Singled-Mindedly Aim Your Life Toward Eternal Value (Luke 16:1-13)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

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This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus 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 that I hear about you?

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

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.

And he said to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.

And then he said to another, How much do you owe?

And he said, A hundred measures of wheat.

And he said to him, Take your bill and write eighty.

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

For the sons of the 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.

One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.

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

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give to you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you.

So one of the things I really enjoy, uh call it a guilty pleasure if you like, um stories of folks who have found an angle and they are single-mindedly determined to make it work for them.

Not in a way that uh you know brings harm to other people, uh, but you know, the mischievous side of a loophole.

So here's a couple examples I was reading this week.

There was a local radio station that had a contest where you call in when they play the same artist back to back to win a prize.

And uh the author writes, My girlfriend would start calling in before the second song even came on.

Turns out they had a now playing and up next feature on their website.

She won everything from concert tickets to a laptop.

Here's another one.

A few years back, an online store had this promotion where whoever spent the most money over a month would get free round trip air uh free round trip airplane tickets to anywhere in the world.

My friend found that one thing you could buy on the website was a gift certificate.

So we bought a$25 gift certificate and kept spending it on another$25 gift certificate over and over and over again.

So we ended up with round trip tickets to Australia, having spent a grand total of$25.

Now, there's two responses to those kind of stories.

Like me, you can just go, gosh, I'm so impressed.

Or you can find those stories so frustrating.

I know folks like that who just find these kind of stories so frustrating.

And I think I resonate with where they're coming from.

You know, maybe my pro my sanctification is still in progress here, but uh but what's frustrating, I think, for some about these stories is they recognize the kind of single-minded determination it takes to turn$25 into a round trip to Australia could be put to something of more significance, of better use.

Use that brain power to organize a youth soccer league in your community, or I don't know, take up a skill like woodworking or something.

Like use that brain power, that determination towards something of the greater good.

This is uh something of uh well, this resonates to one degree or another with what we read in Luke 16.

Luke 16 is a strange story in many ways.

And maybe it strikes us as really odd and out of step with Jesus' other parables.

Jesus teaches with stories, and those stories he teaches with are called parables.

Some parables are kind of multi-layered.

We can look at them from different angles and capture truth as it's refracted and reflected in different directions.

The parable, the prodigal son, which immediately precedes uh this parable, uh, is a good example.

We can look at that from the perspective of the younger son who goes off in the far country, the older brother who stays at home and the father.

But some parables aren't multi-layered, some, like this parable, have a single thunderous point to them.

And Jesus is not above a sort of a shock value to get that point across.

He wants to surprise us with a point related to what's of eternal value.

Jesus tells a story about this dishonest manager and his master to communicate this.

He wants his disciples to single-mindedly, determinedly aim their lives towards eternal significance, towards what's of eternal value.

And I think for us, Jesus' disciples, today at New Song in 2022, that's Jesus' message to us as well.

The question is, what's your life aimed towards?

Your life aims towards what you treasure most in your heart.

Is it aimed towards what's of eternal value?

Or does it get caught up in the weeds along the way?

Figure what's of eternal value and single-mindedly, determinately, work that.

Work towards it.

Aim your life in every way towards that goal.

This is a story with a single point.

So I want our time together to have something of two parts.

Part one, we're going to look at the story, and then we're going to look at the point that Jesus wants to make in verses eight and nine.

I want us to understand what Jesus is doing here, so we can take that point and apply it to a particular sphere of life that Jesus applies that point to.

Jesus takes this point single-mindedly aimed towards what's of eternal value, and he applies it to our money, to our finances, which is just such a light and carefree topic to talk about on Vestry Sunday, right?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, we kind of squirm, don't we?

But friends, I'm convinced that God's word is always good news.

And I'm convinced that it's in our best interest to endeavor to follow fearlessly where God's good word leads the way.

So let's go there this morning.

Let's track with Jesus.

Probably this is going to be a challenging word.

This has been a challenging word for me to wrestle with this last week, and in some ways I feel like I'm still chewing on it.

But friends, I think sometimes we need to let Jesus challenge us.

Anyway, if you don't love me now, you'll love me by the end of the sermon.

So let's look at the story.

If you've got your um bulletin, if you've got your Bible, please open up with me to Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I'm I'm kind of gonna alternate between the ESV translation we have in our order of service and the new living translation, only because I like some of the turns of phrases in this particular translation.

I think it just kind of helps to illuminate uh what Jesus is trying to get across here.

So this is the New Living Translation.

You can track along with the ESV.

It's probably helpful to see some of the distinctions and bring out a fuller meaning of this text.

So Jesus tells this story to his disciples.

There's a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs.

One day a report came that that manager was wasting his employer's money.

So the employer calls him in and he says, What's this I hear about you?

Get your report in order because you are going to be fired.

Okay, so right here we've got the central problem, the pickle driving this whole uh story here.

This manager has been up to no good.

He's overdrawn his expense accounts, maybe he's been stealing from his master one way or the other.

He's been wheeling and dealing, and now he's been caught.

And his uh his master, his employer, is saying, You're gonna be gone by the end of the day.

So now the manager thinks to himself, gosh, I'm in a pickle.

Now what?

My boss has fired me.

By the way, the pickle line was my line.

That's that's not in this translation.

Now what?

My boss has fired me.

I don't have the strength to dig ditches, I'm too proud to beg.

Manual labor's out.

I haven't been going to the gym.

There's no way I'm gonna humble myself enough to ask for money on the street.

Verse 4, I know what I'm gonna do.

I've got an idea.

I know how to ensure that I'll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I'm fired.

This fellow's got an angle.

He's got an idea, and he wants to work this angle to his advantage.

So here's what he does.

He invited each person who owed his employer or owed money to his employer to come to discuss the situation.

And he asks the first one, How much do you owe him?

And the man replied, I owe him about 800 gallons of olive oil.

And the manager tells him, Take the bill and change it quickly to 400 gallons, cut it in half.

And then to the next fella, he says, uh, next fella says, I owe him a thousand bushels of wheat, let's say.

Well, here, says the manager, take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.

Now there's a few different uh kind of interpretive paths we could take through this uh through this parable.

Um and it it kind of depends on what these amounts signify, what we think these amounts signify, and also kind of who ends up with the money or the resources we're talking about here.

So, on the one hand, it's been suggested that um in fact this uh this master, this employer, has been up to maybe some shady business practices.

Maybe he's been overcharging interest on these resources that he's been loaning out, so that this manager is starting to expose some shady practices to the public.

There's kind of no recourse for the manager in that way.

I mean, that's that's not beyond the realm of possibilities here, but I do think that what we need to focus on is what the parable focuses on, the character of the ex-manager and not the master.

It's the ex-manager who is called the dishonest manager or the shrewd uh manager, the same Greek word you could translate as uh wicked or unrighteous, untrustworthy.

Jesus wants to make a point based on the uh character of this manager, not on the master.

So I think we need to track with that.

The other question is who ends up with this money?

Some have suggested that this guy is collecting uh he's he's collecting the resources back at cost or at what you know the uh the amount that was lended is the amount getting uh recalled or or called back, and they're ending up in the in the master's hands.

Now, again, that's not beyond the realm of possibility, I suppose, but I think what what tracks with what we know to be true of this dishonest manager is he's really self-interested, isn't he?

Like he's really keen on ensuring his own, you know, kind of self-protection here.

I know what I'm gonna do to ensure that I have plenty of friends.

So, bottom line, what's going on here?

I think two things are happening here, possibly three things.

This manager has found an angle and he wants to make it work for him in two ways, possibly three.

Number one, I think this manager uh has a sudden influx of resources and wealth having just been fired.

He's still got access to the books.

He's been fired, but his email passwords and login to the server still work.

So he's he's pulled in all the books, and now he's calling in those who owe debts.

And he's got a sudden influx of resources that he has to work with and finagle.

Okay, so that's number one.

He's he's wealthier than he was at the beginning of the day.

Number two, uh, he's got a lot more um um indebted, grateful business contacts than he had at the beginning of the day.

I mean, imagine if if you owed the bank a significant amount of money and you got called in your financial advisor's office one day and they said, we're actually gonna cut your bill in half.

I mean, you might still owe half of the money you owed, but you're gonna walk away feeling pretty excited about that, right?

You're gonna feel pretty grateful.

And I think that's what these folks feel.

They feel indebted to this guy, they feel grateful towards this manager.

So he's he's won for himself some friends.

And here's the third thing that I just kind of wonder, you know, because this guy doesn't want to go do manual labor, he doesn't want to go beg.

His experience is that is of household management, and he's concerned to be received into people's homes, you know, uh after this little angle's been worked of his.

So I kind of wonder if he's thinking I might come out of the end of this day with some good job opportunities, maybe even better job opportunities than the one I was looking for.

So two, maybe three really impressive things are gonna come out of this pickle of a situation for him.

He's found an angle.

He's willing to single-mindedly, determinately work it for his own advantage.

Okay.

So here's where we arrive at verse 8, which is kind of the punchline, kind of the surprise.

And I think it should catch us by surprise, just like I think it caught Jesus' disciples by surprise.

Jesus' disciples who probably were thinking, boy, this is gonna be satisfying when the hammer of justice falls on this dishonest fella.

But here's the kind of surprising point Jesus wants us to catch.

He says that the rich man, well, let me read from the ESV translation first.

No, let me read from the NLT.

The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd.

So I have to think that, you know, once it was discovered that someone got a round trip ticket fully paid to Australia for having spent$25, there was some marketing executive, some CEO, who was so infuriated that that could be the case.

But I have to think at the same time they go, gosh, that's clever.

Right?

The rich man has to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd.

This guy's found an angle.

He's working it for all it's worth to his own advantage, to his own self-preservation.

Okay, time to pivot into the point.

Verses uh, last half of verse 8 into verse 9.

This is what Jesus says.

It is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of light.

In other words, hey, my disciples, you should notice that people know how to work it, know how to single-mindedly, determinately make uh you know, life work to their advantage.

They set themselves on it.

Often more than disciples set themselves and aim their lives towards a particular goal.

Jesus says, here's the lesson, verse 9.

Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends.

In other words, single-mindedly, determinately aim your life and all of the resources entrusted to your life towards the benefit of others.

Or let me quote from the message, because I like, I like how the message translation puts it.

Jesus says, I want you to be smart in the same way as this dishonest rascal, but for what is right.

I want you to be just as clever, just as determined, just as focused as this fellow was, but for what is in good order?

What orders life around you towards what's of eternal value, towards the ultimate good?

Towards what benefits others, towards what is right.

Which kind of raises the question: what's our life aimed towards?

What do we want the outcome of our life to be?

What kind of legacy do we want to leave?

Do we want what we do now to resonate into eternity?

To leave earth a little bit more as it is in heaven?

It's the kind of life disciples are called into.

That's the adventure of being a Christian.

Let me quote from uh, boy, I'm I'm kind of a serial quoter of Calvin, but I can't help it that he writes such good stuff.

Um, John Calvin, one of my heroes, writes uh of this verse Um Christ only meant that the ungodly and worldly men are more industrious and skillful in conducting the affairs of this fading life than the children of God are anxious to obtain the heavenly and eternal life, or carefully to make it the subject of their study and meditation.

In other words, Calvin's saying, we see, often we see unbelievers' life has more focus and single-mindedness than believers do.

Sometimes unbelievers can be so focused on their own self-interest and gain that it leaves us going, where's that same focus?

Where's that same determination for those who say, I follow Jesus?

That's the challenge to us.

And it's a challenge to how we use our resources because Jesus says we should use the resources entrusted to us to the benefit of others.

Practicing generosity is a means of resonating our actions from now into the world to come.

There are eternal, there is an eternal resonance and reverberation to these acts of generosity and all sorts.

I mean, charitable giving, yes, that's true, but I also think those actions we take done with a heart of charity.

That was what our collect was all about this morning.

Charity that animates the Christian life.

So when we build a life, when we make a home or a house into a home, or we pursue education, or we work and put our labor and our learning towards the greater good and the benefit of others, we are with a charitable heart putting generosity into practice such that it reverberates from this world into the world to come.

Okay, that's a pretty lofty way of saying.

When we apply ourselves to these generous actions, when we order life towards the greater good, we aim our life towards what is of eternal value.

And we practice generosity.

Okay, here's where Jesus wants to go with this.

Get ready to squirm.

If he calls his disciples to single-mindedly aim their life for what's at eternal value, he wants that to be true with our money.

And in verses 10 to 12, I think Jesus is anticipating an objection.

I think the objection that Jesus is anticipating goes something like this.

Well, Jesus, I'd be glad to be more generous with the resources that I have.

If only I had more resources with which to be generous.

If I were wealthier, I'd be giving away more money.

In other words, the problem is located in my circumstances.

Improve my circumstances, and my character will improve with it.

I'll become more generous.

Here is Jesus' challenge to us.

The challenge is the opposite ends up proving to be true.

The problem is not low when we withdraw or retract ourselves from a generous way of eternal kingdom living, the problem is not located in our circumstances, the problem is located in our hearts.

The problem is located in our character.

Jesus says, verse 10, if you're faithful in little things, you'll be faithful in large ones.

If you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.

How can you be entrusted with more when with what little you have, you squander it?

And Jesus goes on to say, if this is true, if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

And if you're not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

That's a challenging word.

That's a challenging word to those of us who use money, which is 100% of us, right?

Jesus wants us to consider what do we treasure in our hearts?

Is the treasure of our hearts found in our bank accounts, found in our wallets?

Because if that's true, we're not going to be more generous the more wealth we get.

We're going to hold on to it all the more tightly.

Generosity never comes easy.

Or I think it rarely comes easy.

Maybe it wells up from time to time spontaneously, but generosity as a spiritual discipline takes discipline.

It takes taking the right action and letting the feelings follow.

It takes a degree of trust and God's commitment to provide for us what we need and more so that we can use our overabundance for the good of others.

And let's be honest, we have an overabundance.

If we live in Canada in 2022, we live amongst the highest standard of living in the world.

I'm not trying to heap on guilt.

I live here too.

But we need to recognize that, yes, God has entrusted us with much.

And so He requires of us much, generous hearts.

I'm not here to tell you what number or where your money needs to go.

I'm here to speak humbly and be challenged too by God's own word.

But I'm willing to speak humbly to our hearts.

Are our hearts aimed towards that eternal generosity or that generosity that reverberates with eternal value?

Are we willing to trust God?

And this is Jesus' final challenge here in verse 13.

He says that no one can serve two masters.

You'll either hate one and love the other, or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

He says you cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

Is money our master?

I just wonder if money is one of the top three cultural idols of our time.

Accumulating wealth, finding our security and our significance and our value in the money we've accumulated for ourselves.

Again, there's nothing wrong with good business practices.

There's nothing wrong with wealth as such.

But what we know to be true is not that money is the root of all evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil.

Are our hearts caught up in the bottom line of our bank account?

We cannot serve God and find our hearts enslaved to money.

And we are a slave to money when we cannot picture our life without it.

This dishonest manager at the end of the day is a slave to money.

He might think he's working an angle to his advantage, but his heart is still ensnared.

So the challenge is: will it be the same for us?

Or will we aim our lives at a higher, more righteous, eternal purpose?

See, the practice of generosity, in fact, is a practice of liberation.

It frees us from the chains of self-interest and selfishness, of accumulation.

And instead it says that God is not in our wallets.

So at the end of all this, the challenge is this: what's the aim of our life?

What's our life aimed towards?

What do we want the outcome of our life to be?

Can we articulate that?

Maybe that's a good place to start.

What would you say is the aim of your life?

And then perhaps we need to consider: is my life aimed towards that which is of eternal value?

That which will last from this world into the next, in generosity and in charity, in sharing and giving of myself for the sake of others.

Will I be, will I discover true freedom, being the perfect servant of all?

So I could end right here on a minor key.

Maybe that would be, I mean, that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I suppose.

Maybe we could use to sit in this minor key for a little bit.

But I do want to share one last thought before we conclude.

And it's the thought about what our generosity means.

See, we practice generosity not as a means of buying our way into heaven.

We practice generosity as a means to anticipate the life of heaven.

We practice generosity not as those who take the initiative to earn something from God, but as those who are responding to God's overwhelming generosity towards us.

It just so happens that our offatory sentence, our verse of scripture today, on page 13, is 2 Corinthians 8.9.

And I just love this verse.

I just find it so challenging.

Paul writes to this Corinthian church, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Paul is saying Jesus was willing to lay aside the unfathomable riches of heaven so that he could take on the cross for our sake, so that through his death and resurrection, through his ascension, we can have hope to be sharers with him in that heavenly treasure.

That's his promise to us.

When we aim our life towards eternity, we aim our life at the one who has aimed his life, his death, and his new life toward us.

When we aim our life towards what is of eternal value, we discover what true riches really mean.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially.

Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us.

If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that.

May God bless you and keep you today and every day.