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The scripture today is from Luke 16, verses 1 through 13. He also said to the disciples, There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was washing his possessions. Sorry, wasting. And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. 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 to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? He said, A hundred measures of oil. He said to him, Take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill and write eighty. The 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 I tell you, make friends by yourself for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that 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.

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Today's story is called the Parable of the Unjust Steward. One day, Jesus was talking to his disciples, and he told them this story. He said there was a rich man that was told that his manager was wasting money. So he called him in and asked him, What is this that I hear about you? Show me your accounts and what happened to this money. Because of this, you can no longer be my manager, and you're fired. The manager thought to himself, What should I do? I won't have a job, and I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. And he thought, I know what I'll do. When I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each of the people that owed his master money. He asked the first, How much do you owe my master? The man said, 900 gallons of olive oil. The manager told him, Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it 450. Then he asked the second, How much do you owe? He said, A thousand bushels of wheat. He told him, Take your bill and make it 800. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly or wisely. Then Jesus said, The people of this world are more wise in dealing with their own kind than Christians are. Then he told them to use their money to gain friends for themselves. So that when it's gone, they would be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

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I heard a story recently of a man who was praying to the Lord. And he asked God, he said, God, what is what is a million years to you? And God said, Well, a million years is a second. And the man said, Okay. Well, God, what is a million dollars to you? And God said, Well, to me, a million dollars is it's a penny. And so the man was clever in his prayers to the Lord, and he said, Okay, God, I pray that you would give me a penny. And God said, Fine, just give me a second. Now, Oxford campus, can I can I just can I rip the band-aid off of our Bible study today? Okay, today we're talking about money, okay? The title of our Bible study is Getting Along Well with Money. And last time we talked about money, probably six or seven weeks ago, I gave you a few reminders on the topic of money, and I want to remind you of those things yet again. Because some of you are here today and uh you hear the word money and just a wall goes up. Maybe you've been thinking about coming back to church and you finally came back to church for the first time today, and you're like, ah, we're talking about money. Or maybe you've been looking for a church in the area and you finally decided to try this campus of this church, and you said, I knew it. All they're gonna talk about is money. Okay, well, a few reminders for you about money at First Baptist Leesburg, okay? Three things that we talked about a few weeks ago. I'll remind you of them again. One, money is not all we talk about at First Baptist Leesburg, okay? Last Sunday's sermon had nothing to do with money. We talked about overcoming bitterness as we study the older brother in the prodigal son story, okay? Nothing about money. Next Sunday, and next Sunday, you guys are in for a treat. It's all about hell. Okay, if you think we don't talk about hell enough, come next Sunday. Nothing about money, everything about hell. But today we're talking about money. Okay, so it's not all we talk about. Number two, number two, money's not all we talk about, but we do talk about it often, and here's why. At first Baptist Leesburg, we we preach and we teach in what's called an expository way. Expository preaching is this you you preach through every book of the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and you don't skip anything, including the parts about money. And when you do that, you're gonna encounter passages and verses about money often because the Bible talks about money often. And so we don't always talk about it, but we talk about it often because the scriptures talk about it often. Okay? Here's the last thing. Number three, Oxford campus, and probably the most important. Whenever the Bible talks about money, and whenever First Baptist Leesburg talks about money, it's never actually about money, it's always about your heart. In Matthew 6, 21, Jesus tells us that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. Your treasure, your money, and how you handle it, it's an excellent indication of what's going on in your heart. And so the Bible often uses money as a tool and a topic to get to your heart. And I think that's what God wants to do today. And so if you looked at the top of your sermon notes and you saw the word money, or if you heard the word money come out of my mouth and just put up a wall, I want you to just exhale and just take down the wall. I think God wants to speak to you through his word today in Luke chapter 16. And I think what you'll find is that at our church, as we study this passage across all four campuses and all eight worship services, I think we do it at First Baptist Leesburg in a biblical and a tasteful and a practical way, I think is what you'll find today. So hey, if you haven't already, turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 16. Uh Luke chapter 16, and I'll meet you there in just a moment to discuss getting along well with money. Hey, today we are uh continuing our parables uh sermon series. If you can believe this, including today, there's only four Sundays left in the Parable Sermon Series, and then it's Easter. Easter will be upon us before we know it. But four Sundays left in the parable series, we've said before that parables are stories told by Jesus that begin on earth and they end in heaven. Parables are earthly stories with heavenly meanings. Parables are simple stories with powerful truths. But our goal at First Baptist Leesburg is not that we would simply be entertained by these earthly stories, but that we would be transformed by their heavenly meanings. Today's parable of focus in Luke 16, 1 through 13, is the parable of the dishonest manager. Maybe your version of the English Bible says the parable of the unjust steward, but we're looking at the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16. Now, as always, a context for this passage and context for this parable is important. Where is Jesus when he tells this parable? Who is he talking to when he tells this parable? In Luke 16, we know, as we've talked about for the past couple weeks in Luke 15, Christ is on his 11-chapter journey from the northern region of Galilee down to the southern re southern city of Jerusalem in the southern region of Judea. From Luke chapter 9 all the way to Luke chapter 19, Jesus is making his final journey down to Jerusalem. And we think that in Luke chapters 13 through 17, on this journey, that Christ is in the eastern region of Perea, on the eastern side of the Jordan River. And here in Luke 15, and also in Luke 16, as we begin Luke 16 today, Christ is somewhere in Perea, somewhere where he can gather a large crowd, and he's got a very large, very mixed crowd surrounding him. We know from Luke 15, verses 1 and 2, that there were Pharisees and scribes and religious leaders and sinners and tax collectors. And now we know from Luke 16, verse 1, that there's also the disciples. It's a large, mixed crowd that Jesus is addressing. In chapter 15, we studied the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. And now Christ, in the same speech, in the same moment, he pivots to talk about money. And he tells the parable of the dishonest manager. And as we study the parable of the dishonest manager, we learn for ourselves some principles and some lessons about getting along well with money. So Oxford Campus, if you're taking notes this morning, number one on your notes is this see money in light of eternity. If you want to get along well with money, then you have to see it in light of eternity. For this first point, look with me in verses one through nine. These first nine verses are really the really the bulk of our passage today. These first nine verses, they uh they encompass the entirety of the parable. Verses 10 through 13 is Jesus talking after the parable. And so these first nine verses have the whole parable in them and really take up the bulk of our passage today. But in these nine verses, we see how we should look at money in light of eternity. In verse 1, it says that Jesus, he in the crowd, he turns his attention from the scribes and the Pharisees, and he starts talking to his disciples. Verse 1. Did you catch that? He's addressing his disciples now. I find that really interesting, Oxford Campus, because for the majority of this speech in Perea, Jesus is talking to the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes and religious leaders. We know that in chapter 15, that all of chapter 15 was aimed at the Pharisees and the scribes and the religious leaders. And honestly, the remainder of chapter 16 is aimed at the Pharisees and the scribes and the religious leaders. We won't study it today, but you can look at verse 14 and see that the Pharisees ridiculed Jesus for his view of money, and so Jesus turns his attention back to the Pharisees in verse 14. Most of this speech in this gathering is addressing the self-righteous religious leaders, except Luke 16, 1 through 13. In these 13 verses, with this parable of the dishonest manager, Jesus turns his attention to his disciples. And then he tells this parable. In the parable of the dishonest manager, it begins like this in verses one and two. A rich man, a wealthy man, he had a manager of his estates. And some accusations, some allegations were being made about this manager. That the manager was wasting the man's money. The manager was wasting the master's money. Now that word wasting is really interesting and really important because it's the same word that's used in Luke 15, 13. In Luke chapter 15, verse 13, it's said of the prodigal son that he went into the far country and he wasted all of his father's money. The difference is in Luke 15, 13, it's a past tense verb. He wasted it all. The prodigal son spent the money until it was all gone. But here in Luke 16, what's being said of the dishonest manager is that he's actively wasting the money. This is an active sin, an active offense of his. Now, kudos to the master because the master calls the manager to himself and he says, Hey, the word on the street is that you're wasting my money. I want you to bring me the books. Because if that's true, you're fired. Now, kudos to him because the master was operating by this principle of innocent until proven guilty. The accusations may have been credible and the allegations may have been credible, but he wanted to see some evidence. He said, Here's what's being said of you. Bring me the books, and if it's true, you're done. Now, very quickly in verses three and four, we learned that the accusations are true. Because in verses three and four, the manager in the parable, he starts thinking to himself and he starts talking to himself, and he says, I'm done. I cooked the books, I have been wasting the money. What am I gonna do? He knows that he's been wasting the master's money, and he knows the moment that he brings the books to the master, he's toast, he's fired. And it's interesting what the manager says in verses three and four. He says, When I'm fired, what am I gonna do? I can't dig. Now that's kind of funny to me because that's not true. We don't have any indication here that the manager is uh is not able-bodied. We assume that he's able-bodied. And so when he says, I can't dig, he's not saying I can't physically dig. He's saying digging is beneath me. I don't get my hands dirty. That's that's kind of arrogance. But he goes on to say, I can't dig, and I'm too ashamed to beg. That's funny to me as well. Because this dishonest manager, he's not too ashamed to embezzle money and waste his master's money publicly so that the whole town knows it and accuses him of it to his master. He's not ashamed of that, but he's ashamed to beg. And so in verses five through seven, the manager says, I have decided what I will do in verse five. The manager decides that he is going to call all of the master's debtors to himself, and he's gonna give them a discount and go ahead and have them pay off their debt. So the manager he calls to himself uh two of the master's debtors. Now we assume and we presume that the master had more than two debtors, that he had diversified his portfolio and he had uh lent money to several different people in several different sectors, but we get two examples here of what the manager did. He calls to himself uh somebody who's indebted about olive oil and somebody else about wheat. And what's interesting, what the manager does, is he gives the first guy a 50% discount and says, chop off 50% of your bill and go ahead and pay up right now. And then the next guy, the manager gives him a 20% discount. It says, take off 20% of your bill and go ahead and pay up right now. Now, why didn't the manager just give everybody a 50% discount or give everybody a 90% discount? What's with the unique individualized, customized discounts? What's going on here? Well, what we what we think happened is just like loans today, loans back then had interest. That's kind of the whole reason that an investor would lend money to somebody else, is they expect to get it back with interest. Otherwise, lending money is pointless unless you're lending money to a family member or a friend and just trying to help them out interest-free. As a business dealing, you lend money and expect to get it back with interest. And so what we think is there was probably different interest rates on different loans, and the manager went to each of the debtors and said, just chop off the interest, pay back the principal, and we'll call it good. We think that's what he did. And so between verses seven and eight, it's likely that the manager made his way around to all of the different debtors, gave them all their unique discounts based on their interest rates, collected all the principal, put it all in the books, and then he brought the books to the master. And he confessed to the master, he said, I did it. I've been wasting your money for a long, long time. It's true. I know I'm fired, I know I'm done, but here's what I did to try and resolve it. Because what the what the manager did when he when he called all the debtors of the master to himself and cut off their interest rate and just had them pay back the principal, the master didn't lose any money, but he didn't make any money like he intended to with the loans. So he kind of reset the master's accounts back to break even, and he got for himself some good relationships in the community so that when he's fired, he can go seek other employment. This is why verse 8 makes a little more sense. Because in verse 8, Jesus says that the master praised the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Wait a second. I thought when the master found evidence that the manager had been wasting his money, I thought he would be furious. But that's not what happens. In verse 8, the master praises the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Now it's important to clarify that the master is not praising the dishonest manager for his dishonesty. That's not what's happening. But the dishonest manager, he's kind of earned that reputation. Remember, in verse 1, his dishonesty was very public. And all around the town, people were accusing him of dishonesty to his master. He had a reputation of being a dishonest manager. But in verse 8, the master was not praising the dishonest manager for his dishonesty. He was praising the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't use the word shrewd in everyday conversations. And so some close synonyms to shrewdness might be practicality, wisdom, prudence, creativity, cleverness. The master was praising the manager for his cleverness and his creativity because even though the master still fired the manager, the master was back to break even, and the manager had some positive relationships in the community. The manager thought about his future. He didn't just get fired and walk away. He thought about his future, and the master was praising the manager for his future thinking. This is why Jesus goes on in verse 9 to tell us that we should think about our wealth with eternity in mind. He uses that word eternal in verse 9. We should see money and see our wealth with eternity in mind, in light of eternity. A good reference verse for you would be Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. In Colossians 3, 1 and 2, Paul reminds us that we are to set our minds on things above and not on the things of this earth. Now, as the saying goes, we shouldn't be so heavenly minded that we're of no earthly good, but as we do things on earth, we should keep heaven in mind. We should keep eternity in mind. We should see our money in light of eternity. Now, Okshrod Campus, there's a couple different ways in which, practically speaking, we can see our money in light of eternity. One is as individuals and families and households. The other is as a church. Now, as an individual, as a household, you can see your money in light of eternity in a very practical way coming up here in a few weeks. You saw on the announcements video this morning a financial planning seminar that our church is hosting in less than two weeks. Okay, so if you didn't catch it on the video, you might want to jot it down in your notes. March 21st at 9 a.m. at our village park campus. There's a free breakfast, free financial planning seminar, all about estate planning. And I would encourage you to go. No catch. I would encourage you to go. And here's the deal Oxford Campus, nobody is too young or too old to go to this meeting. Nobody has too much or too little money to go to this meeting. Estate planning, financial planning is good for all of us. And this gathering is one of many ways that our church is seeking to help our members and help our people see money in light of eternity. So you can do that as an individual, as a household. Go to that seminar on March 21st. At Oxford Campus, the other thing we can do. When it comes to seeing our money in light of eternity, is we can do that as a church. We can do that together. Here's something uh something I heard recently about money at church that I can't stop thinking about. And it's this in order for the kingdom to advance, local churches have to recruit and train more leaders than they need for themselves, and they have to raise and save more money than they need for themselves. Let me say that again. In order for the kingdom of God to advance in this city and in our world, local churches like ours have to recruit and train more leaders than we need for ourselves, and we have to raise and save more money than we need for ourselves. That's the only way the kingdom is ever going to move forward in this world. And Oxford Campus, we are in this moment, we are the beneficiaries of a church that had that kingdom mindset. Many of you know this, that a little over a year ago, Emmanuel Baptist Church approached First Baptist Church Leesburg to talk about a partnership and becoming our fourth campus, the Oxford campus that you enjoy today. And it truly is a partnership because both churches had something to give in the partnership. But here's the thing: from the side of First Baptist Leesburg, we were ready for the partnership because for years we have been recruiting and training more leaders than we need for ourselves, and we've been raising and saving more money than we need for ourselves. And so when Emmanuel Baptist Church came to us, we could say yes because we were ready. We had leaders and people who were ready to go. We had money that was ready to spend on kingdom investments like this one. In Oxford Campus, I tell you that because I think God is calling us to very quickly move from the beneficiary of a church with a kingdom mindset to becoming the benefactor of a church with a kingdom mindset. What I mean is God is calling us to pay it forward. God is calling us to very quickly at Oxford campus raise up more leaders, recruit and train more leaders than we need here at Oxford Campus. There's no such thing as enough volunteers at Oxford Campus. We're recruiting and training more volunteers than we need at Oxford Campus, and we're raising and saving more money than we need to operate Oxford Campus because we want to be able to pay it forward and invest in kingdom things in the future. Now, I'm not making any sort of announcement. I don't know what God has in store for us next. But we should be ready for it. We should recruit and train more leaders than we need, and we should raise and save more money than we need so that when the next kingdom opportunity is put in front of us, we're ready for it. We should see money in light of eternity. Hey, Oxford Campus, if you're taking notes this morning, number two on your notes is this. Number two, always remember what true wealth is. If you want to get along well with money, then you must always remember what true wealth is. Look with me in verses 10 and 11 of Luke chapter 16. So the the parable is over, and Jesus is making some teaching comments and remarks after the parable. And what a great leadership principle is verse 10. Jesus says that he who is faithful with a little will be faithful with much. That's an excellent leadership principle. Maybe you're overseeing some people, maybe you have some employees, maybe you're overseeing some volunteers. Whenever you have a position open up, be it a paid position or a volunteer position, don't put somebody in that position of more responsibility that's not currently handling well their present responsibilities. He who is faithful with a little will be faithful with much. That's a great leadership principle. Now, here's what verse 10 is not. Okay, I want you to catch this. Verse 10, Oxford Campus, is not a promise, it's a principle. What I mean by that is if you are faithful with a little, you are not promised more. You're just called to be faithful. If we see verse 10 as a promise, that is what's known as the prosperity gospel. We think that if we're faithful with a little, then God owes us something. If we just sow enough seeds of faith, then God will make us rich and famous and wealthy. Verse 10 is a principle, it's not a promise. If you're faithful with a little, you might be given more. But even if you're not, be faithful. Jesus goes on to say that you need to be faithful with a little, so that if you're trusted with more, you can be faithful with more as well. But in verse 11, he says that who will be trusted with true riches if you can't be trusted with the unrighteous wealth? Who can be trusted with the true riches of heaven if you can't be trusted with the wealth of this earth? Now I want to clarify in verse 11 that phrase unrighteous wealth. Wealth in and of itself is not an unrighteous thing. That's not what Jesus is saying when he calls wealth unrighteous. It's not better or worse to be poor, it's not better or worse to be wealthy. Wealth in and of itself is not unrighteous. It's our heart posture toward wealth that is righteous or unrighteous, just to be clear. But Christ uses that phrase, true riches, is what we should be in pursuit of. We need to always remember what true wealth is. Oxford Campus, a helpful reference for you would be Proverbs chapter 22, verse 1. In Proverbs 22, 1, Solomon tells us that a good name is better than wealth. Maybe another way of thinking about Proverbs 22.1 is this. If you leverage your money and leverage your wealth to make a name for yourself, that is vanity. But if you leverage your money and leverage your wealth to make famous and make known the name of Jesus, that makes an impact for eternity. Proverbs 22.1. If you leverage your money and leverage your wealth to make a name for yourself, it's vanity. But if you leverage your money and leverage your wealth to make famous and make known the name of Jesus, that has an impact for eternity. Always remember what true wealth is. Hey, Oxford Campus, number three on your notes is this. Number three, never forget God's ownership. If you want to get along well with money as a Christian, then you must never forget God's ownership. Hey, look with me in verse 12. In verse 12 of Luke chapter 16, Jesus says, If you can't take good care of someone else's stuff, how can you expect to be given stuff of your own? I'm paraphrasing. But if you can't take good care of someone else's stuff, how can you expect to be given stuff of your own? Now I want to I want to imagine and speculate with you for just a moment. What if, what if the master in the parable of the dishonest manager, what if he loved his manager so much? He had such a good relationship with his manager, he was so pleased with the results of his manager's work that he was intending, we don't know this for sure, but he was intending to surprise his manager by giving him part of the inheritance when the master passed away. What if that were the case for this manager? But now the manager will never realize that inheritance because he ruined it. He didn't take good care of the master's stuff, so now he's not going to get stuff of his own. But maybe if he had taken good care of the master's stuff, the master would have treated him like family and given him part of the inheritance. Isn't that what God our Father does for us? Romans chapter 8, verse 17 says that we are heirs of the kingdom with Christ. Not only are we saved and redeemed, we are joint heirs of the kingdom with Christ. And if we take good care of God's stuff, this side of heaven, then we become an heir of the kingdom with Christ on the other side of heaven. Remember God's ownership. Psalm 50, verse 10. Psalm 50, verse 10 says that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Now we studied the Psalms last summer. We'll jump back into the Psalms this summer. But as you know, in the poetic literature, you shouldn't take a number like 1,000 too literally. You shouldn't say, well, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Well, there's a lot more hills out there, so God doesn't own everything. No, no. The number 1,000 in Psalm 5010 is representative and comprehensive of everything. Psalm 5010 is simply to say God owns it all. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And the principle for us this morning, Oxford Campus, is that God is the owner, we are the managers. All the stuff is God's. The pews you're sitting in, they belong to the Lord. The shoes you're wearing, they belong to the Lord. The car you came to church in this morning, it belongs to the Lord. It all belongs to the Lord. Speaking of cars, you ever heard that phrase before? Drive it like it's a rental? You ever heard that phrase? Typically, when someone says that phrase, what they mean is, drive it recklessly with reckless abandon because it doesn't belong to you. Who cares what happens to it? See, here's the thing is God does want us to see all of our stuff as a rental, but he doesn't want us to drive it recklessly. He wants us to do the opposite. He wants us to treat it like it's his and treat it well. Because if we can take good care of someone else's stuff, if we can take good care of God's stuff this side of heaven, then we can become a joint heir with Christ on the other side of heaven, a joint heir of the kingdom of God. Romans 8:17. Remember God's ownership, Oxford Campus. Never forget God's ownership. He's the owner of all of it, and we are simply his managers. Hey, Oxford Campus, number four on your notes is this. Number four, choose the right master. If you want to get along well with money as a Christian, then you've got to choose the right master. Look with me in verse 13 to close out our passage this morning. Jesus says, No one can serve two masters. He'll either love one and hate the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. No one can serve two masters. No one can serve both God and money, is what Jesus says in verse 13. Now, today it's not a one-for-one, but today we can we can sort of conceive of this idea of two masters. Maybe there's a workplace where you have multiple supervisors, maybe there's a sports team where you have multiple coaches, an offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Maybe there's a part of town where there's several different law enforcement officers, a city police officer, and a county sheriff that have jurisdiction over the same area. We could sort of conceive of this idea of having multiple masters, but that idea in the first century was inconceivable. As Jesus says this statement in verse 13, no one can have two masters. Everyone in the audience, the self-righteous Pharisees, the sinners and the tax collectors, the disciples, they're all nodding like, yep, you cannot have two masters. And then he finishes verse 13 and says, the two masters in this parable are God and money. You cannot serve both God and money. And everyone kind of stops nodding. Choose this day the right master. I've heard it said about money. That money makes a horrible master, but it makes an excellent servant. What we should do with our money is make it our servant, and what we should do with Jesus is make him our master. Don't try to make money your master and Jesus your servant. That won't go well for you. Make Jesus your master and money your servant. But we also shouldn't try to serve Jesus as our master and money as our master. You can't do that. You can't have two masters. Trying to serve two masters, it's kind of like a married couple that recently tried to go on vacation. This is not uh this is not a true story about me and Hannah, or really about anybody. But you could imagine this. A married couple that tries to go on vacation, and the the husband wants to go to the mountains, maybe the Rocky Mountains out west, and the wife wants to go to the beach, maybe the sandy beaches of the east coast of Florida, and they can't agree on where to go, so they compromise and they vacation in Kansas. Where there's no mountains and there's no beach, there's just a waffle house. You can't compromise. You can't serve two masters. If you try to serve God and money, you'll end up at a waffle house in Kansas. Choose this day the right master. Money is a horrible master, but it's an excellent servant. You know who's a great master? Jesus Christ. Choose this day the right master. Hey, Oxford Campus, if you want to get along well with money, then you've got to do a few things. You've got to see money in light of eternity. You've got to remember what true wealth is. You've got to never forget that God owns it all, and we're simply the managers, and you've got to choose the right master. But hey, as we as we get ready to close our time of Bible study, maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian, and you know you're not a Christian. Maybe you're here today and you're listening in on this Bible study for Christians about getting along well with money, and you're saying, Pastor Garrett, I don't need to get along well with money. I need to get along well with God. There's a lot of brokenness in my heart and in my family and in my life, and I'm realizing for the first time that it's a result of my broken relationship with God, and I'm struggling to fix it. God uses some financial language to talk about our relationship with Him. He says that when we sinned against Him, we took out a loan that we could never repay. When we sinned against the Holy God, we started to carry a sin debt that we could never repay. But Oxford Campus, Colossians chapter 2, verse 14. Colossians 2, 14 says this. Jesus paid it all. And maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian, but you're thinking about, you're thinking about the end. You're thinking about when you stand before the throne of God one day, you've got two options. God will say to you, How would you like to pay? And if you say, I'd like to pay it myself, it's not going to go well for you because it'll never be enough. But if you point and say, I'd like for him to pay for me, and you point to Jesus, God will say, Come on in. Because Colossians 2 14, he canceled our sin debt when Jesus was nailed to the cross. And maybe you're here today and you're headed toward an eternal trajectory where you're going to try to pay your sin debt for yourself. Can I recommend that you let Jesus pay it for you? You can do that today. Let me tell you what's about to happen. In just a moment, we're going to pray to close our time of Bible study. And when I say amen, our team is going to lead us in one song of response. And as we sing, I would encourage everyone in the room to stay seated, to sing and pray and reflect right where you are, with one exception. Maybe you're that person in the room, you're ready to become a Christian today. You're ready to say, I'm done trying to pay my sin debt on my own. I want Jesus to pay it for me. Let's make today the day. If that's you, as we sing, myself and some other members of our team will be standing across the front. We'd love for you to come forward so that we can talk and pray with you about becoming a Christian today because God canceled the record of our debt. He canceled our sin debt when Jesus was nailed to the cross. Let's pray. Father in heaven, God, we love you and we praise you. God, we're grateful for the gospel, for Christ and his death and his burial and his resurrection. God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead 2,000 years ago is with us today, is with us right now. And God, we're calling on the resurrection power of Jesus to change hearts and change minds and change lives. Would you help me to get along better with money? Would you help my Christian brothers and sisters in the room to get along better with money? But maybe there's someone here today that's struggling to get along well with you. Maybe there's someone here today who still has a broken relationship with you. God, in the name of Jesus, would you make today the day of their salvation? Would you make today the day when they walk forward and say, I want Jesus to pay my sin debt for me? I'm done trying to pay it myself. God, we give this time over to you. We hope that everything we've thought and said and done in this room has been honoring and glorifying to your name and your name alone. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.