The Parable of the Unjust Steward

Transcript

But back in the day, especially in Collingwood, which is a small town, not far from where we lived, we did learn to read the Bible effectively seminars back in 1997 in that area, and from that came an ecclesia that's there and is still there now. And after doing the first eight weeks and then, you know, sort of the typical, we'd go to Genesis, we'd read Genesis for a while, and by a while I mean a year or two, and then, you know, life of Christ. And anyway, during one of the iterations, we did the Gospel of Luke. We just, when we came to the, we did Genesis in the Old Testament and Luke in the New Testament. And I'll tell you, reading anything with a group of people you're trying to teach to learn to read the Bible effectively and actually having to put into practice what we've been trying to teach them and having them ask questions was amazing. And every week we would learn as much as they would, and they'd be like, nah, that's not true. That can't be. I'm like, that really is. You know, your questions are great coming out with a fresh look and so on. And so this class came out of those experiences. So I hope it's helpful to you. And of course, in the Bible reading seminars, you know, one of the tools, one of the things we say, listening for echoes and all this kind of stuff, but one of the big ones, of course, context. And so sometimes we jump into Luke 16 and we read the first 13 verses like Steve did, and maybe we were like, what is that all about? How does that fit? And so on. And I would suggest to you, we need to look at the context. And of course, the context of Luke 16 is Luke 15 and the chapter break is sometimes not helpful. And so we need to spend a bit of time. And unfortunately, that means we might not be able to cover maybe as deeply. I don't know if you normally have like a Q&A session afterwards, but totally happy to open that up afterwards and go deeper. But we need to look at Luke 15. And it's the good news is, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the contents of Luke 15. So we're going to go back and start reading in verse one of chapter 15. And then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners to hear him, and the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man received sinners and eats with them. And he spake this parable unto them saying, and then launches in. Now, the first thing to note, I would suggest, and if you're into like colouring in or highlighting, is I've got coloured in this parable. Not parables. I would suggest to you that Luke 15 is one parable. And that just opens up Luke 15, maybe more than you've seen before. It's well known. Sheep and then coins and then sons. But it's all one parable. And Jesus is speaking this parable to them, knowing who is in his audience. On the one hand, tax collectors and sinners are there to hear him. And scribes and Pharisees are murmuring. They're there listening, but they're looking for a way to criticize him or to, you know, they're not there to learn or to hear. They're murmuring. And so that just helps us to understand. Many of the parables in Luke, we know the context of them, like the reason he's giving it. And here I'd say he's thinking of these two class of individuals. And just one example. You know, there's the 99 sheep represent, as it says in verse seven, righteous people who don't need repentance. And there's 99 of them. Well, that's got to be the Pharisees, right? He's speaking to them. They didn't, it's not that they didn't need repentance. They just didn't think they needed repentance. Of course, that aligns with the older son. And, you know, you can just see so much more if you understand who he's speaking to. Now, the way I see this is kind of like a story, a parable with three different scenes, as opposed to three different parables. I obviously have no problem if people talk about the parable of lost sheep and the parable of a lost coin and the parable of the lost son. I just think that if you label it such like my Bible does, whoever put together my Bible have those headings. I think you miss something. It's one parable. And so I kind of see it like you have this the part about the sheep is enacted and so on. And then the curtains close and then it opens up and the play continues. And now it's like, whoa, now we're talking about coins. Well, it's but it's connected, obviously. And then the curtains close and then they open up again. And now you've got sons and it's not just one. There's there's two sons in the story. And I think that's important. He had two sons. So that's the way I see this. And I think it's helpful to see it that way. And we call it the parable of the lost. But I think it's the parable of the found. Yes, there was lost individuals, but but the key thing is that they were found and the chapter ends with the word found as the father appeals to his older son. You know, it's appropriate that we should be celebrating and be glad for this. Your brother was dead and is alive again and was lost and is found. And so I think this is the parable of the found. And again, you could go into so many lessons. It's a class in and of itself. But I think it's important to see that. It's it's sometimes this last one is sometimes called the parable of the prodigal son. Again, I would suggest it's part of a bigger parable. So like scene three is about a prodigal son. And and if you're not like an English, you know, historian of words person, the word prodigal just means a waste or it's wasteful and it comes from verse 13 of chapter 15 Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And and I think, you know, that's so that's the the idea there. And you could say there, you know, he wasted his possessions with prodigal living, you know, riotous. You know, the older son was pretty sure he knew what his younger brother did talks about harlots and so on. And, you know, I don't know what vision you have of that. But the point is, the idea is it's like it was kind of like frittered away. It just kind of it was kind of gone. Maybe, you know, he he he shouted the round of drinks that night. And, you know, the next night and had lots of friends when he had lots of money and it just kind of. Frittered away just kind of like like winnowed away. That's the idea there. It was it was wasteful. It was prodigal. And oh, yeah, there it is there. And so you can see in the in the New King James, it actually has the word prodigal there. He went to a far country and wasted his sessions with prodigal living. Now, if you're like me, the chapter 15 ends kind of like I'm not happy because it's like what happened to the older brother? I mean, the you understand that the younger brother, the the one who returned, you know, he's as it were in the kingdom, he's in the house. He's he's been given a robe. He's been clothed upon with righteousness. He's been given a ring, you know, authority. His father didn't make him become a servant. He elevated him to son. He's given sandals like, you know, this is your place. You can walk through this land. This this is yours. It's it's it's it's what I've saved for you. And it was it was the father's grace and mercy and all those wonderful things. The older brother is is intriguing. And you've probably seen this that he, you know, he says, I've been with you all these years, but I never had any fun. You know, let me kind of celebrate with my friends. And he's he's he's obviously somewhat jealous as well. And he's also self-righteous. You know, I've never done anything wrong. All right, so he aligns with the the 99 sheep that didn't wander off. We're always kind of there. But but the shepherd didn't care for them because they didn't need any help as it were. They thought they were okay. Perhaps the older brother was the the one coin in the house. He's he's been in the house the whole time, but he's just as lost. And and then in the in the third scene, we have both the wandering sheep and the coin in the house that that thought everything was okay. And so we're intrigued. You know, the father went out to him and he gave this great, you know, you know, everything I have is yours. You've always been here. And, you know, I'm here for you. But I'm sure this the father would have gone back into the house to celebrate. That's that's where the the feasting was. That's where the joy was. And the question is, what happened to the older brother? You know, that's that's really what what we wonder you'll just be interested that here in in Chapter 15. You know that the younger son comes back to his father and confesses that he had sinned before his father in heaven, his before heaven and in your sight. So there's there's contrition and so on. But the elder son. Verse 25, he hears the music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what was going on. And the servant told him his brother had come back. And, you know, so so it should be so exciting. Verse 28, he was angry and would not go in. So the father comes out to him. So he's angry. So he says, Look, I've been with you all these years. I've never done anything wrong. And yet he's demonstrated that although he was in the father's house for all those years, he never developed the characteristics of the father. Right. So when the father's happy, he's angry. When the father's being merciful, he's being vengeful. And, you know, when the father's forgiving, he's he's he's laying blame and making accusations to his brother. He doesn't even call his brother, by the way, just says your son. So that's so we come to the end of verse 32. And it's like, well, what happened? Well, in my mind, the father goes back in and this older brother is kind of like, which way does he go? So that is the context of Luke 16. Now, the chapter break is artificial. We know it's there for our benefit. So we can talk about Luke 16 and not have to flip through, you know, 100 pages to find it. It's there. It opens by saying he said it was disciples. There was a certain rich man which had a steward. He does not say or the record does not say the next day or, you know, at some other time or Jesus spoke another different, completely separated parable. And I would say it's connected. I would say this is act four of the parable. There's only one parable that starts in chapter 15, verse four. We're told it's one parable. And I'd say it continues. Now he turns and talks to his disciples, but there would have still been everyone else there. And we know the Pharisees are still there because they knew what he was talking about. In verse 14, they were covetous and they derided him. They this this was hitting them hard. And so the Pharisees are still there. And my suggestion is that chapter 16 is about the older brother. And here's why I would say that. So the story continues into Luke 16. We've mentioned this word prodigal means waster or wasteful and the same word is used in verse one. And so again, if you're going to do some coloring it in your Bible, we've already been in chapter 15, verse 13 and have the word wasted. And it's here again in chapter 16, verse one, he said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And so we have a link between this. Again, I suggested seeing four of the same parable and the audience would have gone, we've heard this before. OK, now my suggestion is this unjust steward is the older brother and all the things he was accusing his younger brother of doing, he was doing the same thing, but he didn't see it. I've never done anything wrong. And I've been here in the house, I've been slave in a way, dad, like you never did anything for me. I've just been here, nose to the grindstone. But the fact is, he was also wasting his master's goods, even though he was in the house the whole time, just like the coin. Now notice, as these curtains are opening and closing, it opens and there's an obvious connection from the previous scene, there's this time it's a manager with a master and we'd be like, just a sec, we left a father with an older son. And it's different, but it's the same. I don't know how, you know, maybe they use the same actors if it was a drama and you go like, what's the connection? So I'm thinking that what we have here is this older son never really felt like a son. He just felt like he was doing his job. You know, they thought he was serving his dad, but his dad was more like the boss and he was more like the employee. And there was not a, it wasn't a healthy relationship. He didn't really feel like he belonged. And you get that sense from the older brother. He doesn't call his brother a brother. You know, it's very, it's very more like employee kind of language. So maybe that's what we've got here. The point is, is that we have now this next part of the parable, we have a master and a steward or a manager as the NIV mentioned. So, and what we're going to suggest is that he's wasting his master's goods while he's inside the house. It looks like he's doing the right thing. He said his job every day is punching the clock. Everyone looks great, but it's not when you look under the surface. So a couple of key things in terms of what this is about and the day of reckoning is coming. So we know this passage, we won't turn these up to save time. Second Corinthians 5 verse 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and we're going to receive what we've done in the body, whether good or bad. And I would suggest that's obviously the things we are doing with our lives, but perhaps also in the body of Christ, how we we treat each other. So we're going to give an account of our stewardship. We all are. And really, the question of this parable really comes out at the last verse we read in 13. You know, you can't serve God and mammon, you can't serve two masters, so don't try. And I think this guy was maybe trying and failing. So those are some two key, you know, whatever you take from the parable, there's lots of, you know, just practical, you know, you don't have to dig too deep. We have to give account that the day of judgment is coming and we can't serve two masters, so make up your mind who you're going to serve. When we think of stewards or managers, we are, this is us, we need to read ourselves into this parable. You know, like the sheep, am I the one or the ninety nine? Which coin am I? Which son am I? But here there's only one. There's there's one steward here and a really important verse to look up or we won't look it up, but to make a note of in your margin, perhaps is first Corinthians four verse two. It's a required of stewards that they be found faithful. And we would normally maybe brainstorm a little bit more. It's a bit harder with with Zoom. But if I were to ask you to think, what are some examples of stewards, household managers in scripture? And and you would agree that faithfulness, trustworthiness would be a key characteristic of those people. And I know you're all thinking now of like Joseph in Potiphar's house or in the jail or in in Pharaoh's court. You're thinking of Daniel. You're thinking of these kinds of, you know, the Eliezer, the steward of Abraham, who was entrusted with with finding a wife for Isaac, these kind of individuals, absolute trust. Like basically, you know, they were the agent of their master. They could go and work and sign contracts and speak and, you know, on behalf of their master. And this one a bit bit longer, same kind of thing for Titus one seven to nine, a bishop, an overseer in the Ecclesia must be blameless. The steward of God and all these, you know, characteristics, some of them negative, not self-willed, not quick tempered, not given to wine, OK, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, lover, what is good, sober minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word. And we're going to see in this parable that is going to be paramount. That's why I've got it bolded and underlined, holding fast the faithful word as you've been taught and using that to to, you know, represent his master well in these things. So that's there for us. We there's going to be takeaways for us from this from this parable, undoubtedly. Now, we can see that as we follow the parable through, he's going to be called into account in verse two. His master comes to him and says, look, I've heard some bad stuff. You need to have an account. All right. And, you know, if this is the if this I mean, we are going to have to give account in the judgment seat. And it's going to be too late at that point for any change. So I'm going to suggest to you this is an incident in his life where, you know, he's been caught out and he's going to have to do something about it. There is there's a time period here. We're going to sort of take it for ourselves because the judgment seat, you know, there's that we can't go and buy oil at that point. Right. The the the wise and foolish virgins tell us that. So the steward is now got some time like the masters, for example, said, OK, tomorrow we're open in the books. You know, he's he's the ledger there, the credits and the debits. We're going to check it out. You know, give an account of your stewardship. And I'm going to come and we'll check tomorrow. So he's got some time to figure out what he's going to do. So he says, what shall I do? My master is taking away the stewardship from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg. So when you're reading the Bible at any time, another thing we tell our students that we're teaching about learning to read the Bible effectively is put yourself in the story. And kind of ask questions. So, you know, I'd say, well, you know, he's his question is, what shall I do? So let's answer that question before we consider his answer. Like, what other options did he have? So again, I would I would open this up. I don't know if anyone is willing to unmute and make a suggestion. I mean, he's he's presented with a dilemma. He's been caught in sin. He's his master is going to, you know, challenge him on some things. So what shall I do? You speak answer that question for yourself. What what could you do? What could he have done? Chris, I'll jump in. Thank you. I think of Chapter 15, verse 21, where the younger sons says, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you confesses sins. Absolutely, absolutely. In fact, back it up to verse 17, when he came to himself, it's like, what am I doing here? What shall I do? And he had tried a bunch of things, hadn't he? He'd hired himself out to another guy. He thought I'm just going to, like, tough this out on my own. I can do it. But eventually he realized he couldn't. And he thinks about his father and he figures he'll go back. So, yeah, exactly. I would suggest to you that that was an option for him. Now, I want you to know, we got to play kind of alternate ending thing. So let's say that verse went read like this. The steward said to himself, what shall I do? I know my master is a loving and a gracious man. I will go and I will tell him I'm sorry. I'll ask him for another opportunity. And if you just would give me another chance, I'll be the best manager ever. How would the rest of the parable unfolded from there? What do you think? I would think that the story would have played out very differently and that the master would have forgiven him. I think so. You could you could totally write the rewrite the ending now, right? The the the master was so happy and hugs him and, you know, says, that's fine. It doesn't, you know, your sins are forgiven and he gets another chance. I think that would be perfect. But of course, he didn't. You know, he could have changed his ways, you know, it was not too late, but but he didn't. OK, he didn't change his ways. He didn't ask for forgiveness. He was kind of stuck in a rut. And my suggestion is what he decided to do is pretty much an insight into what he had always done, playing fast and loose with the accounts. All right. So that's where we came to. He said he didn't want to dig or beg. Now, I had to ask myself this question we did back in the day. We have been the Bible reading seminars and calling with like, what's this mean? I cannot dig. I'm ashamed to beg. I noticed the NIV said I'm not strong enough to dig or something. So what's going on here? Well, we did we did what we're always told to do. And back in those days, we had the big concordances with paper and we looked it up and we looked up the word dig. And, you know, we were astounded to find out that it means to dig. So it's a good translation. I'm like, oh, OK, well, that's not really helpful. But then we're like, well, it's actually used to other places. So this is cool. So that's what you do. It's not just the meaning of the word, but how does the Bible use it? Right. Like the Greek meaning or the Hebrew meaning is obviously interesting. But how does the Bible use that word? So we looked them up and you'll be familiar with them. I would just make a note of them. We won't bother turning there, although it's great that it's in Luke. It's the parable of the wise and foolish builders, and the wise builder was the man which built a house and dig deep and laid a foundation on a rock on the rock, really. Right. So it's talking about an effort to ground our lives on Christ. This man's not willing to do that. He said he wasn't strong enough, according to NIV. Here it says it just simply says, I cannot dig. Well, why not? He wasn't willing to put any effort, really. Right. He's probably the sandy, sandy shore guy. Right. He's just going to build his house on the sand. And of course, now the rain was coming and he had nothing left. It was all being washed away. OK. The other one is also interesting. So that's that was Luke six forty eight. The other one is in Luke thirteen verse eight, a parable that we don't go too often. But it's the parable, as you remember, of the tree. That one will be worth it's only a couple of pages back. Yeah. So let's go there. Luke thirteen and it starts in verse six. There's a fig tree symbolic of Israel, but really the family of God, the children of God. And it's not bringing forth fruit. We can think of Jesus cursing the fig tree and so on and what that represented. So the master, the owner says to his dresser, his gardener, I've come seeking fruit these three years and and there's there's nothing. Well, it's just it's just hurting the ground now. It's not producing any for me. And it's actually damaging the ground. You know, what's it doing here? Just cut it down and get on with it. And the gardener says, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it. That's the new King James. I'm not sure what yours has. The King James has done it just to kind of like really get to the fact this is kind of messy business. You've got to you've got to get down and and you've got to like do some extra effort for somebody else. Like this is unfruitful treaty. And you could have been like, I'm not putting any more effort into that tree. But here's an individual who's willing to roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty and try and help another person bring forth fruit. Well, this this unjust steward, this older brother was not willing to do that. And that fits the character of the older brother, I think, quite well. He's not willing to put any kind of effort himself to dig deep on a foundation. And he's not certainly willing to help anyone else, especially not someone like his his renegade, good-for-nothing younger brother. So we saw lots of digs a bit more than, you know, the picture like didn't want to go and dig trenches like a laborer because I'm used to this cushy, you know, office job that might work in the in the in the play that it's unfolding before us. But the spiritual meaning is quite deeper. So then then we looked up the word beg. And of course, the first thing comes to mind, something like this. You know, I'm too proud to go out there in the street and rattle my little tin. Right. That could be a thing. So we looked up the word beg and lo and behold, you know, it means to beg or to ask for something. But this is the only place it's used. OK, so what do you do next? Well, you can see it's kind of an amplified word of the root word, which is one fifty four there. And it's widely used in this kind of context. And again, we don't have to go farther out of Luke. It's used of the word ask. Right. So I say unto you, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. And particularly, I think if you ask, forgiveness. So I think we were right on to something there when this unjust Stuart says I cannot dig and I am ashamed to beg. He's saying I'm not willing to put in the time and effort to get this right. I don't really value my master. I don't want to stay in this house. I'm quite happy to leave because it's just too much work and there's no way I'm asking for forgiveness. So he caught me out. Big deal. You know, I'm too proud to say I was wrong and to say I'm sorry and to beg for forgiveness. I think that's the powerful, the powerful lesson there. So basically, then digging and begging, this man had no desire to humble himself, change his way, make amends or seek forgiveness. And probably pride is what's standing in the way. He's his own worst enemy at this point. Right. Because we know it says what's going to separate us from the love of God, which we have in Christ and that lists out all those things. None of this should separate us from from from God, but we can separate ourselves. And it's usually pride that does that to us. This could have been an alternate response after getting quote unquote caught. And so the lesson for us as stewards, we're going to make mistakes. Right. And the key is what we do after, quote unquote, wasting our master's goods. Are we going to be so proud that we're going to just dig deeper in a negative way, get ourselves in more and more difficulty until eventually we just need to leave? Are we going to kind of make amends and stop as soon as we can to to kind of put things right? And that takes humility. Right. And that's the younger son is a great example of that. He he wasn't too proud to go back and admit what he did was wrong. So then we say, well, what did he do instead? And this is kind of the real heart, the meat of the parable, starting in verse four. I am I am resolved what to do. And kind of like he said to himself, hmm, you know, I'm going to get in trouble. I'm going to get put out of my stewardship. I'm not going to be manager anymore. What should I do? Hmm. Don't really want to beg that to, you know, and that's below me and digging and not interested in that. So what am I going to do? And he's resolved what to do. And he's going to somehow. Put himself in debt of other people that they may receive me into their houses, verse four. So my suggestion is what's going to unfold here is an insight into this idea of wasting his master's goods. So he calls one of the debtors and says, how much do you owe my master? And then he says, take your balance down quickly and write 50. So this particular person in verse five and six, he owed a hundred and he said, take 50. I noticed Steve had some different things there, but there were some gallons or something. I must be an American version. And the NIV, I think you said, but the proportion was owed 50, cut it in half later. I think the other person owns in here, it's a hundred and cut down to 80. I think there was a thousand cut down to eight hundred. So it's a 20 percent reduction in the in the debt. So again, I would ask you to think what was he hoping to accomplish by this? Like, what's what's his plan? I think it's important for us to think about that. I think in Christadelfia, we talk a lot about Jesus being our representative. We use this word representative, and I think I think that works in our culture. We understand that. My understanding is in the Hebrew ideas of agency or being an agent, which we also have, we maybe just don't talk about it as much. But essentially, someone as a delegate, an agent, a representative of an owner would go out and do business as if he was the owner, like his words were the owner's words. His signature was the owner's signature. So to get the to get a wife for for Isaac, Abraham's servant had all these resources at his disposal and he could do with them as he saw fit. And there was that level of trust. So I think that that's what we've got going on here, which just fits so nicely with our understanding of God manifestation, whether it's an angel or whether it's his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, or how we are to be. This this is how God works. And I think here he's acting on the master's behalf, but he's not being just. He's not being right. I mean, the master would never do this. And what we'll talk about that in a minute. But the point was he was doing this for his own ends. Now, here he's marking down their debt and then sort of squaring the books illegally. It was suggested to me last time I did this class, actually, that maybe prior to this, he was inflating the cost and pocketing some for himself. Oh, you say you owe a hundred. It's one hundred and twenty today, buddy. If you pay now, it's going to be more later. He'd mark down the hundred in the accounts and keep twenty for himself. That kind of a thing. And however that worked, he's using his authority to just benefit himself. And I think we're going to see the spiritual application of that. He does a couple of things here. He's marking down their debts now in the in the in the drama. As we're watching this unfold, I guess it would work like this. He cuts the guy a break, cuts his debt 50 percent. So later he's going to get thrown out on the street, the curb. My understanding is he's going to go and, you know, knock on the guy's door down the way and say, you know what? I'm out of a job member. We did that nice. I did that nice thing for you yesterday. How about you return the favor? You know, a quid pro quo or whatever it's called. You know, I think that's what he's thinking here, right? That's his plan that, you know, I'll do this dirty deed for you because I'll be looking for something in the future that's not written there. But it's kind of like understood. And I've never really understood how this would work. I've never been in business being a teacher all my life. But, you know, would you really want to do business with someone who you knew was a cheat? I don't know how that works if there's honor among thieves or something. But I mean, this is going to be part of this commendation. OK, this is my understanding. This is how some people in the world work. They just move from place to place, taking advantage of whoever they can in order to gain somehow or, you know, benefit themselves. But we want to take this spiritually. So my question is, what are the debts? We understand them in the parable in the drama. What are the debts? If we're going to try and learn some spiritual lessons from this. And these were debts that someone else owed, owed, owed his master. OK, this wasn't this wasn't a debt they had to him personally. It was to the master. And I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that these are our sins, right? You know, it's the sins and the trespasses forgive us our debts as we forgive those who trespass against us. Now, when someone trespasses against us or sins against us, we need to forgive them. That's not about marking it down or kind of making a deal. We forgive them. But this is talking about someone who has sinned before the Lord. And now we're having interaction with them. And the question is, what should have been done here? Like if if this was a wise and faithful steward, what would the conversation have been? I just want you to think about that for a minute. You know, and I'll Steven, I know each other well enough that I can I can use as an example. What Steve calls me up and he says, you know, Brother Chris, I'm really struggling with this area of my life and any any any confesses to me some struggles that he has. What's my advice back to him? What do I say if I'm a if I'm a wise and faithful steward? And it's a debt that he has with God. I mean, if Steve phones me up and says, look, I'm really sorry what I did last week, I'm like, no worries, brother, it's over. Forget about it. You're forgiven. Right. That's me to him. But he's now called me up and he's worrying about an issue in his life that's affecting his relationship between him and his God. It's got nothing to do with me. He's phoning me as a as a friend. What should I do? What would I do? Well, in this case, what did the guy do? This conversation will go like this. Steve calls me up and confesses something. I I don't even know what to say. So he has a drinking problem. We'll just use that one. And this guy says, Steve, don't worry. That's no it's really no big deal. It's, you know, God doesn't God still loves you. Right. Don't worry about it. Like just that would be my advice. And and I mark down his debt as it's really not as serious as you think. Maybe you can try this or that, but basically don't worry about it. And the reason I might do that is because then when I phone Steve the next week with my problem, he tells me the same thing. And we go about our merry way, thinking that we're OK and we're not. OK, that's what's happening in this parable. Now, if I'm a wise and faithful steward in the word of God, what do I do? I direct Steve through a discussion, through God's word, through prayer, back to the master. And in that situation, how much of his debt is forgiven? One hundred percent. Right. Do you see this? So I'm not doing this. Steward is not doing any many favors by marking down their debt. OK, so do we tell people that their sins before God are aren't serious? Right. Don't worry. No big deal. Doesn't matter. And this is the way that society is going. And this is the way, unfortunately, a lot of Christians are going. Right. God's word doesn't really mean what it says. Sin isn't really sin. They call good evil and evil good. And a great reference and we are time is slipping away. So I'll just it's here on the screen. Make a note of it and have a look at it. This is, I think, the new King James. And just this is God rebuking through Jeremiah the the leaders of the day, the stewards of the day. So they continually say, so they being the stewards, the the rulers, the leaders, they continually say to others who despise me, oh, the Lord says, you shall have peace. It's all OK. Don't worry. They what was the other analogy there? They're kind of repairing the wall with with, you know, not good plaster. Right. They're just kind of like propping things up to everyone who walks. According to the dictates of his own heart, they say, no evil shall come upon you. You'll be fine. Right. That's what they were saying. And and that's what this unjust steward is doing. And we need to be careful. We don't do that. Sin is sin. And we need to direct people to the word so that they will recognize their sin. They will confess their sin and repent and go to the Lord. And it's a great story because we can say it can be 100 percent forgiven, not 50 percent, not 20 percent, 100 percent forgiven. Well, he also says to them here about the bill. Take your bill and write it down. Well, this is another interesting word. Now, this is a cool one. We look this one up. It's the word grammar, grammar, and it's used of writing. So obviously in the in the dramas we're watching on the stage, you know, he gets out his account book and there's a big invoice. And the guy says, you know, here's my invoice. I owe 100. And he says, I'll give that to me. Make some corrections. It's only 50 now. OK. But what's the grammar? What's the what's the word for us? Well, we know this passage that from a Holy Scripture, from a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures. It's the word. So what this unjust steward has done is he's taken God's word and he's tampered with it. Can you think of situations like this where they say, well, that was just Paul's opinion or that's the Old Testament. You know, that was a different God, as it were. No, no, the whole scripture is given through inspiration of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for rebuke, for correction, for instruction, all of it. You can't add or subtract from this word. And, you know, if in his previous life he was wasting his master's good by adding to the word here, he's trying to mark it down so he can make some friends like maybe didn't everyone didn't like him before, he was hard nosed and like whatever. Now he wants everyone to love him because he's this nice, lovable guy who lets them away with sin and debt. And, you know, says that the master's word doesn't isn't important in its entirety. You only have to worry about this and that of it. So we ask ourselves, do we mark down or discount God's word? Are there parts of our body we put big X's through and say, you know, that's not really important. That's not relevant for today. That was only for the people in the first century that I'm really not sure that was inspired. You know, how do we feel about God's word? The bill, the word that we've been entrusted to us. I think we need to really think about that. So there's so many places where Jesus says these kinds of things to who? The Pharisees, OK, and the Sadducees and the scribes, right? In vain, they worship me. This is Mark seven teaching for as doctrines, the commandments of man. So they've added to it. They lay aside the commandment of God. They they they they mark that down, they discount that and they make God the word of God of none effect through the tradition. And there it goes on in that context. Talk about the law of Korban. You remember that one? God's word on your father and your mother. They're like, well, you know what? That's good. But if you give the money that you would have given to your parents and give it to the to the temple, that's better. Right. And they they they discount God's word and raise their own to a higher level. So, wow, do do we ever do, you know, anything like that? And just as a little segue, we won't have time, but there's these awkward verses in Chapter 16. Once the Pharisees get involved in a verse 14 from verse 14 to 18, there's some pretty challenging verses. And I would say this is a commentary on that. Their laws about divorce and remarriage, their laws about who could get in and who could get not get not get in. Jesus really lays into them based on this, you know, that you you you are blocking the kingdom of heaven from yourself for yourself and others that want to enter in. You're you're you're shutting that door. You're laying heavy burdens on them. You're but when it's convenient, you you divorce your wife for any cause. And so I think that helps the segue into the last stanza of the parable, the grand finale, when the curtains open up after this one and it's the rich man in Lazarus. And if you're interested, you can. Yeah, maybe we can do this sometime in the future. And I'm happy to to have part two of this and talk about the rich man in Lazarus. If you think this one's hard, the next one's even trickier. But if you see it as all one parable for Chapter 15 and 16 with five different scenes, I think it's easier. Now, my suggestion is, and as an example, a classic example of how not to read the Bible would be this one. And this is you don't have to turn there. And I hope your Bible in Matthew seven doesn't look like this one. All right, Matthew seven, judge not. And they don't read anything further. They just they've just marked it all out. Just judge not. Don't judge me. You can't tell me what to do. And they think that's what Jesus is saying. You know, but why do they say that? Well, it sounds good and they can do whatever they want. But wow, it takes some digging, doesn't it? It takes some some rolling up the sleeves to figure out what does Jesus mean by by judge, not. And that's going to take some effort. And if you're not willing to do it, it just rolls off the tongue. Don't judge me. And we just walk away from all these issues. And and that's what this unjust judge was doing. He was focusing on the scriptures that that that were convenient for him at the time and furthered his own end. So this is clearly taught in other places in scripture. I love this one in in Second Corinthians two, verse 17. This is New King James. We are not as many. So as many for we are not so as many peddling the word of God. That's the way it's translated. I forget the King James says. But of sincerity, but as a as a from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. And that's what this guy is doing. It's a transactional sort of thing. He's peddling the word of God. He's got this bill in front of him and he's just he's just fiddling with it and using it to his own end. We cannot use the Bible ever like that. We can't use it to to gain advantage for ourselves, to beat other people up. It's not what it's about. We have to be good stewards. We have to be speaking and acting on behalf of the one who has called us, which is, you know, God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's another one, Second Corinthians four, verse two. We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. OK, so we're not the dishonest or unjust Stuart. We've renounced those things. We don't walk in craftiness. We don't handle the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation, by showing forth the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So there's some some contrasting ideas here to what this guy was doing. And that takes us pretty much up to the verse seven verses. Right. So there it is. There's the story. It's an amazing drama. OK, and then there's like this tension because at that moment, the master seems to walk in. Some have wondered what verse eight is. The Lord commended the unjust Stuart, I think, if I remember correctly, from the NIV, Steve, since this is the master, he's now come on stage and he commended the unjust Stuart. That's what the new King James has as well. So this isn't the Lord's commentary other than he's giving the parable. This is part. So as we're watching this drama unfold, the master comes in and sort of catches him in the act, as it were, figures out what he did when he came to reconcile the books and to give account of his stewardship. He sees what he's done and he commends the unjust Stuart because he dealt shrewdly or like, whoa, this is where things really started to go a little bit sideways. And what what is this talking about? The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. I liked the way the NIV had that, although it doesn't necessarily bear out in the Greek, but the gist of it was, if I remember correctly, Steve, something about it in their dealings with each other, they're more wise. So basically, what's what just transpired here was he's not commending in the sense is this is what you should do, but more. This is the way they behave. And, you know, they and there's there's some wisdom in it, because if he was kicked out of that stewardship job and he could go down to his the guy he let off for the debt yesterday and that guy hires him and his life continues on. OK, my suggestion is this commendation or praise that's heaped on the steward by his master was either ironic or facetious or both. I think this is tongue in cheek and we can discuss this later. I can convince you for one thing. He's not saying we should be doing this. So how it works out, how you understand it. But I think it's it's facetious. And if you want, let's just go forward to to to Luke 19. You're familiar with this. A parable of the pounds and the one guy who buried his master's pound. Or is this the one where he laid it up in a in a in a cloth? Where is that verse? First of all, that is where it begins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, and where's the the one the one pound man? Yeah, laid up in a napkin. Verse 20, another came saying, Lord, now here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. The napkin there is actually like a sweatcloth. He wasn't willing to work hard. So he had to rub his brow with the sweatcloth. He just put the coin in the sweatcloth. OK, and and I think, you know, what are we to take away from that parable? Is this is not a good thing. But here's what I want you to to try and understand what I think the master is saying to the unjust steward. It's like this guy in verse 21, he says to his master, I feared you because you are in a steer, man. You collect what you did not deposit and reap what you did not. So that was his view of his master, just like the unjust steward. I think he didn't want to appeal to his master for forgiveness. He didn't see his master in those terms. The father with the older brother, he didn't see his father in any of that kind of capacity. He saw him as like an employer and he was just doing his thing and he wanted to be rewarded for it. But the interesting thing here is he's wrong on one level. But he's also right. I mean, it's true that this master was going to reap what he didn't sow. These other men were doing the work, the five pound guy got five pounds. Now he's got ten. That's great. And, you know, it was the masters. Of course, the master was generous and and loving. And he got to, you know, he was rewarded for those things. But there's a sense in which this is true. But here's the key thing, I think, for understanding the parable. The master says to him in the in the parable of the pounds, out of your own mouth, I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was in a steer. So you're kind of right about that. You want I can be harsh to those who don't don't follow me. I do collect what I didn't deposit and reaping what I didn't sow. There's there's a sense in which that's true. Now, he says to him, like, but you're still wrong because you could at least put it in the bank. Putting in the napkin shows what kind of person you are. That's that I'm calling your bluff on this. I'm calling you out on this. But also, you're going to be treated that way. OK, so if that's the way you think I am, then I'm going to be judged out of you're going to be judged out of your own mouth. And I think that's what's going on here in Luke 16. So the commendation is, as I said, either kind of ironic. It's part of the the the drama that's unfolding before us. And we're wondering what's going to happen. Is this guy going to get away with this? And we're drawn into the drama. And this is what the master says for effect. So here in verse nine, then, is the is the response. You know, I'm going to judge you out of the words of your own mouth. So I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. All right. So let's let's break this down a little bit. So we say, well done. He comes in to take an account and says, oh, good job, buddy. So I understand what you did. Good going. Let's see how that works out for you. Let's let's just let's just follow this through. So out you go. Let's see how that's going to work out. So you're going to be out there. You're going to be dealing with other people who are dishonest. You're going to be, you know, doing dirty deeds with them. And like, how's that how's that going to work out for you? Now, my question would be those that deal with unrighteous mammon, that is that they they they worship mammon wealth, you know, humanism, whatever that they're doing, where will those people end up eternally? And scripture is clear. The wages of sin is death. So their eternal home is the grave. And the ironic thing is here, the word home is isn't like a it's like a tent, a tabernacle. There's really nothing of substance of it. So he's this is an ironic or a facetious answer. And he's saying, all right, that's why you want it. That's the way you'll get it. And you'll end up where everyone else ends up, you know, six feet under, as they say. You're not willing to dig, but you're going to end up there anyway. Yeah, you've been all this whole time. You've been digging your own grave and you didn't even know it. And you just kept digging that grave. And that's where you're going to stay. Yeah. Thanks, Steve. Now, the key is Jesus is not contradicting himself. So there's some tricky verses here and we can and I see we're almost out of time. But the key is Jesus is not contradicting himself. You cannot serve God and mammon. If you try and do, you can't. And you will end up serving mammon and you'll end up eternally dead. That's the clear. Or you can serve God and you'll end up eternally alive, even if in the short term, there's, you know, difficult things in your life happening. So, yeah, that's the point. And I think I don't know. I don't know how the drama unfolded. This is actually a description from the more like the one pound man being sent out. But I think it could be similar here. Fine. Go hang out with those guys. You know, you think you were so smart. Let's see how that works out for you. Let's see how that plays out. So from Matthew 24, we know the two types of stewards and maybe we could. There's some tricky things here in Luke 16, but we are at a time. The thing about, you know, if you're going to be faithful and little and faithful and much, I think there's some great exhortation there that we need to be faithful in the little things so that ultimately we can be faithful over great things, many things. And, you know, if we if we if if God can't trust us with with his word, then we're not going to be given that authority in the kingdom. You know, like the five cities or the ten cities or whatever the case may be. But we can we can talk about there. Let's let's close by looking at Matthew 24. This is a parable about two stewards. And there are only two in Luke 16. We didn't get an insight into the alternative. We only had the the bad version of the older son who ends up out on the street hanging out with all the other unjust people. So here in Matthew 24, 45 to the end, there are two types of stewards. One is he's watching. He's he's looking after others. Let's just read that. Who then is a faithful and wise steward or servant? Whom his lord hath made ruler over his household. There's the agency, Steve, that we're talking about to give them their meat in due season. Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. Verily, I say unto you, that you'll make him ruler over all his goods. So if you have the view that your master is loving and generous and gracious, you are going to work so hard. You're like that that that servant in the Old Testament wanted his ear bored through. I don't want to leave this house. I'm here for good. I love my master. I love his family. I want to stay here. And even though you're a servant, you're promoted to, you know, great things. So he's he's busy watching, serving others, watching for his master's return. Then there's the other guy. But if an evil steward says in his heart, my lord delays his coming. And what does he do? Well, this is the older brother, isn't it? He began to smite the fellow servants to eat and drink with the drunk and doing all the things he really wanted in his heart to do. Certainly not going to accept any, you know, repentant younger brother back wants him kicked to the curb as well. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him. All right. He's not. He hasn't been willing to dig or to beg an hour when he's not aware. He'll cast him asunder and appoint him portion with a hypocrite. There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's their everlasting homes. And that's what you get. OK. So if we could take anything from the Luke 16, it's, you know, the type of steward we are now will determine our everlasting habitation. Then if we're if we're consumed with worldly thinking and worldly thoughts and really action lined up where the world ends up, that'll be our everlasting habitation. If we commit ourselves to the Lord, if we're this faithful and wise steward and looking out for others, building them up, bringing them back to God, having their debt forgiven 100 percent, rightly dividing the word of God, then we'll be given everlasting life when Jesus returns. So what did we learn? Let's dig deep and lay a foundation on Christ. Be prepared to get your hands dirty in service to others and so develop the fruit of the spirit in yourself and them. I mean, that's the thing. While you're busy and helping other people, you're actually helping yourself. That's the you know, and your own life is easier. What's our him? Forget all your trouble by reaching his need, right? By by having an outward focus, our life is actually better. Repent, confess, seek forgiveness. So don't be afraid to dig. Don't be too proud to to beg. Realize the seriousness of our sin for ourselves and others. Don't don't mark down the debt. Don't say, oh, no big deal. Doesn't matter. Jesus loves you anyway. Use God's word faithfully and guard against replacing it with reticence of men. Right. So don't cross out all the verses that we don't like and ignore them. It's all inspired by God. It's all profitable for doctrine, reproof and so on. And don't fall into the trap of thinking you can serve God and mammon because you can't. All right. Jesus didn't say, look, if you try and serve God and wealth, mammon, whatever that encompasses, if you try and do it, your life's going to be more difficult. Jesus didn't say that. He said, you can't do it. You cannot serve God and mammon, so don't even try.