Friday, October 28, 2011

What Jesus Said about Your Money, Part 31 of 31

TEXT: "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own?" (Luke 16:10-12)

IDEA: Because we cannot keep money, we ought to exchange it for what we can keep.

PURPOSE: To get listeners to act on the reality that since we can't keep money, we ought to exchange it for what we can keep.

Have you ever been embarrassed about being a minister or a teacher of the Scriptures?

People are convinced that you get great fun out of spoiling their fun.

They simply don't believe that the Bible or Jesus or you have it right. So we spend our lives trying to prove what others won't believe.

Most people don't buy why Jesus said about money. In Luke 16:10-12 Jesus gives one of His many teachings about money. Yet we have to believe it ourselves and prove it to others.

Money is a "little thing" (Luke 16:10). In what way? Money is "unrighteous." (Luke 16:11)

Jesus then declares that money is "another's" (Luke 16:12). What do you think He means by "another's" in this context of the unjust steward?

Money belongs to God. He gives it to us, and He can take it away.

I. That is difficult for working men and women to believe. They have worked for 50 hours to make it. They can't help but feel that "every stinking dollar" belongs to them--they have earned it. If God wants to give them money, then let Him send an angel - or have a dove deliver it to the mailbox. That would clearly be God's. But the check they hold in their hands is their own.

II. How do you convince Christians - or yourself - that all that we have really belongs to God?

If you were on trial for being a follower of Jesus, would there be enough evidence in your checkbook records to convict you?