One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

Jesus calls money a very little thing. That should stop every one of us in our tracks, because for most of us money is a very big thing. It determines where we live, what we drive, where our kids go to school, what we eat, where we vacation, how we plan for the future. Money occupies an enormous amount of our mental and emotional energy. And Jesus looks at all of it and says... that is a very little thing.

Here's what I see. In God's economy, the value system is completely upside down from ours. What we chase after down here, what we lose sleep over, what we argue about and stress over and build our lives around... they walk on it in heaven. Streets of gold. The thing we would give almost anything to accumulate on earth is so common in eternity that they pave the roads with it. That should tell you something about how God measures what matters.

And what matters to God, what is BIG in the economy of heaven, is people. People are the true riches. Jesus says it plainly. If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? He is connecting how you handle money to whether He can trust you with something far greater, and that something is souls. If dollars are a big thing to you, if hours are something you hoard, if your ability is something you protect rather than deploy... then you do not yet have an eternal perspective.

Now watch this... Jesus goes even further in verse 12. "If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" Everything you have right now is on loan. Every dollar, every hour, every breath, every relationship. You are a steward, not an owner. But one day when you get to heaven, God is going to give you something that will actually be yours. Not loaned, not temporary, not something you have to give back. But what He gives you in eternity will be measured by what He loaned you in time. And if you cannot manage a loan, why would you get a gift?

So the question is not really about money at all. The question is about perspective. Do you see your life through the lens of time or the lens of eternity? Because just like a farmer who only eats his seed corn will have nothing to plant in the spring, a Christian who only consumes the blessings God gives without sowing them into the lives of others will arrive in eternity with nothing to show for it.

Jesus is not asking you to be poor. He is asking you to be faithful. Faithful with the small stuff, so He can trust you with what really matters. And what really matters is people. Tomorrow we bring all of this together and ask the question that will define your eternity. Who is on your welcome committee?

Take a look at your budget or your calendar this week. Find one place where you have been faithful in something small and thank God for it. Then find one place where you have been hoarding instead of sowing and ask Him for the courage to release it toward someone who needs it.