Luke 16:1-18

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Missed you guys. Some of you might be visiting or here for the first time. We just want to welcome you and say that we are so grateful that you are here and that you are an answer to prayer. And during this time, we pray that you just be loved on to minister to. And we've been walking through Luke all of 2025. Woo. In 2026, we're going to keep it going, okay? And so I'm looking forward to getting into chapter 16. But before we do that, I just want to let you know just some just some housekeeping things. First, after service, don't rush out because first of the month, we only always want to have something just to kind of say, hey, hang out for a little bit longer. And so we've got a uh I saw in quotations with Elizabeth a winter wonderland. So we've got cupcakes of different varieties and cheesecakes of different varieties that are going to be on the back table. Then the service, hang out, eat some of that, get some coffee. It's going to be good. Also, giving. Listen, we did take a week off, and man, we love to honor family. We love to honor relationship. And just to give pause and space to say, hey, be with family. As we come back into that, listen, uh, again, if you're visiting with us, just let us love on you. But if you call Hope City Home, opportunities to give, you can text uh Giving to 540-276-7299. And if you want to stay connected, there's gonna be a lot happening in 2026, and we promise we're not gonna blow up your phone. Uh, but it's actually, can I say this and not be embarrassed? It's helpful to me that I've done this because I get reminded of things that are happening, and I'm the pastor. So, so it is super helpful. Uh, if you want to, can you bring that up one more time, Brian? Uh, that screen of giving, or excuse me, yeah, your name. So take time, if you would today, if you have not done this, the first thing you can do to be different in 2026 than we last were here, if you didn't have this done, man, take the time to do that. We're not gonna blow you up. And in fact, you can even text prayer requests to that number, and we'd be happy to pray for you. One of the things we're gonna pray over uh before I get into the message is um Pastor Adam, if you're visiting with us, my name's Joey. Uh, I get to the blessing of being lead pastor. Pastor Sheila's on the front row, outreach. And um, Pastor Adam is executive pastor, and we got word this morning that his father last night had a heart attack. Uh they uh they airlifted him to a Roanoke memorial. They had some kind of surgery, uh, and there's gonna be another one tomorrow. Uh and so he and Julia were getting some vacation time in South Carolina, and they're on their way back right now. So we're gonna stop and we're gonna pray over his dad. Um, and we're gonna pray that God would just bring healing and also strengthening in relationship. Yeah? Because that's primary, right? So Lord, we just come right now as family. That Adam and Julia are our family, God. And so, as they're family, then that means his dad is family. And Lord, we just pray healing over Adam's dad right now in Jesus' name. From the top of his head to the tips of his toes, we pray, we believe that by your stripes, Jesus, we're healed. We don't just think that's some cute verse. We believe that by your stripes we're healed, that you paid a price for our healing in this life. And so we pray that over his father right now. Touch his heart, touch his body. Anything that was affected by the heart attack, Lord, we thank you that you would restore. Lord, any blockages that you would open up right now. Lord, we thank you, God, that you give uh profound, godly, divine wisdom to the doctors and the nurses and all staff taking care of him. And Lord, give peace to Adam and Julia and the rest of the family as they travel back, safety for them. And uh, Father, we just thank you. Your grace be around this situation and only the way that your grace can do it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Cool. Well, let's jump into Luke chapter 16. We're gonna get into verse one. And as we jump into this, uh, man, hang with me if there's any parts you're like, this is a weird story, okay? Jesus is about to tell a parable. In the last few chapters, he'd been addressing Pharisees and teachers of religious law. There's a big crowd around him in this moment. So when we start this, don't forget that there's a big crowd because he's about to shift who he's addressing, but you need to know that there's other people around because it said Jesus told this story to his disciples. He did tell it to his disciples, but you want to know at this time of his life who was always around Jesus, looking, listening, trying to trip him up in some way? The Pharisees. They didn't like him, they wanted to take him out, and so they are always looking for ways that he would trip up, slip up, and they could catch him. And so while he's talking to his disciples, understand there's other people in the crowd listening. He's not whispering this, okay? So keep that in mind. That's the picture in your head as he's turning and talking to his disciples. He told this story to his disciples. There was a certain rich man who had a manger, excuse me, had a manager, manger was last month. Man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer's money. Whew. So the employer called him in and said, What's this I hear about you? Get your report in order because you are going to be fired. The manager thought to himself, now what? My boss has fired me. I don't have the strength to dig ditches. Now let me say this. Whether he had the strength physically or not, ditch digging in that society was less than. So when you look in a shame honor society, a lot of the jobs people had, either they said, Man, that's his shameful job or that's an honorable job. And whether he had the physical strength or not to do it, he certainly, his pride was not going to allow him to do that. Right? So he goes, the manager thought to himself, now what? My boss has fired me. I don't have the strength to dig ditches and I'm too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I'll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired. So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, How much do you owe him? The man replied, I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil. So the manager told him, Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons. Let me ask you real quick. If you had somebody working for you, and one of the things they were supposed to do was collect uh from loans made or money borrowed or things given, and you had somebody working for you and they cut your profits or even your what you're gonna get back in half, that's probably not gonna make a lot of people happy. You with me on that? Okay, I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Right? So, and how much do you owe my employer? He asked another another man, the next man. I owe him a thousand bushels of wheat, was the reply. That's a lot. Here, the manager said, take the bill and change it to 800 bushels. And the rich man, check this out, had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. This is like shocking to the crowd listening. Nobody's listening to this thinking, man, this is cool. Jesus is telling a story about a crooked worker who was so bad he was getting fired. And then in an effort to maintain his own personal security, he undercut his boss's earnings so that he could have favor with other people. Because you need to understand, again, in that society, if you would have said to somebody, hey, you owe my boss this much, take 20% off and then pay it. You owe my boss this much, take 50% off and then pay it. In that society, now they were going to be indebted to the manager, not the boss. So he has built for himself a security blanket, making and costing his boss money. Now he has a security blanket to come back and say, hey, remember when I did this for you? Remember when you owed this much and I cut it down to that much, and now you owe me something. You are indebted to me. And that's how I'm gonna secure a bed for myself, a room for myself, food for myself, because I'm about to be fired. So this is how he's going about. They called it shrewd, but what he's doing is he's scheming to make sure that his future is gonna be secured. He's hustling to make sure that even though he's gonna be fired, he's gonna have stuff for himself, for his life, because he doesn't want to dig ditches and he doesn't want to beg. And the the boss hears about it, the rich man says, had to, check this out, had to admire the dishonest rascal for being, I love that word rascal. That sounds awesome. The dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And check this out, who's talking? Okay, Jesus is talking, and it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Let's stay right there. I gotta read that one more time because we want to make sure that we don't skip this. And it is true that the children of this world, who are the children of this world? Those are people that don't have any relationship with God. We'll call them unbelievers if you want to. Uh it's people that don't have any relationship at all with Jesus. Their life is about them, right? They want to get everything that they can get. They want to obtain everything they can obtain, right? These are the titans of industry that uh go to bed at night making deals, wake up in the morning making deals, they're making deals on the plane. They're working when there's holidays, they're never around their family. They they will sacrifice whatever it takes to get them to have more and have more and have more, right? These are athletes that they they've sacrificed relationships with their children so that they can have success in whatever their sport is, right? Like, listen, you don't have to look far to find these stories. And they're everywhere, and they happen in our community. And it says, it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world. They work hard to get what they want, they work hard to stack their bank account, they work hard to do all these things.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

It's true.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

This world, the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of light. Let's go to the next verse. Here's the lesson. Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. And then you're then when your possessions are gone, not if they're gone, then when your possessions are gone, they will come, they will welcome you to an eternal home. If you're faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. Stop right there, real quick. Jesus tells this parable and it shocks the listener, it shakes the listener, and what he's using, uh, the rabbis in that time, I'm gonna butcher this word, but it's cow vashimer or wachmar. I'm terrible at that. It's a rabbinical teaching method that means from lesser to greater. Jesus isn't so much as celebrating the crooked manager as he is saying, listen, if the world works this hard at getting what their passion is, he didn't want to be homeless, he wanted to have money, he wanted to make sure he had retirement, whatever. If the world works this hard at what their passion is, when you look at the children of the light, they don't do anything compared to what they believe in and how what they put in in their life. So the sinner works hard for their sin, but those that are saved, listen, you start talking to a Christian coming to a new year, you're like, man, how how radical is it to believe that God is real, that he created everything, that he sent his son to die for you and me, and then try to twist an arm just to have somebody read the Bible for 15 minutes a day. Just to have relationship. Like the world is working on full tilt, going full steam to get everything they can acquire. And then you look at the Christian who's been saved by the Son of God, and they're like, nah, if I can, if I if I can make it to church this week, I'll make it. If I got time, if I don't oversleep, I'll read the Bible. If I've got time, maybe I'll pray. When things get hard, I'll pray for sure. But when things are good, I'm gonna just back off in the relationship. And Jesus talking to his disciples said, Listen, it's from the lesser to the greater, this rabbinical way of teaching, saying, Listen, if these people are doing it like this, then surely the children of light, the believers, those that are saved, should have have something in their heart, a fire in their heart, to go after the things of God. To go after, listen, I anybody familiar with Penn and Teller, the magicians, Penn and Teller, right? So Pen Gillette is a well-known atheist. Well-known atheist. And he he said something one time and it shook me. He said, Listen, if you really believed that there was a God who sent his son to die for you, and that in that death you could receive everlasting life if you believed in him. And if you believed that everlasting life would save you from hell, why would you not share that with everybody you know? In fact, he said this this is an atheist talking. He said, How much do you have to hate somebody to know that there would be eternal life and then not share the truth of that with them? How much would you have to hate people to know that there's hope in Jesus and not ever share it with them? Because it might get socially awkward. He's like, who cares about social awkwardness? If you know that there's eternal life and don't share it, I can't even fathom that kind of hatred. He's saying that as an atheist, but it hit me as a believer saying, Man, sometimes I bail out on, man, I don't want to make things awkward, I don't want to shove my faith down somebody's throat. But if I know that there's hell coming for everybody unless they give their heart to Jesus, then why wouldn't I share with everybody the love of Jesus? Why wouldn't I share with everybody? Listen, there's a God who loves you so much that even in your brokenness, while you didn't have it figured out, he died for you before you could ever say yes to him. Why wouldn't I share that with everybody? See, the shrewd manager, the crooked, the crooked manager is doing everything that he can to get his, but the Christian is full on apathetic in everything they have in front of them. Is it okay if I just come a little bit strong at the start of the year? We didn't get to talk last week. Sheila gave me the nod, so you better watch out. She gave me the nod. This is her fault from here on out. Yeah, that's right. And man, if you're a guest, please know, like everything I've done in life, uh, when I set the bench in high school basketball, I was loud shouting. And uh just when I get excited about things, I don't, I'm not like angry. I'm just like, woo-hoo, right? Okay. Also, we have in this church, I'm just reminding everybody because we took a week off. I love dialogue, right? Something that hits you right and say, Amen. So be it. Yeah, okay, Pastor. Never like, shh, I'd rather not hear that. But the week is like, nobody on life support in here, okay? All right, this is the new year. Y'all are only eating fruits and vegetables and grass-fed beef, and uh, and you're working out every day, and nobody's had any caffeine because you're abstaining from such things now because it's 2026. So listen, I know as Sheila reaches for her coffee, I I know, I know that you guys are ready for this this morning. I listened, I listened uh to what the what Penn Gillette said, and I thought, man. I heard that and uh years ago, and when I was reading this verse, that came back to me. Man, like God, am I being faithful with little things? Isn't that what he says? If you are faithful in the little things, you'll be faithful in the large ones. Man, like am I am I am I being faithful in my attitude in traffic? I'm just like, I use that example because I'm not. Like, if the roads are empty, I'm doing good, but if there's a lot of traffic, you know, parking lot during Christmas time, I want the space. Right? That's closer. I will cut off a granny in a heartbeat, right? Like, it's a little bit competitive of me. There's things in my life, I'm like, am I being faithful in my attitude? Nobody like my integrity when I'm online and nobody else is in the room.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Right? Like these these things, like little things add up.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

If you're faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. I know some people that say, listen, uh, I I'll I'll give once I have more.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

And I think, no, you won't.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Because it's a part of your heart when you give saying me as a as a follower of Jesus, I give because he's a giver, and that's what he's called me to do. Right? Like, I remember I remember my parents being givers back when my mom used to take me and my brother, little Joey, little Jason, to McDonald's, get a happy meal. Who knows how much happy meals were 35 years ago, right? Longer than that. Gosh, man, 40 years ago. I just turned 46 a few days ago, so the memory's foggy. But little Joey, little Jason, she would split a happy meal three ways. And she would take whatever we didn't eat. And yet my dad and my mom still gave. Because they wanted to be faithful. Listen, how are you gonna be faithful with 10 grand when you can't be faithful with 10 ones? Right? And you're like, Joey, are you trying to preach something about the church needing money? This doesn't have anything to do with the church and this money, and like this has everything to do with us and God. You you realize one out of every three parables Jesus references and talks about money, whether it's your relationship with it or how you listen, it's just a tool, right? It's a tool, but it can easily become an idol because money's not the root of all evil, but the love of money is. Right? And and and so sometimes I realize when it's taking party in my life, can I tell you? So so here's how my wife and I have it set up. We we do we do the online giving, and so we have it set up that every other week that comes out, and so I don't know why with our new program, it comes out on Sundays, right? So that's how that's and I get an email saying, boom, that you've given, and it's it's all that stuff. And can I tell you how many Sundays I'm a pastor? Okay, I see the email that the money came out, and I go, it'd have been a little bit easier this week if it just stayed in the account. It would have, it would, can I just be real with you? Like it it would have taken some maybe pressure off. Would anybody miss the meal? No, but maybe things get a little uncomfortable. Right? You got a few days where like every other hour you're just checking the account, like nobody other than me, praying that Netflix doesn't pop up suddenly, right? Like, oh costs a lot now, even with commercials. I can't right, right. Come on. Netflix knew when you only had a little bit left in the account, and and but here's what I know my bank account's not my resource, my God is. How am I gonna be faithful in in little things? Or how could I not be faithful in little things and then ever expect God to say, okay, let me let me trust you with more. Because here's how we were like, God, trust me with more, then I'll be faithful. Can I can I just like here's what's been on my heart, a word that's been on my heart, and I believe like it's on my heart for this entire year for our church family. I'm never the kind of the person that's like I I kind of came up in a background where uh before every new year you would pray that God would give you your word for the year, like resilience or fortitude, or you're right, like something like what's and I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I just but there's times when I feel like God drops a word in my spirit and it and it happened a couple weeks ago, and I can't shake it, and it's the word legacy. And I feel like that's a word for our church for this year. Because you you know, you know what legacy doesn't come from? Legacy doesn't come from apathy. Legacy doesn't come from indifference. Right? Are you with me on that? Can I can I just dig a little bit deep and I'm gonna I'm gonna poke the bear a little bit this morning. But legacy doesn't really happen. It doesn't come when I'm talking about legacy, I'm not talking about I die and then hey, look at my life. What I'm talking about is a legacy that when I die, there's been so much faithfulness to God that he gets the glory and honor, and other people can benefit from that, and other people can grab encouragement from that. Here's what listen, little things stack up and they they add up to add up to legacy, right? I'll try to stop being tongue-tied in a minute. Little things stack up and they add up to legacy after a while, because you think about Elizabeth. We read about her earlier in Luke. She was barren. Remember, she was married to Zachariah. She was the wife of a priest, her father was a priest, and she had been barren year after year after year. Here's how it works it says that she had been faithful all of her life. So there were days when she was barren. And faithful. And the days stacked up and they added into decades when she was barren and faithful. So she had this legacy of barren and faithful before God. The people in the community, who cares what they thought? Because in that community, they thought, well, you're barren because you did something wrong to God. You're being judged. You can't have a kid because God is punishing you. Yet she stayed faithful regardless of what everybody else said until the time came when the legacy of now you're going to have a son, and your son isn't just any son, but he's the man that's going to be born, that's going to herald the coming of the Messiah. He is the closure of the Old Testament and the entrance into the New Testament. Your days of faithfulness when you were barren now mean that there's a legacy in your life that will encourage others. Because there's time I've looked at her story and said, Man, praise God for Elizabeth's legacy. I can look at and say, God is always faithful, even when there's decades of barrenness in my life. Nobody? Okay, listen, how about how about how about David when he killed Goliath? Because from my remembrance, he was doing small things that day. He was just taking food to his brothers on the front line. He wasn't doing anything crazy amazing. He was Door-Dash. You with me? Like he's taking food to his brothers, not doing anything amazing. He's Door Dash, shows up, everybody's shook, everybody's scared. He's like, who is this Joker? He's been doing so many little things in his life that when a giant shows up, he's so focused on God he can't even see the giant. But when there's inconsistency and there's no faithfulness, you get to points in your life where how could there ever be a legacy because you've never risked enough to be anything that's anything other than cowardice? Right? I mean, I suppose there's legacies that you can leave that aren't ones you want to be known for. You remember Joey, he never took a risk. You remember Joey? He would like, ah man, always back down. I don't want that legacy. I don't want that legacy. And he had fulfilled the purposes of God and his generation. His legacy. Little things end up stacking up. Little things like having a church service at a school, but nobody came there to open the door, so you had service in the parking lot in the cold in February. Not not maybe maybe that reference misses some of you because you weren't here. But our first service together as family, we showed up to Hurt Park Elementary School, the janitor, nobody told them, or something. Knocking on the door, checking the windows. We didn't check the windows, that would have been crazy work. Could you imagine first service breaking and entering? That would have been wild. Instead, we just stood in that parking lot and we made it. Listen, it was a cold day. It was a cold day. We stood in a circle. We played a couple songs. I preached as fast as I could for like four or five minutes. All the parents thanked me that I didn't say six or seven minutes. Right? And so I preach as quick as I could. Man, but I look at that and I'm like, faithful in small things. Faithful in small things. And I just wonder, my God, what are there any small things that we're missing right now? Because I believe you've called us to legacy. Not for our glory, but for his. Like when you when you capture that you could have been born at any point in history, but you're here breathing right now in this place? Does that not shake anybody that you could you could have been born 40 years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, but God said, no, no, no, no. I this is the time span, this is where I'm gonna place you, this is where you're gonna be born. Because He's not accidental like that, He's not flippant like that with life. So if you're breathing, then you've got purpose. And I read the scripture, I'm like, man, I'm here for such a time as this. There's calling to my life. As long as I'm breathing, I've got purpose, so I need to figure out what it is and I need to engage with that. Because there's people like their legacy is gonna be they worked hard and they got a lot of money and then they died. But then there's believers that said, no, we gave everything. Because listen, I can't take money with me to heaven, but I sure as can take people with me. I can't I can't take my bank account across the pearly gates if that's such a thing, right? I can't take my bank account into heaven with me, but I can make sure I send it ahead in the form of people because as I give into things that are honorable and things that God can bless, we see the kingdom advance and the kingdom grow. I can give my time into such things. I just want to challenge some people in this room. Like, tithing is a legitimate thing, it was there before the law, right? Can I talk, man? Listen, uh, you guys know me, I don't talk about money a lot, but I'm not gonna be stepping away from it this year because I feel like that it's a stronghold in a lot of people's lives. It's one of those things that like it it keeps people in fear, it keeps people in worry, it keeps people bound up. And you know one of the greatest, the greatest things the enemy ever did, the greatest things that he ever did was he got people, gave them the title, and told them you should be a pastor. People took the name pastor and then started like getting everything they could from other people, get all the money they could, and then they get exposed for it. And you know what that makes everybody want to do that's a follower of Jesus? Say, man, ugh, that's yucky. I don't want to have anything to do with that. And when they do that, they abandon what God's called them to. Tithing is the only thing that Jesus ever gave the Pharisees props for. Right? So you tithe the men, the deal of the cumin, these things you ought. Good job. I there's only a couple things we can spend in life. We can spend minutes and we can spend money. Are you with me on that? We can spend minutes and we can spend money. Now, money for most people comes from the minutes that we spent. The minutes that we spent. So we we basically got minutes that we can spend. So, how are you spending your minutes and how are you doing with those minutes in the small things? Right? Am I beating a dead horse in this place? Are you with me? Okay, so like listen, I I just feel like today God's stirring our hearts saying, I'm taking you to greater, so I want to weed out and I want to touch on anything that's that's not your best. Not anything that that is not my best for you. How about that? So here's the lesson: use your worldly resources. Okay, verse 10. If you are faithful in the little things, you'll be great, uh, be faithful in the large ones, but if you're dishonest in the little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. Let's go to the next verse. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? No one can serve, check this out, no one can serve two masters. That's highlightable. About 50% of that culture under the Roman rule were slaves. No one can serve two masters, so they knew about masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. No one, let's read that again. No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be what? Enslaved to money. Enslaved to money. Here's how I know if I'm enslaved to money, if my peace comes from what's in my bank account.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

And there's been times I have not felt peace because I'm looking at the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

I'm in Bible college, senior year, about to graduate, and uh almost valedictorian, except for the other people in front of me. And um we had to be at services Sunday morning and Sunday night. We had to be at services. And uh Sunday night was a little bit more relaxed. When this one Sunday night we had a speaker come in, a missionary, and man, just an incredible story. And he was um he was just sharing his heart, and then at the end, uh the president of the Bible college came and said, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna take a special offering to bless them as they go out and they minister the word. And I'm sitting there and I got this like um sense in my heart that I needed to reach into my wallet and just give everything that was in my wallet. Now, I worked at a at a at a um store called Goodies back then. It was it was it was like a it was basically the bane of my existence. It was like a a JC Penny sort of ripoff or something. I don't know. Like it was like a department store and had all the clothes and stuff, and and uh but paycheck hadn't come in just yet. But I'm sitting there and I feel like man, I'm supposed to give everything that's in my wallet, and I know that everything that's in my wallet is the money to get me gas to get to and from work for the next week, and there's nothing in the bank account until the next payday. Now I'm I'm sure I could call mom and dad. They probably hook me up with a little bit. But in that moment, I'm trying to just like be honorable with what I have. So I open, I open the wallet, moth flies out, right? Like open the wallet, take the money out, put it in there, close my wallet, put my in my back pocket, and I literally watched the the offering plate. That's back when we had offering plates, and literally watched the offering plate go away. I'm like, well, see you later. It's like, God, I hope, God, I hope you saw that. I hope that was really you asking me to give that away. And um, my wife, uh, she was my my fiance, a girlfriend, even at the time. Uh Ashley was going to Radford just down the road. I was in Bible College in Christensburg. So I'm like, she'd just gotten home from the weekend. Uh, and so I was like, I gotta go see her, hadn't seen her all weekend. Drive over as the gas tank's getting lower, right? But I'm like, hey, if we're gonna burn the gas, we're gonna we're gonna make it worthwhile. We're gonna see somebody that counts. And um, and I get there and I'm hugging her. I'm like, hey, great to see you. How was your weekend? She's like, I was really good. Now, this was like probably in February, right? And uh, she goes, Hey, your mom, your mom and dad gave me something to give you. So uh the the Christmas cards from from your aunties have come in, right? Your aunt sent your Christmas cards, and listen, my birthday is Christmas Eve. They sent your birthday and Christmas cards. And she, I pulled out a stack of cards, and what do you do? You shake it like I don't care about what the sentiment is in there. Like, please be some money. And like it was it was ten times more than what I had just given. Now, check this out. Would that money have been there had I not given? It would have, because she was already on the way, but I would have missed the blessing. You feel me on that? Like, I would have still had the money, but I would have not had the blessing. Because God said, I was making provision for you before you ever even gave. Before you could reach for your wallet, I had the money on the way. And I'm like, like, I drove home and just thinking, I just I was just shook. I was like, God, how could you like this is crazy? And I just started telling people, like, man, this is what just happened to me. And we were over there at the service, boom, boom, boom, and God did this, and like, and that's awesome. Why? Because most of the college-age Bible college kids didn't have a whole lot of money, right? And like, that's awesome. And and we just I begin to see God move every time in life. I would trust Him with things. Man, how much did I give? Probably less than 20. Right? But for me in that moment, it was everything. And God was honorable and faithful and said, Hey, I got you. Right? And I just remember times in my life where I look back and said, Man, if we can be faithful with the little things, but if you're untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? I want to be considered trustworthy. I'm gonna be trustworthy with my time, trustworthy with my stewardship. I just want to be trustworthy before him. Right? No one can serve two masters. I don't want to have any other master other than Jesus. Listen, uh, when I was in Bible college as well, I stayed in an apartment. I had two friends, we we we split rent. Can I just say something real quick? Jesus doesn't split rent with your heart with other things. He wants your whole heart. He's not splitting rent for the throne of your heart. If he is, if he's sharing that time with something else, then he's not God at all. He's not Lord at all. Either he's Lord above all, or he's not Lord at all. Right? And so he's not splitting rent with my the throne of my heart, nor the throne of your heart. And so we have opportunity, every day is opportunity, right? To see, can we go to the next verse, verse 14? Jess, would you come and wrap up here? The Pharisees who dearly love their money heard all of this and scoffed at him. Scoffed, they said. Then he said to them, You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. Woo! What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God. Come on. This is Jesus talking. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God. There are some things that even believers in Jesus are clamoring for, giving for, that are working for, that might get them worldly honors, but will get them detestable responses from God. You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. So he's shifted his attention from his disciples to these Pharisees that are scoffing. Verse 16 until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in. Let's go again. But that doesn't mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God's law to ever be overturned. Like his word is going to be accomplished. Can I just put it to you like that? No matter what happens in life, his word will be accomplished. Verse 18, for example, a man who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Jesus is bringing up an example right here of something that Pharisees had twisted around. So you look Old Testament, you see that there's a moment where it says that if a woman is found unclean, that her husband could divorce her. And so these rabbis started pulling out different meanings of what unclean was. Right? Um Rabbi Shmel. I have trouble with the rabbinic names. And uh Rabbi Halil. Shemai, sorry, Shemai. He took a strict view. He said divorce was permitted only for serious grounds, specifically sexual immorality or adultery. But there was another Pharisee that everybody liked, at least all the fellas liked his idea better. Rabbi Hillel took a more lenient view. Divorce was allowed for almost any reason, even trivial ones, like messing up a meal. If the husband simply found her displeasing. If she makes you angry, if she's not doing something to your standard, whatever that is, grounds for divorce. He's like so just like liberal in this, like anything's ground. There's even there's even one rabbi, I didn't bother to pick up his name. He's like, his stance was even if you found a woman more beautiful than your wife, grounds for divorce. Crazy, right? This is what's happening. Yes, right. So uh nephew on the front row making wild comments. All right, sorry. So so what Jesus is exposing, though, here is people getting away from covenant. And just wanting to live however that you want to live. And listen, this is not a moment to get into like what the word says about divorce tonight. Like, if you're divorced in the room, you're loved. God died for you. Like, this is not the moment I'm trying to teach about that. But what I'm trying to show you is a moment where Jesus is exposing the hearts of the Pharisees. And he's saying, You don't love me, you love you. I'm not primary. I'm not primary, you're primary. You want to sit on the throne of your heart. There's no there's no place for me in your life because you won't get off the throne of your heart. And and coming into this message and coming in today, I just wondered like, in the little things, man, are are we giving God the throne of our heart, the throne of our life? Because I think it shows up in the little things. Because if he calls you truly to forgive and you believe that he is who he says he is, then you're going to choose with your heart to forgive before your emotions catch up with it. Anybody else? Like, it's hard to forgive somebody that's done you wrong, and it doesn't mean what they've done is okay, but it means you value relationship over justice. Why? Because Jesus dying on the cross was valuing relationship with you over justice. Because what we deserve, the Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin are death. He says, No, I'm gonna die on the cross because I want relationship with you more than justice of your death. Because that's what we deserve. And so when we forgive, it's not saying what somebody did to us is now okay. It didn't really hurt. It's saying, no, I love Jesus more than I like being right. So these are little things that stack up, but they add up to legacy. And I just want to ask you right now, just close your eyes just for a moment and just search your heart and just say, God, is there any areas in my life I'm letting the little things slide? And if you're like me, there's like, oh man, there's a lot of little things. Where do I even begin? There's a lot of little things. Here's what I want you to know today, man. God wants the throne of your heart. He doesn't just want your Sunday mornings. He wants the throne of your heart. Because the Bible says he has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, a future and a hope. You've been divinely designed for a purpose. And he wants you to lead, he wants to lead you into that. And I believe in this room right now that God has things that He wants to make you responsible for, but He can't until you're responsible with what you have. I believe there's greater destiny in this room for all of us. But I hear the Lord saying, even in my life, there's areas of my life where I just hear him saying, Joy, I need you to give me that place. I need you to trust me with that place. I need you to not be forgetful about these little areas. If you want to leave a legacy, then we need to live a legacy. We need to live with small things, be faithful with small things, steward weld the small things, be consistent with the small things. If you're in this room right now, you're like, man, I got some small things that I got to get in order. Hey, listen, you're in good company because I'm right there with you. So today is not about getting everything figured out, but today is simply a moment saying, God, there's some things I need to get in order, and I ask you to guide me in this. And I want to submit and I want to surrender all of me to you. So I just want to start with anybody in this room right now that you don't have a relationship with Jesus. And you need to know that you're loved by God, that you are loved by Him. And that you have not done so much wrong in your life that He is mad at you or that He hates you. In fact, He loves you so much that He died on the cross for you to pay a price for the wrongs you've done, for the times you've missed the mark. And he invites you into relationship. He invites you to make him not only the savior of your life, but he invites you to make him the Lord of your life. To give him the will. To give him control. And some of you, you're like, man, I don't even know if I can comprehend everything what that means right now. But you're feeling a stirring in your heart, and that's the Holy Spirit saying, Come on home. I just want to stop right now and say, Man, if there's anybody in this place and you need to make Jesus the King of your heart, if you need to ask Him to be your Savior, you've never done that before. You've never had that moment before where you're just like, God, I need to make you first. I just want to ask you right now, man, if that's you, would you just raise your hand? Because I want to pray for you. I want you to go into this year, just knowing that you are loved, that you are seen, and you are saved. And say, anybody, I want to take a moment for that. Cool. I also want to take a moment for anybody that, man, maybe, let alone 2025, but maybe the last several years, you're like, I used to know God, I used to walk with God, but my life has been about me. I've been on the throne of my heart. I've been directing my life. I've been guiding my life, but I want to come home to him. I want to trust him. I want to entrust him with my life. I want to entrust him with my future. And I want to trust him with my past. If there's anybody that you're like, man, I need to come on home. I need to once again stand firm and say, God, I'm rededicating my life to you. I'm recommitting my life to you. If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand. There's power in it because there's a community saying, now I'm making an outward sign. I'm making an outward confession. Yeah, I see that hand. I'm making an outward confession saying that I'm not ashamed to do this. I'm responding. It's an outward sign of an inward act, saying, I'm responding. Is anybody else? He's like, man, I just need to get it right right now. Cool. We're going to pray this together. Family, would you just pray this along with me? We're going to do this out loud. And Jesus, come on. Jesus, I thank you for the price that you paid for me. And that you died for me while I was still a sinner. While I was still missing the mark. I believe that you're the Son of God. And I ask you to forgive me of every time I miss the mark. I ask you to be my Lord, my Savior, the King of my life. I give you my heart. All of it. In Jesus' name.

unknown 46:34

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Just with your eyes closed, just one more minute, I just want to deal with the small things. There's no shame. There's no guilt. There's only conviction. But today's a day where you can make a choice. So God, today I want to start fresh today. Scripture says his mercies are new every morning. God, I want to start fresh today. This is a bold prayer that you would pray. It'd be a prayer saying, God, would you show me the things that I'm mishandling? Would you show me the things that I'm not being responsible with. Not simply because I want more, but simply because I want to honor you. And you're like, man, I just I want you right now just to say with your heart. And let it come out of your mouth right now. And when you repeat this after me, Jesus, I'm praying a prayer of repentance for any area that I've mishandled. Any area, any small thing that I haven't been responsible for. I thank you for your forgiveness. And I thank you that you would help me, that you would guide me, that you would give me courage in doing these things well. Not for my legacy, but for yours. In Jesus' name. Amen.