Thank you very much to the musicians, singers, for taking part there. That was a helpful reminder, especially as we anticipate coming to the Lord’s table at the end of our service. We have so much to be thankful for. I’m also very impressed by the congregation there. I assume you have the same game we have in Ireland, Simon Says. Did you ever play Simon Says? You know, Simon says, stand up. And until Simon says, sit down, nobody sits down. That was great discipline on behalf of the congregation. Very obedient.
Let me take a moment and pray and ask that the Lord would focus our minds on His word this morning.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we are so thankful. We thank You, Lord, that You are the God of salvation, and by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, many of us are able to know him as our Lord and Savior, and to have already spent this morning giving worship to the one to whom it is due. Lord, You are so good. You have given us so much. Lord, we recognize that the people in this room, You have blessed us with the food that we eat, the homes that we come from, the transport that we were able to take to get here, the clothes in our bag. Lord, every good and perfect gift comes from above. And You have blessed us beyond what we could ever think or imagine when we compare the resources we have to others in this world, Lord, especially here in Dallas.
We recognize just how fortunate we are, how much You have given to us, and yet, Lord, we pray and ask that Your Word would address our thoughts and address our hearts and help us to adopt the posture of a steward, to recognize all that we have, we have from God, and we have responsibility that that brings. And we pray now that as we open up Your Word, which itself is an incredible stewardship, and as we come around it, knowing that the Holy Spirit is busy amongst us, we pray for that grace that would apply the word to the heart, and that it would find good soil in which to multiply and grow. So, we pray Your blessing upon this time, and we ask for transformation as a result, for it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. [End]
Open your Bibles, please, to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Jim Elliott, the famous missionary martyr, said, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And he was a man who lived that out. He went into a part of the world, into a hostile environment, to take the gospel where it had never been heard before, and at the time of his martyrdom, the world was saddened and confused by what they saw. Newspapers reported the great event that had taken place, a life cut short, a life wasted as they saw it, one who was young, who was taken from this world, who had great zeal, along with his friends, and yet their lives were snuffed out so quickly.
And yet, Christians who understand the reality of what we’re going to see in Luke chapter 16 understand that in that example, in that young man who went and willingly gave his life for the service of God, he was one who understood the world as we should through an eternal lens. It’s hard to grasp what he grasped. It’s hard to remember the reality that this world is passing. And only that which is done for Jesus will last. It’s a hard lesson because we, though we know this world is temporary, we’re driven by the here and now. We’re driven by our comfort. We’re driven by what we want today. We’re already thinking about what we would like to eat for lunch. We don’t think much beyond that.
And yet all the way through chapter 16, the focus is on the day that will come. A day that will come when everyone will give an account to God for the lives that they have either lived or squandered here on earth. And because of that, throughout the chapter, Luke draws attention to a great barometer, a great test of our heavenly-mindedness. Are we actually thinking about what is to come? And the barometer that he points to is our bank account.
Look at verse 1. It says, “there was a rich man who had.” And then skip down to verse 14. It talks about the Pharisees who were lovers of money. And then you skip down to verse 19 and we read, “there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.” You see the great test? You see, the thing that chapter 16 wants us to consider is our possessions, our wealth, the material good that we have. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Eternity is coming, so what are you living for? Can I ask you to stand, please, while we read the Word of God? Luke chapter 16 and reading from verse 1.
“He also said to His 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 shall no longer be manager.” And the manager said to himself, "What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from my 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 and quickly 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 eighty.”
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of 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.”
Let’s stop there. Have a seat.
Your readiness for eternity. I think chapter 16 is talking about all the way through, and it’s seen in many different areas, but in three in particular, your stewardship, your affections, and the approval that you seek. And we’ll see each of those in turn as we go through the first half of chapter 16. This morning, I want us to focus on that first one, that your eternity-mindedness is revealed by your stewardship, your stewardship.
This is a strange story in Scripture. It’s a strange story because the hero of the story is the villain. The one that’s praised, the one we’re meant to learn from, the one who’s an example to us is the one who’s no good, who clearly in the text is identified as a troublemaker and a wasteful one. Yet notice who Jesus is addressing in verse 1. What does it say at the beginning of verse 1? He also said to His disciples. He’s not addressing the scribes and Pharisees. Remember when we looked at the older brother in chapter 15 last week; He was primarily speaking to them. He’s not talking here to the Scribes and Pharisees, nor is he talking generally to a crowd of curious listeners. Rather, specifically, this section of Scripture is for His disciples. In other words, He’s speaking to those who have left the things of this world at one level in order to follow Jesus. He’s speaking of those who have sacrificed, who have committed, who are engaged in this earthly pilgrimage. They are followers of Jesus Christ.
And to them, to a follower of Jesus, He tells this story, and it’s a story about a sinful workplace, and it’s a story about a sinful workplace that we would understand in an eternal perspective. There’s something we need to grasp.
And I think it’s easy for us to to misread this story because it’s so far removed from the world that we actually stand in. We live in a Western, democratic, capitalist society. That’s where we are. And that is not the same as the world that Jesus is telling this story in. And what we need to do is we need to put our sandals on this morning. We need to think like a first-century Jew in occupied Palestine. We need to think as they would have thought.
And so, the story starts, as we read, by Jesus saying, “there was a rich man.” And the way we naturally read the story is he must be good, and the servant, the bad steward, he’s the bad one. So, he’s good and he’s bad, and then we start to make all these extrapolations and parallels and think about who’s revealed by who and all the rest of it. But here’s what you need to know about the story from a Jewish, ancient, Near Eastern mindset. He’s bad, the owner is bad, and the steward is bad. They’re both bad. They’re all bad. Everybody’s bad in this story. There is no good character. He was a mess.
The Bible speaks so clearly of wealth sometimes being given as a gift by God to individuals. You think of Abraham. Abraham was an extremely wealthy man. You think of Job at the end of his life. Job was rewarded with, well, great wealth. God really blessed in that material way. You think of King David, or even more so, King Solomon. God blessed them materially. They had. So having possessions, having wealth, that’s not a negative. That in itself is not a sinful thing.
And yet, again, we’re trying to think the way the listener would have heard Jesus’ story. Generally, whenever they told their parables, their little stories to kids, whenever somebody was called a rich man, it wasn’t a good thing. Whenever someone was called a rich man in the story, they thought of the high aristocrat, the one who exploited the poor in order to get richer. They thought of this particular man naturally as one who owned hundreds and maybe even thousands of fields, and he rented it out to tenants, and he exploited them, and he took from them, and he gained with exuberant rents. That was the type of character they were used to.
For example, Jerome, that fourth century early church father, he said, “every rich man is either wicked or in the air of wickedness.” Now, I’m not saying that every rich person is wicked, but that was the mentality of the day. The phrase, a rich man was not heartwarming. This character is not to be read as a good character, a neutral character, or anything else. He’s wicked, too.
In Jesus’ story, if you think of just Luke’s gospel that we’ve been going through, all the way through Luke’s gospel, that phrase, “a rich man,” is used primarily as a negative thing. It speaks of one who is consumed by their riches. That’s the difference. Somebody can have great things and steward it well. That’s the goal this morning, that we would see that. But in Jesus’ own words, so often he uses that title, “a rich man,” to describe one who squandered his riches.
Look at chapter 12, verses 16 to 21. Chapter 12, verses 16 to 21. Do you remember that story? There’s a character there also called a rich man, but he’s not a good character. He’s also called in the exact same story, a what? Begins with F, fool, a fool who builds bigger barns.
You look back to Luke chapter 16, you look at the end of the chapter, Jesus tells another parable there, a similar one. And this time there’s two characters, the rich man, again the same title, and Lazarus. And the rich man who, there’s great description about all that he has, his linen garments, his purple cloak, his abundant feasting that takes place. Yet this rich man in the story we read in verse 23 is one who ends up in Hades in tormente.
Turn to Luke chapter 1 verse 53. It’s been there right from the beginning. Mary, when she sings her song, that teenage mother, when she sings about the great work that is coming through the one that she carries, it says in Luke chapter 1 verse 53, “the rich he has sent away empty.”
Turn to chapter 6 and look at verse 24. Chapter 6 verse 24, it says, as Jesus pronounces His woes, it says, look at chapter 6 verse 24, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” And whenever he told the parable, that famous parable about the sower and the different soils that the seed fell upon, it talks about the seed that fell on the thorns in Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8 verse 14 talks about that seed that fell among the thorns, and it says it was choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life.
Then in a couple of chapters look chapter 18 verse 25 Jesus will be proclaiming those famous words, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
You see the weight of the text. All I’m trying to show you is that so often we read it naturally, and we assume rich is fine, it’s at least neutral, but in the day and time Jesus spoke, this was a title most often used negatively. It wasn’t used to speak of one who simply had; it was to speak of one who was infatuated with what they had, who loved and were mentally consumed with their possessions.
So, understand the weight of the text and the cultural mindset of the day when Jesus spoke about a rich man who had a steward, they are not thinking automatically of a good boss and a bad worker. They’re thinking of a bad boss and an unjust manager. Nobody in this workplace has good ethics. That’s the point. Everybody here is bad. There’s a cloud on it. We’re not meant to gain a moral example from somebody in the text. We’re meant to read this story understanding Jesus is picking out something in the world. Let me tell you a story about sin and the sin in the world, and yet even there, there is something for us to learn.
That’s the spirit. So, this boss is to be read of in a negative way as well. Secondly, we need to understand this manager. Or sometimes, depending on the translation you have, he’s called a steward. The word means the same thing. One who manages, who organizes, who stewards the possessions of somebody else. They’re looking after what belongs to another. And again, in that world, it was normal to have a steward. It could have been a slave; it could have been a free person, but somebody was appointed in order to manage.
We think of slavery today because of the history that we know on this particular landmass is a very, very restrictive and negative thing, but in that particular world, a person who worked as a servant or a slave, they could have great responsibility. We don’t even know if this individual was a servant or a slave. He could be a free man employed for this particular task. In fact, most likely, given the fact he’s seeking other employment, that is the case.
And so, this particular individual, if you think back to Joseph in Genesis, do you remember Joseph? He was the manager of Potiphar’s household. He did everything. He took care of what was ordered. He took care of all of the business. He took care of everything. He ordered the people who were under him. Everybody was part of his responsibility, and so too this man.
The owner has lots and lots of land, and maybe because of all that he has, he likes to go on vacation for a prolonged period of time in Rome to go to his villa by the Mediterranean and just relax. And every so often he’ll come back into town to, you know, fill up his coffers to get some more money to take with him for the next long travel. And during that time, here’s an individual who’s managing everything. So, he’s the one making the business deals. He’s the one signing the contracts. He’s the one going and taking in the revenue and counting it. He’s the one that’s paying the wages to all of the underlings, all the other workers. So, here’s a man with great responsibility. A lot of trust has been granted to him. He is the guy in charge. Yes, he’s working for the owner. But he has great resources at his fingertips. And the tenants, they primarily look to him rather than the owner to be the one that they deal with.
And this particular manager in the story, he squanders that privileged role that he had. He had great opportunity, great responsibility, just like we as image bearers of God were created with great opportunity and great responsibility, too. And as we prayed earlier, every good thing we have is just stewardship. This particular man had so much privilege, and yet he, we’re told, squandered it all. He was wasting his master’s possessions. And yet upon being fired from his job, in verse 2, while he’s heading home to his desk to clear out his belongings, to bring back the paperwork, to bring back all of the accounts for his master.
Verse 3 says, “the manager said to himself,” there’s a way of saying there; he came to his senses. He’s thinking all the way down this journey. He’s considering what his options are. And so, in verse four we also read, “I have decided.” As he’s thinking carefully about the reality of his circumstances and the very limited options he has, he comes up quickly with a plan. I’ve got it. That’s how you could translate verse four. I know what to do. And the action he takes is bold. It’s significant! For verse 5 notes how, he brings in all of these tenants one by one. All these people who owed all of these debtors to his master; he brings them in one by one. Now we’ve two examples that are listed, but the idea is there’s many, many more. Lots of people are brought quickly, rapidly through his little home office.
Look at verse 6 for the first example. He said—or I’ll read from verse 5. “So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master?” And he said, "A hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.” The guy’s saving a fortune here. He’s saving the equivalent of 850 gallons worth of oil. That would have been the yield of 150 olive trees. That’s a lot. It would have produced about a thousand denarii. That was significantly more than a year’s salary. This is not a small amount of money that this tenant is getting to save.
And then you look at verse 7, 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 eighty.” For that much wheat, it would have taken about a hundred acres of land to produce it. That’s a lot. Again, this is the amount saved. That’s not a small amount. It would have been the amount to produce about 2,500 denarii, significantly more than several years of a wage. That’s a significant saving. That’s big money.
So, you see the story here. This boy, he knows he’s being fired. That’s already decided, verse 2. And in the in-between, when he’s clearing out his desk, he quickly—he doesn’t pick up the phone, but you can imagine if it was today—he would pick up the phone, and he dials all of the creditors. He calls in everybody, and he quickly, because he had that authority, makes deals with them because he knows then tomorrow when he has no job. If he’s been nice to them, they’ll be nice to him. You know, if he scratches their back today, tomorrow when he has no job, they’ll scratch his back when he needs it.
You see this shrewdness in this man. You get the story? You get the picture? Nothing moral here. This is not good advice for the workplace tomorrow, okay, just to be clear. But there is a principle here we’re meant to take note of. Here is a guy who is a mess, but he’s a shrewd mess. He’s ruined his occupation, but he’s still in this moment making a way forward. He knows he’s getting the axe, and yet he’s preserving a way to live.
Now, this parable is a parable. It’s not an allegory. In other words, there’s not lots and lots and lots and lots of different meanings and points that we’re meant to take out of this. There’s one point. And only one point, if you overanalyze this and try and work out, well, the owner means this and the steward means this and the gallons of oil, 850 gallons of oil must mean 850 qualities to salvation or whatever you’re going to do with it, that’s crazy. And you’re going to miss the actual point of the text. This is a messy sin story, and there’s one point.
And Jesus Himself explains that one point in verse 8 onwards. So, what is Jesus communicating in verse 8 onwards? Well, he’s not commending sin. He’s not encouraging you to be sinful. What he commends is a very narrow thing. He commends the man’s shrewdness, his ability to see what is coming and to pivot accordingly. The manager here is able to see the end is coming, and he makes use of the small opportunity he has here and now, the small opportunity his position in the moment afforded him to get ready for judgment day tomorrow.
Jesus is taking an example of a sinner, an example of somebody random in this world living in the world and of the world, and he’s using them to highlight that we should be ready, and we should be living in light of what is coming. This man lived in light of what was coming, and we too, Christians, should be living in light of what is coming. And yet the reality is, and Jesus will tell us this in verse 8, most of us squander that opportunity. Most of us squander the gifts that He has given us to steward and live with our heads in the clouds, live with no real drive or ambition.
Look at verse 8. “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Now, a lot of the translations, I think, make this more confusing than it needs to be. The NASB and the Legacy version, they unhelpfully translate verse 8, “his master,” making it seem very apparent that the individual here is the owner. I don’t think that’s what’s being talked about here. Because, first of all, the Greek doesn’t say that. It says the master. That’s how that should be translated. It’s a definite. “The master.” Or, you think of the word master, it’s the same word lord. It’s a title. The master or the lord. That’s how that should be read.
Now, normally in Luke’s gospel, whenever you read, the Lord, who are we talking about? Who? This is like the kid’s Sunday school answer. Jesus, yes. In fact, you can make a case, and look, it’s almost exclusively used in that way. And so, I think what we have from the beginning of verse 8 is the Lord, the Master, speaking. And He’s telling us what we’re to understand. The parable kind of breaks down. The owner doesn’t know that this guy has made all of the dealings. We’ve no reason to understand what exactly has happened. And if he did know, I don’t think he would be smiling. Like, we’re talking about multiple years of debt written off. Like, anybody here who runs a business, that’s not a good thing. Sure, it’s not. That’s not what you want.
The Lord is speaking here, and He’s telling us something we need to understand. The Lord, Jesus, commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Jesus is telling us here what we’re meant to notice. Luke is acting as a narrative and he tells us, look, what we need to see here is Jesus wants us to grasp from this dishonest man a lesson. And it’s a lesson on shrewdness.
Now, why is that important for us to get? Well, verse eight says, “for the sons of this world, non-Christians, are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” They see what’s coming, and they pivot accordingly. But Christians aren’t good at that. Christians don’t do that well. We don’t do that naturally. Jesus is helping or wants to help disciples to see something that they’re weak at. And we can learn even from a dishonest manager. In fact, the word there in verse eight, dishonest, is emphasized. I think Jesus is saying, or Luke the narrator is saying, disciples, followers of Jesus, a dishonest manager can teach you something. You’re not to be dishonest, but there’s something here for you to learn.
And he tells us, “for the sons of this world or of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” The average sinner does something that Jesus wishes we did. The average sinner in this world sees and acts in a way that, why is it, Christian, we don’t do it? There’s something we need to learn here.
You know, the psychic service industry in the U.S. in 2024 made $2.3 billion. There are a lot of non-Christians obsessed with trying to work out what’s coming and trying to work out what’s around the corner so that they can pivot accordingly. Now, here’s Jesus’ point. Christians, we have something to learn from the world. Now, I don’t want you to go out and employ a psychic. That’s not going to help you, because we don’t need it. Friends, we know what is coming. The whole thing is mapped out. We know exactly what is around the corner. We know exactly what will come. We’re not in the dark. We know it. We know it full well. You only have to read to see. And yet, we don’t pivot. It looks like, though we know it, we do nothing with that information.
Here is a steward, and in verse 2, he knows his job is gone, and so he quickly acts accordingly. Friends, we know what is coming. We know the end, and yet we look so settled and comfortable, and Jesus is saying, that’s not healthy. That’s not good. There should be a massive difference in our normal life. This is an exaggerated story. This is a particular parable that is trying to highlight that we tend to squander our gifts, our possessions, our opportunities, our talents, and yet we know God’s judgment is coming. And we know eternity will follow. Why is it we live like today is gonna go on forever with no other care in the world? Because we actually know that there is an end, and it matters. And there is an account that will be reckoned will be examined. And what you do with your time, what you do with your possessions, what you do with your bank account, that really matters to God. And it’s going to be examined. So, what you do today matters. You need to pivot today because we know what is coming.
This is a call to invest. Look at verse 9. Look at verse 9. In verse 9, I think we have the positive. If verse 8 is the negative, we don’t do. Verse 9 is the positive, what we should do. “And I tell you, let me tell you what to do with that. 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.”
Now, this can sound a little complicated, but let’s break it down. Look at verse 9 again. “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth.” Now, don’t think of unrighteous wealth as, you know, a sinful thing. You should gamble your money away for the kingdom. That’s not what it’s saying. It could be translated as worldly wealth. We’re talking about carnal stuff. We’re talking about what is in your wallet, not what the treasure’s in heaven. That’s the distinction. We’re not talking about treasures in heaven. We’re talking about what you have here and now. Your car, your house, your clothes, your bank account, that the cash in your wallet, that’s what we mean by unrighteous wealth or worldly wealth. It’s the stuff that’s here and now, but you cannot take to eternity. It cannot go with you. It’s only gonna last here and now.
Again, look at verse nine. “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, you cannot take it with you.” It is not gonna last. A day is coming whenever, no matter how much you have in your bank account, it’s gonna make no difference. That’s the point.
So, what is verse 9 saying we should do with that? “Make friends for yourself by the means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you, those same friends, into the eternal dwellings.” He’s saying use that money, use your possessions here and now and invest it in people. Invest it in having influence on people for the kingdom. He’s saying invest in getting around people in this world so that they will have opportunity to hear the hope that you have and then you’ll be able to live beside them in glory. Like, use what you have now as a strategic investment.
The way Jesus, do you remember Jesus has always eaten with tax collectors and sinners? I think he footed the bill more than we realize. That’s the idea here. Give what you have now in the hope that some of those people you’re pouring your life into will meet you on the other side, will be eternal friends.
That’s the picture. Give money to missions through the church so that you’ll have Middle Eastern neighbors in heaven. Invest your worldly money now so that you will have heavenly neighbors. Give the training men in seminary so that some of those men will be able to go and translate the Bible into an unwritten, unknown language in Papua New Guinea, so that when you stand and sing praise to God in heaven, there’ll be somebody standing beside you that your investment has brought into the kingdom, and they may sing with a different type of accent, but you’ll be singing with them.
You spend your money in entertaining those non-Christian neighbors. Have them over to your house. Have them around your dinner. Have them over for Thanksgiving. Again, as Jesus did so often, because it will give opportunity for you to speak of the hope that you have and allow you to have them live beside you, not just on the street that you’re on right now but beside you in the new earth wherein dwells righteousness. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” You see the story. It is simple. But it highlights a very, very simple application for us this morning, and I just want to give you three very simple application points.
First of all, you are a steward. Okay? Everybody in this room, you need to recognize you are a steward. We’re all stewards. The word manager, the word steward, it’s the same. And that’s an important idea all the way through the story. The title, manager or steward, it’s used in verse one, it’s used in verse three, it’s used in verse eight. The job of managing or the job of stewarding goods, it’s mentioned in verse two twice, it’s mentioned in verse three, it’s mentioned in verse four. You get the idea; this is a big theme. This is a parable all about your stewardship, all about the things that you have that you need to manage, and we miss the whole point if we think that what we have belongs to me. What you have belongs to you. It doesn’t. It belongs to God.
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. It’s His to begin with. And God is so kind that He gives it to us, and He gives us responsibility. The money that you have is from Him to be stewarded well. The family that you have is from Him to be stewarded well. The work that you have is from Him to be stewarded well. The brain, some of you are very smart, the brains that you have are from Him to be stewarded well. The personality that you have is from Him to be stewarded well. The neighbors that you have are from Him to be stewarded well.
You get the idea? We are all stewards, and everything we have isn’t ours to hold on greedily to, not ours to be wasteful with, like the servant here in verse 1. It’s to be utilized for the one it belongs to. Not me, but He. It’s all His.
Now, God’s not gonna hold you accountable for resources He hasn’t given you. You know, if you don’t have a million dollars in your bank account, He’s not going to hold you accountable for what you did with a million dollars. He is gonna hold you accountable for the $30 some of you may have in your bank account. Whatever we have, and it looks so different for each individual in this room. That’s what you’re accountable for. Some are married and have children. You’re accountable for that. Some in this room are single and in a very different station of life and spend most of their time with friends. Well, you’re accountable for those friendships too. It looks different person to person, but whatever He has given us is a stewardship from God.
So how are you fulfilling that stewardship? Maybe you don’t feel like you have a lot. It’d be a really helpful exercise this afternoon. Here’s what you should do this afternoon. Take some time, take out a page and a pen, and write down the family that you have. Just write that on a list. The family responsibilities that you have. Your siblings, nephews, nieces, spouse, children, aging grandparents. aunts, uncles, whatever it is, write them all down so you can see the stewardship God has given to you. Think through all the little pockets where you put your money, the savings that you have, the finances. Maybe even better, maybe you’re at that stage where you’re just budgeting, and everything just at the end of the month seems to go. Why don’t you look at where your money’s going over the course of the month? And ask yourself, does it reflect that sense of stewardship of God?
What about the gifts that you have? Some of us are very bashful. We don’t like to think that we have gifts, but you all do. Not everybody hears the same. We’re all different. But in those differences, there’s different gifts and different talents, and they’re to be stewarded for God.
Time, I remember whenever we had, you know, all three children, you know, so young. There was a stage there where I don’t think I had any time. I was like a walking zombie, just trying to get, put food on the table, try and engage with them, put them to bed, still have a conversation with Sarah. Like, there wasn’t a lot of time, but there’s a little bit more time now. And there may come a stage where there’ll be more time again whenever we’re empty nesters. Who knows? But each of us, that’s a good thing to think about. What time do you have and what are you doing with it? How are you stewarding that? We are all stewards, that’s the point.
And then secondly, all stewards have to give an account for their stewardship. You need to let that sink in. It’s obvious, isn’t it, given what we’ve talked about? But you will give an account. We all believe that. If we’re orthodox Christians, we know one day we will give an account before the judgment throne. Yet Jesus is telling this story to His disciples for good reason. We live and act like it’ll never take place.
The ultimate fool is not one who lacks an ability to do something. But it’s one who has the ability and yet still insists on living for the here and now. It’s the one that builds the bigger barns here and now rather than invest in the kingdom, realizing your soul will be required of you.
He will examine what you have done with what you have been given. When you think about your family, your finances, your talents, your gifts, what story is revealed when those accounts are gonna be opened up? What story is going to be told before God when He examines all those things? A great accounting is coming. All stewards must give an account of their stewardship.
And thirdly, wise stewards live with an eye to that future day. Wise stewards live with an eye to that future day. The main character in the story is commended for his shrewdness. He set his energies upon realizing what was about to happen and preparing for that day. He was laying up treasures for the future through his shrewd dealings there and then. And Jesus says, don’t copy his dishonesty and make that even more clear in the verses that come. But do learn from him this way. He was ready for a great day of accountability. He made himself ready when he knew what was coming.
Christian, you know that’s the difference. You do know what is coming. You’ve got a lot more notice. This guy found out, and he acted right away. You’ve had a lot more notice. It’s all in this book. You know what is coming. So why are you so slow to live it out? We know what’s gonna happen and we need to pivot. We can’t walk around with our heads in the clouds sucking on a lollipop, a nice lolly. What do you call it here? Something like that. That’s not the way we’re to live. And yet it so often is. That’s the point. Disciples, it’s coming. It’s coming.
Now, it’s not wrong to enjoy your life. It’s not wrong to feast. Jesus did a lot of that. It’s not wrong to enjoy time with people and with family. Jesus did a lot of that too. It is wrong to squander those things. That’s the point. You know our Lord is coming to judge the living and the dead. You know that the unsaved will be punished eternally. You know that they cannot believe unless they hear. How then will they call upon Him of whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him, of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
The day is coming. When our present stewardship will be over, there’s nothing more that you can do. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let’s pray.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, You know how content and comfortable we get in the status quo and the comforts of our daily routine. Lord, shake us up. Cause every follower of Jesus in this room this morning to see that time is passing, and the investments that we make are not to simply be in our comfort but are to be in what really matters in the kingdom. Lord, You’ve given us so much, and yet there’s incredible responsibility with that. We pray, Lord, for the grace that each individual in this room who knows and loves You would have the discernment necessary to see how they can strategically invest in what really matters, how they can steward the good things that You have ultimately given to them. For it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. [End]
