 But that said, Luke chapter 16, beginning at verse 1. He also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So I called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward. And the steward said within himself, what shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So I called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said a hundred measures of oil. So I said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? So he said a hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, take your bill and write eighty. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had doubt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. And he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Now the Pharisees who are lovers of money also heard all these things and they derided him, and he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts for what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. You know this is a parable. I was mentioning to you last Sunday that the Lord Jesus Christ often taught in parables. It depends on what authority you are referring to or referencing, but the one that I would think has probably got the greatest, probably has the greatest authority in terms of just one that I trust, stated that Jesus taught some 39 parables, 39 parables, a third of his teaching, when you look at the teachings of Jesus Christ, a third of his teaching would be found in parabolic form. The Lord Jesus Christ taught in parables often because in the teaching of parables there is the illustration of things that are heavenly in terms that we on earth can understand. So he very often taught in parables, I mean when you go into Matthew 13 you find that Matthew 13 contains some eight parables. So he often would teach in parables and he did so so that he could take what was heavenly and he could use an earthly illustration in order that he might give to us some insight into the way the kingdom of God actually exists or is run. And so what we have here in Luke chapter 16 is one of the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the heart of this parable is very simple. It relates to our usage of earthly goods. It really speaks about our proper stewardship. And so let me lay a foundation for us this evening by beginning by saying in a very real sense, nothing truly belongs entirely to us. Everything created belongs to the one who created all things. What we are stewards, we are house managers. The word steward speaks of a person who is a house manager. We are house managers over the belongings of someone else. You see a steward does not personally own anything but manages what belongs to their master. Somebody said although God gives us all things richly to enjoy, nothing is ours. Nothing really belongs to us. God owns everything. We are responsible for how we treat it and what we do with it. Now we complain about our rights here on earth. The Bible constantly asks, what about your responsibilities? Owners have rights, stewards have responsibilities. So we believers are to understand that we are caretakers. We are caretakers of the property of someone else and that someone else who owns everything is God. You see this from the Old Testament to the New Testament in Deuteronomy, the Old Testament book Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 14. It reads indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God. Also the earth with all that is in it. In Job 41 verse 11 it reads, Who has preceded me that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is mine. From 24 verse 1 the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. So as a parent I have children, they're small, it's my birthday. They want to buy daddy a present. Where did they get the money to do that? Pray tell. Did they go out to work? Did you see them in a car wash or mowing a lawn? In dishes? No. They went to mama. We want to get daddy a gift. Our mama said, let's go buy daddy a gift. And so what my children had in order to purchase a gift for daddy for his birthday or Christmas in reality came out of my wallet. Now is that a bad thing? No, of course not. No, of course not. Did I ever get mad? No, of course I didn't. Why would I? You know, I was saving money by giving them things, giving them money to buy me stuff. And so it was no big deal. So here's $3, here's $5, you know, buy daddy a car or whatever. But you know what, they could not come to me and they could not say to me, look at what we did for you. We bought you that, no, in reality what you did is you took what was mine and gave it back to me. Isn't that the truth? I mean that's a fact. I mean what you did is you took what is mine and you gave it back to me. Well guess what the Lord tells us? All you've done is taken what is mine and given it back to me. That's what a steward does. I'm a house manager. I'm simply taking care of the possessions that I don't own. I'm taking care of the things of the Lord. And that's what we do. We take care of the things of the Lord. Heaven said the whole world may be considered as a house built up. Heaven is its roof. The stars its lamps. The fruits of the earth the table spread. The owner and builder of this house is the holy blessed God. And man is the steward into whose hands all the business of the house is committed. If he considers in his heart that the master of the house is always over him and keeps his eye upon his work and if in consequence he act wisely he shall find favor in the eyes of the master of the house. But if the master find wickedness in him he will remove him. King David said it well in 1 Chronicles 29-14 when he said who am I and who are my people that we should be able to give as generously as this everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand. And so that's the principle of stewardship. God owns all things. He gives to us responsibility to manage his affairs. Now the apostle Paul revealed to us that there is a major requirement if we're going to be genuine stewards. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2 it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And it says that a man should be found faithful. The idea is that he takes scrupulous care of that which was entrusted to him and give it out to others faithfully and as directed by his master Jesus Christ. You see ultimately we will give an account of how we administered what we have been given. We will give an account of our time, the money that God blessed us with, the gifts that we have received, the wisdom, relationships and the gospel. Verse 1412 simply puts it like this each of us will give an account of himself to God. The interesting thing is that God actually promises to reward the faithful steward. In Colossians 3, 23 and 24 Paul said work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and the master you are serving is Jesus, is Christ. So we'll look now at a parable, the parable of the unjust steward. Verses 1 and 2 speak about a certain rich man and he had a steward. An accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his good. So we called him and said to him, what is this I hear about? You give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward. Now this man was accused of financial mismanagement. An audit had been conducted, financial irregularities had been discovered, the manager was now fired, he was fired for embezzlement, it seems that he was skimming from the boss. And so as this takes place naturally there's a question he asks. Verse 3 he says the steward said within himself, what shall I do? My master is taking the stewardship away from me, I cannot dig, I'm ashamed to beg. And so he's greatly concerned at what has happened. Now I want you to notice something here, even though he's been removed from his responsibility, his response is interesting because it's completely self-centered, totally concerned with himself. If you were to count the times the word I and me are used in these two verses, verses 3 and 4, he actually says I and me some seven times. I am concerned with me, what am I going to do? So there's no repentance, there's no grief, there's no regret for what he's done. He is just concerned about himself and he says in verse 3, I cannot dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I will not humble myself to become a common day laborer and I'm too proud to go out on the street and beg for help. Now it's interesting working and even begging, working and even begging is at least humble and at least honest. In Ephesians 4.28 it says, let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give to him who has need. So instead of doing something honest to provide for himself, he comes up with a scheme. In the years of his stewardship he lived very comfortably. He didn't want to lose this kind of life. Using his master's goods contributed to a level of luxury that he would not give up easily. And so what does he do? Well verses 4 through 7 says it like this, I've resolved what to do. He remembers people that he was in the habit of doing business with and in order to secure a place to stay after he's been fired he ingratiates himself to some merchants. This is where I want to get to the heart of this particular parable. Notice what he does here. In verse 8, the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. I want to spend some time with you. That's where I was wanting to get in this passage here. I wanted to give you some background and some definition so you have an idea of where Jesus was going with this. We'll look for some practical application in just a moment, but this is what I wanted to share with you. Verse 8 again, the master commended the unjust steward notice because he had dealt shrewdly. Proverbs 26.16 says, the lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. Jesus said the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. Let's develop this. One, is Jesus saying that it is permissible to steal from other people in order to live luxuriously? Well, of course not. That would obviously violate what we are taught in Scripture. Lying, scheming, stealing are never praised, never encouraged, and never commended. So he's not commending what he has done. What is he commending? He is commending his single-mindedness to care for what he truly valued. This man knew what his life's priorities were and he worked diligently to maintain them. The bottom line, sons of this world know what it is that they want and they go for it. The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. That's because they believe in the here and now more than we believe in heavenly rewards. In ministry, I've had opportunity to travel to many countries. Many of the countries that I have spent time serving in are extremely impoverished. The poverty of India, the poverty that I have seen in Colombia, the poverty that I have seen in Mexico and the Philippines have all left a mark on my heart. It amazes me how these countries have been saturated by businesses that make money off of them. I still remember being in the Philippines a number of years ago now, we were doing some ministry in the Philippines. We were in Manila and I've shared this with you before, but we were in Manila doing some ministry and our host who was a pastor in a church plant there in Manila had taken us when we got there, took us from the airport. We went to our motel room that we had, then he said, would you like to get something to eat and we hadn't eaten for some time. We said, yeah, that would be fine. He says, where do you want to go? And we said, it doesn't really matter. He says, well, you know, you just arrived, let's take you to a McDonald's. So sure, no problem. We go to the McDonald's. What was interesting is there was armed guards in front of the McDonald's, armed guards, because that was a place that was robbed often. And as we went walking up, it had barbed wire and it had a fence. There was a little girl who was standing in front of the fence or the gate that we had to go through to get into the McDonald's. And she had a little handout as we walked in and we went and bought her a meal and brought it out so that she could eat. Now what we take for granted as being quote-unquote junk food for her was something very special. And I started seeing a lot of this. We went to a place called, it's the Manila dump, the Tundo Dump. And I met a little girl named Esther whom I thought was about six or seven years of age. Turns out Esther was 12 or 13. But she was just a teeny little girl. She was a beautiful little girl. She took me by the hand and walked me through the dump showing me the children she played with. Her father was pastoring a church that he had actually taken. He had taken trash from the dump, pieces of wood and he had nailed it together and actually made a little church building, a little chapel. And when you went into the chapel, it was on dirt floors. When you went in, he had taken different pieces of wood and nailed it together to try and make church benches or pews. And so we walked in there and he had this little pulpit area and it was on a dirt floor and this little girl was holding my hand and walking me through the dump. And my heart was just wanded by this precious little girl. I'll always remember her and it's been a number of years. And she just showed us the ministry and showed us the kids and she was so precious. Like I said, I thought she was about seven, but she was 12 or 13. And I got home and then one of my friends was mentioning that Esther died, Esther died of the measles, measles, measles. Something that, well, we Americans, how's that, how's that, it happens because they don't have immunization. It happens because there's nothing stopping the spread of it and it is very serious. So I see this while I'm there. I see these kids. I still remember a little boy who had, it was an empty can. It looked like a soup can. It didn't have a lid and the bottom of the can had been opened up and he had tied some string on it and he was running and it was just kind of bouncing and that was his toy. And he ran past me and he was laughing really loudly and I saw him go by. I remember these kids trying to play basketball with a basketball or actually it was a volleyball that had no, it was deflated. It was a ball that had been thrown away, but they had made a basketball hoop and they were shooting baskets with a ball that had no air in it and I saw that and so much, so many things and you can't imagine and then you go to your room and they have this little TV set and I turn the TV set on and an American commercial for cat food comes on. And it's a beautiful white Persian cat eating out of crystal and it hits me and this was years ago and it hit me. No wonder Americans are hated throughout the world where you got babies begging for McDonald's hamburgers and we feed our cats cat food in crystal. At least that's the image. That's the image. No, I'm not angry. You can come off like I am, huh? I'm just trying to share with you some things that I've learned that I think we as a church need to remember. Advertising is everywhere. American products are sold throughout the world. Rawl Reese and I went to India together on a ministry. We were there together for two weeks. It's a ministry in Bible College church and things like that. And while we were there, we were in our room and Rawl said I wonder what they watch on TV here in India. So we turn on TV, it was MTV, MTV. And you see these Indian kids dressing, you know, the part that they had learned by watching American TV. And I have to tell you Rawl is a lot of fun. And when he's watching this, he was laughing so hard I thought he was going to faint. Because they're doing these moves and all of that. And American advertising and commercialism, materialism has influenced the entire world. I mean you will find American made cigarettes, you see Pepsi, you see Coca-Cola, you see Burger King, Burger King's in India. You see Hard Rock Cafe in Tel Aviv in Madrid. There's American TV programs, American music, American movies worldwide. I've had KFC, Starbucks, and even Al Torrito in Tokyo. I've seen Domino's Pizza, Lay's Potato Chips, Levi's, Lee Jean's, American Hair Products. They sell American beer, American wine, American cars, American TVs and computers. You see Nike's and Reebok's, T-shirts, sweatshirts. Sweatshirts with company logos are produced and marketed in impoverished nations. It's just an interesting thing. When Jesus said the children of this age are more shrewd, he is telling us something that is absolutely true. It doesn't matter what our products do to these impoverished people as long as we can market them. As long as you can get your car into China with over a billion consumers, potential consumers, India. It doesn't matter how it gets in there. It doesn't matter as long as we make our money. Am I saying that capitalism is evil? No, I'm not. Am I saying that we shouldn't market products? No, I'm not. What I'm saying is, is people know what they want and will do anything, anything to achieve that goal. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying. If I were to ask you, name the world's greatest TV evangelist, what would your answer be? The greatest TV evangelist. Billy Graham, who else? Greg Glory, the greatest TV evangelist. Charles Stanley. You know the greatest TV evangelist? ABC. CBS. NBC. That's your evangelist. They have 24-7, 365 days out of the year propaganda going. Name one station like ABC, CBS that doesn't have commercials, that doesn't sell you a product, that isn't making millions and millions of dollars off of promotion of their product. Name one, that isn't. Again, am I saying they're evil? No, I'm saying they are shrewd. They know what they want. They market it. What do you think the United States, in one generation, in one generation, in one generation, how do you think the United States got the way that it is? Where we have women who are in New York in Times Square, Times Square not wearing tops, who are saying this is, we're freeing women. We're doing this for women. How do you think that happened? Marie, my wife and I were talking about this. And in my mother's generation, if a woman would have removed her top in public, another woman would have popped her in the head. That's what would have happened. That's what would have happened. The other woman would have been all over that naked lady. Why? Because they would have said, you are acting in a way that is offensive to me and is not good for my husband. And they would have defended. What do they do now? I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. How do we handle this? When did we get to the place in the United States where you would sell body parts of infants, like Planned Parenthood is doing? When did we get there? How did that happen? How? How did it happen that Christians who refuse to cater to homosexual weddings get fined multiple thousands of dollars because they stood up and said, this isn't right. It violates my conscience. I can't do that. Oh, that's fine. We'll find you $150,000 because of your bigotry. How did that happen, guys? We can all add to that, can't we? 24-7. 24-7. There aren't very many wholesome movies being made. Not very many. There are some, not many. Turn on the top 40 with young people listening today and try and find a love song. There are some, but try and find some. And it's kind of difficult because there is so much anchor and hatred and vulgarity and profanity. And that is spewing 24-7. And Christians, Christians listen to it just like everybody else does and get dulled. Their consciences are seared as with a hot iron. You just are dulled to it. And that's what's taking place. And the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking concerning how the world knows what it wants and how the world serves itself. The world has the funds. The world has the physical resources. And the world markets its product. We've all heard of Hollywood, but you might find it interesting. Bollywood, how many of you have ever heard of Bollywood? Bollywood is from India. It's their version of Bollywood. Bollywood is bigger than Hollywood in the world. They produce more movies. And so we are consumers. And what we do as consumers is we fund the evangelism of the world for certain products. And that's why, again, verse 8, Jesus said, the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. Somebody said, worldly men in the choice of their object are foolish. But in their activity and perseverance, they are often wiser than believers in their activity and perseverance. The world pulls out all the stops to profit from what it believes in. The world has a system that generates billions and billions of dollars from cosmetics, fast foods, entertainment. And one of the things to remember is that the system of this world trades off our dissatisfaction in life. That's what commercials are. Commercials are trading off of my dissatisfaction. That's what they do. Listen, you've got a car, but it's not good enough. You've got clothing, but it's not good enough. You have a hair that's turned a certain color. That's not the right color, right? I mean, you have food that you can prepare at home if you want, but it's not good enough. What you need is our product because they are... This is so basic, but it's true. They are trading off of my dissatisfaction. Always saying that there is something more, better, improved. So they say, use our shampoo. You use it. But now it seems that your hair is getting dry because you use it every day. So they use our conditioner. Oh, okay. Well, the reason my hair is dry is because I'm over-shampooing my hair. So instead of them saying, don't shampoo your hair so often, they just come up with another product to buy. And then sometimes they mix it together so that I can have it. Why? Because that's what they say, I need it. Nobody really thinks about it. We just continue plodding along and continue spending money, and they continue telling us, oh, yeah, you had this particular hair product, the shampoo, and it's really good, but we have the new and improved. And what is new and improved? Well, it's got a different bottle or a different color. And that's what they trade off. You're never going to be happy until you have what I sell you. Well, Jesus in verse one said something interesting here. Of course, everything he said is interesting, but notice the accusation this man is wasting his goods. How do the children of light waste God's possessions? The answer by failing to put him in his kingdom first. The believer so very often admires the materialist that they end up ignoring eternity. In Psalm 49, 16, and 17, do not be afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased, for when he dies he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him. How much does he leave behind? Everything. In 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 6 to 8, Godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. You don't have to answer it, just one of those rhetorical moments. What is your favorite meal? I guarantee you it's probably some very simple basic thing that mama used to make. My mama used to, and Marie makes the same thing, so I can say it this way, because I love it. But my mama used to make, she'd get some hamburger meat, and she'd get some potatoes, and some onions, and she'd fry up the hamburger meat, mix in the potatoes, maybe a little onion, maybe a little bit of tomato, very light, and then put some beans next to it. I was in heaven. Seriously. Just basic stuff. Basic stuff. It's the basic stuff that you love. You know, if you said to me, would you like filet, or would you like, my mama called a guiso. I'd rather have my mama's guiso. That's what I'd rather have. It's meat, meat's meat. This is what I like. Give me a tortilla. Some salsa. I'm in heaven. See, it's the basic things. Isn't it really the basic things? You'll remember, I remember we went to such and so place, and we had a great meal there, yeah. But that was a special moment. It was nice. It's the daily joys, the daily things that are so plain and so basic. So basic. And so we have to be careful, guys, that we don't get sucked into the world system. And that's what the Lord's speaking about here in this, and that was on my heart, and I want to share this with you. We need to pray that the Lord will increase our vision for eternity. Because when we have an eternal vision, we make sure to prepare for our future. And an eternal vision is needed to motivate the people of God to use the resources properly. Again, we battle against the lures of our flesh, but we have to, in order that we might prepare properly for our future. And the idea of eternity should motivate us to serve the Lord and invest in his kingdom. Jesus said something in John 4, 35 and 36. He said, do you not say four months more and then the harvest? I tell you, and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages. Even now he harvests the crop for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Open your eyes and see what's out there. I will talk to my staff on occasion, and the men of my staff, and we're discussing ministry. And I'll say, we have to take Jesus's words and understand he was pointing in a visible way. He was pointing it out to his men. He was saying, you need to look and you need to see what's out there. Because if you don't, you're going to miss your opportunities. You're saying four months and then the harvest. I tell you, the harvest is now. It is now. And so that's the reason we do what we do here in this ministry, just so that you know that. God wants us to see what he sees. Jesus said in verse 9, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon. Riches promise much, but they perform nothing. Riches excite hope and confidence, but they deceive both. In making a man depend on them for happiness, they rob him of the salvation of God and of eternal glory. For these reasons they are represented as unjust and deceitful. He said, use money wisely. Even though it most often is used selfishly. He says, rather than trusting in riches, use the material things God has given you for his glory. He's saying, invest in his kingdom. God shall admit you if you make faithful use of his gifts in graces. This is something that I became aware of a long time ago that I'll share with you and hopefully it won't be misunderstood. No, I'm not going to try and take a special off friend, don't worry. You can take your hands off your wallets. No, I'm not trying to guilt you into anything. If you think that you're wrong. Long time ago though I heard about how Jehovah's Witnesses who teach a false gospel teach a false gospel. False Christ and a false gospel. Now they'll get the men in the church and they'll build a kingdom hall in a weekend. The men come together and they work and they put up the kingdom hall. Mormon church, in order to be a member of the Mormon church, you're a tither. And so they have millions of dollars that they put into a false gospel to deceive a world about a false Christ and a false hope. But the church has a tendency of not having vision for eternity and we say, oh no, I you know I've got to feed my family I've got to take care of myself and all of that's understandable and legitimate and I'm not knocking that. But at the same time we're not trusting the Lord to provide our daily bread the way Jesus taught us to. And so when you've got the cult going out there reaching people with a false gospel, you've got the church sitting back saying, oh I can't afford to do these things. And that's just not right. Because when we have a vision for eternity then we reach the world for Jesus Christ. We need to not trust in riches. We need to use the material things that God has given us for His glory. In Philippians in chapter 4 Paul said it like this in verses 16 and 17 he said even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. You see when you give to the Lord he says that's fruit that abounds that's laying your treasure in heaven. Now it's interesting in verse 10 how he says he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. Faithful in what is least. Isn't this interesting when he says faithful in what is least he's saying financial faithfulness is basic. He regards that as the very least. But the amazing thing is that when you're faithful to God he blesses you. In Malachi chapter 3 verse 10 it says bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house test me in this says the Lord Almighty see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you'll not have room enough for it. Test me in this the only place the Lord actually says to test him in something. Therefore verse 11 if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust the true riches and if you've not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own. If you do not faithfully steward God's resources he's not going to give you what is true value. God has given us material things to steward and we are faithful as we do so. Somebody wrote according to this passage a steward's task was to manage all the affairs of his master attend to receipts and expenditures and portion out to each one of the household what should come to him. The disciples were left thus in charge of his gospel and were to use this gift to the best advantage in behalf of others until his return. So if we're not faithful in the material why would he trust us with true riches with heavenly riches. You see verse 13 no one no servant can serve two masters it's impossible to serve money and God simultaneously. Now as he says this we'll close by looking at verses 14 and 15 the Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard all these things they derided him he said to them you are those who justify yourselves before men but God knows your hearts what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. So they're listening but they're greedy and they mock him for what he has to say they were according to verse 14 lovers of money and he says in verse 15 you justify yourselves before men so Jesus directly addresses their hypocrisy and that's why they cover it up you see they don't even hear what he's saying because the materialism has blinded them but notice what he says in verse 15 what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God you see Pharisees thought riches were the product of their faithfulness they thought by being rich it revealed their righteousness but he's saying the more you work to be admired by men this is interesting the literal the more you work to be admired by men the more disgusted you make God in Proverbs 29 23 a man's pride will bring him low but the humble in spirit will retain honor James 4 6 God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble and so why did I teach this tonight it's time for a special offering now why did I teach because every once in a while the Lord says and of course there are those who will think that I did this just to receive I've been at ministry for a long time and I used to think if I give a teaching on something people will do it but they don't some do some don't it just depends on the condition of your heart the kind of soil you have my responsibility is to sow seed it's God's responsibility to make it grow and if our heart is open to receive the seed of the word of God it will produce fruit if it isn't then it's just going to lay dormant that's what happens we need this attitude to try and oh we need money because frankly that isn't the reason I taught this the reason I taught this is I believe that it's time once in a while for me to teach on stewardship to share about being faithful to God not because we have some needs because if there was a real need that we had let me tell you how I handled that just so that you know I would walk up and I'd say you know we have a financial need we have to give I would encourage you to do so that's how I do it so no I was thinking what is it Lord that we as a church need and what we need is to be faithful stewards that's what we need we need to get our eyes off the material we need to put our eyes on Christ and we need to see eternity because people are going to hell without Jesus Christ because they're perishing Jesus set up the church in such a way for us to take his message and to faithfully give it that's my heart for this every time we get together but for this Sunday night that's my heart you know somebody says and might as well address it while I'm thinking of it somebody says why are you showing some gangster stuff I'm not showing gangster stuff I'm showing the gospel and how God changes lives through Jesus Christ that's what we're doing that's what we're doing because I'm to I might as well I'm trying to think of how to say this because I'm about to close and I don't want to say things wrong that are wrong or can be misunderstood the church needs to learn to love God to love the lost and to love one another and the church sometimes is a very unkind mean-spirited family can be harsh judgmental highly critical extremely narcissistic but I love the church I love the church but sometimes we're just mean my mama could be mean sometimes I guess everybody's mama could be mean sometimes some mean mama I mean my mama could be mean sometimes several years ago my mama my dad was in the hospital he was he was about to die my mom was under such stress she got upset in the hospital she got so upset it caused my brother to get upset and my brother left angrily my mom tried to stop him from going it was one of those ugly moments that you don't like to remember but I do and mama tried to stop him from going she just lost it her husband's dying we understand that it just came off wrong and so mama went and came back after trying to catch him but she couldn't mama had lupus and this is all happening in front of some woman inside of this waiting room and it's just really an awkward moment I pretended I didn't know them no mama came back and she said I couldn't catch him I couldn't catch him he's so mad and my heart went out to my mom it's my mom and I looked at her and I said mama I love you with all my heart I will always love you you're my mama but you can be mean sometimes you can be mean so who can't be mean under the right conditions right circumstances even the sweetest saint can get upset but is that the way the church is supposed to be no the church should love one another and we should love the lost and we should trust the Lord with our finances so as I give to him those finances are used to reach the people that so many people are afraid of what's going to happen how are we going these gangsters and this and that you know what changes gangsters the gospel that changes the way the gospel changed hippies the way the gospel changed some real nice people who are highly educated but still lost the gospel changes people and in our investments in the kingdom of God we're showing our vision for eternity and when I give my gifts I give with faith knowing that the Lord provides he is able and I give knowing that it's to him I'm giving and he rewards that faithfulness that's what he does we just need to be aware of eternity and we need to know that when we give we're giving to him and he blesses