Making Friends with Worldly Wealth

Turn with me to Luke's Gospel in chapter 16. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 16.

We'll read the first 15 verses this morning.! Jesus told His disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.

! So He called him in and asked him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager any longer. The manager said to himself, what shall I do now?

My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.

So He called in each one of His master's debtors. He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 800 gallons of olive oil, He replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it 400.

Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? 1,000 bushels of wheat, He replied. He told him, take your bill and make it 800. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.

For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and money. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.

What is valued, what is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. Everybody loves a good story.

Kids will sit entranced while someone reads to them at story hour or at home on your lap.

And a movie with a good storyline will hold us on the edge of our seat to the very end. And so Jesus, the Lord Jesus, used a lot of stories in his preaching, and it's one of the reasons he was not a boring preacher.

He told stories. We call them parables. And these parables use familiar objects and circumstances to teach an important spiritual truth.

Now, last week we began a mini-series of messages on selected parables of Jesus. We're not going to look at all the parables, but just some of them.

And we began with a study on stewardship. As we looked at the parable of the talents. Now, a parable stirs us up to think about its meaning and how it applies to us.

Very often we're meant to see ourselves in the story. So last week, it was a story about three servants, and we were meant to think, which servant am I like?

The first one, the second one, the third one. Sometimes we miss ourselves and don't see ourselves in the story.

You remember David. Had Nathan the prophet come to him and tell him a story, a parable, about a man who killed his neighbor's little pet lamb to feed a visiting guest at his home when he had plenty of his own sheep.

And David was incensed. He didn't see himself in the parable until Nathan pointed his finger at him and said, you are the man. Now, we're meant to see ourselves.

Find yourself in this parable very often. So parables say to us, think, and if the shoe fits, wear it. Now, today we have another study on stewardship from Jesus' parable of the shrewd steward or the shrewd manager in Luke chapter 16.

And though Jesus is speaking to a large crowd of his followers, his disciples, yet we find that the Pharisees are listening in, as we'll find at the end, their response to his story.

Now, this morning, you and I join the crowd. We're in the crowd now. We're hearing the story. What will your response be to it?

Once upon a time, there was a rich man who had a great estate. In fact, he had so many things that he needed to hire a man just to look after it all.

We call them stewards, managers, to manage all of his possessions, just like we saw last week. That means that everything that the master entrusted to him, he was to take and to put it to use and to see that it brought back an increase for his master's estate.

He was to use it in a way that advanced the desires of his master. Now, we don't know how long he had been manager, but long enough for his trail of waste to catch up with him.

You see, he was not careful with his master's possessions. He was loose when spending his master's money. Now, kids, I know you won't understand this, but some of us parents have found that kids spend money much more easily when it's their parents' money.

That when it's their own money, they can really scrimp and save and be penny pinchers. But when mom and dad are footing the bill, why? The money flows across the counter easily.

Well, that was exactly the same case with this manager. It wasn't his hard-earned cash, so if he needed a horse, he went and paid top dollar for the thing, didn't check it out, didn't shop for a bargain.

And so bit by bit, he was wasting his master's possessions. And through his negligence, his master's estate was shrinking rather than growing.

But to him, no problem. He's got lots of money. Well, eventually, the word got to his master that his manager was indeed wasting his possessions.

He was doing exactly what the prodigal son was doing in chapter 15. He was squandering his father's wealth. Same word here. Wasting, squandering his master's possessions.

So the master called him in and gave him a pink slip. What's this I hear of your wasting my things? Get the books in order.

Make sure they're up to date. And turn them into me so someone else can take over because you cannot be my manager any longer. It's over.

You're through. Now, this manager was caught off guard. He didn't come to work that day thinking he was going to be fired. The last thing on his mind.

And now here he is. He's just been fired. And so he sits down and he holds a meeting with himself. And he says, Self, what are you going to do now?

What are you going to do now? My master's taking away my job. I'm going to be unemployed. There's no unemployment benefits to be claimed.

What will I do? He's in a great predicament, isn't he? And he's thinking to himself, Well, I know they're hiring over at the cemetery, but I'm not strong enough to dig, he says.

In reality, he's probably too lazy to dig. He had been used to the posh life, you see, managing all this wealth and having it easy. He could never find a shovel that fit his hands.

I'm too weak to dig, he says. And I know that I've seen others without work begging, but I'm too proud for that.

Is there nothing else to be done besides digging and begging? Evidently not to him. He's perplexed. What can I do? What shall I do? And suddenly, an idea pops into his mind.

And he says, I've got it. I know what I'll do when I lose my job here. I know what I'll do so that when my job is done, people will welcome me into their houses.

Now, most likely, he lived on the very estate where he worked, perhaps in the very home of his master. But now he's being turned out. No more place to live.

No more job. No more money. Where will I go? Well, I've got a plan so that there'll be all sorts of houses out there that will welcome me in and provide for me when I lose my place here.

So he hatches this plan, and with his mind made up, he sets out to quickly bring it to pass. He looks over the books, the list of all who owe money to his master.

There they are. And he brings them in, one by one. And he says to the first one, How much do you owe my master? And he says, well, 800 gallons of olive oil.

A common commodity in the Middle East. Such the debts were even paid. Perhaps he had loaned this man so many acres of land to farm.

And the contract said, at the end of harvest, you will pay 800 gallons of olive oil for the land. And so the manager says, well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just cut that in half.

We'll just say, take your contract there and just write down 400 gallons. And I'll do the same here in my book. But do it quickly, because I've got others to talk to as well.

You see, this is a hurried up job of cooking the books. Hurry, hurry, hurry. And then the second guy comes in. How much do you owe my master? Well, he says, I owe a thousand bushels of wheat.

Tell you what I'm going to do. We're just going to reduce that by 20%. Right down 800 bushels. And I'll do the same here.

And so it went with each of the men who owed his master money. Drastically slashing their debts. What's he doing?

Well, he's making friends. That's what he's doing. And this is long before Norman Vincent Peale ever wrote his book on how to make friends, win friends, and influence people.

He knows how money swings doors open and wins friends. And so he's giving huge presents to his master's debtors when it was not his money to give.

Money he's just been entrusted with to use for his master's good and for the increase of his master's estate. And so he's cheating his master out of his own money.

He's robbing him blind. And he's making friends for himself in the process. Paving the way into their hearts and later into their homes. Buying off their favor so that when he's turned out on the street, there'll be homes out there to welcome him.

This guy's really sharp, you see. He's not going to be found wanting in the future. He's making provision for his future welfare.

And he's doing it in a most unrighteous way. And yet, when his master learns of what he's doing, he praises him.

He praises him. I'm sure there were many jaws in the crowd that dropped at this point as Jesus was telling the story. But notice it in verse 8. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.

Now, the master knows him to be dishonest. He knows him to be a crook. The word literally is a manager of unrighteousness.

He is an unrighteous manager. Dishonest, stealing, downright evil. And the master's not at all pleased with him. And yet, as he dismisses him from his job, he says, well, I've got to hand it to you, guy.

I've just got to hand it to you. You were sure sly. You were sure shrewd in the way that you prepared for your future. I mean, the way you used my money to win friends for yourself who would look after you later on.

That was awful clever of you. You were one shrewd operator. You just can't be my manager anymore. And with that, we come to the end of Jesus' story.

Story hour's over. It's done. We don't know what happens next. Did the master punch him in the face? Did he have him thrown into jail?

Did he pat him on the back? Well, we don't know. But it really doesn't matter. Jesus' story is over. The reason for telling the story is there. And so now Jesus turns to applying it.

Don't miss the lesson. Well, he's got them all on the edge of their seats. What in the world is going on here? With the master commending this servant for his shrewdness.

Well, Jesus applies the moral of his story. And he says, I wish my people were more like that manager in one respect. Would to God that all of my people were more like him in this one respect.

Now notice he makes a general observation followed by a reinforcing command. First, the general observation. Verse 8b. 4. The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Notice what Jesus here calls believers. People of the light. Because they're no longer walking in darkness. They have come to the light of life.

The Lord Jesus. And they now walk in the light. That's what he calls them. And he's saying that in some things the people of the light are outperformed by the people of the world in their own way.

Haven't you noticed that? That unbelievers sometimes demonstrate greater diligence for worldly things than believers do for eternal things. For instance, a worldly athlete is up before the sun every morning and he's pounding his body, putting it through awful rigors, trying to build up more stamina, make him faster, sleeker, trimmer, stronger than anyone else.

And he comes home and he's hungry. He could eat a bear, but he doesn't eat junk food. He doesn't stuff his face with donuts. He exercises strict discipline in his diet, what's best for the machine to operate at an optimum, in an optimum way and not out partying all night.

He exercises such self-control, such self-denial. All for what? Well, maybe a little ribbon that will go in mom's scrapbook or maybe a gold medal at best at an Olympic event that will one day be forgotten.

And it shames our attempts at self-denying discipline for an eternal crown.

Or there's the worldly businessman and he's up before the sun to read his Wall Street Journal as he's eating his breakfast and he's off and he's listening to news on the way to work and he works long hours, yes, just for more money and the things that money buys.

And that same diligence ought to be seen in every believer's pursuit after eternal riches. Some men do more for gold than they do for God.

And it ought to rebuke our misdirected lives. Or we see a Jehovah Witness or two or a couple Mormons out demonstrating the zeal for making disciples of their false religion that often outshines the believer's zeal for making disciples of Jesus Christ in his one true religion.

Young people, are you ready to give two years of your life for mission work before you ever consider getting on with your career?

Every young man and some Mormons asks from ages between 18 or 19 and 25 to give two of those years. Full-time mission work.

Young ladies age 20 the same for 18 months work. Zeal that shames our lack of the same.

Now, to acknowledge their zeal doesn't mean that their heresy is any less damning. It just means that we're pointing out one area where we could learn something from these people of the world.

And that's what Jesus is doing in this parable. The people of this world, he says, are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

I mean, this guy used the money that was entrusted to him to make friends for himself to help him in the future. That was shrewd. Whatever you have to say, that was shrewd.

And both the master in the parable and Jesus in his application commend this unrighteous manager for this one thing he was shrewd.

It's a word that means wise, smart, intelligent, clever, crafty. He saw his situation. He's soon to be out of a job in a desperate condition, in great need.

And so he used the wealth in his care to make friends to prepare for the future when he would have no wealth at his disposal to use. And those friends might welcome him in and make provision for him.

Now that's what Jesus commands as an example to his people, the people of light. It's the whole point of the story. It's the reason he tells us this parable and we must get it and we must get it right.

He's not giving approval for this man's business dealings. He's not loosening up the application of the eighth commandment, you shall not steal.

You see, we don't have to approve of bank robbery to be able to appreciate the cleverness of the thieves pulling off the hundred million dollar heist. The precise timing of their steps, the methods employed, the skill, the attention to detail.

It's amazing. Some thieves are more organized than some Reformed Baptist churches. We could learn something from the thieves at this point, you see.

Would that all believers were as clever in spiritual matters as this crooked manager was in his matters. You know, there's another place in Scripture where Jesus calls upon us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

It's the same word here. He commends them for being shrewd. It's the same word as being wise. Indeed, the NIV says, be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.

Now, Jesus isn't saying that we ought to be like snakes in every way, that we ought to wiggle around on the ground, that we ought to be deceptive, that we ought to be robbers like that serpent in the garden that robbed Adam and Eve of eternal life.

But he's saying there's one thing about the serpent that you ought to be like and that's shrewd. That's wise, smart.

Now, that's what he's holding up before us as an example in this unjust steward.

And it becomes all the more clear, secondly, in the reinforcing command that he gives, because he immediately follows it up by saying in verse 9, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Be like this manager in this one way, he's saying. Use your master's money and possessions that have been entrusted to you in a way that wins friends for yourself and thereby prepares for blessing in the future.

Now, he did it in a dishonest and unrighteous way. You do it in a righteous way. He did it to win crooked friends that would welcome him for a few years into their temporary dwellings.

You do it to win gracious friends to welcome you into eternal dwellings. He did it for more of this world. You do it for more of heaven. And so, folks, as you see people of this world chasing after money temporal gain, let it prod you on and ask, am I as diligent in seeking after eternal gain?

You see, Jesus is teaching us that we have this brief opportunity, the present tense, of using worldly wealth that he's entrusted to us.

it's just a window of opportunity. You see, a day is coming when it'll be gone, just as it was for the shrewd manager.

A day was quickly coming, he was quickly coming to the hour when all the worldly wealth entrusted to him would be taken from him, gone, he would be turned out and would have the use of it no longer.

And so, while he had the opportunity, he made the most of it, didn't he? you and I are heading quickly to the hour when all the worldly wealth that our master has entrusted to us will be gone.

Job said it, the wise man of Ecclesiastes said it, naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes so he departs, he takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hands.

Now, that's the obvious. We came into the world with nothing and we go out of the world with nothing. All your checking accounts, savings accounts, all your stocks and bonds and houses and lands and cars, you don't take it with you, do you?

Everyone knows that. When you die, you leave it all behind. Well, what do you do with that reality? That's the all-important thing here that Jesus is challenging us with.

We've got this short time of opportunity. What do we do with worldly wealth when we know it's all going to be gone in a moment in the day of our death? I knew a man who looked at that reality in the face and came up with a solution.

He told me the case of his own father. You see, his dad had worked hard all of his life and he scrimped and he saved every dime he made for his retirement. And he did pretty well at it and he had a nice nest egg when he retired.

And then one year into his retirement he had a massive heart attack and died and left all of his wealth behind.

And my friend that I was speaking with said, I'm going to learn from my father and from this reality. I'm not going to save all of my money for retirement.

I'm going to spend it as I make it so I can enjoy it for a longer time. Now in some ways that may be wiser than the other. But in other ways it's just as foolish because in the end death comes knocking to my friend and separates him for all eternity from his money and the enjoyment of it.

Just as it had done for his father. He clearly saw the problem of death ending the enjoyment of worldly wealth but he came to the wrong conclusion. And left to ourselves there is no right solution.

But what if? What if there was an investment that paid dividends after death? Okay?

What if there was a way to use your temporary worldly wealth so that after death you could enjoy the dividends forever? forever? What if you could put worldly wealth in the bank of heaven so that when you die it's waiting for you to enjoy forever over there in the world to come?

That's the deal Jesus is letting us in on in this parable. Using worldly wealth in a way that leads to eternal enjoyment.

I tell you use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

That's the deal. Are you in on it? There's no restrictions on age. The youngest here can invest.

There's no minimum investment necessary. You don't have to have 50,000 minimum balance. There are no limits on how much you can invest. And so in Joppa there's a disciple of Jesus named Dorcas and she's heavily invested in heaven.

She's not been living for this world's wealth and using it selfishly for her and hers but she's using it in the service of others. We're told she was always doing good and helping the poor.

That's what she used her worldly wealth for. And then one day she got sick and died. And all her worldly wealth came to an end.

At the visitation for her funeral the room was packed. Even Peter the apostle was called and he was there. And it was filled with people. Here were all these widows, poor people.

And they're showing off their garments and their robes that she had made. made. She'd made for them while she was still living. Who are these people? They're the friends that she gained by her use of worldly wealth.

And they were there at her death to honor her for using her worldly wealth and her life to enrich them. Well Peter raises Dorcas from the dead and she goes on serving perhaps.

We don't know how long she was but then she dies again. And her body is still in the grave somewhere today. But at the day of resurrection she will come forth to a rich welcome to these people that she enriched with her use of worldly wealth.

And there's Paul the apostle. You ever thought how much money Paul would have made as a businessman? With his drive and determination? I'm sure he could have been a millionaire by 25 in our day.

He threw himself into it with all the energy he did. But no. He had a different thing. He was spending and being spent to enrich others with the gospel.

And yes he worked and worked with his hands and made tents and he used that money to sustain himself in the gospel ministry so he could enrich others.

in the day of the resurrection he will have a rich welcome of many people many friends that he made through his expenditure of worldly wealth and his own time which could have been turned to worldly wealth.

so when he preached in Thessalonica some believed and he wrote to them later and he said for what is our hope or joy or crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.

Maybe we don't use that language so let me just put it to you. What are we going to be rejoicing about in the day when our Lord Jesus returns? What am I going to be rejoicing?

Is it not you? Us? Indeed you are our glory and joy. No small part of my reward will be people in the day of resurrection seeing you.

Seeing you in glory seeing your joy and to receive a rich welcome from you as my friends whom I made while serving you with the gospel.

So there's Dorcas and there's Paul. We could look at others. Two people who obeyed Jesus' command here in verse 9 to use worldly wealth now that's entrusted to you to gain friends so that when it is gone you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

I think Paul's example shows us part of what it means to be welcomed into eternal dwellings these people that he served become his joy part of the riches of eternity.

They invested temporal worldly wealth in a CD in the bank of heaven. And so there you are believer and God is entrusting you with a certain amount of worldly wealth.

Every one of you even children. Did you know God is interested in what you do with your money? And he's entrusting you different amounts to different ones.

And you're tithing your money. For every dime that you make you give a penny to the Lord. For every dollar a dime, for every hundred a ten, you're tithing to the Lord.

You're giving proportionate to your income something back to the Lord to extend his gospel and to care for the needy. And when you die, all of your worldly wealth will be gone.

And you must leave everything behind and go to be with the Lord and there to greet you are Kenyan and Filipino and Swiss and French converts and even some from the Bremen, Indiana area with faces beaming with the joy of the Lord.

your forever friends gladly welcoming you into eternal dwellings and saying thank you for giving to the Lord.

I am a life that was changed. At that point dear believer, what do you think all that money in the stock market means to you?

just to see the sparkle in one of those people's eyes. There's no price that you can put on it.

You know, when you're investing your money, what are you concerned about? You're concerned that is the investment secure? Is it safe? Oh, it's guaranteed up to 100,000.

Okay, well, we'll invest that much in this bank and go somewhere else. Listen, you talk about safe. There are no thieves that can break in and steal.

There's no moths that rust out this investment. What else do you look at? Well, if you're like me, you want the highest investment, the highest return on your investment.

You want the highest interest. I mean, if you can get 2% in this bank and 4%, you'll go over to this bank, won't you? What if I told you of an investment?

That goes on paying forever and ever. That's what Jesus is letting us in on. There is a way to invest your perishing money in the bank of heaven, a way to lay up imperishable treasures in heaven where you can enjoy them forever.

And so Jesus says to his flock, do not be afraid, little flock. Your father is pleased to give you the kingdom. He's giving you the whole kingdom. That's his gift to you. So sell your possessions and give to the poor.

Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is there your heart will be.

So make friends. Are you making friends with your worldly wealth so that they might welcome you into eternal dwellings? forgiveness? Is it clear to your tax preparer that you are investing in a whole nother world?

When he or she looks over all the things you give her, does he or she come to the conclusion, this person is living for a different world? Are you tithing your money to the Lord?

And if not, why not? Is it selfishness? Is that what holds you back? Is it unbelief in this bank in heaven of this life to come?

I mean, what money buys for us now is so real, isn't it? And the pleasures are so real. And the life to come is so ethereal and seems so distant and far away.

Is it unbelief that causes you to keep it for yourself rather than investing it in this other world? It's foolish to invest it in the here and now when you could invest it for eternity.

That's being shrewd with your money. Or could it be that it's because money is your master and not God?

Sit down and have a good talk with yourself today. And say to yourself, self, there's going to come a day when I will be without anything. The day of my death, I can't take anything with me.

What should I do with the worldly wealth that God is giving me, entrusting to me for this time period? Well, if I selfishly use it for myself, I'm being foolish. If I make friends with it, that I might be received into eternal dwellings with joy by them, that's shrewd.

That's wise. Jesus closes his parable with these concluding insights. He says, whoever, verse 10, can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. Did you know that a man's character is proven by small things?

Little things. Little things are the best test of character. Not the big things, not the big ones, no, the little ones. That gives the clearest readout of your heart.

What you are in the very little things is what you really are. Now in the parable, the very little things is the worldly wealth that's been entrusted to you. Whether you've got a lot of it or not much of it, that is the little that you need to be faithful with.

And it's little in comparison to the eternal riches that are held out before us. So whatever you've got of this worldly goods, it's the little thing in the parable.

little. Because the eternal riches far outweigh whatever you could have amassed for yourself in this life. And whoever can be trusted with their very little can also be trusted with the much.

But if you're dishonest and selfish and unrighteous and not using that little in the way God wants, then you would be unfaithful with the much.

Your heart is revealed by whether you're faithful in handling worldly wealth. Do you use it like the master once, making friends with it for eternal life? This is a litmus test for the heart.

And it reveals who's going to be welcomed into those eternal dwellings in heaven. Unfaithfulness in small things of worldly wealth is a huge thing.

because it reveals where our hearts are. So verse 11, so if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches, those eternal riches of heaven?

The answer, not God. If you've not been faithful in handling what he's entrusted to you for this life, the little things, dollars, cents, houses, land, stocks, bonds, why would he trust you with eternal things?

He won't. That's the implied answer. Verse 12, and if you've not been trustworthy with someone else's property, that's the property God is entrusting to you for your lifetime to make use of it.

If you're not faithful with what he has given into your hands to make use of, then who will trust you with true, or then who will give you property of your own?

who will give you an eternal inheritance that he does give to you as your inheritance forever and ever?

You see, your wealth here is on loan. It's just on loan for you to use, and it could be recalled at any time. The loan could be up today.

But the wealth that you possess, eternal riches, is given to you, and once given, it can never be taken away.

It will be your joy forever and ever. Last week, in the parable of the talents, the lazy steward did not go to heaven, did he?

No, he was cast into hell. And neither does the selfish steward who misuses money on loan to him, who lives for the here and now, is not rich toward God, is not rich in that which is to come.

Put bluntly, don't think you're going to heaven if you're not using your money as God, the master and owner wants you to use it.

If you are not faithful to him in the little, borrowed money, he will not entrust you with the greater eternal riches.

And then he says, no servant can serve two masters. Either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

See, I've heard those words. Yeah, they were in the Sermon on the Mount. And they're worthy of putting in another sermon. And so he does just that here in his sermon on stewardship. The way you use your money is important to God.

Who is your master this morning? Is it God or is it money? And before you answer, know this, that the answer is found in the way you use your money. So you don't have to answer this.

the way you use your money answers the question. You see, because sooner or later, these two are pursuing conflicting value systems.

The one is for now and the other is for eternity. The one is for self, the other is for others in the kingdom. And how you use your money will show who is your boss, who is your master, God or money itself.

Here's a clue. The man with his heart set on money finds giving to the Lord painful and annoying.

Is one of the hardest checks that you write the check you write to give your offering to the Lord? Or do you view that as the best spent money of the week?

I don't know about you, but if I have any extra money and I can sink it into some savings and loan place or some investment where I'm getting back 40%, I'd say, I write that check rather happily.

Don't you? And so you see, the way we use our worldly wealth is a window into our heart.

heart. It's the litmus paper that shows whether God or money rules over us. Oh, the man that knows Christ, the woman that knows Christ, knows that what Jesus said is true.

It's more blessed to give than to receive. And so gives with a cheerful heart. joy in using money to make friends who will welcome him into eternal dwellings.

Joy in denying himself now for future joy, just as his Lord and her Lord did. Who for the joy set before him endured the cross and scorned its shame.

He denied himself here for the joy set before him there.

And that's the spirit that's found in his disciples with regard to the things of this world. Not in the same perfection as him.

But there is the Christ-like mark, birthmark upon everyone such that Jesus' words are true. where your treasure is reveals where your heart is.

You just can't get away from that. And the Pharisees didn't get away from it, did they?

They were listening in. And Luke says, the Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. They got the point of this parable, you see.

It stepped on their toes. The shoe fit. They didn't want to wear it. They didn't want to humble themselves and say, you know, I've been loving money rather than God.

That was the truth about them, as Jesus is about to tell them. But instead, they justified themselves. they just know, we've just sat and heard Jesus' story, haven't we?

It brings all men to a point of decision. You see it in the Pharisees. It's here again this morning. Jesus' story has been told. The application of it has been set forth.

Now, what do you do with it? What do you do with Jesus' words? Well, you either humble yourself and confess yourself to be a lover of money, or if that's what you are, you justify yourself and you sneer at Jesus and His word.

Lord, what will you do? Don't let this parable be wasted on you.

Don't let the lessons go over your head. He comes to do you everlasting good. You don't buy your way into heaven with your giving. That's not His point. He's saying, you want to know who my people are?

Do you want to know who is trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, who has seen what Christ has done for them? Do you want to know who's going to be welcomed into eternal dwellings?

Watch how they use their worldly wealth. There is a mark of Jesus upon them, and it's seen in their pocketbooks. May the Lord help us to submit to Him in this area of our lives.

If you've not submitted to Christ as Lord at all, let this be the thing that shows you what you are and where your heart loyalty is.

Come to Him and bow your knee before Him. Even as we sing together, have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. There are things here for every believer to cry out to God.

God, have Your own way with me. And there are things here for any unbeliever who's been living for the wrong world to cry out, have your own way with me.

Power, all power surely is Thine. What power is strong enough to turn a man or a woman from a grasping hand to a giving hand?

hand. It's the power of the Lord Jesus. You've been a grasper, been receiver, taker. What's the answer? There's one more thing you need to take.

You need to take the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. You need to receive Him. And in receiving Him and His grace and all that He is, He will powerfully transform your heart and turn your grasping hand into a giving hand.

May the Lord do it more and more for all of us. What a blessed Savior. So that when it comes our time to die, we are entering into our best things while others find that they have lived for the wrong world and are without any of their good things.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for walking this earth and living out a perfect life for poor sinners.

Thank you for going to the cross and dying under the wrath of God for poor sinners. And thank you for telling us a story that draws us in and shows us what we are.

And don't let us run from the light, but help us to come to the light. And further and further open our eyes to the glories in Christ and all that we have been given freely in him, that we ourselves might become givers like him.

Do it for your glory and for our eternal good, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.