Can God Trust me?

There are three statements we can make about stewardship. The first, “God is totally trustworthy,” we talked a bit about last week. We talked of how God is worthy of our complete confidence, that He is totally dependable. You can trust Him!
The third statement is that we are a trustee of everything God has given us. That’s fairly simple—we are not owner, but managers. The Biblical imagery is a steward, one who keeps, maintains, manages and grows the possessions of another. We are accountable for how we use what He has given. To some extent we’ll talk about that next week.
So we’ve got two statements: the first and the third. What’s missing? Right—the second statement, which is this: God has entrusted us with possessions, opportunities, talents, and time. These possessions—they’re not ours. They ultimately belong to God.
Now think about that for a minute; all the things that you have in your life: your bank account, your health, your talents, the hours in each day . . . those aren’t yours, but God’s. How you and I decide to use those things, whether we view them primarily as our own possessions to be used for our own gain, or whether we view them as God’s possessions to be used for His good purposes . . . that will tell whether or not God is able to view us as a trustworthy servant.
Can God trust you? Can God trust me? Trust is a fairly simple thing, really. It begins with extending trust to a person on blind faith, basically. Trust begins when we place trust in a person for whom we have no real, solid reason to do so. They haven’t proven themselves to us yet. And so we invest a little bit of trust into them. How they respond to that trust—whether they prove themselves trustworthy or not, whether they show themselves to be honest and straightforward, whether they show themselves to be diligent and hard-working—how they respond to that trust determines whether or not we trust them with more. And that is simply the way trust works: a little trust might be given, but a large trust is earned.
In Luke chapter sixteen Jesus tells us a strange, strange story, but He does it in order to illustrate to us the importance of being trustworthy with what we have been given by God. In the parable of the shrewd manager Jesus is giving us instruction on wrong attitudes about wealth.
Now, it’s not very earth-shattering that Jesus would be talking about money. But the use of money, as I’ve said before, is never the main point. It is a symptom, an indicator, a barometer of our spiritual lives. It is such an important physical tool of our spiritual reality that Jesus talks about money in 16 out of 38 of His parables. 1 out of every 10 verses in the Gospels speak about money. The Bible has less than 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but it has OVER 2000 verses on money and possessions. Does God consider how we use our money to be something of importance to Him? You bet He does.
But back to the parable: There are a few different characters in the parable, and it would be helpful for us to know how to relate to them. Verse one introduces us to the two main characters, the rich man and his manager. In the book of Luke I cannot find a single positive example of a rich man. No, I’m not saying it is a sin to be rich, not at all! But in the Gospel of the good doctor Luke the “rich man” is consistently used as a caricature, a bad example of what can happen when wealth and the desire for more consume a person. Apparently, Jesus wants us to consider this man in the same light.
The second character, the manager of the rich man, is the one who has the task of managing the business affairs of the rich man. And charges of some type have been brought to the rich man’s attention that the manager has in some way been wasting his goods. This could be either outright embezzlement or just simply poor management practices, but the end result is that the rich man’s wealth is failing to accumulate in the fashion that he would have liked.
Right away we see one of the principles of stewardship in action: the steward is accountable to the master. The rich man demands that the manager turn in all the records of his dealings and informs him that his services will no longer be needed. And the manager is terrified of what may happen to him if he is thrown out on the streets.
So he hatches a plan that he believes will get him into another job, or at least into the good graces of the rich man’s debtors. What he does is this: He calls in each debtor, one by one, and asks them just how much they owe his master. “How much do you owe?” he asks the first guy. “800 gallons of olive oil” comes the answer. And this crooked manager looks the debtor straight in the eye and says “make it four hundred.” He cuts the debt right in half. He is canceling half of a debt that isn’t even his in order to make some friends for himself, and do it fast.
Jesus only gives two examples, but I get the impression we are to imagine a long line of debtors, and each getting the same treatment. “Cut it in half! . . . Tell you what, knock of 20 percent!” The manager is all too ready to steal from his master to insure his own future, and the debtors are all too eager to cooperate so they can keep some more of their own money. The manager has made himself a long list of friends will that feel indebted to him. He will be well taken care of.
But right here is where the story gets strange. The rich man gets wind of this, but instead of having this old fox of a manager chucked into jail, he praises him! Personally, I thought this seemed a bit odd, until I read Jesus’ reason in for this strange behavior. Verse eight says “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” It might be better understood if we just simply said “One crook knows another.” Because that’s what the rich man is, too. What he probably has been doing is loaning out money and charging some pretty hefty interest on it, which was strictly against the Old Testament Mosaic law. But he got around it by demanding goods, and not money, in return. This was a fairly common practice in the time of Jesus. It was something akin to my loaning you twenty dollars, but in return demanding you fill up the gas tank on my van. Take a 15 passenger van with a 30 gallon tank at two-sixty, two-seventy a gallon, and you see I’ve got all my money back and more, but I never really charged you interest, did I?
And so here is what is going on: Jesus has just told a parable about two greedy and shifty individuals, both of whom are trying to insure their own futures through some dishonest gain. Everyone in the parable is a player, and everyone is in the game strictly for themselves. It sounds, frankly, a lot like you and me.
But in light of this parable Jesus lets go with a simple command that is exciting and liberating and if we let it, it offers to turn our whole view of money right around! If you’ll permit my own translation, Jesus says to His disciples in verse nine, “And I myself say to you, make for yourselves friends by means of worldly wealth, in order that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings.”
The Greek word for “dwellings” is more typically translated as “tent.” When this word is used to speak of worldly things, it emphasizes the temporary, the transitory nature of this existence—Paul speaking of “the tent of the body” is one example. But when the word is used to speak of eternal, heavenly things, as it is now, it is better translated as “tabernacle,” that special type of tent that is God’s own dwelling place, the place where He chooses to live among His people. In the Old Testament, it was the tabernacle tent and then later the Temple. In the New Testament, it speaks about the eternal dwelling place of God, it speaks of Heaven.
Now, there’s only one way to gain access to Heaven, and money isn’t it. Worldly wealth has not ever and cannot now buy your way into Heaven, no matter how much you give! But note that the focus in verse nine isn’t upon your getting into Heaven, but upon who is greeting you once you get there. Jesus says that the friends that are made using worldly wealth are the ones who are welcoming you upon your arrival, a grand welcoming party. Jesus says that worldly wealth is not just to be thrown around helter skelter in an effort to make a good life for yourself here and certainly NOT to try and buy your way into Heaven, but to be used in deliberate and compassionate endeavors to spread the Kingdom of God, giving people everywhere the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
No matter how much we act like it’s true, money is never the end. The best money can ever be is the means to reach an end. Because worldly wealth will fail, make no mistake. And the only thing that will reach into eternity is the echoes of how you used what God has given you. According to Jesus, the person who uses his or her worldly wealth to further God’s kingdom and make people into friends of God is the one who will be greeted at the gates of Heaven with a host of people whose lives have been touched in the name of Jesus Christ.
This is what we are entrusted with! Our Heavenly Father has given us these good gifts in order to further the family business—God has given us possessions, opportunities, talents, and time in order that we may use them in service of His Kingdom . . . He’s given us these things so that we can make the name of Jesus Christ known. He has given us an initial investment of trust. Trust can be measured . . . and further, deeper trust has to be earned.
In verses nine through eleven Jesus says this: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 "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. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”
Did you catch that? There was something really, really important in there. Let me repeat it: “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.” You know what this means? It means trust can be measured, and the measuring tool is what we are doing with that trust right now. Are you faithfully using what you have right now? Or are you waiting for some big opportunity to come along? If we cannot use the things we have right now—if our entrusted possessions that we have right now are not being used in God’s service . . . then how in the world do we ever think that we would use them later? John Maxwell tells a story about an old country preacher and a farmer, and the preacher asked the farmer, “If you had 100 head of cattle, would you give the Lord fifty?” And the farmer said, “Why, sure I would, preacher!” And the preacher asked the farmer, “If you had a flock of 20 sheep, would you give the Lord 10?” And the farmer said, “You know I would, preacher!” And the preacher asked the farmer, “If you had two hogs . . . would you give the Lord one?” And the farmer said, “That’s not fair, preacher . . . you know I have two hogs.”
You can’t serve both God and money. Who are you and I a slave to today, right now? Look inside yourself. How much does Jesus own, and how much is ruled by worldly wealth? Open your checkbook . . . look at your credit card statement. Do the friends of God have a prominent place there, or has the throne of Christ been crowded and cramped and crushed to the mere fringes of your financial picture? How long has it been since you have been a cheerful giver? A month? . . . A year?
When Jesus Christ became man, He left behind all the treasures of Heaven, taking on our extreme poverty so that we might know His glorious wealth. Does my giving reflect that? When Jesus Christ died in shame and pain on the cross, He gladly endured it so that we might know true life. Does my giving reflect that? And when Jesus Christ rose victorious from the grave, He ascended into Heaven and continually and eternally intercedes for us, so that we might one day have a place next to Him. Does my giving reflect that?
The answer in every single way has got to be a resounding “NO!” Because when He left the treasures of Heaven, when He died on the cross, when He rose again in power and victory, He did it all saying “I know you can never repay me, I know that there’s no way you can ever earn what I’m doing for you. But I’m doing it anyway. I’m giving you all I’ve got, the whole enchilada . . . because I love you, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
So, in an odd sort of way, I’m glad to say that my personal giving doesn’t reflect the awesome gifts God has given me, because I could never even begin to hope to measure up or repay what the Lord has done for me in my life, and neither can you. But the great and grand thing about our Lord and Savior is that He never demands or even asks us for repayment. Salvation is a gift, free and pure and fully paid for by the blood of Christ, and to think of our tithes and offerings as repayment is an insult to the gift.
Do not try to repay Christ’s gift in your giving, but instead remember it! Let us remember all that He has done for us, let us remember that all that we have is ultimately His. If we truly grasp the full reality of Christ, then we will be trustworthy stewards, faithfully and consistently using the possessions, opportunities, talents, and time that God has given us in order to bring His Kingdom into the lives of others. And then in the end, still trusting in only the grace of Jesus Christ, when that worldly wealth has failed and our temporary time here on earth has come to an end, we may be received into Heaven by those countless souls, each of which has been reached in some part due to the gifts God enabled us to give. And there to see the Lord, showing us these souls—the rich harvest He has reaped, the fruits of those gifts that He had first given—and to hear Him say to us, “Well done, thou good and trustworthy servant. Enter into thy rest.”



At that point, the very event that we have been longing for all of our lives as redeemed saints of God, how could we do anything other than to give Him the glory and honor for that which is rightfully His? He Who has given, He Who has redeemed, He Who gives to us so that we might give Him to others.
We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift may be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.
Amen.