16:1 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.2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’6 He said, ‘A hundred measures1 of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures2 of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world3 are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth,4 so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The Law and the Kingdom of God
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.5
Footnotes
[1]16:6About 875 gallons or 3,200 liters [2]16:7Between 1,000 and 1,200 bushels or 37,000 to 45,000 liters [3]16:8Greek age [4]16:9Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions; also verse 11; rendered money in verse 13 [5]16:16Or everyone is forcefully urged into it
16:1 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.2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’6 He said, ‘A hundred measures1 of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures2 of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world3 are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth,4 so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
The Law and the Kingdom of God
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.5
Footnotes
[1]16:6About 875 gallons or 3,200 liters [2]16:7Between 1,000 and 1,200 bushels or 37,000 to 45,000 liters [3]16:8Greek age [4]16:9Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions; also verse 11; rendered money in verse 13 [5]16:16Or everyone is forcefully urged into it
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:
Tonight's scripture reading is from Luke 16 1 through 13. He also said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. And the manager said to himself, what shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?
Speaker 1:
I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So summoning his master's debtors 1 by 1, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? He said, a 100 measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50.
Speaker 1:
Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? He said, a 100 measures of wheat. He said to him, take your bill and write 80. The master commended the dishonest 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.
Speaker 1:
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. 1 who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
Speaker 1:
No servant can serve 2 masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would remove scales from our eyes. The the blinders that are on our hearts that keep us from understanding your word. Lord, I I think just as a fish doesn't know it's in water, we don't know the sins that so easily affect us and are a part of our lives lives.
Joel Brooks:
We don't know the greed, the pride, the bitterness, unless you show us. So spirit of god, come. Proclaim your word with clarity and power. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:
We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. When Lauren and I got married in 1996, we were broke. And by broke, I mean we were broke broke. We found a very shady apartment here in Birmingham.
Joel Brooks:
We had moved here that summer so I could start seminary in the fall. And, our apartment at one point, we we found a gun holster mounted underneath the counter facing the front door. All of our furniture was borrowed. Wicker furniture is what we had. And we just struggled making ends meet.
Joel Brooks:
And, I was doing everything I could to try to find a job, but I could not find a job. I was going to temp agencies. I was filing away files at law firms. I was mowing lawns. I found a guy called The Lawn Ranger.
Joel Brooks:
And, I asked if I could be his tanto. And, and he said yes. And so he hired me, and I worked for him for 3 weeks, and he never paid me. And, and so finally it came to a point, Lauren and I, we were newlyweds and I had to leave. I said, I've got to go back to Atlanta and find work.
Joel Brooks:
And so I moved back to Atlanta while Lauren stayed here after being married for just 3 or 4 weeks, because I knew I could find work around the Olympics. And sure enough, I found one job being somebody's gopher. And then at night I worked for stadium stuff and, there were 24 employees at Stadium Stuff. There was the manager, there was me, and there were 22 other guys, I will just say, that were absolute just bums. They were total bums and they were pathetic workers.
Joel Brooks:
And on the second day of the job, my boss fired all 22 of them and he promoted me to manager. And so I had never worked retail in my life. I this is the first time I ever walked into a stadium stuff. And now on the second day, I am manager. And, and, the boss, he said, all right.
Joel Brooks:
But after he fired the 22 guys, he said, y'all could work out to you could work the end of your shift. Okay. Because, you can finish out the next 2 hours remaining because he needed to make a bunch of phone calls to find new employees. And so now I'm the manager of 22 people who were just fired. The next 2 hours did not go well at all.
Joel Brooks:
They the workers cleaned out stadium stuff. Their friends were coming in and they were giving them 90% discounts as they would just take stuff out or they would just pack stuff in the bags and, you know, it would just it would just leave. And so we lost almost all of our inventory, basically stolen. So it didn't go well at all. And I remember just thinking, Oh gosh, I'm going to quit tomorrow.
Joel Brooks:
I'm going to quit tomorrow. Now imagine me telling you this story and at the end of it, saying, alright. Those employees who just kinda stole everything and those final hours they have had, Go and do likewise. Learn from that. Go and do the same.
Joel Brooks:
That's essentially what you have in this parable. Something very, very similar here is going on here. One of the things that I don't get in this parable is that Jesus told other parables, like the sower and the seeds. Pretty easy parable to understand. And he finishes telling that and even explains every part and the disciples go, Jesus, will you please explain to me this parable?
Joel Brooks:
And I always kinda roll my eyes because I'm like, everybody knows the meaning of that parable. But here, not a disciple speaks up and it actually makes me kind of angry because this is his most difficult parable he ever says and they don't ask him, what do you mean by this? My theory is that they, they didn't even know where to begin to ask. It makes me feel better. This story here is one of the reasons I love expository preaching.
Joel Brooks:
I love it. Preaching topically is easier. If you preach topically, you could just kind of do the greatest hits from the Bible, you know, for a few years. You come to a passage like this, and I just skip over it. But preaching through Luke, you've got to study every text and, and I believe every word is the word of God.
Joel Brooks:
And so you come to this and you have to slow down and you have to work through it. Even parables are difficult to understand. Jesus, he tells this story that's got a bunch of shady characters in it. Actually, they're all shady. You you've got the manager or the steward.
Joel Brooks:
He goes behind his boss's back and rips them off. No other way around it. He just rips off his boss. The debtors are shady because they know what he's doing and they go through with it anyway. And then you have the the manager or the boss.
Joel Brooks:
He's actually pretty shady because he's like, you outdid me. All right. And he praises a guy for it. And then Jesus says, learn from this. Let's begin unpacking it.
Joel Brooks:
First off, you need to see who is Jesus talking to because the previous parable, the parable of the prodigal sons or the prodigal son and then the, the elder brother there, he's talking to the Pharisees and the scribes. But here his focus shifts and he's talking to his disciples. So he's talking to those who are following him. And he says a rich man has a manager that's in charge of all of his possessions. This rich man has been found out to be cheating him.
Joel Brooks:
We don't know what exactly he's been doing, probably embezzling some funds, probably covering it up in the books. But anyway, the boss finds out about it and he takes the charge to the manager who doesn't even defend himself, knows he's guilty. And so the rich man fires him, tells him, clean out your desk, get all your things in order, and give me a report, and then you're gone. You know, I've known people who were fired, and when they were fired, basically their their boss says, takes them to their desk and says, clean out your desk now. Hand me your computer now.
Joel Brooks:
Hand me your keys now, and then in front of everybody, ushers them out. Just totally humiliating. That's not what happens here. The, the boss, he couldn't do this because he needed to get an account of everything. He had placed everything in the steward's life.
Joel Brooks:
It's like if something had happened to Lauren who keeps all of our financial records, she knows all the passwords. She knows where all the money is. I'm clueless when it comes to all of that. If she were to go away, I'd be in so much trouble. It would take time for her to tell me all those things.
Joel Brooks:
And so, he's saying you're fired, but first you got to get me all of those records. Big mistake. It's like having 22 stadium stuff employees knowing they only have 2 hours to rip you off. And so he immediately begins scheming. He's stunned.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't know what to do. He says he's too weak to do manual labor, too weak to dig. I kind of picture this, you know, guy grew up playing virtual games, you know, his whole life on his PC and, you know, never known any manual labor. And just the thought of of digging ditches or something. So I can't do that.
Joel Brooks:
In my neighborhood, he would just have to drink coffee and hold a shovel. But, he's singing, I can't do that and, and I'm too proud to beg. I can't beg. What in the world can I do? And so he comes up with this ingenious plan.
Joel Brooks:
He he he calls up one of the people who owes his boss money and says, how much do you owe? And the guy says, I owe a 100 measures of oil. That's oil from 150 olive trees. It's about 3 years wages worth, and he says, alright. Cut that amount in half.
Joel Brooks:
You could kind of picture them like looking both ways and make sure nobody's watching. And he's like, Hey, see that bill? Cut it in half. Here you go. And then he gets another person up and says, how much do you owe?
Joel Brooks:
And says, well, I owe a 100 measures of wheat. A measure of wheat is a acre of wheat. So this is a 100 acres of wheat. It's about 8 to 10 years salary. And so he knocks off 20%, and that would come out to about 80 or a $100,000 of a discount.
Joel Brooks:
And he likely went on and he did this person after person, after person all the way down. He's thinking, I've got mouths to feed. I'm going to need shelter. And so my plan is I'm going to just knock off these debts and then I could go to these people later and knock on their door and say, Hey, remember me? I took care of you.
Joel Brooks:
Now it's your turn to take care of me. Possibly he was even worse than that. Possibly he's thinking blackmail because you know, these people are now doing some really shady dealings and so he could go to them and knock on the door and say, Hey, remember when, you know, I kind of gave you that special rate there and you knowingly took it. How would you like that to become public? Take me in.
Joel Brooks:
Either way, this was cunning. It was shrewd. And when word comes back to the rich man, his boss, this smile comes across his face. You kind of picture them going, alright, you got me. You got well, well done.
Joel Brooks:
You got me. You outsmarted me. And he praises him. Not because what do you think? What he did was great.
Joel Brooks:
He just knows that he was out foxed. And he and he and he admired this person's ingenuity. Jesus says, alright, let's learn from this. Let's read verses 8 9 again. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
Joel Brooks:
For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Now this is where people make this parable too complicated. It's really about one main point. It's teaching us that we need to be shrewd, cunning with our possessions.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus, he's not saying the point is go out and be dishonest, rip off your employers, and just get what you can. That's that's not the point. That's why he calls him a dish honest servant. That, that's not the point from it, but he does say, you know what? You can learn something from him.
Joel Brooks:
He's shrewd. And you see this manager, he knew that his last day was coming. It was fixed. He knew it. He had it marked on his calendar.
Joel Brooks:
His boss had told him, once he worked to them, you are fired. And so he probably has just a few days left. And at that point, there's gonna be no more job. There's gonna be no more money. His his end is clearly marked.
Joel Brooks:
And knowing that that day is approaching, he's gonna do whatever it takes to make sure he has provided for after that day. And so he works very hard preparing for that end. And Jesus is saying, this is exactly what you need to be doing As Christians, you know that your end is coming. Every man knows that there is a end there. You don't know when.
Joel Brooks:
You don't know when it's coming, but you know it is coming. Make preparations for that day, so that your life afterwards will be better because money will fail. Your wealth will be gone. Jesus is asking us to look around and notice all these the ingenious ways that people use their money or they pursue money. People make savvy business deals.
Joel Brooks:
You know, people go and they play golf with their boss and they let him or her win. People work very long hours. They make investments. They're always thinking, how can I how can I make more? And And Jesus praises that shrewdness.
Joel Brooks:
He says, the focus is wrong, but he praises her shrewdness, that mentality. He says, we need to work like that to make friends where it matters. You need to plot and you need to scheme to make friends that will welcome you in heaven. There there's an old rabbinical saying that goes like this, the rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come. And if you remember, Jesus said that if we feed the poor, if we take care of the least of these, we're actually doing this to him.
Joel Brooks:
We're making friends with him, and he will welcome us after that day. So I think a question that we all have got to ask when we're reading through this is, have you ever sat down, prayed, and began plotting, began scheming, began coming up with ingenious ways that you can use your resources for the kingdom of God. And that's what Jesus is asking you to do. He's saying, look at all your resources. Look at your education.
Joel Brooks:
Look at your car. Look at your home. Look at your intellect. Look at your influence. Look at your friends.
Joel Brooks:
Look at your money. Look at all of your possessions. Scheme. Be shrewd. Think through these things, how you can use them to prepare for that day.
Joel Brooks:
Some of you might have a lot of these things. Some of you might have less. It doesn't matter. You take what God has given you and you've got to start planning. For those of you who have a home, you need to start thinking and praying.
Joel Brooks:
God, how can I use my home for your kingdom? What can I do? Can I, can I invite neighbors over for dinner? Do I have an extra bed that I can give to someone? Some of you are a home group leaders and you're already using your home and that you're inviting every single week people over to your home for them to use.
Joel Brooks:
You know, our our little girl goes to the Klings home for school every single day in her basement using her home as a, as a great tool for the kingdom. This church here was actually started in our home through, through something we decided to do. Advent gatherings. We just made up an advent gathering. We thought people would want to gather around an advent season, come to our home, And we actually had a good group come, and it started birthing the idea of, maybe we could do a church in this neighborhood.
Joel Brooks:
But you got to plan and you got to think, think of where you live, who is around you, who's in your sphere of influence. Begin plotting, begin scheming. Think of your education. Half of you, I'd say at least half of you are in jobs that your education did not prepare you for. You know, you worked so hard, you paid so much money, you got this college degree and then you get a job that has nothing to do with your college degree.
Joel Brooks:
You know, philosophy majors out there. Anybody? Any businesses hiring philosophy majors, sociology majors. I was a speech communication major, but we actually never learned speech. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:
Art majors. Exactly. Art history. You know, what are you going to do? You're in banking, you know?
Joel Brooks:
And so you, you've, you've got this education and you're thinking, but now I don't. I can never use it. Plot. Scheme, be shrewd. It's a tool God has given you.
Joel Brooks:
Lay it before him. Do you have a card? Dedicate your card to the Lord. Ask, how can I use this resource for you? A few years ago in San Francisco, I love this story.
Joel Brooks:
It's a, a guy named Dave Eggers and Neneve Caligari. They wanted to open a tutoring center in a really bad area in San Francisco. And so they went to schools and schools wouldn't let them meet there. They went to churches and some churches let them meet there for a little bit. And they were meeting in a church basement for awhile.
Joel Brooks:
Finally, they got kicked out of a church basement. And so they had no place where they could start this tutoring center. Well, they they found on one of the streets there on Valencia Street, they found a storefront that was for sale. However, it was zoned by the city for either retail or for catering, in which tutoring falls into neither of those. And so they began plotting.
Joel Brooks:
They be became very shrewd, and they opened a pirate supply store. A pirate supply store. It was their legitimate business. It was their front that they could use for actually being a tutoring center, and they called it 826 Valencia. And it was an instant hit.
Joel Brooks:
This pirate store became a hit. They sell eye patches. They sell spy glasses, skull flags, all your pirate attire. And they're right. And as a result of that, they have now had over 1400 volunteers come serving the community.
Joel Brooks:
They have had thousands of kids who have come to be tutored, who have had sat training, who have worked on their resume skills, worked on their English and their math and all of this free because it is funded by pirate attire. That's shrewd. That's, that's not taking no for an answer, but looking and say, what do we have? This is what we got. How can we use this for the kingdom?
Joel Brooks:
Let's think about it. Let's pray about it and let's go for it. They're actually thinking, for those of you interested in putting something similar in Woodlawn down the street called DISCO, stands for Desert Island Supply Company. So anything you need in a desert island, you can go and get that, and, it will also be a tutoring center, we hope. But, we need to stop.
Joel Brooks:
We need to think. We need to pray about what God has given you. Look at verse 10. 1 who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much.
Joel Brooks:
If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another's, he will give you that which is your own. A steward has been given the task of taking care of another person's possessions. Think of it this way. If you're not giving to God, it's not that you're not giving, it's actually you're stealing because it's his possessions that you are a steward of.
Joel Brooks:
The very little that's talked about here, the very not been faithful and very little, that's your stuff. All of your stuff is the very little. And Jesus is selling telling us that how we use our stuff will determine if he entrust us with anything greater. So if you're not good stewards of the stuff that God has put in your life, why in the world would he give you something greater later? Why when he returns, would you sit there and think, okay, where is my reward?
Joel Brooks:
He's like, well, I gave you some stuff and you abused it. It was my stuff. And for those of you who who think, you know what? I just, I don't have enough stuff now. I don't have enough money to really give.
Joel Brooks:
I don't have enough time to really give, but one day I will. Jesus says, uh-uh. Uh-uh. Having more or less doesn't, all it does is reveal your character. Just reveals your character.
Joel Brooks:
You'll give when you're poor and you'll give when you're rich, But don't think all of a sudden when you become rich, you become a giving person. You know that those who earn $20,000 or less in America are twice as charitable as those who make more than a 100,000. Those who earn $20,000 or or less are twice as charitable as those who make a100000 or more. And the poll that I read that talked about what was the main reason why those who made a 100,000 or more were not more giving, the most common answer was they didn't have enough. It's a trap.
Joel Brooks:
Look at verse 13. No servant can serve 2 masters. For either either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. I don't know about you, but man, studying Luke, you just kinda feel like wave after wave after wave is about money.
Joel Brooks:
I knew this going into Luke, but I had no idea. And this is probably Jesus's most direct statement yet. He tells us that money is a master. It is a master that wants you to serve it. And the word for money here, some of your translations might say mammon.
Joel Brooks:
It's really for all of your stuff, all of your possessions. You have to realize that your possessions, they want to get you as much as you want to get them. They want to be your master. They want to enslave you. When the center of your conversation has always been, Hey, can I show you what I got?
Joel Brooks:
Or is, what did you get? Or after Christmas, what did you get after your birthday? What did you get? And it's so centered around possessions. It might mean that it's got a hold on you, that this is something that is enslaving you and that you're blind to it.
Joel Brooks:
Is money what you think about when you have a quiet moment? Is it what you sacrifice your time, sacrifice your family, sacrifice your health to get? Is it your heart's desire? It wants to enslave you. And so Jesus says, and as blunt as a way possible says you cannot serve both God and money.
Joel Brooks:
You cannot do it because there will be times when God will want you to do the exact opposite of pursuing money. There's gonna be times when god wants you to give away some of your possessions. There's gonna be times when god wants you to pursue a lesser paying job. There's gonna be times that God might want you to move into a neighborhood that needs you instead of one with a gate around it. And you're going to have to choose at that point who you're going to serve.
Joel Brooks:
You cannot serve both and you can't dabble in both either. I'm just going to do a little bit here and a little bit there. They're masters. They won't take dabbling. That they'll only take allegiance.
Joel Brooks:
And so you have to choose. Now I don't believe it all that God despises riches. I don't believe that at all. Don't, don't walk away thinking that. God is the one who gives us wealth.
Joel Brooks:
He gives it to us. What he despises is when we misuse the possessions he has put in our care. Did you know that you currently live in the wealthiest nation that has ever existed, that the average American living in the 21st century works less for food and for shelter than the average person from any other country at any other point in history. We live in absolute luxury. I don't think about this.
Joel Brooks:
My my life is luxurious. You know, I I wake up in a bed and a nice home. I go to a shower and I turn a knob and I've got hot, steamy water immediately comes. I go to my closet. I get to choose what I want to wear.
Joel Brooks:
And so I pick something. Then I go downstairs and, And then I can go and decide which car do I want to drive to work. Do I want to take my truck or do I want to take my wife's Volvo wagon? And I can go to work. And if I need a break from work, I can walk just one block away, pay a few bucks, have a nice latte, enjoy it.
Joel Brooks:
For a dollar, I could get a double cheeseburger. Do you realize that in America for a dollar, a double cheeseburger? I mean, it's unbelievable. If I want to, I can get a small device. I can flip it open, punch in a few numbers, and I could talk to friends of mine who live across the ocean.
Joel Brooks:
I've got a luxury of information. If I wanted to, I could open up my computer. I could type in world's largest pumpkin. Boom. There it is.
Joel Brooks:
World's largest pumpkin instantly. Right there. I mean, if you think about it, back in history, kings and queens would envy the life that I have. That if I'm hot, I could turn a dial and all of a sudden cool air comes. If I'm cold, I could just bump it up.
Joel Brooks:
I'm warm. That I don't have to send boats across an ocean to communicate a message. I could just boop. There it is. Kings and queens would be envious of what I have.
Joel Brooks:
And yet, I can say that I absolutely need these things that people like Caesar Augustus couldn't even dream of. All of a sudden I have to have it. I have to have things that over 6,000,000,000 people in the world don't have, but I have to have. And it's a trap. These things aren't bad.
Joel Brooks:
We just need to open up our our hands and our eyes to say, how do we use your possessions, Lord? What Jesus is doing is is saying open up to the myriad of possibilities that you can use your wealth for. For. You live in a unique time in history. You you have this opportunity that the church has never had with its wealth ever.
Joel Brooks:
We can substantially advance the kingdom of God if we are generous. This is a gift. This is a privilege. We were placed on this earth at this unique time in this moment, the wealthiest nation that has ever existed. What we have to do is ask God to put different price tags on things for us.
Joel Brooks:
So we don't think, you know, really nice car and we're thinking, well, that's really X, you know, $30,000 $40,000 or homes and wow, that's very luxurious. We got to put new price tags, which we see. Wow. Giving a homeless man a meal, priceless tutoring a kid that is more beautiful than diamonds. Giving away money to those who are in need, giving away our money to, to fund missionaries overseas.
Joel Brooks:
Wow. That is beauty. That is a value. So we gotta seize this opportunity while we have it. We gotta make friends that will be on the other side.
Joel Brooks:
Don't waste the opportunity that you've been given in this life. Take time this week. Quiet yourself. Prayerfully plot and scheme and be shrewd about what God has given you. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:
Lord, I'll pray exactly what I prayed earlier. There are scales in our eyes, blinders on our hearts. The reason you say that you talk about money and possessions over and over and over and over in Luke because he want us to listen. We don't even know it's in the very fabric of our life. It consumes us.
Joel Brooks:
We don't even know we're serving it. And it's a cruel master, but You offer us joy. I believe You've put it in our hearts, every one of us, the desire to be part of something so much bigger and greater than ourselves. We can do that. We can be part of the advancing of your kingdom.
Joel Brooks:
You've given us the seeds through our possessions, our money to make great headway. We're in position at a time, time such as this better position than any other time that has ever existed. To be generous. May we seize that. God, stir that in our hearts.