Episode 1222: Debts Are Tossed

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,222 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Joshua Johnson: I'm Joshua Johnson. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the ability to find your purpose and calling is key.

[00:00:23] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:32] Scott Maderer: The law of money of getting all you can in any way you can, any time you can, should be replaced with a different value about doing all the good you can. All the places you can, all the times you can, for all the people you can. Maybe instead of desiring more welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:58] If you truly desire [00:01:00] to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others. And develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:19] in today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in others. I talk with you about Luke chapter 16 versus one through 13. I share how this passage is it about having a financial plan for Christians. And I also talk about how our faith grows out of the smallest things. Luke chapter 16 verses one through 13, says then Jesus said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property.

[00:01:51] So he summoned him and said to him, what is this that I hear about? You give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer. [00:02:00] Then the manager said to him, What will I do now that my master is taking the position away from me. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg.

[00:02:09] I've decided what to do so that when I am dismissed, as manager people may welcome me into their homes. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, how much do you owe my master? He answered a hundred jugs of olive oil. He said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 50.

[00:02:28] Then he asked another. And how much do you. He replied a hundred containers of wheat. He said to him, take your bill and make it 80. And his master commended, the dishonest manager, because he had acted shrewdly for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation that are the children of light.

[00:02:47] And I tell you. Make friends for yourself by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever is faithful and very little is faithful also in much, [00:03:00] and whoever is dishonest and a very little is dishonest. Also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth who will entrust to you the true riches.

[00:03:10] And if you've not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you, what is your. No slave can serve two masters for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth, by the way. There's another verse here.

[00:03:29] Verse 14, that we'll talk about a little later. This passage has a couple of things in it that a lot of times people have heard and pull out of it and use. In various ways, both the, you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and wealth, which is also shows up in other places. And then whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful.

[00:03:51] Also in much, tho those passages you'll often hear pulled out of this, but in the larger context I think there's a [00:04:00] lot about this passage that initially is very confusing, confrontational to us and makes us begin to think in a different way. But let's talk about verse 14 first. There's this need to keep reading.

[00:04:15] The very next verse says the Pharisees who were lovers of money, heard all of this and they ridiculed him. Now this isn't another chance or another passage to say, oh, there's those Pharisees again, being bad and being stupid. No, instead it's really about examining our own hearts. It's about looking at our own.

[00:04:36] If we heard this parable of the dishonest manager and had that moment of rolling your eyes or raising your eyebrows or wait wait a minute, this is over the top hyperbole. This is somewhat ridiculed. This is ridiculous. This is crazy. Then we actually are somewhat ridiculing the parable here that Jesus is telling.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] The truth is I think most of us. Many of us, probably even all of us at some level are lovers of money probably far more than we'd ever like to admit to ourselves or to anyone else. So this parable is one that I think we are called to wrestle with. Let's be honest, even the text itself, even the passage itself is wrestling.

[00:05:26] The whole idea here of what's going on. Verse eight in here, this one about Hey, the guy commends, the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly seems to almost be added as a period of saying, glossing it over saying, wait a minute, this is shrewd. This is smart. This is okay. In some way. It basically.

[00:05:51] in some ways, the text itself seems to almost excu excuse itself, from being explained, because [00:06:00] what are we trying to explain here? What are we asking people to do? Are you telling people to be dishonest in their dealings with money? Is that what this is about? I think it's one that we're meant to struggle with.

[00:06:13] We're meant to listen to we're meant to use as a chance to examine. Our own hearts, but the truth is this is an example of Jesus talking in a very real way. Like he often talks about money. He tries to point out that money. Maybe isn't quite as important as we seem to feel that it is. Don't make it more important than it is it in truth.

[00:06:40] I've heard it said before that we print the words in God, we trust right there on the God that we trust. Because it's printed on the money that we treat as our God, when Jesus here is talking about dishonest wealth at some level, is he talking about the managers doing [00:07:00] something illegal or the manager is doing something illegal.

[00:07:03] I is this some sort of shady operation? Are they cutting on their taxes? Are they doing something else? No it, I think actually he's saying this is just simply wealth. This is money that is used by the current empire to do business. The world's way. The truth is it's beholden to operating the way the world works.

[00:07:32] And maybe what Jesus is calling for us to do is realize that there are other ways. That the kingdom of heaven is what maybe this money should be used for rather than using money to enslave. It should be used to set free rather than using to hold people down. It should be used to lift people up rather than being used to hoard up and make ourselves more comfortable.

[00:07:59] It [00:08:00] should be used to give and to lift and to bring comfort to many people. Maybe the law of money of getting all you can in any way you can, any time you can, should be replaced with a different value about doing all the good you can. All the places you can, all the times you can, for all the people you can maybe instead of desiring more.

[00:08:25] it's saying God makes the laws that we live by and we are called to love. God love our neighbor. Even if that costs us something, maybe we're not about using dishonest practices, but rather we're not being called to use money the way it's always been used instead, maybe. Parable is about looking at the world we're living in and saying, maybe we can do this differently.

[00:08:59] Maybe [00:09:00] we can have a relationship with each other first instead of with money first. Thanks for listening.

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