Introduction: Do not read the Bible as if it were the Tao Te Ching

Good day to everyone. Let us examine Luke Chapter 16. I have consulted many sources on this chapter, and I do not believe anyone has explained it clearly. The Bible is a stumbling block. For instance, people like to criticize and judge Abraham, finding fault with him. Moreover, many read the Bible and interpret it as if it were the Tao Te Ching. Our God is not a moralistic God. Morality is purely a concept of this life, whereas our God views things beyond the confines of this world.

In this chapter, Jesus tells the story of a rich man's steward. One day, someone accused him of wasting his master's possessions, and the master summoned him to dismiss him.

So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' (Luke 16:2)

As a result, the steward thought, Losing my job means a mid-life crisis. I have to care for the elderly and the young. What should I do? My master is dismissing me, and I can no longer be a manager. What will I do in the future? He had been a professional manager his entire life. Now, he lacked the strength to till the land, and he was ashamed to beg. After much thought, he came up with an idea: since he was in charge of the accounts, he summoned all those who owed his master debts.

So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 'Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied. The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.' Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' 'One thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' (Luke 16:5-7)

Am I not supposed to give an account? This is what I will do. And what was the result? The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

God Views This Manager as Both Shrewd and Faithful

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 yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:8-9)

This entire passage raises a question: was this manager shrewd or not? Faithful or not? There are various opinions on this matter. Since there are so many diverse views, let us ask today how God views this manager.

In other words, if we look at it from a moral standpoint, you cannot consider this manager shrewd. If you are a moralist, you cannot accept such behavior.

Our perspectives on life and our concepts of money are critical. Consider how God views the world. What does God want people to do when He places them on this earth? Whether you like it or not, God's views on worldly wealth, on how people should live, on loyalty, and on shrewdness in worldly affairs often differ from those of people. Today, if one follows human inclinations, one quickly falls into Satan's trap, because one is only concerned with human desires, not with God's will.

Therefore, Satan's influence far exceeds human imagination. Today, I will share a concept with everyone, and perhaps I am wrong, but God certainly regards this manager as capable and shrewd. Where does the manager's shrewdness lie? He is shrewd in considering the future: what will happen to me in the future? He quickly used unrighteous wealth to make friends. As a result, he squandered his master's money, yet God considers him shrewd.

The second question is: does God consider this manager faithful or not?

Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones, and whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones. (Luke 16:10)

Is this manager a righteous manager or an unrighteous one? Is he a faithful manager or an unfaithful one? From a human perspective, he is an unrighteous manager, canceling the debts others owed his master and causing his master to lose money. What kind of behavior is this! Actually, to be honest, where was this manager acting for his master? He was planning for his own future.

In fact, people become clever when they plan for the future. What is the result? I tell you: first, God considers this manager a shrewd manager; second, God considers this manager a faithful manager. How can he be considered faithful? This is where the dispute lies.

God considers this manager righteous and faithful. Where is that seen? Jesus told this parable, which implicitly reveals God's view of wealth in this world. In God's eyes, it is not just money obtained through robbery or theft that is called unrighteous wealth, but all money, whether it is Renminbi or US dollars, is unrighteous wealth. Why? Because in God's eyes, money is like joss paper. Therefore, our views differ greatly from God's views. God considers this manager faithful from a spiritual perspective, because he prepares for his future.

The Shrewd Person Prepares for Their Future

When people prepare for their future, which future are they preparing for? Is it the future ten years from now? Or twenty years from now? Or the future after they die? Does anyone prepare for this future after people leave this world? If people do not prepare, they simply die and that is the end of it. Which of the things in this world can you take with you? You cannot take anything. Why is it called unrighteous wealth? Because you cannot take anything with you, nothing is yours.

In fact, Jesus used this parable to help us see through these worldly matters, especially when it comes to money. Those who cannot see through money matters are extremely foolish in God's eyes. In Northeastern dialect, they are 傻不啦叽的 (shǎ bù lā jī de, silly and foolish). How can such 傻不啦叽的 people enter the Kingdom of God?

God sits on His throne, watching people busying themselves with this and that, but having no interest in the Kingdom of God, unaware that one day they will die like that rich man, indulging in luxury and feasting every day while on earth. We think the rich man is blessed, but one day he died. There was also a man named Lazarus, covered in sores, who was placed at the rich man's gate, relying on the scraps that fell from the rich man's table to fill his hunger.

Later, both of them died. Jesus told a parable that the rich man went to hell, the underworld, where he underwent electro-therapy, chemotherapy, was placed on the tiger bench, and barbecued. It was not that he was eating barbecue, but that he was the one being roasted on the iron skewers in hell, causing him extreme pain.

He said, Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire. Of course he was in agony! Being roasted on iron skewers is extremely painful. Putting a frog or a fish on the fire is extremely painful.

The Attitude of the Shrewd Person Towards Eternal Life and Wealth

Have people ever thought about the extremely painful things in the future? Many people do not want to think about it. Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom to be comforted, while this rich man fell into the underworld hell. In fact, Jesus used these two events to make a comparison, so that we would know that for the sake of the future, even if it means begging in this world, we must enter into the eternal dwellings.

But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' (Luke 16:25-31)

If people have no concept of eternal life and no plans for the future, the outcome is like this. If people have plans for the future, and if you have a little intelligence, you will realize that no matter how much you accumulate in this world, you cannot take it with you. That is a very real fact. People think their dreams are rich and full, but reality is stark and emaciated. A person who plans for this life is the most displeasing to God; a person who plans for reality is the greatest unrighteousness in God's eyes.

If a person plans for this life, money is the most important thing; if a person plans for eternal life, money is the least important thing. If we look down on money today, we will live very freely.

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. (Luke 16:13)

God's view of money is that it is unrighteous wealth, and faithfulness refers to faithfulness to God. If we cannot be faithful to God in the matter of tithing and in the wealth of this world, how can God entrust us with true wealth in eternity? We people in this world, whether you like it or not, are managing someone else's wealth. If you say, No, this is all my own wealth, and all this money is in my bank account, in fact, when you leave this world, that wealth is no longer yours.

In eternity, if you say you have US dollars, that is useless, and even if you have gold, it is useless. In eternity, what is gold? The things of this world are all unrighteous wealth in God's eyes. You say it is what you have worked hard to earn, but it is still not yours, and you cannot take anything with you when you die. Therefore, this world will completely pass away, and heaven and earth will pass away, but not one stroke or dot of God's Word will fail. A person who has no concept of eternity will labor for this life and feel a lot of pressure. Why? It is because they live too seriously and not freely at all. They live solely for the sake of living and fuss about all day long, unable to see that these things cannot give them a future.

If we cannot understand this matter today, then lie in a coffin and try it out. If one day you pass away, what can you take with you? The next day, you will be cremated in a furnace, and people will be left with only a handful of ashes, and their spirits will fall into hell. The spirit will be roasted there, and you cannot take anything with you. Then why should we suffer in this world for these things? If people love money, they cannot love God, and those who love money are very foolish.

Some time ago, there was a very foolish young man who asked me for a long time, Where does the money of the brothers and sisters in your church come from? I thought to myself, This is a person who loves money, and he only cares about this matter. Why does he only care about this matter? Because his money was cheated away. If he did not care about this matter and was not greedy for money, the chances of him being cheated would be smaller.

Those who love money are very miserable. The wealth we have in this world is all someone else's things, someone else's wealth. If we cannot be faithful to God in the wealth of this world, how can God entrust us with the true wealth of eternity? Although the wealth of this world is in your account, it is not yours.

The Faithful Person Is Faithful to God and Prepares for Eternity

And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:12)

If you are not faithful to God in this world, no matter how faithful you are to the things of this world, it is useless. Today, we must understand God's views: what is highly valued by people is detestable in God's sight. In eternity, God sees things completely differently from how we see things in this life.

If you are often entangled and feel that the wealth of this world is very important to you, and you go to court with others for the sake of money, I think you should ponder whether these things are beneficial to you. They are of no benefit. We can live with this money, and can we not live without it? Therefore, if people love money in this world, they cannot love God; if you serve Mammon, you cannot serve God.

If we build a church with gold, silver, and precious stones, that is unreliable. We build churches through people, not through money. Building a church does not require money or numbers; it only requires God. God wants to dwell in this place, and this place is God's temple. If we can all understand that this life is vanity of vanities, will we still go to court with others for the sake of this little money? The result is that we forget the eternal dwellings and forget that we will leave this world one day.

Many pastors also read the Bible and preach the Bible, but they take the wealth of this world very seriously. If we can understand this, you will find that many confusions in the Bible can be readily resolved. Abraham, with his 318 trained men, defeated four kings and took back all their possessions.

Abraham let others take the wealth, because he did not want anyone to say that he was rich because of this event, because Abraham did not have such a strong interest in wealth. But if it were you and me, we would certainly not give the wealth to others, but keep it for ourselves.

People's view of wealth really determines many things. When David led his troops to fight, some people said they were tired, and David let them stay there to rest. David led the others to fight, and everyone shared the spoils equally, regardless of whether they went to fight or not.

As a result, many people could not understand and felt it was unfair. In fact, David did not take wealth seriously. Wealth is all unrighteous wealth. But did David end up poor? David himself offered more than two hundred tons of gold, an amount beyond our imagination. If people's mouths are often talking about money, they actually still take money very seriously. The attitude of taking money seriously is actually filled with hope for this life.

This life is just an environment created by God, allowing us to use unrighteous wealth in this environment to make friends in eternity. When we close our eyes, wealth will be useless, and the wealth of this world cannot save us. When money is useless, you can be received into the eternal dwellings.

If we see through this life, knowing that one day we will leave this world, who will you leave your money to? Some people take money very seriously and even write their wills before they die, but what good does it do to have the inheritance distributed? It cannot do anything. Money is simply useless. Today, we are in this world for an examination. God takes some things to test our vision. If our vision is only focused on this life, we will be like the rich man, and we will go to be tormented and suffer in eternity.

Loyal Servants Value What God Values, Not Earthly Gains

The wealth we use in this world is unrighteous. Offerings are merely a test. In the end, the amount we offer is not ours; it is someone else's money. If we are lovers of money today, we will scoff at my words and at Jesus' words. People may appear righteous before others, but God knows their hearts, for what people value highly is detestable in God's sight. Do you want to please people or please God? Consider this carefully.

Yesterday, I watched a video online of a very famous pastor who was full of life six months ago, but is now undergoing chemotherapy in the hospital. He gathered his colleagues to discuss one thing: there are still many poor people in his city, and he arranged for his colleagues to take good care of them, providing them with food and clothing.

This seems very normal and a good thing in people's eyes, and I agree that it is a good thing, but isn't it a carnal matter? When have you ever seen Jesus doing charity? Jesus did not do charity; Jesus set free those oppressed by demons.

If you value this life too much, you will do these things and think that this life is very important. But I have seen through this life, and I will not do charity. If someone is really hungry, I can give them a bowl of rice. But I will think more about how to please God, how to build God's glorious church, and how to set free those who are oppressed by demons.

Recently, there was a couple who were heavily oppressed by demons. Their church was very interested in doing charity, but did little to set free those who were oppressed by demons. We like to do what people consider honorable, but what people honor is detestable in God's sight. Can we value what pleases God today? If we do what people consider honorable, isn't that what God abhors?

Today, if we do what God considers honorable, we will no longer live for this life. We plan for eternity. The wealth of this life is unrighteous wealth. If you are a moralistic Christian, you cannot please God. Our God is not a moralistic God. If you value this life too much, you will not be able to read many scriptures. For example, divorcing and remarrying is adultery, and marrying a divorced woman is also adultery. If you do not have a divine logical system, you will not be able to understand this passage.

People live in this world to prepare for an eternal dwelling place. If you do not prepare and value this life too much, it will not end well. If people often do what God abhors, how can it end well? Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and everyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Why? Because these things are all worldly matters, and people value worldly matters too much.

Whether it was the Apostle Paul, Luke, or Jesus Christ, they all took marriage and procreation very lightly. Jesus did not value these things at all. Some people even castrated themselves for the sake of the Kingdom of God, which we cannot understand. A person with a human, worldly, moral, and earthly logical system cannot believe in God.

Today, we must come out of the earthly logical system and belittle this life. If someone takes a million, five million, or even hundreds of millions from you, let them take it. If you think this is unacceptable and want to sue them, and then lose a lot of money, you value worldly matters too much. If we do what is honorable and right in God's eyes and please God, we will not only have a bright future in this life, but we will also have a bright future in eternity.

I served a tour guide who earned a lot of money by getting tourists to buy things. The tour guide had to take tourists to buy gems, diamonds, and other jewelry. This tour guide knew the channels through which merchants obtained their goods. The purchase prices of the goods were very cheap, and then the merchants could sell them for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. He felt that these things were very profitable and cheated people out of their money, so he told the tourists not to buy these things. Then the boss fired him, and he was very conflicted.

He came to me, talking about human moral concepts, thinking that doing this was not good and doing that was not right. In fact, the wealth of this world is nothing but unrighteous wealth. The money that these people use to buy those things is nothing but unrighteous wealth. Even if they are not deceived in this matter, they will be deceived in another matter. Besides, there is nothing wrong with a legally operating store buying and selling things willingly. The tour guide's salary was not low, and his salary came from the store's commission. He was really conscientious, but he could not work anywhere doing this.

If you work for an IT company and a customer makes a request, it is easy for you to get 100,000. If you work for a decoration company and you tell the customer that it costs 10,000 to do this, it is also easy to make money. That is how everyone does it. If we take the things of this life too seriously, we will treat unrighteous wealth as the basis of life. If Christians live in the Tao Te Ching, they are not pleasing to God in God's eyes. How can we please God if we value the things of this life too much? If we value eternity and regard the money of this life as joss paper, wouldn't we live very easily? Why are you afraid of work and afraid of your boss? Because you think that work is your income, and you cannot live without income.

Belittle Living

I will reveal a concept to everyone: if you belittle the matter of living, if you do not care about living, if you do not care about dying, many of your matters and many of your problems will disappear. A young man who did not study well in China thought that he could only develop in the United States. As a result, he worried about visa problems, worried about this and that, and developed depression. He started taking poison to commit suicide. After being rescued with great difficulty, he still felt that he could not live in China and could not go to the United States, so he staged another suicide attempt. Why? Because he valued the matter of living too much.

If we belittle these things, you will feel that living is a very simple matter. Since we are still alive today, let us live happily. Do we need to bother with these things all day long? The problem with many people is that they like to make such a simple thing as living very complicated. If they get a fatal disease, living becomes simple for them; once their disease is cured, they will seriously consider the matter of living again. They are unwilling to consider the eternal dwelling place properly.

If people belittle worldly affairs, they will not value things like divorcing and remarrying or money too much. Those things do not matter. If people consider things with an eye fixed on this life, living will become very complicated. If people start to consider eternity, they will see through worldly affairs, and money is nothing but unrighteous wealth. If we see through worldly affairs, we will please God, and all matters of living will become very simple.

The most important thing is that we must have the ambition to belittle the matter of living. Like Lazarus, who was covered with sores and picked up scraps from the rich man's table, and dogs came to lick his sores, even so, we must enter into the eternal dwelling place. Jesus is just giving an extreme example. The key is whether we can have such an ambition to see through this life.

In my ministry, I have found that many people's problems are closely related to making the matter of living complicated. For example, when children go to school, they ask people for help everywhere and want to get their children into prestigious schools. In fact, these things are fine if you have them, and fine if you don't. Even if you get in, you can't solve any problems. The prices of school district houses have been炒得很高. People always think that it is good for their children to go to prestigious schools. In fact, many children from prestigious schools are in very bad situations. Many people with depression who want to commit suicide and jump off buildings all day long are because they live too seriously.

Serving God with Earthly Things to Enter into the Eternal Dwelling Place

If people's view of living in this world is the same as God's, they can know that we are just here for a visit, to take a test. God uses this unrighteous wealth to test whether we are faithful to the eternal God. If we all think this way, will anyone care about the church's offerings? People will not care about these things. The things that people care about will become whether we can enter into the Kingdom of God and whether we can finally come before God to give an account.

I look forward to finally coming before God one day, and I say to God: so-and-so sister was originally like this, but because of my ministry, she was built up; this person originally had depression, but later I released her from it! God, I have completed the mission you entrusted to me in this world! God will say: You good and faithful servant, come and share your master's glory.

Why do I do these things? Because I use this unrighteous wealth, use these things that are not my own to make friends with God, and when these things are useless, I can use them to enter into the eternal dwelling place. The key lies in this. The title of this chapter is Prepare for the Eternal Dwelling Place. If people are not like this, our belief in the Lord is in vain.

If you come to believe in the Lord just to be healed, why don't you ask yourself how your illness came about? Isn't it from loving the world, loving money, and living too seriously in this world? You say that as long as I pray for you, it will be fine. If I really had such great ability, I wouldn't tell you these things. I would put my hand on your painful area, and you would be fine immediately. Jesus said, The Kingdom of Heaven is near. Repent. If you see through it, you will know that we have been doing things wrong in the past, and you will begin to walk the path of the Kingdom of Heaven. The path of the Kingdom of Heaven is to see through the things of this world.

If you really see through it, you will find: Wow! The road ahead is really bright! People are confused by the things of this world. If you don't live so seriously, it's actually nothing. God doesn't want us to be bound by these things. How bright it would be if people thought this way! A sister whom I served this morning kept saying: I can't do it, I always make mistakes, I don't make contributions, I don't deserve your service! In fact, she just takes these things too seriously.

I told her: These things you are talking about are actually not important. If we all think that these things are not important, what else will we worry about? Can we only care about edifying others? We only pursue this.

If we only want to pursue fairness, you will not find it in this world. So we often see God doing strange things. If these things were used in a company, the employees in the company would have turned against each other long ago, but our God does it this way. For example, some people come to the yard to work at eight o'clock in the morning, some people come to the yard to work at twelve o'clock in the noon, and some people come to the yard to work at five o'clock in the evening. In the end, everyone gets one dollar when they get off work at six o'clock. Will the people who came to the yard to work at eight o'clock in the morning immediately turn their faces: Why did you give me so little? But didn't you already agree with the boss at the beginning that you would take one dollar as a day's salary?

So, people just take these worldly things too seriously. In fact, it is really useless to compare who does more and who does less. You can't find fairness if you want to find it in this world. People cannot understand this matter with the logical system of this life. Once you look at this matter with the logical system of eternity: I came to work at eight o'clock in the morning, and although I only got one dollar, my reward in eternity is bountiful. I am willing to work, I like to do more, so I am fine, right?

Conclusion: Prepare for the Eternal Dwelling Place

Suppose someone owes you ten million, and you owe someone five million. You get your money back, and you pay back the other person five million. You still have five million left, but that is just someone else's money in this world. Can't you still live without these things? Living is the same with those things, and sometimes having money is even more纠结. Of course, it's not that having money is bad, but if you are bound by these worldly things and take these things too seriously, then aren't you mistaken?

Someday in the future, when the answers are revealed, think about it, are you on this side of the abyss or on the other side of the abyss? If you are on the other side of the abyss, you will see Abraham, Lazarus, and me enjoying the glory that God has prepared for us in eternity, while you are doing BBQ on the other side of the abyss, being used as grilled fish and meat skewers. Isn't that the most painful thing? If people do not prepare for eternity, where does faithfulness come from in God's eyes? Where does righteousness come from? We must see through these things in this world.

May God bless everyone!