The unrighteous manager
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07-03-2022
Welcome to Maranatha
This morning we continue to look at some of the parables of Jesus
This particular parable this morning will seem a bit difficult and not the normal for Jesus's teachings
So lets just dive in
1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 ‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And 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?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
This just seems really odd
In my Bible its titled the Parable of the Dishonest Manager
And you would think that it would be easy right
We can see clearly that that manager is wrong in everything he has done
He is a thief, a liar, and cheat
Seems pretty simple doesn't it
Except Jesus is teaching those who are following Him
This is to those who are already following Jesus knowing full well that it will cost them their lives to continue to follow Jesus
These people stuck around
Jesus is in essence speaking to His followers
He begins to share with the parable
It begins with a master who employs a manager
This manager is someone who was more than likely in charge of the financials of his master
He is charged with being dishonest
And in the parable the manager does not give a response to being accused of being dishonest
Its as if he sees the writing on the wall and starts to think ahead
Sort of like preparing for life after being a manager
So before he is let go he goes to the people who owe the master money
He cuts deals with them in a hurry to make himself look good in their eyes
It would seem he is painting himself in a good light in the eyes of those people who owe his master money
Just maybe he is preparing himself for a job when he is let go, knowing he will be let go
Now Jesus is going to continue using the parable but it will seem very very odd
8 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Seem very confusing right
The master is praising the bad manager
He is praising the bad manager because he acted shrewdness
He took the opportunity to make friends
In fact he used the masters money to make friends
Jesus in the middle of verse 8 begins to shine a light on the fact that children of God do not take the opportunity they are given much of the time
See people of the world jump at opportunities
They do a great job of taking opportunities to make money, to make friends, to get ahead in this life
And after all of that, that still leads no where
So you have a lot of friends, so you have a lot of money, so you have a bunch of initials after your name that make you very important
Let me very very clear, without Jesus you still die and go to heaven
I believe that Jesus is calling us as believers or children of Light to take the opportunity
Take the opportunity just like the dishonest manager did
Now Jesus is not saying that we need to take opportunities to cheat people and steal from people
But we need to take the opportunity to share the Gospel with people
In fact we as managers here on earth are to take the money given to us and use it for the Glory of God
Church we are to be good stewards of Gods money
Remember it is 100% His and he only asks us to give a little back to Him out of obedience
And then we are charged with the 90% left over
We don’t get to spend it as we want
We should be spending it wisely
To look at the opportunities where God will be glorified and where you can invest in eternal things
The sad part is, is that as believers we give but we think the remaining money is ours to spend like we want and sadly we spend just like the world on wasteful world things
When as believers we are to more concerned with the eternal but we are not
And dare I say it church we could even take this deeper than just money but time and energies and talents and gifts
How are you spending those that God has given you
It should almost scare us a bit that we will have to account for how we spent the money, the energy, the talent, and the gifts God has given us
And church we have opportunities for you to use them
Right now please hear this
You have opportunities just like the bad manager to make friends, only you can make friends for Jesus if we are willing to take the opportunities
To step out in faith, to sacrifice our life for Jesus only to be given true life
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
There are plenty of people to share Jesus with
There are plenty of friends to made for Jesus
If only we will take those opportunities
You may say well pastor I am not trained enough, good we have a Gospel minute every Sunday
We have training the last Sunday of every month on how to share your faith
But Pastor I can’t make that, I have a ballgame, or family event, or a game on TV, or I am just to tired
There you have it
We don’t have enough workers because we are not willing to take those opportunities to make friends for Jesus
Do you know how Isaiah responded when the Lord needed someone to Go tell the people about God
Isaiah said Here I am Send Me!
We need to be like Isaiah and take those opportunities to make friends for Jesus, to share our faith with a lost world
10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
We have said it earlier but you and I will stand before God and we will give an account on how we used what the Lord has given us
Jesus is speaking about money here
How you and I have used our money
Have we used it for the Glory of God and the gain of heaven or have we used it as the world would
We now that money itself is not evil but oh how quickly it turns people
The love and desire of money is evil
For those that love money it controls your life
The age old question said last week, how much is enough money
The answer is just one more dollar
God is saying that if we cant use this right, then how can we be expected to use what else God has given us right
We can’t
If we as children of God are not faithful in the use of the money then we won’t be faithful in the use of the true riches God can give us
This hit me this week as I was reading over this and praying about it
I don’t think I have been faithful in the small things as the Pastor
I struggle to be in the here and now, I am always looking in the future and trying to please people
The small things would be there here and now, the small things would be the fellowship today, the small conversations today
If we are not faithful in the small things, we cannot we won’t be faithful in the large things God wants to give us
And the reason is because we are not running fully after God
Last we talked about Jesus as your #1 priority in life
13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 14 Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.
Again Jesus is talking about money now
But this rings true for everything
You can replace money with anything and it is still wrong
You cannot serve Jesus and money at the same time
You cannot serve Jesus and your career at the same time
You cannot serve Jesus and family at the same time
Do you understand that anything over Jesus is wrong not matter how much you justify it?
The Pharisees justified things before men to seem and act right
But
But if we make God our master then money becomes our servant to be used for the glory of God
If we make God our master then our career becomes our servant to be used for the glory of God
If we make God our master then our families become our servant to be used for the glory of God
If God is our master then we can and will take those opportunities to make friends for Jesus
So church as we wrap this up and call the band up
I would invite you to the front if you don’t have a personal relationship to speak with someone who can show you through scripture how you are to repent and trust in the Lord and you can be a new creation and have true life
I would also invite you up to the front if you are already a believer and have acted or been teh bad manager
Maybe you have not used what God has given for the glory of God and you need to repent and run to Jesus
Or maybe you want to join the Body of Believers at Maranatha
Or maybe you just need to spend sometime in prayer
The altar is open