What are True Riches and How do we Get Them? | The Book Of Luke Week 4

Jesus wants you to understand and unlock the hidden potential in money. But, the real power lies at the intersection of money and spirituality. Today, Brian helps us unlock the power of the story told in Luke.

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    - Today on Crossroads our Senior Pastor Brian
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    takes one of the most fascinating
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    and confusing stories in the entire Bible
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    and explains why Jesus wants us
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    to be shrewd and resourceful.
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    - Hey, welcome to Crossroads. My name is Hannah.
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    - And I'm Kyle.
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    - Today, our Senior Pastor, Brian Tome,
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    is going to teach us about one of
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    the more confusing parables in the book of Luke.
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    - Which is good because I'm kind of confused right now
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    how I got so much taller than you.
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    I can't say I hate it, I'm just -- I don't know.
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    I don't know why it happened.
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    -You know, what also might be confusing
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    to some of our people watching right now
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    is a spiritual discipline we call giving.
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    Did you like how weaved that in?
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    - That was nice. - Yeah, it was nice.
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    If you're interested about giving
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    or you just want to learn more,
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    you can go to Crossroads.net/give
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    for more information.
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    - With that, let's see what Brian has to say.
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    - There's such a thing as the spirituality of finance.
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    Hey, my name is Brian. Welcome to Crossroads.
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    We're looking at a passage today in the Book of Luke 16:8.
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    I'm going to share with you the nugget,
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    the controversial part of the passage
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    we're going to look at today.
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    Here's what it says:
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    Jesus commends somebody who is dishonest or shrewd?
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    We think of shrewd like a greasy salesman.
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    Like a, "Pst.
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    I got some goods for you, just keep it to yourself.
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    I give you kind of a deal deal."
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    We think of greasy salesmen when we think of,
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    many of us, when we think about money and finance.
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    It just sounds so dirty to some of us
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    because we don't actually know how money works.
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    Jesus teaches today how money actually works.
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    I went through the Book of Luke
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    getting ready for our talk today,
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    and I just highlighted all of the places
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    in the Book of Luke where Jesus talks about money
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    or possessions or assets or resources.
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    And when He talks about something like a,
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    you know, a cattle or something like that, a cow.
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    That's a resource,
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    that's how they viewed it way back when.
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    22 times just in the Book of Luke
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    Jesus talks about money and resources or uses them
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    as the foundation for the teaching
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    that He's going to give.
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    Now, as we talk about this story,
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    a parable is something that Jesus made up
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    to give us a spiritual truth.
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    Many of us are very confused by this,
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    and scholars can't even agree on what
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    the name of the passage should be.
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    In the Bible, based on what Bible you have,
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    they have little title markers overtop
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    of certain sections.
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    Some Bibles, these are editors later on,
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    just put up there something like the unjust steward,
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    some say the dishonest manager,
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    some say the shrewd manager.
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    All depends on what translation you use.
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    But Jesus starts this message with a firing.
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    There's a rich man who's unhappy with his manager.
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    Rich man and manager.
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    Let's go ahead and read it
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    and see what Jesus has to say to us
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    about the spirituality of finance.
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    Verse one:
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    He is wasting the rich man's finances.
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    See, he's got a job of managing,
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    managing this money, taking care of this money,
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    keeping accounts of this money.
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    But whose money is it?
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    It's not his money.
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    It's the rich man's money.
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    And apparently he's not doing a very good job at it.
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    It's kind of being wasted or frittered away.
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    The manager is labeled dishonest,
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    not because of what he's going to do later,
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    but because what he's already done here.
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    He hasn't been managing these things right.
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    He hasn't been making a proper account
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    of all of these things.
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    He believes, the rich man does,
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    that this guy has been wasting his possessions.
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    The rich man, not the guy's possessions who's managing,
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    but the rich man's possessions.
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    Or he had resources that he was managing
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    and there wasn't an increase in the ledger
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    because it wasn't growing the way
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    the rich man expected his manager to grow it.
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    If you have any investments
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    or you've got any retirement accounts
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    and somebody is managing your money,
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    you may not be the rich man, but it is your money.
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    You expect those things to grow,
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    and if they're not growing,
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    even over a long period of time,
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    you're eventually going to say,
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    "I need to find somebody who's going to make this grow."
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    That's what's happening in this situation.
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    This guy who's managing this finds out
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    that he's about to be let go.
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    And let's see what his response is in verse three.
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    The manager knows he's about to be unemployed
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    and he understandably starts freaking out.
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    He's a weak little weenie boy
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    with small muscles and a weak back.
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    He realizes, "I can't do manual labor.
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    I'm perfectly suited to sit behind a desk
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    and write numbers down,
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    but I can't actually do anything with my body."
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    But he has one thing going for him,
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    he's got a strong mind.
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    No strong body. A strong mind.
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    This manager may not have been able to figure out
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    how to grow the accounts of his rich owner,
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    but he is no dummy.
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    Was there just a bad market condition?
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    Was that he had a bad run for a couple of years?
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    We don't know.
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    This is a story, again, Jesus makes up.
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    So the money isn't growing,
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    but he actually does understand money.
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    So here's what he decides to do in verse four.
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    The manager sends out word
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    to all the people that he's gotten his ledgers,
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    all the people he says, "Come in.
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    How much? How much do we owe?" "A hundred."
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    He goes, "How about we mark down 50,
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    50 cash on the barrelhead today? Good for you?"
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    "Yeah." "Good."
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    "How much for you?" "A hundred measures of wheat."
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    "How about -- How about we say 80?
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    Can you pay 80 today? How's that sound?"
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    "That'd be amazing." "Good. 80."
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    And he does that with everybody.
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    This is why some people look at this as dishonest.
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    Some people look at this as shrewd.
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    There's different ways to translate this
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    and to look at this.
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    Basically, though, this guy is understanding how finance works.
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    This is legal. This is legal.
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    Roman and Jewish law is very clear on this.
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    You can do research on this if you want.
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    Let me just tell you, it's very, very legal.
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    While you actually have control of someone's finances,
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    you can choose where to shift it and what to do with it,
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    assuming you're trying to help everybody.
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    The crazy thing is, everybody actually gets helped here.
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    The people who are in deep, deep debt,
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    they get help because they have less to pay,
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    less money to owe.
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    Actually, and this is why this was legal,
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    the rich man could actually be helped as well,
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    because in writing down some debt,
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    he now gets money that comes back to him immediately
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    when it's just been sort of in arrears.
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    So now he gets money and this guy,
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    he's taken care of financially as well
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    because now he has all these people that he has helped.
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    And they know that he's the one who's helped them.
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    And so in their oil empire or their wheat empire,
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    they may just hire this guy to help them out.
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    This guy gets in the good graces of the debtors,
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    in the good graces of the tenants,
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    and good graces of his master. Everybody wins.
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    This is why Jesus tells a story, verse 8, goes like this.
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    Sons of this world, the basic people of this world
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    who understand how money works, or the sons of light,
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    the basic people of this world
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    who understand how heaven works.
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    Let me tell you something.
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    There tends to be two kinds of people,
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    those who understand the world of finance
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    and those who understand the world of spirituality.
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    They do mix, they do come together.
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    And every once in a while you'll find somebody
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    who understands how both of those work out.
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    But most of the time they're separate.
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    Jesus trying to help us understand the world of finance
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    and help those of us
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    who are into the world of spirituality see
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    that the world of finance can inform us
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    about how God works.
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    It is possible to buy friends with money.
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    That's what this guy does.
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    He buys friends by writing down their debts.
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    Several years ago, I was out at a big motorcycle event.
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    It was down in Tennessee
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    and there was a bunch of guys riding,
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    a bunch of guys from the area where where I lived.
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    And I didn't know everybody, but it was pretty cool
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    and everybody then after this trail ride,
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    we went to go have lunch.
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    And like I said, there's probably 20 of us at lunch
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    and I got down to the end to pay my bill
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    and they said, "Oh, it's already been paid."
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    I said, "What?" "It's been paid?
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    Yeah, that gentleman over there paid for it."
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    "Who are you? What is your name?"
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    He says, "My name's Tom.
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    And I had the best, most fun today riding a bike
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    I have for a long, long time."
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    He was a guy who's a little older than me.
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    I said, "Tom. Awesome."
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    Now, I've often said,
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    if God could give me one miraculous gift,
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    and I'd mean this completely,
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    if God could give me one miraculous gift,
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    it would be to remember the name of everybody I meet
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    the first time, because there's something powerful
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    when someone remembers your name and says your name.
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    I honestly pray for that
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    and I'll continue to pray for that.
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    I want to have supernatural ability to remember names.
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    When somebody does something for you financially,
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    it's amazing how you remember their name. Amazing.
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    It's like Tom. His name was Tom.
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    I didn't know him before.
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    Tom was part of Crossroads. I don't know if --
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    I don't know what campus Tom goes to, what site.
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    I don't know if he's streaming it.
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    I don't even know if he's part of Crossroads. I don't.
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    I know this though: if I saw Tom again,
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    I would know his name because what Tom did is
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    he bought a friend by paying for my lunch.
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    That's what Jesus talked about.
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    This guy understands that money can be buying favor
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    and earning us friendship.
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    And so remember that.
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    Bono, the great singer for U2 years and years ago,
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    he was in a personal friendship with George W. Bush.
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    And George W Bush had gotten behind legislation
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    to give Africa billions and billions of dollars
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    in AIDS relief.
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    Bono, with all of his progressive left leaning friends
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    and his kind of artist community,
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    they were cracking on him.
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    Like, "Who do you think --
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    you can't be friends with George W. Bush.
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    You're out seen smiling with him
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    and laughing with him, going places.
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    You can't do that."
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    And Bono said this, he said this.
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    He said, "I can be bought, but I'm not cheap."
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    He said, "I was bought.
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    I might not agree with everything
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    that President Bush believed,
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    but when he put billions of dollars
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    into helping suffering people who had AIDS,
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    he bought my friendship."
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    This is what Jesus is talking about.
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    You can buy friendship.
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    You can, in fact, you can buy a lot of things.
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    And people who are here in the world
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    and understand the world of business and finance,
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    everyone's going like, "Of course, of course you can.
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    I know that.
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    That's why I have expense accounts. Of course.
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    That's why I take people out to lunches.
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    Of course, that's why we have golf outings
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    for certain clients we're trying to woo.
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    Of course, of course."
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    People don't understand that,
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    they really get freaked out about this
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    because you don't understand money.
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    Jesus understands how money works,
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    and it's worked the same way since Jesus's time to now.
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    You can use your money to positively influence things,
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    and this shrewd manager used his authority
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    over all of these things to positively influence
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    things that included blessing himself.
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    Here's what Jesus says in Luke 16:9:
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    When Jesus calls this unrighteous wealth,
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    He's not saying you're unrighteous if you have wealth.
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    He's saying wealth in and of itself isn't a sign of God.
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    Money in and of itself, like,
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    Jesus doesn't die for money.
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    Jesus dies for people.
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    Jesus doesn't love money. Jesus loves people.
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    Money is like -- it's like oxygen.
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    Jesus didn't die for oxygen either,
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    but you got to have it.
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    Money is like oxygen.
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    Money is like the environment that we live in.
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    It's not righteous in that
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    it's not at the center of God's will,
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    but it's a necessary thing.
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    And Jesus says,
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    people in this world understand unrighteous wealth.
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    But you and I have got to be able to understand it
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    and translate it to the spiritual realm.
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    This is where the twist comes.
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    Jesus is talking,
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    not about increasing our physical holdings.
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    He's talking about increasing our eternal dwellings.
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    He's talking about buying the friendship of God.
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    He's talking about buying the attention of God.
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    That is crazy.
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    See, we all [indiscernible grumbling]
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    Yeah, of course, of course.
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    The business people are like, oh, of course,
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    yeah, you've got to have the right assets.
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    You've got to leverage them. Yeah, yeah.
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    You've got to have expense accounts, of course.
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    But the spiritual people
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    get really, really uncomfortable over here
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    with the whole business aspect of money.
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    Like they think this is dirty.
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    It's not, Jesus uses it.
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    Then you get the spiritual people over here
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    who understand spirituality, they understand prayer.
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    They're all having --
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    And the business people are over here like,
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    "You people, what are you doing?
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    What are you talking about,
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    just talking about these ethereal things?"
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    But they're perhaps right
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    in what they're saying and what they're doing.
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    Jesus is encouraging us
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    to bring these two worlds together.
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    The shrewdness of business
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    and the idealism of the heavens
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    and to bring them together.
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    Jesus is telling us this story,
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    not just to help us get ahead financially,
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    but to get ahead spiritually.
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    And this tells us who God is and who we are.
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    God is the rich man. He's the rich man,
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    and all the possessions are His
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    and we are the managers of
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    whatever God has entrusted us to manage.
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    This parable that Jesus tells backs right up
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    into another teaching that's critically close.
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    In fact, they're right -- it's part of the same teaching.
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    Oftentimes we divide them.
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    I'm going to give you that teaching just a little bit.
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    But we can't divide them because
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    what Jesus is trying to do here is
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    He's trying to get our attention
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    and He's trying to tell us we get God's attention
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    based on how we use our money.
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    If we use it in godly ways, we get God's attention
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    and we end up being ourselves
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    an actual shrewd money manager.
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    This is not about figuring out a way
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    to get the thing that I want to get.
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    We're not talking about being a penny pincher
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    because you like being cheap.
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    We're not talking about getting your kids
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    to private Christian schools because that's what you want.
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    We're talking about God's resources that I'm managing,
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    what can I do with them that makes my rich God
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    thankful and happy and is a wise move?
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    Are we using and consuming everything
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    for here right now, or are we storing things away
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    for a big move much, much later on?
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    Whether this guy is moral or not really isn't the point of story.
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    Whether he should have done what he did or not
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    isn't really the point of story.
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    The point of the story is Jesus saying
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    this is the kind of attitude
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    that my followers need to have,
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    a shrewd attitude of understanding how money
  • 00:17:49
    and how spirituality works together.
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    Again, Jesus is not impressed
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    when someone understands the ways of money
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    and they have a lot of money.
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    He's not impressed when someone has
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    the ways of spirituality and they're a spiritual guru.
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    He's impressed and he's trying to get us
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    to mix those two and be incredibly wise people.
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    Three ideas here, number one:
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    Shrewd people are always looking for opportunity.
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    They're scanning their eyes
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    and trying to find out where there's opportunity.
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    That's a shrewd manager.
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    This manager knows he's going to be fired
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    and he's trying to figure out how to rectify it.
  • 00:18:24
    He could have sulked about it.
  • 00:18:26
    He could have been depressed.
  • 00:18:27
    Instead, he goes into action.
  • 00:18:29
    I've been looking for opportunity for decades now,
  • 00:18:32
    actually decades.
  • 00:18:34
    I had in college a 1978 CJ-7
  • 00:18:39
    with a V8 in full time four wheel drive.
  • 00:18:41
    I had it for about a year, year and a half, two years,
  • 00:18:44
    something like that and then I had to sell it
  • 00:18:47
    because I couldn't afford it
  • 00:18:48
    on a college student stipend.
  • 00:18:50
    I couldn't afford it.
  • 00:18:51
    I kept running out of gas.
  • 00:18:52
    It got like eight miles to the gallon.
  • 00:18:54
    Literally every week I'd have to walk to class
  • 00:18:58
    at least one day a week
  • 00:18:59
    because it would run out on the way to class.
  • 00:19:01
    Sold it and got a -- went the opposite direction
  • 00:19:03
    and got a Volkswagen diesel Rabbit.
  • 00:19:06
    Crazy, crazy, crazy.
  • 00:19:08
    When I sold that Jeep
  • 00:19:10
    and I saw the guy drive off with it,
  • 00:19:12
    I said to myself, "Someday
  • 00:19:15
    I'm going to own that Jeep again
  • 00:19:16
    and I'm not going to be stressed out about the gas."
  • 00:19:20
    I've been looking for opportunity
  • 00:19:22
    to have a 1978 Jeep for a long, long, long time.
  • 00:19:26
    Just to just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine
  • 00:19:29
    who's on the west side of Cincinnati,
  • 00:19:31
    if you're in Cincinnati, which is where I live,
  • 00:19:32
    you know there's this thing on the west side
  • 00:19:34
    and the east side.
  • 00:19:35
    The ones the more working class it seems.
  • 00:19:38
    The other is the more kind of white collar.
  • 00:19:41
    But people in the financial industry
  • 00:19:43
    would say East Side,
  • 00:19:45
    which is supposed to be the professional side,
  • 00:19:47
    the white collar side of town.
  • 00:19:48
    The east side has the big houses,
  • 00:19:51
    the west side has the big accounts.
  • 00:19:54
    The West Side knows how to manage his money better
  • 00:19:57
    and build more wealth, while the east side
  • 00:19:59
    spend their money on all these stuff.
  • 00:20:01
    But my buddy on the west side
  • 00:20:03
    goes into a customer of his, his house,
  • 00:20:07
    and squirreled away in the basement
  • 00:20:10
    is the actual 1978 Jeep CJ-7 with a V8,
  • 00:20:16
    virtually the same vehicle that I had.
  • 00:20:19
    And I got to purchase the thing.
  • 00:20:21
    It had been in disrepair for 5 to 10 years.
  • 00:20:24
    The guy's son had started working on it
  • 00:20:26
    and he kind of gave up and it was sitting there.
  • 00:20:28
    So I came in and got this.
  • 00:20:30
    And I happen to think that God blessed me
  • 00:20:32
    with this opportunity because he's seen
  • 00:20:37
    how I want to be shrewd with His money
  • 00:20:39
    and His resources.
  • 00:20:40
    As I've been pouring money into this Jeep,
  • 00:20:42
    I'm restoring it from the frame up.
  • 00:20:44
    I'm tearing everything down, grinding down the frame,
  • 00:20:46
    replacing stuff, new wiring harness, all that stuff.
  • 00:20:48
    As I'm doing that stuff and spending money,
  • 00:20:50
    the Thank our Educators Initiative comes along
  • 00:20:54
    and I have the opportunity to be a part of that.
  • 00:20:57
    I want to be shrewd with God's money,
  • 00:20:59
    not my money, with God's money.
  • 00:21:01
    And so as we went through the process
  • 00:21:03
    of not buying any meals out that week
  • 00:21:06
    and saving that money to give to educators
  • 00:21:09
    and bless educators.
  • 00:21:10
    When we came to write that check
  • 00:21:12
    or actually tap in that amount,
  • 00:21:14
    realized God has blessed us way, way more
  • 00:21:17
    than the amount of meals we would actually spend
  • 00:21:20
    eating out that week.
  • 00:21:21
    And we gave more than that
  • 00:21:24
    because we wanted to be shrewd towards God.
  • 00:21:27
    See, shrewd people look at the long game.
  • 00:21:31
    We look at the way, way out, long arc.
  • 00:21:35
    When I manage my money, which it's actually God's money,
  • 00:21:40
    I manage it looking at the long arc of saying,
  • 00:21:42
    "How will God reward this, recognize this
  • 00:21:46
    in the long, long haul of the rest of eternity?"
  • 00:21:50
    That is being shrewd.
  • 00:21:54
    The manager in Jesus parable
  • 00:21:57
    was risking his master's wrath,
  • 00:21:59
    but he was risking it because he was looking at
  • 00:22:02
    the long haul of what the rest of his life looks like.
  • 00:22:05
    What's the best thing that can happen?
  • 00:22:06
    How can I set myself up for the rest of life?
  • 00:22:08
    Jesus would tell us we need to not just
  • 00:22:10
    set ourselves up for the rest of our life,
  • 00:22:12
    we need to set ourselves up for the rest of eternity,
  • 00:22:14
    if we actually believe it.
  • 00:22:16
    Most of us don't believe it. We just don't.
  • 00:22:19
    We say we believe in heaven, we say we believe, you don't.
  • 00:22:21
    Your life doesn't show that,
  • 00:22:23
    the way you manage your money doesn't show that,
  • 00:22:25
    the the things you pray about,
  • 00:22:26
    the primary affections of your heart.
  • 00:22:29
    Most people who say they believe in heaven
  • 00:22:30
    and have received Jesus, think about the next decade,
  • 00:22:33
    2 decades, 5 decades, 7decades of their life and that's it.
  • 00:22:36
    And their money management and everything else
  • 00:22:39
    isn't affecting the next run, it's only that.
  • 00:22:42
    The old song Everyone wants to go to heaven
  • 00:22:44
    but no one wants to actually go there.
  • 00:22:45
    Everyone wants to believe in heaven,
  • 00:22:47
    No one actually wants to go there.
  • 00:22:48
    Very few people, and Jesus saying this,
  • 00:22:50
    very few people are actually shrewd
  • 00:22:53
    to think about the long game.
  • 00:22:56
    They're thinking about the game
  • 00:22:57
    of getting through the end of this month.
  • 00:22:59
    See, shrewd people serve one master
  • 00:23:03
    and that master is God Himself,
  • 00:23:05
    the most shrewd serve God himself.
  • 00:23:07
    The Book of Luke 16:10,
  • 00:23:10
    here's that whole section that the whole story
  • 00:23:13
    about the shrewd manager and the rich man
  • 00:23:15
    was a setup for this.
  • 00:23:16
    It's all mashed in one section of scripture.
  • 00:23:18
    Here's what it says:
  • 00:23:56
    Jesus is trying to get us to be investing
  • 00:23:59
    in such a way that we get true riches,
  • 00:24:01
    not a 12% return on our brokerage account
  • 00:24:05
    or or an increase in our home's value
  • 00:24:09
    if you happen to be blessed enough to have a home
  • 00:24:11
    and an increase in value.
  • 00:24:13
    Jesus wants us to have true riches.
  • 00:24:16
    That's what He says, true riches.
  • 00:24:18
    If we can't figure out how money works
  • 00:24:21
    in the physical realm, how do we figure out
  • 00:24:23
    how money works in the spiritual realm?
  • 00:24:25
    That's what He's talking about here.
  • 00:24:26
    This guy has the riches
  • 00:24:28
    of a more secure financial future because
  • 00:24:31
    he's bought the favor of other people.
  • 00:24:33
    But Jesus wants us to understand true riches.
  • 00:24:35
    What's true riches?
  • 00:24:37
    True riches are things that are rewards in heaven
  • 00:24:39
    that God is going to bless us for in heaven.
  • 00:24:41
    Yes, there are unique rewards in heaven.
  • 00:24:44
    True riches, true riches,
  • 00:24:47
    things like spiritual gifts you can have right now.
  • 00:24:50
    That's a true rich.
  • 00:24:52
    Maybe something like the gift of tongues,
  • 00:24:54
    the gift of prophecy.
  • 00:24:56
    That's true rich.
  • 00:24:58
    Or the gift of servanthood.
  • 00:25:00
    These are all gifts and they are riches.
  • 00:25:02
    Or the riches of having a platform to share Christ
  • 00:25:07
    and increase capacities of what we have right now.
  • 00:25:10
    Jesus is saying that how we manage God's money,
  • 00:25:16
    how we give the things that are God's money,
  • 00:25:20
    how we purchase the things that are God's
  • 00:25:22
    with God's money, that will dictate
  • 00:25:26
    some of what we get from God.
  • 00:25:29
    Wow. Wow.
  • 00:25:32
    Dudes, you realize you can buy a friend in Jesus.
  • 00:25:38
    You can't -- You can't buy forgiveness
  • 00:25:39
    because He forgives you.
  • 00:25:40
    He goes to cross to forgive you.
  • 00:25:42
    You can't do that. You can't buy His love.
  • 00:25:45
    But Jesus says, "Make friends in heaven,
  • 00:25:48
    make friends in heavenly places."
  • 00:25:50
    How many people are there going to be in heaven
  • 00:25:54
    who are thankful for how you manage your money right now?
  • 00:25:58
    How many people are there going to be in heaven
  • 00:26:00
    who will be thankful for how you alleviated
  • 00:26:03
    some of their suffering here right now,
  • 00:26:05
    which is why we do Compassion International,
  • 00:26:07
    blessing and building into kids who have food
  • 00:26:10
    and education because of us doing that for $38 a month.
  • 00:26:13
    You got any money up there?
  • 00:26:14
    I got a few up there.
  • 00:26:15
    They're going, "Oh, yeah, that guy.
  • 00:26:16
    I like him. I like him. I know him."
  • 00:26:19
    How many people are there who are going to be in heaven
  • 00:26:21
    because you funded some outreach or some church
  • 00:26:25
    that brought them to faith
  • 00:26:27
    and you're going to be reaping that dividend forever.
  • 00:26:29
    Or do you just not believe it?
  • 00:26:33
    You may believe the nebulous idea of heaven,
  • 00:26:35
    but do you believe that it really matters?
  • 00:26:40
    We have got -- we have got to stop
  • 00:26:44
    just having financial gurus and spiritual gurus,
  • 00:26:50
    people who know how to make a buck
  • 00:26:52
    and people who know how to give a prayer.
  • 00:26:55
    We've got to be people, and this is what Jesus saying,
  • 00:26:57
    we've got to be people who can do both,
  • 00:26:59
    who can bring wise finance
  • 00:27:02
    and deep spirituality together.
  • 00:27:05
    When you can figure out how money works
  • 00:27:09
    and you can use money in a way that sets you up,
  • 00:27:13
    that buys a better future for you in heaven,
  • 00:27:16
    you are going to be in the top 1%.
  • 00:27:20
    Be shrewd. Don't be like everybody else.
  • 00:27:23
    Be a shrewd, deeply abiding, spiritual person
  • 00:27:27
    who has bought friends in heaven
  • 00:27:29
    and is approved of by Jesus.
  • 00:30:49
    - Hey, we hope you enjoyed the message today
  • 00:30:50
    and that is a little less confusing.
  • 00:30:52
    - Definitely less confusing. I thought Brian did a great job.
  • 00:30:55
    I'm so confused how I'm taller than you.
  • 00:30:57
    I'm still okay with it. - I have no idea.
  • 00:30:58
    Anyway, we're doing this message
  • 00:31:00
    as a part of something called the Bible Challenge,
  • 00:31:03
    where we are looking to get into our Bibles
  • 00:31:05
    every single day and you can join us in that
  • 00:31:07
    by going to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge
  • 00:31:10
    for more information.
  • 00:31:11
    - Awesome. That's it.
  • 00:31:12
    We'll see you next time on Crossroads.
  • 00:31:14
    - There are blessings God has in store for you
  • 00:31:17
    that you will not get until you pray.
  • 00:31:20
    Yeah, I know, I know.
  • 00:31:21
    The pastor guy is going to talk about prayer.
  • 00:31:25
    Let me tell you why.
  • 00:31:26
    Because I want more stuff for you. I really do.
  • 00:31:40
    - There are bad ways to wake up
  • 00:31:43
    and there are great ways to wake up.
  • 00:31:46
    Start your day connecting with God and your community.
  • 00:31:49
    Explore the app and grow deeper daily
  • 00:31:51
    with the Bible Challenge: A great way to wake up.

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow Up This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. What’s the sneakiest or cleverest thing you’ve ever done?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Who is the best manager you’ve had? What made them such a good manager?

  4. How would you consider yourself as manager of your life — shrewd or unjust? Or maybe a bit of both? Why did you pick the one that you did?

  5. Why do you think Jesus commends the “dishonest” manager’?” What about him was praiseworthy?

  6. What might Jesus say about your habits and how you manage the things he’s given you?

  7. How might God be asking you to manage the gifts He’s given you this week? Share a specific example with the group.

  8. Let’s end with a prayer. You can say something like, “Jesus, thank you for giving me so much to work with. Thank you for all the ways you bless me. Please help me remember that all my gifts and blessings come from You. Grow a generous heart in me. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions! Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper.

  • Where do you see an opportunity you need to seize in your life right now?
  • When you give, what motivates you to give? Explain.
  • How will your attitude about giving change after today? What about your giving habits?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got it! Enjoy your discussion.


Jun 3, 2022 32 mins 4 sec

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