Bank Account Theology | Luke 16

Hey y'all, my name is Nicole Ranson and I'm honored to be a member here at Grace City. Luke 16, Jesus told his disciples there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Give me an account of your management because you cannot be managers any longer." The manager said to himself, "What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg." I know what I'll do to that. When I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, "How much do you owe my master?" 900 gallons of olive oil he replied. The manager told him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 450." Then he asked the second, "And how much do you owe?" A thousand bushels of wheat he replied. He told him, "Take your bill and make it 800." The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted trudely. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have been trustworthy and handling worldly riches, who will, excuse me, so if you have not been trustworthy and handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. The Pharisees who loved money heard all of this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God's sight." The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the Kingdom of God is being preached and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. There was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and looked to source. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his water, tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am an agony in this fire." But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are an agony." And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been set in place so that those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross over from there to us. He answered, "Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my family for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment." Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them." No, Father Abraham, he said, "But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." He said to him, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." This is the word of the Lord. You can have a seat. Thanks to Cole. All right. So we got a fun text this morning. I hope you are excited. Looking forward to continuing this week two of our series, Bank Account Theology, where we look at different scriptures about money and ask the question, "What does God really say about money?" And how is Christians do we respond to that? And I think there is one question I want to ask you. And then I'm just going to go ahead and share my points on the front end as well. The question is, "Are you using money or is money using you?" So are you using money? Is it an instrument that you use or is money the one who is actually using you? We're going to hear one parable about someone who uses money and then we're going to hear a second parable about someone who is used by money. And we're going to find out what that looks like. But before I jump in, would you pray with me? Father, I just confess to you that I am weak, that I am frail. I'm thankful that you know my condition. I'm thankful that you are a God who uses weakness for power, who uses the fool to shame the wise. And I pray that your spirit would move and I truly believe that there are people enslaved to money under the sound of my voice right now that you desire to set free. So would you use your word as the great surgeon that you are to dissect us, to show us areas of our life that are not conformed to what you would have for us? And would you do all that not to shame us, not to just make us feel bad, but to show us the grace that you have for us, to show us what is there when we're not captivated and captured by money so we can get to the real work that you want us to do. We pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. So first big idea, we use money by converting our temporary resources into friendships that secure eternal resources. So we use money by converting our temporary resources to friendships that secure eternal resources. And there is a power behind money, this is the second point, there's a power behind money that wants to use us to serve Satan's purposes in this world. You cannot serve that power in God. And then we are used by money, third point, when we trust in it for temporary comfort at the expense of eternity. We are used by money when it can give us whatever we need and we are no longer have to depend on God and others. So welcome to Grace City Church. So we're in the book of Luke. I was told I couldn't preach the whole book so I had to just do one chapter. So you're welcome for that. And Luke and Acts is one book, it's written to someone named Theophilus who is likely a wealthy Roman official. And what is ironic and sort of powerful about that in light of the book of Luke is Luke talks about economic injustice a lot more than the other gospels. He has a theme throughout the whole book of rise and fall of those who look like they're rising in this world who are up high and then the reality is that they're actually falling. And those who are down low in this world are actually the ones who will be exalted. So he has a lot to say about that and a lot to say about money. In chapter 15, right before this chapter, we get the story of the prodigal son. We get the story of someone who throws away their inheritance and their possession and wild living and drunkenness and partying and the father welcomes him home with extravhing in grace. And then Jesus then is going to preach on what it actually looks like when we're found to live that out. How do we respond to this extravagant grace? So this first parable will be to his disciples. The second one will be to the Pharisees. So I'm going to just jump in, read verses 1 through 9. This is the first parable. Jesus is talking to his disciples. He says, "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions." to recall him and asked him. What is this I hear about you? Given the account of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer, the manager said to himself, "What shall I do now?" My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So we called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, "How much do you owe my master?" 900 gallons of olive oil, he said. The manager told him, "Take your bills, sit down quickly and make it 450." Then he asked the second, "How much do you owe?" A thousand bushes of wheat he replied. He told him, "Take your bill and make it 800." The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that as when it is gone, you will be welcome into eternal dwellings. Alright, clear as mud. So yeah, let's break it down. Let's recap. So we got a rich man. So he's likely very rich because he has an estate. He's not even there. He has someone managing it for him. And he has people that owe him lots of money. The sum for both of these debtors is probably over like $600, $700,000. In modern money. So there's a lot of money. And then there's a manager. And if any of you struggle with laziness or identify with laziness, this is your guy. He's a little bit lazy, right? He's the manager, but he's kind of drop in the ball. And he's accused of wasting his possessions. Now this word wasting is actually the same word used in the prodigal son story of the prodigal son wasting his wealth and inheritance and wild living. So we're kind of connected back to that story. And you know it's bad because the rich man doesn't even verify if it's true. He gets this report, he's wasting his possessions, and he's like, yeah, that's probably right. That sounds like him. Alright, so he fires him immediately without any type of cause or verification of the rumor or the claim. And then we see the manager, he doesn't want a beg. He's not interested in manual labor. He's the likes management, middle management, right? But one thing about him is he is shrewd. So what is shrewdness? I mean, he's clever, he's thoughtful, he's intentional, and he does well under pressure as we will see. So what does he do? So he thinks to himself, okay, I'm getting fired, but I haven't been fired yet, 'cause he's probably having to travel to this state to kind of take back control of things, right? So what does he do? He comes up with a plan, he calls in some debtors, right? So debtor number one, 900 gallons of olive oil. That's a lot of olive oil. He says, make it 450%. 50% off, we're doing a fire sale on your debt, right? So it drops from like, say around $100,000 to $50,000. So second person, they owe more money, 1,000 bushels of wheat, make it 800, so 20% off. So around $450,000 to 360 for those who like math. And so the man squanders his possessions, he's a bad manager, and then he's gonna get fired, and then he doesn't really have anything else going for him. So he cuts all these deals, and then the manager comes back, and you know, so not only was he a poor manager, he also just lost him another 100 grand, and what do you think he's gonna say? He says, wow, great job. Like that was clever. Like I gotta give it to you, right? He's like, you got me. So it's not what we expect. We would expect him to be furious, like to be raging, but he's happy. And so we're gonna break down the parable of parable as a specific genre, a specific rhetorical stories that Jesus uses, but I think it's helpful to get some context into for our modern ears why this plan is actually pretty brilliant, and why he kinda got him, and he doesn't really have anything to say, but oh, you got me. So part of the brilliance of the plan is that, you know, he's going to the deaders, he still has some authority yet until the master comes back, right? So his deaders don't know that he's not really in charge anymore. So when he cuts the debts, like they take that as the rich man, cutting the debts himself, right? And then in an honor-shame culture, which is what we're at here in Luke, your word is incredibly valuable, right? That's your reputation, and reciprocation is really big. So if someone does you a favor, you are compelled to return the favor, right? Like if you think about debt, right? I heard the statistic that the average debt for the average person in America is $100,000, right? That's a lot of money. And if you have been in debt, and if this is you currently, you know it can take an emotional toll on you, right? You can feel tied to it. You can feel enslaved to it. And it's kind of in the back of your mind in a way. And imagine someone come into you in for no reason, cutting an enormous debt in half, and like what that does to you emotionally, how freeing that is, how grateful you are. There was no reason for him to do that. The deaders didn't do anything. They were just in the right place at the right time. And so then he comes back a week later and says, hey, can I stay at your place? Of course they're going to let him stay there, right? He just saved them 50 grand, 100 grand, right? So that's what the brilliance of what he is doing. And because of this too, the people whose debts have been cut are also going to probably look at the manager favorably. It's like they're going to associate it with him of like, hey, we love you. You cut our debts significantly, right? And for him to come back and say, nah, technicality, he wasn't really, I fired him, doesn't count. It's going to make him look really bad. And people are going to be very upset with him. His reputation is going to be ruined. So he can't really do that. So that is where the manager kind of got him, right? He's stuck. And all he can do is say, wow, that was shrewd. But what is the point Jesus is actually trying to make here? So parables again are genre. And they do three things. They give us a sneak peek. Everyone say sneak peek. They strip us. I won't make you say that. And then they sort us, right? So they give us the sneak peek of what the kingdom is like. They strip us. They expose us. And then they divide us into categories. So parables are not super fun if you're the one listening to them. And the Pharisees don't like this parable to give you a spoiler. But the sneak peek-- so what do we see? What do we see that the kingdom is like? The sneak peek is disclosing what the kingdom of like. It's showing what the reign of God is like in this world. What do we learn from that from this parable? Well, I think we can often-- and I think pop culture, stuff like that, when you see Christians represented, they're kind of like the nerds with the pocket protector who follow the rules, right? And we can think of Christians and the people of God really as like rule followers and all of that. And we think about business tycoons, start up founders, worldly people, like they're really strategic and thoughtful and cunning. And we can think it's supposed to be that way. And part of what Jesus is saying is, hey, you see how the world treats money? You see the business plans, the thoughtfulness, the strategy? That's actually more how Christians should treat money. We should be as strategic, if not even-- we should be more strategic than them, right? So he is saying that the people of God are thoughtful with their resources. They're intentional. They are shrewd. And that is how we are to act with our resources. And I think one parallel to this text is, to us, is the manager doesn't own anything, right? He's just managing on behalf of the rich man. And that's where we are as well as Christians. We don't own anything. And we don't define the terms of agreement God does. And so it's how does God want us to use this money? And he's showing us he wants us to be shrewd and strategic with it. So the second thing-- so how are we stripped? How are we exposed by this parable? So how is the script flipped here? So this parable is meant to bother you. It's actually one of the most controversial parables in all of scripture I learned after I agreed to teach it. So what's controversial is, if you just read it, it kind of sounds like Jesus is saying, hey, You should commit corporate fraud like this guy did, right? That's like-- like that is kind of how it reads, right? And to say, I don't think Jesus is saying that. I think he is, like that is what the manager is doing. It's wrong. Like he shouldn't have cut the debts. He did that all for selfish reasons. So Jesus isn't saying, hey, you should lie and cheat to get your own way. He's saying, hey, he thought about this plan. He was intentional. He was strategic with it. And that's the type of mindset that you need to have with money. And that's how the world predominantly views money. And it's almost exposing to God's people how unstrategic we are. And I think about a modern view, if you're like a personal finance nerd, you've probably heard of the fire movement. And when heard of the fire movement? OK. OK. So the fire movement, financial independence retire early. So it's a kind of Reddit, nerdy financial subculture. And it's a kind of cultish in a way. But the idea is that, hey, what generally happens when you start making money is you make a little bit of money. And then as you progress in your career, you make more and more. But what also happens is you start off your broke. You spend less money. But then you start to spend more and more. So if you can keep your spending as low as when you were her, like, baby, like basically nothing. So people say like 20, 30 grand a year. And then you start to get paid a lot more. And then you take all of that extra money and put it in these things called index funds that will grow interest. Then you only have to work for like 10 or 15 years. There's for some people less depending on how much you make. And you can retire because you're still living well below your means. And then you can live off the interest. So it's people that they're hustling. Like they're eating rice and beans for every meal because it's so cheap. And they're doing all these things to spend way less money. But they're securing this freedom from like, they don't have to worry about money. They don't have to worry about how much they'll make because they're content with living less. And I just don't know many Christians like that. And this is all non-Christian. They're doing all of this for their own self-actualization, for worldly things. And when we're Christians, how much more strategic should we be than them, right? And I think that is part of what Jesus is showing us here since it's an indictment of how just because we trust God with our money doesn't mean we're foolish with it. It doesn't mean we spend it just like the world does. And I think if I look at our culture, I don't think Christians really spend money that much different than the world does, right? There's Christian advertising. There's Christian clothing brands. There's Christian art. It's like there's a Christian version of everything, but we're still consuming tons of money on stuff like that. And there are people that are making lots of money based off of that. And so I think that is part of the indictment from Jesus. And then he sorts us. So the parables are meant to be offensive, to be provocative. It's meant to take people who already didn't like Jesus and now they don't like him even more and push them away. And the people that are interested, it's to pull them in and bring them closer. And one of the things that's helpful when we hear parables is sometimes Jesus will explain what the parables mean after. So in verse 9, Jesus says, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that when it is gone, you will be welcome into eternal dwellings." So what does that mean? Use worldly wealth. So money is to be used. So it's not to be stored up, to be hoarded. It's to be used, but it's an instrument to gain friends. So gain friends. So if you think about the story, like, again, the culture is a culture of reciprocation. So friendship is reciprocal, right? That's the difference between like a one-way relationship and a two-way relationship. So he slashes their debts and then they owe him. And so he'll stay with him. So he's saying, you should gain friends. And so some of you might be hearing that and say, OK, cool. Like, I'll get rid of my savings. And I'll just ball out with all of my friends. That sounds great. I don't think that's what he's saying. So the manager is about to lose his job. And so what he does is he converts money, which is what the text says he talks about money. So when it is gone, other translations say, so when it fails you. So convert something that is a doomed resource, something that is going to fail you into something that will last. So relationships, so that in the story, the person converts this money into favors that will last beyond his money. So he's securing his future home with that. And he's saying, hey, you Christian, you should use money to gain friends to secure an eternal home for yourself. So this idea of like a gift card, right? So this is a little floppy piece of plastic, right? And it expires tomorrow. And so instead of just continuing to be a meaningless piece of plastic, you can convert that into an actual good or service, right? So this steward is transferring something that doesn't-- that he doesn't own into something that will benefit him later. So what kind of friends that Jesus have in mind? And so again, I mentioned he talks about how money is going to fail you. Jesus uses the same word four chapters earlier in Luke 1233, where he says, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor." Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not fail, when no thief comes near and no moth destroys. So Jesus is saying, we are to make friends with our worldly wealth with the poor, really, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, the poor, the sick, the outcast, the overlook, the weak, and the meaty, the least of these is who Luke has in mind, because it is going to fail you, but we can convert this into an eternal dwelling that we will be secure with forever. So what does that mean again to use money? And I think that's the beautiful thing about this idea of friendship, right? Because oftentimes when we think about the poor, the needy, we think about donations. We think about food banks here or there. We think about kind of transactional ideas. But he doesn't say, hey, just transact with the poor. Give them things. He says, make friends with the poor. So that implies a relationship. That implies it's a two-way street where we're giving, but we're also receiving, right? And to do all that, not for your own selfish game, but to secure eternity for yourself. To secure something lasting. So again, my first point, we use money by converting our temporary resources to friendships that secure eternal resources. Money is not a tool that we use to hoard and find security. It's a tool that we use to convert to relationships that will secure eternity for us. And I'm curious, what do your relationships look like this morning? How different are the people that you're friends with than you? How many boundary lines do your relationship cross? And we know what those boundary lines are. Race, socioeconomic status, age, interest. How many true relationships will you have with the poor, with the least of these, with those who are not like you? Or are they centered more around sameness? And in mutual interest in gain. And I think, too, it helps us change the way we think about it, too, because when we have a transactional view of relationships, we think about every person as what can they offer me? Or what can this person do for me? And that makes the poor useless, right? Because they're not going to do anything for you with social connections or with money, right? But Jesus is saying, hey, think beyond that, there are eternal treasures at stake that you can secure. And I don't want to make this too complicated for you, because I think there's a simple aspect of the parable. A few months ago, my mother-in-law was on an airplane, and there was something with the cabin pressure going down. And you start getting texts, and they increasingly more panicked. Like, oh, this is about to happen. This is about to happen. And she's fine. Nothing happened. But she starts going down the, like, hey, the lock box is here in this room, and hey, my wheel is here, and go for this and that. And she's kind of like preparing things. And I think there's an aspect of this parable where when you see that your resources are starting to fail you, you start to think really quick about what's actually important. And I think we don't need to think too deeply about this. Like, you know the people that you interact with every day. You know that the relationship is a different thing. that God has put on your heart that are not really going to help you in this world, but that will help you in the next one. And I think that's the idea here. So verse 10, Jesus continues, "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little can also be dishonest with much." So if you've not been trustworthy and handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy when someone else is property, who will give you property or of your own? So Jesus is saying the nature of money is it reveals what you trust. That's just what it does. So if I were to take any Christian in this room, show me everything you spent, everything you spent, every interaction you've had with money. According to this text, I can know what you trust, right? So there should be receipts of how we spend our money and what that actually means about what we believe. It should mean that we care about it, not that we're flippant and it doesn't matter and this world is failing, so I'm just going to spend on whatever. We should be intentional, the text says. And then in verse 13, he says, "No one can serve two masters, either you will hate the one and love the other or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." So we pass the parable and this really is the hinge text. I think this is Jesus' main point that he's making and he's using these two parables to tie this point together and the idea is that you cannot serve both God and money. And I think a key thing here is the word money. He uses a unique word here that's found in this text and the text Pastor Plunk preached last week. The word is translated to "Mamen." So if you have the KJV or something that might have that word, you probably heard it before. It's an aromake term and it comes from the word "Amen," which means make it so or that it's trustworthy, right? And by putting an "M" to it, some "Mamen," "Mamen," it means the one in which you trust. So he says, "You cannot serve God and money or the one in which you trust." And what is notable about that is "Mamen," as a concept, is sort of like a proper noun. So he's like, instead of saying money like your possessions or what you own or currency, there's other words for that that we see in the scriptures. He uses this term "Mamen." And so I think what Jesus is doing is he is personifying money. So he's not just saying, "You can't serve God and money." He's saying a specific name for money. He's using personification or imagery. So that's what he's doing potentially. There are other scholars who think that "Mamen" is the name for a specific demon or a specific spiritual force which controls money. So he's either personifying money into this spiritual being or he's actually naming a spiritual being when he says "Mamen." And I think we see that in the sense that he says, "You cannot serve God and money." He doesn't talk about any other sin in that way necessarily. So he's saying that God and money both have the same claim. Like they want you to serve themselves. God wants you to serve him, but money also wants you to serve him. So it is impossible to serve both because they're both are wanting your allegiance. They're wanting you to be the sole lord of it. And I think this idea of "Mamen" is very helpful when we think about the state that our world is in. And I said this, this is the second point, that there is a power behind money that wants to use you to serve Satan's purposes in this world. You cannot serve that power and God. So I don't know if to you that feels like, is that really true? Is that kind of a hot take? I think if you read your Bible, you shouldn't be surprised by this. So Moses, when he's on the mountain talking to God, right? The Israelites are down at the bottom of the mountain. He's taken a while. When is he going to be back? What should we be doing? They get this idea to pool together all of their gold and melt it into a golden calf and worship it to figure out what they're going to do next. They pool together money and start to worship it. You think about the rich young ruler who he says, "Hey, I've kept all the commandments. What else do I need to do, Jesus?" And Jesus says, "Hey, just go ahead and sell all your possessions and follow me." And then he just walks away sad. Right? It's so surprising that he says he's done all the right things and Jesus agrees with you know, that's one notable thing. But then he says, "Yeah, but you're still worshiping this other God. You need to leave it and follow me." And he says, "No." Right? You think about Judas who betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, right? And I think that we have this tendency and I do think this is the predominant view of Grace City Church is that we see money as this tool that we use and then it's not necessarily bad. It depends on how you use it and who you trust in. And I agree with that. I think that is all true. But I think that is a little bit naive in misleading when we think about this idea of Maman because, "Well, we can have money and we're told to use money. There is a force outside of money that is more like a false God that wants us to worship it." And I think if we look at the scriptures, we see that the more money we have, the more dangerous it is, the more likely we're going to worship that false God. Because money in your bank account, it's an object, right? It's nothing but the power it provides, the security it provides, the comfort, and you can feel like, "Now, yeah, I trust God. I don't trust money." But when things start to go wrong for you, you get the call tomorrow that, "Hey, they're doing a layoff at your job. You don't have a job anymore." You get bad news about your health. Man, you're going to have to spend a lot of money on surgery or something like that. It changes what we realize we trust in. And it creeps in where we think we're using it. But then we find out it's actually using us. And what I think is interesting is we see this clearly in the Bible. But we see it also clearly in our culture. If you think about movies, you think about bad guys, right? In the movies, like kids movies, whatever, all of them are greed obsessed. They're all focused on money, right? There's this corruption, this power grab, this aspect. You think about the cartoons. And when their eyes turn into dollar science, like the culture is doing what Jesus said, he's personifying money as this demon that possesses people. And this is a culture that says we don't believe in demons or in afterlife, right? This is non-Christians who are personifying money that way, who don't even read the Bible like this. And I think it's because it's true, it's all around us. And just like I was talking about with social media, we'll go to our phone to do something. And then 30 minutes go by and we forgot what we meant to do in the first place, right? Have you had experience? You go to your phone to use it, but then you're phone is actually used you. And it can feel that way sometimes too. It's like, oh man, like, I don't feel good, right? And I think there is this power that we need to acknowledge. We need to acknowledge its prominence. And I think if you think about it, really like we think about most things in economic terms. Like there's a culture analogy of two fishes swimming in water, one fish has, you know, how's the water, other fish is like, what's water? I don't get it, right? Because they're swimming in it. They don't realize it because they're swimming in it. And I think money is more akin to a cage, where it's like we're all in this cage of money as a culture. And it's like, hey, how's the cage today? What cage? It's just normal. And if you don't believe me, just think about time. We think about everything in transactional terms. How much time is this going to cost me? I just need to manage my time better. These are financial economic terms that we want to take everything and put it into economic terms. And it's really the world we operate around. There's incentives, there's money that is powering everything. AI, the companies that have the AI products have raised the most money ever of any company, right? There's all of this investment, there's all of this spiritual power in the world that wants you to be subject to it. And as Christians, we need to realize that. And because there are times what we'll see in the next parable is that there's, it's going to be too late in the future. Like, there will be a period where money has used us and we don't have a chance to repent anymore. All right. Verse 14. see the Pharisees response. The Pharisees who love money heard all this and we're sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourself in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts what people value highly is the testable in God's sight." So the Pharisees, they just laugh at him, you know, that's silly, right? And I think like, if you have been under the sound of my voice so far, and it's like, "I'm sure you're like, 'Okay, I get it. I get it. Yeah, money's bad.' Or there are bad things behind money. And if you, this whole time, have been thinking, 'Oh, but I do this, but I do that.' But what about my saving? What am I giving? I have a great budget. This or that. You are operating like the Pharisees. They are justifying themselves. Jesus is trying to tell them, 'Hey, you are going the wrong way. You need to turn around.' And then the Pharisees are using their own actions to justify themselves. And I'm just saying that like, if you are feeling defensive, if you are feeling like, 'What is this guy talking about?' Like, you are the Pharisees. And again, I say that I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to like pick on you. I'm just saying that like whatever you are trying to defend, you need to pay attention to that. What are you trying to protect? What are you trying to preserve? Because it's going to be too late for the Pharisees. It's going to be too late for some of the rich men in this story, but it's not too late for you. Like, if you can put your guard down and look at yourself clearly, I think God might have something for you in this. So jumping into verse 16 through 18 says, 'The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John, since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is getting preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than the least stroke of the pen to drop out of the law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorce woman commits adultery.' So super simple, you know, very relevant on topic. Right, this seems kind of random. Like what is he talking about? To put this in context, you know, the Pharisees have this view of divorce where they were starting to sort of loosen the severity. Like, divorce isn't really that big of a deal. And so part of what Jesus is doing is he's reiterating the command on divorce, right? And I think it's important to note that the tendency of the Pharisees, right? So they are religious leaders, they are righteous, and they're trying to justify themselves. Jesus is making it clear to him like what the law says, but they are using the law, they're using the scriptures to justify their own sin, right? So that's the scary place to be that you are, you are sinning, you are loosening what God says, you're changing his words, and then you're going back to his, the his word the law to justify what you're doing, right? And I think that's why Jesus is so tough on the Pharisees, is because they really are destroying people. They're leading the straight, they're being used by money as we see it says there are lovers of money to accomplish Satan's purposes to kill, steal and destroy. All right, so Jesus has a story for the Pharisees because they didn't like the first one. It's about a rich man in Lazarus. So it says there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fined linen and lived in luxury every day. Even the dogs came and looked his sores. He looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am at agony in this fire." But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you receive your good things." Well, Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you are a great chasm that has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot nor can anyone cross over them, cross over there to us. He answered, "Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my family. For I five brothers let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment." Abraham said, "They have Moses in the prophets. Let them listen to them." No father Abraham, he said, "But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent." He said to them, "If they do not listen to Moses in the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone raises from the dead." All right, so we got another story. Another parable, there's a rich man. We know what we know about him. He's dressed in purple, fine linen, luxury. Every day it says, and he has a gate, right? And the gate is where you come and go, so somebody he passes the gate every day. And he sees a man named Lazarus. We don't know much about Lazarus other than he is a beggar and he is begging for food and apparently the rich man is not giving him any. We know that he has sores in that he's longing for relief, right? And then we have we have these dogs who lick his sores, which is really an indictment on the rich man. The dogs are caring for the poor, the beggar better than the rich man is because they are providing him in the relief while he is not. And then they both die. Lazarus is carried to Abraham's side in heaven. The rich man is in Hades or Hell and torment. But what's interesting is he can see Abraham and Lazarus. So he has a view into heaven. The rich man calls Abraham to have pity, send Lazarus to provide relief from the torment. And then he says, "Remember, Abraham kind of implies like, hey, you know this, like you chose comfort in your lifetime. Lazarus suffered and now he's being comforted here. You were comforted in the last life. And now they're separated. There's no way to cross." He says, "But now tell my brothers." He says, "Well, they have Moses in the prophets." He says, "No, they're not going to listen to them," which I love the honesty. He says, "Well, if someone rises from the dead, they will." And he says, "No, that's not how it's going to work." So before you get too confused about the details of this story, let's remember this is a parable. So Jesus isn't trying to tell us mechanically what happens when we die and who's going to be there and what it's going to be like. He's trying to make a point. And parables are meant to be provocative in how we do that. So the rich man is comfortable but ignores Lazarus in his lifetime and then Lazarus is suffering in front of the rich man. And the only relief he gets is from the dogs. And I think the key to understanding this parable is the name Lazarus. So Resurrection Sunday Pastor Pran preached about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. That's a different Lazarus. Lazarus was sort of a common name. But the meaning of the word Lazarus is God is my help, right? So that is the key. That is the difference between the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man, money is his help. Himself is his help. Lazarus, God is his help. And I want to say that specifically because we're not really told anything good about the beggar necessarily. And there's a false idea, false teaching called asceticism. Can you say asceticism? It's fun to say. So that means that suffering for suffering's sake is righteous, which that is not true. The Bible does not teach that. So he doesn't go to heaven because he's poor. He goes to heaven because God is his help and he trusts in God for his righteousness, right? And that is the difference between the two. But then there's a chasm between the two. And so let's go back to our handy parable guide. Remember sneak peak strip sort fun words. So what is the sneak peak? How does this parable show us what the kingdom is like? We see that the kingdom of God radically reverses positions. Mary sings about this in Luke chapter 1. She says, he has filled the hungry with good things in the rich. He has set away empty. The positions are reverse. See the Pharisees thought that wealth, it's kind of like how we think about the prosperity gospel that wealth was divine favor. They thought that they were wealthy because they were righteous, right? And what this parable is showing is those that look like things are going well for them are actually the most at risk. And those who things are not going well to them are actually probably closer than what we would think. And so what this means is that the kingdom of God does not look like the American dream, right? And that those who you look around that are making it right now, they got the friends, they got the platform, they got the house, they got the job. Those are actually the people according to this parable we should be more worried about. And the people that are discouraged, that are downcasts that are hurting. are actually the people who we should look at and say, "Hey, I actually need to be needy like they are needy." Right? Because the issue with the rich man is not just, we're kind of get this idea that he knows Lazarus. So like when he's in hell, he calls Lazarus by name. So it's interesting, he's passing him by, he kind of knows who he is, but he doesn't really do anything for him. It's almost like Lazarus is invisible to him. Because the rich man doesn't need anything from Lazarus. He has money, he has everything he needs. And I think the reality is, as one of my favorite cultural commentators, Biggie Small says, "Money more problems." The more money we have, the harder it is to avoid trusting it. So how does this strip us and expose the here? So the Pharisees would be rooting for the rich man. They say, "Oh, rich man, oh good, he's righteous." And they're excited when they hear that. And then, "Oh no, the rich man, oh he has his poor guy." And then like, "Oh no, he dies." It doesn't look good. He is inditing the Pharisees, the Pharisees are the rich man. And even, I think what's interesting is that even in hell, the rich man is still telling people what to do. Not only he's telling people, he's telling Abraham. Hey, Abraham, come on down here in hell and dip my finger in the water. I need some relief. And this is what we see clearly. It feels pathetic, but this is the result of money using us. When we are used by money, when we trust in it for temporary comfort at the expense of eternity, that is when money uses us. We are used by money, when it can give us whatever we need and we no longer have to depend on God and others. And then Jesus reiterates, "Hey, so then he kind of conceives." He's like, "Okay, we'll help my brothers out." And he says, "Well, they have Abraham in the prophets." And what Jesus is saying is that their desire for a sign is evidence of their unfaithfulness. They don't need more revelation. They need to obey what they have already been told. And how does this sort us? So the Pharisees didn't like the first parable. This one makes them look even worse. They are indicted for their wealth, their theology, their prosperity, their treatment of poor, and their reading of Scripture. And this parable is sorting you right now, right? Like when you read this story, you should be thinking what the reader wants you to think is, "Who are you more like?" Are you more like the rich man who has insulated themselves to where they don't even see the poor? Or are you more like the beggar at the gate? And I know we don't have any rich people here at Gray City Church. But the reality is, look at your life. Do you live in comfort? What are your relationships like with the poor? Right? And that is the tension Jesus wants us to sit in. So again, there is a power behind money that wants to use us to serve Satan's purposes in this world. We are used by money when we trust in it for temporary comfort at the expense of eternity. We are used by money when it can give us whatever we need and we no longer have to depend on God and others. We use money by converting our temporary resources into friendships to secure eternal resources. So how are you using money? And how is money using you? Because it's probably doing both things if you're anything like me. And if you think about us at Gray City Church, there is a gate that we have here. Like we see people all the time who are in the same condition as Lazarus. Do we see them? Like do we want to have a friendship with them? Do we want to know them? Do we want to have relationship with them? And I know this is the funnest sermon you've ever heard. But there's a grace in what Jesus is doing. He is trying to warn them. Hey, you are headed towards destruction. You need to stop. You need to slow down. And what we see in the story is that it is too late for the rich man. But if you are under the sound of my voice, my hope is that this text would be a warning to you this morning. That even if we had a Savior who rose from the dead, which we did, you can still be enslaved to money, and not even believe what he says, right? The rich man was begging to warn his brother. And this text is telling us, if you are trusting in money, it does not look good for you. You cannot serve masters, and there's a real place called Hell, which you are headed towards. Even if you are poor, you can still trust in getting wealthy one day. You can still trust in the future. You can still have your imagination captivated by man. And we need to move our trust from money to God, if we're to have hope. So we're about to take communion and be reminded of Jesus, who was rich and then became poor for our sake, who broke his body and shed his blood so that we could know what we're supposed to do with our resources. And so my hope for you is that you would have years to hear. So pray with me. Father, we thank you for this text, and we thank you that you love us enough to tell us the truth. And the truth is that we live in a world that is enslaved to money, that is all around us. And we can't be untouched by that as Christians, as much as we would like to admit it. So would you show us how to use money? And would you show us how we are being used by money? Amen. (gentle music)