We continue our sermon series through the gospel of Luke. If you have your Bibles you'd like to follow along, please turn to Luke chapter 16. We'll read Luke chapter 16, verses 1 through 15 this morning, and I'll be focusing primarily on Luke chapter 16, verses 1 through 13. Today's sermon is entitled Kingdom Discipleship 101, Generosity and Faithful Stewardship. Before I read the parable, allow me a short introduction. In our parable this week, Jesus teaches about what it means to be faithful and generous stewards of the kingdom of this present age, while his people continue as the sons of the light to anticipate the age that is to fully come when Christ returns. Jesus's kingdom discipleship teaching in the last few weeks, if you've recalled, has meant has taught us what it means to love God and neighbor. He's taught us how to pray, how to live as people of God with an imminent understanding and expectation of the return of Christ, and he's taught us why God seeks and saves repentant sinners. In the parable this morning, commonly known as the parable of the dishonest manager, Jesus teaches us now what it means to be a shrewd kingdom disciple with our money, with our checkbooks, with our possessions. In light of the eternal future dwelling with God, Jesus wants his disciples to consider whether we live faithful in our giving and our handling of God's money. Sometimes the sons of this present age, Jesus says, shows more shrewdness and prudence when considering their temporal futures than Christians do when considering their eternal future. This passage is part of the great demands that God makes upon his disciples in Christ that can be done obediently in reliance upon the grace of God found in Christ. But I must admit, this is one of the most difficult parables in Luke's gospel. Jesus wants every aspect of our lives. He wants all of our hearts as his disciples. So in this passage, he digs deeply with his discipleship demands into our pocketbooks. It is true that one fifth, approximately one fifth of the Lord's teaching is on money and it's on how easily it makes us all idolaters trusting in wealth and riches rather than God. And Jesus teaches how many times how hard it is, humanly speaking, for the rich to enter heaven because of this hindrance. Our ultimate allegiance must be to God, and we must understand ourselves as kingdom disciples and stewards of all that God's given us. And I'll define steward in a few minutes. Lord willing, we must remember where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. In light of all that God has given us, we must be faithfully generous in small things, is how Jesus puts it. Now, one thing I want to say about interpreting this parable, when coming upon this parable for the first time, we should keep in mind that Jesus is not commending all of the actions of the sinners who are characters in this parable. Jesus is specifically commending the dishonest stewards use of his master's money. I'm sorry, one more time. Jesus is not commending the dishonest use of the steward's dishonest use of his master's money. But he does use the steward as our manager to illustrate how Christians ought to be shrewd about the future. Shrewd means simply astute or sharp in practical matters. Prudence or wisdom are words that also come to mind. You could summarize this, as Elder Casper said earlier, summarize this kingdom lesson that Jesus teaches from the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy, chapter 6, verses 17 through 19. A summary of what Jesus is saying today is, as Paul writes to Timothy, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy, there to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of what is truly life. In other words, Jesus's message today is, as he said, the disciples, you'll know his disciples by the fruit they bear. Today's message with regard to this truth of scripture is particularly that his disciples will be known by how they give and how they share with others. In other words, our generosity and stewardship with our money reveals our love for God and neighbor. With that said, Let us listen, then, to the word of God from chapter 16 of Luke, verses one through 15. 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'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I've decided what to do. So when I'm 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 a hundred 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, a hundred measures of wheat? He said to him, take your bill and write 80. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Well, the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 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 very little is also faithful in much and One who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous, well, who will entrust you to the true riches? And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, 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. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard these things and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men. But God knows your heart for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Thus ends the reading of God's word. Let us pray. Our father, our God, we ask that you would challenge us, give us ears to hear, hearts to receive, minds to understand by your spirit. Help us to hear our resurrected, ascended Christ speak through Scripture this day and help us to respond in obedience by your grace. In Jesus name. Amen. I would have you notice first in the passage that although the Pharisees and the scribes are in the background and they can hear Jesus's teaching, that's why in verses 14 and 15, they ridicule Jesus. Jesus is not primarily addressing the Pharisees and the scribes now, as he was in chapter 15. Jesus is now primarily addressing his disciples, if you'll notice, in verse 1. And he wants his disciples to know kingdom economics, or another Kingdom 101 lesson about serving God and money. Jesus is teaching the disciples here about generosity and the faithful handling of our possessions in contrast to the Pharisees and scribes who were lovers of money, verse 14 says. Jesus is telling them this so that, as verse 13 warns us all, that they're not to make Mammon their God. The story starts with a rich man or the boss or the lord of this steward. Verses 3, 5 and 8, he's called a master. He's called a boss, if you will. I'll call him the boss. It was common in the ancient world for a rich boss like this, a rich man, to have stewards or managers over their money and possessions. These stewards did not own the money. They were in charge of the possessions of the rich. And they usually received a very handsome commission for their service and for the increase in wealth that benefited their rich masters. To be a steward-manager of the rich in the ancient world was a very enviable position. Persons were actually known to sell themselves into this position in order to administer the holdings of rich persons so that they would be socially promoted in the eyes of others in the culture. In essence, the steward or manager served as a kind of bill collector, an ancient Near Eastern sort of bill collector who received a very nice commission and a white-collar job for his duties to his rich boss. In this story, Jesus tells that charges were brought against the steward, manager, because rather than making money for his rich boss, the steward was being greatly wasteful. Now it's interesting, Jesus uses the same word for wasteful here in the Greek that he does with regard to the younger son in the prodigal son parable that we read last week. He's being greatly wasteful. And so the boss called the steward or manager and asked him, what is this I hear about you? Implying that he believed the charges. He ordered him to submit his accounts to an audit and told him to understand that because of his dishonesty and unfaithfulness in wasting this master's money and possessions, he was to be fired. That's what the text tells us in verses one and two. And so we now come to the steward or manager's plight and his shrewdness that Jesus teaches in this parable. Upon hearing that he'll be fired by the rich boss, the unfaithful and wasteful steward realizes his plight and responds in a memorable soliloquy. In verses three through four, that is, he speaks to himself. What shall I do? This also tacitly reveals that he's indeed guilty of wastefulness and dishonesty. The former steward or manager definitely doesn't want to dig or beg. Verse three says he's worked too long with ease and comfort. He's lived a white colored life. He's received great commissions on his earnings for his master's possessions, and he's enjoyed the good life. Now he's faced with tremendously difficult menial task of digging ditches or reduced to the status of a beggar. In the ancient Jewish book of Ecclesiasticus, it says it's better to die than to beg. So he realized his position, his plight. Neither of these future job options were good for him. He's enjoyed his own money, his own social status, and to do either of these things would reduce him to nothing in the eyes of the world. So, he has a grand idea. I don't need the old stewardship job anyway, he says. My boss can keep his old management job and all his possessions and see if I care. I don't need him, but I'm going to need some friends. Yes, some friends at this time would be good. Some people who are indebted to me. And who can provide me ongoing money for my future? Because I'm used to spending upscale posh. I'm used to living the respected life in society. I've become accustomed to it. So, the steward manager, the former one, realizes he has some time before he must pack his bags and leave the master's property. But he doesn't have much time. So, verse 5 says, he calls his master's debtors and invites them over to the house. He asked each debtor, if you notice in verse 5b, to say aloud how much they owe the master as a psychological way of reminding them of how much they owe the rich boss. This also reveals, by the way, how rich the boss was in the ancient world. They each replied with differing amounts. The first bill was cut by 50 percent. The second bill was cut by 20 percent. The former steward reduces the amount significantly. So that he'll be seen in a good light in the eyes of these debtors and that they'll one day owe him a favor that he can one day cash in on. They'll be ingratiated toward him and his future will be fine. In modern financial dollars here with regard to the debt, we could think of a person who makes a salary of $50,000 a year. With the first debtor whose debt was three year salary, it would have been $150,000 he owed the rich boss in modern terms. This was cut down to $75,000. With the second debtor, if he made the same salary of $50,000, his debt was at least eight years' wages. So he owed the master, the rich man, $400,000. And his debt was reduced 20% to $320,000. The question might be asked here, was the steward stealing from his former manager and reducing the amount of the debtors? Some believe that he was not only wasteful, as we learn in verses 1 through 2, but that he was being blatantly dishonest. Here are three options with regard to the interpretation. And no one in church history has come fully to agree with one particular position. I have mine. But the first option is this. The former steward was dishonest and he undercut the boss as a strike back against his former manager so he could get even with him for putting him in a predicament by firing him. That's the first option. The second option is that the former steward merely removed the interest charge from the debt in accordance with Mosaic law. This would show that he was bringing his former master in line with God's law and would have still given him a benefit with the debtors in his future job search. Number three, the former steward or manager removed his own commissions or the interest that was compounded and included in the principle of the loan. That this commission was already exaggerated So he's sacrificing his own money and not his master's. His commission could have fluctuated based on the material that was borrowed from his master by his debtors. If he had a balloon commission, then perhaps he's merely reducing the debt only as it affects himself financially. Those are the three options here. Is the former steward characterized as dishonest in verse 8? because of his wastefulness and unfaithfulness to his manager, as we learn at the beginning of the parable, or is he dishonest because of what he did after he was fired? It's hard to determine which view is correct. Throughout church history, the interpretation of this passage has varied. What is supremely clear here that everyone should understand is no matter whether the steward was noble or ignoble, The former steward wanted to win friends and attract goodwill toward himself so that his future would continue to be as bright financially as the time he spent as a steward of his former master's estate. In other words, what's clear as a bell is the dishonest manager seeks to do what's best for his future. And the future of his family, his goal is to make sure that he does what he can to the best of his ability to make sure that all will be well with him. And so in verse eight, we hear that the man is the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light, Jesus says. Jesus continues the story by saying that the former master of the boss commended the dishonest steward of manager for his shrewdness. This is the important point that Jesus is making here. The steward was shrewd with regard to planning for his future. Again, Jesus does not commend the steward for the way he acted toward his master. And if he was dishonest in cutting down the debtor's payback, then Christ certainly would never have condoned this. But Jesus says, though, uses this parable as a comparison between two types of people. He says the sons of this age, literally this age, not this world. This age has theological meaning as a term. The sons of this age, meaning the ones who live according to this present age of the temporal world, that they're more shrewd with their own generation than the sons of light or the sons of the age to come. The sons of light was a popular term for covenant people at that time. See, as Jesus goes on in verses 10 and 13 to set up contrast that we should learn and unpack this parable for us. He begins a contrast here with two kinds of people. The two kinds of people are the children of this age or children or sons of the like. The children of this present age are those who are merely temporal citizens of the world. We might call them worldlings. Children of the age to come are the eternal citizens of heaven who are already part of the age to come that's breaking in with the coming of Christ and his kingdom. We might call them, in contrast to worldlings, heavenlings. The point of the contrast is that there's two kinds of people and two ways of thinking about the future. The worldlings, they walk according to the thinking and pattern of this present age, but they think about their future shrewdly, whereas the heavenlings are to reshape their thinking and not be conformed to the pattern of this age because they are those who now are children of light in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus is saying that worldly people or worldlings are more shrewd with regard to their physical well-being in this temporal present age than the righteous or heavenlings are with regard to their spiritual well-being in the age to come. One pastor said it this way, The dishonest manager uses all his intelligence, his wit, his energy to ensure his earthly comfort. The people of light stand on the edge of eternity, but lack the vision, the foresight and strength of will to do anything about it, especially in the relationship with others. That's a good summary of what Jesus is saying. How did this man exemplify shrewdness? How did this steward serve as an example of how Christians ought to think and act? He lived. in the present wisely by thinking about his future. And so this is what Jesus unpacks beginning in verse nine. Jesus says that like the steward or manager, his disciples should make friends by means of unrighteous wealth. Does that mean the term unrighteous wealth or literally unrighteous mammon? It's meaning that it's money that can be used unrighteously in this present age and become an idol of mammon. Jesus is simply saying that money can be unrighteous because it's used in the present age for sinful purposes. We might have said, or he might have said, filthy lucre, as we would put it. Jesus doesn't mean using stolen money to win friends here or unrighteous mammon. He says that we're to make friends of the kingdom to be warmly received into the eternal dwellings of heaven. See, one commentator said it like this, Jesus calls worldly possessions, the mammon of unrighteousness, because injustice is so often involved in the accumulation and use of earthly possessions. So Jesus is basically just saying with the wealth that you've been given, use it wisely and shrewdly. Those who are generous with all their money will find that even though the money itself will fail, Jesus says, or run out or be worthless after one is dead. Nevertheless, Money generously invested yields great and eternal dividends, such as being welcomed by heaven itself into eternal dwellings. That's what Jesus is saying. Simply put, God honors those who are generous with the resources he's given that given to them. And we should live with the end in mind. Without pushing the parable too literally, the picture that Jesus gives us is that God will honor the generous and faithful stewards who've been faithful with little. Verse 11. And there will be an event in heaven here. Jesus gives us a picture of where we are graciously received by friends that we've made, who will testify to our good gifts and generosity that help them to get there. St. Ambrose is reporting one time is saying The bosoms of the poor, the houses of widows, the mouths of children or the barns that last forever. See, we, too, as people should not primarily seek to win friends and influence people, but to win eternal friends for the kingdom, but we can look forward to receiving and welcoming us into our eternal dwellings. That's Jesus's message. The question Jesus wants us to ask ourselves is, are these Are our resources that God gives to us put to selfish, self-centered purposes that will do us no eternal good? Or are the resources invested well by faith in God and others, knowing that our eternal reward will be so much greater? And so Jesus begins and continues to unpack in verses 13 through 10 through 13. Let me read it again. Listen very carefully. Look at your Bible if you have it before you. This is the word of God. Verses 10 through 13. Jesus says one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you've not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, 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'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. See, Jesus shows us in these three passages, in these three verses, how to make the right kind of friends with unrighteous money or with worldly money or with money or riches in this present age. Primarily three ways, he tells us. Number one. Verses nine through twelve or verses nine to ten, we can make friends with money in this present age by generosity and giving to God and others, that's number one versus nine to ten. Number two is faithfulness and understanding ourselves as stewards of all that God's given us. Verse 12 and number three, avoiding idolatry and serving money rather than God. Verse 13. As we go through these three things as by way of application and unpacking the parable, I want us to think soberly about it and I want us to think prayerfully about it. And I'll repeat the three as we go. These three things, I must say, can only be done in reliance upon God's grace in Christ. We must remember that Jesus tells us this as sons of the light, meaning we're not of this present age. In Jesus Christ, we've reoriented our thinking to the age to come. So we're not fixed on the present age as the worldlings, but we can learn from their shrewdness. You see, we're already heirs of everything in the age to come, people of God. But as those kind of people, Jesus says, this is what how he wants us to live. Number one, generosity and giving to God and others, verses 9 through 10. Because in Christ we actually are citizens of heaven and part of the age to come, even now, though we don't fully realize it and see it. We're called to be generous. We're called to set our mind and focus not on this present age characterized by unrighteous mammon and its pursuit and its accumulation, but we're to set our mind on making more kingdom disciples for the age to come by our generosity. I realize that when you hear talk of generosity and giving from a preacher immediately, many think, oh, the preacher is starting to think he's going to start preaching about tithing today. Well, I'm not going to turn the sermon or this passage into a plea for faithful tithers in the church, although I do want to make a few applications with regard to that. Why am I not merely going to preach on tithing? Because mere tithing is not necessarily generous enough, according to the larger teaching of the New Testament. We should remember that a person can tithe people of God and still have a heart that's far from God, uncheerful and stingy, as the Pharisees were rebuked by Jesus in Matthew 23 for this practice. Jesus didn't tell them not to, but he told them that their heart was not doing it right for the right reasons. Remember, according to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, people can give or tithe and give alms to the poor to be seen by men. And Jesus says in Matthew 6, 10, Do not be like them. See, a tithe or a helpful start, a tithe or a 10%, is a helpful start in our giving and generosity that's commanded by God in the Old Covenant as a way of showing that everything one owns belongs to God. When the Israelites failed in the Old Covenant to pay their tithes to God, to be faithful, God said that they were robbing Him in Malachi 3. And the implicit is that they're robbing their neighbor too. But we want to understand, in light of the coming of Christ, We should understand that to merely give 10% is to miss the point in our giving in the church or others in need. Now we give because God first gave to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to give our all. That means tithe now is 100%. We give because we want to show our true love for God and neighbor in our spending the cash that God has given to us. You see, We want to understand that in Christ as Christians, we're generous because we love and that we want to show forth our dedication and allegiance to God and his kingdom in our checkbooks. And in so doing, we make many eternal friends who will literally be forever in our debt. Now, don't get me wrong, a 10 percent tithe is helpful when considering the number of members in a church and the budget of a church on an annual basis. All the members use at least 10% of their money, and they support the ministries of the word, the ministries of mercy in the congregation. That's good. But Jesus says our tithing, our generosity, that it should exceed 10% of all we have. For instance, if one is merely asking if he should tithe before or after taxes on his paycheck or his income, While you may be seeking to be God, be faith. One more time. You may be seeking to be faithful in giving to God and his church, but you may have not yet thought that you might be asking the wrong question. The question that God seems to be asking us with regard to our check or payroll or income is, are we willing to part with our check and income entirely in order to do good and show forth the generosity that's been shown to us in Christ if we're able? We're to give all of ourselves is the point. We're to give all of ourselves, including our finances. That's the clear kingdom teaching that Jesus and his disciples make clear in the new covenant. Again, 10 percent in the old was to teach people before the coming of Christ, before as the church under age, that everything in creation belonged to God and the people were stewards who would obey his commandments by giving back a portion to acknowledge God as sovereign as well as to supply the needs of who ministered the word and to take care of the poor. And so, as his people, a 10 percent tithe is just to get us warmed up and worship God with our money each Lord's Day. It practically speaks of us that we have given back to God a portion, but we willingly, by God's grace, would give it all if we needed to, to show our generosity and the kingdom. I was taught by a wise and true gentleman that the most important investment financially made is other people. I've never forgotten that. That's what Jesus is getting at here, that we should seek as Christians to free ourselves from the worldly cares of debts and spending as much as possible so that we can spend our money by giving to the church or to others who are in need. In the New Testament, people of God, without going too far afield, but it's important to make note, our giving is voluntary. In the New Testament era, it comes from a grateful heart in response to the indescribable gift that God has given to us in the person of the work of Jesus. Listen to how the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8, 9. He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you by his poverty might become rich. He goes on to say in Second Corinthians nine, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he's made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. And verse 11, Second Corinthians nine. You'll be enriched in every way for all your generosity, he says, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God for the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but it's overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. And he ends the passage in Second Corinthians 915. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. It's in light of God's indescribable gift that we give all as kingdom disciples. Our generosity is far reaching. by God's grace as we fund the preaching of the gospel in our community, the acting out of the gospel through works of mercy and service. And when we give, we support faithful ministries and missionaries who are teaching the true gospel around the world. Even if you can't go yourself. Being generous or being a cheerful giver and giving all that one is able is what Jesus means in verse nine about making friends with the unrighteous wealth that God has given to us. And tithing is one way to do that. But being generous more generally and in a broader manner as we learn of the grace of God and Jesus is how we do that. See, we seek to secure our future blessedness as this steward imperfectly and simply in the parable did as those who will be richly rewarded and repaid by God for our giving. And so that brings us to the second point. Jesus teaches about faithfulness and understanding ourselves as stewards of God in verse 12. We've looked at this before, earlier in Luke's gospel. It's another reason to say it again, because Jesus is teaching it again. But stewards mean this. It means that all that we have, people of God, all that we possess, all that we have in our checking, our savings, our different investments, accounts, everything that is ours is not really ours. It belongs to God. This is contrary to the disciple teaching of the Pharisees and the scribes, according to verses 14 to 15. And it's contrary to the teaching of the modern age, this present age that's passing away. Listen to how the Apostle Paul taught the Ephesian Christians to think. In Ephesians 4, 28, he says, Now that you're in Christ, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, that he may have something to share with anyone in need. See, we're stewards of all that God has given to us, and because He's been gracious to us, we're to be excessively generous as His stewards. The Apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians 4.28 that I just read, that our goal in working or laboring is not merely to get by, but he says it's to share with anyone in need. How can we think better about being stewards of God's resources? How can we save not merely for our future, but for those who we meet around us in our future who are in need? How can we live each day thinking God has been extremely gracious, good, and he's been generous to me in Jesus? How can I today set my mind not on myself and what I think I want or need and think about someone else's needs? How can I today free myself up as God's steward manager from certain debts or obligations or enjoyments that I like in order that I might be able to freely show generosity to others with what I have. How can we even think about, even after my death, how I can continue to give with regard to my money? See, Jesus contrasts in verse 11, people of God, the seriousness of being faithful stewards of worldly wealth or unrighteous wealth and true riches. Again, another contrast. He says we want to understand the contrast between the temporal and eternal, as in verse eight, with the children of this age and the children of the age to come. Jesus is saying, if we fail to be good stewards with temporal worldly wealth as stewards, why would God trust us with eternal riches? He wants us to scratch our head and ask that question of ourselves. He goes on to contrast again by saying this in a different way in verse 12. He says, if you've not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? And considering the context, especially the preceding verse, Jesus is contrasting again, being trustworthy as stewards with God's property in this present age and being entrusted with property of our own in the age to come. This parable is to remind us of our stewardship before God, it's to encourage us toward generosity and a greater realization that all we have comes from God. We should be excited about making kingdom friends through generosity as we live in reliance upon God's grace, knowing that all that he's given to us is for our enjoyment, but also for the service and the needs of others. And that brings us to verse 13, the warning that Jesus gives us here. About avoiding worshiping mammon or having a devotion to another God. You see, people of God, all sinners, too easily make money or mammon an idol. Rather than generosity, we can be stingy. We can hoard our wealth and saving merely for our own rainy day. We say maybe that we're being good stewards when investing to get good return, but we don't notice the needs of the people right under our noses. You see, this is why Jesus ends this teaching with regard to the warnings against idolatry. He warns against potential idolatry many Hines and potential idolatry with regard specifically to Mammon or money. He says that money, remember, can keep a person from entering the kingdom of God from the human perspective. And we live in a culture, people of God, where Mammon is exalted, even though it's an abomination in the sight of God as a God. Those are strong words. But look at verse 15. He said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, that is, they are justifying themselves partially in that they are generous people. But God knows your hearts for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God, the abomination was that they were worshiping money rather than God. See, we live in a time, people of God, when men will forsake God, they'll forsake family, conscience and everything right in order to get rich. We live among the people who teach us to use everything in order to get ahead. Walk over whoever gets in your way and pursue sovereignty over people rather than service under them. Television provides a wide array of programming of how this guy or that gal got rich. And now if you continue to make them richer, you can be rich, too. It's a mindset that must be avoided. Even those who call themselves by the name of Christ shamefully preach greed or mammon rather than the gospel. In fact, this is so diabolical that it seeks to provoke the indwelling sin in many Christians and cause them to live self-centeredly. But they tell them that in Christ, they're getting rich as a sign of being blessed. While all the time, these blessed people are becoming more greedy, this is similar to someone saying that if you're sick, then you've done something wrong and good health is always a sign of being blessed. Listen, in contrast, to the Wall Street, the film Wall Street movie, the avarice character Gordon Gekko, who said with many people in the 80s, greed is good. The Apostle Paul says the greed of covetousness is idolatry and is to be avoided. At all costs. For the record, as some might preach blessedness with regard to riches, God makes some richer than others, but this does not mean they're necessarily blessed. It rather means that they've been given more opportunity or responsibility before God to avoid idolatry toward mammon and have more funds and capital show forth God's generosity. Some have more stuff than others. It's true. But they have more responsibility in their stewardship of the stuff that they must seek to make sure that it doesn't become their God. Listen to a few statistics that should sober us up with regard to the fact that Mammon is a god that even Christians fall into serving. American Christians, when compared to the rest of the poverty in the world, this is a 2000 statistic, the per capita income was 360% higher than the world's average capital income. According to statistics of the World Bank, 56% of the world lives in poverty, an income of less than $730 per year. So when we talk about Christians in America, most of us are wealthy by the world's standards. Listen to these facts. Listen closely. In 1916, Protestants were giving 2.9% of their incomes to their churches. 2.9. In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, it was 3.2%. In 1955, just after affluence began spreading through our culture, it was still 3.2%. By 2002, when Americans were over 480% richer after taxes and inflation than in the Great Depression, Protestants were given 2.6% of their incomes to their churches. If Americans who identify with a historically Christian church increase their giving to an average of 10 percent of income, there could be an additional 86 billion dollars available for overseas missions each year. Statistics tell us. Americans spend as a group 2.5 billion for world missions, praise be to God. We also spend 2.5 billion for chewing gum. Eight billion we spend for movies, 22 billion per year for hunting, and 34 million per year for state lotteries. There's another God being served. As a national average in the churches, one third to one half of a church's membership supports the congregation financially. They bear the burden. And so Jesus says, don't let the money become an idol, especially in a culture that makes money. God. In the ancient world, in Jesus's illustration, a servant or slave could work for more than one manager in his service, he would sometimes become more devoted to the one than the other. And Jesus is saying that we must be devoted to one master who is God, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all that we've been given by him is to be stewards. We think about how money can be functionally our gods or idols. Examples include behavior as a way of thinking, such as that we depend as Christians upon what we have in the bank more than on God. What we have in the bank is our indicator to whether we are important in the world or not. It's another way to make a man a functional God. We fear when we think God will not provide. We're always discontent and think that spending more or having more will make us happier. In addition to Mammon, that is the god of this world, in many ways, we also have consumerism that offers us the next best thing every time we open a magazine or turn on the television, the new and the proved, the new edition. And that always focuses us on what we don't have rather than we what we have. And we're to be reminded that we are to trust in the Lord and be content. with what he has given to us. Paul says, I have learned to be content in great need and being in times of great need, great times of want and in plenty, because I know that I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength. And he knew that God would supply all the needs according to his riches in glory. So when we find that we're making a man and a functional idol, we need to be reminded to turn back to the living God and be reminded Not to be putting our trust in any thing, anyone other than God. But let us be reminded, as the children of the age to come who are in Jesus Christ, that all that we do in showing our generosity and reliance upon his grace is really doing it unto the Lord himself. That's what he tells us, he says, at the last day, when he separates the sheep from the goats. He'll call his righteous ones. The sons of the age to come, the children of the age to come. And you'll say to them, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You'll say, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to see me. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when you when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Let us, in reliance upon God's grace, realize that the great gift that God has given to us in his precious son. In Christ, we find the source of God's richest covenantal blessings to his people. And in light of this, let us live as children of light, focused on eternity or the age to come. Let us live eternally grateful and eternally generous. Let us be generous and faithful stewards from this moment on by his grace. You remember the passage we read in 1 John. First, John three, 16, 17 or 17 and 18. Let me read that again to you. It says, if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed and in truth. The Apostle John teaches us here as God's kingdom disciples, that God loves us and that he's shown his eternal and perfect generosity in giving Christ to redeem his people and make them heirs of all that he has. Because God is our father, the apostle John goes on to tell us how God continues to give and to give and give generously to his people the grace that they need, among many other things. He says in verse 22 and 24 through 24, whatever we ask, we receive from him. Because we keep his commandments and we do what pleases him, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him and he and them. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given to us. We learn here that we have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and that all we ask for the father. according to his will in Jesus Christ, he continues to give and give and give. And as Philippians four teaches us that he will continue to give according to his riches in glory to his people and one day will inherit the eternal. Place the eternal dwelling where many people will greet us, heaven itself will greet us and testify of our generosity because we were the friends who helped them to get there. by his grace and giving and supporting the gospel ministry and being generous and clothing and feeding and visitation and providing for the needs of others by God's grace. Let us be reminded as we close of second Corinthians 915. God says they are. God says through Paul, thanks be to God for his indescribable. Yeah. Thanks be to God for his salvation in Christ. Amen. Let us pray. Our father and our God, we thank you for your great news, your indescribable gift that you've given. We're reminded that you so loved your people throughout the whole world that you sent your only begotten son to die for them so that we might receive redemption and salvation and forgiveness of sins. We thank you that Jesus tells us how generous you are as our father, that we are to ask and seek and not knowing that you're a gracious and loving father. We're told that We're made heirs of all things, and so we're not to put our hope in mere temporal things that rust can damage and moth can destroy and thieves can break in and steal. But help us, O Lord, as your people to set our hearts on things above where we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Help us to remember that where our heart is, there are where our treasure is, there our heart will also be. We thank you for our treasure that's found in Christ. We ask that you would make us a generous people, help us to be faithful as stewards so that we might give to those in need. Thank you. In Jesus name.