Who are you serving? - 30 Days with Jesus - Day 18

Luke 16:1-31

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in 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 servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money." Luke 16:10-13 (NIV)

Have you ever heard the expression "little white lie"? We try to classify our sins into big and small. When I was in high school, my youth pastor asked our group to list the worst sins we could think of. Our list contained murder, adultery, alcoholism, gambling and blasphemy.

After that, he asked us to list some little sins. We couldn't think of anything. After all, a sin is a sin, right?

But our youth pastor asked us where we would classify things like telling a little white lie, taking a pen from school, or choosing to go to a concert instead of a church event.

When he started asking us those questions, we realized that we all try to justify the sins we commit by comparing them to sins that we think are worse sins. But to God, all sin is the same.

In today's passage, Jesus tells a story about an estate manager that got fired from his position. In order to get back at his current boss and to make some contacts for future business.

The manager makes some deals with the people that owe his boss money or goods, thinking that they will respect him for getting them a good deal and give him a job when he leaves his current position. Because the men he was dealing with were worldly, they commended him for acting shrewdly.

However, in the next verses, Jesus tells us that what is gained unjustly will be returned to the rightful owners. If we have not been faithful in the little things, then we will not be trusted with more important things.

Every move we make shows God and people who we really serve. Little white lies (even if we think they're okay) are self serving and unrighteous. Choosing a concert or ballgame instead of a church service is selfish. Taking something that doesn't belong to us (no matter how small - like a piece of candy or a pen) is wrong.

Everything - little and big - matters because people are watching us. They look to us to see what Christ looks like. And every action is a testimony.

If we can't serve God in the small things (like paying tithes, choosing church events over going out with friends for a wild party night, etc.), then we probably won't serve Him when it comes to the big things (telling others about Him, standing up for what we know is right even if we're persecuted, etc.).

My pastor says that a good way to see who you serve is to look at your calendar and your checkbook. Where do you spend your time and money?

What about you? What are you serving?