Serve One Master

thou shalt not lie

, and the command,

thou shalt not steal.

The main focus here, provocatively, is shrewdness, making right judgments. What we see here, a manager finds himself in a very difficult situation that he put himself in. What we see here, he comes to a healthy self-awareness. I can't do this labor. I'm not going to beg. I'm going to use the means at my disposal for the best outcome. For to define what shrewdness means, it's very much tied to stewardship. It's the wise use of our means for the desired end. The wise use of our means for the desired end. Question for us as we think about what's being commended here, what are we using? How are we using what we have? How are we using what we have? It's not what do you have? How much do you have? It's not even how did you get it? It's how are we using it? How are we making most use of the means? Now, this manager's a rascal, he's deceitful, he's dishonest. But he's also plotting and planning with shrewdness. Jesus makes this startling conclusion that brings about the continued teaching. The manager is commended for his shrewdness. Then Jesus continues, and this is where he begins to explain this parable further. For the sons of this world, I'm continuing in verse 8,

for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

We have a basic contrast. Let's try to figure out what this means. We've got sons of this world and sons of light. Well, who are these two different groups? of his children of obedience, those who believe in God and trust God and desire to obey God, and those who do not believe in God and do not obey God. Someone who's dishonest and is intentionally dishonest, but they're being shrewd, and those who are claiming we know who God is and we want to be obedient. Jesus is making a startling claim. The sons of this world, they are more shrewd than those who are sons of light. If we look at the sons of this world, they're living only within the realm of this world, within the time of this world. We can see here what we really call secular. He's using what is at his disposal to get the best life he can possibly have right now without ramifications or out concern about what heaven or eternity looks like. This is secular. We use that word often to describe irreligious or against God or without God, but really it just means temporal. Only thinking of here and now. People who are secular typically say silly things like, don't be so earthly minded that you're no earthly good. For an atheist, it's really a quite simple, clear life. How can I squeeze the most out of these days to make the most out of this life? The manager is fantastically secular. It doesn't matter morals. What can I do right now to make sure I am planning and plotting ahead for what is going to be my best life, future life? Let's just appreciate how simple and clear it is if you do not believe in God and do not believe in heaven. If you love music, you simply live a life where you leverage everything you have to enjoy music as much as you can. If you love sports, you simply leverage all that you have to enjoy sports as much as you can. If you love fashion, you're going to leverage everything you have to enjoy the appeal and the attraction as much as you can. If you love money, you're going to leverage everything you have to gain as much riches as you possibly can. If you love food, you're going to leverage everything you have to enjoy the taste as much as you can. Does it make sense? It's pretty simple. To be shrewd means you've set out what is the most obvious goal and you're using everything at your disposal to get it. If you believe this world is all there is, it's pretty easy to be shrewd. What can I use? How can I use what's at my disposal to enjoy what I've decided is most enjoyable? It's difficult for disciples because we believe in heaven. It's difficult for disciples because we believe there's an eternity. It's difficult for disciples because we realize that this world is not all there is. And we have to fight against the temporal delights that are so tempting. They're so tasty. They're so enjoyable. And realize they're not all there is. There's more. We have to deny ourselves to follow Jesus. When he says this generation, I believe he's speaking of this time with these people, the sons of disobedience, they're able to be more shrewd because it's a lot more simple, it's a lot more straightforward, it's a lot more clear. They're more shrewd. They're making decisions to maximize the use of their means. Challenge for the sons of light. What is it that makes us less shrewd? Is it because we're confused and inconsistent? Is it because we do have a difficult time recognizing what is meant to be enjoyed here and what is meant to be enjoyed in heaven? Is it difficult to wrestle through what it means to store up treasures here versus store up treasures in heaven? It is, isn't it? How are we using all that we have as a means to maximize what God has called us to enjoy in life? Have we ordered our loves is another way of asking this question. We have resources. The number one resource that Luke is gonna continue to talk about and the main focus here is money. This is a significant resource in the text. How is my spending being used for what I know is the ultimate maximal life? How is my spending reflecting what I actually confess to be the chief end of man? to enjoy God and glorify him forever. How's my energy? What am I committed to? What is my intention out? What am I intentional about? What am I devoted to? Time. This is really one of the more helpful resources. We all have varying levels of finances, but we all have this limit of time. What are we willing to commit our time to? How do we distribute it? To be shrewd means we're wise stewards. To be shrewd means we're looking at our means and we're looking at what we have declared to be our ultimate end and how are we using those means to truly promote and enjoy the ultimate end. A few promises that we can gain from this text. Every moment and every dollar matters to God. That's a promise. He has given us these things and he's concerned about it. Every moment and every dollar matters to God. Every transaction can matter for the glory of God. The question is, where are our hearts? Are we shrewd to maximize our gain? He continues with the teaching of shrewdness in verse nine.

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.

Make friends with unrighteous wealth to secure eternal dwellings. Okay, describing it as unrighteous wealth doesn't mean it's dirty money, it's sinful money. It's this worldly money. All right, unrighteous wealth is going to be contrasted with true riches of heaven. His charge here is to make friends. Let's go back to Luke 15. The younger son, he made friends, didn't he? And he made friends with his wealth, didn't he? No, he didn't. He got some accomplices in sin. He spent all of his father's inheritance given to him pursuing sin. And there were people who wanted to go along with him, but they weren't real friends because they didn't stick around, did they? There's a way in which we can spend and have people who stick around, but Jesus is here saying, make friends. He's not teaching or condoning making friends by gaining some kind of ungodly entourage. Make friends with the means you have. Notice here also there's a significant assumption after the purpose, when it fails. Unrighteous wealth will fail. It's not if, it's when. There's a significant clarity here. It's not if it will run out, it's when it will run out. The worldly means will run out. What are we doing with the worldly means? What are we doing with the unrighteous wealth? What does it mean to make friends? What kind of friends does it make? I wanna be clear. most prominent historical teaching from the church is that this is referring to feeding the poor, making friends with those who cannot pay you back. That also matches and makes sense, giving everything Lucas taught, given wealth, and the turning over of shame and honor, a concern for the poor. We could make friends with our wealth, like the young man and we'll end up alone in a pig farm and hungry. Jesus also warns us, don't make friends when we have a great feast, only inviting those who can pay us back. The idea here means we're going to make friends by giving to those that God is calling us to give to. Here the reward is to receive them so that in eternity they would receive us. Now, Text leaves me with a lot of questions, more questions than I have clarity. But in a clear way, how are we investing? How selfish are we in our investing? How selfish are we in what we're giving? And is it with an eternal mindset? Sons of light are called to be shrewd. Christian, Jesus says to

be wise as serpents.

This means we're to be thoughtful, plotting, planning. It's important, if we go back to verse one, who is he talking to? He's speaking to disciples. He's speaking to us who have confessed Jesus, who have said we're going to believe that you have died on the cross for our sins, you've risen again. Now as you speak, we're going to repent when you correct us. We're going to follow when you command us. The focus here is how we relate to money and God. Christian, are we shrewd? Are we gospel shrewd? Does our spending decisions reflect a hope in eternity? Do our scheduling habits demonstrate a devotion to God? Do we deny ourselves to prioritize what God has clearly prohibited? Do we make God the Lord of our purse? He expects more of us as disciples. He expects faithfulness. Let's look at our next section here, verses 10 and 11. The key word moves from being shrewd to being faithful, and these two things go hand in hand. Shrewd is making decisions for how you'll best use your means. Faithfulness is how you will best be obedient to what God has said. Notice he makes another contrast.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much. One who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much.

If you're faithful and little, you'll be faithful and much. If you're not faithful and little, you'll not be faithful and much. Little what? Much what? Let's just stay with money. My hypothesis is that everyone thinks in one of two ways. We either think we have too little money or we think we have a lot of money. There's very few people who say, wow, I've got just the right amount of money. If that's you, I'd love to meet you afterwards and find out how you got there. We typically think, well, I've got too little, I can't afford it. I wanna be generous, but I don't have enough. Or maybe you're someone who says, I have so much, but I've earned it, I've gained it, and not yet, maybe. Are we faithful with little? If God has given us a little, let's just be honest, we all have a little bit of time here. We all have some responsibility over what God has given us. Are we wasteful? Do we spend generously on entertainment or to enjoy God? I highly encourage us all to read what seems to be an outdated book, but it is so true, even more true today than it was when it was written, Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death. Are we faithful? As some none that is not faithful and little, they cannot be faithful with more. In the practice of business, I assume failing upward isn't something that happens. I understand that happens in politics, but I doubt that happens in business that often. It doesn't happen in the kingdom. We do not fail forward. What might we think is little? Are we dependent on God and are we dependable? Let's look at verse 11 as he continues.

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

Notice the contrast. Unrighteous wealth, which is the finances, the currency we use here in this world. If we're not faithful with the unrighteous wealth, the currency of this world, would he entrust us with true riches, the heavenly riches, the heavenly rewards? Do we truly believe God and his promise that we can store up treasures in heaven? Do we believe that so much that it affects the way we're going to spend the unrighteous wealth, the current currency we use here and now? If we're not going to be faithful in little, that is the earthly inheritance, would he entrust us with the true riches? Let's go on to verse 12. Notice again a significant question.

And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

This seems to be backwards, doesn't it? We typically are going to say, if you're not going to take care of your own stuff, who would let you borrow their stuff? As I wrestle with what this means, we're all stewards here. Nothing belongs to us on our own. It's God's. I wonder if what this passage is getting at is, if we're not faithful here and now of what is another's that is God's, will He not give us what is our own? Is there a sense in which the heavenly true riches are ours, still to use for the glory of God, but there's a different kind of ownership? It's very clear. They call it a faithfulness. The call to recognize that we're receiving all that God's given us. The call to recognize we're called to steward it. We're called to be shrewd with it. We're called to be wise with it. Christian, are we living according to what Christ has called us? I'll be very clear. If you're not a Christian this morning, this is a difficult text. This is an unusual text, but there's something very clear about it. Everyone here should recognize we have not related to the stuff of this world, the resources of this world in a way that truly honors or give thanks to God. That's what actually makes us Christians is we recognize we haven't done what God has said. What would make you a Christian is first realizing I have received from God and I've not honored him or I've not given him thanks. The first step to being a Christian is actually realizing that these teachings of Jesus are a mirror that helps us see how far we have fallen away from the goodness of God and how much we have disobeyed him. And we could ride there, we could remain there. But God shows there's sin so that he can call us out of it. God shows us the sins of our lives, the behaviors that are disobedient to him, the behaviors that are destructive towards others. He shows us our sin so that he can invite us to confess that sin. If you're not a Christian, the call here isn't to figure out how you can make better practices. The call here isn't to figure out how you can merely wash yourself up. The call isn't to say, all right, I'm going to go get my checkbook and try to figure out how I can make it reflect the glory of God more today. There's no amount of proper budget management that's going to save you. It's only the precious blood of Christ that can forgive you. There's a currency that God uses, it's his grace. It is nothing we can earn, it's nothing we can change to make God save us, to make God love us. He loves us while we're sinners. He loves us while we're using everything he gives us and abuse it. Oh, it's the precious blood of Christ. He died while we were this bad. For us. If you're not a believer this morning, please don't walk away with understanding, yes, we've all failed. The reason God calls us to faithfulness is that we confess that failure, we've asked forgiveness for that failure, and now we wanna be faithful. If you do not know that God, that Savior, please do not leave without talking to someone about Jesus and how he forgives us. If you're a believer, there's a grand high call to faithfulness. We do not obey in order to be saved, we obey because we've been saved. There's a sense in which as we know God more, as the generous giver, As we looked last week to the father who received and ran out to his son and generously gave to him. And as he goes out to the older brother who's judgmental and goes out and tries to correct him, give him a generous invitation to come home and rejoice. Do we see how generous God is? Do we truly have hearts that are turned to honor him and be grateful? Do we long to receive everything he has and use it as a means for the purposes of Christ? There's three ways I want us to consider being faithful, and these are three out of many. We should be giving all for the purpose of Christ. We should be giving of our means to the purpose of Christ. We can look at some commands in scripture. I'm gonna reference the one and other commandments. If you're a believer and you've never read the one and other commandments, we've got them all listed out. It takes about four pages. When we have come to Christ, he then calls us to live with one another, and pray with one another, and worship with one another, and sing with one another, and sing to one another, and pray for one another. It's pretty overwhelming when you look at the whole list. Because it's not merely a checking off the box kind of list, it's truly realizing all that we have is of God's, and it's been purchased by Christ, and it's meant to be giving ourselves over to others. It's impossible to be a Christian in some kind of individualistic or isolated life. But it means to be faithful. Yeah, Jesus died for me. Jesus forgave me. Jesus rose to give me new life. And I must believe in Jesus, but the new commandment of Jesus is

love one another as I have loved you.

As we receive, we give. This is a significant calling of Christians. It's a high calling. How shrewd are we? How faithful are we in recognizing all that he's given us? In recognizing the only way to truly rejoice and enjoy it is by using it for his ultimate goal and his purpose with one another. In order to recognize we need to give towards the means of the purpose of Christ, we need to be present with other Christians. There's no way to actually fulfill the one another's unless you're truly present. There's a way in which we recognize in the scripture there's, Christians should expect you. We shouldn't be looking to just do random acts of kindness. We should be committed to some group of Christians where we're regularly so focused in loving them that we see the opportunities. What I've loved about the last few members meetings Opportunities to give towards missions were represented and they were met within that very meeting. Praise God. That doesn't happen unless you're present. Present to share and present to give. Third, Christian, you should be depended on by other Christians. You should be depended upon. Paul tells in Ephesians 4 that when every member of the body. Does its work, the whole body grows up together. The health of the church, yeah, we prioritize and we make clear the songs we sing, the proclamation here, it's Lord willing, gospel-centered and God-honoring and from his word. But it's the one another's that take place. It's the true measure, I think, of a healthy church. Not just that you receive something that's good, but that you would then practice The whole point of what we're doing here in the gathered services, Sunday morning, Wednesday night, members meeting, is to set the pace for how you're gonna be doing the one another's after the service, during the week. Instead of gossip, we have gratitude expressed. We want to make sure we're encouraging one another instead of insisting on opinions. I wanna make sure we're more concerned about the health of the believer next to us, rather than being concerned about the state of our culture, our politics. Believer, we should be growing up to be more dependent upon. Are we faithful to him who has called us, he who is generous? Faithfulness means we are seeking to desire to use all that God has given to us. The final section, the final characteristic. Devoted. Devotion. Verse 13. We've gone from Jesus using a parable and a provocative parable. We can get confused if we're too focused on that dishonesty part. He's committed for his shrewdness. He's using what he has at his disposal for what is meant to be the understanding ideal end. Are we shrewd? Jesus then makes it clear there's a faithfulness in the shrewdness. Now we see there's a service, a devotion. Verse 13.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

This is the final conclusion of Jesus' instruction for his disciples. You cannot serve two masters. The first thing that we probably need to understand that's pretty provocative here is that you have a master? Were we all aware that we actually had a master? Much less you can't have two? Jesus is assuming something here. I think we gotta kind of walk back a little bit and make sure we get what he's really saying. Everybody has a master. Was that obvious to you before you came in? Jesus says you can have two masters. What probably is shocking is that we all think we have any master. The Bible describes us very differently than the way we think in our own culture. We're taught that our hearts are meant to be our master, that the way we feel should be the way we recognize our master, that we're the master of our own destiny, that we serve no one but ourselves. Well, the Bible describes us very differently. God tells us that we are all servants. God tells us he created us to be servants. God tells us that he designed us so that we would be servants. Therefore we are by definition serving someone or something. Everybody is serving someone or something. We like to pretend that we're in control, and I really think that's why we like what we call idolatry. Because when we love things of this earth, say money, we get to pretend we're still in control, don't we? No, Jesus says when you choose sin, you are choosing it to be your master. If we go all the way back to the garden, when it was good, we were placed there to serve, to work, and to keep. We were put there with a special privilege, a position to know God and to know his will and to serve him in his garden. And what was the lie? You don't need to keep that one boundary of not eating of that one tree. What was the promise? Oh, your eyes will be opened. That's what makes the temptation so interesting. That's kind of true, wasn't it? When Adam and Eve sinned against God, Their eyes were open. The problem was they just didn't see what they liked. They were ashamed. We since then have pretended we're gods. We've since then thought that we can see things the way we wanna see them and be masters, but what God tells us is he designed us to be servants. He designed us to serve and to worship. The problem we have is that because of sin, we worship and serve anything and everything but God. We're natural born idolaters. Believer, who do you worship? How do you worship? There's a real helpful way to determining your devotion, your spending of finances and time. And numbers don't lie. How are we spending our money and our time? Money is a measure of what we truly worship and serve. Jesus is not teaching us not just that we are serving. He's telling us something else. You can't have two masters. You cannot pretend to have an affection towards this world and this stuff and this money and an affection and a love for God. We pretend that we categorize this. Like Sunday morning, I'll love God. Monday morning, love whatever else there might be. No, no, there's, there's no, there's no, there's no moving around of categories. We either love God or devoted to him. We love him or devoted to other things. This is where the self-deception of the heart and the mind are so dangerous and so deadly. Because of sin, we're tempted to love what God has given us more than him. We're tempted to love God, or we're tempted to love what God gives us more than we love him. Let's back up. Is God demanding too much of us? Do we believe scripture that God is a good giver? Do we believe that he is the generous, wise giver? Let's just think back here for a moment. This is Father's Day. We should think about parenting a little bit. What parent gives a child a gift to be a replacement for themselves? Have you ever seen this happen? Have you ever done it? Have you received it? A parent who would give a pet or a big gift to try to win the affection of their child, but instead of winning the affection, what happens is the child is meant to love the gift more than the giver. It's dangerous. What parent would say, I want to give you a gift so that you would love that thing more than me? That's twisted parenting if you're giving gifts to try to appease an affection for the child rather than giving them yourself. Oh, God is a generous, generous giver. And he gives us good things that are enjoyable. But he does not give us good gifts to enjoy more than him. That's where sin is best seen. We tend to take the gifts and enjoy them without God. Going back to the very nature of sin, we don't honor Him or give Him thanks. Oh, Christian, God gives us Himself. The Father has given us Himself in promise. The Father has given us His Son that He walked here among us, with us, and gave His life for us. The Father has given us the Spirit dwell us. God has fully come down so that we can know him and enjoy him. And that we can see how he's given us so many other gifts to be used to also enjoy him. It's significant here. We cannot continue to treat things that are not God like God. Jesus is saying, Don't treat money as if it's truly your God. Do not be devoted to money like it's God. He gives us a very significant, important two words. Stop it. It's much better than that, actually. Turn your eyes away from that which is fleeting and will ultimately be disappointing and turn to him who is most enjoyable, most glorious, most good. It's an invitation. The gifts are good. The things of this world are good because God created these things. He just did not create them to be an end in themselves. As we conclude this teaching. Okay, regarding the economy today, that's what we opened. Word from Luke a little later, do not be anxious. settle your heart, do not be anxious. Regarding the economy any day, God is always giving us the clear way to make the best investment, and that is by using all that he gives us to enjoy him, to know him, and to make him known. The dollar will continue to go up and down in its value, but the heavenly rewards do not. God does not change in his value. God does not change in his devotion or his commitment. The beauty of today, Jesus is saying you cannot serve God in money. It's impossible. You cannot live this double life that we pretend to do. Oh no, the wise man will say, Christ is right. The beauty of it all, he asked us to know him. A further reading for you today. Go to James 1. Jesus tells us in James 1 that God is a generous giver of wisdom, shrewdness. He tells us that if we ask for wisdom, he'll give it to us generously. He'll give us wisdom so that we would know how to have a single-hearted affection and love for him. But here's the catch, you cannot pray for wisdom with double-mindedness. If you ask for God for wisdom, But your intent is to say, I'm still gonna try to figure out how to love money and God, or whatever this is and God. He's not gonna give you the wisdom you're asking for, because you're not gonna use it. The call this morning, do we want the wisdom from God to know how to live the single-minded way of Christ with gospel shrewdness, gospel faithfulness, and devotion to the one God who saved us? Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, that you give us so many good things. Lord, we can thank you for the transportation we've already had today. Lord, we thank you for the way you've designed the covenant of marriage. We thank you for the gifts of fatherhood and motherhood. We thank you for children. We thank you for the comfort we have in air conditioning right now. We thank you for words that we can read them, write them, sing them. We thank you, Lord, for your promise that even while we rebelled against you, you promised to redeem us. We thank you, Lord, for your son, that he came to pay the penalty for our sin, that he rose again to give us new life, that he's given us these instructions We thank you for the invitation to seek you, to know you, to pray for wisdom. Lord, purify our hearts, our desires, our motivations. Purify us so that we might ask for wisdom. That we might ask for it with a true fear of you, Lord. A true reverence and a desire to know you. and understand how to best live this life and enjoy it according to your will so that we might be obedient. Father, we thank you that you've invited us with these clear words of instruction to live shrewdly, to live faithfully, to be wholly devoted to you. We pray we would commit these things and you would bless with your grace our obedience. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us stand and sing our song of response, Take My Life.