Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION - SHOW PIC OF KYLE MCDONALD

I don’t know if you recognize him, but you are looking at Kyle McDonald.

Though he may not look like it in this picture, you’re looking at a great steward.

It all started with this (SHOW PAPERCLIP): One red paperclip.

Kyle used it to start a series of trades which he hoped would end in him trading for a house.

How did it turn out?

Well, on July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.

The pen was traded the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle.

On July 25, he went to Amherst Mass and traded the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).

On Sep 24, he went to San Clemente, Ca.

Where he traded the camp stove for a Honda Generator.

On November 16 he traded the generator for an “instant party”: an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg wiht the beer or the holder’s choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.

On Dec 8, he traded the “instant party” for a Ski-doo Snowmobile.

Then he traded the snowmobile for a two person trip to Yahk, British Columbia in Feb of 2006.

A little before that, on Jan 7, ‘06, the second person on the Yahk trip gave him a cube van fo rhe privilege which he traded on Feb 22 for a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto.

On April 11, he traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year’s rent in Phoenix.

On May 26, he traded the year’s rent for one afternoon with Alice Cooper (though I can’t imagine why), then traded afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe.

On June 2, he traded the snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.

Then on July 5, less than one year from his first trade of the paper clip, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.

Not bad stewardship of his paperclip, huh?

I’m afraid that my management often slips in the other direction.

I tend to end up, not with more than I started, but with much less.

I don’t think I am sometimes a very good resource manager.

I’m more like the guy Luke 16 talks about.

He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

Alright, I’m feeling convicted already because I know that my management often doesn’t measure up.

And the reason I feel convicted is because of what happens next in this story.

Jesus continues

So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

Uh-oh.

He’s been called on the carpet.

His mismanagement finally caught up with him.

The check has bounced.

The bank has called and the overdraft charges are coming due.

What’s more, the boss knows what is happening and is telling him, he’s about to be fired.

What does this steward do?

Watch:

3 “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do?

For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.

I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

5 “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’

So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’

So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’

And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

Hey, this money manager has been lazy, irresponsible, perhaps even dishonest.

He has blown through his master’s money like it belong to him.

When verse 1 says he was wasting his master’s goods the idea is that he was being reckless and uncaring, so the Master says.

“Get all the books together.

Bring all the receipts.

I’m going to sit down and just see what you’ve been doing, then I’m going to fire you and cut you loose.

Well how would you feel?

Probably a lot like this guy.

He begins to be afraid.

You see, in that culture, the position that he had was a highly prized job.

He had access to his master’s wealth and his importance gave him cultural respect.

He looks around thinking, “What am I going to do? I’m about to lose my job.

I’m too old to dig ditches.

I’m too proud to go around and beg people for food, especially people who have had to look up to me.

What am I going to do?”

NEED

Can you relate to this guy?

Maybe today you’re in a place where you’re looking over your shoulder.

You’re in a bad financial mess.

You could have scraped by, even though you haven’t made the wisest financial decisions, if the economy had stayed strong.

But it didn’t.

It’s in the tank and now your poor stewardship is catching up with you.

If only you’d made better decisions, but now you need the money you blew and it just isn’t happening.

Maybe your poor stewardship has been revealed in the eternal investments you’ve neglected.

You should have been tithing over your Christian life, but you haven’t been.

You’ve not been giving to God, and you don’t even think you can start now.

You’re in such a financial mess that you are dreading the day when your eternal Master taps you on the shoulder and says, “It’s time to come home, and when you get here, we need to sit down with your books and all your receipts and see how you managed my money.”

Maybe you’re here because you lost your job through no fault of your own and now you face an uncertain future.

Whatever the situation, there’s one thing you know: Your stewardship must change.

BACKGROUND:

Well, the good news is that it can, indeed change.

This steward’s surely did.

Notice what he does in v 5

5 “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’

So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’

So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’

And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

This guys plan is to open his own discount pricing store.

His first customer owes 100 measures of oil.

According to my study 100 measures of oil equated to 875 gallons, or the yield of nearly 150 olive trees.

This would have equalled about 3 years wages.

The second customer owed 100 measures of wheat.

This was 1100 bushels or the yield of about 100 acres of grain.

This would have equalled 8-10 years of salary.

Hey, that was a real bargain and I’m sure the guys who received all that were grateful.

Which was the point.

That was the plan.

This steward hoped that, by being so kind to his customers, that when he was kicked outon the street by his Master, the people he helped would turn around and help him.

Now, I know what some might be thinking.