This morning, I invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16, as we read the first 15 verses, our text being the parable that we find in verses 1 through 13. This chapter has two parables, and this morning we consider the parable of the shrewd manager, as it's called, and then next week, the Lord willing, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Luke chapter 16, beginning at verse 1, as we hear now the Word of God. This is the Word of God. Jesus told His disciples, There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions, so he called him in and asked him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer. The manager said to himself, What shall I do now? my master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each of his master's debtors. He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 800 gallons of olive oil, he replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 400. Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? A thousand bushels of wheat, he replied. He told him, take your bill and make it 800. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and money. The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, what an example, huh? Really quite hard to understand. The whole parable, in a sense, is hard to understand. We read that and we think, what in the world is our Lord trying to teach us there? And especially when we consider the first part of verse 8, the Master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. Now, boys and girls, this guy lied. He cheated. He stole. Yet He is commended. He is placed before God's people as an example to follow. An example of how to live in this life with a view to the future life. Not with regard to lying and cheating and stealing, understand, but with regard to His attitude and His aggressiveness and His forethought. Now, we know that as our Lord taught the parables, He meant in them, He taught kingdom lessons about the kingdom of God. And here Christ teaches to seek first the kingdom. To seek first the kingdom and to do so with single-minded purpose. To do so with proper stewardship. And also to do so with one allegiance. First of all, to seek first the kingdom with single-minded purpose. This manager, we must understand there's a picture here before us and that picture, broadly speaking, is that this manager is a picture of man in comparison to God. But again, he is an unlikely example. Now we remember, I trust, the nature of a manager or also called a steward back in those days. The manager or steward was the right-hand man of the boss, of the master, of the employer. His position was a position of importance end of power. You recall, of course, Joseph in Potiphar's house. Potiphar placed Joseph over everything in his house and did not concern himself with anything that was under Joseph's care. Only Potiphar was greater than Joseph and Potiphar only kept back one thing from Joseph and we know that was Mrs. Potiphar. But a manager, a steward, was responsible over all the business dealings of the Master, and when he conducted business, it was as if the Master himself was doing that business. Yet with regard to a manager or a steward back in those days, he never owned a thing. He didn't have anything to himself. He had one calling, and that was to work on behalf of and for the best interest and the best possible advantage of his Master. And therefore, we get a little clearer picture here. We have a picture now of man as steward in the house of God, that house called creation. God is the Lord and Master over all things that He has made. He owns everything. As Psalm 50 says, every animal of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills, It all belongs to Him. And even man himself belongs to God. Even man depends on God for the very air that we breathe. He provides it all. Yet in His house of creation, God has placed man as a steward, as a manager, to care for and to tend to the things of God's house, His possessions. And man has the obligation at all times to use everything entrusted by God, to Him by God, to use it for God's care and for His glory. Well, this manager in the parable, we see very clearly, he misused his position. He squandered the rich man's possessions. He spent that which was not really his on what was not needful, what was not beneficial. He spent it on personal gain. He's guilty. There's no doubt about that here. In fact, the manager himself does not deny the charges. Now, we're not told exactly what he did, but we do know that he had a total disregard for his master and he wasted the master's goods as if they were his own. So again, the picture becomes a little more clear to us now. We see a picture of the world in opposition to God. A picture of the world living and enjoying this earth and God's possessions with no thought to or no idea of God the Giver. But sadly, that picture also includes us at times. It includes believers. When we use God's gifts, this very life for selfish purposes, not out of love. Forgetting the true owner of all things. You see, beloved, it's not our life to do with whatever we want. Sometimes, young people get in arguments with their parents. I did. And sooner or later, the young person can't help but to shout out, well, it's my life. Why can't I do with it what I want? Any of you ever said that? But you know what, young people? It's not your life to do with whatever you want. It belongs to God. The same as your talents and your resources and your time. Well, this manager found himself in a difficult position. He was going to lose his job. that was going to put him in a terrible financial disastrous position. It's obvious that while he was wasting, or enjoying, in his case, enjoying the goods of his master, he was not preparing for the future. He wasn't depositing any money in any Swiss bank accounts for a rainy day because the rainy day was here. And he had nothing. In verse 3, the manager said to himself, what shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. He considers his options. Well, manual labor? Uh-uh. Out. Physically, he couldn't do it. His hands were soft. Begging? No way. He was too proud for that. This man was a true picture of laziness and pride. Then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it's as if the light bulb went on. He had a bright idea. in verse 4. He says, I know what I'll do. I've got it. He figured out how he would take care of himself. He needed friends for his coming time of need. And his plan is that he would take advantage of the master of the rich man one last time before the customers would find out that he was unemployed, that he no longer represented the master. He would use his position to make the debtors of his master his own personal debtors in a different way so that when the time came he could live off of them they would owe him a favor i'll scratch your back now and you can scratch my back later and no doubt he was successful he cuts these debts significantly some say that the portion that he cut probably was was an exorbitant rate of interest which they really weren't supposed to charge. And therefore, he cut the interest off of that. But no doubt, he made friends. Who wouldn't become his friend? And we find the master's reaction once again at the beginning of verse 8. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. Now, we can understand how this reaction causes so many difficulty as they read this parable. Boys and girls, to commend one means to recommend as worthy of notice, to praise them. Sometimes parents and even teachers do that with you, and they shouldn't necessarily. They might say, why can't you be more like? Why can't you be more like your brother? Why can't you do this like your sister? And they place before you another student or a brother or sister and recommend them to you as worthy of notice. And that's what's happening here. This manager is being placed before us as worthy of notice. But what did he do? He feathered his nest at the expense of the rich man. You see, he saw his future. He didn't like what he saw, so he set his mind to changing it for his benefit while he still had the opportunity. And the master, in essence, calls him a clever crook. That's what he calls him here. A clever crook. and we might say well what in the world is so commendable about that we need to understand beloved that the master does not commend his crookedness or his unrighteousness our lord does not recommend that conduct for us because that violates at the very least the eighth commandment you shall not steal he reduced the amounts he abused his possession his position he stole from the master but jesus makes it clear that the master commends this manager for his shrewdness he's praised because he saw a hopeless situation and through cleverness he did something about it for a better result he's not being commended for for how he went about it you see but but but for the but but for the fact that he had cleverness and he did something about it for a better result, and he was successful. Nothing was going to stand in his way. As one commentator rightly says, I believe, he had a foresight, a cleverness, a devotion, a single-mindedness of purpose, which if correctly used, we do well to imitate. If correctly used, beloved, we do well to imitate that single-mindedness as we think about the faith and as we look to eternity. This manager had a goal. Indeed, it was only for the temporary things of this life, but he set his mind to it. And he provided for his temporary future. And the point is that the world has that single-mindedness of purpose. The men of the world, the wicked people of the world have that single-mindedness of purpose for themselves. for their own needs, for their own comforts. And they set out to provide for themselves and nothing is going to get in their way. It's that single-minded purpose, that attitude that is commended to believers as Jesus makes clear in a charge that He gives against believers. The second part of verse 8 says, For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. Now, as hard as it may be to accept, what is happening here is the people of the light are being charged, you and I are being charged, with criminal indifference for not focusing on the finish line at the end of the race of faith with that single-minded purpose. For not storing up treasures in heaven with at least as much earnestness or devotion as the people of this world do in seeking to satisfy their goals in this life. For not giving the Lord wholehearted praise as we have promised we would. Jesus is teaching here that ungodly, worldly men are often more industrious and more skillful in conducting the affairs of this fading life than children of God are anxious for and desire and look forward to the heavenly eternal life or desire to promote the kingdom of our Creator and Redeemer. Beloved, we know this to be true. We know this to be true. Many of us have worked with people who have had that goal to climb the corporate ladder or to accumulate all kinds of goods of this earth and nothing is going to stand in their way. They have that single-mindedness of purpose to accomplish those goals. and when we compare that to us and our walk of faith we don't nearly have that single-minded focus for our God and His kingdom even the men of the world they come together as we know we think of the abortion rights and the gay rights activists and those who have worked so hard to remove prayer from public schools and environmentalists and so many others they all spend money and time and energy to get their way. And they don't stop until they get it. We think of wicked queen Jezebel. She had a single-minded purpose to get Naboth's vineyard no matter what. Nothing was going to stop her. Or how about the Apostle Paul before he was converted? He had that single-minded purpose to exterminate, to terrorize Christians. Or in our own history, kamikaze pilots or suicide bombers or even Olympic athletes. I'm not putting them all in the same category, you see. But the point is, they all are pictures of a single-minded purpose and a devotion to their causes. And in this way, beloved, the people of the world put the people of light to shame with their drive and their foresight and their desire. But we have been given the greatest blessing of all. As by the grace of God, we have been brought out of darkness and into His marvelous light, the light of God, the light of His truth of Jesus Christ and His saving love. We have been given the eye of faith to see the true goal for which we must strive. You see, beloved, our salvation is secure. We are to have no doubt about that. But that does not mean that we take it for granted. that in this life we simply sit back and do nothing and have no thought toward the kingdom of God, that we simply let go and let God, as we sang in reverence and in godly fear, man finds the gate to wisdom's ways. We have been given the responsibility to live in such a way, beloved, that we would fight for and defend and promote the kingdom of God. He is to be the desire of our hearts. As Isaiah says in Isaiah 26, verse 9, my soul yearns for you in the night. In the morning, my spirit longs for you. When we have that desire and that yearning and that longing for God. Indeed, we can't just sit back in this life and not have any regard to eternity and to all that God has given to us. But we will fight for and defend and promote the kingdom of God. But the believer's failure is that so often And so often, as our Lord makes clear here, the world is better served by its servants than God is by His. And we know that's true when so often the people of light fail to work even half as hard to make our calling and election sure or to work out our salvation with fear and trembling by living faithful and fruitful lives. We know it's true when so often we have little or no concern for the lost. Or even brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering, who are hurting, or maybe who have fallen away for a season like the lost sheep. We are tempted, beloved. The believer's temptation includes the fact that we are tempted to let society and the things of this world, the things that we can see and grasp and hang on to in this life, we're tempted to let these things govern our lifestyles and our goals. So before we know it, compromise is the theme of our life. So that my comfort and my best interest in this life becomes most important. But you see, the society around us and the things of this life that we can grab onto are not to be the foundation of our standard for living. But the Word of God and His kingdom and His righteousness is. People of God, the believer's hope is that God has given to us a glimpse of our terrible state and our hopeless condition apart from Him. There's no hope in that, but you see, He goes on to show us how He changed that for us in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, with single-minded purpose, fixed His eyes on Jerusalem. He endured the cross. He scorned its shame for you and me. He conquered Satan, sin, and death. And He transformed life. This life and the next for us. Now the world works hard. We know the world works hard to satisfy itself and to store up temporary things. But as believers, we already have all we need in Christ Jesus. And therefore, how much more should we live and work in anticipation and preparation, storing up for heavenly glory? How much more should we seek with single-minded purpose the glory of God, the advancement of His kingdom, and the salvation of souls? There is an antithesis between the people of the world and the people of the light, and that antithesis is to be distinct. It is to be clearly seen. The world, as represented by this wicked manager, uses and abuses the things of this world that has been entrusted to it by God for its own temporary goals. But the children of light are to properly use God's possessions for the best possible advantage of our Lord. The aim of our whole life is to be the kingdom of God and His righteousness. God's glory is to be our goal in everything we do, with everything we have. It's a matter of the heart. Recognizing that all of our life has to do with God. There's not one part of our life that is separated from our faith, that is separated from God. Our bodies have to do with God. That's why we feed our bodies, we exercise our bodies, we get proper rest to glorify God with our bodies. Our athletic activities that we participate in have to do with God. And that's why we try our hardest and we exercise good sportsmanship and we win with humility and we lose gracefully and in that way to glorify God. Our work has to do with God. That's why we participate in it honestly and faithfully. Our relationships have to do with God. And that's why we try to surround ourselves with Christian friends who can encourage us in our faith, admonish us when we need it, and not to discourage us and to draw us away from our God. I came across the following quote in my Table Talk devotions this past week. Maybe some of you remember it. It said, in all our major decisions, we should not be asking which option will make us happy, but which one will further God's kingdom on earth. What a good summary. What a good summary. Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom with single-minded purpose. But then He goes on and teaches us how this is to be done with the riches of this world. As He teaches us to seek first the kingdom with proper stewardship. Verse 9, I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Wow. You see, our Lord teaches us here how the material life is to be used in service to the spiritual life. And here's where we may have some difficulty. We can say, yes, I understand single-minded purpose with regard to the Kingdom of God. Oh, but now it affects the pocketbook. Now it affects the things that God has given to us that we like to claim as our own. We are called to exercise proper stewardship in light of the single-minded purpose. And we need the proper tools, again, not to take up the crooked sinful practices of the manager. That's not how we are being told to use worldly wealth, but again, to adopt his single-minded purpose. And therefore, everything over which God has made us stewards, our money, our possessions, our time, our talents, our children, our employees, our relationships, our everything. It is all to be directed toward the goal of heaven. We know what the Bible says about the love of money. It says it is the root of all kinds of evil. And that's why it's called worldly wealth. It's also translated as mammon of unrighteousness. We've heard that phrase. But money, we know itself, is not evil. And Jesus teaches us here that for the Christian, there is no gap, there is no division between the material world and the spiritual world, if you will. There's no gap between the material world and our faith. Jesus said in Matthew 6, But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things, what you will eat, what you will drink, what you will wear, shall be added unto you. We often make a distinction between the sacred and the secular. We might say, well, I work for a secular company. And because it's not a Christian company, that may be true, but for you and me, that does not mean it's secular for us. It is still very much sacred employment. Our goal is to be the glory of God as we exercise stewardship. It is to be the glory of God and the heavenly glory promised to us. That for which we press on must be His eternal dwellings that Jesus talks about. And as we exercise stewardship in this world, we are to use it properly. Worldly wealth, mammon of unrighteousness, that which leads many into unrighteousness with greed and envy and lures man into selfish sin is to be used by the people of light to gain friends. Now what does that mean? Well, I believe the best way to understand that is this way. The kingdom of God manifested in this world has need of material things. Churches, Christian schools, missionaries, all depend on financial support. Believers must eat and drink in order to have strength to walk the path that has been set before us. There is cost associated with training our children in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. The poor need to be relieved of their distress. The hungry must be fed. And all of our resources have been given to us to be used not to store up treasure on earth. That doesn't mean that we give everything away and don't take care of our families. That's not the purpose here. God, that's part of this kingdom work to raise our families, to even prepare for our futures when we can no longer work. But modestly, all of our resources have been given to us to store up treasure in heaven for the advancement of God's kingdom. Our resources have been given to us to be used to preach the gospel, to make disciples, to help and care for God's people along the way. And when these things are used in that way, that gives evidence and that testifies of the giver himself and his loving kindness. Beloved, the proper stewardship that Jesus calls for is evidence of being fitted for heaven. In verses 10-12 we read, whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much as the manager proved. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? Brothers and sisters, God has given man this life and the things of this life. And those who do not recognize Him as the master and the owner of all these things and refuse to use the temporary things of this life for God's glory and in the way that He intended, they will not inherit the true riches of eternal life. He is the true Master. It all belongs to Him. It is not to be used for selfish gain, but for His kingdom good. And that means that the goal of our schooling and the goal of our work and the goal of our relationships and the goal of our politics and the goal of our everything is to have the goal of heaven in mind with thankfulness for that greatest gift that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. In our stewardship, it is all to be used to prepare us and if God wills to be used by Him through us to prepare others, friends, for heaven. And therefore, tomorrow when you wake up to a new day, before you leave the house, ask yourself this question, how can I store up for heaven today? How can I, with Paul, Forget those things which are behind and reach forward to those things which are ahead and press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Beloved, as we exercise proper stewardship, we are to understand our true motives, what they are to be. And our true motives are not that through our stewardship we earn our way to heaven. That's not what our Lord is teaching us. But our true motives are to respond to what has been earned for me by Jesus Christ. Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom with single-minded purpose, with proper stewardship, and then all of this finally with one allegiance. Verse 13, No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and money. Now we understand that in a practical way. Maybe you have two bosses who are equal partners, and one might tell you to do something one way, and the other one tells you to do the very same thing in another way. You simply can't please both in that sort of an instance. But here Jesus gives us the ultimate, unworkable combination. You cannot serve both God and money. And I trust we clearly understand why. But very simply, both demand different allegiance. Money, worldly wealth, demands the allegiance called selfishness. Me, myself, and I. But God commands the allegiance called selflessness. Money, worldly wealth, demands that one only take, take, and take some more. But God commands that one only give and give and give again. But beloved, when money and possessions become our master, then they cannot and they will not be seen as gifts from God. And those over whom money becomes a master, possessions become a master, they become consumed with consuming. and their eyes can only be removed from looking for our eternal dwelling. It's like blinders that are put on us, and all we can see is what's right before us in this life. And our eyes are removed from looking to our eternal dwelling. One cannot serve both God and that which is to be in service to God. The two cannot go together, as James 4, verse 4 says, whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost His authority. And Paul tells us why in Romans 8, verse 7, when he says, Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. People of God, there's only one true allegiance that we are to have that will do us any good. And that is our God, the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is the one who commands us to have no other gods before Him. He is the one who has said, I will not share my glory with another. And He is the one who has laid up for us an eternal home through the saving sacrifice of His Son, our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, whose one and only allegiance was to do the will and the work of His Father who sent Him. Why? To make us His friends. To make us to be His brothers and sisters. And brothers and sisters, His work is complete. He and His salvation is a priceless treasure. And we are called to glory and live for that treasure. He has transformed life, this life and the next, for you and for me. You see, the things of this life profit us nothing. But we are called to live and breathe and work and exercise stewardship over all that God has given to us in a way to invest in, to prepare, and to plan for the prize which Jesus Christ has already secured for us. Again, in reverence and in godly fear, man finds the gate to wisdom's ways. There's nothing so precious as the blessed treasure of heaven. Not gold, silver, diamonds, or even earthly relationships. These things have value and worth only when they are seen as gifts from God by which to serve Him. Beloved, we are called to fix our eyes on Jesus. We are called to follow the rule set forth by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 where he says, While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary. For the things which are not seen are eternal. And therefore, I ask you this morning, where are your affections? What is the goal of life for you? Temporary things or eternal things? Once again, we have been called to self-examination, to actually examine our hearts and our lives. What do you find? What will you find? Do you indeed seek first the kingdom with single-minded purpose? With proper stewardship? With one allegiance? You see, those who store up for this life only will be empty in the next life of God's goodness and His grace and His glory. They will be full of God's wrath and grief. But those who store up for the next life by the grace of God with Christ Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they will enjoy true riches of Christ for all eternity. That's God's promise to us. As we close, listen to these words from 1 John 2. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away. But the man who does the will of God lives forever. Let's pray together. O Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we do praise Your most holy name. because of the truth and the beauty and the clarity of your Word. Indeed, O Lord, we thank and praise your holy name for this fitting reminder for each one of us as we are called to examine ourselves in preparation for the Lord's table. A fitting reminder, O Lord, that all that we have in this life, this very creation around us, belongs to you. You have given it to us to use. To use for Your glory. To use for the advancement of Your kingdom. To use for our needs as well. And we thank You for Your precious gifts to us. The gifts that we see all around us. And may it be, O Lord, that we would prove to be, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, faithful stewards, faithful managers of all that You have given to us. And in that way, prepare us, O Lord, for that blessed possession of eternal life. and the glory of heaven. Hear us, we pray, O Lord, for Jesus' sake, and in His name alone. Amen.