Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. God is supposed to be your significance. He's supposed to be your beauty, not money. And God is supposed to be your primary security for the future, not money. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. All these things are all the other things that money does.
Security, saving, beauty, significance, contentment, all that will be added to you when you give God the first and best place in what you give. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and apologist, J.D. Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. We're on the tail end of a teaching series we'll be wrapping up next week called The Whole Story. And if you've missed any of the previous messages, remember you can find them free of charge at jdgreer.com.
But right now, keep listening. We're tackling a subject that can be a bit sensitive for some, but it's vital to advancing the gospel. It's the topic of generosity. Yesterday we began this message and today Pastor J.D. continues to challenge us to surrender everything to God. So grab your Bible and let's return to 2 Corinthians 9-7.
Here's Pastor J.D. 2 Corinthians 9, this is what Paul says, each one God had given is he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly, not that spirit, don't do that, or under compulsion. God loves a cheerful gay, loves a cheerful giver. And God is able, he says, to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Now notice, y'all, that when Paul starts his discussion on generosity, he doesn't start with a need that God has, he starts with a grace that God wants to give. The giving of God's people is the means, listen to this, it's the means by which he multiplies his mission on earth and it's also the means by which he releases his abundance into your life.
This is how you can abound. Let me just make sure you see that because most of us think that generosity is something that God wants from us. Well Paul says no, generosity is something God wants for you. We are worried about what we are going to have to give up in generosity, but Paul talks in terms of what God wants us to gain. Here's how it works, verse 10, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and he will increase the harvest of your righteousness. Verse 11, you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way.
Now a couple of questions I want to ask out of verse 11 here, here's the first question we want to ask. What does enriched in every way mean? Does that mean financially you'll be enriched? Well that's certainly going to be included in the word every. Every way would mean every way, right?
I mean that's, every is a big word. That's a promise repeated throughout scripture, that when you give to God you can't out give him, he multiplies it and gives it back to you. For example, and again there's numerous verses that say this, Proverbs 3 9 and 10, honor the Lord with all your wealth and the first fruits of all your produce.
And if you do, what's going to happen? Your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with new wine or grape juice for you Baptist. It's just the means by which God multiplies it in your life. So does God mean financial?
Yes he does, but here's the other question, does he only mean financial? No, he says in every way the image here of sowing is a really illuminating one. What you harvest after you've planted a seed, often looks quite different than the seed you put in the ground. Paul says money is like a seed that you plant, that the harvest you get from what you plant is actually much better than what you planted with.
What you're getting is something much more and much better. He says that's the way that God uses how what you offer to him in faith. What are some of those other ways that God enriches you when you begin to live this way? Well sometimes I'll give you a handful of examples. Sometimes it's greater contentment.
Here's another example. Increased love for the kingdom of God. Giving produces in you a more loving heart. Stinginess shrinks your heart. It breeds isolation.
It makes your heart close in on itself. Giving opens you up and an open heart is a much happier heart. That's just a handful of examples of ways that God enriches you in every way beyond financial. Second observation there from verse 11. Why does God increase you financially? If that's one of the ways he increases you, if you're enriched in that way, then why does he do it? You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. Chapter 8 verse 12.
Paul says it's acceptable. Talking about what we give to what a person has not according to what he doesn't have. You can't give what you don't have. Verse 13. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need so that there may be fairness then verse 15.
Watch this. As it is written whoever gathered much had nothing left over. Whoever gathered little had no leg. That is a quote from Exodus 16 in a story about the children of Israel experiencing the provision of manna. They were out wandering the wilderness. There was no food.
They didn't know how to support themselves and so God does a miracle. Every night he rains down this stuff from heaven called manna and God said go get as much as you want. Eat as much as you want. It's calorie free I guess.
But here's the deal. If you try to take more and you try to stockpile it and you try to hoard it it's going to rot on you at night and it's going to spoil your stomach. It's going to spoil your whole tin. It's just going to ruin everything and it's given to us as a symbol and the symbol is when we hoard the excess of what God gives to us it actually rots us spiritually. There is nothing wrong with saving for the future but there comes a point at which you begin to trust in your savings for the future and when that happens it rots your soul. How do you know you've gotten to that point where you trust in your savings? Easy.
It's a very easy question. It's when you save extravagantly but you don't give extravagantly. When you save more extravagantly than you give what you're showing is that you're trusting in that not God. In the same way there's nothing wrong with buying nice stuff. There's nothing wrong with enjoying some of the blessings that come with money but there comes a point at which those nice things are what you most delight in. Those nice things are what you find your identity in.
How do you know that you've gotten to that point? It's when you spend extravagantly but don't give extravagantly. Jesus in Matthew 6 starts off the conversation by saying this, you cannot love God and money.
That's the only thing he ever says that about by the way. You cannot love them. If you love the one you're by definition going to hate the other.
So if you love money and the idea of getting more money kind of excites you a little bit then chances are you don't have that corresponding affection for God. If you love one you'll hate the other and then he goes on to describe what that looks like in people's life and he does it in a fascinating way. He chooses two kind of random examples.
It seems random but they actually correspond to two different personality types when it comes to money. The first thing he says is consider the ravens. The ravens don't ever save but God takes care of the ravens. Then he turns. He just all of a sudden pivots and he says consider the lilies.
The lilies of the field. They don't ever spend any money on clothes. They don't ever buy nice stuff.
Yet God has made them more beautiful than any other flower in the field. Now what Jesus just did is he identified the two different ways that people tend to trust money more than God. Some people are like the ravens. They're like the birds and for them money is security. So they're always wanting to save for the future because if they got a healthy outlook for the future, healthy 401k, then they feel secure.
For other people money is not security. It's beauty. It's significance.
It's the lilies of the field. They want to be beautiful in what they wear and the nice things they have and so when they get money what they want to spend it. In God's unbelievable sense of humor I've noticed as a pastor he always arranges for these two different people to get married to each other. So that when they get an extra thousand dollars in their paycheck that's when the fight comes. Because one of them's like we gotta buy a new tv. That's the lily. And the other one's like we gotta put it in the bank.
That's the raven. And here's the irony. Both of them think the other one has a problem with money. They're both like you got a problem with money.
No you got a problem with money. And Jesus is like you both got a problem with money. Both of you are looking for money to do something that God is supposed to do. God is supposed to be your significance. He's supposed to be your beauty not money. And God is supposed to be your primary security for the future not money.
So what Jesus says Matthew 6 33 seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. What are all these things?
All these things are all the other things that money does. Security. Saving.
Beauty. Significance. Contentment. All that will be added to you when you give God the first and the best place in what you give. He's not saying don't ever save. He's not saying don't ever buy nice things. He's saying give God the first and the best place. Because when God has the first and best place in your life you'll find that you're actually much more secure about the future and you have much more beauty going into the future because God is your beauty and God is your security. Jesus says I should be your first and your best and then I'll be the one who takes over your security and I'll be the one who takes over your beauty and that's a much better way to live.
Everybody gives their first and their best. There's something I told you last year about the first offering in the Bible. The story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel make two different offerings. Cain is a farmer and so he offers the produce of the grounds of God but there was a little catch. The way that he offered is after the full harvest came in that was when Cain gave.
He's looked at all that he had and said oh I can give this to God. Then there was Abel. Abel was a shepherd and Abel by contrast took the first of his flock.
So when his sheep had babies he took the very first ones which means he wasn't sure how many more babies were going to come after that. He took the very first ones and he gave that to God. God rejected Cain's offering and accepted Abel's and the only perceptible difference in the two of them is the point at which they gave. Cain gave after it was all in, after he saw that he was secure, after he had gotten the things he wanted with his money, and then he gave God out of the excess and God rejected that. Cain was the December giver. He waited to the end and made sure that those things were taken care of and he put the kingdom of God last. Abel was the guy who said my first and my best go to God first and best and then I'll trust that God will provide enough for me to be secure on and God will provide enough for me to have significance on.
Who gets your first and your best in life? Because that understanding is how you begin to soar spiritually. I love how Jesus concludes that little thing.
This is my favorite part. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. In other words, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow.
Why Jesus? Because tomorrow is going to have a lot of problems. That's exactly what I was worried about with tomorrow. Jesus, I was worried we're going to have problems.
He's just like, that's right. Don't worry about tomorrow. It's going to have a lot of problems, but guess what also is present tomorrow. I'm present tomorrow. And the same man I gave you today is the same stuff I'm going to give you tomorrow. So you don't need to be worried about the future because tomorrow has problems of its own. Tomorrow also has a savior of its own. That is the spirit that begins to make you soar spiritually. You're listening to Summit Life with JD Greer.
Remember you can always find more resources online free of charge by visiting jdgreer.com. We'll return for the conclusion of our teaching in just a moment. You know, our mission here at Summit Life is very simple to help people dive deeper into the gospel message every day. And then once they've embraced it to then spread it far and wide in the world, deep and wide.
Just remember those two words. You can join us in that critical mission today as a monthly gospel partner. Gospel partners are an integral part of our team, helping us boldly proclaim the gospel through our radio and TV ministry, as well as our online and print resources. They commit to a regular ongoing monthly gift, which helps immensely as we look at the future of all God has planned for us. If you sign up today for the first time as a monthly gospel partner, we'd like to send you a special welcome gift. It's Pastor JD's book titled Gospel.
You can become a partner today when you make your first monthly donation at jdgreer.com or by giving us a call at 866-335-5220. Now let's return for the end of our teaching today. Once again, here's Pastor JD. This understanding is how we become joyful and giving. Paul continues. Look, next verse here, 2 Corinthians 9.
You're giving through us. It begins to produce thanksgiving to God. It begins to produce thanksgiving to God. We begin to see that the harvest of what you and I are giving is something that we see other people begin to worship God because of it. And when that happens, all of a sudden our heart gets filled with a joy that goes so far beyond what the other things that we experience on earth. Let me just give you a couple of examples.
I was trying to think how to explain this. The first example is I got a letter and it was from a guy out in California who had gotten introduced to our church. He'd never been here, but one of our members who'd gone to live out there introduced him to our church and he began to listen to our podcast and all of our resources. And he wrote me a letter.
He said, hey, just want you to know. He says, you know, I've struggled with same-sex attraction for many years. And I was at a point where I was at the end of my rope and I didn't know where to turn. He goes, I felt condemned by the church. I felt like God would never accept me. Some were telling me on the other side to forsake Jesus and pursue my lifestyle. He said, then I came across what you all teach at the summit church.
And it was like water in the desert to my soul. He said, in the ministry there at the summit church, I found grace and truth, truth about what God's word said. And then I needed to, here's the attitude I should have toward my sin and in grace that he'd never stopped loving me, even as I struggled and I never would. He wrote, and I quote, the summit church's ministry has changed my life. That is no understatement either through the mercy of Christ and the ministry of the summit church. I heard for the first time that I was loved and accepted by God.
Up until then, I'd been attempting to go and sin no more so that I might be loved and accepted by God instead of hearing God's tender voice speaking his great love over me when he said to me through Jesus to the woman in adultery, neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more. Thank you summit church. Thank you. Thank you. You have helped me. A man who has been hiding underneath years of great shame and feelings of disqualification by the church and not sure how to go on living because of my temptations, I have found new life and hope and the gospel of our savior, Jesus Christ, because of you.
Yeah, it's awesome. Here's the best part. Here's the best part. He shows up here. About three weeks ago, on a Saturday night after one of the services and said, I flew all the way across the country just so I could say thank you to somebody.
Who should that be? I said, well, you thank me, I'll thank them. So here's a guy who is giving thanks to God because of the generosity that you've lived with.
And there's a part of you, if you're a believer that says, that is what I want my life to be about right there. Well, I give you one more, one more. I got, this might be the greatest letter I've ever received in my life. It was from a guy in one of our prisons who unfortunately is not able to be with us on the weekend, but he, because he is serving an 80 year sentence for murder. And he said, multiple counts of robbery and murder.
I went in when I was 18, I'm on year 14 of an 80 year sentence. He said, but listening through the ministry here and how it's impacted me, he said, has absolutely changed my life. And he writes me this letter to tell me about that. And he says, in it, I am including a $5 money order to donate to the ministries of the summit church. I know it's not much, but it's 10% of everything that I have. It's all that I have. And I feel like a member of your church, even though I'm technically not, cause I'm not allowed and your sermon, he says, your sermons, your messages and your ministries here at the summit church have transformed my life.
And I want to be a part of what's going on. Then he says this, listen to this. I'm always blessed. I'm always blessed with more enlightenment and a better outlook on life.
After I experienced the ministries of the summit church, I just wish your sermons were a little longer. I'd never heard that. Not one time in my life. That's the very first time.
And then he says this greatest compliment I've ever received. Your preaching is like Tupac's wrapping raw, uncut truth only with the Bible open in front of you. That is thanksgiving to God that we rejoice in. It fills our hearts with, listen, summit church, since we relaunched as the summit church 15 years ago, by God's grace, we baptized over 5,400 people. And a lot of those were first time professions of faith. Like the ones I just gave you people like those last year, last year alone through members of the summit church, living overseas because of the summit church, living overseas because of your generosity.
Last year, we know of 3,964 people who heard a one-on-one presentation of the gospel, 562 of them became believers and 386 of them got baptized. That's the joy that we give to. Sacrifice, sacrifice, we always say is giving us something you love for something you love even more. I used to teach people, I used to say, you know, if you want to know how much you should give, give until it hurts.
Rick Warren is one of the most famous pastors in America told me recently, he said, that's a stupid thing to say. Don't give, don't tell people to give until it hurts. Tell them to give until it feels good. Because it's not until it feels good that they really understood the gospel transformation and giving. Because all of a sudden the pain of what you're giving up is replaced by the joy of what you're given to.
And it just feels good. And you become the kind of cheerful giver that Paul is talking about. At some point, summit church, I pray that you realize the futility of all the other things that you spend money on. And I hope that you will understand the grave and wonderful importance of what it is that we give to. Not long ago, I was at a retreat where I was asked to consider who had the biggest impact on me in terms of generosity.
Oh, without hesitation, I said, well, it wasn't definitely my mom and my dad. My mom and dad were new Christians when I was born. And so I grew up in a home where I watched them just say, how can we give, how we love to see people coming to faith in Christ. My dad, as he progressed in his career, he was a manager of a textile factory and he would get bonuses sometimes at the end of the year. And I can remember as a teenager, as a young teenager, I'm talking through like what we were going to do with that bonus, you know, where they were going to give it to the kingdom of God.
I can't remember exactly what age it was. I think it was somewhere around 15 that I realized that all these bonuses we were given away were supposed to be a part of my inheritance. And I was like, wait, we're giving away the bonus this year. That means I'm not going to get a new car.
Right. And I was like, well, let's back it down a little bit on the generosity with all these things and let's, but I'm telling you, my parents gave me something that is so much greater than any kind of new car that I would have just spoiled me and I probably would have wrecked anyway. What they gave me was a love for the kingdom of God. And they taught me that this is not what life is about. And so now I'm getting to teach it to my kids.
So I'm very public with my kids. I take this very seriously. We talk about the things that we're giving to. We talk about where we're trying to be generous. In fact, we reserve a little small sliver or generosity every month.
We take it. And we, at the first Tuesday of every month, we, and our family, you know, kind of devotion time, we say, who is it that God's put in our lives that we could bless with this little bit of money right here? Because just because I want my kids as a part of this conversation, I want them to grow up learning to love the kingdom of God more than they love money.
Cause that's the greatest possession I could ever give to them as a parent. That's what Paul is praying that you would understand that you would see the thanksgiving to God outweighs all this other stuff. So he finally tried to bring what Paul says to a close here for the ministry. He says for the ministry of the service is not only supplying the needs of the saints.
It is also overflowing in many things, giving to God some, and so many people learn to praise God because of your generosity. And there's so many more that will learn to praise God. We've got so many more stories over the years to experience by their approval of the service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ. You know, you responded to the gospel. You knew what Jesus had given to you. And you just said, God, as Jesus was to me, that's how I want to be to others. And then he says, now thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.
Paul ends this by just looking, he can't help but look upward. And he says, I'm the one who has received, not the one who's given. Where would I be without Jesus? He's given me an inexpressible gift. It just makes sense that if I've received that inexpressible gift, that my life would be characterized by doing for others what Jesus has done for me.
Where would you be without Jesus? Summit church. I read a lot of leadership books. And one of the questions that gets talked about a lot in leadership books is what's more motivating for people. Is it the carrot or the stick? You know the difference, like the stick is the threats, the punishments, the carrot is the, you know, financial motivation, the praise, which one's more motivating to you personally. Last time I read that before was, well, I knew something actually more motivating than both of them. It's the gospel.
Because the gospel is that God took the stick and he beat Jesus with it. And then he handed you the carrot for free. And what that does is it produces a kind of spirit that begins to soar in generosity. Not where you're generous in response to a sermon for a season, but where you become generous for eternity in response to the gospel. You see there's ways to motivate generosity. If you grew up Baptist like I did, your favorite weapon is guilt, right? You're not, you're a bad person if you don't give. So feel bad about yourself right now and give more. That's guilt.
That's the stick. If you grew up in more of a, let's just call it, I know this is a big generalization, but in more of a charismatic tradition, a lot of their churches use greed as their primary motivation. Hey, you really want to be rich? Give to God and watch how God will pour blessing back in your life. Greed. When Paul wants his ACE card, when he wants his ACE card, it's not guilt or greed, it's grace. He says, you want to come down to the ultimate motivation. I'm not given because I feel guilty. I'm not given to receive. I'm given because I've been overwhelmed by grace. So what he says, second Corinthians eight, nine, remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember it, think about it, talk about it, memorize it, ponder it. That though he was rich, he had it all yet for your sake, he became poor.
Why? So that you through his poverty might escape death forever and become rich. And then I just want you to respond to Jesus the same way that he has responded to you. The call from pastor JD Greer today is for us to respond to Jesus with joyful generosity. And let me be very clear here at Summit Life, we believe God's primary way of working in the world is through his church. So your first and best gift should always belong to the congregation you call home. But above and beyond that, we'd welcome your generous support of this ministry so we can reach more people with gospel centered Bible teaching.
When you donate to Summit Life, you help keep these daily programs on your station and online. Plus you make it possible for us to produce new resources like the brand new digital prayer guide about our deepest emotions called smoke from a fire. Imagine if instead of overwhelming you, you learned how to understand and process your emotions and then take them to the Lord in prayer. That's the vision behind the smoke from a fire digital prayer guide. It's a five week devotional resource designed around a weekly devotional about one of our deepest emotions, anger, depression, anxiety, envy, and shame. Then you'll be guided by carefully selected scripture passages and prayer prompts, as well as space to journal your prayers and thoughts to the Lord. It's based on a sermon series Pastor JD preached a few years ago, sharing the same name.
And the series was developed alongside one of the most well-respected licensed Christian counselors in the nation, Dr. Brad Hambrick. We pray it'll serve as a roadmap to start navigating the complexities of life with faith and confidence in the Lord. We'd love to send you this new resource today. We'll email it to you immediately when you give by calling 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give online at JDGrier.com.
That's J-D-G-R-E-E-A-R.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Our world often points to fame, wealth, or accolades from peers as the standard of a successful life.
But as believers, we should have a different metric. Join us to find out how. Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
