Why Does God Allow Need

On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses why God allows financial need in Christian ministries and among ministry leaders, despite owning and controlling all resources. Iorg emphasizes that while ministry opportunities and visions often exceed available resources, this perpetual state of need serves to combat self-sufficiency and foster dependence on God.

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Host

Jeff Iorg

President, SBC Executive Committee

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Jeff Iorg: 00:55

Welcome to the lead on podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, welcoming you once again to our continuing dialogue about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Today on the podcast, I want to talk about an issue that certainly has implications for ministry leaders, but also frankly has some personal implications for all of us. Today, I want to talk about this issue. Why God allows need, especially financial need.

Jeff Iorg: 01:31

Why God allows need. Does it ever puzzle you or concern you that there's so much ministry that we want to do, but we're restrained, held back, slowed down, delayed, redirected because there's just not enough money. I've been at this a long time, and I have struggled with this issue and thought a good bit about it, and frankly, some days had some real frustration about this issue of why God allows need. I mean, if the psalmist is right, and I believe he is, that God owns the cattle on a 1000 hills, then why is he so slow to sell a few more of them and send the

Jeff Iorg: 02:22

money my way? I have struggled with this issue while I

Jeff Iorg: 02:27

was a church planter, a state executive director in an emerging region, the northwest, a seminary president in very expensive California, now here at the executive committee of the SBC, when I see the incredible needs and opportunities of our world and the resources that we have, which are in the millions, but yet still are short of what's needed to do all that needs to

Jeff Iorg: 02:49

be done globally? Why does God allow need? Well, let's see if

Jeff Iorg: 02:57

we can look into the Bible today and perhaps reflect on some of what it has to say along with some of the experiences I've had in ministry leadership that will help us to understand this issue. Let's start with this bedrock conviction. God

Jeff Iorg: 03:14

owns and controls everything. God owns and controls everything.

Jeff Iorg: 03:23

First of all, God owns everything by creation and that is taught from Genesis to Revelation. For example, in Genesis 1:1 the Bible says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And then in Revelation 411, the bible says, you are worthy, our lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they were created and have their being. God owns everything, first of all, by creation.

Jeff Iorg: 04:03

When you create something, you own it.

Jeff Iorg: 04:07

That's the foundation of copyright law, for example, in the United States. I have written several books. The ideas in those books are mine. I created them, and because of that, they belong to me. So if you want to use my ideas, you can ask me for permission or in certain cases, you can use my ideas as long as you give credit to me for where they originated, but you can't use them for your own benefit.

Jeff Iorg: 04:37

You can't take them and use them to make money or to advance your own cause. No. That's not right. I own some things that I created because I created them. That's why we say that God owns everything because from Genesis to Revelation, He is portrayed as the Creator.

Jeff Iorg: 05:00

He creates, therefore, He owns, but then beyond that, God also owns everything by redemption. In Ephesians 1:7, the Bible says, in Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and then couple that with 1st Corinthians 6 1920, You are not your own, you were bought with a price. You

Jeff Iorg: 05:26

were not your own. You were bought with a price, meaning the price of redemption through his blood, which was described in Ephesians. So if you are a Christian, God doubly owns and controls you. He owns and controls you because He created you, but then, He owns and controls you because He's redeemed you. You're not your own.

Jeff Iorg: 05:55

You were bought with a price, and that price was the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ.

Jeff Iorg: 06:00

If it's true that God owns and controls everything, then what was written in 1st Chronicles 29, 112 really puts a capstone on that idea. Yours, oh Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, oh lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you.

Jeff Iorg: 06:32

You are the ruler

Jeff Iorg: 06:34

of all things. Well, God owns and controls everything by creation and redemption and everything, including wealth, comes from God because of who He is, what He's done. He's the ruler of all things, which then leads us

Jeff Iorg: 06:57

to this pressing question for today's podcast. Since God owns and controls everything,

Jeff Iorg: 07:06

why do Christian ministries and Christian ministry leaders experience need? Why does God allow need? Well, I wanna give you at least 4 answers to this question, which have helped me over the years. Number 1,

Jeff Iorg: 07:27

God allows need to shape our

Jeff Iorg: 07:29

character. God allows need to shape our character.

Jeff Iorg: 07:35

Couple of examples of this. God allows need to teach us contentment, for example. Philippians 4, 11 through 13, Paul testifying said, I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Jeff Iorg: 07:52

I know what it is to be in need and I know

Jeff Iorg: 07:55

what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want. God allows need to teach us contentment so that we might learn to be content with what we have rather than equating attainment of more with eternal or even temporal happiness. God also allows me to shape our character by reinforcing or, perhaps, teaching us eternal values. Matthew 631-33 says, so do not worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear, for the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Jeff Iorg: 08:52

So God allows need to shape our character. He teaches us contentment and refocuses us on our eternal values when we live through need. I have just completed an experience of God teaching me these lessons in a deeper way. As you know, I've come to work for the executive committee in Nashville, Tennessee, and that meant that we needed to sell our home in California. Now when I first thought about retiring and putting my home on the market, property sales in California were moving along at a fairly brisk pace.

Jeff Iorg: 09:28

I was even advised by real estate professionals, don't put your house on the market until you're really ready to sell because it'll sell quickly. I had a beautiful home in a good neighborhood, seemed like it would sell, fairly, easily. Well, by the time I actually got to the point of being ready to put the house on the market, things had changed. The rising interest rates plus the high prices of homes in California meant that the real estate market had slowed considerably. So we put our house on the market still expecting that in a reasonable amount of time, it would sell.

Jeff Iorg: 10:03

And so, a month went by,

Jeff Iorg: 10:07

and another month and another month, and finally, the house was on the market for 7 months

Jeff Iorg: 10:16

and we never received one offer,

Jeff Iorg: 10:20

Not one. Now during the period

Jeff Iorg: 10:23

of those 7 months, I prayed a good bit about this and asked God to send a buyer, but along the way, I shifted my praying and I said, god, what are you trying to teach me by not selling my house? Because frankly, not selling it was creating some financial stress for us and, all the an emotional stress for us because we were trying to manage property from almost 2,000 miles away, and all of that goes with into this kind of situation. I started asking, God, what are you what are you teaching me here? Well, once I started asking that question, I had to start admitting some painful things. First, I had to admit that I had some big dreams with what I wanted to do

Jeff Iorg: 11:06

with the money that was coming from the house sale. 2nd, I had some pride

Jeff Iorg: 11:11

caught up in the house sale because I had had the wisdom and foresight to buy this house in a time when property was really going up in price, and I was gonna recoup some financial blessing from that. Frankly, also I had some pride in the fact that I've sold some houses before, and I've always been able to sell them quickly, and frankly, I've always done pretty well on them financially. And I've always had a little bit of an attitude toward people who struggle to sell their house. Like, yeah, it's not that hard. I don't know why you're having such a problem.

Jeff Iorg: 11:39

Now I would never have admitted that out loud, but, you know, I've thought it

Jeff Iorg: 11:43

a few times. So as my house

Jeff Iorg: 11:45

is not selling, I'm being confronted with my, greed of wanting to get more money and my trust in the money that I thought I was going to be getting to give me a financial windfall, and then my pride or arrogance in thinking that I was a little smarter and a little better than other people because I had sold houses in the past without any difficulty, and I didn't see what the problem was.

Jeff Iorg: 12:11

Well, this went on for months. No offers at all for our house. And then,

Jeff Iorg: 12:19

we got to the end of December, and to our great surprise, on December 23rd, we had 2 offers, and on Christmas Eve, December 24th of all days, we sold our house. I laughingly asked our realtor, how many houses have you sold on Christmas Eve in your career? And he said, one, and that's today. Real estate does not sell near the end of December and especially not on Christmas Eve. But when we sold our house, I was able to reflect on the sale and realize that I had come to put far too much confidence in the in my own ingenuity to accomplish the sale and far too much hope in what I thought the financial windfall might be from selling the house.

Jeff Iorg: 13:00

I had to come to grips with the reality that this house sale process had revealed something in me that really was unseemly, and that was my lack of contentment and my lack of focus on eternal values. And it showed me again that it's easy to get caught up in materialistic gain and materialistic success, and it's also easy to get caught up in our own arrogance about our own intelligence or ingenuity to accomplish something like this. So by the time the household, not only had I had to make some financial adjustments along the way, but God had also allowed this need that profoundly shaped my character and helped me to be better able to trust him in financial matters going forward. Well, a second reason that God allows financial need is to correct financial responsibility, to correct our giving. Couple of examples of this.

Jeff Iorg: 13:56

1st, in Malachi 3:9 through 11, the prophet writes, you're under a curse the whole nation of you because you're robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the lord, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.

Jeff Iorg: 14:17

Man, failure to tithe brings a curse.

Jeff Iorg: 14:22

A curse, but giving a tithe and giving generously to God opens up the windows of heaven. So, one reason that God allows financial responsibility is to correct our giving. We had a funny thing happened about this years ago. I gave my children something called an allotment. It's a little different than an allowance, and I could talk about that on a different podcast someday when we do something on parenting.

Jeff Iorg: 14:48

But I gave my children an allotment of money, each year that, they lived in in my home, especially as teenagers. Well, part of the agreement with the allotment that they were allowed to allocate and spend was that they had to give at least a tithe of that income, every month to the Lord through our church. Well, after, my oldest son one day said, after several months of doing this, he said to me, I don't I don't really like tithing. I said, okay. Why not?

Jeff Iorg: 15:19

He said, because the Bible says if I tithe, that God will bless me and protect me and take care of me, and I don't see that happening. I give away the tithe, and then I spend the other money, and by the end

Jeff Iorg: 15:28

of the month, it's all gone. I said, alright. So what do you wanna do about that? He said, well, I wanna stop tithing. I said, alright.

Jeff Iorg: 15:35

Fine. Go ahead. But you need

Jeff Iorg: 15:36

to understand something. If you're gonna stop tithing, I'm gonna stop giving you the allotment because I I don't I don't give money to for other people to manage that I don't trust and that aren't going to honor God with the with those resources. And so, you know, if you if you cut off your tithing, I'm just gonna have

Jeff Iorg: 15:54

to cut off your allotment. He said, well, I

Jeff Iorg: 15:58

don't I don't under understand why you would I said, I'll tell you why. Because the Bible says that when you tithe, God opens up the windows of heaven, and I am the windows of heaven. And I'm gonna shut those windows because I'm not gonna fund something or fund a person who who's irresponsible and won't give in in their giving. And he smiled and said, I think I'm gonna keep tithing. I said, I think that's a great choice.

Jeff Iorg: 16:24

Now, that was a conversation with a young teenager, and my son has grown way beyond that now into a very generous man that I'm proud of in this regard.

Jeff Iorg: 16:33

But, you know, when we don't give as we're supposed to give, God is not obligated to take care of us. In fact, he says he'll cut off the flow. He will close the windows of heaven if we're not honoring him with our giving. One of

Jeff Iorg: 16:50

the reasons that God allows need is to correct financial responsibility, and at least one part of that is to correct us in our giving. He also wants to correct our foolish spending. You remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15? There's a part of that that I think is so instructive. Lifting out some of the phrases, it says, after the Bible says, after he had spent everything, no one gave him anything, he came to his senses.

Jeff Iorg: 17:18

Correcting foolish spending is another reason God allows need. You know, there's quite a movement today toward financial freedom or financial responsibility. There are many programs that teach this in from a Christian perspective in churches and other kind of organizations, and I think it's a really good thing. And one of the things that it teaches is to really, really monitor your spending. And I've observed that when a family starts giving 10 or more percent of their money away every month, it puts more pressure on them to really manage the other 90% really, really well, and they start cutting out foolish spending.

Jeff Iorg: 17:52

And one of the ways they do that is making a diary of everything they spend for a month and just looking at where their money actually goes, and then making healthier and better choices going forward about where to spend the money. So one of the reasons that God allows need is to correct financial responsibility, and at least two examples of that are to correct foolish spending and also to correct our giving. Well, number 3, God also allows need to teach us to trust him to provide.

Jeff Iorg: 18:23

Need keeps us focused on God as our provider. Every time we think so that we come to self sufficiency and think that we can accomplish it on our own, God will allow need that we simply can't meet And we

Jeff Iorg: 18:41

have to learn all over again the power of Philippians 4:19, and my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. And that we then learn that abundance from God properly received is always a blessing. Proverbs 1022, the blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it. God allows need to teach us to trust him to provide. This is probably the most significant of these lessons

Jeff Iorg: 19:20

that I've had to learn over my lifetime. I am a very self sufficient person. I don't like asking for help. I don't like other people knowing that I have need. I don't like talking about my business in the sense that it looks like I'm trying to get people to take

Jeff Iorg: 19:42

care of me. I do not have a sense of entitlement and I shun that thought every time it comes into my mind. And yet, I have consistently been in ministry leadership roles where we had significantly more need than we had resource. This goes back to my first church, then my church plant, then the state convention, then the seminary. All through my life, the potential of ministry, the demands of ministry, and the vision for ministry has always exceeded supply.

Jeff Iorg: 20:24

Why? Because I have had a perpetual lifelong struggle with self sufficiency, and god has continually kept me in the school of need so that I will trust him and turn to him and ask him and depend on him to take care of me.

Jeff Iorg: 20:46

One of the funnier conversations about this happened when I became the president of Gateway Seminary. At the time, our CFO was a man named Gary. Gary was an outstanding CFO. He was a very committed Baptist layman, deacon, church servant. He was a fiercely loyal executive leader to me and became, has become a lifelong friend.

Jeff Iorg: 21:14

So this was nothing personal between the 2 of us. But when I first became the president, of course,

Jeff Iorg: 21:20

we didn't know each other that well, and,

Jeff Iorg: 21:22

he didn't know my fondness for sarcasm and understatement. So he came into my office, in the 1st few days for a meeting, and I said, hey, Gary. There's there's something I need to tell you about my perspective on finance that I think will be very important for you, going forward. Well, I could see he was a little nervous just by that comment, and I said, you need to know that the seminary will never have enough money. And he said, oh, no, mister president.

Jeff Iorg: 21:51

We will manage the resources. We will always be in the black. I will monitor very closely the expenditures. I said, no. Just stop.

Jeff Iorg: 21:58

Just stop. This isn't about your management. This is a bigger issue. And I told him my story of my lifelong battle against self sufficiency and how God had kept me in a lifelong learning mode by only allowing me to work in ministry organizations that always had financial need. That there was never enough money to satisfy all the needs, vision, and opportunities that were before us.

Jeff Iorg: 22:25

So I said, Gary, here's how it's gonna work. We will always be asking God for money. We will always have vision, opportunity, need that exceeds anything we have and that in anything we can reasonably expect to come up come up with. We're gonna have to ask him for it, and he will provide, and we did. And Gary and I forged a friendship and a working relationship that lasted about a decade because we were committed that we were going to trust God.

Jeff Iorg: 23:01

And I grew substantially through that process because I was asked to trust God in ways that I never had before and in significant ways that were really astounding to me. But, of course, the biggest one at the seminary was when I had to trust God to step in and meet our needs for the land sale, the relocation, the reestablishment of our school in Southern California, and the rebranding as Gateway

Jeff Iorg: 23:25

Seminary. When that process started, there was no hope for any earthly explanation

Jeff Iorg: 23:33

of how we were gonna make it forward. We found ourselves many days just calling out to God and asking him to intervene, and he did. And now, I find myself at the executive committee where once again, there are all kinds of financial challenges, and once again, God is reminding me that it is my life pattern to always be involved in ministry organizations and in ministry leadership roles where opportunity and vision and need exceed the apparent available supply, but that God will provide. Jeff Ords will not provide. The government will not provide.

Jeff Iorg: 24:17

Not even the churches, in my case, will provide, but somehow God somehow God will provide. So God allows need to teach us to trust

Jeff Iorg: 24:27

him to provide. And then finally, God allows need

Jeff Iorg: 24:31

to keep us on his timetable. In the book of Acts chapter 24 verse 27, there's one of the most puzzling and upsetting verses in the entire, New Testament. It says this. It's speaking about Paul and his imprisonment

Jeff Iorg: 24:48

by the Romans. It says, when 2 years had passed,

Jeff Iorg: 24:55

Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. I remember putting the Bible down reading that one day and saying, lord, what do you mean?

Jeff Iorg: 25:05

How could you let the most gifted church planter, missionary, theologian alive in the in the 1st century, how could you allow that person to languish

Jeff Iorg: 25:21

for 2 years in a Roman cell?

Jeff Iorg: 25:24

And the answer, to keep him on my timetable. See, God has a timetable, and it is not our timetable. Allowing Paul to languish in prison for 2 years makes absolutely no sense at all to a strategic thinker like me. Let's get him out, God, and let's get him back on the road, and let's get those churches planted. But

Jeff Iorg: 25:47

God had a timetable with a larger agenda than I

Jeff Iorg: 25:50

could have ever imagined, and he used that 2 year delay to keep Paul on schedule, and, also, to get Paul ready to write the bulk of

Jeff Iorg: 26:02

the new testament and to give Paul the opportunity to stabilize his life and the churches that he had already planted.

Jeff Iorg: 26:11

2 year delay. God allowed need to keep him on his timetable. So many illustrations of this, but I'll

Jeff Iorg: 26:19

just tell you one story today. Many years ago, I dreamed of a Chinese English bilingual program at the seminary. I wanted that for many reasons, but I could see it. I could see the need for it. I could see the potential in it.

Jeff Iorg: 26:32

I could see the global impact from it, a Chinese English bilingual program, and I talked about it. I prayed about it. I asked donors to fund it. Nothing, nothing, nothing, and then the seminary went into and through the relocation. When we finished the relocation, in the first meetings after we arrived at our new campus, a man came forward and said, I need to talk

Jeff Iorg: 27:01

to you, mister president. I've heard you in the past talk about a Chinese English bilingual program. I said, yes. He said, how much would it cost to start that program?

Jeff Iorg: 27:12

And I said, well, to really start it well and to do what needs to be done, we really need

Jeff Iorg: 27:16

a half $1,000,000. And he said, well, I'd like to give you that that that check. I think we need to get that started. I thought, Lord, this is perfect. I mean, I wanted to start this 5 years ago.

Jeff Iorg: 27:30

I wanted to start this while we

Jeff Iorg: 27:31

were in San Francisco. I wanted to start this in in in ways, that that would have worked in that context. But now, Lord, we're in Southern California. We have a whole new context, a whole new community, and frankly, a much larger and more robust Chinese community

Jeff Iorg: 27:46

of the churches particularly. Lord, perfect timing. God allowed Mead to keep me on his timetable. He's not going

Jeff Iorg: 27:58

to fund that program until he was ready to fund it, and now looking back

Jeff Iorg: 28:02

on it, until he was ready to fund it at the exact precise right time that it needed to be funded. You know, it is true. God is never late,

Jeff Iorg: 28:12

but he is also seldom early. God is always right on time. Well, we're asking and answering an important question today. Why does God allow need? God own and controls everything by creation and by redemption, and that includes the wealth that he has at his disposal.

Jeff Iorg: 28:31

So it begs the important question, if God owns and controls everything, why do Christian ministries and ministry leaders like us experience need? Probably a dozen more reasons, but here are 4 big ones that have made a lot of difference in my life over the years. God has allowed me to shape my character, to correct my financial irresponsibility, to teach me to trust Him to provide, and to keep me on His timetable. I would predict that almost every one of you listening to this podcast today, has some need that you're asking God to meet. Would you reflect on what I've said today, and see if you can discern why God is perhaps making you wait?

Jeff Iorg: 29:16

And if it's something within your power to control, like correcting your foolish spending, or restoring your giving to where it needs to be, then make those changes. But if it's something like God keeping you on His timetable, then thank Him for that. And continue to ask Him to meet your need, but then ask Him to meet your need in the right way, in just the right moment. I believe that God can be trusted to meet our needs. Maybe not when we want or how we want, but certainly in the way that is best for us and for the ministries we lead.

Jeff Iorg: 29:50

God does own and control everything. Therefore, He is also the one who allows need, and He meets those needs in ways that bless us and honor Him and move His Kingdom forward. As you learn to analyze why you're waiting, what God is doing in your life, let the time of need be a time of growth and development for you as you lead on.