Hello and good morning. Welcome to Walk the Walk. Today in our my Bible study reading, I'm doing the Bible through the year, which I've been doing for many years. But sometimes a story sticks out that when you've read it before, you just kind of read it over and then never think anything about it. Today, the story that struck me the most was the story of the scammer in Luke 16. Now, I call it the scammer because that's going to be the title of this podcast. If Scammers Worked This Hard for Heaven. Now, this is a story about a man who was just about to get fired. And his boss came in and said, Look, you have been misusing my money and you're going to be fired. Well, this guy was like, Look, I'm too old to be looking for another job. I can't dig ditches. I can't, you know, do anything like I was able to do before. So he got scared. And then he became creative. And how did he become creative? Well, what he did was he went to all the people that owed his boss money and reduced their bill. Some of them he reduced their bill by 50%. Some of them he reduced their bill by 20%. Whatever. But he did that in order to gain friends because this man knew that someday he was going to need them. And so he figured I better find favor with these people. So that's what he did with his boss's money, with his boss's bills. He went in and reduced the bills of others to gain favor with them. Now I was thinking about this and I thought, you know what? People out there work so hard to serve themselves. And that's the example of this. This man was serving himself. Was he a man of God? No. Was he? But the story, God, Jesus says, listen, this is the determination I need you to have as a Christian. Not to scam people, not to lie people. But if you were that determined to get into heaven, you would work just as hard as this man did. He was smart and he knew what he wanted to do in order to protect his future. What are you doing to protect your future? Are you like this shrewd manager? Are you somebody today that's like, look, I'm about me. My life is about me. I need my money. I need my beautiful home. I need my beautiful car. I need stuff to serve me. And God says, you know what? If you work that hard to serve him, your future would look a lot different. Now I'm not saying you're going to go to hell for all of those possessions because the Bible doesn't say wealth is a sin at all. Abraham and all of them were wealthy people, but what they did with their wealth made the difference. What are you doing with your wealth? And you may say, I have no wealth. You have wealth. Whether it's a lot or not a lot, we all have some level of wealth. What do we do with it? Are you using your words? Are you using your time? Are you using your money or your resources to help others to know about the kingdom of heaven? I know it's hard. Today's world we look out and we see nothing but evil. Pure evil. Not evil things that you even want to be a part of, not even things that we want to even try to get in the middle of. It's scary. It's unimaginable. Like what's really going on? And unfortunately for us, we see more of it because we're on the internet, we watch TikTok, we watch all these things, and you're just seeing it up close and personal. Whereas before, we didn't. We had the nightly news. Now I know I'm going way back. So some of you are like, what is the nightly news? Now we have 24 hours news just being thrown at us day in and day out. But there was a time when we only got the news at a certain time of day. And and oh man, I'll tell you what, that seems to be a lot better. Right now we just get opinion after opinion after opinion after opinion to the point where it breaks us down to where we don't even want to be a part of this world. We're frustrated, we don't even want to be in the middle of it. But God says we need to be in the middle of it. Now, how are we to be in the middle of it? Tina, I I I don't want to go out there and put myself in danger, nor does God. He does not want you to put yourself in danger. But there are ways to help people without putting yourself in danger. Are you are you volunteering anywhere, serving a breakfast to those or or dinner or whatever to those who have no ability to find food otherwise? Are you using your money? Are you using it to help others to buy things that they may need just to survive? I'm not talking about buying booze, alcohol, drugs, or I'm not I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about helping others to survive. And in your mind you may think, well, they're not working. Why should I work? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, of course. We have to be um we have to be uh mindful of what we do with God's money. And sometimes your money may go to a cause that may not be perfect, but your intentions are that it that it does. And when that gift of whatever leaves your hand, your time, your money, your resources leaves your hand, it's no longer in your control. You no longer can tell a person, well, not that you should, but ever tell the person what they should do. What they should do with your money, what they should do with the time that you have given them. That's on them. But your intentions are what God is looking at. Just like this man, this shrewd manager in Luke 16 did, he was out for himself. Just think, if you're out for God every day, and I do the same thing. I'll do it tomorrow once I do this, once I pay off this, once I do that, I'll I'll do it tomorrow. When in fact, we never know when if tomorrow's gonna come. We just don't. This afternoon may not even come. Life is not um predictable. So, what are you doing to help get the kingdom of God? What are you doing with your resources and your time? You need to look at that. I need to look at that. What is it that I want to do to help others know that there's a heavenly home waiting for them? I mean, I hope my podcast does that. But I mean, I don't have a huge following of people and those who follow, I don't know if you're sharing these with other people, but that could be your ministry, is sharing other people's words. Maybe you don't have words, maybe you aren't comfortable with doing something like I do. But you can use somebody else's truthful words to help others. If you have time, go volunteer. If you have money, provide it to others. I know it's hard to do, especially when you're like, I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring for me. What if I give it to somebody else and then I need it? Well then ye of little faith, God will take care of you. He has so far, take a look around you, take a look around what you have. Looks like we're all pretty much well taken care of, even if it's the things we don't need. So let's be like that shrewd manager, not in the way that he was trying to do it for himself, but the energy that he had is the energy that we need to help others know about the kingdom of God. I challenge you. Start this week, start today. I challenge you. Pick up your phone and volunteer, write a check. I don't care how big that check is, just write a check. Or or figure it out. If you're not in a church, find a church where you can be part of their ministry. You may not know how to do it on your own, but churches do. You need to figure it out. Not next week and not next month, not next year, but right now. Figure out how you can put that much energy into God. Have a blessed week.