We Cannot Serve God and Money

  

Luke 16: 1-13

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

16 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ² And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³ No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”

We  cannot serve two masters, God and money.  Jesus taught this 2,000 years ago, but we s till try  to get away with it.  Could this be why there is so much unhappiness, so much hatred, so much violence i our world today? The pursuit of wealth is ingrained in us, and a taste of it never fully satisfies, so the pursuit of it takes over, becoming all encompassing, but in the end leaving us empty.  How do we break the pattern? .One simple way would be to use this Sunday, "The Lord's Day", just as just that:  a day of rest and refreshment, in worship, reflection , spiritual reading, or simply walking in God's beautiful world.  A prayer of thanksgiving and a prayer for direction in the best way to use our time  would also put us on the right  track.  This is the Lord's Day, let us give it to him!

Bro Rene