Shrewdness with Action

Guys, I'm going to be preaching this morning from Luke 16, 1 through 14. Shrewdness with action. You know, I got to thinking about, as I was working on this sermon, when the Holy Spirit was leading Luke in the writing of the gospel, how would you follow up Luke 15? The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost prodigals, the unbelievable, extravagant love of God, how would you follow that up? Well, he does follow it up with a very difficult parable, in fact, a couple of parables, and one that kind of puts the monkey on our back, that we enter into partnership with him, even with unrighteous mammon. We're going to talk about that. Even with unrighteous mammon, we invest our wealth in winning others to Jesus.

And I hope by the end of this sermon, you'll see that theme that comes through here, because it's a difficult couple of parables that we're going to look at here. So let's look at the Bible, and I'm going to read this to you this morning. Now, he was also saying to the disciples, let me tell you who's listening in on this conversation is the scribes and Pharisees, and the Kraus, the outcasts. He was saying to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward. Some of your Bibles may use the word manager, and this steward was reporting to him as squandering his possessions. So he's not doing a very good job. And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you?

Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. The guy's getting fired. You ever been let loose from a job? He's getting fired here. And the steward said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig. He didn't want to do physical labor.

I'm ashamed to beg. He didn't want to be on the streets begging. I know what I shall do so that when I am removed from the they will receive me into their homes. So he's getting a plan of action. And he summoned each one of the master's debtors. These are people he'd been doing business with. And he began saying to the first, how much do you owe your master?

And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly. Let's mean right now, let's get this done and write 50. Now he's not changing the contract. He's having that debtor change the contract. 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 80. So these contracts are being rewritten, aren't they? I'm going to tell you, these are just examples of probably all those that were in debt to the owner. He just shares two of them, but probably every one of those debtors got called in and they're rewriting across the board, these contracts. And his master, this blows my mind. And his master prays the unrighteous steward because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age, underscore that, are more shrewd in relation to their own than the sons of light.

And I say to you, make friends for yourself by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails, it will fail ultimately, they may receive you into the eternal dwelling place. Make friends. We'll discuss that here in a minute. He who is faithful in very little things is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in very little thing is unrighteous also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon. Now, let me say something about mammon here.

Some of your Bibles may say money, but the full connotations of mammon is much more than money. This is not just a lesson about money. It is a lesson about wealth. I know some folks that are not rich people with money, but have wealth in their lives. Do you know folks like that?

You do, don't you? If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon. Now that says we're in this world. We're tied to unrighteous mammon. Who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, the owner, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other or else he will hold the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, don't just take it as money. You cannot serve God in the best things of life sometimes. You can't serve those together. You can't draw them together. Now, pretty tough word, isn't it? In trying to break this down, there are two parables here, at least in my mind.

In a lot of biblical commentators, really you could make it all just one parable, but I think there is, well, the first one I just say is problematic. It is the one of the most difficult parables to interpret, but it is explainable. When I was listening across and studying and reading commentaries and listening to the Holy Spirit, I thought, man, this is a problematic parable, but it is explainable. The second is applicable. It is the appending parable to the difficult parable. By principle, it defines the core values of shrewdness, and we're going to get to that. It defines the core values of shrewdness.

So let's unpack these two connected parables today, and this may be a little bit more heady than what some of us want to get to, so I'm going to try to keep it down on my level, not too heady. The first is about the wicked, unrighteous steward, isn't it? The manager of a rich man's estate whose goods he is squandering, wasting. The Greek word squander here is the same word used of the prodigal son who squandered his inheritance in loose living. You don't find this word in the New Testament very much, but it's used in reference to the prodigal who squandered his inheritance in loose living. The report of this squandering, this is interesting, has come from the community. Somebody is notifying the owner.

It's come from someone, or maybe a number of someones have alerted him to his losses. You know, I got to thinking about, well, who is that someone, or who are those someones? Maybe it was actually those debtors who were alerting the owner that this guy's ripping us off. He's taking advantage of us, and you need to know this. Maybe it filtered on down. We talk about trickle-down economics. Maybe it trickled down to the businesses who were doing business with the debtors, and they were charging inflated prices, which means that they had to charge inflated prices in their retail business.

And it was ripping off people. It was inflation at the deepest form of meaning. The report is this squandering has come from the community. So, the owner summons the manager, tells him of the report, and promises to fire him only, only after the steward supplies for him the financial ledgers of all those who were indebted to the owner. Now, you know, in the businesses that I've been in, when I worked at Hearst Farm Supply, if somebody messed up, well, you gave them a warning. Then you gave them two warnings. You hit the door.

That's kind of what the law said. Also, in Texas, though, there is the right to fire. You can fire people on the spot. My twin brother was the best. He didn't put up with policies. If somebody got tested for drug abuse, goodbye. You're out the door.

He sent them packing. Interestingly, this man gives no defense or argument for his discrepancies. He knows he has been caught red-handed. His hand is in the tail, and he's been caught. His greed and love for money has owned him. But this is where the story really gets interesting. The owner has not fired him yet.

The steward has time to reason with himself and make a plan. And his plan is ingenious, I'm telling you. It's shrewd. Here it is. Number one, he calls in the owner's debtors. Now, he gives two examples here, but I'm going to guarantee you there were many, many more that were called in. He worked 24-7, visiting with each debtor in person, eyeball to eyeball.

Secondly, he had each debtor rewrite themselves, their own contracts, by giving them sizable discounts, didn't he? Do you hear that? Either on fees or on interest, he discounted their note. Now, here's what I think was going on. He had inflated those notes, and the inflation was his part of the profit.

He was wicked. He was dishonest. He was forfeiting his own income here, but not the owner's principle, and possibly maybe a little bit of profit for the owner. Pretty ingenious. Why? End result. It made the owner look pious, and the steward appear to be winsome and a caring man.

His actions of shrewdness brought and bought a lot of friends. You see what I'm saying there? They'll invite me into their houses.

They'll be my friends. You know, I kind of laughed about this. I thought, he probably had friends waiting in line to finance him in his new business. I bet he even had a best-selling book, How a Crook Makes Friends. I bet he even had a book. Verse 8 says this, And his master praised the unrighteous steward because he acted shrewdly. Now, I came across a couple of statements that really made sense to me.

Leon Morris, in his commentary on this passage, wrote, It is the astuteness of the steward that is commended, not his commercial practices, not his dishonesty. You see that? What was being commended here was his astute shrewdness. T. W. Manson wrote, There is a world of difference between I applaud the dishonest steward because he acted cleverly and I applaud the clever steward because he acted dishonestly. You see that?

That sums it all up right there, what this is all about. Jesus didn't tell this parable bragging on dishonesty, but he did tell this parable bragging on shrewdness. Verse 8 concludes with these words, For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind, circulate, their own kind, people who think and act just like they do, than the sons of light. That's a little bit incriminating toward us, isn't it? Sons of this age, who are they? I jotted these down real quickly, and you'll catch my logic, I think, here as I get to the end. The lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost prodigals, the unrighteous steward, people of the land, the tax collectors, the sinners, people who nibble themselves out of the green pastures into the forsaken darkness, people who have rolled into the crevices and darkened corners where their sacred worth has been marred and hidden, people who have forsaken the spiritual DNA because of rebellion and self-righteousness.

Boy, that describes the younger son and the elder son, doesn't it? People who have sold themselves to the affections and lust of this world, idolaters. Chapter 15.1 identifies them as tax collectors and sinners. Verse 2 identifies them as grumbling Pharisees and teachers of the law. Chapter 16, verse 14 says this about them. Now, the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all of these things. Now, what's that saying?

They were listening to this parable, or these two parables. And what did it say they were doing? And they were scoffing at him. Now, when I read that, I thought, boy, they're just not criticizing what went on here. They're attacking him personally. They made it personal. You ever notice how you catch somebody hand in the pill, and then they begin to get really personal, don't they?

They begin to attack back. That's what's going on here. These Pharisees, the scribes, they know exactly Jesus is telling this parable about them, and they don't like it. Surely the sons of this age were a direct reference to the Pharisees and the scribes, the commoners who would walk under the leaven of legalistic Judaism, and those who were idolaters. That's what this parable is all about. Who were the sons of light? I'm just going to say this is who they were, the true worshipers of Jesus, the true worshipers of Jesus.

The second parable, what I call the applicable appending parable, defines how to be shrewd in a lost, worldly, demonic ruled system. We live in a fallen world, guys. We live in a fallen world. Believe it or not, I have a business degree from college. I didn't get a philosophy degree, or a history degree, or a religion degree to go to seminary. I got a business degree. One of the most profound courses I ever took in my life was money and banking. Dr. Flores taught that course. Dr. Flores was a true capitalist.

He really showed us the ins and outs, the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism. When I walked away from that course, I concluded there's not any perfect economic system. They're all going to fail at some point. Remember how it said that here? Money will fail. Economic systems will fail. The best that we can offer will ultimately go up in it.

It will fail. I walked away from that course and thought, man, I'm taking theology here. I'm learning that the best that we can create in society is not perfect. It had holes in it, and you can shoot it. Now, I'm glad he was a capitalist. I could have shot socialism all over, but capitalism was a little bit harder to shoot at for me. We live in a fallen world.

How many of you have money or wealth? Did you know that, and you're not anybody in here that is not richer than 87% of the world? Do you know that? We don't know how good we have it in America. Even our poorest people are richer than two-thirds of this world. It's crazy. John 17, there is the high priestly prayer of Jesus for believers.

His koinonia fellowship or his ekklesia, his church on this earth, he's praying for the fellowship. He's praying for the church, and I don't have time to break this all down, but go read John chapter 17.

Go read that sometime. It's the most important prayer that's ever been prayed for the church. Let me just give you a few verses of it, though.

This is amazing. I have given them thy word. Now, do you hear what that's saying? He has given his fellowship, his church the word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask thee to take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. Remember when they came to get Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, his biggest concern was that his disciples could escape, but they could take him. He was concerned that the evil one not take over right then.

He knew their ultimate destiny was death and persecution, but not right then. That was not the plan then. He goes on and prays, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, and thou didst send me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. Now, what's that saying there? I live in a world that's fallen, and I live in a world that has unrighteous mammon.

That's a given. This is a fallen world, this is an unrighteous world, and I make my living in that kind of world. In Matthew 16, 16, Jesus said, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, listen to what he says, be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. In other words, he was saying, you're on a mission, guys. I've sent you into this world. You are on a mission.

Be wise, make a plan, get ready to act and react in the power of purity because your relationship is with the righteous and holy God. Take unrighteous mammon, and invest it wisely. Here are the steps to spiritual shrewdness. I want you to see these. They're real simple. Number one, rely on Jesus. Rely on Jesus.

Verse nine here, look at it. Jesus said, I say to you, let's just stop right there. I say to you, this is not you saying, it is him saying. It is his word. It is his mission.

Rely on him. I say to you, I'm the one that came up with the plan. I'm the one sending you into the world. Secondly, and I love this one.

This is my favorite. Make friends. Jesus said, make friends for yourselves. It is not unholy to make friends. Jesus was a friend of sinners, wasn't he? Listen to this. This is me saying this.

You don't have to be like them to like them. That make sense? You don't have to become like them to like them. Some of my best friends, and I'm going to qualify this. Some of my best friends were unbelievers. On the walk to Emmaus, there's a phrase said in one of the spiritual talks on that walk, be a friend, make a friend, bring a friend to Christ. Friendly evangelism.

Take our unrighteous wealth and invest it in unbelievers' lives. You see that? Unbelievers, but even those that have come to Christ, invest it in them so that the word might spread. That's really important for you to hear that. How often do you get up in the morning and say, well, I'm going to go make a friend today. I'm going to make a friend. When David Bestein came and preached here, and then we went and after that, and we're all around the table and making our orders and stuff.

There's a young lady that was waiting on us, a Texas Tech student, and we're all busy conversing with that. But Debbie starts inquiring into the emotional, and she could just tell the little girl was under a burden. Debbie just opens up a conversation with her, and she's a believer. She needed encouragement. I made sure that we gave a good tip to this young lady, but we were making a friend. Do you see what I'm saying? I was listening to one of my preacher friends talk about going and eating at a restaurant, and there was this waitress there that he always drew, and she would watch him closely.

Whether this is a correct judging way or not, she watched to see what kind of tip he gave. Was he generous? Was he generous? Friends are generous. This is talking about wealth, the investment of wealth. A lot of preachers tried to make this passage into a lesson on tithing. I don't think it's that at all, but it is about wealth.

Now, don't dismiss what I'm saying here. I am wealthy because I have a wonderful family. I am wealthy because I have wonderful friends, but I am wealthier than most people in the world today with this. Do you see this, guys? Do y'all see this? What am I holding up here? Huh? Money. You do need to have a plan of action on giving, and it needs to be more than just a token to God.

It needs to be a plan that seeks Him and is willing to sacrifice for Him in order that others might come to Christ. Verse nine, Jesus said, by means of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon is much more than money. I've already said that. It is better understood as wealth, the best this world can offer. Offer. It is prosperity.

It is influence. It is a small seed flourishing into a significant fruit-bearing tree. When Kim and I, I told her I was going to tell this story, and I'll tell it real quick. When Kim and I were in children's, she got invited to be in sorority. Now, sorority there was the social club, and all of us were in sorority. We prayed about it. There's in town that had gotten invited to be in sorority.

We intermingled and mixed with all kinds of people, and we got identified to be that. Sorority did a lot of good things in children's, but they had two major parties during the year. And you could say it was just a big drunk, is what it was, Christmas and other one was in the summer sometime. A lot of alcohol, a lot of drinking went on. And I'll just tell you, we went to those parties. Now, we didn't stay long, but we went inside the circle where a lot of sinning was going on.

Did Jesus do that? He did that. Now, I did that in Sudan too, didn't I? But the doors that were opened to us and the growth that took place in our churches were with those kinds of people. There was four or five people in the church that did not like me at all because of all the different kinds of people that were coming into church, and they would go see the district superintendent. They did for eight years straight, trying to get me moved. And one time this district superintendent, he called me and told me, here's what the conversation was.

He said, I asked him, what are you upset about? Your church is growing, your budget's growing. What are you upset about? Lots of children, you got a youth minister, your staff's growing. What are you upset about? Well, he just goes out there and drags in all these non-Methodist people, non-Methodist people. What the heck did that mean?

People that aren't just like us, that don't come in their outstanding suits every Sunday and set up like the righteous every Sunday. He just goes in and drags those people in here. And we were taking our step of stepping into an unrighteous floor to unlaunch evangelism in those people's lives. Does that make sense? So what I'm saying is, are you making friends with even those folks that are not in the faith? Fourthly, live in the truth, do not be deceived. Jesus said that when it fails, let me tell you, I've already said it, unrighteous mammon will fail.

There is no heavenly FDIC that's going to secure our worldly wealth. You put money in the bank today, oh, it's secured for what, $200,000? There's no spiritual FDIC. What I'm telling you is, instead of putting your trust in the bank account, put your trust in the one who knows and holds the future. John Wesley said this, this was his estate planning, make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. The whole purpose from making and saving is giving. Fifthly, live out your redemption in Christ.

Verse nine said, that may receive you into the eternal dwelling. Set your mind on things above. Where your treasure is, there's where your heart will be also. Live it out, put it into practice. That's shrewdness. Take all this unrighteous wealth and invest it in winning people to Christ. That's a good game plan, isn't it?

It says here, you cannot serve money, wealth, and God. At some point, you make a choice. Even though this is not just about money, but it's a good habit to get into. Look at your checkbook sometime, or we live on phones. We don't write checks much anymore, do we?

But look at your checkbook. Where do you spend your money? You say, I'm not even going to go to tithing. I'm not even going to talk about that. I'm just going to say, go and look where you spend your money. You think God might say to you, you might have an appearance of being righteous, but are you backing it up? Are you not just investing time and energy?

That's good wealth, but are you investing pocketbook too? Wow. That's how Jesus followed up, Luke 15. I had a discussion with him, and I'll quit after this. Couldn't you have done something else different? Why'd you have to talk about mammon, unrighteous mammon, and how we use it? And he said, you need to be a little shrewder, Gary.

You may think you're on this level, but really, buddy, you're kind of down on this level. You need to be a lot more shrewd about where you're investing your time and your energy and your money and your gifts and your talent. Be shrewd in the purity of God. Good lesson in it. Jesus was pretty honest, so I hope you take this home and say, Lord, what do I need to hear from that sermon today? When we were in seminary, there's a thousand seminarians and college students, and Dr. David Seamans gets up in the pulpit, and he's preaching on giving.

And he said, now you preacher boys, you live on a little bit of money, and you're barely getting by. And you're not putting one dime in that plate. How are you going to get up and talk to your people about giving if you're not giving? You think you got an isolation plan over here since you're in seminary? You don't think you need to give to God? I can remember Kim and I going, oh, God, it took every dime we had just to make it, but we learned to start giving. If you're faithful in a little, and that's what it was.

He'll make you faithful in much. If you don't learn that lesson in life, guys, you're going to struggle. I can promise you. Amen. I'm glad we serve a God of grace and mercy, because all of us would say, well, I've been a hoarder at times. I've been selfish and greedy at times. I've taken care of my own needs and ignored the needs of others at times.

God have mercy on us. God have mercy on us.

But get a plan. Don't just say have mercy, but get a plan.

And be obedient. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Not often do we talk about these kinds of things in church or have these kinds of sermons. What a perfect time for Jesus to follow up a story about your extravagant love and then call upon those true worshipers to be extravagant in their giving and touching and intermingling with those that are lost. Lord, you're a God that loves us, empowers us, changes us, and wants us to be gracious.

Lord, help us follow you in Jesus' name. Amen.