Title: The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
Text: Luke 16:1-15
13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
In his book: I Talk Back to the Devil, A.W. Tozer reminds us:
"Money often comes between men and God. Someone has said that you can take two small ten-cent pieces, just two dimes, and shut out the view of a panoramic landscape. Go to the mountains and just hold two coins closely in front of your eyes--the mountains are still there, but you cannot see them at all because there is a dime shutting off the vision in each eye."
It doesn't take large quantities of money to come between us and God; just a little, placed in the wrong position, will effectively obscure our view.
Cedric Gowler.
But, despite these problems:
The Lord gives true riches to you, through faith in Him!
In our lesson today, Jesus brings to the ears of the disciples, both the twelve and the other followers of Him who were listening, a parable or story which illustrates a point in Jesus’ teaching. The previous parables, from the weeks leading up to this, had been directed to the Pharisees, teachers of the law and the scribes and they, now as well, would be included in the hearing of this parable.
How do you deal with a bad manager? One who was clearly wasting the owner’s possessions?
2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
It is not an uncommon situation for many who serve in positions of responsibility. As managers, in companies, they deal with others money and possessions and have a responsibility to deal in a favorable way with it or as the parable says … be replaced.
Or as my brother-n-law has said in speaking of a co-worker: “He would make a great manager, if under constant supervision.”
Much conniving and cooking of the books ensue in the Gospel reading.
4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’
Self preservation is a strong motivator.
5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
The object of the manager was to meet either contingency that might occur. If his scheme would prove successful, the shortage would no longer exist, for the income would appear to have been much smaller than the lord thought. Should the plan be found out, the bills of money owed would legally stand, and the debtors would show their gratitude by providing for him. It has even been suggested that the manager had falsified the amounts in the bills of indebtedness originally and pocketed the surplus, and was now returning to the original correct figures. This is not out of the realm of possibilities. At any rate, it was a clever scheme.
Popular Commentary on the Bible P.E. Kretzmann Pg. 354
8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Even the master, when he received information concerning this latest trick of the steward, could not withhold a certain amount of praise. He praised him, not on account of his unfaithfulness and his fraud, but on account of the cleverness in handling the situation and getting himself out of a very unpleasant predicament.
Popular Commentary on the Bible P.E. Kretzmann Pg. 354
All of life has consequences, some that are good and some that are bad but again:
The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
Ill.
Albert Lowry set out to prove that it was easy to get rich quick in real estate with no money down--and he did just that. Not surprisingly, his book, How You Can Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate, was a bestseller. Money magazine, in a cover story, estimated Lowry's net worth at $30 million and called him a "real estate wizard." But something went wrong, and 5 years into his venture, the Success development Institute, which promoted Lowry's theories, collapsed with $2.5 million in debts. It was reported that Lowry's assets were being liquidated in Los Angeles under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code.
Today in the Word, November 22, 1991.
There was a saying that was said to me by my boss many years ago when I worked in his business, “Money easily gotten is money easily lost.”
Ill.
Some years ago there was a book on the market called Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it was written by a man, Robert Kiyosaki, who had learned the secrets of making money in real estate from his friend’s dad verses the things he learned from his own dad who went to work and lived a very common middle class existence.
Fast forward to August of 2012 and Rich Global LLC is bankrupt owing 24 million to one investor, though Kiyosaki remains quite wealthy through some very questionable practices.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/helaineolen/2012/10/10/rich-dad-poor-dad-bankrupt-dad/
And though working for things that perish in this life has limited reward:
The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
Now, one evidence of the wisdom of the children of the world consists in this, that they make provision for the future, that they make all their business ventures serve this end. To put themselves and their families beyond care as soon as possible is their object, and therefore they make use of every possible advantage to attain to this end.
God’s children, on the other hand, are often anything but energetic and diligent in the things that pertain to God and His kingdom. They forget, that the end is coming, that they will have to give an account to the Lord in regard to their business transactions for Him – in this life.
Jesus here admonishes them that they should so conduct their lives affairs, and principally those that concern temporal goods, wealth and money in general, like the manager, shall make friends with the goods, with the money entrusted to them. Christians will use their money in the interest of the kingdom of God, in establishing and extending the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world. And wherever they can, they will be actively interested in true charity in all its phases. In this way the poor congregations, those outside the Christian faith, and others that receive the benefit of such investments, and the poor and suffering of the household of faith, will be under obligations to them.
Kretzmann
12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
The truth is that money is needed and needs to be used wisely. To have money can be a blessing. As was said by a pastor once, “The only money that truly matters to God is money that is used in service to Him and His Kingdom.”
And the true blessing and gift that God gives you and me is faith in His son. He has given you life through the death of His son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to live suffer and die for you and for me. This motivates service to our neighbor, not by works of righteousness that we do, but by the true joy in Him, 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
The truth is that money like those dimes, which appear so small in the hand can in the right place block out God and his blessed gifts found only in Christ given and shed for you. This is the joy as managers of what has given we can joy in the faith we are given as children of God and know that all falls under His control those he uses you as his hands in the world as was said in a previous sermon this past summer.
You are rich and truly bless because God has given you riches in Him and they will surpass and far exceed those promised by the world.
The Lord gives true riches through faith in Him!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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