Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Whom Do You Serve - Luke 16:1-13

I'm glad you're all here.

We're continuing in our series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth, where we get to see Luke's careful examination

and investigation into all these eyewitness accounts of what happened

during Jesus's life in ministry and his death and resurrection.

And last week we spent our time in chapter fifteen,

where we saw how much God values his children and

how Jesus, our good shepherd, is just waiting to pick

us up his sheep and carry us on his shoulders

back to the Father where we belong.

How good was that chapter? Thank you, Joshua.

I feel so blessed to have been the one to say,

study and teach that text because it's such a good

reminder of God's mercy and his unending love. It's such

a good reminder of how much we're valued, even though

we don't deserve it. We are children to a good father, Amen,

And it's so unbelievable that we even get to call

upon him as father. We are children to a father

who is all together, good, all together, powerful, all together,

just a father who, even in our state of sinfulness

and unworthiness, because of his love and mercy, adopted us

as children by.

The death of his son Jesus.

And it was by the death of Jesus that we

are able to cry out to an almighty God as

Abba Father, as Paul tells us in Romans eight fifteen,

Abba Father we get to call him. It is just

one of God's many names or titles that speak to

his attributes. He is also Elohim, the Creator, mighty and strong,

who from the Bible's very first sentence, shows us his

power by creating the very universe. He's also Yahweh Jirah,

the provider, who in Genesis twenty two provided the Ram

to be sacrificed in place of Abraham's son Isaac. That

also pointed to the sacrifice of his son Jesus, who

died in our place.

He's also Yahweh Rapha.

The healer, who in Exodus fifteen said, I am the Lord,

your healer. He is Yahweh Shalom, the Lord our Peace,

who has Paul wrote in Ephesians two, brought peace between

both jew and Gentile and reconciled them to himself through

Christ's death on the cross. He is el Olam, the

everlasting God who has no beginning and no end, who

is free from all constraints of time, and contains within

himself the very cause of time itself, as the Psalmist

wrote in Psalm ninety ninety, from everlasting to everlasting, you

are God. And that's just a few of the names,

just a few of the titles that his people have

given him throughout history. There's just a few of the

names that he is rightly called because he is all

of those things.

He is our Abba Father, and as.

We can clearly see, he is so deserving to be

called the greatest of fathers. And we know just by

taking a minute to consider all that he's done for us,

we know how good it feels to call him our

Abba father. He is the provider, he is the creator.

He is Peace. He is the redeemer, he is the healer.

He is our shepherd, he is the Savior. All of

those names, all of those titles that point to his

divide attributes, he perfectly displays throughout his creation, and he

rightly deserves to be called by them. They're all names

and titles that we feel good calling him by, and

we should. They're all names that we can take comfort

in calling him. But sometimes our comfort gets in the

way of calling him according to all of his attributes.

Sometimes our pride gets in the way of calling him

according to all of who he is, because he's also

the judge, and that's not a very easy title to

utter when we ourselves don't want to be judged, especially

before he brings us to faith in him. He's also

the King. Now, I'll say modern day Christians have done

a very good job of ascribing that title to him king,

especially in our praise and worship, and we should. We

should call him king and continue to do so. But

when you think about as king, when you think about that,

that means we live in his kingdom. That means we

live under the King's law. And that's not such an

easy title to utter when our comfort and our pride

gets in the way. He's also the Master, the one

we are called and commanded to serve. It's another title

that when we really stop to think about it can

be easy for us to omit or ignore when we

put our comfort in pride first and in our text today,

in chapter sixteen of Luke's Gospel, Jesus presents another difficult

truth to a life lived for him, the truth being

that a follower of Jesus cannot serve two masters. It

must be one or the other. If you're taking notes.

My sermon today is titled whom do you serve? Or

in the voice of Saramon, whom do you serve? So

turn with me to Luke chapter sixteen. If you need

a Bible, there are some at the connectable just past

the double doors. That is yours to keep. Let's read

through verses verses one through thirteen, and then we'll pray.

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 can no longer be manager. And the manager

said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master

is taking the management away from me. I am not

strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg

I've decided what to do so that when I am

removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So,

summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to

the first, how much do you owe my master? He said,

one hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take

your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then

he said to another, how much do you owe? He said,

one 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

of yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when

it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

One who is faithful in a very little is also

faithful and much, And one who is dishonest in a

very little is also dishonest and much. If then you

have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will

entrust you to the true riches? And if you have

not been faithful and that which is another's, who will

give you that which is your own. No servant can

serve two masters, for either he will hate the one

and love the other, or he will be devoted to

the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both

God and money. This is God's word. Let's pray, Lord,

I ask you that you would humble us, that you

would help us to see what a good master you are,

that you would help us to lay down anything that

we are putting before you, help us to identify what

we are serving or who we are serving, to set

that aside and serve you. Ask all this in your name, Amen.

Now a little context. In the ancient world, people of

great means, like the rich man in this parable, employed

servants of all kinds, and often they would have a

servant to manage their entire household. These people didn't want

to lift the finger. They just wanted to enjoy their

wealth and let everything run itself. This head servant would

manage all of the master's goods and his property and

any other servants he had. The manager we read about

in this parable is that head servants, and he's the

one who the master had given responsibility over all of

the goings on in the household, over all of his goods,

all of his properties, everything. This manager was placed in

the role of steward of the rich man's household. He

had the responsibility to steward well everything he oversaw. Keep

that in the back of your mind. He had the

responsibility to steward well everything that had been given to him.

Now in this parable, a word comes to the rich

man that his manager wasn't being a good steward over

his property and possessions. Word came to him that his

manager was being dishonest in the things he was supposed

to steward well. Verse one through two, Jesus said, he

also said to the disciples there was a rich man

who had a manager, and charges were brought to him

that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called

him and said to him, what is this I hear about?

You turn in the account of your management, for you

can no longer be manager. So the rich man essentially

calls this guy into his office, sits him down, and

he's like, bro, what are you doing with my stuff?

And he cans him. And that was the right call.

Like you are, if you are a business owner or

a manager yourself and a company and you have people

working under you, you need your people to be good

stewards of the things they're meant to do the things

you place them to steward over. I briefly mentioned last

week that I used to work for Office Depot. Yeah,

I started back in two thousand and six or two

thousand and seven.

As a stoker, and over the course of about.

Nine years, nine long years, I worked my way up

to assistant store manager, not assistant to the store manager,

assistant store manager. But I didn't get there by deceitfulness

and self serving practices. Every day, every shift, I had

expectations to accomplish certain tasks. I had expectations to run

my store in a certain way, to hold to the

office depot standard, okay, office evil fan. I was given

the responsibility to manage well, to steward well the things

I was hired to oversee, the people that were placed

underneath me, the products that were placed underneath me. I

was expected to steward well the things underneath me. Now,

every for anyone I'm currently working in retail or who

has ever worked in retail, can you get to show

of hands who's worked in retail? Yeah, you all know.

You know, it's not always an easy job. More often

than not, it's a very difficult job. And retail workers

get a bad rap from people who are like, oh,

it's retail, blah blah blah, it's easy.

No, you don't understand. Retail is hard.

You'll frequently have several things to accomplish in a very

short amount of time. Most people today only have five

hour shifts, sometimes less, and you have expectations to meet

in that very limited amount of time. But how you

approach those tasks and how you deal with the stress

of those tasks determines how you're seen, determines how your

thought of among your peers and customers, determines how far

you'll go in the company you work for. If you

try to cut corners or put off your work, or

you're dishonest in your work, you're not only failing the

people you report to and the people you work with,

you're failing yourself. And what happens when you fail your employer.

You're held to account. You're held to account. We are

all held accountable for the things we have stewardship over.

Because we have.

An expectation and a responsibility to do the things we're

supposed to do, and not only to do them, but

to do them with integrity. And as Christians who represent Christ,

we should be the ones to not only do the

things we're supposed to do, we should be the ones

doing our very best at the things we're doing. We

should be the most integrists. Your employers should look at

isn't their entire staff and say that guy, that girl

is doing the very best job out of my entire staff.

And then you can say, yeah, well, I represent Christ,

so that's why, and.

They'll say you do.

Tell me about it, hopefully good. If you're taking notes,

I got a point for you. You can have represent

Christ in all you do. Represent Christ in all you do.

Colossians three seventeen tells us, in whatever you do in

word or deed, do everything in the name of the

Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Everything you do steward, well, everything you have to do

in word or.

Deed, and all in Jesus' name.

Don't give anyone a reason to bring charges of dishonesty

or for missing the mark against you. Do the very

best you can unto God for his glory as his steward,

as his representative. Now back to the parable. Because this

manager was dishonest in his work, because he was dishonest

in his stewardship, he was held to account and fired

by his master. And after the master fires him, we

see the manager's reaction starting in verse three, and the manager.

Said to himself, what shall I do?

Since my master is taking the management away from me,

I'm not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed

to big.

I've decided what to do so that.

When I am removed from management, people may receive me

into their houses. So, summoning his master's debtors one by one,

he said to the first, how much do you owe

my master? He said one hundred measures of oil? He

said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly, and

write fifty. Then he said to another, and how much

do you owe? He said, one hundred measures of wheat.

He said to him, take your bill and write eighty. So,

after getting caught and called out, the manager gets canned,

and instead of taking a long hard look at his

own actions and his dishonest dealings that got him fired

in the first place, he instead becomes more concerned with

how he's going to be.

Viewed and thought of by his peers.

He's morgan concerned with how he'll be seen and received

by the people around him, And that is a classic

wrong move for when you get called out for doing

something wrong, making your first step your first priority saving face.

When you do the wrong thing and get called out

for it, what you need to do is repent and

don't do that wrong thing again. But this manager is

so concerned with being seen and received in a certain

way that he instead goes and continues his dishonest dealings.

He just doubles down. You owe my master how much

oil one hundred? Let's let's call it eighty. And hey,

don't forget about this when I come calling. You owe

my master how much wheat one hundred, let's.

Call it eighty. Don't forget forget about little o me

when I come to your house. Lose his gig. He's

so concerned with saving face and maintaining his lifestyle that

he chooses to continue being dishonest, to continue being a

bad steward. Let me tell you something.

It's never worth it to prioritize and put value on

the things of this world, the things that are temporary,

the things that fade, These temporary things that were so

important to this manager being seen in a certain light,

being thought of a certain way, that that respect, from

the money he had, from the authority of his position.

If those things put you in a place where you're

gonna choose to sin to maintain those things, it's not

a good thing to hang on to. And if you

want another point to write down, I have this one.

Prioritize what lasts. Prioritize what lasts. In Matthew six, on

the Sermon in the Mount, Jesus says, do not lay

up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy,

and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up

for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys,

and where thieves do not break in and steal. For

where your treasure is there, your heart will also be.

That was pretty easy to see from this manager's reaction.

Where his treasure is. His treasure wasn't in how he

stewarded the things he oversaw. His treasure wasn't in how

he dealt with the things he stewarded. His treasure wasn't

in making his master proud. Treasure was his status. His

treasure was the things that he had, and he instead

of repenting and changing his ways, instead of being humble

enough to beg on the street or dig ditches like

he just couldn't do, he continues in his dishonesty. So

he continues looking good in front of other people so

that he would be received well by them. It's never

worth it to prioritize and put value on the things

of this world, because they all fade away in the end.

We can't base our happiness and our security on these

temporary things or on a certain way of living. We

should instead store up treasure in heaven, where moth and

rust do not destroy, where thieves do not break in

and steal treasure that is eternal. I don't want to

clarify something. You're not working for a horde of treasure

that you get to, you know, Scrooge McDuck in the afterlife.

That's That's not what I'm talking about. Your treasure in

heaven is God looking at you and seeing well done,

good and faithful servant.

That's your treasure.

Now, what happens next in this parable is really interesting

and kind of a kind of a huh moment. Look

at the rich man's reaction after his former manager does

all this. Verse eight. This is the first part of

verse e. The Master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

The Master commended his shrewdness.

Do you see what I mean?

The Master hears about even more dishonest dealings from this manager.

This former manager, and he's not like, hey, why are

you still doing this? You're not even working here anymore.

His reaction is nice, that was shrewd, That was clever.

I respect that nice nice going. What why that reaction?

It's weird. But don't get.

Stuck on this, because Jesus has a point to make

with every parable.

It's our job to figure out what the point is.

Let's see what it is.

Starting in the last half of verse eight, Jesus says

for the sons of this world are more shrewd in

dealing with their own generation than the suns of light.

When Jesus says to disciples, the sons of this world

who are the unbelievers and the people who don't follow him,

When he says they're more shrewd in dealing with their

own generation than the sons of light, I think what

he's showing them is you, guys may not be smart

in this world's affairs, but guess what, it's completely insignificant

compared to the wisdom of investing in your ultimate future,

your eternal future. Maybe you aren't clever when it comes

to the stock market, but guess what, who cares? You've

got all of eternity to enjoy your investment in your

eternal future. No matter how the unrighteous deal with their riches,

no matter what they're impressed by, no matter how shrewd

or clever, their riches are gone in just a handful

of years. In verse nine, he adds, 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.

He says.

You think what the manager did was clevered, Let me

tell you what's really clever. Make friends for yourselves by

means of unrighteous wealth, the wealth that is not eternal.

Make friends for yourselves.

That way, so that when it fails, they may receive

you into their eternal into eternal dwellings.

Let me summarize all that.

I think what Jesus is ultimately telling his disciples is,

don't only be clever and shrewd with your earthly future

like this manager who is only concerned with maintaining his

lifestyle or being after being jobless. You need to be

clever and shrewd as if you are going to be

jobless in eternity. You need to be clever and shrewd

as if you were going to be jobless in eternity.

What Jesus calls it unrighteous wealth, he means that it's

part of the unrighteous world that we live in, and

we are to use it, take hold of it and

steward it for eternal purposes.

Use the unrighteous wealth for eternal purposes. Be shrewd, be clever.

And your riches in this world unto your eternal dwelling,

not for maintaining a certain way of living, not for

your own status, not for your own security, but unto

your eternal dwelling. You have a house, you have a

place to live, and you have an inheritance filled with

joy and satisfaction in fellowship with God and his people forever.

When it comes to money, earthly wealth, and the things

God has given you stewardship over, you need to deal

with those things in a way that invests in that

eternal dwelling, not this temporary one. Deal with those things,

ensteward those things in a way that pleases him, the

real Master. Make friends with the money and the things

your Master has given you by meeting the needs of

those people. And as John Piper summarized, some of those

people the Master will bring to faith and will go

before you into heaven and welcome you there with great

joy to join them in eternal dwellings. Don't worry about

being the most clever person with your money. Don't worry

about being a stock market person. Whatever they call the cells,

I don't. You can see I'm not a clever one.

Don't worry about being a clever investor here to secure

a future that isn't going to last. Instead, be a

really clever investor into people's lives and giving to meet

their needs if you like to people in acts. When

the Church started, no one had any need. People were

selling properties to meet the needs of the church. That's

real investment into eternal dwellings. Use your resources to do

as much good as you can for the glory of

God and the eternal good of others. My next point

is this, invest in your eternal future. Invest in your

eternal future. Down verse ten through thirteen. These last few

verses we see our ultimate lesson, our our biggest takeaway

from this parable.

Verse ten.

One who is faithful in a very little is also

faithful and much, And one who is dishonest in a

very little is also dishonest and much. If then you

have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will

entrust you to the true riches? And if you have

not been faithful in that which is another's, who will

give you that which is your own. No servant can

serve two masters, for either he will hate the one

and love the other, or he will be devoted to

the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both

God and money.

Can I get the band to come up?

What Jesus shows us here is if we are dishonest

with the unrighteous wealth we have our worldly wealth, then

we are also dishonest with our eternal wealth. Why because

it's all God's, It's all his. And like the manager

in Jesus's parable, when word came to the Master that

he was not managing his unrighteous wealth, well, he was

not stewarding well the things he was given. Well, let's

just say that we need to remember that our Master

is watching how we deal with the things he's given

us to steward over. If we can't be faithful with

our earthly wealth, which isn't even ours to begin with,

then how can we man entrusted with true riches? What

we do with our earthly wealth? Our earthly riches, our

earthly earthy, our earthly things, the things God has given

us to steward and deal with responsibly and in a

way that glorifies Him. The way we steward those things

reveals what we treasure. It reveals what we value, reels

what we are invested in. It also reveals what we

are a slave to. No servant can serve two masters,

for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to the one and despise

the other. We cannot serve both God and money. As

the master over all things, all things belong to God.

And if we call on him as ab a father,

that means he first adopted you as a child whom

he bought for the price of the death of his

son Jesus, and as an adopted child of God, as

one bought for a price, as one who has made righteous.

We are no longer slaves to earthly things. We're slaves

to the Master.

In Romans six, verse twelve, let not sin, therefore reign

in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,

but present yourselves to God as though, who have been

brought from death to life, and your members to God

as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion

over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then are we to sin? Because we are not

under law but under grace? By no means do you

not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as

obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey,

either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience,

which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you,

who were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from

the heart to the standard of teaching to which you

were committed, and having been set free from sin, have

become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms

because of your natural limitations. For just as you once

presented your members as slaves to impurity and to loawlessness,

to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your

members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when

you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard

to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the

time from the things of which you are now ashamed?

For the end of those things is death.

But now that you have been set free from sin

and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get

leads to sanctification and its end eternal life. For the

wages of sin is death, but the gift of God

is eternal life. In Christ, Jesus our Lord, you are

no longer slaves to sin, your slaves to God. You're

no longer slaves to your possessions, your slaves to God.

You're no longer slaves to your desires, your slaves to God.

So the question I want all of us to ask

ourselves is whom do I serve? Whom do I serve?

We need to examine our lives and identify what we prioritize.

We need to identify what we treasure and what we're

storing up for ourselves. We need to identify what or

whom we serve and praise God that we can call

him ab a father. But do our lives and our

dealings and our stewardship over the things He's given us

reflect the life of one that's been adopted by the

price of his son's death. And if the answer is no,

then repent and make that change. Rejoice If the Father's merciful. Yes,

But strive to serve him well and all that you do,

and be grateful that we serve a good master who

does not deal with his servants the way they deserve.

He does not deal with us harshly like we should

be dealt with. Be grateful that we serve a good master.

But remember that we serve a master. We need to

identify what we're serving. We need to be ensure of

the one we're serving. We need to be sure that

we're serving him in our dealings. Be sure that we're

serving him with our finances, Be sure that we're serving

him with our unrighteous wealth, investing in an eternal future,

and to obey the Master's commands. I don't feel any

better about saying this to you than you do hearing it,

But this is what we need to hear, especially coming.

Off last week. We all felt pretty good last.

Week after chapter fifteen hearing how valued you are. Remember

that's still true. Praise God, that is still true. But

we need to deal with these hard truths too.

Don't take advantage of his goodness.

Respond with action as a grateful, valued servant, as a

valued child of the most High God. Respond with actions.

Respond in a way that pleases him. Don't take advantage

of the goodness. Walk in the freedom and the goodness offers. Absolutely,

don't take advantage of the goodness and continue in our sin.

To take the time this week to consider, to pray over,

to identify what am I prioritizing? What have I become

a slave to instead of the master? And then repent

and make that change. Maybe it is your money. Have

you become a slave to your money in the security

it brings? Security, money can be gone in an instant.

Have you become a slave to your time? Your time?

You don't know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe a random

asteroid will fall out of the sky.

You don't know.

Do well with the time you have? Maybe your slave

to your lust, the lust that defiles the entire body,

Paul tells us in coloutions, but later on in that

verse he says, you were bought with the price you

were not your own to honor God with your body.

Maybe your slave to alcohol, a drug nicotine. Bible teaches

us to be sober minded. We need to identify what

we have placed in the role of master, Identify what

we are slaved to, repent and make that change.