Are You Shrewd Enough?
Have you ever been FIRED from a job before?
Maybe you’re thinking, “Court, please don’t remind me!” Or, maybe you are on the opposite extreme. Maybe you view being fired as something that is completely unthinkable for you. Or maybe you own your own business, and therefore, work holds a completely different framework for you.
Nevertheless, there is always the possibility of being relieved of responsibility in some way. So, whether you have an actual boss, or just customers – there is accountability baked in to every job that is intended to be a constant reminder of who you serve.
Jesus tells this story about a manager – who somehow forgot who he was serving (Luke 16). Now, in context of the scripture, it was common for wealthy individuals to hire an estate manager to handle all of their affairs. Everything would be entrusted to the manager with the basic expectation that they would not just maintain it, but actually make it better. The expectation of the manager was that if this person can’t be trusted to make it better, then they might as well just maintain it themself!
And the manager in the story Jesus told was accused of wasting possessions.
Now, I want you to think about that for just a moment – because the bible doesn’t even say he did anything wrong. It says he was accused.
And the owner comes in and says, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of yourself – because you can’t be my manager anymore!”
The accountability came because the manager failed to maintain a reputation of faithfulness. In other words, if you haven’t acted carefully enough to disprove what they say about you, then obviously, you don’t care what they say about me! Therefore, you’re fired! Give me my stuff! I’ll entrust it to someone who will care about the things that I care about!
God has entrusted us to be the manager or steward of a variety of resources, including but not limited to just money. But here’s the deal: God’s reputation is HIS to risk on us, not ours to risk on ourselves.
And this is where things get tricky, because we do have free will!
We can do whatever we want to do with whatever we’ve been given.
- We can do what satisfies us…
- We can do what impresses others…
- We can do what hurts others…
- And we can even use what we have to hurt ourselves…
Just remember: What we do with what we have reveals WHO we value the most.
So let me ask…How well are you managing what God has entrusted to you?
If others were to give a report to God about what you do with His resources – would He hear anything alarming about how you manage it?
Is there anything about how you manage His resources that’s QUESTIONABLE? Not even that it’s wrong – but is there anything that might be questionable?
Because, according to the parable, even that is grounds for termination.
Learn more about being a shrewd manager by watching this message from Pastor Courtney Harkness
