This sermon was preached at University Park Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. For more information about UPBC, visit upbchouston.org. It is going to influence the way I think you're going to vote in this election. It is also going to be essential for your trip to HEB on Monday. It's partly why we hear that noise in the background right now and cool air is flowing into this room. That summer vacation that you're thinking about planning won't happen without it. If you play sports, summer baseball, volleyball, basketball, music lessons, camp, it won't happen without this being in place. You won't be able to watch Netflix or Hulu or Disney Plus or Apple TV or Amazon unless this comes out of your account each month. Even my friends at the Memorial Men's Maximum Security Prison cannot go into the commissary line, which they love so much, apart from this being on their account. You know what I'm talking about. Madonna was right. We live in a material world. She's a material girl. I'm not gonna sing the song. You'll be very, very blessed by that. Money drives so much of what we do and how we think about life. And we are fools if we don't acknowledge its powerful and seductive influence. Fools. The temptation is to live our whole lives for it. so that we can then purchase access to what makes us happy, what helps us live, what makes us safe. It's so tangible. We can touch it. We can see it in our account. We can make more of it. speaks to, I think, the drifting nature of our heart, that money is such a powerful competitor to God's claim on our allegiance and our lives. So we cannot talk about true discipleship. Jesus doesn't talk about true discipleship without talking about money. Wholehearted discipleship includes trusting God with our resources, possessions, and stewarding them for His glory. Jesus is so clear on this, isn't he? Luke chapter six, he warned the rich about trusting in their money. Luke chapter 12, we saw the parable of the rich fool who did just that. And here in chapter 16, we have this parable of the unrighteous steward and then the teaching that follows that. And then in just a few verses, this parable about the rich man and Lazarus. Then we're gonna see a parable and a story about the rich young ruler in chapter 18. And then that's going to be followed by Zacchaeus, who ends up giving half his possessions away to the poor in chapter 19. The way we use our money is indeed a window into our hearts and the gospel of Jesus Christ and the great mercy that he has shown to us changes not only the way that we worship and sing and even love our neighbors, but it changes the way that we steward our blessings that the Lord has given us in this brief sojourn on earth. In chapter 15, we saw a focus on the prodigal son and the father's merciful forgiveness and welcome to him. And we saw something about the gospel and outsiders and outcasts. And here the focus turns toward the coming of the kingdom and shrewdness and faithfulness for God's people, for disciples. Here Jesus, there in chapter 15, he's addressing wrong attitudes toward people, and here he's addressing wrong attitudes toward possessions. We could also say that chapter 15 includes some of the most famous and accessible parables of Jesus. And chapter 16 gives us some of the more obscure and potentially confusing ones. You may be thinking that even as I read the text this morning, especially the application that Jesus makes here to the dishonest steward. But I'm convinced when I come to a place in scripture that I don't understand or that's unclear, the problem is always with me. and I need God's help, and I have the Holy Spirit that will provide much better insight that commentaries do or any other resource. And so I trust we'll be able to not only see and understand what's here, but be transformed by it, by God's grace. Here's the way I would summarize the main point of the passage. The mercy of God frees us to the service of God, to the glory of God. The mercy of God really drives, I think, this section. It frees us to the service of God, all to the glory of God. The passage breaks down into two parts. One is a parable and the next is a poem. And we see the parable in verses one to eight. And there I'm just entitling that section that we are debtors to mercy alone. Debtors to mercy alone. Then in verses 9 to 13, there's this beautifully structured poem with three stanzas that kind of shed light on how disciples are to live, kind of in light of what God's done, in light of his mercy, how we view money. And then there are three things to take away there. With kingdom shrewdness, with wholehearted faithfulness, and as a tool, not as a God. And we'll go through those a little bit more quickly once we get the main thrust in view. So may the Lord give us grace to see his mercy and live in line of it. First, let's consider this parable that teaches us that we are debtors to mercy alone. Mercy alone. Verse one sets the scene for us and introduces all the characters. So look there. He also said to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Now, Jesus, if you remember, has been addressing the grumbling of the Pharisees over his welcome of sinners and tax collectors. That's been the main thrust of chapter 15. And we assume, as he's doing that, the disciples are there, and they're present, taking on what Jesus is saying. Here, we see the attention turn toward the disciples. So now Jesus is focusing this teaching on them, but we also know from verse 14, look there, the Pharisees are still around, The Pharisees who were lovers of money heard these things and they ridiculed him. So they're still there and they're not liking what Jesus is saying. So I think we should see the rich man in this parable in a positive light, as an upstanding man in the community and in business, okay? So someone from the community comes to him and says, hey, there's this, someone's taking advantage of you. So he seems to be part of the community. I don't think he's a partner in crime with the manager. A lot of ways that people look at this story, I don't think that's happening. He refers to him clearly as dishonest and he fires him, okay? And so upstanding for the man. The manager is likely in this position of like an estate manager or a steward. And it's like a salaried position that he would have that would carry with it the authority of his master or the estate owner. So he's like the chief negotiator. He's the accountant. He speaks for this landowner. And so what you have then are these debtors that come and they're basically renting part of this man's land. And they're paying in produce. from the land, and that's been kind of an agreed upon rate. And so the charges that come against the manager are that he is wasting the landowner's possessions. So there are many ways he could have been doing that, but I do think there's a clue for us there. about how we should read this passage. And it comes from that word wasting. And if you're thinking about chapter 15, you know, your mind probably goes to that same picture of the younger son who was squandering the inheritance of his father, squandering his possessions. It's the same word coming right after that in the text. So I think we should at least read this passage in light of the one that's just come before. There's going to be great sin and we ought to expect, I think, great mercy. And so we see in the charges that are brought to the manager in verse two, that he is fired. He called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management for you can no longer be manager. And we'll notice there's no defense. There's no excuse given by the manager. And I think his silence is an admission of guilt here. He knows he's guilty. He knows that his master knows that he's guilty. And so him being dismissed, I think says something about his master's character. He expects obedience and integrity. And when there's disobedience, it brings judgment. It brings consequences. We can learn this about this landowner. There are no excuses. They're gonna help him. He just absorbs the consequence. So he finds himself in a major crisis, which is what everyone in Luke's gospel is finding themselves in as they interact with Jesus. As they hear about the kingdom coming, they're in a crisis. Are they going to believe this good news or are they going to fend for themselves? But this judgment, this act of consequence is clothed also in mercy. So there's no talk here of pressing charges, which would have been absolutely in play. No one calls the authorities. No one's going to jail. He's not even scolded or rebuked for his actions. So again, this tells us more about the master's noble character. He calls for obedience. He judges disobedience. He's also extremely merciful and gracious. Then in verse three, it's like we get to listen in to the steward's thoughts as he's walking away from being fired. And I think this firing happens privately. He's walking away, talking to himself. You can probably put yourself there in his shoes, verse three. And the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? See, it's still in process. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. So he's just reflecting on the crisis that he's in. He's had a desk job his whole life. Like this is a guy who works behind a desk, definitely white collar dude in accounting. And he's like, I'm not made for manual labor. I'm not strong enough to go dig and I'm too proud to go beg. So what am I gonna do? Doesn't it remind us of the prodigal son when he came to his senses and just kind of remembered how his father's servants had it so much better back home? I think their problems are even similar because who in the community is going to hire this guy now that he's about to have a reputation for squandering his master's resources, just like the prodigal son? Well, once everyone knows he's been stealing from his master, he's finished. And so time is of the essence for him. What can he do? And then, voila, it's like a light bulb goes off. In verse 4, he has an idea. It's interesting. We don't get the idea immediately. We just know he's had an idea. There's been a firing, but it's not public knowledge yet. So he's officially no longer working for this guy, but none of the clients know that. None of the debtors know that. And so he's gonna jump right into action and we get to see what his idea is in verse five. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe? He said, a hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, how much do you owe? He said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said, take your bill and write 80. Okay, and so you see the flow of the text, the way that it's happening? I think we have a slide here that shows it. You've got kind of starting with this picture of the manager and the master having a conversation, then there are two verses kind of talking about the problem, then in the center is this idea, and then there's a solution, couple verses dealing with that, and then we're gonna end up in verse eight with the manager talking back to the master. But what is this solution? Well, he's going to drastically reduce the bill for all the debtors. The first one owes something like 900 gallons of oil, so 3,000 liters. It would take 150 olive trees to get this kind of oil, or it would take multiple years, three years of wages to produce that much, and he just cuts it in half immediately, in the moment. The next guy owes 1,000 bushels of wheat. This may be 30 tons. That would represent a yearly harvest of about 100 acres of land, or maybe a decade of just your wages, your salary for a decade. He cuts it by 20%. These debtors, through no effort of their own, they didn't bring anything to the table. They just came to the meeting. There's this discount that relates to basically a year and a half to two years of salary. And I think we were meant to assume the manager continues this pattern with the rest of the master's debtors. He just begins to forgive the debt. And so what has he done? He's just made himself and his master heroes in the community without permission, but he did that. They're the most popular people in the town. He because, you know, he's the one that's bringing the good news. He's the messenger. It even seems like he initiates it because of the way that he acts in haste. Hey, you quickly write this down. Of course, we know why he's acting in haste because eventually they're going to find out that he's actually fired and he doesn't have this authority. And the debtors are simply amazed by the master's generosity. Now there are many theories about what the manager is doing here. Certainly he's been cheating these clients. He's been taking money from them that was above the amount charged for the land. But from what I can tell, most likely these contracts were all gonna be, any kind of money that's taken like that is gonna be done under the table, not officially written into the contracts. And so the master knows how much he's owed, and so this drastic reduction just comes directly from his bottom line. One author estimates that this little stunt cost the master in the neighborhood of $100,000. But then also think about the position that it puts him in. So there were certainly rules about people being fired and then doing this kind of thing, just like we would have today. So you could go back and have this thing reversed. Just go to the authorities. Here's what happened. Everybody's sorry. This is going to have to go back to the way it was. But now the community sees this landowner as the most merciful person in town that they've ever met. They're probably going to throw a parade for him later. So would he go and reverse all that's been done and become now the most hated guy in town? And I think that speaks really to just the brilliance of this manager's scheme. And yet we see still, I would expect the landowner to be enraged at the loss of kind of finding out what his manager had done on top of just stealing from him in the first place. But like the story of the prodigal son, we're again surprised by the mercy that he displays. Look at verse eight, just the first part there. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. I don't know about you, but that's not what I expected to read. Commended, I thought you were gonna say shot him, rebuked him, right? This is where I think we run into problems with this text. Is Jesus commending dishonesty? Well, no, I don't think so. Leon Morris says it well. He says there's a big difference in applauding the dishonest steward for being clever and compared to applauding a clever steward for being dishonest. So this man is not commended for his dishonesty, but for his shrewd behavior. He found himself in a crisis and was able to get out of it. He made friends, notice, that would help him using his master's money. That's gonna come up later. This is Jesus using an example of how clever worldly people can be when they act out of self-interest. And he's gonna commend the same shrewdness to his disciples in matters of the kingdom. So we'll see more on that in a moment. But I just wanna draw out just this one kind of bit here that I think makes the shrewdness of the manager all the more amazing. Notice that his plan is based on it. His plan only works because he knows who his master is. Think about it. His plan is to risk everything on the quality of the mercy of the master. That's his plan. the quality of the master's character as a merciful and generous man. I'm gonna bank on that in crisis, in this crisis. And it paid off. He was right. His master did pay the full price for his actions. He did take the debt onto himself and showed amazing mercy and grace to a very undeserving person. The question that this parable asks us, of course, is how much more has God done with us? If this dishonest manager could rely on his master's mercy in a crisis, how much more me and you? If this rich businessman helped this guy, how much more would the God of the Bible pour out his oceans of mercy on those that come to him through Christ? So it's an argument from the lesser to the greater. We're gonna talk about managing money, but we need to know that comes downstream from this. Much downstream from this. Knowing a gracious, generous, merciful God. These unsavory characters in these parables are us, aren't they? Haven't we noticed that over and over? The prodigal, the older brother, the dishonest manager, the debtors who just show up and get their debt canceled. How are they gonna brag about that? I really worked this deal. No, he just showed up and he said, half off. We too know that we're guilty. We could be called in tomorrow. and would be silent before the enemy's accusations. Our master knows the truth. We know he knows the truth. He's holy. He's righteous. His standard is obedience. And when that standard isn't met, judgment comes, and that judgment is perfectly righteous. But he is also generous and merciful. He calls us to bank on his mercy alone to save us in Christ, doesn't he? He has sent his son to pay our debt. Jesus perfectly obeyed the law from his heart and with his actions. And he died in our place, taking God's wrath upon himself. And he rose from the grave victorious forever over sin and death. And now when we bank on him, when we trust in him, in him, his dire place, his perfect life for us, his resurrection, we're saved, forgiven all our sin debt and made righteous by faith before a holy God, made one of God's own children. We are beloved debtors to mercy alone. No fear with God's righteousness on. As the song goes, my person and offerings to bring, the terrors of the law and of God with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view. Yes, this man is commended for his shrewdness, but that shrewdness is rooted in the mercy and grace of his master. Bank on Jesus. Trust Jesus. God loves to save dishonest managers, scoundrels, and failures, and sinners. And when he does, he saves all of us. He has all of us. And he calls all of us to live lives that reflect that mercy. in every way, including the way that we think about money. We said this text had two parts. The first is the parable. The next is the poem that the disciples are to know how to think about and bring money into submission to God, just like everything else in their life. So how do we do that? Well, first we see that we do it with kingdom shrewdness. Number two, kingdom shrewdness. It's good to remember that we're studying a parable, isn't it? And not every detail in the parable is meant to be emulated or to be an exact picture of how God is in every situation. There are always one or two main points that we see in these parables that help us to see the main thing and some of the details become subordinate to those points. And this is no different. And so we're seeing mercy highlighted in the master and shrewdness on the part of the manager. But Jesus is not commending dishonesty or acting out of self-interest. We should keep that in mind as we go through and think about these next verses. So let's go back to verse 8 and read the whole thing. This is the conclusion that we didn't expect. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons, so there's that for, here's why he commended him, for the sons of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Okay, so here's the reason for that. The sons of this age, he's saying, or this world, are wiser in dealing with people and resources than the sons of light, the disciples or believers. So I think it's an observation and a criticism. Sometimes God's people can fail to see how shrewdly to use their resources and how all that has been put at their disposal to come under kingdom purposes and kingdom ends. Worldly people know how to make sure they get what they want. They know how to make the most of their resources, how to reduce their property taxes, and which saving vehicles produce the most return, and how to get that compound interest, and which career moves make the most sense, and how to negotiate for the best deals. But maybe sometimes you've thought about some Christians that you've known, and maybe you just experienced a kind of naive attitude, just sort of a head in the clouds, kind of walking around and not paying attention to kind of things at all on this earth. Jesus is an example of how clever worldly people can be when they act out of self-interest. It begs the question, well, why don't the disciples leverage everything they can for the kingdom? Jesus wants his disciples to be kingdom shrewd. with everything at our disposal, bring everything in our life under that banner. And particularly he's gonna deal with money. And I think this is where it kind of starts a new section of that poem, verse nine, just kind of the way that it begins there. And I tell you, so I think that's a clue. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Now we're just gonna skip that verse and go to the next one. Now that word, that was a joke. That word translated unrighteous wealth in verse nine there, it's the Greek word mammon. Probably you're familiar with it. It does not mean necessarily money that's gained through unrighteous means. Like you've been embezzling money and therefore use that money for good things. That's not really what that word is coming to mean. Jesus assumes, I think his followers will have this kind of wealth in their possession. We should understand it, I think, to refer to the kind of wealth that belongs to this world, this unrighteous world, both money and possessions. So this isn't treasure in heaven, but cash and coins that end up driving so much of our life here on earth. So you can see the parallel, I think, with the dishonest manager and what he did. He made friends with his master's wealth and they welcomed him into their earthly dwellings Jesus says, your mammon, use your mammon, your earthly wealth to make friends who will welcome you into an eternal dwelling. We tend to think about money for making earthly tents, making earthly dwellings, securing an earthly life of comfort for me and my family, and maybe for generations to come. This poem teaches just the opposite. It teaches, first of all, that the wealth belonging to the world stays in the world when you die. Notice that. It will fail when it fails, not if it fails, when it fails. So it's not a matter of if, but when. It will fail in countless ways. A dip in the economy, someone actually steals it, You squander it through bad decisions or investments, a hurricane takes your house, or simply, and I think the main point he's getting at here is you die. You die. Certainly he's not teaching that we don't save and we don't provide for our families. We know that that's not what Jesus is teaching. We're talking about a heart issue. We're talking about idolatry. It's going to be clear throughout the whole passage. Nothing wrong with making a lot of money. I would encourage you to do it. And I would encourage you to have a kingdom mindset, a kingdom shrewdness about the way that you use that money. Because here's the deal, it stays here. It will fail. Therefore, Jesus is saying, be as shrewd as worldly people are with your resources, but directed toward kingdom ends. So specifically, make eternal friends. I think those friends are most naturally read to be the ones that are welcoming you into heaven when you die. So the friends you make with that money are the ones who are gonna welcome you into heaven when you die. It's kind of the picture of people who the gospel has changed and they're there with you in heaven. Many, many different options on this. Some say it's angels. Some say it's reference to the Trinity. But I think the most natural way to do it is just see these friends. And I just wanna just kind of go down that road for a moment. you know, using your money and possessions to invest in people with real needs, people who are lost, people who are untouched by the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world. You know, what have you invested in sending someone to an unreached place, Pakistan, Iraq, India, and those people came to Christ through mission work there or through some other means, and when you died, They're there to welcome you and thank you as you enter into eternal life. People that you've spent hours with, serving, caring for, counseling, having over to your home. People that we've seen here at our church reached partly because you've been just faithful to give. That we might have a ministry here on the corner of Southwest Houston right here on Beach Nuts. What better investment of our lives and resources can we make than in the kingdom of God? And I just wonder, how much do you think about being shrewd and wise, maybe even aggressive, maybe even risk-taking with your kingdom investments? It's what Jesus is calling us to. So hold that thought. He's also calling us to view our resources, number three, with wholehearted faithfulness. Wholehearted faithfulness. In other words, we're to be trustworthy. We're to be faithful to God in all these areas of our lives. And he honors that faithfulness. And I think it's especially important here to see in small things. Look at verse 10. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. We understand this principle well. Faithful is as faithful does. We don't describe someone and say, I'm faithful, trust me. We know by just watching them. A person will show you who they are, whether they're in charge of a city or they're just holding your place in line at McDonald's. You can know who they are by the way that they handle these opportunities of stewardship. Our actions flow from our hearts. As a scene in Harry Potter, when Dumbledore goes to visit Tom Riddle in the orphanage. And he's only 10 years old, but already he's stealing from other children and he's torturing them with his powers. Of course, he grows up to be the arch villain of the story, Voldemort, the darkest wizard ever to live. But already at this early age, he shows that he's dishonest, he's inclined to evil. And as he grew, so did the opportunities to know who he was. Or consider a less controversial dark wizarding example from the world of sports. John Wooden. John Wooden started basketball practice every year at UCLA by showing players the right way to put on socks. Two pairs, not just one, with the creases aligned with the toes so as to prevent any blisters. This man won 10 NCAA championships. Not because he was an expert on socks, but because he was faithful in the little things and therefore also the big things. I wonder if you've ever said something like this. If only I had more money, if I only had more things to give, I would give more generously, more aggressively. Or if I had a million dollars, I'd give it all. I'd give so much to the gospel work. I'd go crazy. But I think this text is helpful, isn't it? When it says, really, is that true? Because the way I think we see what we do with a million dollars is to look at what we do with $50 or $100 or $100,000. It would be the same. Faithful is as faithful does. So, brother, sister, what has God given you stewardship over right now? Maybe right now it's mainly your membership of a local church, being regular to serve and care for and pray other believers, hold them accountable, spur them on to godliness. Maybe it's serving in some ways that are behind the scenes. Maybe you're in college and right now you're sharing a dorm with other people, but you have an opportunity to have a Bible study there. Maybe it's just giving regularly of your income. Maybe it's finding a way to support somehow getting the gospel out to people who don't have access to it. What has God given you stewardship over now? Notice how the question in verse 11 just follows the same line of thinking. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? There's that word mammon again. I think that helps us understand more what he's talking about. If you haven't been faithful with this worldly temporary resource, how would you be entrusted with true riches? The way we handle mammon, this worldly wealth, is a test case for being entrusted with true riches from God. I take that to mean these greater riches with an eternal reward, eternal impact. So brothers, I don't think it's, and sisters, I don't think it's coincidence that when you look at the qualifications for elders and deacons, for example, both deal with a person's heart toward money. For the elder, he must not be a lover of money. For the deacon, not greedy for dishonest gain. How many stories could we tell of people in ministry who've fallen right here? We often hear about the sensual temptations, but this is, I think, probably number two. Greedy for more money, for more. We shouldn't overlook the way a person uses money as an indicator of their commitment to Jesus. The argument just continues, verse 12. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? We might be expecting that word manman again here, but I think it's basically synonymous with what he's talking about still. He says instead, Jesus, he says, that which is another's. They refer to the same thing. What's he saying? Well, he's saying we're just like the steward in the parable. stewards of something that doesn't belong to us. And God wishes to entrust us one day with our own riches that will never wear out. Moth and thief cannot destroy. So it's looking ahead to a new heavens and new earth reality. And the faithfulness that we show now reflects our readiness to experience those riches then. It's interesting in the midst of the treasures filling the temple and the assembly of God's people gathered to worship and make sacrifices, David prays this, he realizes this in 1 Chronicles 29, 14, but who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly for all things come from you and of your own we have given you. In other words, it's all yours. When we give, we are giving God's resources back. We live on borrowed time and with borrowed resources, and we're called to be faithful to the owner of all things. So beloved, every time we reach into our wallets, whether physically or electronically, we're pulling something out of our hearts. The world is not our home. And so we need to come face to face with these calls from Jesus. Are we living to make an earthly tent really strong for ourselves, or am I seeking to invest in the next world. Am I seeking to invest in the kingdom as I have been so greatly blessed by the king? Listen to Luther on this. He says, therefore we must use all these things upon earth in no other way than as a guest who travels through the land and comes to a hotel where he must lodge overnight. He takes only food and lodging from the host and he says not that the property of the host belongs to him. Just so We also should treat our temporal possessions as if they were not ours, and enjoy only so much of them as we need to nourish the body and then help our neighbors with the balance. Thus, the life of a Christian is only a lodging for the night, since we have here no continuing city, but must journey on to heaven where the Father is. So there's kingdom shrewdness, a wholehearted faithfulness that Jesus calls us to with our money. And finally, we need to be reminded that we should view these resources as a tool, not as a God. Number four, this poem ends so clearly. So helpful for us to see just up close this competitor for our hearts. There's no third way. Notice Jesus doesn't say you shouldn't serve God and money. It's not advisable. It makes life more difficult. No, he just says, you can't. You cannot. You can only serve one master. I think if we were honest, we would say our preference is to do both. I was maybe thinking about that, trying to do that even now. But Jesus says, you have to choose. Will you love and serve God or money? Our heart has capacity for only one dominating love. So are you trying to fit money into your heart as a God or trying to sort of fit God into your heart as a sidekick to the real God of money? Is it hard for you to be generous? Do you see yourself as just someone who works too much? Or maybe talk to someone near you. Do they see yourself as someone who works too much? Now, hard work is noble and honorable. We should encourage it. We should also just examine our hearts. Is beneath that, is there a love, desire for money? Am I regularly worrying about money-related things? Is the anxiety that I'm experiencing a fruit, but the root underneath that is a fear that I have to provide for myself, and underneath that is a, reality of my worship being money and not God. It's very possible that in your time as a member of our church, you're going to get offered another better paying job somewhere else in a different part of the city, different part of the country. That is not a bad thing. Praise God for that. How do you think through that decision? How easily would you uproot your family to go somewhere else to make more money? Or is there a process of saying, hey, this is a good opportunity, but my priority is first to seek the kingdom of God, or at least to see, okay, if this is a job that the Lord's opening, is there a good church nearby? You'd be surprised to know how often that doesn't even enter into the mind of many Christians. You can't serve God in money. You will either love God and use money, or love money and use God. If you're devoted to money, you'll end up hating God. And we all go through times financially that are rough. We all have big expenses that come up. We're not making rules here. Okay, this is an x-ray machine on our own hearts from Jesus. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So where's your treasure? Where's your heart? Sometimes we can follow our bank statements to find out. We cannot serve, love, and worship God and money. I want to consider a story as we close. Middle Eastern peasant was condemned for murder. He lived during the days of the famous Sultan Saladin. And this killer was condemned to death, but he kept crying, I want to see the Sultan. I want to see the Sultan. Finally, he was taken into the presence of the great sultan, where he cried out, O most gracious sultan, my sins are great, but the mercy of the sultan is greater. He was released. He threw himself on the mercy of a king. Beloved, if that is true for a sinful human king, How much more for King Jesus? My name from the palm of your hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on your heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end will endure until I bow down at your throne forever and always secure a debtor to mercy alone. So the mercy of God frees us to the service of God for the glory of God. And are we banking on that mercy? Are we living for the kingdom to come when we would hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant? Let's pray. Lord, it is all of your grace, all of your mercy. And I pray that we would see that for all that it is. Before we get the pencil out and think about our checkbook, Lord, examine our hearts. Have we grown cold to your mercy, to the gospel? Oh, Lord, may it never be. May we never lose our first love. We see how everything in life just flows from this changed heart. You have done so much. Your mercy is so much greater. And so we pray, Lord, that you would give us grace as we think about your words to us, as we think about making eternal friends, using our resources to your glory for the good of the nations, for the good of our neighborhood, for the good of our family. Knowing none of this is ours, it all belongs to you, and it's for you. So we pray we'd have that heart, and it would just permeate all of our lives. Lord, we return thanks to you. We praise you for your goodness and your grace to us. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. Amen.