Rev. David Holwick S TITHING SUNDAY First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey May 17, 1992 Luke 16:1-10 "CONNING YOUR WAY INTO HEAVEN" I. Security Pacific heist. The "perfect" crime. The short, balding man moved briskly through the lobby of the Security Pacific National Bank in L.A. and into the elevator. His name was Stanley Rifkin, and he was not challenged as he got off and walked into the wire transfer room. From this highly-guarded room hundreds of millions of dollars passed every day from Security Pacific, through the Federal Reserve system, and on to other banks around the world. Posing as a consultant, the chubby computer expert interviewed a worker in the room and found out the routing instructions, transfer routines and the day's security code. At 3:00 he walked outside, found a phone and called the wire room. "This is Mike Hansen on International." "Okay, and the office number?" a friendly female voice asked. "286." "286. Okay. What's the code?" "4739." A pause. If the code was wrong, she would hang up. "Okay." Rifkin calmly told her, "The bank is Irving Trust in New York City. It's to pay Wozchod Bank, Zurich, Switzerland. Amount: ten million two hundred thousand even." "Okay, and what's the interoffice settlement number?" Rifkin was stumped. He didn't know the number. "Let me check. I'll call you right back." He phoned a different number at the bank. Pretending to be from the wire room, he asked for the settlement number. They gave it to him, and he called the wire room back. The clerk typed his order into the system. It was as simple as that. On October 25, 1978, Stanley Rifkin pulled off one of the largest bank thefts in United States history. Two days later in Switzerland, he picked up $8,000,000 worth of diamonds from a representative of the Soviet Union. He knew that raw diamonds were easily sold and couldn't be traced. He would have bought more, but that's all they had. After picking up the diamonds, Rifkin bought a ticket to Luxembourg. He knew the customs inspectors were very lazy there. The next day in his Luxembourg hotel room Rifkin looked in disbelief at his bed. More than 250,000 diamonds were poured on top of it. Almost 9,000 carats. Nearly four pounds. And the Security Pacific bank didn't have a clue that anything was wrong. Why can't all Christians be more like Stanley Rifkin? Jesus wants you to be! #2119 II. Summary of the parable of the Dishonest Manager. A. Absentee landowner and local manager. 16:1 B. Fired for incompetence. 16:2 1) Wasting, not stealing. 2) With no unemployment he was in a desperate situation. 16:3 C. Creditor bills reduced by equal value (not amount). 16:5 D. Manager commended by owner. 16:8 III. Two main interpretations. A. What manager does is kosher and legal. 1) He is cutting interest on loans. a) Interest was illegal, but they found ways around it. b) Owner wants to save face, so doesn't protest. 2) Variation: manager is cutting his own commissions. 3) Problems: a) Too complicated. No hint of owner being evil. b) If they are commissions, he would be cutting his own throat (equivalent to three years income). c) Luke 16:8 calls manager unjust/dishonest. 1> "Wasting" alone wouldn't justify this. 16:1 B. What the manager does is crooked. (Traditional view) 1) He is cheating the owner. 2) Problem: why would landowner (or Jesus!) commend someone for ripping him off? a) Rich man commends the cunning of manager, not dishonesty. b) Same principle in Matt 10:16 - "Be as shrewd as snakes." 3) Main point: act shrewdly because a catastrophe is coming. a) Other details of parable are unimportant. IV. What Jesus does with the parable. 16:9-13 A. Lie, cheat and buy your way into heaven? 16:9 1) Jesus seems to teach this, on the surface. 2) Reality is that we must focus on eternal values, not temporary ones like money. An old mountaineer was on his deathbed. He called his wife to him. "Elviry," he said, "go to the fireplace and take out that loose stone under the mantle." She did as instructed, and behind that loose stone she found a shoe box crammed full of cash. "That's all the money I've saved through the years," said the mountaineer. "When I go, I'm goin' to take it with me. I want you to take that there box up to the attic and set it by the window. I'll get it as I go by on my way to heaven." His wife followed his instructions. That night, the old mountaineer died. Several days after the funeral, his wife remembered the shoe box. She climbed up to the attic. There it was, still full of money, sitting by the window. "Oh," she thought, "I knew it. I knew I should have put it in the basement instead of the attic." As someone has said, "We can't take it with us, but we can send it on ahead." #1770 3) Money can be used for spiritual ends. B. Our use of money shows our spiritual priorities. 16:11 1) We invest much time and effort into our finances. 2) What effort do you put into investing for God? a) Old deacon said tithing is legalistic, God owns everything. Friends commented that God would be better off with his tithe. b) On the other side is the story of William Colgate. His family was poor and at the age of 16 he left home to seek his fortune. The only thing he knew was how to make soap and candles. He met an old canal-boat captain who gave him this advice: "Be a good man, give your heart to Christ, pay the Lord all that belongs to Him, make an honest soap, and I'm certain you'll be a prosperous and rich man." William arrived in New York and got a job in a soap factory. The first dollar he earned, he gave 10% to God. Soon he became a partner. Later he became the owner. The business grew, so he gave a double tithe, 20%. Then a triple tithe, a four-fold one, half his income - finally he was giving all his income to the Lord. He was faithful to God, and his name is with us today on every tube of Crest toothpaste - Colgate-Palmolive. #2121 C. Our use of money shows where our true loyalty lies. 16:13 1) Probably the reason people hate sermons on money so much. a) And why Jesus preaches about it so much! 2) Do you master money, or does it master you? V. What would YOU do if your firing was imminent? A. Most of us can relate to stories of financial catastrophe. For Stanley Rifkin, it was when he heard his name mentioned on a TV news program. He had made the small error of telling his lawyer what he had done. He assumed the lawyer couldn't tell anyone. He assumed wrong. The lawyer told the FBI immediately. Rifkin spent the next week racing across the country with his briefcase full of diamonds tucked under his arm. The FBI found him, and he got 10 years rather than $10 million. B. What about spiritual catastrophe? 1) Every single one of us faces a decision for Jesus, or against him. a) It's easy to decide against him. Just do NOTHING. 2) To decide for him, priorities in our lives must change. 3) Where do you stand with Jesus?