Spiritual Capitalism (part 2) - [Matthew 6:20-23]

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Spiritual Capitalism (part 3) - [Matthew 6:20-23]

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How do you know you're a Christian? If you were to die and stand before God today, he would ask you, what right do you have to come into my presence?
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What might you say? What proof do you have that you're a
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Christian? Maybe you might say, erroneously, I prayed a prayer a long time ago.
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My life was never changed, but at least I had some insurance for hell. Maybe you might say
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I signed a card in the back of a book or Bible that I was given. Maybe you'll have a good answer, like, my life, by the grace of God, was characterized by repentance.
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I was a repented person. God gave me repentance away from my sin and then unto
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Christ. Maybe you'll say I realize that what
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I used to believe in, I do not believe in anymore. My faith is in the work of another. I thought my works could save me.
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I thought my baptism could save me. I thought my helping my mother could save me. I thought if I didn't do anything really that bad, that might merit salvation.
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I'm now believing in the work of another, the work of Christ Jesus. His life, his death, his substitutionary atonement, his resurrection, his soon return.
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I'm banking in the work of another. How do you know you have eternal life?
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I could ask it another way. How do you know that you're living underneath the lordship of Christ?
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How do you know that you have allegiance to God, loyalty to God, unswerving commitment to God?
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How would we know that? Can you quantify faith? Certainly you can't see faith.
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I was on my bicycle yesterday. I could not see the wind, but I could feel the effects of the wind.
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Is there something in the Christian life that you could look at to say, what
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I do in this area shows evidence that I might be a Christian? Or what doesn't happen in this particular area might reveal that I'm not a
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Christian after all? And it's an important question because there is a faith that doesn't save.
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There's a counterfeit faith. There's a faith that says, I love Jesus, but they don't really love
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Jesus. Not with real love. Not with the two great commandments love. Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself.
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What do we look at in someone's life to say, this person gives allegiance to God?
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And the answer is, could be many things. But for this morning, through Jesus's words, the answer is, what do you do with your money?
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What do you do with your possessions? The material things that God has entrusted to you? Show me a
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Christian and I'll show you someone that has a different mindset regarding the things that they own, have, consume, and are stewards over.
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Show me someone that's not a Christian and their view will be completely opposite of the
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Christian's view. Jesus in Matthew chapter 6 gives a knockout blow to those who say,
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I love God, but I love money too. I've got two masters. You might have two bosses. Some of you work at Starbucks at night and EMC in the morning or something.
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You might have two bosses. But you can't have two masters. And when it comes to money and God, you can't worship both.
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When I was younger, I played on a basketball team and the ball went up and I was going to try to tip it in.
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My teammate shot it and he was missing it. So I was running full blast and a guy hit me in the middle there and I moved over and I just hit the ball up towards the rim and it went in.
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And I was so excited that it went in, in this crucial part of the game. I turned around. I almost got impaled by this drum thing.
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I turned around and I went like this. Yeah. There happened to be a really tall guy standing right here and I've never gotten a lot of fights in my life, but when
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I went like this, yeah, I hit him right underneath the chin and just go right down.
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That's exactly what Jesus does here to these Pharisees who he later termed as lovers of what?
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Money. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 6. This passage isn't directly about money.
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It's about discipleship, full discipleship, full throttle discipleship, an allegiance to God and a loyalty to him that Brooks know rivals.
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It can't be lukewarm discipleship. It can't be, well, I'm going to have a little spot reserved over here for my little gods.
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No, it is all or nothing when it comes to God and certainly we realize that Jesus was the only one that could live like that and we in Christ have lived that life because Jesus has lived it.
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God counts us as living that life, but when it comes to sanctification, we need to make sure that this idea of money and consuming things and what we have are used properly and making sure they don't use us.
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Jesus here in Matthew chapter 6 verse 19 through 24 deals with discipleship, really following Christ Jesus the
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Lord in a way that would please the Father, but he pulls out one of the most obvious bits of idol, excuse me, of idolatry that we have and that is money.
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He could have picked other things, but money is one of these issues that makes the best person fall and so Jesus wants to make sure that the heart is united to find out and to serve who this great
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God is and money has to be put in its place. As I said last week, there's nothing wrong with money, there's nothing wrong with rich Christians, there's nothing wrong with Job or Abraham or anyone else who has things, but it is wrong when these things have you.
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This passage is about true discipleship that tries to weed out this greedy materialistic tendency that all of us have.
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I know some business people that will say, you know, I want to be a great dad, a great husband and a great successful businessman or it's like the woman who says,
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I'm going to go to work and I'm going to have it all, I'm going to be a great mom, I'm going to be a great business lady. Friends, you can't have it all, something has to give and in this context, you can't have a full allegiance to Jesus and a full love for money, they cannot coexist, it's like oil and water.
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So Jesus is going to press the people and I'm going to try to press you with Jesus' words. You call yourself a Christian, you call yourself a disciple, prove it.
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I can do it this way since I know you will. You call yourself a Christian and a disciple, tell your checkbook.
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That's basically the point and I find it interesting. When Jesus talks about money, he never stops and takes an offering because it's never about the offering.
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Why do we have the offering today before the sermon? If I was going to manipulate you, I talk about money and then I take the offering, right?
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We have the offering before. By the way, if you say, here's another preacher, I'm a visitor today and here he is talking about money again.
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Well first of all, it's the next passage that we're preaching through but second of all, it's something we have to deal with and Jesus talks about money all the time, all the time.
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And we want to make sure we use money, we don't want it to use us. We want to be freed from the snare of bad thinking when it comes to money.
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After all, if we have a Father who's in heaven that has given us everything, who will take care of us, who's the best
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Father, who wants sincere worship, chapter 6, verses 1 to 18. Certainly, we ought not to trust in money, we can trust in this loving
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Father. Whatever you own, Jesus is going to say, it's God's. You are
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God's, Romans chapter 12, this living sacrifice and everything else you have. My father was a fanatic when it comes to engraving tools and he got one of these engraving tools, probably some
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Catel kind of Ronco kind of thing and you plug it in and you could engrave things. I'm telling you everything in our house.
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He died 20 years ago, but to this day, I still have things from his house that are engraved, L .A.
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Lee Abendroth. I've got a maglite that's got L .A. on it, Lee Abendroth, he owns it.
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I'd like to rivet into your mind this idea that what you have, what has been given to you,
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God owns and you're to be a good steward of it and to handle it properly and carefully so that idolatry doesn't sneak in.
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Let's read the passage, just at least three verses for this morning. Matthew chapter 6, verse 19 through 21, and again, the passage isn't primarily about money, it's about discipleship, but Jesus knows that money is a problem so he wants to get rid of that whole idea of trusting in something so foolish.
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Matthew 6, 19. If you have a red letter Bible, that just means that Jesus' words are used here.
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Do not store up for yourselves, verse 19, treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
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With almost the exact same English and exact same Greek, just a couple things changed, he says, verse 20, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal.
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For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Two thousand years later, Jim Elliot writes, before he was martyred by the
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Indians, remember he had a gun, he could have killed them, but he didn't want them to go to hell if he shot them.
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He knew if he died, he would go to heaven. Before he was speared, he said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
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He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And Jesus wants the kingdom people to live like disciples and children, not as orphans running around.
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And we learned last week what we ought not to do with the command from Christ. Look at verse 19, just a quick review.
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We think of the word yourself is really the key to unlock this verse, verse 19. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.
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He says, don't do it. If you're started, if you started, stop. If you are doing it, stop as well.
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Present tense prohibition, don't store up, don't treasure for yourself treasures. Why?
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Because it doesn't make sense. Moth eats your treasure, rust eats your treasure, thieves break in and take your treasure.
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When you have a security portfolio, it's not that secure. Life is more than things. Pharisees love money.
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Jesus says in chapter five, don't believe what the Pharisees believe. Chapter six, don't do what they do.
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They love money. I've never been to a 12 step group and nor do I care to ever go to one, but I can imagine we all go to some kind of setting like that and sit in a circle and you could stand up.
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So could I and say, I, my name is Mike Avondroth. I love money. I know I not, I ought not to love money.
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I know I shouldn't have anything to do with that love. But I have a tendency to do that.
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And Jesus as a good savior, as a good Lord deals with that issue. Practically, I didn't mention last week, if you'd like to store up on earth, let me give you a few practical hints to store up treasures on earth.
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Here's a practical way to store up treasures on earth. Give pocket change for the offering on Sunday morning.
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And if somebody catches you, quick, give it to your kids and then make everybody believe that it's the kids really giving their offering.
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If you'd like to store up treasures on earth and not in heaven, don't really give sacrificially, but argue a lot about, well, we're not really
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Israel and we're not under their tithe system. According to the Israel tithe, it was a theocracy and they give 10 % and another 10, another 3 around the corners of the field.
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It was another 1 .5 there. So really, if you'd like to give, according to the Bible, a New Testament tithe, it wouldn't be anything. But the Old Testament tithe is about 26 .4%.
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As a cloak to say, I don't give anything. I just like to argue about the percentages. Don't do that.
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Here's a way to treasure up treasures on earth. Don't give sacrificially to Jesus Christ or the local church until all your credit cards are paid off.
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You don't know how many people I run into that say, I'll start giving sacrificially when the credit cards are paid off.
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Friends, you're not thinking properly. It's the same wrong thinking that says this. I will give sacrificially after I've got enough money to send my kids to school.
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Really? That is exactly what Jesus is talking about. That kind of thinking that says,
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I don't know if I can trust the Father in the future, I don't know about that, and so I better hoard up what
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I have now. If you want to store up treasure on earth, you say something like this.
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When my kids move out of school, and when I get that raise next year, then
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I give sacrificially. It's okay to have, it's okay to save, it's okay to plan.
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You should have enough money so that when you're older, you don't burden other people. You should have enough money so when you're older, you can help other people.
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But Jesus says, don't treasure up treasures only on earth.
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I think one of the best things you could do if you'd like to cure yourself of this is you ought to go to funerals and cemeteries a lot.
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And if there's an open casket, go straight up to the open casket. I like to take my kids to funerals, because it's good.
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Solomon said, you want to learn wisdom? Go to a funeral, go to a cemetery. When Luke and I ride bikes, we always happen to drive through the cemetery.
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And Luke is 12, and I like to find tombstones of 12 -year -olds that say 1980 to 1992, and when you know you're going to die, your money that you have is going to have a net worth of zero when you die for you.
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It might be for your kids. I call this Y2K Christianity.
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Twice in the last couple weeks, I've been on the radio show filling in for Tom. People have called and said, post -trib is the right eschatology.
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We ought to save up and hoard up. Things are going to get a horrible hoard and save, and Y2K Christianity.
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Now, some of us have learned from our mistakes. 1999, 2000, that was the stupidest thing
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I ever saw in a local church, people running around hoarding things for Y2K, gas cans and gas.
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One guy told me, we aren't even going to be able to make a pencil in the future because of our technology. Better get guns and ammo might be really good too.
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In case some other Christian might need one, you can fend them off. Hunker down, it's all for us.
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We're the church body for a reason. And Jesus knows that's exactly what we will do. Left to ourselves, we will be
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Y2K Christians. He says, you don't own anything, number one, it's all God's. And number two, don't you have a father?
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You don't have to hunker down when the God of the universe is your father. And then he says positively, verse 20.
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First, he says, don't do something. That's just the way Jesus teaches very often. Don't do and then do.
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And he says in verse 20, do treasure up for yourselves, treasure in heaven.
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For the outline this morning, let me give you several resolutions that I think you should have so that you can have an eye towards obeying this by the
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Spirit's grace and power. Resolutions, like Jonathan Edwards had those 70 resolutions in the 1700s.
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Let me give you several resolutions that will help you understand this text better and also apply it to your conscience a little bit so that you will think about treasuring up treasures in heaven.
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Resolution number one, are you ready? Don't be duped into thinking your goal should be your best life now.
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Resolution, Mike, I'm resolved that I'm not going to be duped into thinking that I should have my best life now.
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Sound familiar? 20 million people thought it was very familiar, your best life now. There is a heaven.
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Your best life isn't now. Unless you're an unbeliever, then your best life is now because you're going to be burning in perdition forever and ever.
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It would be now. But we believe as Christians, those who are born again, there's a better life to come, isn't there?
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There's a better life to come. And look what Jesus says, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
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And when you do that, these treasures are mothproof, rustproof, and thiefproof.
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Your best life now, what a downer. I mean, it's good and it's exciting.
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We have an abundant life. But your best life now, according to Jesus in scripture, is a total lie.
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It's not your best life now. It's a full life now. It's a shalom life now. It's an abundant life now, but it only gets exponentially better.
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Edward said this, when you're in heaven, what you thought was your best experiences as a
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Christian on earth, the joys of marriage and the joys of having children, friends, food, whatever it might be, the best that was on earth.
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When you're in heaven and you look back, you will look back and you go, what I experienced on earth in comparison is like a veritable hell.
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It's so great. What was on earth would seem like nothing. Seven steps to live at your full potential?
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No, forget all this temporal thinking. Holstein says, God doesn't want you to drag through life, barely making it.
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It's not his preference for you to live in perpetual pain. Become a true believer knowing that you will become what you believe.
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Tell that to the Chinese martyrs in the Boxer Revolution. Christians believe there's a heaven and everything about them should reflect that.
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If you don't act like this, treasuring up treasures in heaven, then I could ask you, then do you really believe in heaven?
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Peggy Noonan said this, we're the first generation of man that actually expects to find happiness here on earth. And our search for it has caused such unhappiness.
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The reason, if you do not believe in another higher world, if you believe only in the flat material world around you, if you believe that this is your only chance at happiness, if that is what you believe, then you are not disappointed when the world does not give you.
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You are not disappointed when the world gives you not. I can't read. Whatever she said, it was insightful.
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I'd rather go with what the Bible says, not some kind of crack biographer.
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Ecclesiastes 3, he has made everything appropriate in his time. He has also set eternity in their heart. You're not supposed to be fully satisfied on this earth.
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Resolution number two. First resolution is don't be duped into thinking that it's your best life now.
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It's not. It's a good life. It's a wonderful life, but it's filled with suffering, filled with pain, filled with disappointment, sin.
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Number two, second resolution. Trust God and His promises about rewarding you in heaven.
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Trust God and His promises about rewarding you in heaven. Some people say, oh, you can't be concerned about rewards.
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You ought to be because Jesus said, heap up for yourselves rewards in heaven. You can't say, well, you know,
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I can't do that because then I'm after rewards. No, you're after obeying
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Christ Jesus. And if you heap up these rewards, nothing can get rid of them.
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God will remember everything you do in terms of how you live your life and what you do with your things.
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Moth, rust, thieves, they can't corrode or steal this heavenly treasure. Do you trust God with that idea?
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By the way, this word thief, I just thought it was interesting. I didn't mention it last week. It comes from the word klepto, kleptos.
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Nobody can, no kleptomaniac can get up into heaven and steal your treasure. I don't know if I saw that, if God would really remember what
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I did when I get there. He will. Even the destroyer can't destroy what's up in heaven.
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These kleptomaniacs used to go to public bathhouses and they used to go to public gymnasium, steal all kinds of clothes.
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That can't happen in heaven because we trust the Father. No heaven inflation, no heaven taxation, no heaven prolonged illnesses.
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As one man said, the dividends of investing in heaven are out of this world. It reminds me of James chapter 1.
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Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
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Those that trust the Father say, I'm going to make sure that I hold loosely to what I have and invest in gospel work.
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I'll never forget the time I read about Polycarp and how he understood trusting in the
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Father. Polycarp was an arch heretic to the unbelievers and he was a faithful Christian man.
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155 AD, 156 AD is about when he died. They track him down to his house. They break into his house.
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And the first thing he did is he set the table for them and said, please come, be my guests.
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And they said, no, we've got to lay hands on you speedily and heartily. He said, could I just pray for you and pray one hour before you take me away to be killed?
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The way he acted made them feel so sorry for him that they said, yes. He goes to the tribunal.
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And they said to him, consider thyself and have pity on thy great name. Swear and I will release thee.
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Reproach Christ. Just say Jesus isn't the only God, you're good to go. Polycarp's famous answer, 80 and six years have
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I served him and he never once wronged me. How then shall I blaspheme my king who has saved me?
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Swear by the fortune of Caesar. Since you still vainly strive to make me swear by the fortune of Caesar as you express it, affecting ignorance of my real character, hear me frankly, declaring what
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I am. I am a Christian. And if you desire to learn the Christian doctrine, assign me a day and you shall hear.
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I have wild beasts and I will expose you to them unless you repent. Call for them.
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I will tame thee with fire since you despise the wild beasts unless you repent. You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour and is soon extinguished.
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But the fire of future judgment and of eternal punishment reserved for the ungodly, you are ignorant of.
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But why do you delay? Do whatever you please. Then the crowd gets into it.
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Polycarp has professed himself a Christian. This is the doctor of Asia, the father of the
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Christians, subverter of our gods, who has taught many not to sacrifice nor adore.
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One man said, get a lion after him. The other one said, no, burning's better. And as they brought him to the stake to tie him up, he said, leave me as I am.
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Don't tie me up. I'm not going anywhere. For he who giveth me strength to sustain the fire will enable me also without your securing me with nails to remain without flinching in the pile.
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And then he said, oh, father, did you catch that? Oh, father,
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I bless thee that thou has counted me worthy to receive my portion among the martyrs.
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He's hoping in the father and the future so that he says, whatever I go through now, I've got a father who
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I trust. And if the father says, as you give for gospel reasons, give to gospel causes, there's going to be a treasure for you in heaven, then you and I ought to believe that.
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Number three, resolution number three, resolved. First one is don't get duped into thinking this is as good as it gets.
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Number two, trust God and his promise that he will reward you in heaven.
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Resolution number three, remember that money is like nitroglycerin. It must be handled, but it must be handled with care.
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Over and over and over and over, Jesus says, watch out with this thing called money.
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He even called it one time to the King James what? Filthy what? Lucre. I've never seen nitroglycerin up close, but I did a little research.
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It's C3H5N3O9. And it has an explosive velocity of 7 ,700 meters per second with this pressure -induced wave when it explodes.
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I thought that's just like money. You got to handle it with care. In the old days, they would say with nitroglycerin, if we freeze it a little bit, raise, decrease the temperature a little bit, it becomes more stable.
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And the only way you can make money more stable is by using it for the gospel kingdom. That's the only way. 1866, three crates of nitroglycerin were shipped to California for the
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Pacific Railroad Company, and they were going to blast through the Sierra Nevada summit to make a tunnel.
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One of the crates exploded, destroying a Wells Fargo office in San Francisco, killing 15 people.
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They then banned transport of nitroglycerin until they could figure it out. Well, we're not going to have to be banned in the use of our money.
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We just need to make sure we use it for the kingdom. We desensitize it by using it for the
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Lord and his kingdom. And so Jesus says in verse 20, store up for yourselves treasure in heaven.
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He didn't say don't touch it, he didn't say don't use it, he doesn't say it's bad. Love if it's bad, but it's not bad.
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Listen to what one commentary said, only the rarest of individuals can possess much of this world's wealth without becoming enslaved to it and without letting it cut the nerve of true discipleship.
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It takes somebody who's really godly to stand up against nitroglycerin called money.
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And now I want to show you an illustration. My whole sermon has been leading up to this. What's the most explosive, strangest, shocking, striking parable in all the
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Bible? What's the one where you read and you just go, I can't believe he just said that.
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I can't believe Jesus just said that. What is it? Turn there. Luke 16.
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You're not going to get over this. The most shocking, jaw -dropping, making you stammer parable in all the
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Bible, and it's about money. It's about exactly what we're talking about. And Jesus uses this parable to drive home the truth, to make sure people realize this is important.
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I think you could probably do a little study and find out Jesus talked about this more than anything else.
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Why? Because he wants your money? No, he owns everything. He doesn't need your money. But he knows that money can drive a wedge between you and your allegiance to God.
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How do you know you're a Christian? Well, you put money in its place. It doesn't mean you're perfect with money, but you realize what it is, what it does, and how to use it.
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The parable of the shrewd manager, Luke 16. How do you use your wealth for the kingdom?
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Answer, Luke 16. That is why Jesus gave this parable. The whole chapter, chapter 16, is about money.
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The unjust steward, the first 13 verses. Pharisees who loved money and protested
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Jesus, verses 14 to 18. And then we have the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, verses 19 through 31.
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It's all about money. Frankly, I hate preaching about money, but I love preaching about discipleship.
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I have people in this church that say, you've got to preach about money more. But I'm after real discipleship, because if you're a real disciple, you're going to think properly.
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It's not about, do I give 10 % or don't I? By the way, that would be a way to store up treasure on earth.
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Somehow saying to yourself, I'm going to give less than 10%, but it's sacrificial to me.
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That's a very bad way to think about things. Well, back to the parable. Jesus first gives the parable, then he gives the explanation of the parable and some exhortations.
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So let's look at the parable first, then we'll see how Jesus applies it. I always love it when Jesus applies a parable, like the parable of the soils in Mark chapter 3,
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I believe. There's an application given. Luke 16, 1. Now, he was also saying to the disciples.
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He focuses in a little bit more here, and he says, there was a rich man who had a manager.
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And this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, what is this
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I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be my manager.
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And just like in those days, just like today, somebody who has a lot of money, who wants to be the landlord, who wants to be the manager when you've got all these assets, so you hire somebody to manage for you.
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They report to you, they're a manager, they don't own anything, it's all the bosses, it's all the owners, but he is a worker underneath this owner.
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The rich man had the manager, and the manager did something wrong and is going to get fired.
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Jesus has just got done talking to the Pharisees in Luke chapter 15, and now he talks a little bit to the disciples.
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Certainly, more were probably listening, but he says, there's a manager. A manager was a trusted servant.
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A manager sometimes was someone who grew up in the household, maybe an old slave, because you had to trust this person because you were handing over the checkbook and all the forms and all the
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CPA things over to this guy. You had to really trust him. Mismanagement could cause big trouble.
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And so, this manager was employed by the rich man, and then there was an accusation.
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It was reported it was really to accuse. Someone brought charges. Hey, there's a problem here with this manager.
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And what was the accusation? He was squandering his possessions. That would be the worst thing to do if you were a manager, to squander the owner's possessions, the rich man's possessions.
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Same word, squander, found in verse 13 of the previous chapter, the prodigal son.
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He went on a journey into a distant country, and there that prodigal son squandered his estate with loose living.
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We have the prodigal son squander with loose living, and we have this kind of squandering here. He's wasting the goods of his owner.
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And word gets to the owner, and what does he do? He doesn't see criminal intent early because he fires him, but effective at a future date.
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He doesn't say pack up everything now, hand in your books. He says, you know, there's a little bit more time to go on here because it will benefit me, the rich owner, if you put the books in order.
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Take care of some of these other things, tie up some loose ends. I remember I was let go from a sales company, and they said to me as a sales rep, you know, we'll pay you for two more weeks.
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If you get all your sales things and binders and follow -up and leads all together, we'll give you two weeks to do that work and give it to us.
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We'll pay you two more weeks of work. That's the same kind of thing. He must not have thought that the steward was sinfully squandering.
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Because of sinful squandering, he would have said, you're fired today. But he said, you know, you're fired but effective at a future date.
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I need your help. I heard something about you.
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Give an accounting of your management for you can no longer be manager. Give me the spreadsheet on my desk by tomorrow morning.
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It's a day of reckoning. I've got somebody else I need to give the job to. Get them ready. Verse 3, the manager said to himself, he had a grinch of an idea.
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So what he had, he said to himself, what shall I do?
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Since my master has taken the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig. Hey, I'm a white -collar worker.
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I'm ashamed to beg so that when
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I'm removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes. It comes to him, the light bulb.
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If you're going to draw a cartoon, you put a little light bulb above the person with the kind of rays out. I got an idea.
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I'm going to be on the streets. And now I have an idea of how people can be under my obligation. I want them indebted to me because I've got a future to think of.
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And he thought within himself, I got desk jobs. I can't dig. It's too hard.
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Daily labor, digging. I just like to dig 10 hours a day. And then the next day, what do you have to do?
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Dig 10 hours a day. I know what I'll do. They're going to welcome me into their homes.
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I'm going to devise a scheme quickly so that as I scratch their back now, they're going to scratch my back later.
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They can't refuse me. He summoned each one of his master's debtors.
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And he began saying to the first, I'm innocent. No, he wasn't a good manager.
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He began saying to the first, how much do you owe my master? Hey, I'm still employed, by the way.
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I'm still working for my master. How much do you owe the master that just fired me? Doesn't really make sense.
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How much do you owe my master? Probably these people that would rent the land of the rich landowner.
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And he said, verse 6, 100 measures of oil. Now, a measure is called a bath.
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It was eight to nine gallons. So 800 to 900 gallons. It doesn't matter the numbers, because we'll get the point quick enough.
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900 gallons of oil. And he said, take your bill, sit down, quickly. You can imagine, looking over your shoulder, quickly write down something less, quickly write 50.
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And if you were the person, you'd go, hmm, he's just working for the master.
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Now, here's what a little background. Here's why a little background will help us. Long story short, if you were a
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Jew, you could not charge interest to another Jew. To the
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Agagites, you could, but not to other Jews. So if someone said, I'd like to borrow 80 measures of oil, you could say to them, you know what?
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I can't charge you interest, but I will write the bill at 100. It won't be 80 plus 20 equals 100.
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It'll be, you owe me 80. And so many commentators think that basically what's happened here is he's saying to these people that owe the rich owner a lot, you know what?
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It said 100, but that was really all interest anyway. Just write it back down. What and why we don't know, what we do know is this.
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He is trying to obligate these people to like him and help him in the future. Verse 7.
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We just get a couple illustrations of all the people that he talked to. How many he talked to, we don't know, but we have two illustrations.
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He said to another, verse 7. Come in my office. How much do you owe? 100 measures of wheat.
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48 gallons was a measure, so 4 ,800 gallons of wheat. He said to him, take your bill, write 80.
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He didn't say quickly here, but it's still the idea. Speed is essential. And the person's thinking, wow, the manager's talked to the owner.
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This is all copacetic. It's perfect. Let's make this legal. Sign here. Take your bill, write 80.
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Here's a scheme. You are now going to be personally indebted to me. Verse 8.
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Verse 8. And here's where people flip out.
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Here's where commentators say, this can't be in the Bible because Jesus said this. There's one man,
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Jeremiah, he said, there's no way this can be in the Bible because Jesus would never do this. Here's this manager with insight, with cunning, with shrewdness, figures out a way that after he's hired, people are going to help him, as he's lost his position as a manager.
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And so verse 8 says, the first half of the verse, and his master prays the unrighteous manager because of his dishonesty.
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Is that what the text says? No. The master doesn't praise dishonesty, and neither does
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Jesus. What does he praise? He praised the unrighteous manager. You know what that means in Greek?
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He praised his unrighteous manager. There's nothing special or tricky about this because he had acted shrewdly.
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If I was right about the interest stuff, the owner is trapped. The owner is trapped. What can he say?
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Oh, by the way, that was 80 and 100 in the interest and all that stuff when I put it on there. No, I am trapped. And even if it isn't the interest deal, if it's this guy saying, you owe 100, write down 80, write down something less, the manager says, that is ingenious, immoral, but wise.
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That guy's smart. He planned ahead for his future need. That's the point.
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He planned ahead for his future need. That's a bad example, but a good lesson.
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You go, we don't do those kind of things here today. I found one. 1971, Dan Cooper skyjacked a plane in Oregon.
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He got the $200 ,000 ransom, and then he parachuted into southern Washington, never to be seen again.
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And because he was such a folk hero, because of his smart escape, every year there's the
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Dan Cooper celebration. They sing songs, skydivers jump, they party.
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Why? Because of his thievery? No, because he was ingenious. He was a smart rascal.
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He's mishandled the funds, and he thinks on his feet for the future. Prudent use of material things.
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Now here comes the application. The application starts right in the middle of verse 8. What does Jesus think?
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What would Jesus say? Why would Jesus give this parable? Here comes the application, right in 8B.
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By the way, don't get bogged down in how much is a measure, how much is a bath, how much is a core, how much is a homer, all these different other kind of Greek and Hebrew words for weights and measures.
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That's not where the details should bring us. The details should bring us right here into Jesus' application.
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Major point number one, application from Jesus. Christians ought to learn aggressive planning from unbelievers.
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When it comes to planning for the future, Christians ought to say, the way unbelievers plan for their physical, temporal, earthly future,
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I ought to plan for my eternal treasure in heaven. And so what does
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Jesus say? Jesus says in verse 8, For the sons of this age, unbelievers living only for this age, are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
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Isn't that amazing? You can learn from unbelievers. And here's what you learn from Warren Buffett.
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It'd be good to plan for the future. It took time for that manager to think through what he might do.
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He thought about it. He went through the details. He was systematically searching them out, getting them. He planned for the future.
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And Jesus says, Christian, do you plan for your eternal future with the same enthusiasm?
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But it's hard because money's involved. I told you maybe the Katharine Buffett story one time. Katharine Buffett loaned
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Warren Buffett the first $10 ,000 for his business. And then Warren always gave back to his aunt Katharine money until she died six years ago.
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And so my mother and Katharine were friends. And so one time Katharine took us out for lunch, Kim and I and the kids, maybe only had two kids at the time, at a swanky place in Palm Springs.
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And I thought, I'm sitting here having lunch with Katharine Buffett.
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That wasn't the best part. The best part was dessert. Dessert thing came along. I said,
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Oh, I'll take the tiramisu with extra moussou. And Katharine said,
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I believe I'll have the Haagen -Dazs rum raisin ice cream. Now the waiter knows who she is.
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And he said, You can just see him go red. I'm sorry, Mrs. Buffett. We don't have Haagen -Dazs rum raisin ice cream.
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We'll get that tomorrow. And the guy ran down the safe way, got the
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Haagen -Dazs. There was probably a hundred dollar bill in his hand that she passed over. I thought,
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Money makes things happen. That's the kind of money I'm talking about.
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Sadly, when we think about follow the money, you follow the money and sometimes it gets into the hearts and the crooks and the crevices of our heart and all of a sudden it shows a lack of real discipleship in one of those areas.
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We're lured to it. It does things. And Jesus says, Listen, you want to learn some lessons about unbelievers?
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Learn this lesson. They work hard with their portfolios. They study. They learn. They chart.
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They graph. You work hard when it comes to storing up your treasures in heaven with the same focus, with the same drive.
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They do it for something that perishes. It's like Hank Hanegraaff who says,
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Are you willing to do more for the truth than the cult are willing to do for a lie when it comes to evangelism?
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Same idea. These people are farsighted. We ought to be farsighted.
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Industrious. J .C. Ryle said, The diligence of worldly men about the things of time should put to shame the coldness of professing
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Christians about the things of eternity. One man said, We're dullards when it comes to the future.
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Terry Johnson said he met a man on his deathbed one day and the man said, I only have one regret. Terry Johnson is a pastor.
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Yes, sir. What's your only regret? And he said, There's a lot of money to be made out there. On his deathbed, wondering about still making more money.
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Jesus says, You know what? That's a good illustration. Learn from that kind of stupid, immoral wisdom and farsight.
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A .T. Robertson said, Listen to how frank he is. We all know how stupid Christians can be in their work in the kingdom of God to go no farther.
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And then he says something else. Second application. Oh, it only gets better. If the
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Richter scale is off in your brain now, wait till you hear what Jesus said. Verse nine.
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Second major point of application. Make friends with money. I don't even want to read it.
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It sounds like what a politician would do, but it's not. Verse nine. And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
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You've got to use money, but you use it for what? To use it for gospel means so that they might be one in the kingdom.
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And here we have the steward who would say, You know what? Later they're going to welcome me if I need something.
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And here the picture is almost like Jesus' painting. If you use your money for gospel purposes, and that money for gospel purposes affects somebody in China, that person in China gets saved, and you meet them back in heaven, and you'll go,
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We are friends forever. We use wealth.
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We don't store it up. We're not a servant of it. Money for the Christian is zero value at death. I know people here at this church.
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They say, You know what? Lunchtime, I'm going to use money. And so I invite people out for lunch, and I always tell them, I pay for the lunch, but now
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I get to talk about the gospel. I'm not supposed to preach the gospel at work. I'm supposed to make widgets at work. But then if I say,
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Hey, I'm picking up the tab today. Let's go out. They're forced to listen to me while I preach the gospel. Perfect.
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You say, Well, maybe Jesus was praising dishonesty. So he gives the third application.
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The third application. We're almost done. Be faithful with your money so God can bless you with true riches.
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Be faithful with money so God can bless you with true riches. Verse 10 through 12. Luke 16.
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He who is faithful in a very little thing. You want to know what money is? It's a very little thing in God's eyes. It's metal, it's paper.
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He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much.
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Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?
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If you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, certainly God's, who will give you that which is your own?
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Here's the application. Be faithful when it comes to your money, not just paying your bills but treasuring up treasures in heaven, and God will give you the greatest riches, like people to teach entrusted to you and your care.
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I guess I could ask the question this way, although it's a little strident, a little striking. Maybe there are some people here that aren't elders and deacons and elders and deacons' wives and Sunday school teachers.
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Not because they don't want to, but because God has not allowed them to be because they've been unfaithful in the area of money.
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That's exactly what Jesus is saying. Don't let that stop your use in the kingdom. It's like the monkey.
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There's the hole, and inside there are the oranges, and you reach your hand in and you grab the orange, and you can't get it out because your hand is clutched around it and it won't come out.
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You just have to drop it. There's no way to get it. It's like some kind of finger puzzle or something. Be faithful in small things and you will be promoted.
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That's the way to climb to the top. Money is a proving ground. And then the last one, we're out of time.
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We'll look at this more next week in the Sermon on the Mount. Application of this parable number four.
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Remember, you can't serve two masters. No servant, verse 13, can serve two masters, for either he'll hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God, and if you think you can, you soon find out that it's not true.
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Verse 14, now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him.
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Jesus said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
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Isn't that a great parable? Learn from the foolish, immoral, wicked person who's got enough sense to plan for the future for their temporal needs.
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And Jesus says, I'm not going to commend you for your foolishness, for your immorality, for your connivery, but for your shrewdness,
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Christian, learn from the shrewd. How do
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I know I'm a real disciple? Follow the money. Empty Tomb was a research group based in Illinois.
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Quote, Protestant denominations have published data on an ongoing basis throughout the century. In 1916,
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Protestants gave 2 .9 % of their income to churches. 1933, in the Great Depression, 3 .2%.
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1955, after affluence was springing up through a culture, 3 .2%.
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By 1999, when Americans were overall much richer after taxes and inflation, they were giving 2 .6
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% of their income to the church. I never want to know how much you give.
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I don't want to know how much you don't give. But God knows how much you give. And the way you say,
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I'm a full disciple of God, I believe that there's a Father, is to use money, but to use it for eternal purposes that God the
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Father will reward. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for these words of Christ Jesus, your
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Son. What a wonderful Savior He is. What an insightful teacher. Lord, I love to teach and I love to preach, but then
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I look at Jesus and think He is the ultimate preacher, the master teacher. Now I pray that His words might stick to us.
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And we might not be those people that receive the word, but then have it strangled out. We want to have conviction.
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Lord, I would pray, my heart's desire, I think along with other elders here at the church, that this would be the year where Bethlehem Bible Church is the most selfless, the most sacrificial in giving.
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As times get tougher, would you help us to use these difficult times to force us to realize where our treasure is.
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And it's certainly in heaven, it's not here. And Lord, for those that are having a real hard time with the money and with giving and with everything else,
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Lord, You've loved them with an everlasting love and You've loved them enough to have Your Son die for them. And so I pray that Your love would be a convicting instrument in their hearts and in their wallets.
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And Lord, we'd ask that You'd protect us, even as a pastor. I don't want more people's money, but I want my people,
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Lord, to learn and to grow and mature and to have one God and one Father, through our