The Executive Producer

Message Transcription

Well, it is good to be with you. This morning, we're finishing up our series entitled Fake, where you've been talking some about what it means to be authentic disciples followers of Jesus. In week one, we looked at how Jesus calls us to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. And so we thought some about what that might look like. Last week, we looked at Paul's words of having a renewed mind, a mind transformed by the amazing grace of God. From Romans Chapter 12. This week we're going to be in Luke chapter 12. So if you have your Bible with you, invites you to turn over there. We're going to get there in just a minute. But as Jesus did so beautifully, so often, he would point to an image, an idea, a metaphor of his day to help his followers, his listeners learn and really understand what he was talking about. Jesus in these series, I've been following his lead as he has pointed to the theater. He talked a lot to his disciples about not being like the hypocrites, the actors of the day who were known for putting on these incredible costumes and acting out these roles. They weren't really real people. They were characters portraying some other reality. Jesus says, That's not how I want you to live as one of my disciples.

And so that first week we looked at the gaffer, the one who's in charge of lighting up the stage so that the things that the director wants to be shown can be seen. We talked about how Jesus calls us the light of the world and how it's often in our broken places that his light shines through our lives maybe most powerfully. So we want to be real. We don't want to be fake when it comes to sharing the light that's going on in our lives. We also know that comes with the challenge of being honest, of being willing to confess, to deal with repentance, of of turning our lives away from just chasing after the things we want and and instead pursuing the ways of God. Last week we looked at the makeup artist, the one who's in charge of coordinating with the wardrobe department, these characters of of putting on a face, whether that be with prosthetics or makeup and and wearing an outfit that would help share the kind of character the director wants in the play. We we talk some about what it means to be people who, as Paul challenged us in Colossians, take off some things and put on some different things. In fact, Paul would use these words in Colossians Chapter three Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator.

Verse 12. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness. We talk some about what it means to be the makeup artist of our own lives, that we would clothe ourselves and the kinds of things that reflect the amazing grace and love of God. Isn't it incredible thing that God chooses his church, his people to be his ambassadors, that he says the way that the world will see that there is a God in heaven who loves us and who cares deeply about us, who wants to be in relationship with us, he says, I'm going to shine through you. I'm going to allow you to live in such a way that that it shows. It demonstrates to the world that there is a God who loves them. Well, this week we're going to look in Luke chapter 12 at another character role, if you will. And in this one, if you saw the order of service, you saw that front picture. It's the executive producer. How many of you know what the executive producers job is on a stage or in a movie? Well, I'll educate you, some of you a little bit.

I see a couple of hands here and there. Ultimately, the executive producer he's in, he's in charge of the budget. The EP is the one who goes around and he he recruits the money. He tries to get people to invest in the project. So he'll go to independent contractors, he'll go to movie studios, or he'll somehow find or she'll somehow find the resources herself to pay for this enterprise. But not only that, she works with the director to come up with a budget to decide how much we need to spend here and there and where we need to shoot and how are we going to pay for all that. Sometimes the executive producer will recruit talent. We recruit actors, actresses, directors, help negotiate all those deals. But ultimately it all comes back to the budget. They're in charge of the budget. So how's your role of executive producing your life going these days? How are you doing with your finances? I know it makes people nervous when a preacher starts talking about money, but this morning we need to talk some about money. As a church. This is an issue we've been wrestling with. And in fact, your elders have been praying about and thinking about for a long time. How do we help be good stewards of the resources that God has given to us.

Given our place and our time, the size of our church, the size of our building? How do we use the funds that we have in the resources we have to glorify God to extend his kingdom? We're thinking about it and praying about it all the time. And so I want to invite you into that same conversation as Jesus does here. Consider these statistics that I came across, and some of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey and Ramsey Solutions. He does a lot of stuff on money. He presented some of these facts this week about debt in America. He said 37% of Americans are struggling or in crisis when it comes to their money. 36% over a third of all Americans have no savings at all. 20% have fallen deeper into debt. And even just summer of last year, less than one fourth of American households are debt free. The average household credit card debt is $5,315. The total US consumer debt is over almost 15 billion. Excuse me, trillion. That's a T, not a B trillion dollars. It's amazing. I think part of why I wanted to talk about this topic is there's maybe not another area of our life where it's so easy or tempting to want to pretend and be fake than in our finances, than how we live. I was listening. Maybe you heard the news this last week. Are the US debt crossed the $31 trillion plateau.

And people were losing their minds. Right? And they're trying to blame. Well, it's the Republicans. Well, it's the Democrats. So somebody went back and put pencil to paper and figured out since the last four administrations is when all this debt has been accumulated to Republicans and to Democratic presidents. And guess what? The split was on who caused more debt. 5050, right. Literally, they went back and added it up and it was like maybe 300,001 way versus the other. Right. So we realize our issues with money go well beyond our political party affiliation, and they go well beyond some idea and a simplistic solution. Jesus is going to speak to us. I think about some really important things to be thinking about when it comes to how we deal with our our finances, how we deal with our money, because we feel the pressure, don't we? We feel the pressure of the famous idiom keeping up with the Joneses, trying to to match others. We sometimes pawn that off on childhood experience. Right? Immature. I'm just trying to fit in. So I want to have the same clothes or I want to have the same shoes or the same backpack or the same whatever as And so in my friend group, you know, when I was a kid, when it was time to go school shopping, I always went with my mom because my mom at least had some compassion on what I might look like when I showed up on day one. You know, with Dad, we're going to Kmart, and those are not your bow jeans, Dad, that's not the cool. He's like, These are tough skins. They'll work, you know, like, No, daddy, don't get it. You know, I want the new Nike's. He's like, Converse all stars. We're good enough for me, son. They'll be good enough for you. You know, I did not want to go with that because he had no concept of this. I have an image to protect and it takes a little bit of money.

And mom at least gets a whiff of that understanding. Dad, it was totally lost on him. We like to think we leave that childish behavior behind, don't we, when we graduate and move on. But what we find is that pressure is still there. It just comes in a different form. Now we ask each other questions like, What do you do for a living? And in there we understand there's this little subtle hint like.

Is it better than me? What kind of car.

Do you drive? Oh, where do you live?

The questions may be a little different, but they carry with them that same pressure to want to conform, to want to to be seen as as someone who status of wealth and power. It's so dangerous and troubling and yet it seems so pervasive. Sometimes it comes maybe a little more subtle ways, whether it's around the water cooler at work or in the gym or at the PTA meeting, or when comparing our kiddos or thinking about even where to go to school. Katie and I were not prepared for the amount of social pressure that's put on young parents, on what school they're going to put their kid in. When we moved here, we got lots of advice about, well, that's, you know, that kind of school. You want to be in this kind of school, right? This this pressure to to think about who are you and what what do you have and what does that say about you? Those pressures are real and powerful. You may remember the recent college scandal that happened just a couple of years ago where famous people would go to a college coach like a tennis coach. This happens at another university that I know you all love almost as much as I do down south of here. And I went to the tennis coach and said, Do you have a scholarship? I have a kid. My kid can't get into that school. So what would you recruit them and have them join your team and give them a scholarship? Because the requirements for getting into that school is a little different.

If they're an athlete and and when they do, then they'll show up at school and day one and they'll say, Oh, never mind, I don't want to do your sport anymore. I'll give back my scholarship. But since I'm already in school, then I can stay trying to subvert. Why? Because. Because they knew there's some social status, some opportunity to have their kid go to a certain school that would lead to a certain life. Right? It may seem like a childish thing, but it turns into reality as adults. How do we deal with that kind of pressure? Jesus understood the pressure that comes from material wealth and possessions, And so you may remember some of his teachings when he would talk with his disciples about challenging this mentality of of comparing ourselves to one another and trying to pursue wealth and status and influence. He would say things like in Luke 16, no one can serve two masters. Either. You will hate the one and love the other. Or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Or maybe in Matthew 16, he said, What good is it for someone to gain the whole world? And yet forfeit your soul. What can you give in exchange for your soul? This question that haunts us as disciples.

What are we exchanging our souls for? Do we spend any time thinking about how our daily lives might be? This exchange going on and Luke, Chapter 12 Again, we're going to see this pressure showing up again. In fact, just a couple of verses before the ones that Karen read for us a moment ago, we see Jesus encounters this pressure with a couple of brothers and they're arguing over inheritance and one comes to Jesus and says, Jesus, tell my brother to share. Tell them to share the inheritance. Maybe a familiar thing. I was talking with my dad about him navigating some of the inheritance stuff that's been going on since my mom passed away, and his concern with making sure it's all equal and fair. Right, Because he's as an attorney, has dealt with so many families who've been torn apart by this desire for more. And I didn't get my fair share. Mom and dad kind of left me out in the cold and I'm going to, you know, and so my dad's been so concerned about that for us. Jesus facing the same challenge here in Luke 12. And so some would imagine as a rabbi, he'd have a thought on this. He would have something to tell the these two brothers who are arguing and fighting over resources like, Hey, man, haven't you heard anything I've taught? It's about sharing, bro. Share. What's the deal?

Right. He would understand as as a Jewish man, that inheritance isn't just a certain amount of money or a plot of land, right? The oldest brother got a double portion, right? He was the one in the special position, So maybe he would have said, Hey, pal, back off. You're the younger bro. That's not my fault. That's on you. Jesus doesn't say anything like that. Instead, he responds by saying, What are you asking me? Who am I to judge? Who am I to judge which one of you in your greed is worse? Look, life is more than what you own. Life is more than just about gathering as much stuff as you could get. Now, we could stop right there, and some of you are going. It would be a great place to say, Could we stop? Terry Sparky said, Yep. Thumbs up. Stop right there. And maybe we should.

Life is is more than the stuff we have. And I think most of us, myself included, on a good day, we'd say, Well, of course, of course it is. Now, of course, the people in my life are way more important than the stuff. The relationships that I have are so much more important than anything I could own. And on my good days, I remember that. And then I go to the grocery store. I didn't have to stand in line behind the person who doesn't read. It's ten items.

Or or I go for a walk in the evening and I'm walking down the street and the car coming toward me instead of moving over to give me safe passage down the road. He, like, wants to get as close as humanly possible to me. And so I'm over there flailing. Move over. Move over, you know? And Kaley's like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, People are our greatest resource. No, that's not. That's not how I live. I don't have to remember that. Jesus says it's more than the stuff you got. It's the people that matter. Me think. Yeah. Okay. Mostly. Mostly.

Jesus tells these brothers and the crowd that's starting to grow around them this story. So let me tell you about a farmer. Farmer who had an unbelievable harvest. It came in so much beyond what he already had built. He'd kind of built what he thought would hold a really good harvest. And what came in was an incredible harvest. And so he has this decision to make. What do I do? What do I do with all this abundance? And he says, I know what I'll do. I'll tear down my old barns, the small ones, the ones that I thought would would suffice. But they're not selfish. So I'm going to build a bigger one, and it's going to hold everything. And then God says, You fool. That's just foolish.

Tonight, your life, your soul will be demanded of you. And now what's going to happen to your stuff? This is what happens to a person who Jesus says stores up stuff for themselves but isn't rich toward God. Isn't rich toward God. We'll come back to that in a minute. What I find maybe most interesting, as I read through Luke 12, is thinking about the crowd that Jesus is talking to. The people that he is going to share these next words with. I'll read them again. Karen, read them for us just a moment ago. There are people who are. Who are living with just enough. And most of the people in Jesus day were not wealthy and had beyond all their needs met instead. Instead, most were living day to day. If anybody had a set of clothes, they might have had maybe one more to go with it. But that was about it. They'd have enough food maybe for that day or that week. But. But Sundays coming, Mondays coming.

Right.

I mean, most of them were just one disaster, one crisis away from destitution, much like most of the known world in our day, most of the non-Western world lives on a daily day to day, week to week existence, just one storm away from disaster. That's the majority of the people that are listening to Jesus when he tells them. Therefore, I tell you, don't worry about your life. Let's think about this for a moment. Don't worry about your life. What you will eat, your body, what you wear for life is more than food in the body, More than clothes. Consider the Ravens. They don't sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn. Yet God feeds them. How much more valuable you are than the birds.

And who of you can add a single hour to your life by worrying? Since you can't do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin yet, I tell you. Not even Solomon, in all of his splendor, was dressed like one of these. That that's how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire. How much more will he clothe you? Oh, you've a little faith. And do not set your heart on what you'll eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things. And your father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom. And these things will be given to you as well. Scholar N.T. Wright, says this The Kingdom of God is at its heart about God's sovereignty sweeping the world with love and power so that human beings each made in God's image and each one loved dearly. May relax in the knowledge that God is in control. It's why Jesus points to the birds and to the flowers. He's not trying to be romantic. He's trying to be realistic. To be honest.

That the creator of the universe, the maker of everything that you see, every person that you lock eyes with this week. Says he loves to give good gifts to his people. And he's offering you life in the kingdom. Again, imagine the crowd as they listen to this. This would have been an incredible shift in their thinking. And if I don't know where my next meal is coming from, that's all I'm thinking about. Church And you may be able to see that literally on me. If I don't know where I'm sleeping at night. That's what I'm thinking about.

Jesus says, you don't have to worry about those things. God knows that you need them. Instead, seek.

First the kingdom. Our world says, Look, if it's if it's to be, it's up to you. If it's going to happen, you've got to take care of yourself. You've got to secure yourself. You have to provide for yourself. That's that's the name of the game. And whoever does it better, will they get to write more rules? So defend yourself and protect yourself and make sure your rights aren't questioned or misused or mistreated or abused. The one who is ultimately in charge of you is you. So you better pay attention. That's the message of the world. Jesus came and said completely the opposite. Now, that's not the way the kingdom. That's not how life in God's kingdom his people will be. And he says, Church, if we miss this, if we.

Miss this.

He says, you're going to end up spending your entire life chasing after the very same thing that people who don't know God chase after. That's a sobering thought, isn't it?

He says, If we miss this reality.

Then we settle for the fake. And at the end of our lives, the response.

Will be foolish, foolish, foolish.

I've told you before, I'll say it again. I've visited several people who are on their deathbed. I've never had one set off.

I just made a little bit more money if I just bought that Maserati, man.

No one ever says that.

They say, if I just said I'm sorry. If I just told them that I loved them.

Right. They were there praying for a minute more.

For what really matters, aren't they? So Jesus says. Don't be afraid, little flock. I love these.

Tender.

Images. Don't be afraid.

For your father.

Has been pleased to give you the kingdom. So 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 a black Dodge Ram and.

Breaks in and steal stuff.

I mean, how bizarro is that? But Right, Like total picture of reality.

She said, Don't invest in those things because people do silly stuff all the time. Says for your treasure is there. Your heart will be also. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.

She says the father is.

Pleased to give his kingdom to his children.

You may remember the story of when Jesus was baptized and this voice from heaven comes and says, This is my son, whom I love with him. I am well. Pleased. Jesus uses the same word.

God is well pleased. He loves to give his kingdom to his people. He loves to share.

With you the.

Blessings of life in the kingdom. He says. So don't worry. Don't spend time worrying about. What you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear. But instead, seek the kingdom.

Is where your treasure is. That's where your heart will be, not the other way around. As much as I wish it were different. This is where your treasure is. That's where your heart will be. And we've got to.

Deal with this church.

Because how we deal with our finances says.

A lot about our hearts, right?

I mean, one of the challenges we're trying to get to right now as a church is what's our budget? How do we help pay for all the amazing work that God's doing here? And we're trusting God for him to do that.

Right.

And we're struggling to meet our budget. Church We had to give a lot of money to catch up, and we did. And that was awesome. We're like, Man.

What would it be like to, like, be ahead? What would it take?

Now Jesus says where your treasure is there. Your heart.

Will be.

They did a survey a few years ago that talked to people, asking them about their greatest fears, death, all kinds of things. What they found was most people said they're scared of of of losing someone they love, of course, but the majority of their responses were financially related. More people said they were scared of living paycheck to paycheck or falling into debt or becoming homeless than dying. They were scared of running out of money before they were going to be running out of time. And yet when we stack them both up on the scales of life, we understand there's not a comparison. How many of us would give all the money we make this year to be able to go back in time? And redo a couple of decisions. Redo a couple of relationships. We know the value of time because you don't get any more. Jesus says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Most people are afraid they're going to run out of money before they run out of time. And I think Jesus would say, because that's what they're devoted to. Church. What are we devoted to? Or are we devoted to? You know, we devoted a passing on the faith to the next generation. If so, man, did we give to that? As a church we're trying to give to that. We need your help. Would you help us give to that? We believe.

Like that is.

So critical. So we've hired these incredibly capable ministers. We've got to pay them some money.

To help them make make lives work. Right.

We need your help to partner with us to give to these things. We've got a huge campus and building that that we've got to help try to maintain and keep up with because we get to do some pretty amazing things in our building. In fact, we're putting together a video just to show you a week in the life of Broadway Church, how many people come and use our building here in the community? We have groups, some secular, some non. Some some religious that come and use our space. We have nonprofits that that use our space because of where we're located in the kind of neighbors we have. And they said we want to be a part of what you're doing. It's an amazing thing, but it costs money. All right, here goes the preacher. Right here he goes. David. Right. This is what a preacher does. Yeah, this is what he's doing. Yeah, he's doing it. Because where your treasure is. There's your heart. And we want to treasure the next generation. We want to treasure the ministry opportunity that God has given to us.

Church Would you partner with us? Would you be generous? Would you help us?

Would you help us be good stewards of the time and the place and the people, especially the people that God brings us into contact with? See the executive producer. His his bottom line is the is the number. Our bottom line is the person. And we see the numbers is strictly a tool to be used. And God can do amazing things through humble church. Who's willing to put first things first? God, would you help us not to be fake about this? Would you help us to be radically.

Generous.

In the ways that people have been generous to us before? God, thank you that there have been for over 120 years, men and women in this church body who have given sacrificially to make sure the next generation hears the story and the current generation grows up in faith and begins to use their gifts and service to the community. God, we want to carry on and carry forward that legacy. So, Lord.

Would you help us to be generous?

At the world's going to try to tempt us into believing that the most important place we can invest our resources is in our own self and how we look and what we drive and and what we wear and and where we live, those kinds of things. God, Would you help us to see that where our treasure is?

That's where our heart is.

And so would you help us, Father, to treasure treasures? What you treasured. And help us not to be fake.

Help us to be real.

Lord, your word is so bold as to challenge us to test you in this, to see if we can out give you God. There's no way possible. And so, God, would you help us to be that light in our community? Would you help us to be the gaffers of our own existence, to be able to to show and illuminate your amazing love in and through us? God, would you help us to to receive the challenge of of the makeup artists to take off those things that just are about pretense and impression management instead put on the clothing of Christ that compassion, that kindness, that joy, that faithfulness, that generosity. And Laura, as we get a chance to to be in so many ways the executive producer of our own life. Lord, would you help us to value the things that really matter? And that's people. And so would you help us to invest in people? In our community. Gabe, would you help us to be generous in our giving here just the way that you have been so.

Generous to us?

Lord, we want to be real. And so, God, this year 2023, we dedicate. To stepping out of the darkness and into the light. Out of being fake and into being real. Lord, thank you. Thank you for my friends here today and for their heart, for you in their desire to truly be yours. Would you bless them? Would you give them courage? God? Would you help them to hear whatever it is that you're asking them to think about today? Where is it that they're investing that's not then really matter? It's not Ultimate Lord, would you help them to respond in faith?

I pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.