SPEAKER_00: Thanks for checking out this podcast from Carterville Christian Church.
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is that through these messages you'll grow deeper in your faith and experience the life-changing hope of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's jump into this week's teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, C3.
SPEAKER_01: Good to be with you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Good to see all your faces.
SPEAKER_01: Good to good to worship together with one voice, our God who's worthy of our worship this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I need to we need to jump straight into our text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We're continuing the series, Jesus the Financial Planner, talking through some teachings of Jesus that if he were to pull up a chair on the other side of a table, the other side of a desk for us, and to lay out some financial wisdom, some financial advice, what would he give us?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of nuggets of truth would he offer to us?
SPEAKER_01: What financial advice would he give us?
SPEAKER_01: And this morning we're gonna be in two different texts mainly.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 25 and Luke 16.
SPEAKER_01: If you got your Bibles, I would encourage you to open up to both of them as we're gonna kind of be going back and forth between the two this morning.
SPEAKER_01: One's a familiar story, one's gonna be pretty strange for most of us, I would imagine, um, in here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Um but as before we jump into those, I think it's important because both of these, both of these texts are actually stories that Jesus tells.
SPEAKER_01: They're actually parables.
SPEAKER_01: And it's important for us to all kind of be on the same page when we're when we enter into parable study, um, what's what's important for us to kind of realize.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus is doing, as Damien, our teaching minister would, how he would define it, is that parable is an earthly story that's thrown alongside a kingdom concept.
SPEAKER_01: That it's that's literally the the root of parable, parabole, is those two those two Greek words, to throw alongside.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: And as we've talked about in the past, these stories, as C.H.
SPEAKER_01: Dodd puts it, are meant to tease our mind into active thought.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what leads Mark Scott to say in parable study, when it comes to parable study, only the interested survive.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Only the interested survive.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus tells these parables, what they're meant to do is they're meant to reveal the kingdom to those who have hearts that are ready to receive it.
SPEAKER_01: And yet at the same time, they're meant to conceal the kingdom from those whose hearts are hardened to it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it's appropriate for us before we jump into these stories to pray that the Lord would soften our hearts so we would be able to receive his word with humility.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we come before you and we we come before you with your word open and our our our minds, our ears, our hearts ready to hear from you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, give us uh a posture of humility, ready to receive what you have for us through your word today.
SPEAKER_01: We give you all the glory because you alone deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: It's in your powerful name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we're gonna pick up in Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Read along with me if you've got it open right there.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be up on the screens.
SPEAKER_01: For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
SPEAKER_01: To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
SPEAKER_01: And then he went away.
SPEAKER_01: He who had received the five talents went at once and traded traded with them, and he made five talents more.
SPEAKER_01: So also the one who had two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground, and he hid his master's money.
SPEAKER_01: Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
SPEAKER_01: And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents, here I have made five talents more.
SPEAKER_01: And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.
SPEAKER_01: Enter into the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_01: And he also, who had the two talents, came forward, saying, Master, you delivered me two talents, here I have made two more talents for you.
SPEAKER_01: And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master.
SPEAKER_01: Now he he also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I went and hid your talent in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Here you have what is yours.
SPEAKER_01: But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant.
SPEAKER_01: You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather what I have scattered scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
SPEAKER_01: So take the talent from him, give it to the one who already has the ten talents, for to everyone who will be who has will.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, hold on.
SPEAKER_01: For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness, in the place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't I don't know if you've heard that story before.
SPEAKER_01: I would imagine if you've grown up in church for any length of time, then you've probably heard that story.
SPEAKER_01: It's familiar to us, it's pretty intense, but it is it is familiar familiar to us nonetheless.
SPEAKER_01: It's from the final week of Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_01: It set this section, fits into the larger context of Matthew chapter 24 and 25, this larger teaching of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But what we need to know, just a few notes about this, about this story.
SPEAKER_01: What we need to know is as the master comes and gives talents, these different, these were like large sums of money.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's debate about how large they are.
SPEAKER_01: That's really beside the point today.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to know there's a lot of money that they're dealing with here.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of money that's been, there's a lot of possessions that have been uh entrusted to the servants here.
SPEAKER_01: And the first two servants take what they have been given, and the word here that's used in the text means that they immediately put it to work.
SPEAKER_01: They immediately start to invest it and get gains back on it.
SPEAKER_01: They worked for more, they labored for it, and as a result, the master returns and says, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: And in contrast, you know, the third servant who was given the one talent took what he had been given, and he just buries it in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And as a result, his master returns and condemns him, calling him a wicked and slothful or lazy servant.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pretty well-known story for those of us who have grown up in church.
SPEAKER_01: The next one, not so much.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, the next one is a little bit more strange.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually one of the harder texts to deal with in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: We're in Luke's chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm being honest, I wish we would just not cover this one at all this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those texts that I would rather not wade into this morning, but nonetheless, here we are.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna jump into it.
SPEAKER_01: So as you're turning to Luke 16, just let me tell you that you need to know the context of, as as we get to Luke 16, the context of Jesus' teaching here.
SPEAKER_01: This actually started a chapter earlier in Luke's gospel, and it's a pretty well-known chapter, Luke 15.
SPEAKER_01: The parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_01: Probably heard those three parables where Jesus is talking about the nature of grace and the kingdom, searching for what is lost.
SPEAKER_01: It all starts with the Pharisees grumbling against him, noticing this man receives sinners and eats with them.
SPEAKER_01: And so after those three parables, Jesus then turns to his disciples, and this is what we get.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 16, starting in verse 1 through verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Read with read with me.
SPEAKER_01: He also said to his disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this manager, this man, was wasting his possessions.
SPEAKER_01: And so he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you?
SPEAKER_01: Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.
SPEAKER_01: And the manager said to himself, What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg.
SPEAKER_01: I've got it, I have decided what to do, so so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.
SPEAKER_01: So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master?
SPEAKER_01: And the man replied, A hundred measures of oil.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said to another, How much do you owe?
SPEAKER_01: And this man replied, A hundred measures of wheat, and he said, Take your bill and write eighty.
SPEAKER_01: In verse eight, the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
SPEAKER_01: For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light, 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.
SPEAKER_01: One who is faithful in the very little is also faithful in much.
SPEAKER_01: And one who is dishonest in the very little is also dishonest in much.
SPEAKER_01: If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
SPEAKER_01: And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's a it's an interesting, interesting text here for us this morning in Luke chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: It's really, really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: A couple notes for us.
SPEAKER_01: The master had a money manager, which meant this master was very wealthy.
SPEAKER_01: Like when it says a rich man, it's kind of selling it short.
SPEAKER_01: This man was very wealthy, so it's it's pretty common in Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_01: If you have this much wealth to throw around, you need to hire somebody to kind of steward your resources, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so this man was paid to pay the other workers, to distribute his other goods, to distribute food.
SPEAKER_01: He traded with other other money managers and made business deals with other owners in different capacities.
SPEAKER_01: This was a highly respected and highly trusted position.
SPEAKER_01: And someone comes and rats him out and says, like gives a lucrative charge brought against him and says that he's wasting his master's possessions, is what the word that is used there.
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is that that word for wasting his possessions, you've been wasting my possessions, is actually the same word that's used in Luke 15 of the prodigal son, whenever he squandered away his wealth on wild living.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we know about this man, about this money manager, is that he's not like it's not an intentional corruption, rather, a thoughtless squandering.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: Like this man, the root word for this, this wasting his possessions, is used for throwing grain high in the air, a considerable distance high in the air.
SPEAKER_01: It's literally like throwing, like, let's just throw all this at the wall and see what sticks.
SPEAKER_01: That's how he's managing this master's money.
SPEAKER_01: He's not giving it any real thought to it at all.
SPEAKER_01: So this money manager is like, uh-oh, I'm gonna be out out of a job here in just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And I I'm I'm too I'm I'm too weak to dig, I'm too proud to beg.
SPEAKER_01: So he comes up with a plan to set himself up while he settles accounts with those who owed his master money.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe in this text, maybe he's taken the interest off, maybe he's taken off his cut of the earnings, but regardless of how the math kind of maths out here, what he's doing is he's giving lucrative deals to people who were in debt and in turn gaining their trust, gaining their friendship.
SPEAKER_01: That's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: And then the shocking part of the parable comes.
SPEAKER_01: When his master finds out what he has done, he's furious.
SPEAKER_01: He throws him into jail, he he sentences him to death, and he says, and he his anger burns against him for the rest of his life.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: When his master finds out what he has done, he commends him.
SPEAKER_01: He like tips his cap to him.
SPEAKER_01: Like he he can't help but be impressed by him.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the weird part about this text.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna be straight with you.
SPEAKER_01: I wrestled with this quite a bit this week.
SPEAKER_01: This is the weird part about this text.
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus suggesting, is Jesus suggesting that we act in a morally unrighteous way?
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus suggesting that we like swindle our way to the top?
SPEAKER_01: Is that his financial advice for us today, as Jesus, the financial planner?
SPEAKER_01: Is he giving us a pass to act in an ethically questionable way?
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the deal, we're gonna get there in just a little bit, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get to that, get to those answers.
SPEAKER_01: But what I want to just say this is I think Jesus, in this in this parable, I think he's pointing to a bad person as a good example.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I think he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: And we use the same kind of logic sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: You know, even as you're competing against somebody else, even as you think about your enemy, right?
SPEAKER_01: As I as I step onto the basketball court, there's sometimes that I play good defense and it's just better offense.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I don't, I rarely play good defense, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's always better offense, though.
SPEAKER_01: I just say, hey, that's a great shot, man.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like sometimes you just gotta tip your cap.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a coach enters into the locker room and says, Hey guys, we lost, but the better team won today.
SPEAKER_01: Like they were just better than us today.
SPEAKER_01: And we use even the same kind of logic as parents, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Timmy is the worst kid on the street, and he's nice to his sister.
SPEAKER_01: Can you not be nice to your sister for once?
SPEAKER_01: You know, we use that same kind of that same kind of logic sometimes, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And I think this is what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's using uh he's using a bad person as a as a good example here.
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's kind of what we're getting at.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't exalting this man's dishonesty or his wastefulness or his laziness, but he's exalting something else.
SPEAKER_01: He's commending something else in this text.
SPEAKER_01: So, how in the world does Matthew 25 and Luke 16, how do they, how do they come together?
SPEAKER_01: How do they correlate?
SPEAKER_01: What can we take from this?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what is Jesus really trying to say?
SPEAKER_01: If he is sitting across the table from us as our financial planner, what is he what is he trying to say for us?
SPEAKER_01: What is he trying to tell us?
SPEAKER_01: I think there's three takeaways that Jesus is trying to give us from these stories.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is simply this we are stewards.
SPEAKER_01: We are stewards.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's what Jesus is trying to tell us.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you saw it in the text in Matthew chapter 25.
SPEAKER_01: It says, For it would be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property, is what it says.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Luke chapter 16, he says to his to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought against him, and this man was wasting his possessions.
SPEAKER_01: And he so he called them and says, What is this I hear about you?
SPEAKER_01: Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.
SPEAKER_01: You realize both of these stories center on one who owns everything, and then his servants who are entrusted with his property.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is with God, and so it is with us.
SPEAKER_01: What the Bible clearly teaches about our stuff is that God is the owner of it all.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Psalm 24 says.
SPEAKER_01: For the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 50, for every animal of the forest is mine, declares the Lord, the cattle on a thousand hills, I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
SPEAKER_01: If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 11, who has ever given to God that God should repay them?
SPEAKER_01: For from him and through him and for him are all things.
SPEAKER_01: To him be glory forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: See, God is the owner, and if God is the owner, then it at the most simple, it means that you are not.
SPEAKER_01: And it means that I am not.
SPEAKER_01: That's really what it comes down to.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a truth that we need, but a truth that can be so easy to forget.
SPEAKER_01: I remember my in-laws told me a story of their son, my brother-in-law, Ryan, he was like five or six years old, and he set up his own kind of lemonade stand of sorts, but instead of lemonade, he was selling like paper binoculars.
SPEAKER_01: So he had literally just taken two pieces of paper, wrapped them in circles, and taped them together, you know, and that's what he's selling for a quarter or 50 cents or whatever at the at the street.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how well the business went for him, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I know his Uncle Greg showed up at one point.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: Uncle Greg showed up at one point and bought a set of binoculars from him and you know, told him, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And then Uncle Greg saw a quarter sitting on the ground and he picked it up and he said, Ryan, is this yours?
SPEAKER_01: And Ryan just said, Well, well, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And just puts it in his pocket, you know, and sits there, is talking with Ryan.
SPEAKER_01: And a few minutes later, Ryan goes, You know, Uncle Greg, can I can I see that quarter really quick?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Sure.
SPEAKER_01: And he pulls out the quarter and hands it to him, and Ryan takes a close look at both sides, and he goes, You know, you know, Uncle Greg, I think this is mine, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And somewhere along the way, I think we all seem to come to the same conclusion about our belongings, about our finances, about our stuff, about our money.
SPEAKER_01: We cut we kind of come to that same conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think this is mine.
SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, I I worked hard for this, I earned this, I deserve this, but you know, you know how the Bible teaches it?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches it that, hey, God is the owner of everything.
SPEAKER_01: God is the one who has who has entrusted us with his things.
SPEAKER_01: We are stewards entrusted with his stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It is not ours.
SPEAKER_01: And so it leads us into what I think Jesus is telling us next is that, hey, yes, we are stewards and we are expected, expected to be faithful with what we have received.
SPEAKER_01: There is an expectation for those who are in Christ to be faithful with what we have received.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the phrase that the master says to his servants in in Matthew 25, Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.
SPEAKER_01: And did you hear how Jesus ends the passage in Luke 16?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Oh, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is disobe dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
SPEAKER_01: If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to the true riches?
SPEAKER_01: See, what made the servants faithful in Matthew 25?
SPEAKER_01: What made them faithful in Matthew 25 was the fact that they put money to work.
SPEAKER_01: They put the stuff to work.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't just sit on what they had been given, but they actively used it and engaged with it.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: And here's that's this is what it means to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: That's one aspect of what it means to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear this.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter how much they were given to start with.
SPEAKER_01: You notice, like, that's an interesting, interesting part of Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_01: It's an interesting fact, a little tidbit that Jesus adds in there.
SPEAKER_01: It says, one gets five, one gets two, one gets one, each according to his ability.
SPEAKER_01: And so many times we compare ourselves to those around us and say, I'm, man, I'm one of the have nots.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have what they have.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't get what they get.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have the blessings that they have.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not blessed the way that they are.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we can we can get in this moment and we can we can just get in our own heads and just say, This isn't for me, then.
SPEAKER_01: And we can, and the, but the question is not how much are you given.
SPEAKER_01: The question is, are you being faithful with what you have been given?
SPEAKER_01: It's not like how much do you have?
SPEAKER_01: It's are you being faithful with what you have?
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Like sometimes we believe the lie that generosity, as one of our elders this week, as we were talking about this, one of our elders said that generosity is a rich man's game.
SPEAKER_01: Like sometimes we can think that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can buy into that lot, into that lie, that generosity is a is a rich man's game.
SPEAKER_01: So we talk ourselves out of faithfully stewarding what we have received from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We talk ourselves out of literate of living generously.
SPEAKER_01: We say, like, I don't have much to offer.
SPEAKER_01: I can't bring myself to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Once I just get a little bit more, once I get that raise or the new job or pay off this debt, then I can be more generous because I will have more to offer.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not actually what Jesus says in this in this parable.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus says is, what actually, if you're if you're going to be faithful in the little, that's how I know you'll be faithful with much.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're dishonest with the little right now, if you're not gonna be faithful with what you have right now, with what I provided for you right now, why would I entrust to you the true riches?
SPEAKER_01: Why would I why would I give you more?
SPEAKER_01: And so this is actually like a deeper issue than than just our stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's a heart issue, like we talked about a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And if we have treasure problems, if we have money problems, it's actually a heart problem that we have.
SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a character thing.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being faithful with what you have been given?
SPEAKER_01: Are you are you giving generously?
SPEAKER_01: Are you putting it to work?
SPEAKER_01: Are you investing in kingdom efforts?
SPEAKER_01: Like this is what this is what the servants did in Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_01: And did you see what the master commended the dishonest manager for?
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting is the text says that he commanded him, he commended him for his shrewdness, his wisdom, his intuitiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And this is actually what the Lord encourages his disciples to be in Matthew chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: He sends them out, sends them out to do the work of ministry, and he sends them and he says, I'm sending you as sheep to the wolves, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus isn't condoning unrighteousness, rather, he is commending the servant's ability to use his present and temporary power and resources to make preparations for what is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Like to prepare for what is ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Being faithful with what you have been entrusted, it means working what you have been given, like investing what you have been giving, investing in the things that will actually last and not the things that will fade away, and using the wisdom to prepare for what is ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Or as Damien said last week, how he put it last week, we make all that we can so that we can give it all away.
SPEAKER_01: Like this is this is what we're getting at.
SPEAKER_01: We are stewards of what the Lord has given to us, and we are expected to be faithful with all that we have received.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the deal I think Jesus is telling us one more thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I need to make sure we catch this in Matthew 25 and in Luke 16.
SPEAKER_01: It's this is that we are going to be held accountable to how we have stewarded the things that the Lord has given.
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's my responsibility as your preacher to not sugarcoat this for you.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to understand Matthew 25, the context of Matthew 25.
SPEAKER_01: The context of Matthew 25 is in the larger teaching section in Matthew 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_01: You can read it on your own time this week.
SPEAKER_01: And what you'll hear from Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Is he's talking about his return that is imminent, and we don't know when it is, but we know he is coming back.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is this is in the context of this, and we're told to be ready.
SPEAKER_01: And then, according to Jesus, what it means to be ready is to be faithful with what you've been given, and he tells stories and parables about what happens if we aren't.
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting, Mark Moore made this observation that I thought was interesting when he talks about the servant in Matthew 25 that had one and buried it and then brought it back out and gave it to his master, say, here, have what is yours.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever he says, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, you know, like reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you haven't haven't spread out seed, all this kind of stuff, what he's what he's getting at is actually like there's a there's a parallel passage in Luke 19.
SPEAKER_01: There's a parallel passage in Luke 19 and what the master replies to that servant when he says, when he says, I knew you'd be a hard man, so here, just have what is yours.
SPEAKER_01: I I knew that you were like just gonna be harsh with all of this, with like I didn't I didn't know what what how to do, how to handle this right now.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, actually, your words condemn you, because if you knew that I was a hard man, then you would have at least invested my money and brought back interest in this.
SPEAKER_01: You would have at least put it to work in in some kind of passive way, at the very least.
SPEAKER_01: You would have been faithful with what I have given you.
SPEAKER_01: And this is interesting because what what Mark Moore says is that obviously this man is lying to his master, is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And what he what he actually believed is that his master wasn't gonna come back.
SPEAKER_01: What he actually believed is, hey, this is now mine.
SPEAKER_01: I get to do with it whatever I want to.
SPEAKER_01: And he was sadly mistaken.
SPEAKER_01: And this fits into the larger context of Matthew chapter 24, is that hey, sometimes we can fall into the same trap of our stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: That maybe it really doesn't matter, maybe God doesn't really care about what we do with our money, or we compare ourselves with those around us, and we say, Well, I'm being more generous than they are, or we start thinking that we are the owner, or even thinking that Jesus isn't gonna really like ultimately hold us accountable, or like eventually he's just gonna be gracious toward us and he's not really gonna return at all, even.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna see that day.
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is we know Jesus will return.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know when, but we know that when he does, all of us will give an account for how we have stewarded this life.
SPEAKER_01: All of us will give an account.
SPEAKER_01: Now I need to say this very, very clearly, because I don't want you to hear me the wrong way this morning.
SPEAKER_01: No one has ever given enough to the kingdom to enter into it.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's not how this works.
SPEAKER_01: You can't buy your way, you can't buy your ticket into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's not how this works.
SPEAKER_01: Like we are given the free gift of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: End of story.
SPEAKER_01: And money has never gotten anyone into heaven, but according to Jesus, it has kept a lot of people out of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And I need you to hear this warning from Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to hear it.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being faithful with what has been entrusted to you?
SPEAKER_01: Because you will be held accountable.
SPEAKER_01: You will be held accountable.
SPEAKER_01: I was convicted by this quote this week from a really smart guy named A.W.
SPEAKER_01: Tozer.
SPEAKER_01: He said this.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Before the judgment seat of Christ, my service will be judged not by how much I have done, but by how much I could have done.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being faithful with what has been entrusted to you?
SPEAKER_01: You know, the most controversial controversial part of Luke 16 has got to be Luke 16, verses 8 and 9.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read it again for us.
SPEAKER_01: This is what this is what this is what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: The master commended this 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.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you, hey, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is such a weird passage.
SPEAKER_01: This is so, so interesting to deal with.
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus telling us to act in an unrighteous way when he says, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus says this make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And that word unrighteous wealth is a word we talked about a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word, the root word mammon.
SPEAKER_01: And how mammon used to mean like entrusting something to a banker so they can hold it for you, but then it became something that you actually put your trust in.
SPEAKER_01: It got a capital M, it became an idol in our heart.
SPEAKER_01: That's what that's what we're getting at.
SPEAKER_01: And whenever Jesus says, even at the end of Luke 16, you cannot serve both God and mammon, is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: And you cannot serve both God and unrighteous wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And this is how Jesus ends this whole teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And the uh what really is coming out, what really Jesus is trying to get us to see is the way that we use the things of this world, the unrighteous wealth of this world to make friends who will receive us into eternal dwellings, is by seeing money, by seeing the things that we have in this world in the right way.
SPEAKER_01: By seeing them in the right way, not as an object of worship, but as an opportunity in front of us to worship our God who is worthy of it.
SPEAKER_01: Like your stuff, your money is not meant to be the object of your attention and your praise and your honor that is meant for the Lord and the Lord alone.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, use your money as an opportunity to worship him for all that he is worth.
SPEAKER_01: So we worship by investing in the kingdom, by investing in things that will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: We we worship, we leverage all that we have so that the world will know the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Like this is why we give, and this is what the this is what the Lord is encouraging us to do in these teachings.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, be faithful of what I've given you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let it become your master.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, use it for kingdom efforts and kingdom purposes.
SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible promise to think about when he says, make friends for yourselves by the means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, you see that?
SPEAKER_01: When it fails and it will fail, like everything in this earth will pass, except for the king and his kingdom, like everything will fade away.
SPEAKER_01: Those friends that you have invested in here by means of the of the mammon that you've been allowed to have, that you've been entrusted with, the things that you have been entrusted to steward well, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to just imagine this with me.
SPEAKER_01: You get to heaven, and there's this young man who walks up to you.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, you don't know me.
SPEAKER_01: But there was my mom was was down and out when she found out she was pregnant with me.
SPEAKER_01: She was out of options, had nowhere to turn.
SPEAKER_01: And she walked into a clinic in Joplin, Missouri called Life Choices, and they they let her know that she wasn't alone.
SPEAKER_01: And they they told her that there were other options other than abortion, and and they walked with her, and I she she carried me the full term and she gave birth to me, and I had an opportunity to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: When my mom had thought about giving me up while I was still in the womb, and that was because you were faithful with what you had been entrusted with.
SPEAKER_01: Think about standing right next to him is this this young woman.
SPEAKER_01: And she speaks a language that you don't understand, that you've never understood, but somehow you can fully understand her.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty incredible how this works.
SPEAKER_01: And she begins to tell you the story that she was she was trapped in sex trafficking, and she was rescued out of sex trafficking by an organization named Roth House, and she was brought healing and restoration, and she was taught of the love of Jesus Christ and told of what he had done for her.
SPEAKER_01: She surrendered her life to him, and now she said, Hey, it's because you were faithful with what you had been entrusted with.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm standing here with you today.
SPEAKER_01: I think about there's another older man standing next to her, speaks Spanish.
SPEAKER_01: You think you can speak Spanish because you took a couple classes in high school, you know, but suddenly you're just speaking fluently back and forth with him.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is as as he starts telling you, he says, you know, I lived in like this remote village, and it seemed like I don't, I don't know, you just like just get up and do your work and and marry somebody and go to bed.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's what you do, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like this is all this is all that you do.
SPEAKER_01: This is just my life.
SPEAKER_01: Just get up, whatever, seven to five work and and then and then go to bed and repeat the process.
SPEAKER_01: And then somebody moved to my village.
SPEAKER_01: It was a missionary who moved to my village and planted a church, and for some reason, this missionary kept knocking on our door.
SPEAKER_01: They kept like coming and asking how they can pray for us, they kept showing up for us.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, they that's this missionary shared the gospel with me, and it changed not just my life, but my family's life.
SPEAKER_01: I I heard the gospel and I responded to the gospel, and it's because I I realized it was a missionary that you supported.
SPEAKER_01: It's a missionary because you were faithful with what with what had been entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_01: Man, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: And you look up, and what you'll see, what you'll see down the line is a line that just keeps on going.
SPEAKER_01: A line that just it seems like it never ends, of a bunch of friends that are welcoming you into eternal dwellings, and you remember the words of Jesus, and what you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
SPEAKER_01: Church, eternity hangs in the balance.
SPEAKER_01: Are you being faithful with what has been entrusted to you?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Well, as we go from this place, would you continue to bring your words to mind in our hearts and in our minds as we as we just try to digest what you have for us?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, it's it's crazy to think that you have entrusted your things to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we want to we want to steward it well.
SPEAKER_01: We want to use your stuff in a way that just honors you and glorifies you.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, so we would you would you give us your strength to not let the things of this world become an idol for us?
SPEAKER_01: Not become an object of our worship, but become an opportunity for us to worship our God who is worthy.
SPEAKER_01: To live faithfully, to steward faithfully what you have entrusted to us?
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us to be wise?
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us to get to work?
SPEAKER_01: Because the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us to go with the good news of your gospel, because eternity hangs in the balance.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We give you all the glory because you alone deserve it.
SPEAKER_01: In your powerful name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit Carterville Christian.com.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.