This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida, where Dr. Pete Alanson is our senior pastor. Today's sermon is part three of the road to financial freedom series. This message is titled Money and Perspective. Good lessons from bad people. It's taken from Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 14. Now here's Pete with today's message. Our father, we do come to you this morning and ask you to bless us. You have blessed us so much. And so many ways, the only thing we know to do is to keep coming back to you. Over and over and over again and Lord to ask that you would meet us. The exact point of our need. You know us. You know our needs. And Lord we're here today because we're hungry. We're hungry for you. We're hungry for more of what you have given us in our lives. You have been the God who has been strong. No weakness in your life for us. You've been strong and sovereign. You are the Almighty God. You are trying to father Son and Holy Spirit. And as your people we have come to see that you can always be trusted. You never change. Never in the way you relate to us. You have blessed us by drawing us to Christ. You keep us in the family when we go through the deep valleys you're there with us. You never leave us. You never forsake us. We honor you today for your faithfulness. For your mercy. For your compassion. And for your grace. And Lord because you have blessed us with all of those things. With forgiveness in Christ we come to you today. And we ask that you we continue to give us. From your inexhaustible warehouse. The strength that we need for each day. Lord we confess our sins. Some of us today come into your presence and we're guilty. And we feel shame. And we feel separated from you. We feel separated from others. We feel unworthy. And so we come to you and pray that we would remember that our worthiness is in Christ. Which you think of us as more important than what others think of us. And we need your grace today. Lord we also need to get unstuck because we're stuck. Some of us in sins and addictions and debt and money issues that cause problems. And so we ask that as you set us free in every area you would move to set us free here. Father thank you for everyone in this room. You know each person and you know you know the need of their heart. And I pray that you would provide it for them today. Bless us as we look at your word. I pray for the one who teaches that you'd forgive him his sins. And use one who is finite to communicate your infinite truth. Be the teacher. And may we be the learners today as we pray in Jesus' name. Well if you have your Bibles turn to Luke chapter 15 because we're going to be looking there. Did I say 15? Luke 16. If you have your Bibles turn to Luke 16 because we are continuing today our study in the road to financial freedom. And we've been in this study for about three weeks and next week by the way Steve Brown will be speaking. So if you've been meaning to invite somebody who's never heard the voice of God. Next week is the week to do it. And then on the 29th we'll finish this series the road to financial freedom. It's important to tell you how long we're going to be doing these things because as somebody said in the first service you're preaching on money and they're not showing up. And no, there's an end to this. Pain eventually subsides. So I just want you to know that we'll be done on the 29th. We'll finish it after Steve preaches. Money is a tough issue. It is. I was talking to Bruce Lake the other day. I saw him yesterday. I said, what are you doing this weekend? He said, well I got stuff around the house to do. Then I'm going to come to church and hear you talk about money. Wasn't very flattering. And he says, you know my money talks to me all the time. Most of the time it says, see ya. It's a tough subject. Mark Shaw's, he wants to have enough money so that he doesn't have to trust God anymore for anything. Mark, I like that. That's a principle. So do I. I want to be fabulously wealthy. So I don't have to trust God anymore. It's a tough issue. It is. I met a really nice lady who had a track meet this weekend. Jessie's track meet. And she visited our church the week before. And I've been talking on tithing or something like. I think it was then I was talking about tithing. And she said, yeah, I visited your church. You talked on tithing the week before. I was visiting another church. Guess what? He was talking about tithing. She said, bingo. I said, you can run, but you cannot hide. I don't think she'll come back. But you know, the bottom line. Listen, that is it is. It's a tough issue. I know that. I recognize it. It is. None of us likes to talk about these kinds of things. I want something for you, not something from you. I want you to have freedom. And that's the point as we get into this whole thing. I want you to understand that as we as a grace church, I want you to be free in every area of your life. Like from sin, from shame, from your past identity. I want you to be free from all of those things that bind us up and keep us from enjoying the radical joy of following Jesus. And this is just one of the areas. But I am surprised at times to see how stuck people can get in the area of money. It's tough. You know, the debts are going to come due, but you're not sure when. The load is piling up. And you know the roof's going to come in. You're going to cave in on you. You don't know when. You got to deal with this stuff. You got to get free. Sometimes we know as we look at our life that things are miserable. Sometimes couples struggle with this. And they say there's something wrong. I can't put my finger on it, but something's wrong in our relationship. Let's remodel the house. You know, there's a relational issue that needs to be dealt with. But you know what? We sometimes apply financial things to the relational. And we get into trouble when we do that. Money can make you crazy. You hear the story of the grandmother who had the grandkids over since Thursday night and it was now Saturday night. She'd had them over. And they were driving her. Finally got them in bed. And so she went to wash her hair. And she changed her clothes. Got some old frumpy clothes on to wash her hair. And then the kids started going crazy in the other room. They were yelling and screaming and bouncing off the wall. So she took a towel wrapped around her head and went running into the room. She yelled and screamed at them and said, quiet, go to bed. I don't want to hear another word out of you all that stuff. And as she left the room, the three-year-old said to the older brother, who was that? Money can make you crazy. You show me a person that is overwhelmed with financial issues. And I'll show you a person that sometimes their friends look at them and say, who are you? Because it's not. So maybe you came to talk about with a need to talk about something like freedom with God. And this is part of it. And so today, what I want to do is I want to give you some perspective from Jesus, from a parable that he teaches. A parable is a story with truths to it that apply to our lives of mayor. It may not be a true story. But it's a story that Jesus gives truths to us and it will set us free. Get us on the road to financial freedom. So let's take a look. Luke 16, 1-14. Luke 16, 1-14. Remember that this is God's word and God's word always sets us free. Jesus told us disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and he asked him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager any longer. The manager said to himself, what should I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig. I'm ashamed to beg and I know what I'll do. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 800 gallons of olive oil he replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly, make it 400. Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? He told him a thousand bushels of wheat. He said, take your bill, make it 800. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. Now here's Jesus' application for us. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy and handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches? And if you've not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one, who despises the others, you cannot serve both God and money.