Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 26: "Friends By the Mammon of Unrighteousness"

Pastor David Asscherick is joined by Nathan Renner to discuss Chapter 26 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, which examines one of Jesus' most provocative parables—the parable of the shrewd (or unjust) steward from Luke 16. Ellen White unpacks how this challenging parable was heard differently by three distinct audiences: the tax collectors and sinners, the disciples, and the Pharisees. David and Nathan explore the radical call to use wealth and spiritual resources wisely, recognizing that worldly people often show more shrewd earnestness in securing their earthly future than believers do in preparing for eternity. The chapter calls Christians to break free from Satan's spell of worldliness, to see phantoms as phantoms and realities as realities, and to weigh all decisions on the scales of eternity. Ellen White emphasizes that the means over and above actual necessities are entrusted to us not for hoarding, but for blessing humanity—feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the suffering. Through this parable, Jesus summons His followers to be faithful, generous stewards who recognize that only two things last forever: character and converts.

Guest: Nathan Renner
Scripture References: Luke 16:1-13
Covers: Chapter 26: Friends By the Mammon of Unrighteousness
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKMi4npqiz0
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Greetings everyone and welcome once again to with DA and for the third consecutive day NTR. Third and final day. That's true. Because you go home tomorrow. That's right. Can't wait. It's almost like you have uh like a church to pastor. And we're preaching this Sabbath? I'm not. This Sabbath uh Stay the weekend. No, I can't. This Sabbath's a sad Sabbath. Pastor Andrew's final message, Pastor. Yeah, yeah. So you've had a faithful associate pastor who's been there before you got there. No. He got here just a year after me. Oh, did he? Okay. Yeah. You know, I it kind of hurts that he's leaving. Yeah. Because it's I ca it's kind of hard not to take it personal, but then uh You like him. Oh, I do. But the reality is But he obviously doesn't like you. Well, the reality is he got a call to pastor a church that's sandwiched right between his parents and his mother and father-in-law. So it's like In what state? Texas. Okay. So he has the opportunity of a lifetime, right? Because he has two small children that he has to orient up. Oh, I get it. That's a tough that would be a tough no. Yeah, no, it's an impossible. How long though? How long had he been with you there in Madison? Three years. Okay. And you've been there four years. Yeah. Okay. You've been there four years already. I know time flies when you're having fun. Do you know what frogs say? What? Time's fun when you're having flies. All right, good evening, everyone. We are so glad that you are here. Uh Brandi Pamparazzi says good evening. Sarah says warm love, David and Nathan. Cindy says hello, all. Tennessee quiltbug says hi. A Better Covenant Band says good evening, y'all. I love the southern y'all there. It's a great word. Rich77AA says, hi, David and Nathan. Peoria needs a pastor. Peoria, there's like a thousand Peorias. Which Peoria are you talking about? Um, hi from Cleveland, Ohio. Hello, Tanya. Hello, wannabe tomato farmer says hi, DA family. Hello, my good old friends says hi all. Tennessee Quillbunk says happy to see everybody. Kendra Lau, we love you together again. Praise God. Wesley Babb, love you, brother, says hola. Dash Alicia says L O L. Hi, everyone. Franktown in the house says Reiner and Alice. Snow in New England. Oh, I'm loving that. Yeah. They got a lot of snow. I know. It's like crazy out there. Uh hello from Chattanooga says AM. I guess it's Amy R. N. Ruby Aloha says hi DA from Monterey, California. Barry and Springs is warming up. Okay. Loving that. Uh hello from Raleigh. I guess that's North Carolina. Collins Current says good evening from DFW. That's got to be Dallas Fort Oregon. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um I see I missed a few there. Hello, Bonnie. Hello, Pac R828. Hello, Maria King 186. Hello, Stu Paul59 says hello, David and Nathan. Greetings, everybody. 30 inches of snow for Mr. Fate. Wow, that's a lot. Yeah, that is a. It was like 70 degrees here, and my wife was suntanning again in Colorado. And I know I've said this before, but it's absolutely true. Nathan has seen it. If I lift up my shirt, I'm tan. No, you look like you just spent a month in the Dominican Republic. I look like I just spent a month in the Dominican Republic, Nathan said. That's how tan I am. I I I'm joking now that I'm working on my my mid-winter tan. Keep talking, I have to do something quick. It's out of control the weather here in Colorado. It's it's actually astonishingly warm and beautiful, and it's actually a little bit scary. You think to yourself, you know, if Colorado doesn't get snow, do the people drink? Is there water? What are they gonna do? We get our moisture basically from the snow, and this year we have no snow. I mean, very little snow. There's some snow in the mountains, but even there, like the skiers are not happy. I think it's one of the worst snow seasons for skiing and snowboarding in decades. No, when you drive in, I mean when you fly into this place, you look out at the mountains, and it it looks like you could plant a garden up there. Exactly. All right. Now, Nathan, you had some pizza today. I did. You had you had the Asheric pizza, and there's rumors going around that it's really good. Can you either deny or confirm these rumors? I will confirm the rumor. I had Asherick pizza and it was delightful. I love the little pizza oven of uh the assortments of cheeses. Yeah, lots of cheeses. Um Violet is so good at it. She lays everything out so well, starts the little fire. Yeah. And we just make the pizzas. And Nathan's gluten-free, so he doesn't get the full experience of our uh secret recipe crust that's actually not very secret. But the I I actually had a piece of yours and it was okay. Yeah, it was okay. I mean, for me, it was okay, but for you, maybe that's just normal. Well, you know, the thing is, is that when you're used to eating cardboard, you you know it's all right. Yeah, this is really nice cardboard. Yeah. I mean, just put pesto on cardboard, it tastes great. I mean, the crust was cheese. The cust crust was great, actually. But it's you know, gluten-free crust just even good is not great. And great is okay. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. How long have you been gluten-free? Probably been a quarter of a decade. What happens if you eat gluten? So I used to have 10 out of 10 environmental allergies. I mean, just like the worst environmental allergies you can imagine. And uh like every sprain taking. You were always like shoot like taking the those pills with. I would take five medications, four of which were prescription just to survive spring. Well, I remember those. It's kind of embarrassing, actually, because the I got a new doctor, nurse practitioner, actually, and she suggested allergy tests. And I said something that was actually kind of rude. I said, Well, that's kind of dumb, don't you think? I'm allergic to grass and trees. And she says, Well, why don't we just try it? And I've always kind of been embarrassed about that because it was just it was rude. I didn't intend to be rude. I just now you just shared your rudeness with the whole world. Something you said 10 years ago and you're still beating yourself up with it. Yeah, that's kind of the way I am. Um but anyway, she did these allergy tests and I found out I was allergic to wheat. And if I don't eat wheat, I basically don't have environmental allergies. It's amazing. So so you literally stopped eating wheat and your environmental allergies, which is like pollen, trees, grass, trees, grass, it just like went away. Correct. So so you know, one of the great things about having horrible grass allergy when you're a child is that you don't have to mow the lawn. Oh, that's a win. Right? That's a win. My whole childhood I didn't mow the lawn. And then uh but now I have to mow the lawn. Okay. Because I have no allergies. Do you have to take allergy medicine now in the spring? I might take six zyrtech a year. And what did you used to take? I would take like A million. May, June, July, August. I would take Xyrtech every single day. Optivar, flonase, inhaler. And now it's just like it fixed it. It's like almost magic. Yeah, it's it's it's crazy. And what's the just quickly Natal, what's the mechanism for that? Like why would not eating gluten is it just like decreasing your body's inflammation? Um the way the allergists described it is that allergies are like a bucket. When the bucket gets full, you become symptomatic. So if you can control the variables you can control, then you're don't let the bucket fill up. Correct. Correct. So you're still getting the exposure to those things that are irritating to you, but they're not so irritating because you don't have other things that are also irritating. Correct. Correct. That's fascinating. Yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen, if you have major environmental allergies, maybe try figuring out if you're allergic to something else. And then if you get off of that, then your environmental allergies might go away. You know, I've never been allergic to anything. Until you move to Australia. I moved to Australia and I am hugely allergic to the dust mites in Australia, which it's actually not the dust mites that you're allergic to. It's like the the I guess like their poo or their pee or whatever they give off. Okay. They eat. And uh if I go into somebody's house in Australia that has like old carpet, uh, old rug, old drapes, and especially because it happens after sunset, I just I walk in and my eyes will swell up, my throat will go, and I'm like, okay, sorry, I have to leave. I just can't say. Yeah. Like my I just swell up instantly, and as soon as I get out of that environment, then it goes away. But here in America, nothing, no problems. Isn't that wild? That's totally wild. We've had a great day today. We ate pizza, we went rock climbing, we uh spent some time just chatting and catching up, and you even got a little nap. Or no. Yeah, I took a nap. Short nap. Yeah, good. By the way, somebody asked, wheat only or all gluten like celiac? It's interesting. I don't know, but I just avoid all wheat. Um, and I don't think uh my son is actually celiac, but for me, I think it's actually the wheat that I'm allergic to. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. And now you're all better. I mean, I remember I've known Nathan, as we've mentioned before, since we were both teenagers, and I remember you being a total disaster in the spring. Yeah. Yeah, it's been like you just like walked around with a bag of medicine and your nose would be running and your eyes would be red, and you were a mess. And now it's like gone. That's incredible. Yeah, it really is. It's uh it's uh people are like, guys, isn't it hard to not eat weed? It's like, well, it's a whole lot better than it's like. You know what I tell my I tell my sons all the time, especially my youngest son now that's studying mechanical engineering, choose your hard.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

He's like, Dad, this is really hard. I'm like, yeah, choose your hard. It's hard to do it, and if you don't do it, it'll you have a different hard. Yeah. There's no situation in which there's not something in life that's challenging. And I think that segue's kind of into this. Yeah, does choose our hard. We're either going to be faithful or we're gonna be shrewd, or we're gonna be both. There you go. Welcome everybody. We are in a month-long study through the parables of Jesus, and we are tonight in what some regard as Jesus' most challenging parable. And the other candidate for most challenging parable is also in Luke chapter 16, the parable of the rich man in Lazarus, which we've already dealt with. And so we're going to be looking at the parable of the shrewd manager, or some translations say like the unjust steward or the unjust manager. And the reason that this is a tricky one is it sure looks like Jesus is affirming, or at least the person in the parable, the master in the parable is affirming uh unrighteousness, dishonesty. Trevor Burrus, Jr. You know what? That actually brings up a like an important point about how to interpret parables in general, right? It's like every detail is not an allegory. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah. It's not one-to-one relationship of every detail. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Now, some parables kind of do have that. Like you think of the parable of the uh wheat and the tares, where Jesus was like, the field is the world and the harvester is the angels, but very often no. Yeah. And then you kind of get the punchline at the end. Right. Right. And and that's the thing you're supposed to take away. That's all the details. Yeah. Some of the details are superfluous and they're just good storytelling. Good storytelling, and some of the details are absurd. And you made this great point last night about there's this kind of many of the parables have this like inbuilt absurdity to them, purposeful, like an exaggerative absurdity. And this, I think, is a case in point. I think we get kind of an absurdity here with someone who has been defrauded affirming the person who defrauded him for being even better at defrauding. It's like, what are we talking about? Yeah, yeah. You you're being fired because you were dishonest, but now you have very you've been very successfully dishonest. Great job. And we're going to talk about that. Um, Nathan, why don't you open with prayer and

Prayer

SPEAKER_01 11:32

off to the races? Father, we are grateful to you for the opportunity to study, to learn, to grow. Amen. We're grateful to you for your word. We're grateful for the promise of your spirit when we gather in your name and acclaim that promise and trust that you've kept it. As we read your word, may it speak to our hearts. May it help us take a next step in our journey with you. In Jesus'

Discussion

SPEAKER_01 11:53

name. Amen. Beautiful. I love that idea of next step. Okay, so we're in Luke chapter 16 in our secondary textbook, which is Christ's Object Lessons. A wonderful little volume written by Ellen White in 1900, which looks at many of the parables of Jesus, not all of them, but many of them. 29 chapters. We're in chapter 26. Yeah, you're going to change. Which means after tonight, 27, 28, 29. We have three nights left, if you can believe it. Just a few nights left. And we're in chapter 26, titled Friends by the Mammon of Unrighteousness, which is kind of an unusual title, mammon, riches. And we're going to start, as we have been, by reading the parable through in two translations. Nathan's going to read it through in the ESV, the English Standard Version, then I'll read it through in NT Wrights Kingdom New Testament. So Luke chapter 16, beginning in verse 1. Welcome everybody. We are super glad that you were here. And this is going to be I'm I'm psyched about this. I mean, you woke up this morning, you came down into the kitchen, and you're like, I have two amazing insights from today's reading. Yeah. That was hours ago. Yeah. So I'm fired up. I got some good stuff. Good. And I got a great word. Did you do the word? I did. I have a great word. Okay. I can't wait to share it. Okay. Uh Luke chapter 16, beginning at verse 1, first in the ESV. 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 wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is uh what 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'm ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I'm 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 and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, And how much do you owe? And 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 for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings. It's a provocative parable. It's very provocative. Very provocative. Okay, let's read it now in Right's translation. Uh beginning in verse one, Jesus said to his disciples, Once there was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were laid against him that he was squandering his property. So we called him and said to him, What's all this I hear about you? Present an account of your stewardship. I'm going to have you I'm not going to have you as my steward any more. At this the steward said to himself, Oh, what shall I do? My master is taking away my stewardship from me. I can't do manual work, and I'd be ashamed to beg. Ah, I have an idea of what to do. So the people will welcome me into their household when I'm fired from being steward. So he called his master's debtors his master's debtors to him one by one. How much? he asked the first, do you owe my master? Uh a hundred measures of olive oil, he replied. Take your bill, he said. Sit down quickly and make it fifty. To another he said, How much do you owe? Uh a hundred measures of wheat, he replied. Take your bill, he said, and make it eighty. And the master praised the dishonest steward because he acted wisely. The children of this world, do you see, are wiser than the children of light when it comes to dealing with their own generation. So let me tell you this use that dishonest stuff called money to make yourselves friends. Then, when it gives out, they will welcome you into homes that will last. I like it. I think it's I think it's good. And it is provocative, and it's not easy, and it's one of those parables that's kind of enigmatic. A number of Jesus' parables are easy. Yeah. Like they're obvious. And this one is not obvious. Could you imagine people being offended when they heard this? Like, what is this guy saying? Right. Exactly. I know that's like one of the liabilities of being a preacher, right? Like, no matter how much goodwill you have in your heart, no matter how faithful you try to be, there will always be occasion for misunderstanding. Or that you've said something a little off, or somebody has misunderstood what you've said, or they've put the worst construction on what you said. And Jesus Or just to do fist, not not Jesus would do that, but Yeah, you just said something poorly. Yeah. And I imagine that many that were sitting there, okay, let's just go through these. There's five parables in a row, as we've talked about. We're in Luke 15 and 16. These are this is an un appears to be an uninterrupted moment, likely happening in a meal setting, right? Because they're in Luke 15, 1 and 2, they were upset that Jesus was welcoming sinners. And there's no indication that there's a change in scenery. Yeah, it's just this sort of unbroken flow. Unbroken flow. And so you've got five parables. The first one, easy. Parable of the washie. Second one, easy. Parable of the lost coin. Third one, probably Jesus' most famous and best loved parable, certainly my favorite, the parable of the prodigal son. No problem. And then this. Right? It's like they get progressively more toothy. They get very toothy. And then you have the parable of the rich man in Lazarus. And one key, you guys, you've got to get this down. Go look in your Bibles if you haven't already done so. And you want to note that the first three parables, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, are largely told to two of the three groups that are there: to the sinners and tax collectors and to the religious leaders. Now the disciples are also there. That's the third group that are listening in. So you've got three groups: the sinners and tax collectors, the religious leaders, and the disciples. And the first three parables are told kind of to the Pharisees and the religious leaders, but for the benefit of the sinners and tax collectors. The second parable is told specifically to the disciples, the one we just read. I mean, look at 16 1. Jesus told his disciples. So this is very interesting because this parable is directed at his disciples, and we'll address why that might be. And then look at the third parable. The third parable appears to have been spoken mainly to the Pharisees and the religious leaders that were present. Because if you go back to verse 14, it says the Pharisees who love money and heard all this were sneering at Jesus. And he said to them, and he says a couple preliminary remarks, and then he tells them the parable of the rich man in Lazarus. Here's a really cool way, Nathan, to think about these two parables in Luke 16. I wrote this down. Tell me if you like this. Um, one is I'm gonna get it just right. I want to make sure I say it just right. Um I didn't write it down. Let me see if I can get this right. Wealth in trust, that's this parable, and the second is trust in wealth. Ooh, I like that. Isn't that good? So wealth in trust, this guy's been entrusted with wealth, that's the first parable, and the second parable is trust in wealth, which is the rich man. And so both of them are about stewardship, and both of them begin in exactly the same way. Look at 16.1. There was a rich man. Look at 1619, there was a rich man. And by the way, that's exactly how the parable of the rich fool begins in Luke 12.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Right?

SPEAKER_01 19:37

The guy that says, Hey, I'm gonna build a bigger bar. Right, right. There was a rich man. So a number of Jesus' parables, and then you also have the parables about the invitations that are given to like weddings, which is probably from a king, a person of wealth. So a number of the parables in Luke center around wealthy people, rich people, which I think kind of is on brand for the first century because a lot of people were living a kind of subsistence lifestyle. Then you had a small category of like tax collectors and merchants and others that were like a less than five percent probably of the population. And then you had the uber wealthy, yeah, which was a very small percentage of the population. So people had this kind of angst against as we even do today. But in those days, it was like mega, mega, so unfair. And so Jesus is tapping into a kind of cultural angst that was not uncommon in his day of like, what about the rich? You know, it's very interesting. Like, if you read Luke's gospel, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, Blessed are the poor. Yeah. And if you read Matthew's, yeah, it's blessed are the poor in spirit. Yeah. So there isn't really a different emphasis in the book of Luke. And, you know, presumably Jesus preached many of these sermons multiple times and probably different nuances and in different settings. Correct. And then the writers themselves chose to assemble them in different orders because they had their own kind of points they were trying to make as they retold the story of Jesus. But I I I always find the emphasis on poverty and wealth in the Gospel of Luke to be specially meaningful. And yeah, exactly right. And and actually particularly convicting. Yeah, very the I thought this chapter was very convicting. Yeah, yeah. In some ways, I found this chapter at least as convicting as the much longer and more thorough chapter before this on the talent.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

I mean, I found this one was like this is a much shorter chapter, but very punchy. And it really boils down to stewardship wealth in trust or trust in wealth. And the Richmond and Lazarus is about trust in wealth. This is about wealth in trust. And we're gonna go through it with a fine toothed comb and we're gonna be able to read most of the chapter in Christ's object lessons because it's so short. Okay. And I think we've got some gold here. There's a lot of gold here. And if you're feeling a little mystified, if you're like What? What? Exactly. You're kind of supposed to feel that way. Jesus is purposefully saying something to arrest the attention of the people and have them go, blah, blah, blah. What? What did he say? No. Yeah. Jesus was often doing this. Often we've already made that point. We made that point early on. Okay, so um let's start by just let's get let's get into this, Nathan. Uh, if you don't mind reading the first paragraph, so we're on page 446 of types and symbols, looks like 366 of the original. And as I said, we'll be able to read through much of this chapter today. Christ's coming was at a time of intense worldliness. Men were subordinating the eternal to the temporal, the claims of the future to the affairs of the present. They were mistaking phantoms for realities and realities for phantoms. I love that line. You know what I thought about that line was? No. You know, sometimes people are so incredibly righteous. I actually looked the word up too. I looked up the word. I was like, oh, phantom? What does that mean? I I think I know what that means. Yeah, that did exactly the same thing this morning. But what I thought was there are some Christians who are so sanctimonious that they couldn't use the word phantom or ghost as an illustration. Yeah, and in the next paragraph, she uses the word spell. Yeah. I think it's fascinating. Yeah, okay. I love it. I love it. They were mistaken, uh mistaking phantoms for realities and realities for phantoms. They did not, by faith, behold the unseen world. Satan presented before them the things of this life as all-attractive and all-absorbing, and they gave heed to his temptations. I love it. Yeah. It's so good. So good. Um, you know Reiner. Uh-huh. Yeah. You know Reiner. So my landlord and also my physician, uh, somebody that I love very much and who might be listening in right now, his name is Reiner. He's been on the program a number of times. He's done uh Mount of Blessings with me. He did Patriarchs and Prophets with me. Hello, Reiner, if you're listening in, and his lovely wife Alice, who Violet and I just adore. But a really cute thing about Reiner, he's got a lot of really endearing things. But one of the cutest things about him is that if somebody says something that's a little like shocking or a little forward or a little absurd, he'll go, hello. So like it's like the most writer thing in the world. And my wife and I had the privilege of being with him and Alice for almost a week, traveling around Switzerland. Okay. After I'd spoken there. And they're from Swiss, or they have Swiss, she has a Swiss passport, I think he might as well. So we went together and we went and toured all these valleys where like the Anabaptists used to be and where they were persecuted. And it was incredible, actually. We had the most lovely time. But just I can't count how many times over the course of that week together that Reiner would say, somebody would say something and be a little much. Hello. And that's exactly how I felt in the first sentence. Look at the first sentence. Christ's coming was at a time of intense worldliness. Hello. Hello. It's like that was a time of intense worldliness. Hello. What about today? Yeah, no doubt. Like, what does intense worldliness look like in you know, 80 30 versus 80 2026, 2,000 years later? Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple TV, movies, sports, social media. I mean, it is all there for the taking. Yeah. Right? So it's like intense worldliness in 8026 probably looks like the little house on the prairie compared to, you know, 30 compared to 2026. So my hello. You know, it's so interesting. When you think about society, it's so fascinating the ways in which it is so degenerated. Yeah. Even from when we were children. And yet the myrrh rate is lower. Right. Young people are drinking less. We're at all-time lows right now in alcohol consumption in the United States. I mean, it's people are smoking at much lower rates. Yeah. People are having sex out of wedlock at much lower rates. Yeah. I mean, it's really an interesting mix of degeneracy. Degeneracy and like a return to almost pre-1960s mortal code in some way. Now, some would say that's just because they're everybody's so busy staring at their phones that they're addicted to pornography or completely watching Netflix all the time that they don't have time to go out and get in trouble. The kind of trouble that we used to get in.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Sorry about that. A little trip down memory lane there. Now, I love Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.18. We set our minds on things not that are seen, but on things that are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporary or temporal, and the things that are unseen are eternal. That's really what she's talking about here. Right. When she says they were mistaking phantoms for realities or realities for phantoms. Right. That's such great. Now it's a mistake to think that that means that there's this sort of like immaterial world that matters more than the material world. Right. Right. Like what are the eternal things that we set our minds on? It's it's it's eternal relationships. It's eternal love. It's correct. It's the opportunity to be with God for eternity, to be with one another for eternity. Amen. You know, it's and it's things like truth and kindness and love and forgiveness, like the principles that will endure for eternity. Correct. So it's just so well communicated. And and one thing that we could ask ourselves, am I paying attention to phantoms right now, or am I looking at things that are real? You want to be paying attention to things that are real. Because all of this, you know, in very Ecclesiastes-esque fashion fashion, all of this abundance that we are seemingly surrounded right now by right now is all going away. Yeah. It's all ephemeral. It's not going to last. It's temporary. So we want to set our minds and our attention on the things that will endure. And that's like you're talking about relationships, character, converts, principles. And uh then let's read the second paragraph. It says, Christ came to change this order of things. He sought to break the spell. There it is again. It's fascinating. She seems to be purposefully using the language of almost magic. Yeah, yeah. Right? Because you've got phantoms, you've got the unseen world. It's like Paul, who hath bewitched you? Yeah, who has bewitched you in Galatians 1. Break the spell by which men were infatuated and ensnared. In his teaching, he sought to adjust the claims of heaven and earth. I really like that. To turn men's thoughts from the present to the future, from their pursuit of the things of time, he called them to make provision for eternity. Yeah. So just another way of kind of saying the same thing. And I like her emphasis here that the supernatural efforts of Satan are to turn our minds away from the supernatural.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Right? There's a paradox there. The supernatural efforts of the supernatural fallen angel Satan are trying to get us to think about natural things, earthly things, temporary things, ephemeral things. Where what we want to be doing is resisting those supernatural spells and temptations and setting our minds on eternal things. Right, right. Um, okay, so then she actually tells the parable in the next bit. Several paragraphs. Several paragraphs. And then I think she gets down to like with the prospect of discharge. No, that's still the same. Let's go down to this unfaithful servant made others sharers. Yes, you read that. This unfaithful servant made others sharers with him in his dishonesty. He defrauded his master to advantage them. And by accepting this advantage, they place themselves under obligation to receive him as a friend into their homes. Yeah, that's key. Yep. So he kind of implicates them and involves them in the dishonesty. And in so doing, it's kind of a wink, wink, nod, nod. I'm doing you a solid. I need you to do me a solid. Right, right.

unknown 29:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Which is the way of the world. Right? Like the there is very rarely a no-string is attached deal. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. In in and very interesting, I actually looked up in a commentary that I have on Luke. Um, I don't remember who wrote the commentary, but uh let me just read something here. This is quite interesting. Actually, I'll read it a little bit later. But one of the things he brings out is the amounts that are on offer in these two, and you get the feeling that it wasn't just these two. Right, right. That these two are representative. That he kind of went through the catalog of his master's debtors and he gave them all similar deals. I mean, one's a 50% cut, the other's a 20% cut. And one of the commentaries I read today said, make no mistake about it. These amounts, let me just read it to you here, where he says, Um, uh, how much do you owe? Like here on the NIV, 900 gallons of olive oil, he replied. And the commentary says, for most people, that is several years' wages. Yeah. And then the second one is even larger, like up to like a decade's worth of wages. A thousand bushels of wheat. They're like, these are enormous amounts of money, which tell us several things. Number one, this person that had been entrusted, this manager, was entrusted with large sums of money, which means he was highly trusted. He's not just middle management, he's like upper management. Because these are enormous sums of money, number one. And number two, uh, it also sort of alerts us to the fact that the crime was the kind of crime that would be like punishable by death. Hmm. Like you don't just get to defraud your master of these enormous sums of money. And so we might just read it and be like, oh, some bushels, some, depending on your translation. But the people that would have heard it in Jesus' day would have been like gasping, like these huge sums of money, especially for the common laborer. And the expectation is like this guy's gonna get whacked. Yeah, yeah. Like this guy this is a serious breach of trust. This is very well said, a serious breach of trust. Okay, so then uh next paragraph. So the master commended the unjust steward because he adele shrewdly, the worldly man praised, and then she uses here an interesting word, the sharpness of the man who had defrauded him. But the rich man's commendation was not the commendation of God. And depending on your translation, you get like sharpness, wisdom, shrewdness. And this is the part I do want to read here. Now tell me what you think of this, Nathan. Um it says here, he is indeed, I'm reading from the same commentary earlier, the Pillar New Testament commentary on the book of Luke. He is indeed a son of this world, but he is more prudent in planning for the only future he is concerned about than the typical religious person is in planning for his eternal future. Oh, that's hot. That's so hot.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

The longstanding objection to this interpretation is whether Jesus would praise such a steward. The modern West, those of us here, may frown upon shrewdness as manipulative or deceptive, but the biblical world, like much of the Middle East, still today frequently admired it. Now watch this. A number of stories in the Old Testament commend unjust people who act cleverly. Tamar in Genesis 38, Rahab in Joshua 2, and Judith in uh Judges, uh, or no, this is now this is in the apoprypho, all are praised for ingenuity that is no less morally dubious than the stewards. Abraham deceives Pharaoh and becomes wealthy, Genesis 12. Rebekah deceives Isaac and preserves Israel's life, Genesis 27. Jacob cheats Laban and prospers, Genesis 30, and the Israelites, and also Laban tricked Jacob with the wives, with his daughters. The Israelites despoil the Egyptians before the Exodus in Exodus 3. In a mirror plot of the shrewd manager, Absalom succeeds in winning the hearts of all Israel by cutting deals with his father's debtors in 2 Samuel 15. The response of Jesus himself to the questions of his authority paying taxes to Caesar and the resurrection are manifestly shrewd answers, though obviously not unjust. The interpretation of the parable of the shrewd manager follows this tradition. The scene, to put it in modern terms, and I really like this, is that of a recently terminated middle manager who double deals with company debtors on the main floor of corporate headquarters while his CEO sits in the boardroom upstairs. When the CEO learns what has happened, he says in admiring disbelief, I've got to hand it to you. You've turned a pink slit into a promotion. That's really good. That's great writing. It's great theology. So we're reading here in 2026 and we're like, what on earth? But there was a kind of biblical uh uh uh catalog and portfolio of stories where people not always under the commendation of God, obviously, though Rahab, for example, is a good example of somebody that God did save, but that this kind of shrewdness or this cleverness, I mean, the angels almost even kind of did it with what? Yeah, right? Like when they're like, hey, you know, he they feign that they're just ordinary travelers. And so you do kind of have this like shrewdness, like, I gotcha. And so the manager's like, you were dishonest, and so you got fired, and then you got really clever at being dishonest, and he receives the commendation of the master. Yeah, yeah. And I think you know, you see that kind of shrewdness and you see that kind of effort in in the world today. Unpack it. You well, you just you just see people that are so skilled at business and they're doing everything in their power to maximize their profits, and and you see that intentionality to become wealthy, right, you know. And and and the original point he made that you read was that uh that the that these people are more in earnest about securing their earthly lives here than many Christians are about securing their heavenly life. And that's the I think that's the punchline of the movie. Yeah, I do too. I do too. And it's so interesting to hear you say that, Nathan, and I know this about you because I've known you for so long. Neither of us are particularly financially savvy. I mean, you've been reading a bunch of books on economics. Yeah, but that has nothing to do with me personally being financially savvy. Exactly. And I sometimes am a little almost embarrassed at how unaware I am of things, taxes and details. And like my son will be like, Dad, my son is extremely savvy, very smart, very clever on this stuff, my oldest son. Um, and he's like, Dad, you should be doing it this way. Dad, why aren't you doing this? Dad, you should be and I'm always just like, I how do you even know that? Like, I'm just my brain is not wired in that way. My brain is wired in a different way. I think more about like, I don't know, ideas and scripture and and I'm happy to have money and I want to keep as much of my money as I legally can, but there are people out there that are clever. Yeah. Like shifting things around and you know, getting 0% APR here, and then they shift it. I mean, it's just like, uh I don't know. I just don't have the time for it, and my brain's not wired that way. Same, same, same. You're the same way. Oh, yeah. All right, so back to our chapter here. Um, so then uh she make she does a really cool thing here. Why don't you I'll read the short paragraph and I'll have you read the long one. Okay. Short paragraph says, Christ did not commend the unjust steward, but he made use of a well-known occurrence. In other words, this kind of thing wasn't uncommon, to illustrate the lesson he desired to teach. Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous man. And he said that when you fail, they'll receive you into everlasting homes. Then she does a really, really super cool thing, and you'll want to underline this. Um, remember, we said there are three audiences the sinners and tax collectors, the disciples, and the religious leaders. So she does a really cool thing here. In the next three paragraphs, she sort of talks about how each of these groups would have heard this parable. So the first one, she's gonna tell us how would this parable have landed on the ears of the sinners and tax collectors? So it says the Savior had been censured by the Pharisees for mingling with publicans and sinners. So underline publicans and sinners and put a one by it. That's the first group. Okay? And uh this is quite interesting. Why don't you read that, Aston? All right, I'll keep going. But his interest in them was not lessened, nor did his efforts for them cease. He saw that their employment brought them into temptation. They were surrounded by enticements to evil. The first wrong step was easy, and the descent was rapid, to greater dishonesty and increased crimes. Christ was seeking by every means to win them to higher aims and nobler principles. This purpose he had in mind in the story of the unfaithful steward. There had been among the publicans just such a case as that represented in the parable, and in Christ's description they recognized their own practices. Their attention was arrested, and from the picture of their own dishonest practices, many of them learned a lesson of spiritual truth. This is good. Yeah. It's really good in it's great biblical insight. Yeah, yeah. I love that that second sentence. His interest in them was not lessened, nor did his efforts for them cease when he was censured by the Pharisees. Yeah. Right. So their criticism, their censoring of him did not lessen his interest or his efforts for them. Because he wasn't a people pleaser. Yeah. He didn't care what they thought about him welcoming and mingling with the wrong people. Right. Um, so she makes a really great pastoral point here. She says he saw that their employment brought them into temptation. I mean, tax collectors were well taken care of by Rome precisely because to be a tax collector was to be basically uh traitorous to your people. Right. So you had to significantly uh sweeten the deal because they were hated by everybody except their fellow tax collectors, which is why when Jesus calls, for example, Levi Matthew, Levi Matthew holds a giant, you know, he nobody could believe it. It was scandalous. He holds a giant feast and he invites a bunch of tax collectors because nobody else is coming. And I love here that we just get this little insight that Jesus knew that they were in a pickle, you know, that they were just trying to survive. They were out here hustling, as we would say today. So they take this job as a tax collector, but now they're immediately hated and loathed by their countrymen. And it makes it really easy to be dishonest because if the ri if the if the uh religious people are writing you off, it's just easier to like, well, if you you know, whatever, I'm gonna go all in on this kind of lifestyle. And Jesus knew that they were exposed to these temptations. Yeah, and they also had the power to just say, hey, look, you know, you think your tax is X, and I think it's X plus five. Correct. X plus fifty. So they could defraud people. Correct. And that's what she says. She's like, these things are not in common. So here's what I love. She's basically saying, because each of these parables, we have to hear each of these five parables through the lens of each of the through the ears of each of the three audiences. And here, Jesus' parable is actually kind of a rebuke to them for being dishonest. Right? Like, maybe not specifically dishonest in every case, because maybe they weren't all totally dishonest. Like Zacchaeus was clearly an honest tax collector in Luke 19. He had to have been, because he says, if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore to him 400%. Well, the math doesn't math. If he's taken 100% of his income falsely, and he is going to reinstate or give back 400%, it doesn't work. So in other words, Zacchaeus is saying, I have been honest, which was like a square circle, right? Or a unicorn in the first century, like an honest tax collector. I was just astonishing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so the way that the sinners and tax collectors hear this parable is don't be unfaithful in your stewardship. God sees it, I see it, and you should be people of integrity, even if the temptations are there, which I think happens, you know, in positions of power. Like it's just not easy, whether it's with money or power, or as a police officer or a politician or whatever it might be, as we kind of climb up and we have authority, the opportunities to be dishonest and to lack integrity increase. Yeah, yeah. And to not be found out. I mean, that's it's what John the Baptizer says at the beginning of Luke, right? Like to the soldiers. Don't intimidate people gain. Correct. You're not depending on your translation, but okay. So that's how they hear it. They hear it as a like, hey, straighten up, because God sees and you should be people of integrity. Right. Okay, then the second next paragraph is how kind of the disciples might have heard this. So the parable, however, was spoken directly to the underlying disciples and put a number two by that. The disciples. Here's your second group. To them at first the leaven of truth was imparted, and through them it was to reach others. Much of Christ's teaching, uh, the disciples did not at first understand, and often his lessons seemed to be almost forgotten. But under the influence of the Holy Spirit, these truths were afterward revived with distinctness, and through the disciples they were brought vividly before the new converts who were added to the church. Well, this is clear then what the message is for the disciples. Be faithful in the resources, not olive oil and wheat, but the teaching, the healings, the things that you are seeing and experiencing in your time with Jesus. Be faithful as a steward of the keys of the kingdom. Yeah. The things that you're learning from Messiah, you are his footman. Be faithful. Yeah, yeah. Don't be under Faithful. I love what she says there. Often his lessons seems to seem to be almost forgotten. Yeah, that's interesting. I think this is why reading on the regular is so important. You might not remember everything you read. It's not like it's not like you read this thing and it's like permanently locked and immediately uh recallable, but but then under the influence of the Holy Spirit, these truths were afterward revived with distinctness and through the disciples, they were brought vividly before the new converts who were added to the church. Yeah, I love it. So you gotta put it in for the spirit to take it out. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So so the disciples are hearing a message that's very clear. And remember, let's just remind ourselves, Jesus has in the Gospel of Matthew already given the parable of the tenants where he says, The kingdom of heaven will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits thereof. So Jesus has already been prepping them for the fact that they are going to, they have a small amount now, right? They've been faithful with a little, but soon Jesus is going to ascend to heaven and they're going to be entrusted with much, i.e., the building of the New Testament church. Yeah. I mean, there were there were sort of uh parables or proverbs, I should say proverbs, there were proverbs about, for example, Moses and David, that they were given the capacity to shepherd the people of God because they had faithfully shepherd sheep.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 45:24

So you faithfully shepherd sheep, and then now you graduate to shepherding the people of God. That's effectively what Jesus is saying here about the disciples. Like, look, I'm still here, you still have your training wheels on. Be faithful, because when I resurrect and I go back to heaven, it's gonna be you, it's gonna be the things that you've learned and heard, and it's gonna be the spirit. Right. And you're gonna be doing what I'm doing. In fact, Jesus goes so far as to say, you're gonna do greater works, which is like, what? Right? Okay, so then now in the next paragraph, which begins, and the Savior was speaking, look at this, and the Savior was speaking also to the Pharisees, underline Pharisees, and put a number three. So in each of these three successive paragraphs, we get to see how each of these groups heard this parable. How did the sinners and tax collectors hear it? Well, they heard it as a hey, don't be dishonest. How did the disciples hear it? They heard it as, hey, you should not be dishonest with the resources that have been entrusted to you, not monetary resources, but something far more valuable, the riches of heaven. And then now, how did the Pharisees hear it? And the Savior was speaking. Why don't you read that for us, Nathan? Uh the Pharisees had tried to bring Christ into Oh wait, oh, I'm sorry, I'm I'm a paragraph off. And the Savior was speaking also to the Pharisees. He did not relinquish the hope that they would perceive the force of his words. Many had been deeply convicted, and as they should hear the truth under the dictation of the Holy Spirit, not a few would become believers in Christ. That's an incredible paragraph. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what I love about it. First of all, Jesus has not yet relinquished the hope that many of these people are going to one day perceive the force of his words and come to repentance. Why? Because, write this down love believes all things and hopes all things. Right? And we already know from Acts chapter 6, verse 7, that a great many of the priests become obedient to the faith. So I love this idea here. And notice that in both cases, Nathan, in the previous paragraph and in this paragraph, it's under the influence of the spirit. Yes. Right? So the disciples are somewhat forgetful and not fully grasping the things that Jesus says, but then the spirit makes it clear. The Pharisees and some of the religious leaders are just dismissive, dismissive, disinterested, hostile. But then later after the resurrection, the spirit goes, He was Messiah. And they go, He was Messiah. So both under the influence of the Spirit. In other words, it's not happening right there. And let this be a lesson to us, a pastoral lesson. Sometimes we can have conversations with people and we're like, it didn't go anywhere. They didn't, it didn't register. I tried to talk to them about Jesus. They weren't interested. Yeah, maybe not in the moment. But we have no idea how our words, which are like seeds, fall into the fertile soil of hearts that we don't have access to, but Jesus does. And then all of a sudden, in the nighttime, or under some influence, or they hear a song, or they some emotion comes over them, and the spirit whispers to them, and those seeds that seemingly got nowhere are now starting to sprout up. And we have to have faith. Yeah. I just have to have faith. I like that too, that that he did not relinquish the hope that they would perceive the force of his words. This kind of reminds me of the previous his interest in them was not lessened, nor his efforts uh for them cease. Jesus was so cool. Yeah. Very uh cool and beautiful. I just love it. Radically committed to people. That's a great way to say it. Radically committed to people, no matter where they were in this sort of social strata.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

Senders and tax collectors, no problem. Welcoming them. Uh uh uh the the sort of disciples, he's brought them into the inner circle. You know what's even though they're kind of doofuses sometimes. Yeah. You know what's uh an interesting um experience I had as a Christian when I became a Christian, I just felt like I developed very quickly an ability to like a wider variety of people. Oh, unpack that a little bit. Well, I just uh you know, I I had a very narrow band of kinds of people I liked when I was Didn't she used to say I hate Christians? I did, yeah. Yeah. But I mean it just but but it wasn't just that. I mean, it's just like, you know, it's like I didn't like cowboys, I didn't like, you know, there was like all Christians. There was all kinds of people I didn't like. Kind of a I mean, you were young and stupid, but you thought you weren't stupid, which is everybody that's a teenager thinks. But I it's like almost immediately after becoming a Christian, it's like you can just enjoy people. You can like people totally agree. You have a positive view of other people. And you know, only a very few times in my life has that uh bidden me. Right? Like 99% of the time having a positive view of people works out has resulted in good. And the few occasions where it hasn't, it's been like, well, that's not on me at least. It's on them. And there's nothing I can do about them, and that's that, and just move on. What does the proverb say that he that would have friends must show himself friendly? You're really good at that. Um today we were at the climbing gym, and there was a climb that Nathan and I really wanted to do. It was a green climb that was quite difficult, 512, that we had tried last time, but we were kind of tired. So we were really ready to do this climb, and we didn't want to hop on something else and then have to wait to rest again. So we just sat down and waited for uh three ladies were on this climb. And there was a young lady that was doing it, she was struggling up it, but she finally did get up it. And we watched her, and then when they were done, we waited to see if they were gonna switch up ballet, but they were done with that climb. So we walked over, and then Nathan, you started talking to them, and I warmed over. And uh this was the daughter, the one that was climbing was a 15-year-old daughter named Jane. And then we spent, what, the next 15 minutes at least talking to Tess and Tara. They were the coolest people. Yeah, they were so cool. We talked about everything from climbing to climbing shoes to your injury, to her injury, to recovery, to Mormons. They were all uh ex-Mormons to Mormon theology. We we talked to them that time, and then there was another time we talked to them, and then another time that I talked to them, and they were super cool. Like I mean, they were cool. They each had four kids, they were in their kind of 30s, I think it was like 35 or something, 36. And we just sat there and chatted them up, and it was absolutely delightful. And here's a really great little evangelistic point. I had to be clear, we weren't talking to them like, oh, we've got a witness to them. We're talking to them because they're people. And people, we should be nice to people and kind to people and to express curiosity and interest in their lives. But here's something that's gonna happen. This isn't Nathan's local gym, but it's my local gym. And I go there a lot. And I'm gonna see them again. And I'm gonna remember their names because I'm pretty good at that. I'm gonna say, Hey, Tess, hey, Tara, how are you? And if I see Jane, I'll say, Hey, Jane, how are you doing? How are you doing? Hey, did you get new shoes? And how are things? And we're gonna talk. Now, here's a really important point. In order to have a second, third, or fourth or fifth interaction with people from a pastoral standpoint or a ministry standpoint or a witnessing standpoint, you have to have a first interaction. And we could have just walked up and said, Oh, hey, and just got to our climb and had a nice time, but we spent significant time. And it was cool. They were actually telling us some fascinating things about growing up Mormon and what it was like and how they deconstructed out of Mormonism. And we had a real connection over your injury as well. Yep. So now the next time I see them, that conversation will be so much easier. And then the next time, easier still, and then the next time easier still. And this is an important point in talking to people, show interest, show curiosity, learn to ask questions, show yourself friendly. And like you said, what was you what did you say about Jesus? He was radically committed to people. And we should be the same. Yeah. Radically committed to people. And these two have been burned by bad religion.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

Like totally burned by bad religion. So it's like, well, that's already an open door. Like this wasn't the time or the place because that's probably a third or a fourth conversation. But it's like they've already given you some pretty significant inside information. Like they got burned by bad religion. And but she did say something very interesting just in passing about God. I missed that. Yeah, yeah. It's quite interesting. She talked about when she went to her uncle's funeral. Okay. And she said something about God, and it was not dismissive. She wasn't like, God. It was it was very telling too. I picked up on it. Fascinating. Okay, so Jesus was radically committed to people, and we should learn how to be the same. Um, I'm gonna read the next paragraph. The Pharisees had tried to bring Christ into disrepute by accusing him of mingling with publicans and sinners. Now he turns the rebuke on the accusers. Uh the scene known to have taken place among the publicans, he holds up before the Pharisees is both representing their course of action and as showing the only way in which they can redeem their errors. In other words, here's what she's saying. Just like the man in the parable had defrauded his master, they've defrauded their master, Yahweh. They have not been faithful with the considerable resources that have been put in their trust. And you know, you can almost imagine them snippering at the dishonest and dirty tax collectors, but really they were guilty of far greater crimes by being unfaithful with far greater riches. Yes. Yeah? Okay, then she uh starts to talk a little bit about Israel. Just stop me here at any point. I'm gonna skip over that next paragraph unless you don't want to, Nathan, where she talks about, you know, basically what had been committed to the uh religious leaders was the Abrahamic promise, right? Yep. The Abrahamic promise that the blessings would be for the world, right? And that they were misusing or misapplying the goods that had been lent to them. Um then in the next paragraph begins the servant in the parable. Yeah. Looks like you've got something highlighted there. What do you have there? Uh just a simple line. Instead of gathering for himself, he must impart to others. Yeah. Right. And that's in the context of uh Pharisees and Israel misapplying the goods lent to them by God to use for his glory. Right. They had the gift for his glory, they use it on themselves, and instead of gathering for himself, we must impart to others. Yeah, him that waters will be watered himself, Proverbs 11, 25. And there's an irony here, right? She says at the end of that paragraph, bottom of page 450, 370 of the original, only by seeking the good of others could they benefit themselves. And that's true for all of us. For sure. Right? Only by seeking to benefit others do we ourselves I mean that's the really Yeah, I read a great book by this guy named Peter Diamendez once about the economic book actually. Again, economic book. But he made this simple point. He's like, the next billionaire will be a person who solves a problem for a billion people and it costs a dollar. Yeah. Right. Like, like if you think about it, the way that you bless others is by doing good for them. Right. In the illustration that he used, it's like, yeah, you the way to be a billionaire is to solve a problem for a billion people and charge them a dollar. Could charge them a buck. Yeah. So in the same way, right? Like the point is that all the blessings that come to you don't really do any good unless you're pouring them out on others. And when you pour them out on others helping them, then that actually redounds to you. And we actually had a parable about this already, Luke 12, the parable of the of the rich fool. Yeah. Right? Who's like building these bigger and bigger barns, and he's like, man, I'm gonna have a great life. And then it's like, well, actually, what you didn't know is you're gonna die tonight. Right? And so she's gonna talk here about riches, and I'm so glad you just used the illustration about, you know, the billion, the next billionaire, you know, helps a billion people and it costs a dollar, because we're gonna talk about like rich people. Like, is it okay to have rich people? Is it okay to have billionaires? Yeah. And we were actually having a conversation about that today. It was really fun. So maybe some of that'll come out. Um, I'm happy to uh skip over to the okay. Now we get into now she starts talking about money. Yeah. And this paragraph, uh, where does it begin? Is it all after relating? This is a long, long paragraph. This is huge. Why don't we read half of it? Where do you want to start? Read down into the entire thing. Um, all right. After relating the parable, Christ said, The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. That is, worldly wise men display more wisdom and earnestness in serving themselves than do the professed children of God in their service to him. Uh so it was in Christ's day, so it is now. Look at the life of many who claim to be Christians. The Lord has endowed them with capabilities and power and influence. He has entrusted them with money that they may co be co-workers with him in the great redemption. All his gifts are to be used in blessing humanity, in reviving the suffering and relieving the suffering and the needy. That's a good place to pause.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's really good. So, what do you got there?

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Well, that last lineforward is very, very powerful and convicting. All his gifts are to be used in blessing humanity, in relieving the suffering and the needy. And then, I mean, even if you continue on, uh, we are to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the widow and the fatherless, to minister to the distressed and downtrodden. God never meant that the widespread misery in the world should exist. Right. He never meant that one man should have an abundance of the luxuries of life, while the children of others should cry for bed bread. The means over and above the actual necessities of life are entrusted to man to do good, to bless humanity. She quotes a bunch of Bible verses. Yeah. Okay, so this is part of what we were talking about today. That's exactly what we were talking about. And maybe we can even revisit some of that conversation. So she's now pivoted to talk about money, the use of money, which is not the exact point of the parable. To me, the exact point of the parable is we should be thinking about eternally significant things. It's not, I mean, not that it's not about money, because it ob obviously is, but I think it's primarily like, look, you're going to be given a stewardship of spiritual riches, spiritual blessings, time with me to the disciples. Use that accordingly. But then Ellen White makes the obviously adjacent point, which is, oh yeah, and by the way, we need to be faithful with our money as well. So here's the interesting thing, and I think this is another one of those allergies or those pathologies in modern Christianity. Okay. And that is that Christianity has become spiritual and it's been divorced from the physical world. For many Christians, this I mean, frankly, for me, this is very convicting. I uh uh a Jesus who forgives my sin and gives me a new heart and doesn't require sacrificial generosity is a much more appealing Jesus to my natural human inclination. Yeah. Right. Like like the idea that the means over and above the actual necessities of life are entrusted to man to do good. Right. I mean, that is such a heavy statement. It's beautiful. What's that um why am I blanking on that guy's name? The Methodist um George Whitfield? No, he was the American Methodist. That's his name starts that uh he there's a publishing house. I think his name starts with an A. Why am I blanking on this guy's name? Anyways, the one of the great American Methodist preachers, he died penniless. He was on his way to like a Methodist general conference and was so sick and so weary that he literally was laid out on a table in a room and preached his final sermon like moments before his death, lying on a table in a room full of people. And it's not that he couldn't have had money. He made money, he started colleges, he published books, he had tremendous amount of wealth coming to him through but it just went through him and just met the needs of other people. You don't remember his name? Ah what is the name? It'll come to you looking at something about that. Um so one of the what I want to say about this is that she has a a high percentage of the parables that we have addressed in this book and a significant number of the parables of Jesus are about money. And she has repeatedly made the point that riches in and of themselves are not sinful, but only when riches are gained through dishonesty or oppression or violence or cruelty. And the truth is that people that not everybody, but a high percentage of people that have money are just good with money. Nathan and I were just talking a little bit ago how we're both kind of novices when it comes to money and investment, and I know next to nothing. A lot of people are that way. That's why they hire, like, you know, financial advisors. One of my dearest friends and a good friend of Nathan's, uh Sam Benello, is a financial advisor. And I'll call Sam and be like, hey Sam, I got a question for you. And he's really savvy with this stuff. Now, here's my point. Asbury. Asbury, first name, John. No? Francis. Francis Asbury, yeah. Okay. So so I I think one thing that is important here is, and this is getting to our conversation today, is if you have a person who's very wealthy, and clearly there were wealthy people in the days of Jesus, and I don't see any place in the New Testament or the Old Testament, obviously Abraham is a very wealthy man, where Jesus is like, wealth full stop is is unacceptable. I see it, wealth is a responsibility. Wealth is almost a burden. Oh, it's a terrible burden. It's a burden. Like, dude, you have resources, and you need to use those resources to be a blessing. I was reading it today and getting convicted, and we're a single income family and have been on a basically a pastoral wage for decades. Same with you. You're a single-income family, pastoral wage, and we're under conviction. And I was saying, like, what I have a number of friends who are, you know, significantly wealthy. How do they read this chapter? Well, I'll tell you how they read it. I imagine, I hope so, because they're converted people. They're like, Look, I, with my resources and money, I'm running this business, I'm running this business, I'm running this business, and I got to keep those businesses running because I have people employed, I have families to support. Well, they're doing good in the world. They're doing good in the world because the first thing she says is blessing humanity, right? Yeah. She says here, our gifts are to be used in blessing humanity, and then she says relieving suffering and the needy, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, care for the widow. But there's a high percentage of people that are not uh hungry or naked or widows or orphans, but still need jobs. And in fact, if they didn't have jobs, there'd be a whole lot more and more of them. So so we can sometimes have this uh almost um judgmental expectation of people that have more resources than us. Like, why aren't they doing more? Well, how about this? How about God has entrusted them with the resources that they have? And let's let them figure out how they use the resources under the conviction of the Spirit while studying scripture, being followers of Jesus. I just feel like it's a little rich to use a pun here for those that don't really know a lot about how to manage money to advise those that do. And for Christian people that have significant amounts of money, the ones that I personally know and have known over the years, they tend to be very generous, but also cautious with their money.

unknown 1:05:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

And by cautious, I mean they're being careful, they're making sure they have reserves, that they can support their employers or employees, that they can, and then they're very generous with their what we might call not discretionary income, but with a percentage of their income that doesn't allow them to run the risk of financial ruin. You feel me? 100%. 100%. I really like um I like the statement that was. In yesterday's chapter, essentially it said that we don't ever lower the standard. We don't kind of sort of sand the edges off. And I think that's what Ellen White is doing here. I agree. She's not sanding the edge off. A high. Correct. She's not sanding the edge off these radical things Jesus said, right? Sell what you have, give alms, be ready to distribute, willing to communicate. Yes. When you make a feast, call the poor, the maim, the lame, the blind, loose the bands of wickedness, you know. I mean, she just goes on and on and on. Correct. Quoting the Bible. Correct. Um, she's not sanding the edges off, but your point, I think, is an excellent point, which is what does that mean? Right. Right? Is it is it is it great for a business person to give all their money away so they can't reinvest their capital for other business, create more jobs, and make less people needy? No. So so then how how is that person supposed to think about their wealth? How are they to think about capital reinvestment? How are they to think about the percentage of their wealth that comes to comes back to capital and how much goes to labor? Right? They're to be informed by all of these scripture texts. Right. But but a world where there are fewer poor people because we've done well reinvesting in businesses and created jobs is a better world than a world where you have to give homes. You said all of that so beautifully, and like somebody who has read a lot of economic textbooks or books. There you go. Good for you. Thank you. By the way, I love uh there I want to make a point about 1 Timothy 6 18. Uh yeah. She because she quotes 1 Timothy 6. And it's she quotes the King James uh uh ready to distribute willing to communicate. And the new King James is ready to give, willing to share. Yeah. The word there is an absolute fascinating word. Okay, unpack. And I love the King James. The King James actually does a pretty good job of capturing. What is it, 2 Timothy? Uh 1 Timothy uh six. Uh I think it's 18. I'm gonna I'm gonna just look it up here and I'm gonna read you the Well, this is what you were sharing with me. Exactly. Okay. And uh six Here's Wright's translation. Yeah, well, I think he says share, doesn't he? They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and eager to share. Eager to share. Yeah, eager to share. Okay. So the Greek word is koinonikos. Koinonikos. Right. And you know the word. That's fellowship. Right, right. And and and there's this incredible translation uh written by this guy named David Bentley Hart. Um He's uh Eastern Orthodox scholar. Correct. And I have it up here. Uh read it to you, his translation, and then he's got a little note, and I looked I did a lot of research into this word. Oh, verse 18. To work the good, having their riches in good deeds, readily giving away communalists. Hmm. Now the word That sounds like the New Testament church. It does. The word literally means to imagine that your wealth is actually the community's wealth. Wow. Because it's like from the same Greek, it's like the same root. Yeah, it's it's what is that? But what was the actual word here? Koinikos? Quinonikos. Yeah, okay. So that's cool. Isn't that a powerful thought? That sounds exactly like X2, X4. Like no one regarded anything as they had was their own. They pulled their goods. You know, it's interesting. We think about, like we often when we talk about stewardship, we say, now remember, everything that you have is God's, right? But Paul here is actually saying not just that everything you have is God's, but it's also your neighbors. Wow. It's a pretty well, and you know what I like about that is, and let me just say this when I teach on X2 and Axe 4, and you have the people, you know, sort of putting all their goods together for the good of the larger community, and this is of course what happens like the reverse of that with Ananias and Sapphira in X5, is that the the for me, an important, crucially important distinction here is that this is not being foisted from the outside like what we might call a coercive communism. This is a voluntary communalism. Yeah, you think a very different thing. Thinking about Ananias and Sapphira, their sin was not in keeping a portion of it for themselves. It was lying. It was lying about it was about putting on a face of generosity. Yeah. Yeah. I I just think the point is so crucial that that you you can't, I don't think you can make an argument. In fact, I'm sure you cannot make an argument for like communism from any of this, because that is coercive and it's comp it's under compulsion. What's happening here is that the person themselves feels the impulse to say, you know what, I'm going to bless, I'm going to help, I'm going to share, I'm going to build up, because the spirit is working. It's not something that's done to them externally, because that's tyrannical. Well, and and then it's like, well, how will I do that? Will I do that through a capital investment in my business that allows me to employ more people? I think of a friend of mine. Exactly right. Whenever the economy goes down. Oh, you talked the story. Yeah. Whenever the economy goes down, he's like, wow, man, I I let's do a remodel. Because he's got resource. All right, let's do a remodel. Let's build a garage. Let's let's build a garden. Build a garden. Let's let's see who in our community we can put to work. I hope you're hearing this. So he does this. He's a person of considerable means. And when the economy would take a dip, he would do things in his house because he had he had considerable resources. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. He'd see builders like uh the builders are struggling. They don't have any jobs. Oh, let's let's put an addition on my house. Exactly. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Not because he needed an addition on his house necessarily, but because he could employ local builders. Correct. Yeah. I think I've Which is far better, by the way, than just walking up and saying, here's a bunch of money. Like that actually contributes to that's not that's not ideal. Yeah. Far better to give somebody some work and the builder for work. Then the builder would employ people. The builder then goes and employs people. And didn't you tell me like you put in a garden? Yeah, a gar I mean, I'm I'm I now that we're talking about it, I'm thinking of multiple friends uh throughout the years who have had projects like that. And then you just think about business owners. It's like, well, you know, I could give this money to the church, and maybe that's a good thing. Sure. Or perhaps I reinvest in my business and I employ more people, I do more good in the community, and then I actually increase my wealth, and then you can give more money. And then you can give more. Yeah, this is so good. This is why it's it's tricky. Well, I don't know if it's tricky as much as it's just that we need to allow people the liberty under the impulse of the spirit to make those decisions. And maybe there's a reason, Nathan, that you and I don't have millions of dollars in the bank. You know what's interesting. I wouldn't know what to do with millions of dollars. I would be a mess. I would just ask my son. I'd be like, Landon, I have no idea what to do with this. I need your help. You know, I did some research the yeah at some point not long ago about the the wealth distribution in Nashville. Oh, okay. Because you're in Nashville. My personal income as a single person, like as a single income family. Single income family in Nashville. Okay. My income is just slightly above the median family income.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:42

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:43

So, you know, you go to you go to my neighborhood and I look at every other house, and I think in this house, we have more income than that house, more income than that house, more and less slightly less. You know, we have less than this house and more than that house. But it's literally every other house. I either make a little more or a little less. You're right in the middle. Correct. But but the the point is, I'm a single-income family. Right. And this is household income. Right. So there are so many people in my city who both husband and wife are working and make less than me. Oh, somebody says, Wikipedia says you are worth $2 million, David. Yeah. I've actually had somebody send me this, like David Ashrick's net worth. I had one that was like $5 million. I could do like his net worth. Here's a really funny story. I actually had my son send me a screenshot of one of those and said, hey dad, what what are you keeping from us? What's going on? How come we have to work in the summers to favor our school? I'm like, well, if I'm worth that amount of money, I don't know where I'm keeping it. I would that would be great. So don't believe everything. Like Abraham Lincoln said, not everything on the internet is true. That's hilarious. Um it is making an estimate based on your uh social media influence. Yeah, that's what they do. They have like some formula that's like, give me a break. Um okay, so now let's kind of let's put her along here a little bit. Um we're on page 452. She talks here again about uh not being not being guilty of robbery toward God and of using resources for the relief of suffering and humanity. I think we've covered that ground.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

Um then I'm gonna jump over to page 453. Let me see here. Everyone will be required to render up his entrusted gifts in the final day of judgment men's hoarded wealth will be worthless to them. We've already had that in the parable of the rich fool. We've covered that ground. Um we've already talked about how the only two things we can take to heaven are character and converts. Okay. Um then you have a really good punchline here, middle of page 453, 373 paragraph begins. Those who spend their lives. I see you've got it highlighted, Nathan. What's that? Yeah, is that is that the part you want? Yeah, that's it. Those who spend their lives in laying up worldly treasure show less wisdom, less thought and care for their eternal well-being than did the unjust steward for his earthly support. That's the punchline. Yeah. That's the punchline of the parable. Right in your margin, the point or the punchline right there. That's it. Those who spend their lives in laying up worldly treasure show less wisdom, less thought and care for their eternal well-being than did the unjust steward for his earthly support. And that's the punchline of the parable. The guy was very shrewd, he was very clever, he quickly uh involved and implicated his uh uh man his uh uh master's creditors um or debtors to he he involved them in this, he defrauded them, they defrauded his master, and he did so in such a way that he was then ingratiating himself to them. And again, Jesus is not saying this is great behavior. What he's saying is these guys are working their butt off, they're working their tail off in order to ensure that they don't get kicked out into the street. What are we doing to ensure that we are preparing for an eternally consequential home? What are we as passionate about? It's like Jesus is kind of saying, he's like, look, all of this is largely meaningless and ephemeral, like Ellen Light calls it, phantoms. Look at how hard they're working. And then it's like he's saying to his disciples, you now don't be unfaithful in your stewardship. And then, of course, the parable of the rich man in Lazarus is a story about a man who was profoundly unfaithful in his stewardship. He's like stepping over Lazarus to go to his religious meetings all the while the dogs are licking his sores and he doesn't even give them the crumbs from his table. Right? Like this is all about what do we do with not just the actual monetary resources as we spent time on, um, but what do we do with the talents, all the things we talked about yesterday? Yeah. That one list. Remember the list. What do we do with our from yesterday's chapter and the day before, with our gifts of the spirit, other talents, mental faculties, speech, influence, time, health, strength, money, and kindly impulses and affections. All of that we also are accountable to God to use in a way that builds people up and shows a radical commitment to people, like you said. I mean, I think we kind of got it. Yeah. What else you got? Well, uh, I'm looking way down uh Colossian uh Christ Object Lessons 373, paragraph five, begins while Christ calls upon everyone to consider, make an honest reckoning, put into one scale Jesus. Oh, this is which means eternal life, uh treasure, truth, heaven, and the joy of Christ in souls redeemed. Put into the other every attraction the world can offer. Into one scale put the loss of your own soul and the souls of those whom you might have been instrumental in saving, into the other for yourself and for them, a life that measures with the life of God. Way for time and for eternity. While you are thus engaged, Christ speaks, what will it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? So, so great writing.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:13

And I just love it. She's like, look, take a scale, put this in one side, put this in the other, into one scale, put the loss of your own soul in the souls of those whom you might have been instrumental in saving. Into the other scale, for yourself and for them, a life that measures with the life of God. In other words, an eternal life. Yeah, and and the series, what she's doing is she's saying, Hey, this is real. Yeah. Take it seriously. Correct. There is a heaven to win, there is an eternity to enjoy. Amen. Take it seriously and recognize that it's serious in your life, it's serious in others' lives, and weigh that out. Yeah, that's so well said. That's so well said. And she also talks in the paragraph just before that again about how life is just so passing, you know, like a vapor. Right. So ephemeral, right? A few more years at the longest, and the voice which we cannot refuse will answer to which we cannot refuse to answer will be heard saying, give an account of your stewardship. Remember just yesterday she was talking about how we start living and before you know it, we're dying.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:15

That that line, I'm gonna just read it here. She says, Um, the human family have scarcely begun to live when they begin to die. And and we need to keep that perspective. And at times, in some ways, our life feels long, but then in other ways it's like our life feels so short. It's horribly short. Horribly short. It's tragically short, and it's it's cut short by sin and death.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:37

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:38

So we need to go, wait a minute, God made us to live. I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. So when we're making decisions about consequential things, not just how to spend our money, but whether or not to look at that, to say that, to think that, to pass that gossip on. If we can just remind us, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. In light of eternity, this is a bad choice I'm about to make. Yeah. This is a bad decision in light of eternity because all I'm thinking about right now is this situation, this opportunity, this lust, this gossip, this greed, this widget. Wait a minute, in the big picture, this is actually really stupid. So I'm not gonna that's what she's saying. Yeah. Keep the scales in front of you and just always be thinking about those. Am I dealing with real things or phantoms? Yeah, yeah. We want to be dealing with real things. Yeah, I like that linking it back to that, right? Because she is calling us to reality. To reality. And this world that we live in right now is not really reality as God intended. We are living in uh a farce of the world that God intended. That's what she means when she says things like this, Nathan. When she says things like, God never meant that the widespread misery in the world should exist, she's like, Right, this is not the world as God intended it. This is nothing what we ever supposed to do. It's a it's a uh I'm kinda there's a word I'm looking for here, but it is a a faint reflection, I'll say, of the world that God intended. So when we're tempted into sin or into foolishness or into selfishness or into greed or lust or gossip or unkindness, we should go. Wait a minute. In the big picture, this is a really stupid decision

Rubric

SPEAKER_01 1:22:24

I'm about ready to make, and therefore I'm gonna make a better decision.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:27

You want to do the rubric? Sure, why not? You ready? Yeah, I mean kind of. Oh yeah. Oh, by the way, yeah, you were a really good influence on me. How is that? I tried in my rubric to I I I just wanted to try it. I wanted to go as few of words as as few as few of words as possible. Okay. So I went for like brevity. So you said you I it's a challenge. It's actually kind of fun to do that. I mean, that's the whole idea behind the word. Right, right. The whole idea behind the word is like one word that captures the chapter. And I've said to people before, if you read this chapter two or three or four years from now, you might have a different word that jumps out to you. Right, because you're a different person. But the punchline of the parable, which I think we've got here, everybody, is we should be thinking soberly and joyfully and realistically about the things that matter most. Say no to the phantoms, say no to Satan's spells that try to persuade us that this world is all that there is, all absorbing, as she says, all-encompassing, and let's stay focused on the things that matter most. And so uh here we go. The point, Nathan, what is the point? All right, most identity. Almost identical, and we did not compare. I got this in two words. Prioritize eternity. Mine is make provision for eternity. Dude, we got the same point. So two words. Prioritize eternity. Number two, the person, what do you got there? Jesus is worth it. Worth it. Yep. That's good. He's worth it. What shall a pro what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Here's where I put Jesus breaks Satan's spell. I like that. I like that. Jesus alone can break Satan's spell. Um the prayer. How do we pray this prayer? I have a simple one. Let's hear it. Make me a just steward. Oh, that's good. Make me a just steward. You know what I did? I did the I played off of the um the spell, and and I went here. My prayer was, give me eyes to see. I want to see the phantoms as phantoms, and I want to see reality as reality, and I don't want to mistake phantoms for reality or reality for phantoms. Good. And it reminded me of this. Remember this story in 2 Kings 6? Y'all remember this story with Elisha? 2 Kings 6. I'll start reading in verse 14. Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God, Elisha, arose early. This is the man who got us Elisha, he went out and he saw there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Oh no, my master, what shall we do? I love this lot of great stories. Elisha answered him, Ah, do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, verse 17 of 2 Kings 6, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. That's my prayer. Lord, open my eyes so that I can see eternal things for what they are. Eternal things, and phantoms and ephemeral things for what they are. Phantoms passing vapor, deception, satanic spells, nut. All right. Uh Nathan, what do you got in how do we practice this? I just put be generous. Yeah, good. Be generous. Love it. Be generous. Be more generous. Because you're a very generous person. Uh be generous. I've got here steward wisely. And then if you want to throw a little more flesh and bone on that, steward biblical wisdom and wealth wisely. That was the message to the disciples. The message to the publicans and sinners was be honest. The message to the disciples was be good stewards. And the message to the Pharisees was really in the next parable, which is stop stepping over rich people on the way to your religious meetings. Because there's going to be a reversal of fortune that you are not expecting. Okay. Then finally, promise. Promise. What was your promise? Heaven is real. Ooh, I like that. Eternity is real. I like it. Yeah, my promise was actually on page 454, and we didn't read it. So I'm going to quickly read it here. This is on page 373. There's a paragraph that says, make friends for yourselves by the mammoth of unrighteousness. I want to go down a little about halfway through that. It says, um, give yourself to God for this work. Use his gifts for this purpose. As you enter into partnership with heavenly beings, angels, your heart will throb in sympathy with theirs. You will be assimilated to them in character. To these dwellers in the eternal tabernacles, you will not be a stranger. When earthly things have passed away, the watchers at heaven's gate will say welcome. And the means used to bless others will bring returns. Riches rightly employed will accomplish great good. I love the idea that we might not be recognized in this world as famous or important or consequential or influencers, but she's saying the angels will recognize you. With their ministering heart.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:02

Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:03

Okay, everybody. What was your word? Out to chat. Says that was my promise. What was your word? I love that paragraph, says Randall Family. So good. Yeah, I want the angels to recognize me. I love my word. I think probably some other people will have my word. Matt Morgan says, yes. Stone Doctor, New York City says, Amen. KB Photog says reality. That's a great word. That's a great word, KB Photog. Goods, says Lolly12608. Generosity says Marlies. Embezzled, Deb Snyder. I saw that. Way. Very good. Brent Lane says returns. The means used to bless others will bring returns. Love it. Accountability. Kendra says reality. Tanya says scale. Tanya, we have the same word. The same word, scale, entrusted. Cassandra says imperishable. Debbie says weighed. Pac says eternalized. Oh, eternalize is cool. Eternal says David Sun. One, one, one, one. Better, provision, appropriation. Appropriation. Spellbreaker, Marlene. That's hot. Investment in heaven. Aware. Invest. Oh, Reinhardt Alice. We've got the same word scale, but I'm going to show you something about that word that you might not have thought of. It's even better than you think. Eternity, way, future, steward. Pam Carbaugh says investment. God has invested in us, and we need to invest in people that will return the investment back to God. Beautiful. Beautiful. Wits Messi says title. Out to chat. Misapplied. AKA Shaggy 99 says rightly. Oh, that's good. Very good. We didn't really talk about tithe and offering, which we could have. Genie6870 says trust. Oh, I like as in building a trust. Very cool. Just reordering. Dashy Dash 707 says, David, that was my word. Scale was your word. I'm going to show you something extremely cool about scale. It's an even better word. The three or four of you that have had it, it's even better than you know. And I'm going to share it with you in a second. Yeah, depository, be a depository of the sacred gifts God has given you by depositing them in places of heavenly investment, Jocelyn. Love it. Savvy says Marie. I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or clever. Savvy. Woo! I like it. Anil Conda. Brother, Anil Conda's on here. There you go. Man, I love you so much, Anil. I'm going to call you. We got stuff to talk about. Um, perspective, he says. Dude, nailed it. Susanna63 says, secure to be secure. Randall Family 4 says scale is a great word. Can't wait to hear what he's going to say. Yeah, you're going to love it. So good. Uh, any other words here? Give us a few more minutes. And then Nathan, I want you to say something about tithes. Prepare. Your word is prepare. Yeah. There's an incredible line in here where Find it. Well, I just shouted a few more words here. Jennifer says, a meal. Jennifer, your word is a meal? What are the chances? Store, store up for yourself treasure in heaven, says Victoria. Break life imperishable. Ruth Brown, that's good. Okay, you got a line here? Yeah. So here's here's a fascinating thing. She has this section where she says, Men are guilty of robbery toward God. Right. Their selfish means, uh uh their selfish use of means robs the Lord of the glory that should be reflected back to him. Right. And then she quotes Malachi 3, uh, five, eight, and nine. You know, she and and and I never understood this about this. This is the section on tithe. Yeah, but it says, I will come near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hirelings, wages, the widow, the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right. From his right. Now that word right is absolutely critical there. Um and then will a man rob God? This is the You have right. This is the famous tithe tithe passage. So here's the interesting thing. In the book of Deuteronomy, every third listen to this, listen to this. This is very important. Every third year there was a special tithe taken. And there's some debate. Was it was it an additional tithe, or was it that in the third year the tithe went to this. Correct. But in the book of Deuteronomy, it specifically says that there is this special tithe in the third year that is particularly for the widows, the orphans, the stranger, the alien, and for the Levites. Um, and so it's like there's this the right of the widow, the right of the orphan, yeah, the right of the alien to receive the generosity of God's people in that special third-year tithe. Um Excellent. And that's what's being that's exactly what Malachi is talking about. Correct. So when Malachi's like, you robbed God, you're not returning your tithe, it's not just saying that You didn't give money to the local church offering. Correct. It's saying you neglected your obligation to the needy around you. And this is really what James drives at when he says in James 1.27, is it pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the widow and the orphan in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:39

But the prioritization of widows, which we see in Acts 6, by the way. Yeah. The massive prioritization of widows, of orphans, and of others, because again, there was no social safety net. If the church wasn't taking care of them, if the if the if the Israelites weren't taking care of their own, nobody was taking care of them. Yeah. So it was an obligation. Okay, check this out, you guys. Let me tell you why the word scale is an even better word than you think. Because remember in Acts chapter 9, after Saul meets the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, and then his he's struck blind there for a bit. And then after his blindness is taken away, it says that there were like scales that fell from his eyes. And then when we get to Laodicea, we're told about the eye salve, right? Wash your eyes with eye salve. So this is kind of cool. She opens the chapter by talking about how we need to see reality is reality and not phantoms is reality, and reality is phantoms. In other words, we need to get rid of the spell. We need to see things as they are. So the word scale works so well because number one, she talks about put in one scale this and put in the other scale this, the loss of your life or a life that measures with God. And then we can have the scales, like Saul, fall from our eyes as the spell of Satan ceases to have its power over us. And so I like the word scale or scales because it's not just the scales that weigh the decisions that we're making, but Father, help the scales of this world and of the phantoms of this world and of the spell that the prince of this world has cast on this world to fall from my eyes. I want to see reality is reality and phantoms is phantoms. So my word was scales. That's fun. Isn't that cool? I love it. You're like the gospel of John with um be born again and be born from above. Yeah, exactly. Hey, we love you all. Uh Nathan, thanks for coming. It's been a joy. Love you so much. Absolutely. And you've been so faithful in coming to most of these. And you pastor a church. When you invite me. So I like you. Yeah. Well, you invite me, I'll come. I'm a fan. And by the way, Nathan climbed extremely well today, even better than last time. Yeah. I mean, I would even say we crushed today. Yeah, no, we climbed well. And Nathan's only 120 days after his was it injury or surgery? Injury. 120 days after injury. And you're uh you're really recovering well, dude. Thank you. I'm proud of you. Yeah. It's it's amazing. It's I feel blessed. Super blessed. And you said that you've learned, you know, these lessons to slow down and be a, as you said, a quieter person in a good way. Which is really great because you used to be so loud and obnoxious. Dad, that's true. That is not. I was only kidding. That's not at all true. Welcome everybody. We love you so much. We will see you tomorrow. Remember, only three nights left. Chapter 27, chapter 28, chapter 29, and we are out of guests. The guests are all done. So you're gonna have to talk about unless something happens that I'm not expecting or planning on, um, the next three nights, it's just the three of us, and we're gonna wrap up. What is is today Wednesday? Today's Wednesday. So Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That's it. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And uh you're preaching on Sabbath, man. That'll be a big day for you. Oh, yeah, I've got a huge day tomorrow. I've got to write a sermon, prepare the slides, send a bunch of emails, try to respond to the weeks worth of comments that I'm way behind on. It's gonna be hundreds of comments. I've kind of ruined your life, I guess. Yeah, in a good way. You've ruined my life in a good way. Uh, but we'll put Nathan on a plane tomorrow. I've got a huge day. Prayers appreciated. Um, and for you too, Nathan, and for Nathan's ongoing uh healing, and let's close with prayer right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:20

Father in heaven, I just thank you so much for my brother in Christ, Nathan, who has been a dear friend since the two of us were just crazy teenagers running around the hills, acting like crazy people and skateboarding all around. And Lord, what a blessing to have uh not just friends on earth, but eternal friends. You to be our friend and our confidant and the one in whom we put our ultimate trust. And Father, the angels, we look forward to that promise that's in this chapter that our hearts can throb in unison with the angelic heart. And one day we're gonna meet those angels. Somehow we're gonna recognize them, and they already know us. So, Father, I pray for the people that are tuning in. We are down toward the end of the journey, but we've still got three amazing parables left. So, Father, be with Nathan as he travels back, give him uh ongoing healing and recovery, pour out your spirit upon him and his church and the work that he's doing there at the very busy, multifaceted campus in uh at Madison. Uh, be with our work here, Lord, and especially as we wrap this up, as I preach this Sabbath, and as we get ready to go to Australia to teach yet another class of almost 43 or 44 young people, can't wait. And Lord, I pray for everybody that's tuned in here with DA. We pray for all of those that tuned in. I saw Jennifer, I saw Matt, I saw Neil, I saw Reiner and Alice, I saw Sarah, I saw Brent, so many. You know them all. I saw Tanya and Deb. Pour out your spirit upon every person that's tuned in. I saw Cassandra, Dashy-707, 303 Syzygy, all of them, Father. Put your spirit upon them, and may we be the stewards that you've called us to be, and may we put in one scale eternal life, and in the other scale, this ephemeral life, and may we choose rightly and wisely. And this is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.