God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. The word of the Lord. Pray with me. Guide us, O God, by your word and spirit, so that in your light we may see light. In your truth find wisdom and in your will discover peace. Add your blessing to the reading and the hearing and the preaching of your word and grant us all the grace to trust and obey you and all God's people said. Amen. Children, I have it on good authority that some of you might make great lawyers one day, because some of you like to negotiate. Now, don't worry, you are not alone. In most families, there is at least one kid who likes to push the boundaries. Now, it's probably your brother or sister, but maybe it's you. You want to push just a little more and see how far you can go before crossing the line into sin and getting in trouble. Some kids like rules and they err on the side of, well, let's ask mom and dad. But your policy is that you would rather go ahead and do it and then ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Does any of that sound familiar? Maybe to parents in the room? Well, kids, if that's you, I want to tell you something that might surprise you and also drive your parents crazier. Good job. Now, not good job for arguing with your parents and not good job for being selfish, I do want to say good job for trying to figure out where the lines are so that you can go right up to them without sinning. Coming from someone who thought it was really fun to try to figure out how to both honor and disobey a governor, hopefully without sinning, I applaud you. I know some of the testing of boundaries gets you in trouble. And you really do need to learn to listen to your parents. But if you learn how to use that gift faithfully, well then your craftiness will be a blessing to your family and probably many other families. Parents, I know it can be exhausting, trust me. But I want to encourage you to help your kid, or if you're really being tested by the Lord, kids, to steward that gift. Try not to exasperate and deride them and turn them into bland, milquetoast evangelicals who roll over at the first sign of a rule and don't think twice about it. By all God-given means, discipline them for their defiance, but help them form and fashion their craftiness and give them chances to form and fashion and fail now so that when they grow up, they will know how to outwit the fools around them, especially the evil ones, for the glory of God and the life of the world. Be careful not to teach that inquisitive daughter the one most prone to questioning why you do what you do, the one who thinks she always has a better way to do what you do, to just be quiet and do what she's told. If you do that, you'll run the risk of driving her into rebellion, or you'll stifle her unique God-given potential to eventually run a home, consider a field, and conquer many enemies with the wise way she helps her husband train up and aim her little arrows. Don't try to subdue and medicate that son who is always taking risks. always pushing the boundaries, always going a million miles an hour. Otherwise, you might ruin a man who might otherwise grow up to work harder and smarter than his competition, who somehow would have enough energy to date his wife, play with his children, and rise to the top of his profession, conquering his enemies while joyfully mocking evil and serving Christ and his church. Now sure, our boys and girls must learn how and when to submit and to whom, and they need to learn to consider everything they are thinking and feeling and doing as it relates to what God has revealed in His will. But that's why God gave you that kid with that motor. Teach them to be faithful with what little potential for wisdom they're showing now, and when they're grown, they'll be able to be trusted with more because they'll be shrewd and crafty enough to navigate all the gray space when the time comes. That's part of, though not all, of what Jesus was getting at in his story behind the shrewd manager, or perhaps better, the wise steward, and the follow-up lessons from our gospel reading today. And I know it was a gospel reading, not just the word of the Lord, sorry. This parable is famous for being one of the most difficult in the entire Bible. With just a few principles in mind, most parables are actually quite easy to understand, even this one. Typically, though not always, the guy in the highest position of the parable is God. The guy in the lowest position of the parable is your regular Joe sinner, or your regular Jew, if I can say that without getting in trouble. And the wicked, or the questionable character, is the Jewish leaders, the priesthood, or Herod. Now, in our nice church culture, we tend to get squeamish when anyone calls anyone else out, unless it's on social media. And in our psychologized world, we might call Jesus' approach to parables as passive-aggressive. But Jesus is being a good prophet. Remember how Nathan told the story about the rich man with many flocks who took and slaughtered a poor man's only pet lamb. And just when David gets outraged, the prophet turns the tables on him and points out that David is worse than the guy in the story. Well, that's what Jesus is doing most of the time when he tells parables. He's not just being a glorified Aesop. Jesus tells stories that are just close enough to everyone's experience that they know what he's talking about, but not so close as to call anyone out specifically by name. In a couple of weeks, we'll see Jesus tell a so-called parable, though I'm not entirely convinced it's a parable, about Lazarus and a rich man who have both died. He will include details like the rich man being clothed in purple and fine linen who feasts daily and has a father and five brothers that he wants Lazarus to warn so they don't end up in torment too. Now to us, those little details seem irrelevant, but if you're there, you know the rich guys who dress in purple and fine linen and feast daily are the priests. And when a dead priest asks for Lazarus to be raised up to warn his father and five brothers, well, you know there was a priest who had died that had a father and five brothers, and Jesus has those guys in his crosshairs. We'll leave that to Britain to unpack for you in a couple weeks. That same kind of thing is going on here, and the details Jesus includes are just specific enough to catch everyone's attention. 100 baths of oil and 100 cores of wheat, references that would have been easier for you to pick up on if your English translations had been consistent here and in Ezra 7, the only time these phrases and amounts are used together. If you were sleeping already during the Old Testament lesson, there we read a letter from King Artaxerxes giving Ezra, God's priestly scribal representative, the freedom to collect up to 100 talents of silver, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and 100 cores of wheat and salt from the treasurers of the land so that Ezra could go home and beautify the temple of the Lord. The king of kings makes it clear that these were the maximum allowable amounts Ezra could charge his treasurers. But he also gave Ezra his blessing to collect free will offerings from Jews and Gentiles so that he could take the proceeds and beautify God's house. Ezra tells us that King Artaxerxes was wise enough to send his money with God's servant so that the wrath of God would not be against the realm of the king and his sons. So this Gentile king, during the age of empires, which is another word Jesus actually uses in this parable, is wise enough to bless the Lord and his people. And Ezra, the scribal priest, was shrewd enough to accept the unrighteous wealth, or mammon, from the Gentile king and put it to good use, beautifying the temple of the Lord. Well, it's hardly a coincidence. Then to a crowd of tax collectors and sinners and Pharisees and scribes who are supposed to be sons of light ruling over God's house, but were instead guilty of oppressing God's people, guilty of colluding with Rome and taxing the poor into oblivion, and guilty of making up extra laws so that they could fine people and even put them into debt so they can get their money, that Jesus draws on this story from Ezra and these specific amounts. These guys have become bad Ezras. bad priests and scribes under a bad Artaxerxes, Herod, always taking the maximum allowable amount from the people and never forgiving any debts, all under the pretense of taking everyone's money to beautify the temple. They had become foolish, wicked, terrible stewards, too soft-handed to do honest work proud to beg, and the Lord was in the process of firing them and removing the oversight, but there was still time. The Lord would by no means clear the guilty, but he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And so Jesus gives them yet another story to help them understand where they are in relation to God and what they must do to be saved. Now, if none of those Old Testament references made any sense to you whatsoever, go home and read it later. You can still understand this parable with those three principles. Master or Lord of the story is usually God. People in debt or dire straits, don't say the second thing I said, just the first one. Sinners. Okay, guys in between, or of questionable character, religious elites that are being called to open their ears, hear, repent, and be saved, or who can choose to refuse Jesus's words, harden their hearts, and hate Jesus even more for threatening their livelihood. So that's story, principle, let's dive into the parable. Jesus has just told, if you remember, a crowd full of tax collectors and sinners and Pharisees and scribes the parables of a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son to highlight how eager God was to seek and save and forgive and eat with sinners. The people who were meant to rejoice and be comforted were the sinners, the people meant to be convicted were the Pharisees, and his disciples were meant to hear and learn these lessons from their wise teacher. This exact framework is in view as Jesus now turns, as you see, and speaks directly to his disciples, though loud enough for everyone to hear because of the Pharisees' response later. He tells the story of a rich man, the guy at the top, which is good, kind of. Yeah, so God is the rich man, and he has a manager or a steward that he has placed over all of his possessions or his economy. Your text probably says the manager had been wasting the rich man's possessions. But it would have been more helpful, again, if the translators had been consistent and translated it squandered. Because that's the exact same word we heard last week about what the prodigal son was doing with his father's possessions. He was squandering them. Now think about that for a second. These stories are coming back to back. Britain explained to us last week in the story of the lost son that the father was God, the lost son was the sinners who had squandered God's gifts, and the Jews were like the older brother who should have rejoiced and feasted with their forgiven brother who had squandered his inheritance. Well, here the rich man, God the father, has entrusted the manager, the Jewish leaders, with his possessions. And this guy is guilty of the exact same sin as the younger brother in Jesus' other parable. And so basically, Jesus is calling these guys out for their hypocrisy. They are the older brother who is mad that the younger brother squandered the father's possessions, but here they're the manager who's guilty of the same thing, squandering their master's possessions. The rich man says that charges have been brought to him, that this overseer is crooked. He's been taking the rich man's possessions, collecting the debts of the people, and then using them for his own selfish ends. But look at the rich man's response. Like the father in the parable, he doesn't choke the manager. The rich man doesn't drag the crooked manager into court. He doesn't have him banished or put to death or place him in slavery until all his debts are paid back. Though as we heard in Ezra 7, he would have been every right to do so. Instead, like the father, this rich man is merciful. He's simply going to relieve the manager of his stewarding duties. This impending reality causes the manager to panic a little bit and think to himself, well, what am I going to do now since my Lord is taking the management away from me? Figuring out he's going to be houseless soon, he decides to go to the people who are in debt to his Lord and forgive some of their debts so that they, in turn, might give him a house to stay in when it's all said and done. And so we have the rich man, who is God, and the man of questionable character, which is the steward or the Jews, and now debtors, which are sinners being oppressed by the unjust Jewish authorities. See? Not such a hard parable. So the manager, who is about to be removed from his position, begins to go to his master's debtors and asks the first one, how much do you owe? To which the man responds, the maximum amount, 100 baths of oil. The steward says, fine, quickly write your bill down to 50. He then goes to the other debtor and asks how much he owes, to which he responds, the maximum amount, 100 cores of wheat. Okay, take your bill and write 80. And then in verse eight, the story takes a turn that a lot of people find hard to explain. Instead of rebuking the steward for being selfish or for costing him money, The Lord praises the previously unjust man. Yes, for his shrewdness, but the old school King James gets it better when it says, the Lord praises the unjust man for he had finally done wisely. He finally got it. Now sure, it took him until his job was on the line, and his motives weren't pure, but he finally wised up. He had finally put the pieces together and begun acting in a way that was faithful to his master and those indebted to him. There's no mention of the master being at all upset at the manager's reduction of the debts. And commentators go through all sorts of speculation as to why that is, but I think it's because they don't understand who the master in the story is. Remember, this isn't a contextless fable with no real world ties. Luke is all about the forgiveness of debts as being a reality that the king of Jubilee came to usher in. The master is the Lord God himself and his intention for his stewards was never to get as much money from those under their care as possible to decorate some building in Jerusalem. Sure, the stewards were supposed to rule well on his behalf, and they were supposed to be wise in their oversight, but the master's goal had never been to maximize profit margins. This master was so rich, but it's no sweat off his back to hear that those in debt to him had been forgiven years and years of payback. The point of this parable is that the steward finally got it. Debt forgiveness was a part of the Lord's economy all along. His desire is mercy, not sacrifice. And in telling this story, Jesus is rebuking, but also graciously extending that same opportunity to these Pharisees as he was extending to the lost son. There's still time for these guys to get it. They could still come home. They could lay down their own love of money and stop enforcing extra biblical fines for sin and begin reflecting the character of their Lord, begin showing mercy and begin forgiving people instead of grasping on every last penny. They were still gonna lose their jobs. But if and when the temple house came tumbling down, If they made friends with sinners by forgiving their debts, then their debts would be forgiven. And they'd find themselves to have made friends with the Lord and his debtors, and they would receive these men into eternal houses, the church. You see? Even here, Jesus is extending mercy, not just to tax collectors and sinners, though he is, but he's giving the scribes and Pharisees a chance for mercy. Three characters. God, the Lord and Master, who loves to forgive debts and show mercy. Two, people in extreme debt who rejoice when they realize they're forgiven. And three, stewards. who have to decide whether they're going to wise up and hear Jesus' words and begin to reflect the character of God, their Father, and forgiving their debtors, or foolishly reject Him and harden themselves unto destruction. That's the gist of the parable. But then Jesus goes on to make some practical applications for his disciples, giving them the proverbial wisdom that every parent and child should memorize. The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in very much. The one who is dishonest in a very little will also be dishonest in much. The Jewish leaders had been dishonest with the little piece of land and the tiny house that God had given them. And so he's not going to entrust them with the greater wealth of his church, and Jesus is preparing these disciples to take over oversight of the new covenant household. Jesus repeats an interesting phrase from verse 9 when he asks his disciples a couple of rhetorical questions, and then he uses it again in a warning in verse 13. If then you have not been faithful with unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you true riches? This phrase unrighteous wealth or mammon is not talking about money gained from sinning. It's simply a Jewish way of saying the things of this world, perhaps even more specifically with Gentile stuff. So disciples, If you haven't been faithful in the ordinary, everyday affairs of life, in the economy of this world, why would God let you oversee the economy of his church that will eventually rule the world? Similarly, the next question, if you haven't been faithful in that which is another's, who's going to give you something for yourself? He's essentially asking the same question from both sides. If you aren't going to be faithful in the little things, the day-to-day things, if you aren't going to honor and care for and steward God's gifts that he's already given you, why would he trust you with more? Now, perhaps a first century disciple would have heard, if you're not someone who reflects your master's kindness and mercy to sinners, If you're bad at fishing and a foolish business owner, if you're not being faithful with the mind and the body and soul God gave you, and if you're not caring for the little household God gave you, what on earth makes you think Jesus is going to give you the responsibility to rule over his church? Isn't this the gist of Paul's same concentric circles of faithfulness of anyone who's going to oversee God's church? He writes to Timothy, pastor of the churches in Ephesus. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach. The husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must steward his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? And so the main purpose of Jesus' faithful with little proverb is to help frame for his disciples how they must steward their own lives if they want to be entrusted with Jesus's mission. But we should all keep in mind that just because this is Jesus's main point doesn't mean that these same principles don't hold true for every other Christian. After all, one of the main responsibilities of overseers is to be an example for the flock. And which of these qualifications shouldn't be modeled by every Christian? The same principle of being faithful and wise with a little, so that you can be faithful and wise with a little more, so that you can be faithful and wise with a little more, should be something we all keep in mind all the time. If you're not faithful with little, why on earth would you think you'd be able to be faithful with much? Just think about it practically and break it down. Kids, if you are not wise enough to listen to mom and dad when it comes to little things, like how to treat your siblings, which friends you probably shouldn't hang out with, and what you should or shouldn't listen to or watch on the internet, what makes you think that you're going to listen to them when it comes to life-altering decisions like who to marry. Faithful with little, faithful with more. Learn to be wise and listen to wise people while you're young so that your youthful foolishness doesn't grow up with you and come back to bite you when you're older. Teenagers, learn to be wise with and control your emotions and desires now so that you can become the kind of men and women who can love and lead little ones when the time comes. And yes, your parents are still most likely the best people to tell you when you're being foolish and controlled by your emotions. I know you're a teenager. Listen to them now so you don't destroy your life later. Single people, be becoming the best at your job, whatever it is, the most trustworthy employee, the most eager servant, wherever the Lord has you. And then, if the Lord sees fit to bless you with a family, well, you'll be better positioned to serve Him by serving them, and if He doesn't, but you're still always growing in wisdom and faithfulness, well then you'll always be being able to serve him in more ways than you are now. Women, continually strive to be wise in how you steward even little things like your mind. Take every thought captive. Be faithful with what you read, who you listen to, and what you let yourself think about all day long. If you're not wise enough to manage your own thought life well, well, then what makes you think you'll be wise enough to run your home well, submit to your own husband, and love your children? And yes, your husband is probably the best person to tell you when you're spending too much time on Instagram and letting your emotions get out of control. Don't tell him I said that. Men, learn to be faithful with your time and wise with all the resources God has put you over. If you can't be wise and faithful with how much you drink, how much you eat, how much you exercise, what makes you think that your household will be disciplined? or that you won't top out in middle management and retire with diabetes, unable to play with your kids and eat ice cream with your grandkids. If you go into debt to satisfy whatever short-term desire you have, how will you ever know how to help someone else in need? And yes, your wife is probably the best person to help you be faithful in all of these areas. You can tell them I told you that. This is not rocket surgery. It's how God built the world. Learn how to be wise and faithful in a little. Submit yourself to God. Trust him and his word. Look for all the lines that you're tempted to cross in your own heart, and then don't cross them. Learn to control your thoughts and emotions. Be wiser than Satan. Learn what to feel, how to feel, and when to feel it. Master your desires. Master your craft. Be shrewder than your opponents. Account for all the variables. Figure out what's most efficient and how hard other people aren't willing to work so you can work harder. Be faithful. Be wise. Be excellent in every area of your life with the gifts God has given you and maybe God will give you more. not just for your glory, but for His. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the Old Testament and for revealing himself as the fulfillment of all these things in the new. Give us your spirit so that we might understand these words and the fullness of your truth as you have revealed it to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, both now and forever. Amen. up in Genesis 41 with Jacob's son and inheritor of shrewdness, Joseph, using his God-given wisdom to save the world. So here are communion meditation. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. He put it in every city, the food from the fields around it, and Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, And the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said, to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph. What he says, you do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt, to Joseph to buy grain. Now, even the most unsuspecting Christian, who isn't quite wise enough to appreciate Jacob's shrewdness, loves the story of Joseph and his wisdom. Joseph is famous for being his father's favorite son and for being betrayed by his brothers and thrown into slavery. Because of his wisdom, Joseph rises to power, is falsely accused by an adulterous woman and thrown into prison. but he rises again, is granted to sit at the right hand of Pharaoh to steward all his possessions and use his own wisdom given by God to save the world. Now, it's not difficult to hear many parallels with the life of Jesus, a father's favorite son, betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused by a harlot descended into the prison of the spirits of the dead, but raised again for the life of the world. When we come to this table on the Lord's Day, we're coming to the greater Jacob, we're coming to the greater Joseph, and we're coming to the table of the shrewdest, wisest man that ever lived. The man who, being faithful in every single bit of the tiniest moments, was granted to sit at the right hand of his Father and rule over the cosmos as he does today. As we come being offered tiny gifts of grace, a little piece of bread and a sip of wine, our Lord's body and blood, we are asked to be faithful with a little bit of grace. We're commissioned to take what wisdom we've just received from God and his word back into the world and rule on his behalf. Now the world, if they're paying attention, will scoff and think us fools for imagining such wonders could flow from a table like this. And even the portions of the church that are foolish virgins who can't fathom what God has been doing since Christ's ascension in transforming the world might giggle. Let us not be of them. Let us not join the throng of people wringing their hands over the current state of affairs. Let us not be so foolish as to throw up our hands and withdraw from engaging the world. Let us not be as gentle and stupid as doves. hiding behind suedo spiritual phrases like, I'm just waiting for God to open doors. I'm going to lay out a fleece, or I should just let go and let God. Those kinds of sayings may be well-intentioned, but they are recipes for disasters that could otherwise be averted by a wise understanding and application of God's word often in the company of wise counselors who have mastered themselves and their desires and have learned to account for far more variables than we have. So let us not be so foolish. Rather, let us learn wisdom. Let us learn faithfulness. Let us do the hard work of learning shrewdness from this table, from a man so shrewd But he knew a cross would be the very thing that would forgive us our debts and defeat all his and our enemies. For the glory of God and the life of the world. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us eat the feast. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread. Let us give thanks for the bread. We thank you, Father, for sending your Son, the true bread from heaven, to be life for us, in us, and through us. In his name we give you thanks. Amen. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. These are the gifts of God for the people of God.