A Bad Man’s Good Example
Note: This sermon was preached at First Free Wichita in 2004 in a series on Finding Financial Freedom.
Introduction: Every one of us in this room this morning has a set of priorities, a ranking, if you will, of those things that we consider the most important in the world. I’m sure if asked to put these priorities on paper, most of us would probably list God first, family second, then work, church, friends, and country in some order, followed by eating, golf, TV, sleeping, and other common pursuits. But I am also sure that most of us would lie about it when we made up our list. Not intentionally, of course. Our list would actually be what we wished our priorities were rather than what they really are.
I think I can prove that, because nearly everyone in this room has written a book about our priorities. It reveals what is really important to us, not what we wish were important to us. And it doesn’t lie. It’s a pretty small book and you write a new chapter in it every year. Some of you brought it to church this morning. Do you know what book I’m talking about? Yes, it’s your checkbook. You might like to take it out this week and examine what you’ve written in your book since January 1. Ask the question, “What does my book tell me about my real priorities?”
Statistics indicate the average born-again Christian spends more on taxes than he gives to God or the church.
He spends more on his home mortgage.
He spends more on food.
He spends more on insurance.
He spends more on clothes.
He spends more on cars.
He spends more on vacations and entertainment.
He spends more on the education of his children.
As a matter of fact, giving comes up 17th in the average Christian’s book of priorities. If that is true, is it really honest for us to claim that God is the highest priority in our lives?
I have reason to believe that this church family is considerably above average in its giving habits, but let me share with you what a Gallup poll showed about the giving of Americans in general. People under 40 give an average of 2% of their income to charities of all kinds, including church. Unbelievers give 1.8% while those claiming to be born again give 2.5%. Rather amazing, isn’t it, that the giving of professing believers as a group is so close to that of unbelievers–just .7% higher.
Obviously there is little relationship between the kind of giving practiced and encouraged in the NT and the kind we see in the church at large today. We need to be taught how to give, and that is the topic I want to tackle today.
Do you ever read the comic strip, “Cathy?” I do not, and I don’t even know if it’s carried in the Wichita Eagle, but someone sent me one of the comic strips. It showed Cathy being taken to a dress shop by her girlfriend Charlene. Cathy says, “I’m already paying to go to the event Charlene! I am not buying a new outfit!” “It’s for charity, Cathy!” “A $300 suit is not for charity!” “Sure it is! You’ll buy the suit . . . Go to the event . . . Have a terrible time . . . Go home . . . Eat a box of Dove Bars to console yourself . . . Get too fat for the suit . . . Dump it in the Goodwill Box . . . And–boom- CHARITY!” “Oh,” says Cathy. The last comment is Charlene’s: “So many of us have to be taught how to give.”
Well, we could all use a lot of help in learning how to give, but believe me, that’s not it. I remind you that this message is the fifth and last in a series on Finding Financial Freedom. We began talking about godly and ungodly ways of getting money, then godly and ungodly ways of spending money, then godly and ungodly ways of saving money, and last week, ungodly ways of giving money. So today our attention goes to godly ways of giving.
My original plan was to go to 1 Corinthians 16 and 2 Cor. 8, where we have a number of practical guidelines for godly giving, but I touched on most of those principles in the very first series I did upon returning to First Free. It was on Marks of a Healthy Church; the sermon was delivered on April 4, and it was entitled Biblical Stewardship: Using but Not Abusing God’s Gifts. Among the guidelines we discussed were the following:
We are to give,
give regularly and systematically,
give proportionately,
give wisely,
give joyfully,
give generously,
and give sacrificially.
Would it be valuable for us to go over those same truths this morning and even expand upon them? Yes, I think it would, because all of us need to be reminded of truth we already know. But I’m going to make an assumption this morning–that you either have those truths down solid or you will go back to that sermon on the website. I have decided instead to turn this morning to one of the strangest stories Jesus ever told, from which I trust we will learn something new about how to give, especially in regard to motive.
The Parable of the Shrewd Manager
Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word as found in Luke 16:1-9:
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. {2} So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
{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– {4} I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
{5} “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
{6} “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ {7}
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
{8} “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.
This parable, known as the Parable of the Dishonest Steward or the Parable of the Shrewd Manager, is taken right out of the cutthroat world of business and reveals how thoroughly Jesus was in touch with the lives of ordinary people. It has a strangely familiar ring to it–a greedy businessman, a dishonest employee, influence peddling, padded expense accounts, lavish entertainment, and juggled bank accounts. It seems almost as though Jesus has been reading the Federal court docket in any major city, or perhaps snooping on Congress.[i]
The particular scene he depicts is that of a first-century commodities manager accused of fraud and terminated by his boss. He is faced with the sudden loss of what he had long taken for granted and is forced to think soberly and seriously about the future. He is like many who find themselves downsized today–they hate to even think of taking a lower-paying job than they had. So he devises a plan. He goes to his employer’s debtors and reduces their debts, some 50% and some 20%–all so that when his termination takes effect, he will have friends to take him in.
On the surface this appears to be a strange story for Jesus to tell. Why would he employ a rogue like this dishonest manager as an example of something good? But it doesn’t seem quite so strange when we look at some of the other characters Jesus appealed to in His teaching. Perhaps you recall the parable of the unjust judge in Luke 18: he didn’t fear God and he didn’t respect man, but Jesus saw in him a positive spiritual truth. Or recall how Jesus commanded us in Matt. 10 to be “wise as serpents?” Or what about the simile He used of His own return, namely that He will come as a “thief in the night”?
In none of these cases is the Lord condoning all the activities of the one pictured. He is not condoning the judge’s hard-heartedness, or the serpent’s poisonous mouth, or the thief’s penchant for relieving other people of their personal property. Nor is he here in this parable condoning the shrewd manager’s dishonesty. Rather in each case He is attempting to make one salient point, to teach us one positive truth from the illustration. An ancient proverb explains Jesus’ use of these characters: “It is wise to learn, even from an enemy.”
The unjust judge does allow himself to be moved by the needs of people, and so does God. A serpent is careful and on the lookout for danger, and so should a Christian be. A thief will come at an unexpected moment, and so will Jesus Christ. Likewise, the dishonest manager in our story demonstrates cleverness, shrewdness and prudence in the way he uses money to prepare for the future, and so should we.
The real theme of this parable, and indeed of the entire chapter, Luke 16, is money. To discover what Jesus is saying about it, and particularly about how to give it, we need to take a closer look at the parable itself.
Two common scoundrels
That the shrewd manager is a scoundrel is obvious because he squandered his boss’s wealth and, when fired, further depleted the owner’s capital. But I suggest to you that there is probably another scoundrel in the story–the boss himself. The grudging compliment he pays to the manager is perhaps a hint that some of his capital has been accumulated dishonestly. The Old Testament forbade a Jew to charge another Jew interest on a loan. However, some merchants got around the prohibition by loaning a certain amount of money and then writing the loan agreement for a larger amount than was actually loaned. If that is what happened in this story, the dishonest manager may have canceled the illegal portion of the debtors’ bills. What could the owner say? He couldn’t repudiate the manager’s actions without convicting himself of taking illegal interest. He’s been outfoxed. The rip-off-artist has been ripped off himself. The sting has been stung.
The second thing we discover is that the shrewd manager, when terminated by the boss, finds himself faced with:
Two unsatisfactory options
He says, “I can’t dig and I’m too proud to beg.” “Can’t,” of course, sometimes means “won’t.” He is spoiled by a life of plenty and ease and is locked into a high standard of living. He is too proud to go on welfare. Instead he has a better idea. “I’ve got it! I know what I’ll do, so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their homes.” He summons each of the owner’s debtors. Only two are mentioned but the intimation is that there were many more.
Two shrewd transactions (5-7)
The first debtor owed 800 gallons of olive oil, the annual yield of about 150 olive trees. Much to the debtor’s surprise and delight, the steward canceled the bill and wrote a new one for half as much. When asked why he was doing this, the steward replied, I suppose, “Who knows? I may need a friend someday. Don’t forget me.” The second owed 1000 bushels of wheat, the amount recoverable in those days from about 100 acres of ground. His debt is also renegotiated–for 800 bushels. The same message is communicated: “I’ll rub your back if you’ll rub mine.”
It was a very clever thing to do. It was thoroughly dishonest, but it was also unquestionably shrewd. This rogue of a manager uses his head to make a couple of warm friends, before he has to walk out into the cold, hard world seeking new unemployment.
The parable ends in the middle of verse 8, and it is at this point that Jesus begins to apply its moral lessons to the lives of His disciples. I’m sure glad He does this, because we might not know what to do with this story if He didn’t help us.
The moral lessons of the parable (8b-13)
The first lesson is a general one:
1. Christians should be shrewd as well as good. (8b) Jesus states this principle negatively in verse 8 as he laments the fact that “The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” As we have previously stated, there is no hint that Jesus is commending the manager’s dishonesty. It is taken for granted that Christians will be honest. But that is not enough–a Christian should also be smart. It’s as though Jesus was placing a want-ad in the paper: “Wanted: Good people with this bad man’s business sense.” Christians, wise up! God has never put a premium on ignorance, except in regard to evil (Romans 16:19 says, “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent {or naïve} about what is evil.”). When it comes to the use of money, we need to be shrewd.
Every Christian is ultimately going to be in the same boat as this manager. We, too, are facing the certain end of our material resources. Within a few years at best, each one of us will stand before God with no wealth, no money, no titles, no influence. All of that will be left behind. We brought nothing into this world and there is nothing we can take out of it. Or can we? As a matter of fact, there is something you can take with you to the other side–and that is friends! And that brings us to a second moral principle Jesus draws from the parable:
2. Christians should use their possessions to make friends. (9) Jesus goes on, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” The term “worldly wealth” is translated “mammon of unrighteousness” in the KJV. There is often a good deal of unrighteousness in the earning of it–tax manipulations, gambling, greed, cheating–as well as in the spending of it. The next time you hold a $20 bill in your hand, think about all the evil things that may have been done with that bill in the past year. But there is a way to redeem that $20 bill–use it to make a friend! But Jesus’ concern is not that we accumulate earthly friends to help us in case we one day find ourselves destitute. He clearly defines the kind of friends He’s talking about as those who may welcome us into eternal dwellings.
I suggest to you that this concept could be a major paradigm shift for many of us, a whole new motive for generous giving: godly giving is all about making friends for God. I think a lot of people do their giving to try to make God their friend–to buy His favor, if you will. But the right goal is to make friends for Him.
It order to accomplish that, it is not enough to pray for the lost; we must also be willing to pay for them, too. Now when I say, “pay for them,” I’m not talking about the practice of some religious faiths whereby one is encouraged to give a certain amount to the church so special services and prayers will be said for your departed loved ones. Frankly, I see nothing in the Bible to indicate that you can influence an individual’s eternal destiny after he or she has died. No, Jesus is talking about investing in them while they are still living, with the goal of reaching them with the Gospel! Heaven should be populated with people who will welcome us when we arrive because we invested in their salvation. Or, if we get there first, we can welcome them.
Now this investing can be done either indirectly or directly. Whenever you give money to a Bible-believing local church where the Gospel is preached, you are indirectly using your money to make eternal friends, even if you never get to know them personally. Whenever you give to a parachurch organization that has as one of its basic goals the winning of lost people to Christ, you are indirectly using your money to make eternal friends. Whenever you give to an effective missionary, whether at home or abroad, you are using your money to make friends for God.
I am not a wealthy man by most standards, but I do have a global investment portfolio. When I get to heaven, I expect to be greeted by some French believers. I have never met them, but my wife and I invested monthly for twelve years in the ministry of Jim and Diane Brower, our best friends in college, while they were missionaries in the northern suburbs of Paris. I also have investments in southern Mexico, in Venezuela, and in Tatarstan, where other missionaries we have supported work in God’s vineyard. I have investments in Vermont and Huntington, Utah and Portland and Fort Myers, Fl where men I have mentored are carrying on effective church-planting ministries.
Some of my investments are in a mutual fund, called the First Free Missions budget. It allows me to have a small investment everywhere our church has missionaries and outreach. Another mutual fund is Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. As I give to that great seminary, which I do every year, I am investing in every local church, every Bible School, and every mission where it’s graduates eventually end up serving!
But I also invest heavily here at home. When I give to this church, whether the money is used to pay a light bill or buy S.S. curriculum or help pay for a youth retreat, or even keep the coffee pots going in the courtyard, I am investing in making friends for God. By doing so, I participate at some level in the conversion of every child, every youth, and every adult who comes to faith in Christ through the ministry of this church. Even paying on a mortgage is an indirect investment–because this building is currently being used to make friends for God, and the sooner the mortgage is paid off, the sooner those funds will be freed up from paying interest to being used in even more effective ways.
But there are also direct ways in which we can use our material possessions to make friends. Think about how a salesman makes friends. He studies his product, studies his client, takes his prospective buyer to the fanciest of restaurants, doesn’t hesitate to make long-distance calls, entertains in his home, etc. He realizes that you can’t make money without spending money. Why shouldn’t we use these same methods in our personal evangelism? Businessmen, have you ever taken an associate to a fancy restaurant with the specific purpose of sharing your faith? Some of you have, I know. Have the wives ever invited neighbors to a nice dinner at your home in order to let them see Christianity at work in your family? When you have an extra ticket to a WSU basketball game, do you take a friend from church or do you take someone who has yet to become a friend of God?
Years ago here in Wichita I had lunch in a restaurant with two men–one a chaplain at a Federal penitentiary (some of you may remember him, David Pipping), and the other a recent graduate of that fine institution, Mark Choate, an ex-con. Both of them spoke here at First Free back in the 70’s. Mark had come to know Christ under David’s ministry, and his story was amazing. As we were leaving the restaurant I put down a 15% tip and a Gospel tract. Mark, however, dug in his pocket for some additional money, commenting, “When I leave evidence of my faith, I want to be sure it’s read.” That guy was shrewd. I don’t know if he learned that in prison, but wherever he learned it, he was right.
Do you remember the story in the Gospels of the four friends who brought a palsied man to Christ? They had to tear up the roof of the house where Jesus was in order to let him down on ropes, because the crowd was so great around Christ. Imagine what the owner of that house thought as he was sitting at Jesus’ feet. Some dust starts falling on his head and he looks up, only to see his roof coming apart. The burning question left unanswered in the story is this: who paid for the roof? Is it not likely that those four men took up a collection among themselves and paid for it? They were willing to incur significant expense to bring their friend to Jesus.
Jesus follows this strange parable about the shrewd manager with some further teaching on money, and then Luke wraps it all up in verses 14 and 15: “The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.’” God knows our hearts, too. He knows that greed and apathy can keep us from applying the words of Jesus, can cause us to spend everything on ourselves and give only token amounts to God, and even that, grudgingly.
G. Campbell Morgan told of a very wealthy man in his church who prayed often, eloquently, and tenderly for the salvation of the heathen and for the missionaries at family worship. He was startled beyond measure one day when, as the prayer was over, his 10-year-old son said, “Dad, I like to hear you pray for the missionaries. But do you know what I was thinking? If I had your money, I would answer half my prayers myself.”
That would be a good question for all of us to ask, “Lord, what portion of my prayers for the lost do you want me to answer myself with the resources you have provided? What portion do you want me to invest indirectly, and what portion directly?” Friends, the Parable of the Shrewd Manager tells us that we can’t take it with us, but if we shrewdly invest it, we can send it on ahead.
Conclusion: You know, I heard about a man who was sitting in the church lobby when an usher walked out. He asked the usher, “Is the sermon done?” “No,” said the usher, “the pastor is finished, but the sermon has yet to be done.” It’s never done until we do what the Holy Spirit urges us to do. My suspicion is that every one of us has something to do after being exposed to these biblical principles over the past five weeks. Some may need to quit obtaining money in ungodly ways, some may need to establish a budget in order to quit spending compulsively; others may need to start a savings plan that will get them through unexpected times of leanness; still others may need to repent of hypocrisy in their giving, because we have tried to impress others with our generosity when it really isn’t a fact; and I suspect all of us could gain a new motive for generous giving–the motive of making friends for God. I want to urge you to allow God to make the changes necessary to help you find true financial freedom.
If I were asked to say which of these four areas of getting, spending, saving, or giving is the most important, I would say they’re all important and if any one of them is out of balance, you will not enjoy financial freedom. If asked, “where should I start?”, I would say “start with generous giving.” Giving regularly and generously to God’s work, right off the top, is the right thing to do, and it will force you to get the rest of your financial house in order, but it will also provide you the motive to do it.
It’s possible some of you need a little extra help beyond what I can offer in a series of sermons. So starting next Sunday we’re going to offer a short, six-week video class that will go over many of these same biblical principles and allow you to process them with a class facilitator who has been down this road before. We call this Crown Lite. You can sign up for it right out in the lobby on the way to the coffee.
Tags:
Giving
Stewardship
Shrewdness
[i] Some of this description is borrowed from my former homiletics professor, Dr. Haddon Robinson, who preached on this passage as a guest at First Free Wichita.