Investing Your Life In The King's Service

Elvis Presley is known as the “King of Rock-n-Roll.” Perhaps there’s been no greater music entertainer in the past 100 years that has used his talents to shake up the crowd, like Elvis. Thinking over the latter years of Elvis’ life and his drug overdose, do you think he would do things differently if given another chance? Do you think he would have invested in a different way?

Our Heavenly King has given each of us the awesome opportunity to invest our lives, using the gifts and talents He’s invested in us to minister. The best investment of your life is investing back into the King’s service! We will give an account one day of our faithfulness or unfaithfulness… The King of Kings will say, “Well done!” or “Wicked, worthless, wasted.” Which will it be for you?

Distant Journey (14) – The Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven right now, yet He has gifted every single child of His with various gifts (Eph. 4:8). He gives each of us ample time to make use of those gifts and we simply must be obedient to His call upon our lives. This is no time to be goofing off, wasting time, doing our own thing, rather we should be saying, “Lord, how have you gifted me?”

Delegating Talents (15) – God is the One who gives the talents to His people. To one servant, He gave five. To another, He gave two. To yet another, He gave one. We must always remember God is the One who has given us what we have. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “…not your own, bought with a price, glorify God!” Our ultimate accountability is to the Lord.

Differing Talents (15) – Not everyone has the same talent, and that is completely fine. The call is not for us to get jealous about the one who has more talent, rather to be faithful with what God has invested into our own lives! For example, I look at Billy Graham, Dr. James Dobson, Dr. James Merritt, or Dr. Charles Stanley and say, “I will never be as talented as they, can’t preach/teach, have as big ministry or church.” It’s easy to think they are more special in God’s eyes because of what’s been accomplished through them. However, God gives each of us a gift (some five, two, or one). If we are a five, be the five. Two, be the two. One, be the one. He’s not asking for us to become someone else, but to be the unique person He’s created us to be. Also, He’s not looking for our church to be like the mega church down the road, yet, He is looking for us to be faithful with what He’s invested into our lives – to touch others, minister, serve, reach out. We need to take His call upon our lives with all seriousness. The gifts we have belong to the Lord and are to be used for His glory.

Dependable Servants (16 & 17) – These two servants of the Lord did exactly what God had intended for them to do. Both of them used their God given time, talent, treasure, testimony, etc. faithfully. The man with five talents, gained five more. The man with two talents, gained two more. Both of these men doubled their talent treasury. Both of these servants knew they would give an account one day of how they invested their Master’s talents. They could have chosen to say, “Well, thank God, I’m gifted, and that’s enough.” Instead, they took the attitude of, “My Master has invested into my life. Just as He’s invested in me, I will invest into others.” Both servants did not waste time, but immediately began to invest their talents. Some say, “I will get on board with God, one day.” “When the economy gets better, then I’ll give.” “When I’m retired, I’ll begin to think about being a witness for the Lord, etc.” “When I began to feel a little better, I’ll start taking this whole call to serve God a little more seriously.”

Disloyal Servant (18) – In Jesus’ day, to dig a hole and put your valuables in the ground was normally a safe thing. However, the Master had not called His servants to bury their talents, rather to use those talents to gain more. Why did this one talented man do that? Perhaps he saw that others had more and felt like his didn’t really matter. Perhaps he got busy doing so many other things that he forgot about His Master’s purpose? Maybe he said, “Well, my Master is not returning for a long time, I’ll be about His business after taking care of my things first.”

Day of Reckoning (19) – We will give an account to God one day with what He’s given to us – 2 Corinthians 5, Hebrews 9:27, Romans 14, etc. Thinking of that day ought to motivate each of us to faithfulness to the Lord.