The Dot and The Line

Over this past month or so, we have been talking about Mission 1:8, which is our ministry plan and giving plan for the next two years as we follow the model of Acts 1:8 and minister locally, nationally, and internationally.

We’ve used moving testimonies, colorful brochures, videos, and social media to communicate with you why you should give generously over the next two years to this ministry, which also includes the rebuilding of our historic sanctuary.

But I have saved my most powerful argument for making a sacrificial commitment until today.  It’s something I got from my friend Bruce Wilkinson. There is nothing slick about this argument—no four-colored graphics. No moving video or stirring music. Instead, just a simple dot and a line.

I’d like you to get a piece of paper and right in the middle, put a dot.  

Then, take your pen or pencil at the edge of the dot and draw that line all the way over to the right, and then imagine that line keeps going forever.

The dot represents your whole life here on earth. Seventy or 80 years, if you are lucky. Imagine that this line starts after the dot and extends to the edge of the page, and on and on it goes.  The line represents your existence in eternity, and it goes on and on and on.

Right now, all of us are living inside this dot—we have no choice—and that is where we are.  But the real question is, what are we living for? The short-sighted person is one who lives for the dot—this life is all that he can see. He invests his time, his emotions, and his treasure in this world.  

But a wise person is one who lives for the line. He realizes that our time on earth is fleeting, yet the choices we make within the dot will determine what happens in the line.  

As Bruce says, “Everything we do today matters forever.” That is an astounding truth when you think about it.  As short as this life is, the choices we make in these very few years will result in consequences of astounding proportions throughout eternity.   

Why should I invest my money in eternal causes like Mission 1:8? As one writer says, “The person who lives for the dot lives for treasures on earth that end up in junkyards. The person who lives for the line lives for treasures in heaven that will never end.”

Today, we are going to see that truth illustrated in the lives of two very different men. One chose to live for the dot; the other lived for the line.

1. Living for the Dot (Luke 12:13-21)

This parable has a context to it. Jesus was teaching about the Holy Spirit when someone interrupted the Lord with a much more down-to-earth issue—or so he thought.

Luke 12:13 says, “Someone in the crowd said to Him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’”

Apparently, there was a family squabble over an inheritance. Nothing can divide a family any more than money—which is just one more reason to give a large slice of your estate to this campaign—there will be less for your heirs to fight over after you are gone! Family harmony!

Jesus answered in verse 14, “I am not a judge, we have courts to settle those kinds of issues.”  But Jesus noticed that this man had allowed his obsession with money to overtake his life. And so He issued this warning in Luke 12:15. “Then He said to them, ‘Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’”

Watch out for greed in every form. What is greed? It is an obsession with having more. It is the belief that “If I can have a little bit more, then I will be truly satisfied.“ 

The person infected with greed believes that if he can just accumulate X amount of dollars, he will have enough to purchase every pleasure he desires and protect himself from every adversity he might encounter.

Because he believes this, he finds it impossible to let go of money. When an appeal, like our Mission 1:8 campaign, comes along, he hardens his heart, tightens his grip, and manufactures all kinds of excuses about why he won’t give—but the real reason is that he is infected with greed. To ask him to part with his money is to ask him to give up his passport for pleasure and/or protection.

However, Jesus points out two problems with greed in this passage: one is spiritual, and the other is practical. 

The Problem with Greed

• Greed Encourages Us to Worship Money Rather than Worship God (1 Timothy 6:10)
• Greed Is Built On a Lie (1 Timothy 6:7)

2. Living for the Line (Luke 16:1-13)

This is a parable we have looked at before—probably the most unusual story that Jesus ever told. It is the story of a rich man who had a steward—a money manager—who was squandering his master’s wealth.

In Luke 16:2, the rich man says, “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be a manager.’”

In other words, I want to see what you’ve done with my money. And by the way, you’re fired.  Key to understanding the parable. The money manager was told he was fired, but he was given perhaps a couple of weeks to wrap up his duties with his employer.

In verse 3, the steward begins to despair. “What am I going to do—I’m allergic to hard work, and I don’t want to beg.”

But then, in verse 4, he comes up with an idea. He called in each person who owed his master money. Since he was the money manager, he knew who they were. Verse 6, he took the bill they owed and reduced it. “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ And he said, “A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’  He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light” (Luke 16:5-8).

Why did the money manager do this? Verse 4 says that he could make friends with people so that they would take care of him once he joined the ranks of the unemployed. He would use the two weeks he had left on the job to prepare for his future.

How did the master respond when he learned what his money manager had done? “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly” (Luke 16:8a).

No, he wasn’t happy about being ripped off. He wasn’t praising his money manager for being dishonest. He was praising him for his shrewdness. The Greek word for “shrewdness” means “to act with foresight.” It means to look beyond your present situation.

The rich man was saying, “I’ve got to hand it to you. You used your present position to prepare for your future. If only you’d have shown this much initiative earlier, you would still have a job.”

Now, don’t misunderstand. Jesus wasn’t praising the manager’s dishonesty. He was saying how ironic it is that unbelievers act with more foresight than Christians.

And so Jesus makes this application in Luke 16:9: “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

What is Jesus saying? He is saying that none of us will remain in our present situation forever.  There is a drastic change approaching. One day, we are going to be fired, so to speak, from our present position here on earth, and the money we have accumulated will be left behind.

Although we won’t be able to keep any of our money or possessions, we can use them in the last days of our time here on earth to prepare for our eternal future. Just as the money manager used his present position to prepare for his future.

How do we use money to “make friends for ourselves so that they may receive us into eternal dwellings?” Jesus is talking about investing our money in God’s work.

C.S. Lewis explains how a temporal asset like money can be changed into everlasting treasure: “As base a thing as money often is, it yet can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.”

When we give to Mission 1:8, we are ensuring that there will be people in heaven to greet us one day because of our ministries, locally, nationally, and throughout the world through our services and PTV.

Full Passage: Luke 12:13-21; 16:1-13