 So keep your place in Luke chapter 16, bookmark that and head over to Matthew chapter 5 if you would. That will be the basis of our sermon in Matthew chapter 5 and then we're going to go through one of these stories in Luke chapter 16 to make a couple of my points. But the title of the sermon tonight is Keeping Your Word and the importance of keeping your word and what the Bible says about that. Look at Matthew chapter 5 when Jesus actually addresses this very thing. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Jesus when he talked about things in the law many times every time the Pharisees misunderstood the things that he was saying like he was changing the law or like he was negating the law. When really Jesus was just fulfilling the law he was many times correcting what the Pharisees had twisted the law into. And Matthew chapter 5 is a perfect example of this. Richard remember the title of the sermon is Keeping Your Word because that phrase is used a lot today and I'm going to show you how that phrase is actually part of the problem and when it comes to how we think about the things that we say, the things that we tell people we will do what we will not do and how important it is it's much more important than just keeping our word. Look down at Matthew chapter 5 and look at what Jesus says in verse 33. The Bible says, again, you have heard that it had been said of them of old time that thou shalt not forswear thyself but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be ye ye nay nay for whatever is more than these cometh of evil. So a lot of people say, you know, okay Jesus is just saying, a lot of people just like surface read what Jesus is saying here. Jesus, a lot of people will say, well Jesus is just, he's preaching against oaths or vows as the Old Testament of old time, the people of old time will call vows in the Bible. But Jesus here is saying, he's like don't swear by all these things. He's like don't swear by heaven, don't swear by, you know, Jerusalem, the city of the great king. He's like these things aren't even yours. He's like why would you be swearing by things that aren't even yours. He's like just don't, you know, forswear yourself, don't be swearing these vows which shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths. Look he's saying you should still perform your oaths is what he's saying. But he's like you shouldn't have to go and say like, you know, I swear by my mother's right eye, you know, for someone to believe you. You know, a thousand needles in my eye or I'm trying to remember all the dumb things that we used to say, you know, in grade school or whatever, like just to like really show somebody you're serious, right? Really show somebody that you are going to be credible when it comes to what you're saying. You know, I, you know, all these different things people say, he's like Jesus is just like just do what you say you were going to do in the first place. It's much simpler than just that, all right? So look, none of these things swearing by heaven, it's even worse to swear by heaven, swear by God, swear by, you know, spiritual things, you know, things like this. It's even worse to do that. Look, Jesus is just saying your word, the words that you say you will do should be good enough, all right? Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 23. He's not negating Deuteronomy chapter 23 or anywhere else that the Bible talks about vows. He's just saying like look, there should be not this necessary, you know, overly swearing by all these crazy things in order to do things. Look at verse 21 of Deuteronomy chapter 23. Deuteronomy chapter 23, look at verse 21. Deuteronomy 23 verse 21, the Bible says, talking about just the seriousness of vowing, you know, saying or, you know, vowing, taking an oath, promising that you're going to do something, the Bible says, when thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God shall surely require it of thee, and it would not, and it would be sin in thee. If you underline things in your Bible, just underline to pay, and then I'm going to get to that in a few minutes, but the Bible says, but if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. So the Bible here is saying like, if you promise something to God, if you take a vow to God, it's serious that you do that thing. It's like, but if you don't make that promise, then there's no sin there. All right, look at verse 23. That which has gone out of thy lips, thou shalt keep and perform. Even a free will offering according as thou has vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou has promised with thy mouth. I find it interesting, I'm going to show you that in Luke chapter 16, that he ties taking a vow to, you know, offering things to the Lord, offering material things, whether that be, you know, money or an animal or any kind of, you know, offering of a personal possession to the Lord. I'll tie that in, in a little bit, but it's interesting because if you look at Proverbs chapter 20, you turn to Matthew chapter 26. It's interesting because people will do this to you too. They will require, the Bible actually says in Proverbs chapter 20 in verse number 25 that, so Jesus is warning against like swearing against heaven and swearing against all these things. Jesus is saying this should not be necessary for you to do this is what Jesus is saying. But the Bible also says that people that will require you to do this are evil people. In Proverbs 20 in verse 25, you're going to Matthew chapter 26, and I'm going to show you some evil people that did that to Jesus, actually, but look at in Proverbs chapter 20 and 25 I'll read to you. The Bible says this, it says, it is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy and after vows to make inquiry. So it's saying, look, it's somebody's trying to devour things that make holy, somebody that is trying to get you to take vows to tell the truth. They're interrogating you and they're saying swear by heaven or swear by God. You're saying what kind of wicked people would do something like that? Well, look at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26, look at verse number 63 saying that evil people, look, you should not do this and it's an evil person that will require you to do this as well. Look at verse number 63, but Jesus held his peace. Jesus is at this trial. If you want to call it a trial before his crucifixion, he's been arrested and he's being interrogated here and Jesus held his peace and the high priest, he's not speaking to these people and they're trying to get him to talk and the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God. He's like, I charge you by God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. He basically puts this, you know, this vow statement on Jesus. He's like, I charge you by God, I adjure you, you know, to swear basically by God who you are. Are you the Christ? And then Jesus answered, Jesus said unto him, thou hath said, so much for Jesus never claiming to be Christ. I mean, you just said it right there. All right, thou hath said, nevertheless, I say unto you here after shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. So the point is, don't let anyone do that to you either. You know, don't let anyone say like, you know, swear by God or I charge you to swear by God this and this and this because just let your yes be yes and let your no be no. And Jesus is saying, swear not at all. What he's saying is, look, you really have three choices when it comes to, you know, committing to something or not, the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 23. Look, if you don't commit to anything, it's like whatever. Hey, so you got three choices. Somebody's like, you know, coming out and saying, well, I need this or whatever. And you just got three choices, you can be silent, swear not at all. Or you could say yes and mean yes, or you could say no and mean no. That's what Jesus is getting at in Matthew chapter five. Jesus was not changing the law. He was fixing what man twisted it into being. As we see in the Old Testament, we see people swearing stupid vows, vows to commit murder against their own daughter, Jephthah in judges, you know, and they took the, you know, take a vow so seriously because look, if Jephthah swore the vow, you know, there's situations in your life and you know, you see this in the ministry, unfortunately, where people come to you and like any way they turn his sin. Like they got themselves into such a pickle. You know, I ever play pickle in baseball where you get a guy stuck between the two bases. You know, you're in a pickle there. You're gonna get out either way unless somebody makes a mistake. But you get yourself in such a pickle in your life that any way you turn his sin. So what do you do? Well, if you have the doctrine of all sin is equal, you're in real trouble here. What the point is, Jephthah got himself into trouble in judges. He swore a vow that he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. If God, and he swore this vow by God. He swore this vow. The first thing that comes out of his house is his daughter. So if he breaks that vow, yeah, that's a sin. Because he shouldn't have swore the vow as a dumb vow. But or he could commit murder, which is what he did. Unfortunately, but you know, I mean, we should, you know, either way is sin, but you know, break the vow, confess the vow and please don't murder your daughter. All right? I mean, the point is, is that vows are serious. You could see how serious they took it. I mean, if the story of Jephthah tells us nothing else, it tells us that vows were taken seriously by people at that time. All right? Even to the point of, you know, horrible, you know, horrible sin that people went into because of it. Go to Numbers chapter 30. Go to Numbers chapter 30. So Jesus is not changing the law. He's just like quit doing all this stuff. Quit, I mean, I don't think God was very happy that somebody swore by God or swore by heaven and then committed murder, you know, in the name of keeping a vow to God. God is not happy about that. Go to Numbers chapter 30 and look at verse number two. Numbers chapter 30, the Bible is so serious about vows that it even gives some specific rules, you know, about vows for, you know, a man, a woman, a daughter. The Bible says, if a man in verse two, if a man vows a vow unto the Lord or swearing oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that preceded it out of his mouth. In Numbers chapter 30, it talks about, it gives incredible detail about vows. It says of a daughter, you know, vows a vow and she doesn't talk to her father about it who is in charge of his daughter that the father can nullify that vow. The same thing goes for the wife. If the wife swears a vow and, you know, the husband was not aware of that vow. It's very interesting though because it says the husband must nullify it that same day. So the husband can't be like, now I thought it was a good vow last week but now I don't think, no, because now it's on the charge of the husband at that point. It comes upon him, all right? So look, I almost did this to my wife one time. She went on some diet two years ago that I felt was wrecking our marriage because I couldn't have dessert anymore, you know, because I'm not gonna eat dessert by myself. That's lame, I'm just kidding. I didn't nullify the vow, but the point is the point is that husbands had the ability to nullify the vow but that same day and it could nullify over their daughters as well. But the point is that God put serious rules in place and vows are to be taken seriously. Your word is what I'm trying to convince you tonight. I'm gonna give you two points tonight. I'm gonna give you two points that will benefit you for keeping your word. And if you're just gonna be like, I'm gonna be the person to keep my word, these are two things that will benefit you tonight. That's the whole point of the sermon. The first one is this, okay? So I'm trying to convince you to be the type of person that their yay is yay and their nay is nay tonight, all right? Or even a person that just is silent at times, all right? So two things, point number one is this. And this is where we're gonna go to Luke chapter 16. But point number one is this. If you don't keep your word and you're not somebody that keeps your word in, I'm talking about even small things. This is the tough thing about your word is like small things will really damage your credibility, even like little tiny things. The smallest things, here's the thing, the first point is this, no one will rely on you if you are not somebody that can keep your word. If you're the kind of person that's just always saying, hey, I'll be there or hey, I'll do that or you know, and you say they're just little things and when it comes to actually being there and doing that, they're little things and you let those things go. The credibility loss is still the same is what you need to understand. And credibility loss, it happens quickly. Credibility building takes a long time but credibility loss happens very quickly. So it doesn't take too many of these times for people to just peg you is the type of person that's just like, oh yeah, he just says stuff. Look, they may not be mad at you, they may not be like, you know, so I mean, because look, they're probably just gonna suffer themselves to be defrauded and be a good Christian brother to you when we're talking about people within the church. But the point is, the credibility loss will be the same and it doesn't take too many of these times to just take you to zero basically or people realize, yeah, he just says stuff. That's just who he is. And here's the thing that will really hurt you and that people will not see that are like this. Opportunities will be missed by you that you didn't even know were there. This is the problem. No one will be able to rely on you. People are always, because look, these are opportunities that many people just don't see. Because guess what? People are always looking for people to rely on because there's just not that many of those people because many people, they just can't do everything themselves. They just can't, you know, they don't wanna do everything themselves. So they need people that they can rely on. Too many people think out there, too many people think, man, I just never get any breaks. Too many people think like, man, that guy over there, he just gets all the breaks. The reason people don't get the breaks is because these opportunities are going by them every single day and they don't even know that these opportunities are going by them. Now turn to Luke chapter 16. You know, whether that be promotions or just, you know, opportunities to help out or become more of a profit in your Christian life. People, I mean, this is what I see. People, they don't see the opportunities that could be right there for them. They're passing them by and they don't even realize it. All right, look at Luke chapter 16. This is a really interesting story in Luke chapter 16. Maybe one of the most confusing, maybe misunderstood stories that Jesus tells in the Bible and we're gonna look at the story of the unjust steward. I'm gonna explain the whole story first and then I'll apply it. So don't wonder like, hey, where's he going with this? But I'll explain the whole story first because there's a lot of lessons in this story. All right, and a lot of people are a little confused at this story and the way Jesus puts it forth. It's not the same type of story where you kind of have a good guy and a bad guy, you know, in the Bible. It's a little bit unorthodox when it comes to the types of stories that Jesus tells and the parables that Jesus tells. But let's take a look at it and let's see what we can take from this. We're talking about, you know, keeping your word. We're talking about having people rely on you and we're talking about missed opportunities that you will have in your life if people, you know, don't feel like they can rely on you. And these are opportunities, folks, that it's not like you're gonna see the opportunity coming and be like, yeah, I don't really want that opportunity. It's, you're not even gonna know the opportunity was there. It's like an invisible opportunity that you're missing. And you have no idea, if you're not somebody that keeps your word, you're not somebody that people can rely on, you have no idea how many of these opportunities you're missing. But I'm telling you, in this day and age, it's a lot. It's a lot. Look at Luke chapter 16, verse number one. Let's look at the story of the unjust steward. And he said, first of all, who's he talking to? He's talking to the disciples. That's important. Okay, so he's talking to the disciples. He said unto his disciples, there was a certain rich man which had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him and he said, how is it that I hear this of thee, given account of thy stewardship? For thou mayest no longer be steward. So this is his accountant, the person that's taking care of his money. And he's like, hey, he heard a rumor or whatever. He doesn't know if it's credible or not, but he heard a rumor that this guy was, you know, wasting his money, stealing his money, not being a good steward of his money. He's like, hey, show me the books, buddy. Is what he says to this steward. Look at verse three. Then the steward said within himself. I mean, obviously he was not doing a good job because this guy's like, right away, he's like, I gotta find a way out. The steward said within himself, what shall I do? So he was clearly being an unjust steward, whether he was stealing or just wasting or whatever it was. He says, what shall I do? For my Lord take away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg, I am ashamed. So he's like, I'm busted basically is what he says. He's like, I'm busted. And like what he does next shows that he was guilty of being an unjust steward all together. But he's like, I can't work for a living. He's got one of these jobs where he's like, you know, just on the internet all day or whatever, you know, but he's just like, he doesn't want to work for a living. And then he's like, I'm not going to beg. That's embarrassing. Cause he's obviously living a pretty decent lifestyle. Off this other guy's money. So he's going to come up with a plan to get himself out of this. All right. And it's, you know, it's a fairly brilliant plan. Look at verse number four. I am resolved what to do. That when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So you should underline into their houses. If you write in your Bible and I'll explain that later. So he's got a plan. He's figured this out. I know what I'm going to do. He's like, I'm about to get canned. I got this thing figured out. So he must like have a two weeks period here where he's got some time. So he called every one of his Lord's debtors onto him and said unto the first, how much owe us thou unto my Lord? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. And he said, take the bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, how much I was thou? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said, take thy bill and write four score, meaning 80. This is a modern day politician right here. What he's doing is he's going out to all these people and he is stealing from his boss to give these people money to cut their debts down, cut them in half or whatever. So when he gets fired, he will be in good favor with them. This is politics right here. This, let me just tell you something without going off for 45 minutes. This happens everywhere. Everywhere. Every business this happens in. This happens all over the place. People grease in the palms of people here and there. So when they know, when they retire or whatever, they've got a nice cushy place to go. Politicians do it all the time. They get lobbied by big companies. And then pretty soon after they're done being a politician because people are sick of them or whatever, they go off and they work on the board of directors for that big company. How does that work? How do you think politicians that make $200,000 a year end up multi-billionaires, some of them? This is exactly what's happening. What Jesus is saying here. OK, now that's not really the point of the sermon. But just you understand, the brilliant is God speaking here. God's like, this is how men work. This is what this unjust steward is doing. This happens everywhere. Today, I've seen it for 23 years. It just happens all the time. Go to verse number eight. Now it gets a little confusing. So that's easy to understand. Why he's doing that, right? So far, everything's easy to understand. He's trying to make a nice, soft landing for himself. And he gets fired from this job because he knows he's guilty. And he's obviously a dirtbag. He's just stealing this guy's money. He doesn't care. Look at verse eight. This is the first confusing statement right here. Verse number eight that people get a little tripped up on. And the Lord commended the unjust steward. You're like, what? Because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. So look, neither of these guys are really decent people here. The Lord, this is the guy whose money he's given away. He's like, hey, that was brilliant what you did there. Even though he took his own money to do it, he's just like, hey, that was kind of a brilliant thing. And then it says this statement that some people get a little confused about, where it says, the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. Who are the children of light? It's us. We're the children of light. We're the saved. We're the people that are following Jesus Christ. The children of this world, it's just the unsaved people. The people that aren't saved. So look, it's not saying that they're reprobates. It's just saying they're the children of the world. That's it. The children of the world. But it says, notice these three words where it says, in their generation. So it's talking about the children of this world. And then Jesus is really going to explain this in detail in the next coming verses. But it's just talking about, they aren't eternally wise. It doesn't say they're eternally wise. It says, in this world, they're wise. This is why. This is why. And I used to think about this when I was younger. I mean, I don't think about it now, because I know the answer. But you ever wonder why? Man, why can't there just be a saved Christian billionaire? Just think, a saved Christian billionaire that could just give a bunch of resources and money to a bunch of gospel preaching churches that could just go out and just take all those resources and just take the gospel out to the world. I mean, just why? First of all, that's just wrong thinking in general, because we don't need resources. We need people. We need harvesters, right? We need manpower is what we need. We don't need money. And Jesus actually explains that in the coming verses. But he's saying, this is just an explanation for us. Why the Christian is really just gonna never, it's almost never Christians. I don't wanna say never, but it's almost never Christians that you're gonna see at those top echelons of the world. Because we don't really care about the money or we're not supposed to anyway. It's not our main goal. And like people like that, people like this unjust steward, his main goal was just to, how am I gonna keep myself in this money? How am I gonna keep myself in this lifestyle? So he goes out and he does a good job of doing that. So look, in his generation, he's wiser. Because the Christian just isn't gonna think of something like that, because they just don't care about the money. That's not even the main point. Look at verse number nine. So it's talking about the children of this world are just gonna be more wise in the things of this world. Because we're not of this world. We shouldn't care about the things of this world. But this is a second confusing point right here where Jesus says this, now the story's done. The story's done and now Jesus is talking. Jesus is talking to the disciples. Look what he says. And I say unto you, remember at the beginning of the chapter, he's talking to the disciples. He says I say unto you, and this is where you need to know, like the yeas and the yourselves and the days in this verse is super important right here. Who Jesus is saying what to? Look what he says. He says, and I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. You're like, what in the world? What's that all about? Jesus here is saying to the disciples, he's saying, hey, why don't you go out and do a similar thing? First of all, who's he talking to? He's talking to the disciples. That's the ye, that's the yourselves. Right, he's talking to a group of people, plural, ye yourselves, the why words are plural. These and those are singular. He's saying, why don't you use your money to make friends too? Is what he's saying. But look what he says. He says, use the mammon of unrighteousness. The same, it's not mammon that came from unrighteousness. He's just saying like this mammon of unrighteousness, just this money. This money in this world. Why don't you take the money that you have in this world and you make friends too. But there's a difference with your friends. There's a difference with your friends. Because I told you to underline those verses, right? There are those words. In verse number four, what verses did I, where was this guy making, where was this guy hoping to be brought in? In verse number four. He was hoping to be brought in into their houses. I mean, that's not everlasting. He's talking about just taking care of himself in this world, is what he's talking about. But your friends that will receive you will be with you in eternity. The Bible is saying here. It says they will receive you into everlasting. It's like they're gonna, your friends, you should take your money and make friends. They're gonna bring you into everlasting homes. Is there any home on this earth that's everlasting? So think about this for a second. You gotta really crank this one through. What kind of friends are these that you're making? Jesus is saying, you know, look, this is somebody who saves up his money. And instead of putting it in stocks and bonds, this is somebody who saves up his money and goes on a mission trip. This is what Jesus is talking about. These are the everlasting habitations that you are going to make for yourself with that money. And you know what you're gonna do? You know what your pile of money is gonna do? It's gonna shrink. So, but guess what? Your pile of friends and your everlasting habitations is gonna grow. This is what Jesus is talking about when he talks about turn to Matthew chapter six. Look, mission trips aren't cheap. Think about this. Mission trips aren't cheap. And if you just save up your money and save up your money and go on every mission trip you possible can, look, you're probably gonna fail a little bit at growing that money. You're growing that big pile. This is the opposite. This is an opposites lesson. This unjust steward for us Christians. This is an opposites lesson. This is the opposite of what the unjust steward was doing. Jesus is saying, you shouldn't care about your money. Instead, use your money that you don't care about to make everlasting friends. He was hearing about the money and making friends now is what this guy was doing. So you'd have a house to go to now. Instead of using this mammon, this money to further God's kingdom, which is what Jesus is telling the disciples to do. And look, that'll look like, I'm telling you, that'll look like financial failure to the world. That's what Jesus said, when ye fail, it'll look like financial failure to the world. But in reality, look at Matthew chapter six. In reality, it's not failure at all. Because Jesus explains it. He decodes it in Matthew chapter six because you're still laying up treasures. Jesus says in Matthew chapter six, verse 19, He says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moss and rust doth corrupt or where thieves break through and steal. He's like, hey, don't pile up money down here. He's like, don't pile up things that can just be stolen. We were out soul-winning today and we walked by this yard and I told the guys we were walking by. I was like, man, if I was a billionaire, they had this dog in this yard. You should have seen this dog. The dog had crawled out of hell. And it was just like, it's drooling. It was making noises I can't even try to explain to make. This dog was just, I was like, man, if I was a billionaire, I'd take all my money out in $20 bills. I'd stack it in that backyard right there and I just have that dog and I never have a problem. But look, all your money can be stolen. Everything can be stolen from you. All the things that you're storing up on this earth, that story had nothing to do with the sermon. It could all be stolen from you. He says instead, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor what thieves do break through and steal. And then he matches this up to the lesson in the unjustity where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So Jesus is saying, look, you spend all your money on the mission trips, you spend all your money to just further the kingdom of God, you spend all your money to make eternal friends, to just like, hey, my goal in my life is to get people saved. So all the resources that God gives me, I'm gonna use that to get people saved. Look, you're not gonna be broke if you do that. I'm gonna explain that to you in just a few minutes. You're not gonna be broke if you do that, but here's the thing Jesus is saying is that's what you should be doing with that unrighteous man. Right, it means, look, he's talking about trading in, trading in, think about this. Jesus is talking about the deal of a lifetime. Trade in, Federal Reserve notes for souls. It's like, that's the biggest deal ever is what Jesus is explaining here. Go back to Luke chapter 16. See, this guy didn't care about this money because it wasn't his. He didn't care about it. But you shouldn't care about yours either. So Jesus caps it right here in verse number 10. Verse number 10. Verse number 10 and verse number 11 are really the key here. Look what he says in verse number 10. It says, he that is faithful in that, which is least, is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. And here's the opposite's verse right here for us. He says, therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches. So this guy, this guy that's unjust here was not faithful in his boss's money, but for the Christian the test on whether or not we are faithful in the unrighteous mammon is whether we don't care about it. It's the opposite. This guy didn't care about it and he was supposed to care about it. We're not supposed to care about it because the true riches are the gospel. And Jesus is saying, here's the test for you Christian. The test for you Christian is if you care about this money I'm not gonna entrust you with the gospel. Where instead this guy, you know, he cared about the unrighteous mammon and nobody would put him in charge with more. But with us, you just flip it on his head and the test for us is, hey, you gotta not care about it. And then I'll trust you with the gospel is what Jesus says. He's like, hey, use all that garbage to go make eternal differences for people. You see it all the time. People see people saving up, can't wait to go to another mission trip, can't wait to do this, can't wait to help out here. You know, we're gonna go get more people saved. Like that's the whole point is what Jesus is saying. It's the opposite. That's the test for us is not caring about the money. Now here's the main point back to the sermon's point. Jesus says, look at verse 12. If you have not been faithful in that, which is another man's who shall give you that which is your own. In the unjust Stuart's case, it was mammon versus more mammon. That's the application there. If he would have been trustworthy with his boss's mammon, he would have gotten more mammon. But with us, it's mammon versus the gospel. We have to not care about the mammon. It'll be entrusted with the gospel. That's what Jesus is saying. All right, now look, now we can apply this to keeping your word. Now we can apply this to getting more responsibility from people because if people can't trust in you, they can't rely on you. You see where I'm going with this? They can't rely on you for anything. But just take it from money to things that you say. It's the same application. It is a matter of fact, the way Jesus talks, the way God talks about vows and the things that you say, it's a direct correlation with money and debt. If you don't take your vows or your words seriously, no one is going to trust you with more anything. God, people, all the same. Look back to, go back to verse 13 of Luke 16. And here's the thing. These things, as I said before, you will never know these things. I've had so much hope for people. Over the years, I've had so much hope for people. I just see, you see so much potential in people, but it just turned out to be people you just can't rely on. And it's really sad to see because you see that hope that you want to have for people. Look at verse 13. No servant, now this comes right back around to Matthew chapter six. No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, love the other, he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You see how that just kinda, it's just an opposites lesson for us in the unjust steward. But the unjust steward loved the mammon. Just using money as an example here, that was the small thing. Look, our word is no different than this. If we are not trustworthy, God will never give us more. That's the first point. And look, men operate the same way. If you're not trustworthy, you're saying to yourself, everybody else gets breaks all the time. And I just don't seem to get these breaks. Look, I'm telling you, people are just waiting to give you responsibility in your life. Anybody you know in authority is looking for anyone. It's not, you know, so look, there's trains passing you by that you don't see. So when you think about, I'll be there, I'll do that. Things that you say. Just remember Jesus is three choices. You can be silent. Silence is an option, folks. You don't know what to say, don't say anything. That's just a good rule for life right there. You don't have any idea what to say. Don't be this guy's like, ah, I gotta say something right now. I gotta say something, I'll do that. Or whatever. Silence is an option, all right? I didn't always used to be like that. I had a hard time shutting my mouth when I was in my 20s. But I mean, you get to a certain point where you realize, like, if you don't know exactly what to say, don't say anything. And then if you say yes, it better mean yes. And if you say no, it better mean no. Or opportunities will pass you by. That's point number one. Here's the second one. Here's the second one. Benefits of keeping your word. Benefits to you. I'm trying to convince you to help yourself tonight. Here's the thing. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter seven. If you can't keep your word, covenants will not be possible with you. Say, what do you mean? What's that mean? Covenants, what do I mean? Covenants are deals. Covenants are agreements between two parties. Anytime there's a covenant in the Old Testament, there's a covenant in the Bible, you know, God is making, he's making a deal. You know, God had covenants, many covenants with the nation of Israel. He was making a deal with them. He's saying, you know, hey, I'll do this if you do this. Look at Deuteronomy chapter seven, in verse number nine. The only way covenants are possible is if both people keep both sides. So covenants with you, if you can't keep your word, covenants are worthless. Look at Deuteronomy chapter seven, in verse number nine. Here's the thing with God, though. We really need to understand how God operates. And then this will help us keep our word. And I think we'll change that phrase before the sermon's over. Because look at what God says in Deuteronomy chapter seven, in verse number nine. We really need to understand how God operates in covenants. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the what kind of God? The faithful God, which keepeth the covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. So when will God renege on his side of the deal? Never. He will never renege on his side of the deal. You look at the nation of Israel. This is why it's so stupid that people think that like, oh, Israel should have the promised land and their God's chosen people today. Have you ever read the Bible? It is a covenant. It was a deal. It was a deal. If you keep my commandments, if you don't go after other God's, if you do these things, I will keep you in the land. Over and over and over in the Bible. It was a covenant. A covenant is a deal. And God is faithful. He didn't break his part of the deal. God is faithful. He will never break his part of the deal. Covenants with God are our problem. Totally one-sided. So then, you know, they just completely reject the Messiah. They completely reject Christ. And you're like, oh, God's chosen people, Israel, what in the world is happening here? It was a covenant, a deal, and deals with God are never broken on the God side is what God is saying in Deuteronomy chapter seven. It is always the other side that makes a deal. But look, if you're not somebody that keeps your word, a covenant cannot be successfully made with you. Is what the Bible is saying. Go to Psalm, chapter 76. You know, this is a common saying, keep your word. That's a man that keeps his word. That man, when he says something, he keeps what he says. But that's not what the Bible says about keeping a vow. That is not the language that the Bible uses when it talks about keeping a vow. It doesn't even say keeping a vow. Look what it says in Psalm, chapter 76 and verse number 11. Psalm, chapter 76 and verse number 11. Psalm, chapter 76 and verse number 11. The Bible says, vow and keep what you say unto the Lord. It says, vow and pay unto the Lord, your God. Let all that be around him bring presence unto him that be feared. It's actually, look at Job 22. Actually just go to Ecclesiastes chapter five. I'll read for you Job 22. You're going to Ecclesiastes chapter five. Job chapter 22 and verse number 27 says, thou shalt make thy prayer unto him and he shall hear thee and thou shalt pay thy vows. Ecclesiastes chapter five and verse number four. I could read you verse after verse after verse, saying the same thing. Ecclesiastes five and verse number four says, when thou vowest a vow unto God and defer not to what, to pay it. For he had no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hath vowed. You see what the Bible is saying here that a vow is? A vow is something you owe. When you say, yeah, I'll do that. Yeah, I'll be there. Yeah, I'll help you with that. I don't care what small thing it is. When you say that you will do things, you ever made a promise to God? Now you're all thinking. You're all going through your accounting and all the promises you made to God and you're like, oh, do I have debts here? The Bible is comparing it to a debt. The Bible is comparing this to debt. Book of Psalms says that the wicked borrow with and payeth not again. It's a wicked thing to not pay. Especially you owe a debt. You tell God, as soon as you promise something, you're in debt. You think about things a little different now? Jesus' words in Matthew chapter five make a little bit more sense now when Jesus is just like, hey, shut up. He's like, stop. I mean, what kind of person, just like a person that goes into any storm. They're just like, I'll take everything. Cause look, you can borrow anything now. You can take a loan out on anything. Couches, TVs, I got my taxes done. I got my taxes done last week and they want to give me a loan on my tax return. I'm like, are you, I like short circuit in my brain and my ear started smoking. I'm like, you're gonna give me a loan. You're offering, so I'm getting this return back in seven days and you're offering to give me a loan and charge me to get my own money that the government. She's like, yeah. Isn't it great? You can take a loan out on anything. But what happens to you? Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. What happens if you're the type of person? Cause what does the Bible say about the borrower owns the lender, right? Something like that. The borrower is serving to the lender. And if you go out and you borrow a bunch of things and then you don't pay things back, what happens to your credit? Like it goes to nothing, right? Like nobody's gonna break your knees in the United States. But your credit, well maybe some places, I don't know. But you know, your credit, your credit, your credibility goes to zero. This is why it's a direct application to the unjust steward. This is why money is a perfect example. This is why God when he says a vow, he's like, no, you owe. You owe because God thinks differently than us because God is faithful. See? You're like, we don't understand. It's cause you're not faithful. I'm not faithful. We don't think this way. But we need to understand how serious it is to keep our word or pay our vows when we think in the mindset of God. When God's like, every time you say something, you owe debt. Every time, and Jesus is like, just quit taking out credit cards. Matthew chapter five. We've all made promises to God. I'm writing this sermon and I'm just like, have I said something that I, do I have an outstanding credit card with the Lord? I'd be a good one to first John 1-9. Just kind of blanket statement first John 1-9, that one confess that one. Lord, if I've ever made a promise to you that I haven't kept, Lord, please forgive me. Please help me shut my mouth. Please help me just do what I say I'm gonna do. Please help me just be someone that just tries to just not say as much and be a person that pays my word. I mean, what do you call somebody that doesn't pay? A debt, a thief, right? You know, a debtor, a thief. Now look, now apply this to all the relationships in your life. It makes perfect sense how God operates. Turn to John 14 and verse number 15. See, you gotta understand that God operates on action. God doesn't, look, here's the thing. There's a reason that it doesn't say keep your word in the Bible over the place. It's because God doesn't operate on words. God operates on action. God operates on action. Love is a perfect example of this. You know, love is something that's a word that people have, you know, you talk to, I don't care, you talk to 90% of the people that you see out so many in. If you would ask them, if we would change the questions that we asked and just ask every people that we, let's go out soul winning Wednesday, we're not gonna do this, but, and just ask people one question, do you love God? I bet you 90% of people would say yes. In this area, anyway. But look at John 14, 15. Does God care about words though? Look what Jesus says, or look what Jesus said, he says, if you love me, if ye love me, keep my commandments. Did he say, if ye say you love me? You know, he said, if ye love me, this is what you'll do. He's, you know what he's doing? He's defining what love means here. He's defining what love is. He's not saying, like, you know, he's saying these words, love, this is what Jesus is saying. Love is this action. That's what it means. That's what that verse means. People misuse that so much. It's ridiculous. But the love is action. Without action, without action, the word is not the definition of the word. You see what I'm saying? Without action, it doesn't mean what God says it means. Without action, look, I mean, did God say, I love ya, love ya, down there, kiddos? No, God took action. That's how we know God loved us, because he sent Jesus. Because he didn't just say, like, hey, love ya, sorry about that hell thing, that's gonna be rough for you. He's like, no, I love you, here's how I'm getting out of it. And you know I love you, why? Why do I know God loves me? Because he sent Jesus, that's how I know. This is the problem with today. This is why it's the same thing, why there's so many failed marriages, why husbands and wives are having so many problems. Marriage is just falling apart, because love is words, love is just feelings. You know, love is feelings. Oh, I feel like I love you. You know, and I get butterflies in my stomach when I'm around you and all this, and you know, and really I feel like we're really lovey-dovey, you know, and I, you know, but look, it's not a feeling. That's how love turns into lust, which turns into all kinds of whatever you wanna define it as. And they're kind of sick, weird stuff that they define it as today. Love is action. It is sacrificial action, or it is not love. A zebra is not an elephant. A nut is not a bolt, a tire is not an engine. I mean, it just, we can say that these things are, but it's not what God says. It's like, you love me? Do it, that's what love is. So we can't just redefine where. So look, keeping, you know, every promise to God, you owe debt, remember that. Because that's how God rolls. God is a God of action. You say something, and you should operate that with people in your lives on this earth too. You say something, you owe debt on that. I mean, you think about it a little bit different when you look at it that way, don't you? When I just, when I say, when I'm standing in a group of guys and somebody's talking about, oh, I gotta move or whatever, do something, and I'm just like, oh yeah, I'll help you out, cause maybe you get a lot of people there just like they like to be the first one to blur it out that they'll do something or whatever. And then you just, you know, it's a 50-50 coin flip, whether they can do it or not. Look, the point is, when you throw that word out there, that's debt to God. That's debt to that person. You think about it much different if you think about that it literally puts you in debt. Now you also understand how there's no small thing. Like anything that you say puts you in this type of debt. A good name is better to be chosen than riches and loving favor, you know, rather than silver and gold. And that's what you'll do to yourself. So Jesus says it would be better to change, it would be better to say nothing than to do this kind of damage to yourself. So commit to yourself tonight. Hey, just commit to yourself these two things. These two things, just commit to yourself, I'm gonna do what I say and look, I'm telling you, point number one, I'm telling you, you will be surprised. If you have a problem with this, we all do to some degree. If you have a problem with this, just commit to this. What Jesus said, doing these three things, silence, yes or no, and yes and no being what? Being action. That's all Jesus said. He's like the yes is action, the no is action. Or shut up his action too. And then you owe no debt. But do that and look, you'll be surprised, I'm telling you, you'll be surprised at what opportunity comes floating by you. If you start to be that kind of person. And then number two is what Jesus said at the end. He's like just pay your debts, pay your debts, pay your money debts, don't go into a bunch of debt, pay your money debts, and when you speak words, pay those debts. That's all you have to do. And guess what? I had a car payment one time 20 years ago that was $700 a month for five years and I will never do that again. And that is what Jesus said. That's what Jesus is saying. He's like look, if your yes is yes and your no is no, and you operate that way. Meaning your yes really means yes. You're really helping that guy move. You're really going and making those commitments. You're really going and digging those holes. You're really making those promises to God that you were in a really tight spot and you promised God that you would do this thing and you're really following those things through. Those things are gonna be hard and you're gonna think about those things next time you commit to those types of debts. So it's super important that we are these type of people. Listen to what Jesus said. It's three simple options. Just pick one. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.