Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. God made his church a body and what that means is he gives different ones of us different roles in that body. Some people in the body he gives lots of resources to, others of us he calls the leadership and the wise allocation of those resources. The gifts don't come to me, they go through me and your church leaders to God's mission. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host Molly Bidevich. Today we're continuing our brand new teaching series titled Whatever It Takes as we spend some time in the Gospel of Luke. Consider this, because Jesus rose from the dead, we ultimately know what's coming someday, right? Therefore, we know that only what's done for the sake of the Gospel will last forever and that's why we can let go of the things that will soon have no value so we can hold on to the one thing that has infinite value. In today's message, Pastor J.D. continues to teach us about surrender by looking at the essential question of making Jesus our Lord and what keeps us from clinging fully to him.
Let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in Luke chapter 18 for the message he titled Whatever It Takes to Follow Jesus. Here's why Jesus says that money riches, money riches, financial wealth, why it particularly is a spiritual liability.
Here's why. Money is a form of power that quickly replaces our sense of need for God. Money offers you, like nothing else, a sense of control. When you got money, you can do things you want to do. You can avoid things you want to avoid. You can get done what you want done in the world even when others don't want that thing to happen. But that's power. Money promises you, control promises you security.
It tells you there's no tragedy that tomorrow might bring that you can't handle today. The proof is right there in your balance sheet. Jesus even gave money the proper name Mammon, capital M, implying that there is some kind of demonic power surrounding it. For those reasons, Jesus said, two chapters before this one, Luke 16 13, you cannot serve God and money.
You can't. Because if you love the one, you'll hate the other. And if you hate that one, you're gonna love the other one and vice versa. By the way, did you know money is the only thing Jesus ever said that about? Which is pretty remarkable. He didn't say that about sexual desire. He didn't say you can't love both God and sex. He didn't say that about Caesar. He didn't say you cannot serve God and Caesar. In fact, he said the opposite, didn't he? He said render under Caesar what is Caesar's, render under God what is God's, which means you can serve Caesar appropriately. And think about it, y'all, Caesar was a bad dude, wasn't he?
He was immoral, violent, anti-God, and yet Jesus never one time said you cannot serve both God and Caesar. So why would he single out money and only say that about money? It's because money offers you a form of power that is so seductive that the moment you start loving and delighting in it, you stop loving and delighting in God. You cannot desire, you cannot delight in or trust in and pursue money and have any room in your heart for God.
If you love the one, he says, you will hate the other. Tim Keller says that after pasturing in one of the richest parts of the United States for more than 30 years, Manhattan, he's seen that money becomes a spiritual liability for people in at least four practical ways. Number one, he says the more money you have, the greater the temptation to cheat. If cheating makes you just a few more dollars, then you probably won't do it.
It's just not worth the guilt or the danger, right? But if you got thousands and cheating can make you thousands, well, that's a bigger temptation. And if you make millions and cheating can make you millions, well, now that's a huge temptation. Number two, he said, money tends to turn you into an addict. The more money you have, the less you feel like you have.
That's a proven fact, y'all. This is how it works. Your income goes up and so your lifestyle goes up along with it. And so with your increasing lifestyle, expenses go up. So you get a bigger house, then you get a nicer car, and then you pay for more services. Eventually you're making 500,000 a year, which is more than you ever dreamed, but you don't feel wealthy because when away, you're just still paying the bills.
Not to mention your taste of elevated and readjusted to this new level. And now you look around in your nice neighborhood and well, everybody there has got a pool. So it seems ridiculous for you not to have a pool. What's wrong with you? And then everybody's got a boat or a golf membership or a vacation house.
So of course you need one of those. You feel like you're deprived. You're genuinely deprived until you get one. The more money you have, the more money you need to feel content. Folks, that's called an addiction. Money works like a drug. The more of it you get, the more of it you crave.
And that craving starts to control your behavior. You'll do whatever it takes to give more of it. And you certainly can't do something that will put you in a place where you wouldn't have much of it. And you most definitely can't give it away. Y'all, it's a statistical fact that the more money you make, the less percentage you give away. I don't care whether you're studying that inside the church or outside the church, the more you make, the percentage goes down. Money wraps those cords around you that start to control all your choices. Number three, he says, money can lull you into a sense of false security. When the balance sheet says you got enough to face the future, you worry less about what tomorrow holds. You've got enough to cover it. Maybe you're one of those rare people right now in here who can say, you know what, I could go without a job for probably a year, maybe five.
Maybe some of you could say, I could go the rest of my life without a job. If so, that's great. But it's also, according to Jesus, very dangerous. Because you start, listen, you start to believe Satan's lie that you're like God. Even if you don't know you're believing it, you think you're untouchable. Of course, at some points, you learn that's not true.
Hopefully, it's before death. But I mean, when she leaves, the money doesn't matter, right? Or when your son gets a diagnosis, the money doesn't matter. And when death comes for you, money doesn't matter. But money keeps you from thinking about all that. Number four, money can make you proud. Rich people usually assume that getting rich proves they were better than others.
After all, people pay money for something valuable, right? And if people pay you lots of money, that means you must be really valuable. I got more money, which means my skills are better. My work ethic is better. Therefore, I'm better. And see, when you view yourself as better, that makes it really hard to admit you are wrong. But to repent, you have to say, I was wrong. It wasn't just a little wrong. I deserve to be condemned. My whole focus of my life has been wrong.
But those words taste awful coming out of your mouth if you spent your whole life quietly telling yourself that you're better. G.K. Chesterton, the British philosopher, said that one of the clearest themes in the teaching of Jesus is that rich people are in deep trouble. In fact, here's how he said it. We don't know if Jesus believed in fairies. There simply isn't enough evidence to say. But we know for certain that Jesus believed rich people are in big trouble.
The evidence is mountainous. Which brings me to number three, the essential question, lordship. Like I said, when we read the text, we see that statement in verse 22, one thing you still lack, sell that you haven't distributed the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. And we wonder, is that some kind of extra salvation requirement? I mean, Jesus tells the guy, if you want eternal life, this is what you gotta do. I have to do that to go to heaven. J.D., I don't think you've done that.
I don't know anybody that's done that. Is that a requirement that we don't know about? No. The key to interpreting what Jesus said here is to notice what he said first. What did he say? One thing you lack.
Did you ever see this? One thing you lack, and then he actually lists out three things. One thing you lack, number one, sell your possessions. Number two, give to the poor.
Number three, come and follow me. So is it one thing or three things? Well, it's really just one thing.
Follow this. The one thing he lacks is Jesus. But to get Jesus, you have to open your hands on anything else that controls you. For this man, it was his money. He could not reach out and take the hand of Jesus in surrender because his hands were full of money. And to reach out to take Jesus's hand, he would have to let the money slip through his fingers, which he did not want to do. Money may or may not be that thing for you. That one thing is whatever you're afraid to turn over control of.
It's whatever keeps you from taking his hand in surrender. Imagine that you and I were on a sinking ship and we needed to evacuate. And the next closest ship out there in the middle of the Atlantic was hours away, and we were going to have to float on life preservers for several hours before being rescued. The captain starts passing out the life preservers on deck, but one of you is standing there with bags of gold that you don't want to leave behind. And somebody else is standing there with a bunch of schoolwork. They've been working on their master's thesis, and they don't want to lose their progress. Somebody else has got a big box of Nicholas Cage paraphernalia they've been collecting over the years.
It's worth billions of dollars, of course, and they don't want to get rid of that stuff. The captain might say to each of the three, he might say, one thing each of you lack, a flotation device. If you want to survive, you've got to put out of your hands anything that keeps you from clinging to this. The point is not what you've got to let go of. The point is what keeps you from clinging to the life preserver. So the question is, what keeps you from clinging in full surrender to Jesus? Maybe it's a habit that you just don't want to quit, a relationship you don't want to give up. Maybe it's Jesus's demand to turn over control of your future, your future marriage options, your career.
Honestly, that's what it was for me when I was a teenager. I wanted Jesus in my life, I really did. But I did not want to give up control of those things, because I didn't trust him, and I was afraid that he would leave me somewhere I didn't want to go, and turn me into somebody I didn't want to be, and make me do what I didn't want to do. I thought he would ruin my reputation and take away my fun.
My future felt so rich that I was scared to turn it over to him. So again, I'm going to ask you, what is the one thing that keeps you from fully surrendering yourself to Jesus? Maybe it's your sexual freedom. I've got a lot of college students that are a part of this church. I talk to a lot of them who say that.
Sometimes they'll say it outright. They'll ask, they'll say, if I follow Jesus, do I have to give up sex before marriage? I want Jesus in my life, but I really want to keep sleeping with my girlfriend.
I recently read a book by a guy named Beckett Cook. It's called A Change of Affection. It's his personal story of his struggle as a gay man with Jesus's claims to lordship over his life. He says in the book, he says, I wanted Jesus. I genuinely did, but I did not want to give up control over this part of my life. My gay lifestyle was a core part of my identity that I just did not want to let go. He said, I wanted to have Jesus and this part of my life. He said, I tried for a while to reinterpret the Bible to make it okay with my sexual choices, but it was clear to any honest reader that Jesus did not approve of this part of my life. And I didn't want to let that go. My sexual freedom was my obstacle, my hindrance, the deal breaker that kept me from following Jesus.
I'd say that's true for a lot of people. Now, eventually Beckett came to a point where he followed Jesus. He says, he still struggles with those desires, but he's trying to live under the lordship of Christ. But that was the thing that for a while kept him from opening his hands to Jesus.
He just like, that's off limits to you. So again, I would just ask you, what is it for you? For many of us, it's the same thing as this guy here, money. Church, here's the facts, okay? When it comes to giving, many church-going people aren't even at a tithe. Ten percent of their first, their income, ten percent, they're not even there.
Now, I want to be clear. A tithe is not some kind of ironclad rule in the New Testament, and there can be hardship exceptions where you should not feel obligated to give it. But throughout the Bible, the tithe is consistently presented as a kind of minimum requirement for kingdom stewardship. Ten percent of your income, true generosity, true generosity, Jesus says, usually starts after the tithe. And particularly as you get wealthier and God grows your capacity to give, you're going to get better and God grows your capacity to give, you start to give way beyond the tithe. If you aren't even giving a tithe, is Jesus really Lord of your money?
Have you really taken your hands off of it and given control of it to him? I mentioned earlier that the wealthier you are, the less percentage that you give. That is a statistical fact. But Scripture says, very plainly, second Corinthians nine, that as God grows your income, your percentage of giving should be going down, not down. The reason the opposite happens with most wealthy people is as they get wealthier, money starts to displace God as the thing they trust in and delight in.
They get addicted to it. This is Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We'll return to our teaching in just a moment, but before we do, I wanted to ask you to look ahead to 2025 for a moment. Here at Summit Life, our eyes are always looking ahead for opportunities to bring the greatest kingdom impact, and you can join us in amplifying the gospel message in your neighborhood and the world by praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are planting churches across the globe. Our goal is always for everyone within our listening audience to put Jesus first in their lives. And when you become a partner this month, we'll send you our 2025 daily planner that includes a one-year Bible reading plan. It includes one New Testament and one Old Testament chapter per day that focuses on some of the teaching passages and books of the Bible that you'll hear taught on Summit Life in 2025.
Consider partnering with us in the new year by giving us a call at 866-335-5220, or you can visit jdgreer.com. Now let's return to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Y'all, I've talked to a lot of rich religious people over the years who have the most ingenious explanations for why they don't even tithe. They will say things to me like, well, instead of tithing, I'm investing the money so I can give it later. And yes, of course, you should invest money to give more later. That's biblical.
I'm definitely doing that. But at least, at least that first 10%, the first and the best and likely more, at least that should go to him now. The kingdom of God has opportunities in front of it now.
You're here now. And God has called us to bring our first and our best now to take advantage of those opportunities. Or they'll tell me about some asset they've bought that they tell themselves they're partially going to share with the ministry. Oh, well, Pastor, we used our tithe money to help buy this really big house, but we're going to host small group there once a month.
Right? I mean, you know what I'm talking about? Hey, Pastor, here's our vacation home.
This is one of my favorites. We used our tithe money to buy it, and now we want to let you and some of the other pastors use it once a year. You know, listen, I'm grateful for the offer.
I genuinely am. But y'all know that's not really giving the first fruits to God, right? When you turn your tithe into an investment or an asset, you retain control of it. Even if you intend to use it partially for ministry or you intend to give it away later, it stays on your asset sheet.
You still control it. If therefore you have things go financially south and you need it to fall back on, the whole point of your first fruits giving, especially that first 10% is to release it to God. You lose control of it and allow God's spirit through his church to direct it where he wants it to go. Y'all, listen, God made his church a body. And what that means is he gives different ones of us different roles in that body. Some people in the body he gives lots of resources to, others of us he calls the leadership and the wise allocation of those resources. The gifts don't come to me. They go through me and your church leaders to God's mission. We're both supposed to bring our gifts to the church and lay them on the altar. That's how it works. So I'm going to ask again, is Jesus the Lord of your money?
If you're wealthy and you don't at least tithe, are you sure? And I know some of you are sitting there right now saying to me, how dare you? I'm not trying to give you a rule. I'm not trying to stand in judgment over you.
I'm just asking like Jesus did this guy in the story. You sure? If you're not even doing that, are you sure he's Lord of your money? By the way, I always feel compelled to say this here and I'll say it again. Some of you have heard me say this a dozen times. If you've got a problem with me talking about this because you think it's some kind of manipulative way of getting your money, a way of getting money out of your pockets into mine, I plead with you. And I mean this as sincerely as I can make it. Obey this command of Jesus to give radically. Just give it somewhere else, honestly. It is more important to me that you learn to follow Jesus and that I see you in heaven than it is you giving money to our church. We're going to be fine as a church without your money, I promise. But you cannot be a disciple without Jesus being Lord of your money. So if a bad church experience makes you wary of me, then obey this. Just give it somewhere else. You've got knowing my permission. You've got my blessing and my request to do that.
Now I will say, if God has led you to this church, I pray, I genuinely pray that at some point you will trust us enough that you do invest here because according to scripture, your local church is supposed to be your hub of ministry. And if you're part of this one, it's where the bulk of your investing should go. I mean it. If you're not there yet, that's okay.
It genuinely is okay. For now, just give it somewhere else. To this guy, Jesus said, one thing you like. One thing you like, you want eternal life.
You've got to open up your hands and you've got to take me into them no matter what you got to let go. And that leads me to number four, the value of Jesus. Y'all, I think the hardest part of this story for me might be seeing this man walk away from Jesus.
The gospel of Mark's account makes clear that Jesus loved this rich young ruler. Actually says that he loved him and he was brokenhearted when he walked away. When I read that story, when I read this story, I want to, because this is a real guy, I want to look back at him and I want to shout, what are you doing?
What are you doing? Here you got the son of God who created the universe, the king, the one who is going to judge the living and the dead, the one who loves you so much that he's going to die for you in just a few days. There you got him standing right in front of you, arms outstretched to you as you walk away. Y'all think about what this rich young ruler walked away from. Here's the tragic thing. One day, think about it, the rich young ruler became the rich old ruler. He watched in the mirror as his beauty faded. At some point, his mental strength slipped. His influence began to wane. His command of the room he was in diminished. People didn't really care that much about his opinion anymore. And then one day he died and the rich young ruler was neither rich nor young nor in charge of anything.
What did he have then? I remember as a kid playing my favorite board game with my mom, Monopoly. Monday afternoons, do it after school, two of us would play together, just she and I. She'd always take out several hours to play with me. I loved getting boardwalk and park place and then Pacific and Pennsylvania Avenue, that whole sight green and blue side of the board. And I loved the look on her face as she rounded the corner after Water Works and Marvin Gardens, to pass through my little green and blue gauntlet where I had a Monopoly.
Unbroken string of green and blue dotted with greenhouses and red hotels. And inevitably, inevitably she would land on one of those squares and oh, what joy I had in just saying, hand it over, mom. I can remember one day my mom smiling with approval, telling me I was getting the point of the game. She was proud of me. But then when she was bankrupt, she taught me the greatest Monopoly lesson of all. She took her hand and in one fell swoop, she just scooped it all back into the box and said, son, you won, but it all goes back in the box.
Now go clean your room. Friend, listen, it's all going back in the box. What are you going to do when that happens? At the beginning, I asked you what you would do if you could go back in time to 1997 with $1,000. Almost all of us would say, well, yeah, I don't know what I know now.
If I had $1,000, I'd invest it in Amazon, even though it meant doing without some of the toys my friends had. And what would make you do that is because you know what's coming, right? Friend, you know what's coming. If Jesus rose from the dead, you know what's coming.
You know that only one life to live will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. Why would you hold on to anything that keeps you from Jesus? That DVD player, that Nintendo 64 you bought in 1997, they're basically worthless now, aren't they? They're worthless. They're worthless now.
At some point, you took them down to Goodwill and you gave them away. Why would you hold on to something that you know soon will have no value if it means giving up the one thing that will have infinite value? Jim Elliot, the missionary martyr who died as a young man on the beaches of Ecuador, he famously said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose. Riches you can never keep. Jesus and an eternal inheritance are what you can never lose. What are you holding on to that keeps you from Jesus? Charles Spurgeon, if you give up your soul to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth or the honors or the pleasures of this world, you might as well hunt after the mirage of the desert or try to collect the mist of the morning or to store it for yourself. The clouds of the sky for all these things are passing away.
Don't cling to those things you cannot keep if it means giving up what you cannot lose. I asked you at the beginning the central question, do you actually trust Jesus? That's the central question when it comes to willingness to take your hands off your money. Do you actually believe he's trustworthy? Why wouldn't you believe that after what Jesus came to earth to do for you? You know, when you think about it, y'all think about it. There's actually two rich young rulers in the story.
Do you notice that? There's this guy and there's Jesus. Jesus also was young, about 33 year old at this point.
He was rich beyond anybody's imagination. He was the son of heaven and he was a ruler, the king of the universe. Yet Jesus turned his back on all of that for us. If he did that for us, why wouldn't we trust him enough to release ourselves to him? What one thing is God calling you to let slip through your hands so you can fully surrender to him? That's a difficult but important question we tackled today on Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of J.D.
Greer. Let me ask you an important question. Has Summit Life become a trusted source of biblical encouragement to you this past year? If so, would you consider extending that possibility to someone else by giving your best gift today? Your support right now at the end of the year is critical in helping us continue this ministry in the coming months and years. We'd love to have you partner with us in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. As our way of saying thanks for your support this month, we'll get you a copy of one of our most popular resources, the 2025 Summit Life Planner. It's a great tool for busy students, parents, businessmen, and women, anyone really. You can keep track of your deadlines, create to-do lists, and throughout the planner you'll find Bible verses to remind you of what you're learning here on the program.
We're even including a year-long Bible reading plan to help you grow deeper in your understanding of the gospel throughout the year. Ask for a copy of the 2025 Summit Life Day Planner when you give a one-time generous gift today at the suggested amount of $45 or more. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Bidevich. Tomorrow we'll continue our brand new teaching series with a message titled Whatever It Takes to Multiply. Don't miss it on Wednesday right here on Summit Life. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
