Luke 12:41-48 A Good Steward and Servant Parable ~ 1 Samuel 1:20

Luke 12:41-48 A Good Steward and Servant Parable

41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

This parable of Jesus, has been a long and hard one for me to live by, cause I love to spend money on what scriptures call foolish. I have learned recently, that God gives me what I truly need and what I want really doesn’t matter. Only a few times have I been responsible for funds and property, sometimes I was good and others I was lousy. In my early 20’s I went to a music festival called Lollapalooza 93 for only $6 bucks, which was cheaper than regular price even for 1992. The deal was, if I volunteer some of my time and work some of the show, I could get in for a very low price, so I said heck ya, ! So the day of the festival when we arrive to the gate, we gave our names and we ask the do we wanna work the first half of the show or last, so I quickly said yes, cause I wanted to see Alice In Chains and Primus, I didn’t care for rest, didn’t know who Tool was at the time. My job since i was 21 was to card every person and give them a bracelet to let the alcohol vendors, this person was old enough to drink booze. When that job was over, I was told to take money to give tickets, cause vendors only allow to accept tickets, and I had to sign a paper with my address. But at this time of my life, I was far from God, and could care less, if they found out I stole a dollar or two off each money exchange. Not only did I steal money, but I also had taken a bunch of tickets, so all the food, booze can concert items I bought were with Lollapalooza’s tickets. I may sound very proud or cocky, but I am not, I rip those people off and I got a great show. I ripped off a lot of nice people in my lifetime, my friend Matt Morris told me years ago when I was a young Christian, I was being a bad steward and that was the first time I heard that word. Many people feel and think, we work to earn and then buy to provide for ourselves, but that is far from the truth. First of all, you call God your Lord, His is your Shepherd and He gives to you all you need.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

The Lord our Master, He entrusts us with blessings which are really His possessions. If you really love God, then you will treat His possession with the utmost respect. The word steward kinda means one who manages a big estate, or an employee under an employer. A person with integrity is a person of high values and morals. This is the kind of who is good steward with the Lord’s possessions, what He truly desires. When I look at the word integrity, I look at one person in scripture, His name is Job. In the Book of Job, integrity is written nine times. God had given Job plenty of possessions, livestock, children, a wife and the very skin on his body. Job lost all his children and livestock in Job chapter 1, in chapter 2, Satan attacked the skin on Job’s body giving him terrible boils all over. All that remind was Job’s wife, and look at how she told her husband to keep his integrity;