Problem #6: Money Instead of Purpose

Good morning. My name is Mario. I'm one of the pastors here,

and we are continuing our series, Modern American Problems.

This is now part six, and so we have covered different problems in modern America.

We talked about success instead of God's will.

We talked about self-esteem instead of God-esteem.

We talked about porn instead of sex, technology instead of community,

anxiety instead of contentment, and today the topic is money instead of purpose.

I want to start off with a story that I heard. It's about a guy named John Ortberg.

He's a pastor in California. I don't know if he's still in California now,

but anyway, I think he's still alive.

And he wrote a book that I think he tells the story. I never even read the book.

I heard the story secondhand. But supposedly, this is how the story goes.

When John was a little boy, he would play Monopoly with his grandmother.

And his grandmother would always play as hard as she could, and she would beat

him every time. She was not one of those adults that like lets the kids win?

Do you know those? Okay. You're one of them over there. Yeah.

So some adults, you know, you just, I guess they want the kid to feel good about

themselves or something. And so you let them win.

Anyway, this grandma did not believe in that. She would try as hard as she could

because she wanted to teach him the strategy of the game so that he would learn it.

And then if one day he ever did beat her, he would be like genuinely happy because

he beat her fair and square. So she would crush him, crush him every time.

And then one day he beat her like fair and square,

like they were playing the game and he was old enough and he figured out how

to do it and he won Monopoly and he was so excited because this had been like

his whole childhood had been leading up to this like you know he finally beat

grandma on Monopoly and so he was so excited and for those of you that have

played Monopoly you know how it ends right like if you're the person who wins

what do you have at the end yeah everything like that's that's

why I think that's probably why the game was so popular like you have like all

of the dollar bills that were all in the game all that Monopoly money like all

of your opponents are down to zero and you have all of the dollars and you have

all of the properties and so there he is and he won for the first time and he's

so excited and he's like, look, Grandma, I own it all.

I have all the money. It's all mine. All the properties are mine.

And I think his grandmother said something like, that's right.

Congratulations, John. Good job. And now...

It all goes back in the box. And how disappointing would it be if you're a kid and you own it all,

and then you're thrust into reality where you realize none of the monopoly dollars

are of any value, and they're back in the box, and the box is back in the closet,

and you are now equal with grandma again.

And the idea behind the illustration is that this is what life is like.

A lot of times we live for our wealth in this world, which feels so substantial

to us during our lifetimes.

But in reality, life in comparison to eternity is a lot like a game of Monopoly.

Life is real and Monopoly is

real, right? But the money doesn't matter anymore once the game is over.

And so what is the modern American problem with money? I am going to contend

in this sermon that over the last several generations, there have been more

and more people who are living as if this is all there is.

And there are less and less people who are living as if eternity is real life,

like the real life that will matter forever.

And not realizing that real life takes place outside of the game,

like not realizing that all the money and all the property goes back into the box when you die.

That will cause you to do silly things with money, like live for it,

like defining your worth by your net worth.

And so this morning, I wanted to share two parables with you.

Luke chapter 12, verses 13 through 21, and Luke chapter 16, verses 1 through

Luke 12:13–21 Luke 16:1–13

13, contain two fictional stories that Jesus told about money, okay?

When I say fictional, I do not mean that it's fictional that Jesus told these stories.

I'm saying that real historical Jesus made up two stories in order to teach

people about how to think about money.

So both of these stories that I'm going to read to you are from Jesus.

Both of these stories are about money.

Both of them were explained by Jesus afterward, which is good and a big deal

because he did not always do that.

For those of you who have read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,

you may notice that there are times where Jesus just tells a parable and that's

it. He doesn't explain it.

He just walks off and you just figure it out. But there are some times Jesus

tells a parable and then afterwards he says stuff that gives away what the parable is about.

And in the case of both of these parables, he does that. He explains.

One of the parables that I'm going to read to you is straightforward and by

that I just mean it seems to me everybody understands like what it means pretty

much the first time they read it,

one of them is more difficult people don't talk about it very much and it's

difficult because it looks like at one point that Jesus is commending dishonesty

and they go well that doesn't seem like that would match Jesus and so I don't

think it does I don't think Jesus is commending dishonesty in this parable but

I will explain that when we get there okay let's start with the straightforward one. Everybody ready?

All right, here we go. It's called the parable of the rich fool.

It is found in Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

I'm going to start reading in verse 13.

Someone from the crowd said to him, teacher.

Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Friend, he said to him,

who appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you?

He then told them, watch out and be on guard against all greed because one's

life is not in the abundance of his possessions.

Now, that's not the fictional part. That really happened. There really were

two guys fighting over inheritance in front of Jesus.

Okay, the reason I'm reading you those verses is those are the verses that come

just before the parable and they reveal to you what the occasion was that Jesus

chose to say this parable. Like Jesus did not teach this parable randomly.

Like there was something that happened and then Jesus went, oh, I have a story for this.

So the thing that happened is two guys were arguing over the inheritance.

And Jesus said to them, watch out for greed. And this is how he phrased it.

He said, because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions.

That's a big deal. And I really think like that, we need to get that.

That I think is probably like, that is the modern American problem with money.

There are a lot of people who would say one's life is in the abundance of his possessions.

And Jesus said one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions.

And then after he said that, he told this story, verse 16.

Then he told him a parable. A rich man's land was very productive.

He thought to himself, what should I do since I don't have anywhere to store

my crops? I will do this, he said.

I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there.

So we have a story about a rich man, right? And then his land is very productive.

So he was already rich at the beginning of the story, and then he becomes more

rich as the story goes along, right? His land becomes very productive.

So he says, what should I do? I don't have anywhere to store my crops.

Now, you can see as you read along, he does have a place to store stuff.

He has barns, right? But apparently the barns are all full.

So he says, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down my barns and

build even bigger barns in order to store even more stuff, right?

I'll store all my grain and goods there. Verse 19, then I'll say to myself,

you have many goods stored up for many years.

Take it easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.

But God said to him, you fool.

This very night, your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

That's how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So the point of this parable, I think, is pretty clear. Jesus is saying that

our riches in this life are to be used toward God. Do you see that?

The guy who's called a fool, he does the wrong thing. And so he says that's

the way it will be. He loses everything.

That's how it will be with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

So our riches are to be used toward God. And the problem of ignoring God and

using all of our stuff only on ourselves is that we lose it all when we die.

And that's the point of verse 20.

What God said to him, you fool. That's where the title of the parable comes

from, by the way. This is usually called the parable of the rich fool. Why?

Because he was called rich in the very first verse of the parable,

and he's called a fool by God right here. So rich fool. God said to him, you fool.

This very night your life is demanded of you. In other words,

this is the last day that you're going to be alive on earth.

You're dead. You're going to be dead.

And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? It's a rhetorical question.

It's not like the guy's like, well.

Like he's saying, all that stuff that you owned yesterday, none of it will be yours tomorrow.

Who's going to own all that stuff? Not you. Somebody else will own all the barns and all the crops.

Therefore, it would have been better for you to live for that which is eternal.

Okay, that's the first parable. Now let's look at the second one.

The second parable is five pages to the right.

At least in my Bible, it's five pages. Different Bible have different prints.

But in my Bible, five pages to the right, we go to Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

Same book of the Bible. Jesus is the same person talking, and he tells this

story. And this one that I'm about to read to you, this is the difficult one.

I grew up in church. I grew up going to Christian school. I learned lots of Bible when I was a kid.

Learned it in Sunday school. Learned it in youth group. Learned it at the Christian school I went to.

And in all those years, with all those Bible classes, never did I ever hear

this story growing up. This was like a secret that was in the Bible.

Okay? No one ever taught this. I did not learn this as an adult.

And honestly, even adult preachers hardly ever preach on this passage.

For some of you, you might go, I didn't even know this was in the Bible.

Okay, this is just, everyone avoids it. And there's a reason,

as I read it, you'll see like, oh, I see why they avoid it. It's difficult.

And yet, I don't think we should avoid it. This parable is about money and eternity,

and there's a truth that's taught in it that is very helpful for the living

of this life. So, let me read it to you.

Luke chapter 16, starting in verse 1. He also said to his disciples,

Luke 16 · chapter mention

There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering

his possessions. All right?

So now we have two characters in the story. And actually, this one's a little

different than the parable of the rich fool. And that is, there's a rich man

in the story, but he is not the main character in this one, like the previous one.

In this one, it's the manager who's the main character. Okay?

There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions.

The word manager here is a word that means something kind of like accountant

or bookkeeper or CFO or steward might even be the closest word,

that this person was a property manager.

This person was a money manager for this rich man.

He's the one that's supposed to keep track of all the bills and all the receipts

and this is what we paid for and this is the income that came in and all that stuff.

So the manager is accused of squandering his possessions.

And maybe it seems like the accusation is true because the next verse goes on

to say Because of that, he fired him. So let's read the next verse.

Verse 2. So he called the manager in and asked, What is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your management because you can no longer be my manager.

So the guy's fired. But this is important to catch. This is a delayed firing.

And that's a very important plot point to the story.

The rich man does not say, like the guy who's the owner of all the money,

he does not say, I heard you squatted my money, so grab your hat and your jacket

and get out the door right now. I never want to see you again. That's what happens.

He says, give an account of your management.

So apparently, he said, you're fired, but not today.

I want you to finish up all the books and wrap everything up and whatever's

in the middle of all that like get it all ready for the next guy and then you're

fired okay but I want you to give an account of what you've done so far and

then you go so the delayed firing is very important so next verse then the manager said to himself.

What should I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me.

I'm not strong enough to dig. I'm ashamed to beg. Okay.

So I want you to notice he hasn't lost his job yet. Do you see that?

He says, since my master is taking the management away from me,

not has taken the management away, like I'm still on staff.

I still have a job, but right around the corner, I won't have a job.

I only have a job for a few more days.

So now I'm starting to think about my future. I can't just go,

well, I'm employed now. Like, I won't be employed next week. So what do I do?

And so he starts thinking about it and he goes, I don't have the body for manual

labor. Okay. I'm too old to start doing that. And I don't want to be a beggar.

So what am I supposed to do so that I'm not homeless next week?

That's what he's concerned about.

And then he comes up with a plan. Verse four. I know what I'll do so that when

I'm removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.

Again, when I'm removed from management.

He's still a manager for just a little longer. And so he's like,

what can I do with the little bit of time I have left so that next week I'm not homeless?

What can I do with the little bit of time I have left so that next week there

are people who will say to me, hey, you can come stay with us.

Hey, you can come live in our guest room. Hey, you can come live in our guest house.

Like, what can I do? And he comes up with an idea, and he executes the idea

in verses five through seven. So this is what happens next.

It says, people will welcome me in their homes. So, verse five.

So he summoned each one of his

master's debtors. How much do you owe my master, he asked the first one.

A hundred measures of olive oil, he said.

Take your invoice, he told him. Sit down quickly and write 50.

Okay, if you're bad at math, I just want to point out something.

50 is like half of 100, okay?

So he says, I owe 100. And then he says, take your invoice, sit down quickly and write 50.

Next, he asked another, how much do you owe? A hundred measures of wheat,

he said. Take your invoice, he told him, and write 80.

So he goes to these people. He calls up his master's debtors.

And he says, these are all the people that they got to pay their bills.

And he's the money manager. He's supposed to be the one to make sure that people

pay their bills. So he's like, it's time to pay the bills.

And so the first guy comes in. He goes, how much do you owe?

And the guy goes, I owe $10,000.

And he goes, you owe $5,000. And that guy goes, no, I owe $10,000.

And he's like, no, I'm saying you owe $5,000, okay?

Like, I'm the bookkeeper, and we're going to put this on paper,

and my signature, I mean, until I get fired next week, my signature is authoritative here.

Like, I'm telling you, it's $5,000, not $10,000.

To which that guy's going to go like, oh, I mean, that's like a big discount. Thank you so much.

And then he goes to another guy, and he goes, how much do you owe?

And that guy goes, I owe $10,000. And he goes, you owe $8,000.

What? I could have swore I said $10,000. You did say $10,000.

I'm saying $8,000 is what you owe. Well, that's like $2,000 off.

I know. Isn't that nice? Yes, it is.

Well, thank you. If there's ever anything I can do to thank you, just let me know.

And the manager's thinking, oh, there is something you will be able to do to thank me next week.

And I think what the manager does is he calls in every single person that owes

his master money and gives discounts to all of them.

$1,000 off for you. $10,000 off for you. $2,000 off for you.

$5,000 off for you. and now he has a bunch of fairly rich people who all owe him favors, right?

He has a bunch of people that are going like, wow, I can't believe you would

do this. This is so great.

Like if there's anything I can ever do to repay you, just let me know and he's

going, oh, I will let you know.

Now, you may say, well, Mara, you're just adding that into the story.

It doesn't say that he said that.

No, I am interpreting verses 5 through 7 through the lens of verse 4.

Why is he saying write 50? Why is he saying write 80?

It's because he had just said, I know what I'll do so that when I'm removed

from management, people will welcome me into their homes.

That is exactly what he's doing with these discounts. He's setting it up.

So these people will say, well, hey, you can stay in my guest room.

You're the guy that saved me 2,000, or what is it, 200, yeah, 200 measures of wheat.

Or 20 measures of wheat, whatever it is. But anyway, you saved me a bunch.

You saved me 20%. You saved me 50%. You saved me all the different people,

whatever percentages it was.

Like, you're the one that saved us all this money. We want to take care of you.

So that's the story. It's very clear that that's what he did.

He cost his master money in order to do it, and he did it for that reason,

so that he wouldn't be homeless the next week, so that people will welcome him,

welcome me, people will welcome me into their homes.

And then the parable ends with the next verse, okay? Verse 8.

The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely.

This is the confusing part, okay?

This is probably why they're like, we're not going to do this in Sunday school.

The master of the story says, good job. That was smart.

Why in the world would he do that? Didn't he just get cheated out of a whole bunch of stuff?

Yes, I think he did get cheated out of a bunch of stuff. It looks like he was

owed a certain amount, and now he owes less because of what this unrighteous manager does.

So why in the world would he praise the unrighteous manager?

Well, it says why he praised the unrighteous manager, because he had acted astutely.

I think the best way to interpret this parable is just to like take that sentence at face value.

The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely.

In other words, he said, good job, not because he was dishonest.

He wasn't commending or praising the unrighteous manager because of his dishonesty.

He didn't say, hey, you cheated me out of money and that's awesome.

Cheating's great, right?

Rather, he looked at what happened and he went, oh, well, that was clever.

That was shrewd. goodness gracious that that was astute that you would take

this money that's not even yours and you only had temporary access to it and

you were so clever that you used it to set up for like the rest of your life that was smart.

And so that's what I think is happening here. I think the master's just pointing

out, like, that was really, that was shrewd. It wasn't ethical.

It was just, that was a smart way.

I wish you would have been doing that kind of thing for my benefit, right?

That was really smart that you came up with that. And then I think that's where the parable ends.

Because the next sentence is, for the sons of this age are more astute than

the sons of light in dealing with their own people. And I can't imagine the

master in the parable is the one that said that.

I don't think he would, after talking to the guy about being astute,

then have this monologue. Now let me teach the people what I'm saying.

I think this is now Jesus, now that the parable is done, starting to explain what the parable means.

So in the parable, the unrighteous manager is praised for acting astutely.

And then Jesus says, for the sons of this age are more astute than the sons

of light in dealing with their own people. He's starting to say, here's the deal.

The sons of this age, which I think that's a reference to like non-Christians,

the people of this world that don't know God yet.

The sons of this age means like the people of this time or the people of this world.

And that doesn't seem to be a phrase that is ever used in the Bible to mean like God's people.

So I think he's saying the sons of this age, just regular old people on this

earth, they don't know God yet.

They are more astute. They are more shrewd. They are more clever when it comes

to their business dealings and figuring out how to leverage the now for the

later, sometimes more so even than Christians are when they're trying to think

about how to handle all of eternity.

That's what I think he's saying here. The sons of this age, people of this world,

are more astute than the sons of light. What does sons of light mean?

I think that's Christians. I think those are believers in God,

people that trust in God. You know, he is the light of the world.

We are to be the light of the world.

The sons of light. So the sons of this age are more astute. They're more smart.

They're more clever sometimes than even Christians are when it comes to thinking

about how right now affects then.

And that is true, right? I think there are times where people in this world,

when it comes to their business dealing, they are really good at thinking through

what's going to happen next a lot better than Christians are at thinking about

what will happen forever.

Um, this is something you see, like in the story, it's an unrighteous manager,

but I think this is something you do see in the world.

Like there, there really are people who don't, don't believe in God and they

have figured out how to capitalize on now for them, how to leverage this thing

that I have temporarily in order to make a difference in the longterm.

Um, one that I was thinking about it. And I, one example that I thought of in

our culture that I think happens is when someone becomes like the prime minister

of a country or the president of a country or the governor of a state,

a lot of times what will happen is they will,

you know, do their job for however many years and then one day the job is done, okay?

Whether they got voted out of office or the term limits or whatever.

But they get to the end and they're at like the last week of their governorship, right?

And so next week they're not going to have a job, right? They're going to be out of that job.

And what do they do with that last week while they're still in office? Anybody know?

Yeah, pardons. Isn't that interesting? So they have this power to pardon.

And it's a power that they had the whole time. Okay?

They could have pardoned whatever people that they pardoned on that last week

of their administration. They could have done it the whole time.

And I think the reason that they waited to the last week of their administration

is because it doesn't cost them much then. Okay?

Like throughout their administration, there would have been a political cost

to it, but in the final week, it's like, well, I'm not even going to be the governor next month.

This is not going to cost me like it would have earlier.

And so they go for it. And I would imagine in some cases, people that have the

power to issue pardons, issue pardons for good reasons, like reasons of justice.

I would imagine there are probably times where there's been someone who at the

end of their administration, they looked into it, they researched it,

and they said, ooh, this is a wrong that needs to be righted.

This was an unfair verdict that needs to be overturned.

But I would imagine there probably have been some times where someone also issued

some pardons so that they would have some favors that are owed to them when

they're not the governor anymore.

Because if I pardon this guy's nephew, and if I pardon this guy's brother,

and if I do this and this, there's going to be a bunch of rich people out there

that are going to owe me something when my time here is done.

Now, maybe I'm cynical. Maybe that has never happened in the history of American politics.

I can't prove it. maybe it's never happened.

But I'm skeptical enough that I just, I think sometimes maybe it has.

And if that's true, then I think what Jesus is saying here is right and it applies

to more than just this one story.

Yeah, the sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light in dealing with their own people.

Like there are all sorts of people that figured out I got a little bit of limited

something and I can make a difference long term with this if I play my cards right.

And i think he's saying that's what people do with their with their with their stuff

in this life even better i think than sometimes god's people do in light of

all eternity and you say well how do you know he's talking about god's people

in light of all eternity well because of what he says next look at the next

thing he says after he says then the sons of light and dealing with their own

people he says and i tell you this is jesus talking to whoever's there listening I tell you,

make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it

fails, they may welcome you into, what's the word? Eternal dwellings.

So Jesus says, I tell you, make friends for yourself.

Now, the dishonest manager, that's what he did in the story,

right? He made friends with the wheat guy and the olive oil guy.

By means of the unrighteous money, that's what he did, so that when it fails,

when he lost his job, he was welcomed into their homes. And then Jesus says,

here's the moral of the story.

Here's what I want you to do. I want you to make friends for yourselves by means

of the unrighteous money.

I think he's referring to the worldly wealth we have in this world,

the monopoly dollars that we're all using.

Of the unrighteous money so that when it fails, like when you die,

you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Wait, so you're saying Jesus told this whole story about this guy who was dishonest,

and he tricked the guy, and he did this whole scheme, and then Jesus said, be like that guy?

Yeah. But this is what's great. Again, this is why they're like,

we're not putting that in Sunday school. Okay?

But here's the thing. I don't think Jesus was saying, be like that guy in every

imaginable way, including his dishonesty, right?

That you are supposed to imitate his dishonesty in this life.

No, I think he's saying, you need to be like the unrighteous manager in one particular way.

I want you to be forward thinking like he was. I want you to be able to think

about how does now affect them?

How does now affect the future? How does now affect these people?

How does now affect then?

And then you say, that's the way that I want you to imitate the unrighteous man.

No, you're not supposed to be dishonest. I think the things that Jesus said

and the rest of his life make it very clear. He's not saying be dishonest.

He's saying, I want you to imitate this guy in one way. Make friends for yourselves.

Use this money that you're not going to have access to for very long.

So that when it fails, and it will fail, you can ask the rich fool.

He will tell you it failed.

And they'll welcome you to internal dwellings. You want to make a difference

in the long term with this.

You want people to go like, well, I'm so glad you're here. I'm here because

you're here, right? You want them to welcome you into eternal dwellings.

Are you sure he's saying that? Well, let's keep reading. He keeps talking about it.

He says, so they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. Verse 10,

whoever is faithful and very little is also faithful and much.

And whoever is unrighteous and very little is also unrighteous and much.

Right? So we want to have someone who is a good steward because it'll make a difference later.

Verse 11, so if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous money,

who will trust you with what is genuine?

He's saying, if you've not been faithful with, again, I think he's talking about

the money we have in this earth, worldly wealth.

If you can't handle that, then who is going to ever one day give you like real treasure?

And then he goes on and he says it another way, verse 12. And if you have not

been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?

Right? We as Christians recognize like we are stewards over God's stuff.

And he's saying, if you're not going to be faithful with the stuff that I have

loaned to you, that's not even your stuff. You don't even get to hang on to it long term.

If you're not gonna be faithful with what belongs to someone else who will give

you what is your own why would you be given treasures that you get to hang on

to forever if you won't even handle my stuff the way I'm asking you to handle

it right now in this temporary it's my stuff.

If you've not been faithful to what belongs to someone else,

who will give you what is your own? And then the next verse,

verse 13, he says, No household slave can be the slave of two masters,

since either he will hate one

and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot be slaves to both God and money.

And at this point, you can see he is teaching a spiritual truth that is in line

with all the other stuff he said.

He's saying, you're either going to serve money or you're going to serve God.

It's not going to be able to be both.

And the fact that he's telling you you should serve God rather than money,

then it's obviously he's not saying so when it comes to money be as dishonest

as possible to get as much as you can. That's not the part that you're supposed to imitate.

He's saying no, don't serve money. Serve God, the permanent one rather than serving money.

That's the point. This is a spiritual. So in other words, Jesus is not teaching

people how to like ruin their employers on the way out, right?

That's not what the parable's for.

This is a spiritual truth about how to handle God.

And so he's saying use the temporary money you have in this world so that you'll

be welcomed in eternal dwellings.

Use the money that God has given you temporary access to right now in such a

way that it would lead to that which is genuine.

That's what he said after he taught the parable.

So I could be wrong, but I think the principle here is,

just like the dishonest manager used his temporary access to his master's money

to set himself up for the next life or to set himself up for the next stage of life, So too,

the sons of light should use their temporary access to their master's money,

God, to lay up treasures and relationships in heaven for the benefit of all of eternity.

Well, how do you do that? How do you lay up treasures and relationships in heaven

for the benefit of all of eternity?

Well, let me show you some things. Let's talk about treasures first.

1 Timothy chapter 6 addresses this, so I want to read it to you.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

There's multiple places in the Bible that address this. Let me show you one of them.

1 Timothy chapter 6, starting in verse 17, says, instruct those who are rich

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

in the present age, right?

So that's people who have a lot of our monopoly dollars, right?

In this age, they got a lot of stuff.

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant, right?

Like halfway through the monopoly game, you're not supposed to be like,

oh, look what I got. Like it's just a game, right? So don't be arrogant.

Don't act like that makes you something special. And he said,

or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth.

See how consistent the Bible is? Wealth is uncertain in this verse, right?

Wealth is uncertain everywhere. That's the point of the parable of the rich fool.

He had a bigger barn with all this stuff, and the next day he had nothing.

Wealth is completely uncertain.

So he says, tell the rich people to not set their hope on the uncertainty of

wealth, but on God, right?

The permanent one who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.

Instruct them, that's the people that have money, to do good,

to be rich in good works, to be generous, to be willing to share, right?

These are all things that in other places of the Bible, it tells us like this

is what God wants us to do with his money.

Be rich in good works, be generous, be willing to share. Why?

Why are we doing what God wants us with this money? Why are we doing this stuff with it?

It said, look, it says, do all this storing up for themselves, right?

So instruct the rich people to be rich in good works, be generous,

be willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the age to come.

That could also be translated reserve, storing up for themselves a reserve for

the age to come so that they may take a hold of life that is real.

I don't even know if I fully understand this passage, but there seems to be

something about using your money the way that God tells you to use it in this

present age that has an effect on the age to come.

There's a way to use your treasure here that affects your treasure there.

And you may go, okay, well, you found a passage that says that,

but that's weird, and you don't even know for sure.

You don't know what that passage means. and you just found a thing.

No, no, this is taught all over the Bible.

Let me show you a place where Jesus said something very similar to this.

This is Matthew chapter six, verses 19 through 20. These are actually very well-known words of Jesus.

Jesus said, don't collect for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust

destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Are you seeing the pattern here? Like it's temporary, it doesn't last.

But collect for yourselves treasures in what? Heaven, where neither moth nor

rust destroys and where thieves don't break in and steal.

That's the permanent stuff, right? That's the genuine treasure.

Collect for yourselves treasures in heaven.

So again, there is some way to live where you are setting up for treasure there rather than here.

So multiple places in the Bible imply that one reason to use your wealth for

God's will is because your actions right now are somehow connected to eternal rewards.

One last thing I want to say about this topic is I said that we should lay up

treasures and relationships in heaven for the benefit of eternity.

And so I want to just briefly address lay up eternal relationships and what I mean by that.

I don't have a Bible verse for this next part, so you can accept it or reject it. It's up to you.

But this is something that I think at some point someone pointed out to me,

and I thought about the logic of it and what the Bible teaches,

and I thought, oh yeah, that's obviously true. So I'm going to share it with you.

If stuff cannot make the trip from

earth to heaven which that

part's true right like this you can't take it with you even people outside of

church they say that like oh you can't take it with you right you can't and

the parable of the rich fool makes that very clear right he built a bigger barn

for the extra stuff and did he get to take the bigger barn with him no god said

you're gonna leave all that behind it's gonna belong to someone else you don't

get to take any of the stuff with you.

Okay, so if the stuff of this earth doesn't, it can't make the trip from earth

to heaven, but people can make the trip from earth to heaven.

Do you see where I'm going with this? If stuff can't make the trip from earth

to heaven, but people can make the trip from earth to heaven,

which that's true, right? The Bible talks about people going to heaven.

Well, then it would not be a bad idea for me to use my worldly possessions to

evangelize people and to disciple people and to introduce people to Jesus and

to teach people about Jesus.

That way I can transfer that which is temporary and I can't hang on to it anyway

into something which is eternal.

So let me give you one more illustration. This is from the book,

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn.

This is a fantastic book. It's one of my favorite books. We've given away hundreds

of copies of this book over the course of Good News Church. I only have this copy with me today.

But if you go on Amazon and buy it, it is worth it. It's a very good book.

It used to be like $5.99. Now there's inflation happened, so it's probably like $29.99.

But whatever it is on Amazon, it's worth it. I'm telling you,

it's a very good book. If you've never read a book on what the Bible says about

money, this is a very good one.

Okay, I'm going to read to you from page 13.

He says this. He says, imagine that you're alive at the end of the Civil War.

You're living in the South, but you're a Northerner. You plan to move home as soon as the war is over.

While in the South, you've accumulated lots of Confederate currency.

Now, suppose you know for a fact that the North is going to win the war and the end is imminent.

What will you do? with your Confederate money? If you're smart,

there's only one answer.

You should immediately cash in your Confederate currency for U.S.

Currency, the only money that will have value once the war is over.

Keep only enough Confederate currency to meet your short-term needs.

As a Christian, you have inside knowledge of an eventual worldwide upheaval

caused by Christ's return.

This is the ultimate insider trading tip.

Earth's currency will become worthless when Christ returns or when you die, whichever comes first.

And either event could happen at any time.

And then later on he says, there's nothing wrong with Confederate money as long

as you understand its limits.

Realizing its value is temporary should radically affect your investment strategy.

To accumulate vast earthly treasures that you can't possibly hold onto for long

is equivalent to stockpiling Confederate money even though you know it's about to become worthless.

So as I see it, the modern American problem when it comes to money is that we

live in a culture where most everyone around us acts like the war is never going to end.

We live in a society where the majority of people that surround us and the things

they say and the actions that they do, they act like the currency that we have

will always be valuable.

Like we live in a world where it seems like most of the people around us,

they are not acting like in a few hours, we're going to have to all put it all back in the box.

So what do we do? What's the application for this sermon, Mario?

What do we do with this information?

Well, I would say let's look at what Jesus said at the end of these two parables

if we want to come up with an application.

What did Jesus say? He said the parable and then he said something after the

parable each time. So let's look at the first parable, the parable of the rich fool.

After he told the parable, Jesus said to be rich towards God.

That's what he said to do with money, be rich towards God. I mean,

he said in the negative, he said this guy who lost everything was because he

was not rich toward God. Implication, be rich towards God.

The second parable, the parable of the dishonest manager, Jesus said,

make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it

fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.

So the application is be generous toward God's agenda.

Be generous to your church. Be generous to the poor.

Be generous to missionaries. Be generous to efforts of evangelism and discipleship.

And one last thought I want to leave you with. Realize that once you convert

cash to an object, you are still supposed to use that object for God.

This is something I want to tag on to the end because I think it's a big deal.

Christians sometimes do not get this and it's weird. We will come along and

you'll hear a sermon like this and you'll go like, okay, okay.

My money belongs to God. I got to use my money for God. Okay.

Some of you have been taught 10% of your money needs to go to God.

And then 90% of it needs, I guess you can use it on whatever you want.

Okay. I don't even believe that. Just so you know, I don't believe the Bible teaches that.

So let's say you're someone that comes along and go, okay. All of my money is

from God. I'm supposed to use all of it for his glory and his will. Okay.

So that, so this is, so people get that. They go, okay. So my cash is God's

got to use it for God. Got it.

And then they take some of it and they exchange it for a dining room table.

They take some of it and they buy a car. They take some of their money and they

build a back porch on the back of their house. And this is the mistake.

They go, okay, when it's money, it's God's, right?

But then I exchanged it for a dining room table and now it's my dining room table.

It's God's dining room table. If you used God's cash to buy a dining room table,

then it's God's dining room table, which means the people you feed at that table,

that's supposed to be for God's will.

And the conversations that you

have over that table are supposed to be for God's agenda in this world.

And the car that you bought, not your car, right?

If it was God's cash and then you bought a car with it, it's now God's car for

you to use the way God wants you to use it in his world while you're breathing his air.

And the back porch isn't your back porch to do whatever you want with.

It's your back porch to do whatever God wants you to do when you factor in what

his agenda is for this world.

It's not all the cash is his and all the stuff is ours.

It's everything's his. All your stuff is his.

So use all of your stuff as much as you can for God until you have to put it back in the box.

Let's pray.

Dear lord i know that a message like this is going to hit us all different ways,

we got people here who value you more than money and they were singing that

song earlier about i'd rather have jesus than silver or gold and this just resonates

with them we've got people here who are spenders and and they're concerned about

oh i'm using all my money on myself and i don't want to be like the rich fool

we got people in here who are savers and we're like putting putting more money

away and well how do i know how much is the right amount,

we've got people here who donate and people who don't people who are wanting

should there be more I'm just sure there's all sorts of stuff that swirls around in our mind.

I thank you for the message that you gave us today, particularly these two parables.

And I pray that you would alter our thinking so that we would factor in what

you have said about wealth and eternity and then live in that way.

I pray you'd help us to be rich toward you. I pray you'd help us to win friends

for ourselves that will welcome us into eternal dwellings.

I pray you'd help us to use this life so that we would be investing in that

which is genuine and eternal.

I pray you'd help us to fight against the love of money. I pray you'd help us

to fight against greed and materialism.

I pray that we would live the way you want us to live with our money,

thinking through, well, this is something that God wants me to do,

and this is somebody that I can help with it.

I pray that you'd help us to use our stuff, not just our cash, but our stuff for you.

And I thank you for your grace. I thank you that we don't, like you didn't give

us all this money, so we take it and then we somehow try to figure out a way

to earn a right relationship with you.

That we have a relationship with you by grace and you've given us all that we have.

And so we are to use what you have given us as best as we can in light of all of eternity.

And so we love you and we thank you for that and we thank you for being worthy

of everything. and I just pray that you would, like for us as a church,

that you would mold or form our thinking to match the way you think about stuff.

That we may live astutely for you.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.