Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. The only way to become an honest person, the only way to become a truly generous person, the only way to become a sexually pure person is for your wonder of Jesus to grow. And how does that happen? You get a taste of glorious grace. That's what changes you.
The law can tell you what you should be like. Only the gospel can make it true. Hello and welcome to Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist J.D. Greer.
As always, I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. Today, as we conclude our brand new teaching series called Whatever It Takes, we look at how Jesus said that money is the top competitor in our hearts for God and that what we do with our money reveals who is really the Lord of our lives. Pastor J.D. shows just how much the gospel can change our lives by teaching the two ways Zacchaeus demonstrated that he had been changed by grace. It's a familiar story maybe, but profound truth is to come.
So grab your Bible and let's pick back up in Luke chapter 19. Proverbs 11 25 says that the righteous eats to the satisfying of their souls, but the stomach of the ungodly, no matter how much they eat, no matter how much they eat and devour, they always crave more. Zacchaeus had eaten his fill, but he still craved more. He was unhappy. They say that throughout his life, Robin Williams confessed to being deeply unhappy despite the fact that he was regarded as one of the most successful comics of all time. He proved what Ralph Waldo Emerson often said, that humor is often the mistress of sorrow. Those who worked with Robin Williams said that offstage he was sullen and morose. Robin Williams once told his wife, you're only as good as your last performance. Towards the end of his life, Robin Williams was so distraught that he confided to a friend that he didn't know how to be funny anymore. I don't know how to be funny anymore.
And finally, tragically, you know this, he decided to end it all by hanging himself. Maybe there's something in that story that resonates with you. I don't mean necessarily that you're suicidal, although that could potentially be true, but maybe there's something in that that resonates with you. You've given your life to pursue some dream and now you've gotten it, or at least you've gotten a part of it, but it still leaves you unsettled. Maybe it's time that you recognize that what you've given your life to pursue may not deliver what you thought it would. Maybe you've got to acknowledge there's an emptiness there that you weren't expecting to find when you got there. Pastor Joby Martin, who was here a few weeks ago, talks about how when he first moved to Jacksonville, Florida, he got invited to the dog racing track there.
Now we don't have those in Raleigh that I know about, but it's Jacksonville and there's a difference down there, you know that. So Joby told me that the best moment of every race, first race he was at, the best moment he says when the dogs are at the gates and they're ready to race and the announcer, he says, comes on the loudspeaker and just bellows out, here's Rusty. And Joby said, when he said that, he didn't know what was going on, but everybody started cheering and then a fake rabbit popped up out onto the track right in front of those gates and shot down the straightaway along a little railway. Joby said, man, when those dogs saw Rusty, they lost their ever loving canine minds. They would start barking and jumping and banging up against the doors of those cages and when they let down those gates, those dogs tore off after that fake rabbit like they'd been fired out of a cannon. And they chased Rusty all the way around that track to the very end when suddenly Rusty suddenly disappeared back into a hole in the ground. And Joby said, I'm sure later in the kennel, the dogs are like, man, I was so close this time.
I almost had him. I mean, he was right there. And their dog friends are like, yeah, gosh, me too. Man, you ever think we'll see, we'll have a chance at Rusty again? Sure enough, next day, Rusty's back. And off they go after him again, only to have him disappear again right before they catch him. And they repeat this routine every single weekend.
Did they never learn? Now we say, what dumb dogs. But y'all consider this, every day your alarm clock goes off and it's almost like that alarm clock is bellowing out, here's Rusty. And off you go out of bed in pursuit of your version of Rusty, the promotion, the corner office, the new boyfriend, the new car, the grade. Joby said the worst moments are those rare times when one of the dogs, happens every once in a while, will actually catch Rusty, malfunctioning the track, or maybe the dogs are super fast, faster than they thought.
And he gets it, the object of his greatest desire, his lifelong pursuit. And he chews into it and he says, wait a minute, this isn't what I thought it was, I've been duped. That dog, Joby says, will never run in quite the same way again. And that's where the dogs might actually be a little smarter than us, because some of you caught Rusty.
You moved into the new house, you got the corner office, you got the car. You chewed into it and you thought, well, that was disappointing. There must be another Rusty out there somewhere that I need.
This Rusty was not what I thought it was, but I'm sure the next one will be the actual rabbit. Zacchaeus got a glimpse. Zacchaeus had caught Rusty and he chewed into it and he realized how empty money was. But instead of just saying, it must be something else on earth that I need, he did what C.S. Lewis would say is he realized that if there was nothing in this world that could satisfy him, he must be created for another world. And so he learned from the emptiness of money, but even more, he got a glimpse of something from another world. He got a glimpse of how glorious Jesus is. He saw the emptiness of money.
That's the first thing. Then he saw the gloriousness of Jesus. Here was a savior who loved Zacchaeus when nobody else would, who sought him up in a tree when nobody else would even let him be a part of the crowd. Here was a person, Jesus, who had no need of Zacchaeus because this man could work miracles. He could walk on water. He could heal the sick.
He could raise the dead. He did not need any of Zacchaeus' money. And yet, and yet he sought out Zacchaeus, a man so despised that people would not even make room for him in a crowd. And that experience of grace broke money's hold over Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus had not become a tax collector, you see. He didn't become a tax collector because he was inwardly more dishonest than other people. He became a tax collector because money had this spell over him. Zacchaeus believed that money represented the good life. And Zacchaeus thought, if I've got to compromise my integrity, if I got to burn a few relationships or all my relationships to get money, well, that's just the price.
But I know that what's waiting for me there, I know it's going to be worth it. His sin was driven by his idolization of money. By the way, the same is true with your sins, whether they're money or something else. If romance, if romance is your idol, if you see titillating romance and exciting sex as essential to the good life, well, if you've got to step outside of marriage, if you've got to compromise your morals to get it, and you can get away with it, then you probably will. It's not usually that you're inwardly some overly craven, lustful person. You're just held captive by the spell of romance. If you see the respect of your friends as essential to your happiness and you've got to compromise yourself to earn that respect, you probably will.
You're under the spell of your friends' opinions. They hold you captive. Zacchaeus had lived all of his life under the spell of money, but see, then he met Jesus, and that experience broke money's spell over him because he found in Jesus a greater treasure than he had sought for in money. Thomas Chalmers, an old Puritan, preached a famous sermon called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And what he meant by all that was, he says, the only way to overcome sinful desires is by replacing them with a stronger desire, the expulsive power of a new affection. When you find an affection that is larger than your sinful desires, you will find all of your sinful desires begin to come under control.
Think about it like this. I've done a lot of weddings in my lifetime, and one of the things that I've noticed is that quite often the bride and the groom will forget to eat at the reception, despite the fact that they are ravenously hungry and despite the fact that they're just a few feet away from an all-expenses-paid buffet of the finest foods they've probably ever been around. And that is because the reason they don't even notice that they're hungry is because they're so enraptured with the joy of the moment that they forget to eat. In all my years of doing weddings, I've never one time had a groom look at me. When those doors open and the bride is walking down the aisle, I've never had one look at me and say, hey man, you got a Snickers?
I am so hungry right now. No, the expulsive power of a new affection. All lesser affections are brought into captivity by a stronger one. See, the problem is not that your sinful desires are too strong. The problem is that your desire for God is not so weak.
The only way to become an honest person, the only way to become a truly generous person, the only way to become a sexually pure person is for your wonder of Jesus to grow. And how does that happen? Is it because I command you to? Is it because you feel so bad about yourself that you got to make some changes?
No. As with Zacchaeus, you get a taste of glorious grace. That's what changes you.
The law can tell you what you should be like, only the gospel can make it true. See, here's the thing. Zacchaeus didn't see the half of it, did he? See, you and I can read this story from a vantage point that even Zacchaeus did not have. Zacchaeus climbed up in a tree seeking Jesus, but in just a couple of chapters, Jesus would climb up into a tree seeking Zacchaeus. But Jesus wasn't climbing up into a sycamore tree just to be able to get a better vantage point of Zacchaeus. He was climbing up in a tree to take Zacchaeus' place and to die for his sins.
You see, there was an Old Testament reference that every Jew would have known. Deuteronomy 21, 23, cursed, despised is everyone who is hung on a tree. Jesus climbed up into a tree so he could take Zacchaeus' place of cursing, so he could be despised in Zacchaeus' place, and then extend intimacy and fellowship to Zacchaeus in its place. Jesus traded places with Zacchaeus. Jesus experienced the shame so that Zacchaeus could receive the acceptance. Jesus took the curse so Zacchaeus could reap the blessing. Jesus told Zacchaeus to come down from that tree of shame so that he, Jesus, could climb up into it.
And when Zacchaeus saw that and he tasted it, just a taste of it, it changed it. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life. We'll finish up here in a moment, but first let me tell you about a daily email devotional that's available to our Summit Life family.
I know we are all on lots of email lists, and many we just ignore or filter to the trash. But let me encourage you that this one will bring great value to you both today and in the coming year. In fact, the devotionals even follow along with our current teaching here on the program, so you can stay plugged into this teaching regardless of your schedule. This email might be the step you need to establish a regular study of God's Word in 2025, so be sure to contact us right away.
To sign up for this free resource, visit us at jdgreer.com slash resources. And while you're there, would you consider a generous year-end gift to the ministry? These types of gifts are what make our email devotional possible, so thanks for your support in this way. Now let's get back to the final moments of our teaching series called Whatever It Takes. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Some of you have come back to church thinking, well, I gotta get my life back together. I gotta start doing better. I gotta start making amends for some of the wrong that I've done. I gotta go back to the way I was when I was younger. I've gotta remove this life of shame. Then maybe I can be a good person again, and maybe I can earn my way back into God's favor. Maybe you had a relative die, and you're like, I gotta do it for mom.
I gotta do it for dad. But salvation, you see, is a gift you can only receive. Jesus took your curse. He paid your debt, and now salvation knocks at your door. All you can do is open it and receive him. That's why Jesus said, Revelation 3 20, behold, I stand at the door and knock. Then he, man, hears my voice and opens the door.
I'll come in, and I'll eat with him. The same extimitation that Jesus extended to Zacchaeus, he extends to you, because see, you and I are just like Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus.
Think about that. He had to climb a tree to get to him. Romans says that I'm too short to see God, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So God climbed a tree to get to me. But that tree was not a beautiful sycamore on the road to Jerusalem. That tree was a bloody cross on the crest of Golgotha.
Was it for crimes that I had done? He groaned upon that tree, amazing pity, grace, unknown, and love beyond agree, but drops of grief could never repay. The debt of love I owe here, Lord, I give myself away. It's all that I can do, which is what Zacchaeus did, right? Zacchaeus is like, here's all I have.
Drops of grief could never repay. Here's everything I have, which leads me to question two. What was the sign of Zacchaeus' change? Two things. Again, here are two things. First is a yearning for justice. Second is an impulse for generosity. A yearning for justice and an impulse for generosity. First, Zacchaeus had an immediate yearning to overcome injustice. He's like, I gotta make things right. I gotta make things right. First with God.
Second with others. So far as we can tell, nobody commanded him to do that. Instinctively, it's just what he wanted to do. Sometimes people think they can come to Jesus and stay the same. Pray a little prayer like a get out of hell free card. Get baptized. Cross yourself.
Move on. The first sign of meeting Jesus is a desire for justice. Justice with God, justice with others, especially where you've been the one that's wronged somebody. Where you've wronged somebody, you wanna make it right. You wanna start living honorably before God and before others.
A desire to live in secrecy and bend the rules so long as you don't get caught. Those are signs of darkness, not light. It's like the apostle John says, any man who says that he knows him and continues in sin is a liar.
If we say we have fellowship with him and we actually walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So the first sign of having met Jesus is a yearning for justice. The second sign is what we see in Zacchaeus, an impulse for generosity. It's like I noticed Zacchaeus went well beyond the justice requirements of the law.
Instead of paying back value plus 20%, he pays back four times, and then on top of that, he gives away 50% of the poor. He did that not because he had to, but because grace moved him to do that. Sometimes when we get into conversations about why relationships in our lives are strained, when I'm talking with somebody, all we talk about is justice. Well, the reason we're not getting along is because they did that, or they accused me of that, and I didn't do that, or it wasn't that bad, and I don't owe them anything.
They shouldn't be treating me like this. We're like that when we think about our marriages. The reason we're having problems is because she does this, and I don't deserve that. We're like that with our roommates. We're like that in our jobs.
We're like that even in our, what, societal racial discussions. Well, I'm being held responsible for what my ancestor did, and that's not my fault. And that's all true if we're talking about justice. But the Christian goes beyond justice to mercy. The Christian asks different kinds of questions, right? You understand?
The Christians ask different questions than they do on CNN and Fox News. They begin to say things like, what do I have by which I can lift others up? How can I use whatever position and power I have to pour myself out? I don't want to merely repay what I owe.
I want to give back four times as much. That just comes out of my heart because that's what the gospel does in somebody. An impulse for grace is the sign that grace has actually changed you.
I think my favorite parable of Jesus that illustrates this is that story of the man, you should be familiar with it, but the story of the man who was forgiven 10,000 talents. Now, we learned a couple of weeks ago that a talent is like two year salary. 10,000 talents. It's like saying 10,000, two year salary.
That's what, 20,000 years of labor. Plus 10,000 was the highest number you can count to in Greek. So it was basically like saying an infinity.
It'd be like us saying a gazillion dollars. This guy owes this guy a gazillion dollars. In those days, if you couldn't pay your debt by the day it was due, you entered something they call debtors prison. Debtors prison is basically indentured servanthood. You became a slave of this other guy. And if you couldn't pay off your debt in your lifetime, your kids became the property of him and his kids. And this is how families would get enslaved to other families because it would go on from generation to generation until you paid your full debt. So the day, and the story Jesus tells for this debt has come due. And so the guy appears in court and he walks in and they say, can you repay 10,000 talents?
And all of a sudden this guy breaks down and he falls on his knees. And he says, no, I don't have it, but please, please don't put me, don't put me into slavery. Don't take my kids into slavery. Just maybe you take me, but don't take my kids, please.
Whatever you do, don't, don't, don't afflict my kids with this. And he begins to weep. He says, just give me one more week. Give me one more week. And I promise you I'll pay you back every penny.
And everybody listening to this story, everybody watching this scene in Jesus' story is like, this is unbelievably embarrassing. And for two reasons, one, it's not like if he has a week, he's going to be able to pay this back because 10,000 talents, that's like 10,000 lifetimes. Secondly, when you're the kind of person that can afford to loan somebody else that kind of money, you don't get in that position by being a pushover, right?
What do we call you? Not loan puppy or loan bunny. We call you loan shark. Cause if you don't pay the debt, they send somebody to your door step with a bat named Bruno, and he's going to, you know, break your kneecaps. So all of a sudden you got this guy in front of the loan shark, groveling and everybody's kind of shuffling their feet cause they're kind of embarrassed.
You know how awkward this is. When the story takes the most unexpected term, because Jesus says this loan shark feels this emotion. That's so much better in Greek than English. The emotion is splagma. And I've told you it's onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia means a word sounds like what it is.
Splagma is supposed to sound like you're throwing up. Right? Say it. Okay.
It's kind of fun. It's like, it's, it's, it's conjuring up this pity, just a pity that starts down here and just comes up and takes over. And so he gets misty eyed and I don't know what happens, but he starts shaking his head.
He said, get up, get up, get up. No, you don't have another week to pay me back because as of this moment, you don't owe me a dime. I am hereby forgiving all your debt, all 10,000 talents, 20,000 years of labor.
I'm forgiving it right now. Nobody saw that coming. Everybody's like, what in the world just happened? This guy stands up. He's like, am I being punked?
No, you're free to go. The guy walks out of the courtroom and he's like, I mean, he's just kind of dazed. And as he's walking out of the courtroom, he sees another guy crossing the street, a friend of his who owes him $2 and 14 cents for a bag of Doritos from last week. He's like, hey man, got my $2? I was like, man, I'm sorry, I don't have any cash on me.
I'll get you next week, I promise. What? You don't have my $2? Goes over and Jesus says and grabs him by the throat and hauls him off and throws him into debtor's prison for $2. Now, you know, when Jesus gets to that point of the story, everybody's like, you know, kind of rolls their eyes. They're like, come on, man.
We thought you were telling a true story. Nobody, that's so dumb. Nobody who just got forgiven a gazillion dollars is going to hold somebody else accountable for $2. And Jesus is like, exactly. Which means if you're not a person of generosity or forgiveness or grace, if all you do is insist in your marriage and in your relationships and with your money, all you insist on is what you're owed, that means you haven't really met Jesus. How do you know Jesus has come into your life?
How do you know? The best indicator is your generosity of spirit. Robert Murray McShane, the Scottish pastor 100 years ago, used to say, the more you understand who Jesus is and the more you understand what he has done for you, the more generous you become. I fear there are many that are hearing me right now who know they are not Christians, because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudging at all, requires a new heart. An old heart would rather part with its lifeblood than its money. What's your impulse for generosity, say, about your experience of grace? They say that pilots who fly through clouds or fog, they got to follow their instruments, even when those instruments contradict their perceptions of which way is up, because it's so easy, so easy to get disoriented in cloud cover.
But if you follow your gut and not the instrument panel, you'll probably crash and die. The most reliable indicator light on your spiritual dashboard, the light that tells us whether or not you've met Jesus, is what happens in regard, your heart in regards to your time, your treasure, and your talents. When you've been impacted by grace, you develop an impulse for generosity. Is your life characterized by justice? Is your life by justice? Is it characterized by mercy? Because if not, Zacchaeus would say, I don't think you could have met the same guy I met. There's just no way to encounter that kind of grace and stay the same.
No way. So what's your next step? What is God calling you to? Take some time and truly reflect.
Give God all you've got and see what He does. This is Summit Life. Okay, J.D., it's back again.
It's time for our annual day planner for 2025, which we brought back by popular demand. You know, there's nothing particularly magical about the new year, but I feel like every year it gives me a moment to just sit back and ask, you know, hey, what's going on? What is God doing? What goals do I have for this coming year?
What do I want to see changed? Maybe you've been hoping to become more consistent, regular, to go deeper in your daily Bible study. Maybe you've felt the call to invest more of your time in ministry.
What do you want to do in ministry? Whatever it is that's stirring in your heart, we're excited to introduce a tool for you that can help you ask these questions, set these goals, to hold yourself accountable on this journey God has you on. So it's our special planner. We do this year by year. It's one of our most popular things that we put out there. You say, well, J.D., how do I get my hands on this fantastic resource?
Great question. Head over to jdgrier.com right now. There you'll see how to get this planner with the Bible reading plan inside, and you'll be better equipped for a year, 20-25, a year of growth for you and deepening that relationship with God and accomplishing some of these things that, you know, you know, God wants to do with you.
This tool will help you do that. So don't miss out. Let's make the most of this new season together. Ask for a copy of the 2025 Summit Life Planner when you give a one-time donation today of $45 or more. And don't forget about becoming a monthly gospel partner as well. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgrier.com. As we wrap up today, I want to say a special thank you to our gospel partners who partner with us financially each month to make the work of this ministry possible. If you've been blessed by Summit Life, why not join with us as a gospel partner to help us preach the gospel all around the world?
Once again, you can do that by calling us at 866-335-5220 or by heading to our website at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Don't miss tomorrow as we begin another brand new Christmas series called Jesus Lord at Thy Birth. We'll see you Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
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