We are in Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 13. We're going to talk today about the rich man, the shrewd man, and the faithful man. And we're looking at eternal perspectives on earthly finances. And yes, we're talking about money. And I'll tell you that the single worst subject to talk about in any church is money. because we're encroaching into your pocketbook we're talking about things that we have no right to talk about and I've heard all of these things elders, pastors, deacons all over the place have either been told or are saying to people constantly that you don't have any right to talk about our finances and it is amazing that people get so offended when we talk about financial situations we are called to be good stewards of God's money, of God's wealth, of God's provision. And we're going to talk about those things today. So with that, I'll have Gary, if you would, I'll have you start reading, if you can. Luke 16, verses 1-13. 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. And 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 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 am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? He said, 100 measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? He said, 100 measures of wheat. He said to him, tear bill and write 80. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of life. 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. One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful of that which is others, who will give you that which is your own? 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." Thank you. You know, there's a common saying, and it's very true, that money does not make you good or evil. All money does is show forth what's already in your heart. You understand that you don't have to be rich to be covetous, to be malicious, to be angry and mean, to be a greedy person. All you have to do is have an inordinate desire for wealth to the point that you're willing to do anything and everything to make sure you get it. Money doesn't make you evil. It just shows who you truly are. Money is a great indicator of faithfulness. So many of us would say, if I had 10,000 more dollars, I could give more. No, you wouldn't. The scripture says, if you will be faithful in little, then you'll be faithful in much. Jesus is making it clear that the faithfulness is not in proportion to how much money you have, but in proportion to the amount of faith in your heart. It's in proportion to who you are as a person. And our Lord Jesus Christ has been issuing words that challenged and changed the whole entire history of the whole world. He gave parable after parable, almost 40 of them in total, and one-third of them have to do with finances, has to do with the topic of money and how we are to be stewards whether good or bad. In the last discussion we had about the rich young ruler, I'm sorry, about the parable that we had talking about the prodigal son, as we talked about the prodigal son, you notice it had to do with finances and stewardship and a lack thereof. Jesus was prophesied and of old that he would speak in parables for the purpose of causing his people to come to an understanding and cause the world to not understand what was being said. Jesus told the disciples that he wanted them to know what the parables meant. And we should concern ourselves to know what their meanings as well. He was using these successive parallels to teach people about the nature of salvation, the power and purpose of God, and His promise to keep us secure and to never lose a single sheep. We looked at this idea of the ninety and nine, and God says, and the shepherd goes out for that one. And when he finds that one, he brings it. And it's the idea that God will not lose any of his people. And we find out that Jesus is constantly telling people about his sovereignty and his power and his authority. And then he turns around and he shows the wickedness, the alternative wickedness of those who have an inordinate affection towards finances and towards wealth. They make money their God, which is what the Pharisees did. You see, they taught that it was a good thing to covet wealth and to hold to wealth and that wealth was the end-all be-all to show that you were truly blessed of God. They were showing, they were teaching the people that they were in an upper status because they had all the power and all the wealth and the Jewish people owed the pharisees, they're living. They owed them everything that they wanted and they owed them all of their finances. They owed them their position. Jesus comes along and he absolutely turns it on its head. He is destroying the foundation of all of the pharisaical teaching, all of the Judaism that's being taught. We saw in the prodigal story that the falsely so-called religious, we saw who they really and truly were as they proclaimed that they were worshiping God, and yet they hated the people that God was going after. Now in Luke 16, he transitions to show us how God interacts with mankind. We see this relationship between God and man in these passages, but we also see a relationship with man to man and with other people out in the world. He shows us this so that we understand and have a sound understanding of his teaching and the difference between the world's perspective on wealth and finances and how God's true faithful people understand it. You do understand that You have nothing that is your own. You are simply a steward. Everything that you have is a gift from God, even your very breath. So let alone the finances that you have. So many people would tell us, you're treading on thin ice. Don't you talk about this financial situation. There are people that would come to a church and say, oh, well, there's another church trying to tell me if I don't tithe. There's another church trying to tell me if I don't give. Oh, I don't want to hear that. And they'll walk out the door and never come back because they say, he doesn't have any right to tell us that. I hear it. I've seen it. I've watched it happen. And it happens constantly because we want to have that one thing that we control. And what better thing than what we've worked for? What better thing than what we've earned? Today we're going to look at the relationship to others, the relationship to riches, and a relationship with God. We're going to look at those three issues of a relationship with others, a relationship with riches, and a relationship with God. Do you know what the rich people of the world worry about the most? I actually had that question asked to me from a man that was a multi-millionaire. He's a friend of mine. He had more money than he ever knew what to do with. He helped ministries all over the place. And he and I were talking one day as we were at a NASCAR outreach together. He was out with me and we were out sharing the gospel to the NASCAR guys in Atlanta. And he says to me, he says, Justin, do you know the one thing that rich people worry the most about? I had no clue. And he says, keeping their wealth. Rich people feel entitled to their wealth because they've earned it, they've worked for it, it's theirs, they've built it, and they feel that they should have it. They feel that they should keep it. Studies show that we think about finances on average more than any other subject. Believe it or not, more than any other subject. Finance is building and keeping wealth at any and all cost. and everyone is seen to be admiring and to see it as a noble thing that we build wealth, that we work for wealth, that we struggle to have more and more and build greater and greater finances and greater and greater wealth. When we think of the rich people in our society, we consider people like Bill Gates, right? I mean, we think about this guy Warren Buffett. Bill Gates is worth $102 billion. Jeff Bezos, he's the founder and controller of Amazon, $157 billion. That's a pretty big chunk of change. Elon Musk has $19.2 billion in the bank. Donald Trump has $3.1 billion. Congressman Darrell Issa of California, the wealthiest congressman before he left office in 2019. Look at that number, $283 million. Now he could have walked in with the wealth but we know that there are a lot of uh... senators and congressmen and governors and they also walk in uh... owing everybody and they come out you know with all types of money mark warner has ninety million dollars in the bank as a senator but that's nothing henry ford died being worth a hundred and ninety nine million i'm sorry billion dollars Do you know what that would be like today? I mean, I don't know what that financial difference would be today, but it would be way outside of anything we could think of. John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest Americans to have ever lived, $340 billion. I looked throughout the history's greatest and most wealthy people, just untold. Muammar Gaddafi was $200 billion in his pocket. i mean just untold riches and they were admired and lauded and loved and hated but for the most part we look at them and say look what type of success they had and how great and wonderful these people must have been warren buffett oh he's just uh... the icon and he's so intelligent so special and so wonderful they're impressive numbers but every one of these wealthy people Exactly what you and I have in common with them exactly the same thing You cannot take it with you when you go They will die just like anyone else they will be put in the ground and they will stand before Almighty God and So we need to consider the relationship that we have with others. In this account, in Luke, there was a rich man, and if you think about the rich man in the context, he had a concern and a fear for and a worry over his finances, over gaining and keeping wealth. You can look throughout that parable and see that he had a manager, he had resources, he had debtors, He had wealth to invest and expected return upon his investments. The evidences that I saw in this is that he had wealth to lend out to probably many of other workers who lived on his properties. It was a custom for people to come in as bond slaves. They would submit themselves to what's called slavery underneath their master, and as they submitted themselves, they would live under their rule and authority and their provision. So this master expected that he would get something in return for their work and for his effort. he would give them a job and they would work to provide something back for him and it would be a financial situation where he was allowing them to work and they were making a living and in turn they were paying him some interest back if you will. So they would give back some of that debt Well, I looked at some of the studies that were done on these figures just to show what type of wealth this man would have had. For one person, he walks up and to the manager he says, I have a hundred measures of oil. John Gill and many others say that a measure is what's called a bath. that's the the the weighted term for what it is it's a bath of a measure of oil it's found in ezekiel 45 11 and according to he says according to godwin it held four gallons four and a half gallons of oil so so that a hundred of them contain 450 gallons now I've looked at measurements that say well more than six to eight hundred gallons I mean so it's it could be anywhere in there but let's just start it for say 450 gallons of oil in today's economy if you're looking at lamp oil or cooking oil roughly 10,385 dollars in value so he's loaned this person this what he needs to live and do you see that if he is working for a denarius which is the common work of a penny he's working at the agricultural work typically he would be making about seventy two dollars seventy two dollars for a ten hours worth of work if you've taken in today's economy not a lot but imagine what it would take for him to pay off a ten thousand dollar debt This is talking about a lifetime debt that was something that would take forever and this manager comes along who's supposed to be a good steward and what does he do? He is so used to and accustomed to his lifestyle that he swindles and he says, you just write me a certificate of debt for 5,000 rather than 10,000. Who wouldn't take that? You owe money on your house. You owe money on your house. And somebody comes along and says, you know what? I'm from the bank. We've decided for one day only, one time only before so-and-so gets here, we're going to cut your debt in half. What are you going to do? I'm signing that bill, right? I'm signing that bill gladly. And that's what he did. The owner had the right to expect that the full wage would be paid off. 100 measures of wheat. Well, this is pretty simple. Today's measurements of 100 measures of wheat would be 1,000 to 1,200 bushels of wheat. About 6,300, 5,300, 6,300, somewhere in that neighborhood dollars worth of wheat. That's still a lot. That would take a long time to pay off. So he says, make it 80. Make it 80 measures. So it appears that they all had a lifetime debt with a master who would have had dozens and dozens of people living under his authority, and this master would loan to them, they would borrow from him, they would owe pretty much until they died. The master had to give them what he had, and he had it to give, and he gladly would give it. The poor needed the provision, so they had to honor They had to honor the debt that they owed, but they had the honor and respect of working for what they had for a living. It wasn't handed to them. It wasn't just a handout. They could hold their heads high with nobility. They could say, we've worked for our living. And by the way, every single one of us today who has a job has a master. Every one of us has debt. And every single one of us, we can hold our head high and say we've worked and earned a living to the glory of God. Amen? The master and the servant, they had a relationship that benefited both of them. The rich man was the master and the provider of many of the unrighteous property managers' provisions, of many of the people, of all those that were around him. He was the one that was responsible to live out his life, to fight for his provision, fight for his rights to have what he had, and he entrusted himself to an unrighteous manager. Let's look at this guy for a few minutes. The rich man, as I said, he's the master of the place. And he has a manager who was unfaithful with his master's finances. He wasted it, squandering the finances that he was in charge of overseeing. He was probably born into that family he was so trusted. Think about it. This master had to hear of the accounts going on. He wasn't even anywhere near this situation. You know, we can't really add more to that parable. He wasn't there. He hears about what's going on, that this man's being unfaithful. So he finds out that he's squandering what he was financially responsible to oversee. He was responsible not only for himself, but he was responsible to provide for the needs of all of this man's servants. Do you see how important this man is? This manager is very important because if he didn't do his job, the master could have lost everything and therefore all of the people could have lost their livelihoods and been cast out into the world. Do you see that? He had the authority also to speak on the master's behalf. He walks up to this man and he says, how much do you owe? And the man says, I owe for a hundred measures of oil, a hundred baths of oil. And he says, well, just write it for 50. This man says, oh, he's speaking on behalf of the master. You better believe it. Praise the Lord. The master's being great today. He could do that. The Master could do that any moment. He could forgive the debt at any moment. He could break the debt in half and say, you know what, I'm just feeling beneficent and I'm feeling so sweet and so kind and you've been such a loyal friend to me, I'm going to just cut your debt in half. I'm going to completely get rid of it. He could have done any of those things and had the Manager do the work for him. But the Manager is the one that we see that had done all of those things. in this passage is we see that there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possession. He called him and he said to him, what is this that I am hearing about you? You see that he wasn't even there. He says, what is this that I am hearing about you? And he called him and he said, turn in your account of your management, you can no longer be manager. He fired him. So this man comes into a great panic. This unrighteous manager, he gets fired. So he went from a poorly managed property master, from that point he went to embezzlement. He went to greed. He began to deceive the people and act as if he had the right to speak special deal on his master's behalf and verse 4 we see this I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from management people may receive me into their houses What do you do? He summons the master's debtors one by one. This man is so shrewd, he doesn't want to bring people in and all in a big pile so that everyone can say, well, I got a better deal than you got. Wait a minute, that would have caused a riot. No, no. He brings them in. He brings them in and says, one time only, one deal only. Be quiet. Don't tell anybody. Let's do it now, quick, because I don't want everybody to know what I'm doing for you. I'm doing a special favor for you. And the master says, I can do this. So let's write this bill out. He is so slick. 100 measures of oil? Make it for 50. You owe this much wheat? Okay, no, just make it a bill for 80. You know what he's doing? He is causing these people to be indebted to him so that when he gets finally kicked out, finally kicked out, he can have a life that he is accustomed to. This man is shrewd. He's dishonest. He's wicked. But look at this. The unrighteous manager decides that he was too good and too precious to work. He didn't want to work honestly. He was better than those below him, so he's going to swindle them to get his provisions. He gave what wasn't his so that he could have comfort to live later. He learned to live off of others and expected them to care for him. Bless you. We have a whole society that is this way today. We have a society that's being taught that it's better to sit back and do nothing and expect the government or expect the people, especially the wealthy, because if they're wealthy, they owe it. They owe it. They need to pay their fair share. And they need to give it to people that don't have it and don't want to work for it. When the wealthy don't like it, steal from them, cast them down, take their finances, and kick them out. Now let's look at the relationship between us and riches. The very first thing I want you to notice is that Proverbs 17, 16 says, Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no senses? That fool cannot think rightly. He shouldn't have finances because he doesn't know how to use it. Because as soon as you give him money, what's he going to do? He's going to squander it. He's going to spend it on that which is not worthy of the day. If you go back to the parable of that prodigal son, he goes out into the world and he has a provision and foolishly he squanders it because he's too stupid not to. He's too self-righteous. He's too ignorant not to squander the money. We must have a proper relationship with riches and wisdom to know who we are serving. And this is important. You have to have a proper relationship with finances, with riches to know who you're serving. Either you're going to serve the almighty dollar, live and die for it, or you're going to have to recognize there's one that has given you that dollar that you are responsible to serve. It's one or the other. So which one is it? The unrighteous manager, he coveted riches to the point where he was willing to commit a crime in order to keep his place of worldly comfort. The hirelings in the field, Those servants of this master were in his debt because of his dishonesty. And by custom, listen to this, by custom, even though this man was dishonest, they had a responsibility to uphold the honor of the debt that they owed him. It was right for them by custom to give this man his reward. The rich man, he had a worldly response to this issue. If you would notice that the rich man, he was impressed. In verse 8 it says that the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Can you imagine that? You're the master of a land and you see this man that you've given everything to and you look at him and he he's swindled and he's lied and he's stolen and he's Grimed and he's just wicked and you look at him and you say Good job. Wow That's amazing You know why you can't imagine it Because you're not thinking with world's eyes Because in this world today the most honored people oftentimes are those who are the most deceptive and devious and wicked people. They are the people that you would look at and you would say there's no way I could live around them or be near them. There's no way that I could be with them and live in their lifestyle. You see, this unrighteous manager, he decided to do wickedly, but the master decided to do even more. The rich man, the master, he was impressed with this man's dishonorable deed. He admired the dishonesty, the slyness, the wickedness of this man. He respected and even commended him. He said, wow, that is so amazing what you've done. Do you know why? Because the world loves wickedness. The world loves evil people. He was so impressed by the shrewdness of the corrupt manager that he commends him. And it's often the case that dishonest people who gain wealth and love it so that they will admire other dishonest people and even want to learn from them. There's a school called the liar school where you learn how to lie for a living. We know that we say that lawyers are just the greatest liars, crooks, and swindlers alive. Next to that is an accountant. Next to that is the bankers. Next to that is the politicians and the governors and the government. Next to that is everybody else. We expect to be seeing people who are getting their leg up in the world by doing what? Swindling people, by stealing from, by being corrupt. This wealthy man looks at him and he says, I am so amazed at what you did. You got people to do something they would have never done. How'd you do that? Because I need to learn that because he wants more wealth. He was so impressed by this man's shrewdness that he commended him. Look at the most popular people that are admired today. I'm just going to look at two. This really weird-looking guy here on the left and this really weird-looking guy on the right. The guy on the right is Bernie Madoff. If this man's name is Madoff and he's in charge of financial gain, somebody should worry. He made off with a bunch of money, $65 billion. $65 billion. The guy on the left is Ken Lay. He was part of the Enron fraud. Billions. There's no telling how much money these people stole, embezzled, hid. These guys took more money than you can imagine. You can't fathom these billions of dollars. And guess what? When they get out of jail, they get out of prison because one gets a life sentence and it lasts for a couple years. They get it all kicked out. They're going to go right back to making more and more and more money. More and more money. Look at Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. Made billions. Got caught doing something wrong and now he's back to it. Because the people love it so. You know Mark 8.36 says, What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and yet he forfeits or loses his own soul? You see, in this world today, we see people that are so corrupt and so wicked in mind, that they are willing and desirous to run after the things of the world. We should expect that. They don't have any other hope. They don't have any other relationship. They have right here and right now. They aren't thinking of when they stand before a holy God. They aren't thinking of what will happen next that they will have to give an account, are they? See, nobody thinks they'll have to give an account. I got news for you. If you had to pay your sin debt the moment you sinned, you wouldn't do it. This man has been swindling people for years. You just happen to see the very biggest explosion of his corruptness before he gets kicked out. And at the very end, what is revealed is that the master is just as wicked is just as corrupt. And we see that in the world today that bad people do bad things and more bad people are admirers of their bad deeds. Who would have ever thought that an entire government platform would say it was okay to murder babies and then somebody goofs up and says outside the womb and their platform changes and says oh yes we really meant that and yeah he's right outside the womb and now up to three years. Who would have ever thought that people would get by with billions and billions of dollars of swindling and stealing and scheming? You know why it is? It's not because of their wickedness, but because of the wickedness of the people that support them, that allow them to do it, that just allow them to be more and more wicked and are admirers of their wickedness. 1 Timothy 6, 6-10 says this, But godliness with contentment is great gain. You're a Christian. God has given you everything you've ever had and ever needed and ever wanted. Be godly. Be content with what you have. Learn to be happy with little or happy with much and hold it with a loose hand. For we brought nothing into this world and we cannot take anything out of it. What should your perspective be when it comes to finances? a loose hand, an open hand ready to give whatever God would say He wants because it's all His and He provides for everything you will ever need. But if you have food and clothing, be content with those things. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. Yeah. Yeah. If your heart's desire is for riches and for wealth and to get all you can while you can get it, there's a temptation there to compromise. There's a temptation there when you see people making the fast road. That's why we see so many people doing the backdoor schemes in Wall Street where people come along and say, hey man, I've got a stock option over here. I've got something for you. It's a hot deal. You know that's illegal? And people do it every day. People do it every day because you can make an extra million or thousand or billion dollars inside of a couple of little trades and nobody has to know. And you just buffer this guy with a little bit of money? Why not? Who's getting hurt? But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and hurtful or harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction a lot of times people will get caught up in this thing until it's too late and then they destroy themselves and their people around them, right? I mean think about how many people were in Enron. Think about how many people Bernie Madoff destroyed. Think about all these corrupt things that have gone on where people have lost their very livelihoods. All that they had. Now that wicked manager that we've been talking about He was swindling so badly that if it had destroyed the master, it would have thereby destroyed everyone else. That's what we see all the time. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It doesn't say that money is, it says that love, that inordinate affection, not knowing who provides the money. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. Think about that. Because of the desire of wealth and riches, people will profess to be Christians and then turn away and run away at the very first ability for them to make more money than they can from being a Christian. Let's finally look at the relationship that we have with God, or a relationship that we should have with God. See, we need to realize that God wins, He owns it all, everything is His, and we are His stewards. Everything that you have is God's. He created it, He owns it, and He has loaned it for you, for your provision, for your good, and for the good of others around you. where everything we possess is actually the property of the Master, is where our hearts are the most content. We are but managers. We are called to be faithful, good stewards. Well done thou good and faithful servant is in there because that is a criteria for being a believer, to be well done, good and faithful slave, a property of the Master, owned property of the Master. We are managers. Only this Master is not going to be pleased or reward us for unfaithfulness. He will actually condemn us for unfaithfulness. Wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, those are the things that are going to be judged whether what we've done with what He's given us, the provision that He's given us, is how we're going to be judged. What do you have that's not given to you? And if it was given to you, why would you boast and act like it's yours? Why would you covet and be proud? Why be greedy and envy? We are looking for a home whose builder and maker is God. If that is our eternal perspective, if that is where we are looking for, and we know that He owns everything, He supplies everything for us, all of our needs and all of our desires for all of eternity, Here and now, we have all that we need to sustain us, and in eternity, He is going to give us everything that an infinite heaven can contain. Amen? But here and now, He gives us that which would sustain us and cause us to be useful for the service of the Kingdom of God. The love of money has caused many people to be cast down into destruction and multitudes of people, countless nations have fallen for the love of money to the point where they will destroy one another over wealth. For the world, it is natural for worldlings to act as if they have nothing else to live for. It is natural for them to live their best life now. Do you know why? Because this is all, this miserable ball in the sky is all they have. They have no good hope. They have no eternal life. They have no blessed joy. They have no savior. They have no prince of peace. They have no eternal reward. All they have is now. And their perspective is, I'm going to live for as long as I can and get everything I can while I can. If we look here in verse 8, Jesus is not bragging or commending the unrighteous manager. You see, the other passages we saw some commendation of the prodigal son coming back to Jesus, or coming back to his father and making amends. We saw some commendable acts of a faithful father who never gives up and never relents. But this passage is not about God, but about unfaithful people. He's not bragging about and commending the unrighteous man. He calls him unrighteous. The corrupt master is not representing Jesus or God. He's representing the world's perspective. Jesus is using this to show you something, to show that the disciples need to hear something, to show the Pharisees something as well. The prodigal son, he squandered all that he had, his wealth from his father, and then he went back. The dishonest manager, he squandered everything that he had, his master's possessions, and then he lied, cheated, and stole in desperation to have what he wanted out of this life. And Jesus says that the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own people. Think about this perspective. The world knows what it wants. And it's willing to kill you to get it. It's willing to steal from you, to destroy your life, to destroy your financial abilities. It's willing to do anything if it can get your dollar. And they mean it. They want it. They desire it. They want pleasure in life. You say you're a Christian. You say you believe in God. Well, the greatest way to know that, to see if it's true, is how do you deal with worldly money? How do you deal with finances? How do you deal with what God has given to you? Think about this. Jesus says that the sons of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own people. They're going to kill for that dollar, they'll do anything for that dollar, and it's the survival of the fittest evolutionary model attitude. It's that attitude that they'll do anything they have. Because all they have is right now. You have eternity. What are you willing to do? What are you willing to give up? What are you willing to set your affections on? What are you willing to throw towards the future? You see, you can't take it with you when you go, but you can send it forward. You can send it forward. using it for the glory of God and God says well done thou good and faithful servant and he takes what you've given what you've done all the work that you've done in ministry to the glory of God and everything that you've done and he says it's accounted to you for righteousness it's counted to you for what you've done is good in the sight of a holy God all I have is now all you have is eternity Matthew 6 says this, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where the moth and rust destroy, and where the thief breaks in and steals, where that wicked little manager comes along and steals from you and you didn't even know he was doing it. Now, is he saying that you shouldn't have anything ever? No. Just don't inordinately hold on to that which God has given you. Listen to what it says. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, Because there neither moth nor rust is going to destroy it. No thief is ever going to break in and steal it. Your treasure is where your heart will be. If your whole entire heart and whole entire life is built around the almighty dollar and running for all the gusto, you know what you're not going to do? You're not going to spend one more dime than you absolutely have to in a church because it costs you too much. You're not going to do anything more than you absolutely have to. Now you'll get in there and say, praise God, time to give, all this other silly stuff, but you will not live your life to the service of Almighty God in His church. You will not do it. You will not spend money to build up the kingdom of God so that the gospel can go out. You will not do those things because your perspective is here on this financial wealth. The only way you will do that is when you realize your treasure is in heaven, that your eternal reward can never be taken from you. There's people going to be standing in heaven that are going to have an infinitely more beautiful welcome than you ever will. And I'm not trying to cast aspersions on any of you. But there are people in churches, in every single church, who have never given anything, and when they do give something, they are so angry about it, they shouldn't have given it anyway. We're supposed to be cheerful givers, because the God of the universe stepped down from time and history. He took Himself and made Himself nothing, and He gave you everything. That's the God that we serve. This whole entire parable is to show you that the world loves itself and its riches and we say we're Christians and we can't love God and his riches. We can't do what the world does and that's the world would cast, I mean they would be willing to die for that next dollar. to do anything for that next dollar to do every immoral act and put it on youtube and put it on some video screen and the pornography and everything else i'll sell myself for that next dollar but we won't we won't say god i give you everything i am willing to go out into into China, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. I'll be a missionary. I'll do anything you want me to do. God, your kingdom is more important. Your gospel is more important than anything that I could ever do. What's your hopes and dreams? You lay them all to the side. We talked about that last time. You lay all of those desires to the side and you say, God, if you want me to be an NFL player, if you want me to be a musician, an actor, an actress, if you want me to be whatever, I'll be that. But if you say no, I'll do whatever you tell me to do. I'll go wherever you tell me to go. I'll give whatever you tell me to give. I am content to be rich or poor, and it doesn't matter, because God is the eternal God of all provision. He's the God of life. He's the owner of those thousand hills, all the cattle on it, and you and me as well. They have no treasure that's going to last, and you have an eternal hope. Where your treasure is, your heart's going to be. They can't take it with them. They build bigger barns and the next day they die. They do so much for that retirement party. And then statistically speaking, they die four or five or ten years later, right? And they don't get to use it. We get to pay it forward. We get to give it for the glory of God. We store up our treasure in heaven. You and I are not left in a hopeless situation. We can't take it with us, but we can send it forward. We can store up our treasure in heaven for all eternity. It'll be there. He says, and I tell you, my friends, make friends of yourselves by means of the unrighteous wealth. Listen to what this is saying. We can make friends with others by using the wealth that God gives us, what we would call unrighteous wealth. for the glory of God. Missionary work, service work, evangelistic work, discipleship work, going out and making disciples, we spend money for gas, we spend money for food, we go out, somebody says they need something, we go out, even if they're trying to con us, we say, here's your 50 bucks, now come in here, let me talk to you about Jesus Christ. No matter what it is, we say, I don't care about the money, just come in here about Christ. Because what's more important? That you don't get swindled, or they hear about God. They hear about salvation. That's right. We can invest in our church and sponsor training classes to equip God's people for more and more evangelism, more and more discipleship. We can support people like Justin Peters. I mean, I think every one of you have heard of Justin Peters probably. Mike Stockwell, Andrew Rappaport. Way of the Master, Ray Comfort, all these guys that are living on the front lines of Christianity. They're doing everything they can to proclaim the Word. And we say, well, we can't go out there all the time. We can support them. We can do everything we can to help them and lift them up. We can do it for one another. You know what happens when you witness to the lost? You make friends with them, don't you? Not always. But that's how we make friends with the lost. We provide what they need. We try to be a help for where we can, but we always do it in mind of, so when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwelling. Imagine this, that you spent your entire life trying to supply and support and help those people that need it, because they need the gospel the most, and many of them come to Christ, and let's say they die before you, and they go way before you. And you die at 70 and 80 years old and you walk up into heaven and they're standing there waiting and saying, the reason I'm here today is because you sacrificed. Bailey Smith walks into Tennessee Avenue, but when I was thought I was a Christian, he came in and for his, he lost money to come here because he knew it was the right thing to do. He went and he preached for an entire week And God saved my soul. I've never met him, but when I get to heaven, I get to walk up and say, because of what you did. And then I get to go find out all those people that supported him. And I get to say, because you supported this man, God put the gospel in my heart. What about you? is the gospel, is the glory of God, is the importance of the proclamation and the value of Christ of so much to you that you're willing to give up anything and everything because you know that you'll never lose a dime. The world doesn't know from one day to the next if they're going to ever keep it. In verse 10 it says, One who is faithful in a very little will also be faithful in much. It's not about what you have. It's about what you're willing to give. I don't have the money. Okay, what are you willing to give? Are you going to be faithful in the little that you have? Well, I can't because I'm not rich. I don't have this. I don't have that extra $10,000. Then you wouldn't be faithful even if you had $50,000. Because you'd find something else to spend it on. Because it's more important than serving God at all costs. Imagine the welcome that the man on George Street had. You guys ever heard that story? You're going to. When he gets into heaven, imagine, I want you to think about what I just said, because in just a moment I'm going to have you listen to something. Imagine how many lives that you and I could affect if we truly believe that God uses us weak people to glorify himself and to make his name known, to make disciples of the nation. Imagine how many lives we could see affected by God because of the witness that God has given to us if we truly believed it. Imagine if you and I got desperate, like this unrighteous manager, if we got desperate to see God glorified and you agreed to lay down everything and become a missionary for Christ, for the gospel. Imagine if you sold out everything and were faithful in the little thing that God has given you Beloved, you cannot even get the people of the churches to tithe. People say, oh, that's an Old Testament thing. You know what? God says He loves a cheerful giver. Give everything you can with all the gusto you can. No matter what it is, little or much, give it to the glory of God. Serve with your life. Serve with all that you are because He's worth it. Jesus Christ will never not be worth everything you can give it. Amen? Listen to Jesus. God owns everything. He owns everything on a thousand hills and He says this, If you have not been faithful with that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? You can't be faithful with God's stuff. What's He going to give you? You can't be faithful with what God has given you. No one can serve two masters. Make your decision now. Is Christ, is God your only hope, your master, the one that you are indebted to for everything, and the one that you want to please, or are you going to hold something back? I'm not telling you to write another check. But I'm telling you to determine what's it going to cost you and are you willing to pay it no matter what God says it is. Just listen. This message is non-copyright. Duplication is encouraged. A number of years ago in a Baptist church in Crystal Palace in southern London, the Sunday morning service was closing and a stranger stood up at the back, raised his hand and said, Can I share a little testimony? The pastor looked at his watch, he said, you've got three minutes. And this man proceeded. He said, I've just moved into this area. I used to live in another part of London. I came from Sydney in Australia. And just a few months back, I was visiting some relatives and I was walking down George Street. You know where George Street is in Sydney. It runs from the business hub out to the rocks, the colonial area. And he said, a strange little white haired man stepped out of a shop doorway, put a pamphlet in my hand and he said, excuse me, sir, are you saved? If you die tonight, are you going to heaven? He said, I was astounded by those words. Nobody had ever told me that. I thanked him courteously and all the way on British Airlines back to Heathrow this puzzled me. I called a friend who lived in this new area where I'm living now and thank God he was a Christian. He led me to Christ and I'm a Christian and I want to fellowship here and Baptists love testimonies like that. Everyone applauded and welcomed him into the fellowship. That Baptist pastor flew to Adelaide in Australia the next week. And ten days later, in the middle of a three-day series in a Baptist church in Adelaide, a woman came to him for counselling, and he wanted to establish where she stood with Christ. And she said, I used to live in Sydney. And just a couple of months back, I was visiting friends in Sydney, doing some last-minute shopping down George Street, and a strange little white-haired man, elderly man, stepped out of a shop doorway, offered me a panther, and said, excuse me, ma'am, are you saved? If you die tonight, are you going to heaven? She said, I was disturbed by those words. When I got back to Adelaide, I knew this Baptist church was on the next block from me, and I sought out the pastor, and he led me to Christ. So, sir, I'm telling you that I am a Christian. Now, this London pastor was not very puzzled. Twice, within a fortnight, he'd heard the same testimony. He then flew to preach in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Perth. And when his teaching series was over, the senior elder of that church took him out for a meal. And he said, mate, how'd you get saved? He said, I grew up in this church from the age of 15 through Boys Brigade. Never made a commitment to Jesus, just hopped on the bandwagon like everybody else. And because of my business ability, grew up to a place of influence. I was on a business outing in Sydney just three years ago. And an obnoxious, spiteful little man stepped out of a shop doorway, offered me a religious pamphlet, cheap junk, and accosted me with a question. Excuse me, sir, are you saved? If you die tonight, are you going to heaven? He said, I tried to tell him I was a Baptist elder. He wouldn't listen to me. He said, I was seething with anger all the way home on Qantas to Perth. He said, I told my pastor thinking he would sympathize with me, and my pastor agreed. He had been disturbed for years knowing that I didn't have a relationship with Jesus, and he was right. And my pastor led me to Jesus just three years ago. Now this London preacher flew back to the UK and was speaking at the Keswick Convention in the Lake District. And he threw in these three testimonies. At the close of his teaching session, four elderly pastors came up and said, we got saved between 25 and 35 years ago, respectively, through that little man on George Street giving us a tract and asking us that question. He then flew the following week to a similar Keswick convention in the Caribbean to missionaries. And he shared the testimonies. At the close of his teaching session, three missionaries came up and said, we got saved between 15 and 25 years ago, respectively, through that little man's testimony and asking us that same question on George Street in Sydney. Coming back to London, he stopped outside Atlanta, Georgia, to speak at a naval chaplain's convention. And when he's three days of revving these naval chaplains up, over a thousand of them in Solvenny, the chaplain general took him out for a meal. And he said, how did you become a Christian? He said, well, it was miraculous. I was a rating on a United States battleship, and I lived a reprobate life. We were doing exercises in the South Pacific, and we docked in Sydney Harbor for replenishment. We hit King's Cross with a vengeance. I got blind drunk. I got on the wrong bus, got off in George Street. As I got off the bus, I thought it was a ghost. This elderly, white-haired man jumped in front of me, pushed a pamphlet in my hand and said, sailor, are you saved? If you die tonight, you're going to heaven. He said, the fear of God hit me immediately. I was shocked, sober, and ran back to the battleship, sought out the chaplain. The chaplain led me to Christ, and I soon began to prepare for the ministry under his guidance, and here I am in charge of over a thousand chaplains, and we're bent on soul winning today. That London preacher, six months later, flew to do a convention for 5,000 Indian missionaries in a remote corner of northeastern India. And at the end, the Indian missionary in charge, a humble little man, took him home to his humble little home for a simple meal. And he said, how did you, as a Hindu, come to Christ? He said, I was in a very privileged position. I worked for the Indian diplomatic mission, and I traveled the world, and I am so glad for the forgiveness of Christ and His blood covering my sin, because I'd be very embarrassed if people found out what I got into. He said, one bout of diplomatic service took me to Sydney, and I was doing some last-minute shopping, laden with parcels of toys and clothing for my children, walking down George Street, and this courteous little white-haired man stepped out in front of me, offered me a pamphlet, and said, excuse me, sir, Oh, you're saved. If you die tonight, you're going to heaven. He said, I thanked him very much, but this disturbed me. I got back to my town, I sought out the Hindu priest, and he couldn't help me, but he gave me some advice. He said, just to satisfy your curious mind, nothing else. Go and talk to the missionary in the mission house at the end of the road, and that was faithful advice. He said, because that day the missionary led me to Christ, I quit Hinduism immediately, and then began to study for the ministry. I left the diplomatic service, and here I am by God's grace in charge of all these missionaries, and we are winning hundreds of thousands of people to Christ. Well, eight months later, That Crystal Palace Baptist pastor was ministering in Sydney, in Gymea, southern suburb of Sydney. And he said to the Baptist minister, do you know a little man, an elderly little man, who witnesses and hands out tracts on George Street? And he said, I do. His name is Mr. Gennor, G-E-N-N-O-R. But I don't think he does it anymore. He's too frail and elderly. The man said, I want to meet him. Two nights later, they went around to this little apartment, knocked on the door, and this tiny, frail little man opened the door. He sat them down, made them some tea, and he was so faint, he was sloughing tea into the saucer as he shook. And as he sat with them, this London preacher told him all these accounts over the previous three years. This little man sat with tears running down his cheeks. He said, my story goes like this. He said, I was a rating on an Australian warship, and I lived a reprobate life, and in a crisis, I really hit the wall, and one of my colleagues, whom I gave literal hell, was there to help me. He led me to Jesus and the change in my life was night to day in 24 hours. And I was so grateful to God. I promised God that I would share Jesus in a simple witness with at least 10 people a day as God gave me strength. Sometimes I was ill. I couldn't do it, but I made up for it for other times. I wasn't paranoid about it, but I have done this for over 40 years. And in my retirement years, the best place was on George Street. There were hundreds of people. I got lots of rejections. But a lot of people courteously took the tracts and he said, in 40 years of doing this, I've never heard of one single person coming to Jesus until today. You know, I would say that has to be commitment. That has to be just sheer gratitude and love for Jesus to do that. Not hearing of any results. Margarita did a little count. That's 146,100 people that simple little non-charismatic Baptist man influenced somehow to Jesus. And I believe what God was showing that Baptist minister was the tip of the tip of the tip of the tip of this iceberg. Goodness knows how many more had been arrested for Christ and were doing huge jobs out in the mission field. Mr. Genoa died two weeks later. Can you imagine the reward he went home to in heaven. I doubt if his face would ever have appeared on Charisma magazine. I doubt if there would ever have been a write-up with a photograph in Billy Graham's Decision magazine, as beautiful as those magazines are. Nobody except a little group of Baptists in southern Sydney knew about Mr. Genoa, but I'll tell you his name was famous in heaven. Heaven knew Mr. Genoa and you can imagine the welcome and the red carpet and the fanfare he went home to when he arrived in glory. You will never be famous. Chances are that you'll never be famous. Okay, you might be. But I'm going to say you won't because so few people really are. But that little man did not concern himself with fame but with faithfulness. And he truly meant it. This is a true story. Hundreds of thousands of people came to Christ because of that simple testimony. Because that simple life lived for the glory of God. Now, I'm going to tell you what we do is we go out to the races, to every event that we can, and we hand out gospel tracts. We witness to people. We try to bring people to Christ. Mark, you've seen it. You've been with us. We do our best. And I've seen very few people make professions of faith and very few conversions. But do you know how many people God can save? Everybody He wants to. He's faithful. He will not lose one. And He's called to use you. He's called you to serve to the glory of God in every way you can, whether it's financial, spiritual, discipleship, praise and worship, whatever it may be. But He's called all of us to be witnesses for His glory. That's what we need to be doing. That's what this passage is about. The world's faithful to its calling. Let's be faithful to ours. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I praise you and I thank you so much, God, for your amazing grace. Lord, we absolutely do not deserve anything but hell. And you let us see and hear about people birthed into the kingdom, and you've chosen to use our weakness. You've chosen to use our voices. to give us ministry for Your glory. And God, I pray that these children will come to know You as Savior. These adults, if they don't know, that they'll know You as Savior. That everybody that hears these messages, Lord, that they will be brought under the weight of conviction of sin, and they will cry out to You for salvation, and they will live their lives in reckless abandon, not foolishly, but without care of concern, trusting in You to live their lives for Your glory and Your praise. God, magnify Your name this day. In Jesus' name I pray, Lord. Amen.