Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible
Speaker 1: Teaching Ministry of Rick Warren. We are so glad you've
Speaker 1: joined us today. And Rick is going to share part
Speaker 1: one of a special message called Lessons from a Shrewd
Speaker 1: Money Manager.
Speaker 2: So let's get started.
Speaker 3: If you have a Bible, I want you to turn
Speaker 3: to Luke chapter sixteen, Luke sixteen. If you don't have
Speaker 3: your Bible with you, pull out the message notes and
Speaker 3: all of the verses are there on the outline. This
Speaker 3: is an amazing parable that I'm about the Lessons from
Speaker 3: the Shrewd Money Manager. Now, a lot of people don't
Speaker 3: realize how much Jesus talked about money. Half of all
Speaker 3: of the parables of Jesus, fifty percent of all the
Speaker 3: parables Jesus told have to do with money and possessions.
Speaker 3: In fact, in the Bible, one out of every six
Speaker 3: verses in Matthew Mark, Luke John, the Gospels are about money.
Speaker 4: Why out of every six?
Speaker 3: In fact, Jesus Us talked more about money than he
Speaker 3: did either heaven or hell. Why Because we think about
Speaker 3: money more than we think about heaven or hell, and
Speaker 3: we spend most of our lives dealing with this issue
Speaker 3: of how to get it, how to save it, how
Speaker 3: to spend it, how to invest it, how to keep
Speaker 3: accounting of it, how to share it, all the different things.
Speaker 3: Money has enormous influence on our lives. You know, Gallup
Speaker 3: has done many many polls that show the number one
Speaker 3: cause of divorce. The number one cause of divorce is
Speaker 3: financial tension. Fifty six percent of all divorces come because
Speaker 3: of money problems. But regardless of that, God wants us
Speaker 3: to learn even in tough, difficult times, and the Bible
Speaker 3: tells us that money management is a test from God. Now,
Speaker 3: the parable we're going to look at today that Jesus
Speaker 3: tells in Matthew ourscubay Luke sixteen is actually one of
Speaker 3: the most misunderstood section the scripture in the Bible, because
Speaker 3: when you read it initially, it looks like Jesus is
Speaker 3: complimenting or commending a crook. There is a dishonest manager
Speaker 3: money manager in this story, and he actually praises the guy.
Speaker 3: He uses a clever crook as an illustration of wise
Speaker 3: money management. Now you need to understand who Jesus is
Speaker 3: talking to when he tells his story. Jesus told this
Speaker 3: story not to the general public, but he told it
Speaker 3: to the Pharisees. Now, who are the Pharisees. Well, remember
Speaker 3: they're the religious leaders of the day. They're self righteous,
Speaker 3: they're judgmental, they're legalistic, and the Bible says they love money.
Speaker 3: They were obsessed with money. In fact, on the screen
Speaker 3: in this chapter and verse fourteen Luke, sixteen fourteen, it
Speaker 3: says the Pharisees made fun of Jesus because they dearly
Speaker 3: loved their money. And Jesus loved to shock pious people,
Speaker 3: self righteous, legalistic religious people. He loved to shock them.
Speaker 3: So he tells the story, and he makes the hero
Speaker 3: of a story a crook. A crook. Now, let's look
Speaker 3: at the story. It's there on your outline, Luke, chapter sixteen.
Speaker 3: Jesus told his disciples there there once was a rich
Speaker 3: man whose manager was accused of wasting his master's possession.
Speaker 3: And notice he's not wasting his own money. He's wasting
Speaker 3: his master's possessions. It's not really his money. So the
Speaker 3: owner calls him in and asked, what's this I hear
Speaker 3: about you? He says, you know I want you to
Speaker 3: are you are you cheating me? I want you to
Speaker 3: give an account of what you've done with my money,
Speaker 3: because your time as my manager is ending.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: The guy knows he's going to lose his job. So
Speaker 3: the manager says to himself, what am I going to
Speaker 3: do now? I'm losing my job as a manager. But
Speaker 3: I'm not strong enough to dig ditches and I'm too
Speaker 3: proud to beg So he says this, I know what
Speaker 3: I'll do, and he hatches this plan. I know what
Speaker 3: I'll do so I'll have friends to take care of
Speaker 3: me when I lose my job. So he calls in
Speaker 3: each one of his master's debtors, the guys who owe
Speaker 3: is his boss money? And he asked the first guy,
Speaker 3: how much do you owe my master? And the guy
Speaker 3: says eight hundred gallons of olive oil. He replied, the
Speaker 3: manager said, well, take your bill, sit down quickly, and
Speaker 3: make it four hundred.
Speaker 4: In other words, we're going to just write.
Speaker 3: Off half of it, okay, and we're gonna tell a
Speaker 3: boss about this. But instead of you own eight hundred,
Speaker 3: you're only gonna o four hundred. Now, just write it off.
Speaker 3: And then the manager found another debtor and he asked,
Speaker 3: how much do you owe a thousand bushels of wheat.
Speaker 3: He replied, The manager said, okay, you change your bill
Speaker 3: to say that you only owe eight hundred. Now, what's
Speaker 3: going on here? The reason for this story is told
Speaker 3: in the next verse, verse eight. Now, when the heard
Speaker 3: what the dishonest manager had done, because what he done
Speaker 3: he hadn't told his master, he just did it, he
Speaker 3: still commended his shrewdness. Circle that he commended his shrewdness,
Speaker 3: for the people of this world are more shrewd in
Speaker 3: handling their affairs than are the people who belong to
Speaker 3: the light. Jesus says, saying, sometimes unbelievers are far more
Speaker 3: equipped and wise in the way they handle their wealth
Speaker 3: than believers do. Now, what's going on here, Well, I
Speaker 3: want you to know this a couple of things. First,
Speaker 3: Jesus is not praising this man's dishonesty. What he did
Speaker 3: was clearly wrong. He's cheating his boss by discounting the debts.
Speaker 3: But he did praise his shrewdness. Now, what is shrewdness. Well,
Speaker 3: most of us, when we hear that word a guy shrewd,
Speaker 3: we think he's a manipulator, he's a crook, he's a
Speaker 3: con man. He's going to be smarter than me, and
Speaker 3: so he's going to weasel me out of some money
Speaker 3: that's rightly owed me. But that's not really what the
Speaker 3: word shrewd means. If you look the word shrewd up
Speaker 3: in a dictionary, it means three things. It means keen awareness,
Speaker 3: it means astute intelligence, and it means clever resourcefulness.
Speaker 4: You need shrewdness.
Speaker 3: You need to know what the problem is in your finances,
Speaker 3: and you've got keen awareness of that what's really the problem,
Speaker 3: and you need to pinpoint it. And second you need
Speaker 3: astute intelligence where you go, I know what I need
Speaker 3: to do, and you need to know the steps to
Speaker 3: take out. And then third you need clever you know resourcefulness,
Speaker 3: You need to know how to get out of the
Speaker 3: mess that you're in right now. What I want to
Speaker 3: do with you this weekend is I want to teach
Speaker 3: you biblical shrewdness, scriptural shrewdness, how to manage your money
Speaker 3: so you're not constantly trying to make ends meet and
Speaker 3: always under tension and always under pressure. Now again, Jesus
Speaker 3: isn't commending this guy's dishonesty. But you can appreciate something
Speaker 3: in somebody without admiring everything that they do. Do you
Speaker 3: understand what I'm saying? In other words? For instance, there
Speaker 3: are some actors out there who live really immoral lives,
Speaker 3: but they're still good actors, and you can appreciate the
Speaker 3: fact that they're a good actor. There are musicians out
Speaker 3: there who are totally living, you know, drug infested lives
Speaker 3: and you know, just total lives for self centeredness, but
Speaker 3: they still make good music, and you can appreciate the
Speaker 3: good music. When I go to a doctor if I've
Speaker 3: got a brain tumor, I don't go and ask the.
Speaker 4: Doctor are you an atheist?
Speaker 3: Or are you Muslim or Jewish or Christian or Buddhist
Speaker 3: or Baptist or whatever? I want to know have you
Speaker 3: done this before? Okay, so you know it doesn't matter
Speaker 3: what their faith is. But at that point you're looking
Speaker 3: for their skill. Does that make sense? And so you
Speaker 3: can learn even from a crook if you don't copy
Speaker 3: his dishonesty, but you copy the right things that he did.
Speaker 4: Now, in this story.
Speaker 3: That Jesus tells us, we have eight attitudes toward money.
Speaker 4: Let's get right into it.
Speaker 3: The first thing we learn from this story of the
Speaker 3: shrewd manager is that what I think I own is
Speaker 3: really on loan. What I think I own is really
Speaker 3: on loan.
Speaker 4: You see, I don't.
Speaker 3: Really own anything, and by the way, neither do you.
Speaker 3: It all belongs to God. It was God's from the beginning,
Speaker 3: it'll be God's at the end. You didn't bring anything
Speaker 3: into this world. You're not taking anything out of this world.
Speaker 3: God just loans it to.
Speaker 4: You for about eighty years.
Speaker 3: It's all God's and God loaned it to somebody else
Speaker 3: in the previous generation, and he's going to loan it
Speaker 3: to somebody else in the next generation after you, and
Speaker 3: you get to use it for a short period of time.
Speaker 3: But everything you have in your life, including your own heartbeat,
Speaker 3: is on loan from God. You would have nothing without God.
Speaker 3: It's all his and he's giving it to you. So
Speaker 3: really we have the role of being a manager. We
Speaker 3: are to manage what God has given us. The Bible
Speaker 3: says that everything you have is a gift from God,
Speaker 3: and you're to manage it. Wisely, God gave you your health,
Speaker 3: You're to manage your health. Wisely, God gave you your freedom.
Speaker 3: You're to manage your freedom. Wisely, God gave you your mind.
Speaker 3: You are to manage your mind wisely. He gave you
Speaker 3: your time, You're to manage your time wisely. He gave
Speaker 3: you your talents, You're to manage them wisely. He gave
Speaker 3: you your money, you are to manage it wisely. What I
Speaker 3: think I own is really on loan.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: The word for management in the Bible is the old
Speaker 3: English word stewardship. Stewardship is just the old word for management.
Speaker 3: Every time you see the word steward in the Bible,
Speaker 3: it means manage. That's what it means. A steward is
Speaker 3: a manager in Stewardship is management, and the Bible says
Speaker 3: that we are to be good stewards of everything.
Speaker 4: God has given us.
Speaker 3: Now that may not seem like a big deal, but
Speaker 3: it certainly changes the way I deal with money when
Speaker 3: I realize it's not really mine. It's just on loan
Speaker 3: to me, and God is watching how I manage it.
Speaker 3: You see, if I want to blow if I think
Speaker 3: it's all my money and I want to blow it,
Speaker 3: I say, you know, I know this is a frivolous,
Speaker 3: trivial thing to blow it on, but I'm going to
Speaker 3: spend this money on this, and I just waste it. Well,
Speaker 3: I say, so what, it's my money. If I want
Speaker 3: to waste it, I waste it. But when I realize
Speaker 3: it's really God's money, I'm wasting. That puts it in
Speaker 3: a different perspective. It puts it in a different perspective
Speaker 3: because the second thing we learned from this story is
Speaker 3: that one day I'll give an account to God. You
Speaker 3: need to write that down. One day I will give
Speaker 3: an account to God. One day God is going to
Speaker 3: do an audit on your life. He's going to do
Speaker 3: a life audit. You'll stand before God when you die,
Speaker 3: and he's going to say, what did you do with
Speaker 3: what I gave you? What did you do with the
Speaker 3: talent I gave you? What did you do with the
Speaker 3: money I allowed you to have? What did you do
Speaker 3: with your freedom, with your relationships, with your network, with
Speaker 3: your intelligence? What did you do with what you were given?
Speaker 3: And one day I'm going to have to give an
Speaker 3: account to God on how well I managed what he
Speaker 3: allowed me to manage for eighty or one hundred years.
Speaker 3: The Bible in Ecclesiastes eleven, verse nine says this, on
Speaker 3: the screen, young man, it's wonderful to be young.
Speaker 4: How many of you agree with that part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, young man, it's wonderful to be young. Enjoy
Speaker 3: every minute of it. Do everything you want to do.
Speaker 3: Take it all in. In other words, live it up.
Speaker 3: But remember that you will give an account.
Speaker 4: To God for everything you do. There's a little butt there.
Speaker 3: Go ahead and enjoy, lie, but remember one day you're
Speaker 3: going to give an account to God for everything you do.
Speaker 4: You know, they used to say.
Speaker 3: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Speaker 4: That's not true anymore.
Speaker 3: What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube. And the truth
Speaker 3: is all bad behavior is permanently chronicled on the Internet.
Speaker 3: Now you can't hide bad behavior. Now, it's not just
Speaker 3: that other people see your bad behavior.
Speaker 4: God sees it.
Speaker 3: And the Bible says, one day, you're going to give
Speaker 3: an account for how you used your time, your money,
Speaker 3: your relationships, everything that you've got. The Bible says in
Speaker 3: Romans fourteen twelve, Yes, each of us will have to
Speaker 3: give a personal account to God. Now that's part of
Speaker 3: what this story is about, because in verse two, the
Speaker 3: owner comes to the manager and says this, I want
Speaker 3: you to give an account of what you've done with
Speaker 3: my money. God's going to say that to you. One day,
Speaker 3: I want you to give an account of what you've
Speaker 3: done with my money. Do Your time as my manager
Speaker 3: is ending, and one day your time as a manager
Speaker 3: on this planet is going to end, and you're going
Speaker 3: to stand before God and he's going to say, what
Speaker 3: did you do with what I gave you. Now, this
Speaker 3: guy knows he's losing his job. He knows, you know,
Speaker 3: the jigs up, I'm I'm going to be out on
Speaker 3: the streets. So he hatches a pretty creative plan, a
Speaker 3: clever scheme, and it's dishonest, but at least he's got
Speaker 3: a plan. And he brings in the masters, his masters,
Speaker 3: his bosses, debtors, if people owe them money, and he
Speaker 3: says the first guy, how much do you owe? And
Speaker 3: he tells him eight hundred, you know, barrels. And he goes, okay,
Speaker 3: fifty percent discount. Okay, you now only own four hundred.
Speaker 3: Let's don't tell a boss, but I'm just gonna cut
Speaker 3: you some slack, right, four hundred dollars, So we just
Speaker 3: pretend like you only owe four hundred barrels, not eight hundred.
Speaker 3: And the second guy, he says, how much you always
Speaker 3: says one thousand bushels a week. He says, okay, twenty
Speaker 3: percent discount for you. Let's make it eight hundred. Now,
Speaker 3: what he's doing, it's totally unscrupulous because the boss hadn't told.
Speaker 4: Me to do this.
Speaker 3: But what he's doing is he's making friends for a
Speaker 3: long term relationship. He's saying, you know, I'm going to
Speaker 3: lose my job, and if I have these friends around
Speaker 3: me who owe me one, then they're going to probably
Speaker 3: think kindly on me when I'm out of work. Maybe
Speaker 3: they'll give me a job, maybe they'll take me into
Speaker 3: their home, maybe they'll loan me a little money. And
Speaker 3: at least I'm building these relationships as a safety net
Speaker 3: for when I'm out on my own. Now again, Jesus
Speaker 3: is not commending this guy's dishonesty because what he did
Speaker 3: was clearly wrong. But he did do three things right.
Speaker 3: And these are the three things that you need to
Speaker 3: do with your money when knowing that one day God's
Speaker 3: going to hold you accountable for what you did with
Speaker 3: what you were given. To manage my money, the third
Speaker 3: thing you need to write down is to manage my
Speaker 3: money wisely, I must do these three things. Number one,
Speaker 3: I'm look ahead. I must look ahead. And in verse three,
Speaker 3: the first thing this money manager does is he goes, Okay,
Speaker 3: what am I going to do now? Now he's asking
Speaker 3: this question before he gets fired. He hasn't gone to
Speaker 3: the meeting yet, he hasn't received the pink slip. He's
Speaker 3: already three thinking ahead. My master's asked me to come
Speaker 3: in and give an account. He's not going to like
Speaker 3: what he hears, so he's gonna likely fire me before
Speaker 3: he's even fired. He is thinking ahead. That's a good thing.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this on the screen Proverbs fourteen.
Speaker 4: Read it with me. Verse eight.
Speaker 3: The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool
Speaker 3: himself and won't face the facts. He said, it's wise
Speaker 3: to look ahead.
Speaker 4: In your finances.
Speaker 3: It's foolish to just ignore it and to try to
Speaker 3: just live for today, and you get into all kinds
Speaker 3: of problems.
Speaker 4: See.
Speaker 3: The number one reason people are in debt is short
Speaker 3: term thinking. They're not thinking about next year, they're not
Speaker 3: thinking about five years. They're not even thinking about in
Speaker 3: five months. They're living for today. The number one cause
Speaker 3: of debt is the inability to delay gratification. I gotta
Speaker 3: have it, and I gotta have it now, and I
Speaker 3: want it now even though I can't afford it, so
Speaker 3: I will charge it. I will buy a house I
Speaker 3: can't afford. I will buy a TV I can't afford.
Speaker 3: I will buy a vacation I can't afford. I want
Speaker 3: it because I want it now. It's short term thinking.
Speaker 3: It's the opposite of planning head. And the Bible says
Speaker 3: plan and not planning ahead is foolish because when you
Speaker 3: don't plan ahead, you spend money you don't have. And
Speaker 3: one of the principles of life is real simple. You
Speaker 3: don't spend what you don't have. Now, this guy, he
Speaker 3: knows he's losing his job, and he looks ahead. He says,
Speaker 3: what am I going to do? I haven't got fired yet,
Speaker 3: but I better think ahead. You need to think ahead,
Speaker 3: and thinking ahead means you don't spend what you don't have. Now,
Speaker 3: look at that verse again.
Speaker 4: On your outline.
Speaker 3: Proverb is fourteen eight. The wise man looks ahead. The
Speaker 3: fool attempts to fool himself and won't what face facts?
Speaker 3: Circle that on your outline won't face facts?
Speaker 4: Now, what does that mean? What does it mean?
Speaker 3: I won't face facts? Some of you are not facing
Speaker 3: the facts about your financial situation. What is that you're
Speaker 3: pretending is not a problem, and you keep ignoring it,
Speaker 3: and you keep saying, well, it'll get better, but it's not.
Speaker 3: Some of you bought a house you cannot afford. You
Speaker 3: need to face the fact and you need to sell
Speaker 3: the house and buy a smaller one because you're never
Speaker 3: gonna get out of debt until you do that. You
Speaker 3: over bought a house that you cannot afford. Some of
Speaker 3: you are driving a car. You need to turn in
Speaker 3: and get a cheaper car, facing the facts, and you
Speaker 3: need to stop pretending it's not a problem. You need
Speaker 3: to turn the car in and get a cheaper car.
Speaker 3: You know, I haven't had a car payment in ten years.
Speaker 3: Why because I drive a ten year old Ford and
Speaker 3: I paid cash for it ten years ago. Now it
Speaker 3: still gets me to the same places just as fast
Speaker 3: as if I had a Rolls or Bentley. Now, if
Speaker 3: my ego depends that my car is not simply a
Speaker 3: means of transportation, but it's for ego status, well then
Speaker 3: I need an expensive car. But since my car is
Speaker 3: not for ego, my car is for travel. A ten
Speaker 3: year old Forward does fine. Just thank you very much.
Speaker 3: And I don't need to have ten years of car
Speaker 3: payments when you've liked to have gone ten years without
Speaker 3: car payments. Well, it's your choice. I'm this watch. I
Speaker 3: bought this watch at Walmart. It keeps just as good
Speaker 3: times as a Rolex, doesn't make it go faster or slower.
Speaker 3: In fact, I like my watch better than Rolex because
Speaker 3: if I lost it, I just go buy.
Speaker 4: Another one at Walmart.
Speaker 3: And so when I have my ten year old Ford
Speaker 3: and I pull into Albertson's and somebody dings the dings
Speaker 3: the card my card, I go, who cares it's ten
Speaker 3: years old? Okay, I'm not worried about it. You know,
Speaker 3: my stress level is dramatically down, and so you can
Speaker 3: you know, you can save enormous money by not wearing socks.
Speaker 3: You may have noticed this lately. I'm saving money by
Speaker 3: not getting a haircut. And so if you don't have
Speaker 3: to have clothes with a label that says purpose driven, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and you can just buy the same shirt
Speaker 3: and it doesn't say needless markup on it, then you
Speaker 3: save a whole lot of money. But you have to
Speaker 3: look ahead.
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