How Are You Using Your Paycheck?

18th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/18/16
Luke 16:1-13


How Are You Using Your Paycheck?


It’s a dangerous topic for any church pulpit, but it’s something we use every day of our lives. It’s money. One of the most common complaints against organized Christianity is, “All the church wants is my money.” But I don’t think that accusation is accurate here at Resurrection. The truth is that I can’t remember the last time I encouraged you in the godly use of your money. But it can’t be avoided if we’re going to focus our attention this morning on our Lord’s words to us in Luke 16. It’s all over this text from beginning to end. So let’s remove all attitudes regarding our money that might hinder us from listening to what Jesus tells us this morning.

What’s important to you in life? What do you really zero in on? What is it that consumes your time and interest? A decade or two ago it was stated, “Let me see your checkbook register and I’ll know immediately what’s important to you.” In other words, what we spend our money on indicates what’s important in our lives.

Today, our checkbook register might not be an accurate barometer of our life’s priorities. That record more likely is spread across bank account statements indicating automatic debits, as well as credit and debit card statements. A careful examination of those documents over a one-month period will reveal much about what’s important to us. Ultimately, the vast majority of our spending depends on what our income is, and, for most of us, that centers in our paycheck or the amount our employer deposits in our account on a regular basis.

So let’s connect what Jesus tells us this morning with the way we spend that income. How are you using your paycheck? In my mind, that’s makes a useful question for getting our hearts and minds around the various encouragements regarding using our money that Jesus presents to us this morning.

Our text begins with a parable. In the NIV it’s called The Parable of the Shrewd Manager. A little more negatively, it’s also known as The Parable of the Unjust Steward. It involves a wealthy man who has entrusted his fortune to a manager. That’s still common in our modern world. I’m sure most of you have others managing some of your assets which may be worth a small fortune. Unfortunately, as still happens all too often today, the manager was dishonest. He embezzled some of the funds. The rich man found out about it, demanded an accounting of the assets he still had, and fired the manager. The shrewd manager realized his golden opportunity. He still had the financial records. So he called in two of the rich man’s creditors. In the one case, he removed the signed contract for 800 gallons of olive oil and told the creditor to write a new contract stating he owed 400. In the other case, he removed the signed contract for 1000 bushels of wheat and told the creditor to write a new contract for 800. When the rich man received the financial records, he would be clueless as to what had transpired, thinking only that he was owed what the two contracts stated. But the shrewd manager knew that now he had two new “friends” who owed him big time. He could count on them now that he had lost his job.

That much of the parable is relatively easy to understand. But then we read these words, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.” Really?!? Is Jesus using this parable to encourage dishonesty? Is he commending those who embezzle and defraud? Absolutely not!

If not, what is he encouraging? Listen to Jesus himself, “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Jesus encourages us to be wise in the way that we use our paychecks. In fact, he argues from the lesser to the greater. People of this world—unbelievers—are shrewd when it comes to the use of money. How much more that should be true of people of the light—of Christians who have the guidance of God’s word!

We Christians have an entirely different outlook on life. This life is only temporary. It’s only the preparation for real life, life with our God eternally. So don’t waste your money on things that don’t matter eternally! Don’t live your life to get rich or attain a life of financial ease to the detriment of your eternal life. What does it matter if you die rich or penniless? What matters is whether you die with faith in Jesus as your Savior.

So what does Jesus mean by using your wealth to gain friends so you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings? There are two good interpretations. One, use your money to support kingdom work, the spread of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. When we do that, think of all the people who will become Christians and will welcome us into heaven because we supported the preaching of the gospel to them.

A second good interpretation is to use our money to help other people. Our deeds of charity and love for others are done out of love for Christ. They are some of our fruits of faith. Jesus has told us that, on the Last Day, he will point to those good deeds as evidence of our faith in him.

Jesus continues his encouragement regarding how we use our paychecks with these words: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

If your friend offered to take care of your dog while you were gone for the weekend, but when you returned home, your beloved pet was mal-nourished and ill, would you let him provide care for your child while you had an appointment? Of course not! He or she put your dog’s life in danger. You’re not going to entrust the life of your child to him or her!

Jesus makes the same point with wealth. He encourages us to be faithful in how we use our paychecks. You may not consider yourself to be rich, but, compared with the majority of people in our world, you certainly are. Our God has blessed us abundantly. All of us certainly have as much as we need and most of us have far more than that. Our God requires us to use his blessings wisely, faithfully.

And once we’ve done that, then he will entrust us with “true riches.” Do you have “true riches”? You certainly do. He’s talking about the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our greatest treasure. And one of the reasons we have Jesus is so that we can share him and his salvation with others. We can do that with what we say to other people, what we write, email or post; what portion of our paychecks we offer to our Lord so that his gospel is proclaimed here and throughout the world by the missionaries you support.

Jesus has one final instruction when it comes to your paycheck. “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” Countless people have sold their souls to the god called Money. When it comes to your paycheck, be resistant. Resist the lure of wealth and all that it can purchase for you. Guard your hearts and minds from materialism. Money is not an end in itself, it’s simply a means—the means to provide for ourselves and our families until the Lord calls us home to heaven. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:10).

So, let’s be honest. Perhaps we haven’t bowed before the god called Greed, but we’ve embraced his cousin, the god called Discontent. We’ve looked with desire on the abundance others possess and wished, “If only…” More than once we’ve tried to serve two masters. What’s more, none of us have been faithful in how we use the blessings God’s gives us. I’ve done some foolish things with my money. How about you? Shame on us—we’re children of the light! And there have been times in my life where my selfishness has prevented me from using my paycheck to make friends who will welcome me into eternal dwellings. My thinking goes like this, “I earned my paycheck; I’ll spend it on Number One!”

If you’ve joined me in that brief spiritual exercise, if you recognize your sins of how you’ve mishandled wealth, then be sorry. Lord, we can’t even handle our paychecks in a way that always pleases you. Why should you share true riches with us? Because that’s who you are. You are the God who loves to forgive those who confess to him. You are the God who sacrificed his greatest treasure—his own Son, Jesus Christ—on Calvary’s cross so that we belong to you and so that we can lay claim to Jesus as our greatest treasure, too. In Christ, we are forgiven, for our sins of greed, selfishness and discontent, and every other transgression of God’s holy law. Our God has washed us clean and made us right with him.

He does that so that we can be faithful stewards of our paychecks and all that he has given us. He promises to use his holy word to guide our faithful management of all the blessings he has given us. What more, he motivates us with love for Jesus to use all he has given us in service to him, all to his glory. How do you use your paycheck? By the grace of God, to his glory! Amen.