Who is Giving to Whom

Today on Summit Life, JD Greer flips the script on giving.

Your name, not mine, your name will be magnified forever. The world is not supposed to look at believers and say, wow, what great and impressive things they have done for God. They are supposed to look at believers and say, wow, what great and awesome things God has done for them. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian, JD Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Lots of people have this question. What exactly do we have to do to be good enough for God? Some people think it's enough to just live a decent life and not hurt other people. Others think that they have to give everything away and they constantly worry if they've done enough. Well, today, pastor JD brings clarity on this issue and explains what God really wants from us.

And it might not be what you think it is. It's part of our series called Search for a King and pastor JD titled this message, Who is giving to whom? Second, chapter seven, how do you know how much is enough when it comes to giving?

You know, whenever you start talking about generosity, there's a question that lurks inside of some people's heart, especially if they have a certain personality type. And that is, I mean, how much is enough? You ever asked that question? Like, you know, when do I quit feeling guilty? When do I quit feeling like there's always something else I ought to be doing?

How do I know that I've given enough? Here's a confession that you won't often hear from a pastor. And that is that I have spent a great deal of my life feeling guilty about various things. You know, some speaker would come along with some new cause about, you know, what's going on in the world and how real Christians ought to care about that cause. You know, for example, when I was in college, it was missions.

1.8 billion people have never heard about Jesus. And so naturally, people who really love Jesus and people who love lost people are going to be involved in missions. And they go on mission trips. And so I got involved in mission trips.

I went to 25 different countries in the space of 10 years, including living in a fundamentalist Muslim country for two years. And then I later learned that real Christians care about the poor. And so, you know, I was like, well, I've got to give generously to poverty relief. And then later I learned that, you know, real Christians are aware of the adoption crisis in the world. Real Christians, of course, they love the fatherless. So how many homeless fatherless kids should you have living in your house?

You know, at least one, you know, maybe 15. You know, real Christians should care about the problems in our inner cities. Yeah, I heard about people who, you know, rather than living in the suburbs, they're like, no, the real problems are in the inner cities. So they uprooted their families out of nicer neighborhoods and moved into downtown areas. That's what real Christians do. So I started thinking, well, maybe I should uproot my family and move out of the neighborhood we're in and move downtown. Then I, you know, learned that real Christians love refugees.

You know, I mean, how do you know? The hardest one for me was when I was in college, reading 1 Corinthians 7 where the Apostle Paul says that you could be most effective in ministry if you were single. And as a college student, I was like, well, what is it? I mean, if I love Jesus then and I really love ministry and I want my life to have maximum impact, should I be single? Should I just quit? So I tried that for a while. Honestly, I did. I was like, I'm just going to be single.

It totally did not work for me. And then I realized it was cruel and unusual to all women everywhere. And so I quit doing that. But the question is, how do you know? How do you know what God specifically wants from you? And how do you know when you've done enough? Does every priority in heaven, does every single one have your name on it? Now, how much is enough?

Some of you are asking that question on a more basic level. There's two times a year enough. Should I double that to four? Is it 26 times a year? Is that what God really likes? Do I got to come 52 weeks out of a year?

I don't know if I can do that. How much is enough? How moral is enough?

You know, what's the curve? Where's the cutoff line? How do I know that I'm in good enough?

How much do I need to give? What is it that I've got to do to get back into God's good graces? And that's the question that I know that many people who come to church during this time are asking, how much is enough? I want to show you that both of these questions that we ask are answered in the most profound way in the passage that we're going to look at this morning. 2 Samuel chapter 7. 2 Samuel 7 is one of the most famous prophecies about the birth of Christ found anywhere in the Bible. And here's one of the things that I love about the setup here is that this unbelievable prophecy is given in response to David asking the very same questions that I just presented to you. See, a lot of times people think that there's this dichotomy between deep biblical truth and then day-to-day life issues. You know, like you've either got to talk about life issues, you talk about biblical truth, but never the twain shall meet.

That is just totally not true. That's one of the secrets of the Bible, is the most basic pressing questions that you deal with in life are answered by the deepest and most profound biblical truths, and that's what you're going to see. Take a Samuel chapter 7. We're going to begin in verse 1. I'm just going to read most of this chapter to you, make some comments, and then draw some principles out of it for you to apply and to interpret your life through.

Here we go. 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 then said to Nathan, the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. David is now thoroughly established as the king. And God has given him a stable kingdom.

He has defeated all of his enemies, and the land is prospering and is at rest. Nathan is the nation's pastor. And so Nathan and David are sitting together out on David's back porch after dinner with a couple of decaf coffees. They're overlooking Jerusalem.

They're smoking some pipes. And David's eyes falls on to that tabernacle outside of his palace. The tabernacle was a tent that God had had his people build for him. It was basically a series of curtains. It was a tent that inside of it was the ark of the covenant where God's presence dwelt with his people. Now, by this time, the tabernacle was a couple hundred years old at least. And so it was getting rather threadbare.

And so David says to Nathan, he's like, you know, this isn't right. I live in a nice house that smells like cedar. I mean, cedar wood, that's some expensive stuff, isn't it?

You've been to Bed, Bath, and Beyond recently and looked at like cedar hangers, 15 bucks each. I mean, that's some expensive stuff. And David's like, I live in a nice house made out of cedar. God lives in a tent or a warehouse or whatever, you know? Well, Nathan responds like any pastor responds when somebody who's really rich comes to him and says, I've got a lot of money. I want to invest in the kingdom of God. Nathan says to David, verse three, go my brother and do all that is in your heart.

That's all pretty standard stuff right there. That's a natural reaction for a pastor. Next comes the part that usually doesn't happen. Verse four, by that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Verse five, go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? God tells Nathan to go back and tell the rich guy not to give his money.

That has never happened to me, just so you know that. Just so you know, I would obey God if he did it, but it's never happened. Verse six, I have not lived in a house and today I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day.

I've been moving about the tent for my dwelling. Real quick, this is a pretty awesome thing about God in the Bible. It's called the incarnational principle. And it's the idea that whatever conditions God's people are in, God wants to be in as well. So when God's people are roaming about the wilderness, you know, living without a home, that's what condition God wanted to be in.

He wanted to roam with them. When we are suffering and we are in pain, God wants to incarnate himself among us and live among us and share our suffering and our poverty and our pain. All right, verse seven, in all the places where I've moved with all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word saying, why have you not built me a house this either?

To me, there's a certain playfulness in here. Can you hear it from God? You're going to build me a house, David. You think I'm worried about my accommodations down there? David, have I ever said to you, I am tired of this drafty old tent. You think I want a cedar house? Cedar is for hamsters, David. My streets are made of gold, not cedar.

You got no idea what my real house looks like up here. And if I really needed a nice place to live, David, I wouldn't be coming to you asking you to spot me some money so I could build a nice place. All right, verse eight, I took you from the pasture, shepherd boy. I took you from following the sheep, that you should be 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 appoint a place, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more.

And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. What is the emphasis on here? Who's the actor?

Who's the actor? God says, this is not about you giving to me, David, this is about me giving to you. This is not about you building me a house, I'm building you a house. David is not, David, I'm not sitting around in heaven going, oh my gosh, if David would just spot me a little bit of money, I could get out of these squalid living conditions that I'm in, and I could have a real nice house and a real nice kingdom. David, I created all this, all of it. I don't need a thing from you. I'm the God who has everything and the God who needs nothing. I'm the giver, you're the receiver. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer.

Find resources and all of our teaching by visiting jdgreer.com. We're excited today to offer a 25-day devotional for Advent that honestly you can pick up again and again, year after year. The book is called He Is Here, and it offers devotionals that cover much more than the birth story of Jesus.

And that's by design. Most of the stories come from the Old Testament because what we celebrate at Christmas, God coming to earth, had been God's plan all along, kind of like we're finding out in our study of David this month. And these stories are meant to show us how all of scripture was building toward the coming of Jesus, the King. In each story, we see God interact with someone from the Bible, and this encounter changes everything for them, and it can change everything for us too.

We'll send this holiday resource as our thanks for your gift to the ministry right now, so give us a call at 866-335-5220, or check it out at jdgreer.com. Verse 12. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. Now, we are getting into one of the most famous Messianic prophecies. Out of you, David, is going to come a son, verse 13. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now, look closely at this next part, because it's a little confusing, it's a little deep, so hang with me. Verse 14, God says, I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, like I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. Now, some people really get tripped up here, because they're like, wait a minute, I thought this was a Messianic prophecy, which means that it was fulfilled in Jesus, but how could this prophecy be about Jesus, since it says, if he commits iniquity, God will punish him, since Jesus never committed any sin? That is a great question. It is a very astute question, and I'm impressed that you would ask it.

Here is the answer. Most biblical prophecies have a dual meaning. There is an immediate meaning, and then there's an ultimate meaning. The first fulfillment of this prophecy was David's immediate son, Solomon. Solomon would build the most incredible temple of God, and the throne of David would be established through him. And even though Solomon would do some really stupid Saul-like things, like having 700 wives and worshipping idols, God would not strip the throne from him like he did from Saul, because he made a promise to David here that he didn't ever do that. But Solomon is not the forever king that God had promised.

Solomon would be a pretty big disappointment, right? In fact, ultimately, his sons would sin so badly that God would drive Israel out of the land into captivity. So this prophecy is pointing through Solomon, right? It's going to Solomon, but going through him, beyond him, to another king that would come. He would also be a direct descendant of David.

In fact, he would be born in David's own hometown, Bethlehem. He would establish the real temple. He would point to the temple in Jerusalem and say, you can tear that thing down in three days and now rebuild it. And everybody would be like, you could not rebuild that thing in three days? It took 40 years, like 3,000 men to build that thing.

You could not rebuild it in three days. But Jesus said, I'm not really talking about that temple. You see, that temple was just a symbol to you. That temple was where God came down and dwelt among his people. I am God coming down and dwelt among his people. I'm the real incarnational principle.

I'm really where I came down and took on your pain, your suffering, your living conditions, and I dwelt among you. I'm not talking about that temple. I'm talking about the real temple, and you tear it down. You crucify it in three days, I'll raise it back up. And then beyond that, after I'm resurrected, I'm going to come to live inside my people, and I'm going to take the temple of God into them.

This temple over here, this was just a symbol of the real temple, which is me coming to live inside of you, right? Verse 14, he would not need to be punished. Jesus would not need to be punished with the stripes of men because he would never commit sin. But he would be bruised for our iniquity. He would be chastised for our peace, and our price of peace would be laid upon him, and by his stripes, we would be healed.

Jesus, verse 15, would assure us that God's steadfast love would never leave us by taking the stripes we deserve for sin in our place. Jesus would reign forever. The real son of David that is being pointed to here, the real son that would build the real temple of God and establish God's presence with his people forever would be Jesus.

He would not just be David's son, he would be God's son, born of a virgin, and he would build the house of salvation for God's people on earth all by himself. He is the fulfillment of his own promise. See, look, and so God concludes, verse 16, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, and you can put in parentheses there, by me, before me and by me, your throne shall be established forever.

Now, I love this. Look at this next part, verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord. That's totally the opposite of getting busy for God, isn't it?

There's not a whole lot of building going on. David went in, sat down, and said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet, this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. What more could 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, you underline the word sat and the word know it, because those are the two most appropriate responses to salvation. Salvation is not primarily about you doing something for God. Salvation is about you knowing something, sitting in stunned awe in the presence of God, realizing and being overwhelmed at what he's done for you.

Yes, in Christianity, you will do things for God, but what you do will be a grateful response to what he's done for you. You can never outgive God. Verse 22, therefore, you are great, O God.

Who? Who's great? David's great because he built God an awesome house. David's awesome because look at all the awesome stuff he did for God. No, you are great, O Lord God. You, because you gave me a house and did for me what I could never do for myself. For there's nobody like you.

There's no God besides you. And who is like your people Israel? The one nation on earth whom God wants to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods. And your name, not mine, your name will be magnified forever. The world is not supposed to look at believers and say, wow, what great and impressive things they have done for God. God, they are supposed to look at believers and say, wow, what great and awesome things God has done for them.

What is supposed to stand out about us as people look at us, it's God's grace and his power that is exuding from our lives. That is so far beyond anything that we could ourselves accomplish that people stand in awe, not of us, but of what God has done for us. The example that God pointed to, that David pointed to was how God delivered Israel from captivity. You know, when you look at how Israel was delivered from captivity, there's no way you'd ever look at that and say, wow, what incredible political shrewdness that Israel had to get themselves out of captivity.

What incredible leaders they had, what incredible soldierly skill that they used in overcoming Egypt. Yeah, I've told you before, Moses is like the complete opposite of a good politician and he's the complete opposite of a good soldier. You know, Moses walks into Pharaoh's court. He's a shepherd. He smells like sheep.

He's got sandals on and a stick. You know, and he walks up to Pharaoh. And I've told you that we got a totally wrong image because we think of Moses as Charlton Heston. You know, big old kind of, you know, six foot five guy says with a deep baritone voice, God says, let my people go. And Pharaoh was like, okay, you know.

And I've told you that the one thing we know about Moses is that it says he had a very weak voice, which means that he stuttered or it was mousy or it was feminine. You know, and so it didn't sound like, let my people go. It sounded more like, let my people go, you know.

And everybody bust into laughter when he's talking like, who is this guy? And Pharaoh looks back at him. It's like, all right, what do you what do you want, shepherd boy? I want you to let my people go.

You know, and Pharaoh's like, well, why should I do that? What do you got? You got an army behind you?

No. What do you got? I got a stick. Oh, stick. We don't have any of those in Egypt.

Awesome. Now, Moses knows, remember, Moses knows that his stick is supposed to do some tricks. He didn't even know what they are yet. So he takes that stick and he's like, here's why you should let my people go. And he takes that stick and he throws it on the ground. This is one of the top three moments I want to go back and watch in heaven because you know this is the moment of truth. Because if that stick hits the ground and nothing happens, this is a really awkward moment for Moses. I'm gonna pick up my stick.

I dropped it. But it turns into a snake and that unleashes the 10 plagues which have nothing to do with the power of Israel. The sun gets dark and the Nile turns to blood and all kinds of stuff. And as Israel is leaving Egypt, Pharaoh is not shaking his head going, look how awesome Israel is. He's like, that's a shepherd and a bunch of slaves. Look how awesome God is doing for his people what they could not do for themselves. The house of salvation that is being built did not say being built by Israel for God. It said being built by God for Israel.

They were supposed, the world was supposed to look at us like trophies, works of art, and demonstrations of God's power. Y'all remember a few years ago when China hosted the Olympics, they opened it up with that unbelievable fireworks display and all the commentators made the statement. The reason that they did this is they were trying to show, we were supposed to look at that and say, man, look how far China's come. Look at the technology they have.

Look at the economic superpower they come. We were supposed to look at that pyrotechnic display and stand in awe of China's new greatness. Christians are to be God's pyrotechnic display. Our lives are supposed to burn with evidences of God's miraculous greatness, right? Now, there's your passage. There are a few absolutely crucial biblical principles embedded in that passage that you got to understand in order to make sense out of the questions we started this thing with.

So here they are. I'd encourage you to write them down. Number one, the grace principle. The grace principle. Most counter-cultural Christian principle that goes in the face of every religion in the world.

You got to pay attention to this one. The grace principle. David wants to build God a house. That's actually a pretty common desire for kings in the ancient world. When a king came to the throne, it was common for a king in the ancient world to build a house for whatever God they believed got them to that throne.

And then they would try to, through the building of that house, make the God happy enough that the God would establish their kingdom forever. King Tut is a great example. After he came to power in Egypt, he built a big, huge temple for Amun-Ra, one of the wonders of the ancient world, right? And Amun-Ra said in response to what King Tut had built for him and one of the Egyptian oracles, he said that because the house you built for me was so beautiful and so glorious, and because you made me so famous in the land of Egypt, I'm going to give you a kingdom that spans the globe and lasts for millions of years.

You're not sure if King Tut got his money back on that one, but he probably should have, right? So the order in every other religion in the ancient world was this. King builds temple for God. Beauty of the temple makes God famous in the land. God thanks King by giving him a strong kingdom. This order, which is the order of every religion in the world, is here rejected by God.

God's order is my power establishes you. People marvel at my grace and my power in your life, right? I built a house for you.

You live in grateful response to me. You are always the debtor. I am always the giver. I never stand in debt to you. David, you're not earning anything. When people look at you, they're not going to admire what you have accomplished for me. They're going to admire the grace that I've given to you, right? Again, the house that I give to you is not going to say built by David for God. It's going to say built by God for David, the grace principle. God's salvation is given to us as a gift, not as something that we earn. This is the part of the gospel where most people stumble. It is a gift, which means it is costly for the giver, but it is free for the recipients. Salvation is a gift that God gives in which he paid the full and entire price.

Your part is only to receive it. We can never outgive God. A freeing truth today on Summit Life from pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. J.D., we have a great Advent devotional we're offering this month to our faithful listeners. Did you write this resource like you do most of our others?

I did not actually write this particular resource. It's incredible, but Chris Papalardo, a guy I've worked with now for over a decade, has been helping me hone some of these ideas and helping shape some of the words. He makes them clearer and more compelling.

I sometimes joke that his one line job description is to make me sound smarter. He's a gift to me and to our church. He's the one that's authored these devotionals, and this short little Advent devotional book, he is here. It will be a blessing to you because his writing really is a gift.

Chris is one of those people that likes to kind of stay out of a lot of light. His attitude is, I just want to help people connect with Jesus, and so he would be the first to tell you that the true gift of this 25-day Advent devotional has nothing to do with him or with me. It's got everything to do with the hero of these stories, and that's Jesus. Take a look now. I think it'll bless you. Go to jdgreer.com. We can get you a copy of He Is Here written by our friend, Chris Papalardo, today along with our thanks when you donate to support this program. Give today and remember to ask for the 25-day Advent devotional. Call 866-335-5220, or you can donate and request your copy online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich, and tomorrow we're continuing this discussion about the extravagant generosity of God. Pastor JD explains that it's not about what we do for God, but actually what God does for us. Be sure to listen Wednesday to Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.