How Much Does Your Talent Weight?

How Much Does Your Talent Weigh?

Show Clip of Paul Potts’ Audition from Britian’s Got Talent from U-Tube

We all love it when somebody finds out about a hidden talent that they have and then use it. The clip that you just saw is from a show called Britain’s Got Talent. The idea of the show is that common people from all walks of life come in and audition for a chance to compete to be the most talented. The first few episodes of the show are open to anybody. More often than not the people don’t do very well. But his gentleman, his name is Paul Potts, shocked the audience and the judges. Before this contest Paul was a cell phone sales person. Paul went on to win the competition this past spring and he has a CD that came out this past week.

Just watching that clip gives me shivers up my spine. It was Pastor Victor who initially showed it to all the staff early last week. So why is it that this is something that we enjoy seeing? I believe that it is because we all want to see people succeed. This show had one of the best audience ratings in British history. Paul Potts was the star of the show. Everyone, including the Queen was rooting for him. This is good entertainment. Now of course this is show business and of course the story will be embellished upon by the networks to gain even more viewers, but there is a reason that it tugs at our heart strings. Something small and un-noticed becoming beautiful.

Jesus told a story in Matthew 25 about a master who had three servants. Let’s read this story together this morning.

Read Matt 25:14-30

PARABLE OF THE THREE SERVANTS

14 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone.15 He gave five bags of silver* to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

16 "The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more.17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more.18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

19 "After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money.20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, `Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

21 "The master was full of praise. `Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!*’

22 "The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, `Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

23 "The master said, `Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

24 "Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, `Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

26 "But the master replied, `You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate,27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

28 "Then he ordered, `Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver.29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

To really understand why Jesus was telling this parable we need to understand who he was talking to. Jesus told this story during the Passion Week, the period of time between Palm Sunday and the crucifixion. The book of Matthew is a collection of sermons that were memorable to Matthew. Too often we read the gospels as we would read a history text book. The gospels are historically accurate accounts about what Jesus did during his earthly ministry but often the author, in this case the disciple Matthew, wrote down important messages that Jesus had to say to the crowds that followed him.