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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family.

Now God wants us to understand that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. You see when Christ came into the world he says, I’m the light of the world. But those who believe in the light become the children of light. So he says the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. Because in this world they figure out how to do things, how to the work of things. In other words, if this was the only life there is, they figure out how to make and do and accomplish more than it seems like God’s own people can.

We also live here, but we have a stewardship that’s a little bit different than the people of the world. But he says, there’s something that’s in here that he wanted his people to see. And was a point to all of this. But he’s talking about being a faithful steward versus an unfaithful steward. So he makes a statement up there in verse 3, then the steward said within himself, hmm, what am I going to do? What shall I do? For my Lord take the way from me the stewardship, I cannot dig, to beg I’m ashamed.

I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the steward They may receive me into their houses. What did that mean? Well, I think it means that there were debtors. And see, in those days when they had a debt, you would have done. Don’t give a pen. The guy that says, I’m in debt, and he writes it out, says, I owe you $50. They sign it. And then the steward would also sign it. So the steward has that debt that this man owes.

So he’d write out the bill, sign it, and the steward would sign it. So they had a piece of paper that says, this is what you owe. So what had happened was when he realized that he might lose job. So he went and got his creditors and he got them together. And how much do you owe? I owe $500. He said, look, right out on another one, you only owe 250. Well, cut it in half. And you sign it.

And then I sign it. And we’ll tear up the other one. And this is when we got this is what you owe. You’ll see the master of the house has got to have to look at all all these receipts and he wants to see it. So by the time he goes to all of these things and he shows, well, he was an unjust steward. What he was doing was crooked. It was wicked. It was wrong, but he was smart.

You know, there’s a lot of smart people in this world that can figure out what to do. But generally, you get caught, don’t you? You know, there was one lady that was on Facebook and she was bragging about how she had ripped off the IRS. She was so glad and she dared them to come after her. Well, they did. And put her in jail. This was in news not long ago. There’s always somebody trying to rip off the Social Security, rip off Medicare and there’s doctors and all these things to rip them off and they’ll never catch me in and some of them they get caught.

Some of them they get away with it and they say, don’t you do that again? Well, within six months they’re back in business again. But there’s a lot of wicked people in this world that know how to work a system. And they can make money, and they’re smart. But that’s not how God expects His children to work. We’re supposed to do right. At all times we have to do right. And so we have to, whatever we get, whatever we keep, whatever we spent, we have to do everything right.

That’s what Christians are supposed to do. Christians do right. always says here in Luke chapter 16. So this is what he did in verse 5 he says, who’s going to receive me into their house? In other words, if I treat them right and if I lose my job they’ll take care of me. I can stay with him for a while. Well if there’s a lot of them and he forgave, he forgave, he forgave, he did, see the boss man has to honor what the steward does.

So he’s opening up all these opportunities where they’ll like me and I don’t have to go work and I won’t have to beg. Now isn’t that scheming? I think that sounds like pretty good. I know a lot of people do this in a minute. So what he says is in verse 5, so he called every one of his Lord’s debtors unto him, said unto the first, how much, O estal unto my Lord? He said a hundred measures of oil.

He said in him, take thy bill sit down quickly and write 50. Hey, that’s pretty good. The people that are doing it, well, it’s wrong for them to do that too. But they don’t mind it because, see, they are His friends now. They are His friends. So then He says there in verse 6, and He said, 100 measures of oil, He said down right 50, verse 7, then said He to another and how much Oest thou? He said a hundred measures of wheat.

He said unto him, take thy bill and write for store. And the Lord commended the unjust steward. That means his boss man finds out what he did and committed him for being so smart. But he was still an unjust steward with something that didn’t belong to him. He He was still wrong in what he did. He did it, but it wasn’t justified. You can be amazed at what some people can do, but it’s still wrong. Well the only reason I robbed that bank and I stole all that money so I could feed the poor.

Well God bless you, that was really kind of you. You were so thoughtful. But you see, you robbed the money from the bank. It’s okay for you to do it with your own, but you don’t rob the bank and take the money because you have a good deed that you want to do with it. You just don’t do that. So he says in verse 8, because he had done wisely for his sake, not for the boss men, but for his sake.

But at the same time, what they owed, at least the boss man got something, he may not have gotten anything. I don’t know. He says, because He hath done wisely for the children in your underlightness in your Bible, children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. The children of light is a reference to God’s people that know better. God’s people that are supposed to be faithful stewards, they know more. They’ve been entrusted with more.

God has entrusted us with a ministry. Therefore we’re supposed to be found faithful, doing whatever it is God wants us to do. And He says here in verse 9, And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitation. Now that is a little of a complicated verse I have to admit. And most people, when you get right down to it, don’t really know what it means because it seems like it’s a little contradictory.

I’m supposed to make those ungodly people, my friends, of unrighteous money gained, and I’m supposed to enter into their everlasting habitation. What? What something don’t seem to add up. But if you look at just a little bit different in verse 9, make to yourselves friends of the mamma of unrighteousness. Now I believe he’s changing the subject matter here. For you and I, those people who love money, the people who love the unrighteousness of the world and get money, ill-gained and the poor or whatever, And they have wrong motives.

Did you know that every person in the flesh has wrong motives? Every person in the flesh. They’re only motive as the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. That’s the motive of why they do what they do. But you and I can make those same people. Remember that verse we read just a moment ago in 2 Corinthians in chapter 6, though poor making many rich. of taking people who think that everything revolves around the money and making them your friends.

In this short period of time that we have, how many friends have you made? Friends because you win them to Christ. You’ve taken this treasure that God has given to us and we have been able to reach the people that have made money their gold. that whenever life is all over with, because you see just like there come the time when that man lost his stewardship, every one of us, one of these days is going to lose our stewardship.

We’re not going to be stewards on here forever. Our stewardship is only for so long and we don’t know how long it’s going to be. I may be a steward for another five years, but it may end tomorrow. Yours may be another 10 years or 20 years. We don’t know how long we’re going to live that God is going to say, this is what I want you to do. And we are dispensing God’s truth. And we have a ministry.

We’re walking together with the Lord. We’re building a ministry. Me and God. We have a minister, you have a minister, you and God. And so we’re affecting other people’s lives. And so when these people die that we have reached, even though their motive was wrong, their goal was wrong, money was their goal, this life was their goal, but it’s not supposed to be the children of light. So we try to win as many people as we can to Christ and thereby making many that are poor, we make them rich.

And yet we are the ones that are really rich because of what we know. We are stewards of a rich man. You see, our Father is the richest there is. He owns the whole world. He owns the cattle on the thousand hills. He all this says all the silver and all the gold, all the earth. He says, it’s all mine. So it all belongs of the Lord. You and I, we belong to the Lord and therefore we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and because of this great opportunity God has given to us in this little bit of time that God has given us.

And we don’t know exactly when our stewardship is going to end but why you’re here, we reach as many people as we possibly can be good stewards of what God’s given us. And these people that we reach, when they die, where do they go? They go to heaven. And when they go to heaven, and then when we die, we will see our friends in an everlasting habitation. He see here the unjust steward does what he does, but it’s temporary.

He’s making friends for a moment because he’s only going to live for a moment. But we’re making friends for eternity. Did you realize every person you have won the Christ when you get to heaven and see all those faces of all those people? Did you realize they’re going to love you? They are going to love you. It don’t matter down here how people treat you what they say, what they do, none of that matters because when you and I get to heaven all those friends that we’ve made are real friends, true friends, and they’ll be eternally grateful that you were a good steward.

You were a faithful steward. You got the gospel to these people who were in love with everything except God and you brought the truth to them, they saw it, they understand and they trust the Lord. Now this is two things that he mentions here and I think it’s important to see it. But look there, the last part of verse 9, verses that when you fail, that word fail there is really talking about when you die, when your stewardship is over.

And then he makes his statement there in verse 10, he that is faithful faithful, and that which is least is faithful also in much. If you’ll be faithful to serve the Lord with what you have where you are. God’s going to bless you. And the more faithful you are, you say, well, if I had a million dollars, I would, God don’t care about you having a million dollars. Are you faithful to do what you came with, what you do have?

Well, if I had a big home and fancy cars, I would, God not interested in what you might get, how you would be if, just stay out of that if I had a only club. Start with what you do. What you have with what you have with what you have with what you have with what you have with what God gave you with the talent and the abilities that God’s given you and you be faithful to that and God will give you more and give you some more and give you some more.

But the Bible says he that is unfaithful in that which is little will be unfaithful in that which is much In other words God says I can’t trust you with this Why should I give you much more? Do you know that’s why sometimes maybe God doesn’t bless some people because They’re not faithful with what they do have I Know a lot of people they’ve suffered a lot of consequences because they will not be found faithful to do what they can with what they have where they are.

And they’re always miserable because nothing seems to work out for them because they just don’t understand. And they think, well, if God gave me more and more and more, I would be faithful. No, no, no, no. Be faithful where you are now, or whatever you have. You say, well, how do I find this path of righteousness? Very simple. Everything it’s right. Do it. And that will become a path of righteousness. You start doing all the right you know to do.

It becomes a path. A path of righteousness. And if you serve the Lord faithfully, God will guide you where He wants you to be. And you’d be surprised how God can open up doors and windows. Doors of opportunity and windows of blessing that you never dreamed of. But some people, they whine and pine and moan and groan about their sorry lot in life, instead of how faithful are you now? How faithful are you now to do what you’re supposed to do?

And if you’re not going to be faithful with little, why should God give you anymore? And they don’t know how much rest with them. So look what he says here in verse 10, he that is faithful in that which is the least is faithful also in much. And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. The unjust means he’s unfaithful. It means that you’re an unjust steward, just as bad as this guy is mentioning here.

There is going to be a day of accountability. And we don’t like to even think about that. We think it’s so far off, it doesn’t matter. Or I can just, you know, I’ll catch up in the long run. I’ll catch up down here someday. When I get old enough, you know, and I’m slowing down and I can’t hardly move, then I’ll get everything right. Do you know how much time you’ve got to live? No. Do you know what kind of a frame of mind you’re going to be in when you get close to death?

No. So you shouldn’t plan tomorrow at all as far as this life is concerned. And that’s why the Bible says in that verse, we just looked at it while we looked right over it in 2 Corinthians 1 today is the day of salvation. Today, not tomorrow, today. And it’s why we should do what we do today. But people to trust the Lord because we don’t have a guarantee I can win anybody to the Lord tomorrow. Why? I may not be here tomorrow.

This is why there might be some people I can reach today. So this is why it’s so important. Now look in verse 11, if therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon or the things of796 the world, the money of this world, if you can’t be trusted with the things in this world then God can’t trust you with other things. If you can’t be faithful and trustworthy in the material things of this life then God can’t trust you the spiritual things.

Because see how you How you handle spiritual things is revealed by how you handle material things. And if you can’t handle that, and you can’t deal with that and do right, then God says, I can’t trust you in spiritual things. So you don’t get the opportunity somebody else might. Well, I’ve been saved longer than don’t matter how long you’ve been saved. Can God trust you? There’s teenagers sometime they said it or parents. My parents just don’t trust me. You ever have kids say that?

My parents don’t trust me. Well, it’s because maybe you’re not worthy of trust. Maybe there’s something that you have not done. They required of you and you didn’t do it. You must be trustworthy, worthy of trust. And so if you want God to trust you, be faithful in little things. And most people think, well, when some big opportunity comes by, boy, God, you can count on me. If he can’t count on you on little things, he can’t count on you on big things.

And this is why he says, he’s saying, look in verse 12, and if you have not been faithful, and that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? In other words, everybody usually has somebody that does something for them. You ever put money in the bank and you’re trusting them to be good stewards of your money? If you ever hired somebody to cut your grass, do any odd jobs for you? You see, whenever you have a stewardship, it means you work for somebody.

Chances are you’ve had somebody work for you. And if you can’t be trusted to be a good steward of what somebody trusted you, did you know that somebody else is probably going to steal and rob from you? And you’re going to lose what you have. amazing how God has set up this life with certain laws that just seems to work and you can’t violate them without suffering the consequences. So you have a simple little illustration, a story, a why you and I ought to be found faithful.

Not very remember. This is not talking about how we’re supposed to get to heaven. Going to heaven is a gift. It’s free. Christ came into the world and he had a stewardship. God entrusted him with this ministry that God gave to him. He had to come into this world and live a perfect life. And regardless of what anybody said or did, he couldn’t sin against anybody. He had to stay pure and perfect, not commit one single sin in order to make that payment for our sins.

And even little many things that you wouldn’t think are important, all of them were important. Let me give you one of the scripture before we close. Look in James chapter 1, the book of James and chapter 1. When we’re talking about being faithful, it means as you read and study the word of God to grow in the Lord, because there’s things that’s going to happen in your life to try to get you not to be faithful. So God will allow things to happen to prove your faithfulness to him.

And remember, I’ve said this many times before, true faithfulness to the Lord is when you remain faithful when it appears that God is unfaithful. There will be times in your life when you think God has not kept His word. God let me down. God fail me. But in your back you might know, that can’t be. God can’t fail. God can’t do wrong. God can’t sin. And therefore I’m going to keep trusting him. And though he’s slaving yet, well, I trust him.

Now God will use that man. But look what he says here in verse two. My brethren counted all joy when you fall in the divers temptations. Knowing this at the trying of your faith work at patience. But let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfectly complete, entire, wanting nothing, lacking nothing. And if any of you lack wisdom, God wants you to ask of Him. And He says, He will give unto all men liberally and upright if not, and it shall be given Him, but let Him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for He that waver is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.

But He said, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord, double minded men unstable in all of his ways. If you’re unstable, like the wave of the sea, he’s mentioned there in verse 6, then you’re not faithful. You’re like a yo-yo, up and down, up and down, up and down. And God doesn’t use a man like that and God won’t bless him and God won’t answer his prayers and God won’t use him. And then he thinks, God’s the one that fault.

No, God’s not a fault. God does not require anything of If any man he cannot perform, God never asks anybody to do something you can’t do, but God requires faithfulness to do what you can with what you have, where you are, with what God is entrusted you to do. And just be as faithful as you possibly can and let God take care of the rest of it. And you’d be surprised how that all of a sudden God will open up doors and it’ll open up windows.

Opportunities will come. God will bless. Look up here. Letting this hand represent you and me. The wallet represents sin. We all have sin on us. The Bible says God loves us. But He hates our sin, but He loves us. And for us to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. In hell, since we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. To go to heaven, we’ve got to be perfect. Righteous is God.

None of us are perfect. We’ve all done things wrong. And because of sin, see we can’t get in. So God says you have a payment to make your in debt. And God says your good works won’t pay the sin debt. Because the sin debt has to be paid by death. You have to die. So God doesn’t say you’ve got to turn from your sins. He says you’ve got to die. The sin represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because our sin separates us.

So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die. He took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back and said if we would believe He did it for us, He would put this payment to our account. We go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did for us. And it says all we had to do is just believe this and if we believe it, He says you can know that you have eternal life.

So can you know you have eternal life? Yes. Know that you’re going to heaven? Yes. Best news in all the world. So after we finish tonight, do you believe that you should be a faithful steward or an unjust steward? I want to be a faithful steward. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around. If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, would you right now, you’re either watching by internet or here in the auditorium.

If you’ve never honestly trusted the Lord, would you just say, Lord, I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died, paid for my sins and I’m going to trust Him to take me to heaven whenever I die. I realize that I cannot save myself. And friend, if you’ll trust the Lord, He’ll save and give eternal life. And He’ll never cast you out and never lose you. I pray that you will. If you have already trusted Christ as your Savior, understand that God is going to hold us accountable for the time that He’s given us to live.

Be found faithful. Just do what you can, where you are with what you do have. And if you’ll be faithful, God will give you more. And and then just be faithful. Maybe you don’t get everything that you want right away. Just be faithful. Give God time. He says all these things is to teach you patience. Patience. Patience in the Bible means just you learned how to wait on God. You learn how to do things according to God’s timetable. Not yours, His.

It means that like in Isaiah 40, we wait upon the Lord. and those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Father, thank you so much for this time and again. Bless each one. Christ and we pray. Amen. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, You can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free, 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.