Serving the True Master Luke 16:1-13

Well, good morning, and it's good to see your smiling faces out there glad to see that some of you got up with the chickens this morning as We got up an hour earlier or lost an hour of sleep.

I might say and I would vote for Not doing this the next year, you know, they say they keep wanting to put it for a vote

I might go with let's don't do this again Especially this morning right

I would vote this morning that way well, it's good to see each one of you here and take a minute if you have your bulletins and just glance at the

Announcements and this coming Saturday our ladies Bible study At 10 a .m.

They're in second Kings chapter 2 second

Kings chapter 2 and Our missionary of the month is John and Becky Knox.

You see a nice picture of their family here and They are missionaries in Japan They've been there quite a few years very tough ministry in Japan because a lot of people work seven days a week there, too so even the people setting aside a time for service and so forth is very tough and where people leave

Buddhism and so forth then there's conflict with family as you can imagine We have been studying in the book of a prayer

Praying and one of the things that those of you that were At the Wednesday night or listen to it talked about when you up front here you need to think about what you're going to pray and It's not

Too much for an old man to learn to pray yet, right? and so I've been thinking a lot about that, so let's go to the

Lord in prayer and Let's ask him for his blessing this morning

Our Heavenly Father and our God we come to you as a body of believers and We just thank you dear

Lord that you are Holy and a righteous and a just God You have been so faithful to us as a church and even an answered prayer that we've seen this week

We pray that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in and through us who have heard and Believe and received your gospel

We are thankful for the salvation that God has freely given through his spirit to us and to those who believe as We look around us in our society

Lord, we are so troubled to see the lawlessness that is Coming up so strongly

Most of it against your laws Lord May your Holy Spirit who dwells in us

Us who believe May we be a restraining force against Satan and this lawlessness

May you Lord strengthen and establish us and guard us from the evil one and those

His emissaries working so hard against all that is of God We pray also for the ungodly all around us and many of them are our loved ones and our friends

We pray that they may come to the knowledge of the truth that they have been that they might be saved

We also would pray for our leaders both of our country of our state and of our city and If as you have said in your word, we would pray

Heavenly Father for peace for us Even though we're believers We see a lot rising up against all that is

Christian and all that is God and we would pray Heavenly Father That you would provide men even in these new elections that would desire for peace and not conflict

We do pray for our missionaries Especially John and Becky Knox this week as they minister there in Japan and we uphold them before you we would pray that you would give them the strength to continue on in that ministry and as they think of retiring from the ministry and The rest of life we pray that you would give them constant

Guidance through all of this and we would thank you and we do pray for everyone here at Faith Bible Church Even as we have come together as a body of believers.

We come before you and realize that all that we have comes from you all that we are depend on you pray that as we sing and as The message is presented today that it might be glorifying to you

Speak to each one of our hearts and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus name. Amen and Stand together with me if you would as we sing to God be the glory

Jesus Oh Oh Good morning

So today I'm gonna be reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9

Here Oh Israel the

Lord our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and These words which

I command you today shall be in your heart You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house

When you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates

Thank the Lord for his word Please turn with me to Luke chapter 16

Verses 1 through 13 Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 16.

I think it's a blessing when you get to hear the children of our children the sound of our children and Even just interacting with the service

Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 13 He also said to his disciples

There was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods

So he called him and said to him. What is this? I hear about you give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward

Then the steward said within himself. What shall I do for my master is taking the stewardship away from me.

I Cannot dig I am ashamed to beg I Have resolved what to do that when

I am put out of the stewardship. They may receive me into their houses So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first.

How much do you owe my master and He said a hundred measures of oil So he said to him take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50

Then he said to another and how much do you owe so he said a hundred measures of wheat and He said to him take your bill and write 80

So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly for the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light and I say to you make friends for yourselves by unrighteous

Mammon that when you fail they may receive you into an everlasting home

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much and he who is unjust in what is least is also unjust also in much

Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust

The true riches and if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own?

No servant can serve two masters For either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other

You cannot serve God and mammon. This is the Word of the Lord Let us pray

Gracious father we are grateful that you do hear our prayers and We're grateful that you have

Shaped and transformed this church over the decades that it's existed to Commune with you through prayer and we're grateful for all those here

Who love talking to you who consistently? pray to you and we're grateful to hear that you have answered one of our more recent prayers and I confess it is still unbelievable

That such an answer would happen so quickly And we pray that you would continue to Work in our hearts to transform our personal prayer lives

Not for the answers we will get but for The person that we get to talk to Help us to make our personal prayer lives about our personal relationship with your son

Jesus Christ and May your spirit work in all of our hearts to become more like Jesus We pray that you would help us to understand your word and live it out faithfully in Jesus name we pray

Amen This parable is perhaps

One of the more confusing parables in this book and that's because the main character of the parable is a dishonest steward and both the master and Jesus Command what

This on this dishonest steward has done Now the key theme today for this whole passage is on stewardship

What we need to remember is that everything that we own everything that we touch everything that is in our lives is

There because God has given it to us on a loan in the end your paycheck

Your house your car, although you paid for it They're all in your lives because God graciously loaned them to us and This does not just include the financial aspect of your lives, but even people children babies grown up children

They were never yours to begin with They're on a loan from God we have certain amount of years to raise them into a godly man and women of Christ and really the key goal in our lives whether it's stuff or People We are called to be great stewards

We are to take them and faithfully

Invest and nurture and care for what God has given to us and today

This text shows us what we do with what we have and who we have in our lives matter

We're not to take them lightly So the main question that we have this morning is how do

Christians serve their true master How do Christians serve their true?

master First Christians must wisely assess and actively prepare for their future life

Christians must wisely assess and actively prepare for their future life After addressing the religious establishment

The Pharisees and the scribes Jesus tells a parable to teach his disciples The first two verses set the context of the parable

There was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this

Steward was wasting his goods Here we have two characters a rich man and a steward a

Steward would have been the manager or an administrator of the wealthy man's estate

Nowadays, we might not be familiar with having a personal steward, but for some of you who have a financial advisor

That's something similar. There is someone whom you hire to take care of What you own?

so that it is carefully invested and produces fruit

That's what a steward supposed to do The problem with this steward is that he is squandering the master's wealth

Now what does the master do when he finds out about his stewards incompetence or Actually just flat -out immorality

So he called him and said to him what is this I hear about you Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be a steward

The master immediately fires the squandering steward the master demands all the records so he

May take a look at it himself Thus the steward faces a personal dilemma

Then the steward said within himself What shall I do for my master is taking the stewardship away from me.

I cannot dig and I'm ashamed to beg This is a problem for the steward because he will no longer be allowed to Really live in his master's estate and his income source has been just cut off Digging here represents a manually taxing job in fact in ancient

Israel digging would have been one of the most difficult physical labor job you could take up and The problem for this man is he's not able to do that and He's not he's too ashamed to beg on the street

Because imagine he just had a white -collar job And he just lost it

And there's no way he's going to get it back so he's He's either gonna be out on the street physically doing really laborious labor

Or he has to beg Because he can't physically do that Those are the seemingly two choices he has left in verse 4 he thinks of a solution

I Have resolved what to do That when

I'm put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses This solution takes place right before he officially loses his position

At first it is unclear who they who they are who are they that they would welcome him into their houses

But we will see who they are in verse 5 and they're in fact his former masters business associates

The steward here devises an intricate plan to network and gain favor for his future life few for his future endeavors before it's too late and Verses 5 to 7 show the stewards solution in action

So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first how much do you owe my master?

Here the question is a bit redundant because if you're the steward you have the record

You know how much he owes Now this is not because the steward does not know

After all right the record books in front of him but it is for the emphasis of What will happen and the appreciation that will follow soon when the steward decreases the debt?

He is having the business associates say out loud how much is owed so that when it goes down The effect the impact is greater the first fellow owes 100 measures of oil and we

Probably think it's olive oil very common form of oil

That was very precious One measure also known as one bath some translations might have one bath of oil

Would have been about eight point seven five gallons That's a lot of oil for just even one measure of it now this debtor owes hundred times of that Hundred measures would have been eight hundred seventy five gallons of olive oil this would have been

Quite expensive You would have needed a whole grove of olive trees just to produce that much oil

Not only that the cost of Buying up that oil would have been about 1 ,000 denarii

Which is a Roman currency one denarius being one full day of labor for a common worker what that means is

All of the oil to pay back would have equaled about three years of labor

Three years of labor that would have been That would have been a ridiculous amount to pay back all at once and This also shows that the debtors themselves are wealthy businessmen

After all the master would not have lent such an enormous amount of wealth unless he believed that they could pay back

Right you don't give out that kind of loan to just anyone they gotta have the credit and the backing to pay back

So the steward then shows a great favor to this man take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50

Out of nowhere the debtor is freed of half of the burden It is clear what the steward is doing here.

He is showing favor to his future potential employers

Right after he loses his job He will have a bunch of grateful friends who would gladly invite him into their estate to work.

Oh Yeah, you're that guy who? Who cut my debt in half? Just live with us

The steward continues to the next debtor and then he said to another and how much do you owe? And he said a hundred measures of wheat

This time the debtor owes a different agricultural product a hundred measures or course depending on your translation cores of wheat would have been

One measure of wheat would have been about 400 liters of wheat What that means if you have if you owe hundred measures of wheat

It would have taken about at least a hundred acre of land to produce that much wheat to pay back

Easily eight to ten years of salary And he said to them take your bail take your bill and write 80

Just like before he gives this debtor a massive discount I know 20 % doesn't sound a lot compared to 50 % but the debt is so much greater than the last one and for some of us

It's equivalent to getting a 20 % off of your housing price right Verse 8 gives us the response from the master when he finds out about what the steward has done

So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly

This is the difficult part to understand the master instead of suing the steward or putting him in the debtors prison

Praises him praises the steward for his shrewdness Shrewdness shows that the steward had prudence had the prudence to prepare for his future

The steward had the foresight to be extremely generous to others

So that his future would be secure. That's the shrewdness So the praise here is not based upon his work ethics morality

Integrity that's that's not the proof. That's not what the praise is about. The praise is about the shrewdness

It's about the foresight for to prepare for his own future through extreme means and measures

That's what the parables about The parable is not about pursue dishonesty just like the manager here it's about being shrewd with what you have in your life to prepare for the future and hence

Jesus ends the parable with the reason for the sons of this world are shrewder than in their generation than the sons of light the sons of this world are the

Unbelievers the ones who are not people the people of God and the sons of light are of course

God's people Again this is not an approval of dishonesty.

Jesus is not endorsing lying but rather a call to assess your future and actively

Preparing for what is coming like the steward Although dishonest the steward had the foresight to prepare for his future life

He was not idle and passively getting fired He actively assessed and pursued and invested in his future life before it is too late

In one sense the argument goes like this if the non -believers prepare for what's coming in Their future not the eschatological future, but that in their future lives livelihood

Through unrighteous means how much more proactively do believers need to prepare for their eschatological future lives

If a bad guy uses dishonest gains to make friends How much do God's people need to use their resources for the kingdom of God?

That's the point It's not pursue dishonesty but be shrewd

Use every mean possible to prepare for what's coming and For Christians our current lives what that means is are not the destination

For Christians everything in our current lives are To be used to prepare for our eternity with Jesus Just As the dishonest steward shrewdly did everything possible to prepare for his future

We must wisely use everything God has given us to prepare for his coming kingdom and that really means we need to consider how we are spending our time and Resources to better prepare us and others for the coming kingdom of God How far in the future do our financial decisions go is it just to the retirement or is it something beyond our death

Do our financial decisions even take into consideration of Not only our children, but our grandchildren and great -grandchildren

Not their financial security But their eternal security

Do we consider that not just through financial means but through spiritual means

Are they on our prayer list Or is that just their parents responsibility

Or do we only spend time and money to benefit us Personally, or do we consciously look for ways to prioritize others?

Right does it go beyond And are we wise about that after all we all have a limited time and money on earth

Are we wise about every minute and every dollar that passes in our lives and Do where's our priority here?

Now, how do we steward as we look ahead to our future eternal lives? Second we steward faithfully as we completely devote ourselves to God We steward faithfully as we completely devote ourselves to God verses 9 to 13 shows specific applications of Looking forward to our future with Christ by stewarding faithfully first.

It starts with how we relate to money And I say to you make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon

That when you fail, they may receive you in it to an everlasting home

On Righteous mammon here means money and mammon is actually the Aramaic word for money or possession or wealth

Unrighteous means the money is as you know often misused Right, we even consider money to be physically dirty.

So we wash our hands after touching it. That's because Oftentimes when money is used it's it's kind of dirty physically and morally

People often use it selfishly Now this does not mean money is inherently evil as If all the financial advisors in the world are evil and wicked or anyone who makes money

Is doing it through wicked means? After all Luke 19 will show us that the chief tax collector

Zacchaeus will bless others with his money that he's learned And Jesus praises him for that Now What Jesus is telling us is that if you are focused on your future life future life with him

You will use your money to benefit others So that even when you do run out of money your dependence is not on your current dwelling

But in your eternal home After all no matter how wealthy you are if you rely on your money you will fail

However, if your ultimate home your ultimate goal is your eternal dwelling with Christ You can freely use your money to generously bless others.

You're not enslaved to money You're not

Prioritizing money for yourselves money No longer becomes your goal, but a means by which you live faithfully

In fact faith Bible Church is

Possibly one of the most generous churches I've ever been a part of Brothers and sisters here consistently seek to bless the church and other

Christian ministries Whenever one of our missionaries visit they only have praises

For how they've been treated Financially spiritually emotionally relationally, they're just tremendously blessed

Not just missionaries even visitors from out of state out of the city who normally don't come we've had a couple of Visitors from out of town and they all commit

Commend this church for its stewardship Not just financially, of course, they wouldn't know but relationally

How deeply interested and how deeply caring and nurturing this church is in fact when when

Lauren and I first visited in 2021 spring and Mind you we didn't make the decision to commit to this church

Um We've been So welcomed that when we landed at the airport we started to miss it

Not only that this church is extremely generous in their giving for a church this size

To fund the number of missionaries and ministries that are here that go on here and maintain this building

It's only done by the generous giving of the brothers and sisters here

And we we really praise God every time we meet as leaders Once a month that how this could be possible

And that is through the faithful giving of the brothers and sisters here

And I I personally don't know who's giving how much that's not my Job and that's to the trip.

That's the job of the treasurer But the fact that this church is still standing

Is a testament to your faithfulness and God's faithfulness through you

It only occurs because Brothers and sisters here have something other than their personal finances in mind

It's because their focus is far beyond into the future There they care more for their own

Current earthly come they care more for their future heavenly home rather than their current earthly comfort and Because their true treasure is their

Savior who generously gave his life for them They long to lavish what they have on to others

And I think that describes this church very accurately Now from our financial stewardship

Jesus shows the proper character proper attribute virtue in verse 10 to 12

Verse 10 shows the importance of faithfulness in all matters He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much

And he who is unjust in what is least is all unjust also in much

What he's saying is those whose minds are fixated on their future home in heaven what

God is doing God's kingdom they are faithful in even the smallest things

Yet the opposite is also true those who are self focused and self selfish in the smallest things are also

Selfish and self focus in the large things and verses 11 to 12 illustrate this

Therefore if you have not been faithful in your unrighteous mammon who will commit your trust to the true riches and If you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own?

These rhetorical questions emphasize how we relate to money now

Determines our future heavenly roles The little thing that these two verses talk about is actually money the money that you have right now

How we faithfully steward our money now reveals what kind of Responsibility we will be given at the coming of Jesus kingdom and It's rather odd to think about we don't really think about having roles in God's kingdom

But it is a kingdom It's not like people stop working

It's just that when they do work It is untainted by sin and it's extremely

Fulfilling There are no cases on Monday, that's why you get to look forward to now when

Jesus Comes back. He will give you heavenly riches and appoint you to heavenly services

Again hard to describe what that would look like But what determines if someone receives more or less is how they have been faithful over the little things and In this case, it's money

Oftentimes it seems like money is everything Seems like a lot of the arguments or our worries tend to be because we lack

But what Jesus is saying? It's how you interact with these little things now that will determine

Or the bigger things are distributed Your stewardship of your current earthly wealth will determine your future role in the heavenly realm

How you manage God's funds now will determine your services in the future kingdom

This means there are some of you whose net worth may be a fraction of that of millionaire and billionaire

Christians Who will be honored with more important services in this kingdom because you have stewarded even the littlest things more faithfully

It's about the faithfulness Not about the amount of money that's given if you're faithful with the little that you have

Jesus will take note of that and It will have an impact in your eternal dwelling

It is not to say that you're saved by how you manage your funds

You're saved through Jesus Christ and faith in his death and resurrection alone It's that what service you will have in his kingdom will be determined by How well you have stewarded?

his funds And again,

I cannot speak much regarding this future heavenly rewards. I Too like you have like you have not seen it.

I'm still alive with you But this all this could mean that we might see some famous wealthy megachurch pastors

Who may have to report to an unknown widow who were faithful with just a few pennies

That's what it could look like yes, but but but he wrote all these books well, where did the

Where did the fun go after that All because they were faithful with the little that God has given

God will entrust them with more because they have a track record of being faithful Ultimately how we steward what we have been given reveals our true allegiance to the true master

No servant can serve two masters For either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other

You cannot serve God and mammon Mammon here again is the personified

Being of money you cannot serve money and God at the same time in the end if our ultimate trust is in our possessions

We will ultimately distrust God We cannot possibly worship both

God and money We must choose which master we are willing to serve And that means how we view our wealth is a sign.

It's an external expression of how we view God If your wealth is your number one priority then

God Becomes your personal servant to increase your possessions and That's really what the prosperity gospel church is all about you tithe in order to receive more

You go to church in order to receive more financially

All of a sudden you start wondering who is serving whom All of a sudden

God is the personal genie serving your bank account However, if your view of money is a means to serve

God's kingdom, then your master is God And every

Christian when asked will vehemently agree that They're serving my God not money, right?

No, I'm serving God not money But here are a couple of questions to reflect on To see whom the true master is and These questions apply universally

Because serving money instead of God does not apply just to the rich You can be serving money even when you're poor

Greed is not a sin that's just reserved for the rich You can be just as equally greedy when you don't have it when you don't have the money

Idolatry of wealth is not limited to just those who have it first What emotions do you experience when you lack money?

This question is important because Everyone will be at peace if you don't like money at that moment.

But what emotion do you experience when you don't have it? It's not about the peace that you experience when there's plenty

But what you feel when there's a lack and if anxiety comes

That may be a sign that your priorities are not straight because anxiety is a fear of a potential future

Anxiety is based upon something that hasn't happened yet. And when there's a lack

You start to feel anxious about how you're going to pay for the groceries How are you going to pay for the next meal?

It's about the potential future if not having money makes you anxious and You believe that the lack of money is your future

Then you're not truly trusting that God will ultimately make ends meet It means that you're putting the lack of money

At a higher level than God's ability to provide and that's because There are a lot of people who do not have a lot but have a lot of faith in God Who will not feel anxious after looking at their bank statement?

and Some of you that might have been your personal case at some point For some of you that might be the personal case now

But what you might have experienced is that God provides

God provides through various means God provides even no one even if no one at this church knows it

Because he knows it and that's the only person who can provide and that's all that matters

Second What do you think about in your free time Ultimately your mind will frequent where your heart is

Your mind will jump to what your heart desires Does it linger to the amount that you may need to finally stop worrying about your finances

Does it linger to the next toy or next vacation that you're saving up for And I'm not saying don't enjoy those things

Don't enjoy. I'm not saying don't enjoy pleasures in life However, if what money can buy always fills your mind

You may be consistent the consistently thinking of the wrong master After all the servants mind must be filled with the will of his or her master

And really the question is how do we serve the right master? Right, if I just end here and say don't worry, don't don't worry about money that won't help

Because it all in the end the issue is the heart loyalty, where does your heart

Find comfort in where does your heart find trust in? And I'm here to tell you you have to consider which of the two masters is worthy of your allegiance

Consider their track record Has money ever let you down Has money ever abandoned you

Has money ever failed to bring what you thought would be Fulfilling And then consider

God Look towards scripture What is

God's track record like? Has he ever abandoned his people? Has he ever gone back on his promises?

Has he ever failed to bless his people? And Consider your own personal lives when you did experience the lack

Has God ever made you starve to death? Has God ever shown up too late?

How often did God deliver his people? from wars and enslavement and famines

And then we must consider their actions The worthy master

Cares for His servants That's what makes the master worthy of allegiance

Which one of them has died to have you? which one of them requires you to die to have it and We really need to look at the true master

Because the true master God Is not like any master that you will encounter on earth because oftentimes we think of master the word master

You think of harshness You think of strict? You think of unbearing you think of burdensome?

But how does Jesus describe himself? Mark 10 45

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many

Jesus is a one -of -a -kind Master who has come not to be served

Although worthy of our services but to serve And what does his service look like Well leading up to it he heals the lepers

He heals the blind He feeds the hungry He delivers the demoniacs

But most importantly the most important act of service that we see

Jesus is Explained in the last part of verse 45 and to give his life as a ransom for many

Most earthly masters require you to give your lives for their pleasures

Historically slaves and servants have died for their masters Royal subjects have died in war to serve their kings and queens

That's not what this master requires This master did the opposite He died to have you

He died to redeem you he died so that he could pay

To free you so that you would belong to him That's the true master

And when you consider the nature and character of this compassionate merciful

Master who has done everything possible in his power To have you in his life

There's really no contest whom you're serving you have to serve

Jesus the true master Let us pray

Father we are grateful for Jesus that he is not harsh. He is not strict

He is he does not add extra burdens But rather instead he takes our burdens he takes our burden of sin he takes our guilt and shame and He bears it himself so that we may

Belong to him and serve him Help us to be faithful stewards in his household

Help us to consider all that we have Is just another opportunity

To praise our sweet Caring loving master who gave his life for us

Help us to love him and serve him and worship him and may our minds fill