In this message from Shiloh Church, Pastor Ben Wales walks through the parable of the dishonest manager in Luke 16, showing that believers are stewards of resources that ultimately belong to God. Drawing on the manager's shrewd use of fleeting assets to secure a lasting future, the sermon calls Christians to use temporal wealth in ways that bear eternal fruit rather than wasting it on self-indulgence or the accumulation of earthly riches. The central challenge is to be as strategically minded about eternity as worldly people are about their own interests.
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“One of the most impressive things about this sermon is what you chose to preach. Luke 16:1-9, the parable of the dishonest manager, is widely regarded as one of the most perplexing and avoided passages in all of the Synoptic Gospels.”
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Unlock with your sermon →“In one of his more puzzling stories, Jesus tells about a manager who's about to lose his job. He's been wasteful with his boss's resources, the jig is up, and he knows it.”
Read all 5 days of the devotional →“Pastor Ben said that everything we have, our time, money, relationships, body, mind, and affections, belongs to God, not to us. How does it actually feel to hear that? Is that truth freeing, convicting, or uncomfortable, and why?”
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Unlock with your sermon →“According to Pastor Ben, what were the two alternatives the dishonest manager considered before making his plan?”
Take the sermon quiz →“In the ancient Near East, wealthy landowners frequently managed large agricultural or commercial estates through hired managers, essentially what we'd call a CEO or COO today.”
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Unlock with your sermon →“Luke 16:1-9 is a parable, a narrative analogy drawn from everyday life to illuminate spiritual truth. Luke's Gospel is rich with parables, and chapters 15-16 form a sustained parabolic unit.”
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Unlock with your sermon →“What would you do if you knew your time was running out? That question sits at the heart of one of Jesus's most puzzling parables, and the answer might just change the way you think about everything you own.”
Read the pastor's blog post →“The manager saw what was coming, acted quickly, and used what he had to secure a future beyond his present circumstances. Then Jesus turns to his disciples and says: do likewise.”
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Unlock with your sermon →“It has been 70 years since the death of Jim Elliott in 1956.”
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Unlock with your sermon →The parable teaches that money and possessions ultimately belong to God, not us. We are stewards accountable to him. Rather than hoarding or wasting wealth, we should use it shrewdly to serve others and advance the gospel, securing eternal reward rather than temporary comfort.
Jesus commands believers to 'make friends by means of unrighteous wealth so they may receive you into eternal dwellings.' Like Jim Elliott, who gave what he couldn't keep to gain what he couldn't lose, Christians should invest temporal resources in eternal purposes rather than self-indulgence.
This sermon warns against frittering life away on entertainment, social media, and the pursuit of personal wealth. Since all we have belongs to God and we are accountable to him, we should use our time, money, and relationships as channels of his blessing to others for his glory.
More sermons on Luke, money, generosity, heaven.
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