Leading The Way

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello friends, Michael Youssef here with Leading the Way. I am so grateful that our Leading the Way partners are standing with us, supporting us, so that we take these resources and help others. All of you who have supported this ministry and have given to those folks who desperately need it to bring the Gospel message, you’re going to have friends in heaven who are going to walk up to you and say, "Thank you. Because of your partnership with Leading the Way, I am now in heaven."

So I want to thank you on behalf of heaven for all that you have done, for all that you are doing, and for all that you're going to do. Thank you for standing with us.

Guest (Female): Hello and welcome to Leading the Way. In just a moment, a message Dr. Youssef is calling "Money and Friends in Heaven." Get ready to dive into the Gospel of Luke where Jesus tells the parable of the unjust steward. These are verses which have divided Bible scholars for centuries.

But when you dive into the truth of the teaching, it’s a challenge for all generations to invest into eternity. Now, this message is not about investing money into eternity, though it's part of it. It’s really about your heart. It’s about leaning into God’s perspective on the value of eternity. So let’s join Dr. Michael Youssef for this perspective-shifting message on Leading the Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: The parable of the unjust steward in Luke chapter 16 has been a stumbling block to many a casual reader of the Bible. This parable has been used by the Bible critics to show how the Bible is inconsistent. Others still use it to prove that Jesus was teaching that the end justifies the means.

Yet there are others still who have seen in this parable a justification for situational ethics, mainly that do all you can do under the circumstances even if you have to sin in order to get out of a bad situation. But none of that is true. None of that is what Jesus is teaching in this parable.

I wonder how many of you, truly, when you have read this parable, you had just a little bit of a nudge, "What is this doing here in the scripture? How in the world is Jesus giving us this example of praising a crook and lifting him up as a model for us to learn from?" I want you to look at verse 9. That is the key verse.

In teaching in parables, there are parables that have several points of teaching, and there are parables that have only one point. As it happened, this particular parable of Luke 16 has only one point of teaching, and that is verse 9. That is the key verse.

Jesus said, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone," that is your wealth, "you will be welcomed into their eternal habitations." The lesson that Jesus is trying to teach His disciples while the Pharisees were eavesdropping, as you figure out from verse 14, and the lesson that He was trying to teach His disciples and the Pharisees in a secondary way is this:

Just as surely as Jerusalem fell in 70 AD as Jesus predicted some 30 years earlier, just as surely as that has happened, even so the existing age in which we live will also disappear. Just as surely as the word of God is true, the money that you have in your hand will lose its value one day.

Just as surely as God is our God, as He's true God, our worldly resources, the stocks and the bonds and the real estate holdings, the gold and the cash, will show up as zero in the bottom line of that last day. That's what Jesus is trying to teach us.

He's trying to teach us that the Wall Street crash of 1929 will be like a tiny little ripple in the ocean in comparison to what God is going to do to the economy in that last day. That's what Jesus is trying to teach us. We used to say as sound as a dollar.

Even in our own generation, we don't say that anymore. Why? The value has dropped. We have seen it, the dollar devalued in our own generation. Imagine what's going to happen at the end of time. The scripture is filled with warnings against worshipping other gods.

Please listen to me, I love you, but I want you to hear me right. The number one god in America today is the god of Mammon, the god of money. We sacrifice our health to get more wealth and then we spend our wealth in order to get our health back, but it's too late.

It's a catch-22. We sacrifice our marriages and our children in the mad pursuit of more and more and more. More of what? America's cathedrals of worship today are the banks. Look at the lavish furniture, the marble floors, the posh carpets, and the richly ornamented curtains, to say nothing of bankers who think of themselves as popes inside those cathedrals. Now if you're a banker, forgive me.

But we have forgotten the source of our wealth. It is not the big banks, it is not the savings and loans, it is not the government. The source of our wealth is Jehovah God. And what Jesus is teaching us in this parable is that your net worth is not how much money you have, it is not how extensive your holdings are.

But the real net worth is how much money you have invested in the kingdom of God, how much money you have invested in Gospel work and in Gospel ministry. Because in heaven, the only friends you're going to have are those who are going to walk up to you and they're going to say, "Thank you for giving of your resources."

"Because it is your giving that made it possible for us to be here in heaven. It is your giving that made it possible to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and repent of our sins and be saved and now we are in heaven because of your generosity." You can't see it now. You can't appreciate it now. You can't comprehend it now.

But Jesus, who knows all about heaven, is telling you and He's telling me that what we give to the kingdom of God is all that you can count on seeing on the other side of eternity. People may judge you on the basis of what you have, but God judges you on the basis of what you gave.

Please hear me right. A budget is a theological document. A budget is a statement of belief. A budget is an indication of what you worship. A budget is a description of where your heart is. Look inside the checkbook of many a church member today. You'd probably die of shock, but I dare you to try.

You're going to find something like this: Mercedes payment, $800. Vacation, $4,000. Poodle shampoo, $50. Tithe and offerings, $25. Where your treasure is, there is your heart. Not the other way around. People like to reverse them, but that's not what the Bible said.

When your treasure is spent on everything but the kingdom of God, it is easy to see where your heart is not set on the things of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, figure out where your money is, that's where you're going to find your heart.

Jesus knew that money is going to be a source of temptation to the believers. The pagans worship it as their god; it doesn't matter anyhow, that's their god. But for the Christians, that's going to be a source of temptation just as Baal was always a source of temptation to the people of Israel and constantly falling back into that temptation.

So it is money for the people of God, the people who love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why I believe with all my heart that 16 out of the 38 parables that Jesus gave have to do with money and the right and the wrong use of it. In all four Gospels, one out of ten verses, 288 in all, have to do with money and the use of material possessions.

The Bible gives us about 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but it gives us 2,000 verses on money and material possessions. And some sanctimonious people say to me, "Oh, Brother Youssef, you ought not to talk about money." They must know something that Jesus did not know when He spent that much time talking about it.

I want to know what it is that they know that Jesus did not know. Since the Gospel is the only answer to this guilt-ridden world, since the Gospel is the only answer to this sin-crazed world, then your giving to the cause of the Gospel is ultimately the only productive and rewarding investment that you could make in your life.

Sure you'll not see the immediate results. You won't get immediate gratifications like you'd get when you give to other causes. When you give to other causes, you see your name on a plaque or on one of those desirable lists. Whatever it may be, and I'm not telling you to stop doing that.

I'm just telling you that when you give to the Gospel work, you won't get that immediate gratification. But that is exactly the point of this parable. The point of this parable is it is the future that Jesus wants us to think about, not the immediate present. It is the coming age that Jesus wants us to invest in.

It is the eternal things that Jesus wants us to occupy our pocketbook and our net worth statement. Heaven is the place where the consequences of what you do here with your money is going to take place over there. John the Revelator, when he had been privileged to go up to the very heaven of heavens, writes in Revelation 14:13.

"Blessed are those who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yes, says the spirit, they rest from their labor and their deeds do follow them." That's what'll happen. And Jesus said you'll be received, you'll be welcomed in their eternal habitations. He's talking about eternity.

After this introduction, I better get to my sermon. Why did Jesus choose a crook to illustrate and give us a godly lesson? In the time of Jesus, stewards of wealthy owners come in and they become in charge financially of everything they have in the house. Owners did not work.

But they got these brokers who came and worked for them full-time to manage their money, called stewards. In fact, you remember in the book of Genesis where it was said of Potiphar that Joseph, who became the steward in his household, he was so in charge of all things to the point that Potiphar only knew of the food that he ate.

He entrusted him with everything, and that's what happens in those days. Now, when this manager heard that his boss is about to fire him and realized that his world as he knew it is coming to an end, when he knew that his experience as he knows what it's like, he said it's gone and a new era is about to dawn.

When he realized that they're about to foreclose on his colonial hut and his camel Mercedes and that he would walk out with nothing, then he decided to do something about it. He looked to the future. And in the case of this villain, this rascal, this manager here in this parable, he was the only one who had access to the financial documentation.

He had access to the business transactions. So he calls in the people who owe money to his master and he gave to each one of them a very generous and substantial discount. Why? So that in the future, in the post-employment era, in the next time, they will welcome him in their habitations.

And what Jesus is saying to you and to me from this wickedness of this man, that he has some things that the Christians ought to learn. Because that is exactly what is going to happen to every one of us. This life as we know it is going to be over.

The post-life era, as it were, is going to come to everyone sitting here and to me, and we never know when. As surely as God Himself is in heaven, this age is coming to an end. And you're going to leave everything behind. So what should we learn?

The first lesson that this villain teaches us, or Jesus wants us to learn from this villain, is this: Rascal though he was, he faced the facts. He faced the facts. He faced the real facts head-on. And believers must face facts as God said they are.

Not as Wall Street said they are, not as the government said they are, not as the economist said they are, but they must face the facts as God said they are. And this man did not live in a fool's paradise, which somebody called it a waiting room for a fool's hell, but he faced the facts.

So as he faced these facts, he began to think of the future. What's going to happen on the other side? And that is why Jesus in Matthew 6:20 tells us, He said, "Lay up treasures in heaven." And that investment in the work of the Gospel is the only sure and good and safe investment that you can make.

All other investments have risk associated with them. This one, no risk. He didn't only face reality, he did not only face the real facts, but he also looked ahead. He began to project himself in the life of post-employment. He began to project himself in the life of poverty.

So he made provision for that future. Now I want to ask you, do you ever think of eternity? Have you learned from this villain the lesson of projecting yourself in heaven? Have you ever sat down, really closed your eyes and tried to project yourself in heaven? We don't want to face that reality.

We all think they're going to live forever and we're going to be going on, everything's going on the same. But have you ever taken time, closed your eyes and said, "I'm in heaven in the presence of God, what's going to happen on the other side? What provision have I made for heaven?"

"What investments have I made in heaven? What plans have I made for my eternal habitations?" This man did not only face the facts, he did not only project the future, but he thirdly acted upon his convictions, wrong as they were. He acted upon his convictions.

Please hear me right. I don't want you to misunderstand this. Do you know the thing that makes me admire the militant homosexuals and the militant humanists and the militant abortionists and all the half a dozen militants who are threatening to destroy this nation? Do you know what I admire the most about them?

They are committed to their cause. And what Jesus is saying here is that this man was so committed to his cause that nothing stood in his way. If you and I are committed to the cause of the Gospel as the militant Muslims and all the other militant groups are committed to their cause, we would win the world for Jesus Christ.

And now we've got backaches and sore knees and think of me. Look at verses 11 and 12. If therefore you have not been faithful in the use of your money, who commits to you, to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

We're really just managers. We don't own anything, but we just oversee it. How faithful are we? We don't own it, we oversee it. Stewards do not rob God by withholding tithes and offerings. Stewards don't waste. Stewards invest wisely.

For if you don't manage God's resources well on earth, how can He trust you, how can He trust me with the riches of the kingdom when He rules supreme? But I don't want you to miss verse 14. And the Pharisees who were eavesdropping, actually, at that time, were lovers of money.

When they heard all these things, they scoffed at Him. They scoffed at Him. Nothing has changed. People don't like to hear anything about money and about stewardship because they want to play God. They scoffed at Him. It is possible that you may scoff at what Jesus is teaching.

It is possible that you may say, "How can I love money? I can't even have the two ends meet." But I want to tell you, you don't have to have a lot of money to love money because the love of money is a disease of the heart.

I have known wealthy people who don't love money and they give it away generously, ruthlessly, as God gives it to them, they give it away. I've seen people with very little and they're so in love with the little they have. God wants to release you to do great things for Him with the blessings He gave you.

Because He's stored plenty more. E. Stanley Jones, the great Methodist missionary statesman to India, used to say, "You cannot serve God and Mammon, but you can serve God with Mammon." You see, God promised in His word in Malachi 3:10 and 11 that when you and I are faithful with our tithes and offerings.

So far you haven't heard me telling you to give anything to the church, have I? Have I? He's always provided for it, and He will always provide for it. That's something I never worry about. But it is for you, it is for your own blessing. It's for your own enrichment.

It has nothing to do with me or the church or any church for that matter. Because God promised that when you're faithful, He will rebuke the devourer for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear fruit, says the Lord of Hosts.

You have God's word on it. You can use all the sanctimonious language that you want to use, but until your treasure is with God, only then your heart will follow. Where is your heart today? Please ask yourself that question because I believe God wants to bless you.

God wants to bless you. Where is your heart today? Have you faced the facts about your eternal future? Have you made plans for investing in your eternity? Are you committed to the cause of Christ to which you can say, "I give it my all?" I believe this is the lesson that the Lord wants to teach us.

Guest (Female): A plea to honestly answer: "Where is my heart today?" We thank you for joining author and international Bible teacher Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. And if this message encouraged you to invest in eternity, then we hope you’ll consider Leading the Way part of your investment.

Speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. You can review all of your options today. You can also see how the ministry is impacting eternity when you visit the website, ltw.org. As we begin another broadcast month, we want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you who partnered and participated with us in the June Giving Challenge.

Your generosity at any time of the year really paves the way for the Gospel to be taken across six continents and in 28 of the world’s most spoken and most understood languages.

Dr. Michael Youssef: My dearest of friends, I am feeling the urgency of the hour. In my knowledge of history and in the 77 years that I have lived on this earth and the 52 years of ordained ministry, I have never seen a more urgent time for the preaching of the Gospel, the proclamation of the Gospel in our nation as I do now.

That's why I'm writing about this in my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*, because the Gospel is the answer, a great awakening is the answer. And so I am dedicating my time and my life to Leading the Way, and I'm going to be on the road and on television, on radio, urging my friends to join with me so together we can have an impact in these last days.

Guest (Female): Reach out to the Leading the Way team at 866-626-4356 or online, we are at ltw.org. And we love hearing from you through the postal services as well. You can write a note and just tell us what this ministry has meant to your spiritual growth, send a gift to the ministry, or send us your prayer request.

We're at Leading the Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia 30325. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform.