Introduction:

Picture in your mind a Christian parent who really seeks to follow the Lord and train up his or her children to live for God, too. If you and I choose to be one of those special parents we want our children to know that they can trust us. Recall that last week we dealt with the question, “Do I really trust God.” If we do not that is our choice. However, God is trustworthy. He is more trustworthy than the best Christian parent. God’s care is constant and God’s gifts are generous. Since this lays the foundation for my current series of messages on trust I would encourage you to listen to the cassette recording of last week’s message.

Even though we parents are not as trustworthy as God, we want our children to be able to trust us, right? Now turn this around. Do we parents trust our children? That depends doesn’t it? Hopefully our trust in our children grows, as they get older. When we lived on a busy street in Des Moines I did not trust my four-year-old son to cross the street without supervision. We want to see that they are careful and pay attention. Hannah and Jonathan are much older now and our street in Adel is not as busy, so we trust them to cross the street or walk down to the park or school. Rachael is older in college and somewhat on her own, so we trust her more. She has earned our trust. What if she did not go where she told us she was going or came home much later than agreed on or did something we did not approve of? Then we would not trust her as much until she slowly earned it back.

I believe it is appropriate to compare God’s trust of his children to our trust of our children. He loves us regardless of our age or maturity. When we are first born spiritually we are not likely to be trusted as much as after we have matured in our relationship with Him.

With this in mind I want each of us to begin to consider the question, “Can God Trust Me?” Are we growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ so that we have demonstrated to the Lord that He can trust us? To make it practical and because it is scriptural we are going to think about our trust regarding the stewardship of our talents, gifts, and possessions.

Chapter 16: Wrong attitude about wealth and possessions
Those who have heard me preach and teach through the years know that I frequently speak of prayer and faith. On some occasions I have spoken on possessions. In thinking about how much the Bible focuses on money or possessions, perhaps I need to focus more on this also. Do you realize that Jesus talked about money or possessions in 16 of 38 parables; in 1 out of 10 verses in the Gospels. The Bible devotes 500 verses to prayer, less than 500 verses to faith; but over 2,000 verses to money and possessions.

As we begin to look at this story of the Foolish Manager this morning I want you to note that this story is directed at Jesus’ disciples, not to the crowd.

The Accountability of the Foolish Manager.
Vv 1,2 When the owner came back, this unwise manager was brought into accountability.

Reasons why I am accountable to God:

1. He is the owner.
God really owns everything I think I have. Everything I have I have belongs to God. Actually, I own none of the things that I call mine. I am accountable to the owner, who is God. This is critical to our trusting God with possessions. If I think all the stuff I have really belongs to me, I am going to live in conflict with God. The conflict begins to disappear when I come to realize that everything I possess is not mine. It is a gift from God. My health, my family, my home, my car, etc. are all gifts from God.

2. I am the manager.
While God owns all that I have, He has entrusted these possessions into my care. I am accountable to God to be the manager of all these things.
Let’s have a quiz question. Suppose you earned $500 last week, how much of it belongs to God? Yes, all of it. Not $50, a tithe of it, but all $500 is really God’s. Until we settle this issue we are going to be in trouble in this area of our walk with God.

3. The owner has expectations of the manager
When the owner in the parable returned he wanted to know how his manager managed his money? As Christians, the owner is God, and He has some areas of expectation in our use of what He entrusts to us.

Areas of Expectation

• A. Give ourselves to Him. Romans 12:1 Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God.
• B. Our Possessions. Luke 14:33 No one can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.
• C. Our Time. Ephesians 5:15-17 Act like people with good sense and not like fools. These are evil times, so make every minute count. Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.
• D. Our Abilities. I Peter 4:1-10. Each one of you has been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.
• E. Our Good News, the Story of Jesus. I Thessalonians 2:4 God was pleased to trust us with His message. We didn’t speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives.

“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. I’m so far behind that I will never die.” With that in mind I am going to have a long life, or God will need to take much off the list of things to do from me.

4. The Assessment of the Foolish Manager.
Look at verse 3. The unwise manager in our Lord’s parable realizes that he is in trouble. His master does not approve of how he has been handling things. He makes an assessment when he realizes that his master is going to fire him. He was not doing what his master required and knew that he needed to make some changes.

5. The Action of the Foolish Manager.
(Read v. 4-7) Perhaps the manager was dropping the interest owed and just charging the principle. Maybe he overcharged them to begin with and is asking them for a reasonable price. Although he was an unwise manager Jesus pointed out four lessons to be learned from the story:

• 1. We are to use our opportunities wisely. v. 8,9
  Jesus commended the man for his wise use of the opportunity. The master praised his dishonest manager, not for the bad job that he did. He was commended because when he realized he was in trouble he immediately took action to fix his problem.
  Could it be that some here might say that you are not fully using your gifts and talents for God? Maybe some of you have decided to follow Jesus Christ, but you have not settled the issue that God owns everything you have? I have Good News to share if you have not used your opportunities wisely. God is giving you another chance to settle the accounts, to make a new start in using your gifts and talents for Him.
  And though I cannot go back
  and make a brand new start my friend,
  anyone can start from now
  and make a brand new end.
  Jesus commended this man for beginning to use his opportunity wisely. In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus talked about not storing up treasures on earth where they not last. Paraphrase: “You can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead.”
  When you get to heaven will there be people there to meet you to thank you for investing your lives, your gifts, your talents, so that they could come to know Christ or grow in their relationship with our Lord? Are you using the opportunities wisely that you have right now?
  
• 2. Trust must be earned. (Read vv. 10-12)
  If we are not faithful in a few things, why would God give us more things? Think back to the illustration of parenting that I mentioned a few minutes ago. If we cannot trust our children in little things do we give them more? Trust needs to be earned. Most parents do not just grant trust. The more our children show that they earn our trust, the more trust we give them. If, however, our children show that we cannot trust them, we take away some privileges until they earn back our trust.
  Recall the story of the talent where Jesus gave one-person ten talents, one five, and the other only one? Have you ever wondered why the master gave the person only one talent? I would like to suggest an answer to that question. It was probably because in previous dealings with him the master knew that he could not trust him with more.
  How much can God trust you with? How much can God trust me? How many talents, opportunities, and abilities can He give me because I am trustworthy? How many has God withheld from me because I have not been trustworthy? Can God trust you with money? Could it be that you lack financially because you are not trustworthy. Could it be that God has opportunities to give you and me, but He does not because we are not using the opportunities that we have right now?
  How many blessings do we miss because we are waiting? Am I trustworthy with what I have right now? Sometimes people say “When I strike it big I will give God a great big gift.” If they are not giving God their tithe right now, they are probably not going to give more than a tithe when they get rich. Others may say, “If I ever get an opportunity to do something great for God, I will do it.” That is not likely if they are not doing something now. I wonder how many blessings we miss because we are sitting in our pew waiting for that opportunity to hit us?
  The Big Question: Why would the Master give me more if I misused what I have?
  “The Parable of the Three Little Turtles”
  There were three turtles who were going out one summer afternoon for a country picnic.
  One carried a basket with the food and another carried a jug with Turtle Aide and the third, nothing. Just then they felt the first raindrops on their shells. “We can’t have a picnic without an umbrella,” said the first turtle. “Who will go back for one?” They made the choice and the empty handed turtle was chosen. “I won’t go,” he said. “As soon as I go you’ll eat all the food and drink all the turtle aide. “You’ll cut me out of everything, right?” “Wrong,” they said. “We’ll wait for you no matter how long.” “No matter how long?” asked the third turtle. “No matter how long,” the other two replied.
  He turned back and they sat waiting, an hour, two hours, four, eight, two days, a week. Two weeks went by when one turtle turned to the other and said, “Maybe we should go ahead and have the picnic.”
  Just then the voice of the third turtle came out from the bushes behind them, “If you do, I won’t go.”
  How many times has God entrusted something to us, and instead of going, we went behind the bushes? Just because we did not trust Him and after a while God probably decided that we were not trustworthy. Trust needs to be earned.
  
• 3. Trust can be measured. V. 10-12
  God measurers trust, not by what we are going to do, but by what we are doing right now.
  GOD MEASURES MY TRUSTWORTHYNESS BY HOW I MANAGE WHAT HE HAS GIVEN ME AT THIS PRESENT TIME.
  
• 4. You cannot serve two masters. V. 13
  Story of pastor visiting a farmer. The pastor asked the farmer, “If you had 100 cows and God asked you for fifty, would you give them to Him?”
  “Oh Yes, I sure would, preacher”
  “If you had 100 horses and God asked you for 50, would you give them to him?”
  “Oh, sure I would preacher.”
  “If you had 100 horses and God asked you for 50, would you give them to him?”
  “Oh, sure I would preacher.”
  “If you had two hogs, and God asked for one, would you give it to Him?”
  “Now that’s not fair preacher. You know I have two hogs.”

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