27th September 2026 (pm) - Luke 16: 14 - 31

So we're back in the Gospel of Luke, and we talk about one of your favorite subjects, very briefly, uh, which is, of course, money.

Now, because you have so much of it, uh, it makes me wonder, how do you spend it? It's interesting.

I've-- having moved to the UK was transformative for me in more ways than one, but one such way was you don't ask other people how much money they make.

It's not a thing you do.

Does anyone do this? Does anyone do this? You don't even do this when you are in the same department, in the same career, and you're thinking about career advancement, and you just sort of perhaps think it would be helpful to know what you could aim for.

Not even then do you ask other people how much money they make.

That's fascinating, isn't it? Well, Jesus is not concerned about any such reserve when it comes to money.

He gives an entire chapter in Luke chapter 16 where there's God or money, and he is so blunt that the Pharisees catch it, that it's actually about them and their heart struggles for worshiping and loving money more than God.

So if I were to ask you, I mean, Jesus had this ability to just peel off our hearts and show what's underneath to us with the aim that we repent.

Well, if he, if he were to do that with us, I wonder whether he would say, "Let's follow your money.

Where is it going?" Because that might be a clue to what you really love.

Now, I'm not talking about things like just because you pay the bills on time doesn't mean you love the bills more than God, right? There are… We gotta not be excessive about this.

But with all of that disposable income you have, what concerns us most? I mean, if you were to investigate the life of my children, well, the minute they get a couple of pounds, what do they want the most? A pack of sweets.

They live for that pack of sweets like diabetes is their best friend.

And so you think it's easy to spot where their heart is aiming for.

But in Luke chapter 16, we follow the money and we find whether there is a hidden god that's trying to dethrone the real God.

So we're gonna take a brief little tour through this one parable that Jesus tells of this shrewd manager, only to really get to the heart of his application in the verses in the middle of the chapter.

And then another time, we can look at the rich man and Lazarus.

But just to whet your appetite, you may have noticed that at the beginning of the chapter, "There was a rich man," is how we start, and so it is in the later parable of the rich man and Lazarus, "There was a rich man," okay? And then right in the middle of the sandwich of these two parables is the gold, is the challenge for us.