So, since I was a young boy, I was always fascinated by magic, and so today I'm gonna
do some close-up magic for you.
Nobody wants to see that, it's a joke, it's not happening.
Like preach the Bible, that's why we're here, so I will.
But I will tell you this, it's fascinating.
Yeah, exactly.
This is what I do.
Teach to the Bible each and every week.
Man, I'm glad to see you.
Are you glad to be in church if you are, say amen.
Now why do I call the sermon series, brand new sermon series, so if you're new for the
first time, we're really glad you're here.
Today I begin a three-week sermon series entitled You've Been Tricked, and there are many aspects
of the world in which we believe things to be true that are just not so.
We've been tricked by the world around us, tricked by the enemy, we call them the devil,
and we want to unveil and reveal some of those tricks.
It reminds me a couple years ago on my birthday, my wife wanted to surprise me, and so she
told me, hey, on your birthday, schedule the night away, I'm going to take you on a special
night, a date night, I said, great, what are we going to do?
She said, well, I'm not going to tell you.
It's a surprise.
And I said, oh, okay, fantastic.
Now you might not like surprises, I do.
I like surprises because it means people are showing me attention, and I am the type of
person who likes attention, as you can tell.
And so my wife said, okay, we're going to go to a certain restaurant, and then we're
going to go see a show.
I said, where are we going? she said, I'm not going to tell you, and which makes me
a little nervous because my wife and I have combined our finances as husbands and wife
often do.
And so when she said she was taking me to a place, I was taking myself, amen.
I've used that joke with her in the past, and now she says it to me every single time.
She says, where am I taking myself for dinner?
And so it's fair both ways.
So she said to me, let's go.
And so we jumped in the car and we headed down to dinner, beautiful dinner, wonderful
dinner downtown.
And then she took me to a show that I'd never been to, but I'd always wanted to go.
We went and saw Penn and Teller.
Anybody seen Penn and Teller?
Anybody seen them before?
All right.
A couple of you have.
It was really exciting for me.
I always wanted to see it because I've always enjoyed magic.
And the cool thing about their show is their show not only does the magic trick, it then
tells you how the magic trick is done.
So they actually show you behind the scenes, which I think is absolutely fascinating.
They show you the trick and then they show you how you've been tricked.
That is what this three week sermon series is.
I'm going to show you the trick that the world tries to portray on unsuspecting humans.
And then I'm going to show you how the trick is done and that you can avoid these common
mistakes and pitfalls of Christians.
Now most of the world is going to be tricked by the statements we're going to make.
Most of the world is not going to believe what I'm going to share with you because they've
been tricked.
But today begins a three week sermon series entitled You've Been Tricked and we're going
to see the truth about all three of these.
And the first trick that I want to reveal to you is there has been a lie perpetrated
on humanity.
And that lie is that once you die, that's the end.
That you live a life, you've only been given one life, and then after this life, it's over.
We even have a catchphrase that helps us understand this idea of only living once and it's called
YOLO.
You only live once.
But this is a lie.
It's a trick.
And we're going to see from God's perspective today, from the Bible's perspective, from
Jesus's perspective, that you certainly have a life right now, but that death is not the
end.
That's sermon number one.
Death is not the end.
Say it with me.
Death is not the end.
Say it again, say it again.
Death is not the end.
Now if death is not the end and that you in your life will continue after death, there
is what we call an after life.
How should I live now based upon the idea that death is not the end?
How am I supposed to live today knowing that life will continue after death?
That's the premise of today's sermon.
And it's the premise of Jesus' teaching in Luke chapter 16.
So turn with me to Luke chapter 16 if you brought a Bible.
If not, most of the Scripture will be on the screen today.
Luke chapter number 16, verses one and two, where we see the first answer to the question,
how should I live my life if death is not the end?
And the answer to that question is number one, you should audit your life.
Number one, audit your life.
How many of you, when you see that word audit, it makes you nervous a little bit.
And not because you mean to cheat on your taxes, because you don't understand what you're
doing.
You just put random stuff down, you're like, sure, yeah, that's, I don't know, if they
catch me, I'll explain, I don't know what I'm talking about.
Audit, not just your finances.
I want you to audit your life.
Say it with me, audit your life.
How do I audit my life, Pastor Josh?
Ask this question, what am I spending my life on?
What are you doing with your life?
So Jesus tells a story to his disciples that help illustrate this.
It begins in verse one.
Look at what it says.
It says, and he also said to his disciples, Jesus is talking to his disciples here, and
I'm going to read the passage and then go back and explain it.
Jesus said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation
was brought against his steward that this man was wasting his goods.
So he called to him as steward and said to him, what is this that I hear about you?
Give an account for you are my steward.
Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be my steward.
Then the steward said to himself, what shall I do?
For I, my master, is taking away the stewardship from me.
I cannot dig.
I am ashamed to beg.
I have resolved what to do.
That when I am put out of my stewardship that they may receive me into their houses.
So he called every one of his masters debtors to himself and said to the first, how much
does my you owe my master?
And he said, I owe your master a hundred measures of oil.
So he said to him, take your bill, sit down right quickly, fifty.
Then he said to another, how much do you owe my master?
And he said, I owe your master one hundred measures of wheat.
And he said to him, sit down quickly and write your bill, eighty.
So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.
This is an interesting story that Jesus tells to his disciples.
I have a question for you.
Who does Jesus tell this story to?
If you know, say it out loud.
Who does he tell the story to?
To his disciples.
It's right there.
Look at the very first verse.
Let's go on the screen back to the first verse.
And look what it says.
He said also to his disciples this story.
Now this is really important to understanding why the story is structured the way it is.
Sometimes a preacher like me will preach a sermon to followers of Jesus.
And sometimes a preacher like me will preach a sermon to people who are not yet followers
of Jesus, who are still thinking about becoming believers.
Jesus does the same thing.
This part of the sermon is for the believer.
And you're going to see next week's sermon is to the person who's not yet a believer.
So this sermon is for the disciple.
I'm going to say who is this sermon for?
You say the disciple.
Who is this sermon for?
The disciple.
It's dedicated to the disciple so that the disciple of Jesus can think about the afterlife.
How many disciples of Jesus are here today if you are?
Say amen.
Okay.
There was a certain rich man.
This is story is for you.
It was a certain rich man who had a steward.
It was a wealthy man who owned a business.
And in this business, he had a manager of the business.
And an accusation was brought against this man that he wasted his goods.
The rich man found out that the manager of his business was not a good manager.
Have you ever worked with anybody that was incompetent?
I think we're safe.
How many of you have ever worked with somebody who's incompetent before?
Raise your hand.
I've never worked with somebody who's incompetent before.
All right, put your hands down.
And you say, I've never done that.
It's you.
Okay.
So it's okay.
You're accepted here.
We love you.
But you know, you're the one.
And so this guy, rich man, has a manager.
He's incompetent and he's wasting his time.
He's wasting his talents and he's wasting his treasure.
He's wasting it all.
Now the manager, does he own the business?
Yes or no?
No.
The manager just runs the business for the owner.
Verse two.
So the owner brings the manager in and says, what is this that I hear about you?
Give an account.
That means write out the fact that I want to see the business plan.
Show me the books.
What have you been doing with my money?
What have you been doing with my time?
What have you been doing with all of the staff and the talents that you've been given?
What are you doing?
Give an account of your stewardship.
Why?
Because you are no longer to be steward.
He got fired.
Have you ever been in the room when somebody got fired?
You say, yeah, pastor, I was the one who had to do the firing.
That's awkward.
You say, well, no, pastor, I was the one who got fired.
That's even more awkward.
By the way, we all have it passed.
We've all been in these moments.
It's an awkward moment.
So the guy calls him in and says, you're my manager.
You're not doing a good job.
You're no longer going to be steward.
You're no longer going to be the manager.
This beginning of the story is to tell us this.
Jesus is telling us, I want you to know the way God the Father sees you.
He sees you as a steward, as a servant, as a manager.
You're not the owner of your life.
You're not the owner of your time.
You're not the owner of your talents.
You're not the owner of your treasure.
All of what you have belongs to God.
You simply manage it for him.
You say, no, it's my life.
You're fooling yourself.
It's not your life.
It's God's life that he's temporarily giving you now.
And he can take your life anytime he wants whenever you're done.
Does that make sense?
So this is Jesus, the Son of God, letting you know.
It's really cool, a behind-the-scenes look, behind-the-curtain look about how God sees
us.
Do you remember in chapter 15, if you were here last week, how many of you heard Pastor
Caleb Sermon about the prodigal son?
How many of you remember, oh, we have lights.
Look at the lights just turned on.
How about that?
Oh, we have people here.
I can see you now.
Very good.
All right.
Last week's sermon, how many of you heard Pastor Caleb Sermon about the prodigal son
last week?
Raise your hand.
And in chapter 15 of the book of Luke, it shows us the way God sees humanity, and we
are his sons.
In chapter 16, Jesus tells us even more about how God sees humanity.
In chapter 15, God sees you as his sons.
In chapter 16, God sees you as his servants.
You are not only his children.
You are also his managers, his stewards of your time, talents, and treasures.
And this is what's being expressed here.
So what does it mean to be a manager?
I thought about how I would talk about this today, so we're going to do something a little
different.
How many of you are sports fans?
Any big sports fans here?
Raise your hand.
How many of you are sports fans?
Raise your hand if you're a sports fan.
Okay, very good.
All right, very good.
All right.
Let's go over to Josh.
That's a great name.
Stand up, Josh.
Would you stand up?
Give Josh a round of applause.
Come stand over here.
Josh, that was your daughter who was baptized earlier, correct?
It is.
You can hold it.
Let's turn on this mic.
All right, very good.
Joshua, how are you doing today?
Good.
How are you?
You're not nervous to be up here, right?
Not at all.
Okay, fantastic.
We're friends.
All right.
Now, let's get started.
Joshua, here's a question.
Have we talked about this before at all?
We have not.
Okay, all right.
I'm not going to do magic.
Don't worry.
All right.
Okay.
Who is your favorite sports team?
Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Are they allowed to boo me?
Pick again.
Yeah.
I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding.
That's fine.
Any other Tampa...
Folks, let's try to be serious at this church.
Any other Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans here?
Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah, actually, that's it.
All right.
Very good.
Who owns the Tampa Bay...
Do you know who the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is?
Same people who own the Manchester United.
Okay.
So the answer is no.
He has no idea who...
Manchester United.
You know these are Americans.
We have no idea what you're talking about.
Very good.
All right.
Soccer, I think.
All right.
Now, okay.
Let's suppose you got an email from the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Josh, and it says,
hey, Josh, we heard you're the biggest fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In fact, there are only one left.
Okay.
So, you know, and then the email says to you, we want you to be the new manager of the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Wow.
Give him a round of applause.
That's kind of cool.
Wow.
Josh, what do you do now?
What do you do now?
For work.
What do you do now?
I work for a bank.
He works for a bank.
Now, you're going to have to leave banking and run the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Are you willing to do it?
Yes.
For the illustration.
Say yes.
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
Very good.
He's like, I do not want that mess.
No, I do not want to clean that up.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Imagine, I want you to really feel this.
Okay.
Imagine genuinely and truly and real that you are now, I mean, you go this week and now
next week, you're preparing for football season.
You are now the manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
What are you feeling?
What are the things that you feel?
Go.
Nervous.
Okay.
You're nervous.
Yeah.
What else?
Excited.
What else?
How many of you started?
Yeah.
Wow.
Nervous, excited and anxious.
Give them a round of applause.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's Josh.
Nervous, excited and anxious.
Why is he nervous?
Well, he's nervous because he has a fan base to please.
He's nervous because he has to live up to the incredible history of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He's nervous about this.
He also is excited because he loves this team and to live for something beyond himself.
This is a really cool opportunity and he's anxious.
He's anxious because he wants to get started.
He wants to get to work.
So this is what Jesus is telling you about your life.
The life you've been given, it's not your life.
It's God's life in you, through you.
And when you finally realize that, there is a sense of nervousness.
Why?
Because it's not just your life to waste.
It's not just about you.
It's not just your time, your talents, your treasures.
You represent something bigger than yourself.
It's not just nervousness.
You feel anticipation and excitement about getting started.
You're excited that you represent God.
You're excited that you represent His kingdom.
You have this anxiety about, let's get started, let's do something.
That is the essence of what you're supposed to feel when you study this passage.
That you and I are not owners of our lives.
We are simply stewards of the life that God has given us.
Number one, what you must do, what we must do is audit our lives.
Ask the question, how am I spending my life?
What am I spending my life on?
Number two, number two, how should I live if death is not the end?
Number one, you must audit your life.
Number two, you must seize the opportunity.
I'm going to say number two, you say seize the opportunity.
Number two.
The question you're supposed to wrestle with is this.
Do you see the urgency of time running out?
Death is not the end.
You have to audit your life.
You have to say, what am I spending my life on?
And do you see the urgency of seizing the opportunity to live, not for the moment, but for the
life to come?
Look what he says in verse three, the story goes on.
Remember, the guy got fired and Jesus says, so what happens to this guy who's going to
get fired?
Well, then the steward said within himself, what shall I do?
For my master is taking the stewardship away from me.
Apparently he got a two-week notice.
Apparently the guy didn't get fired immediately and was told packing.
He's still steward.
He's still manager for a little, hey, I'm going to take your life or I'm going to take
your job away from you soon.
You still have a little bit of time.
And then he said to himself, well, what am I going to do whenever I no longer have this
job?
I cannot dig.
I guess this guy was an accountant for too long.
You know what I mean?
And he says to beg, I am ashamed.
So what am I going to do?
With this two-week notice, he realized time was short and he had to come up with a plan.
Now this is one of the most weird Bible stories that Jesus ever tells.
What was this guy's plan?
I have resolved this is what I will do.
When I am fired and put out of my stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
I've got a plan.
If he's going to fire me, I've only got a limited amount of time, I'm going to go to
all of the people who are debtors to my owner.
I'm going to go to all the people who owe my master money and I'm going to make friends
with them.
And that way when I get fired, they'll like me and I'll be able to spend time with them.
I won't starve.
So I'm going to go make friends with them.
He said, how does he make friends with the owner's debtors?
Oh, in a really weird way, a bit dishonest.
Verse 5.
So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, how much does
my master owe you?
He said, 100 measures of oil.
He said, okay, sit down, take out your bill and quickly write 50.
You owe him 100?
Say it's 50.
I'll change my books.
You change your books.
We're good.
Now, what do you think the debtor felt toward this guy?
Thank you.
You're my new friend.
Now, before you judge this guy too harshly, say that's immoral.
How many of you have ever received a big discount from a friend at a store?
How many of you are like, we're family friends discount, you know what I mean?
And you're like, you met their cousin once, right?
It was last Tuesday night, I had finished my Bible study here.
I teach through church history here on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
And it was late.
I was tired and I stopped for some food.
I hadn't eaten dinner.
I stopped at the El Pollo local with my daughter Scarlett and we pulled up and I ordered a
double chicken tostada salad and a diet coke for just for fun.
Who am I kidding, right?
And we pulled up to the front.
And apparently, like they were ready to shut down.
And I know if you've ever worked in food service like I have, sometimes things are shutting
down and you want to go home and sometimes customers are being weird.
And my credit card wasn't working and my app wasn't working.
And I guess I irritated them a little too long because they looked and said, it's free.
It's on the house.
It's free.
And they just gave it to me.
And I was like, thank you.
You know, I got out of there as quick as possible.
My daughter, she's 14.
She looked at me and said, you should be a mean every time you go to the drive-thru.
I was a mean.
I was just, I was law.
I was, I was an old man confused.
It was late and I was hungry.
All right.
That discount was fantastic.
Did they have the authority to do?
I guess.
I don't know.
I didn't ask.
I wasn't like, let me speak with your owner.
I was like, call Mr. Polio, please.
I want to talk to him.
Give me the food.
Let's go.
I'm out of here.
That's what's happening.
This guy is giving discounts on all, in fact, he goes on.
Look what he, this was his plan.
Verse number seven.
So he said to the other, how much do you owe my master?
And he said 100 measures of wheat.
And he said to him, take your bill down and write 80.
His plan.
His plan was to seize the opportunity while he still had it.
If he was only going to be a manager for two more weeks, he better take advantage of the
two weeks.
How much longer do you have life?
For some of us, it could be two weeks, two months, two years, 20 years.
Jesus is saying, life is short.
Are you taking advantage of the opportunity now?
Say really?
Look at verse eight.
So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly.
Isn't that a weird thing to say?
Jesus doesn't yell at this guy.
The master doesn't yell at this guy for dealing smartly, shrewdly.
The master in fact actually commends him, but he doesn't call him just.
He says, no, the guy was unjust, but he was smart in what he did.
Now, you say, well, was Jesus commending his dishonesty?
No, no, no.
Jesus was not commending his dishonesty.
He was commending his bold seizing of the opportunity that he had in front of him.
What Jesus is telling us is that life is short.
You better seize the opportunity to not live for this life, but to live for the life to
come.
What would you do if you only had two weeks left at work?
Some of you are like, I see some smiles creeping across your face.
What would you say?
Who would you say it to?
How would you deal with that?
What would you do if you only had two weeks left to live?
Two months, two years.
This is the emotional place Jesus wants you to get, the logical place Jesus wants you
to get.
To say life is not about this life.
It's short.
The poet of the Bible said, life is but a vapor, it appears for a moment, and then vanishes
away.
Now Jesus says a commentary on his story.
Look at verse 8.
So the master commended the unjust steward because he dealt shrewdly, for the sons of
this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.
Jesus said, don't you understand?
You are the sons of light.
He established this in the last chapter.
Because sometimes the sons of the world are smarter than the sons of light.
Sometimes the people of the world are smarter than Christians.
Can I get an amen?
Now notice, he doesn't say they're smarter all the time.
They're smarter in their generation.
In their brief lifespan, they're smart.
Why?
Because the people of the world, they never cease to seize the opportunity for temporary
money and temporary power.
They're really good at it.
Watch the world.
They're really good at taking advantage of the moment, seizing the opportunity to get
as much money and power and influence as they can right now.
Jesus is saying, take that same spirit inside of you and say, what can I do now to prepare
for the real life to come?
The smartest person in the world that seizes opportunity throughout their life so they
can live in pleasure through their 80s.
They'll have to live through their 80s.
And then it's over.
The wisest men and women, they seize opportunity now investing in the life to come.
That's what the scripture is teaching us here.
You only have a short time left in this life and death is not the end.
Now let me ask you a question before I move on to the third thought of the sermon that
we're done.
Is this sermon or this story meant for disciples or unbelievers?
Who is it meant for?
Disciples.
Next week's sermon is for the unbeliever.
We're going to see that.
But the rest of the sermon won't make sense if you're thinking this is trying to get people
into heaven.
It's not.
It's people who are already going to heaven.
Number one, what do I need to do if I understand that life is not the end?
How should I live my life?
Number one, you must audit your life.
Number two, you must seize the opportunities.
And then number three, you must invest your life in the next life.
I'm going to say number three, you say invest in the next life.
Number three, invest in the next life.
Say how do I do this?
You have to ask the question, do I make the next life part of the equation?
Some of you are very good at math.
And you've used math to actually benefit your life.
You've done the equations in your mind.
If I do this now, this is where it's going to be.
And if I do this now, this is what's going to happen.
And if I do this now, I'm going to be here later on.
You have used math to invest in the latter part of your life.
You're very smart to do so.
Because some of you that are incredible with math have left out of the equation a key component,
and that is the afterlife.
And that key component out of the equation is going to absolutely wreck you, because
you're going to do really, really well for a few decades and then have nothing.
And so it's really cool that the Son of God leaves heaven to tell us, here's how it really
works.
Does that make sense?
That's what's going on in this passage.
To illustrate the importance of the next life, Jesus uses money as the illustration.
Now the passage is not all about money, though a lot of preachers try to make it all about
money, it's not.
The passage is really about money as an illustration of this idea.
Use what you have now to invest in the life to come.
Does this make sense?
Look at what he says in verse nine.
When I say to you, make friends for yourself by unrighteous mammon.
Mammon means money.
I'm going to say mammon, you say money.
Mammon.
Make for yourselves friends by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive
you into their everlasting home.
Just like this steward had a temporary time to make as many friends as possible using
this wealth, so you have a temporary amount of time to literally yours your wealth, to
make friends in the next life.
Say how does that work practically?
It's very simple.
If in the next life there are people who have heard the gospel, repented of their sins and
received Jesus as savior, that arrived in a place of repentance and heaven because they
were born again, the question is how did they get there?
Well, by the grace of God and by their own faith, but they heard the gospel because you
sent a preacher to them.
This is written to the early church before the world knew the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus was saying, you need to spread my name around the world so that everybody has a
chance to be saved.
Take the money you have now, use the money you have now to make a future friend in heaven.
Here's another way to say it.
I know this is a completely different way to think.
Like you're elevating your mind to a whole other level here, an eternal perspective.
Imagine the money that you give to missionaries.
Let's say some missionary in Africa, like the Snooks.
You're like, I'm just going to give to this mission's program.
You'll never see that money this side of heaven.
But 10,000 years from now in heaven, you have a best friend and you begin to find out how
did you get saved?
Oh, I happened to live in the 21st century.
Me too.
Where did you live?
Oh, in Africa.
I did not.
I lived in America.
Well, how did you hear about Jesus?
Oh, there was this missionary.
You're like, hold on.
And now you're connecting dots.
Do you see what Jesus is saying here?
He doesn't think like us because he's not from this place.
He's from the eternal kingdom of heaven.
And he's trying to elevate our thinking to think in that way.
Use earthly money to make heavenly friends.
This is the concept.
Hey, hey, we as humans have been tricked.
We've been told that the most important thing you can do with your money is to make yourself
more comfortable.
Use your time, your talents, and your treasures.
Use everything at your resource to take care of yourself.
Jesus is saying, no, take your time, talents, and treasures to procure heavenly friendships.
Look, he goes on to explain verse 10 and 11.
He who is faithful in that which is least is also faithful in that which is much.
And he who is unjust in that which is least is also unjust in that which is much.
Jesus says, hey, if you are faithful as a disciple with something as small as money,
one day you'll be given opportunity to be faithful in bigger things than money.
Trust 11.
Therefore if you have not been faithful in unrighteous money, who will commit to your
trust true riches?
This I understand.
This is a broad Christian crowd.
And I understand that we're talking about next level Christianity in understanding what
most Christians don't understand.
But that's what we do when we teach through the Bible.
I teach through every verse and explain it to every person.
Be sane, use the temporary monetary money that you have now to prove yourself to God
and advance your future life in a way that you could never understand.
That's what he's saying.
This is why pastors like myself teach about giving.
When we say give to the work of God, it's not because the work of God needs your money
to function.
Now, I've had people after I preach this, they'll come and be like, pastor, you can't
say that.
You shouldn't say that.
People will stop giving.
Look, let's be very clear so I can offend these people permanently.
If every single person in this room never gave another dime to this church, the church
will be fine.
It will be fine.
The church will keep going.
You say, why, because we're not here because you want it to be here, we're here because
God wants it to be here.
And so if you don't give, God will bring somebody else to give.
Does that make sense?
But yeah, it's true.
It's also true that the church doesn't need me to preach.
I'm replaceable.
Oh, thank you.
Really, it felt sarcastic.
At any moment, God could say, Josh is done here and God puts another preacher here and
the church will continue.
Why?
Because I'm replaceable, you're replaceable, it's God's work.
You say, then why should I give?
Why should I be involved in giving?
Why does a pastor teach somebody to give?
The reason why God wants us to give to the work of God is because it elevates our mind
beyond the temporal.
And it focuses us on the eternal.
Now if you're not a disciple of Jesus yet, again, is this sermon for you, yes or no?
No.
If you come and you're like, I came to church for the first time and they tell me to give
all my money.
I'm talking to you.
I like you.
Just come to church and receive Jesus.
I'm talking to the disciple.
Understand?
And the disciple needs to understand the purpose of giving is to elevate their mindset beyond
the temporal.
That's why we teach the pathway of giving.
We say one step at a time.
Let's see that pathway of giving.
You become a first-time giver.
You just give.
You say how?
Just give, I don't know, pull out a 20, put it in the plate.
You're a giver.
Say that's it, that's it.
But on the pathway of giving, the next step is to become a regular giver.
That is, it's structured.
You give every week or you give every month.
You give $100 a month.
You give $10 a month or whatever it might be.
You become a regular giver.
It's not just whenever you feel like it, you tip God.
No, you put it in your budget.
The third step is what we call tithe.
A tithe is somebody who has segmented a portion of their money and give it back to God.
Now, it's an Old Testament law.
It's not a law in the New Testament.
It's not like, if you don't tithe, God doesn't like you.
Or if you do tithe, God likes you.
That's not the point.
It's an Old Testament law and New Testament Christians kind of use it for inspiration.
And we get to a place where we give a certain percentage back to God.
But that's not the end game.
The end game is for every Christian to become an extravagant giver.
It means every chance they get, they give away to the poor, to the needy, to the homeless,
to the church, to the work of God, to missionaries.
We use our resources as if they were not our resources.
We use our resources as if they were God's proving to God we can be trusted with that
which is His.
That is stewardship.
You say, proving to God?
Oh yeah, look at what Jesus says.
Look what He says in verse 12.
And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who will give you
what is your own?
Now, you deeper Christians, listen, your time, talents and treasures are not your own.
If you cannot be trusted with God's that He's given you, He's saying, how can I trust you
when you get to the eternal kingdom to give you what is really yours?
This passage is teaching that this life is a proving ground for the next life.
You have to prove you can be trusted.
As a Christian, if you prove yourself untrustworthy in this world, you'll be given little opportunity
in the world to come.
Really?
That's exactly what Jesus is saying.
You see, this life for a Christian is the practice lap.
Anybody, any race fans here?
NASCAR, Formula One, anybody a race fan?
Raise your hand if you are.
Okay, all right, very good.
Six of us, very good, all right.
So interestingly enough, whenever it comes to racing, did you know that there's a race
before the race?
Like there's the real race and then everybody lines up for the real race and if you ever
are new to racing, you might be like, well, why does that guy get to be up the front and
that guy has to be way in the back?
And the answer is pull position.
The answer is they had a race the day or the week before to determine which position you
get.
And if you do really well in the pre-race, then you get positioned in the real race.
And if you do really poorly in the pre-race, you get a bad position in the next race.
You say, well, the first race doesn't really count.
I guess it depends on how you look at it.
Say, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you saying that this whole world is a pre-race for the Christian?
That's exactly what I'm saying.
It's not like Jesus saved me, forgive me my sins, I get to go to heaven.
Yeah, you get to go to heaven, you're in the race.
The question is now, what is that next world going to be like for you?
And there'll be no complaining.
And the answer is, and you're going to see this at the end of the chapter very clearly
when Jesus tells about the rich man in Lazarus, life is fair.
How you race in this life will determine what your next life in eternity will be based upon
what God, you say, well, what are the details there?
Fascinatingly enough about heaven.
We don't get a lot of details.
I mean, we know there's streets of gold and angels and people walk it around in the city
and all this.
There's some, there are glimpses, but we don't get the full picture.
But we do know one thing is certain.
How you race in this life determines what that will be like for you there.
There are a lot of Jesus' parables that teach just this point.
Pastor, what are you trying to say?
I'm saying invest in the next life, invest in the next life, invest in the next life,
invest in the next life.
That's why Jesus ends in verse 13 by saying, no servant can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other or else he'll be loyal to the one and despise
the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
Jesus is saying as it relates to money, it's true for treasure, it's true for your talents,
it's true for your time.
If you look at your time and you're like, it's my time.
It's like, okay, it's my money, okay.
It's my talent.
I'll use my talent where I want to use my talent.
Fine.
You cannot serve God and focus on the next life while you're serving yourself and focusing
on this life.
See what he's saying?
See, you have to be really intentional and strategic about life.
Faith for the next life.
My sister, her name is Faith.
I have three sisters actually.
Charity, Faith, and Hope.
I grew up in a religious home, can you tell?
It's true.
Faith is my middle sister and she's the sweetest thing in the world.
I'll never forget when she graduated from college and she got her first job.
Do you remember graduating from college, getting your first job?
And like you felt free, right?
For the very first time, you have your own money, your own life, you're ready to go.
And she was going to go buy her first car for herself.
Up until this point, she had been driving the family car, a 1991 Dodge Caravan with
234,000 miles on it.
Yeah, that's a car, baby.
That's a car.
And so finally had opportunity to go on a bike in her very first car.
She was really excited about it.
She talked about it for like months.
You know, I know what car I want to get.
I know what car I want to get.
I called her just to make sure I remember what it was.
She wanted to get the Lexus RS350.
And the reason she wanted to get the Lexus RS350 is because that was what her boss drove
and sometimes in college she got to drive her boss's car and she's like, this is my
car.
This is my car.
This is the car I'm going to get.
So she graduated from college, got her first job, had a little cash, cash, cashola.
Living with mom and dad.
You have a little cashola.
You know what I mean?
It's going to go by the RS300, Lexus RS300 something, something.
So I'll never forget, we had a big family gathering.
She had gone out car purchasing like a couple of days before.
We had a big family gathering and we're sitting around.
I'm like, hey, hey, did you get your car?
I don't know if it's me or somebody else answered.
She's like, oh yeah, yeah, I got a car.
I'm like, oh, the Lexus.
And she's like, well, not so much.
And we all laughed like you did.
Like, ah, you don't know how much it was.
She's like, and then she jumped in for herself.
She kind of, she said, no, I found out how much it was.
And actually I could afford it.
You know, when you're a younger sibling, you always try to prove yourself to the older
stuff.
I could pay for it if I wanted to, you know.
And we're like, so, but you didn't get it?
We're like, she's like, no.
Like what, what, what did you get?
She said, I got a Nissan Rogue, which is a great car, but it's just not the Lexus 350.
It's like half the price.
And so we all laughed.
We're like, oh, that's great.
That's awesome.
Let's go see it.
We walked outside and we're looking at the car.
And as we did, I remember I looked over to her.
She looked over to me.
I don't remember exactly the details, but I said, so why didn't you, like, why didn't
you, you could do it?
Like, why don't you just pull the trigger?
You've worked hard.
You deserve it.
She said, I know, I'm not saying I don't.
Why, why didn't you do it?
I'll never forget.
She looked at me and she said, you know, we have this big missionary offering coming
up at the church.
And she looked at me and she said, I realized, you know, I could do this, but that I won't
be able to do what I want to do for the missionaries.
So I'm like, I could just drive the Nissan for a couple years.
Use Nissan is fine.
Man.
She lived up to her name, Faith.
Why?
Because she had faith that she would rather see something.
It's not, it's not, you say that's such a sacrifice.
It's really not.
She has faith that the world to come is more important than the world right here.
Do you see what I'm saying?
And that's what I want for you.
I want for you 10,000 years from now to come give me a hug, pat me on the back of your
like pastor.
I am so thankful you told me what Jesus said about the real world.
That's what I'm looking for.
Does that make sense?
Why?
Because you've been tricked.
Death is not the end.
Let's pray.
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Have a great week.
Peace.