00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Turning your Bibles to Luke sixteen
verses one through thirteen, but especially versus ten and
following as this is the third message on the parable of the
unrighteous steward. It's a very troubling, troubling
parable. What happens in this parable
is that a manager gets fired. And then he goes about reducing
the debts of his master's debtors to make them more affordable,
reducing the debt to the principal and eliminating the interest
payments. And since those interest payments
were illegal anyway, he is able to evade prosecution while currying
favor with his master's debtors. And so the master in verse eight
commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. And Jesus
applies that commendation by way of rebuke of his own disciples,
as he continues in verse eight, the second half of the verse
saying that for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing
with their own generation than the sons of light. And his point
was that often The children of this age, the unbelieving world,
the worldly group, they show more zeal, more energy, more
commitment, more focus, more decisiveness about getting ahead
in this world, about accumulating material things, about making
money, about enjoying earthly pleasures than do the disciples
of Jesus for the sake of the eternal, for the sake of the
spiritual, for the sake of their souls. It's a rebuke and a lesson
about zeal. Life is short, eternity is long. Use the present opportunities
that we have for the sake of our eternal souls. So that was
that was lesson number one. Lesson number two is a lesson
about stewardship. And we saw that last week where
he says in verse nine, then make friends for yourself by means
of unrighteous wealth. So that when it fails, you may
receive. They may receive you into the eternal dwellings. We
saw this as a lesson on stewardship. And Jesus is saying, make friends
the same way that the dishonest manager made friends as he canceled
the interest and reduced the debts of his master's debtors
to the principal in the same way he made friends. So we're
to make friends. We're to make eternal friends.
By the use of unrighteous wealth, that's a way of speaking of the
money of this world. Use your money for the sake of
the building of the kingdom of God. Use it to populate heaven. Use it to spread the gospel so
that when it fails, that is, when you run out of money or
when you die and after all, you can't take your money with you.
So it's it fails at that point. It's no longer useful. It's no
longer usable. You will have consumed your wealth. for eternal purposes, for the
building of the kingdom of God, for the salvation of souls, for
the spread of Christian missions, for the proclamation of the gospel
to the ends of the earth. Make friends, he's saying, eternal
friends, use your money in order to make friends who will be with
you forever and ever in heaven. What better use of your money
is that? And of course, we very slyly
applied that to stewardship in order to encourage you to give
to the ministry of the church so that we can do a better job
of reaching our community and supporting mission and ministry
here at home, as well as abroad. What better use of your money
is that we all want to make an eternal difference? What better
use of our resources than to commit them to that which will
encourage the building of God's eternal kingdom? All right. Now
we come then to the third and final lesson. Jesus teaches us
about zeal, Jesus teaches us about stewardship, and now he
teaches us about character. Or more, more particularly about
character as revealed in our priorities in verses 10 through
13, Jesus is discussing and applying this parable to how character
is revealed in our priorities, particularly with respect to
our financial priorities, that is, in our use of money. Now,
the first thing that he indicates is that character is proven by
faithfulness in the small and ordinary things of life. So look
at me with verse 10. He says, one who is faithful
in a very little is also faithful in much. And the one who is dishonest
in a very little is also dishonest in much. If you're faithful,
you're honest and trustworthy with the little things of life,
then you're going to be faithful and trustworthy in the big things.
If you're dishonest or literally the word is unrighteous and in
those, if you're dishonest in a very little, you're going to
also be dishonest in much. In other words, the way that
you handle the little things, the small things, the ordinary
things is a reliable gauge of how you're going to do when the
stakes are larger. You have these minor responsibilities
in life. And yet you're cutting corners,
you're pocketing the change, you're cooking the books, you're
bending the truth. That has everything to say with who we are. And who
we are has everything to say with what we will do. And we
can't say about the little things of life, well, that's no big
deal if we were encountering something that was more important. That was more vital. There was
a bigger matter. Then we behave differently. No,
what Jesus says is the way that you handle yourself when it comes
to the little things is a prediction of what you will do when larger
things are at stake. I'm going to tell a story. I
repeat one from a couple of months ago that comes out of the Marine
Corps officer training school, which, you know, our son Samuel
was in. They go on these devastatingly difficult hikes. And they have
a rule. You have a canteen, you have
water in it and you can drink from it and you can pour it over
your head, but you may not pour even a drop onto the ground.
That's the rule. You might think it's arbitrary.
You might think that it's silly, but that's the rule. And so the
number one student in his platoon. Got to the end of one of these
devastatingly difficult hikes, took a drink, poured it over
his head, and there was just a little bit left in the bottom, poured
it out. And so he was confronted about it by the authorities,
and they said, well, you broke the rule. And he said it was
just a little bit. And they said, you broke the
rule. He said it was no big deal. You broke the rule. He said,
what does it matter? This was in week eight of the
10 week course, he had already been through so much. How did
they respond? They kicked him out of the program. And all his platoon members were.
upset about it and angered by it. And so the authorities came
and talked to the whole group and said and said, look, if he
has that kind of an outlook and attitude when it comes to this
small matter, he's not reliable. This is a character issue. We
could give you an ethics test. And we might give you a question
that says, what do you do if the person walking in front of
you drops a hundred dollar bill out of your pocket? You'd write
the right answer to say, oh, I pick it up and tap them on the shoulder
and I'd give him a hundred dollars back. You know how to answer
the question. What we know about your character
is based on what you do. If he will not obey this rule,
we can't count on him in combat. We can't count on him to follow
orders. People's lives will be at stake. How you handle the
little things is indicative of how we handle the big things.
I give credit to the military establishment for understanding
that principle. And I think we see the principle
here in what Jesus is saying. Look, how does a person become
an embezzler? Do you think one day they just open up the safe
and take a couple of hundred thousand dollars? No, that's
not the way it happens. They start by taking pennies.
One day they decide to slip a couple of dollars out of the till. And
then a couple of weeks go by and then a few more dollars are
taken out and then a few more weeks past months, past years,
past more and more is being taken. The sin changes us. The lack
of integrity in little things then is replicated throughout
our whole character and manifests itself. Then when the issues
are big. That's how you go from stealing
to being a thief, that's how you go from I'm committing adultery
to being an adulterer. Sin changes us when we do what
is wrong. It alters our character. It infects
our personalities. It alters us. We're changed by
it. That's why integrity and the
little things is so important. How we handle little things and
little people. How do I treat those people who
can't do very much for me? Typically, we we pay attention
to the people who can do things for us, from whom we gain something. Well, it's a test of integrity.
How do I treat those people from whom I can gain nothing? Are my verbal commitments, are
they reliable or do I view words as small things and fail to follow
through and fail to show up and fail to keep my promises and
honor my word? It makes a difference. is by
integrity and small things that we train our consciences. So
I want to urge young people, never lie, never cheat. Not even
little white lies. What we do when no one is looking
reveals a great deal about our character. Begin now. Tithing the first dime that you're
given or that you earn. Because if you if you tied the
first dime, you're much more likely to tithe when a great
deal of money is at stake. Integrity in the little things
means integrity in the big things, character in the little things
reveals character, manifest character in the big things. You're going
to keep a Sabbath, keep the whole day, don't cut corners, don't
make it God's holy morning. Or God's holy two quarters, two
thirds of the day. Keep a whole Sabbath, don't trim
here and trim there, have integrity about it. If you believe that
the Sabbath is to be hallowed. That new friend that shows up
at the youth group. Or that new person that nobody
knows, and he's a bit awkward, he's new. Reaching out to him or her being
selfless now means It's less likely that one will be self
absorbed later, what we do now counts for later. Be careful
about viewing habits now when immorality is shown immorally
in an immoral way, turn it off. I understand the Bible deals
with immorality, terrible, terrible, awful immorality, but it doesn't
deal with it in ways. That are. that are calculated
to undermine our morals in the process. In other words, immorality
can be a theme, but it doesn't need to be shown in ways that
are immoral and corrupt the people who are dealing with the immoral
theme. Begin to dress now in ways that
are modest and discreet rather than indulging the sensuous pray
for God to give his Holy Spirit to give us wisdom about these
things, encourage about these things. We are weak. We are foolish. We need his strength. We need
his wisdom. And James promises that if we
seek that in Jesus name, God will give it to us. All right.
Secondly, character is proven in our handling of secular things. In verse eleven, the basic argument
that Jesus is presenting here is that our suitability for spiritual
responsibility can be seen in how we handle secular responsibility. Is integrity in the work world
a priority, or do I view it as some separate realm where different
rules apply? So look at verse 11, if then
you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, if in
your handling of your secular affairs, let's just call them
that your profession, your business, your job, if you've not had integrity
there, then you're not going to be entrusted with integrity
when it comes to spiritual things. God's not going to trust you
with the more important things if you've not shown integrity,
if you've not shown character when it comes to the spiritual
things. It's on this basis that officers are evaluated. You'll
know that from First Timothy 3, Titus 1 in the list of qualifications
are, you know, how do they manage their household? What about their
family life? What about their marriages? What
about their handling of their finances? These before you give
them spiritual responsibility, if a man cannot manage his own
household, the apostle Paul says in First Timothy 3, how will
he manage the household of God? I think that's the principle
that Jesus is dealing with here. Looking again at verse 11, if
you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, your
worldly wealth, you've not been faithful. You've not been reliable. You've not been honest, you've
not had integrity who will entrust to you the true riches, meaning
by that eternal riches, genuine riches, spiritual riches, kingdom
wealth. true riches as opposed to the
temporary riches of this world, which is in which by way of contrast
with true riches is false riches. It's fleeting. There's a there's
an unreality about it. See, for Jesus. Who is our Lord
and our Savior and our master and our king for Jesus, money
and wealth. These are little things, you
know, being faithful in the little things, what little things? Well,
we'll see that for us is a big thing for Jesus. Wealth is is
a false thing. It's not it's not even real for
us. It is reality for us. Material
things, though, well, that's what we pursue, that's what consumes
our lives for Jesus. Those are little things, you
know, you know, handle the little things like wealth. Nobody can
be trusted with the big things you don't you don't handle these
unreal temporal wealth money realm. Well, you're not going
to be tested. You're not going to be. You're
not gonna be trusted rather. With the true riches, in other
words, again, the secular realm is the proving ground for the
spiritual realm, how we handle our money qualifies and disqualifies
us. For spiritual responsibility,
he says, essentially the same thing in verse 12, continuing,
and if you've not been faithful in that which is another's. Another's. Who will give you that which
is your own another's? Not only is well, small, a little
thing and false, not real in any kind of eternal or enduring
way, Jesus is saying it's not even ours. It's God's. Everything on Earth belongs to
him, we're just stewards, we're just managers of wealth. We're
responsible for our stewardship and our management of that wealth,
but it's not ours. And he's saying if if we're not
faithful and that which is another is that now we're now we're being
instructed by way of contrast with this this unrighteous steward,
this dishonest manager, he wasn't he wasn't honest. And so he lost
his job. And he's now drawing this parallel. You see, we tend to say, you
know, wealth is mine. I made it. It's for me. The true
view is it's God's gift. And we are but stewards and we
are but caretakers. And if we don't use it well and
use it wisely, then we will not be trusted with that which is
our own. That is with heavenly treasure. With eternal treasure. That we
cannot lose that is ours inalienably and eternally. Faithful now and we will be rich
then. If I wish to be useful to God
and I wish to serve God and I trust that everybody here wants that. You want your life to count.
You want to do that, which is of eternal consequence that is
God approved and that God will be pleased with them when they
will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Because there is a coming judgment
day and I will stand before God and I do want that verdict to
be rendered when that day comes. Well, Jesus is saying. It began to serve right now,
right where you are in the small and in the ordinary and in the
secular matters of life. Be faithful as a parent and as
a spouse or as an employee or as an employer. Be faithful in
helping in the nursery, in cleaning up after meals and tending to
the garden and licking envelopes in the office and taking flowers
to the shut ins and in a myriad of small ways, be faithful in
those things. And that then leads over time
to expanded responsibility. You say, well, those things aren't
spiritual. Exactly, that's the point. You're faithful in small
things, you'll be faithful and then in larger things, you're
faithful in secular things, then you'll be faithful in spiritual
things. If you are faithful in the unimportant, then you'll
be faithful in the important and you'll be given responsibilities
in their larger spiritual and more important realms when you
demonstrate faithfulness and integrity and character in these
lesser realms. And then thirdly. Character is proven by faithfulness
in the small and the ordinary character is proven in our handling
of secular things and character is proven in exclusive loyalty. 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. You see how the theme of stewardship
runs right through this and how the concern for finances and
money runs right through it. Again, this lesson is by way
of contrast with the dishonest manager. He was out for himself,
he was serving himself and because he was, he couldn't serve his
master. He failed the owner. Because he was serving himself,
serving his need for affirmation and power and money. No one can serve two masters,
no servant can serve two masters. A servant here is a household
servant to serve. That word is actually the word
for slave. No servant can slave for two
masters, and this is a bit of hyperbole, admittedly, that.
You will hate the one and love the other. You will be devoted
to one or and despise the other. What he's talking about there
is comparatively, that's what's going to happen to be like a
husband having two wives, heaven forbid, can you can a husband
serve two wives? And the answer, of course, is.
No, he can't. He can't give the same attention
to two wives simultaneously. He's going to be devoted to the
one over the other. He will love one more than the other. So it
cannot be faithfully done, you can't fulfill the duties of a
husband with two wives. One of them is going to be neglected.
One is going to be served over the other. And this is what Jesus
is saying about God and money, God and self, God and this world. You can't serve them both. You
can't serve the eternal world and this world. You can't serve
God and self. You can't serve God and money,
it cannot cannot be done. See, at the end of the verse,
you cannot serve God and money, it cannot be done. If we take
our wealth and we cheat in order to get it and then we waste it
once we've got it, we squander it, we selfishly consume it,
we cheat to get it wasted on ourselves. Consuming it. for our own gratification, then
we're serving ourselves. We're serving mammon in the sense
money, in the sense that we're we're working in order to get
it so that we can consume it on ourselves so that we can serve
ourselves. And Jesus is saying, look, circumstances are going
to force a decision. You're going to prioritize something
is going to come first. It can't be both at the same
time. It's impossible, it cannot be done, you cannot serve God
and serve money. God will not accept it. He doesn't
accept rivals. He doesn't accept divided loyalties.
You could say that, really, this is the deception, this is the
devil's. Primary deception, these are
the seeds of confusion that he is forever sowing what we want
to have it both ways, we want to have a foot in both worlds.
We want to serve ourselves. and serve God. Now, it's one
thing if we become wealthy in pursuit of our calling. And wealth
accumulates incidentally. We are aggressively granted vigorously,
faithfully pursuing our calling, whatever that might be, we're
having some success in it. And wealth is accumulating. There's
nothing wrong with that at all. We have a very high view of vocation.
There's nothing inherently evil about wealth. The point is, what's
the mentality, what's the outlook for whose for whose benefit,
for whose who am I serving as I'm doing so? Is this primarily
for me? Is it for my reputation? Is it
so that I'll have wealth and with wealth, power and recognition
and status and comfort and Wonderful vacations that I go on a wonderful
thing that I'm able to buy in multiple cars in the garage and
multiple houses that I can live in. Then I'm serving myself.
That's the point, or at least it would appear so. And I'm to
be warned that Jesus is cautioning us. And I think that he's just
he wants his disciples to hear that we're his disciples, how
do we become his disciples? All right, we become his disciples,
not by works, but by faith. in Christ, as we surrender to
him as Lord and Savior, as we turn from our sin and we cling
to him by faith. And that happens apart from works
and apart from us being good people and moral beings. No,
he justifies the ungodly by faith in Christ alone. We are saved. Hope that's clear, but nevertheless,
we are attempted to bring into the kingdom our idols and our
lusts, which we want to continue to serve. We pander to them. We feed them, feed those lusts,
feed those desires, feed that ego, feed that pride, indulge
that selfishness. And are unrepentant about it,
trying to have our foot in both worlds. Trying to do both at
the same time, that that is the deception. James four nine four
four rather says friendship with the world is enmity with God.
What Jesus promised is that the world would hate us and persecute
us, even as it hated and persecuted Jesus himself. But we don't want
to choose. We want to have it both ways,
we want to put a foot in both camps, we want to have We want
friendship with the world and indulge the lust of the eyes
and the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. All
that is passing away. We want to cling to that and
hold on to it. And of course, give God a place a little bit
of a part, a corner, a section, even a big section of our lives.
But we want to reserve for ourselves. Our idols are false gods from
which we derive pleasure. That stroke our egos that feed
our pride. And so Jesus is speaking to us
as his disciples. You need to dissuade yourself
of that opinion. You need to rid that thought
from your mind. Jesus wants it all. It's all
or nothing. You need to get on board entirely. You can't be
half on the ship and half off the ship. You can't be half on
the train and half off the train. You can't be half on the plane
and half off of the plane. You're either on the plane or
you're off the plane. You're either in or you're out. You have to be all in, as we
you know, we put it today. All in. You can't serve God and
money, you can't serve God and self, Jesus wants absolute commitment
with the kind of focus and decisiveness that the shrewd but dishonest
manager showed. And unlike the manager, by Demonstrate
that you're all in by being faithful in the small things. Don't imagine
there's a secular realm. You're faithful in that realm
as well. Your service is undivided. And
your loyalty is uncompromised. This is what we sing up in the
old gospel song, I surrender all. Oh, I surrender all this
is this is without qualification, without limitation. All to thee,
my blessed savior, I surrender, not some, not part, not most,
but all. That's the commitment that he
calls us to as we pray together. Our father in heaven, we pray. That we would bow here this morning
without reserve. Without negotiating. We bow before
you. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
we bow before you, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, we bow
before you as Savior and Lord. Hear our prayer. As we offer
it in the name of Christ, our king, all men.
The Unrighteous Steward - 3
Series Expositions of Luke
| Sermon ID | 1030142128411 |
| Duration | 30:26 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Luke 16:1-13 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.