Self-approved unto God a workman that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth Get that understanding God has made available for you for me for all of us. Amen. All right Luke chapter number 16 I believe this is the 12th in our series here on certain people and and uh... i would have to say that that uh... uh... for my study that this is one of those ones that uh... i think just about everybody points out is one of the hardest passages of scripture uh... as far as uh... what our lord had to teach on this uh... there's so many ways it can be uh... viewed and uh... It's like every one of them has some little something that just kind of snags it a little bit there. But here's what we're going to do. We're going to take all of that. We're going to put it to the side today, okay? Because I want to look at one particular facet of this parable here today. I'm not here to try to do any dissension or anything else along those lines. I simply want us to take a look here at one individual, okay? So let's read Luke chapter 16. We'll read the first eight verses. We'll pray and see what God's got for us here today. So the Bible says, and he said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do, for my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig, to beg, I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' So he called everyone his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou my Lord? And he said, And hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take that bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he to another, How much owest thou? And he said, and a hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, take that bill and write forscore. And the Lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. We will pause our reading right there. You'll notice back in verse number one, Jesus said there was a certain rich man, okay? which had a steward. Now we're not gonna really deal that much with the certain rich man, but because the certain rich man definitely existed, otherwise Jesus would not have called him a certain rich man, we want to look here today at a certain unjust steward. Because if the rich man existed and he had the steward, That means that there's also a certain unjust steward that's being talked about here. So, Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us. And we praise your holy name, Father, for you are worthy. If we had nothing whatsoever that we could possibly think about to praise your holy name for, the fact that you are you is reason enough to praise your holy name. But we have oh so much to praise you for, to be thankful for. A list that we could never possibly do justice to. And even in that of itself, we thank you God. We praise your holy name for that aspect of it. That there is just so much. Thank you Father. I ask you Father please to help me to present the word here today the way you'd have me to. That each word you will guide them so that it will be a help to everyone who is listening. And perhaps there's someone who's watching who does not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That somehow, some way through this, yeah, you would show them their need to be saved. I know you've done it before. Some little something is said and the person who needed to hear it latches on to it. And they run with it because that was what they needed out of the entire sermon. So I know you can do it with salvation as well. Thank you God for loving us and saving us. In the glorious precious name of Jesus we do pray. Amen and amen. So, what's happening here? is Jesus is taking what is basically a bad example. This man actually existed, his steward actually existed, his steward actually did these things, and his master actually did commend him for his actions in the latter half. It's not, it's not good. Okay, let's just be honest here. If you look at this passage of scripture here, and you break it down, you easily can come across, or come away with the idea, this certain rich man, he was a bad guy. the very fact that he allowed his steward to pull these shenanigans and didn't have him arrested when he went to fire him, let alone after he doubles down on it, makes you think, hmm, he's up to no good, he's done some illegal stuff, that's how he's got his money, and he does not want to get caught himself, therefore he's not going to involve the police, okay? But just him being that way does not excuse this unjust Stuart from his actions. Just because your boss at work is a jerk, the company you work for are nothing but a bunch of cutthroats who don't care about the little guy, does not excuse you from acting a fool. Does not excuse you from acting crazy, from doing whatever it is you feel like doing because you are quote unquote owed it. Okay? This is a bad example, but Jesus is taking this bad example and He's more or less flipping it over on its head so that He can show you the positive that can be gleaned from this. You got a rose bush out there. I mean, there's a whole bunch of thorns. You know, you don't look for the thorns. Oh, aren't those thorns all prickly and I don't want to touch the thorns. You look at the rose bush because you want to appreciate the rose on there. And that's what we're doing here with this. Two things for really getting to the sermon here if you read through Luke chapter number 16, and I hope you do I Hope you will take and read the rest of this chapter because by the way, we're dealing With another certain rich man here in Luke chapter number 16 next week Unless the good Lord says otherwise You're gonna find this chapter is all about How you use your finances? It's important for Christians to understand. We need to deal with our finances properly. Okay, just because you got your paycheck and you paid all of your bills, you bought all of your groceries, and you still got a couple hundred dollars extra does not mean it is yours to go out there and just blow it any way you feel like it. I can do this, that, or the other. What would God have you to do? Just because you got your paycheck on Friday does not mean that by Monday morning you need to be scraping nickels together so you can have lunch money. Because you completely wasted it partying hardy over the weekend. I live at home. I ain't got those kind of bills. God has blessed you with that money. You are responsible to take care of it. We all are stewards of all of the blessings God sends our way. Food, money, clothes, cars, houses, family, whatever the case is. We are all to be good stewards of what God has given us. And ultimately, ultimately, What we do with the things down here need to be doing eternal good. Let me turn over there. I hadn't even thought about this. 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. Let's see if I can hurry up and get over there before we waste too terribly much time. I have referenced these verses many times before and guess what? We're going to do it again. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward." Now you back up to verse 12 and it says, Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, The gold, silver, and precious stones, that's something that you have done wisely with what you have been made the steward of in this life, and it is transposed over into the afterlife, eternity, heaven, whatever you want to call it. But if you waste, like this unjust steward ends up doing here, and you just spend it frivolously, you gamble it away, you snort it away, you drink it away, whatever the case is, okay, you know what I'm saying there. It's like that wood, hay and stubble. It had no eternal value whatsoever. And it's gone. Now the second thing that I want to bring up here. We're about ready to get in the sermon. This is all free. I'm not charging for any of this. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 10. I want to read this verse to you. I feel it's very important to do that before we get into the sermon. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil. Now a lot of people lop it off right there, and we are going to deal with that in a moment, but let's finish reading the verse. Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. because they love money more than anything else, especially the one who gave it to them. Well, my company gave it to me. No, no, no, no. God gave you that job. God gave the owners of that company the company so that you could be employed. God is the one who gave it to you. Okay? For the love of money is the root of all evil. Now, a lot of people, they will sit there and say, oh yeah, churches, you know, love money, love, you know, they love money, they love money. Why, if money's so evil, why in the world do they gotta pass the plate around? Well, because money's a useful tool. It is a necessary tool, unfortunately, in this society. Whether you love money, you hate money, it is a necessary evil, okay? but do right with it. The love of money is the root of all evil, not money itself. That's why churches will pass the offering plate, because hey, we got bills to pay too. Missionaries need support, pastor needs to get paid, insurance has to be paid, gas bill has to be paid, light bill has to be paid, all this stuff there. But when you love money, which it appears that this unjust steward here did, You're piercing yourself through with many sorrows. Now maybe this guy gambled the money away. Maybe this guy saw some good investments and sunk the money in there. It turned out they only looked good, that it was fool's gold. Maybe the stock market crashed on him. I don't have a clue as to how exactly he wasted the money. But the fact of the matter is, he did it because he was too in love with the money. And it shows, because what happens? Well, we'll see it when we get into the passage of Scripture here. So let's get into the sermon. Before I completely skip over the sermon, so that I can continue the introduction here. Our very first point, we see the steward's job. Verse number 1. There was a certain rich man which had a steward. The steward is simply the guy who's in charge of the household affairs. He was the money manager. He was the guy who was responsible for taking the money that comes in, buying all of the necessary supplies for the house, the toilet paper, paper towels, groceries, making sure the insurance is paid, The car has gas, the horses and chickens and whatever else have been fed, this, that, and the other. Whatever had to be done financially, this guy had the responsibility of it. If the owner wanted investments made in the stock market, put money in these derivatives over here, put money in this Roth IRA, put money in this CD, open up a savings account, whatever it was, it was the steward who had the responsibility to go and do these things. Also, he had the responsibility of taking the books and making sure he's writing down. Okay This person received X amount of money This person this this business this this this bill this so on and so forth there total it all up okay, and then we had this much money come in with this much money come in comes in and then gotta sit here and put all that together so okay now we have uh we gained a hundred dollars this week uh we lost fifty dollars this week this week was eleven hundred dollars to the good this this week uh we lost our shirts you know whatever the case is the steward had the responsibility because quite frankly if the master of the house had so much money that he needed a steward he was already a little overwhelmed Now you and I, there in our homes, hopefully we're able to balance our checkbooks. Hopefully we are able to take care of writing all of our bills out and making all the deposits and all that, and that's wonderful. But the bigger it becomes, eventually someone has to be brought in who's in charge strictly as the finances, the chief financial officer, CFO. accountant is brought in. Hey, it's tax time coming up. This is the beginning of January. You should have your W-2s by January 31st because the IRS is going to want their pound of flesh from you. Most of us, if not all, are going to be bringing in a CPA to go over our tax stuff so that we are making sure we're not paying the government any more than we have to. and that we are definitely paying what is required to our government. Okay? And yeah, the Bible does say, he rendered unto Caesar things that are Caesar's. We have a responsibility to pay our taxes, so don't be cheating on your taxes. Okay? But that CPA would be our tax steward. Okay? He's responsible for making sure, because if he messes up, guess who's going to jail? Hopefully both of us. Do you get what I'm saying there, church? This was the steward's job. This man says, I've got so much going on, I need someone to come and help me out. Kind of like how you see Joseph there in the book of Genesis, how he was with Potiphar before he got lied about. Joseph had that same responsibility. Now we see also, aside from the steward's job, we see the slandering taking place. It says here, which had a steward and the same was accused. The word accused can also mean slander. Someone spoke bad about him. Not just, I don't like him and he hurt my feelings. No, this means this guy or gal, whichever the case was, or many people, went to the master here. They had the goods. They knew some story or stories. They were able to pass it on to the master. Hey! Check this out. Look at how bad this guy has been. How he has done this, that, and the other. And it ain't what you want him to be doing. They're slandering him. They're verbally accusing him of what he's done wrong. Kind of reminds me over there in Zechariah chapter number three, where Joshua the high priest was standing before God. Zechariah's watching on and here come Satan, ready to accuse Zechariah, or Joshua I should say, of all these things that he's done wrong because he's just a mortal man. Joshua the high priest is presented in rags and filthy. Satan had come there to slander him. And there are people who will slander us behind our backs too. Not just say bad things about us, but hey, they got the goods on something that we've done. Now sometimes these people, they'll keep their mouth shut, because you know what? It ain't affecting them. Why should they get involved? But other times, we succeed in making them mad. Sidebar, not charging for this either. But when someone's got the goods on you, don't make them mad. Because you know what happens if you make them mad? They're going to tell somebody. Especially the person who should be hearing about it. You're going to get in trouble. Maybe you get fired. Maybe you go to jail. This guy was getting fired. There's an old saying, where there's smoke, there's fire. There was enough smoke going on And I would say that the rich man had a good enough idea about what was already possibly taking place. Like I said, maybe he was just as bad a dude as the unjust Stuart was, and he started recognizing the tell-tale signs. And he's like, yeah, I'm not even going to actually wait to get the books. I'm going to fire him and tell him, oh, by the way, I need my books back, too. But verse, let me show you the third one here in verse number one. Was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. The word wasted means to scatter. That's our third point. The scattering taking place here. This guy, the steward, his job is to take care of the money. Now yeah, there's going to be household expenses that have to be taken care of. It pains me every time I gotta stop at the gas station and fuel up my vehicle, but it's a household expense. Without putting fuel in my car, I'm not getting to work, and without me going to work, we ain't got grocery money. We ain't got money to keep the roof over our heads, so it's a household expense. So you've got expenses you are going to have to deal with. I don't care if you're a multi-billionaire. Guess what? You're still gonna have expenses that you have to deal with. Now maybe you've got enough savings done where the interest is able to pay off those expenses. Thank God for that, okay? The rest of us don't have that, all right? But this guy here, he's made some bad investments. Maybe he's let some of the money stay out there a little too long instead of going to him and saying, hey, you need to pay up. We're over 30 days here. We're over 60 days, whatever the case would be. You need to be paying up. Maybe he's just let him slide a little bit. Hmm. Maybe he has gone to the racetrack. Maybe he has a drinking problem. Maybe he's got a drug problem. Maybe he's been taking and pocketing the money to take care of his own expenses instead of the master's. you know the expenses that should be coming out of his paycheck instead it's like okay I'm gonna take mine and then here's the paycheck I remember years ago when I first started with with the company I'm at now the guys would talk about how and we're going back three-plus decades at this point. At one point in time, these guys, they would come back to work at their paychecks, take the paycheck home, give it to the wife, say, okay, you take care of the house with all that, and they've got the money from the route itself in their pocket, because they were stealing that much. Everything was pen and paper at the time. You were able to do it. Now it's computers. Praise God, I don't have to worry about it, because I'd have messed up a long time ago. My math is bad. But that was scattering the company's wealth. And it had the effect that the company I work for now had bought the outfit that I work for and that outfit had been bought and sold so many times because they couldn't make profit because of what these guys were doing. Too much scattering, too much wasting taking place here. How about us, Church? How much wasting of God's blessings that He has sent our way have we been doing? Well, I need some new decorations for the house. Do you, or is it just a want? Well, I need to go out and buy me a new car. So you can keep up with the Joneses? Or because you actually need a new car? Well, I need a new suit for church. Is that new suit for church going to help you present the gospel better? Well, I'm not the preacher. You are responsible to get the gospel out. Well, we're going to go to lunch after church. How well are you going to represent God there at that restaurant? I heard a story, and we'll move on quickly from here. I heard a story about these people, they went to eat after church. And a one woman tore into the waitress, why in the world are you working here on a Sunday? Don't you know this is the Lord's Day and you shouldn't be working on a Sunday? The waitress looked at her and says, because you're here, that's why I'm here. That was wasting God's blessings there. instead of talking to her, encouraging her, giving her a gospel track. By the way, you're going to give a gospel track when you give a tip? You make sure that that tip is nice and big. Not just a couple of dollars. It's something that's worth their while. If they see it's worth their while, oh, hey, look, they gave me a $50 tip. That's like 40-some percent. Hey, I'll take the time to look at what that literature they gave me. $100 bill and you left $5 tip 5% no they ain't going to you done wasted you done scattered for nothing We need to be responsible stewards not unjust like this man here Cuz you know what happened it resulted in him being summoned look with me in verse 2 And he called him And said unto him. How is it that I hear this of thee? We will be called out on the carpet, church. Now, like I said previously, this passage of Scripture can be interpreted many, many ways, okay? And being called out on the carpet like this, I've seen some people, and I do agree, it can be likened unto where we're going to stand before God. Jesus there at the judgment seat of Christ, Now open up the books, okay this is everything that you've done. You did all this for me here, but some of it's gold, some of it's silver, some of it's precious stones, but you've got some wood, hay, and stubble here. That stuff's gone. If you are lost in your sins, if you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, if you can't say with 100% certainty that if you closed your eyes in death right now, that you would open them in heaven. you might as well consider it a 100% guarantee you are lost and on your way to hell. And the Bible tells us there in the book of Revelation chapter number 20, that there are books that God is going to open there at the great white throne of judgment. Number one is the book of life where you will never find your name there because you died lost in your sins. At number two are the books that are gonna be spoken about in your life. You're gonna be given an account, oh by the way, In both places you're given account, but you ain't got nothing to say in either case there. Because He is God. He knows all. Amen. He is God. He understands your motives. He understands your reasoning. He understands what you did. What He is doing there at the judgment seat of Christ for the saved, at the great white throne of judgment for the lost, is showing you. This is what you did. What you wasted. That you had the opportunity for. What you should have been doing. Now we're not going to pay for any sins there at the Judgment Seat of Christ because we're saved. Those were took care of there at the Cross of Calvary. Be rewarded or lose reward for what you failed, what you did do and failed to do at the great white throne of judgment. It's your opportunities to get saved. You passed on them. This is all the sins you committed. You are going to the lake of fire for eternity to pay for it now. But each of us one day will be summoned before God, either as His child or as His enemy. Now notice this particular guy here, verse number 3, we see his spirit. Then said the steward within himself, because he's been fired, What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg. I am ashamed." He is faced with what is classically known as fight or flight. You've got two choices to do here. You can either tuck your tail between your legs and run as fast as you can, or you can stand and fight. Now his particular case here, he's realized, hey look, For me, I ain't got the back to be digging. My back, I got a bad back. My manicure, I can't be digging in the ground. Begging. I can't beg. I'm too good to beg. I'm too healthy to beg. People will see me begging, it's like... I ain't givin' you nothin', that guy over there, he's got two broke arms and he's blind. I'm gonna give to anybody that's gonna be to him. You are healthy, you could be doing some sort of work. Go out there and dig a ditch or somethin'. I ain't givin' nothin' to you. So his spirit rises and says, instead of me trying to run away and hide, and I will lower myself, I will debase myself, I'm going to fight. Now I'm not going to fight my master because he's got the goods on me. I got to give him the books. I can't win this fight. But I got me an idea. And there we see his solution in verse 4. I am resolved what to do. that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses." Those people who owe his master all this money. Their credit has been extended far too many times. It has been raised too high. They gotta pay their debts. And he understands this ain't about getting the money back for his master to save his job. No, no, no, no, no. He says, I've got a solution here. It's too late for my job. with this guy, but them, oh yeah, honey, I can goes to them and get some help. So we see in verse six, the slashing of the debt. And he said, in a hundred measures of oil, he asked the first guy, how much do you owe? He said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take that bill and sit down quickly and write 50. 100% down to 50%. Man, you imagine this guy's sitting here going, ooh, doggies. Yes, sirree. I'm out from under this crushing debt. I tell you, if my credit card companies were to sit there and say, Dennis, tell you what, we're going to take and cut your credit card bill in half, eliminate this half, just pay this half right there, I might beg, steal, or borrow to find the money to pay off that credit card debt and get out from under that debt. That'd be exciting. Now, there's a line of thought as to why this man, this unjust Stuart, was cutting deals here with these people. And he says, look, I need to endear myself to these guys so that once I hand over the book and I have to leave my master's house, I'm leaving my house, I'm leaving my paycheck, I'm losing everything. I gots to have a place to live. I gots to have money coming in. I gots to have food to eat. Gots to have a job. I'll make nice with him." Well, how does he make nice with him? He cuts deals. So he goes to the woman and says, hey, I'm going to cut your bill in half. I think he needed more prompting to do this thing here. Maybe he was being blackmailed. I don't know. But the whole idea of being here, look, I cut your bill in half. We are both rewritten the legal documents. It all looks good in the hood now. I saved you 50%. If I come to you and ask for a job, you should be 50% more willing to give me a job. Because you see, I know how to work the books. Verse seven, we see the splitting of the debt. And said he to another, how much owest thou? And he said, in a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take that bill and write four scores. 100%, 20% off, we're down to 80%. Apparently this guy, he realized would need less prompting to take him in. Nicer demeanor about him. I don't know what the case is, but he realized his solution would be, this guy, I need him in my back pocket, 50% off. This guy, I need him in my back pocket, 20% off. And I imagine there was more than just the two, that there was a whole bunch more. Jesus only needed to really tell about the two there. But each and every one he's cutting deals 5%, 35%, 75%, 6%, whatever the case would be. So that he can bounce from one to one to one to one until he's finally exhausted all of them. Hopefully by then he will be in the grave and not have to worry about it. What a solution. To get people on my side. Like I said, I wouldn't mind. I mean, I remember years ago, I had a credit card. They sent me the chance to transfer all my balances onto that credit card there for 0% interest so long as I had that balance. I loved it. I transferred all my credit cards onto that one there. I'm paying off doing real good. But the thing is though, there was another side to it. They raised my limit, hoping I'd start charging on it. Because instead of 2%, 5%, 10%, whatever, they were gonna charge like 30% on this other stuff. Yeah, they had a solution. They may not be making no money on this, but they knew they were gonna be getting this. And if any of the other credit cards I own were from the same outfit, I start using them, they're gonna be getting money on there because, hey, he's got the freedom. Let's just manipulate the strings and get him. Church, we need to be careful at the solutions that this world offers us. It's not for our benefit. We need to be looking to God and His solutions, not what dummy comes up with. But what God comes up with. Notice with me in verse 8. We're done. But verse 8 we see the sanctioning. And the Lord commended the unjust steward. Now when it says Lord it's not talking about Jesus. It's talking about His Master. OK? The Lord commended the unjust steward because He had done wisely for the children of this world or in their generation wiser than the children of light. Part of the reason why I said that this guy was crooked too. Maybe he sat there, maybe, you know, like Laban, you know, Jacob's Uncle Laban. He says, man, I may have to fire this turkey, but he's making me proud. He's doing exactly what I would have done. I don't want the sanctioning of this world in my life. If it comes, it comes, but I want it, the sanctioning from God in my life. And if the world looks at what I'm doing and says, hey, that is something good, great. God's looking at my life and saying, Dennis, what you are doing as a steward for me, whether it's your money, it's your time, it's your talent, it's your availability, it's your preaching, it's your being a husband, a father, a worker, whatever the case is, and you are bringing honor to me, and you are laying up in heaven what I want you to be doing. that I will commend you for. And that is what I want in my life. I hope that's what you want in your life. But the world's telling you, hey, you're doing good enough. What does God think? That's what's more important. So I got this one question and a statement here in closing today. The question is this, are we doing right by the blessings that God has given us or have we been wasting them? And my statement is this, we can make friends in this life, but it will not help in eternal matters. Our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us. And we do pray, Lord, for your blessings upon this day. Help us, Father, please, to be obedient to you, to follow your holy will, to be better stewards for you, to be doing as you would have for us to do instead of what it is that we want to do, so we can lay up the true treasures in heaven. In the glorious name of Jesus we do pray, amen and amen.