The Two Sides of Money Part II: The Light Side
Introduction
Good morning - I want to again remind any of you to get in your
covenants for Jason this week or next.
There are extras in the back – take an extra as a reminder.
Happy Mother’s day to all of you
Mothers out there. God Bless you. I am
always amazed at the work of mothers.
How do you do it? It makes you
wonder - if evolution
is true, how come mothers still have only two hands?
Really, Moms are
amazing. And these days being a Mom is
so looked down upon. Barbara used to
hate it when we were out at a social gathering and people would ask her “And
what do you do.” But then she came up
with this great line.
I’m in investments.
What a great
lead in to our second week of the Two Sides of Money.
Let’s pray.
Last week we began this two part series on the Two Sides of money. Our attitudes and actions towards how we handle our Money / our possessions / our stuff is important to God. For example, the Gospels record thirty-eight parables of Jesus. 16 of the 38 deal are about money and possessions. One out of every ten verses in the Gospels deal with money or possessions. It is a major issue.
I addressed what I am calling the “Dark Side” of money. By the way, I am indebted to two authors for
these terms: Jacques Ellul in his book Money and Power and Richard
Foster’s book Money, Sex and Power which has been re-released as The
Challenge of the Disciplined Life. I
highly recommend both.
And if there was one truth that I wanted you to take home from that
message – it was that Money / material wealth / our possessions are not
neutral. Behind our possessions are demonic
forces vying to steal our affections and attentions. And we need to be ever vigilant that we not
allow these to dethrone God. It is a
constant threat.
And if there was one application that I wanted you to take home – it was
that the best way to counter-act this power is to give and give and give
anonymously. Not just to the church –
not just to worthy causes like eliminating world hunger - God is inviting us to
apply ourselves as diligently in giving the stuff away as we do in gaining
it. We spend an inordinate amount of
time and energy “gaining” this stuff.
What would happen if we spent just a fraction of that time thinking
about how we could give some of it away?
Think about developing a year round “Secret Santa” club.
In exploring light side of money this morning, I want to look at this
parable in detail together. One of the
best ways to study the Bible is to develop a list of questions about the
passage. Some of us are so familiar with
certain scriptures that we miss how little we really know about the truths that
are contained in them. I once led a
discussion on John 3:16 – a verse that most of us know like the back of our
hand. Together we developed more than
20 brand new questions about that verse.
Learning to ask God questions as we read the scriptures is a great way
to grow in our relationship with God as well as in our knowledge of the
scriptures.
I think that sometimes as Christians we treat the Bible as this holy
oracle whose truths are to flow intravenously into our bodies to feed us –
bypassing the eating / chewing /swallowing / digesting process. But I believe that God’s word is to be eaten
and chewed and swallowed and digested.
In fact the scripture itself uses those images to encourage us to feed
on the Word. [1]
↓
What are the Questions?
So let’s take this parable – and let’s just go through it until verse 8a
(ending in “shrewdly”) – and generate some questions: Let’s not try to answer the questions – let’s
just see how many we can come up with.
1Jesus told his disciples:
"There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his
possessions. 2So 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.'
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— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my
job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his
master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,'
he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your
bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"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 eight hundred.'
8"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. 9I
tell you, use worldly wealth to gain
friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed inbbto
eternal dwellings.
10"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. 11So if you have not been
trustworthy in handling worldly wealth,
who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been
trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your
own?
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."
[Give people time]
·
Why did
Jesus tell this parable?
·
Why
didn’t the master get proof? Who accused the manager? (The manager was accused – not caught/ The
master said “What do I hear?”)
·
How was
the manager “wasting the master’s possessions?” Message “ran up huge personal
expenses.”
·
Why did
the manager ask the debtors how much they owed?
·
Why did
the manager have the debtors take their own bills and make the changes
themselves?
·
Why did
the manager give different discounts?
·
Why did
the master commend the unjust steward for wasting more of his money?
·
Why did
the master let the unjust steward keep handling the funds long enough to keep
cheating? (Note – Master needed a complete account of the books. Also that the manager needed the master’s
debtors to write their new bill “quickly.”)
·
In what
way are the people of this world more shrewd than the people of the light?
·
What
does it mean “in dealing with their own kind? “with their own generation”
·
Who
were the children of light to the 1st century hearers? Was Jesus talking of the Jews? Or of the
church to come?
·
Do
people really reward others for cheating so that they can be helped?
All right. That’s a good
start. We are not going to address these
this morning – but if God has piqued your interest concerning one of them –
pursue it this week. Spend some time
thinking / praying / reflecting on the question. Get in dialog with God and someone else. Invite them to lunch or coffee to discuss
it. God wants His word to be chewed on
in the context of a loving and caring community.
What are the Main Topics?
After Jesus told the parable, He then goes into a teaching mode. Let’s look at Jesus’ response and see if we
can deduce from that response what are the main points of the parable. Let’s start by asking “What major topics is
Jesus addressing in verses 8b -13?”
[Give people time to respond – look at each verse – one at a time]
·
Vs 8b Talks about the shrewdness of the people
of this age
·
Vs 9
Talks about the way he wants us to be – maybe sarcastic / maybe not /maybe both[2]
·
Vs
10-12 Talks about faithfulness in small things – so that we can be entrusted
with much more
·
Vs 13
Money is a competitor to God / Last week.
There is an African proverb that parallels “You cannot serve two
masters.” “He who tries to walk both
roads splits his pants.”
What are the Main Points?
Let’s see if we can list the main points of Jesus teaching on the parable
(vs 8b – 12)
[Give them time]
1. We aren’t wise in using money - vs 8b – Jesus was emphasizing this with the
“shock factor” of having the master commend the dishonest manager.
2. We are to learn how to use money faithfully
for kingdom purposes – vs 9/13 Money and our possessions are to be our
servants - not the other way around
3. We are stewards for a time of very little – but
God is inviting us to be faithful in little so that he can give us more verses
10-12
How do we apply this? – The Light Side of
Money
Last week we saw how Jesus introduced us to the “Dark Side” of money in this
parable. This week we have seen that He
is showing us how Money can be used for good – the “Light Side” of money.
If we are going to apply what this parable teaches about the “Light
Side” of Money, we have to understand the concept of “Stewardship.” In the parable He is the master. And we are the managers or stewards of the Master’s
possessions. And not only are we not to
waste them, we are called to learn to use them for kingdom purposes. For eternal values. “Make friends for your self with this “stuff”
so that it will yield eternal dividends.”
All that we have is really His.
And whatever amount we have, we are called to use it creatively and
shrewdly for His kingdom.
This is a major shift in our thinking.
NOTHING belongs to us. Everything
belongs to God.
In this parable God is calling us to a new relationship with our
possessions. He is saying:
I am the master
– you are entrusted with some of my possessions – Use it for my kingdom – don’t
waste it. Use it creatively. Look how the people of this world shrewdly
use money. I am calling you to learn how
to do likewise.
Let me offer three specific things
that we can begin to work on to begin to adopt this “Stewardship” perspective
1. Banish from our vocabulary “giving” phrases
like :
·
“How
much should I give …”
·
“Where
do you want me to give …”
And replace
them with phrases like
·
“How
much of Your money do You want to use in this area”
·
“Where
are You calling me to use Your money and your possessions”
2. Banish from our vocabulary “afford” and
“spend” phrases like:
·
“I
cannot afford to do this..”
·
“We are
going to spend our money on…”
And replace
them with phrases like
·
“Lord,
I don’t see the money in Your account to do this. If You are calling us to use Your money in
this way, You are going to have to provide the money.”
·
“Father,
are You calling us to use Your money in this area.”
3. As awkward as it is, begin to stop calling
your possessions - yours – begin to call them God’s
(if not with your neighbors and friends, at least within the family)
·
It’s
God’s house
·
It’s
God’s car
But that is the path I believe God is inviting me on. Where everything I have is at God’s disposal
– because it’s his.
I want to close with one more insight from this parable – Let’s look at
verse 12 again.
12And if you have not been trustworthy
with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
Do you notice that Jesus has it backwards here? Normally as people see that we are
trustworthy with our own stuff, they will trust us with their stuff. God, in typical fashion turns everything
around. He starts by entrusting us with
His stuff.
But then look at the promise – If we are trustworthy with His stuff – He
will give us property of our own. What
does that mean? I believe that there is
coming a day when God is going to give us true riches – riches of our very
own. And we will not be stewards. He is going to give us something that will be
uniquely ours. And I don’t think we are
talking about mansions and boats.
In Revelation 2:17, I believe we get a hint when the Holy Spirit tells
the churches:
To
him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a
white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it
What does it mean that “this name is known only to him who receives it?”
The scripture teaches us that much of this life is a test. God has turned things upside down and has
given us complete stewardship with what is His – even though we are
untested. And if we pass the test and
are faithful, there is coming a day when
He will give us something more precious than anything else. True riches.
And it will be ours and ours alone.
What will that be like? I don’t
pretend to know – but I believe God’s Word that it will happen and that it will
be good.
The Light Side of Money isn’t about struggling to give our 10% to the
church each year and then eking by. It
is about growing in our understanding that
It’s God’s house
It’s God’s car
It’s God’s 401K
It’s God’s bank account
It’s God’s food in the refrigerator
It’s God’s college bill
It’s God’s paycheck
And Father – how do you want me to shrewdly use it? What does it look like for me to be
trustworthy with Your property?
And then believing Jesus – that as
we are as diligent with His stuff as the dishonest manager was diligent with
his master’s stuff – God will honor us with more until the day when He will
give us our own true riches. We are
somewhat like a stay-at-home
Mom whose chief work is “In Investments.”
We are investing in with His stuff
Amen