Money Is a Tool, Not a Yardstick

Money Is a Tool, Not a Yardstick
Luke 16: 1 – 13

I. Introduction.

I like having the element of surprise in my preaching. I like to preach a biblical message and conclude with one point. Most of the time, I like for the one point to be unexpected but something that makes the rest of the sermon make sense. But, that is not what I am doing today. The title of the sermon is the one point. Everyone in this room this morning can read the sermon title in the bulletin and walk out of church with an understanding of what I want to communicate. Money is a tool, not a yardstick. Money is something that we are to use for God’s glory and for blessing others. Money is not something to use in determining the value of our own lives or the value of others.

The sermon title comes from an Internet article I read about the relationship between money and happiness:
(http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20050525a1.asp).

We might think about money as a necessary evil in our culture today. Everybody admits that money is not the most important thing in life, but money is important. Until Brookshire Brothers starts accepting polished rocks or chickens in exchange for groceries, money will be important.

Since we know that money is not the most important thing in life, it should not be difficult for us to admit that money will never make us happy. But there are a lot of people who pursue more money in their eternal quest for happiness.

I think most of you will agree that there are a lot of wealthy people who believe that money can bring happiness. But would it surprise you if I said that this is also true for people who are poor? It may surprise you to hear me say that this is one thing that the wealthy and the poor have in common. We all seem to believe that if we just had a little more money, then life would be much happier. So we all keep striving for the elusive next income level, so that all our troubles will melt away. But it never happens.

The reason it never happens, and the reason we never grasp that elusive monetary happiness, is because there is always someone else out there who has more than we have. As long as I compare my money and my happiness with the money and happiness of other people, I will always feel inadequate.

Money should not be our measuring stick. We should not determine the value of a man or a woman by how much money they have. And we should never try to measure happiness by how much money we have in the bank or how many possessions we can accumulate.

The article I read this week containedm a review of the book Money & Happiness: A Guide to Living the Good Life, by Laura Rowley. I have not read the book, so I cannot make a judgment on whether or not this is a book we need to read. I have only read one book review and found some interesting quotes. For example:

Most money guides operate under the assumption that if you have enough information and take action, you can build wealth and be happy. But that leap from wealth to happiness is neither easy nor obvious. I believe that you first have to define what 'the good life' means to you, what ideas, activities and relationships you value, and what you're striving for personally—then use money to build that life.

I am inclined to say this is very close to a biblical perspective on money. The only change we need to make in this author’s perspective is to change the phrase “the good life” to “the godly life”…or “the Christian life.” In other words, do not think of money as a goal to achieve. Think of money as a tool you can use to accomplish the life Jesus wants you to live. This is the biblical perspective Jesus described for us in our Scripture today—Luke 16: 1 – 13.

Read Luke 16: 1 – 13.

Jesus often taught his disciples by telling stories. If you are not comfortable with the word “story,” then we can substitute the biblical word “parable.” But this particular parable is a story.

In the story there was a wealthy landowner who had employed a manager to help him oversee his property and business interests. The manager had probably done a very good job for his boss and may not have had any troubles in the past. That is, the manager was doing well, until someone accused the manager of doing something unethical. He had mismanaged or squandered his master’s resources.

The landowner immediately called his manager into his office to confront him on this unethical behavior. He asked him to turn over all his records and clean out his desk, because his services were no longer needed. If this had been Donald Trump, he would have said, “You’re Fired.”

There was no provision in the ancient world for men who found themselves out of work. He could not apply for public assistance, and there was no such thing as “unemployment pay.” The manager was out on the streets, alone and stripped of all his resources. He was left with only two choices. He could work in manual labor, or he could resort to “holding a sign” on the side of the street by Wal-Mart—“Will Work for Food.”

The manager could not stand the thought of manual labor or begging. He had always worked in business and was afraid that he would never have another job opportunity…At least no job opportunities like the job he was leaving. But Jesus tells us that this manager was no dummy. He was obviously a very intelligent man, and he had a plan.

Before he ever cleaned out his desk, the manager did one last thing. He called in his master’s debtors and cancelled a portion of their debts. Jesus does not tell us how the manager cancelled these debts, but I believe there are at least two choices. One, the manager could have reached into his own pockets and paid the debts himself. Two, the manager could have simply cancelled the debt by telling the debtors that a portion of their debt had been forgiven. Either way we choose to interpret the manager’s actions, we know that he is trying to make other people like him so that they will—just maybe—give him a job to keep him off the streets.

Think about how you would feel about a man who took care of your indebtedness out of his own pocket. It is a very kind and generous thing to do, no matter what his motives might have been. I think I might just give that man a job. He helped me out when I was in trouble.
Also think about this from the master’s point of view. If this manager paid the debts out of his own pocket, then I know he really wants to make things right. He is motivated to keep his job and will do whatever it takes to get back on my good side.

But what if he did not pay the debts out of his own pocket? What if he simply forgave part of the loans? Well, the debtors would still love him. But the master would feel trapped. If the master fired the manager, then the master would look like a “bad guy,” because he fired that poor manager that everyone loved!

When we think about what he did, we realize it was a brilliant scheme! Everybody loves the manager, and the master looks like the “bad guy.” (This is why you always fire someone at the end of the day on Friday!)

There is one thing about this parable that makes it different from other parables Jesus told. This one is hard. The meaning of this parable just does not immediately “jump off the page” for us. We don’t know exactly what Jesus was trying to teach us here. So, we are fortunate that Jesus actually interpreted the parable for us. In fact, if you look back at your Bibles, you will see that Jesus gave us three interpretations for the parable: vv. 8 – 9, vv. 10 – 12 and v. 13.

II. “Use Worldly Wealth to Gain Friends for Yourself: Verses 8 and 9”…

I have a book in my library by British theologian F. F. Bruce entitles The Hard Sayings of Jesus. This book contains over fifty quotations from Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels. These quotations are some of the most difficult things to understand, much less preach. And as a result, these are the words of Jesus that are very seldom preached in our churches. I looked in that book this week, and guess what…This is one of the Hard Sayings of Jesus.

There are two things Jesus said here that make this a very difficult Scripture to understand. First, it appears that Jesus is telling us that Christian people can learn a thing or two from the non-Christian people in the world. Second, Jesus uses an unusual expression to describe money: “worldly wealth (NIV)” or “mammon of unrighteousness (KJV).”

When we read the Gospel of Luke, we discover that Luke makes a consistent use of several themes not found as prominently in the other Gospels. For example, Luke takes a special interest in the poor. In Luke 4, Jesus announced that he had come to preach the Good News to the poor. In Luke 6, we find Luke’s version of the Beattitudes. In Matthew’s version of the Beattitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5: 3).” But in Luke’s version, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when you are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God (Luke 6: 20).” And later on in Luke 16, Jesus tells us the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. The parable concludes with Jesus’ words to the rich man: “Remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now is comforted here (Heaven) and you are in agony (Luke 16: 25).”

Since Luke shows a special concern for the poor throughout his Gospel, we might be tempted to think that Luke has a bias against wealthy people, or that Luke is trying to teach us that money is evil. However, that is not the case. Luke is the only Gospel that tells us the story of Zacchaeus, a wealthy man who became a follower of Jesus. And Luke himself had the financial means to travel the world alongside the Apostle Paul as a missionary to the uttermost parts of the Earth. And nowhere else in the entire Bible do we find any indication that having a lot of money—in and of itself—is sinful. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6: 10 that “the LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

Money is worldly and unrighteous, because it is only valuable in this world. There is no purpose for money beyond the grave. Like the great theologian George Strait once said, “I’ve never seen a hearse with a luggage rack.” You can’t take money or worldly possessions with you when you leave this life.

This is the lesson we can learn from worldly, non-Christian people. Just as the dishonest manager used his worldly resources to take care of his future, Christian men and women need to think about the future when we use our financial resources. This is not a reference to retirement or providing for your children to go to college. Of course, it is good to plan for retirement and college. But it is even more important to think about the future in terms of eternity.

Use your money today as a tool for all eternity. That doesn’t mean you can buy a spot in Heaven. It means that we should spend money on things that will last forever. For example, when you give money to this church, you are investing in eternity. You are investing in the spiritual lives of children, youth, adults and senior adults. You are providing financial support for the Gospel message to be shared in Lufkin and all around the world with people who have never heard of Jesus.

III. “Use Worldly Wealth to Build Trust: Verses 10 – 12”…

Jesus’ second interpretation carries two distinct meanings. First, in a purely worldly sense, money will NEVER solve your problems. You and I will be the same people on the inside, no matter how much money we might have. If we are good managers of small amounts of money, then we will be good manager of large amounts of money. If we are wasteful with small amounts of money, then we will be wasteful with large amounts of money. This is why so many multi-million dollar lottery winners go bankrupt within three years of winning. If you cannot manage a small amount of money, then more money will NEVER solve your problems.

Then in a spiritual understanding, Jesus tells us that it is important for Christians to manage our “worldly money” in a wise manner. Worldly money will not last forever. We cannot take it with us when we leave this life. However, if you cannot manage worldly wealth, then you cannot be trusted with spiritual wealth. This is basically the same argument Jesus made from lesser to greater. Men and women who demonstrate faithfulness in small things can be trusted with great things. Money is a small thing. Spiritual wealth is a great thing. We must show faithfulness with little things like worldly wealth before we can be trusted with great things like spiritual wealth.

IV. “Use Worldly Wealth to Serve God: Verse 13”…

Jesus’ third and final interpretation invites us to examine our loyalties and the object of our worship. In other words: What is the most important thing in your life? Let me ask this differently: If I were to examine your daily or weekly schedule, what would you spend the most time on? Or…If I were to examine your checking account, what did you spend the majority of your income on this month?

If you spend more time doing worldly things, then you are an idolater! You worship a false god! If you spend more money on worldly things, then you are an idolater!

But, if you spend your time and your money on eternal things—and the Kingdom of God is the only thing that will last forever—then you are using you money as a tool to bring glory to God and blessings to others.