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Worldly wisdom plans for today. Eternal wisdom prepares for forever.

Teaching from Luke 16, Dr. Michael Youssef explains that Jesus is not praising dishonesty in the parable of the shrewd manager. Instead, He exposes the foolishness of carefully planning for earthly security while giving little thought to eternity.

If an unbelieving manager could act decisively for his temporary future, how much more should followers of Christ invest what God has entrusted to them for eternal purposes?

This episode calls believers to:

• Examine where their priorities truly lie,
• Repent of complacency and materialism,
• Steward their time, talent, and treasure faithfully,
• Invest generously in Gospel work,
• Act on Biblical conviction rather than delay,
• Intercede and labor for souls while time remains.

Earthly wealth will pass away. But what is surrendered to God and used for the advance of the Gospel carries eternal significance.

True wisdom does not merely admire conviction—it acts on it.

Scripture Focus: Luke 16:1-15

If today’s teaching stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don’t have to walk through it alone.

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Money can tell you how much you have, but it makes a terrible answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Wealth is a gift to steward, but it was never meant to become our identity. Yet in a culture that often measures success by income, possessions, and financial security, it’s easy to begin defining ourselves by what we have—or what we lack.

Scripture offers a different perspective. In fact, some of Jesus’ most memorable teachings about wealth reveal what happens when possessions become central to a person's identity.

Have you ever noticed how Scripture describes certain wealthy individuals? There's the rich fool, the rich young ruler, and the rich man who lived in luxury while a poor man named Lazarus suffered outside his gate.

We know what these men possessed. We know how they related to their possessions. But we don't know their names.

Perhaps there's something worth considering in that pattern. These men looked to wealth for something it could never ultimately provide: security, significance, and even identity. And in the stories themselves, their possessions became what they were known for.

Consider the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Jesus describes a wealthy man dressed in purple and fine linen who feasted lavishly every day. Outside his gate lay a poor man covered with sores, longing for scraps from the rich man's table.

But Jesus introduces these two individuals with a striking contrast: the poor man has a name, Lazarus. The rich man doesn't.

The world may have known the wealthy man's name while overlooking Lazarus entirely. But in Jesus' telling, that distinction is reversed. Lazarus is known by name, while the other man is identified simply by his wealth.

There's something sobering about that. The rich man possessed the outward markers of earthly significance, but those possessions could not establish his standing before God.

Now consider the rich fool in Luke 12.

Jesus tells the story of a wealthy landowner whose farm produces such an abundant harvest that he runs out of room to store it. He decides to tear down his barns, build larger ones, and enjoy the security he believes his wealth provides.

He tells himself, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry" (Luke 12:19). Again, we never learn his name. We know him simply as the rich fool.

His problem wasn't that his farm succeeded or that he possessed an abundance. Scripture doesn't condemn wealth or enjoying God's provision. His problem was that his possessions had become the foundation of his security.

Notice his language: my crops, my barns, my grain, my goods.

His world had become centered on what he possessed. He had accumulated enough to convince himself that his future was secure. But God tells him, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you" (Luke 12:20).

He had plenty of possessions, but they couldn't provide the security he ultimately needed.

Then there's the rich young ruler, whose encounter with Jesus is recorded in Mark 10. 

He approaches Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. But when Jesus exposes how his possessions hold his heart captive, the man walks away sorrowful because of his great wealth.

Once again, we remember someone largely by what he possessed.

These accounts don't suggest that wealth itself is the problem or that those who have much cannot faithfully follow Christ. Rather, they reveal the danger of allowing wealth to occupy a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone.

When wealth becomes our identity, it can diminish our understanding of who we truly are.

Our culture constantly invites us to define ourselves through financial categories.

We're wealthy, middle class, homeowner

Ever play the telephone game? You and some others gather in a circle. Someone whispers a message to the first person, who whispers it to the second and so on. When the last person reveals what he heard, it’s obvious that the message got wildly distorted. Some people seem to play a game like that with their Bible knowledge. They rely on what they’ve heard the Bible says. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie takes us to the source to discover some things people said it said that it never said.

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Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

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Resilience is a life skill we need for the inevitable struggles we will face in this life — but we must be intentional about learning this skill. Valorie has identified some key “rules” for resilience — like “expect the unexpected,” and “focus on the vision, not the obstacle.” And “control the controllable and accept the rest.” Prepping ourselves beforehand to learn and live more resiliently helps us be more confident, content, and successful when difficult situations happen.

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Overcome Anxiety -- You don’t have to be paralyzed by fear—Christ offers peace that no circumstance can take away. In this FREE video series, acclaimed Christian counselor and author Dr. Gregory Jantz will help you experience peace from anxiety with biblical hope and practical strategies for living in peace—even when the world feels like it’s falling apart.

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He may have been the greatest American hero of his time; his name was Meriwether Lewis. When President Thomas Jefferson bought the massive Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon, the size of this young country was more than doubled overnight. The land stretched from the Mississippi all the way to the Pacific, and much of it was known well to Native Americans but largely unknown to white Americans. Jefferson tapped his personal aide and a distinguished war veteran to lead this incredible adventure that we know today as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Following the long and winding route of the Missouri River, Lewis led his expedition all the way from the point where it ends near St. Louis to its headwaters in Montana. His longtime dream had been to find the source of that river and to drink from it. He got his dream. If only it had satisfied his thirst.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Thirst That's Never Quenched."

In a letter to a friend after he reached that pinnacle, Meriwether Lewis wrote these words: "I feel all that restlessness, which I cannot help but thinking proceeds from that void in our hearts. Whence it comes I know not, but certain it is, that I have never felt less like a hero than at the present moment." Shortly thereafter, Meriwether Lewis died of what is believed to be his own suicide.

He accomplished his greatest goals; he drank the sweet water of success and conquest and had the admiration of thousands. But he still had not found what fills what he called "that void in our hearts." Maybe you know that feeling. If you haven't gotten what you've been pursuing, you know, maybe a relationship, an accomplishment, a position, and you think that's why you have this incurable restlessness. If you've gotten what you thought would fill that hole in your heart and the hole is still there, guess what the next stop is? Despair.

But ultimately the void is in our hearts because God isn't. In the Bible's words, we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). But we haven't lived for Him. Again, according to the Bible, 100% of us have basically done life our way, not God's way. So we're missing Him. I wish I could get into a time machine and go back and talk to Meriwether Lewis and help him understand who he was restless for.

That's not possible, but God has put you and me together today, maybe because He wants to show you how the thirst in your soul can finally end by drinking from the Source; by experiencing for yourself, not a religion, but a personal love relationship with the God who put you here.

He says in Isaiah 55:2, our word for today from the Word of God, "Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Jesus, God's Son, who died to pay the penalty for you and me hijacking our life from God, made this promise: "He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35). Void filled. Restlessness satisfied. With the gap between you and God bridged by Jesus, you're finally drinking from the Source.

It starts the day that you "come to" Jesus, the day you, He said, "believe in" Him. And you do that by placing your total trust in this One who loved you enough to die for you and then was powerful enough to rise from the dead. Why don't you let Him begin this relationship now; let your search be over. If you do, would you tell Him that, "Jesus, beginning today, I'm yours."

Check out our website, because it's loaded with information that will help you be sure you have made this connection with Jesus Christ, the One who loves you most. Our website is ANewStory.com.

There’s no one else who can satisfy your thirsty soul. Beginn