Take your Bibles and turn with me and turn to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. Today we're going to look at one of the strangest parables in all of the Bible. This one is a real head scratcher.

It's not a head scratcher because it's hard to understand. It's a head scratcher because we can understand it but it's so counterintuitive.

In this parable Jesus basically talks about a crook, a white-collar criminal, and tells us, "Be like that guy."

I understand that Mattoon actually has an interesting history of a white-collar criminal, a crook. Clyde Hood. Our very own Bernie Madoff. And he was associated with something right here in this neighborhood. Right over where Taco Amigos was, there used to be the Blue Bird Diner. Clyde Hood bought that diner with money from a Ponzi scheme he created called the Omega Trust. He stole something $12.5 million dollars from people and just spent it all on himself. Maybe you are one of those people. You probably know some of those people.

When you trust somebody to handle your money, when you trust them to handle your investments, and they turn around and use that money for themselves or steal that money, that is a terrible.

But in our story today, Jesus is actually going to tell us about an unscrupulous money manager, a crook, and he's going to commend the crook. Make it make sense!

After studying it this week, It actually makes perfect sense and we'll see that as we get into it. Let's read our text today.

1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 16:1-15 (KJV)

So the wildest part of this whole chapter is verses 1 through 8, this parable that Jesus tells. It's usually called the parable of the unjust steward.

There are a lot of things that are different about living in Bible times than living today. We got to kind of make a translation. The steward here was somebody who worked for a very, very wealthy man and managed his money.

He was a crook. He was wasting that money. The last chapter had the prodigal son and in this chapter we have the prodigal steward. And eventually people heard about it and they shared it with the boss. The boss called them to account and said, "You're going to get fired. I'm going to call the accountants in. We're going to look at this and you're done.”

Any of you ever been fired before? It's not fun? Do a lot of soul searching when you get fired. You think a lot about, "What am I going to do next?" This unjust steward was no different. He's thinking, "I don't want to dig holes. I'm a white-collar guy. I don't want to go beg. What am I going to do?" And he come up with a brilliant but diabolical plan.

You see technically he still managed these accounts for his master. There were lots of people who still owed the Master money and he was the point person for that relationship.

Now in Israel it was actually against the law to charge interest. So they came up with all kinds of clever ways to get around that, and the biggest thing they did was they just tacked on a ton of principle at the beginning of the loan. So instead of charging interest every month, they were basically doubling the loan at the beginning.

This steward understood that. It's probably where most of his personal money came from and he understood that there were people that owed his master lots and lots of money but there was some wiggle room in there. And so he wanted to build a good relationship with these other rich people that owed his boss money so they'd hire him. So they would feel obligated to do something nice for him when he finally got canned.

So he goes to one that owes his master a ton of oil. 100 measures of oil would be worth something like 3 to 5 years of the average person's pay. This is like all of the produce of 150 olive trees in one year. This is a huge amount of money.

So the unjust steward goes to this guy and says, "Hey, how much do you owe my Master?" Hundred measures of oil. Okay here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna cut you a deal. Right now if you write a check for 50 measures of oil then we're good. And this rich guy says, "Sold." He writes a check right then.

He goes to another really rich guy that owes his master money. He says, "How much do you owe my master?" This guy says, "A hundred measures of wheat." The unjust steward says, "Well here's the thing, I'm going to cut you a one-time deal. If you give us a check right now for 80 measures of wheat, we're good." The guy says, "Deal," and he writes the check just that.

And we can assume that this unjust steward goes to all of the master's wealthy debtors and does the same thing.

Remember, it was illegal to charge interest. So in doing this he's probably not cutting into the master's actual money. He's cutting into the master's markup. The padding. Probably his own cut, which is why the master doesn't just throw him in jail. He probably hasn't technically stolen anything. He's just given away the profit.

Now let's make two things clear.

First, legally, he may not have stolen anything. But let's be real — morally? This is stealing. This is his master's money that he's giving away to benefit himself. Just because it's the markup doesn't mean it's not his master's money. He is just outright cutting money out of his master's pocket.

Second, why is he doing it? He's doing it so that these other rich guys will owe him a favor now. He's doing it so maybe they'll give him a job. He's doing it to kind of cut them in on this thing and now they owe him.

It is brilliant and diabolical.

So what is the Master going to do when he finds out about this? I would expect him to just go off the rails. I would expect him to, as my kids would say, “crash out” on this guy. But look at verse 8 again.

8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

This is fascinating. The master commends this unjust steward. The Master is kind of impressed! Man, you're a crook but at least you're a good crook. Hats off to you, man!

But here's the even bigger head scratcher. Not only does the master in the story commend the unjust steward, but in verse 9, Jesus commends the unjust steward. And Jesus kind of says, you could learn from this crook.

What can we possibly learn from a crook? I'm so glad you asked! I'm going to give you three points from this passage where Jesus taught us the three lessons we should learn from this crook.

The first lesson Christ is going to teach us from the crook is…

1. Like the crook, God wants us to use our resources now to make friends for later.

Look at verse 9 again:

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Luke 16:9 (KJV)

This is the most confusing line in all of Jesus' teaching here. What did he mean when he said, "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness"?

The first thing we have to understand is what the Mammon of Unrighteousness is. It's just money. This whole passage is Jesus talking about money.

The Bible is pretty clear about money. It is a terrible thing to live for. “The love of money is the root of all evil, the Bible says.”

Whenever the Bible talks about mammon, it's just talking about money. It's talking about stuff. It's talking about the things you get for yourself.

That money and that stuff is not inherently evil but it is inherently dangerous.

So this whole passage and really a lot of the next several chapters is about how we as Christians are supposed to use money, how we're supposed to use this “mammon of unrighteousness”.

And Jesus' first point for us is that we should learn from this crook and use our current resources, use the mammon that we have to make friends for our next situation.

What's our next situation? Our next situation as believers is we're going to go to heaven. We're going to live and rule with Christ for eternity. And what we do here in this life is going to affect our eternity. It's going to affect how good our eternity is.

Jesus taught this explicitly. Listen to Matthew chapter 6, verses 19 and 20.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Matthew 6:19-20 (KJV)

How we live today affects how much treasure we're going to have in heaven. How we use the treasure that God has given us today is going to affect the kind of treasure we have for eternity.

So what can we learn from this crook? Well the crook realized his current situation was coming to an end and he had something. He had relationships that he could leverage so that his future situation was better. He was setting himself up for a soft landing.

And Jesus here is saying, "Why can't you all be like that guy? Why can't you all realize that this time that you are in right now is coming to a close faster than you could possibly think? You need to take whatever you have and use it to set up your future situation."

So let's be clear here: Jesus is talking about money. He's talking about using the money that you have right now for eternity and specifically he says, "Use the money you have right now to make friends for eternity." Use the money you have right now so that when you get to heaven there's a welcome wagon there for you.

How do you do that? I think it's pretty simple. You invest your treasure, you invest your money in the Lord's work. You spend your money and you give your money in ways that grow God's kingdom. You give your money in ways that cause people to trust Christ.

When you get to heaven those people will say:

• Hey! I am here because of that money that you gave towards missions.

• I'm here because of that money that you used to buy tracts.

• I'm here because of that money that you used to help build that church building.

And it's not just about writing checks. You can use everything God has blessed you with to advance His kingdom.

• You can have people over your home and share the love of Christ with them.

• You can share your hobbies with people and use that as an evangelistic tool.

• You can leverage your business relationships for evangelistic impact.

You can use your mammon of unrighteousness now so that you have friends in heaven.

So the first thing we learn from this crook is like the crook, God wants us to use our resources now to make friends for later.

The second thing we learn from the crook is...

2. Unlike the crook, God wants us to be wise stewards of the money he has entrusted to us.

We can learn a positive lesson from the crook. That's a surprise but Jesus also has some negative lessons for us to learn from this guy.

Look at verses 10-12 again:

10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
Luke 16:10-12 (KJV)

The unjust steward was in the bind he was in, in the first place, because he was unfaithful. He was unfaithful with the things he was managing for his master.

He lost his job because he couldn’t be trusted with his master’s money. Don’t lose your opportunity because you can’t be trusted with God’s.

Here's a lesson for us. Everything that we have as Christians is not ours; it is something that we are managing for our master.

We are stewards and the most important thing in stewardship is being faithful. It is being trustworthy.

Whatever God has given you in this life, are you being faithful with it? Are you being trustworthy with it? Are you using it for God's good? Are you using it to advance God's kingdom?

Are you, like the unjust steward, wasting it on yourself?

The temptation is always to look at other people and say, "Man, I wish I had their money." And Jesus is saying, "No, you be faithful, you be trustworthy with the money that I've given you and then I'll trust you with more. But if you can't use the money that I've given you the right way, I'm not going to give you any more."

What are you doing with the money God has given you right now?

• Are you faithfully tithing with it?

• Are you budgeting your money, not spending more than you have so you eat up your future money with interest?

• Are you avoiding debt?

• Are you being generous with what you have?

• Are you treating it as yours and holding it close to the vest, or are you saying, "Man, this is God's and I'm going to share it.”

Be wise with what you have, be faithful with what you have, and God might give you more.

So lesson one: use your current situation to improve your future situation. Lesson two from the crook: be a wise steward of what God has entrusted to you.

The third lesson I think Jesus wanted us to learn from the crook is…

3. Unlike the crook, we should serve the Master and not the money.

Look at verse 13 again:

13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

This verse is not saying you can't have two jobs. We all know people that have multiple jobs. What it's saying is you can't have two masters. You can't be owned by two different things.

In Bible times almost everybody was in some kind of slavery. And it was literally impossible to be a slave to two different people.

A slave didn't choose his schedule. A slave didn't choose his priorities. His master chose everything for him. And Jesus is saying, money will do the same thing to you if you let it. It will choose your schedule. It will choose your priorities. It will run your life.

The application for us is that we have to choose what our master is. Is our master going to be serving God or is our master going to be serving money?

It is very obvious from the parable that the unjust steward wasn't really serving the Master. He was serving himself with the Master's money. And so many of us can be guilty of the same thing. We're not really serving the Master. We're not really serving the Lord. We are just chasing after serving ourselves. We're chasing after our own treasure.

A couple weeks ago on our Wednesday night Bible study, we talked about the story of Gehazi. Gehazi was kind of the understudy of Elisha. Elisha performed this miracle and healed Naaman the Syrian, this very rich Syrian general. Gehazi was like "You just let that guy go and didn't take his money. He was offering you money and you didn't take it." Gehazi ran after him to take money for himself from Naaman the Syrian. Because of that God gave Naaman's leprosy to Gehazi.

The unjust steward served himself with his master's money. Gehazi chased money instead of serving his master. Different story, same sin.

The lesson from that story and the lesson from this verse is the same: It is impossible to serve God and serve treasure. You can serve God with treasure if God blesses you with it but it is impossible to serve both God and serve the treasure.

Listen, treasure is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.

Most of the people in this world are living day-to-day for the next purchase.

• They are living for the next financial milestone.

• They are living for the next promotion.

• They are living to get a nicer car.

• They are living to get a bigger house.

• They are living to get nicer clothes.

• They are living to get a fancier computer.

• They are living to get another motorcycle.
  And do you know what happens when you get those things? Immediately you're on to the next thing. They never satisfy.

I remember reading this awesome illustration by Jim Berg where he compared life to an empty mart, and the tag line for empty mart is "dissatisfaction guaranteed". People go through life and they go to one department of empty mart. They go to the bigger house department and they think, 'Surely I'm gonna find satisfaction here,' but they leave empty. They go to the fun department and think, 'Surely I will find satisfaction here,' but they leave empty.

Solomon told us how this story ends in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said, "Vanity in vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." You can chase after money, you can chase after treasure, and it will always leave you empty and dissatisfied.

Think about your kids on Christmas morning, right? You spend all this money to buy them presents and get them what they want. For like 10 minutes they're on cloud nine and then they're thinking about what they're getting next. That doesn't change by adding more zeros to it.

Someone asked John D. Rockefeller, "How much is enough?" And he said, "Just a little bit more."

Money is a terrible master. And if you are living for money, you aren't living for God.

We started today with a crook. A guy who was unfaithful with his master's money, who served himself instead of his master. And the wild thing is, Jesus looked at that crook and said, 'At least he was thinking ahead. At least he was strategic. At least he understood that his current situation was temporary and he needed to prepare for what was next.'

And here's what breaks my heart — a crooked money manager in a parable was more strategic about his temporary future than most Christians are about their eternal future.

So let me ask you three questions as we close:

• Are you using what God has given you to invest in eternity? Are you going to get to heaven and have a welcome wagon — people who are there because of how you used your treasure? Or are you hoarding it all for a life that's going to end?

• Are you being faithful with what God has entrusted to you? Not somebody else's money — yours. The amount God gave you. Are you trustworthy with it?

• And the big one — who's your master? Is money serving you, or are you serving money? Because treasure is a wonderful servant and a horrible master."

Clyde Hood used other people's money to serve himself, and he died in prison with nothing.

The unjust steward used his master's money to serve himself, and he was about to lose everything.

Don't be that person. Use God's money, for God's purposes, for God's glory.

Let’s stand for prayer