The Dishonest Manager - Are we foolish managers turned wise?

Well if you would take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16 and we are going to cover verses 1 to 13. Now I will go ahead and tell you I am going to mention quite a few other scripture. If you can't write them down I would rather you not and I would rather you follow me with your mind and your heart and just track with me through the message. You can come back and get these passages and I strongly encourage you to do so because I am really giving you some homework that is much needed. You definitely need to get this to get last weeks message to finish that off and it ties into what we are going to look at tonight.

But tonight we have before us the third of our wisdom parables. Most of you know that we first studied the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins which brought us to a question, are we ready for the return of Christ? And then last week we studied the parable of the rich fool which brought us to the question, are we greedy for riches? Another way of saying it is this, are we engrossed with greed or covetousness for money and for possessions? And remember that in the parable of the rich fool Jesus made what I described a two sided application. To me there are two major points of the parable.

The first major point is obvious, Jesus gives a clear warning against being engrossed with greed for money and possessions. That's obvious. And the second major point is less obvious, I said it is kind of implied and I think it is there. Jesus gives a clear admonition to be rich towards God. It is in verse 21. I think we all saw that. So we must ask a few questions in response to this parable that we studied. Are we like the fool in the parable? Are we engrossed with greed for money and possessions? If so Jesus calls us a fool. Or are we rich towards God because we are laying up heavenly treasure? If so Jesus would call us wise.

Now in response to what we studied last week and connected to what we are going to study tonight I want to give us three questions and I will give you the answers. But I want you to go look up the answers. Look you can't come in here week after week and just allow me to spoon feed you. I do this on purpose sometimes because I want you to go and feed yourself. So with these questions I am going to give you the answers. And you go and you study and you answer the questions. But the first question is it a sin to save? Remember we were dealing with money last week and we are dealing with money again tonight in many ways.

But is it a sin to save up money and is it a sin to even save up possessions? There are some who will study a parable like the rich fool in other scriptures and they will come to the conclusion that it is wrong to save. Some will give all of their possessions away. I have seen that. The assignment here is Proverbs 6, 6 to 8, Proverbs 10, 4 and 5, Proverbs 13, 11 and 13, 22. I will state those again. Proverbs 6 verses 6 to 8, Proverbs 10 verses 4 and 5, Proverbs 13, 11 and 13, 22. Now there are some other passages that will help you there. I have just gotten you started. The second question, is it a sin to have plenty?

Is it a sin to have plenty of money and even plenty of possessions? Again there are some who will study portions of scripture like this parable of the rich fool and they will study other portions of scripture and they will come to a conviction that it is sinful and even unchristian to have plenty. Now here are your assignments here. Proverbs 19, 25, Proverbs 21, 5 and then 1 Corinthians 9, 7, Ephesians 4, 28 and Philippians 4, 19. I will state those again. Proverbs 19, 17, Proverbs 21, 5, 2 Corinthians 9, 7, Ephesians 4, 28 and Philippians 4, 19. And then the third question, is it a sin to just be rich? I mean let's think about it.

Is it a sin as a Bible Christian to be rich? The same thing. There are Christians that can look at lots of different scripture and they can come to a place where they really do believe that it is a sin to be rich. Now here is your assignment and this one is a little broad and then it is going to get specific. Say some of the Old Testament saints, specifically Abraham. Abraham was filthy rich. Was it a sin for him to be rich? And then Proverbs 10, 4 and then here is where you really get your answer. 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 19, 17 and 19. So I will mention those again. Proverbs 10, 4 and then 1 Timothy 6, 17, 18 and 19.

And again if you miss those verses, I will have my notes here and I will be glad to share those with you. Now tonight we are going to study this parable of the dishonest manager. Your Bible could have a different heading up there. It could have a heading that says the parable of the unrighteous steward or simply the unrighteous steward. And before we read the parable, I want to give us a little warning here. This can be a difficult parable for some. Honestly, there are quite a few that are difficult. We have seen that. But there is one way around that difficulty and that is to address a misconception.

It can seem that Jesus is promoting dishonesty and unsavory methods of conducting business in the parable. But that is not the case. Once we understand that Jesus is not somehow promoting dishonesty, well the meaning of the parable will begin to fall into place. And I think you will see that as we get into the parable. So let's read our verses and then I will zoom through a little summary and then we will divide the verses. Proverbs 16, or excuse me, Luke 16 verses 1 to 13.

He also said to his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager." In translation say, "Steward." "And charges were brought to him that this man, the manager, was wasting his possessions. And he called him and he 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.' And the manager said to himself, 'What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed or too ashamed to beg.

I have decided what I'll do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their homes.' So summoning his master's debtors, one by one, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.' Now if you see the wealth there, what these things cost, you'll see this is quite a bit. Verse 7, "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill and write eighty.' 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." And notice what Jesus says, "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 dwelling. One who is faithful in the very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in your unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you with true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

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." Now this parable, this story is easy to understand. Here in this parable we have a rich man who had a manager that managed, we could say it like this, "His property, his estate." Your translation may say that he was a steward. I think you can see that. Now we might not quite get the meaning of this word steward, but we probably understand the meaning of the word manager. A manager is one who manages the property or the business or the affairs of another.

But here in this story it is much more than we are accustomed to. Here this manager, this steward had a tremendous amount of authority. One of the greatest examples will be the Old Testament figure that we know, Joseph. Remember Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and he ended up in Egypt and he was a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. And in serving Potiphar, Joseph was so smart, he was so hardworking, he was so trustworthy that Potiphar made him manager of all of his affairs. And Joseph was such a good steward or manager that Genesis 39.6 that Potiphar had no concern except for what he was going to eat.

That's a pretty good manager. You know I thought about it like this. Joseph's a good example. Things really weren't going very well for him, were they? Sold into slavery? And he gets down to Egypt and what does he do? Did he pooch out his lip and complain? Oh, well the manager in this parable had authority like Joseph, but this manager was not like Joseph at all. This manager was dishonest. He was a lazy and dishonest manager. And finally the rich man confronted him and what did he say? What is this that I hear all about you? I hear that you are not managing my business affairs properly.

It's time for you to turn over the books and to give an account. It's time for me to fire you and get rid of you as manager and in a management position over my affairs. And in the parable, this manager had an obvious crisis. And so he did two things. First he said to himself that he would not do manual labor nor would he beg. And then second, he took matters into his own hands. He devised this business plan or a scheme where all of those who owed his rich boss could pay off their debt but at a cut rate. If they owed him $1,000, well he made it $800 and so on.

He assumed that executing his business scheme would gain him the acceptance and the love of his boss's debtors and that he would be welcomed by them into their homes when he lost his job. And then when this plan or this scheme came to the surface, we have the response of his boss or of his master. Surprisingly, shockingly, he commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. I'm reading verse 8 in the English Standard Version. What does he say? For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of the light.

And then verse 9, "And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwelling." We'll see how all of this ties together and what this means for us. Now this is how we're going to approach the parable of the teaching. I want to divide the verses. Of course, I'm going to make some application along the way. And then I'm going to offer up three lessons from Jesus' application of the parable. And then at the conclusion, we're going to ultimately see how this applies to us today. So number one, notice the audience. Look at the beginning of verse 1.

Who's the audience? Here we see that Jesus was not addressing the crowds like He often did. He is addressing His disciples. Of course, any and all who were there would have heard the teaching. But earlier in chapter 15, Jesus taught three other parables and those He had specifically addressed to the scribes and to the Pharisees. But all who heard these parables, they were there to listen as well. But here we see that Jesus was speaking to His disciples. But what is the point of Jesus telling this particular parable to His disciples? And what is my point in pointing this out? Jesus was purposefully disciplining His disciples.

He was teaching them certain things that He wanted them to hear and to apply into their lives from then on. So we need to see that this parable is for believers. And this certainly does apply to us. Second, I want us to see the foolish manager. We see this in verse 1 and 2. He also said to His disciples, here's where it starts, "There was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and he said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Turn over.

Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be my manager.'" Now here we see that the rich man was rich enough to have someone to manage his business affairs. Now the text does not say that he managed all of the rich man's affairs. But he obviously was in charge of certain parts of this rich man's estate, this business, this is farming, this is agricultural, I think we can see. Now a couple of things about the situation in the parable. First the fact that this rich man did not know what was happening with this business. Some have speculated that he must have been away.

Maybe he was away on extended business or perhaps he was living away from his particular property here. And second, the accounts and the debts mentioned here did not represent a type of a small tenant farm. Some point out that the size of these debts and the amount of the oil and the grains that are spoken of here represented a big farming operation.

Of course we do not have many details here, but those things do have a bearing on the parable and just like with all the parables, everyone there that was listening, they would have understood this story, this parable, this story represented things that were a part of their culture and everyday life. Now I want us to note a couple of details that are definitely given. First there's rich man heard of his mismanagement. Here in the verse it says that charges were brought to this rich man accusing his manager of wasteful management. The English standard says that charges were brought to him.

The King James says that he was accused and the accusations were of wasting, mismanaging the rich man's possessions, properties, monies, and business. And again, this seems to speak of a rich man who was some kind of a distance away from his estate, his property, his farm, his business. It seems that he was away and accusations of his managers, mismanagement had been reported to him. So the rich man heard of this manager's mismanagement of his business. Then second this manager was indeed wasteful. Here the verse says that the accusations were of wasting his possessions. This term waste or wasting speaks of scattering.

A better way to understand it, it speaks of squandering. John MacArthur says this speaks, and I'm loosely quoting him, not only of incompetent management, but he says this also speaks of embezzlement. He says this would mean he was using the rich man's business to steal for himself. Wern Wiersby says that the steward forgot that he was a steward and he began to act as if he was the owner. Wern Wiersby goes on to say that he ultimately became a prodigal steward who wasted, of course we know what prodigal means, it means wasted, who wasted the master's wealth.

So no matter how you describe it, the manager had become a prodigal, that means wasteful manager. He had been very wasteful in his management of the rich man's farming business. And then third, this rich man called for the foolish manager to give an account. Here in verse two we have this confrontation. The rich man heard of how things were going and he brought charges of mismanagement before his manager. And notice he did two things. First he demanded to see the books. He demanded that the manager give an account of his management. That's what that means, see the books. And then second he fired him.

He said, and I'm quoting the English Standard, "You can no longer be manager." So the rich man confronted the foolish manager and made him give an account for his mismanagement and he found out that he was fired. So here we see in verses one and two, it's easy to see. We have a foolish manager. The rich man had hired him as his manager over a very sizable farming business. And it seems that while the owner was away or some distance away from his business, the manager was very wasteful. He squandered the rich man's money. He squandered his business. And I think it's safe to say that he did all of this for himself.

Now question, how does this apply to us in our day? I like how Warren Wiersby brings this close to home. He says, "Before we judge this man too severely, let's examine our own lives to see how faithful we have been as stewards of what God has given us." Let me repeat that. Warren Wiersby says, "Before we judge this man too severely, let's examine our own lives to see how faithful we have been as stewards or managers of what God has given us." If we think on a few things, we see how making application here can get close to home. I want to ask us a few questions here. You could add to this list.

First, are we good managers of the material wealth that God has given us? Look, we didn't earn what we earned today. We didn't earn our paycheck last month. That came from God. James says, "All good things come from God." Are we good managers of the material wealth that God has given us? Second, are we good managers of the physical gifts and the abilities that God has given us? Our talents, our abilities, our gifts, those things came from God. Third, are we good managers of the spiritual gifts that God has given us? Look, every believer is given at least one spiritual gift. Are we good managers of that spiritual gift?

Are we good managers of the time that God has given us? In our study in Ephesians, we learned that we are given time, a certain amount of time, and we are to be responsible for the time, that time. Are we good managers of the gospel that God has given us? There are people in the world that don't have the gospel. And then, sixth, are we good managers of the church that God has given us? You could keep going down this list. So we have the foolish manager. And we have to ask if we are foolishly managing all that God has entrusted to us. I believe that we have been a lot more like the foolish manager than maybe we thought at first.

We have used, and we are wasting, using wastefully for ourself all that he's entrusted to us. You see? Again, we're far more like the foolish manager than you know. Or maybe we saw it first. I want us to see what I call the wise manager. The wise manager. I want to read verses 3 to 8. The manager, same one from verses 1 to 2, said to himself, "What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I am too ashamed to beg.

I have decided what I will do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their homes or houses." So summoning his master's debtors, one by one, he said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." And he said to him, "Take your bill and sit down quickly and write out fifty." And then he said to another, "How much do you owe?" And he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." And then notice, "The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness." Let me pause right there.

Now this may surprise you that I would call the foolish manager wise. But we will see that that is truly the case. Again, we have to get past the misconception that somehow Jesus was commending dishonesty or dishonest business dealings. It's going to all come together, I believe, for us in the application towards the end. But notice what is happening with the foolish manager. He had been fired, but he was still in the management position. He had been fired, but he hadn't been removed.

He could not change his past mismanagement and his wastefulness because he had wasted the rich man's business, but he could quickly make some preparations for his future. Notice how this manager moves from being foolish to being wise. And this is going to surprise you. First, he evaluates his situation. We see this in verse 3. Here we see that this foolish manager thinks to himself about his situation. He evaluates things and he comes to a conclusion and he takes this position. He says that first he's not strong enough to dig. That means he says, "I'm not strong enough to do manual labor." And then next, he says he's too ashamed to beg.

That would speak of begging like a beggar. Simply he evaluates his current situation. He can't change the misdeeds of his past. He can't move forward doing manual labor and he can't move forward as a beggar. He's not strong enough to work and he's too prideful to beg. So this foolish manager is evaluating his situation. But then second, he plans to preserve himself. We see this in verse 4. Here he says what he has decided to do. He has a plan. He has a plan. He has a scheme to move forward to preserve himself and to preserve the place in society that he wants. Remember, he doesn't want to dig and he does not want to beg.

Notice, he says that when he's removed from his position, he has a plan so that the people will receive him into their homes. So the foolish manager has a plan to preserve himself. And then third, he executed his plans, these plans of self-preservation. Now look at what he does here in verses 5 to 7. He sends for his master's debtors and he renegotiates all the debts. He lowered the debts that were owed through negotiations. And notice how this worked in this agricultural situation. These debts were commodities. That meant that these debts were due at the time of the harvest. And by reducing the debts, they were to pay the rich man.

This dishonest manager put the debtors under an obligation to him. He was really doing these debtors a big favor. And this was a very big deal in their society. If one had a big favor, if one did a big favor for another, their sense of obligation to the one that did them a favor was great. It was very, very great. So simply, this manager dishonestly renegotiated the debts that the debtors owed his master or his boss. And in doing so, he put the debtors in a position of a big obligation to him. And look at how things come out. In this business scheme, look who came out on top and who did not. First the rich man was cheated.

In the end, he did not get what was rightfully owed him. He really lost money. And then second, the debtors came out much better. They had their debts reduced, which of course was good for them. And then third, the fired and the foolish manager came out the best. He secured a place for himself. Those debtors to the rich man had become debtors to him. They owed him and he was sure to find a place with them after he was completely dismissed from his management position. Now at this point, we can't say that the foolish manager has become the wise manager. We definitely could call him a lot of things.

A cheating manager, a selfish manager, a self-centered manager, a prison deserving manager. If you were the rich man, you would say he needs to be beat. Why? Because he's a crook and a thief and a jerk. But notice how the parable progressed in a very strange way. Fourth, the rich master commends the foolish manager as being wise. Go back to verse 8, "The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness." And what we have here is the shocking conclusion of the parable. And all those listening would have been shocked that Jesus concluded the story like this. And ending like this would not have fit the norm of the day.

But notice, "Rather than anger towards the foolish, dishonest, self-serving manager, the rich man commended him for all that he did." The New American says, "And his master praised the unrighteous steward." This simply means that he applauded him, he commended him, he approved of him and praised him to his face for what he had done. And notice, "The rich master did not commend or praise him because of his self-preserving, unauthorized business plans and thievery.

The master commended and praised him for his shrewdness." The verse literally says, "He commended and he applauded him for his wisdom." Because this word shrewdly means to act with insight and wisdom in prudence. The King James captures the meaning beautifully. The King James says that the master commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely. Simply the rich man was praising this dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly by taking advantage of this opportunity. He quickly launched a new business plan to renegotiate those debts and he put those debtors in a position of owing him.

He did all of these things so as to preserve himself and his future. So the rich master commended the foolish, dishonest manager for being wise. Now, an application, we need to ask a question or two here. And I really want you to think with me. I want you to follow me because I know this has been a lie. Could our Lord call us wise managers of all that he has put before us? We've covered that. The answer is no because we have not wisely managed everything God has given us. We've not. We've been selfish. We've squandered. But next, have we moved from being foolish managers to wise managers?

Could our Lord call us a shrewd or wise manager, meaning we have moved from being foolish to being wise just like the one in the parable? You see what I'm asking? Now, we're going to come back to this in the conclusion. I think it's going to all tie together. So the foolish manager that ultimately became the wise manager. Seems contradictory. I know. But then fourth, or number four, the point of the parable. And that's at the second part of verse 18. Let me read verse 8. Excuse me, verse 8, not verse 18. Let me read verse 8 again. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, his wisdom. And now here's the point.

For the sons of this world are more shrewd or wise in dealing with their own generation than the sons of life. Here we see that Jesus abruptly shifts from the parable itself to the point of the parable. He says the sons of this age are more wise, more prudent in relation to their own generation to their own age and kind than the sons of the life. Now what does all this mean? First we need to see who Jesus was talking about. These sons of the age, the King James says children of this world. They are the lost people of the world. Those sons of the light, the King James says children of the light. These are true Christians in the world.

And what Jesus was saying was this. Lost sinners are better at and work harder at securing their temporary future in this fleeting present time than true Christians are at working hard at securing their eternal reward in the eternal age to come. Let me say that again. Jesus is saying this. Lost sinners are better at and work harder at securing their temporary future in this fleeting present time in the world than true Christians are at working hard at securing their eternal reward in the eternal age that is to come. I like how Albert Barnes describes this. This is a little high, you're going to have to really try to get this.

Albert Barnes says they, this would be lost people, are more prudent and wise than Christians in regard to the people of their own time. They turn their connection with them to good account and make it subserve their worldly interests while Christians fail much more to use the world in such a manner as to subserve their spiritual interests. Now I like how William McDonald says it. He puts it in more everyday language. He says it like this. Ungodly unregenerate men show more wisdom in providing for their future in this world than true believers show in laying up treasures in heaven. Simply this is what Jesus was saying.

He was not commending dishonesty in any way. He was using dishonesty as a teaching tool. He was saying that the lost are more wise, prudent, shrewd at working in their use of time and opportunities and people and possessions to better themselves in a fleeting world than Christians are at using their time, opportunities and people and possessions for storing up treasures in heaven. I like how John MacArthur concludes the point of the parable. He says that the believer should be far more shrewd or wise in preparing for eternal future. So for us the question must be you ask. Are we wise in making preparations for our eternal future?

Let me give you an example. Think about financial preparations. You know we can make two types of financial preparations. We can prepare for retirement. But then you know we can also prepare our inheritance. You know in my years of ministry sometimes I will deal with people and they're nearing the end of life and they'll talk about how they're leaving what they have to their children and things like that. So we think about financial preparations. You know we make preparations for retirement and how we're going to leave what we leave behind because we don't take it with us. But what about spiritual preparations?

We should all be serving the Lord in life and making preparations for two things that are going to come. First our funeral. Yes our funeral. We should be building a true Christian life and a witness for our funeral. Look folks if you pass away what is someone going to say at your funeral? One of the hardest things to do as a minister is to do a funeral for someone that you don't have anything good to say about. But oh it's a glorious wonderful thing when you step up to do a funeral and they have a glorious wonderful Christian witness. So first our funeral. We should be building a true Christian life and witness for our funeral.

But second and more specifically with the verse here our eternal reward. We should be serving the Lord and his work therefore making eternal preparations. So that's the point of the parable. But then number five I want us to see the application of the parable. Now don't panic that comes in verses nine to thirteen. I almost made this a part two. You know I wanted us to keep it together. Now let me read the verses and we'll be quick right here. Verses nine to thirteen. First there's a shift and I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth. Now he's not saying that wealth is sinful.

What he's saying is it's just of the world so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful and very little is also faithful and much and one who is dishonest and very little is also dishonest and much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth well who will entrust you with true riches. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's who will give you that which is of your own. And 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 both God and money.

Now here Jesus makes application of all that he's just taught. Now before we get into this application of these verses I want us to look at these things big picture alright. Jesus spoke these things to his disciples. That means he was teaching them and training them with truth. He taught them a parable about a dishonest, sinful, self-seeking manager. And he uses the parable not to somehow commend or recommend dishonesty no. But he was using this parable to teach that the lost of the world are more shrewd or wise in providing for their future in this world than Christians are in storing up treasures in heaven.

And Jesus continues by applying three lessons from the parable that teach what the true believers attitude and approach to money should look like in these areas of life. And he applies three lessons that are centered on the believers attitude, approach to money in three areas of life. Other people, themselves, and God. First the lesson in verse 9. The first lesson is in verse 9. Here we see that as Christians we should use our wealth to make friends for ourselves for certain specific purposes.

We should use our monies, material possessions, and all that we have to build relationships so as to win the lost, so as to make them heavenly friends or brothers and sisters. Also we should use our monies and material possessions and all that we have to help the work of the ministry of the church. And we should use all of those things to benefit and grow the saints of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. And here's the lesson in verse 9. This reminds me of certain times in my life.

I remember years ago, years ago before God called me into the ministry, me and a family member and two or three other gods that I went to church with, we had a little hunting lease. And you know, we enjoyed that hunting lease together and we invited a guy from our church to go with us and he went with us several times and we began to witness to him a lot and share Christ with him and ultimately he came to faith in Christ and he shared his testimony and he got up and he talked about how we had made a big impact on his life and he said, "You know what?

Those guys were just as much of a Christian at the deer camp as they were at church." See we use that. We use that, shrewdly and wisely, to share the gospel. Many of you know that I was very instrumental in bringing Keith to faith in Christ. And I shrewdly and wisely spent time with him and witnessed him and impacted him with the gospel. And then after he came to faith in Christ, I shrewdly and wisely used my time and my home and possessions. Why? To be able to spend time with him to disciple him. That was before we had children and we spent a lot of time mountain biking together.

One time he made the comment, he said, "Wow, I was discipled on a mountain bike." It was true. We've always sought to use our home in that way. We've always used our home. What am I trying to show you? The first lesson here. This first lesson, Christians should use their monies and their possessions to build relationships and to invest in people so as to win the loss, grow the saints and build the church. The second lesson, seen in verses 10 to 12. Here we see that those who are faithful with a little will be faithful with much. And the same is true with unfaithfulness or the other side.

The one who is unfaithful with a little, well, they'll be unfaithful with much. And this is a lesson on personal faithfulness with what one has. And notice how Jesus applies the lesson. In verse 12 he says that the one who has not been faithful with worldly wealth and possessions, he will not be entrusted with true heavenly riches. Here Jesus is really fleshing out the lesson. Jesus says that it is absolutely foolish to think that God will give true heavenly riches to those who sinfully waste money, possessions, opportunities, all of that on self. Here's a question for you to ponder. How many people do you know or have known?

They claim to be Christian, but yet they have wasted their life, wasted what they've had. They've wasted their possessions, their jobs, their families, things such as that. And ultimately they've never been used for God. See there's a direct connection folks. So the lesson is this. Christians who use their money and possessions and wealth for self in this world, they will not be entrusted with heavenly riches. And then the third lesson, seen in verse 13. Here we see that no servant can serve two masters. The word Jesus uses here is serving as a slave. And as a slave in their day they didn't have an opinion, they didn't have options.

They were slaves who served. And here Jesus will say that a Christian can't serve or can't be a servant of God and money. It is impossible to serve God and to serve money both at the same time. If he tries he will serve one and be devoted to the one, but he'll hate the other. If he tries he'll serve and love and be devoted to the other, but he'll hate the other. It's either God or money. It can't be both. You know I thought about it like this. If you've been in the life of the church and served God long enough you'll have seen this.

I've seen people who profess Christ and oh they walk the walk and they really did live for the Lord it seemed like. But then over time their master started to reveal itself. Their master was really the promotion that pulled them away from family. Their master was really the job that kept them on the road. Their master was really going from job to job, moving around. And ultimately, ultimately you just look up and they really serve their career, they serve their job, they serve those things rather than God. Now is it wrong for the promotion? No. Is it wrong to get a raise? No. Is it wrong to better yourself? No.

But if you serve those things instead of God that's your master. So the lesson is this. Christians can't serve God in money. True Christians have one master and they are slaves to that one master and they must serve that one master and all their money and possessions and material wealth are to be used in service to Him. So we see that Jesus really makes application of the parable beyond or past the point that's seen in verse 8. And I think that we should examine those lessons. I know I zoomed through them. We should examine those lessons. Now I want to begin by asking us again if we are the foolish manager who has become the wise.

If you're like me it took a little while to see that. Again are we the foolish manager who has become the wise manager? I think we all would have to admit that we have been a foolish manager of all that the master has entrusted to us. All that we have been entrusted to by our master. We have not managed all of that very well. But the question is this. Are we wise like the foolish manager? That foolish manager turned wise in that we are using our money, our possessions, our material wealth shrewdly and wisely for kingdom purposes.

Are we using our money and possessions and our wealth so as to reach the lost and to help grow the saints and to contribute to kingdom work on earth which is the church? You see? Simply that is what Jesus is calling us to do here. Now this leads me to the title of the message. Just like the previous two I'll state the title and end with a question. It's the dishonest manager. Are we foolish managers turned wise? See the question? Are we foolish managers turned wise? It's been a lot. Could have easily turned this into two parts. Might have been a little easier. But I knew we wouldn't meet for a while.

And I knew it would be disconnected over time. The part one and the part two. We have a lot to go study on our own.