Red Letter Day 29 Luke 16 1:1-18

[00:00:00] All money belongs to God. How will you steward his money?

[00:00:21] I'm Alnesha, the host of this show, GloriBites. GloriBites is a short podcast that encourage

[00:00:28] women to taste and see that the Lord is good, and blessed are you as you take refuge in him.

[00:00:35] Today on our red letter challenge we are in the book of Luke 16 looking at verses 1 through

[00:00:52] 18 about the parable of the strewed manager. Let's jump right in.

[00:01:04] So, the chapter starts out with Jesus telling his disciples that there was this rich man who had been accused of wasting his possession,

[00:01:15] so he was called in and asked like, what is this that I hear about you? And give an account for your

[00:01:23] amendment because you can no longer be a manager. So, he was about to get fired, and once he realized that he was getting fired

[00:01:32] he was like, I'm not strong enough to dig, I'm ashamed to bat, so he needed to figure out a way to take care of

[00:01:41] himself. So, he went to some of his master's debtors and he asked them how much did they owe the master?

[00:01:50] And he looks like he gave him a little discount. There is some conflicting information in multiple

[00:01:58] commentaries that I looked at regarding why he actually took some off the top. Maybe he was unfaithful at first

[00:02:07] and he had to give account. He was supposed to bring the report. I think a new live-in translation says, bring me a report of your actions to the manager.

[00:02:24] So, the manager commanded the master, the master commanded the dishonor because he had acted wisely and he said that the unbelievers, so basically the unbelievers of this age, I am inverse, I'm losing my spot, I'm sorry.

[00:02:48] I am inverse eight. For the people of this world are more wise in dealing with their own kind than the people of the light.

[00:02:57] So, we're looking at believers and unbelievers. So, he said that the unbelievers are deal wisely with each other and our friends but the believers often fail to realize

[00:03:09] that they are to use their financial resources to win people, to faith. And so when you are helping someone that you are helping them and showing them eternal dwellings, basically letting you know that what you do for people, God sees it as a believer, what you do for people, God sees it and you will have a reward in heaven.

[00:03:34] Whoever is trusted with little can be trusted with much. Whoever is dishonest with the little will be dishonest with much. So, we are to be faithful handlers of whatever he gives us using it for his kingdom purposes to advance the kingdom, helping those and to have integrity.

[00:03:53] Like no matter whatever he gives us, we are to be faithful and to steward. The little and the big things because then the word says that we cannot serve two masters that we will hate one and love the other, be devoted to one or despise the other.

[00:04:08] You cannot serve both God and money. And the Pharisees was the ones who loved the money and they looked at it with justification in the eyes of man but God knew their heart as Jesus says that it was highly valued among men but the testable in God's eyes.

[00:04:29] And we see that when somebody has a lot of money, we see these celebrities or whatever it's like you think that they live in such this good life because we're looking at it from our fleshly perspective that their life is so much valuable but God detest those who don't use his money correctly.

[00:04:52] Because all money that we have comes from God, we are just to be faithful managers of whatever that he gives us. So, whether you have one Paul says he learned to be content, whether he has a little or a lot, that's how our mindset should be about our money.

[00:05:09] He ends off with an additional teaching about the law and the prophets which is the Old Testament where proclaimed into John and that the good news was being preached and everyone was forcing his way into it.

[00:05:21] That it was easier for heaven and earth to pass than the last stroke of the letter to drop out of the law. And so Jesus did not cancel the law, he fulfilled the law and the law paid the way for the love of Jesus.

[00:05:38] And Jesus uses this law in the last verse for today to say that anyone who divorces his wife and Mary's another woman commits adultery and the man who Mary's a divorced woman commits adultery.

[00:05:52] This is not a marriage podcast episode and so I just say this to say that Jesus used this to they believed in divorcing for any reason. He just used this to clarify that the original intent of marriage was forever, you know, not to go and be divorced.

[00:06:14] And so I think he just points it back to that marriage was always originally intended to be a permanent thing. Now myself, I am currently separated and trying to figure out things with my spouse and my family.

[00:06:34] I will say this that divorce is not the unforgivable singing that there is allowances and we saw that in one of the previous episodes in this book for divorce for adultery.

[00:06:47] So he is just giving these additional teaching because the Pharisees and their mindset and how they felt about the law.

[00:06:56] So to sum it all up today, if we really want to just take some takeaways, that money belongs to God and that money can be used for good or evil, that money is very powerful. So we must use it carefully.

[00:07:10] And then we must have our focus on God and not money because it can get misplaced. It can be the other way around.

[00:07:18] So ask yourself, am I good with money? How is my debt going? Because will child credit cards they be like, it's okay. It's okay. It's right me.

[00:07:28] Please write me, but it will get us in a deeper pit when it's what is it that you are slave to the lender that is so true.

[00:07:40] We should not be like the Pharisees who love their money and they loved it for people's approval that we are to use the money for to help people. If we have extra, we are to help others.

[00:07:53] They thought that having money was a true sign of prosperity. We see that in our culture. But God says that that's not the case that he detested it. So we have to be very careful.

[00:08:05] And so that pretty much just sums up the first part of Luke 16. We will pick up tomorrow and finish off with the remainder of that chapter.

[00:08:21] I hope you found some encouragement today in regards to money and how to store it well and to be found faithful in the things that God has given you. Have a blessed day. I will talk to you guys tomorrow.

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