Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, happy New Year, church.
[00:00:04] Hope you had a good Christmas and the joy of the Lord filled your heart and family.
[00:00:12] Our dear Heavenly Father, you are the God who invests in our lives and granting us the life ability, the life opportunities to thrive.
[00:00:34] And I pray this morning we could think about thriving in the new year and being productive people and accomplishing that for which you sent us into the world.
[00:00:49] And I ask it through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
[00:00:57] An American businessman worked hard, was diligent, and figured stuff out, and he built a investment company.
[00:01:14] Basically, they bought companies that weren't doing well, restructured them, got them profitable, and then sold them to other people.
[00:01:26] And he was just killing it.
[00:01:28] He was doing so well that he was asked to be an ambassador.
[00:01:33] So he called in his leadership team, three guys, and said, I'm gonna go be an ambassador, and while I'm gone, you three are gonna run the company.
[00:01:47] I'm dividing the company into three divisions.
[00:01:50] He said to the first, I'm making you a senior vice president over the first division, and you will be responsible for $50 million worth of this company.
[00:02:09] He said to the second guy, I'm making you a senior vice president, and your division will be responsible for 20 million.
[00:02:19] He said to the third guy, I'm making you a senior vice president, and your division is worth $10 million.
[00:02:31] He said to all three of them, you know the business, you know what we do, you know how we do it.
[00:02:38] You have everything you need to thrive while I'm gone.
[00:02:44] And so he went to be an ambassador, and the guys took over responsibility.
[00:02:53] The first senior vice president, man, he was on it.
[00:02:59] He was running down every lead, looking for new opportunities, exploring options, and his division exploded.
[00:03:15] The second senior vice president, same thing. He was on it. He was running down leads. Everybody was diligent, they were making stuff happen, and. And his division exploded.
[00:03:31] The third senior vice president, ah, he wasn't like the other two.
[00:03:45] He couldn't see opportunities anywhere.
[00:03:50] He.
[00:03:51] He exaggerated the risk of everything, and he couldn't find any investments to make, and he worried about the stock market, and he was afraid he'd lose some money, and he didn't even invest in the stock market.
[00:04:14] Well, the time for the ambassadorship ran out, and the owner of the company came home and they had a business meeting where each one of the senior vice presidents explained what their division was doing and where the company was.
[00:04:35] So the first senior vice president said, you made me responsible for $50 million worth of business.
[00:04:43] And while you were gone, we doubled our business. And now Our division is worth $100 million.
[00:04:54] And the owner of the company said, man, that is fantastic.
[00:05:01] I am, I respect the good work you did.
[00:05:06] I'm inspired by your good attitude.
[00:05:11] I'm promoting you and making you a partner in this company.
[00:05:18] The second guy gave his report and he said, you made me responsible for $20 million worth of business.
[00:05:26] We had some really good opportunities. We made some real strategic moves, and now our division is worth $40 million instead of 20.
[00:05:38] And the owner of the company said, man, I'm so impressed with your good work.
[00:05:43] I appreciate you more than you can imagine.
[00:05:47] I want you to know I value enough. I'm promoting you and you're going to be a partner in this company.
[00:05:54] And then the third guy said, we didn't lose any money while you were gone.
[00:06:06] Our division didn't have the opportunities these other divisions had. And I know how I know what kind of guy you are. And I just couldn't see any deals that I thought you would approve of.
[00:06:22] And so the owner said, so you didn't make any deals at all?
[00:06:28] And third vice president said, ah, no, we didn't.
[00:06:34] He said, well, what did you invest the money in?
[00:06:38] He said, well, I know how, I know what kind of guy you are. And the stock market is kind of tricky, and I didn't see any really good deals. And we didn't invest in the stock market either.
[00:06:55] And the owner of the company said, then what you're saying is you didn't do any business while I was gone?
[00:07:03] He said, oh, no, we were busy. We did business.
[00:07:07] We just didn't. We just didn't make any new deals.
[00:07:13] And the owner of the company said, well, if you know what kind of guy I am, you had to know that this wouldn't be acceptable to me.
[00:07:28] He said, you're fired.
[00:07:34] And they called, they called security, took his keys and walked him out of the building.
[00:07:44] This is a modern retelling of a parable that Jesus told called the Parable of the Talents.
[00:07:54] And in the Parable of the Talents, Jesus is making a very big point.
[00:08:01] And the big point he's trying to make is we are responsible to God to live thriving and productive lives.
[00:08:13] Church, please listen to this.
[00:08:16] We are all responsible to God to live thriving and productive lives. Listen, ah, playing it safe is not acceptable with God.
[00:08:34] Figuring out your comfort zone and choosing the path that is easiest to pass to life is not why God created you.
[00:08:45] He created every single one of us to thrive and be productive.
[00:08:51] He created us to do things that advanced his kingdom and his cause in the world.
[00:08:59] This parable begins with the insight that everything you need to thrive and be productive in life, God has invested in you.
[00:09:11] When I look at my life, it's easy to see that from the time I was a boy, I until right now, God has made investments in me.
[00:09:22] I. I grew up in Middle west schools. And the schools I went to, they were all public schools, but they were great schools. We all learned what we needed to learn.
[00:09:35] I got a college education.
[00:09:39] He's met me and directed my way. He. He's helped me to see opportunities. He's filled me with faith to try hard things. I look at my life and I see investment after investment after investment by God.
[00:09:55] And I believe if you would look at your life in a realistic way, God's made a big investment in you, too.
[00:10:03] God has met you at strategic times. He's helped you. He's pointed you in the right direction. He's protected you from evil, and he's made a huge investment in your life.
[00:10:15] In the story is the. The. The owner gives his employees talents.
[00:10:25] Now, there's some debate about what a talent is, but basically it probably means about 6,000 denarii.
[00:10:34] A denarii was what a common man made for working one day. It was one day's pay.
[00:10:41] So if there are 6,000 denarii in a talent, then, and you make 300 denarii a year, that's 20 years worth of income for a common person. So that one talent is a lot more than what it feels like when you read the story. It is a huge investment.
[00:11:05] And God is trying to say in every single one of us, God has made big investments, so we have the potential to thrive and be productive.
[00:11:19] Jesus also said in this story that everybody didn't get the same.
[00:11:24] One guy got five talents, one guy got two talents, and one guy got one talent.
[00:11:31] And they were given the investment based on their ability.
[00:11:37] All right, so not everyone in this room and not everyone online has, has received the same investment from God.
[00:11:47] He's invested in us based on what he knows our ability is.
[00:11:52] God is not going to invest something in you and, and hold you accountable for it if you're not capable of handling it. He's. He's a good businessman. He knows what he's doing.
[00:12:04] So he invests in us what he knows. We have the innate ability to use wisely in life. Church.
[00:12:14] So in this room and online, some of you are very talented people.
[00:12:21] Your whole life, you've.
[00:12:25] You've just had that little edge.
[00:12:29] You thrived in elementary School. You thrived in high school. You got a good college education.
[00:12:37] You did well in your career. You're doing well right now.
[00:12:42] You're just more gifted than the average person.
[00:12:46] Now listen what this parable is saying.
[00:12:48] The more gifted you are, the more accountable to God you are.
[00:12:54] God holds you accountable to the level of your ability and your giftedness.
[00:13:00] So some people in this room have been very blessed by God.
[00:13:05] You're very talented, you're very gifted.
[00:13:09] You've done well in life, and God's going to hold you accountable for that.
[00:13:16] Stop comparing yourself to losers and start comparing yourself to people who are talented and gifted and start asking yourself, what does God have the right to expect from my life?
[00:13:30] Church.
[00:13:31] Now, no one in here can say got ripped off. God didn't invest anything in me.
[00:13:39] I can't expect anything from me. I.
[00:13:42] Every single person in this room is gifted by God in multiple ways.
[00:13:48] All right? Now, not everyone, not all of you have done your work to know what your giftedness is. But you're all gifted.
[00:13:56] All right?
[00:14:00] So God invests in us.
[00:14:06] And then he says, I want you to take that innate ability, the learning and the opportunities that I create, and I want you to live a thriving life and I want you to be productive.
[00:14:22] That's God's will for every one of us. All right? You don't have to look around long to see that there are a lot of people who. Who are wasting the giftedness.
[00:14:34] You don't have to look around very long to see that a lot of Christian people, they figure out how to create a comfort zone and then they spend the less the rest of their life in the security of their comfort zone. And they never fully realize their potential because they refuse to live with the difficulties and the stress of living up to your full potential.
[00:15:06] Church.
[00:15:08] Church.
[00:15:10] Ah, ah.
[00:15:14] Ah, ah, ah.
[00:15:20] Why waste your single one life chance to live life to its fullest, to be everything you have the potential to be, to accomplish what only you have the unique giftedness, abilities and divine opportunities to do.
[00:15:43] Why continue to live year after year below your potential?
[00:15:51] Because you just don't want to miss your favorite Thursday night show.
[00:15:58] Ah.
[00:16:00] Ah.
[00:16:01] You've figured out the pathway of least resistance.
[00:16:06] You've negotiated your way to mediocrity, and now you've gotten used to it.
[00:16:13] And I'm telling you this morning, it is disgusting to God because that's not what he created you for and that's not who he created you to be.
[00:16:24] And he holds us accountable for what he's invested in us.
[00:16:29] So in the parable, the guy who owns the company, he's gone for a while, but he comes home.
[00:16:35] And when he comes home, he meets with each one of the servants and he says, I want you to give an account for what you did with the opportunity I gave you.
[00:16:48] I want you to know that we all have an appointment with the boss.
[00:16:52] Everyone has an appointment with the boss.
[00:16:55] The most important thing at that appointment is, have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? That is the most important.
[00:17:04] And then after that, the question is, what did you do with the life I gave you?
[00:17:13] What did you do with the opportunities I gave you? What did you do with the investments I made in you?
[00:17:23] You don't have to make this. Doesn't you have to make this complex? You can just start asking yourself the question, okay.
[00:17:31] In my family relations, ah, Do I make my family better?
[00:17:38] Is my family better because of the. Because the contribution I make to it, or am I part of the problem?
[00:17:47] See, where you work is where you work better because you bring your best self. You bring a person who knows Christ. You bring a person who has a heart for what is right and good. And. And you. And you are a blessing to the people you work with.
[00:18:07] What's happening in the world, that wouldn't happen if you weren't doing what you're doing.
[00:18:14] You see, every one of us are going to have to stand before the Almighty and Christ is going to say to us, let's take a look at your life. What did you do with the life I gave you to live? What did you accomplish?
[00:18:30] What did you try?
[00:18:32] How did you develop yourself to the fullest?
[00:18:36] Were you willing to try hard things? Or did you insist on living that.
[00:18:41] That easy life?
[00:18:48] And his expectation in that time of evaluation is the. That we lived a productive life.
[00:18:56] That's the expectation, all right.
[00:19:01] I just preached to Katie and I preached to a whole bunch of sermons on the moral attributes of God.
[00:19:09] You know, what kind of being he is.
[00:19:14] Do you believe that when you have your appointment with the boss and you say, well, you don't understand.
[00:19:25] I was so busy.
[00:19:27] I had all this other stuff I had to do.
[00:19:32] You don't understand.
[00:19:36] People disappointed me. You don't understand. I was afraid.
[00:19:41] Look, these excuses will be meaningless on the great day because he says, I've invested everything in you. You need to be productive and thrive and live the life I created you to live.
[00:19:57] Can you hear this church?
[00:20:01] Ah.
[00:20:03] And we learn in this parable that it matters how we think about God, the guy who failed in Business.
[00:20:11] Listen what he said as a way of deflecting his failure.
[00:20:19] He said, I knew you were an austere man.
[00:20:26] I knew you were a hard man.
[00:20:29] And I knew that you harvest where you don't sow and you gather where you haven't scattered.
[00:20:40] And I was afraid and I hid the silver.
[00:20:47] Ah, first of all, I don't know where he got the courage to talk to God like that.
[00:20:55] All right? But let's not be too smug, because many of us in this room have thought from time to time, ah, God's a little too strict.
[00:21:07] He doesn't understand church.
[00:21:11] Church, We've had wrong conceptions about God.
[00:21:17] We've thought, he's a little too strict. He's got too many rules.
[00:21:22] He doesn't understand how hard it is for me. He doesn't know what I'm going through.
[00:21:27] He doesn't see the difficulties that I face. Ah, church.
[00:21:34] Never permit yourself to think lowly thoughts of God.
[00:21:41] Never permit yourself to think poorly of God. It will affect your feelings, and your feelings will keep you from living the productive life that God wants you to live.
[00:21:56] This may be the most important part of the sermon. So if you've been daydreaming, come home to me.
[00:22:01] All right, listen, playing it safe is not an option. That's what this parable is about.
[00:22:09] Just not being bad is not good enough.
[00:22:14] Now listen to this carefully.
[00:22:18] Ah, this.
[00:22:22] The servant who got fired.
[00:22:25] He didn't steal the money. He didn't buy himself a Ferrari.
[00:22:30] He wasn't going to Las Vegas on the weekends with the company money.
[00:22:37] But just not being bad was not the Lord's expectation.
[00:22:44] He didn't hire him and say, just don't do anything stupid.
[00:22:49] He hired him and said, be productive.
[00:22:53] God did not save us just for us to be content not to be wicked.
[00:23:01] He saved us to be productive people who work with him in this world. And, and we produce and, and we. And we cause his kingdom to thrive.
[00:23:13] Listen to this.
[00:23:15] Playing it safe is not an option because it doesn't meet the basic expectation of God for your life.
[00:23:28] In fact, if you read the Bible, it's just the opposite.
[00:23:32] There's not an example in the Bible where people played it safe and God did great things.
[00:23:39] In all these stories in the Bible, they had to leave their comfort zone.
[00:23:44] God showed up to Noah and said, hey, I want you to build a boat. Noah said, what's a boat?
[00:23:50] He had no idea how to build a boat.
[00:23:53] And God asked him to do something that was out of his comfort zone. God showed up To Abraham and said, I want you to leave this nice house in this nice suburb, and I'm gonna take you to a place that I'll show you when you get there.
[00:24:05] And Abraham said, well, where is it? And God said, you're going to be uncomfortable, but I'll get you there. Just come with me.
[00:24:13] Moses was taking care of stinking sheep when God showed up in his life and said, I got a task that's too hard for you. Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go.
[00:24:24] King David was a boy when God said, you can kill that giant. Just go down there and have a run at it.
[00:24:30] Church Every place I read in the Bible where God is doing awesome things in the world, People aren't playing it safe. They're trusting God. They're believing things can be better. They're doing what other people aren't willing to do. They have a spirit of thriving in Jesus Christ. They have a sense that God is worth it all. And they're living a life that is fascinating and productive.
[00:25:01] In fact, God considers an unproductive life wicked and lazy.
[00:25:07] Listen what he says to the guy, verse 26.
[00:25:13] The Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant.
[00:25:23] Ah.
[00:25:24] The unproductive life offends God, but we have it in our head that he's comfortable with us being unproductive.
[00:25:36] We look at the big ten, the ten Commandments, and we go, yeah, if I murder somebody, I'm sure God would be unhappy with me.
[00:25:45] Yeah, if I lie in that, if I lie and make a deal, God will be unhappy with me.
[00:25:52] If I steal, God will be unhappy with me.
[00:25:55] If I cheat on my spouse, God will be unhappy with me. If I take the Lord's name in vain, God will be unhappy with me. We're sensitive to that, but we're insensitive that a wasted life is worse than all of those things that I just said.
[00:26:14] Do you get this?
[00:26:16] Ah.
[00:26:17] Ah. If you took the Lord's name in vain, you would feel bad and you would repent and you'd say to God, please help me not to do that anymore.
[00:26:27] But you waste day after day after day of your life.
[00:26:33] You waste month after month. Some of you have wasted years, and somehow or another you've grown content.
[00:26:44] You've accepted the mediocrity, you've normalized the unproductive life.
[00:26:53] And you put it out of your head that that is as offensive to God as anything on the big ten Church.
[00:27:03] A wasted life is offensive to God.
[00:27:08] He loves you. He values you. He knows your potential. He wants you to thrive and compromising into a mediocre life is a great. As great a sin as any sin you can list.
[00:27:28] Will you say amen?
[00:27:32] Ah.
[00:27:34] Ah.
[00:27:35] And so God says.
[00:27:39] The owner of the company says to the failed servant, he says, ah.
[00:27:49] Ah.
[00:27:53] You don't belong around me.
[00:27:57] You've proven that your agenda and my agenda are so radically different.
[00:28:03] You don't belong around me.
[00:28:06] He said, take this useless servant and cast him into the darkness, the outer darkness, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth.
[00:28:21] God said, your wasted life is proof that you never really believed in me. You never really trusted me, and you never really put your faith in me.
[00:28:36] And now you don't belong with me.
[00:28:41] Church.
[00:28:42] A wasted life is a disaster. Can anybody hear me? A wasted life.
[00:28:49] A wasted life creates a wasted eternity. There is a misery and a sorrow and a regret that you don't want any part of.
[00:29:00] And it is directly connected to undervaluing the life God gave you.
[00:29:07] Ah.
[00:29:08] Ah.
[00:29:10] Softening your own course and not being productive in the kingdom of God.
[00:29:16] Church.
[00:29:18] Ah. I want this to be clear. We don't earn our salvation. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
[00:29:28] But once I am a new creation, once I have been touched by the saving reality of God, I become part of something bigger than myself.
[00:29:40] And what I do matters. I'm not.
[00:29:44] I'm. I'm not sailing through life just by myself. I'm part of something bigger than I am. And. And the boss has a place for me. The. There's things I have to get done in his eternal plan, and they all matter.
[00:29:59] And for me to live my life in the kind of way that I don't see myself in this bigger picture, it won't.
[00:30:12] It won't be. Well on the great day.
[00:30:19] Ah.
[00:30:21] So when I look at us as a church, I say we fit this parable.
[00:30:31] For 40 years, 43 years, God has been investing in this church.
[00:30:38] Some of you don't know this.
[00:30:43] We started with about 25 people.
[00:30:48] Good Sunday, we would have 40.
[00:30:52] And God blessed us.
[00:30:54] And God blessed us. And God blessed us.
[00:30:57] We were in a little building in Parma, and we outgrew that. And we sold it and we bought the building next to the high school.
[00:31:06] We remodeled that and we outgrew that. And then we rented the high school auditorium for seven years.
[00:31:16] We hauled our stuff in there and set up a church. And when church was over, we hauled ourselves out of there for seven years. Brothers who were part of it back then, sisters who were part of it back Then heroes, absolute heroes.
[00:31:36] Ah, then we bought this land, and then we built phase one, and then we built phase two.
[00:31:44] Then we started the campus in Elyria, and then we started the campus in Old Brooklyn.
[00:31:52] God has blessed this church.
[00:31:55] We have a long history of being recipients of divine investments. But listen, God didn't invest all this in us so that we can sit comfortably and say, hey, how about the good old days, huh?
[00:32:13] God invested all of this in us because of what he wants out of us in the future.
[00:32:19] The future of this church does not depend on what happened five years ago. The future of this church depends on what we do this year in using what God has invested in us. Can you hear me, church?
[00:32:33] So where do we have to be profitable? What is God's expectation of us? That's what our mission statement is. Our mission statement says, this is where we have to produce. And so I want to remind you of it.
[00:32:47] Ah, we have to produce. When it comes to attracting people to the excellence of Jesus Christ, there are thousands of people out there this morning who. Who have drifted away from God. Their soul is empty. They can't find their way home.
[00:33:04] And the good shepherd wants us to be his partner and attract them back to the excellence of Jesus Christ. Do this.
[00:33:12] Every one of us should try this year to tell somebody something beautiful about Christ and ask them if they would like to come home.
[00:33:22] Ask them if they'd like to have Christ in their life again.
[00:33:26] Ask them what it would take for them to create a new. For them to accept a new trust in Christ and be part of what God's doing in the world.
[00:33:37] We want to be a regional church. We want this church to be influential for good all over northeastern Ohio.
[00:33:47] The second thing we have to be productive in is we have to be productive in the joy of ministry.
[00:33:55] Here I am again saying every Christian ought to serve God in some way. Well, why? This parable tells us why we're going to be evaluated on. Did you serve God in any way? What did you do that helped the kingdom of God thrive? What did you do that made the kingdom of God productive? How was the church that you went to better? Because you went there and served the way you served? Did you hear this? That's what the joy of ministry is all about. I want to invite everybody who's here this morning and everybody who's online.
[00:34:31] If you don't serve God in some way, this has to be the year you start.
[00:34:37] This has to be the year you volunteer. This has to be the year that you start laying up for Yourself treasure in heaven where moth and rust don't corrupt and thieves don't break through and steal.
[00:34:49] If you are in a ministry, you could be productive by inviting somebody to serve in that ministry with you.
[00:34:59] You see, if you're, if you're, if you're on the greeters team, you could invite somebody to be on a greeters team with you. You could say, hey, why don't, why don't next Sunday you join me and, and we'll do, we'll do the greeting ministry together.
[00:35:15] If you're serving the children, you could say to somebody, man, it is awesome to be part of changing a kid's life. How about next Sunday you volunteer and come with me and we'll do it together?
[00:35:27] Church, we can be productive by simply partnering with God and inviting somebody to do ministry with us.
[00:35:38] Ah, our church has proven that we're talented in starting other campuses.
[00:35:49] You do know the average church never starts another campus, that churches that start other campuses are very, very rare. They're 1 percenters, all right? And a lot of times churches start campuses, but they can't, they don't do it well and the campuses don't survive.
[00:36:08] We started west campus with about 100 people from this church and today they're running about 500 people in person attendance and another 250 people online. That is a campus today of 750 people.
[00:36:32] Makes it one of the largest churches in, I think the average Protestant church in America is 125.
[00:36:39] All right.
[00:36:41] And they're breaking ground for the new campus probably in February.
[00:36:48] That campus is thriving.
[00:36:51] It's obvious that God has talented us and has blessed us and made an investment in us, that we know how to do that. Okay. Then we went to old Brooklyn. That's even a more challenging neighborhood.
[00:37:05] We bought a church that had gone out of business there. We remodeled it and now they're running about 200 and they got another 150 online and that's a campus of 350 people.
[00:37:21] And they're real close to be self sustaining. So it's time for us to start another campus.
[00:37:28] Before I'm done, I'm going to lead in starting another campus. All right, what does that look like? Here's basically what it looks like. Some of you who sit here comfortably every Sunday, you're going to have to go to another campus.
[00:37:43] You're going to have to be part of the startup team. You're going to have to volunteer to lead a greeting team. You're going to have to volunteer to be on a greeting Team if you can. If you're. If you're musical, you're gonna have to volunteer to be part of the startup worship team.
[00:38:00] We have to have a children's ministry. You're gonna have to volunteer to be part of the children's startup ministry.
[00:38:05] We're gonna build a startup team. We're gonna find a neighborhood that is underserved. Too many churches have gone out of business. And we're gonna start another campus there.
[00:38:15] And we're gonna do it because God has gifted us and talented us and invested what needs to be invested in us that we can do it.
[00:38:28] It's part of what he requires of us because of the investment he's made in us. Can you hear me, church?
[00:38:36] Anemic.
[00:38:38] Can you hear me, church?
[00:38:40] All right. Amen.
[00:38:45] The third thing in our mission statement is we challenge people with the adventure of faith.
[00:38:51] Life is supposed to be an adventure. It's not supposed to be letting your little canoe float downstream and go at whatever speed and wherever it wants to go. It's supposed to be an adventure.
[00:39:05] If you've let your life get boring, you're outside of God's purpose for you.
[00:39:11] We live the adventure of faith.
[00:39:14] Ah, that means personal spiritual development.
[00:39:18] Some of you stopped growing spiritually. There was a time in your life when you grew. You got better. You grew spiritually richer. Your prayer life was meaningful. You studied the Bible. You love to talk to people about Christ.
[00:39:33] And then you got infected with spiritual mediocrity.
[00:39:45] And reading your Bible is kind of iffy. Yeah, once in a while, I guess daily prayer has slipped away.
[00:39:57] You don't feel edgy about your faith.
[00:40:01] You've just let your whole spiritual life get mediocre.
[00:40:08] Church. We got to get better.
[00:40:10] We have to do better. We all have to grow spiritually.
[00:40:14] I believe the best way to grow spiritually is join a life group, meet with some people every week, talk about the things of God. We have life groups that talk about the sermon. You can go tell people what you didn't like about my sermon.
[00:40:29] All right, we have. We have a life group for just about every age.
[00:40:35] If we don't have a life group for an age, we'll start one. All right, Join a life group. Grow spiritually.
[00:40:44] We have. I teach an exegesis class, and we're studying through the Gospel of Luke, verse by verse. We're studying every verse of Luke together.
[00:40:54] Our church has made. Our church is a sponsoring church for a new seminary in Cleveland called Emmaus.
[00:41:01] You can take classes in this very church.
[00:41:06] You can get an Undergraduate degree. You can get a bachelor's degree and you can get a PhD. They offer all three. And if you don't want to do the degree program, you can audit for free.
[00:41:17] Because we're a sponsoring church, you can come and audit any of their classes, seminary classes, for free.
[00:41:24] Why, why should you? To grow spiritually?
[00:41:28] I mean really, what's, what will do you better?
[00:41:33] Watching the Survivor every single week or coming and learning more about who God is and what his purpose is and, and, and what the Bible is all about.
[00:41:43] All right.
[00:41:45] Ah, the adventure of faith means we try hard things.
[00:41:50] Church, I want to be perfectly clear. I am not done trying hard things.
[00:41:57] I am not done trying hard things. We are in a good place to try the hardest things we've ever tried in ministry.
[00:42:07] We are in. We have been blessed by God. We have been gifted by God.
[00:42:14] We have, we have the experience, we have the talent. This church is incredibly talented. And, and, and with all that talent, there is an expectation that, ah, God can count on us to do even harder things than we've ever done.
[00:42:32] Are you listening to me, Church?
[00:42:34] Ah, this parable has always made me sick to my stomach.
[00:42:40] And the reason is because God says, take from the one who failed and give it to the one who succeeded.
[00:42:51] And people said to him, why he's already got 10 talents. And listen what the Lord said to the one who has more will be given from the one who does not have.
[00:43:04] Even what he has will be taken away. Do this.
[00:43:09] If we use what God has invested in us as a church the way we should, God is going to invest more in us. Can you hear this?
[00:43:18] If we take what God has invested in us in the church and we stop saying yes to the hard things and we allow ourselves to drift into mediocrity, the Lord says that is a bad investment. And I'm gonna start investing that. Somewhere will there produce. Can you hear this?
[00:43:37] Some of you know what it's like to attend a church that hasn't been productive. And the Holy Spirit disappeared. And Sunday after Sunday, it's emptiness.
[00:43:46] Sunday after Sunday, nothing changes. There's no vision, there's no hope. You just drag yourself every Sunday through the same old, same old. That's not gonna happen here. Church, the grace of God. As long as I'm up here yelling at you, that will not happen.
[00:44:10] And finally, our mission statement says we are a church that teaches a lifestyle of generosity.
[00:44:21] I want to say again, this is one of the most generous churches I've ever known in my whole Christian life.
[00:44:28] And I Went to church when I was a boy.
[00:44:34] We took our Christmas offering this year, and by your generosity, we fully funded the feeding program for all of 2020.
[00:44:48] The children will be fed every weekend.
[00:44:51] The two.
[00:44:55] Help me, John.
[00:44:56] Food banks. The two food banks, they're fully funded. We'll be able to provide for those food banks for the whole year. Because you were productive. When it came to the Christmas offering, About six months ago, we did the Adventure of Faith campaign.
[00:45:21] We want to pay off this property before the payments start on the new building.
[00:45:27] We were $1,500,000 in debt six months ago.
[00:45:32] Because of your generosity, we've paid that down to $650,000.
[00:45:45] And if we stay on track, this campus will be debt free.
[00:45:50] Now, let me tell you why that that's important.
[00:45:55] That's $320,000 a year that doesn't go to the bank and will go back into ministry.
[00:46:04] Hear that?
[00:46:07] When we pay this building off, that's $328,000 a year that we've been paying to the bank. And it won't go to the bank. It'll go back into ministry.
[00:46:17] Because you have bought into the idea of the lifestyle of generosity.
[00:46:23] Church West Campus is going to break ground in February. If everything goes well and we get.
[00:46:37] Blessed.
[00:46:38] Ah, it's not always easy to get permits.
[00:46:42] We will. We'll be. That campus will break down. And in a year from now, the West Campus will be worshiping in their. In their new facility.
[00:46:54] Because this church is generous, because you've said yes to God and we've been productive. And church, we're going to continue to say yes to God.
[00:47:06] Can I tell you this?
[00:47:07] There'll come a day when you stand before the Almighty that you're gonna say to me, thank you, Doc.
[00:47:14] Thank you for challenging us to attract people to Christ.
[00:47:17] Thank you for pushing us to join a ministry.
[00:47:21] Thank you for making an issue about living a d venture of faith. And thank you for browbeating us to be generous. Ah. Ah.
[00:47:31] You will thank me when you stand before the Almighty.
[00:47:35] The Almighty Jesus Christ is our judge and he should be our judge because he's done exactly what he's asking us to do.
[00:47:45] Can you hear what Jesus said?
[00:47:47] I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life a ransom for many. Listen what he said. I didn't come to take the easy path. I came to take the productive path. I didn't come to see how easy I could make it on myself. I came to see what I could get done.
[00:48:09] He said on many occasions. I did not come to do my will, but the will of my Father who sent me. And day after day he journeyed through Palestine, Galilee and.
[00:48:24] And Judea. And day after day he served.
[00:48:28] And day after day he did meaningful things. And day after day, he enriched people's lives. Day after day, he changed the world one person at a time.
[00:48:38] And because he's done what he's asking us to do, he's capable of being a fair judge for every one of our lives.
[00:48:49] I'm asking you to make this year the best year of your spiritual life.
[00:48:56] I'm asking us to be the best church that God has given us the potential to be. I'm asking us to make a significant difference in the world because we start taking Christ seriously and we understand that the world and everything in it is passing away. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven abides forever.
[00:49:18] Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus Christ and the brilliant ideas that he taught us.
[00:49:27] Thank you for the incredible opportunity this life is.
[00:49:31] Thank you for all the ways you've blessed us.
[00:49:34] Thank you for all the ways you've invested in us.
[00:49:38] Now I pray for myself and everyone in this room and everyone online.
[00:49:43] I pray that we would feel a new urgency.
[00:49:48] I pray that we'd feel a new restlessness.
[00:49:52] I pray that there would be an inner voice in us saying, ah, let's go for it.
[00:49:58] I pray we'll trust in you in a way we've never trusted in you. I pray we'll serve better than we've ever served.
[00:50:05] I pray that Christ will be honored in ways beyond what we can imagine. And I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
