Thursday, October 6, 2011
What Jesus Said about Your Money, Part 15 of 31
TEXT: "So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home" (Luke 16:8-9).
IDEA: Jesus commends the shrewd man and woman who use their position and their possessions to make friends.
PURPOSE: To get listeners to be shrewd about their handling of life.
Someone has said, “Show me the man you honor. I can tell by that symptom better than any other what you are yourself, for you show me what your ideals in manhood are and the kind of man you long inexpressibly to be.”
What do you think of that quote?
Jesus picks out a man for special mention who might surprise us as an example for His disciples. He admires him for being shrewd. We see this in Luke 16:1-8:
“There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So 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?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the Sons of light.”
I. Jesus tells His disciples that it is not enough to be good. It is not enough to be dedicated. We must also be shrewd.
What is in the shrewdness of this man that we may admire?
He faced the facts about himself and his situation. He may have been a liar to others, but he didn’t lie to himself. When he discovered that he had lost his position, he faced his desperate situation frankly.
II. What were the facts he faced honestly?
We need to be as shrewd as he in similar situations. Look at how his situation compares with ours:
He had control of wealth for a short time. While he could use it, none of it belonged to him. It all belonged to his master.
We have wealth to control that we will not keep. The possessions of this world slip from one set of clinging fingers to another; ultimately it belongs to God.
All that he had would be taken away from him.
What we possess today, we will not possess tomorrow. Clothes wear out. Inflation eats our money. Death makes us leave it all behind.
He had to prepare for the future. He could not avoid that.
That is also our problem. Like the rich fool, he prepared for his immediate future. The rich fool wasn’t a fool because he prepared for retirement, but because he didn’t prepare for anything else.
We face an eternal future.
He provided for the future by using the money that he couldn’t keep to make a few good friendships that would benefit him when his money was gone.
This is what Jesus urges us to do:
Luke 16:9 - “Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal habitations.”
