Rick Warren - Lessons from a Shrewd Money Manager—Part One

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible

Teaching Ministry of Rick Warren. We are so glad you've

joined us today. And Rick is going to share part

one of a special message called Lessons from a Shrewd

Money Manager.

So let's get started.

If you have a Bible, I want you to turn

to Luke chapter sixteen, Luke sixteen. If you don't have

your Bible with you, pull out the message notes and

all of the verses are there on the outline. This

is an amazing parable that I'm about the Lessons from

the Shrewd Money Manager. Now, a lot of people don't

realize how much Jesus talked about money. Half of all

of the parables of Jesus, fifty percent of all the

parables Jesus told have to do with money and possessions.

In fact, in the Bible, one out of every six

verses in Matthew Mark, Luke John, the Gospels are about money.

Why out of every six?

In fact, Jesus Us talked more about money than he

did either heaven or hell. Why Because we think about

money more than we think about heaven or hell, and

we spend most of our lives dealing with this issue

of how to get it, how to save it, how

to spend it, how to invest it, how to keep

accounting of it, how to share it, all the different things.

Money has enormous influence on our lives. You know, Gallup

has done many many polls that show the number one

cause of divorce. The number one cause of divorce is

financial tension. Fifty six percent of all divorces come because

of money problems. But regardless of that, God wants us

to learn even in tough, difficult times, and the Bible

tells us that money management is a test from God. Now,

the parable we're going to look at today that Jesus

tells in Matthew ourscubay Luke sixteen is actually one of

the most misunderstood section the scripture in the Bible, because

when you read it initially, it looks like Jesus is

complimenting or commending a crook. There is a dishonest manager

money manager in this story, and he actually praises the guy.

He uses a clever crook as an illustration of wise

money management. Now you need to understand who Jesus is

talking to when he tells his story. Jesus told this

story not to the general public, but he told it

to the Pharisees. Now, who are the Pharisees. Well, remember

they're the religious leaders of the day. They're self righteous,

they're judgmental, they're legalistic, and the Bible says they love money.

They were obsessed with money. In fact, on the screen

in this chapter and verse fourteen Luke, sixteen fourteen, it

says the Pharisees made fun of Jesus because they dearly

loved their money. And Jesus loved to shock pious people,

self righteous, legalistic religious people. He loved to shock them.

So he tells the story, and he makes the hero

of a story a crook. A crook. Now, let's look

at the story. It's there on your outline, Luke, chapter sixteen.

Jesus told his disciples there there once was a rich

man whose manager was accused of wasting his master's possession.

And notice he's not wasting his own money. He's wasting

his master's possessions. It's not really his money. So the

owner calls him in and asked, what's this I hear

about you? He says, you know I want you to

are you are you cheating me? I want you to

give an account of what you've done with my money,

because your time as my manager is ending.

Now.

The guy knows he's going to lose his job. So

the manager says to himself, what am I going to

do now? I'm losing my job as a manager. But

I'm not strong enough to dig ditches and I'm too

proud to beg So he says this, I know what

I'll do, and he hatches this plan. I know what

I'll do so I'll have friends to take care of

me when I lose my job. So he calls in

each one of his master's debtors, the guys who owe

is his boss money? And he asked the first guy,

how much do you owe my master? And the guy

says eight hundred gallons of olive oil. He replied, the

manager said, well, take your bill, sit down quickly, and

make it four hundred.

In other words, we're going to just write.

Off half of it, okay, and we're gonna tell a

boss about this. But instead of you own eight hundred,

you're only gonna o four hundred. Now, just write it off.

And then the manager found another debtor and he asked,

how much do you owe a thousand bushels of wheat.

He replied, The manager said, okay, you change your bill

to say that you only owe eight hundred. Now, what's

going on here? The reason for this story is told

in the next verse, verse eight. Now, when the heard

what the dishonest manager had done, because what he done

he hadn't told his master, he just did it, he

still commended his shrewdness. Circle that he commended his shrewdness,

for the people of this world are more shrewd in

handling their affairs than are the people who belong to

the light. Jesus says, saying, sometimes unbelievers are far more

equipped and wise in the way they handle their wealth

than believers do. Now, what's going on here, Well, I

want you to know this a couple of things. First,

Jesus is not praising this man's dishonesty. What he did

was clearly wrong. He's cheating his boss by discounting the debts.

But he did praise his shrewdness. Now, what is shrewdness. Well,

most of us, when we hear that word a guy shrewd,

we think he's a manipulator, he's a crook, he's a

con man. He's going to be smarter than me, and

so he's going to weasel me out of some money

that's rightly owed me. But that's not really what the

word shrewd means. If you look the word shrewd up

in a dictionary, it means three things. It means keen awareness,

it means astute intelligence, and it means clever resourcefulness.

You need shrewdness.

You need to know what the problem is in your finances,

and you've got keen awareness of that what's really the problem,

and you need to pinpoint it. And second you need

astute intelligence where you go, I know what I need

to do, and you need to know the steps to

take out. And then third you need clever you know resourcefulness,

You need to know how to get out of the

mess that you're in right now. What I want to

do with you this weekend is I want to teach

you biblical shrewdness, scriptural shrewdness, how to manage your money

so you're not constantly trying to make ends meet and

always under tension and always under pressure. Now again, Jesus

isn't commending this guy's dishonesty. But you can appreciate something

in somebody without admiring everything that they do. Do you

understand what I'm saying? In other words? For instance, there

are some actors out there who live really immoral lives,

but they're still good actors, and you can appreciate the

fact that they're a good actor. There are musicians out

there who are totally living, you know, drug infested lives

and you know, just total lives for self centeredness, but

they still make good music, and you can appreciate the

good music. When I go to a doctor if I've

got a brain tumor, I don't go and ask the.

Doctor are you an atheist?

Or are you Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Buddhist

or Baptist or whatever? I want to know have you

done this before? Okay, so you know it doesn't matter

what their faith is. But at that point you're looking

for their skill. Does that make sense? And so you

can learn even from a crook if you don't copy

his dishonesty, but you copy the right things that he did.

Now, in this story.

That Jesus tells us, we have eight attitudes toward money.

Let's get right into it.

The first thing we learn from this story of the

shrewd manager is that what I think I own is

really on loan. What I think I own is really

on loan.

You see, I don't.

Really own anything, and by the way, neither do you.

It all belongs to God. It was God's from the beginning,

it'll be God's at the end. You didn't bring anything

into this world. You're not taking anything out of this world.

God just loans it to.

You for about eighty years.

It's all God's and God loaned it to somebody else

in the previous generation, and he's going to loan it

to somebody else in the next generation after you, and

you get to use it for a short period of time.

But everything you have in your life, including your own heartbeat,

is on loan from God. You would have nothing without God.

It's all his and he's giving it to you. So

really we have the role of being a manager. We

are to manage what God has given us. The Bible

says that everything you have is a gift from God,

and you're to manage it. Wisely, God gave you your health,

You're to manage your health. Wisely, God gave you your freedom.

You're to manage your freedom. Wisely, God gave you your mind.

You are to manage your mind wisely. He gave you

your time, You're to manage your time wisely. He gave

you your talents, You're to manage them wisely. He gave

you your money, you are to manage it wisely. What I

think I own is really on loan.

Now.

The word for management in the Bible is the old

English word stewardship. Stewardship is just the old word for management.

Every time you see the word steward in the Bible,

it means manage. That's what it means. A steward is

a manager in Stewardship is management, and the Bible says

that we are to be good stewards of everything.

God has given us.

Now that may not seem like a big deal, but

it certainly changes the way I deal with money when

I realize it's not really mine. It's just on loan

to me, and God is watching how I manage it.

You see, if I want to blow if I think

it's all my money and I want to blow it,

I say, you know, I know this is a frivolous,

trivial thing to blow it on, but I'm going to

spend this money on this, and I just waste it. Well,

I say, so what, it's my money. If I want

to waste it, I waste it. But when I realize

it's really God's money, I'm wasting. That puts it in

a different perspective. It puts it in a different perspective

because the second thing we learned from this story is

that one day I'll give an account to God. You

need to write that down. One day I will give

an account to God. One day God is going to

do an audit on your life. He's going to do

a life audit. You'll stand before God when you die,

and he's going to say, what did you do with

what I gave you? What did you do with the

talent I gave you? What did you do with the

money I allowed you to have? What did you do

with your freedom, with your relationships, with your network, with

your intelligence? What did you do with what you were given?

And one day I'm going to have to give an

account to God on how well I managed what he

allowed me to manage for eighty or one hundred years.

The Bible in Ecclesiastes eleven, verse nine says this, on

the screen, young man, it's wonderful to be young.

How many of you agree with that part.

Yeah, yeah, young man, it's wonderful to be young. Enjoy

every minute of it. Do everything you want to do.

Take it all in. In other words, live it up.

But remember that you will give an account.

To God for everything you do. There's a little butt there.

Go ahead and enjoy, lie, but remember one day you're

going to give an account to God for everything you do.

You know, they used to say.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

That's not true anymore.

What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube. And the truth

is all bad behavior is permanently chronicled on the Internet.

Now you can't hide bad behavior. Now, it's not just

that other people see your bad behavior.

God sees it.

And the Bible says, one day, you're going to give

an account for how you used your time, your money,

your relationships, everything that you've got. The Bible says in

Romans fourteen twelve, Yes, each of us will have to

give a personal account to God. Now that's part of

what this story is about, because in verse two, the

owner comes to the manager and says this, I want

you to give an account of what you've done with

my money. God's going to say that to you. One day,

I want you to give an account of what you've

done with my money. Do Your time as my manager

is ending, and one day your time as a manager

on this planet is going to end, and you're going

to stand before God and he's going to say, what

did you do with what I gave you. Now, this

guy knows he's losing his job. He knows, you know,

the jigs up, I'm I'm going to be out on

the streets. So he hatches a pretty creative plan, a

clever scheme, and it's dishonest, but at least he's got

a plan. And he brings in the masters, his masters,

his bosses, debtors, if people owe them money, and he

says the first guy, how much do you owe? And

he tells him eight hundred, you know, barrels. And he goes, okay,

fifty percent discount. Okay, you now only own four hundred.

Let's don't tell a boss, but I'm just gonna cut

you some slack, right, four hundred dollars, So we just

pretend like you only owe four hundred barrels, not eight hundred.

And the second guy, he says, how much you always

says one thousand bushels a week. He says, okay, twenty

percent discount for you. Let's make it eight hundred. Now,

what he's doing, it's totally unscrupulous because the boss hadn't told.

Me to do this.

But what he's doing is he's making friends for a

long term relationship. He's saying, you know, I'm going to

lose my job, and if I have these friends around

me who owe me one, then they're going to probably

think kindly on me when I'm out of work. Maybe

they'll give me a job, maybe they'll take me into

their home, maybe they'll loan me a little money. And

at least I'm building these relationships as a safety net

for when I'm out on my own. Now again, Jesus

is not commending this guy's dishonesty because what he did

was clearly wrong. But he did do three things right.

And these are the three things that you need to

do with your money when knowing that one day God's

going to hold you accountable for what you did with

what you were given. To manage my money, the third

thing you need to write down is to manage my

money wisely, I must do these three things. Number one,

I'm look ahead. I must look ahead. And in verse three,

the first thing this money manager does is he goes, Okay,

what am I going to do now? Now he's asking

this question before he gets fired. He hasn't gone to

the meeting yet, he hasn't received the pink slip. He's

already three thinking ahead. My master's asked me to come

in and give an account. He's not going to like

what he hears, so he's gonna likely fire me before

he's even fired. He is thinking ahead. That's a good thing.

The Bible says this on the screen Proverbs fourteen.

Read it with me. Verse eight.

The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool

himself and won't face the facts. He said, it's wise

to look ahead.

In your finances.

It's foolish to just ignore it and to try to

just live for today, and you get into all kinds

of problems.

See.

The number one reason people are in debt is short

term thinking. They're not thinking about next year, they're not

thinking about five years. They're not even thinking about in

five months. They're living for today. The number one cause

of debt is the inability to delay gratification. I gotta

have it, and I gotta have it now, and I

want it now even though I can't afford it, so

I will charge it. I will buy a house I

can't afford. I will buy a TV I can't afford.

I will buy a vacation I can't afford. I want

it because I want it now. It's short term thinking.

It's the opposite of planning head. And the Bible says

plan and not planning ahead is foolish because when you

don't plan ahead, you spend money you don't have. And

one of the principles of life is real simple. You

don't spend what you don't have. Now, this guy, he

knows he's losing his job, and he looks ahead. He says,

what am I going to do? I haven't got fired yet,

but I better think ahead. You need to think ahead,

and thinking ahead means you don't spend what you don't have. Now,

look at that verse again.

On your outline.

Proverb is fourteen eight. The wise man looks ahead. The

fool attempts to fool himself and won't what face facts?

Circle that on your outline won't face facts?

Now, what does that mean? What does it mean?

I won't face facts? Some of you are not facing

the facts about your financial situation. What is that you're

pretending is not a problem, and you keep ignoring it,

and you keep saying, well, it'll get better, but it's not.

Some of you bought a house you cannot afford. You

need to face the fact and you need to sell

the house and buy a smaller one because you're never

gonna get out of debt until you do that. You

over bought a house that you cannot afford. Some of

you are driving a car. You need to turn in

and get a cheaper car, facing the facts, and you

need to stop pretending it's not a problem. You need

to turn the car in and get a cheaper car.

You know, I haven't had a car payment in ten years.

Why because I drive a ten year old Ford and

I paid cash for it ten years ago. Now it

still gets me to the same places just as fast

as if I had a Rolls or Bentley. Now, if

my ego depends that my car is not simply a

means of transportation, but it's for ego status, well then

I need an expensive car. But since my car is

not for ego, my car is for travel. A ten

year old Forward does fine. Just thank you very much.

And I don't need to have ten years of car

payments when you've liked to have gone ten years without

car payments. Well, it's your choice. I'm this watch. I

bought this watch at Walmart. It keeps just as good

times as a Rolex, doesn't make it go faster or slower.

In fact, I like my watch better than Rolex because

if I lost it, I just go buy.

Another one at Walmart.

And so when I have my ten year old Ford

and I pull into Albertson's and somebody dings the dings

the card my card, I go, who cares it's ten

years old? Okay, I'm not worried about it. You know,

my stress level is dramatically down, and so you can

you know, you can save enormous money by not wearing socks.

You may have noticed this lately. I'm saving money by

not getting a haircut. And so if you don't have

to have clothes with a label that says purpose driven, uh,

you know, and you can just buy the same shirt

and it doesn't say needless markup on it, then you

save a whole lot of money. But you have to

look ahead.

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