Should You Be Like an Unjust Steward?

Good afternoon, everyone! Good to see everyone here. Welcome to those visiting with us and everyone on Zoom.

Hopefully everyone's having an enjoyable Sabbath.

It's good to be back with everyone. We've been kind of on the go a lot here this summer. It's nice to be back here with everyone again.

So as we all know, the Bible is filled with parables. We're probably familiar with a lot of them. We've probably heard a lot of sermons about the majority of parables there in the Bible. In fact, some of them are so well known that they're just part of our figures of speech in the English language, even a couple thousand years after the Bible was written. For example, most people on the street, if you talked about the prodigal son, or if someone said that their child had returned home and or used the phrase the prodigal son, people would know what you mean.

It's part of our regular, everyday life.

A lot of states actually have laws in place that are called Good Samaritan laws to protect people who try to help somebody who's in need in case something goes wrong during a medical emergency in order to not dissuade people from helping out when somebody's been injured or had an accident or something like that. And so when you talk about a Good Samaritan, again, that comes straight out of the parable in the Bible, and most people would know exactly what you're talking about.

Others might not be as well known to the world at large, but probably to even casual students of the Bible would be quite familiar. The parable of the sower and the seed is probably one that many of us could recite, if not word for word, at least the broad strokes of that parable. The parable of the wise and foolish virgins, another one that's probably very familiar to us. Or the parable of the unmerciful servant, who wouldn't forgive a small debt even though a large debt was forgiven him.

Today I don't want to talk about those parables. I'd like to talk about a parable that we don't hear much about.

And it's the parable of the unjust steward.

Does anyone even remember what the parable of the unjust steward is about?

It's an inconvenient parable because it praises somebody who's clearly done wrong.

And as a result, it leaves the reader a bit confused about what exactly it is that we're supposed to learn from it.

And so I'd like to spend a little time today going through that. And the title for today is, Be Like an Unjust Steward, with a question mark at the end of it. Should we be like an unjust steward?

Let's start by reading the parable itself and reflecting a little bit on what is happening in the story flow of this parable.

We find it in Luke 16 and the first nine verses of that chapter. Luke 16 verses 1 through 9.

Here, like in the other parables, it's Jesus Christ speaking and he's saying to his disciples in Luke 16 verse 1, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

So he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.

Then the steward said within himself, What should I do, for my master is taking the stewardship away from me.

I can't dig. I'm ashamed to beg. I've resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

And so he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? And he said a hundred measures of oil. So the steward said to him, Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.

And then he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said a hundred measures of wheat. And he said, Take your bill, and write down eighty.

And so the master commended the unjust steward, because he had dealt shrewdly.

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. It's kind of odd, isn't it?

The guy who was cheating. But yet he's praised for his shrewdness. What is it that's happening in this parable? Before we dive deeper and go to a few of the next verses where Jesus Christ lays out the meaning of this parable, which is also somewhat challenging for people sometimes to look through, let's talk a little bit about the background, what it is that's happening here.

So it's a unique parable because most parables, the main character of the parable, is going to represent either Jesus Christ or a Christian, or make a point about those people. The main character is usually good, not bad, not someone doing evil.

And also, at first glance, it can appear to be encouraging cheating other people.

This steward cheated his master and was commended for being shrewd.

Is that what we're supposed to take away from it? That if we can cheat people and get away with it, it's a good and Christian thing to do? I think we know that's not the case if we read the rest of the Bible.

So let's think through it a little bit more. First of all, what is a steward?

Not really something we think about in day-to-day life today, but actually stewardship is something that all of us are familiar with. So a steward, very simply put, is simply someone who cares for something that belongs to another.

Often in financial circuits today, we talk about something called fiduciary duty. It really means stewardship at the end of the day. It means that if you're looking after money in an investment fund, you have a duty to treat that money as important, as not your own, to have the highest ethics in dealing with it, transparency, and so forth, and honesty. So we do view stewardship as a very important part of the system that we work in.

A steward is generally responsible for managing, maintaining, and generating a profitable return.

So in this case, we had a steward who was looking after goods on the part of the rich man, and his job, as we saw, was to collect bills to make sure he kept accounts and make sure that he was being faithful with the money or goods that he was entrusted with. In this situation, in the parable, it's clear that the steward had authority over the master's goods because, as we remember early in the parable, he's accused of wasting them, and he's asked to give an account.

So the steward was not somebody who was being looked at after moment to moment. The rich man actually had to try to substantiate whether these claims against his steward were true. So that's why he asked the steward to come to him and to give an account. So he was looking after something for this master as his proxy, if you will, where the master was not looking after it day to day.

Now, most commentators believe this is discussing somebody who's looking after land for the rich man. Why do we think that? Well, if we look through the parable, you can see what was owed to the rich man as they were going through the bills. Oil. I think the other part was wheat, if I scroll back up here.

The first one, 100 measures of oil, and the other 100 measures of wheat. And so usually what might happen is that this rich man might have had large land holdings. The steward might have been in charge of these land holdings. And essentially, we're familiar with the idea of sharecropping, where somebody else owns the land, the farmer farms the land, and gives a percentage or a portion of what's gained from the land to the owner and keeps the rest. And that's essentially what's happening here. It would appear to be an agricultural situation. It wouldn't really make sense if he was looking after places of business that suddenly he'd be collecting oil instead of money, for example. So more than likely it had to do with agricultural land.

There's a minority opinion out there that perhaps what was happening here was that the steward actually owed simply a set amount of money to his master on a regular basis and could actually set the price wherever he wanted to. In fact, there's there's precedent for that in the Bible. When we think about tax collectors, for example, actually in Judea at that time, if you were a tax collector, you would often simply contract for a certain geographical area and you would have to pay a certain amount to the government in taxes for that area. And then you would go and collect as much tax as you could from the people who lived there.

If you collected more than what you owed to the ruler, you got to keep the difference. That's one of the reasons that tax collectors were not looked on favorably at that time, because essentially they were cheating people, taking as much money as they could get away with, giving what they promised to the government and keeping the rest. Now, some people have suggested that's the situation here as well with the steward. Most commentators don't believe that's the case, and that's because the master said he was being cheated, and he needed to look at the accounts to see if he was actually getting what was owed to him. If it was clear that there was a fixed amount owed to the master, there wouldn't have been the same opportunity for the steward to cheat in this situation.

And while the steward wasn't immediately fired, when we look in verse 2, there's a supposition that he would be.

The master, the rich man, says, you can no longer be my steward. Come and give account.

And clearly the steward understood, too, that the jig was up, because he didn't look and say, let me get the accounts together so I can prove to the rich man, to the master, why everything is okay. He went immediately to, okay, this is done. What are my options?

And he thought through those options quickly.

He clearly understood himself in verses 3 and 4 to be guilty. So, no attempt to mount a defense, quickly pivoting to assess his options. He determined very quickly he wasn't up to working hard. Doesn't say why he can't dig, but we assume he just didn't feel like that was something he was inclined to do, too proud to beg. And so very quickly, as he assessed his opportunities, he decided what it was that he could do.

And so, he wrote down, or forgave, portions of the debts that existed on the parts of these people, over whom he was the steward. Now, those renters received a great deal. The one got 50% off, the other got 20% off, so they're pretty happy.

And they're going to be owing something to the steward. That's exactly what he was looking for, because now he can turn to these people. Presumably, there were more than two tenants. There are only two mentioned in the parable, but a rich man presumably would have many others. And so now he had a group of people, at least two of them, who would owe him a favor. And at a minimum, he could have a place to live when he lost his stewardship, and probably at least enough food to eat and get by. So why did the rich man praise the steward?

It's kind of an interesting thought. I guess if I put it into our modern vernacular, I guess I view what the rich man says here as saying, all right, dude, well played.

Yout foxed me. Yout witted me, because essentially what the steward did was before the rich man could get around and say he was fired, he went around and gave a great deal to everybody. So if you think about it, this master, the rich man, had a couple of options at point in time, didn't he?

Option one was just deal with it and move on.

Option two would be to publicize to everybody, this guy has been cheating me, and to go back to these people who have been told in the name of the master that they owed less, that actually they owed the full amount.

And so you'd have to contradict essentially something that was done in his name.

And so as this rich man, this master, looked at it, he decided, for whatever reason, we're not told all the details in the parable, but he decided he wasn't going to risk the ill will of going back to these people and saying, you know how your debt got written down from 100 to 50? Well, guess what? It's 100 again.

That wasn't going to play well, so he decided he wasn't going to do it. So essentially what he's telling the steward is, all right, you got me. That was pretty shrewd what you did.

It was pretty sharp. You backed me into a corner. And the fact is, I can't really get myself out of it in a way that's going to save face. So you got me. Now get on your way, and you know, you can get the rewards for what you did.

So the steward secured himself a home through his shrewd, though dishonest, dealing.

And then we have the last phrase, the sons of man are more shrewd than the sons of light.

Now, what does that mean to say? Everything that I've read and what I think fits the context of this parable as well is the fact that this person, when he saw something that needed to be done, in this case having to do with his livelihood, what did we see him do? He took stock of the situation very quickly, and he took action.

And I don't know about you, but when I look at my own life and I look at things that need to happen, I can't say that's what always happens in my situation. I think we could all say that as well. And when we're dealing with issues of our own lives, putting to death the old man, being converted, that's what this is meant to get us to think about. Are we focused in the same way as we are in day-to-day matters of commerce, in assessing the options and taking action? Are we that same way in our own lives, in our spiritual lives, in the things that we need to do, in the things that are revealed to us through circumstances, through God's Spirit, as we see things that need to change in our lives? I think we could all identify situations in our lives where we think, you know, if I'd taken action on that weeks ago, months ago, years ago, the outcome would be different. In this parable, that's what the steward did. Looked at the situation, assessed the options, and acted immediately before any consequences could come on him. Shruder in that sense than the way that we often act in our own lives. Let's look now, then, to the next verses and see how Jesus ascribes meaning to this parable. This causes even more confusion for some people as we read this. Verse 9, Jesus said, I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. Huh? Then he goes on, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful in much, he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much, and therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now, I'm going to be brief here because I could easily put everybody to sleep by digging deeper into this. There's been pages written about, countless pages written about what all of this means. My purpose is not to go so deep into it that it bores everybody to death.

But what I'd like to do is just tackle two things related to this before we move on in the message. The first is to talk a bit about verse 9, which is pretty universally considered a difficult passage in the Bible, and then secondly discuss the remainder of those verses, which is about really the essentials of stewardship, and I think a lot more understandable as we read them.

So verse 9 again, if we look at it, says, I say to you, make friends for yourself by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. So there are a lot of questions out there that are posed, there are a lot of theories that are put out there about what exactly is being talked about. I think it's really important to understand where that verse sits within the passage, right? It sits after the parable itself, and it sits before the rest of an explanation. So we have to look at that verse in the context of the entire passage that it's a part of.

Now, for those who want to talk more about it, I'm happy to talk about it after services. If you want to go into it deeper, there's all kinds of discussions about what is meant by unrighteous mammon, buying an everlasting home, and those types of things. But I think in terms of interpreting the Bible, the context of the verse and the story is incredibly important. If I told you a story, for example, about a bank robber preparing for a heist, and the fact that that bank robber took a year to prepare the heist, laid out a detailed map, in fact, staked everything out in his basement with tape to show exactly where the doors were, where the vault is, where the money is hidden, and painstakingly prepared that bank heist. And I use that as an analogy for us preparing our spiritual lives for the kingdom. It would be a little bit of a weird analogy, but if in that context I said, prepare your heist carefully so you can get the reward, what would you understand?

Would you understand that I was encouraging you to rob a bank? Or some people are nodding. Okay, I didn't do my job very well. Or would you understand that I'm talking about the point, which is careful preparation to gain a reward? I think, and many commentaries back this up as well, the context of what's being talked about is incredibly important. So, in the context of this parable that was talked about in terms of the steward doing something in order to act right away and make sure that he had himself taken care of, in that context Jesus is saying, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous bam, that when you fail they may receive you to an everlasting home. He's making a point here in terms of act. If you want to secure your spiritual life, if you want to have a spiritual home, you have to act just like this shrewd and dishonest steward acted. You can't sit back and wait, allow the consequences to come, and think that you can still change those consequences. Instead, the steward acted right away, and that's what he's saying that we should do as well. So it's about action. It's about focusing and seeing what it is that's coming and using our activity and then going with the way that we use the goods that we have in order to get to that result, in order to get to the right eternal result. And so the idea is that we need to recognize the reality of our situation and we need to act accordingly. That's what's being praised about what the steward did. And exactly in that context, in this case talking about Unrighteous Mam and talking about physical goods, talking about money that we have, how do we act and use that in a way that serves our ultimate goal of God's kingdom rather than temporal goals that we have? So we're supposed to recognize the reality of our situation and act accordingly. And this is a thought process that makes a lot of sense. We heard in the sermonette about the feast of trumpets coming. We focus on the return of Jesus Christ. This is a very timely thing to think about this time of year as we focus on the fact that the world that we're living in is not going to last forever. Jesus Christ will return and he's going to usher in a kingdom. That means that we need to act. We see those things happening. We see that the things that we have here that are our home are not going to be there forever and there's action that needs to take place as a result of that.

So this phrase is really aimed at the quality of taking action based on our circumstances. We recognize those circumstances. Secondly, the concept of stewardship. The remaining verses in these passage in this passage are really all about the heart of stewardship, taking care of something that someone else is. Going back again to verse 10, he who is faithful and was least as faithful and much. Look at the contrasts that are set up here in all of these verses. Faithful and least, faithful and much. He who is unjust in what is least is also unjust in much. Therefore, if you've not been faithful in unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you true riches? And if you've not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what's your own? So we see these things juxtaposed against each other over and over again in this handful of verses. And then verse 13 as well, no servant can serve two masters. For he'll either hate the one or love the other, opposite ends of the spectrum, loyal to the one, despise the other, can't serve God, and serve mammon.

There's an idea of stewardship and faithfulness in being stewards of what we have and how we use it.

Even things that are temporal goods, unrighteous mammon, or different translations for what that can mean, but essentially refers to money. It's looked at as unrighteous because it can be used for unrighteous purposes. But what's being laid out here is these temporal things, these goods and the money that we have, can be used in a way that is faithful and provides and builds spiritual attributes. And that's the thing that we're going to dig into a little bit further as we go into the balance of this message. So this idea of stewardship, before we leave this part of it, is also something that's very consistent with how God has worked through the ages. If we think about it, there is a pattern of stewardship that's weaved all the way through the Bible. Think of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. What were they told to do when they were in the Garden of Eden? One of the things they were told to do, in addition to being fruitful and multiply, was to dress and keep the garden, right? That stewardship. The Garden of Eden was put into their care and they were told to be good stewards of that garden, giving something that was little. And if they were faithful and little, they would be faithful in much. Likewise, Joseph. Think about Joseph. He had the seven years of plenty that were coming in Egypt, followed by seven years of famine. What did he devote his life to at that point in time after he'd been taken out of prison and elevated to that position, interpreting the dreams? He was steward over all of this plenty that was brought in, this entire harvest that came in. And because of that, all of the known world around Egypt, including his family, was flocking to Egypt to try to buy grain, to basically trade anything and everything of value that they had so they could live. He was a steward.

Very clear thing. Daniel, as well, was in charge of much of the kingdom of Babylon through different rulers. And even Jesus Christ, if we look in John 17 verse 12, we won't turn there, but when he looked back in these final passages before his death, what is one of the things that he said? He said, I've lost none that were given to me except for the son of perdition, which was prophesied to happen. And so he viewed himself as well as a steward of the disciples. He was to care for them, he was to teach them, he was to prepare them, and most of all, he was to not lose any of them other than Judas, who was prophesied to be lost. And that was one of the things he pointed out in these last verses, the last section before he lost his human life, was the fact that he was a good steward. And even as we look forward into the kingdom, what is it that we look forward to being? We're told in Revelation and other places in the Bible that we will rule with Jesus Christ. And so we will exercise, as well, stewardship over the things that God has. What we deal with today in the world, the things that we have at hand, is the little, how we are stewards over those things, will determine being given much more ultimately in God's kingdom. So let's dig a little bit deeper then into how these lessons apply more specifically to us in our spiritual lives and how we can put them to use and a few ways maybe to think about these concepts and these thoughts as we enter the fall holy days. So first of all, recognizing the requirement, the imperative to act. As we already talked about, the shrewdness that was praised by the master in the parable was the fact that the steward, the unjust steward, took action. Again, it's not saying that we should be unjust, it's not saying we should be dishonest, but the fact that this steward took action based on the situation that he saw is what was being praised as shrewd. And this is an essential lesson during this season. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Peter 3.

This is a passage that is not unusual for us to read during the Feast of Trumpets because it talks about the day of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ, and lays out some very similar themes in terms of our lives and how we should live them as we look towards that day that's coming.

Second Peter 3, and we'll start in verse 10. Here Peter writes that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

If we think about the parable, you know, liken that to the fact that the steward, as he looked, knew that he was going to lose everything that was his livelihood around him. One of the things that we know and we understand, we don't know when it's going to happen. I know I certainly don't. One thing I know thoroughly, it's that I'm not a prophet. But we know that this time will come. All of the physical world that we see around us is going to be burned up. And therefore, in verse 11, since these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? That's the ultimate outcome of this understanding, these prophecies that we see of the return of Jesus Christ, of the fact that this world is coming to an end. It's not this puzzle so that we can somehow figure out exactly when Jesus Christ is returning, so we can time everything going on and we can be ready at that point in time and maybe slack off a little bit in between because things aren't as urgent. We're supposed to live with this vision and this understanding as part of what we see daily and just like the shrewdness of the steward, act on that. So we see in verse 11, what manner of persons ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness? Verse 12, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Exactly what we think about this time of year as we look at the return of Jesus Christ and God's kingdom being set up.

What do we have next? Another therefore in verse 14. Because of these things, because of what we know is going to happen, therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot, and blameless. So we see spiritual attributes that should be growing within us because of these things that we know are going to happen, because we know that this world, the values of this world, the things that we can accumulate in this world, are not what's going to last. And so we live for a different world. And consider in verse 15 that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things and which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, again in verse 17, beloved, since you know this beforehand, since we know this beforehand, beware, lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

It's interesting the parallelism that actually exists in this passage to this parable that we've read, because he's saying really exactly the same thing. Look at what's going to happen. We're going to lose this physical world that's around us. Whatever it is that we're accumulating is not going to last forever. It talks about being burned up with heat and with fire, and because of that, we have to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have to be steadfast. We have to be diligent. We have to be without spot and blameless. There's action that has to take place. That's the shrewdness of the steward that has to live in us as we see the reality of what's going on around us. And again, it's not a matter of just, well, when things are worse in the world, we kind of turn up the heat on ourselves. That's the human proclivity. But the fact is, it's because we know that this is the way life is, whether we think Jesus Christ is returning in a week, a month, a year, or not, we're still supposed to have this motivation due to that understanding that we have of what's going to happen. Let's turn next to James 1. James 1 lays out some similar things, but in different words. James, of course, is a book that talks a lot about the action that comes along with our faith. It talks about works, the things that we need to do in our lives. And we understand, of course, that the works that we do come as a result of God's Holy Spirit living in us, as a result of the things that we understand. It's not things that we do to earn anything from God. It's not something where we can go to God later and say, well, I've earned all of this reward because of these five things that we've done. But rather, as His Spirit lives within us, and as we understand ourselves, as we continue to think more and more like Him, we're driven to do the works of the Holy Spirit, to show the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. James 1, verse 22. Here we read, Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Again, if we take this back to the parable that we read, imagine if this unjust steward, when he was called to give account, said, you know, my master's probably going to find out I was cheating him, but you know what? Let's just wait and see what's going to happen. If I'm honest about myself, that's the way I am in life sometimes.

Even though I know what's coming, I kind of fool myself and just say, let's just see what's going to happen. Maybe I can skate by on this one. And imagine if the steward had gone to his master and laid out the accounts and kind of waited to see what was going to happen. He would have been thrown out, wouldn't have written down the accounts like he did. He would have been out of his preferred option, and he would have had to figure out how to go dig or how to beg.

This is the same sort of concept that's being laid out here, and it's using just a different metaphor, looking in a mirror. You know, we can think about that in the morning. I know when I wake up, you know, the hair is kind of going wherever right before we take our shower.

Sometimes I'll often go and work out without showering or combing my hair first, because I'm just going to go and get sweaty. But imagine we don't really go look in the mirror and say, man, I look like a mess this morning. All right, let's get dressed and go to work.

It's foolish, right? And that's exactly what's being laid out here, because we hear the word of God. We know what it says. We know as it starts to reveal to us what's going on inside our own hearts and minds. And we can't just look in that mirror and say, you know, well, good enough for now. We'd never do that if we had, you know, some huge problem with our hair or blemish on our face or something that had to be covered up and we were going somewhere important. We would take our time, we'd fix that, we'd look at it, we'd make sure we look presentable before we go out. James is using exactly that situation as an analogy to how we look at our spiritual lives. Taking action, again, is what's at the heart of it. As we look into that mirror, as we look into God's Word, we see what it reveals to us about ourselves. And just as we would naturally take action, we look in the mirror before we go present ourselves to other people, that's the action, the activity that should happen spiritually. Not forgetting about our situation, but acting on it. So as we wrap up this section, in terms of the shrewdness of the unjust steward and the need to act, the wicked steward saw that life as he knew it was going to end. He assessed his options, he eliminated what he couldn't do, and he immediately took action on what he could do. We need to look into ourselves and consider the same thing. Do we recognize the need to act based on what God is revealing to us about ourselves, about his plan, about where life is going? This is something that's deeply personal that each of us has to assess for ourselves, and I would suggest this time of year, as we look forward to everything that's coming, is not just about, isn't it going to be great when? It's also a matter of, I know these things are going to happen. Jesus Christ is going to return. He's going to bring his kingdom. What is it that I should do today as a result of that? How do I need to act? So we can ask ourselves some questions. Is God's kingdom and the need to live for that kingdom real to me? If so, how does that work itself out in my life? What am I doing as a result of it? What is the action that's happening in my life because I see that? It's in the mirror. How should I act more like the unjust steward, as strange as that might sound, realizing that what I'm relying on is going away and I need to prepare for a different reality to come? What habits have I formed in my daily life that stopped me from taking action as I should? How do I remove those barriers in my life? How do I pray to God and also put the right habits in place in my life to take those things away? Let's pivot then to the second portion of this, which is faithfulness, the essential trait of a steward. The essential trait of a steward. So we saw those verses after the parable that talk a lot about he was faithful and little, we'll be faithful and much. How can we think that somebody hasn't been faithful with physical things, with things given in this life? How can we think that God would trust that person with eternal riches? It points towards the idea that we need to be faithful with the things that have been entrusted to us. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 2.

Here Paul uses this exact same idea of stewardship.

1 Corinthians 4, 2, he writes to the Corinthians, Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God.

In verse 2, moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

He was considering himself a steward of the mystery of God because God gave him that word, as we heard as well, in the sermonette to take out and to preach. But he's given us, through his spirit, that same understanding. In that sense, we are stewards as well of a whole lot of things, as we'll talk a little bit more about, but certainly stewards of his spirit, stewards of the truth that he's given us. And we have to be found faithful in that way as stewards.

1 Timothy 6, Paul uses the same theme in talking with Timothy, a young man who is functioning as a minister. 1 Timothy 6, we'll read verses 20 and 21.

Same theme as Paul talks to Timothy, giving him pointers for how to conduct himself. 1 Timothy 6, verse 20, Paul writes, So, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, might as well say what you're a steward over, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what's falsely called knowledge, by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. So again, Timothy is being instructed to realize that he's been entrusted with something and to be faithful with that. And being faithful requires actions of a certain kind. In this case, Paul telling him to take the action of avoiding profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what's falsely called knowledge. So underlying faithfulness is the idea that we've been entrusted with things of value. Now, I'm not going to spend a ton of time on this topic today, but it's worth spending some time on your own reflecting on what it is that you've been given. What do each of us have that's of value that we've been entrusted with? It's more than just spiritual things. It's a whole host of different things that we can think of. It spans the spectrum from physical to spiritual, from tangible to intangible. You can think of time, you can think of money, skills that we have, spiritual gifts, influence and friendships that we have, people that we know and we talk with, and certainly God's Holy Spirit, His Word, and His truth. So many different things that we've been given, but something I encourage everyone to think about is take some time to assess what is it that's been entrusted to each and every one of us as stewards. It's different for every one of us, and I'd say it differs as well even based on our age, the time of life that we're in, the season of life that we're in. For example, if we look at time, I look at the time that I had when we had two small children, the amount of time available at that stage in a person's life is relatively small. The time of life when you're finished raising children, they're out of the house, or if you're on your own, you don't have children, is different. Each one of us has unique things that we have available to us that we can use in service to God and in betterment of ourselves and growing in His Spirit. It's going to differ depending on us. It's going to differ depending on the time of life that we're in. The theme of Luke 16 verse 12 goes farther in talking about being faithful and little, and the one who's faithful and little will be faithful and much. This is an incredibly powerful concept if we just stop and think about it for a little while.

We see this play out in big ways and small ways in every part of our lives if we think about it. We've probably all heard the phrase, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Just another way of saying this, he was faithful and little will be faithful and much. Because what are we saying? We're saying we can tell by the track record of somebody. If someone comes, they lie to our face about something, and they cheat us, well, that's an issue. It's their problem. We might not have had any way to know about it, but if we turn right back to that same person and try to do something with that person again, expecting that the outcome is going to be different, we haven't really thought about this maxim here in terms of people who are faithful and little being faithful and much, and those who are unfaithful and little being unfaithful and much. Likely if you had someone into your home doing some fix-up work and they completely destroyed your house while they were doing it, would you trust them to come in and do another job? You probably wouldn't.

Same thing. We understand this at some innate level as we deal with things. As I was preparing about this, I was thinking about a trip to the feast that we took when I was 10 or 12 years old. I had a friend who lived just behind us, and I'd collected a bunch of caterpillars at that age. I was really into watching these caterpillars. You know, there were the brown, woolly ones. I had some smaller green ones. I had a whole collection of them. There were three or four different kinds, and over the course of a month or so, by watching these caterpillars, I could figure out which one ate which leaf from which tree. And so I knew that as long as I had a collection of leaves from certain trees within my yard, that all those caterpillars could eat and could be happy.

And so what I did when we left for the feast is I entrusted these caterpillars to my friend.

And I took my time with these caterpillars, and I took them around the yard, and I said, this brown, woolly caterpillar loves the leaves from this tree, and that's the one that this one will eat. This green, little caterpillar, it's this tree over here. And I think we all know what happened. I came back, and those caterpillars were all curled up in the jar, and nothing had been done.

So what did I learn from that? I learned that I wasn't going to trust that friend with anything important to me again. He wasn't faithful and little. He couldn't pluck leaves and remember to pull leaves off the right trees to keep my caterpillars alive. I certainly wasn't going to ask him to sub in and do my paper route for me. I wasn't going to ask him to do one of my lawnmowing jobs for me when I was on vacation, because he killed my caterpillars. Silly example, but look, we all know this in the way that we work, right? I always laugh. We've probably all heard these stories about how many criminals are caught in routine traffic stops. So again, I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but I did research this on the internet. I actually found a National Highway Transportation Association study from Texas, and it found that within this community in Texas that two-thirds of arrests of people with arrest warrants happened at traffic stops. So now, I don't know about you, but my first thought is if I had an outstanding warrant for my arrest, I would probably be really careful how I drove. You know, I'd use a turn signal all the time.

I'd come to a full stop at stop signs because the last thing I want is to get pulled over for something silly, have my license run, and get arrested. But the point here is things in life are not isolated, right? We are whole people, and a flaw in our character in one small part of life ends up working its way out into all of the things that we do physically and spiritually. And that's the point here in terms of stewardship and in terms of how we're dealing with things in our lives. I can go on and on with examples, but and you probably could as well. We can trade some stories after church. But there's an essential lesson here in Faithfuls, and that is that it goes to the center of our being. And we see that in the work that I do. I deal a lot these days with matters of compliance, people having issues and problems in the way they deliver their work, sometimes people cheating. And if there's one thing that I found, it's that there's not usually an isolated circumstance. Usually if you see a small thing wrong, you look a little closer, and you see something bigger, you look a little closer, and there's another thing. These things travel together because they sit deep within us, these flaws do, and they work their way out in all of these different ways in our lives. Luke 16 verse 11. Jesus brings this idea home in his explanation, the parable, Luke 16 11. Therefore, if you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? How do we use the things that have been given to us, whether they're small or whether they're large? The size of those things, the value of those things, doesn't matter as much as how we use them. Turn with me, if you will, to Mark 12.

I was laughing because we usually refer to this as the parable of the widow's might, but actually when I was reading it today, I realized it's not one might. The widow gave two mites, actually, so it's the parable of the widow's mites. Mark 12 verse 41 through 44.

Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury, Mark 12 41, and he saw how the people put money into the treasury. Many who were rich put in much, and then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrant.

So he called his disciples to himself and said to them, Assuredly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury, for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had her whole livelihood. There was a faithfulness. There was a trust here in what she did in giving of her substance, which those who gave a lot more in quantity didn't do. And Jesus saw right to that, right to the heart of it, and it's that attitude of being willing to give of her very substance that Jesus is saying gives her the greater reward, even though what she ended up giving was minuscule.

Probably these other people wouldn't even have considered that any, you know, probably money to change to throw in a jar or get lost in a desk drawer somewhere. But she gave it, and what that was out of her heart was worth much, much more than much greater quantities that these other people were giving.

The faithfulness in the little was the important element, not the actual thing that was given. So where do we need to focus on greater levels of faithfulness in our lives? Again, that's going to be a very individual thing, but it's going to span both the things that we do day to day and the way that we interact with other people, the way that we use God's Spirit. Let me give you just a couple examples.

I'll pick on myself from my own life and just let you know a couple things that I've grappled with, which I feel like I've made some progress with over the course of time, but it's through focus, and it's through continually just trying to push the edges and improve. Back 15, 17 years ago, at work, whenever something came up that I needed to do, I'd grab a Post-it note and I'd write it down, and once it was done, I'd end up with Post-it notes with three, four, five things written on and I'd cross some of them off.

Pretty soon at work, I was known as the guy who had all the Post-it notes on his desk because things didn't get done. I just had these Post-it notes with all these things written down on them, and it made me realize, it made me assess the way I went about things on my job, and what I came to realize, I think it's Mark Twain who said, when he was asked how to be successful, said, first thing in the morning, swallow the frog. And the idea of it is, take the thing that's the hardest to do and get it done first, because it's not going to get any easier as the day goes on.

And I'm not going to say I'm perfect at that, but the thing that I learned about myself was, if I show up at work and the first thing I do is focus on a task, I get this momentum and I just start getting things done, and then I can sit back and I can take a break, take a breather, and then go back at it.

What I found on the other side is, if I go into work and I decide, you know what, let me click into Facebook and see what's going on, or let me go read the news first and see what the latest is, or you know, whatever else it is that I could go to, what I find is I just get bogged down. I get myself started into a day of not getting anything done, and for much of the day, if not the entire day, it's just a challenge for me the way my mind works to pull myself back into it.

And so what I've learned is I've got to build those habits into my life. If I want to get things done, I've got to focus out of the gate and get myself into that rhythm. Taking it into a different direction, I can still remember vividly.

I was probably in my young to mid-20s. It was the first church congregation that Karen and I were in after we got married, and there was a guy in the congregation whose wife had died.

And I thought, you know, it's somebody that my family had known going back a little ways, and I needed to go up and just express condolences to that person. But to be honest, it was incredibly uncomfortable for me to do that. In fact, I remember being really nervous, kind of sweaty, and in the end, I just forced myself to go talk to that person, probably mumbled out a couple of things, and uncomfortably went away. But, you know, that was a start. It was something that I knew was some sort of a barrier for, I don't know, what reason that I needed to get through. And as I did that, I continued to try to knock down those barriers more and more as I dealt with people and interfaced with people who'd had losses, had needs, had other difficulties that were going on, where the easiest thing for me, in terms of my own comfort, was to ignore them and not talk to them, because it made me feel uncomfortable. And what I learned was, little by little, I need to keep knocking that barrier down and keep growing, continue to be faithful in the little things as that starts to build the momentum and grow into the bigger things. So wrapping up the idea of faithfulness as a steward, I would encourage all of us to spend some focused reflection on what it is that's been entrusted to each and every one of us. It's unique and different for all of us. It's unique and different depending on what part of life we're in. Also, we need to ask ourselves the question, in what areas do I need to exercise greater faithfulness? And what I would suggest is there's no area that's too small. If it's vacuuming your house on a regular basis, the little things work their way through into the bigger things. So much of life is that idea of starting small, building up, refocusing, and continuing to dedicate ourselves to those efforts.

Again, it's very personal. It's going to be different for each and every one of us. In this time of year, as we look at what it is that's going to happen, we refresh ourselves on two really dominant ideas, one of which is the world that we see around us is not reality. It's not going to last forever. And there is another world coming through Jesus Christ that will last forever that has a different set of values and a different set of requirements that go with it.

What does that do to my idea of faithfulness and how I'm faithful in the little things? And how does it make me rededicate myself to those things? So, in conclusion, Luke 16 provides us a very unique parable, one in which the shrewd actions of an unjust steward are set out as a positive example for Christians. From this parable, we learn we have to take focused action in our lives based on our calling. It's a key theme for us to think about as we approach these holy days.

We also learn that we have to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Faithfulness is a key attribute and the need to constantly build and develop. The small things count. Nothing's too small, in that sense, to matter. Are you like an unjust steward?