So, we are kicking off a brand new series today called Truth or Dare, which I would venture to guess stirs up a little something in most of us sitting here today. I understand that there was a horror movie that came out in the past few years that had that title. Maybe some of us are thinking about that. Not me, I didn’t see it. So, I don’t know about you but when I hear those three words truth or dare I can’t help but think about the game I played as a kid. If you don’t know what I am talking about it’s actually pretty simple. I ask you to choose truth or dare, if you choose truth you must answer a question truthfully, if you choose dare I dare you to do something and you must do it. If you don’t there was some sort of penalty. I don’t really remember that, I do remember that the game took on a whole new level of significance when girls started to be included, but we are in church and don’t need to talk about that.
What I do want us to spend some time thinking about is this out of the box idea of what it would be like to spend some time playing truth or dare with God himself. Hang with me now. Some of you are struggling with the thought of that. The Bible says don’t put God to the test. Relax, deep breath, we will get there, play along. So, let’s imagine God goes first and chooses truth. Do you have any questions for God that you would like to get answers to? We all do. They look a little different for all of us. We all have lots of questions that we would like to ask God. So, we could spend weeks and months trying to answer questions that might help some of us. But, I think a better use of our time is to spend a few weeks on a question that will help all of us. Here’s the question. How do we find the life that we come in here looking for every week? I mean we keep showing up and trying. What is getting in the way of that? Before we get to any type of dare we really need to hear some truth.
ILLUST> Back about 22 years ago I led my very first mission trip to Poland. While we were there we spent a half a day walking through Auschwitz the German concentration camp location during WW2. I will never forget so many things about that experience but especially how unsettling it felt walking through those gates for the first time. Let me show you a photo of those gates. There it is. The prisoners would be marched out those gates every day to go build the concentration camp Birkenau which was about 5 miles away. Right above the gates there is a phrase that translated says this...work brings freedom. If you work really hard you will eventually be free. This word freedom is a really big deal to all of us, and as we talked about last week it really should be, what we are shooting for is loving God and living not only forgiven but free. So, the Germans in WW2 tried to convince their prisoners that work brings freedom. Jesus actually says something a little bit different. Since Jesus said it, we probably ought to pay attention to it. It points to our need for this series. This is John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32….
Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
Jesus makes it clear. If you hold to my teaching, not just some of it, not just the parts that are comfortable and convenient, or that you like or that fits your life as you have already decided it is going to be, all of it. If you hold to my teaching that truth will set you free. So back to the question...God chooses truth. We are actually asking two questions. How do we find the life that we are looking for? What is getting in the way of that? Got it. So here we go. Jesus is going to tell a story that is going to help us answer our questions. If you brought a Bible we are going to be in Matthew chapter 25 today.
If you don’t have a Bible they are back on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on you can always grab one on your way out. As always you can hit our app or the YouVersion app too. Or you can ignore all of that and read along with me on the screens. So, here we go, Matthew chapter 25 beginning with verse 14…
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Okay. So cool story and pretty easy for all of us to understand. Let’s define the characters in the story so that we can quickly dial this in to our own stories as we sit here today. So, God is the master in the story and all of us are the servants. So, here’s the question, if that’s true, which servant feels most like you? Now, here’s my guess, we are talking about bags of gold here so when it comes to our finances our stuff our money, my guess is that most of us feel most like the one bag of gold guy in the story.
ILLUST> As I was thinking about this this week I was reminded of the lady who walked past the pet store on her way to work each day. One day when she walked past there was a parrot sitting in a cage outside the store. The parrot said hey lady, she said what, it said you’re ugly. Next day she walks by and it does it again so this time she goes into the store and complains to the owner. He apologizes and promises it will never happen again. The next day as she walks by the parrot once again says hey lady, she says what. The bird says you know.
We all have our own version of you know. We don’t get to choose some of the cards that we are played in life just like the servants don’t get to choose how many bags of gold they are handed in this story. In the end it doesn’t matter. Why? It isn’t their money to begin with. It all belongs to the master. It’s so important that we see this. So truth or dare God...truth...okay...so how do we find the life we are looking for? God says here’s the truth...
WE MUST RETHINK OUR ASSUMPTIONS THAT IT IS ALL FOR OUR CONSUMPTION. I actually have to give credit where credit is due. Not too long ago I heard Andy Stanley use that term consumption assumption. I think that is a default position for most of us. We work hard for our money, our possessions, our stuff. Our default position is that it is all for our consumption. Psalm 24:1 says that “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it”, not most things everything. According to what Jesus is telling us here, regardless of whether we like talking about it or not, are comfortable talking about it or not, regardless if it gets really weird doing it in this thing called church or not, all of our money and stuff belongs to God and we are simply managing it for him. We asked for truth, that’s the truth.
Let’s be honest, it’s actually hard truth. Why, because it doesn’t line up with the formula that most people even most church people live their lives by. When it comes to our money the truth is that the order of priority for most of us goes something more like this. We live or spend, then we pay our debt because we have to, pay our taxes because we have to, if there is anything left which there isn’t for most of us we save, and if there is anything left after that we give. So live, debt, taxes, save, give. Let’s reduce that to this...Live. Save. Give. That’s not best, it’s certainly not the best path to financial freedom, but it is the formula I ran my life on for many years. While it’s not optimal it would be okay if it all belonged to us. That’s where this breaks down for us. See, we struggle with the issue of stewardship because we are confused about the issue of ownership. These first two servants are rewarded by the master and promoted because of the way that they handled what he entrusted them with. Here’s some more truth. It wasn’t about how much he put in their hands it was about how they handled what he put in their hands.
ILLUST> As I was studying this week and facing the reality of what is really true I couldn’t help but think about that line in the movie A Few Good Men where Jack Nicholson says “you can’t handle the truth”. Honestly, I didn’t think about that in the context of you. I thought about that in the context of me. I thought about all of the years here at DCC in leading this place that I have tap danced around the truth of what we are talking about today. Even if you don’t like talking about it, it really wasn’t that you couldn’t handle the truth. It was more about that I couldn’t handle what I had convinced myself that you would do if you heard me talk about this truth. Here’s some more hard truth I landed on this week. For too many years I let my desire for church growth stand in the way of your personal growth. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a few years ago I drew a line in the sand and said no more to that. I’m sorry. I can’t change the past but I can promise you it won’t happen again. No more holding back on any truth that leads you to the life you are looking for, even when and if it’s hard to hear.
So, we start with this. When it comes to our money and stuff we have to kill the assumption that it is all for our consumption. Which means we have to stop settling for “me first” living with little if any left over giving. Let’s keep going. The third servant is getting ready to return the money he was entrusted with back to the master all safe and sound. Watch this verse 24...
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
Now, I know the master here is God, so I want to be careful but is there anyone here other than me he feels like this is just a little bit over the top? This servant returns every single penny of what he was entrusted with. He didn’t steal it, dwindle it, gamble it all away. He preserved it. No, he didn’t earn any interest with it but he saved it. The response here can feel a bit over the top. If you are feeling that I get it, but again God we want the truth. God says okay, let me help you with that. As you read this story that my son is telling here, here’s something else that you need to see. Here’s what’s true...
SAVING IS SECONDARY TO USING IT FOR MY BENEFIT. The first two servants used what the master had placed in their hands to benefit and advance not their own but their master’s kingdom. This is where the whole giving and generosity thing comes into play for all of us. So, as we dial this story into our own stories here’s what we see. It’s not about moving saving to the top of the list, it’s about moving giving, generosity to the top of our list.
ILLUST> So, I just have to pause and brag on you here just a little bit. Although we asked everyone to go through it, we really had no idea what the response would be to Trailhead our new first step at DCC. Over a two week period about 500 people went through it and about 140 or so families or people committed to become recurring financial givers here at DCC. We are still following up and some still need to get online and make it happen but that is exactly what we are talking about here. I set my recurring giving up, it happens first off the top, automatically and now giving is at the top of my list. If you follow through on your commitment it will be a game changer for us but here’s the best part, according to this story even more of a game changer for you. So, just know I am really proud of many of you. Having said that though I’m not so proud of me. The truth is that I really struggled with this message all week. It’s not the giving piece. Stacy and I give weekly off the top in excess of 10% our gross pay. Not bragging, it’s just a way of life for us. The part that bothered me all week long was this saving piece. I am in the process of reading an advanced transcript of my buddy Morgan’s book On Becoming a King. He talks about taking an active role in the family finances. As I read through that this week it really convicted me. What I have come to realize is that I have treated this giving first thing like a sure to win lottery ticket. If I buy it, I’m certain to win, everything else will fall into place. God will take care of me and I will be set. Now, God is and has taken care of me but it is not just about getting giving to the top of the list. I have learned to do that. I’ve also stuck my head in the sand and left the rest on Stacy to figure out. She tries her best to make saving a priority, but it really doesn’t happen. You know why? Because she’s married to a guy who blew up his family’s life, put them through a horrible period financially and at the end of the day is trying his best to make it up to them financially every day since. We have a family trip planned this summer. Stacy and I were in some tension one night this week over it. You know why? I wanted to pay it all for all 13 of us. We can’t afford to do that, but there I am determined to make it happen. All of that to say I’ve still got some real work left to do with this part of my life.
Prioritizing God and getting giving to the top of the list is a part of the solution. The order here is important too. I’m almost 56 years old. I can’t just keep praying, putting my head in the sand, and expecting God and Stacy to get it all worked out. So, I’m committed to working on this moving forward by putting the Financial Peace University principles that we learned years ago back into play in our lives. Trust me, there is a reason why I am saying this publicly, it’s called accountability. If your financial house is a mess or you want to change some things up, Financial Peace University starts Sunday night right here at DCC. Talk to us out at the info center after the service. I promise you you won’t regret it. Let’s jump back into the story one last time and see how the master responds to this 3rd servant…
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
I think it is interesting here that Jesus has the servant with the least amount of money bury it. He could have told the story where the servant with the most money, the 5 bags of gold buried it. Why didn’t he do that? I don’t know, I’m not Jesus but here’s my guess. He didn’t do that because it would be easy for us to conclude that this truth only applies when we are flush financially. He did it to demonstrate that the amount that we have or happen to be holding is irrelevant. It’s not the point. It’s not at all about how much money we have. It’s not about having nothing. It is all about reprioritizing everything. As we read this servant’s story and think about our own, as we consider what Jesus points us to here as absolute truth I think that the question it all points to is this...
IS JESUS REALLY KING AT ALL, IF HE ISN’T REALLY KING OF ALL? You know we have really turned a corner here in the past two years at DCC. Are we still a MASH Unit for broken, hurting, wounded, confused, and jacked up people? You better believe it, more than ever. Are you still safe here regardless of what you believe or how your story reads? More than ever. So, what’s the difference? The difference is we are not going to hold back on pointing you to all of the truth, even the hard truth, that will lead you to the life that you are looking for and set you free.
That’s why one of our core values in this place is dying to self. I know it doesn’t sound very sexy or desirable but there is actually no way to the life we want without it. Jesus makes it clear, the life we are looking for requires us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses daily and follow Him. Are you ready? Here’s the trick with that. The only way it is possible for me to take up my cross daily is to let go of everything else that I continue to hold onto. For years of my life I refused to do that. Jesus I’m going to hang on to my sexuality, this addiction, my money. I really want to follow you Jesus I just can’t let go of this. I’ve spent my entire life in church, I’ve spent my life saying Jesus is king, singing that he is my king, but the truth, the hard truth is that he wasn’t really king at all because I refused to allow him to be king of all.
There’s no judgment, condemnation, guilt, or shame. We don’t do that here. It’s not about any of that. This is about truth, it’s about freedom. It took me years, decades even of doing it my way, for me to realize that my way was not working. See, Jesus is king of kings can’t just be words that I say or sing. I have to learn to live my life every day as if it is true. Don’t take my word for it. Step into it. You have to step into this before you can decide whether or not it’s true. It’s when you step into this that you begin to realize all that God has in this for you! I’m hoping that you will do that and that we see you back for the next round of Truth or Dare next week. Let me pray for us.
