Sermon Tone Analysis

Read: Luke 16:1-9

16 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee?

give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

4 I am 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 lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?

6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil.

And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.

7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou?

And he said, An hundred measures of wheat.

And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Formalities:

Unto those that hear and do the word of our Lord, Jesus likens you unto the wise man that built his house upon the rock.

Prayerfully: “Using What You Have to Get What You Need”

(Thank you ushers you may be seated)

First, I want to give reverence to Jehovah the center of my life,

His son Jesus Christ who saved my life,

And to his Holy Spirit that enables me to live this life.

Honor to my wife and family

Honor to the deacons of Mt.

Nebo Baptist Church and their family.

Honor to the families that make up Mt.

Nebo

Honor to our visitors and guest

Honor to those watching virtually

Background

Jesus is continuing the series of parables that he started telling in Chapter 15.

He is audience is made of his disciples, pharisees, publicans and sinners.

This particular is more directed to the disciples.

It comes after the parable of the prodigal son and before parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

This is a good bridge parable between the two because you have a steward that mishandles the resources of the rich man he works for.

The rich man thinks that his servant has only been mishandling his resources, but it becomes obvious that he has probably been stealing his money.

When the servant is told that he will be let go, he doesn’t change his ways but doubles down by erasing some of the debt of those that owes his master money.

He hopes that they will remember him when his stewardship ends and take him into their homes.

When the rich man finds out what his wicked servant has done, he praises him for his shrewd dealings!

As unbelievable as it sounds it is this shrewd servant that Jesus wants us to emulate.

Now you know Jesus doesn’t want us to be thieves and robbers so there must be more to this parable than meets the eye.

Intro

You ever heard of a crime so audacious that you applaud the criminal’s ingenuity.

I mean if they would take the time and skills, they used to commit that crime, and do something legal, imagine what good they could accomplish.

In this parable of the Shrewd Servant, it seems that Jesus has the same thought.

On the surface it seems unbelievable that Jesus would give praise to this unscrupulous servant for his craftiness, but when you dig deeper into the parable you see that Jesus was trying to show us how to use what we have to get what we need.

How do we use what we have to get what we need, we first must have a reality check.

1. Reality Check (1-3)

a.

We All Must Give Up Our Stewardship (1-2)

16 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee?

give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

The steward had to face the reality that his time there was coming to an end.

Because of his mishandling of his stewardship, he was going to be out of a job soon.

We are not told how much time he had only that his time as a steward for the rich man was to soon come to an end.

The master’s mind had been made up, there was an appointed time that the steward would have to give an account for his service.

The blessing was that the steward still had time.

The rich man could have immediately fired him, but he was gracious and gave him time.

For everyone that hears me today, God has been gracious to us.

He has given us time that we don’t deserve.

In this parable the stewardship is our life.

God has made us stewards over the life he has given us.

The body’s we have come from dust and when we die, they will go back to dust.

Let me give you a reality check, none of us are getting out of here alive.

Unless the raptures come first, we all must die.

Everything we call ours is the Lords we are but stewards over it for a little while.

Every year we get, every month we get, every day, hour, and second that we get is an undeserved blessing from God, but don’t take it for granted.

We all have an appointed time to where we too must give up our stewardship and give an account for what we have down while in this body.

Once you come to realization that your stewardship will end then we must ask ourselves where will go.

b.

Where Will We Go (3)

3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship:

This is the question we all must face, what comes next.

What I am to do with the knowledge of knowing that my life will come to an end.

Some chose to ignore it or put it off indefinitely.

They just keep kicking the can down the road.

This steward faced the question head on and so should you.

For those of you that have already made the right decision and chose Christ this is still a question you should ask yourself.

I have chosen Christ I will go to heaven, but have you prepared for your home going.

For there are rewards there that are based off what you do here.

You can’t take treasure to heaven, but you can send your treasures on ahead of you.

Again, this is a question for the save and the unsaved.

For the unsaved it is a matter of destination: Heaven or Hell.

For the save it is a matter of rewards or lack thereof.

c.

Current Destination

I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

He knew what he was faced with when he left his stewardship.

There was no illusion of what was waiting for him.

Unless he changed something his fate was sealed.

We all come into this world headed for hell.

Don’t believe the lie that only bad people go to hell.

Many people believe that they have lived a good life and deserve to go heaven.

Not because they are great people, but because they are not bad people.

They can list a number of things they have never done and think that justifies them going to Heaven.

We are not hell bound because of what we do, but because of who we are.

We are born into sin.

John 3:18

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

It is not about what you have done but what you haven’t done, which is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.