Parable of the Shrewd Manager

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

What we have been talking about the whole summer, we've been talking about the sayings of Jesus. Ears to hear, the sayings of Jesus. And that subtitle, just talking about the sayings of Jesus, it might just convey that Jesus is kind of just throwing around these nuggets of wisdom for us to either take or leave at our discretion. But the reality is Jesus is using these stories, he's using these parables that we've been looking through to pull back the curtain between the world that we see in front of us and ultimate reality. And how things really are, right? When he's talking about, in parables, when he's talking about the kingdom of God, he's talking about something that we can't see, we can't touch, we can't taste. But that it is in fact more real than things that we can see or taste or touch. And although he doesn't always do it through a parable, next week actually we're gonna be looking

at one of Jesus' famous sayings that's not a parable. But this week we're talking about parables, they have a way of creeping up on us, right? They have a way of not just coming straight at us, but coming at us through more of a familiar path, more of a winding path. And it really helps us kind of see and understand things in a new way. So let's listen this summer to one last parable. And we're gonna be in Luke chapter 16, all morning, Luke 16.

And we're gonna have verses up here just like this, but we're also gonna have, you can follow along in your Bible or on your app, I recommend you version. There's also Bibles that are underneath seats that are right around you. So let's listen to this parable. Luke 16, one, it said, he also said to the disciples, this is Jesus talking to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Okay, that's a lot of pronouns there. So we have two main characters. We have a rich man who is later called the master, okay? And then we have his manager. So there was a master and a manager and the master is receiving charges, receiving accusations that the manager was wasting his possessions. So previously, just before we get into 16 verse one, what has just happened, what Jesus has just taught is a famous set of parables.

He tells a parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, okay? And those are very famous. Even if you don't know much about Bible, you've heard about the prodigal son, okay? So he has just told those. And when he does that, right whenever he's done with that and he jumps straight into another parable, this parable, but this one plays by new rules. It's not the same kind of parable and we'll see that as we keep going, okay? So we have the master, the rich man, and he hears about this mismanagement. So what does he do? Luke 16, two. It says, and he called him and said to him, the master calls the manager and says to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management for you can no longer be manager. Okay, so the rich man, the master fires the manager and so we see the crisis. And we see this kind of develop in the next verse.

Here we go, Luke 16, three. And the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me. I'm not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. Okay, so we get some honesty on behalf of the manager here, right? So he's in trouble, he can't dig, he can't beg. Next verse, we have the light bulb going on above the manager's head. It says, I have decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. Now we need to really look at this. We're gonna look at this again kind of in verse nine whenever the same thing is repeated, but we need to see it here. This is the manager is making a decision about his future. And the manager's solution to his crisis is both surprising and shrewd. Okay, so this is actually called the parable of the shrewd manager.

So look at verses five and six. Here's what he does. So summoning his master's debtors one by one, these are people that owed his master money, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly and write 50, okay? Sit down quickly and write 50. He's going behind his master's back and he's easing the debt of people that owe his master. So just to be clear, this is not how the first century worked. This isn't like lost in translation stuff. If we would go back to whenever Jesus was telling this story, everybody would be like, that's a really bad thing to do. Everybody understands kind of universally, it's bad to do what this manager is doing. He's relieving debts from people that owe his master money. So he's not losing out. He's easing these people's debts, okay?

They didn't just do that. So this is real money that the master is losing. In fact, if he would have asked permission, the master probably would have thrown him out immediately. And later we see actually that the master doesn't know that he's doing this, okay? So it's surprising in the story that the manager is doing this. It's also surprising to the listeners, both to us and to the listeners of the original story that Jesus is telling because Jesus doesn't condemn this. At no point does Jesus kind of frown on this or like, well, you know, you shouldn't do that. He doesn't do anything like that. He just kind of tells it as it is. And he has just finished, now here's what's interesting. He has just finished, remember, the parable of the lost son, the parable of the prodigal son, okay? Now, what's the point of that parable? What happens in that parable? Well, you have this dishonest son

who steals effectively, steals his inheritance early from his dad, so kind of like his master. And when the dishonest son like figures it out, when the prodigal son figures it out, what happens? He repents, he turns away, and that's really, and he goes back to his father, and that's kind of integral to the whole parable, right? Like, that's what that whole parable is about. And if you're listening to this parable, you might expect the same kind of outcome. You might expect the dishonest manager to do something. Maybe he liked the dishonest manager, realized his errors, and he repents, and he's welcomed back, no. That does not happen here. That is not the point of this parable, okay? So again, we're playing by different rules. We gotta pay attention. Verse seven, Luke 16, seven. Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? And he said, 100 measures of wheat.

So he's still bringing in his master's debtors. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80, okay? And the way that Jesus tells this story, kind of sequentially like this, he gives the impression it was way more than two or three, that he had his master's debtors lined up and just was forgiving or erasing half the debt, erasing 20% of the debt, erasing 30% of the debt just as much as he could do. And so what makes this, so I said, remember, I said his solution was surprising on two levels, but it's also shrewd. It's shrewd because this is actually a good trade from the manager's point of view. It's a good trade. The manager is actually risking nothing. So yes, he's being dishonest, but he's risking nothing because he's going to lose it all anyway, right? This is a management he's already losing. It's already slipping through his fingers. It's already wasting away, and he turns it into something

that can help him later. So look at what happens when the master finds out, verse eight. The master apparently finds out, and he commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. So the master's commendation here is also surprising to the story. This story does not go like you would expect it to go. I've heard sermons on this story that were horrible because they were trying to make it fit into like a prodigal son parable or a different kind of parable. This parable is just different, plays by different rules, works differently, has a different point. And so the manager is acting shrewdly, and now the manager, the shrewd manager, the shrewd, dishonest manager is now being rewarded. And so as we read this parable, there's a lot of kind of unanswered questions here,

like was the manager actually wasting his possessions, or was he just accused of wasting them? Is the manager somehow the hero of this parable? Are we commending shrewdness of any kind? So like, did we read this parable? And we're like, we should be shrewd. Jesus told me to be shrewd. Let's be shrewd today. Let's see who we can trick and use for our gain. Does the manager keep his job? We don't know any of these questions, and I would submit to you that none of them matter. None of those details matter. That in this parable, that you need to really understand the point of this parable, so let's understand it. Let's see how Jesus sheds a little bit of light. Verse nine, Luke 16 verse nine. And this is Jesus' giving comment. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it falls, fails, so that when it fails, they may receive you

into the eternal dwellings. Okay, it's really important right here to notice parallels, okay? We have, in verse nine, we have almost the exact same kind of wording that we have in verse four, okay? We have parallels. So in verse four, it says, you know, the dishonest manager is saying to himself, so that when I'm removed from management, verse nine, it says, so that when your unrighteous wealth fails, okay? So that when that happens, when this thing that's going away is gone, verse four, it says, people may receive me into their houses, but in verse nine, it says, people may receive you into eternal dwellings. Okay, as we start to unpack this, it's really helpful to know that Jesus, as he's applying this parable, as he's helping us understand this parable, the first thing he does is he puts us in the place of the dishonest manager, okay? So if we're gonna understand this,

we need to understand we're in the place of the dishonest manager. So the words he was putting in the mouth in verse four, he's also encouraging us to say, in effect, or to live out in verse nine, okay? And what he's saying, Jesus puts us in the place of the dishonest manager, and what he's saying is make the same trade, okay? So Jesus is looking to people that are listening to this parable, and he's saying to them, look, you see the trade the dishonest manager made? Make the exact same trade. Do that same thing. Jesus is not focusing at all on the dishonesty of the manager. He's not, he's not commend, he's not saying, be like the master who commends him for his shrewdness. Jesus is laser focused, actually, on the trade itself, and he says, with as much encouragement and focus as he can, make that same trade. Trade the current stewardship, the stuff that you have now,

trade that for eternal rewards that are coming later. Jesus is saying, make that, make that trade, make that same trade, and just so we see it, just so we stick to landing, Jesus goes even further, and technically, technically now, the parable is over. However, Jesus continues, verse 10 onward, he continues reusing the same wording, the same phrases, all of those things, so that we have this, that we have these connection all the way through to verse 13, and in beginning in verse 10, Jesus actually, he tries to help us see our current situation with comparisons. He tries to help us understand where we are by comparing it to other things, and he does it in triplicate. He does it three times, verse 10, verse 11, and verse 12, and each tells us a little bit more, specifically, that we are the managers of these riches that we're in the same position now, and he's still saying, make the trade,

but he's talking about it in terms of faithfulness. So let's read verse 10. It says, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is so dishonest in much. Look, what, and this almost sounds like, like you're reading the book of Proverbs or something, it almost sounds like that, but it's not, it's Jesus trying to tie back into what we're already talking about, and what Jesus is saying is that what we have now, what we have right now, the current stewardship, that all the things that you have now are painfully small when compared to what's coming, that what you're dealing with now that you think is so important is actually small potatoes, and Jesus is looking at his followers, and he's saying, look, trade all these nickels that you have now for the millions that are coming. Make that trade. Verse 11, he also says,

if then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you, entrust to you the true riches? Okay, Jesus is actually trying to impress upon us that what we have now is fleeting, okay, so this unrighteous wealth comment is actually a callback to verse nine, okay? So he's talking about unrighteous wealth there, and this is not money that you've gained through extortion, okay, this isn't like, you know, money that you've made because you're an assassin, that's not unrighteous wealth here. All that it's saying is unrighteous wealth is just stuff that you can't take with you. Unrighteous wealth, stuff you cannot take with you, and then the comparison is against true riches. So Jesus is saying, right, what you have now is painfully small, what you have now is fleeting. It's going away, and he's looking at his followers, and he's saying, look, what's coming is going to stay,

but trade your fleeting things now. Jim Elliot, who was a missionary to Papua New Guinea, he has a famous quote, he says, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And he's talking about a trade. He's talking about a trade. You give what you cannot keep to gain what you cannot lose. Let's look at the last one in verse 12. It says, and if you've not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? Saying what you have now is small, what you have now is fleeting, and really what you have now is not really yours, not in any real eternal sense. That shirt that you're wearing, it's not yours. That cool car you bought, it's not yours. The house you like, it's not yours. The point of the parable that Jesus is telling here is to highlight a different kind of stewardship, where you have the manager here in a desperate situation,

and he's making the best of it, because he's effectively stewarding his future and using something that is going away anyway, because he's already lost his management. It's already going away, so he's trading it for something that's going to help him after that management is gone. And so it should make you ask and answer the question, what do you have that's going away? All of it, all of it.

Your time is going away, your money, your status, your leverage, your athletic ability, your authority level, your physical strength, your expertise, your perspective, your ability to bring someone comfort and encouragement. All those things are going away, they're all leaving you. You won't have it over time. And Jesus says, look, look at everything that you have that's going away, and make the trade. Make the trade. Don't try to hold onto it. What I wanna leave you with this morning is I wanna leave you with five trades to consider. Now, the Lord could be calling you to make some other trades, that's cool. I'm just trying to give you maybe some things to think through. I wanna give you five trades to consider. The first trade that you should consider is that you need to trade status or leverage for honoring others. We talked a little bit about this last week

where we talked about leverage and we talked about the widow and the judge, and this is kind of in the same vein. You have, you have leverage. You have position, you have status, you have the ability to tell somebody what to do. You are stewarding a relationship where you have the upper hand. And I don't even mean that in a bad way, but I'm just talking about straight up leadership. You have that kind of relationship with people.

And when you use that to express care, when you use that to serve another person, when you use that to know about other people's lives, when you sit down and you ask thoughtful questions, you have now moved from using that leverage for yourself to eternal significance. You are now able to then, you are trading all these things that you have now, you're leveraging your status for eternal significance, honoring somebody else, serving somebody else. And Jesus wasn't kidding whenever he was saying, look, if somebody gives somebody a cup of cold water in my name, they've done it to me, that's eternal significance there. That's no small thing, even though sometimes maybe it feels small. Trade, status, or leverage for honoring others.

The second trait I want you to consider making is that you wanna trade time for prayer, I have a friend who I'm married to who will remain nameless. In order to help her, that's my one, in order to help her remember to turn off her Facebook, right, on her phone. Like she will get on Facebook on her phone, but she doesn't like it all the time, and she's like, I spent too much time on that, I need to turn it off. And so she renamed the folder on her phone, and I don't know if this is still true, this was true, at least a while back, she renamed that folder Time Suckers. Okay, that's where it just says Time Suckers. So it's a little folder Time Suckers, so every time she's clicking on that folder, she's like, okay, I need to remember that this thing is going to eat my lunch and dinner if I don't step away from it quickly, okay.

And I'm really proud of her for doing that, I didn't, like I just kinda found that one day on her phone, I thought that was really cool. Here's my encouragement, as you're praying, trade maybe one episode on that Netflix show that you're really into, or Amazon Prime, or wherever streaming platform you're on, just take one episode off. When the streaming platform says you wanna continue, say no, and when you do, when you say no, man, spend 10 minutes, spend 15 minutes in prayer, and make sure that you're asking for the things that only God can give.

Okay, make sure that you're asking for the things that only God can give. Make sure that you're asking for things like spiritual power for today, right. Make sure that you're asking for God to help you be a blessing to other people. Make sure that you are asking God to speak to your heart, to change how you are continuing to hit the same brick wall over and over again, ask for some change there. Ask for that change for other people, right. Spend time praying for other people. Listen, selfishly, spend time praying for me. If you can't think of anybody to pray for, I want you to remember this sermon, I want you to pray for me, okay. Not only because I definitely need all the prayer, definitely all of it, I covet that.

But man, it's just a good habit to get into to pray for another person, that's not you, okay. So if you can think of anybody else to pray for, go right on ahead, but if you're just like stumped, man, I just don't know who to pray for. Just pray for old Drew, okay. I need it. But ask for those things that only God can give, right. Only God can give, rest, healing, peace, security. Only God can get rid of fear, lust, jealousy. Only God can fight those things. Only God can take those things away. Pray for those things that only God can do. Trade time for prayer.

Third trade, I want you to consider making trade strength for shared ministry. Trade your strength for shared ministry with your church. Look, working out is great, okay. Working out is beneficial for you. That's all really good. Being in shape, that's helpful. But look, it's all going away, okay. It's all going away. I know some of you, like you were teetering on whether you were gonna work out this afternoon and now you're definitely not and I apologize for that, but, because you're like, it's all going away anyway. I'm just, well, might as well not even work out. Okay, fine, sorry. It is all going away. I'm just here to share truth with you.

My encouragement though is to use that physical strength to work to make our church function. So we call this shared ministry and what that means is that we all, that we all help and serve each other to kind of make this church go, okay. So there's ministry where we're investing in people's spiritual journeys. That's a little different than what I'm talking about. I'll get to that in a minute. But right this second, I'm talking about shared ministry kind of within our church. You can use your physical strength to fix a basketball goal. You can use your physical strength to change a diaper. You can, amen, amen, okay. You can use your physical strength, just making sure you're paying attention guys. I might call on you. You can use your physical strength to mow a yard, okay. You can do all of those things and you might think, you know what, ah, look, I'm just mopping the building.

I'm just changing a diaper. I'm just mowing a yard. I'm just running a sound board. God bless you Levi. I'm just doing these things, right. I'm just doing these things. But look, you need to understand that you can use your strength that is going away on things of eternal significance. And it doesn't feel like eternal significance when you're changing a diaper. It doesn't feel like eternal significance when you're getting on the mower, okay. The zero-turn mower, what? That thing's awesome, okay. It doesn't feel like spiritual significance, so it doesn't feel like you're contributing to anything eternal, but you are. You are, you are investing in our church's shared ministry. You are making things go. You are helping us all thrive in ministry. And I know, look, I get it, that feels like 15 levels removed, but it's not.

Even whenever Jesus is talking about the cup of cold water, right, this is just doing menial stuff, so that we can all get together. Look, when I take out the trash, if I ever take out the trash, when I take out the trash on those rare occasions when I take out the trash, it doesn't feel like I'm loving my family. When I'm doing the dishes, it doesn't feel like I'm loving my family. Hugging my wife feels like I'm loving my family. Encouraging my children, that feels like I'm loving my family. However, it's all loving my family. It's all loving my family. Doing the dishes is loving my family. My wife loves it when I do the dishes, I mean, loves it. She, look, because she feels love. Look, our church loves it when you serve. Okay, our church loves it when you serve. But I just wanna bring this to your attention. This is not a hard sell, I promise. Immediately out those doors and to your left

is the start table, across from the start table is the family table. At that table, you can sign up to serve in a ministry somewhere, some way, somehow. You don't need to be a member. We'd like to know you, obviously. But it's not contingent on membership. We have some needs that we need you guys to sign up for, including the mowing team, including tech team, including preschool, including grade school. My encouragement to you is that you are serving somewhere, you are using your trading the strength that is going away for eternal significance. That's the third trade, fourth trade. Trade, wealth investment for spiritual investment. Wealth investment for spiritual investment. Look, listen, I know that Dave Ramsey has a lot of wisdom about saving money. I get it, he does, bless him, right? Like, I'm just, I'm probably a better saver because of Dave Ramsey, okay?

Money saver. However, there are things that you can contribute to that build your own wealth. And a lot of times, that's not the same thing. In fact, many, many, almost every time, it's not the same thing as using your money to invest in the spiritual development of other people. Now look, we don't talk about giving money a ton. Honestly, we don't talk about it hardly at all. We have a QR code on the back, we have a giving station back there. If you wanna drop something in, that's great. We don't pass plates. We don't go for hard pressure sales, but it would just be, it's just an obvious thing right here where Jesus is saying, trade your money now. Trade it now. You give money now for eternal significance later. And it doesn't mean like, you know, if you give a lot of money now, you get a bigger house in heaven. I'm not going for that, right? But this is Jesus talking about laying up treasure

in heaven in Matthew 6, right? Where moth and rust don't destroy. This is Jesus saying, make the trade of stuff that you have now where you can, you can, listen, you can invest in your IRA. You can invest in those things. You can buy a nicer car than you need. You can buy a bigger house. You can do all those things. You can, it's your money, okay? And you've been given stewardship over it, but you have to understand that you can steward the money that you have now that's going away anyway. You can steward that for temporal or for eternal significance. And that's your choice. And Jesus is saying, trade it. Trade it for eternal. Trade it for eternal, because all that stuff can't take it with you anyway. Trade, investment, and wealth for investment in other people's spiritual journeys. Look, we talk about this a lot, and I want to keep saying it a lot, because I want you to understand,

when we talk about making disciples, when the Bible talks about making disciples, right? All that it's talking about is this idea of investing in somebody else's spiritual journey. We're not putting our forearms to people's throats, and we're saying, believe in the Lord Jesus, or you can't breathe. Okay, that's not, it's not a hard sell that way. What it is, though, it's saying, it's assuming, and it's a good assumption, actually, it's assuming that Jesus is working on somebody else's life right now, right here, right now, while you're sleeping, while you're not paying attention, whatever you're doing, Jesus is still working on your coworker, your neighbor, your friend, your friend's kid, all these people that are immediately around you, the Lord is working on them, and our call into that is to invest in what the Lord is already doing. We do that by loving people,

by listening to people, by showing honor, by sharing the gospel with them in a clear way, by sharing our testimony with them, and look, it's not all at once. Investment takes time. So we're talking about investing in people's spiritual journey. It's trading, trading all of that stuff that you are dealing with now so that you can invest in somebody else making spiritual progress. Can I tell you, I'm just gonna tell in my life group real fast.

I had the best life group meeting. I didn't have the best life group, I can't say that. I mean, we're great. Full disclosure, Patrick Simmons, Levi, Haley, and my life group, we have a grand old time. Be jealous, okay. We had a really great meeting one time where we were going through the Old Testament. We were reading the Old Testament together. And man, I was just so down. I was so down inside. I was like, man, because we were gonna read through the whole Old Testament and then like, I don't know, like 40 days, something insane. We should have never attempted it, but it doesn't matter, right? Big dreams, okay.

So we should have never attempted it, but we did. And I don't remember where I got to, maybe judges. I definitely got to Joshua. I don't think I finished Joshua, okay. And I'm not gonna give you the tally. I'll just say I didn't win, okay. Okay, I'll just leave it there. I didn't win. But when it's all said and done, I'm down because we didn't finish. My perspective was way off. I listened to the other two guys in my life group and they're just talking about all this spiritual benefit they're receiving from reading the Old Testament and how refreshing it was and how it's like challenging spiritually and all these things. And I'm going, okay, clearly I'm 100% attatoon with what needs to be happening in my own life group. But it was a blessing. It was an encouragement because the Lord just used that to remind me, just like, look, even whenever you feel stupid, even whenever you feel like you just messed

that whole thing up, you're still, look, just pointing people to the word, praying for people, praying with people, that helps. That's significant, okay. There are significant battles that need to be won. There are significant discussions that need to be had with people that are immediately around you that don't know the Lord, that aren't following the Lord. And all it takes, all it takes is you caring, praying, listening, talking. That's all it takes. You don't need to be a missionary, okay. Although missionaries, we got you, okay. We got a couple of resident missionaries. Glad you're here.

But we all don't, it's not that we need to like move to Nepal to share the gospel, okay. We don't need to go to a foreign country to talk to, to be able to invest in people, okay. We have to be able to do that. Lastly, fifth trade, you should consider making trade, your experience and your perspective for leadership opportunities. Specifically within our church, I would say anywhere, but in this trade, I'm just gonna limit it to the church.

Trade your experience and your perspective for leadership opportunities within the church. So I will tell you, Dan Brown, Dan Brown has just started taking on leadership for the mowing team, okay. So if you like Dan Brown, Dan, raise your hand. Go ahead, there you go. He's over there, red shirt. If you wanna support and love Dan Brown, and just jump on the mowing team. He needs people, okay. I'm just saying it for you, brother. Just get on that mowing team. You can mow whenever you want. And Dan's really great. He's my father-in-law, so I can speak from experience. He has not lorded his authority over me at all. And he's great. What I'm embarrassing my father-in-law for, though, is to press home the point that Dan Brown has served as a deacon. He served as a Sunday school teacher. I mean, just a lot of different capacities, right. He has experience. He has perspective.

He has expertise. He has those things. But if he's not leading anybody, nobody hears it. If he's not leading anybody, all those trials that he's fought, all those things he's been through, all those lessons that he's learned, they're just for him. So that's my encouragement to you is, look, you got scars. You got skins on the wall. You got stories from battle. You've made it through a few things spiritually. Congratulations, lead.

Lead. Take somebody under your wing. Consider leading a life group. Consider leading a team. Consider being a deacon. Consider being a pastor. Consider leading. You should. You have the perspective. You have the expertise. You have the experience. You have the battle stories. And look, I'm not just talking about people that are over 50 at this point because we need all kinds of leaders to lead all kinds of people. And some of those people are little people. Sometimes those people are medium-sized people. Okay, we need all kinds of leaders. So that's my encouragement toward you is to say, listen, the stuff you're learning is not just for you. Don't act like it. Trade all those things that you're learning that if you don't share them with anybody, all those lessons are gonna die with you. Trade that for leadership opportunity now. Serve now. Lead now. We're gonna end with the last verse here, Luke 16, 13.

And Jesus kind of puts a cap on it. He says, no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and, it says money, that word actually is better translated as wealth. It's the word mammon. I'm not gonna get into the Greek for you. But that word money is a callback to the parable when he talks about unrighteous wealth, okay? Same deal here. You cannot serve both God and wealth. Look, without getting too far into this, it's enough to say this. When Jesus is saying this, he's saying the choice is inevitable. You will choose. You are choosing even now. You are choosing to make the trade or not. The choice is inevitable, so make the trade. And here's a bonus trade to consider, okay?

And it's the trade that the gospel offers, right? It's often been called the great exchange, right? The trade that Jesus offers now, for all of us really, is to trade everything we have now. All these things that we have stewardship over, all these things that we either can or cannot control, all these things that we've been given, trade all of that for abundant life, eternal life, now life with Jesus, following Jesus. You trade everything you have now. You trade all the things that make you afraid, all the things that you really aspire to be, hopes, dreams, all your frustrations. You trade that, you trade that for life with Jesus.

And just as we sing, at our church, we don't call people to the front or anything, but if you do wanna talk, if you wanna talk to somebody, I'll be right over here, just sitting at the end of the seat after the service is done, and if you wanna come and talk, I would love to talk to you. I'd love to kinda help you sort a few things out. And it's okay if there's a number of you. We have deacons that can also talk and are extremely knowledgeable and savvy. But I just wanna encourage you, if the Lord's calling you to make some kinda trade like that, even if you can't articulate it very well, it's okay to sound dumb. You know, I'm not gonna put you on the microphone. I'm not gonna drag you out in front of anybody. It's just gonna be a conversation, literally, just a conversation right over here whenever we are through. So let me pray for us. Jesus, thank you for all that you've done for us in us.

Thank you for the ways that you continue to call us out. You continue to show us areas where we need to make the trade. I pray that we would see it. I pray that we would see it in our own lives, the trade that you're calling us to make. Maybe even today, maybe this week. I pray that you would put that on us, help us to understand.