Bible Text: Luke 16:1-14 | Speaker: Blake Nichols | Series: Chasing ____________ |  Chasing Money
Luke 16:1-14
 We should view money as God does. There was a young girl named Ann, age 9, who joined a swimming team.  She consistently came in last at swim meets.  Her parents were concerned that she would be upset but she was excited about meeting all the other swimmers.  They told her that they admired her ability to be excited even though she came in last in all the races.  She was surprised, didn’t realize it was a “race” but thought events were just to “meet” other swimmers.  She was viewing swim meets incorrectly.

Are we looking at money incorrectly?

Luke 16:1-14 tells the story of the shrewd manager who realized he was going to be fired and in response reduced the debts of his master’s debtors.   That way he would be welcomed by them and perhaps be offered a job.  The master complimented the manager for being so shrewd.  The Bible doesn’t tell us why but perhaps his debtors expressed gratitude to him for reducing their debts and he was honored for his actions, even though he was actually the manager who did it.

There are three ways to correctly view money in a way that God sees it:

Look at money as a TOOL (not a trophy) to use to bless and help people and as a result they will be open to the message of the Gospel.
Look at money as a TEST. Luke 16:10-12: 10 “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. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
Look at money as a Luke 6:13: “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.”  As believers, our trademark is that we serve God and not money.  Satan tells us more, more, more but God tells us to give, give, give.

We should not waste our time chasing money but instead, we should chase after God and view money as He does.