the New Testament, the focal point of God's work was the local church. And so we say it ought to be the focal point in your giving to ministry.

And that's where you ought to give that. Now, people are like, well, why does God got it? Why should I have to give God my money?

See, that's your first indication that something is way wrong in your heart. It's not your money. God is the supplier of it. And God says as a way of acknowledging that, I want you to give me back the first tenth of it. I mean, it's almost like, you know, some rich uncle you've never even known leaves you $10 million and says, here's $10 million. I just want you to take $1 million of it and give it to this charity. And you're like, oh, how stingy. The nerve of that guy asking me to give him, he gave you $9 million. You look at God and you say, God, look how much you blessed me. Of course I'm going to not touch this part that you gave.

Now, one more thing on this. I've been your pastor long enough and I love you and I've heard this from you. People say this, like, well, this is just not a great time in my life.

I got so many expenses right now and I just can't afford it. I want to be sympathetic, I really do. And I don't want to make fun of you, but I'm going to.

But I can tell you, listen, as a dad of four kids now, I can tell you there will always be excuses. Well, I'm a college student. Well, I graduated and now I'm single, but I never had nice things when I was in college because I was living on borrowed money.

And so now that I'm making a little money, I don't think God will mind if I use some of the money to buy myself some nice stuff because I got to get established and never really had nice things. So let's let this one be an exception. Oh, now I'm married. Now we're trying to pay off college debt. We need to get caught up. Oh, now we're pregnant and we got to provide for our babies.

Oh, now our kids are getting older and they just keep getting more expensive. All right, there will always be an excuse. You just got to acknowledge the first fruit belongs to God. It's what God's commanded.

This is it. It belongs to you. You're going to hear a story right at the end of our of the time of a couple who told this to me. They said we started coming to church here nine years ago. We were college students. The girl said I made one hundred dollars a month and I decided that you said that we should give this back to God. She said I was going to do it.

It was ten dollars a month. She said that was that was a pattern we began to set. It came into our marriage. Not only have we given the ten percent, she said we've gone way beyond that. Now we are giving away a lot more. She said we are on track to give away a million dollars by the time that we retire.

That's not bad to enter eternity with. She said it started by simply giving God the first fruit of a hundred dollars that we were making in college. See, it starts somewhere. All right, that's your one. Let me give these others a real story. Number two, mercy toward others. Mercy toward others.

That's just sharing. You understand that's why God gave some of you excess? He gave you excess because there are those around you in need.

That's being rich in good works. Two thousand verses in the Bible deal with your obligation to the poor. God didn't give you excess so that you could build bigger barns for yourself. He gave you excess because he wanted you to be a channel of blessing.

He gave you more because some have less and he wants to bless others through you. Number three, investments in God's kingdom. Investments in God's kingdom. Leveraging what we have for eternity. Investing in those things that are truly life.

Around our church we say this. If you get this principle, you will live and save sufficiently and give extravagantly. If you get this principle, you'll live and save sufficiently.

I'm not telling you not to do that. But you'll live and save sufficiently. You'll give extravagantly. You'll be rich in good works because you understand that you're giving to those things that are truly life. Guys, you've got to start thinking about your lives from the perspective of eternity and living that way. Five minutes after you die.

Five minutes. How will you wish you had allocated your life and money and talents? Number four, love offerings to God. Love offering, gifts that just make a statement to God about his worth to you and how grateful you are to him. If we were to take your gifts over the last two years and just say, what do these gifts say about how worthy God is to you? Would you look at that, would God look at that and say, I see their heart.

I see a heart of grateful love in that. Number five, Holy Spirit prompted gifts. Holy Spirit prompted gifts.

That's what I'm telling you. I can't play the Holy Spirit. I just want you to lay it out of God's feet and just ask. What does God want you to do with the resources that you've been given? This has been a powerful message about correctly and strategically stewarding the gifts that God has given you here on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If you'd like to hear this message again or catch up on any previous message in our series called All In, visit us at jdgreer.com. J.D., your latest resource is called Be the Movement.

So what do you mean by movement? That seems like a big idea for us to achieve on our own. Yeah, Molly, from the very beginning, God intended for his church to move. It's not, you know, we often say this. It's not supposed to be a large audience basking in the anointing of one or two great teachers or leaders or worship leaders. It's supposed to be a movement where all people see the same thing.

One of the reasons people burn out in Christianity is they're doing listening and activity and they're not sensing and seeing it on their own. I remember a guy told me a story one time about a grandfather sitting on a porch with his grandson out in the country. There's like 10 dogs under the porch. And all of a sudden, one of the dogs kind of perks up and he lets out a single bark and he tears off across the field. Well, that rouses all the other nine dogs up. They all start barking and yapping and tear off across his dog.

And the grandson, you know, is kind of watching what's happening. And the grandfather said, he said, son, let me tell you what's about to happen. He said, in just a moment, every single one of those dogs is going to come back one by one. Their tongues are going to be, you know, out there.

Their heads will be down and they'll take their place back here under the porch. He said, that'll take no more than five to 10 minutes. He said, in about 30 minutes, that first dog is going to come back and he's going to have the rabbit in his mouth that he saw that started this whole thing. And he said, the reason that he got the rabbit is not because he's the best rabbit dog.

The reason is because he's the only one that actually saw the rabbit. I kind of feel like that's a metaphor for the church. Is you got somebody, a handful of people that are up there because they've seen the mission and they see Jesus and they're pursuing him. And everybody else starts, you know, pardon the analogy, barking and yapping because that's fun to be in a group that's barking and yapping. Well, what we want to do with a study like this is to help you see the rabbit.

Because one of the reasons that you fatigue and you fall off in the Christian life is you're trying to live off somebody else's vision of Jesus. The best thing to do is to see it for yourself. We want you to not just be an audience member. We want you to be a mover in the movement, somebody who owns it and somebody who propels it as much as we do here at Summit Light. I think this is definitely a resource and a topic that's bigger than any one of us.

I think it's one of the best things that we've offered. So it'll help you do your part. There has never been a better time for the church to truly define itself and the movement that God has entrusted her with. We'd love to give you this short four-part Bible study that works through these concepts in greater detail. The Be the Movement Study Guide comes with our thanks when you donate today to support this ministry that enables countless numbers of people to dive into the message of the gospel with us on a daily basis. Give and request it when you call 866-335-5220. One more time, that's 866-335-5220. Or you can request this resource when you donate online at jdegrier.com.

I'm Molly Vidovitch. Be sure to join us Friday when Pastor JD sets the record straight on our finances as we continue our series called All In on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.