Can God Trust Me?
Pastor Glenn Newton July 23, 2000
Text: Luke 16:1-13
(First, Tell the church How Proud You are of them, for their coming together to meet the need)
For the last couple of weeks we have been talking about Trust, we have asked questions that dealt with, “Can I trust God?” We have looked to Scripture, we have looked at our own experience, and we have drawn from those that have went before us and said EMPHATICALLY, “YES, I CAN TRUST GOD, I CAN TRUST GOD WITH MY WHOLE LIFE, HE IS TRUSTWORTHY.”
This morning as I look at you, I believe that you do believe you can trust Him. This morning we are going to turn the tables around, and the Question for today is, Can God Trust Me? Can God Trust You?”
As my children get older we are already dealing with this issue of trust. One of the most important issues in any relationship is Trust. When I ask my girls to get something done, or be home by a certain time, or whatever it might be, we are working on trust. If they do what there supposed to, they follow through with what they have promised, then they are rewarded with a little more trust, if they fail to do what was promised, we as the parents pull back a little bit. Of coarse as the teen years approach, this issue becomes more and more important, but we can start working on it now.
It’s the same way with God, the Question that God has for everyone of us today is “Can I Trust You?”
Luke chapter 16 is a interesting parable that Jesus gives to us, it’s one of the most difficult parables to understand in all the Bible. Now Luke 16 is connected to Luke 15, Luke 15 is of coarse the best known and the most loved chapter, the parable of the Prodigal Son, and in Luke 15 as Jesus tells this parable he is teaching about wrong attitudes about PEOPLE.
In Chapter 16 Jesus teaches about wrong attitudes about WEALTH. And he talks to us about our Possessions, what we have, and how are we going to deal with what He has given to us.
It’s very interesting, in your sermon notes I have a paragraph that talks about the Bible and Money. It says, “Jesus talked about Money 16 out of 38 parables; 1 out of 10 verses in the Gospels. The Bible devotes 500 verses on prayer; less than 500 verses on faith; but over 2,000 verses on money and possessions.
Let’s look at what Jesus teaches us in this parable, this story about the Foolish Manager, or Steward.
There are 3 Things that I want to Note from this story, so let’s get going.
1, First, I note the Accountability of the Foolish Steward (v.1,2)
The fact that when the owner came back this unwise manager of the master’s possessions was brought into position of accountability. Read V. 1-2 (Note that this parable was to his disciples)
Now there are two reasons that this manager was accountable to the owner and there are two reasons we are accountable to God, there are two reasons you are accountable to God. Let’s look at them this morning:
1. God is the Owner, I am the Manager - He is the owner, I am the manager.
The first reason that I am accountable to God is because everything that I have today are gifts of God of which I own none. I am accountable to the owner. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, right? He’s the owner, He blesses me with everything, Your very breath is a gift from God, Your ability to walk and work is a gift from God. Every Gift you have, He gave them to you, Every possession you have, He gave them to you. He’s the owner.
Now friends, this is the number 1 issue, until we can settle this issue were always going to have a problem in this area of management and stewardship. You see, If I believe that Glenn Newton is the owner, then I’m going to be constantly be dealing in conflict with God over what I going to do with the stuff that I have. But the more that I understand that God is the owner, and I’m the manager then all the sudden the conflict begins to disappear because I realize everything that I have, everything, my health, my life, my possessions, my family, everything I have, it’s not mine, God owns it, I manage it.
OK, Let’s see if we understand this in real life terms, a little quiz if you will. “If you made $400 last week and you came to church today, How much of that $400 belongs to God?” (ALL OF IT) HE IS THE OWNER. It’s not $40 is God’s and $360 is mine, all $400 is God’s and it all belongs to Him, now He only asks us to tithe 10%, but it is all His to begin with. If we don’t understand this issue of Lordship we will be in trouble, He is Lord of all we are and have.
2. The second reason I’m accountable to God is because the Owner, being God, The Owner has expectations of the Manager. (repeat)
In other words, when the Master comes back, he wants to know what has been done with the possessions that he has given us, and there are several areas of expectations, and I want to just give you a few biblical areas this morning.
A. Ourselves. The first thing the owner expects is to consecrate, dedicate, and give ourself to Him. Rom.12:1 “RO 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.”
The Apostle Paul is telling us that this is our act of Worship, to give ourselves totally to God, He’s our owner, we are His people, slaves to Jesus Christ. We don’t like that word slaves, our pride kind of gets in the way, but the fact is, I was dead in my sins and on my way to Hell, and Jesus brought me back to life by his blood that he shed on Calvary, He paid my price, He died for me, I owe Him my very life, I am His slave and I would have it no other way. The first thing God expects from us is OURSELVES.
Letter B. Our Possessions, My Possessions. He has an expectation of what I’m going to do with the things that He has given me in my life. That’s why Jesus says in your notes, Luke 14:33 “33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
Letter C. Our Time. Paul writes to the Church in Ephesis in chapter 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
As one translation say, “make every minute count,”
Letter D. Our Gifts or our Abilities. Jesus has an expectation of what we will do with what he has entrusted with us, listen to Peter in 1 Pet. 4:10 “. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”
God our owner has expectations that I will take my Gifts and abilities and use them to build up his Kingdom, Whether it’s myself, my possessions, my time, my gifts, they are all to be used for Him, and we will be help accountable on how we are using those gifts.
E. The Gospel. The Good News, the story of Redemption, the Story of Jesus saving us from our sins and so much more, 1 Thess. 2:4 “4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.”
All of these areas I’m accountable for, now let’s make sure we get this strait before we move on. God’s the owner, I’m the manager, so therefore God has given me certain gifts, certain possessions, he’s given me a certain amount of time, He’s given me all these wonderful things of which He has high expectation that I will fulfill them and reach my potential.
I found this little saying this week that fits in with what I’m trying to get across. “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things, right now, I’m so far behind that I will never die.” How many of you have felt like that before?
When I look at all the things that need to be done for the Lord here in our church and in our community, I have no idea how it’s all going to get done.
Now the Second thing I want to Note in this story, the first was the Accountability of the Foolish Steward, now number two we will note the Acessment of the Foolish Steward. V. 3 The moment that this unwise manager realizes that he is going to lose his job, look at what he says in verse three. He makes an assessment of where he was.
LK 16:3 "The manager said to himself, `What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg--
Now this fella, he realizes he’s in trouble, the owner has come home and He hasn’t been doing the job, he’s been lazy, he’s been irresponsible, or whatever, he hasn’t got the job done. Have you ever been there?
I still remember when my brother and I were in 7th grade, we lived in Dorris, CA. and my parents where going to be gone for five days, and they had decided that Jeff and I could stay home because we had made a baseball all-star team and we wouldn’t be able to play if we left town with them. Of coarse, we had all the church folks checking in on us, and we had rules and checkin times we had to go by. But I still remember that bad feeling, we had went all week without doing the dishes, or cleaning the house, and we had decided we would get it all done after our last game on Friday, we would have at least three hours to clean by the way we had it figured.
Of coarse our lax ways caught us, our game started late and we didn’t get home until after our parents had already arrived home. Let me say, the owners were not to pleased with the managers when they arrived home.
In our passage, this unwise manager realizes he’s in trouble and so he assesses his situation. He realizes he’s going to get fired, and now he has to decide what to do.
There are three times when people are most likely to change, one of those times is when they hurt enough they have to change, in this story, this guy is in that position, “He’s saying, I have to do something different, I’m getting fired.”
He made a quick assessment and realized that he wasn’t doing what the master required.
The Third thing that we can note from this parable, that Jesus is teaching us, is The Action of the Foolish Steward. Let’s look at the action of the foolish steward. v. 4-7
It’s interesting to note, that when this owner comes home, fires the manager, he gives this manager some time to settle accounts, and in the settling of accounts you will notice what he did. He sat down with these who owed his master, and he begins to cut down on what is owed. Now either this foolish manager had over charged them and was now giving them the legitimate amount owed, or maybe he was taking off the interest owed and going to the principle. Regardless, he began to cut the prices down and our Lord Jesus says, although this was an unwise foolish steward, and he was unwise and foolish because he didn’t use the talents and gifts that God had given him,
He is saying to us that there are four lessons we can learn from this story. And these are the Key to the message.
First lesson we can learn from this story, is that you and I are to use opportunity wisely. I am to use the opportunity that God has given us wisely.
Let’s look at how this happened in our passage, look at v. 8 We see the Master praises the dishonest manager, but let’s stop and look at that for a moment, Why would he praise a dishonest manager? Because he did a bad job, why would he praise him for that? Well, he didn’t praise him for the bad job he did, “"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”
Why was this foolish steward commended after he had just been told he was fired? He wasn’t commended for being dishonest, he wasn’t commended for wasting months and maybe years of the master’s time and resources, He was commended for the fact that once he realized their was a problem, He immediately took action to fix it.
Now this is very important. Because so of you today as you listen to this message, You may be saying, you know Pastor, I’m sure God has given me gifts that I don’t use for His Kingdom, I’m sure that I’m not really using my time for the Lord, I’m positive that I haven’t settled this issue of who owns what concerning my possessions and my money, and maybe your sitting there today struggling with this and saying, “Wow, maybe I’m a foolish steward?”
Here’s the Good News! Aren’t you glad for the Good News? The good news is that God gives us a chance just like the owner gave this man a chance settle the issue, and to get the books right and the accounts right. There’s a poem that goes something like this, “though I can’t go back and make a brand new start my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end.” And that’s what we are going for.
The Lord said, this man should be commended because he began to use his opportunity wisely. You see we need to be in the business of investing in eternity. When you put your money in the offering plate, it doesn’t go to heaven in some golden vault, God is not storing all your money for you as your inheritance one day. When you give to the church, you are investing in eternity. How?
When we give to missions, we gave money to the missionary to France, we give that money, we ask God to bless and use it, and it’s gone, and we really don’t see the outcome. But what we don’t know, is that God can and does use that money to be used to help our missionaries to evangelize, and people are saved. And instead of having a golden vault full of paper money waiting for you in heaven, you may have a man or women or whole family from Frace waiting for you, waiting to tell you Thank You for giving to the Lord with your missionary offering, because it literally enabled them to hear the gospel.
You can look at your tithe and offerings as just trying to pay the bills and keep the doors open here at our church. But your offering is so much more than that. Your giving to your local church keeps the doors open so People can walk into our church and hear the life changing message of the gospel. Your giving allows your pastor to work full-time in ministry and not have to be BI-vocational and split my time between the church and other jobs. Your giving will and is helping us accomplish our goal of building a strong Holiness Church in Clarksville. What are you investing in? Are Treasure should always be redeemed people. Am I using my opportunities wisely that I have right now?
2. The second lesson we can get from this story; Trust must be earned. He teaches us that Trust can never be given nor granted without first earning that trust. V. 10-12 READ.
We need to earn Trust with the Master. If we can’t be faithful in a few things, why would he give us more things? If I’m misusing what I have been given, do you think the Master will give me more? If I have the wrong attitude towards the things and possessions that I have now, do you think the Master will give me more?
When your 16 year old son/daughter tears up the car that you gave them and entrusted them with, do you run out and get them another one?
“How much can God trust you with This Morning? Can God trust you with Money? Can God trust you with opportunity? I’m I trustworthy with what I have right now? “God measures my trustworthiness by how I manage what He has given me at this present time.
The 3 lesson we can learn from this story.
Trust can be measured. Jesus tells us how he measures Trust. He says I measure trust by this very simple method. If your are trustworthy in a few things, I give you more. That’s how I measure Trust. If I can’t trust you with a few things, you won’t get anymore. God doesn’t measure Trust based on what your going to do, what you plan to do, what you hope to do, but He measures Trust by what your doing right now.
Have you heard the story who was trying to teach this principle in his church, it was a farming community, he went to one of his laymen and he said if you had 100 cows and God asked you for 50 would you give it to him? Oh, yes said the farmer, I sure would preacher. If you had a hundred horses and God asked you for 50 would you give it to Him? Oh, yes, no problem preacher.
The pastor said, if you had two hogs, and God asked for one of them, would you give it Him, the farmer said, now preacher, that’s not fair, “because you know I have two hogs.”
You see were OK until it comes down to where we live. We have some Christians today in allot of different churches who are trying to snow God, trying to pull one over on God. Have you ever tried to do that? Don’t feel bad, I’ve tried to do. Come on, be honest, how many here have ever tried to slip one past God before? Sure you have. It doesn’t’ work. Because Trust can be measured. It doesn’t matter what we say, what kind of excuses we come up with, God says simply says, If your not faithful here, your going to have trouble down the road, be Faithful in the little things, and God will trust you with more.
Quickly look at your personal inventory. As I read, check your answers, if you don’t want your neighbor to see your answers turn away.
Read Personal Inventory.
4.The forth and final lesson to be learned from this story. The last thing Jesus says in this story is to be totally devoted to God. The forth lesson, Be totally devoted to God. Read V. 13 “ "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Can God Trust You? Let’s be Faithful to use all the blessings for the kingdom of God.
