By Bro. Allan O. Wong Young Adults’ Fellowship December 8, 2010
Passage:Luke 16:1-13
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| during one of our collections :) |
He also 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. 2And 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.’ 3And 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, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7Then 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 eighty.’ 8The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10“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. 11If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”
Let me begin by defining to you what a steward is. “A steward is someone entrusted with another’s wealth or property and charged with the responsibility of managing it in the owner’s best interest.”[1] Because a steward has this important responsibility, he is “entrusted with sufficient resources and the authority to carry out his designated responsibilities.”[2]
As Randy Alcorn says, “A steward’s primary goal is to be found faithful by his Master as the steward uses the Master’s resources to accomplish the tasks delegated to him.” Stewardship embraces a lot of things. There is a stewardship of our very own life; stewardship of our time, of our money and possessions; of our spiritual gifts, as well as stewardship of the gospel. One thing is common and certain in all of these cases: we have been entrusted with these things by God and therefore we will all be held accountable by God for whatever He has entrusted to us.
Lessons:
1. Just as the rich man entrusted his manager with his possessions, so also God entrusts us with His possessions. Sometimes we forget that and think that we have all the right to do whatever we want to do about the things God has given us. God is the owner. We are simply managers or stewards.
2. Just as the rich man held his manager accountable, so also God holds us accountable with His possessions left to our care.
Question: What would God hold us accountable with when we face Him? What would God want us to give accounting of with regards to money and material possessions? There are at least two areas of our stewardship of money that God will hold us accountable to:
1. How you acquire your wealth
2. How you use your wealth
3. God wants us to use worldly wealth for eternal benefits
This is Christ’s first application of the parable. He says in v. 9, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Look at the parallel of vv. 3-8 with v. 9.
4. If we are faithful with very little, we can be entrusted with a lot
Verses 10-12 says, “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. 11If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”
Many Christians today reverse Matthew 6:33. You can hear them say like this: If I get this project, I will give more. Or if I am promoted I promise to give more. But Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God
5. The love of money is the greatest hindrance to good stewardship
Verse 13 says, “No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”
Loving money will make us hoard it rather than give it away. Loving money will make us use it for our own pleasure more than for God’s purposes. But Christ’s discipleship call is for us to carry His cross daily in following Him. You can’t play in between here. Either you serve money or serve God.
As God’s people, we need to prioritize His church and His purposes in our giving. To be able to do this, you need to plan ahead (just like what the unjust manager did), or else nothing will be left and all are spent for our own needs and wants.
My personal principle is this: Never put yourself in a financial situation where your giving to the church and monetary help to others will be affected. (For example, buying things at 0% interest rate for credit card holders).
Second, do not live beyond your means or even within your means. Try to live below your means so that you will have more left to give.
Thirdly, and this is the most important thing, seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness and God will provide your needs. Learn to live by faith. How? By believing in the promises of God.
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