Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. How do you and I glorify Him? By all the great things we do for Him. By all the amazing things we build for Him. All the incredible money we give to Him.
No, we glorify Him by calling on Him in the day of trouble and having Him supply for us. Hello and welcome to another day of trusted biblical teaching from Pastor J.D. Greer here on Summit Life.
As always, I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. You know, in any great painting, every stroke on the canvas comes through a paintbrush. But the brilliance isn't actually in the paintbrush itself.
It's in the hand of the artist wielding the brush. In today's teaching, Pastor J.D. shows us how God is the painter in our lives and we are simply the paintbrush. It's our job to simply be submitted and available to Him and then sit in wonder at His grace in using us. What a reassuring thought as we begin the program today. Remember, if you've missed any part of our Life of David teaching series, you can always catch up on our website at jdgreer.com.
For now, let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in 2 Samuel chapter 7. As chapter 7 opens, David has established himself as king. He has subdued his enemies. He is at rest and the people are prospering. The prophet Nathan, who basically serves as the nation's pastor, is sitting with David out on David's back porch and David's eyes falls to the tabernacle that's located not far from his palace.
It was looking pretty shabby. So David looks over at Nathan and he says, verse 2, you know, this isn't right. God lives in this shabby old tent and I live in a big old house that smells like cedar.
It's time to upgrade God's digs. Nathan responds like any pastor does when a wealthy person indicates that they want to make a large donation to the kingdom of God. You say, verse 3, go and do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you. That night, however, after giving David this kind of thumbs up, the word of the Lord comes to Nathan in a dream and the Lord tells Nathan, I want you to go back and say to David, David, I appreciate the sentiment, but have I ever asked you for this? And all those years when I was rescuing Israel and leading Israel and providing for Israel, did I ever ask any of those generations, did I ever ask one to build me a house? Have I ever asked you to do this for me, David? On the contrary, David, verse 8, I took you from the pasture. I took you from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel. David, do you remember where you were when I found you?
Did you have anything to offer me? Verse 9, I have been with you since that point 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 for my people Israel and I will plant them and I will give you rest from all your enemies and the Lord will make you a house. Who is giving to whom? God is giving to David, not vice versa.
Hear this. At its core, Christianity is not about giving to God or doing things for God. Christianity is about what God has done for you. There are three questions I want us to consider this morning as we unpack what that means. Number one, what exactly did God promise David? Number two, what was the basis of that promise? And then number three, how did David respond? Number one, what exactly did God promise to David? The answer is a house.
A house. God said, I'll build you a house. When God says back to David, no, David, I'll build you a house, he means more than just a physical building to house his presence. God also means a kingdom, a dynasty. About 930 years after Solomon, another son was born in the lineage of David, in the very hometown of David himself, the town of Bethlehem, and that son would be the embodiment of the house that God built for David.
Jesus was both the ultimate temple and he was the eternal king that God had promised. Number two, on what basis did God make this promise? One word, grace. This kingdom was not something David would do for God, something God would do for David. We come to God not with anything to give, only to receive.
And the reason that's really hard is because it because it cuts against every ounce of pride that I have. I come to God as a beggar with literally nothing to offer. It's not your weaknesses that keep you being used by God. It's your strengths, because your strengths keep you from allowing God to do what he's offered to do.
If I were to ask you, for example, why do you think God will let you into heaven? And you answer with anything about you. Well, I'm a good person. Well, I'm not as bad as I used to be. I'm trying my hardest. I go to church sometimes.
Then your old foundation hasn't been broken up yet. You see, I got just one answer. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to that cross I cling.
I speak Jesus. If I ask you, what do you think is going to make you a successful parent? Or if I ask you, why do you think you can live an effective Christian life?
And you point to anything about you. Well, then that old foundation hasn't broken up yet. You're still trying to build a house for God.
You haven't learned yet the truth of John 15 five, where Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. So what was the promise? A house. What was the basis of the promise? Grace.
Number three, what's our response? Verse 18, then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I? Who am I, O Lord God?
And what is my house? As you brought me thus far. And what more can David say to you because of your promise? And according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant see the word, know it. Therefore, you are great, O Lord God, for there's none like you. Not none like me. There's lots like me. You are great, O Lord God.
There's none like you. And there is no God besides you. And who is like your people, Israel, that one nation on earth, whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things. You did it for them, God. And you established for yourself, your people, Israel, to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, you became their God. Your name will be magnified forever saying the Lord of hosts is God over Israel.
What is the response? This passage started with David wanting to go and do for God. It ends with David sitting in wonder at all that God has done for him. And friend, that is the essence of the gospel. Not that we go and do great things for God, but we sit in wonder at the great things he's done for us. He gives us grace.
We give him glory. I got really good news for you this morning. Two things. Y'all, these are two absolutely life-changing things. Two things you will not hear in any other religious context in the world.
Here they are, okay? A, God only offers grace, not reward. God did not choose David and his line because of their righteousness. Y'all, if he had, David would never have made it. God gave David a one-sided promise. And that means in a couple of chapters when David sins grievously with Bathsheba and murders Uriah, one of his best friends, that didn't cancel out God's covenant. And when David's kids go off the rails and his whole family unravels, that's not going to cancel out God's covenant. And when Solomon, David's son, wanders from God and marries 700 women and worship their idols, that's not going to cancel out God's covenant either. And when Israel wanders from God again and again, and God sends him into exile to wake them up from their sin, still that did not cancel out God's covenant.
God had made to David a one-sided promise, and the basis of that promise was not on how well they would perform, how well they could perform, the basis was grace. Y'all, one of my favorite illustrations of this comes from another one of my kids, Allie. When she was about 10, we were watching the show together as a family of The Voice. In that show, these amateur wannabe singers sing for a group of three to four professional judges. You've probably seen it. If one of them likes your voice and thinks you've got potential, they hit this button and their chair spins around and it says in real big letters across the bottom, you know, I want you.
I want you. One night we were at Family Devotions and we were talking about grace and my daughter Allie said, she said, it's like God hit his button and spun around his chair saying, I want you before we even started singing. That's what God does with David. It's what he does with us. He didn't choose us because of our righteousness or even because of our potential for righteousness and because he didn't choose us for our righteousness or our potential for righteousness, that means he won't reject us because of our failures in righteousness.
Y'all love the worlds of Charles Spurgeon here. I love this. I have no questions that God chose me because I'm quite sure that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen him. And I'm sure he chose me before I was born or else he never would have chosen me afterwards. He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me for I never could find any reason to myself why he should have looked upon me with special love.
I feel like I'm forced to accept this doctrine. If God didn't choose you because of your righteousness, then friend, your lack of righteousness won't cancel his choice. The basis of his relationship with you from start to finish is grace.
God is building you a house and he's made to you a one-sided promise. Of course, you got to repent of your sin to receive that grace. To repent means you acknowledge that your sin is wrong and that he is the Lord. You submit to him and ask for his help in overcoming your sin. If you don't repent, it's like you're refusing God's offer. I know some of you are like, Well, Pastor, I've repented.
I know I've done that. But, Pastor, I fall into that same old sin again and again and again. How many times will God forgive me if I keep falling back into the same sin? I mean, surely there comes a point where God says, That's it. Enough.
You're done. The apostle Peter once asked Jesus that same question. He said to Jesus, How many times should I forgive somebody who sins against me?
Jesus said, Well, you should just base it off how often your heavenly Father forgives you. Peter was like, Seven times? I mean, seven felt like a spiritual number. Jesus was like, Seven times.
Try 70 times seven. Now, the point of that, I've told you, is not that 490 is the magical number. Once you hit 491, God's like, That's it, and goes Old Testament on you.
That's not the point. In the Bible, seven is the number of completion, so saying 70 times seven is like saying times infinity. Some of you have struggled and struggled in the Christian life, or you struggle with an addiction or with an ongoing sin, and you think, Surely God is done with you. Seventy times seven. I love how Solomon himself explains this. Proverbs 24, 16. The righteous man falls seven times and rises again, falls seven times.
Think about what he's saying. Imagine walking behind a guy in Target who fell seven times. I mean, the first time it happens, you snicker. It looks like he's about to do it a second time.
Then you slowly pull out your phone and film it so you can send it to your friends. If he does it a third and fourth time, you post it on YouTube. But if that man keeps falling, you conclude, There's something wrong with this dude, and you feel bad about posting it. At seven times, you're calling an ambulance.
This guy can't walk. A righteous man falls seven times and gets back up again. In the Bible, seven is the number of completion, so saying the righteous man falls seven times means that all he does is fall. The righteous man, in God's eyes, is somebody who falls and falls and falls a lot. The righteous man shows he's righteous not by never falling. The righteous man shows his righteousness by what he does when he falls.
He gets back up. Righteous people fall so much that it seems like they can barely walk at all spiritually, but each time they get back up looking at Jesus, grace, grace, God's grace, because God did not choose you because you were strong. You were listening to Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Today we're continuing our teaching series through the life of King David, and if you're enjoying it as much as I have been, there's another way you can study David's life once we have moved on here on the program. We've created a brand new featured resource this month for our listening family that features eight in-depth studies from 2 Samuel about one of the Old Testament's most influential figures. Each chapter features key passages from David's life as well as application questions and prayer prompts that will help you truly reflect on what you're reading. This resource makes a great supplement to your time with the Lord each day, or it would be a great gift for a loved one or even someone you're discipling right now. And just like we do every day here on the program, this study will point you right back to the truth and the wonder of the gospel. We'd love to send you a copy with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.
To give, call us right now at 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.
Let me make this about as real and down to earth as I can make it. I've got a friend who morally failed in his marriage. It was a horrendous, inexcusable sin. He has since repented, I believe, genuinely.
He's been restored to his marriage, but for a while it looked like everything was over for him. And I remember one time in the darkest time of his life, he told me the sweetest doctrine in all my life is that God chose me. Because in the darkest hours of my despair, he said, I knew that if he didn't choose me because of my righteousness, he wouldn't give up on me because of my sin. God's offer to us like it was to David is one-sided. We don't perform and God rewards.
No, God gives and we receive. See, here's what I want to say to a bunch of you. Stop trying to negotiate with God. Some of you are like, oh God, if you'll do this and then I'll do that. And if you promise that, then I promise I'll do this. And God, I promise I will never again do this.
If you'll just do this over here. God's promise to David was one-sided. If David and God had been having a negotiation, David never would have made it out of the starting blocks. But God made a one-sided promise to David and God kept all his promises to David, even though David kept none of his promises to God. God has made a one-sided promise to you and he will keep it if you will receive it. He'll be faithful to keep his side of the promise, even when you stumble in keeping yours. Your stumbling doesn't cancel out his grace. His grace is greater than your sin. His faithfulness is greater than your uncleanness.
Your unfaithfulness, his strength is greater than your weaknesses. You, okay, you. I don't care who you are.
I don't care where you come from. You can have peace with God, but you got to stop relying on your own promises. You got to stop trying to negotiate. You got to stop making promises to God and yourself and you got to accept his unconditional promises to you.
Here's my second piece of good news. God's building you a house. God is building you a house. God didn't need David to build him a house.
David was incapable of that. God was like, oh, David, you want to build me a house of cedar? David, way do you see what my house is like up here? Cedar is for hamsters, David. My streets, my streets up here are made of gold.
I hiccup new galaxies for him. David, I don't need anything from you. Asaph, who was David's songwriter, expressed it like this in Psalm 50.
I love this song. Psalm 50, verse 12. God says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The world and all the fullness of it is mine. I wouldn't come to you if I had a need. I could create a whole universe full of yous if I wanted. I don't need your money.
I own the cattle on a thousand hills, and I can sell off any of them anytime I need. God is always liquid. He has never pinched for cash. He doesn't need our money. He never needs a loan.
He doesn't need our talents. He's proven time and time again he can do whatever he wants when he wants. He can speak to the mouths of donkeys and supply finances out of the mouths of fish. So what are our obligations to him? He continues, verse 12, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and then perform your vows, your obligations to the most high. In other words, give God glory for what he's done. And then do whatever he's asked you to do.
And then watch this. And call upon me, God says, in the day of trouble. You call on me, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify me. How do you and I glorify him? By all the great things we do for him? By all the amazing things we build for him? All the incredible money we give to him?
No, we glorify him by calling on him in the day of trouble and having him supply for us. Friend, God is building you a house, and that house is all the ways that he's bringing the kingdom through you. He's not asking you to build the house. God doesn't need me to build this church. God's the one building this house. Parents, God doesn't need you to save your kids. God's the one building that house too.
Overwhelmed wife, God doesn't need you to fix your husband. God's gonna build your house. Worried dad, God doesn't need you to make ends meet. The Lord watches over your house. Defeated at it, God doesn't need you to free yourself from those chains. God is giving you a house.
Discouraged high school student, God will get you into that college that he wants you to go to. He's promised to build you a house, and all those things, God is the one who is building. Salvation's not in you, it's in him. It's like God first told Israel when he delivered them in the Exodus. Remember what he said in Exodus 14? The Lord will fight for you.
All you have to do is be silent. Now, am I saying that the Christian life is just sitting around doing nothing? You just let go and let God do nothing in all these relationships? Of course I'm not saying that.
Psalm 50 says, I offer myself to God, and I say, how do you want to use me? I have a role in all these relationships. But you understand.
Listen, you understand. There's a huge difference between leaving all of these things at Jesus' feet and doing whatever he asked me to do in them. There's a big difference in that and assuming you are the one responsible to build all those things. If you look at every great work of art, every stroke on that canvas came through a paintbrush. But the brilliance and beauty wasn't in the paintbrush. You could hand the same paintbrush to me and it would look like an explosion in a paint factory. Not a work of art. It was the hand of the artist wielding the brush that created the masterpiece. That is me with God. He's the painter. I'm just the paintbrush. I've got a role, but it's to be submitted to him as his instrument.
Let me read this one more time. Verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God?
And what is my house? That you brought me thus far. And what more can David say to you? Because of your promise and according to your own heart, you've brought about all this greatness to make your servant, say this word, know it. If you underline stuff in your Bible, underline the word sat and the word know. This passage started with David wanting to go and do. It ends with God telling him to sit and know.
What you're seeing there is a response that's going to last throughout eternity. A sense of wonder at how great is the grace that God has shown us. Revelation says that for eternity his name will be written on our foreheads. I don't know if that's literal or not, but I know that it means that what I'm going to boast about in heaven is God's grace, not my goodness. My identity up there, y'all, is not going to be how good I am or how much I've accomplished or what kind of church I built. My boast up there is only going to be in his grace. Whatever label's on my head is not going to say builder of the summit church. It's not going to say great dad. Thankfully, it's not going to say sinful failure or embarrassing Christian, even though I've earned both of those labels plenty of times also.
Both my label and your label is going to have one word on it, Jesus. And when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. The center of Christianity is not going and doing something great for God. The center of Christianity is sitting in wonder at all that he's done for you. That's why David starts this passage with the desire of God. The desire of God is not going and doing something great. The passage with the desire to go and do, and it ends with a command for him to sit and know. The whole point of the Christian life, y'all, is worship. Out of worship flows everything else that we do. The Westminster Confession famously asks, what is the chief end, the chief purpose of mankind?
You know the answer. The chief end of man is not to do something for God or build something for God or fund something for God or accomplish something for God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, to stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene for eternity and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean, and then to spend the rest of our days throughout eternity with brothers and sisters in Christ saying, how wonderful, how marvelous. And my song shall ever be how wonderful, how marvelous is my Savior's love for me. That's the point of all of y'all.
It's the point of all of it. Are you living out your life's ultimate purpose? Today's teaching was such a great reminder of what we've really been created for. This is Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We do this a lot on the program, but I want to extend a special thank you to our gospel partners for making this ministry possible.
None of the work that we do around the world could happen without their generosity in partnering with us each month. If you're not yet part of that team, I'd like to invite you to prayerfully consider becoming a gospel partner yourself. Remember, when you give, you're not giving to us. You're giving to the Lord. We are just the paintbrush helping to make the gospel known. You can truly partner with us to take this message of hope to a waiting and dying world. When you give, we'll say thank you by sending you a premium resource each month. This month, we're sending gospel partners an eight-part study through the life of David that builds upon our teaching we've been going through here on Summit Life.
It features key passages, commentary, application questions, and prayer prompts that will help you apply the same lessons to your life today. To become a gospel partner or maybe to give your first gift, call us now at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220, or you can head online to jdgrier.com. While you're on the website, be sure to sign up for our email list to get ministry updates and blog posts from Pastor JD delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up when you go to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us tomorrow as we start a search together to find your methyba chef. Your what? Find out Friday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
