Hi, friends. I am Annie F. Downs. Let's read the Gospels. The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

These are the stories of Jesus Christ's life on earth, the friendships, the parables, the sacrifices, the meals, the miracles.

Each month, we read all four books. So go ahead, subscribe today. Join us as we read the Gospels together.

If you're enjoying reading and listening along, we'd love it if you would take a second and just write and review the show wherever you're listening.

This helps us share the show with even more friends. So here's how this works. This month, we're actually reading the Gospels instead of doing them by book.

We're reading chronologically in the NIV. So we're reading the stories as they happen. So it mixes together all four books most days. Today, we're only in two books.

But I'll share the references with you here at the beginning. You can find them in the show notes as well. And you can listen or read along in your own Bible. And then I'll pray. And that's it.

So today is September 19th. And I'll be reading Luke 16, Luke 17, 1 through 10, John 11, Luke 17, 11 through 37, and Luke 18, 1 through 8.

The story of the Shrewd Manager from Luke. Jesus told his disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So we called him in and asked him, what is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager any longer. The manager said, do himself, what shall I do now? My master is taking away my job.

I'm not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.

So we called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 900 gallons of olive oil. He replied, the manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 450.

Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe a thousand bushels of wheat? He replied, he told him, take your bill and make it 800.

The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

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.

So if you have not been trustworthy and handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

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.

The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts.

What people value highly is detestable in God's sight. The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John.

Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached and everyone is forcing their way into it.

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