Welcome to this Come to Jesus Daily Devotional as we continue in our Luke, Exploring Who Jesus is series. Today, from Luke 16:13-15, we reflect on how those who keep God as their Master will keep money as their servant.
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‘“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “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.”’ (Luke 16:13-15)
1. The shrewd manager was devoted to his master
The shrewd manager, in the parable that we’ve been looking at this week, knew who his master was and was thoroughly devoted to Him - His master was money and self. Money was His God. His faith was in money. He is a warning to all of us. We are all prone to making money our God and so failing to serve our Master - Jesus - with the wealth that He gives us to steward.
2. No one can serve two masters
Jesus doesn’t say that it’s difficult to serve to masters! He says it’s impossible. In terms of being a slave, one belongs to a master and is to serve him or her unreservedly. To use the analogy of being a soldier, one is to obey the commanding officer completely and, therefore, cannot obey a different authority. Christians have Jesus as Lord and it’s impossible to have a second Lord!
3. Money can make you its servant
Jesus warns of allowing money to be your master. The Pharisees had fallen into this, and it was this avarice that led them to despising and rejecting Jesus because to do so threatened their status and income. Too many ‘Christian’ leaders love money and want to get rich. They use their gifts to suck money out of vulnerable people, and we are all vulnerable to this!
4. Keep God as your Master and money will remain your servant
The key to keeping money as a servant rather than a master is to keep Jesus in the place of lordship of our lives. Put your money to good use in serving God and it loses its treacherous power over us. Money is a good gift from God, but like any good gift, it only remains a good thing if it’s put to the work for which it is intended. Pain killers, for example are a wonderful gift until they are used every day by drug addicts!
So how are you protecting yourself from the deviousness of money? Are you continually installing Jesus as the Lord of your heart? Those who keep God as their Master will keep money as their servant.
Let’s pray together
“Lord Jesus, I say afresh that you are the Lord of my life and my money. Help me to remain faithful to you rather than putting my faith in money or anything else. You show me that it’s detestable to you when our hearts idolise money. Please forgive me and help me to worship you alone. Amen.”
Community Group Notes
This week is SIV week (Serve, Invest and InVite week) for us at CCP. Therefore, please try to spend a good amount of time reflecting and praying about this.
1. Notices
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. Icebreaker
How has God been speaking to you from His Word this week, and how has this helped you?
3. Worship together
Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.
4. Study and pray together
This week is SIV week (Serve, Invest and InVite week) for us at CCP, and so our study will focus on this theme.
On Sunday our message from Luke 16:1-15 was entitled: ‘The Law of the Little’ - How using the little that God gives is a vital law of success.
Please read Luke Luke 16:1-15 and discuss:
Here, from the use of this Parable of the Shrewd Manager, we learn that sometimes the worst people can be our best teachers because sometimes the worst people are better and more ’shrewd’ at getting what they want than are ‘the children of light’ - Christians. If we want to help to bring our community to Jesus, what things do we learn from this manager in order to effectively do this?
Regarding, principally money, we are told to faithfully steward the, maybe little, that God gives to us (And thank you for your generous giving at the recent gift days!). In regard to ’SIV’, how can we make the most of the little things in order to help to bring people to Jesus?
We are told to be careful not to allow money to become our master. How will idolising money make us ineffective at sharing the gospel and distracted from Serving, Investing and Inviting?
SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ recently?
SIV - Spend some time together talking and praying about who and how you are seeking to bring your community to Jesus.
Let’s pray together: Pray for one another out of our study together and for anything else for which people would like prayer.
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