Treasures Untold or Treasures Unclaimed

Scripture: Luke 16:11 "If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches."

Observation:
"unrighteous wealth" - simply not of eternal nature; not part of the promises of God.

Jesus described being unfaithful in unrighteous wealth in the preceding parables. In Luke 15:11-31 the "prodigal son" left and "squandered his property in reckless living." Later, the older son said they knew that included prostitutes. In Chapter 16, the rich man's manager had "wasted" the master's possessions. The wasteful manager was commended for being shrewd, but he should have used it to manage the finances.

Application: What are the distorted perspectives that cause one to be unfaithful? How do those attitudes relate to true riches? And why should my treatment of it here impact eternity?

It has been noted the Bible talks about money almost more than anything else (that fact makes it kind of ironic that so many people find it inappropriate for leaders of the church to talk about it at all during a service). Why is that? Perhaps it is because the Bible has two main categories of content. I'll call them the spiritual and the natural. Finances have been around since jump street. They say it makes the world go around.

In truth money impacts both realms.

What I mean to say is, I think the spending and allocation of one's money is the most visible indicator of the state of one's heart as it pertains to God. A love of God necessitates a trust in God above all else, money not excepting. Jesus was clear that you cannot have two loves; it's God or money, but not both. So, the distorted perspective is that money, not God, is the ultimate safety net. It believes money, not God, bring the best life has to offer. It reasons money, not God, will satisfy a hungry soul and protect from hazard. Perhaps most pitiably, it believes the highest quality life requires sufficient amount of money instead of sufficient amounts of God.

But why should my present attitude affect my future residence? The easy answer, though no less true, is "That's the way God wants it." So be it. But perhaps a more refined answer is "What you don't want now, you won't want in the next life." The reverse is the essence of the Christian heart--"What I yearn for now is what I'll long for in the ext life." The believer longs for God, for Jesus, for the Spirit, for the promise of a home that cannot and will not be found in this present domain. We've seen through the facade. We know money cannot buy happiness. We've accepted we cannot, regardless of how hard we try, have our best life now. To ascribe to that, frankly, is to cup our ears to the venomous deceit of Satan himself.

In fact, to believe otherwise I would say is to levy an expectation upon a world that is simply too heavy a burden for it to bear up under. As Seth Stewart recently purported (paraphrased): "God created us for a station too high for this created place to deliver."

The question Jesus left to those who will hear is, "How do you need to adjust your heart today toward money and God?"

Prayer: Father, can I separate the pursuit of success from the perspective of sanctification? Is there space for wealth in the separation from wordiness? I'm not asking theoretically. Truly, can I walk both the path of righteousness and the road of physical prosperity? If so, where are the guard rails to keep my soul from abandoning the narrow road to the narrow gate of your presence?