HE is the Lord
Matthew 25:14-30
> Dr. Tim Lahaye tells the story (which I have repeated many times, but which perfectly illustrates a point); it’s about a husband who was receiving marital counseling. The obvious truth was that He and His wife were at odds with each other and were in the mode of fault-finding. After giving a laundry list of her faults, the husband was asked if there was “anything” he could find to appreciate about his wife. Without hesitation he replied, “She treats my mother good.” From that one statement, Dr. LaHaye led the husband to compile a list of 10 things which he could truly appreciate about his wife.” With this list in hand, here was Dr. Lahaye’s instruction, “take this list to work with you everyday and on the way home from work, pray through this list thanking God for these qualities.” After a couple of weeks the relationship began the process of healing. Why? Because the microscope of inspection had been taken off the negative and placed on the positive. Thus, a new “perspective” was gained.
> I have taken the time to re-tell this story to apply it to our study of scripture. Candidly, when we open our Bibles to study, our perspective either limits or expands our ability to discern all God’s wants us to see. It is a mystery to me as to why God has chosen to work like this, but the Bible repeatedly tells us that He does. So here is our lesson for the day, “In the same way we open our Bible, we should open our minds to hear & see what God has for us.”
> Case in point; Last week, we studied the same text we at which we are looking again tonight. Last week, we viewed this from the perspective of “Pleasing the Father (or Master).” We walked through this text in “outlined-story” form. Our outline was “The Master Entrusts, Exits, Emerges, Examines, Exacts, and Expects.” For me personally, this was a challenging outline.
> Tonight, let’s read and study the same text while placing our microscope of inspection at a slightly different angle. Let read it.
> It has been said, it you trust in man, you get what He can do, if you trust in the church, you get what she can do.
> But if you trust in God, you get what no one can do. I submit this is also trust about our focus. For the next few minutes I want us to focus on the Lord, who He is and what He does. Consider 3 simple thoughts with me;
1) He is the Lord of the Gift. We begin by reiterating what we said last time. The Lord (Master) called His servant and gave them gifts.
> First – these servants were not particularly deserving of these gifts.
> Next – they were all good gifts. (James 1:17)
> Next - they were given gifts which were in keeping with their talents and abilities.
> Finally – every gift given by the Lord carries with it both responsibility and expectation.
> Jesus said, “if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more your Father in heaven.”
> God gives us these gifts and allows us to make some decisions about these gifts. What will we do with them? Will we use them? Will be bury them? Consider this, HE is the LORD of the gift, you and I are only the stewards, overseer, or the manager of the gift.
> The day is coming (fast) when we will be called to “face the music.” This phrase may come from the British Army tradition of the 19th century in which a soldier, being court-marshaled was forced to stand facing the military band with the drums tapping as the charges were read.
> Literally, this means that they were held accountable for their actions and had to “face up to it”. Candidly, the same is true for us. Why? Because also,
2) He is the Lord of Settled Accounts – Again as we said last week, the same Lord who is the Lord of the Gifts is also returning to settle the accounts. The text tells us that after a while, He returns, calls in His trusted servants, and asks for an accounting of these gracious gifts. This is a checkup, an examination, or an audit.
> Several years ago, I purchased an envelope to send to a friend. The return address on the envelope said this; “Hugs and Kisses: The I.R.S”
> I am have never had to endure an IRS audit but the people who I have spoken with have said to me; “we sat down believing we had done everything right and the questions they had were easily answered, but this was a horrible experience.” Why is this? (Outside of the possibility that the IRS Agent was having a bad day) It is always painful to be held accountable. Yet, the Lord Himself will return to settle accounts and it is not so important how YOU think you’ve done as it is important how HE thinks you’ve done.
> The reason for this truth is found in the last thought which we see;
3) He is the Lord of the Reward. The same Lord who gave you whatever gifts you may have will return one day to settle the accounts with you and then give to you what you have earned with what you have been entrusted.
> Let’s think about this trust for a moment. We know from our last week’s study that a talent was worth approximately 15 years wages. One servant received 5 talents or 75 years of wages while another received 2 talents or 30 years of wages. In either case, this was a lot of “dough!” Yet, look at the Lord’s response. “You have been faithful over a “few” things.” Hello, are you telling me that 30 or 75 years of income at one time is “few” or “little?” What can this mean? Could it mean that by God’s standard that all we have on this earth which we think is so important pales in comparison to what He has in store for us over there?
> There is one more thought which may destroy your concept of heaven. Most people have the concept of heaven as being a giant, permanent, sedate, retirement home. Yet, listen to verse 21 and 23 where Jesus compares “few” and “many.” It seems that He has bigger plans than we even can conceive.
> For some, they think it will be the “great Golf course” in the sky. John Ortberg says, they’ll be no golf in heaven. Because there is no lying, cheating, weeping, wailing, or gnashing of teeth – so no golf.
> God reward beyond what we think both good and bad.
