Serving the True Master Luke 16:1-13

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 next year. 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 AM. They're in 2 Kings, chapter 2.

2 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 prayer, and praying, and one of the things that those of you that were at the Wednesday night or listened 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 a holy, and a righteous, and a just God. You have been so faithful to us as a church, and even in 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 might be saved. We also would pray for our leaders, both of our country, of our state, and of our city.

And 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.

The Shema and Teaching God’s Words to Children

Good morning. So today, I'm going to be reading from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. Here, O 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.

The Parable of the Unjust Steward in Luke 16

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 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 commanded 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 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 pay 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. You have certain amount of years to raise them into godly men 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's 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 steward's 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 am 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 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 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 four, 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 are. Who are they that they would welcome him into their houses? But we will see who they are in verse five. And they're, in fact, his former master's business associates.

The steward here devises an intricate plan to network and gain favor for his future life, for his future endeavors before it's too late. And verses five to seven show the steward's 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 book's 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 8 .75 gallons. That's a lot of oil for just even one measure of it. Now, this debtor owes 100 times of that.

100 measures would have been 875 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. Chapter 16. Three years of labor. 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. 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. 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 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, 100 measures of wheat. This time the debtor owes a different agricultural product.

100 measures or cores, 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 owe 100 measures of wheat, it would have taken about at least 100 acre of land to produce that much wheat to pay back.

Easily eight to 10 years of salary. And he said to them, 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 eight 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 debtor's 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 not what the praise is about.

The praise is about the shrewdness. It's about the foresight to prepare for his own future through extreme means and measures. That's what the parable's 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 in their generation than the sons of light.

The sons of this world are the unbelievers, the ones who are not 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 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's, 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?

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 where's our priority here?

Faithful Stewardship and Complete Devotion to God

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 nine to 13 show 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 into an everlasting home.

Unrighteous 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 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 earned. And Jesus praises him for that.

Now, what Jesus is telling us is that if you are focused on your 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 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 Lauren and I first visited in 2021 spring, and mind you, we didn't make the decision to commit to this church. 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 go on here and maintain this building, it's only done by the generous giving of the brothers and sisters here.

And 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 personally don't know who's giving how much, that's not my job, 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. They care more for their own current earthly, 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 onto 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 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 selfish in the smallest things are also selfish and self-focused 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 of Monday. That's why you get to look forward to.

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. It 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 where 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 his 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 not seen it. I'm still alive with you. But 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 he wrote all these books. Well, where did the fund 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 God, not money.

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 lack 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 through various means. God provides 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. I'm not saying don't enjoy pleasures in life. However, if what money can buy always fills your mind, you may be consistently thinking of the wrong master.

After all, the servant's mind must be filled with the will of his or her master. And really, the question is, how do we serve the right master? If I just end here and say don't worry about money, that won't help because 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 a 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? 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.

Jesus, the true master. Let us pray. Father, we are grateful for Jesus that he is not harsh. He is not strict. 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. Father, 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.