Joke - A wealthy man was on his deathbed. He called his 3 most trusted friends to his side: his attorney, his doctor, and his preacher. He said to them, “I know I’m not long for this world, and all I have to show for it is money. They always say you can’t take it with you. Well, I’m going to prove them wrong. I’m giving each of you 500,000 cash in these envelopes. At my funeral, I want each of you to place it in my coffin right before they close it.” They all committed to him, and sure enough, a few days later, he had died. At his funeral, each of the 3 friends were the last to come forward and view the old tycoon’s body. The doctor stepped forward, placed the envelope in the coffin, and left; then the preacher, then the doctor. After the services were over, the 3 were off by themselves, and the preacher said he had to say something: “Guys, I have to confess something to you. That money wasn’t going to do any good buried – we all knew that, and the Church really needed some money for an important missions project. I put only $400,000 in the envelope.” The doctor spoke up, “Well, as long as you’re admitting it, I may as well to. The hospital is building a new research wing that could save thousands of lives. Our friend is dead. I put only $300,000 in the envelope.” They both looked expectantly at the lawyer. “Well, I’m really shocked at both of you! We made a promise to our friend! He trusted us, and you guys let him down! I put a check for all $500,000 in that envelope!”
Someone has just given you $3.5 million to see how well you will invest it. What will you do? Maybe in light of Hilary Clinton’s success a couple of years ago, you should invest it in the commodities market! Maybe you'll grab the first plane to Geneva! Maybe you'll get an ulcer and just give it back.
I don’t spend much time thinking about things like that, because that kind of stuff just doesn’t happen in the real world, does it? You’re probable not waiting up Saturday morning by your living room window expecting the Publisher’s Clearing House Prize Patrol to pull up in your driveway. That makes a good TV commercial, or a good bedtime story, but it just doesn’t connect with real life.
But what if, this morning, you were to learn that it has happened to you, and that you didn’t even know it yet? What if someone could show you that the Prize Patrol has already dropped off your check – you’d at least want to know what the amount was!
Jesus told a story where it did happen – to 3 men. All 3 of them were just given money, to see what they’d do with it -- and I want to suggest that as we read through it, something like this has happened to you and me.
*Matthew 25:14-30
-This is really a story about our STEWARDSHIP: What we do with what God has entrusted to us.
-Remember how Joseph was sold by his brothers? (Gen 39) Sold to Potiphar, who saw a Joseph that could handle the responsibilities he was given and so eventually he was given charge over everything in Potiphar's house. Then Joseph was put in jail. He was put in charge of a few things, and eventually, he was put in charge of all that was done there too.
-It happened clear back in the life of Joseph, and I see that principle at work in God's dealings with us. "Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things."
-the story’s about what God has entrusted to us – Matthew records it here right in the middle of parables about the need to be responsible until His return.
-"talent": 20 year's wages. But I think you’ll see in this story that it represents to us more than just money - has to do with anything that the Lord has given us to use for Him, and today I want to especially consider our abilities in light of this parable. We might think of time or money when we think of being stewards, but few think of their abilities as a trust from God. Let me add to that also the gifts that we receive because of His HS living inside us. If you’re a Christian this morning, you have at least some gift of the Spirit that the Lord has given to His Church through you. It’s not just a natural ability – it’s a supernatural trust that you didn’t have before you were a Christian, and it accomplishes a spiritual work.
-Just like a doctor administers a drug to help someone get well, you’re supposed to administer the gifts of the Spirit in you for the sake of others:
(I Pt. 4:10-11) "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in it various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ."
-God wants us to be good stewards of the gifts He has given us. And once again, like everything else we could speak about this morning, it starts with and centers around God.
Explore with me what we can learn about God, Who is represented by the Master in this parable.
The Master:
I. Gives resources according to what the servant is able to handle *v14-15
-doesn't your heart kind of go out for this poor guy who only received one talent? (Before you feel too sorry for him, remember that a talent was worth about 20 year's wages.) And remember that the Master chose to entrust him with something in the first place!
-God gives us skills, talents, abilities, resources, and the gifts of the Spirit based on what we’re able to handle. Before we can go on, some observations to be made:
1. Feels He can trust them with His possessions
Whatever you have to start with, God takes the risk in your case. He feels He can trust you with it. Whatever responsibility He entrusts to you, He could have given it to someone else. Instead God chooses you to bear whatever the responsibility is.
2. Wants an increase
-He expects them to do something. He doesn't just give it to them because it's "safe" - he expects them to do something with it because they are able.
-What? I suppose that answer’s going to vary, but I find it interesting that the next words of Jesus in this chapter are about the correctness of visiting the sick and imprisoned, feeding the hungry, and clothing the poor.
3. Gives to each a different amount
-but how much each one receives isn't based on trustworthiness, that's already assumed of all 3. It's based on how much each servant can handle.
-Maybe #1 had been a business executive for some time previous
-Maybe #2 isn't real great when it comes to business but he's a determined worker. -don't all have the same ability. They're different people; different gifts are given.
-each one had something, and each had the amount of resources he was able to use.
-Ill – David, getting ready to go out and fight Goliath, was given Saul's armor. He couldn’t handle it. It was too heavy. But he could use a stick and 5 stones.
-Ill - siblings don't babysit until they‘re old enough. We wouldn't leave the 5 year-old to care for the 6 month-old. We might in 10 years, though. A wise master is able to give responsibilities that his servants are able to handle.
This all holds true for God's servants today:
1. He has trusted us with gifts & abilities because He expects us to use them!
-Whether it’s a special gift of the Spirit or even a natural ability, God expects us to use it.
• He granted Joseph a high position in Egypt so he could save Israel from starvation
• Solomon wisdom so that he might be a suitable ruler for His people
• Jeremiah the words to speak, so He could be a prophet to Judah
• the Apostles the ability to work miracles, so they could validate their message
If God has entrusted something to you, it's not so you can keep it to yourself - it's so it can be shared. Your "gift" of the Spirit from God isn’t a gift to you. It's God's gift to everyone else through you. It's not so much your gift as it is your RESPONSIBILITY.
*Rom 12:6-8 *Eph 4:11-12
-When God entrusts a gift to someone, it’s to see how well they can give it away! He expects us to use them!
2. He has given us all different skills, because we're all able to handle different responsibilities
-#2 wasn't any less trustworthy, he just couldn't handle what #1 could.
-maybe you have a great ability to visit people, so God has allowed you the resources to do that: a phone, a car, the ability to drive.
-maybe God has gifted you mechanically. Maybe you have had opportunity to attend college or to learn from some very knowledgeable people - consider that to be something God has granted to you. Can you type? cook? sew? play an instrument? sing? read? paint? work with kids? serve on government? build? repair? encourage?
-according to what we are able to handle, God has given us all different abilities; "gifts," talents, skills, opportunities, that we’re able to handle, and to use for Him.
The Master also
II. Rewards according to faithfulness (v. 16-23)
Came to "settle accounts" w/them. Ill - reconciling the checkbook (ugh!)
-What had the first 2 done that pleased their Master so much? - Are you interested in pleasing the Master? Servants who are interested in pleasing their Master should be interested in hearing this.
1. they went to work right away:
*v16-17, "at once;" "in the same way" The 3rd servant “went off…” I can almost picture him, while the other two rush to put theirs to work – he moseys off, slowly, quietly. He “went off.”
2. they used what they received
When you read this parable, pay attention to what really pleased the Master. It wasn’t the amount. He doesn’t say it was success: "Well done good and successful servant, you have been successful with..." No. The Master is please with FAITHFULNESS!
-Ill – My parents used to say "your grades aren't important, just so you did your best." Now I know of another parent who’s doing the same thing with his children.
-Ill – A few years ago, one of my friends in the ministry was feeling down. He wasn’t seeing a whole lot of success coming out of his work. My advice to him was: God measures success by faithfulness.
Paul looked at the growth of the Church in Corinth and said (1 Cor 3:6) “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”
God doesn't reward according to success. To do our best is to succeed. To not try is to fail, and that brings us to the final point: The Master
III. Is angered by neglect (v. 24-30)
-Why had servant #3 buried his talent? We have to use our sanctified imaginators on this one, but I don’t think that’s too hard to do when you plug it into real life…
1. Afraid he’d lose it? - there’s a certain risk involved in investing. There may be a risk involved in putting the Master's talents into use. But, according to the Master, the difference between faithfulness and unfaithfulness is the difference between taking the risk and not taking the risk.
2. Afraid he wouldn’t be as successful as his peers? Maybe he was afraid that the Master would compare his job performance with the other 2 and his wouldn't look as good.
-The only comparison the Master makes is that of their faithfulness! This is a Master Who’s in touch with His servants' abilities. He knows what they can and can’t do. He knows where they need to have a break, and where they need to be stretched to grow. I don't want to question His wisdom in the matter!
3. Feeling that his amount was not sig¬nificant enough to bother? - You ever been there? Ever have something that seemed so little that it wasn't worth the bother?
What if an old widowed lady had looked at her 2 mites and said they weren't significant?
Don't worry if your job is small and rewards are very few.
Remember that the mighty oak was once a nut, like you.
-whatever the reason, he had the nerve to call his Master a "hard" man. v.25: "See, here is what belongs to you." Oh well, at least he understood who it belonged to, right? Wrong!
-This guy was a servant. His work belonged to the Master too! What he did with his time, his energy, his creativity – it all belonged to the Master, and when it came to giving those things back to the Master, he failed. He was "wicked, lazy."
*v. 29 is the key verse. #3 "did not have" an increase, so even the little he had was taken away. You might call that the law of use it or lose it!
-Notice in v28 - "Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the 10 talents." He has how many now? 10! The Master let him keep them!
-Reading this parable and what Jesus had to say about it, I believe that if we use our abilities for God faithfully, He'll give us more opportunities to use them, He will develop even further those abilities that we can best use to help the church, and He’ll even entrust us with more, new abilities - when we prove ourselves faithful with what we have. Would it be stretching it too far to say that’s true of us as a congregation as well? That if we’ll be faithful in ministering to the people God sends our way, He’ll send more? That if we’re faithful in our immediate neighborhood, He’ll expand our area of influence? That if we’re responsible with our facilities, we’ll find ourselves taking care of more?
-What are you doing with the gifts with which God has blessed you? Do you go out, immediately, and increase His kingdom by putting them to work, or do you go away and bury them in the ground? If you do that, all you'll be giving back to Him is the same thing He gave to you – except it will be older, unused, rusty and moldy!
-Has God not given you some ability? Who are you look at it and say "It isn't good enough! God hasn't given me a big enough responsibility to use it for Him - not enough to use for Him!" How dare you deprive of its gifts the Church for which Jesus died!
Look into your life. Take an inventory of what you can do, what you love to do, what other Christians notice you’re good at, what needs to be done, or what you can learn to do. Find how that can be used for the Lord's work...and do it!
Conclusion
"Pi" = the number needed to find the area of a circle or sphere. 3.14......an infinite number that never has any repeated pattern. There was a student in a Brooklyn high school who memorized it to 4,000 places. In 1976 it took him 7 hours to write it out. He also offered to write it in reverse. Amazing!! What amazing ability! ...an amazing waste of time!
-We're so amazed at the remarkable abilities of others, and especially amazed if they’re wasted. To waste such talent seems so wrong. Yet at the same time, we tend to look at our own abilities and think they aren't worth putting to good use.
-Maybe you're like the man who only received one talent. Maybe you look at what you can do with what you have and it doesn't seem like much. It doesn't matter! God wants your faithfulness with whatever you have. If you want more, prove yourself faithful with what you have. God will increase it.
-God’s after your faithfulness with what you have. It starts right now. And you can't get away from it: Today, you've had an opportunity that many people don't have. You've had a chance to hear the word of God and to study it and to learn about Him and what He wants of you. What will you do with it? Will you put that to work, or choose to bury it in the ground out of fear?
I want to hear the Master say “Well done good and faithful servant.” Don’t you?
