So hey there, good to see you and to have you with us. So we are wrapping up a series today, but before we talk about that let’s spend a second or two talking about this, that means that we are starting a brand new series next week, a series called Inside Out. We have spent the first two months of this year really challenging you hard to build your core and put some things into practice in your life that will lead you to the life that you want, the life that we all come in here chasing after every single week. Now, it’s time to shift and help us all deal with the stuff that is going on behind the scenes, behind the curtain in our lives. What do we do with the anger, hurt, sadness, worry, anxiety, and depression that is going on deep inside of us? That’s the question. Where is God in that? What does he have to say about that? How can He help us with that? I’m excited about what God is going to do in this next series which will lead us up to this crazy little weekend in this place we call Easter. So start inviting your friends, not only to Easter. Invite them to this next series too. It’s going to be great.
So, that’s next week, let’s get back to today. Today we are jumping back into and wrapping up a series that we have been in for the past few weeks called Truth or Dare. For just a 3 week series this series has been packed with quite the punch. Even though the title of the series may make some of us think about the game that we played when we were younger this series has actually been built on what Jesus says in John chapter 8 when he says that if we hold to his teaching we will know the truth and that truth will set us free. Just after one of the services the very first weekend of this series a really nice lady approached me in the lobby to tell me that as she heard me set up this series she couldn’t help but think about the title of Gloria Steinem’s book from last year. The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off. I haven’t read the book but I think the title is hard to argue with isn’t it?
Which brings me to this. I want to pause again for a moment and brag on you. I have been a part of this story now for almost 12 years. In the past, when we have even hinted at a series having anything to do with giving, generosity, or money we have seen attendance drop fairly significantly the next week. Lots of people just peace out until we start the next series. This year is different. Watch this now...the attendance drop from week 1 to week 2 was 1%. That’s amazing. In week 1 of the series I talked about that line from A Few Good Men...you can’t handle the truth. Well, obviously you can, you want to hear the truth, because more than anything else you want your heart to be alive and free. Just know I am proud of you for that. So let’s jump back into this and wrap this up. For the first two weeks God chose truth. Now it’s our turn. Let’s just be honest. Truth or Dare is just not near as fun if no one ever chooses dare. Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to do that. I’m choosing to do that for you. So, here we go...let’s jump back in and wrap this thing up in the time we have left together today.
If you brought a Bible we are going to be in Mark 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, Mark chapter 12 beginning with verse 38…
38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”
Let’s give a little context to this moment as we walk into this. Jesus is teaching a large crowd and much of his teaching here is in response to a question that these very teachers of the law or Pharisees that he is talking about here have asked him to answer. As he is teaching, he turns to his disciples, his own guys and says this. Watch out for those guys...yes those guys right there, the religious of the religious, those guys who are doing all this religious stuff that looks so good but really the back story is not so pretty. I love how Jesus walks into this. In effort to help us see what it is, he points to what it’s not. So we have chosen dare and we are actually going to unpack three dares in the passage we are reading today starting with this...
JESUS DARES US TO RETHINK OUR RELIGIOUS WAYS. When we read through the life of Jesus we see that His biggest battles were with the religious establishment. Why? Because religion never leads anyone to the life that they are really looking for. A lot of us have tried it, some of us for years, we know it is true. The truth is that so many of the things that we often find ourselves doing in this thing we call church will never get us to the life we want. Our vision here at DCC is changing what people think when they hear the word church and Christian. What do people tend to think? Words like judgment, condemnation, republican, hypocrite, holier than thou, exclusive, homo-phobic, mean, defensive, argumentative, divisive come to mind just to name a few. So our vision is to change that, not by coming up with our own definition of what Christian or church should be, but by getting back to what Jesus said and what he always intended for it to be. We have to get this. There is a difference between the Religious Spirit and the Holy Spirit. People who are real followers of Jesus carry the Holy Spirit and lead with love like Jesus. People caught up in a religious spirit look much like the guys Jesus is pointing to here. Listen to what Jesus says about them in Matthew chapter 23...
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Here’s the thing. The life that Jesus is points us to here and throughout his entire life is upside/down and inside/out. Upside down in the fact that the last will be first, the greatest will be the servant of all. Inside out is behavior that is driven not by rules and regulations but by the life change that is happening inside of you. I can’t prove it but my guess is that the 10% that these pharisees and teachers of the law are giving financially is given because they have to or are supposed to. What Jesus points us to here is heart change on the inside that leads have to or supposed to want to. Religion never gets us there. It is the change in our lives that comes from a real relationship with Jesus that brings that kind of change into each of our lives. That is why Jesus dares us to rethink our religious ways. So, there is a hard break here in most of our Bibles that suggests that we are now jumping to a different story. I think it is more helpful to see it as the continuation of the same story. Let’s read it and talk about that. Here we go verse 41...
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
Okay, so Jesus takes a break from the crowd and he and his guys sit down outside one of the 13 offering boxes in the temple. That ought to make you feel better about us, we only have 4. As they are watching rich people are throwing in wads of money and a poor widow finally comes along and throws in a few coins. Scholars tell us it’s wages for about 6 minutes of work. With minimum wage today that is about $1.20. So, the rich people put in large amounts of money, but Jesus said she put in more. Jesus always tells the truth. So, think about it. How can that be true? The only way that is possibly true is if this is what is really going on here...
JESUS DARES US TO THINK PRIORITY AND PERCENTAGE. If we really think about that it makes sense. It is what God has been doing with his people since the time they really became his people. Let’s take a look at it. This is Malachi chapter 3 beginning with verse 8…
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
So a tithe is 10%, 10% off the top. Yes, that is in the Old Testament. Yes, that is a specific conversation that God had with his chosen people Israel. A lot of people like to argue that because of that it has no application to us it’s an Old Testament thing. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees when he was calling them out in Matthew 23. We just read it. You should have practiced justice, mercy, and faithfulness without neglecting tithing. In other words, there is a presumption here, of course you are going to do this percentage giving thing. So, knowing that, what just happened? Do you see what just happened there? Truth or Dare actually now becomes Truth and Dare. Here is a whole lot of truth about your money and now Test me in this. I dare you to try it. I think we miss how significant this moment is. God commanded his people not to put him to the test in Deuteronomy. It is a commandment that Jesus himself repeated when he was tempted in the wilderness by Satan himself. And now we are given what, we are given the one exception to that. Here’s a whole lot of truth about money and now I dare you to do the one thing that I myself have commanded you never to do.
The Stats tell us that people outside the church give away or are generous with about 2.5% of their incomes and church people are right there too. The formula tends to be me first living with little if any left over giving. Giving and generosity for most of us if we do it at all tends to be sporadic, spontaneous, something that we sparingly do. Jesus is pointing us to something different here. We need to not only make generosity our first financial priority, we need to be thinking percentage too. There are lots of people around here that have tried what Jesus is pointing to here and found it to be true. I could point you to dozens but let me just tell you about two...
ILLUST> Crystal says “when we first started giving at DCC we didn't tithe in full at first. More like 5%.. because I felt that's all we could afford and that God would understand. My husband is a Maintenance Man.. I have been disabled since 2011 and am on Social Security Disability.. so no.. the money is not On and Popp'in if you feel what I'm say'in.. And then you asked how can you say you trust God if you don't Trust Him With Everything! 100%??? You can't.. We immediately started tithing our full 10%.. I was TERRIFIED. How was I going to manage our bills with so much coming right off the top? I was going to manage them just fine.. our car insurance bill came in.. we had nothing left for bills outside of about $50.. That bill was normally $478 a month.. Well on December 10th I paid a whopping $3.34!!! Every bit I had tithed had been returned! And every month since the money has worked out.. no we don't have extra.. we have what we need and we are on track now financially.. paying our debts off moving towards buying a home by Summer.” That’s Crystal’s story. Here’s Laura’s. “About 2 years ago, you did a series on being on mission financially with DCC. Some testimonial videos were shown about how being on mission financially had changed peoples’ lives. You also told the congregation that if they do start contributing regularly & are in worse shape financially than they were, you’d personally refund their money (bold move sir). Well, I’m here to testify that it’s changed my husband’s & my life too. We jumped on mission after that series & have contributed monthly ever since. Not only that but we’ve also increased our giving periodically. Since then, we’ve paid off credit cards & for the first time in a very long time, we have a savings account. In addition, we’ve been able, financially, to help a DCC family who was homeless. We’ve brought them groceries, given gas money & bought things they needed to set up their apartment (Yay!!! They moved into a place about 2 weeks ago). Every time my husband says we need to increase our giving, I panic a little but go ahead & do it. I have never for one moment regretted doing so as we’ve been “paid back” in more ways that I can count. So, I accept your challenge sir & have upped my giving $80 a month! Thank you for making me go WAY outside of my comfort zone.”
As we begin to really make this generosity thing a priority and carve out a percentage here is what typically naturally follows that. Once, we taste it, all that God has for us in this, we want to give more, we begin to look for ways to increase our giving. Not only has Have To or Supposed to become Want To, now Want To is becoming Get To in their lives. If we hang around church long enough we will have our heads full of lots and lots of religious information just like the teachers of the law in the story did. All of this information is only beneficial to the extent it leads to transformation in your life and mine. So how, do we move all of this information to transformation or real life? Watch this, we are getting ready to see that one last verse, verse 44...
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
So, yeah, a lot of us are sitting here with a whole lot of, an entire book full of good information. Question. Is all of this information actually leading to any transformation? Is my life really changing at all? Here is what we are seeing in this moment today with Jesus. It is what he is pointing to with the poor widow here. All of this information never really leads to transformation without application. Everything begins to change when we begin to put all of this information into practice in our lives which is exactly what Jesus dares us to do. Now, it seems like Jesus is asking us to give it all. Does he dare us to give it all, every single penny, all that we have to live on. Is that the dare here? No, relax and breathe a little bit. So what’s the dare? Are you ready? Here it is...
JESUS DARES US TO GO ALL IN. So here’s the question. Am I willing to go all in with God? What is getting in the way of that? For some of us it’s money. For some of us though, it is not a money issue at all. Make it personal, don’t answer out loud but ask yourself some questions. What is it for you? What am I holding onto? What am I refusing to let go of, where am I really struggling to trust God and go all in? Regardless of what it is, the dare is the same. Jesus dares us all to go all in.
See, somehow, someway we have to get back to who we are playing the game of Truth or Dare with. He’s the creator of the universe, the creator of life itself. This dare comes from someone who can deliver on his promise and yet we struggle to trust, we struggle to take the dare. As I was thinking about that this week I couldn’t help but think about the song So Will I, a song that has become a crowd favorite around here. It’s a reminder of who gives us the dare and how we should respond to it.
ILLUST> “If the stars were made to worship so will I. Yep. Most of us are willing to do that. “If creation sings your praises so will I.” Again, singing praises not a big deal, count me in. “If it all reveals your nature so will I”. There seems to be a progression here but I think I can do that count me in. “If creation still obeys you so will I”. Okay, I’m not going to live that perfectly but I will sign up for that too. “If the mountains bow in reverance, if the oceans roar your greatness, if everything exists to lift you high so will I.” Again, not a problem, I think I can do all of that. How about you? You feeling okay? Not all that easy maybe but no major problems. Let’s keep going. “If the wind goes where you send it so will I.” You know what I think, I think this is where things start to turn for most of us. God I will sing, praise, obey, bow, roar, and lift you up. I’m struggling with this one a bit. Why? Well, if I am honest, it kind of depends on where you send me. Doesn’t it. The real turning point or should I say stopping point comes right here in the song. “If you left the grave behind you so will I.” Here it is. Our core value of dying to self. It’s a great day to die. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Because you left all of that dead stuff behind, I am willing to die to self. To lay all this stuff down, to draw and line in the sand, die to some things and not return there...to rise up and begin to live differently. “If you gladly chose surrender so will I.” “If you gave your life to love them so will I.” It points us to the life that Jesus dares us to pursue, a life of surrender and other-centeredness.
As we finish this series today I’m hoping that every single one makes a decision today not only to sing this song but to take God’s dare too. The words are true. God chased down my heart through all of my failures and pride. Jesus lost his life so I could find life here. God didn’t leave me behind. He’s the one who never leaves a single one of us behind. We have sang this song many many times before, maybe you have too. I am hoping that today it’s going to be different. On that weekend in Feb 2020, I drew a line in the sand, said no turning back, from this moment forward, I’m all in. Let me pray for us.
