What Kind of Steward?
By Tim C. Moore
It is one of the strangest television shows I believe ever produced. Deprived of basic comforts, exposed to harsh natural elements; your fate is at the mercy of people you have never met. Stranded somewhere perhaps on a remote island or in the jungle, you are forced to band together and carve out a new existence, using the collective wits of all the people involved to survive in a rugged and primitive environment.
Different tests, from the elements, to the weather, to dangerous animals, tests the endurance of the group every day. Then every three days or so there is a one hour episode of this TV show in which the "survivors" must form their own cooperative society; building shelter, gathering and catching food, and participating in various contests for certain rewards. Those who succeed in the day-to-day challenges are rewarded with things to make life more bearable; those who fail do without.
On the last day of these three-day cycles, the survivors must attend a "tribal council." At this meeting each person votes secretly to send one fellow survivor home. The person with the most votes must leave the tribe immediately. Week-by-week, one-by-one people are voted off until at the final episode only two survivors remain. At that point, the seven most recently eliminated survivors are returned to form the final tribal council, and decide who would be the sole survivor and win $1 million.
Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus told a parable about another survivor. He survived by using what he had to his greatest personal advantage. Jesus used this parable to teach us a great lesson about one of the most important topics we all face, and all have to deal with, and that is money management.
It may surprise you to know that Jesus talked more about money than he talked about hell or heaven. There are over 500 verses that deal with prayer in the Bible, but there are over 2500 verses that deal with money. When you read the first three gospels, one out of every six verses deal with managing money.
Now Jesus did not talk about money because he was obsessed with it; He knew we would be obsessed with it. He tells a story in this chapter, a very surprising story with a startling ending and an even more stunning message, that if properly understood will help you survive for all eternity, having managed your money well. Believe it or not, Jesus is going to teach us how we can use earthly money literally to buy heavenly rewards.
I. Be Careful With What God Gives You
LUK 16:1 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.
Now amazingly, this parable revolves around a crook, a thief, a swindler, an embezzler, and yet the Lord Jesus is able to take something crooked to help set us straight.
Verse 1 says, "There was a certain man who had a steward..." The Greek word for steward comes from two words: one word meaning "house" and the other word meaning "to manage." A steward is a "house manager" the manager of an estate.
In Bible days, rich people would often appoint stewards to manage their money, and manage their financial affairs. They would be given the full power of attorney to act in the name of the master. They controlled all of the assets. They represented the master in every business transaction, and they were given full authority to deal with the debtors and the creditors. It was their job to manage the assets profitably and to conduct the business of the owner as effectively as possible.
Now this steward is a picture of every one of us because we are all stewards. Someone has defined stewardship as that area of life where men make money and God makes men.
Now you may not realize this, but the Bible says that you are stewards of everything you are, not just everything you own. For example we are to be stewards of our TIME. Eph. 5:15 says, "Make the most of every chance you get in life; these are desperate times!" (The Message) We are not to waste time and we are not to kill time. We are to use time for the glory of God.
But we are also to be stewards of our TALENTS. 1 Peter 4:10 says, "God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God's generosity can flow through you." (NLT) Every one of us have different gifts and different abilities, and God expects us to use our God-given gifts for His glory.
We're also to be stewards of our TREASURE. As Jesus says in verse 9, "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." NKJ. Now I am going to deal with this at length, but suffice to say that everything we have and everything we are, is to be used for the glory and the honor of the God who gave it to us. Everything this steward had the master gave him. Everything you have your Heavenly Father has given to you, and He expects you to be a good steward of it.
II. Be Resourceful With What God Gives You
Now with every responsibility comes accountability. This steward discovered that his day of accountability had come.
"...and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.'" (vv.1b-2)
Somehow this rich man had gotten word that the steward was dishonest. An audit of the books showed they did not balance and he was called to give an account.
Notice that the Lord had only heard about the embezzlement. The full evidence against the steward was not fully known. The Lord gave the steward a chance to prove his trust and faithfulness.
Let me comment here. Every man, every one of us is charged with embezzlement, with misusing our goods to some degree. The Lord has heard of our unfaithfulness, but He will give you a chance to clean up your accounting and prove that He can trust you and that you will be faithful.
I Peter 4:10 "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
Now if the steward acted with incompetence, inefficiency, or impropriety he would be immediately dismissed with no recourse and no resource and perhaps even thrown in jail. This steward was guilty of mismanagement and embezzlement, and his day of accountability had come.
Notice the reaction of this steward once he's discovered. "Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.'" (v.3) I find it interesting that the steward was unwilling to change. He was unwilling to beg for mercy. He was too proud. He was unwilling to beg for forgiveness or ask for mercy. He was too lazy to dig, too good to beg, but yet he was not above stealing.
But even still, he's not quite ready to slit his wrist just yet. He comes up with a plan and a strategy that is unbelievably clever. He will forget the Lord and court the favor and returns of men. He did what he could to secure the acceptance and favor of men.
"I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' "So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
"And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'
"Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'" (vv. 4-7)
Now here's what he does. He calls all of the debtors together that owe his master money, and he REDUCES their bill.
He misled others to benefit himself. He did what he could to benefit his position and livelihood. He did it in a way that was pleasing and profitable to the debtors. Anyone of them would gladly help the steward when he needed their support.
The going interest rate on oil that was borrowed was 100%, and interest on borrowed wheat was 25%. So the steward in effect transforms these debts into interest-free loans. When he did that several things immediately happened. First of all, he just made some brand new friends that he could count on in a pinch. They owed him big time.
But he had also done something else. You see it was against Jewish law to charge interest on any loans. There was no such thing as principle and interest. So what business men would do would be to hide the interest in the loan so that the principle included the interest. But not only had the steward made friends out of people who were formerly his enemies, but he had forced his manager to be honest and taken away any illegal liability that he might have incurred had the master been discovered.
Now that you understand exactly what the steward did, then you can understand exactly what the master said. "So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." (v.8) Now this is where many people misunderstand this parable. The master did not commend the steward for what he did, but for why he did it and how he did it.
He was just giving the devil his due because this steward had "dealt shrewdly." He was a shrewd dude. He was not just a steward, he was a slick steward. You see he did what he did because he was planning for the future. He was getting ready for the time when his job would be at an end. He would have no more paychecks, and he would need to fall back on somebody to help him. So, in other words, he did what he did today in order to get ready for tomorrow.
That's why Jesus said that many times the devil's crowd is wiser than God's crowd. Jesus observed that at least the world will use material wealth to prepare for their earthly future. Then he raises this question: Why won't God's people use their material wealth to prepare for their eternal future? You see this steward had used what the master had given him today to make preparations for what would happen to him tomorrow. That leads to the third crucial point Jesus made about being a survivor.
Malachi 2:8 "But ye departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law."
Romans 14:13 "...judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."
III. Be Faithful With What God Gives You
Now listen to the way the New Living Translation renders verse 9: "I tell you, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends, then when you run out at the end of this life, your friends will welcome you into eternal homes."
Have you ever heard the saying, "You can't take it with you?" Well, Jesus said, in a real sense you can take it with you. Jesus Himself said in Mt. 6:20, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven."
Now we learn something about the real truth of this parable, and the real truth about money management. God wants you to do more than just "give your money" God wants you to "invest your money."
If you invest your money wisely you can beat the system and you can take it with you.
Now you may be sitting there asking the question: "How in the world can I invest in heaven?" Well the way you invest in heaven is by investing your money in what is going to heaven, and the only thing that is going to heaven are the souls of men, women, boys and girls. That means when you give to God's work; when you invest in ministry and missions, you are investing in heaven itself.
You see you can win friends and influence people not just on this earth, but for all eternity. Think about this. If the value of an investment is determined by its security and rate of return, investing in the lives of people who are going to live forever will bring the best dividends. Now this is the key point that I want you to hear that so many people miss when it comes to this area of stewardship and giving. God does not want us to give so that we become poorer; God wants us to give so that we might become richer.
So Jesus reaches two climatic statements in this parable. "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? "And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?" (vv.10-12)
Now you notice that Jesus calls money "what is least?" Now hear this carefully. The least things to God are financial matters; what matters most to God are spiritual matters.
Money is a little thing to God because He owns everything. He doesn't need our money. Sometimes people get the idea that when a pastor talks about money he's just trying to raise the budget of the church and put more money in the church's bank account. Well the primary reason that the pastor talks to a church about giving is not because of what it will do for the church, but because of what it will do for you.
Many of you know about Kraft dairy products. J. L. Kraft, who was the head of the Kraft Corporation for many years, gave 25% of his income for the work of God, and said, "The only investments I have ever made which have made constantly increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord."
I want you to remember three things about money. Never forget them. First of all, money is a TEACHER. It will teach you how to handle true riches. Money is a THERMOMETER. It measures your spiritual temperature. As a matter of fact, if you would like to know whether or not your attitude toward money is right ask yourself this question: How have you enjoyed my message today? But money is also a TEMPTER. It will always tempt you to become its slave and put it before God and anything else.
That's why Jesus goes on to say: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (v.13)
Now this is not a matter of advisability. Jesus did not say, "You should not serve two masters." It is not a matter of accountability. He did not say, "You must not serve two masters." It is a matter of impossibility. You cannot serve two masters.
If Jesus is not Lord over your money, then your money is lord over you. You are either a steward of your money or you are a slave to your money. You can serve God WITH money, but you cannot serve God AND money.
Either God is your Master, and money is your servant; or money is your master and you try to make God your servant.
Now I want you to imagine that you have something important you want to get to someone who needs it. You wrap it up, hand it over to the Fed Ex guy or the UPS guy. What would you think instead of delivering the package he took it home, opened it and kept it yourself?
Well, first of all, you would say he is a thief because the package does not belong to him. Secondly, he totally mishandled what you entrusted with him. And thirdly, somebody got hurt because they didn't get what you wanted them to have."
You know what? You would be exactly right. Because you see the Fed Ex man or the UPS man is just the middle man. He has one job - to get what I give him to the person who needs it the most. That is exactly the purpose that we've been put on this earth; to take what God has given us, and to be careful with it, to be resourceful with it, and to be faithful with it so that we can have an impact for all eternity.
And what about those REWARDS for our faithfulness to God's ends? They are too many to count, but let me give you a taste of what God Himself promises. They are beyond our comprehension. Which one alone is insufficient for us to remain faithful?
Being adopted as a son of God. Gal 4:4-7
Being made blameless and harmless. Phil 2:15
Being given eternal life. John 3:16
Being given a glorious body. 1 Cor. 15:42-44
Being given a crown of incorruption. 1 Cor. 9:25
Being given a crown of righteousness. 2 Tim 4:8
Being given a crown of glory. 1 Peter 5:4
Being made exalted kings. Rev. 7:9-12
Being made ruler over many things. Matt 25:23
Being given the Kingdom of God. James 2:5
Being given rule and authority over cities. Luke 19:17
Being given the privilege of surrounding the throne of God. Rev. 7:9-13
Being made the heir of God. Rom 8:16-17; Titus 3:7
Being given the blessings of the Lord. Prov. 10:22
Being given the treasures in heaven. Matt 19:21
Being given unsearchable riches. Eph 3:8
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