The Parable Of The Dishonest Manager

This is what Jesus is asking us to do.

Make friends with your wealth.

Build bridges with your wealth that can bear the weight of the gospel.

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit grandparkway.org.

Let's pray together.

We sing about and we worship a triune God, the Father, the Son, the Spirit.

And somehow, Lord, in living rooms and dining room tables and around phones and screens, the triune God is present with his children.

And so we just pause and ask that you would let that land on us.

That we're not just watching another episode of a show.

We're not just tuning into something.

That through this technology, you're speaking truth and hope to our hearts.

We ask this morning, even these next minutes, you would use the Spirit to enliven our attention, to put forth our affection toward you, that you would change us as the word goes out this morning.

This we ask, because of the works of Christ.

Amen.

And I want to thank you.

Many of you are part of a congregation and longing to be back together.

And some of you are stumbled across us and are new.

I want you to know that during the broadcast or after, you can fill out a connection card, and that just lets us know you want to be known by us.

And I want you to know, look, our staff, we got some capacity, and we can shepherd more people.

And so if you're needing a church and want to be pastored, we want to pastor you.

All right, this morning we're continuing our series in the stories that Jesus told, the parables.

And this morning, if you got the email I sent out, uh this is this is a little bit of an unusual one.

This is one that if you're reading, just kind of at a at a just let me listen to it, take it in pace.

Uh, this is one you're likely not going to slow down and take some time to think through and figure out how this really apply to me because it's kind of confusing.

So let's walk through uh the text here.

Verse 1, chapter 16 of the Gospel of Luke.

Luke has an editorial note here.

He also said to his disciples, so uh in in this uh parable, Jesus is addressing the disciples.

And if we were to jump down to verse 14, we'll also know the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things.

So we've got the disciples who are kind of the immediate audience.

Pharisees, kind of on the outskirts here, they can hear too.

Maybe some other people, but Jesus is speaking to the disciples.

And here's what he says to them.

He tells them a story.

Remember, parables are often a made-up fictional story that the author is using kind of to take two things and contrast them in order to put forth a point.

And this will be no different.

Verse 16, verse 1, or chapter 16, verse 1.

There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him, the rich man, that this man was wasting his possessions.

So here's the setting.

We got a guy who's got a lot of stuff, a lot of money, and has so much and needs at least one person to hire to kind of manage his wealth, right?

To be his financial steward.

And this guy's doing a bad job and done it long enough, and it's gotten back to the owner, the rich man, and it's time to deal with this.

Verse 2.

Or they do deal with it.

He's uh caught, there's charges, he's gonna get rid of them.

Um verse two, and he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you?

Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be my manager.

So there's not a scuffle, there's not a rebuttal.

It's likely, yeah, this is true.

I've I've been a terrible manager.

I've been squandering, I've been careless, uh, I don't know how I got hired in the first place, but I've been found out.

Basically, you're fired.

Okay, go get your stuff, get out of here.

Uh now, typically in that culture, if you were the manager, uh, you were living on the property in the compound.

So get your stuff, get and clean up and leave and bring the ledger before you leave, bring the ledger of my accounts to me.

Verse three.

And the manager said to himself, which we all do.

We all have a constant self-talk going on.

What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me?

Since I'm losing my job, I'm not just being furloughed, I'm being fired.

What must I do?

I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm too ashamed to beg.

So look, I I uh I can't go work at UPS.

I'm wimpy.

And I've I've gone from being the VP for the chic, and I don't want to be with those guys, the bums down there who you know pee on the wall.

I I don't want to do that, I don't want to beg.

What am I gonna do?

Verse four.

So we have some problem, now we got his plan.

I've decided what to do, so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

So he's he's got an idea here.

Some kind of plan for the future.

Verse five.

So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master?

Verse six, he said, A hundred measures of oil.

He said, Okay, uh, take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty.

Then he said to another, How much do you owe?

He said, A hundred measures of wheat.

He said to him, Take your bill and write down eighty.

All right, let's pause here.

What's happening?

So he's got this ledger of all the uh accounts of the of the owner, and where he's lent out money.

All right, now in this culture, in Jewish culture, Exodus kind of prevents him, Exodus 22.

They're commanded, don't uh don't charge interest.

So what they did is what people around the church still do today, and that is sin while appearing to follow the rules.

So they didn't charge interest.

What they did is they just inflated the principal.

So if you were gonna borrow 80 measures of oil, 80 gallons of oil, they would say, okay, I can't charge your interest, let's do this.

Uh let's just say you borrowed 100 gallons of oil, right?

Okay, sign here.

And so you weren't charged any interest, you just had to repay the principal.

That's how they did it.

And they could they could inflate it as much as 100%.

So you could have borrowed 50 bushels of wheat, and your bill would say 100 bushels of wheat.

You're promising to pay back that much.

That's how they appeared to follow the law, but they're really sinning.

So when he does this, uh it's likely the manager is kind of get rid of his cut.

Uh, he he's his owner has lent out maybe 50 measures of oil, and the bill's getting changed, gonna get back 50, not gonna get back the extra 50.

And so, now what you don't want to do right now is begin thinking, okay, now how many people did he have to bring into the office and change the bill in order for him to you know secure retirement until he dies?

That's not the point of the story.

But just the point of the story is every one of the people, he brought him in here and he was dishonest.

He was maybe just bad at managing before.

Now he's straight right, just ruthless, dishonest.

And so he changes all the bills, and the ledger gets brought, and then verse 8 this is the unexpected contrast in the text.

Listen to this carefully.

The master commended, not condemned, not executed, 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.

So, what we're expecting is judgment.

We're expecting the manager, gets all the people to come in one by one, change their bill.

Hey, here's a ledger.

And the owner look at this and see, wait a minute.

No, no, no.

I know that Frank borrowed 100.

You're saying he borrowed 50?

There's no way.

I was there, there's no way.

Frank was begging me.

There's no way.

Master does this because, oh man.

This guy never showed much initiative, never showed much ambition, never showed much creativity, never showed hardly any adeptness for uh being skilled with management.

But this lower the debt scheme, oh, this is this is a masterpiece.

If he had only worked this hard for me before I fired him, Jesus' point is has nothing to do with wealth management, it has nothing to do with um uh employment or any of that stuff.

What he's talking about is that non-believers are far more on the ball when it comes to kind of squeezing every opportunity out of life in this world than believers are when it comes to leveraging every opportunity for the gospel for the sake of the world to come.

What he's saying is that uh non-believers are are far more looking for every angle, every little side hustle, just get a little coin.

And believers are not giving any or much thought or strategy.

How can I use coin to get people into the kingdom?

Those of the kingdom of darkness are crafty.

The kingdom of light in comparison is complacent.

Kingdom of darkness are insightful.

Those of the sons of light are naive.

Those of the kingdom of darkness, they're hustling.

The kingdom of light, they're at ease.

See, there's a war going on to get the most someone can, just squeeze what they can out of this world.

And what she's saying is, believers, you're missing the true battle, which is to wield this world in order to bring people into the world to come.

And you're missing it.

Point number one.

So one through eight set us up for the last nine through 13.

Where's point number one?

Point number one is get on board with God's eternal plan.

Verse nine.

Jesus tells to them, and so I tell you, all this stuff I told you, the story, here's my real point here.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it falls, fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.

Get on board with God's eternal plan.

It's literally this make eternal friends.

Wield what God has put in your hands in this world to make eternal friends.

It's people who will hear the gospel because of how you used your money, your abilities, your time, your wealth.

People who experience God's love, God loving them through you.

And that love, that kindness would lead them to repenting, would lead them to eternal living.

Don't just secure an earthly future.

Don't just be shrewd with investment plans and pensions.

Be shrewd with bringing others into the kingdom of light.

Verse nine says, when it fails, wealth in this world will not last.

It will not.

It never intended to.

Eternal dwellings, it's people.

Let me ask this.

Will there be people in heaven who will be there in small part because of how you used your money?

And then God worked through that as kind of a web of drawing, capturing them, drawing them to himself.

Are you gonna have one little knot and some net of God drawing people to himself?

This is what Jesus is asking.

God's eternal purpose for this world is that he would draw all peoples, all ethnic groups, to himself.

And around the throne room in heaven, there will be a representation of every people that's ever lived.

In the world today, um there's almost 7,000 different people groups, and over 5,000 remain largely unreached.

What that means is that there's that we know of there's not a uh significant gospel witness or believers or church presence where people could hear the gospel in their own culture, in their own heart language.

Over 5,000 of those exist.

Um pictures.

The first one is a is a map from an organization called the Joshua Project.

This is just showing you in the world, many of you have seen this before, where do these people exist?

They're in this kind of band called the 1040 window.

10 uh latitude to 40 latitude.

You know, we'd say on the other side of the globe, it's kind of North Africa, move and just move east.

Let me show you another slide.

This he breaks down some numbers.

Most of those are in the kind of country borders of India.

Over 2,000 people groups.

Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal.

A big portion of the 5,000, this little cosm here, partially because it's hard to get there.

People are pretty separated by their cultures.

And it's not inconsequential that uh today I want to alert you to a missions partnership that we are we are we are deepening.

Derek Schusler is a member here at Grand Parkway, and Derek and Tori is a picture of him and his wife and his two boys.

Um Derek works with an organization called For All Mankind Um Mobilization.

And what FAM does is they um take the gospel pretty quickly to and then through people groups.

And they're based almost exclusively in India, and they're wanting to move to Pakistan and other places.

So Derek's been with them for a few years, and Derek's real role is theological education of new emerging pastors in India.

And so we are deepening our relationship with FAM and with Derek, and which partly means we're giving more money to that organization, but it also means we're gonna take at least one mission trip a year to the continent India.

And the first one, under God's sovereignty, under whatever's gonna happen with COVID, is this September.

God is asking you to begin shifting your resources to where you start squirreling away some money to go to India, some vacation time to go to India, or to send someone else to India.

Joel Green, a pastor and a commentator, he writes this: he says, the only wealth that will endure, remember, it's uh all wealth is going to fail us, only wealth that endures is that which has been invested in others for the sake of the gospel.

That's the only one that endures.

Point number two if you're not faithful with money, God will not trust you with spiritual riches.

Let me say it again.

If you're not faithful with money, it's a test.

Then God will largely not entrust to you spiritual riches.

Look at verse 10.

The one who is faithful with a very little is also faithful with much.

The one who is dishonest with very little is also dishonest with much.

The way of saying this is a guy will work as hard for 10 bucks as he will for 20 bucks.

It's just the kind of worker he is, it's just who he is.

If then you have not been, verse 11, faithful in the unrighteous wealth, money, stuff here, who will entrust to you true riches?

Spiritual wealth.

And if you've not been faithful with that which is another's, who will entrust you that which is your own?

Let's walk through this for a second.

This faithfulness is your character.

If your character has been tested by wealth and you're just shown to be wanting, don't expect to be given some more serious responsibility.

If your money has you, you don't have it and wield it as a tool or resource, but it but it has control and capture over you, don't expect God to put within your hand the care of souls or opportunity for missions or evangelism or oversight in the church.

And this may be this fleeting thought through your mind every now and then of man, why, you know, Neil had talks about these conversations he has with people where he just kind of the spirit gets leads a conversation to uh something spiritual in the gospel.

Why does it keep happening to him?

I don't see Neil's checkbook, but Jesus is telling us through Luke, when you're faithful with money, when you're faithful with wealth, I tend to entrust to you spiritual things, spiritual opportunities.

So if you hunger for that, if somehow there's burning in you, I desire some responsibility in the kingdom, maybe it's time to really address how you manage wealth.

If you're not honest in small jobs, verse 12, who puts you in charge of the store?

No one will.

Joel Green again, he's helpful here.

He says, the owner, one's use of money and spirituality, these are inseparably bound together.

The sooner you realize this and do something about it, the better for your soul.

Money and spirituality are not just two separate things, they're linked.

It's one of the most consistent ways God lets us measure and evaluate our souls.

It's one of the most consistent ways God lets us put our hope in him.

In fact, that's that's one of the side benefits of tithing.

Not just that it helps uh undergo his kingdom, but that it puts us regularly in a position of I have less of my own to depend upon, and I have to depend more upon you, Lord.

Third point.

This is the last point this morning, is verse 13.

For here's the last point: it is totally impossible to serve both money and God, or both God and mammon.

That's what the text says here.

Verse 13, let's read it together.

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 both God and money.

Look, no one is gonna be the one who will successfully live this kind of double life.

It's not gonna happen.

You might think, well, you know, I got a new way of trying it.

No, it's not gonna happen.

No one can both have wealth master them and have Jesus master them.

No one is able to do that.

Now, having wealth.

Does not make one materialistic.

There's times to focus on material things.

Taxes, right?

Home purchases, remodeling school loans.

And in a sense, if you're in America watching this right now, compared to most of the world, you're quite wealthy.

Compared to most of the world, all Americans are wealthy.

Dave and Doris were a couple in a church I was involved in when I was in high school and college.

And Dave and Doris was a couple who they had sons, and one of the sons is a really good friend of mine.

And they wielded their wealth for the sake of the gospel.

And in my life, it looked like wielding their wealth kind of a little bit at a time.

And that would be almost every Sunday.

I started going to church as a junior in high school, senior in high school, they would invite me to go out to eat lunch with them after Sunday.

And it was almost always Old Country Buffet, and it was great.

And often it would be one or two nights a week I would be at their home.

And there was kind of unofficial discipling, unofficial teaching, unofficial correction, instruction, rebuke, and encouragement occurring.

It's there, I got to see them, their faith tested.

In a pretty big way, God used them to show me kindness a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and open me up, not just to salvation, but to growth in the kingdom.

And in some small part, right now, you are experiencing a return on what they invested a long time ago.

30 years ago is when this verse was happening.

So they were doing 30 years ago Old Country Buffet, you're benefiting from at this moment.

When I graduated college and knew I was moving toward ministry, my church, my whole church in Wisconsin, had like a commissioning service.

And Doris spoke at this service, and uh she uh she basically spoke about the change you know she got to see God doing in me.

And and what she said is um, I didn't think you were gonna make it.

I didn't think you were gonna last.

I think you're gonna wash out many Sundays.

I I would call you, Blake.

Are you up?

Are you gonna come to Sunday school?

Um I didn't think you were gonna make it.

Because they did, even not knowing if I'd make it or not, not knowing if there'd be returning the investment, they kept making friends with their wealth, little by little investing in me.

Let me give you some examples.

Um there's ways that we could be shrewd for the wrong master.

Let me give you some examples.

Maybe a person who's retired and and they're and they're making their income last.

And so um they've they've been examining all possible TV internet packages, right?

Got a spreadsheet, um, they've they're talking to friends.

Well, how's your service?

You know, it says 200 megabytes, you really getting 200.

They uh call in what kind of deal you got here, evaluating do I want one TV box or two TV boxes?

Do I get the Roku stick?

And they get a whole examination of this thing.

Trying to find the very best deal.

And relatively little energy in comparison is given to find what angle can I insert truth into the life of my grandkid?

What angle can I insert truth into the life of my spouse, the truth into the life of my neighbor?

Cable, internet versus truth to a neighbor.

That's the wrong master.

I think of uh, this is graduates we're celebrating today.

I was thinking of recent college graduates.

The ones that maybe happened or happening the next couple weeks here.

Maybe you're an accounting major and you're readying yourself for the CPA exam.

Or maybe a nurse and you're getting ready for boards, or an engineer, you're ready to take the FV exam.

But when it comes to the scriptures, compared to those things, you know relatively little.

You've not really poured over its contents.

You've kind of heard a muffled echo in your head, but you're not really ingesting and taking it for yourself.

And so you could be easily fooled by false teaching.

And you're prime for the prosperity gospel or a cult to come in and take away what's been invested in you.

I think of maybe a coupon lady, right?

This is stereotypical, I know, but she buys uh six papers on Sunday to get the ads, and she'll get 250 bucks of stuff for$31.

And she's got, you know, a pantry with uh 52 bottles of horse and tail shampoo, just because it was an amazing deal.

And there'll be spreadsheets for double coupon days and all the rest.

When it comes to really paying attention to those around and really being proactive, not reactive, in comparison, almost no time is spent examining what's going on in their hearts this week.

Plenty of time is spent on what's the weekly special at the stores, but not on the hearts of those around them.

The shrewd for the wrong manager, wrong master is like a guy who he can obviously make a buck because he's got properties and toys to prove it.

But there's collection and not really help for the kingdom.

Wrong for the man, wrong master, uh, shrewd for the wrong master is like a girl who's gonna be going to college in the fall.

And she's friendly, and she is gonna make sure to connect with everyone on her floor, and she will be well liked, but she won't ever really tell them about Jesus.

She won't ever really leverage what God has made her with his personality for the sake of the gospel.

Jesus is saying is the energy you put into getting ahead in this world, put the same, at least put the same energy into getting people in the world to come.

And you don't have to be nosy, you don't have to be a spy, you just gotta be interested in people.

You just have to give a rip about them.

Interest and observation that would move you to praying for what you see, looking for opportunities to speak the word into the life of others.

Maybe a couple examples of, okay, what does it look like to make friends, eternal friends, with your worldly wealth now?

It looks like this.

It looks like you walk up to a concession stand, right, at a youth sports event, and you see three kids up there trying to decide what to buy with a$5 bill because everything's$2.

And so behind them you say, hey kids, everything's free today at the concession stand.

And they go, What?

Oh, yeah, everything's free.

Pick what you want.

And they quickly each get two or three things.

You throw down to 20.

That's what it looks like to make friends with their worldly wealth.

It looks like having a popsicle budget.

And you just load up a garage fridge, freezer with popsicles, and every kid in the cul-de-sac and streets around come and mooch off you all summer long for free popsicles.

And slowly they and their parents become more and more and more open to you speaking the truth to them.

It looks like paying attention to your neighbors, not to see if they're out of HOA regulation, but to see do they have a need?

There's something going on that I can intersect their life.

It looks like when your non-believing friend compliments you, I don't know how we got talking about spiritual things again.

You've done it once again.

You scared the conversation to Jesus in my heart.

I don't know how you did it once again.

It looks like putting aside some portion of your money, not your tithe, some other portion, waiting to be generous, waiting to be a blessing to others.

So maybe you're thinking, look, Blake, okay, so Jesus isn't advocating bad management.

Is he just saying get people to like you?

Is that what he's saying?

Let me give an example.

Many of you know I did some collegiate ministry before this role at Grand Parkway.

And one of the things we do, we would try and ingratiate ourselves to people.

We'd take out their trash in their dorm room or have you know donuts.

We did, you know, free donut Friday kind of thing.

And after a little while, we would hand them a card or talk to him and say, Hey, you ever wonder why we're doing this?

And you know, we didn't want to say things like, oh, we just like taking out trash.

No, we hate taking out trash.

It's disgusting.

And so we'd hand him this card and I have it here in front of me.

And here's what it is, I'll just read it to you.

Here's what the card says.

Uh thanks for letting us take out your trash or serve you a donut.

You're probably thinking, why would someone take out my trash?

Why would they be thanking me after they take out my trash?

And here's a short answer.

We want you to like us.

We're doing this because we want you to like us.

Why do we don't you like us?

Well, here's the long answer.

Uh, if you like us, you might consider talking to us, really talking to us.

And if you really talk to us, you might consider hanging out with us.

And if you hang out with us, you might find out these guys aren't total freaks.

They're actually somewhat average and normal, and you might discover I kind of like hanging out with them more.

You hang out with us more, you might be around when we begin discussing some spiritual things or the Bible.

If you're hearing the Bible, you might begin to understand the gospel.

If you understand the gospel, you might agree with it.

And if you agree with the gospel, you will become a follower of Jesus.

And not just your whole life now, but your whole life and future will change.

If you become a follower of Jesus, you will need a fellowship of other followers to grow with.

So you're thinking, okay, understand you're taking my trash because you want me to be a follower of Jesus.

That's true.

But it's not that simple.

We want you to like us first.

This is what Jesus is saying.

Use your worldly wealth to make eternal friends.

This is why in the fall we did this beautification project at Austin High School.

It's not because we like plants, it's not because we like happy teachers.

We like plants and happy teachers.

It's because we want to begin opening doors to ingratiate ourselves and build a bridge for the gospel to them.

It's why we bring Gatorade and snacks to some sports teams and high school clubs.

We want to make eternal friends.

We're worldly wealth.

That's why we offer a class on neighboring this fall.

We want to leverage where I live.

How do I bring the gospel to the people there?

I'm going to close with this.

This just sounds familiar to you.

If you are familiar with our core values, this statement should seem like something you've heard before.

The gospel transforms us into a community.

And I know it's a weird community now because we're looking through screens during COVID, but it's a community that's on one shared mission to be a blessing to the world, an eternal blessing.

Ultimately blessing is bringing people into a saving relationship with Jesus, but it often begins with minor blessings.

It begins with minor blessings of candy and helping hands that move toward some deep conversations that really build a bridge over which the gospel can be transported.

This is what Jesus is asking us to do.

Make friends with your wealth, build bridges with your wealth that can bear the weight of the gospel.

Let's pray together.

Father, you know us completely.

You know precisely, not just to the current penny, but all future pennies, what our accounts, uh what our stuff, what whatever's been entrusted to us, you know it completely, and you know there are means and ways for this to be used to make eternal friends.

So I ask through the Spirit that what's already been welling up in some of us would not be forgotten, would not be shished away by the enemy.

In fact, I I asked that you would move uh fourth graders to ask mom and dad, oh, what does this mean for us?

We get in a popsicle budget?

Would you begin using the mouths of babes to lead moms and dads and grandparents to be a regular blessing to those around them?

All so that we we could experience the ecstatic joy of making eternal friends, would you increase in us uh more and more experience of dissatisfaction with the stuff of this world?

Where we don't feel like we're losing it when we're trading it for eternal friends.

Only you can make these changes, Lord.

In fact, these next minutes, would you, as we look at some of these questions, would you land on our hearts completely?

Amen.

We'll take a minute, and I want us to do that.

There's gonna be some questions on the screen.

Take your phone and take a snapshot and talk about these at lunch, talk about these at dinner.

This this text goes against the strong current of our world, which says you look out for you and yours first, and then if you got a bunch of extra laying around you can't store somewhere, then you can give it away.

Would you change us that we'd see more and more?

We we have not just what we need, we we have more.

It overflows, overruns to be a blessing to others.

Only you could change your mind to see this.

Give us eyes to see even these next hours and days.

Amen.

Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for tuning in.

Um I want you to know also that we uh we are available to you.

And uh, should you need to talk or meet, um, you know, a few of us are still here during the day, you can make an appointment.

We're glad to follow all COVID restrictions and still meet and shepherd and pastor you.

I also want to encourage you to uh remain faithful and giving, as many of you have done.

And um we're grateful for that.

And in fact, our our work here has not stumbled or caught a stutter at all.

We're moving full ahead.

And when we can all get back together, I think you're gonna see, oh, you guys didn't miss a beat.

We're moving down this river.

Lastly, uh I mentioned before, uh, fill out a connection card.

If you feel like I want to be known, I want to be cared for, and I want to be known by this congregation.

You don't have to wait till we meet again.

If you know that now, you can fill it out now.

Uh if you're able, please stand with me.

And I don't mean able like if you feel like it, I mean physically if you're able.

And so for people I know, if you're a teenager, go ahead and stand up.

Mainly because we we want our bodies to give a posture that matches what we're saying and doing.

And this posture with our hands out is daddy, give me something, please.

I need something.

And we're God give us a blessing.

That's how we close our services.

And um, you know, the standing up is somewhat of a respect.

Again, if you can't, stay where you're sitting.

Let me speak this blessing over us.

Jesus does not make us his debtor to pay back his grace like a mortgage.

One good deed, a little work here, a little serving, a little worship.

Um, heaven won't be us working off this big debt forever and ever.

No, Jesus has paid it all and it remains paid.

The Father wants to turn you loose with treasure in this world to make friends for the next world.

Depart now, free, freely giving.

The name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.