Introduction:
Matthew 6:20 - ...lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven...
Matthew 19:21 - ...give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven...
Luke 12:33 - Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail...
Hebrews 11:26 - >Moses< was looking to the reward.
Am I Going to Have an Eternal ROI? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself (Luke 16:1-13)
- Do I use money to Win People ? (Luke 16:9)
- What am I doing with money Right Now ? (Luke 16:10)
- Would God say I'm faithful with His money? (Luke 16:11-2)
- Am I serving God or Man ? (Luke 16:13)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:50-00:54
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Luke 16.
00:55-01:02
While you're turning there, let's just pause and ask, well, if the microphone would work, prayer answered.
01:02-01:14
And I'd ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word, and I will pray for you to receive this word from the Lord, all right?
01:14-01:17
So let's just take a moment and quiet our hearts before the Lord.
01:19-01:20
be ready to receive.
01:22-01:39
Father, I pray that you would open our hearts and minds right now, that we would truly understand what you're saying, and we would truly believe what you're saying, so much so that we act on it.
01:41-01:43
Because I guess if we don't, we don't really believe it.
01:44-01:53
Father, I pray that your spirit would work with your word move us by faith to respond.
01:55-01:56
We pray in Jesus' name.
01:57-02:00
All of God's people said, amen.
02:03-02:19
Many years ago, this would have been about late 90s, I was going to downtown Pittsburgh with a friend of mine And we pulled in off the street to park.
02:19-02:29
And as soon as I stepped out of my car, this little skinny dude runs up to me and he goes, yo man, you got 75 cents?
02:32-02:37
And I thought, what a strange and small request that is.
02:38-02:39
Oddly specific.
02:40-02:41
So I had to ask.
02:43-02:46
I said, "That's very specific.
02:46-02:55
"What do you need 75 cents for?" He said, "You know, man, I gotta go get my swerve on." And he did this dance.
02:58-03:05
And I laughed and I laughed and I had no idea what it meant to get your swerve on.
03:08-03:09
And you know what?
03:09-03:11
I was gonna share this story, but I'm like, I better look that up.
03:12-03:12
(congregation laughing)
03:13-03:14
Good idea, right?
03:15-03:17
Do you know what it means to get your sport of one?
03:18-03:19
It means to get drunk.
03:20-03:22
So now I have new questions.
03:24-03:25
Where are you getting drunk for 75 cents?
03:26-03:27
(congregation laughing)
03:32-03:40
You know, like I said, this was the late 90s and I kid you not, I've thought about that man so often.
03:42-03:42
You're like, how often?
03:44-03:52
In my coat pocket, I always carry three quarters in case I ever meet him again.
03:54-03:54
(congregation laughing)
03:57-04:05
Money is a tool for everything, including getting your swerve on, I guess.
04:07-04:11
Now we've seen over the last couple of weeks, a lot of very profound things about money.
04:11-04:48
But today I'm going to share with you what the Bible tells us is the most profound thing about money. You can spend it here and now in a way that rewards you for eternity. And that is the ultimate ROI. Now I'm gonna have to maybe I'm gonna explain this term for some of you because you see, my wife's in finance, so I know all these fancy terms.
04:49-04:50
But what is an ROI?
04:50-04:51
Do you know what it is?
04:51-04:52
Shout it out if you know.
04:54-04:58
Okay, so I thought I was smart learning something and you already knew this.
04:59-05:01
Yes, it is return on investment.
05:02-05:10
That is the financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment.
05:12-05:22
So, let me ask you, what is the most profitable thing that you can do with money?
05:28-05:30
And here is where we find the profound truth.
05:30-05:42
the most profitable thing you can do with money is invest it in treasure in heaven that you will have for eternity.
05:45-05:47
There's nothing greater.
05:47-05:51
There's no bigger return on investment than that.
05:56-06:02
It's a wild concept, But it keeps coming up over and over in the Bible, right?
06:02-06:20
Like Matthew 6, 20, Jesus said, "Lay for yourselves treasures in heaven." Matthew 19, 21, "Give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven." Luke 12, 33, "Provide for yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens." That does not fail.
06:21-06:31
Hebrews 11, 26, talking about Moses, saying he was looking to the reward, which is the treasure that was awaiting him in heaven.
06:33-06:35
You're like, okay, what is treasure in heaven?
06:35-06:35
What is it?
06:36-06:37
I'm sure you've heard of it, right?
06:38-06:41
You've heard that term thrown around in church.
06:41-06:43
You've read it in your Bibles.
06:43-06:46
Like what exactly is treasure in heaven?
06:50-07:25
Well, I can't imagine that it's treasure in the sense think about it. Like cash, right? I don't imagine we show up in heaven and they just like cut you a check. I don't think it's like that. Like, well then what is treasure in heaven? Well, maybe God's Word isn't specific. Because maybe Maybe it's something we wouldn't understand on earth.
07:28-07:37
You're like, "So you don't know what it is?" Well, not exactly, but I'll tell you some things that I do know for sure.
07:37-07:38
I want you to write these things down.
07:38-07:40
This isn't like your outline points.
07:40-07:41
This is just on the side.
07:42-07:45
Here's some things that I do know about treasure in heaven, all right?
07:45-07:49
First of all, I do know that it's eternal and better, right?
07:49-07:50
What else do you need to know?
07:50-07:56
eternal and it's better than anything we will experience or possess on the earth.
07:56-08:49
I know that. Right? I do know, secondly, that believers will have treasure based on our works. And what are our works? Our works are the things that we have done to advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ using the resources that he's entrusted to us and that includes money. Now let's be clear, salvation is based entirely on the work of Jesus Christ, a hundred percent. There is not a thing that you can do to contribute to your salvation, not a thing. When Jesus Christ died on a He died to take away your sin and the penalty of your sin and the shame and the guilt.
08:50-08:53
Jesus Christ completely paid the price for your sin.
08:53-08:56
So salvation is all about Jesus' work.
08:57-09:04
But when we talk about rewards, you see that is all about your work.
09:06-09:12
And the Bible says there's different levels of rewards in heaven.
09:13-09:16
Third thing I know about works, it's eternal and better, it's based on our works.
09:16-09:19
And I know thirdly, there's different levels of rewards.
09:19-09:27
You know, the Bible says that there's different levels of hell, that hell is going to be worse for some people than it is for others.
09:29-09:33
But there's also different levels of reward in heaven.
09:34-09:38
And right now somebody's saying, hang on a second, hang on a second, Jeff.
09:38-09:44
How can it be like, I thought heaven was going to be total joy for everyone.
09:44-09:52
So how can we live in a place where everyone has total joy, but some people have more rewards than others?
09:52-09:54
And I would say, that's a good question.
09:56-09:57
It's sort of like this.
10:02-10:05
This bottle is full, right?
10:07-10:07
This is full.
10:09-10:12
And this bottle is full, right?
10:13-10:17
This bottle's 15 ounces and this one's 20.
10:20-10:27
And just sort of imagine that the liquid inside these bottles represents joy of reward in heaven.
10:28-10:32
Like these two guys in heaven are both full of joy.
10:32-10:38
It just so happens that one of them has a greater capacity to receive more, you see.
10:40-10:51
And I believe it is in that sense that some of us will have a greater capacity to receive more joy and rewards in heaven, but we're all gonna be full.
10:56-11:03
Fourth thing I do know about treasure in heaven is there's no second chance for believers to earn rewards after we die.
11:04-11:14
We talk about rewards in heaven, they're eternal, and we're gonna get into all that here in a second, but I gotta tell you on the front end, now's your chance to get them.
11:18-11:32
And then the fifth thing I do know for sure, and there's other things, I just wanted to narrow it down to five here for the sake of time, but the fifth thing I know about treasure in heaven is that it should be motivating us right now.
11:34-11:40
Honoring God with His stuff will personally reward you for eternity.
11:41-11:47
All that said, we're gonna look at a, this is a story that Jesus made up here in Luke 16.
11:48-11:55
And I gotta tell you, it's a very strange story that our Lord would use as an example.
11:56-11:57
It's one of my favorites.
11:59-12:06
But it's, our Lord had a way of telling stories that were very unexpected.
12:06-12:11
And this is near the top of the list for me in that category.
12:11-12:14
But look at Luke chapter 16 rather.
12:15-12:20
It says, "He also said to the disciples, "there was a rich man who had a manager.
12:23-12:29
"And charges were brought to him "that this man was wasting his possessions.
12:31-12:36
"And he called him and said to him, "what is this that I hear about you?
12:38-12:41
"Turn in the account of your management "for you can no longer be manager.
12:44-12:47
"And the manager said to himself, what shall I do?
12:48-12:57
"Since my master is taking the management away from me, "I'm not strong enough to dig "and I'm ashamed to beg." Stop there, we got the story?
12:58-13:09
So this guy was very wealthy, so wealthy, he had this employee on site, apparently, you're gonna see here, he apparently lived on site, that managed all his stuff.
13:09-13:14
The owner got word that this manager was squandering.
13:17-13:33
And he says, "You know what, pack it up, you're done." So this manager is like, "What am I gonna do now?" He goes, "Well, I can't dig, and I'm not gonna beg, "and I gotta get out of here.
13:33-13:55
"What am I gonna do?" Look at verse four, he says, "I've decided what to do, "so that when I'm removed from management, "people may receive me into their houses." He goes, "Ah, okay." And this is what tells us he must have lived on site because losing his job also meant losing his house.
13:56-13:57
So he goes, "What am I gonna do?
13:57-14:08
"I'm gonna be homeless." He goes, "Ah." He goes, "I got an idea of how I can set myself up." Look at his plan, verses five through seven.
14:11-14:49
He says, "So summoning his master's debtors one by one, "he said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' "He said to him, 'Take your bill "'and sit down quickly and write 50.' "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' "He said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' "He said to him, 'Take your bill and write 80.'" And the Greek language implies that there would have been a line of people that he was doing this with.
14:50-14:55
Again, it's a made up story, but the language indicates that this went on and on and on.
14:55-14:56
He was setting himself up.
14:56-14:57
Here's the plan.
14:58-14:59
He says, "I know what I'm gonna do.
14:59-15:03
"I'm gonna get all of these people obligated to me.
15:03-15:14
"They're all gonna be in debt to me." So he calls the people that owe money and he goes, "Hey, got news for you, huge discounts, all right?
15:14-15:17
"You get a discount and you get a discount "and you get a discount.
15:17-15:23
"Everybody gets a discount." And he's like, "What's my boss gonna do?
15:23-15:31
"Fire me, kick me out?" He goes, "It is bargain shopping days." And he gives all these people a discount.
15:34-15:40
Look at verse eight, it says, "The master," and here's the curve ball here, look at this.
15:40-15:46
It says, "The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
15:49-15:49
See what happened there?
15:50-16:00
The guy that owns all this finds out what he did and he's like, he's like, that was actually brilliant.
16:00-16:01
I'm not even mad.
16:02-16:02
Like, wow.
16:03-16:07
Like, hey, that was good thinking because you know you're gonna be kicked out.
16:07-16:09
You set yourself up.
16:11-16:13
Nicely done, my friend.
16:15-16:23
Now notice that the manager wasn't praised for being irresponsible or for being wasteful.
16:24-16:25
He was praised for being smart.
16:29-16:30
He was praised for being smart.
16:31-16:32
What did he do?
16:32-16:33
What did he do that was so smart?
16:33-16:35
Here it is, this is the whole point.
16:35-16:37
Listen, you're gonna miss the whole point of the parable.
16:39-16:52
He took advantage of his opportunity and manipulated the resources that were under his control in order to win future friends.
16:54-16:59
I'm gonna say that again, because if you miss that, you missed the point of the whole story.
16:59-17:09
This manager took advantage of his opportunity to manipulate the resources under his control to win future friends.
17:11-17:14
That's what Jesus wanted us to get from that story.
17:17-17:26
Jesus gives us the point and what is kind of a burn on us, church.
17:27-17:29
Look at what Jesus says, rest of verse eight.
17:29-17:42
Jesus says, "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Do you see what Jesus is saying?
17:42-17:51
He goes, "The point of this story is this, sinners are more shrewd than saints." Like, what?
17:52-17:53
That's what he said.
17:53-18:16
Jesus said, "Worldly people are smarter at using money to win friends." In other words, Jesus says, "The point of this story is this, when it comes to using money in a way to win people, God's people have a lot to learn from worldly people.
18:18-18:26
They're working in a very smart way to secure a temporary future.
18:29-18:33
Shouldn't we be working in such a way thinking about an eternal future?
18:39-18:47
Because according to our Lord, you can secure for yourself an eternal ROI.
18:49-18:52
And that's really, I think, the question that we have to ask ourselves today.
18:53-18:57
Because we can talk about it, we can imagine, you know, what is the treasure in heaven?
18:58-19:00
And how do I get it?
19:00-19:09
And I think what we need to do is ask ourselves, Am I going to have an eternal ROI?
19:10-19:12
Am I going to have treasure in heaven?
19:16-19:20
Well, straightforwardly from this text, here's four questions to ask yourself.
19:23-19:25
Are you going to have an eternal ROI?
19:25-19:29
First question to ask yourself is this, do I use money to win people?
19:30-19:33
Do I use money to win people?
19:37-19:43
Look at verse nine, this is Jesus' verse of application based on his parable.
19:43-20:17
Verse nine, Jesus says, "And I tell you, "make friends for yourselves "by means of unrighteous wealth, "so that when it fails, "they may receive you into eternal dwellings." Do I use money to, like, wait, it sounds like, it sounds like what Jesus is saying is that I should use money to make friends.
20:20-20:24
Yeah, that's actually exactly what he's saying.
20:28-20:33
Notice Jesus doesn't say, You should avoid worldly wealth.
20:34-20:35
He doesn't say that.
20:37-20:43
He says you should use worldly wealth strategically to win people.
20:45-20:46
Like win who?
20:46-20:48
What friends?
20:48-20:56
Well, he tells us these are believers in heaven who are in heaven because of how we use money.
20:56-20:57
That's what he's talking about.
21:01-21:16
When we die, according to Jesus, we will be welcomed into our eternal home by those that we've reached with the gospel, with our money during our time on earth.
21:16-21:17
That's what he said.
21:19-21:31
That somehow we're going to enter into heaven and these people are going to know us and they're going to appreciate us and they're going to welcome us.
21:33-21:34
They're gonna know.
21:36-21:41
It was because of the investment that you made that I ended up here.
21:42-21:44
And I just wanted to thank you for that.
21:48-21:48
Wow.
21:51-21:59
Jesus says, "Make such an investment." Notice he says, "So when it fails," when it fails, by the way, money will fail.
21:59-22:00
It's not gonna last forever.
22:02-22:07
But saved souls in heaven will last forever.
22:11-22:12
What's he telling us to do?
22:12-22:14
He's telling us to invest in missions.
22:15-22:16
Invest in the mission here.
22:17-22:20
Invest in missions abroad.
22:22-22:28
Invest in ministries that are using an open door for outreach as a result of this hurricane.
22:32-22:33
These hurricanes.
22:34-22:39
He's talking about investing in things like, I don't know, what were these three guys up here talking about a few minutes ago?
22:41-22:46
A church building to reach more people in our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
22:46-22:49
Making that kind of an investment will win you eternal friends.
22:52-22:58
will get you an eternal return on investment.
23:02-23:25
You know, back in 2010, when I was invited to go to Chicago to train to plant this church, when you move out there, the organization, they get you and your family an apartment and they give you like a monthly stipend to live on because they didn't want you to work outside of, they just wanted you to train, right?
23:25-23:28
So they're like, we're gonna feed you, we'll put you up, we just want you to train.
23:28-23:34
But part of that deal meant that we had to raise a chunk of our support.
23:36-23:41
And we needed to raise about $9,000 that I didn't have.
23:41-23:43
Anybody got $9,000 on you right now?
23:43-23:46
Like you can just drop, I didn't have that.
23:48-23:53
So we had to raise that portion of the support.
23:55-24:08
There was a kid in the church, a farmer, he was a farmer, I was good friends with his parents, and their son is a farmer, they were farmers.
24:09-24:17
And he raised a steer that he entered into the Butler Farm Show.
24:17-24:22
And wouldn't you know it, that year, this kid won.
24:26-24:27
Actually, the steer won.
24:29-24:31
But it was this kid's steer.
24:36-24:42
And the steer was purchased on the spot for an insane amount of money.
24:43-24:47
Corporations will come in and buy it up, and that's what happened.
24:47-24:51
I think the gas company bought this steer for a lot of money.
24:54-25:24
That little boy went through his parents and said, "Hey, is it okay if I tithe on the money "that I got from this steer to send Pastor Jeff "to Chicago to train?" You know, I saw that little boy because I was really close, actually, also with his grandmother, and she had passed away recently, and I saw him at the funeral.
25:24-25:25
He's not a little boy anymore.
25:27-25:29
He's a strapping young man.
25:32-25:38
And at the funeral home, I pulled him aside, and his name's Jake.
25:39-25:53
I said, "Jake, I gotta tell you something." I said, "Do you know our church is reaching "a lot of people in our community?
25:55-25:57
"And recently we just baptized a bunch of people.
25:58-26:12
"And do you know with our church, we stream these services "and I get messages literally from all over the world." I was telling this young man, I said, "I get messages from Africa, from all over Asia.
26:12-26:13
"I get messages from people.
26:13-26:16
"We watch you every week, we follow this ministry.
26:17-26:26
"Thank you for ministering God's Word to us." And I get messages from all over the United States, "Watch you every week, we appreciate your ministry.
26:27-26:32
"Thank you." I said, "We have been able to reach people with the gospel.
26:33-26:42
"And we have been able to support missions, "not just locally, but internationally." And I put my arm around him and I said, "You know what, Jake?
26:44-27:02
"All of this happened "because a little boy sold a cow." So do you think that there are going to be people in heaven someday waiting for him to show up?
27:04-27:05
Like, we know what you did.
27:06-27:10
And we just wanted to say thank you for making an investment.
27:12-27:14
and a ministry that reached me with the gospel.
27:18-27:44
You know, I can't imagine there's anyone in heaven right now looking back at their time on earth saying, "I just wish that I would have spent more money on trinkets and movies." But I imagine there are some people thinking, "You know, if I could go back and do it over again, I'd spend more money on advancing the kingdom by winning people.
27:46-27:47
So that's the first question you have to ask yourself.
27:48-27:50
Are you going to have an eternal ROI?
27:51-27:55
Well, do you use money to win people?
27:57-27:59
That's the whole point of Jesus' story.
28:01-28:03
But Jesus doesn't stop there, he goes on.
28:03-28:08
Second question you have to ask yourself, am I going to have an eternal ROI?
28:08-28:11
Now question number two is this, what am I doing with money right now?
28:13-28:14
Look at verse 10.
28:17-28:23
He says, "One who is faithful in a very little "is also faithful in much.
28:23-28:32
"And one who is dishonest in a very little "is also dishonest in much." Now this is an obvious truth, right?
28:32-28:36
The amount of money that you have doesn't determine faithfulness.
28:37-28:38
Your character does.
28:40-28:41
Listen, here's the thing.
28:42-28:56
If you really believe, I mean, if you really believe, and I know some of you do, but if you really believe that there's an eternal ROI, you're going to invest in the kingdom no matter how much you have.
28:57-28:59
You're gonna give a part of what you have.
29:02-29:08
But if you don't really believe, You're not gonna honor God with a little bit.
29:09-29:15
And you wouldn't honor God even if you had a lot because listen, that's just who you are.
29:18-29:19
That's just who you are.
29:23-29:24
Think of it this way.
29:25-29:39
A little kid who gives to God a portion of his allowance is going to become a teenager who gives to God a portion of his part-time job earnings.
29:41-29:42
I've seen that again and again.
29:43-29:46
If you're faithful with a little, you're gonna be faithful with a lot.
29:50-29:53
But if you're unfaithful with a little, Jesus said you're gonna be unfaithful with much.
29:54-30:02
Because my friends, if you wouldn't give God 10% of 1,000, I promise you, you wouldn't give God 10% of 100,000.
30:05-30:13
And this truth of Jesus right here just completely destroys all of our if onlys.
30:15-30:17
Oh, I hear this all the time.
30:18-30:23
Oh, Pastor Jeff, if I had more, if I had more, I'd give.
30:24-30:30
Oh, Pastor Jeff, if I had it, I would give to the church.
30:30-30:32
I would help you pay for that building.
30:32-30:34
Oh, Pastor Jeff, if I had more, I'd give.
30:34-30:36
And I say with all due respect, no, you wouldn't.
30:38-30:38
You wouldn't.
30:43-30:51
Because you see, Jesus isn't asking, what would you do with hypothetical money?
30:54-30:56
He's saying, what are you doing with the money you have right now?
31:01-31:58
This implies that we're always being tested little things. We're always being tested. You know, it's sort of like you have a kid who wants a puppy and parents give a little test to say, "Well, you know, let's get him a goldfish first. And if you can keep the goldfish alive, then we'll talk about a puppy. And we watch the kid to see, is he feeding the fish? Is he cleaning the tank? Is he taking it for walks? I don't know what you do with a goldfish, but you get the point. You test with a little. What you do with a little, you'll do with a lot. And my friends, you need to see, there's people here, they're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I don't You don't have very much.
31:59-32:06
That little bit that you have, you need to look at that as a goldfish because your heavenly Father is watching what you do with that.
32:08-32:09
Like, can I trust him with more?
32:10-32:11
Can I give her more?
32:17-32:19
God wants to see how you're handling it.
32:22-32:35
I've had people tell me over the years, you know, Pastor Jeff, if I hit the lottery, hit the lottery I'd give." And I'm like, "Don't play the lottery." You know what else you shouldn't do though?
32:36-32:43
Don't tell me, and absolutely do not tell God what you would do with money you don't have.
32:46-32:50
Because the truth is God is looking at what you're doing with money right now.
32:54-32:54
Right?
32:55-32:57
What are you doing with it right now?
32:57-33:07
Number three, same train of thought here, but question number three is this, would God say that I'm faithful with his money?
33:09-33:11
What you have in verse 11 and 12 are parallel statements.
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You're gonna see God wants to give us true riches of our own, that's the treasure in heaven, but he's not gonna give it to us if we're unfaithful with his money on earth.
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Look at verse 11.
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Jesus says, "If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?" Jesus said, "If you can't handle a little bit of just earthly cash, who's going to give you treasure in heaven?" Look at verse 12.
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He says, "And if you have not been faithful and that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?
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If you can't handle someone else's money, gods, you won't be given your own.
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You know, that's opposite of how we say that, right?
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Do you notice that?
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That's opposite.
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We say, if you can't be trusted with your own stuff, then you can't be trusted with somebody else's.
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That's how we say it.
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Like for example, if you completely trash your car and you need to borrow a vehicle and you come to me, I would say, "No, no, no, no, no.
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"I've seen how you take care of your car.
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"And if you're gonna trash your car, "you can't borrow mine." But see, that's not how Jesus said it.
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He said it completely opposite.
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Jesus is saying, "If you can't handle my money, I'm not going to give you your own." So do you want an eternal ROI?
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Jesus said, "It's given to those who are faithful with God's money during this life." You're a good steward now, you're going to be an owner in heaven.
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Would God say that you're faithful with his money?
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Then finally, last and I would say maybe most important, the question that all of these other questions, you know, sort of fall under this, am I serving God or money?
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Look at verse 13.
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No servant can serve two masters.
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Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God in money.
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Someone or something has your attention, has your devotion, has your energy, and your time, and your focus, and it's either God or money.
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And the question is, who are you serving?
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Who are you serving?
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Because it can't be both.
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Do you notice like this time of year, I'm a little bit on edge.
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Do you know why?
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Do you know what's bothering me?
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Halloween.
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Do you know why?
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It's nothing you did.
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It's from a previous ministry.
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Years, I dreaded when the calendar turned to October because there were two camps in the church.
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There was one camp that said, "Pastor Jeff, we need to offer a trick-or-treat alternative "because if we don't, we're telling the kids "they need to be all trick-or-treating, "and that is bad, we need to offer an alternative." And then there was another equally vocal group that said, "Offering a trick-or-treat alternative "means we're imitating the world, "we're acting just like the world, "we need to stand out from the world, "we shouldn't offer an alternative." So every year I about had a nervous breakdown because as a pastor, believe me, what I want to do is serve you.
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But I had two opposite sides that I could not serve them both at the same time.
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So every year I was gonna get a beating from someone.
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So I had to decide who do I want it from this year?
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But you see my point, it's the same principle with God and money.
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They're opposing masters.
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And opposing masters demand opposing things.
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You can't go down a path that will allow you to serve God and money at the same time.
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So why is Jesus bringing that up here?
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Because this is the obstacle for honoring God with his stuff on earth.
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It's the attitude that keeps people from coming to church this month.
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It's the attitude that says, no one's telling me what to do with my money.
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I earned it, it belongs to me.
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It's mine.
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Now, you're serving money when you have that attitude.
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Because notice Jesus didn't say, "Well, you know what, children?
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You shouldn't try to serve God and money." Jesus said you cannot serve God in money, but you can serve God with money.
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And when you get that, ultimately, the benefit's gonna be yours, because you're not only going to bless people by winning friends who are going to greet you in heaven, but you're also going to have an everlasting treasure that's waiting for you there, an eternal ROI.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, there is so much about this passage of your word that runs contrary to the way that we normally think.
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And I'm sure there are people who are digging their heels in at the thought of even talking about money, but Jesus didn't shy away from that.
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And we're not shying away from repeating.
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Father, I pray this month we would all take a fresh look at the purpose of money.
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And here Jesus said we can use it to win friends for eternity, to make an investment in eternity.
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And if we really believe that, we'd have to be pretty stupid to not go after that.
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So Father, I pray for repentance that starts in a changing of our minds where we reevaluate whose stuff it is and what we're doing with it.
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That Father, you put us on a course that we would honor you with what you're allowing to pass through our hands.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 16:1-13
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Explain, in your own words, the lesson of the parable of the dishonest manager. What was Jesus’ point?
“If I had more money, I’d give.” According to Jesus in Luke 16:10, is this true? Why or why not?
What, exactly, are “the true riches” (Luke 16:11, aka “treasure in heaven”)? What will they look like?
Breakout
Pray for one another.