A Life Responding to the Gospel, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Can I tell you the irony of how all this ends? They're taking up silver and gold to build a temple that was just a shadow of the real temple. Jesus was the real temple because he was the presence of God and that temple was not built by the generosity of silver and gold.

That temple was built in its entirety by the generosity of God. Welcome to Summit Life with J.D. Greer, where the world-changing good news of the gospel takes front and center every day.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Let me ask you something. What are the characteristics or marks of a life lived for the gospel?

Tough question, right? But today Pastor J.D. provides the answer and he gets that answer from a surprising place. We're looking at the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles chapter 29. I know, not the first place that most of us would think to look for instructions on the gospel-centered life, right? But thankfully, God's word is living and active each and every part of it. To find materials that will help you go deeper into the gospel, including this month's featured resource, visit us online at jdgreer.com.

But right now, let's join Pastor J.D. Second Samuel, which we studied last week. After God stopped the plague, David buys the field where God had shown mercy and David dedicates that piece of ground as the place for the building of the future temple. Well, at the end of 1 Chronicles, which we're going to study today, David takes up an offering for the building of that temple and then he prays a prayer that is stunning in how well it epitomizes David's life philosophy.

So let's begin reading in 1 Chronicles 29, 9. Then the people, it says, they rejoice because they've given willingly, for with a whole heart, with a peaceful heart, with a heart brimming with peace and joy, they'd offered freely to the Lord. Verse 10, David the king also rejoiced, therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly and David said, verse 11, yours, O Lord, yours is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Everything we have that is worthy of anything has been a gift that comes from your hand for all that is in the heavens, verse 11, and in the earth is yours, yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all, not me. Verse 12, in your hand are power and might and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

Verse 14, but who am I? David says, what is my people that we should be able to thus offer willingly. David acutely aware of how much grace God has shown to him and to these people, for all things come from you and of your own we've given to you and we didn't give you anything that was actually ours. Verse 15, for we are strangers before you and sojourners as all our fathers were, all our days on the earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding.

In other words, God this is your world, we didn't bring anything into this world, we're not going to take anything out, everything is a gift from your hand. Verse 16, O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. Verse 17, and now I've seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you.

O Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people. In other words, God this is what I'm asking for, as my final act as king would you keep this spirit alive in our people and direct the hearts of your people, verse 18, towards you. Verse 19, grant to Solomon my son, Solomon my son, a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies and your statutes performing all that he may build the palace, the place for you to dwell for which I am now making provision. Verse 20, then David said to all the assembly, bless the Lord your God and all the assembly bless the Lord the God of their fathers and they bowed their heads and they paid homage to the Lord.

Verse 22, and then they ate and they drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness and so they made Solomon the son of David king and they anointed him as prince before the Lord and David quietly passes off the scene and he dies shortly thereafter. I want to give you three elements from that prayer that undergird David's life philosophy, three things that summarize it. These three things I believe should also summarize your life philosophy. These are the three core components of the gospel-centered life, okay, one at a time. Number one, everything we have comes from God. That means two things to David. That means, first of all, God owns it all. Secondly, that he's the one to whom we look to provide what we need in the future. He owns it all. Yo, that is a revolutionary truth.

Nothing you have belongs to you, nothing. Here's your second principle that David gave. As recipients of great grace, we respond with lavish generosity. You see, the way that the gospel produces generosity is not by commands to be generous. The gospel fundamentally reshapes and restructures your heart so that generosity is not what you do, generosity is what you are. And generosity is not something you need to be commanded to do. Generosity is as natural to you as breathing because you have tasted of the generosity of God. Let's go to number three.

Number three, here's your third component. This life is temporary. The kingdom of God is forever. When you start to see things from an eternal perspective, it changes everything, doesn't it? Most of you know my grandmother passed away from standing beside that casket of my grandmother or my three daughters. And I'm telling you, in that moment, the only thing in my mind is when they get there, that they're prepared to meet God, and they've leveraged their life so that they've invested in eternity. The point is that from the perspective of eternity, you see, listen, every person in every nation will stand before God.

The most important question that will ever be asked of them is, do they know Jesus? And when you live in the light of that knowledge, I'm telling you, your life will change. It has to. That trumps everything in my life. Yes, I would like to play a lot more. Yes, there are a lot of things that I would like to use my money to afford. There are a lot of things I like to spend my money on, but I'm just telling you, in light of eternity, does that not change how you see your money and where you invest it? I don't want to say anything overly controversial, but for the most part, I do not give the things that are not kingdom-oriented. Why?

Why? Because every single person stands before God. And on that day, 1 John 5-12, he who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son of God will never see life.

I know that knowing Jesus is the only question that really matters. So yes, I want people in other nations to have good education. I want them to have clean water.

I want them to have better hospitals. But I also want them to know Jesus, because what good is good education and clean water and better hospitals if they die and go to hell? So I choose to give and invest my money in things that do both, things that help lift people out of poverty and point them to Jesus, because I don't want to just take care of their body while their soul goes to hell. So I invest in things that do both, that minister to both body and soul, that lift people out of poverty and point them to Christ.

So those are the three components of David's final act, his gospel-centered life. Now let me kind of step away from the actual just teaching of this passage. Let me tell you why this is so personal for me as your pastor, okay? And that is, I'm very aware that for the majority of the people in this room right here, you don't tithe, which is a major problem for you on three primary areas. Number one, it's a trust question, because it has to make me ask what is it that you really trust in life, right? I mean if you won't even obey God in this one area where he has been so crystal clear, what does that tell me about how you trust God? See, I mean you can't say I trust God in every other area except for this one. What does that indicate to me about how you really live with faith and faithfulness, walking with God? I mean do you see where I ask that?

I mean I feel like that's a fair question. Now I'll be totally honest with you, I'll lay my cards on the table. I'm at a point right now financially in my life where I can't afford to tithe, and so that means for my wife and I, we've gone way beyond the tithe to give. But that wasn't always true for us. There were several years, especially right at the beginning of our marriage, where we didn't see how in the world we could afford it. And every single time through the grace of God, and usually a friend speaking into my life, we tithed even when we felt like we can't afford it. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, there's not an ounce of rhetoric in this. I'm not trying to say cool preacher things for you to twitter. I'm just telling you this is the honest truth. God and I and my wife for 10 years in a row have played this game of who can out give who.

He's won 10 years in a row. When we have been in a place where we said, God we're trusting you to provide for our needs and we're going to tithe of everything that comes in regardless of whether we can afford it or not, God has this way of multiplying and giving it back to us. The story of the five loaves and two fish is a great picture of that. The little boy gives five loaves and two fish. He comes home with 12 baskets full. Imagine that conversation. So I gave you like, you know, five loaves and two fish. Well, you know, what is all this? You wouldn't believe this, man. I put it in the hands of Jesus.

Bam! It turned into 12 baskets. That has been my experience. Now I am not telling you, okay, you know, what do you put one dollar to play today and you'll get 10 out. I'm not saying that, all right.

I'm just saying this is a central trust issue. At the risk of being overly personal, this year my wife and I had a situation where it looked like we could face a financial crisis. I won't go into the details of what that is, but let me just leave it at that and say we were scared for a few months of this year. And I actually told my wife, I was like, I think I'm just going to set aside the tithe and just hang on to how much I owe for now.

And then once we get through this financial crisis, then I'll see if we can afford to give it. And a friend of mine spoke into my life. He said, don't you do it. Don't you do it. You have stood up for years and told us to trust God. Now God puts you in a place where you have to trust Him.

Do it! And I wrote it out and I handed a check to Tim Jackson, our church financial officer, because I know I'd never ever ever get it back from him in a million years about how much I begged and pleaded. And I gave it to him and he took it. And I'm telling you, 11 and 0, God wins again. The way that God brought us through that, the way that God provided for us, I'm telling you, it always happens. And I got to file full letters from some of you who tell me that's been your experience too.

This is a central trust issue. We'll get back to our teaching with Pastor J.D. Greer in just a moment. But first, let me tell you about our latest resource created exclusively for our Summit Life listeners. Our prayer throughout this teaching series has been that you would see Jesus as the ultimate King that we have all been searching for. And this month, we have a 25-day devotional guide pointing us to that King designed specifically for the Advent season. It's called He is Here, and here's what you can expect. Each day, there's a short reading from scripture, and many times it's a story from the Old Testament, then an accompanying devotion for that day, and finally, an application of prayer, meditation, or action. We're praying that this guide helps you anticipate the King this Christmas in a fresh and meaningful way.

Reserve your copy today by calling 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to the final moments of our teaching series here on Summit Life. Once again, here's Pastor JD. It's a, for me, for you, it's a Kingdom issue. Because see, I have to ask what Kingdom you're investing in. Because every disciple of Jesus, one of the key components of discipleship, would you listen very closely to this? One of the key components of discipleship is that your Kingdom is not down here, that you're investing in a Kingdom that lasts forever. And when I look at how you spend your money and what you spend your money on, it makes us ask the question, what Kingdom are you really investing in? That is not something that is reserved for a special few.

Every single disciple of Jesus is put on this earth and leverages the resources that have been given by God to him or her for the purposes of that Kingdom, not this one. Now I know what some of you are saying to this one. You're like, JD, you don't understand. I'm not rich. I'm not, listen, I've met very few people in my life who would actually say they are rich. When I ask people, you know, people are always what class? Middle class. Nobody's ever like, yeah, I'm upper. I'm like superstar level class. Nobody ever says that. I'm always middle class.

Middle compared to what? Listen, if you made only $1,500 a year, only $1,500 a year, that is more than 80% of the people on earth. Statistically, if you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a house or an apartment, have a reasonably reliable means of transportation, you are among the top 15% of the world's wealthy.

If you have any money saved, if you have a hobby that requires some equipment or supplies, a variety of clothes in your closet, two cars in any condition, and live in your own home, you are in the top 5% of the world's wealthy. You ever go see a movie? You got a bad Starbucks habit like I do?

Yeah? You got one of those things in the middle of your sink that goes, you know what I'm talking about? What's that called?

What's that called? Garbage disposal. You ever put garbage in there?

No. What do you put in there? Excess food is what you put in there. You understand that you and I live with a level of comfort and enjoyment that makes us ask, what kingdom are we living for? You and I probably got more than we realize we do. Leveraging ourselves radically for God's kingdom, hear me, is not just for a special few. It is the role of every disciple. And a lot of people I talk to seem to feel like pouring yourself out for God's kingdom and leveraging your stuff for God's kingdom is for a special call to you and the rest of us can go on building our own kingdom and throwing out a tipper every once in a while with our lunch money. Jesus said that every disciple of his, every disciple of his, pours himself out and leverages himself for God's kingdom, not this one. So we read verses in the Bible like this in 1 Peter 5-7, cast all your cares on me. And we're like, oh, that's a promise from Jesus to me. And we read Jesus's command, Matthew 28-19, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

I'm like, yeah, I'm not really called to that. Matthew 11-28, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. We're like, oh, that's for me.

I love Jesus. Then we read a few chapters later. If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. And we're like, oh, I'm not really called to that. But what right do we appropriate the comforts of Christ but ignore the commands?

This is not for a special called out few. In fact, sometimes I feel like we've invented this whole language of calling, a category that doesn't even exist in the Bible. We've invented this whole language of calling to mask the fact that the majority of people in our churches are not really disciples of Jesus.

And so we invented a word to just try to disguise the fact that we've got a few people who live as disciples and the rest of the people who live as people who build their kingdom and tip God off occasionally. Each of us will give an account for whether we invested in this kingdom or in that one. My challenge to you, just to make this real practical, my challenge to you, double dog dare no take backs. My double dog dare to you no take backs is that you look on your 1040 or whatever you turn in at the amount of money that you gave to charity. Don't look at the amount, look at the percentage. Compare that to the percentage of money you got and then you answer the question of what that percentage tells you about what kingdom you live for. Because here's my conviction.

A lot of you are a lot less generous than you think you are. Because what happens, that plate comes by and you reach in your wallet and you pull out 20 bucks, 20. That's a 20, 20 coming in for a landing right here. Look at this. You're like, this is awesome. That could buy like the nicest thing in Outback.

Boom, end the plate. I'm awesome. That's great.

Thank you for the 20. But you compare that percentage at the end of the year with the percentage that you spent on entertainment, vacations, eating out, and on the luxury of life, and then you tell me what kingdom you live for. That's my challenge to you, double dog dare no take backs. Because God thinks in terms of percentages. He doesn't think in terms of amounts. What kingdom do you live for?

Listen to this. The average church-going person gives about 2.4 percent of their income. Most of them spend more on their pets than they do the Great Commission. Christian Americans today give percentage-wise less today than they did in the Great Depression. Politicians are the worst.

They give down about 0.7 percent. It's a trust issue. It's a kingdom issue. Thirdly, it's a gospel issue for me. Because again, I would say, how could you know the grace of God and do nothing for those you've yet to hear? These are individuals just like you and me who are no less worthy of the grace of God than we are because we're not worthy. These are individuals who are in the same spot that you and I would be had we not heard about Jesus. Where would you be without Jesus? You're in exactly the same spot that millions of people are without you. John Piper says this in Desiring God.

Listen to this. Quote, three billion people today are outside Jesus Christ. Two-thirds of them have no viable witness in their culture. If they are to hear and Christ commands that they hear, then cross-cultural missionaries will have to be sent and paid for. All the wealth needed to send this new army of good news ambassadors is already in the church. If we, like Paul, are content with the simple necessities of life, hundreds of millions of dollars in the church would be released to take the gospel to the frontiers.

The revolution of joy and freedom it would cause at home would be the best local witness imaginable. Guys, those are my concerns. I know that some of you will misinterpret this as a ploy for an offering, but I'm telling you, don't give it here.

Give it somewhere else. Because this is not about that. This is about three of what I would consider to be the most core issues and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. What do you trust? What are you living for?

What kingdom are you living for? And do you really get the gospel? That's what this all comes back to. I asked myself a question this week. I'm like, okay, if I had some kind of promise from God that we would never have a financial need at the church, would I still care so deeply about this?

And the answer from the bottom of my heart is yes. Because these are the issues that relate to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Can I ask you something? If you're mad at me right now, and I know some of you are, okay, would you just ask yourself this question? Why are you mad? Are you mad because you really think that I'm doing all this as a manipulative ploy to get your money? Is that why you're mad? Or are you mad because I have got in your face and touched on the things that you trust and love most? Is that why you're mad?

Because maybe, just maybe, the reason is that latter one. If it's the first one, you should be mad at me. If it's the second one, I would urge you to repent. To not harden your heart to the word of God, but to repent.

This caused a revolution of joy in Israel. That's what I long for from you. And let me commend you. So this is not all negative. Some of you in this church are getting it. And that means that in a day when most churches are cutting back on ministries because of the recession, our church has continued. The generosity has multiplied, and we're able to do things now that we wouldn't even dream of being able to do last year. And that's because of your generosity. It's because some of you are getting it.

Even in the midst of a recession, you get it. And I want the rest of you to get it. Because I want you to walk with the peace and joy that comes from having God as your God so that you are not the servant of money, and you're free with it, and you give it away because God's kingdom is your delight. And he is your rock of security, and because his promises are your power. That's what I desire for you. Let me bring all this back.

Land the plane here, okay? 1 Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29. Because of the generosity of God's people, they're able to build a temple beyond any of their imaginations. I wonder what would happen if we were saturated by that same gospel spirit that these people were. David's mission statement is simple. Here it is. Respond to God's grace, prioritize God's kingdom.

In fact, write this down. A gospel-centered life is a life that responds to the generosity of the gospel and a life that prioritizes the message of the gospel. A gospel-centered life is a life that responds to the generosity of the gospel and a life that prioritizes the message of the gospel.

Can I tell you the irony of how all this ends? They're taking up silver and gold to build a temple that was just a shadow of the real temple. You see, the temple was a place where God dwelt and the temple was a place where sacrifices were offered. When Jesus Christ showed up on earth, he was the presence of God. He was God in the flesh and he was the sacrifice offered for sin. Jesus was the real temple because he was the presence of God and he was the sacrifice for sins and that temple, that temple, the real temple, was not built by the generosity of silver and gold. That temple was built in its entirety by the generosity of God. And what David and the people are doing is merely a dim reflection of God's extravagant generosity to us. If the people were moved to such generosity by the generosity of their King David, how much more should we be moved to generosity by the generosity of our King Jesus? What a fitting way to end David's life, pointing away from David to a temple and a kingdom that would be built by God for man entirely at God's expense and not ours. Pastor JD Greer just put the finishing touches on a teaching series titled Search for a King. You're listening to Summit Life and it's hard to believe it, but we've reached the end of our study on David. So if you missed any of these messages along the way, remember you can always find all of our teaching at any time by visiting jdgreer.com. And when you're there, take a few minutes to browse around. You'll also find blogs and articles, resources, videos, and our email devotional signup and so much more.

It's all available free of charge at jdgreer.com. We pray that you've learned through this teaching series that we just completed that there is ultimately one perfect king and that's Jesus. And we'd love to send you a resource to remind you of just that as we head into the Christmas season. It's a book called He is Here, 25 Devotions for Advent. As a nonprofit ministry, we're dependent on your support, which means the cost for airing these daily broadcasts is covered by your generosity. So as you've come to rely on Pastor JD's relevant gospel-centered teaching, you can join the team that makes it all possible and donate today. When you do, we'll say thanks by sending you a copy of our latest resource. Remember to ask for your copy of the book titled He is Here, 25 Devotions for Advent, when you call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or give and request the book online at jdgreer.com.

I'm Molly Vitovich. Join us tomorrow as we jump into a short series where Pastor JD looks at an Old Testament king whose life shows us both what it means to go all in for God and the tragedy that results if we walk away from him. We hope you'll join us Thursday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.