Transcription
[Music] Let's pray. Father, we do say, Blessed be Your Name. You're the exalted God in all the universe and all the cosmos. Yet, you care about us. You care about Your people. You sent Jesus to be the sacrifice, the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. And so now, Lord, having received what You've given us so generously in Jesus Christ, we give You praise and honor. And we ask, Lord, that You would teach us, that You would instruct us in and through Your Word here this evening. Move by Your Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
Good evening, everybody. If we've never met before, my name is David Guzek. I'm very pleased that Pastor Damien has asked me to come and bring you something from God's Word here this evening. And I want to bring you something from Luke 16. Now, you're, I'm going to speak to you all here this evening as if you're all believers, as if you're all born again by God's Spirit. Since I don't know all of you personally, I can't say I know that for sure, but I, I'm just going to speak to you as if you all have put your faith in Jesus Christ, that you've repented and believed. And if you, if you are a believer, then you love Jesus. I don't think you'd be here this evening if you didn't love Jesus. You love Jesus for who He is, you love Jesus for what He's done.
By the way, it's always a little disconcerting for me here as I turn this way, I look out of the corner of my eye and I see a gigantic face on the screen. If you've never experienced that before, it's, it's a little. I'm not telling the video guys to do anything different with it, but it just, I just have to not look over that way so much, or this way for that matter. But you love Jesus, you love who He is, you love what He's done, and you love the teaching of Jesus, don't you? And if you love the teaching of Jesus, don't you love the parables that He gave? Aren't the parables of Jesus something amazing?
Now, we're going to take a look at a parable that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 16, but I want to talk at least just a little bit about what led up to. Did I say Matthew? I meant Luke, but you knew I meant Luke, didn't you? Okay. If I say something wrong, you just fill in the right word for me. We're going to take a look at a parable in Luke chapter 16, but before we get there, we, we should understand a little bit what goes on in the leading up to this parable. And coming before Luke chapter 16 is Luke chapter 15.
Now, you know Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15, even if you, you wouldn't recall it immediately, you remember the great parables that Jesus told about the lost being found. You remember those, don't you? The, the famous parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and then the lost son. And we often call the parable of the lost son the parable of the prodigal son. By the way, if there's just sort of an aside, this isn't my main point tonight at all, but I, I just can't resist talking about this. There's something fascinating to me in the three parables about that which is lost that is found in Luke 15.
In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus gives the application of that parable in verse 7, where He says, "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than 99 just persons who need no repentance." Okay, great. Thank you for the application of that, Jesus. We get it. Then He tells us a marvelous parable, the lost coin, and the joy that the woman has when she finds a lost coin. Look at how He summarizes this in verse 10: "Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Now, what I find fascinating about this is when you take a look at the parable of the lost son, the parable that we often call the parable of the prodigal son, there is no similar statement there. There's no similar statement at the end of the parable expressing the joy of God or His angels over the one sinner who repents. And I think that there's a fascinating reason for this. Because in the story of the lost sheep, you can't rightly say that the sheep repented. The shepherd went out and found him and grabbed him and brought him back. So Jesus wants to say, yes, Jesus goes out and He finds His own, but there's repentance involved. So He wanted to add that at the end.
And then in the story of the lost coin, can you rightly say that a lost coin repents? No, it's an inanimate object. So Jesus wanted to make it clear, repentance is involved, so He adds that at verse 10. But why does He not need to do that in the parable of the lost son? Because the son demonstrated repentance when he got sick of what he was eating in the pigsty and he said, "It's time for me to go home." Isn't that a wonderful thing how Jesus so subtly, yet so beautifully, illustrates and speaks to us about the importance of repentance in the beginning of the Christian life? And then, really, repentance is something ongoing throughout the Christian life.
Now, I find that fascinating. It's entirely a tangent to what I want to speak to you about here this evening, because what I really want to focus in on is what Jesus hones in on coming into Luke chapter 16, immediately after these three parables: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.
Now, Luke 16, beginning at verse 1. "He also said to his disciples, 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.'" Jesus here is speaking of something that would have been immediately understood in the ancient world. A man had a steward who managed the affairs of his household. Now, if you notice verse 1 says that He said this to His disciples, but we're going to find out, or you would find out later on if you look in verse 14 of Luke 16, that the Pharisees, the religious leaders, were also listening.
So, I, I think this is one of those things that Jesus was teaching His disciples with the knowledge that other people were listening in, and Jesus didn't mind that at all. You know, it's not like Jesus had secret teaching just for the inner circle. What Jesus taught, He didn't mind teaching publicly, but it's focused on the disciples. He wants His disciples to know this, but there's others listening in as well. And He says to His disciples, "Hey, listen, we got this situation here where there's a certain rich man. He's wealthy. He has a lot of resources to manage, and he has a steward who manages his wealth."
Now, again, in that day, I suppose today people have financial advisors, they have, you know, people who manage their assets, they have this and that. In the ancient world, it, it would be, it would be unusual in the ancient world if a wealthy man didn't have a steward over his assets. This was a man who had just had the responsibility of managing the man's accounts, what came in, what went out, the, the whole economy of the household. And he had a steward, and an accusation was brought against this steward that this man is wasting the master's goods.
Now, pretty simply, is that a good thing or a bad thing for a steward to be accused of? Well, it's a very bad thing, isn't it? Because if you're a steward, if you have any responsibility, you're supposed to manage the resources of your master very carefully, very judiciously. So, uh, the steward's boss, the rich man, heard that the steward was cheating him, wasting his goods. So he says, "I better call this man to account." And that's what happens in verse 2.
Do you have the story in mind? Here we go. Verse 2. "So he called him and he said to him, 'What's this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'" All right, bring me in all the records right now. You're fired. That's the message that the wealthy man gives to the steward managing his household.
But I want you to take a look at those words in verse 2. I understand that Jesus said these words in a parable, but they apply to every one of us. "Give an account of your stewardship." There is a sense in which every person will hear those words from the Lord, both sinner and saint. Every person will have to give account in some way, and have to give account to God. You could say that's a very straightforward principle. We will have to give account for how we have used what God has given us.
Now, look, I, I don't know most of you. I'm a visitor here at this congregation, a very grateful visitor. So I really have no idea where you come from, what kind of background, and all of that. But I look around here, and every person I see, every person in this room has been given a gift of time. And nobody actually has more time than anybody else. We all have 24 hours in a day. Every one of us has the same gift of time, so to speak. Some of us have had more of our life behind us, some of us have more of our life in front of us, but we all have a gift of time. God's going to ask us to give an account for how we've used our time.
God's given you certain talents, certain gifts. How are you going to give an account for those gifts, those talents that God's given you? You know, if you think about it, in a room with this many people in it, man, people pull their talents together in this room. There's amazing things that can be done just with the talents resident in this room right here, right now. You just have to say, God will give account, or ask us to give account to Him for how we used our talents. We have possessions. God's going to ask us to give account for how we've used our possessions. We, we have influence in some way or another. Wouldn't it be fair for God to say, "You had this measure of influence. How did you use it? Did you use it for My glory? Did you use it for My honor?"
Now, I know when I say that, it sounds like a very heavy thing to say. Might I say, I, I don't run back away from that. It is a heavy thing to say, but at the same time, I want you to understand that it's a glorious thing as well. Let me tell you what's glorious about it. This means that everything we do matters and can be filled with great meaning. Isn't that amazing? Every day you can do something meaningful for the Lord and for His kingdom. Every day there's some aspect of your talent that you can use to be a blessing for somebody else in the name of Jesus. And man, that's something that has eternal rewards and consequences. Everything we do in our life can have great meaning as we dedicate it unto God. There's nobody who must live a meaningless life.
Now, admit that there's a lot of people who do do live meaningless lives, but it's not because God's engineered a system where they must. It's because they've decided to sort of suck out all the meaning that there is in life and live as if they'll never have to stand before God and give any kind of account. Anyway, in the message that the boss gave to a steward in verse 2, he said, "Give account of your stewardship." Then at the end of verse 2, "For you can no longer be steward." You know, for every one of us, one day our stewardship is going to come to an end.
I think of myself now. I'm not only a, a preacher. There's other things that God has given me to do. I, I hope for the good and glory of His kingdom, but certainly part of what I do is preach and teach the Word of God. And one day my voice isn't going to be able to preach the way I would like it to. One day my mental faculties may not be there to preach the way I want to. One day my strength will not last forever. So how am I going to use it right now? Because there's a day that will come for me where I can no longer be a steward over those things, and not because I've been unfaithful, but just because that's how it is. The, the wealth of this world, it may not even last in this life, much less the next.
Parents, you have a stewardship over your children that, I won't say ends when they're adults, but it substantially changes. You don't have the same stewardship over your children when they're all grown up that you did. The clock is ticking on that stewardship. It's going to end. That's why there's a sense of urgency for how you use it now.
Friends, let me say it plainly. If Jesus Christ does not come for His church first, which is what I pray and hope for, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." But if Jesus Christ does not come for His church first, we will all die and pass from this life to the next. All right. Now, this is where the parable gets weird. Ready for verses 3 and 4? Did I mention that this is one of the weirdest parables in the Bible? It really is. So here's where it gets weird.
Verses 3 and 4. "Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do, for my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.'" Say, "Okay, I, I know what I'm going to do when I'm get when I'm fired, when I'm done with my stewardship, when I've given my account to the answer master and it's all over, then I'm going to make such friends that people will receive me into their houses and I can live off of their generosity."
When the steward knew that he would be called to account, he knew that his poor management would be exposed. Maybe even he was embezzling, that's kind of the sense we get from it, even though the text doesn't specifically say it. And then he thought about the options. Okay, I'm going to lose my job here. What are my other options? First thing he thinks of is, "I cannot dig." You know, getting older in life, I kind of understand that. As a younger man, yeah, sure, give me a shovel, I'm happy to dig. Now, it's like, can't somebody else do this work? He says, "I cannot dig." And then he says, "I'm ashamed to beg." Well, he had too much dignity, too much pride, maybe in a good sense. Goes, "I'm ashamed to beg." What shall I do?
Now, notice this. The steward knew that he was guilty. He did not think for a moment, "I'm going to show the accounts before my master, and they will justify me in his eyes. This is all a great big misunderstanding. I'm going to clear it up." He didn't think that way for a moment. The steward knew that he was guilty, and knowing he was guilty, it called him to action. You know, for a long time, that steward lived as if he would never be held to account. But the moment he realized he would be held to account, then he did something.
Now, may I just push the pause button on that thought just for a moment here? Isn't this how most of the world lives today? They live without ever dreaming that they would be held to account before God. It's the furthest thing from their mind. First of all, they just prefer not to think about God at all. God hardly enters into their thoughts at all. And if they do, excuse me, if the thought of God does enter into their mind, then, then it's some weird sentimental thought of a grandfatherly old man on a rocking chair in heaven, just saying, "Oh, everything's fine. Come on in. It's great." They don't think of God the way the Bible presents God, who, yes, God is love, yes, God has provided a way of salvation in and through Jesus Christ, yes, God gave Himself to provide that way. All of that is true, but God is also a righteous judge before whom we must all give account. And that's the furthest thing from their mind. They don't want to think about it, even for a moment.
It's strange how our modern culture has now for decades and decades put any awareness of standing before God away, further and further from them. It didn't always used to be that way. I remember reading, uh, many years ago, a great history book. It was called "A Distant Mirror," and it was about European life in the 13th century, I think the author's name was Barbara Tuchman, and I say 13th century, maybe it was the 14th century, somewhere around there. And she describes what life was like in chaotic Europe at that time. And I always remember this one section from the book where she describes how these marauding bands of bandits would make their way around Europe. Basically, these were unemployed soldiers who would make their money looting and pillaging and attacking towns and monastic communities and villages anywhere that they went. And basically, they would operate like this: they would go to some town or some monastic community or something like that, they, they would encircle it, they would, uh, send an emissary in, and they'd basically say this, "Okay, look, uh, unless you give us this much gold, this much silver, uh, we're going to come in and we're going to burn down all your buildings, we're going to kill all your men, and we're going to enslave all your women and children. Your choice."
But, but here's the funny thing about this. These men would negotiate back and forth with the city. And we know this because we have written records of some of their negotiations where the town leaders would say, "Oh, you're asking for this much gold, but would you take this much? And here's some silver, but how about a little bit less?" And they would go back and forth in negotiations. They have records of these negotiations. On one particular occasion, and they know this because they have the written record of these negotiations, they, they negotiated with a monastic community and basically they said, "Okay, look, here's the deal. Either give us what we're asking for, we're going to come in and just burn and murder everything in your monastic community. And here's the things we want: we want this much gold, want this much silver, want this much food, and we want a letter for every one of our bandit group saying that our sins are forgiven and we're going to heaven."
Can you imagine that? Mr. Bandit Murderer, you know, MC Plunderer goes to heaven and he waves this, "Hey, I got a letter here. The monk signed it. I'm okay." Now, you and I, we hear that, of course, it's ridiculous. But I'll tell you one thing, it shows those bandits really believed in heaven, heaven and hell. Most of their ideas about God and heaven and hell were ridiculous, but they really believed it existed. What a far cry from today. People don't even think of being held to account. But this man in the story Jesus told, he did believe it. So he said, "What shall I do? I know I'm guilty. I have to do something."
Now, friends, let me ask you a question. What if this steward that Jesus talks about in this story pretended that he would never be held to account? "Oh, no, my boss is just bluffing. No, nothing's going to happen. I don't have to make any preparation. I don't have to do anything. I'll just put it off. No, it's no big deal. I'm sure it's nothing." Listen, he would have been totally unprepared when he came into his boss's office, so to speak. Or what if he waited until it was too late to prepare for his future? What if he said, "Oh, I know I'm going to be called to account, but man, I, I don't want to think about that right now. I'm going to go out and go fishing instead." So he goes out, goes fishing, or he entertains himself in some way, and then finally, like a, a half hour before he's supposed to walk into his boss's office, he goes, "Oh, that's right, I got to do something about this." I mean, that would be just as bad as pretending that you didn't, that you weren't going to be held to account at all.
But he understood this. He said, "I need to prepare for the future." Verse 4. "So that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive them into their houses." So what does he do? Now, take a look at this rotten steward here. Not only is he some kind of embezzler and criminal, but this is what he does next.
Verses 5, 6, and 7. "So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50.' Then he said to another, 'How much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill and write 80.'"
Wouldn't you love to have this guy working for you? You know, he's working in accounts receivable, so to speak, and he calls up all the people that owe his master money and he says, "Look, let's settle your debts now. Pennies on the dollar. Doesn't matter what the debt is, let's just settle it. We'll pay it off now. I'll count it as thing my master has to accept. It's going to be marked out paid in full, but you only have to pay half, or 80%, or maybe even less of what you owed." Now, you have to admit, this was not very honest of the steward, but it was very clever. And of course, the people for whom he did this were delighted. "I get to settle my debt for 50 cents on the dollar." "Sold." "Here's the money right now." And then so on with all of the creditors.
Why did he do it? Notice what the steward did. He used his present position to prepare for his next stage of life. "What do I have? I'm going to be out on the street pretty soon. But if I please a bunch of these men who are my, who owe my master money, maybe when my master fires me, they'll give me a place to live because they'll be so happy for what I did for them."
Now, Jesus applies it here in verse 8. "So the master commended the unjust steward because he has dealt shrewdly, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light."
Now, let's make this very plain. In this parable of the shrewd servant, or the shrewd manager, would probably be a better term, Jesus did not approve of the man's conduct. He was embezzling from his boss. That's bad. Without authorization, he was settling accounts for pennies on the dollar. That's bad. But what Jesus did commend in this servant was his shrewdness. And Jesus thought that the businessmen of His own day, the sons of this world, were more wise, more bold, more forward-thinking in the management of what they had. I would define that as his word being more shrewd again, that they thought together, that they were, uh, more wise, more bold, more forward-thinking. They were more shrewd than the people of God were in managing what they have.
Now, I don't have to tell you, there are some people who consider this to be one of Jesus's most difficult parables because Jesus uses an obviously dishonest man as an example for us. Says, "Hey, everybody, look at this criminal, look at this dishonest man." Yet, God sometimes uses evil things that are familiar with us to illustrate a particular point without praising the thing itself. I'll give you another example of this. Paul would use examples of war. Paul would use examples of slavery to illustrate things in the Christian life without approving of war or approving of the institution of slavery, but just saying, "We know how this works. Let me use it to illustrate a spiritual principle."
But this dishonest manager, this shrewd steward, was a good example on several points. Number one, he knew that he would be called to account for his life, and he took it seriously. Every follower of Jesus Christ is going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Not to judge whether you're going to go to heaven or hell, friends. If you've repented and believed, you've put your trust in Jesus, then that's settled at the cross. You're going to heaven. But you know what the Bible tells us? That you're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of what you've done with your life, and God will judge that. That idea can be a joy to us if we're properly about our Master's business.
And then there's a second principle here. The shrewd manager took advantage of his present position to arrange a comfortable future. Friends, I, I believe that that has application not only to believers, but especially to those who have not yet believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a destiny in front of you. You need to use where you're at right now to prepare for eternity. If you're waiting until you die or you're on your deathbed to prepare for eternity, that's too late. You need to be like that shrewd manager and prepare now.
I would say that the assessment of Jesus is still true. Verse 8. He says, "The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." Friends, if we pursued the kingdom of God with the same vigor, with the same zeal that the children of this world pursue their profits and their pleasures, we would live an entirely different world. I've heard people say, and I kind of get the point, I'll repeat it just for the sake of that perhaps it's familiar to you, but I've heard people say that it's to the shame of the church that Coca-Cola is more widely distributed in this world than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That there's aboriginal peoples who have Coke but no gospel. Simply it's because, at least in some respect, the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light, as Jesus said in verse 8.
I want you to think about it. I suppose that every person I'm speaking to here this evening, you're, you're good at something. I don't know what it is, but there's probably something that you're pretty good at. It interests you, you've worked at it, you've developed it. It's a hobby, it's a skill, it's an employment, it's something. But you're probably good at something. And it's likely, I'm not going to say certainly, but it's likely that you can use the wisdom that made you a success in a secular or worldly endeavor to be successful in spiritual things.
Now, let me explain what I mean, because I think this can be taken the wrong way, but as I explain, I think you'll understand. For example, a lawyer knows that witnesses are important. Well, you read your Bible, understanding that witnesses are important, and it'll give you confidence in your Bible because it's written by eyewitnesses. Okay, that's great. I'm an attorney. I know, uh, that, that witnesses are important. I gain that. I can gain real spiritual benefit from that knowledge. A scientist knows that you have to follow the evidence. We do that. Hey, Mr. or Mrs. Scientist, take that knowledge that you got to follow the evidence and use it in your pursuit of God. Dig into following God. Dig into His Word. Follow the evidence, and you'll see God's blessing and God's grace poured out upon you. A doctor or a nurse, they know that you can be really sick and not know it. Isn't that true spiritually as well? Somebody can be dead spiritually, but they're not really aware of it, and they think, "Well, because I don't feel terrible, I must be okay." No, you need to believe what God's Word says about you just as much as you need to believe that MRI scan. You need to believe that because that's telling you the truth about who you are, no matter how you feel at the moment.
And accountant knows you better prepare for the audit. Don't walk in for the, uh, IRS audit just with a bag of receipts that you haven't thought through at all. You're not very well prepared for that, are you? An accountant can tell you that. An athlete knows, "No pain, no gain." Athlete knows you got to push yourself, you got to stress yourself if you're going to grow in something. A musician knows that you got to practice the fundamentals. You got to know them and do them again and again. That transfers to the Christian life. What are the fundamentals of the Christian life? Pray, read your Bible, worship, get together with God's people, tell other people about Jesus. You do those fundamentals again and again in the Christian life, and you'll build a strong Christian life.
And we all know this principle, don't we? We all understand the principle that it's not what you know, it's who you know. If you get pulled over by a policeman or a highway patrolman because you were driving too fast, which would you prefer to have memorized the vehicle code or to be a personal friend of the cop that just pulled you over? Friends, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And that's the secret to going to heaven as well. You can know all kinds of things about God, but it's who you know. Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you entered into relationship with God in and through Him?
So these things are all things that you could say that, that the sons of this world, they're shrewd in their generation. As we as believers, we just need to say, "Okay, let's apply that to our walk with God."
Now, Jesus continues on here. Verse 9. "And He said to you, 'Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when they fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.'" Jesus is here is transferring the principle of this parable. He's reminding us that we need to use our present resources to plan ahead for eternity. By the way, did you, did you like that phrase there in verse 9, "unrighteous mammon"? Look, I, I'll agree that that's not the most, like, modern equivalent. I'm sure like the New Living Translation or something like that has something else there, but, but I got to say, I still like that phrase, "unrighteous mammon."
There's an old commentator I like to read named Adam Clarke. Adam Clarke said that Jesus called it unrighteous mammon, that is wealth, the riches of this world. He called it unrighteous mammon because, number one, riches promise much and perform nothing. Number two, riches excite hope and confidence, but they deceive us with both. Number three, it's unrighteous mammon because it makes a man depend on them for happiness, and then they rob him of the salvation of God and of eternal glory. Yes, friend, mammon can be very unrighteous. But Jesus said, "No, use unrighteous mammon, surrender it unto God." Verse 9. "That when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."
Now, friends, the world is filled with financial planners and advisors, and that's a good thing for Christians to learn how to use their money wisely. But when most Christians talk about wise money management, they forget to practice the most important thing, and that's investing. Investing with an eye to eternity, to an everlasting home.
Now, let's take a look starting at verse 10, and we'll read verses 10, 11, and 12. Jesus says this: "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?"
I find it interesting that Jesus says here in verse 10, "He who is faithful in what is least is also faithful in much." In these words of Jesus, money and our material possessions are considered to be one of the least of things. You know, usually we think of that as one of the greatest things, one of the greatest things I have to manage unto God's glory, or, or, or whatever financial resources I have, and God's very concerned about. But in God's scale, that's one of the least of things. Therefore, if a person cannot be faithful in managing things that are least, they should not be trusted to be faithful in handling the things that are much.
Friends, if I am false and unfaithful in everyday life, it doesn't matter if I know how to project a Christian image. I, I don't know how you would project the right Christian image. You know how to carry your Bible just right. You know the right words to say, and maybe more importantly, the right words not to say. You know how to speak. You know how to pray the right prayers. You know how to, to, to listen to a, a sermon or a Bible study. You know how to do all these things that are outward, word in nature. But it's possible to do all those things and yet be false and unfaithful in spiritual life, and no one should entrust them with the true riches, that is spiritual riches.
You know, it's a heavy thing, but those who are leaders among God's people must be good managers of their own money. If a person can't be faithful before God with the money that He gives, how can they take care of the people of God? Now, please, I'm not saying for a moment, just get it out of your head, that that it means that leaders in God's church, uh, have to be or should be wealthy or make a lot of money. No. The issue is how they manage the resources God has given to them, not how great those resources are.
But notice what this says in verse 12. "If you have not been faithful in what is another man's." Jesus here seems to refer to the fact that everything we have really belongs to God. And in a sense, every one of us is in that place of the steward in this parable. Look, I, I understand it's just a common way for us to think. I'm not trying to to condemn anybody because I'd be condemning myself right along with it. But we just have this tendency to think of it, "Okay, well, look, you know, I, I, I have this money. I'm going to give the Lord His part, and then the rest is mine." And you know what? Look, praise God for that mentality that wants to give the Lord something. God bless you for that. But we got to say, that's really not the correct mentality. The correct mentality is, God's given me these resources. All of it belongs to Him. I, I'll make a return to His kingdom of some portion of it, but even the portion that I, so to speak, keep, it's really not mine. It's the Lord. I'm managing the Lord's resources with my life.
Now, I look, I know when we talk like this, immediately everybody's thought goes to, to, uh, possessions, goes to money, goes to the bank account. Look, that has relevance here. But can we expand that thinking a little bit and realize that Jesus has given us a lot more to manage than just money? He's given us our time to manage. Now, look, I, I'm speaking to the right crowd about that tonight. You could be doing other things, and here you are in the house of the Lord on a Sunday night. I'm talking to the people who said, "Listen, I want to take this time, and I want to come to seek the Lord. I want to worship with God's people. I, I want to hear something from God's Word." God bless you for doing that. It shows a good inclination. Say, "I want to use my time for something fruitful eternally." How about your talents? How about your influence? And of course, whatever possessions God has granted to you.
The bottom line is this: a steward manages things that belong to someone else. And in a sense, everything we are and everything we have belongs to God. As Paul said in Acts chapter 17, that it's in Him that we live and move and have our being. He's everything. So we should take that seriously.
So, I don't know if you came to church here this evening expecting to learn from a criminal, because that's basically what this man was. I suppose that in the modern day, there's several statutes and laws. He could certainly be sued in civil court if he couldn't be brought up on, uh, on, you know, uh, state charges and such. Friends, how will you learn from this dishonest manager? Even though he didn't do what was right in many ways, he's a valuable lesson to us to how to shrewdly use what we have for the glory of God. You will give account to God for how you've used your time, your talents, your resources, and your influence. And you should use your present position to prepare for your future, both now and for eternity. I think that's God's simple lesson and application to us through this strange parable in Luke chapter 16.
Father in Heaven, this is our prayer. We feel, Lord, uh, in many ways that You blessed us. We don't seek to compare ourselves with the people around us. We're not trying to figure out who's more blessed than another, but Lord, we understand and we feel that we are indeed blessed. And having been blessed, Lord, we just say that You would give us wisdom and insight how we can learn from this shrewd manager, that You would prepare us to give account before You, and that You'd give us the wisdom to use our present position to prepare for the future, especially preparing for eternity. We thank You for that opportunity, Lord, and we surrender ourselves to You all over again this evening. In Jesus' name, amen.
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