Okay, alright, whether that song is your jam or not let’s give it up for the band one more time...why, because that was awesome, all of worship today has been awesome but the good news is that the best is still yet to come. Having said that though, my guess is that there might be a few questions swirling around out there about that song. Some of us thought we were coming to church today, that didn’t feel like church and now we are wondering if this will even count as church when grandma asks us later. The truth is that we do songs like that here from time to time. Why? Two reasons, first that song may be the only song that some people in the room know of all the songs we do today. Second, songs like that really do capture truth about the world we all find ourselves living in. See, I love classic rock. It is my go to genre of music and I have been waiting for 12 years to do an ACDC song in church but lyrics can get tricky. Hells Bells, Highway to Hell, and Cover You in Oil really aren’t options for us finally we have found a song that is with lyrics that we are not only okay to sing, but that we also need to pay attention to.
ILLUST> Tailored suits, chauffeured cars, fine hotels, big cigars, a french maid, a foreign chef, a big house with a king sized bed. Come on come on love me for the money, come on come on listen to the money talk. Whether any of that appeals to us or not I think we would all concede that our money does talk. What it suggests to all of us is this, life has no real meaning without me, without money, above all else I will lead you to the life you want, to the life you are looking for. Jesus actually has a lot to say about that, something far different to say about that. What Jesus says is this, while money is not the meaning of life, it does have the potential to make each and every one of our lives here meaningful. That’s a big part of what we are trying to chase down in this series.
So we are in week 2 of this series called Truth or Dare which is built on and around what Jesus says in John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32. It goes like this. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So, if we hold on to what Jesus says is true, not some of it, not the parts we like, that we are comfortable with, that fit our lives as we have already decided to live them, but all of it, we will find not only forgiveness but freedom. So, we are imagining that we are playing truth or dare with Jesus, don’t be churchy, play along, and Jesus chooses truth. Just like last week there are two questions we are looking for a truthful answer to. How do we find the life we are looking for and what is getting in the way of that? Now, as we think about this there’s lots of truth that Jesus could point us to here. He has a whole lot to say about how we find this life that he came to bring us and every single bit of it is helpful. While that’s true what is most helpful to every single one of us are the very things that we most ignore, work around, overlook, or just flat out miss. What that means is this. These things are not necessarily the things that we most want to hear, but definitely the things that you and I most need to hear. That’s our focus in this series. So let’s jump back into this and talk some more about that...
If you brought a Bible we are going to be in Luke chapter 12 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, Luke chapter 12 beginning with verse 22…
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
So here’s a little of the back story as we jump into this. Jesus has just told a story about a guy that has a ton of money and stuff, is asking himself what he is going to do with all of it, and decides to build more barns to keep it all for himself. His problem is that he’s got too much. So, we could spend our time studying and talking about that and that might apply to a few of us, but let’s be real. It is what Jesus begins to describe in verse 22 that applies to almost all of us. There doesn’t seem to be enough. Question. How do we respond when there is not enough? I don’t know about you, but Jesus nails me here, my typical default position, initial response is exactly what Jesus tells me not to do here...I worry. How about you? So here we go. Jesus we need some more truth here how do we find the lives we are after, what’s getting in our way. Jesus says here’s the truth…
ALL GOD HAS DONE OFTEN GETS LOST IN WHAT HE’S NOT CURRENTLY DOING. Now, hang on to that for just a second. Before we talk about that here’s a question. Has worry ever played into the financial decisions you have made in your life? I don’t know about you but my answer is yes, typically quite a bit. Let’s be honest, this worry and anxiety thing is a big deal for most of us. If you haven’t done it yet you really should go to our church FB page, first of all like it and invite others to like it, but then scroll down and read Pete, our Executive Pastor’s, blog post about anxiety a few weeks back. It’s really good helpful stuff. We live in a world that becomes more full of worry and anxiety every single day. It’s a growing epidemic. That’s the reason behind our next series starting in two weeks called Inside Out. We are going to be taking on 6 big things that are going on behind the curtain in so many of our lives...worry/anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, hurt. We are even going to have an expert come in and talk to us about depression. So we will address anxiety and worry in a much broader sense next month. For today I want to stay in the lane that Jesus has us in here...how worry intersects with how we handle our money. Isn’t it true…for most of us it’s impossible to disconnect the two.
ILLUST> I talked last week about the financial crisis that my crash and burn in ministry 15 years ago put my family in for a solid decade. When we moved to Colorado almost 12 years ago for some reason our house in North Carolina would not sell or rent. After about 18 months of double payments we ran out of money and went through foreclosure. It was brutal. If you have been through that, I’m sorry. There’s no quick recovery there. Between that and the church being in such a bad place financially when we arrived, 4 daughters, two teenagers, the math didn’t work. I couldn’t stand the thought of my girls going without, they had suffered enough because of all that I had done. I was worried about them, their hearts, their futures, our future. So, of course I prayed but when the Master didn’t change our circumstances I turned to the next best thing...Mastercard. We put everything on credit cards, car insurance, food, you name it. It took us years to clean up that mess and pay all of that off to dig out of that hole. Here’s some more truth on that, God knows what he is talking about when he says the borrower is the slave to the lender. I have lived that slave life more than once. In fact, as I was sitting in my chair one morning early this week I felt a huge wave of worry and anxiety come over me as I was thinking about the thousands of dollars that we owe on the parent plus loans we took out to get our daughters through college. We still aren’t finished with that. We have a college junior and one more that is just getting started.
So, what’s the point? I think the point is this. Jesus says don’t worry, just like God has the birds he has you. Our problem is that we often have a quicker solution to point our financial worries to, it’s called debt. Isn’t it true, in the short term, debt has a way of medicating and turning down the noise on worry. It has for me...it’s only later that I find myself in a worse spot asking myself what did I do? We sing a song called Do It Again around here. God I’ve seen you move the mountains and I believe I’ll see you do it again. That’s true. I’ve experienced it personally and we have experienced it as a church too. I have to be honest. That is not my default position, it is not where my mind first goes or immediately goes when financial pressure and challenges hit me or hit us a church. It should, most often it doesn’t. What God has done time and time again gets lost in what he is not currently doing. What we need to see is this...here’s some more truth. Our worry not only keeps God from being a financial priority for us, it leads us to decisions that bring less not more freedom. Let’s keep reading, verse 27...
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Okay, so we were talking about ravens, now we are talking about wild flowers. So question. What do we have that ravens and wild flowers don’t really have? Think about it. They are totally dependent on God every single day and they really don’t have a choice. Let’s be honest with each other and ourselves here. They are totally dependent on God every single day and we tend to try our best not to be. So, truth or dare Jesus, he has already given us some truth, worry will have an impact on how we handle our money. He’s not finished. The next truth he is trying to help us get to about this money thing here is this...
IT’S NOT A FINANCIAL ISSUE, IT’S A FAITH ISSUE. Here’s my guess. It’s not about want to for most of us, we want to be people who are generous, who help others financially, who want to handle our money in the way God asks us to. The problem is that we look at what we have and quickly conclude we can’t. It’s not about want to, it’s about can’t. I look at what I have and it doesn’t make any financial sense, I just can’t. Jesus says, hey if God takes care of the birds and flowers every single day won’t he take care of you...you of little _____ what, not little money or little resources you of little faith. The truth that Jesus is trying to help us see here is this. It’s really not a financial issue at all, it’s a faith issue.
ILLUST> This is a truth that we struggled with a church the first few years I was here at DCC. We treated it as a financial issue not a faith issue. When I arrived DCC gave nothing to missions outside the walls of this place. The rationale was that we could not afford to do that. You ever find yourself thinking that? Yeah, us too. Now, any auditor or cpa that was looking at the books would tell you that financially that was true. Long story short, that lack of generosity continued for another two years under my leadership here. To this day, I’m not proud of that but it’s true. Finally, we decided that had to change. We could not challenge you to do something individually that we were not willing to lead in as a church. Today, we still don’t make a big deal about it or pressure people during the service to give but 12% of every dollar that comes into this place goes out the door before a single bill or person gets paid. When you throw in everything that we do on top of that it ends up being more like 15-20%. In just the past week you’ve given $5k to help a church that is doing significant work in the southeast part of our city another $5k to help an orphanage in Africa that is rescuing babies off the streets expand so that they can rescue even more. I was talking with someone from another church this past week and they said do you know what DCC is most known for? I always brace myself for the answer to that question. I’m thinking let me guess rock-n-roll music, medical marijuana, rock concert, not teaching the Bible, drinking beer...I have a list. You know what she said? I finally said what...she said generosity. She said DCC is so generous. It doesn’t get any better than that. See, we will probably never be the richest church in town. It doesn’t matter. We can still be the most generous. There it is again. It’s not about how much, it’s about what we are choosing to do with it.
Jesus says here the truth. Seek first God’s kingdom with your finances and you will get rich. No, he doesn’t say that. Wish he did, he just doesn’t. He does say this, do that and God will take care of you. That’s my story, it is our story as a church, and it is the story of many people sitting in the room today around you too. Just like the truth of the story last week it really is about making giving and generosity our highest priority of all, but today we add this, whether or not it makes financial sense at all. Let’s just sit in that for a second. See, if you are waiting for it to make financial sense to do it let me just say this. Most likely, it is never going to happen. You will likely never do it. I want to challenge you to flip the order in your life from live, save, give to give, save, live and watch what God begins to do with that in your life. Don’t approach it as a financial issue. Jesus makes the truth clear. It is always going to be a faith issue. Flipping the order will always require faith. See, we have to let go of this idea that our faith is a noun (something we have) and embrace what Jesus is pointing is here. It’s actually something we do. Let’s finish this...
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
So Jesus challenges us to put his Kingdom first with our money and stuff, to sell our stuff and give it to the poor, to make generosity and giving a priority and way of life. He has already addressed our worry and faith issues involved here. Finally, he says don’t be afraid...in other words...don’t allow fear to stop you from being generous either. Have you ever done that? Yeah, me too, lots of times. But he doesn’t leave us with that. He doesn’t just leave us with what he is asking us to do. He goes on to explain and help us see and understand the why behind the what. So why? Answer, because our hearts follow our money. There really is no way to disconnect the two. So let’s land the plane with this. Here’s the big truth that I believe Jesus wants us all leaving here with today. Before you leave here, know this...
GOD ISN’T AFTER MY MONEY, HE’S AFTER MY WHOLE HEART. Every meaningful relationship that we have involves trust. If we remove trust from the equation it is really not much of a relationship at all. What is the one thing that we struggle to trust God with the most? For most of us it’s our money. Money is not the meaning of life but Jesus is showing us that it does have the potential to make our lives meaningful. That meaning doesn’t come as we spend it or save it. It comes as we give it away. If you really think about it it makes sense. The only money talk that ever really happens at a funeral is about how much was given away. So what would it look like for us to step into this and try it. Don’t focus so much on the amount to start. Focus on making it a priority, moving it to the top of the list and watch what God begins to do with that. Even if you choose not to, even you if you walk out of here today and go on with your life as if you have never even heard any of this, that’s okay. Your salvation is not at stake here. God’s grace and crazy unconditional love for you and his relentless pursuit of you is not dependent at all on how you respond to what it is that we are talking about today.
ILLUST> I spent about 10 years in the courtroom as a trial attorney. I couldn’t help but think about that this week. I spent my first few years as a prosecuting attorney prosecuting felony cases. In that time I got to sit second chair on a few death penalty cases. So, I have seen a lot of things in court. Let me tell you what I have never seen. I have never seen a defendant found guilty and sentenced to death only to have someone walk into the courtroom and say I will serve that sentence for him. I have never seen a judge that was okay with that. That has never happened. Ever. Actually, it did happen a few thousand years ago and check this out. That someone happened to be the judge’s own innocent son. Let that sink in for just a second. His son didn’t deserve the punishment. He sent him to stand in and receive it for us. See, I don’t know about you but going back to that when worry, faith, and fear issues hit my life. I don’t know about you but that’s a Father I can trust not just with some parts of my life, with every single part of my life. See, that undeserved favor is called grace. We don’t deserve it, we just receive it. There is so much hope in that for all of us regardless of what we are going through or struggling with.
We are all in this together. We have all made mistakes. There are parts of all of our stories that we wish we could erase, delete, and do over. We are all hopeless as we sit here without the grace of God. Regardless of what we are struggling with, burdened with, or going through, we need to lean back into that. God is not disappointed in you, discouraged with you, fed up with you, or done with you. Before we walk out of here today I’m hoping that you will spend these last few minutes getting back to this one simple truth despite it all God is, has always been, and will always be madly in love with you. He will stop at nothing to make sure that we don’t miss out on everything that this life can be for us. That’s why he spends so much time talking to us about the things we have talked about today. He wants us to know the truth. Why? Because it’s this truth that really does set us free. Let me pray for us.
