This is an automatically generated transcript. Please note that complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Hi, Welcome to Christian Talk. Thank you so much for joining me on today’s podcast. We will be going through Luke chapter sixteen. If you want to open up your Bibles and follow along, Christian Talk is an opportunity for christ followers to go through the Bible one chapter at a time.
Do me a favorite. Please share this with your friends and family and follow us on especially iHeart Spotify or who’s the other one Apple Spotify or iHeart because that’s where most of the people are, and the more people following us, the more we move up in the algorithms. My wife and I are going through Second Corinthians right now, and it’s Paul addressing the church in corinth and it is very animated. But then when you look around, especially people in the United States, where a lot of them claim to be Christians, there’s like this dichotomy between went to church and now live like an American.
The problem is the virtue, the virtuous life that the founding fathers of our country said would be necessary for the Constitution, Bill of rights and the culture to be successful is has faded. And we’re going to see in Luke sixteen when Jesus is going to address the parable of the shrewd manager, and it’s something I had to research a little bit even because it seemed so seems like a strange endorsement of this guy by our Lord and Savior. But I’ll get to that here in a second. This podcast is brought to you by zelene Co Labs.
During COVID nineteen, people all over the country and all the world were trying to figure out how do I get my immunity in a position and to help it so I don’t have to be hospitalized and get on vent laters. Doctor Vladimir’s Lenko and his team came up with the Zelenko protocol, which you may remember even Mark Meadow’s, President Trump’s chief of staff had contacted Zelanko’s team and said, what do we do for the President. Well, Zelanko’s protocol included zinc ivermectin, hydrocorquin doxa, cycling DECKX and metasone Z stack. The combination when done when when given early, helped thousands of people and doctor Zelanko’s practice not have to be hospitalized.
Well. He went on to come up with other products Z shield, Z night does, Z stack, Z spike, Z flu. Hundreds of you have bought the z flu. Fight the flu is z flu because it’s what you take before or the onset of the flu, and it helps you to get your community really pumped up.
And then with like Z night, you get better sleep, so you have even more support because you’re rested. So check out the products. A lot of people are getting the Z kit. That way you have it available in case something else pops up.
You’re on vacation, You’re not looking for a doctdra all over. You just pull out your Z kit. So head over to this website to get the letter z stack dot com. Get z stack dot com.
Look at the products, check out the z flu Fight the flu with z flu, check out the z kits. I’m taking Z right now znight to make sure I get better sleep. If you decide to move forward with the products, use my promo code of save to say fifteen percent. Get z stack dot com.
Promo code is save. Okay. Every podcast I do, it’s finished the race or Christian talk at some point most likely if you if you’re listening in, you’re going to hear Hebrews four twelve and thirteen. You’re going to hear two Timothy three sixteen and seventeen.
You’re going to hear this summation of who wrote God’s Word. I heard it from a friend of mine, a pastor who heard it from somebody else. But it’s just it nails it. And here’s what’s going on.
The Bible is unique. You cannot out or take away from it in our version sixty six books. But the Bible was written by forty men authors who were inspired by God the Holy Spirit, over fifteen hundred years, on three continents without contradiction. How could people men on three different continents, from fishermen to shepherds, to kings to prophets, tax collectors, how could they write this a message that cohesively is about Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
It’s because God the Holy Spirit inspired them to write it, and kind of was the kept the boundaries in their writings to make sure there wasn’t any heresy in it. The writer of Hebrews concerning the Word of God said that the Word of God is living and it’s active. It’s alive. You cannot add or take away, like I said, So don’t try to add a prolo grade price or a book a Mormon.
There’s no such thing as a latter day Saint. Those who are born again are being sanctified, and we are the bride of Christ. We are saints. So don’t take heretical writings written by a guy who said he was choked by an angel of light, which Paul said in Glatians.
If anyone comes to you, even an angel of lights, with the different gospel, let them anathema be eternally damned. Do not try to connect the Quran or Islam to Christianity, Jehovah witnesses, Mormonism or the We said that already, or Buddhism, Taoism. So the Bible is unique. It’s living, and it’s active, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes or intentions of the heart.
That’s why we want to be in God’s word. Paul, writing to the Young pastor Timothy, referenced God’s words that all scripture is God breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man or servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So when the Bible says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, don’t do it. When James says that for those who say, well, I’m a Christian, but I’m still in the world, You’re a hypocrite.
And those who choose to love the world make themselves an enemy of God. Believe it. Jude says, we must contempt for the faith once delivered to the saints. We must be prepared to give an answer for the hope that lies within us.
If Jesus is Lord, then we should do what he says. If we say we love God, but we stay in sind on repentance where a liar and the truth isn’t in us, it’s it’s really it’s very difficult because of our sen nature, but it’s very straightforward. Before anything, God is because He always has always existed. When what we know is the universe, when all of this before it was put in place created, Jesus, being outside of time, had already been crucified.
He already had died. So when we the world started and Eve fell, there wasn’t this panic in heaven where God had to react, to react to the fall and then come up with the plan roal fast. So we need to walk in step with the spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit.
We need to walk confidently, and we need since Jesus is the sovereign king lord over all our lives. We must do what he says and do our best not to turn to the right or the left like we’re prone to as sheep. Stay in a repentant state of confessing our sins because God’s faithful and just forgive us of our sins. Even after we’ve been born again.
We still sin, but we should hate our sin. But for people who are well, I go to church, but we don’t talk about sin. I go to church, but we don’t deal with social issues. I go to church, but we don’t.
Really we don’t think. You know that Christianity is so exclusive that as long as you believe in God, and since people are basically good and you’re okay, or I can come to God unrepentant and I can believe, and then later on I will turn from my wicked ways that that is carnality and has unsaved living. So we’ll see here with Jesus going through the parables, still dealing with the Pharisees walking around. And remember parables were truth that the believers people of the light would understand, and people in darkness it was veiled.
They couldn’t understand. So let’s go Luke sixteen, Jesus told us disciples there was a rich man whose manager. Now I did a little bit of research on it’s just so this will make maybe a little more sense. When it says there was a rich man.
He’s a very distant wealthy man, to the point that his manager was like his proxy. He was the law of the household. The rich man had given him his authority to manage his affairs. So this the rich man was so rich that he wouldn’t be involved in all of these produce trades and all of this.
So the manager had a lot of room and leeway to get himself in trouble. And the word is diablos or even did this guy become? The manager gets so in his flesh he’s acting like a deceiver. So here we go. Jesus said there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
So he called him in and asked him, what is this I hear about? You give an account for your management, because you can not be my manager any longer. This isn’t like your fire, Pack up your desk and leave. You’re not going to be doing this any longer. But you’re going to tell me what you’ve been doing with my stuff? The manager said to himself, which he should have saw this coming, but in his flesh, what am I going to do? Now? What shall I do? Now? My master’s taking away my job.
I’m not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg And I know what I’ll I know what I’ll do so that when I lose my job here people will welcome me into the houses, he says verse five. Here’s what he hears his revelation. He’s like I will, says. He called each one of his master’s debtors, and he asked the first, how much do you owe my master? Nine hundred gallons of olive oil, he replied.
The manager told him, now I did. This is how the culture worked. If there was a drought, or if there was a war or something went wrong, the manager had the ability to reduce what people owed so they could actually pay at least some of what they owed. So this was something that was done.
But the motive here was shrewdness for self preservation, not because there was any other reason, economic reason to have to give people this relief. He said, well, take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty, so cut in half. I as a manager. Still you only owe half of what you did.
Oh wow, that’s cool. Then he asked a second, how much do you owe a thousand bushels of wheed? She replied. He’s gonna give this guy a twenty percent discount. He told him, you take your bill and make it eight hundred.
So this guy is This guy is very shrewdly giving people advantages like quid pro quotes, and so he could have some type of network available. Since he wasn’t able to do physical work, he would have allies in the community, even though he was given away his master yours wealth fifty percent and eighty percent in these two cases. So what did the Master do when he found out? He commended he think about it. He commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly for the people of this world, just as Jesus in the parable for the people of this world this commentary are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than 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. So what is he saying? This is how the world functions. In the the manager acted shrewdly or with forethought and really analyzed how to use what he had access to its fullest for his gain. So Jesus isn’t endorsing the worldly dishonesty.
He’s saying the world will go that shrewd dealing with other law souls. So those of us in the kingdom, use your possessions and wealth to bless people in the church to advance the kingdom, because you can’t take it with you. You be very studious, be very diligent, very effective in how you can use it for the Kingdom’s sake. So two different world two different world views.
Here, shrewd manager for dishonest gain, born again believers with wealth for the advancement of the kingdom, both using a lot of thought and forethought for the advancement of the different causes. Verse ten. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with very much.
So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who would 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 own. He’s criticizing the dishonest people and letting them know. You shouldn’t have an expectation without your since you’re not repenting and you’re living in this state of mismanagement or poor management of your life and of riches, don’t expect to be blessed with wealth and with riches.
And Jesus blaze it out. Why verse thirteen. No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one or love the other.
You will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Well, now who is hearing this, But they’re not going to understand. The Pharisees Verse fourteen.
The Pharisees who loved money heard all this, and they they were sneering at Jesus. I John Macarter said the Greek word here is it’s kind of They put their noses up at him, like in disgust, like you, silly little man. They’re sneering at him, looking down on And he said to them, he said, of the Pharisees, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others. But God knows your hearts.
What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. This is why the Bible says it is it is impossible for rich people, people who have chosen wealth and the riches of this world over the Kingdom of God, It’s impossible for them to get into Heaven except through God’s Holy Spirit. This is why the disciples are like, if rich people can’t get in, and they’re the bless ones because they’ve been faithful to God, then how can anybody get And then Jesus said, well, no, you to understand. It’s like the rich young ruler, I’ve kept the commandments.
Oh okay, well, then go give away your wealth and follow me. And we went away sad because he wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t give up his wealth for the kingdom. So money is not the root of all evil.
It is the root of all kinds of evil because when connected with the flesh of people that are pursuing their own shrewd advancements, then it leads to it can be an agent of much evil. Verse sixteen. The Law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. This is Jesus, the Law and the prophets were proclaimed until John.
And since that time the good news of the Kingdom of God is being preached. Remember there was about four hundred years of silence where God didn’t speak Malachi and then nothing. So now John comes on the scene, repent, repens. The Kingdom of God is in hand, and he was the forerunner.
And Jesus said, since that time the good news of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is being four is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pin to drop out of the law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who who marry is a divorced woman commits adultery. This is kind of like just bam people trying to force their way into heaven because of doing the works.
Jesus is like, well, no, not one stroke, not one daughter tittle. If I removed the law still in place. And by the way, if you divorce your wife and marry another woman, you’re an adulter. And according to the law which is still in place, you are an adulterer.
You will not get into heaven. Verse nineteen. The rich Man in Lazarus. This this parable.
Some people believe it’s an allegory. Some people believe it’s a literal rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. I believe in the latter, but either way, there was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury. Every day at his gait it was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.
Even the dogs came and licked his sores. This is a really hurting man, and this rich guy could care less. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. Remember, before Jesus rose from the dead, there was Abraham’s bosom.
There was a place where because Jesus was going to be the first fruit of the resurrection. So nobody ascended to God’s presence until Jesus Christ had ascended and brought those who were in waiting with him as he gave access, open access to the Father for those who had faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So the beggar died he is in. He is in Paradise, which is a holding place until the resurrection of Jesus.
But there was a chasm. The way that it was set up was those who were waiting for the g who are waiting still for the great, great white throne Judgment, are being held in hell. But they could see those like Abraham, Noah and all them being held in Paradise, but they couldn’t cross over. So in Hades where he was in Torments, Oh, the rich Man died and was also buried.
So in Hades, where he was in Torments, the rich man looked up, and he saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side, and he called to him, Father, Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger and water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. Abraham replied, son, Remember that in your lifetime you received good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.
He answered him, Then, I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so they are not they will not also come to this place of torment. Abraham replied, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.
No, Father, Abraham, he said, but if someone from the dead ghosts of them, they will repent. He said to them. If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced. Even if someone rises from the dead, and we know that to be true, Jesus rose from the dead.
Billions of people since then have chosen or, through my theology of reformed not called, but either way did not believe, did not confess. So, even though Jesus rose from the dead, most of the world I believe, since then have not believed in the one True God, in the one and only Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So what do we get out of this? Be intentional? If you, with the resources you have for the advancement of the kingdom, almost to the point of a good form of shrewdness, understand that the law is in place. But for those who have been redeemed in the blood of the Lamb through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
We are not under the law. We are under grace our sin. We still sin, but we have an advocate, and the propitiation is a constant covering for our sins. Jesus lays out that if you divorce and then remarry, you’re an adulter and the law is on you, and then Lazarus and the rich man, either allegory or an actual literal rich man.
There will be a eternal torment for those who choose to live life for themselves now, and there will be eternal glory, the glorification of from this body to the heavenly body, for those who, either through circumstances, suffered or through humility, because we all have tribulations. Through humility, we’re used by God for his glory. But e regardless, it is difficult for people to humble themselves, to acknowledge their sinner needing a savior, and to lay their lives down, pick up their cross and follow Jesus Christ, which is why Jesus says broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter in. Narrow is the way that leads to heaven, and few enter in.
So today we want again humbly Philippians too, we want to walk and step with the spirit. We want to realize that we are not our own. Our bodies have been body a Christ. Therefore we glorify God with their body and our spirit, which are God’s.
We have our cross on. We are being bat co sitters of the King. We are doing his bedding, and we are making much of him, and he loves us. And so we have this assurance.
And we have a loving Father that through his spirit is ministering to us, helping us to understand his word, encouraging us, helping us to fight against the spiritual battles that we are in. So be a passionate, shrewd, loving child of the King, making much of him with our time, resources and talents, and live with the understanding and assurance that in Christ, either through an easy life, a difficult life, a life of plenty, or a life of little paradise, Heaven waits for us all for Christ’s sake. Amen. Amen, All right again, make sure check out get zstat dot com if you want to get your community built up.
Get your z kits so you’re ready for another pandemic. And as I close here, if you would need anything for the household, from pillows to sheets, to towels too, slippers, and you want to save a lot of money and get a great warranty and support a great company Minnesota, check out MyPillow. Just go to MyPillow dot com. Huge sales, mega sales going on all over.
I have a lot of the products myself. I love them to save money. You’ll see on the website at MyPillow dot com you want to put the promo code of f LS in. So even if you go to MyPillow dot com forward slash fls now.
If you’re like me and you’re like, okay, I just what the pillows. I heard about the MyPillow two point zero on Christian talker Eric Thompson Show. You can call when you’re on the website. I just go call one eight hundred eighty six four zero one four eight one eight hundred and eighty sixty four zero one four eight one eight hundred eighty six four zero one four eight Say oh, I want those bath towels that are fifty percent off.
I want those Giza sheets from the now region of Egypt, really soft sheets that are sixty percent off. I want the MyPillow two point zero. I want the Bible Pillows of Slippers and my promo code is FLS. I’ll give it to you sixty day money back guarantee, free shipping over seventy five dollars.
Check them out my pillow dot com and the promo code is FLS. I love. I love this chapter of Luke. Share with your friends and family.
Be passionately thinking about how to use what God is giving you for his glory. And thank the Lord for the salvation we have and the assurance we have from what He did on the cross. God bless you guys. Take care.
