“Money, Money, Money” – Pt. 1 – Luke 16:10-13

Peter Marshall was former chaplain of the Unites States Senate. A man came to him with a concern about tithing. He said: “I have a problem. I have been tithing for some time. It wasn’t too bad when I was making $20,000 a year. I could afford to give the $2,000. But you see, now I am making $500,000 a year, and there is just no way I can afford to tithe $50,000 a year.” Dr. Marshall reflected on this wealthy man’s dilemma but gave no advice. He simply said: “Yes, sir. I see that you do have a problem. I think we ought to pray about it. Is that alright?” The man agreed. So Dr. Marshall bowed his head and prayed with boldness and authority, “Dear Lord, this man has a problem, and I pray that you will help him. Lord, reduce his salary back to the place where he can afford to tithe.”

Now, with that being said and with the title of the message being what it is, you would assume that I am going to preach on tithing. Actually, I am not. I partly just thought that was a pretty funny story and wanted to throw it in there but I am going to talk about money. I’m going to talk about money because Jesus talked about money and He talked about it a lot.

And I entitled this 3-sermon series, “Money, Money, Money”so that now when you tell people that all your pastor preaches on is money, money, money, you won’t be lying. People start to cringe when the subject of money is brought up in the church and I think it is because preachers have gotten a bad reputation for always telling people to give, give, give to the church.

I think of a story that Flip Wilson told. A preacher was trying to get his people to be more enthusiastic about their church. The preacher said in his sermon: "If this church is going to get anywhere, it has to learn to crawl." The people said, "Let it crawl, Rev., let it crawl!" Then he said, "And after it learns to crawl, it has to learn to walk." And the
people said, "Let it walk, Rev., let it walk!" The preacher got excited and said, "After this church learns to walk, it has to learn to run!" The people shouted back, "Let it run, Rev., let it run!" Then he said, "And if this church is going to run, it's going to take money!" And the people said, "Let it crawl, Rev., let it crawl."

I have to admit that I hate money. Oh, I’m not trying to be all spiritual here. I like the stuff that money buys. I just hate keeping up with money. I hate trying to balance my check book. I hate trying to remember my pin number and password. I hate that some ATM’s charge me money to get my money out. Even my own bank charges me money for checks. It costs me money to have money and to spend money.

That’s just one more reason to look forward to Heaven, isn’t it? We aren’t going to need money in Heaven. We only have money because we can’t trust people to do the right thing. So we have a means to trade for things. But because we have a means to trade, now we have to protect that means because we can’t trust people to not steal it. It’s a vicious cycle but it tells us a lot about somebody when we see how they deal with money. And that is what I want us to see today.

I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money or where to spend it or even that the church needs it. I want us to see the mindset of the one who handles it well and the reward that comes with it.

In Sunday School we are going through the parables of Jesus and one of my all-time favorites is the parable of the prodigal son. It is, in fact, in the chapter of Luke just before the chapter we are going to look at this morning. Our passage this morning is in chapter 16 of Luke and the prodigal son is in chapter 15. I love the lesson that we are to learn from the prodigal story in that even if we sinfully waste our lives and then, even in the eleventh hour, come back to God in true repentance and faith, the fact that we have wasted our lives will make no difference at all to the pardon we receive or to our acceptance with the Father. (According to Luke, David Gooding)

And that is great and comforting news to lots of us who have wasted lots of time. But the very next parable that Jesus gives tells about the flip side of that. The other side of the coin is that while we still get the reward of Heaven, there are consequences for wasting anything that God gives you, including your money, your time or your talents. And our passage for this morning comes on the heels of that parable.

So, with that in mind, let’s read Luke 16:10-13.

“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? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? ¹³ “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.”

One of the most mysterious things about how God works is how He is sovereign and yet gives us free will. I don’t understand that and that’s ok. Much greater minds than mine have tried to figure that out and can’t so I just choose to believe it without fully understanding it. It’s all part of having faith in God.

And as we talked about recently, one of the “side effects” of free will is that there are benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience in this life. BOOCOD. We have talked about BOOCOD in this life many times but do you realize that there are BOOCOD in Heaven as well? There are rewards in Heaven for how we choose to live down here and there are consequences in Heaven for how we choose to live down here.

That’s what Jesus is talking about here. And it’s very interesting because rarely do we think of the eternal consequences of our use of money. The problem with talking about our rewards in Heaven is twofold. First, we don’t really know what the rewards are going to be and secondly, most people think the reward of Heaven itself is enough. It’s hard to motivate people to do better by telling them that Heaven will be better if they do when we just got through telling them that Heaven will be perfect.

How can it be more perfect? We will have to trust God for that but we do have His Word that it will. Let’s look at several verses where God makes it clear that there are rewards in Heaven based on what we do in this life, and a big part of this is what we do with our money. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 1 Corinthians 3:8 says, “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.” Revelation 22:12 says, "Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.” Rev. 2:23 ”I will repay each of you according to your deeds.”

Now, while we don’t know what those rewards are necessarily, we do get some idea of what they are in our passage this morning. It talks about true riches and property of your own. There are also lots of passages that talk about us receiving crowns in Heaven. There is the crown of righteousness and the crown of life, the incorruptible crown, the crown of rejoicing and the crown of glory. So, how does that sound to you? Pretty good?

I’ll be real honest with you. We studied about Heaven a few months ago and we know that it is going to be very much like what we have down here except perfect. And if you were to give me a crown right now, I would appreciate it and I would put it on the shelf somewhere and look at it ever so often but I don’t really have a use for one. Crowns don’t keep the sun out of your eyes and won’t keep my head from burning. And I don’t think I have anything to wear that would go with a crown.

Well, I have an idea. I have an idea that the crown that we get may not be a literal crown. I have an idea that when these verses were written that was about all that they could understand as far as rewards go. They didn’t have anything else that they could relate to that would be of great value eternally and so God uses a crown to represent our reward.

I don’t know what is meant by a crown but when God tells me it will make even Heaven a better place, I believe Him. I believe Him because I have been on the receiving end of His blessings before. I believe Him because when He says that all things work together for the good of those that love Him, I can look back and see how much better my life has been since I have had the opportunity to suffer.

I believe Him because when He says He will make my paths straight when I lean on Him instead of my own understanding, I can look back and see that He did indeed make my paths straight in those times and I was blessed far more than I was ever able to imagine.

I believe these rewards will be worth it because when He says to consecrate ourselves because He is going to do amazing things among us, I can look back and say, “Wow! I never saw that coming!”

I believe these crowns and rewards are going to be amazing because when God says, “I the LORD do not change!” I know that I can look back at the amazing things He has done for me and know that He has never changed. His Word remains true and His love and compassion and generosity are overflowing here on earth, so why should I expect anything less in Heaven?

And so when God says that if we are trustworthy with our worldly wealth then He will give us rewards that will last forever, I trust Him and I want those rewards. I want those rewards because God says there are benefits of obedience in Heaven. But if there are benefits of obedience in Heaven then there must be consequences of disobedience in Heaven as well, right?

But here we run into a similar but opposite problem as we had with rewards. It’s hard to imagine Heaven being better with rewards and it is also hard to imagine Heaven being worse with consequences. What could the consequences be that is referred to in our passage? In verse 11 it says, “¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” In other words, there are consequences in Heaven for mishandling money on earth.

Three men died in a car accident and met God at the Pearly Gates. The Lord spoke unto them saying, "I will ask you each a simple question. If you tell the truth I will allow you into heaven, but if you lie....Hell is waiting for you. To the first man the Lord asked, "How many times did you cheat on your wife?" The first man replied, "Lord, I was a good husband. I never cheated on my wife." The Lord replied, "Very good! Not only will I allow you in, but for being faithful to your wife I will give you a huge mansion and a limo for your transportation. To the second man the Lord asked, "How many times did you cheat on your wife?" The second man replied, "Lord, I cheated on my wife twice." The Lord replied, "I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a four- bedroom house and a BMW. To the third man the Lord asked, "So, how many times did you cheat on your wife?" The third man replied, "Lord, I cheated on my wife about 8 times." The Lord replied, "I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a one-room apartment, and a Yugo for your transportation. A couple hours later the second and third men saw the first man crying his eyes out. "Why are you crying?" the two men asked. "You got the mansion and limo!" The first man replied, "I'm crying because I saw my wife a little while ago, and she was riding a skateboard!"

I’m pretty sure that’s not a true story. I mean who would believe a Yugo in Heaven, right? But there are consequences in Heaven for our misuse of money. Now, I know what you’re thinking. There you are in Heaven. There’s the streets of gold, the gates of pearl, a huge mansion to live in filled with everything one could ever want, plus face time with Jesus to ask Him every question you can think of. What could possibly be a downside?

Oh, sure, the guy in the mansion next to you has a few more crowns and more acreage and his backyard overlooks the River of Life . But, hey, you’re in Heaven, the land of no regrets. What could be better?

Turn just a few verses over to Luke 16:19-26. “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ 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 in agony in this fire.’²⁵ “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 in agony. ²⁶And 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.’

What could be better than being in Heaven? Being in Heaven with all of your friends and family. Being in Heaven with all the people that you don’t even know will be better. But, Todd, how could my faithfulness with my own money ever affect other people like that?

In 1854, Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ. DL Moody’s conversion led to J. Wilbur Chapman’s conversion which led to Billy Sunday’s conversion which led to Mordecai Ham’s conversion which led to Billy Graham’s conversion. Do you know how many souls are in Heaven right now because of all of those powerful preachers? Only God knows but there has to be literally millions. All because of a Sunday School teacher who was concerned about the life of a 17 year old shoe salesman named DL Moody.

Our friend Bill Lightsey came here the other day and told several stories about how a Gideon Bible placed in the right place at the right time saved a life and now that person will be in Heaven forever. That same day, Jody Kennedy, the missionary, was here and he told me that there is a great seminary down in Nicaragua that is turning out godly, biblical men who are called by God to be pastors in little towns and villages all over the country. He said that the problem though is that they don’t have a church building in which to meet.

That bothered me and so I asked Jody how much it would cost to build a building down there. Long story short, the final cost is about $25,000 for a turn-key building with a pastor ready to go. I never was good at math but I believe we could build about 2 of those a year with the money we used to spend paying for the Runaway Bay property. Thank you Lord that we don’t have to do that anymore and thank you Lord for putting me in a place that is more concerned about leading people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus than having a beautiful campus with stained glass and fountains.

No offense Dr. Jeffress but I don’t know how that stuff is justified. Maybe he can and I’m not going to judge him. His vision is obviously different than mine and who am I to say? I want to be in a church where the people are good stewards; stewards who know that this building and this stuff is temporary and is not ours but is on loan from God for but a short while.

I thank the Lord I am in a church that takes into consideration that every dime that is spent here is somebody’s hard-earned tithe or offering and we take that very seriously. Back in verse 10 it says that whoever can be trusted with little can be trusted with much. We may not have the budget that they do at 1^st Baptist Dallas (we may not have a budget at all!) but we have shown ourselves to be faithful with little and so we look forward to the benefits in Heaven for being obedient in this life.

There is BOOCOD here today and there will be BOOCOD in Heaven. We have seen the benefits here and I can’t wait for the benefits in Heaven.