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"STEWARDSHIP IS A MATTER OF TRUST"
MESSAGE # 2 OF 4: "CAN GOD TRUST ME?"
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: LUKE 16:1-12

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 25, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' 3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg- 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6" 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.' 7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' 8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10"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. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

MESSAGE: Christian stewardship, at its core, is a matter of trust. The first and most significant trust question any human being ever asks is this: "Can I trust God?" Last week we examined that question in detail, appealing to the ancient wisdom of the fabled King Solomon for answers. Solomon believed that God was completely trustworthy. Assuming Solomon truly was the wisest man who ever lived, then his response should stand as a clear signpost for us. Yes, I can - you can - we can trust God.

The obvious second significant stewardship question which derives from the first is its counterpoint. Can God trust me? Can God trust you? Can God trust us?

Earlier in this life I survived one of the longest and most stressful tests of life itself - and am still here to tell about it. I was a parent of teenagers for 13 consecutive years. For five of those years, all three of my children were teens - simultaneously. Amazingly I still have a few hairs on my head, although they're completely gray through and through.

From personal experience I can say with some authority that the biggest issue in parent-teen relationships is trust. Can I trust you, son, to stay sober? Can I trust you, daughter, to go where you say you're going? Can I trust you to come back home on time? Every time a teen does it right, they gain a little more trust. And every time they do it wrong, caring parents have to pull back some, tightening the reins for a while. Trust is gradually built, slowly but surely. It is much the same for God, our eternal parent. The question that God would ask every one of us today is, "Can I trust you?"

Luke 16:1-12 is a challenging parable of our Lord. It is considered by many to be the most difficult parable to understand in all the Gospels. Luke 16:1-12 is intimately connected with Luke 15, which concludes with the best-known and best-loved of all Jesus' parables, the story of the prodigal son. Throughout Luke 15 our Lord is dealing with wrong attitudes toward people.

In Luke 16, our Lord begins to deal with wrong attitudes toward wealth. The parable of the dishonest manager speaks to us about trust in wealth. What has been entrusted to us? How will we deal with what has been placed in our care?
In verses one and two of this parable, we very quickly learn that this manager, this steward, has been a dishonest man - and his master has become aware of it. The master, obviously a kindly boss, sets a day of reckoning for this steward - giving him time to set his affairs in order. Interestingly, in verses three through seven, we discover that this steward, while dishonest, isn't stupid. When pushed to change by the master's displeasure, he has enough common sense to use the time provided in so doing. He finds a way, not to completely erase his dishonestly, but at least to lessen its effects upon the master. Thus in verses eight and nine the master actually commends this steward - not for his dishonesty, but for his shrewd use of the second-chance opportunity offered to him by the master.

The maximum impact of this parable is to be found in Jesus' concluding remarks, verses ten through twelve: "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?"

In a former congregation that I served, one of the members came up to me after church one Sunday and told me she had found a quarter under one of the pews. She asked me to allow her to see the pew registration pads for the section of the congregation which had sat in the area where she'd picked up the coin. Then she spent the better part of two hours that Sunday afternoon calling people - until she finally found a man who said, "Yes, that quarter is probably ours. Our seven-year-old daughter lost the quarter we'd given her to put in the Sunday School offering. " Only then was this woman satisfied, having worked two hours to locate the owner of a lost twenty-five cent piece.

My initial reaction to that lady's insistence on finding the owner of a lost quarter was that she was obsessive. It was only a quarter, after all, not a $20 bill. And since it was found under a pew at the church, there was a high probability that the folks who sat there wanted it to go into the church's offering anyway. So why expend such time and effort - over a mere 25 cents?

Then I thought further. Luke 16:10 sprang into my mind: "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." The amount is not at issue, be it 25 cents, 25 dollars, or 25 million. People run true to form. A lady who'll take two hours out of her day to locate the rightful owner of a lost quarter is the kind of person who can be trusted with just about anything. My respect for that woman soared - and I made sure she was placed in a leadership role on that church's finance committee the following year.

The subject is Christian stewardship. The issue is trust. Can I trust God? Yes, absolutely! Can God trust me? Can God trust you? Can God trust us? I sincerely hope so. Amen.
Pilate couldn't stand Him when he found he couldn't stop Him, and he couldn't find any fault in Him. Witnesses could not get their testimonies to agree about Him and Herod couldn't kill Him and death couldn't handle Him and, thank God, the grave couldn't hold Him. You can trust Him.

There was no one before Him and there will be nobody after Him. He has no predecessor and He will have no successor. You can't impeach Him and He is not going to resign. You can trust him. He is an awesome God!" Amen.

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