Welcome to Warrington Bible Fellowship. In Luke chapter 16, Jesus reveals the Pharisees' love of money. And so, of course, the natural question for us is, what do you and I love? But before Pastor John begins his message, let's listen in as Wayne Johnson shares our scripture reading for the day. And be sure to like and subscribe and follow our channel so you can stay up to date whenever we post a new video. God bless you. Today's sermon addresses the dangers of loving anything more than the Lord, particularly money. The author of Hebrews comments on this as well. Hebrews 13, 1 through 6. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 16. We're going to be in verses 1 through 18. And while you're turning there, I'll talk to you a little bit about my dad. I was 14, 15, 16 years old. And how many of you remember when you were 14, 15, 16 years old? Some of you. That's very good. and my friends were everything. They were everything. My world revolved around my friends and my music. I talked to my dad about my friends, but tried to get him to listen to my music. That was a little bit of a challenge. But I remember my dad sitting and talking to me and trying to explain to me, be careful who your friends are. They have an influence on you. Be careful what you do with your spare time. He was kind of cognizant of the music I was listening to. And he said, you're not going to find what you're looking for in your friends and your music. And I thought my dad was so far off base, it was ridiculous. You know, I was 15 years old, and he was just my dad. And I remember saying, you know, dad, you just don't know that much about life. I was looking for my identity, defining who I was by the things that surrounded me, my friends and the music that was just so important to me. And I thought that that's what life was. I thought that that's where love was. And so the question I've got to ask you this morning is where do you find love? How do you even define it? Where do you find love? Where do you fit in all this that's going on around us? Last week, we asked, what do you rejoice over? And what we found out as we walked through Luke is that heaven rejoices over sinners who repent. And that the self-righteous, at the very least, get no celebration in heaven for being self-righteous. They don't get any joy for not realizing that the love of God is for all people. I mean, that's the name of our series in Luke, Love of God for All People, and that means all types of people, all nations, all ethnicities, so on and so forth. So this passage is a prime example, and I've had to collaborate with several people on this one, because this is a really difficult passage. But it's a prime example of our absolute need, the necessity to understand the context of a passage if we're going to understand what the passage says. Most people try to break up chapters 15 and 16 and even 17 into a bunch of different object lessons and it just doesn't work. We end up forming theology and doctrine that really doesn't apply. So they think that you read through this and it's easy to think that these are unrelated passages. But I'm going to tell you something, it's a lot easier to understand chapter 16 of Luke if we know what happened in the previous chapters. Because it's a storyline that we're following, not a bunch of little lessons that are kind of haphazardly put together. See, in chapter 15, the Pharisees saw little value in the outcasts. They saw little value in people that were not like themselves. And in chapter 16, Jesus moves from what the Pharisees think have no value into what they're stumbling over, what they believe has incredible value. He's about to reveal that to them. He's about to show the Pharisees that they're finding love in the wrong places. And if they continue, it's going to be disastrous. So the title of our sermon today is Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. Now I know you want to sing this song. Put that aside. Just consciously put it aside. Because this is not the lesson that it sounds like it is, okay? So we're going to hear Jesus make three proclamations. And the first one is a commendation. And that comes out of verses one through nine. The second one is a caution. And that comes from verses 10 through 13. And then we will see a condemnation, not it's the opposite of a commendation, in verses 14 through 18. So this is the fourth parable in the series that started in chapter 15. Now we need to remember that. Jesus is on a roll on the teaching here. And he's been talking about the boy who's embarrassed and shamed his father, and he repents. And that was the last parable we saw. He repents and is received back into the family. So perhaps by now, if the Pharisees have been paying attention, they're beginning to learn that people who seem to have no value actually do have incredible value in the eyes of God. And that repentance, if it's true, if it's a heart change, repentance can actually do the things that they think it can't do, that it can bring value to somebody in the eyes of God. Now, whether or not they're listening to this, we don't know. But the idea is that repentance can bring value to even the Pharisees. Let's see if they learn this. So we'll start with this commendation and starting with verse one. He also said that the disciples, now just notice the beginning here. He's talking to the disciples, but he's also talking to the rest of the assembled crowd. He's still addressing the Pharisees, but he's kind of saying, okay, disciples, listen to this. There's something important happening here. And Jesus says this, there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Now, let me give you some cultural commentary here so you understand what's happening on the culture. had a resistance to what they called absentee landlords. And that's what they would have heard here. This rich man is not actually there. He's got somebody taking care of things for him. Now, the rich man might have been the manager's boss. Most likely, he owned the manager. So there would be the image of a slave here. So the absentee landlords, the absentee rich guys, were guys that had made their money and moved to a more comfortable area. So the Jews would see that as maybe the rich man forsaking the promised land, the land that God gave them, and moving on to live with the Romans. So the first thing we would see here is this negative attitude that the listeners would have had about the rich man. And here he's got this manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Now again, culturally, they live in an honor-shame culture, and that's kind of hard for us to get our arms around. But in that culture, the employees or the possessions of an individual were a reflection upon the owner or upon the employer. So this guy is wasting the resources, and everybody in town would see it, and it would be a reflection on the rich man. Those who work for you or belong to you are a reflection on the honor of the owner or could bring shame to him. So this guy's not doing a good job. He's messing things up. He's taking advantage of the situation. We need to keep that in mind. Verse two, and he called him and said to him, the rich man calls the manager, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management for you can no longer be manager. And I'm not really asking him a question. He's saying, this is what I heard. And I'm kind of seeing the evidence of this. And you can't do this anymore. I'm going to fire you. But before I let you go, I want you to turn in all your reports so I can figure out what's going on. Verse three, and the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. He's being realistic. I don't have the physique to go out and do heavy labor, and I don't have the fortitude to beg from people. So he's in a dilemma. In verse 4, he says, I've decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. Now, this is where things get a little murky, because these are hard to interpret. But basically, what he's saying is that he's going to have to rely on the benevolence of other people. He has some pride, but he has some humility. He admits what he can't do. And he knows this. If he shames his boss or his owner, he's done. Not only will he bring shame to the guy that employed him, but nobody else is going to hire him. So he realizes his job is in jeopardy, it's over, he's going to have to leave, so he wants to set something up so that he can survive afterwards. And he thinks, if I can make my owner look good in all this, Maybe, maybe somebody else will hire me. Maybe somebody else will take me in. So here's what he does, verse 5. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? Verse 6, he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. I'm going to give you the biggest discount you ever had. You're going to love this. And then he said to another, verse 7, and how much do you owe? He said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take down your bill and write 80. Well, that's terrible. He's kind of robbing the owner, isn't he? You owe my owner. Now, there are a lot of ways to explain this, but I just want to go with what they're saying here. So he's given these discounts, these arbitrary discounts to the clients and maybe, maybe just acting a little bit more wise than would first appear. He knows his boss is about to be embarrassed. You know, this boss is about to be dishonored in this culture that takes reputation so seriously. And what he does is he goes to these people, and it probably sounded a little bit like this, you know, I messed up. Yeah, we heard. You're in trouble. Here's what I'm going to do. I want to make this right, because the boss, he's really a lot more generous than he sounds. So we're going to give you a discount. And of course, the people take it. And what he does, he portrays the boss as more humble and more benevolent to his clients than he appears to be. Now the boss is in a bind. He's a rich guy. I mean, the manager didn't give everything away. It was probably one month's billing, maybe a quarter or something like that. And the boss understands exactly what the situation is. Because if he tries to take his money back, everyone is going to know that it's not him who was benevolent. And he's going to look bad. And if he leaves things as they are, the rich man's going to look pretty good. Well, you know, he did what he had to do with that guy, and he took care of me in the process. He can keep my business. So in verse 8, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. He went, that was pretty smart. You got me on that one, didn't you? I mean, that's exactly what happened here. And look what we have here. We have, the manager is not doing some altruistic thing. Some people think maybe he's giving away his commission or that sort of thing. He's dishonest. The verse says he's dishonest. He's got to, the manager, the rich man knows that he's dishonest, but he's got to admit, he's pretty sly. And that, that's the end of the parable. What? Now Jesus turns and starts talking to the people assembled in front of him. And in order to understand what Jesus is about to say, we have to have, we have to understand what just happened in this parable. And so right there on the surface, we don't have to dig too deep into it. We had a dishonest, worldly man see what was coming, see what was about to happen to him, and he works to reverse that. He works to ensure that he'd have a place to live and a place to work. We have an unrighteous man preparing for his future. Maybe not in the way we would do it. But I mean, Jesus doesn't go into, let me tell you what was just happening here. He just starts launching into the lessons he wants his listeners to hear. And he says this in the second half of verse eight, for the sons of this world, now you can read for people like the dishonest manager, people that are worldly, people that are not godly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd, watch this, in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Now, who are the sons of light? Well, scripturally, they're God's children. Particularly, you're talking about the Pharisees. And what he's saying is, the people in the world, the dishonest managers preparing for his future, the Pharisees aren't. They're not looking ahead. Now, let me give you the Kavakas paraphrase here. True believers who have a future in heaven should be as diligent as this dishonest, unrighteous manager in seeing the long-term impact of their behavior. They should be as diligent as those people that don't know God. There's an accusation here. You know, the dishonest manager saw what was coming, he prepared for it. The Pharisees should see what's coming and should properly prepare for it. They're doing nothing. In verse 9, nothing started making sense a little bit. Verse 9, and I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth. Oh, there's a doozy. so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings." Now, the language here is a good translation, and it's hard to convey this idea. And so, as such, the meaning of what's going on here is quite easily lost. And again, I'll give you a cabacas paraphrase. It's, use your money, you godly people, use your money generously Be a blessing to those around you. Make friends with them. Let it be a testimony to your faith so that when the things in this world begin to fall apart and fail, you have an eternal home and you can bring your friends with you. So the commendation that Jesus is giving these Pharisees is that they're not being wise. They need to wise up in using their personal wealth in a kingdom kind of a way. They're not looking ahead. They're not looking toward their eternal reward, but are trying to make themselves comfortable now. Later on we find out they're doing that by taking advantage of people. They're doing the same thing the dishonest manager was doing. They just put a holy sign on it. And there's an underlying message here that we need to embrace. It keeps happening in all these parables that show up, is that you can change. You can change if you repent. If you're truly grieving over the things you've done to offend God, repentance will bring about change. Oh, brothers and sisters, we work so hard, struggling with guilt sometimes, over things that we've done, don't we? We work so hard trying to fix things that are broken. We work so hard trying to justify ourselves to the people around us. Well, let me tell you why I did that. Or have you ever, it probably hadn't happened to you, it's happened to me. I've been in an argument and I would look at Kelly and go, I'm sorry, But let me tell you why I had to do that. It's not really an apology. We worked so hard at that. And all God wants us to do is to repent. He wants us to recognize the offense that we've committed against Him, to turn away from it and turn towards Him with all our heart. He's looking for repentance. Now that object lesson, which is what this parable is all about, is vital to understanding the following verses, because they seem totally unrelated. The Pharisees are obsessed with money and not God, so Jesus gives them this second proclamation, which is a caution. One who is faithful, verse 10, in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. What in the world does that have to do with this dishonest manager? I mean, we see dishonest there, and there must be some link, right? But he's talking about faithfulness here. And watch, it shows up twice in the same verse. And it's kind of, there's a little bit of a Christian corollary, but frequently we take it out of context. So here's what Jesus is talking about. You see it in the next verse. If you then have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? He said, Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, if you can't handle worldly riches, in a godly manner, how will you ever handle heavenly riches? How will you ever handle the blessings and the abundance of grace that comes flowing out of heaven? If you can't even handle a little bit of money, which isn't going to mean anything to you when it's all over, how will you handle the grace of God? Verse 12, And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Just a hint that we need to be faithful in whatever God gives us. I mean, it's really easy to be disappointed, to complain about what we don't have. God, I wish I had this, I wish I had that. How come these people have that and I don't have it? And God going, ah, that's not the way to get what you're looking for. to complain about what you don't have, rather than being thankful for what you do have and being faithful and using it in a holy manner. Wow. Verse 13, no servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Again, the Pharisees love their money. They're greedy. And you read in between lines here, and we see that God expects us to be generous with our money, keeping our eyes on things eternal. Now, now we're down to the nitty gritty of what Jesus is trying to teach. It's about loving money more than you love God. And Jesus' caution here is not to place money in higher priority in your life than your Father in heaven. The Pharisees struggled with money. But let's not limit this to money because there's an overall lesson here. Our struggle may be otherwise. We may struggle with our job, with our home, with our position. Oh, we understand that. It's not about having a bigger home and not having a better job. We might struggle with our children. Any of us ever done that? Placed our children above importance in our lives, above God? We may struggle with some concept we have of God that He's going to answer all of our prayers and give us all the blessings that we want, and everything's going to be fantastic. And actually, what we're struggling with is the answer to our prayers being more important than the one who hears it. You see how this works? You know, we prayed for Rose a little bit earlier and several months ago when Rose started hurting, I was on the phone with her and I said, how are you doing? And she sounded like she was hurting. And she said this, I'm gonna read this quote. The pain is awful, but my God is worth it. I know he loves me and that makes me love him even though I hurt. It's just a beautiful example of somebody being in a situation that can consume them. It can distract us. I mean, it's not just physical pain that can do this to us, but we can be in a situation that can just occupy all of our thoughts. We're up late at night thinking about it. We can't sleep. We can't think straight. Rose decided that she loves God more than she loves the idea of getting rid of her pain. Wow. So the caution is, don't put anything above God in your life. Now, Jesus follows this with a condemnation. And he says in verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money, comma. The Pharisees, they love money. They're greedy. They love status. They love position. They love power. They loved influence. Now, listen carefully. There's nothing wrong with those things. There's nothing wrong with status. There's nothing wrong with power. There's nothing wrong with money. There's nothing wrong with those things until you make them your priority. until you displace God with them in your life. If you put God first and use them for His glory, I think God's just wonderful letting you enjoy those things. So this is not a poverty sermon. It's a be careful sermon. And so there's this incredibly profound truth, and the Pharisees are standing there listening, and how do they, you know, you would think, oh, we didn't realize you want repentance, and we're not, we don't want to be self-focused, we don't want to be greedy, we'll listen to you. So we see their reaction in the second half of 14. The Pharisees heard these things, and they ridiculed him. They looked at him and said, dad, you just don't know about life. You don't know where we're coming from. We've been around here a lot longer than you have. And he said to them in verse 15, you're those who justify yourselves before men. But this is a terrifying thought. God knows your hearts. Oh my, for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. And of course, he's speaking about their love of money. Again, it's not the love of money that's the problem. It's the love of money more than they love their God. 1 Timothy, Paul cautioned against this when he wrote to his protege Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 6, starting with verse 9. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." That verse is constantly misquoted, that money is the root of all evil. It's not that, it's the love of money. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Jesus is warning the Pharisees. They've supplanted their love for God with the love of money. And the warning doesn't stop there. The Pharisees have mocked Jesus. They ridiculed him. So he tells them how serious all this is. Watch how all this works together. Verse 16, the law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. And what he's saying here is that John ushered in a new era. The arrival of John, John's got one foot in the Old Testament, one foot in the New Testament, John the Baptist, okay? The arrival of John proclaims a new kingdom, one that is based on values and priorities, one that sounds attractive, but requires sacrifice and commitment to become a member of. And that sacrifice and commitment is to God, not to ourselves and our own goals. The phrase, everyone forces their way into it. That's an awkward phrase. What do we do with that? We read several different ways, but the general idea is this, that people, every sort of person, are going to become a member of this new kingdom of God. Probably more folks than the Pharisees think. Probably more types of folks than the Pharisees think. And all these different people are going to enter regardless of what rules or impositions that the Pharisees place upon these people. Because they've got a very clear idea who's in the kingdom of God and it's mostly them and no one else. And you've got to satisfy all of these rules and all of these coercions that we've put upon you if you're going to be part of the kingdom. And again, I mean, we've heard this through 14, 15, and now 16. The kingdom is now being proclaimed. The gospel is going forward. It is for all people. And so are the requirements. And the Pharisees are actually the ones that aren't measuring up to be in the kingdom. They're not making the cut. And even though they believe they're being godly, they're not holy in their hearts. And Jesus sees it. And the greed is not the primary problem. It's just an example of how far they've strayed from what they've been charged to do. And if you read that verse carefully, you find out that the next verse tells us that the charge that they've been given is not going to go away. It says in verse 17, but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. See, the struggle the religious leaders are having is that they're no longer abiding by the law. They're no longer ambassadors of God. They've made up their own laws. They've twisted it. They've used it. They've manipulated it for their own goals. They're no longer a blessing to all the nations, which is what Abraham was charged to do, be a blessing to all the nations. And what Jesus is saying is, you know, the law hasn't changed. I'm telling you, you're not qualified to be in the kingdom. The law hasn't changed. You've changed. The law doesn't change. It's not going to. New kingdom, same law. And you don't even recognize it anymore. Do we ever see that in the church today? Oh, no. We make up our own laws, don't we? You don't abide by this, you can't be in the church. Maybe we're kind of wondering whether or not you're even saved if you're not baptized this way. Or if you don't take communion that way. Or if you don't believe in tongues. None of those are requirements for being in the kingdom. But we do that, we kind of back ourselves in the corner and go, look, we've got this statement of faith. And I think we've got a fantastic statement of faith. If you want to know more about it, take a pause. We've got this statement of faith and we say, and we kind of say, if anybody's outside of any of those things, they're not really part of the church. We're the true church. Warrington Bible Fellowship is a true church. If you belong to any other church, you're probably not saved. That's the silliest thing we've heard in the world. You know, we have distinctives, and they're good. Diversity in the body is a good thing. But we all agree on one thing, we should, if we're going to be part of the Church of God, that salvation comes in and through Christ alone, by faith alone, by grace alone. You know, if the church across the street believes that, that's a good thing. They've got a different distinctive. That's fine. If the church is down the street, has a woman pastor, they can't be saved. Do they believe that Jesus Christ, we're saved through him alone, by grace alone, by faith alone. See how easy it is to become a Pharisee. Thinking I'm right and everybody else is wrong. And what Jesus is saying here is that the Pharisees have been unfaithful in keeping the law. Now that word keeps coming up. It means they've been unfaithful to God, not just in keeping the law, but unfaithful to God, because the law is a reflection of the character and nature of God. And if they don't repent of their greed and their pride, This is going to be disastrous. Now watch how this works, because he just set all that up. You've been unfaithful, okay, and the results of your unfaithfulness can be disastrous to you. Because verse 18, the last verse in this passage says, everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Now, I got to tell you something. Jesus did not just change the subject. Neither did Jesus intend to teach a theology on divorce. Other scriptures talk about this, okay? So Jesus is not on a roll about the Pharisees and going, by the way, let me say this about divorce, then we'll get back to our story. What he's saying is, if you're unfaithful to the vows that you made, there will be a separation. And he's trying to tell the Pharisees, you've made vows, you've made obligations, you took on a role to be my representatives, to be my shepherds. And if you are unfaithful to those vows, you and I are going to separate. Wow. You think the Pharisees are listening? Or are they doing what a lot of us do, that when we try to take things out of context and going, well, what do we make of that sentence? Forget the rest of it. Let's just zero in on that. They love money more than they love God, and it's going to be their undoing. So we've seen these three proclamations. We saw this commendation in the first proclamation. And it's generally just make sure of your priorities, make sure that God is the highest. We saw this caution, don't place money or anything else above God. So while you're concentrating on making God your highest priority, be aware of what your other priorities are. And then we saw this condemnation that allowed to go unchecked, that mixing up of priorities can be disastrous. It's a sign of unfaithfulness. And what's been revealed in this passage is the Pharisees love their money, but we're also seeing the revelation of their pride, of their sense of self-accomplishment, of their lack of commitment to holiness. They want everybody else to live holy lives, but they're really not concerned in that themselves. There's a whole host of other impediments you're struggling with. And what is really being impeded is their capability to walk in the blessings of God. They're God's chosen people. He's got beautiful things for them and they're just resisting it. My dad was right. I was unable to find what I was looking for in my friends and in my music. Now, most of us that have been around for a while have been through this. Ultimately, my friends moved along in life, thought we'd be together forever. And unfortunately, several of them broke my heart on the way out. I was disappointed. I found out that a lot of the musicians that I adored were Frequently even more messed up than I was. Began saying things I didn't agree with. And the music that they made caused me to behave in a decidedly ungodly way. And it took the uncompromising, unearned love of my father in heaven to make me realize where true love came from. And that if I loved him more than anything else, I will not just find what I was looking for, but I would find what was best for me. The Pharisees were missing this. And Jesus, in the grace of God, keeps coming and showing them the things that they're struggling with. And in their stubbornness, in their insistence on finding their identity, their love in the things of the world, they're missing the ultimate identity, the ultimate blessing of being with God. Where do you find love? Where do you look for it? God loved you so much that He gave His only Son to die for you. And all God asks of you is to repent from the sins you've committed and enter into this incredible loving relationship. When you put him first, all of the benefits and advantages of being in the kingdom flow down to you. And you know what? You might end up like Rose in the hospital in pain. But her father in heaven has given her a way through that, maybe not relieving it completely. So you put God first, you might not become rich, you might have some pain, you might still suffer a broken heart, but you have an eternal home, and a Father who loves you so much that He would sacrifice for you, and all He asks is that you love Him back. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your grace. We thank You for Your mercy. We thank You for the love that You shed on us and what You showed us in Your Son, Jesus Christ, as He took the nails and hung on the cross and bore our sin, Father. Help us to be confessors of that sin. Help us to be repenters from it. Help us to walk in Your blessing, Father. Help us to be the vessels of mercy and grace and truth that You've designed us to be. Help us, O Lord, to walk in a manner of this incredible calling that You've placed upon us. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen.