Whoever Is of a Generous Heart …

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer, and Happy Thanksgiving. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch, and we are so honored that you're spending some of your Thanksgiving Day with us. I hope the day is filled with gratefulness as you look at the ways that God has blessed you this year.

I know we're extremely thankful for you, our Summit Life family. And we have a special treat for you today as we continue our brand new teaching series called Begin Again. Today, Pastor J.D. invites us to rediscover God's purposes for the church. Like the Old Testament people of God, we are living in a moment of new beginnings, and we believe God wants to write a new chapter through you. So grab your Bible and maybe another helping of turkey and stuffing, and let's jump into God's Word together.

Here's Pastor J.D. This week, Exodus 35. If you got your Bible, Exodus 35.

We are coming out of a pretty chaotic season here with COVID. It is time for us to rediscover God's purposes and to realign ourselves with them. And we are doing this mostly from the book of Exodus, since Exodus represented a new beginning for Israel.

Israel was emerging after 400 years of captivity, and they were beginning a new chapter of their relationship with God. There was a great movie that came out last year called Harriet. It was about the life of Harriet Tubman.

I'm sure a number of you saw it. Harriet Tubman was, of course, an African American slave who in 1849 escaped slavery and made her way on foot from Dorchester, Maryland to the safe haven, the free area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Now that story by itself, how a woman born into slavery was able to travel 150 miles through slave territory and escape into freedom, that story would be incredible all by itself. But what makes the story even more remarkable is that when she gets to Philadelphia, she chooses to go back into slave territory because her husband and a bunch of friends that she loved were still in slavery, and she wanted to help them find a way out also. So she went back and made the journey a second time.

And then again, and then again, and again, and again. All in all, she made 13 round trips through slave territory, each time at the risk of her own life to liberate friends and family and some people that she didn't even know. Harriet Tubman became known as the conductor of the famous Underground Railroad, even earning for herself the nickname Moses because of how many she personally brought to freedom. Harriet Tubman's life illustrates a truth we've taught over and over and over in the Bible, and especially here in Exodus 35. And that is that those of us who find freedom have a responsibility to those still in captivity. That is to give of ourselves to help make others free.

Our freedom that God has given to us is not a license to relax in an easy life. No, we got to go back to begin again and again to re-engage the lost and the broken world around us. That's what we're going to see in Exodus 35. After liberating Israel from slavery all by himself, God invites them to join in his rescue plan for the earth. Chapter 35, verse one, if you got your Bible. Moses assembled the entire community and said to them, these are the things the Lord has commanded you to do.

For six days, work is to be done, but on the seventh day, you are to have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Verse four, jump to verse four. Then Moses said to the entire Israelite community, this is what the Lord has now commanded. Take up an offering among you for the Lord. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring this as the Lord's offering, gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, fine linen, and goat hair.

Then the entire Israelite community left Moses's presence. Jump down to verse 20. Verse 21, everyone whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all of its services and for the holy garments. The tent of meeting, or it would come to be known as the tabernacle. That was the place before the temple where God's presence would dwell, where they could offer sacrifices, where they could hear the word of God. It preceded the temple and would one day be replaced by the temple.

It's called the tent of meeting. Verse 22, both men and women therefore came, all who had willing hearts brought brooches and earrings and rings and necklaces and all kinds of gold jewelry. Jump now to chapter 36, verse five. The workers on this tabernacle said to Moses, the people are bringing more. The people are bringing more than is needed for the construction of the work the Lord commanded to be done. Verse six, so they sent a proclamation throughout the camp, let no man or woman make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.

So the people stopped because there was more than enough. Let me give you a few important observations that I want to make about this offering that we see recorded in these verses. Here's number one. This offering was different than the first fruits offering that we talked about last week. The language here is different from what we saw with the first fruits offering. The first fruits offering is something you might remember God said that we bring to him, not donate to him because we cannot donate to God what already belongs to him.

I compared it to you borrowing my car. When you get done with my car, you would not be donating my car back to me, you would be bringing it back to me because it already belongs to me and you can't donate to me what's already mine. The first fruits of every crop, every flock, the first fruits of all income God says belong to me. To not bring them to him is considered stealing from him. Well see, in contrast to the first fruits offering, the language surrounding this offering is all about donation. Check it out, verse five. Verse five, let everyone whose heart is willing bring this as the Lord's offering.

There's no compulsion here, there's no obligation. Verse 21, everyone whose heart was moved, whose spirit prompted him, came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work of the Lord on the tent, on the work on the tent of meeting the tabernacle. That means there were a lot of people whose heart wasn't moved. It wasn't moved, it wasn't, their spirit wasn't prompted. Verse 22, so they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart brought an offering to the Lord. This is what they called a free will offering.

You're not giving it because you have to, you're giving it because you're moved to of your own free choice. Observation number one, observation number two, they gave in response to God's grace. They gave in response to God's grace. Their generosity, their extravagant, overwhelming generosity here was in part a response to the grace that they just experienced.

You said, well, what grace are you talking about? Well, of course there was the Exodus itself where God liberated them from slavery all by himself, but there was something else going on also. In Exodus 34, the chapter right before this one, the Israelites had done something terrible that God could have destroyed them for, probably should have destroyed them for, and they knew it. Basically Moses had gone up into the mountain to meet with God and he was gone a little bit longer than they had anticipated.

Moses had forgotten to share his location with everybody so nobody could track him on the Find My Friends app. So they freaked out and they assumed that he was dead. So they started accusing God of forsaking them. So they melted down some of their jewelry and they made a golden calf and started to worship the golden calf in the place of God. At that point, God was ready to walk away from them, but Moses pled for mercy for them and God forgave them. The people at the end of chapter 34, they recognized how merciful God had been to them and they felt overwhelmed by God's grace.

We should be destroyed, but God has been merciful to us. That's how they come into chapter 35. So they got these two felt experiences of God's grace, the Exodus and then the forgiveness of chapter 34. But there's one more thing also.

There's one more thing also. Did you notice what it says that they gave to God? Verse 22, it says they gave brooches and earrings and rings and necklaces and all kinds of gold jewelry.

Where did they get those? Slaves don't usually own a bunch of gold jewelry. It wasn't like there was a Bailey's jeweler on the way out of Cairo that they could have stopped at and picked a few things up. No, the book of Exodus tells us that on the night of the Exodus, as Israel was fleeing Egypt, God caused a spirit of fear to take over the Egyptians so that the Egyptians took off all their jewelry and just gave it to the Israelites.

Thus, Exodus 12, 35 says, the Israelites plundered the Egyptians without so much as lifting the sword. The point is that these Israelites are giving back to God what he had already given to them. So you got three kind of felt experiences of God's grace. And here's the lesson. Those most in touch with the grace of God are the ones most generous in their offerings to him.

The flip side of that is true also. An ungenerous heart is the sign, the indicator light that you've grown disconnected from God's grace. There's a story in the Gospel of John, you may know if you've been in church, where a woman comes in to anoint Jesus' feet. She's a former prostitute. She is a woman of ill repute. She comes in, she kneels at Jesus' feet while he is eating and she begins to weep and she washes his feet with her tears and then dries his feet with her hair.

And then she takes out this really expensive bottle of perfume and she breaks it open and pours it out on him. The religious leaders don't even, I can't comprehend this. They don't even have a category for it. They're like, what are you doing, woman?

I mean, this is awkward. It's wasteful. If you got something to give away, why not just sell it and give it to the poor? What a waste just to pour it out on Jesus' feet. But then Jesus turns to them and he says, look, this woman knows something you don't know. And that's because she feels something you don't feel. Those who are forgiven much, and this woman understands she's been forgiven much. Those who are forgiven much love much.

Your lack of love, your lack of passion, your lack of generosity, that's a sign that you got little to no concept of your forgiveness. I often describe it like this. I say to you, if you came home and I was sitting on your front porch and I said to you, hey, just want you to know while you were out, somebody came by that you owed money to it, but don't worry about it. I have paid your debt for you. I ask you, like, what is your response to me? Your answer should be, it depends on how much you paid, right?

Because if the postmaster came by and you were short, you know, 32 cents for a stamp, then at that point, if I paid that for you, you kind of pat me on the back and say, thank you for being a good friend, being there for me to pinch. And that's the end of it. But if I'm like, well, the mafia came by, your gambling debts finally caught up with you. You owed $9 million.

They were here to kill you, but don't worry about it. I took care of it. At that point, a simple slap on the back and a thanks for being a good buddy, that doesn't suffice any longer. You would fall at my feet and you would say, here is my life. It is yours. You may now command me.

Here is the question. What does your giving, what does your generosity say about how in touch you are with God's forgiveness? What does it show about your perception about how good God has been to you and how desperate you are without him? If you are sitting there resenting me, even talking about this, might that not be an indication that you have no felt sense of God's grace? Maybe you're a lot more like these Pharisees in that story than you realize, or maybe you're the kind of person who faithfully gives your tithe. It's just automatic for you.

You never think about it. It doesn't even really constitute a sacrifice anymore. Could it be that you have lost touch with the grace of God? How aware of, how indebted to God's grace do you feel? Thanks for tuning in today to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. We want to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving, but you know what's next, don't you? It's the Christmas season, which is one of my absolute favorite times of the year. The music, the lights, the gift giving, the family time.

There is so much to be excited about. And for all of you who are looking to spread the joy of Christmas, we have a special featured resource this month. We are building on a cherished tradition for so many of us by offering an exclusive set of 20 Christmas cards as a thank you for your generosity this month. And these aren't just any cards. They point to the true meaning of the season with a beautifully crafted gospel-centered message on each card.

Plus, there's plenty of room to include a personalized handwritten note to your friend or loved one. And if you haven't sent Christmas cards in a while, this is a great year to begin again. You can get your set today with a gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

Just call 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. Don't delay. Christmas is coming soon. Now let's dive back into today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.

right here on Summit Life. Y'all, sometimes I love just to stop and think about God's goodness to me. It's good for my heart.

I love going back to places where I grew up, not just because I'm sentimental or places where I spent a lot of time. I love to do that in part because it makes me think about God's goodness to me during that particular time of my life, how in the difficult chapters he brought me through. And sometimes when I'm in those spaces, my heart just wells up within me with thankfulness. Where would I be had God not intervened at key points in my life? Where would I be had God not put certain people with certain ministry that they were going to give to me at certain times in my life?

Where would I be had he not preserved me and chased after me? And I feel like I just want to say thank you, not just with my mouth and my words, but also with my life. You ever feel like that? Look at your family. Look at your life. Think about the grace of God. Think about all that he's given to you. I was listening to a message by a Christian leader, writer for Christianity Today named Andrew Crouch. And he said that his family has begun something, he said it has been life changing for him. He said that in addition to just tithing off of his income, he says that every decade or so he tithes on his entire estate. He just towels up everything and gives God 10% of the total value of all that he owns. Now some of you are like, wait a minute, is this now required also?

No. And that's the point. The first fruits, that's what's required. This is about how one person learned to say thank you and acknowledge that everything in his life came from God. I would challenge some of you to think like I think, like what are ways that I can demonstrate and declare God's generosity to me? Do you feel overwhelmingly indebted to the grace of God?

Are you thankful? You show that by being generous. Those most in touch with the goodness of God in their lives are those most energetic in their offerings toward him. Observation number three, they gave as the spirit directed them. Verse 31 of this passage, Moses talks about how the spirit of God had put certain gifts into specific Israelites hearts. Look for example, chapter 36, verse two. I didn't read this a moment ago.

Take a look at it. Moses called every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill. Everyone whose heart stirred him up to come and do the work. They each gave as the spirit directed them specifically. Y'all, this is a very important part of worship based giving. It is done in conversation with the Holy Spirit.

That's different from first fruits giving, which is pretty automatic. You don't need to pray about giving God the first fruits. You don't need a special prompting from the Holy Spirit.

He's already spoken clearly in his word about that. And you don't need a voice when you've already got a verse. But there's another kind of giving where you are constantly asking God, what else are you putting in my heart to give away?

So here's the question for you. Do you do this with your giving? When was the last time you really felt moved by the Holy Spirit to give something? I mean, if you believe that God is the real owner of all that you have and not just the first 10% of what you have, then it stands to reason that you should from time to time ask him what he wants you to do with it. One of the practices we like to encourage here at the church, I encourage you to do it every year or two, is just to list out the five most materially valuable things that you own. And just ask God, say, God, these are the five most valuable things I own materially.

Is there one of these that you want me to transfer into your kingdom? You and your spouse, if you have a spouse, if you're married, you pray about it, and then you do what the Spirit directs you to do. It is a freewill offering as your Spirit prompts you. Number four, they gave out of the security of Sabbath. Fourth observation, they gave out of the security of Sabbath. Did you notice that in the setup to this offering, God reminds them of the beginning of the Sabbath? When I was reading it, if you're paying attention, it seems kind of random.

It's a bit disjointed. God just chooses another commandment, says, I'm gonna talk about that one, and then we're gonna take a hard ride into the offering, but it's not random at all. The Sabbath, you see, was supposed to be a reminder to them of God's promise to take care of them and God's promise to supply all of their needs. One day a week that they were to stop their work, rest and rejoice in the fact that they were no longer slaves and that God would take care of them. They didn't stop like that because all their work was done or because they got nothing left to do. In fact, it was usually quite the opposite. For people in those days, survival was a day-to-day battle, and off cutting your production by one seventh could mean the difference in life and death. Like us, they often felt like there was so much to be done, they could never finish at all. Stopping to take a Sabbath was a declaration for them that ultimately God was the one responsible to take care of them. It was an incredible blessing. God says, hey, you can cut your production by one seventh.

Even though you feel like you can't afford it and you should be working, and I'll make up the difference. It is out of that security that they're supposed to give. You see that connection? Out of that security, you're supposed to give.

A lot of people don't get this. The command to Sabbath and the command to give God the first fruits are very closely tied together. It's the same principle.

They basically teach the exact same thing. Give to God your first and your best in faith, and he'll provide all you need for the future by multiplying what you have. With the Sabbath, you do it with your time. With the first fruit offering, you do it with your money. Last week, I told you about a defining moment that I had in relation to tithing when I was in college.

The check comes in for exactly the amount that I'd given. Let me tell you another one from college, because that's when God was establishing a lot of these things in my life. Let me tell you about another one in relation to Sabbath. Coming into my junior year, I never, ever, ever took a Sabbath. I worked seven days a week. I studied around the clock. Got to do that.

Got to make the grades, the whole bit. I'm like, which of the other commandments do I just break at will? I was like, this is not good. So God, I'm going to give you a Sabbath. Shortly after I decided that through some things my advisor and I discovered, I had to take an unbelievably heavy load, 21 hours that particular semester that I'd started a Sabbath. So now I'm cutting my production, my one Sabbath, and I'm taking way more classes than I'd ever taken before. I was like, God, I'm going to do it. I'm just going to give you the Sabbath. I'm going to trust you with the rest.

I will tell you, it was my hardest semester of college academically, but it was the highest GPA that I'd gotten the entire eight semesters that I've been there was that semester. As God just said, let me prove it to you that you give to me and I will multiply everything else. Or I like to think of Chick-fil-A and what they do here. Let's just do what no other restaurant dares to do. Let's give all our employees a day to rest and focus on faith and family. Like God said, let's cut our production by one seventh, even though everybody says that's crazy and let's just see how it works out.

Y'all based on how many times the lines wrap around the Chick-fil-A during the lunch hour, I think they're doing just fine. Okay. The point is that Sabbath was a reminder of God's promise to take care of them. And this offering was given in the security that God would keep that promise out of that security. They could give freely.

You see the connection. They didn't have to be paralyzed with fear about an uncertain future. God would take care of the future so they could respond to what the spirit of God moved them to do in the present. You will never give in any significant way to God if you don't really trust him. That's kind of what it all goes down to. Lack of generosity is usually not a stinginess problem.

It's usually a trust problem. So here's my question for you. What if you knew that your future was secure? What if you knew that God would take care of you, that you would be cared for in your retirement, that God would provide all you ever needed to do all of his will? What would you then give if you really had that assurance?

Because that's the security he wants you to give from. Observation number five. They gave in response to a specific vision. Moses put before them the vision of building a tabernacle, a place where heaven would meet earth. The tabernacle would be the vehicle for God's work on earth. Now, like I explained last week, that vehicle for us now is the church. The church is the institution that Jesus established as the hub of his work on earth. The church replaced the temple, which had replaced the tabernacle. The church is now the place where heaven meets earth. The church is the one institution that God established to be the tabernacle of his presence on earth.

Not the building, but the people. We are the tabernacle of God's presence on earth. That's why we say you can sum up the entire mission strategy of the book of Acts as go to strategic cities and plant churches that plant churches. That is why I sum it in everything else that we do.

Evangelism, justice work, advocacy for the poor. We always match it to a church or a church plant because that is the vision that Jesus, who was our new Moses, put before us. Wherever you are today and however you're spending the holiday, I hope that you know that you have a heavenly Father who loves you enough to make a way for you to be saved. And that is worth being thankful for today and every day. And this Thanksgiving, our team here at Summit Life is especially thankful for you. Right, JD?

Yeah. You know, Miley, I find the older I get, the more I love just the concept of Thanksgiving, taking time to stop and just say thank you. When God opened the door for us to take this ministry to a national syndicated audience about, it was about seven years ago. That was a big step of faith for us.

You probably remember, Miley, because it wasn't cheap. It required us to do some things we'd never done before. But that is where you all, our gospel partners, our friends, our supporters, you've really stepped in and been an answer to prayer and filled the gap. So I just want to say to everybody who's given to make this ministry possible, I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you this Thanksgiving because you make our ministry possible. I want to say a special thank you to those of you that have gone on to become what we call official gospel partners. Your generosity and the faith that it represents is reaching people with the gospel.

It is changing lives. We hear from them all the time here at Summit Life. So Happy Thanksgiving.

Look forward to connecting with you again right after. We are so thankful for each and every one of you who chooses to spend time with us here on Summit Life. And we're especially thankful to our gospel partners who quite literally make Summit Life possible. Our gospel partners are our supporters who donate $35 or more to this ministry each month. And each month we send them a premium resource as our way to say thank you. This month, that means that you'll get our brand new set of Christmas cards we created to help you send some gospel centered Christmas cheer this season. To join our team of gospel partners, call us right now at 866-335-5220.

Or you can visit us online at jdgrier.com to join the team. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Join us tomorrow as we continue our teaching series called Begin Again and hear a very special update about Giving Tuesday. We'll see you next time on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.