Shrewd Living

Luke 16:1-13

Intro:

1. Video: the car lot
2. When I think of a shrewd businessman, I think of Cornelius Vanderbilt who was born in 1794 to a farming family on Staten Island, New York – just across the bay from New York City. At age 11 he quit school, at age 16 he borrowed money from his parents and bought a boat and began to ferry people across New York Bay to Manhattan Island. He bought more boats and finally built steam ships. Later, he began investing in the growing technology of railroads. All along the way he outsold rivals by shrewdly undercutting their prices. He bought small railroads and connected them into larger lines including the New York Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad. For all his shrewdness at business, he maintained only a shallow surface interest in matters of eternity.  He died at age 82 the wealthiest man in America – worth more than $100,000,000.  He left little of his wealth to charity.  He said of himself, "I have been insane on the subject of moneymaking all my life."

What I want to say:  What is the best use of material wealth?  What can believers learn from nonbelievers when it comes to priorities? How should believers re-order their lives to align with God’s priorities?

I.      An unreliable worker is a burden (:1-8)

A.    A squandering steward is a pain (:1-2)

Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

so is the sluggard to those who send him. Proverbs 10:26 ESV

1.    He wasted his master’s possessions.

a)    We do not know if he stole them, or was careless with them so they were stolen or just made bad investments.

2.    It is the sole job of a steward to manage his master’s possessions so that they benefit the master’s purposes. He is not to waste anything because it is not his to waste.

3.    An angry master calls him to account for his management prior to firing him (:2)

B.    Reality forces foresight (:3-8)

1.    Most people prefer to think only of today. The survival instinct devises a plan.

2.    The steward’s thought processes:

a)    I know myself and I am not willing to work physically or beg

b)    What, then, will I do to secure my future?

3.    By reducing their debt he uses what is left at his disposal to make those who owe his master anything grateful to him.

4.    The admirable part of this scoundrel’s plan is this: he thought about the consequences soon to come upon him.

a)    If more people thought of consequences before they acted they would avoid the pain of bad decisions.

II.    Good lessons can be learned from a bad example (4, 8b-13)

A.    Nonbelievers may understand this life better than believers (:8b)

1.    Since those not saved know how to use resources for their own future advantage, they understand this present world better than the saved who know that this world is passing away but do not put the resources God has given them to work for eternity.

2.    (:4) He hoped to incline people favorably toward him. 

3.    This world is God’s household and we are all stewards of His resources.  On this Christians agree with environmentalists.

a)    Everything in it is entrusted to mankind to use for God

b)    We know that all things are just loaned to us because we leave them all behind when we die.

c)    Even those who oppose God still are given goods to use in this life

B.    You can’t take it with you! But … (8b-9)

1.    Plan Ahead!  Use your earthly possessions to prepare for eternity (:8b-9)

a)    (:9) “when it fails” – when material goods are no longer of any use – i.e. when you die

b)    Eternity is coming! Just as the dishonest steward used present resources to secure his future, so God’s people should use material things for eternal benefit.

2.    If even those not saved can look ahead to good treatment from those they helped, how many people will greet you in heaven as a result of wise use of the resources God has given you?

a)    This sounds shockingly unspiritual! But it is the way to live toward eternity.

b)    Our natural inclination is to love things and use people.  Use things - Love people

3.    You can’t take it with you but you can send ahead real treasure in heaven

a)    (:9) “they may receive you” – i.e. if those whom you led to Christ precede you into heaven, they will be there to receive you.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Matthew 6:19-20 ESV

b)    Do you want a good reason to develop a budget, get out of debt and manage your money? Eternity! (I know you think that’s how long it will take you to straighten out your finances)  

c)    God did not give you money to enslave you but use to influence eternity.

4.    Your giving through the Church is a part of this plan.

a)    Missions

b)    The outreaches of GNBC: Picnic, VBS, Awana, HopeFest

c)    E.g. Bibles and blankets – Voice of the Martyrs program to aid Christians in the Sudan.

How’s your vision? Are you near-sighted or far-sighted?  I am not speaking of your score on reading an eye chart. I am speaking of the focus of your attention.  IN your  daily life do you look toward heaven or are you only focused on earth?  Of all people in this world, God’s people should be the most far-sighted yet many are often only “near-sighted” – they cannot see beyond the moment.

C.   (:10-12) The evidence of your character shows up in “little things”

1.    Character is everything (remember that in coming elections)

2.    A person who steals little things from his/her boss should not be entrusted with running the company

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, employee dishonesty costs American businesses over $50 billion annually. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that 75 percent of all employees steal at least once, and at half of these steal again and again. The chamber also reports that one of every three business failures are the direct result of employee theft.

Bob Mather, "Employee theft: Prevention Beats Apprehension"; submitted by Aaron Goerner, Utica, New York

3.    If God has entrusted a portion of what is His to you to manage for His kingdom (God’s kingdom is people), how should He feel if you squander it all on yourself?

4.    If people are eternal, then how you and I treat people is the big deal of our day.

5.    If you are faithful with the little thing of money on earth, God can entrust you with the great things of eternity.

6.    (:12) If you cannot be trusted with someone else’s wealth, why should you be given your own wealth to manage?

D.   We will all one day be discharged from our stewardship

1.    Death will take us all away from the things we manage for God

2.    All will give an account of what we did with that which was entrusted to us.

“…it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…” Hebrews 9:27 ESV

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

3.    Since we will all find ourselves discharged from this earthly stewardship one day, how should we be preparing for that day?

III.   You cannot serve both God and stuff (:13-18)

A.    We must each decide who to serve

1.    Lovers of money can not also love God

2.    The Pharisees mocked Jesus because here He was, an apparently poor man, teaching poor people about the use of money. How blind they were!

3.    God wants you to be wise toward eternity more than He wants you to be rich!

a)    The Health and Wealth Gospel is a lie!

4.    The Pharisees had inverted priorities (:15)

a)    They overlooked what they knew in the OT that many godly people were poor and many poor people were godly.

b)    They tolerated sin (in this case, divorce, the breaking of God’s standard) while pretending to honor God

5.    I have seen people pray for God to provide a house – then disappear from fellowship because they are too busy working on the house to take time to honor God!

B.    Jesus did not tell this parable to be entertaining

ILLUS> Recently the Wall Street Journal carried an article on “Power Trips for Tots” which talked about how “extreme family vacations are becoming a status symbol for parents seeking an edge for their kids.” It spoke of a family that took their 4 and 6 year old girls to the Brazilian rain forest. A friend felt it necessary to catch up and is planning a trip to Brazil. Another small child was taken on a birthday trip to Kenya that cost the family of four, $31,400 – without plane tickets.

1.    That same amount would feed 82 children in Kenya for a year.

2.    But certainly people can do what they want with their money. I’m just concerned that Christians, if they had the means, would do the same thing.

3.    Jesus does not want mere mental agreement.  He expects the result to be action on our part.

We do not want, as the newspapers say, a church that will move with the world. We want a church that will move the world.

G.K. Chesterton, The New Witness. Christianity Today, Vol. 30 no. 8.

4.    Will you go home and look at your finances and ask, “How am I investing in eternity?”

5.    Will you look at your calendar and ask, “How am I investing my time toward eternity?”

Concl:

1. How shrewd are you with your resources?
2. How many people will greet you in heaven? What I mean is, how many will be there because you used your resources to lead them to faith in Christ?

In the movie Gladiator, the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) prepares to go to battle against a barbarian Germanic tribe. Just prior to ordering the charge, he encourages his troops. Sitting atop his horse, he looks out over his cavalry and yells, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

Elapsed time: Measured from the beginning of the opening credit, this scene begins at 00:07:09 and ends at 00:07:12.