Last week, we were going through the parable of the prodigal son—prodigal meaning somebody who squanders resources. Today, we're going to be talking about the prodigal manager, another person who is squandering resources. Jesus is going to use this illustration to prove one main point, but he's going to give us a lot of principles as he proves out this point. That’s what we'll get into today. Let's pray, and then we'll dive into the scripture. Father, we just thank you for the opportunity to come together to worship you, to hear your word proclaimed. And Father, I pray that we would be open to receive what you are going to impart today. That we would grab hold of those things that are important for us, and not lose sight of what it is you want to communicate. Father, I pray that we would put our cares to the side today so we can listen clearly for you, and Father, I just ask that you speak through me today, that your word would just come forth with clarity and Father, that your will be done during our time together, in Jesus' name, amen.
So, we're dealing with this idea of stewardship, and we're talking in the context of a wealthy man and his business manager. And so, just to put things in context for this time in history, when a government would hire a tax collector or a businessman would hire a business manager, part of that arrangement was, "Here's what's owed; now you go collect whatever you want to collect, and you get to keep the remainder." That was your commission, if you will, for doing that work. And so, that's the setting for this story.
He said to the disciples—and the thing we also want to understand, because we're going to see this next week, he's not just speaking to the disciples. The Pharisees are in earshot as well, because they are looking to set him up to entrap him. So, it's a broader audience he's really laying the table for where we're gonna go next week as well.
He said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions." And he called him and said to him, "What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager." So the picture of this is a very wealthy owner. He has hired this businessman, or this business manager, to follow up with his desires, his goals, his agenda, and to do things in a manner that would reflect the owner's heart. But he gets word that what the manager is doing is he's being unfaithful in his job. And so, as he hears this, he calls the manager in to give an account, and then he adds these words to it: "You're fired."
Now, the thing we want to understand with this is the whole problem was that the manager wasn't being faithful with what's been entrusted to him. And what that really comes down to is, "You're not keeping my heart in the matter. You're not doing what I would do in the matter. What you're doing is you're looking out for yourself." And that's what I'm hearing. And because of that, you're fired.
Now, hearing this—and this is one of my favorite parts of this story—the manager said to himself, "What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg." Well, give the guy credit, at least he's willing to say, "I'm lazy, and I'm not willing to stand at the intersection with a sign that says 'Need Help.'" What am I going to do? My way of life is being disrupted. If you're in any type of business role where you're trying to hire people these days, don't you wish people would just be honest about some of that too? "I'm lazy, I'm going to sit and take up oxygen in space and not do my work, and you're still going to have to fire me." Wouldn't that be nice, to where you could just say, "Great, move on"? But that's not what happens. That's the challenge that we sometimes face.
But here's the key to this: he realizes, "I'm not going to be able to make it if I don't do something because the meal ticket has come to an end, the gravy train has moved on." And so, he begins to think about what should his options be, and he says, "Aha!" Verse 4: "I've decided what to do so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses." So he's beginning to think about what's the future going to look like. "Well, wait a minute, I know what I can do, so at least when I'm out of work, have no money, people will still bring me in, feed me, and take care of me."
And so, verse 5 is his plan: So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" 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." Just to give you some perspective on this, with the oil, those measures equal 875 gallons. This is multiple years' worth of work. The wheat comes out to about a thousand to 1200 bushels. These aren't small amounts. These are large figures. These are a lot of effort and time to acquire those resources.
And so, we get to this—this is where the parable gets a little, "What did he just say?" The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Wait a minute, wasn't the master losing out? Like, if they owed this much and the bill got cut, aren't you robbing the master? Why would the master commend them? Let's go back to the context. Remember, as a business manager, he was charging a commission on top of it. And so, when he slashed, he was slashing his take. And so, the manager is looking, going, "You know, that's pretty resourceful. You're getting fired, but at least you slashed your part so people would like you and still be willing to help you out."
Now, here's the first kingdom principle for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And so, bear with me for a few minutes because we're going to financially nerd out for a minute. Is that okay? Because remember, I'm a financial geek. I love watching this stuff.
Here's what this looks like in a practical sense. If you were to study right now, central banks around the world, most central banks are beginning to look at switching to a digital currency. So, when I was in Kenya with Scott last month, my role in our teaching is to teach business concepts to pastors. And so, I told them, "Do you realize that the Kenyan central bank is currently doing a listening session on their plan to switch you over to a digital currency?" And all of these pastors' eyes glazed over, and they went, "What's digital currency?" I said, "Well, let me help explain this to you. It means that you'll no longer have paper money that you transfer. It will all be electronic, and because it's all electronic, your central bank will know where every shilling goes. You cannot pay Johnny 20 shillings to mow your lawn. It's all trapped because it's all tracked. It's all taxable. You, as a church, all of your giving will be traced because it's electronic. Do you understand that?"
And then I said, "That's why is it that I, as an American, are here telling you about this? You should be telling me." This was the point that Jesus was making. Sometimes, the world is more astute to the things of the world than the people of God are. Sometimes, we settle for ignorance. And I'm not saying you have to become a student of all this, but what I'm saying is, we can't settle for ignorance, because Jesus instructed us, "Know the seasons. Know the season you're in."
When I read some of these economic things, I don't freak out about the economic side. I'm like, "Man, we got to get serious about sharing the message of Christ with people because the world's going to get chaotic." Even this morning, in our elders' prayer time, we were discussing the fact that many of the conversations we're having right now are with people within the congregation and in the community who are anxious and overly stressed out. And because they are anxious and overly stressed out, they are looking for places of escape. Unfortunately, they're not good places of escape. So, it's hurting marriages, it's hurting families, it's hurting all sorts of things. But what it comes down to is preparation. Are we using the tools wisely?
So, let's keep going through this. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of the world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Now, here's the next big principle. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. In the Greek, the word that's used there is "mammon." And what "mammon" means is it's all of your possessions. So, it's not just money. It's your wealth. It's the entirety of what you have, your resources. And so, what Jesus is saying is, you need to use that for a specific purpose so that when it fails, these relationships will be of value.
So, let me explain this principle to you. What he's really saying is, "Go use your unrighteous wealth that's going to go away at some point, and build relationships because the relationships are the lasting thing. The relationships are the kingdom thing. Relationships are how we make disciples."
Let me give you a couple of illustrations on this as well. So, in 2008, we planted a church in Corpus Christi, Texas, and it was in the skid row area of Corpus Christi. It's called "The Cut." And one of the things we felt like God was saying to us is, "You have to live by faith in planting this church," which meant we had zero resources. But one of the things I had done about a year earlier is I got tired of always meeting with church people—no offense. And so, I took out an ad in Craigslist, and I said, "If you're an atheist, an agnostic, a Buddhist, a Hindu, anybody other than a Christian, I want to meet you for coffee every week. I won't argue politics or religion with you, but I do want to pick your brain."
So, my respondent was a 69-year-old burnout Coast Guard pilot with a ponytail, never been married, upset that he was in the military during the 60s and didn't really get the whole Woodstock experience. He had died on the operating table three times, never saw a white light, so God must not be real. Cool, you're my guy, let's have coffee.
Now, here's where the story gets interesting. My first mission trip to Africa was in 2009. Remember, I have no money and no resources, no job, no income. And if you know the rest of our story, within six months, we'd be homeless. But where this goes is, my burnout Coast Guard pilot friend says, "Hey, so you're talking about going to Africa, right?" I said, "Yeah." He says, "I love computers. And every time a new computer comes out, I always get an upgrade. If I clean the pornography off of my old one, would you take it?"
Well, yeah, if there's a porn-free guarantee, I'll take your computer. Now, what ended up happening was one computer ended up being 22 over three years, paid for two mission trips, put computers in the hands of three pastors, and it's where I started my business that I run today. Use unrighteous mammon to make friends, to make eternal impact. Sad to say, this guy never gave his life to Christ. Don't even know what the end of his story is. What I do know—I asked him, I said, "Now, you know if you give me that, you realize I'm gonna go to Africa and preach about Jesus, right?"
"Yeah, I know that. I like you."
Okay, fair enough. Clean the porn off, I'll take them. That's the way the kingdom works. And that's the principle that God's teaching us here: make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.
Let's nerd out again for a minute. Is that okay? Here's how you know unrighteous wealth is going to fail: current national debt in the U.S. is 30 trillion dollars. If I were to give you one million dollars per day, it would take you 2,739 years to get to 1 trillion. Our current debt is 30 trillion. The U.S. dollar was instituted with the Federal Reserve in 1913. It currently has 96 percent less buying power than it had then. Inflation is a real thing, but inflation isn't because things are going up; it's because the buying power of your dollar is going down.
How many people are putting their trust in an asset that's going to go away? In fact, here's the reality: in U.S. history, we've collapsed the monetary system three different times. We're headed there again. We have the Banking for All Act that says, "Let's replace the US dollar with a digital dollar." Not getting political, not meaning to freak—yeah, that's just where we're at. You can't keep this system going. It's going to fail. It always does.
And what he's saying is, "Well, you got to operate in this flawed system. Why don't you use it for something lasting, something eternal?" When I teach business people, I always love to ask this question: "What do you think my greatest business building tool is?" It's the internet? Nope, that's not it. It's advertising? Nope, that's not it. And I'll pull out my coffee mug. If you ever watch me, I'm always wandering around with a coffee mug. I spend a lot of time over coffee cups, face to face with people. I build relationships.
The other place that this proves out is there's been twice in our 33 years of marriage—actually, three times—ministry can get interesting where you find yourself without a home. Three different times, we've had to have people take us in—in relationship. We were in Hoisington, Kansas, in 2001. April 21st, a tornado went through Hoisington. We were one of those families standing out in the middle of nothing, saying, "Where are we going to stay now?" Friends, that's the principle. Relationships.
Having traveled doing mission work over the last 15 years on multiple continents, the one thing that I always take comfort in—and I reassure my mom with, and before my dad died, I'd give him the same talk—"Listen, I'm not going to be stranded anywhere. I know people all over the world, literally. I can make a phone call, and I will have a place to stay very quickly. Don't worry about that part. Worry about malaria and all that other fun stuff." But it's because of the relationships.
And that's the principle that Jesus is getting at. Can we talk honestly, though? Here's what most Americans do: We go to work to work hard for money, to pay for things that we wanted, to impress people we don't even like. And so, we leave in the morning, we hit the button, and we back out of our garage, and we talk to people because we have to, and we come back home, and we hit the button again, and we pull in our garage, and we don't talk to anybody after that. That is not the kingdom principle at work. That's what Jesus is getting at.
The unrighteous manager was focused on himself. How do I support my system? How do I support what I'm doing? How do I get a better life for me? But Jesus is saying, "Go make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." What he's really getting at is a kingdom principle. The reason we read Matthew 6:31-33 this morning is this: Jesus is saying, "Hey, don't worry about what you're going to wear, or what you're going to eat, or any of these other things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this stuff you get anxious about—it'll take care of itself."
Put your priorities in the right place, and stop worrying about the wrong things. Jesus goes on to say, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." God owns it all. Remember that. Your name may be on the checking account, but it's His. The car may have your name on the title. It's still His. Same thing with the house. It's His. So, the question is, "Are you being faithful with His stuff?" Because the return He's looking for is souls. The lives of people.
So, let me explain to you this principle at work. You just got the new dining room set. Who's coming to dinner today? Just bought the new barbecue grill. Who's going to be on your back porch this weekend? Oh, it's just you? Then you've missed the point. The resources aren't just for you. You're a conduit of God's resources. You're a pipeline of His resources. But if you're not faithful in a little, how can He entrust you with more?
Let's nerd out again for a minute. Average household consumer debt: $24,000 in the U.S. That's outside of mortgages. That's outside of your car payments. That's credit card, revolving, unsecured loans—that kind of thing. Okay. The average bank account in the U.S., savings and checking combined: fifty-six hundred dollars. As Americans, we don't understand these principles: Be faithful a little, and God can entrust you with more.
Most Americans, if the car breaks down today, they got to go get a loan or put it on a credit card. Not because they're managing cash flows—because they don't have the money. They've not put away. They've not followed the principles. So, I'm going to ask kind of a pointed question here because this is a heart discussion. That's what this parable is about. It's not just about money. Money's just the illustration. It's about the heart.
But here's the question: Are you good with money, or do you stink with money? Does it burn a hole in your pocket? As soon as you get it, you just got to go spend it. Studies tell us—the average lottery winner—I shouldn't say the average—60 percent, roughly, are bankrupt within three years because bad stewardship that gets a bunch of money thrown on top of it just creates bigger bad stewardship. Professional athletes are the same way. Baseball players do the best out of professional athletes, but the average tenure from the time their career ends to the time they're broke again is seven years. And it's because no one ever taught them how to be a good steward because they just thought the money would always keep coming. Bad stewardship.
So, the point is, you say, "Well, I don't really have much." Yes, you do. You most certainly do. Even our poorest are very wealthy compared to the slums in Kenya, the slums in India. At least in Wichita, if I'm homeless, I can find a meal, and I can probably get a shower and a place to sleep at night. We're very wealthy. So, even if you have a little bit, are you a good steward of it?
For you guys, you younger people, you get ten dollars because you went and mowed somebody's lawn. You're gonna go spend it, or are you gonna send it out to produce a result? You're gonna use it to build relationships? And this is the point that he's getting with: If you're faithful in the smaller things, if you're dishonest in the smaller things, the corollary is the same. If you're dishonest, you're going to be dishonest in bigger things. If you're faithful in the little things, you'll be faithful in the bigger things. It's a heart issue.
Now, verse 11: "If then you've not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you true riches?" This is important because you can tell a lot about how somebody's life is running by watching the chaos of their financial picture. Most of the time when we're doing marriage counseling—you leave moral failures and those kinds of things aside—most of the time, it's stress, and it's financial stress. And so, the way you handle resources has a lot to do with your overall well-being.
But more importantly, how can God entrust you with more if you're being a poor steward of what He's already given you? But we need to have the right perspective. When God opens up more resources for you, it's not so you can collect them for yourself. It's not to create a bigger bucket. It's to create a bigger pipeline. The real purpose of His resources is to reach people, to touch people, to make a difference in people's lives. Not so we can have bigger and better everything.
One last practical thing, and then we'll kind of land the plane here. There are times that you're going to have the opportunity to elevate your status—your material status, your wealth status—and you're going to have to check yourself: "Am I doing this just so I can have more, or am I doing this so I can better serve?" And there may be times that you turned down the greater thing materially because it would interfere with the greater thing of impacting people's lives.
So, recently we had that discussion about our house. Prices have appreciated, rates were low. Should we go ahead and make a switch? Financially, it could be a good move. But what we got to looking at is, "We don't owe much on the house. It's cheap for us to maintain. Why would we want to tie up that money and take that away from being able to do things with other people? Let's just be content and stay on course with what God's given us." All of our married lives. And I will tell you, the older you get, the more tempting that becomes. It's by golly, I've been working since I was 11 years old. I'm 40 years into this thing. I'd like to go on Easy Street for a while. But that's not God's purpose.
Let's keep going here. "If you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" Now, here's the real principle behind being a good pipeline: invariably, as you become a better pipeline of God's resources, better things tend to come your way as well. It's just—I can't explain how it happens. I just know it's the way it works. And that's the point that we want to get at.
God rewards faithful stewardship because now your heart is in line with His heart. It's not you doing things because that's what makes sense to me or that's what the financial markets say I should do.
I'm doing what I know is the kingdom of God work. I'm doing what I know will make more disciples. I'm doing what I know will take the gospel further.
We come down to verse 13, and as I said, with this parable, there's one main point, but many principles getting us there.
The main point is this: No servant can serve two masters.
And I want you to underline that word "serve," for he'll either hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
If we were to get really honest and gut checks, some of you would admit to me, "Yeah, I haven't been reading my Bible much because I've been really busy at work. I haven't been praying as much as I should because my schedule is jam-packed."
So what ends up happening is, we don't intend to serve money. We don't intend to make it our god, but we do because it dictates our life.
But money was never meant to be anything but a tool.
So if you think money makes you feel more secure, you've made a god out of it.
If you think money makes you freer, you've made a god out of it.
If you think money gives you influence, you've made a god out of it.
If you've assigned any meaning to money other than it's a tool and a means of exchange, you've got it wrong.
We've got to do things right.
One last practical thing: We get reminders all the time of just how fragile our monetary system is.
Any other market geeks here? You watch the stock market? Yeah, did you enjoy your Nasdaq ride Friday?
Wonderful. Pull up Robinhood, everything's red. Now, shut it back down.
That's what happens. Real estate markets do that; every market does that.
You can't put your trust in those things.
But here's the other thing I want you to see: We went through COVID, the lockdowns in 2020.
What people were really desiring wasn't to really go back to work; they were desiring relationship.
I found it fascinating: If I were to get on Facebook today and talk, maybe two people would listen. I would do that during the lockdowns, and hundreds of people would listen to what I had to say. I was just rambling on.
Why? Because they were desperate for relationship.
People are dying and lonely and desperate for community.
One of the things that I find that's very interesting: Most of the people I'm counseling today that are struggling with different things, is an escape. I don't see in church very often.
And that's the first thing I address: "You have no community around you. You're going to get hammered."
Change the thought process.
Let's keep going here: No servant can serve two masters.
He'll either hate the one and love the other.
Let me give you this picture: If money's here and God's here, to embrace money, I have to turn my back on God. To embrace God, I have to turn my back on money.
I can't have it both.
I don't get to stand in the middle and do this.
I either love one and hate the other, or I hate one and love the other.
Where we have to end today is back to the heart.
This is a heart matter.
The reason people begin to put their faith and trust in money is because they don't trust God.
And here's the real challenge question to this whole thing: If you can trust Him with eternity, you can trust Him with money.
If you can trust Him with eternity, you can trust Him with housing.
Who do you trust?
Trusting the Federal Reserve to take care of you? They can print some more money for you. They love doing that.
And you can enjoy your seven-dollar-a-gallon gas.
Don't put your confidence in that. It's a losing game. It's all a losing game.
And even if you acquire a lot, at some point, you're going to die, and somebody else is going to get it anyway.
And you may not even like them, and they probably won't handle it the way you would.
So what did you spend your life chasing?
One of the things that I'm very blessed in is how many people God has put me over a cup of coffee with that I've seen come to faith.
Now, they thought we were going to talk business, and we did, but God had a bigger intention in mind.
Kingdom things.
And that's the question I'm going to leave you with: Are you making a difference in the kingdom?
Are you using the unrighteous tools of the world to build relationships, so when the tools fade, they no longer last, the relationships were there?
Some of you have roles in life where people open up to you about some very, very personal things.
Are you being faithful in those conversations?
Let's pray this morning.
Maybe you're here today, and you've never given your life to Jesus. He made a decision for you; He paid your bill. He didn't just slash it during your friendship; He paid your debt in full because He loves you. That debt was sin; the penalty was death, and Jesus loved you enough to pay the entire bill.
The worst thing I can think of is that you would leave here today thinking this was all about money.
It's all about your heart. Does Jesus have your heart?
