Please open your Bibles to the Book of Luke chapter sixteen. People are always asking the question, “can God be trusted, or can I trust God?” But today I want to turn that question around and ask, can God count on you? Once we read this Scripture passage you will probably wonder why Jesus even told a parable like this. Let’s read.

Luke 16:1-14 (HCSB)

¹ He also said to the disciples: “There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions. ² So he called the manager in and asked, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be ⌊my⌋ manager.’ ³ “Then the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that when I’m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ “So he summoned each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master?’ he asked the first one. ⁶ “‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he said. “‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘sit down quickly, and write 50.’ ⁷ “Next he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’ “‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he said. “‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘and write 80.’ ⁸ “The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely. For the sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light ⌊in dealing⌋ with their own people. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. ¹⁰ Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ So if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous money, who will trust you with what is genuine? ¹² And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own? ¹³ No household slave can be the slave of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t be slaves to both God and money.” ¹⁴ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and scoffing at Him.

The real importance of this parable is that it speaks to our attitudes (our perspective on earthly material things) to money. And this is obviously a good thing.

This may come as a surprise to you, but one out of every ten words Jesus spoke in the NT have to do with our attitude toward money. So, it must have been vital if Jesus talked about it that much. If I were to relate that to how much we should be talking about it in church, I should be preaching every fifth sermon about what Jesus says about money. What is your attitude towards money?

There are several different lessons Jesus communicates in this parable. Something you must know at the onset is that this parable teaches its lesson by contrast rather than comparison. The steward in this passage learns that his master, who owns everything he manages, is on to his cleverness. The master tells him he is going to take his stewardship away from him.

Because the steward felt he had to do something so he would not lose his chance at another job he went to every one of his master’s tenets and had them change their bills so they would be indebted to him. Therefore, when they would be in need, they will owe him something and so his last act of stewardship will be cheating his master out of what is his but putting the people in debt.

Now, is Jesus encouraging cheating? No! Does Jesus support this man’s actions? No! But Jesus does say that His desire is for His followers to be as clever with their dealings with money and the Kingdom of God. So, let’s look at two thoughts Jesus taught from this passage.

Followers of Jesus must be wise with the life He has given them

Jesus is teaching something to the His disciples and to the Pharisees who were present. The children of the world are cleverer than the children of light. The master in the story Jesus told is commending cleverness and wisdom but not wrongdoing.

But why would Jesus encourage shrewdness like this? Well, let’s look at what the man did. First, he assessed the problem. Look at verse two. The master probably had a lot of land and vineyards. So, he had his dealings with people in percentages (I will allow you to grow you crop on my land if you give me the first fruits of the land). He allowed people to farm the land but demanded the first fruits or bushels of oil from the land.  

The steward was managing all this for his master but now the master was calling in the books. He didn’t feel the manager was doing well in what he had him to manage.

Second, he had a plan in verse . three said, “what shall I do.” He knew if he was to continue working somewhere else, he had to plan and act.  So, there is nothing wrong with budgeting and planning church. Jesus never said Christians are not to plan. He commends this shrewd man’s plan.  

Third he had a purpose in verse four. "I will use my position to put these people in debt to me so that when everything is taken from me, I will have something stored up" In other words these people will owe him something.  

Some people say that they never made much money here on earth so they will just have to get it in heaven. But that is a wrong way to think. Matthew Henry said "this world is your passage not your portion. “In other words, this world is not all you have. God does have something else for you.

Jesus commends the believer who is a manager or steward of his talent, time, money, and opportunities and one day He will call us into account for how we used our Sunday mornings, Saturday nights, our home, our car, and our money. We are His manager and He owns it all; we don’t own anything. It is not ours! It is God's and we are a steward and a manager, and He will call us into account.

We ought to plan. We must use carefully what God has given us. We shouldn’t just throw it away. Other people say, “I guess God never intended for me to have it anyway." Jesus never disagreed with wise shrewd planning. He always commended it even in this world.

If only we were as committed to our spiritual investments as we are to our earthly investments. We give 10 minutes to a quiet time and 17 hours to the internet. Four hours to our favorite hobby and five minutes to tell our wife or husband we love them. We must be wise with the one life God has given us. That includes, as Jesus says here, our money.

Followers of Jesus must be wise with money

We are to use and invest our money in such a way that we are making friends that will reap dividends for eternity. I heard a pastor say one time that the test of giving for a Christian is not how much you make. The test of giving for a Christian is how much did you give away? What did we do with what we had?

This is what Jesus is commending here. So, make friends with your money and put others in debt to you by giving to them when you see a need. When we see a problem make friends with them. This is what Jesus meant when He said at the judgment "I was hungry, and you didn’t give me anything to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink.” What He means is when we give, we put away riches in eternity. We make friends for eternity. What I do here does determine eternity.

God has given us the wonderful ability to transform earthly money into heavenly returns. Jesus said "lay not up for yourselves treasure where moths corrupt, and thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” But the question is how do we do that with earthly money? How do we take a dollar and get a heavenly investment? We do it as we trust by faith. We are trusting by faith that God will make an eternal investment that I will reap eternal dividends in eternal life to come.

What if we give to missions and that missionary leads a person to Christ and builds a church and people are saved and that church continues till Jesus comes back?