Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Is your stewardship of the worldly resources God has given you marked by faithfulness and integrity? Or is it the case that your stewardship might tell against any future responsibility because you have been too much like the world in this? Each of us has to grapple with this in honesty before him.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Alan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today as we continue our message the priority of people. And Jonathan, as we get started here, looks like one of the big questions that we need to address and one of the things that money can expose is are we going to be acting in integrity as we go about all the business of our lives?

Jonathan Griffiths: That's a challenging question for each of us, isn't it? Are we behaving with integrity in each area of our lives? And the particular focus, of course, in this message in this passage is the matter of money, financial stewardship. And there is so much dishonesty around us in our society in the treatment of money and the handling of money. And we are learning so many bad lessons from our culture. But Jesus wants to teach us some wholesome lessons about how to use money, how to prioritize it, how to steward it in a way that honors God.

And in our passage today, I think his lesson for us is quite surprising where he points us to the model of a man who acts in a way that we might find questionable on some levels, but who has learned something important about money. And here's the thing he understands about money. He understands that using it to invest in people and relationships is a valuable thing. And Jesus wants to encourage us to do the very same thing, to make friends not just for time, but through the gospel to make friends for eternity through the use of our funds.

Steve Hiller: Well, how do we do that? Let's find out together. Join us in Luke chapter 16 verses 1 to 13 as we continue our message the priority of people. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: I remember when I was a kid, I was with a school friends and his family. They were delightful people, not Christian believers. And we were we were talking. I don't remember the whole conversation, but I remember we were talking about doing some special activity. It might have been a sporting activity. I don't remember all the details, but it was something that was going to be worthwhile, but quite expensive. And I I remember his dad saying, you know, money is just a tool. Money is just a tool to enable you to do the things you want to do, the things you've chosen to do.

And his point was, you know, don't get too head up about the money for the sake of the money. Money is a tool that is there to be used. You know, I've often thought back to that comment. It was just it was a throwaway comment, but it stuck with me. The man he he wasn't a believer, but his basic point was very wise. Money needs to be viewed as a tool to accomplish the things that you believe are important to accomplish. And of course, as believers, we want to ensure that our priorities are God's priorities and we want to be good stewards within that.

But money itself is a tool. It is a resource that is there to be used. Now, this dishonest manager, he saw that. What was his objective in the use of the money? It was to build relationships that would be important for the long-term future. He needed to do that. And money, his master's money of which he was a steward, it became the tool for getting that thing done. And Jesus says to you, and he says to me, use this worldly thing, unrighteous wealth, not meaning that wealth in itself is bad, but just that it's something that belongs to this present world.

Use it to make friends for yourself. Use it to invest in relationships, use money to make friends. Now, that sounds so pragmatic. It almost sounds crass, doesn't it? Why Jesus? Why should we do that? Why would we do that? Well, he says do do that in order that when money fails you, and it will fail you when you die because you cannot take it with you, do so in order that when the money fails you, the friends you've made with it may welcome you into eternal dwellings. Make friends now with your money which cannot last, by the way.

Make friends so that when you arrive in heaven, there will be a welcome party for you. The money won't last. It's not going to be of any use to you, but the friendships can last and they will be of value to you. And notice here the obvious thing in what Jesus is saying. These friends are able to welcome you to eternal dwellings to heaven. That's a key insight. They are able to welcome you to eternal dwellings because they themselves have made it there. They themselves are now in heaven. Well, just think about that. When we disciples of Jesus Christ make friends here on earth, we are always wanting to make friends for time and for eternity.

Isn't that right? We always want our friends to know the savior as we know him as the one who died in our place at Calvary and open the gates to life eternal to unworthy sinners like us. We want our friends to know the savior like we know him and to trust the savior like we trust him. And so join us in the eternal kingdom because of his grace and his mercy. That's what we want, isn't it? For all our friends. What's the point? Use wealth to make friends for eternity. Use wealth to invest in people in such a way that they will be friends in the Lord and therefore friends forever.

Let me read again the principle, the advice, the admonition from Jesus himself. Verse 9 just notice it again. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings. That's the principle. Well, how do we do that in practical terms? What it what does it look like to be shrewd in this way? Now, I think we we're we need to think creatively and the sky is the limit here. You know, we can think of giving to the work of missions, to the work of the gospel as we're committed to do as believers.

And and you know, we give and the word goes out. And through that, what are we doing? We are inviting other people to join us in heaven. Isn't that what we're doing? We may never meet the people here on earth who benefit from our giving, but just imagine this. Imagine you and I give sacrificially to support a missions project on the other side of the world in a place that we've never gone to and never will go to. And when we depart this life as we will and we arrive in the heavenly Zion, there's a little cluster of unfamiliar people who who meet us.

And they say welcome home. And they say thank you for what you did on earth. Thank you for your generosity that enabled me to hear the good news, to respond, to find eternal life. Thank you for what you did. Now, that's perhaps the most obvious and the most simple application. But friends, I don't know about you, but I find that idea tremendously moving actually as I reflected on it. That that our generosity to the work of the gospel might make friends for us in eternity. You see, that makes it also tangible, doesn't it? That makes it also meaningful.

And it makes whatever sacrifices are involved in this seem well altogether worthwhile. That's one big area of application, one way in which we can use wealth to make friends for eternity, but there are others. You know, we think of exercising hospitality and generosity to those around us in the community, opening up our homes, sharing meals, giving freely of the good things that we have to enjoy and to share, offering genuine and generous friendship to our neighbors and our colleagues and our friends and you know, whatever differences in outlook and worldview there may be people around us they need friendship.

Don't they? People around us they need companionship. And and if we're saying, look, come on round for a meal, come to our home, spend time with us. Or or if they're in a time of difficulty, a time of loss, sending some beautiful flowers and a gift and offering friendship in that way or if they're facing financial hardship or unemployment quietly offering to help out in some way, to bring around some food or to do something else. You know, if you offer that kind of friendship, generous friendship, you won't often find it thrown back in your face.

Not often. And the investment of a few dollars to show that you mean business with this friendship, that your kindness is genuine and your kindness is substantial, who knows what the Lord might do with that? Who knows how the Lord might use that to open up opportunities for the gospel so that a friend in this world might become a friend for the world to come. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And then I think of families and I think of parents and of grandparents and what it looks like to use worldly wealth to invest in your children and your grandchildren so that they will not simply be your children in this life, but your companions in the kingdom of heaven.

As believers, isn't that our great prayer for our kids, for grandkids? Isn't that our number one goal? I hope it is. Well, this is a good question. How do we use worldly wealth to in that sense for the long-term be friend our children and our grandchildren for the kingdom? It's a good question, isn't it? What's the best way to use your money to invest in relationships with your children? I wonder if you've ever given any thought to that, if you've ever pondered that. It's an interesting question. I think it 's an important one. Now, Jesus calls us to be shrewd in this.

He wants us to be practical here. We need to be practical here. He wants us to learn something from the sons of this world in it. And you know, the answer to the question and the strategy and the outworking it's going to be different for everyone. There is a wisdom and a discernment thing here. There's not a rule. So don't don't hear me saying like this passage gives us a rule book for what to do with money in your kids. No, it doesn't. But I think this much is fair to say, we want to air, don't we?

On the side of generosity. We want to think of the money that we have as a tool that can be used for building relationships, for investing in people. And you know, sometimes this might just mean being open-handed and making resources available to kids and grandkids. If you have resources to help them and to encourage them. It's big social issue right now, isn't it? We're hearing about it all the time. You you know, young families struggling financially, young people struggling to get housing and pay off student debt and all the rest of it. And and and and we hear about it all the time statistically across the western worlds.

There's a generational wealth gap with a lot of wealth held by older generations. We know about that because the media keeps telling us. And as I think on that, you know, for the believer, maybe this presents an opportunity, an opportunity for parents and for grandparents to show practical and tangible love to their offspring by investing in them and in their relationship. Every situation's unique. But maybe for you, maybe there's an opportunity there and you haven't thought of it in that way. You see, if parents or grandparents are believers and have the means to help their kids, but but choose not to, you know, ultimately that can be a dampener on the relationship, even a hindrance to witness.

And so we want to be shrewd. We don't want to miss opportunities to prioritize people, to use earthly wealth for heavenly friendships. Now, these are wisdom calls, of course. Each situation is different, but it's another area of life where we do well to consider the use of funds, to think and pray through what shrewdness looks like for the sons of life.

Steve Hiller: This is Encounter the Truth with Alan Griffiths and a message called the priority of people. Now, we're going to pause here for just a moment, but we'll get back to the message. So I hope you'll stay with us. If you ever miss a program in our series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org where you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Encounter the Truth app. You'll find that for free at your app store. That's a great way to stay connected with Jonathan's teaching when you're on the go.

So again, look for the Encounter the Truth app at your app store or come and listen online at encounterthetruth.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, that's principle number one, prioritize people. And now here's principle number two, focus on faithfulness, focus on faithfulness, verse 10 and following. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you with true riches? And if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give to you that which is your own? Now, in case you and I as we read through this thought that Jesus was just uncritically positive in commending the dishonest manager, these comments now put that idea to rest, don't they?

The dishonest manager, he was shrewd. And in his shrewdness, yes, he had something to teach us, but in his dishonesty, he holds a warning for us too. His shrewdness may have won him friends, but his dishonesty cost him trust for the future. Indeed, it cost him his career. And so Jesus now turns to the issue of dishonesty and he makes the point that someone shows their character actually at an early stage of responsibility. See, someone who shows themselves faithful when they have a small responsibility will likely show themselves faithful when that responsibility grows. And one who by contrast is dishonest with a small thing will be dishonest when the responsibility is larger.

Now, the master knew that about this manager and so he showed him the door. You know, it's basic leadership to learn to recognize this in people and to guard against their influence and their capacity to do harm on a larger scale. And and Jesus is saying here, look, we have an opportunity in this life to show whether we will be faithful with little, with unrighteous wealth, with worldly resources. How are we going to steward them? How will we employ them in the service of the master? Will we make the most of them? Will we use them shrewdly and effectively and well?

Will we show integrity and faithfulness in our stewardship? If so, in the world to come in the kingdom of heaven, there will be true riches to steward. There will be greater opportunities for service and leadership. We don't know exactly what that will look like. We don't have the details. But our faithfulness now in this life, our stewardship of wealth, it will determine in some way what the Lord entrusts to us in his eternal kingdom. We see the principle worked out throughout our lives, by the way. You know, the kid who can be trusted in the kindergarten class gets to, I don't know, carry the attendance sheet to the principal's office or or or ring the bell at the end of recess.

The trustworthy kid in high school gets onto school council and becomes the grade rep. The reliable student at university is made president of the student association. The faithful junior associate at the law firm is made partner and on and on and on it goes. My grandmother used to like to say that in this life we are in God's kindergarten. And that right, isn't it? We're in God's kindergarten at the present time. The Lord is watching to see if we will be faithful with small things, with worldly wealth. And if we are, there is the prospect of being entrusted with true riches in the eternal kingdom, whatever exactly that means, whatever exactly it looks like.

It means being entrusted with things of real value for the long haul. So let me ask you, is your stewardship of the worldly resources God has given you, is it marked by faithfulness and integrity in all your financial dealings? What will the Lord look on and say well done? Now I can entrust you true riches in the eternal kingdom. Your standards of financial integrity are low in our society. Among the people of God, they must be high. Or is it the case that your stewardship might tell against any future responsibility because you have been too much like the world in this?

Now, that's between you and the Lord to work out, but each of us has to grapple with this in honesty before him. Prioritize people, focus on faithfulness. And finally now as we close, love the Lord. That is love the Lord first and foremost above all else, verse 13. 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. I don't know if you've ever had two jobs and two bosses. Some here will be holding down two or three jobs, but you'll know if that's the case that it's a hard thing to do.

I remember trying that once when I was a student one summer and I just remember it being so stressful, so difficult trying to manage both commitments, both priorities, trying to show both employers that I was committed to the work that they had given me to do. In the end, it was just too much and I made a resolve at the end of that summer never to try that again. Many of us will try and serve both God and money in our heart of hearts. You know, we love we love the Lord. We love the if we're Christian people, we love the Lord.

We're thankful for his salvation. We really are. And we want to take our discipleship seriously. I take it that's why we're here. You know, but also we love money and things perhaps. Maybe we want more of them. We want to enjoy them. We want to accumulate them. We want to make the most of them. We want to gear our lives toward the accumulation of wealth. And perhaps we imagine for a time that we're able to do both. We can love both, love God and love money together. But what does Jesus say to us? He says we're kidding ourselves.

We're kidding ourselves if we think that. We we are imagining a thing that is not true, that is not possible. In this endeavor, we are bound to fail. Notice that Jesus doesn't say, you know, a servant's going to find it jolly difficult to serve two masters. It's going to be a real challenge to pull that off. It's only going to be the exceptional servant that can. No. What does he say? No servant can do it. No one ever could. In the end, if you try and offer service to both, you will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

The attempt, which many have tried to serve both God and money, ends up with the necessity of choice. And the great danger is this and you can see it coming. The great danger is that our heart will follow the one with the most tangible and the most immediate appeal. The danger is that our heart will grow in devotion to money and will end up despising the Lord. Now, notice that Jesus isn't saying here that money is is altogether bad, that we need to hate it, that we've got to stay right away from it, that it's evil and corrupting in and of itself.

No, he's talking here about service. What will we serve? Where will our loyalty lie as good servants? Where will our priorities be found? And it's so interesting here that there is a choice between serving God and serving money. It's a choice between two masters, two lords of our life. It's a choice actually about worship, isn't it? Money here is a potential God alternative in our lives. And that means that it is a potential idol, isn't it? Something to serve, something to live for, something to give ourselves to, something other than God, a God alternative. Now, it's fine to use money, isn't it?

It's a tool. That's what Jesus has been teaching us throughout this passage, very pragmatic. The dishonest manager, he didn't idolize money. Whatever else he got wrong, and he got plenty wrong, he saw that money was just a tool to use for another greater purpose. The trouble comes when money becomes an aim in itself, a goal in itself, when money becomes the thing we build our lives around that we might serve it. And by the way, the one who serves money can have lots of it and live lavishly and splash it around. Or the one who in their heart of hearts serves money can live frugally and stash it away.

It won't always be visible from the outside what is going on in the heart. The servant of money might be rich and the servant of money might be poor, but the Lord can see. What lies at the heart of our devotion? What is it that we are living for? What is it that we are serving? What is it that we love the most? Jesus says don't be fooled. It's easy to be self-deceived. Don't be self-deceived. You cannot serve both God and money. And you and I, we got to be clear, to be a Christian is to love the Lord.

To be a Christian is to be devoted to the Lord. To be a Christian is to serve the Lord and to refuse to allow money to take that place in our heart and in our life. So let me just ask you as as I ask myself, where are you at with that today? As you examine your heart, where is your love and where is your devotion? As you look at your priorities in life, what is it that you are serving and striving after? Is there is there any risk in your life and mine that money is taking the place that the Lord deserves?

Are you trying perhaps to do that impossible thing to serve both imagining that you will be the exception, the one who will pull it off long-term? Friend, the truth of the matter is this, you got to choose. You got to choose. In the end, it will be one or it will be the other. The attempt which so many try is bound to fail. Three priorities for wealth, prioritize people, focus on faithfulness, love the Lord.

Steve Hiller: Alan Griffiths wrapping up the message the priority of people, part of our series Cash, Christ and the Kingdom. And if you ever miss a broadcast, a couple of different ways you can go back and listen. First, our website encounterthetruth.org where you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Encounter the Truth app. That's free and you'll find it at your app store. Well, Encounter the Truth is a listener supported ministry. That's exactly what it sounds like. It is your giving, your generosity that allows us to continue to bring you Jonathan's teaching each day.

And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book entitled Gentle and Lowly. It's written by Dane Ortlund. And Jonathan, why did you pick this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, I picked it because I loved it and because I found it so personally helpful. And it's a book I want every Christian to read. And I've been encouraging our friends and family to read it. It's it's a delightful book that really looks at the heart of God for sinners and sufferers as the subtitle says. And and and it means what it says. Dane Ortlund in this delightful study really looks at God's disposition toward us and the way in which he has acted toward us in Christ. And it it busts some myths. I think we can feel that God's disposition toward us is harsh, unyielding, distant.

And Dane shows us that through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has come to us in grace and mercy and kindness. And he loves us deeply. And and he's not looking to catch us out. He's looking to pour out his grace in our lives and we need to hear that. We need to hear it again and again. We need to be taught that. We need to be reminded of it. We need to believe it and we need to live it. And this beautifully written study is such a help in doing that very thing.

And I hope everyone listening will get hold of a copy, will read it and will be helped by it as I have been personally.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of this book Gentle and Lowly is our way of saying thank you for your support this month. You can give online when you come to encounterthetruth.org or call 1 833 99 Truth. That's 1 833 998 7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, P.O. Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Bratta, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.