The sons of this age live in indulgence, exploitation, selfishness, hoarding, conspicuous consumption,

waste, et cetera, and think that it's all theirs. We know better. Prophet Haggai says,

the silver is mine, speaking for God. The gold is mine. Psalm 104, 24, the earth is full of your possessions.

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You know, there are people

in this world who have achieved power and fame and wealth, but because of the questionable ways

they've reached their success, you would never think of them as examples to learn from,

especially not any spiritual lessons. With that in mind, why does Jesus, in one of his parables,

seem to praise a servant who outwits his master through scheming and dishonesty and really through

criminal behavior? What are you supposed to take away from this tale? Consider that today on

Grace to You as John MacArthur continues his compelling study called Stories with Purpose.

And now with the lesson, here's John. Let me encourage you to come to Luke 16.

Keep in mind, there's nothing in this parable that's secret or hidden or allegorical or mystical.

It's a simple story, but what bothers some people is Jesus commends the bad guy. Listen to his

closing. His master praised the unrighteous manager because he acted trutally. And then in verse 9,

Jesus says, and I say, make friends for yourselves by the means of the wealth of unrighteousness.

Wow. Do what he did. It is a problem for some people to have Jesus saying, follow the behavior

of a wasteful, profligate, prodigal, deceitful, thieving, selfish, conniving, unprincipled person.

And by the way, this is placed here right after the story of the prodigal son because this is a

prodigal manager. prodigal means wasteful. The son wasted everything and didn't provide for his

future. Here's a man who wasted the assets that he had control of, but did provide for his futures.

Maybe that's the link. The ending is a shock, a surprise ending. Jesus is commending the guy.

This is what has troubled some people. Why, what we would, we would understand the manager,

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