Sermon Tone Analysis

In 1944 during World War II, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese army to the remote Philippine island of Lubang to conduct guerrilla warfare against the U.S. and her allies.

After a failed attempt to blow up a pier, and with only four members of his unit left, they receded into the jungle to await rescue or reinforcements.

Living in the jungle they pulled guard duty, went on patrols, lived in foxholes… they did everything one does while surviving in a combat environment and they managed to stay alive and avoid capture.

Almost a year later, the war between Japan and the allies came to an end; both sides put down their weapons and went home to the rest of their lives.

Unfortunately, Onoda and his unit were thought dead and were never officially told that the war was over.

They continued to live in the jungle, subsist on bananas and coconuts, huddle together in the rain, and managed to evade search parties whom they believed to be enemy scouts.

Years ticked by and eventually the men died off one by one until only Onoda was left.

Finally, on March 19, 1972, after almost thirty years, Onoda was found and told that the war was over.

Needless to say, he was devastated.

Can you imagine living day in and day out that long for a cause or purpose only in the end to discover that it was a lie?

That it meant nothing?

What a waste!

NEED:

 Think about it.

How would you feel if you lived 60, 70 or even 80 years here in this life, even as a believer, only to discover in eternity that much of your activity and effort had little eternal value?

Did you know that was even possible?

Jesus says it is.

How?

Because of the way we use His money and resources.

Indeed, it is very possible that even someone here this morning may look back on life and say “What a waste!

You mean I could have had this blessing in my life and that opportunity and I could have participated with God in what he was doing over there and, and…”, but of course by then it will be too late.

It does not have to be that way beloved.

He has given us today and He has given instructions from His Word on:

 

 

 

SUBJECT:

*SLIDE 1 (7 seconds)*

*“HOW NOT TO WASTE YOUR LIFE”.*

Those of you who are new or just visiting our congregation may not realize it but, we here at Clear Lake Bible Church do not preach on money very often.

Yet, like any other difficult subject we come to in God’s Word, we strive to lovingly, yet faithfully declare what God says about the matter and then… let the chips fall where they may.

Jesus talked a lot about money In fact, Jesus talked about the subject of money more than he did about adultery, lying, murder, or drunkenness combined!

So we address this subject this morning because we are convinced that:

*SLIDE 2 (8 seconds)*

*“Whatever God has made prominent in His Word, He intended to be conspicuous in our lives.”*

*/Charles Spurgeon/*

TEXT:

Therefore, turn with me if you would to the book of Luke.

Luke chapter sixteen… we will be studying verses one through thirteen.

PREVIEW:

In Luke sixteen verses one through thirteen, Jesus told a parable to His disciples about the way a shrewd manager used his master’s money- in order to illustrate how the use of God’s money affects our future, tests’ our character, determines our reward, and identifies our master.

BACKGROUND:

In fact, this section of Luke is demonstrative of how often the Lord dealt with the issue of money.

Prior to chapter sixteen, every single chapter in the Gospel of Luke contains at least one reference or teaching on the subject of money or possessions.

The reason?

Because the people of His day was very much like the people today and money and passions were an issue in people’s lives.

The crowds that Jesus is so famous for attracting were made up of people from several different levels of society.

First there were those who the bible calls disciples.

Disciples are simply “learners” and the term does not always refer necessarily to the 12 disciples.

These were people at various stages of commitment and understanding about who Jesus was and exactly what kind of life He was calling them to emulate.

Secondly, there were those who were simply curious about the popular miracle worker.

These were observers, people who either lived nearby or those who happened to be traveling along the highways and byways of Judea and Galilee where Jesus spent much of His ministry.

Thirdly, the crowds consisted of religious leaders like the Pharisees and scribes or, other influential people.

People of means and power like tax collectors, rulers, and business men.

Consequently, when Jesus directed His teaching about himself and the Kingdom of God to His disciples there were others in the audience who were indirectly exposed to Truth.

I compare it to the situation in our own day where we have an apologists and an atheist debate in a public forum.

The real benefit with this arrangement lies in the reality that it is the person in the audience that is receptive to truth who is the benefactor of conversion and not the atheist.

The apologists and atheist are simply agents.

So it is to this type of crowd that Jesus directs this parable about the shrewd manager and explains how:

*SLIDE 3 (7 seconds)*

*The use of God’s money affects our future.

*

*/(Vv.1-9)./*

*/ /*

Read luke 16:1-9-

 

 I.

The use of God’s money affects our future (vv.

1-9):

The rich man in the parable refers to an owner of an estate.

Similar to today’s business world, the responsibility of managing the day to day affairs was delegated to capable people.

These were usually slaves that lived in the household and managed all of the duties for the master.

These stewards or, managers were often paid a separate wage on top of room and board or, collected a fee from each transaction he made on behalf of his master’s goods.

Well evidently the steward in this parable was accused of squandering, (the word means literally to “scatter”), the master’s resources and so the master told him to turn in all his records because he was being fired.

The steward knew that that the jig was up and that the easy life was over.

No more sleeping in late and getting to work whenever he wanted to.

No more charging so called –business trips down to Lake Galilee or extravagant feasts for his buddies in Jerusalem on festival days.

It was over.

Additionally, verses 3 and 4 tell us that the steward was at least honest enough to admit that begging for a living or getting a real job was out of the question so, he all of a sudden gets ambitious and comes up with a plan to secure for himself a comfortable future.

Notice how all of the ability and skill for which his master had probably originally hired him was now coming to the surface to save his own skin!

The evidence of just how negligent he was is seen in verse 5 when he asked one of his boss’s debtors “How much do you owe my master?”

I mean how often does your banker call you and want to know how much is left on your mortgage?

I do not know about you but my lender tends to know exactly how much I owe!

He then has the debtor reduce the original amount- one by fifty percent and another by twenty percent.

Scholars are unclear whether the manager forgave these amounts that were due is master- thereby ripping him off or if the steward just removed his own commission that he was to collect for the transaction.

Personally, I think it was the latter but, either way the point was that the manager knew how to use his master’s resources to benefit other people and thereby secure his own future.

Verse 8 tells us that even though he was ripped off –

the master could not help but admire the dishonest manager’s clever way of handling his circumstances.

In verse 8 we notice that the Lord finished the parable with this observation:

*SLIDE 4 (7 Seconds)*

*“For the sons of this age are more astute than the *

*sons of light in dealing with their own people.”*

*(v.8b)*

The “sons of this age” that Jesus referred to were the people who were focused and concerned only with the here and now.

They were those who Paul later described in Ephesians 2:2 as those who “walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit who is now working in the disobedient”.

They were people who were unbelievers in the God of Israel.

The “sons of light” were of course believers in the crowd who anticipated God’s kingdom and should have been actively engaged in the missional purpose of God.

This purpose was for the nation of Israel, which Pastor Jim has been covering in our current study of Romans, was to be His representative on earth by what Isaiah described as being “a light to the Gentiles”.

Incidentally, instead of Jesus coming to a nation that was faithfully pursuing God’s purpose in the world, he encountered a nation that was largely self-indulgent, exclusive and nearly impotent in their ability to represent Him.

He makes this contrast to remind those hearing the parable that in God’s economy there are only two kingdoms and everyone is in one or the other.

Moreover, people’s lives are lived in such a way, whether they realize it or not, that contributes to one kingdom or the other.

So He tells them in verse 9- “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous money, so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings’.

What has troubled so many is the notion that Jesus would commend criminal behavior.

But this misses the point which Jesus went on to make.

Christ’s point was simply that the worldly understand how to use money to prepare for their future here and now.

In contrast, God’s people seem unaware that the use of money has an impact on eternity!

Well after the Lord taught His disciples that the use of money affects our future, He went on to explain further that: