Transcript for Morning Devotion 2: A Parable About Stewardship - The Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13) by Merlin
our text for this morning's message is taken from the Gospel of Luke chapter 16 verse 1 to 13 and if you have your Bibles please turn to chapter 16 Gospel of Luke we will read responsively Brothers will begin verse one sisters will respond all the way to verse 13 okay let's begin with verse one and he said also unto his disciples there was a certain man who had a Ste and the same was accus unto him that he had wasted his goods and said unto him how is it that I hear this of thee give an account of thy stewardship for thou may be no longer Ste then the Ste said within himself what shall I do for my Lord take away from me the stewardship I cannot ashamed so he called everyone of his Lord's dep unto him and said unto the first how much thou unto my Lord 100 measures of oil he said him take heel and sit down quickly and WR 50 then said he to one another and how much thou and he said and 100 measures of we and he said him and the commanded the unjust Ste it because he have done wisely the children of this world are in this generation wiser than the children of life and I say unto you make to yourselves Friends of the amendment of unrighteousness that when he that they may receive you into Everlasting habitations [Music] let's read verse 11 to3 together if therefore he have not been faithful in the UN rightous commit to your trust the true and if he have not been faithful in that which is another man who shall give you that which is your own no man shall serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other he cannot serve God and man the Lord bless the reading of his holy and sacred word as we have said we will focus on The Parables for our morning devotion so we will come um and consider The Parables that our lord Jesus has given today we will focus on a parable about stewardship yesterday we have learned the parable about preoccupation that is the parable of the rich pool often times when people think about stewardship they only think about their TI and offerings so as long as they are faithful in their giving of the TI and offerings well they are faithful Steward but stewardship means more than that it is not just the TI and offerings that is only one aspect of our stewardship everything we have all our resources including our strength come from God and we are to be good stewards so whatever God has given to us how we Hender those resources it will tell whether we are faithful or Unfaithful now there was this certain man as Jesus described for us in this Parable he was a steward okay you can call him a manager someone who managed on behalf of his master so he will manage the land manage the CRS manage the assets of the owner the master and the Bible tells us that he was unfaithful why because he wasted the goods he squandered the goods so he was not a faithful servant or Steward and he knew that well the master will now call him to give an account yeah and he would not be able to answer for his unfaithfulness and he knew also that he was not able to work hard in the labor work and he was not able to B so he was not willing to reduce himself to Heart label how much more to B so he was not able to do these things so what shall he do so he decided that he's going to reduce the depths of the dors who owed the master so by doing that they would benefit from him reducing the deps and in time to come when he will be losing his job losing his accommodation his house he would have no place to stay well these people who have benefited from him would receive him into their houses and our lord Jesus commanded him saying that he was wise now this POS a problem because if you study all The Parables perhaps this Parable POS the most problem than all the other Parables because because why would Jesus command him because he was a dishonest Steward but he's very dishonest now Jesus did not praise him for his dishonesty Jesus did not accommodate it nor excuse it nor accept it you see when we study The Parables yesterday we began by saying a parable is an Earthly story with a spiritual or Heavenly meaning right so there is something that we ought to learn from this particular Earthly story now not everything can be applied so most of the time when Jesus gave a parable he will say like the Kingdom of Heaven is liken onto this thing so sometimes you will say like a fishing net when you cast out this fishing net there will be all kinds of fishes good or bad they will come in but then you will sort out only the good ones right and other times you will say you know the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who has a few and then or there is a few where there was this pearl of great price so this man knew that and he would sell every everything he had to buy the few because of that pear of the great price now you cannot apply every aspect of the parable into spiritual lessons that you learn because there is a particular lesson that Jesus was driving through and what was that that was the PE of the great price the kingdom of heaven is very precious it is so valuable Jesus was not teaching that you can buy your salvation or you can buy your way to the kingdom of heaven like this man who bought this land so it is not this kind of application andus would use contrast who persistently went to the judge and there was an unjust judge who needed God nor car about men but because of the persistency he had no choice but to help her so Jesus used that to contrast how much more your heavenly father who loves you the Widow and the unjust judge had no connections the the judge was very unjust he was someone who did not fear God nor did he care for any man but our heavenly father is different he's connected to us related to us he is our father and then he is not frustrated when we go to him like the unjust judge he wants us to always go to him to speak to him to pray to him so sometimes Jesus will use contrast like that so in this Parable there's no difference there is a spiritual lesson we can learn and it is not about this man's dishonesty that was used as a contrast to tell you how much more you should do this and that and other thing is that the spiritual lesson we want to learn from this St Steward is that he has this ability to know his situation and he also car about his future and not only he knew his situation he cared about his future he made provision to prepare himself for his future so because of that our lord Jesus said he was wise he was wise so that is the spiritual lesson we want to learn okay not about his dishonesty Jesus is definitely against dishonest behaviors so firstly this Steward understood his situation imagine this Steward knowing that now the owner or the master already said to him I've heard this thing that you have done verse two now you have to give an account of what you have done you have been unfaithful and you will no longer be my Steward anymore so he heard this he must understand his situation but presuming if he were to think like this well maybe my master is just joking with me maybe he's not really serious maybe he would change his mind maybe all things will turn out good just like magic everything would turn out the opposite that I will continue working I'll have my house that tells us that he really did not understand his situation right so he knew he understood you know it is very sad that there are Christians who have been unfaithful they have been unfaithful in their giving in their services in their worship of God in the exercise of their spiritual gifts they have not been prayerful and yet they do not know their situation they still thought that everything is well and good perhaps God will accept me God will understand all these things will just go to pass and everything will be all right so that tells us also that people like this do not understand their situation do you understand understand your situation your spiritual condition are you Faithful or are you unfaithful I'm not saying about sinless perfection none of us but when God examine your actions your hearts will he say that my servant is doing whatever he can to please me to glorify me he is faithful in all the resources that I have given to him or her will God say that to us or will he say otherwise so we must understand our spiritual condition just like this man he understood and when he understood his situation he also cared about his future now he will lose his job which means he would lose his source of income and he would have no place to live because in those days they had to live with the master the master will provide accommodation for the servants so as a St he will lose all these things so he understood and so he said in verse three what shall I do now I understand my situation I know what is ahead of me what will be in the future what what shall I do because my Lord will take away from me the stewardship now I know myself I am not willing to reduce myself to work hard in the fuse I will not be willing to reduce myself to the level to back so I know so what shall I do is there anything I could do to change my predicament and anything I can do to change my situation so he understands his situation he cares about his future and then he thought very carefully what shall I do and so this is what he decided to do he has a plan he says that well I'll go to all those dectors the one who owes my master one 100 measures of oil now that is about 1,000 gallons okay 1,000 Gall it will take about 150 olive trees to produce that amount of oil it will be almost 3 years wages so that is a lot of money I'm going to reduce that to 50 so that is 50% and then for another person who owes the master 100 measures of wheat now that will take about 100 acres of land to produce the amount of wheat you know if you compare better BB Church the entire compound our CH compound it will be about 200 times so you need that kind of land to produce that amount of wheat well I'm going to say to the dector don't worry about it I will give you a discount reduce it to 80% So 20% discount now all these people would benefit from his dishonesty from his plan they will benefit and so when they have benefited when he lose his job when he lose his accommodation no place to go he will turn to them because they have benefited from him they would then say to him well Welcome to our houses so he would have not just one house but many houses there will be many people there to welcome him this man is also very wise in the sense sense that he cared for his future he made provision he did all these things he knew that he had only a small window of time because the master is going to kick him out so only the short window of time he had he's going to do all these things he's going to make the best out of all the resources he had so that he would secure for himself this future how be it it is only temper all these are temporal it is about this physical world it is about this physical life the future is only temporal but nonetheless the characteristics he had which is commentable it is his ability to understand his situation his ability to care and make provision for the future so with that our lord Jesus he said look at verse 8 maybe read with me verse 8 and the Lord commanded the unjust receiver because he had done wisely for the children of this world in their generation Wier than the children of light so remember the contrast often times Jesus will use contrast to bring out the spiritual meaning so the contrast here is the children of this world these are the unbelievers and then the children of light these are the Believers and then Jesus said well this Ste is very unjust Jesus called him unjust with but yet he's very wise wise in regards to the way he deals with temporal things to secure a future for himself so that he would have a place to stay he would be comfortable and then look at the next verse Jesus say unto you make to yourselves Friends of the amendment of unrighteousness that when ye fail that they may receive you into Everlasting habitations now mment of unrighteousness mment are Earthly wealth money okay and often times employed by the people of the world the unbelievers in the most ungodly way so people would cheat lie evade taxes they would be corrupted they will bribe know they would invite those government officials to find restaurants why to make friends with them so that in times of trouble these people would come to their help so people would employ all these tactics why to secure for themselves a future so that in the future they would have a place to stay they would have money they would probably be comfortable so this is how the world operates this is how the world behaves so our lord Jesus is saying in this sense the people of this world the children of this world the unbelievers are wiser than you you know they are able to use temp Lial things physical things to secure for themselves a future how be it it is only temporal you children of light you believers do know how to use the resources you have to secure for yourself a future which is spiritual which is eternal you should learn from them okay not learn from their dishonesty learn from their Prudence as in their being very smart very cunning very stru you know today we have what we have but how do we use these things to secure for ourselves a future that goes for all eternity friends of everlasting habitation Everlasting habitations talks about eternity in heaven friends are those believers who will dwell in eternity in heaven it does not mean that we use our money we use our wealth our resources to buy friends it does not mean that what it means is that those things that we have our resources our money how have we invested in the lives of those people who will benefit from it come to Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world and then also help them to grow in their spiritual walk because these people one day will be in heaven make friends with those people who will dwell in Everlasting habitations how have you invested in the things of God so so we are blessed with much a lot of resources right how have we use those resources to the glory of God do we know about our situation do we know that God has blessed us and one day we have to give an account for all the things we have done so if you have been blessed with the talent spiritual gifts to play piano to sing have you used it to the benefit of others spiritually so if you are very talented [Music] in reaching out to people gifted to be hospitable how have you reached out so that others have benefited from you and then through your life they grow spiritually one day these people you will meet in Everlasting habitations so be like this unjust Steward not in his dishonesty but in his ability to employ all his resources within that small window of time he had to secure for himself a future we are securing a future that is etern not that through all these things we do we will earn our way to Salvation it does not mean that it means that you know invest your resources in Heavenly things because one day you will have this heavenly reward now look on to verse 10 read with me ver understand he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful Al in much and he that is unjust in the is unjust also in much again Jesus used a contrast so look at this unjust Steward yes he is unjust you will say in much so some people will say that well you know I am not able to give because I do not have much you you know one thing you do not need much to give you just need to give faithful people are faithful people whether they have much or little you can apply this into every aspects of your services as well it does not mean that you have to be gifted in much then you are able to serve faithful people are faithful people whether in much or in little so even if you have one spiritual gift you serve the Lord with that one spiritual gift some people have multiple spiritual gifts praise be to God then you be faithful also in much so those people who complain that well I have so little that is why I cannot give that's why I cannot serve I cannot worship I cannot be doing all these things it is true if you are faithful in little you will also be faithful in much if you are Unfaithful in little don't expect God to bless you with much for you to serve you first be faithful look on to verse 11 if therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mem who will commit to your trust the true riches now all all these things that we have in this world that often times are employed or used by unbelievers for unrighteous ways to make more money we of course don't be dishonest don't cheat don't lie but the same M that we have if we are not faithful in how we handle it in how we administer it in how how we use it then don't expect God to trust you with Heavenly riches Heavenly rewards you have not been faithful even in the things God has given to you on this Earth how can you expect that I'm going to receive great rewards in heaven that is not going to happen right that is the reason why our lord Jesus says it is all about the heart you know if your heart is in the things of Heaven how you perceive the things on this Earth will also be used for the things of heaven but if your heart is on this Earth then whatever you do will be always calculated in terms of dolls and sense in terms of how much I can accumulate in this world it is all about this world and Jesus End by saying no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other he cannot serve God and men now some of us may be thinking but I work hard everything I have belongs to me it is mine well the truth is that nothing belongs to you when you come naked you go naked remember you said we learned that yesterday everything in between does not belong to us we are just stewards it belongs to someone else it is not yours but there's something that is yours forever will be yours and that is the things that you have in heaven the Eternal wies the Heavenly reward that is the reason why Jesus said in verse 12 and if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's who shall give you that which is your own those things that you own those things that you have those things that will not lose for all eternity in heaven it will still be there 1 million upon one million years you will still have those things in heaven you think God will give it to you no because you are Unfaithful so dear friends all of us we pray that we will learn to be a good Ste and we want to be a good Steward learning from this example of the unjust Steward not his dishonesty so drive this into your mind not about his cheating stealing and all these sin but his ability to understand his situation and his ability to care for his future and also Al make provision for his future and with that our lord Jesus says he is wise he's wise in that he prepares for himself a future we will be wise if we know our spiritual conditions and then we care for our Eternal future and we also make Provisions for our Eternal future that will be wise I hope you understand that okay so this is the lesson about stewardship let us look to the Lord in prayer Father in heaven we thank you for this opportunity we can learn from The Parables spoken by our lord Jesus Oh Lord indeed we want to learn so that we may apply we know that our lord Jesus used contrust to tell us to teach us if the unjust servant would be able to employ such unimaginable approach to secure for himself this future which is temporal how much more we children of Life Believers saved by the Precious Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ should also employ every means resources and blessings that thou has given to us for our Eternal riches for our Eternal reward and all to the glory of thy precious name all this must begin if we understand our spiritual condition are we faithful or are we not and we also understand we ought to care for Eternal future and also to make provision for it if we do that our lord Jesus said then you are a wise Steward and we want to be wise not in the eyes of the world but in the eyes of the so teach us and help us to apply thy truth into our lives we pray all this in Jesus name amen amen thank you