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Hey Cornerstone. How you doing? Super glad you're here. I need to I need to do a little bit of housekeeping real quick to set this up. So two weeks ago, I gave a story about my son and, I mentioned the fact that he was renting and, I had gone to him and said, hey, when you rent, you're actually making somebody else rich.
You need to go buy a house of your own so you can have equity. You can build, you know, your own wealth. And I said, you you need to stop being a renter. You need to start being an owner. And then I talked about this idea that said, some of us have been like renters in the kingdom, and,
you need to become owners. You need to start investing in the kingdom. You need to start building equity in the kingdom. Today, in our conversation, we're gonna use that same owner word again, but today as we use it, we're gonna use it in the context of somebody who believes, hey, everything that's in my hand,
I'm the owner. If I've touched it, then I own it. So different use of the same word. Okay.
So Lisa and I, when we go out and we, hang out with friends, a lot of times, we love to play cards. And so we'll invite them and say, hey, you wanna come over? We'll play some cards together. And often we'll say, hey, do you wanna play Canasta? And most of the time they say, well, we've never played Canasta,
but if you'll teach us, yeah, we'll play Canasta with you. So we start with, here's what you need to know about Canasta. Everything everything is about getting seven cards of the same kind. In other words, seven fives or seven kings or seven nines. That's a Canasta when you get seven cards of the same kind,
and when you get a kanasta, you get hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bonus points for getting a kanasta. It's it's the most important thing in kanasta. And then we'll tell them, hey, you can lay down three cards when it's your turn, but the goal is to get to seven eventually. And twos
are wild. You can make a two anything, a two can be a king, a two can be a knight, it can be anything you want, and a two can help you get to a Canasta. Inevitably, as we're playing,
the new players will lay down three cards. They'll take two fives and then they'll put one of the wild cards on it. They'll put a two on it and then maybe they'll lay down two tens and they'll put a wild card on it to put it down. They're doing this because
almost every other game you play is about getting all the cards out of your hand. This isn't true in Canasta. Canasta is all about getting as many piles of seven as you can and so we'll say to them, look, you just wasted two wild cards. You've got five nines over here.
If you would have simply put those two wild cards on, you would have gotten to Canasta, you would have had hundreds of points instead of these piddly little points. You're playing the wrong way. I tell you that story because what if, what if you and I are playing the game of life the wrong way?
What if we've seen how all our neighbors are doing it? How all of our friends are doing it? Maybe we've seen how our parents and our siblings are doing it, but what if you and I are playing the game of life the wrong way? And here's what Jesus is gonna say today,
If you play your life, if you live your life as if you're an owner, you will always lose. But if you will live your life like a manager, then you are absolutely guaranteed to win and Jesus is gonna unfold this truth for us in two parables. So here we go. Grab your bibles. Good. Let's go to the first parable together.
It's in Luke chapter 12, and, if you're not familiar, if you go to the back of your bible, start working, to the left, you're you're gonna find this, book of Luke, Luke chapter 12. And let me let me say this about a parable. Jesus uses parables when he is getting ready to reveal
something to us, show us something that is so counter what we've understood. It's so counter what culture does that the easiest way to open our eyes to it is to give it to us in story form.
That you and I would go, oh, that character is me and this character is god and and then as he gives that to us in story form, all of a sudden, it's like he pulls the curtain back on the kingdom. And he says, no. No. No. I know. I know. Everybody else is doing that, but this is how.
This is how life really works. This is how the kingdom of god actually works. And you and I are supposed to learn some of the most incredible life principles through the parables. So here we go. It's, Luke, chapter 12, and it's called the parable of the rich full.
Now here's what you need to know. There's nothing wrong with this guy being rich, contrary to what some of the people are saying today about being rich. There's nothing wrong with being rich. The thing that makes this man a fool is he believes he owns everything he has. He's living his life like an owner.
And Jesus is about to say, owners lose. Here we go. Luke chapter 12 starting in verse, 15. Then he talking about Jesus said to them, watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not consist of the abundance of possessions. Now, look,
idea that the person with the biggest house, the biggest car, the biggest pile wins at life and Jesus says that's not how you win
And then he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what shall I do? As we go you're going to see on every occasion, this guy responds with an owner's mentality. What shall I do? I have no place for my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do,
I will tear down my barns and I will build bigger ones and there I will store my surplus grain and I will say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years, take life easy, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this night your life will be demanded from you and then what will you get for what
you prepared for your son? And he goes, look, look, look, You got the biggest pile, but if you die today, who cares? Who cares? You're you're no better off. You you haven't done anything to invest in the kingdom. You haven't done anything that has eternal value,
you realize you're no better off than when you were born when you die because nothing of your life actually had true substance. And then he goes on, this is how it will be with whoever stores up treasures for themselves but is not rich toward God. Here's how an owner thinks. An owner says, hey, look, look,
So the reason I have what I have is because I used my intellect. I worked, I worked hard at it, I was wise with my investments and the reason I have what I have is because of what I did for myself and therefore, I own it all, it's mine.
And over there believes this, if it touches my hand, if it's there, then I must possess it. I own it. Isn't it interesting? This owner, he never asked, hey, wait, wait, I wonder why God gave me such an abundant harvest. I wonder what he was thinking. I wonder, I wonder what he was hoping I would do
with all of this that he gave me. He never asked that because he is absolutely so certain that it is all his and that he owns it.
Jesus said, this is an absolutely foolish way to live your life. It's the wrong way to play the game. Let let me see if this helps. How many have ever played this game, the game of life? Okay. Three of us. That's great. You'll understand really.
This will touch a lot of hearts. Alright. So for all of us that have never played this before or just don't want to admit it cause we're embarrassed, so there's a board in here and it's called the game of life and
the idea is you actually start out with a car and then you get a little person to stick in the car and then you travel all through the maze that is the game and when you land on certain things, so it'll say, hey, you just got a new job. Collect this much money.
Or it'll say, you made a great investment, you know, take this money in. But it also has the converse. It'll say, hey, your kids need braces, here's what you need to pay. The idea is you wanna get around the board and you want to acquire more wealth than anybody else who is playing the game
and once you get to the finish line, you have to wait for everybody else to get to the finish line and then you sell off all your assets. You sell your car, you sell your houses, you sell your boat, you sell off all your assets and the person with the biggest pile wins the game.
If there was any game out there that absolutely mirrors our culture, it is this game. Here is the problem, You end up with the biggest pile. You end up with an illusion. Wow, I won. But then everything you won goes back into the box and the reality is you're no better off for having played the game.
This is exactly what Jesus is saying to you and me. If you will play life like your neighbors play life, if you play life like our culture says, if you get consumed with this idea, hey, my house is bigger than yours, my car is bigger and the person with the biggest pile wins. Jesus said,
this is an absolutely foolish way to live life because because when you're done, it all goes back in the box. You can't take any of it with you and if you have spent your entire life only doing those things which please you and bring more to you, you're no better off when you die than when you were born
because you haven't done anything that truly, truly counts. You don't have any Canastus.
Back second parable. It's in Matthew chapter 25 and Jesus is about to now juxtapose this parable to there. He's gonna say, hey, that's the worst way you could live. Let me show you the best way
that you could possibly live. It's Matthew chapter 25. If your bible is still open, can just work to the left. If you closed it, start at the back, work to the left. You're gonna come to Matthew chapter 25. This parable. This parable is the parable of the faithful servant.
It's Matthew chapter 25. You and I are gonna jump in in verse 14. Again, it will be like this is Jesus speaking again. Again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted them. In other words, he he did something in which he put his trust in them. He entrusted them his wealth.
To one, he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags of gold, and to another one bag, each according to his ability and then he went on his journey. Now, it is absolutely critical, If you're gonna understand the parable, you've gotta understand the characters. The man
who entrusts his wealth and then goes on a journey is God. The servants that he trusts, that he gives the bags of gold are you and me. And the bags of gold are everything that God has placed in our hands. The bags of gold are your life. The bags of gold are your time.
The bags of gold are your capacity. Some of us have unbelievable intellects. We pulled straight a's and didn't try. Some of us worked and worked and worked for our d's.
Some of us have got unbelievable singing voices. Some of us are asked not to sing, right? In other words, whatever capacity, some of us have servant heart and mercy, others of us have never been kind, right? So it's whatever God has given you, whatever talents he's given you,
and then you're ready? Cause this is the one that hurts. It's whatever finances he's put in your hands. Whatever it is that God has given you, that's what he has trusted you with. Back to the passage.
Verse 16,
the man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work. Let me ask you a question. When it says the guy who got five bags of gold went and put his money to work,
Whose money is it? Who is his? Because who you think the money belongs to, who you think the life belongs to, the talent belongs to, the resources. That changes everything. So who is his?
He won at once and put his money to work and he gained five more bags. So also the one who had two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag of gold went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Whose money? I know it's painful. I know it. Whose money? His
master because because you're ready for this? Ownership never passed. In other words, when God gave that to them, when God gave that to us, ownership never passed, which simply means this, ready? Your life isn't your life. God loans you your life. You go, First Corinthians chapter six says, what? Don't you know
that you don't belong to yourself? You were bought with a price. Your life is not your life. Your life is on loan to you and God has trusted you with your life to do something that brings glory to him with your life.
It's why it's so interesting when people get so frustrated, someone dies and they're maybe younger than we thought they should have been or it happens sooner than we get so hey, but It wasn't their life. It was on loan from God and the truth is every day they had was a gift from God.
You ready for this? Your time. Your time is not your time. We all have twenty four hours in the same day, but here's the thing, none of us owns it. Every hour that you have is a gift from God. He trusted you with that day. He trusted you with that week and he asked this, would you honor me with what I have loaned to you?
Your talents, your gifts and abilities, They're not yours. Does anybody remember before you were born standing in front of the talent store and going, you know what? I'll take I'll take an intellect. You know, I I'd like to be athletic,
but music no. Music. No. No. I don't need any of that music stuff. They're weird people, those music people. Right? Do you remember asking for your talent deciding how come you got the talent you got? You got the talent you got. Isn't this weird? Don't we complain about talents other people, how come I can't sing?
You got the talent you got because it's exactly the talent and capacity and intellect that is exactly right for the assignment God had for your life. And he loans you that talent and asked you to use it for his glory. Your money, your money that we're so that's mine, it's not yours.
Scripture says, everything in the earth belongs to him and God loaned you that money. He didn't give you that money because he loves you more than poor people. He gave you that money because he was trusting you to take that money and to use it for his glory and for his praise to be a manager of all that he had given you.
Back to the passage
verse 19. After a long time, the master of those servants returned to ready, settle accounts. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master, he said, you trusted me. You entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, gathered five more.
His master replied, well done good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Come and share the master's happiness.
The man who had two bags of gold also came and said, master, you trusted me with two bags of gold and see I have gained two more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's
happiness. Here's what Jesus is trying to convey to you. You understand that every one of us has an appointment with God. And he says, hey, one day we will settle accounts. One day you're going to stand in front of God and God's going to say, hey, what did you do with the life that I trusted you with, that I loaned you?
What did you do with those talents and capacities that I gave to you? I let you borrow. What did you do with those for my namesake? Hey, what did you do with your finances? The finances that I allowed you to have.
Did you use them on yourself or did you use them for my glory? And that day is either gonna be a really, really horrible day for some of us
or it could be the most amazing, amazing, amazing day if we could answer the way these guys, hey, you know what? You trusted me with through my life. You you gave me this time to spend for you. You gave me you gave me the finances that you gave and I'm telling you God, I took part of that and I leveraged it for the kingdom. I leveraged it for your glory
and that God would say, done. That's exactly how I hoped you would live. That's exactly what I hoped you would do with your life.
And then he says, I trusted you with a few things. I'll now entrust you with many. You know, we we get this idea that we're gonna get to heaven, and, they're gonna show us our mansion, and then we're gonna go do choir practice for a long time. Guys,
we're gonna be doing leadership in heaven. Men, we're gonna be building things in heaven. Heaven isn't sitting around. The only question is how much is God gonna trust us with based on how we live here on earth. And guys, I'm convinced of this. I'm convinced that heaven is so amazing,
and one of the reasons that God doesn't tell us more about heaven is because if we knew exactly what heaven was like, we'd commit suicide to get there quicker. And he says, no, no, no, no, no. You still have an assignment here, but wait till you get there because it's amazing. The question is, how does that interview go?
Do we stand in front of God and go, man, I wish I'd done more. I thought I was an owner. I kept it all for myself. Or that we would stand in that moment as a manager and say, I understood. I understood that everything that I touched was on loan from you, and I used at least a portion of it for your glory
and for your praise and that we would hear well done.
Back to the passage. Go to verse, 24 because now we get the account of the guy who got the one. Remember the guy who took it and hid it in the ground and this is his, story. Starting in verse 24, then the man who had received one bag of gold came and he said, master, I knew that you were a hard man,
harvesting where you had not sown and gathering where you did not scatter seed. So I was afraid and I went out and I hedge your gold in the ground. See, here's what belongs to you. The master replied, you wicked and lazy servant,
so you knew that I harvested where I had not sown and I gathered where I had not scattered seed. Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so when I returned, I would have received at least it back with interest.
So take the bag of gold from him who and give it to the one who has 10 give it to the guy I can trust.
For whoever has will be given more and he will have abundance and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from because they weren't faithful with what they were given. And throw this worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here's the deal.
I think there's an opportunity to learn more from this guy than even from the first two. And here's why, because what this guy struggles with is what we struggle with. What this guy hesitates over is what we hesitate over.
So think about it. First thing he says, he says, no, I knew. I knew you were a hard man, and I knew that you harvested where you had not sown. I knew that you gathered where you you had not planted. So no, I was I wasn't interested because it feels like you want me to do all the work and then you want some of it back. No.
He's talking in farming terms and I could just imagine God saying to him, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, So you think I harvested where I didn't plant and I I reaped where I hadn't sowed, but let me ask you a question. Who provided the soil for you to plant in?
Who provided the rain so the crops could grow? Who who had the sun rise every single day so that they could be healthy and be nurtured? And who gave you the physical strength to actually work the farm and then to harvest? You you realize I was involved in every aspect of it right alongside of you.
We felt this way. So you wanna say, hey, God, wait, wait, wait, wait, I I don't get this. I do the work and you want something back because here's the deal. When I took my s a two test, I don't remember you being there helping me with the answers
and and I'm just gonna tell you, when I did the interview with the, you know, the manager of the company, it was my winsomeness that caused them to hire me. I don't remember you helping me in the interview
and when I got to work and I stayed longer than other people did and I worked harder than all the rest of the employees, I didn't see you bringing me coffee and and then when they finally gave me that big assignment, I worked my head off on that assignment. The assignment that finally got me the promote, it was me
And then you want some back. This just makes no sense to me. And here's what God would say to us. Who gave you the intellect to be able to get that score on the SAT?
I placed it in your hands and when you were in there interviewing with that manager for the job and you thought you were so winsome, he thought you were a goober and I whispered in his ear, hire the goober. When you were there and you were working so much longer than all the rest of the employees and
who gave you the stamina to be able to do that And remember that big project and remember there was a piece that was not coming together no matter how hard, who do you think fixed that for you?
And guys, here's what you need to know. God has been with you on every aspect. You did not do this by yourself. You did not earn it on your own. He has collaborated with every part of your life and everything you have is from his hand.
Second thing, isn't it interesting the guy who was given the least is the one who struggles the most to trust God? He's given the least and yet he is the one that can't get it right. He struggles so hard. I've got a guess. Here's my guess. I think he's struggling with comparison.
I think he sits in that moment goes, that guy got five. That guy got two. I got one measly. Why? And the reason I think that is because that's what I would struggle with. Hey, how come, how come, how come he's got a bigger house than me? How come, how come his truck is cooler than my truck?
Did you see the boat he just pulled out of his backyard? And my kids, my kids are goober. What? Couldn't you at least give me decent kids? And here's the deal, when you and I live lives of comparison, when we live lives on Facebook,
then I promise you, you will always fail in compare there is only one guy who wins that game, his name is Elon Musk. All the rest of us are like, hey, how come I don't have more? And guys, we live from a place in our hearts that says, god, you didn't do enough for me yet.
How can you possibly ask me to do something for you?
How much better if he had lived a life of You realize he wouldn't have a bag of gold if God didn't give it to him. You would not have what you have unless God had given it to you. How much better to live a moment of gratitude that says, God, everything everything I've got, you gave me that
and now all you're asking is for a little bit of that. God, the truth is because you gave it to me, you deserve all of it. Why would I hesitate to give back some? Because we compare.
Here's the thing that's interesting. You realize if he had been faithful, even though he didn't feel like what he got was enough, if he had been faithful, God would have given him more.
Isn't that exactly what he did with the two faithful servants? Hey, I had two. I made two more. Well, manage the four for me. Hey, I had five. I made five more. Well, then manage the 10 for me. If he had been faithful with what he God had given him, he would have been given more to be faithful with.
And you understand that's exactly how God works in our lives too. If you would simply be faithful with what God has already trusted you with, then he would willingly give you more. And it may not be money, it may be other things, but God would give you more to be faithful with.
He forfeits that because he digs a hole and puts it in the ground. And then finally about this guy, he doesn't trust the heart of God. He's like, I knew you were a hard man. I knew it. I knew you were demanding and I knew you asked for stuff you didn't deserve and he doesn't trust the heart of God. Did you understand
that God has said to you and me, hey, if you would simply live like a manager, if you would take part of what I've taken and placed in your take part of your life, take part of your time, take part of your finance, and if you would give that back to me, if you would put it in the kingdom,
I promise you. I promise you I will bless you more than anything you've sacrificed.
The problem is we're not sure we trust the heart of God to do what is good for us. You realize we just sang a song a few minutes ago and we said this to God, said, you have never been less than faithful. You have never been less than good. And if we truly believed that, it'd be really easy to be a manager
and we would never consider being an owner. Here's
what Jesus said, owners always lose, managers always win. So here's what I'm asking.
Would you begin to take on the heart of a manager? And I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to ask you for the next seven days. I want you to pray this prayer. Hey, God, what is it you want me to do? What is it you want me to do with my life? You want me to be an incredible husband? You want me to be an amazing wife?
You want me to be a parent who does their very best to raise good, godly what do you what were you hoping I would do with my life? Hey, God. What were you hoping I'd do with my time? Were you hoping I would serve in church? Were you hoping I would help in high school? What is it God that you were hoping I would do?
God, what is it that you were hoping I would do with my talents and abilities that you gave me? Even if it scares me a little bit. And then finally, God, what is it you want me to do with my finances? Because I'm not an owner. So what is it you want me to do? How do you want me to invest in the kingdom?
And here's here. Look, look, look, look. If the answer he gives you scares you, it's probably him. Because you realize God does his very, best work on the other side of our fear. It's David going out to face Goliath. It's Gideon only having 300 men. It's it's Moses being asked to go back and stand in front of pharaoh.
And I'm just telling you that when God speaks, usually our knees tremble a little bit. And then we get to decide, am I an owner or a manager? Let's pray. Hey, dear Lord Jesus. God, this one this one, everyone
we know lives differently than this. They they live like owners. They're they're convinced that everything their hand touches belongs to them, and you come along and say, no, no, no, no, no, you're managers. And everything you touch was given to you by God. It was loaned to you.
And the question was was, would you do use that for my glory? God, may we be the best managers. May we be a people who says, I get it. I get it. It's not mine. It's yours, and and I'm I'm more than happy to give you a portion back. And I trust your heart that whatever I sacrifice, you will bless me beyond my sacrifice. Make us
managers. This I pray in Jesus name. Amen.