Sermon Brief
Date Written: May 4, 2007
Date Preached: May 6, 2007
Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Title: Are We Ready for What is Next?
Sermon Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Introduction:
The torrential rains had been pouring down for 6 straight days and the river had hit and exceeded flood stages 2 days ago. The flood had ripped thru his land and had swept away all but his home.
Bob had sent his family out of state, 3 days ago and he had stayed to ‘batten down the hatches’ and keep their property safe. Bob had been on the rooftop for over 15 hours now, and he was a believer and had been praying for God to deliver him.
The rain finally stopped and the sun broke thru for the 1st time in 7 days and Bob was glad to be drying out, but it was getting hot. About that time a helicopter came by and hovered over head, Bob waved them off because the propwash was getting dust and dirt in his eyes. He shouted, “Go on! Don’t worry ‘bout me God is going to deliver me…”
It was at that time Bob began to notice that the water had come over the edge of the roof and it was rising fast. Later that day a boat full of those Hispanic migrant workers that Bob used to harvest his crop came by and one of them said, “Mr. Bob, get in the boat!”
But the boat was really crowded and he really didn’t want to get in the boat with these people, so he waved them on saying, “Don’t worry about me, God is going to deliver me…”
The waters continued rising and by dark only the ridge of Bob’s roof was showing and the current was strong, and Bob was hanging on for dear life. Bob was weak and shaking from lack of rest and no food for 2 days.
Finally he could hold on NO longer, he let go, hoping he could float to a safe location, but the current swept him under the surface of the water into a tree in his front yard.
Bob’s foot wedged between 2 branches and he could not free himself. Eventually Bob stopped breathing and drowned.
Upon entering heaven, Bob asked Jesus why he had not delivered him from the flood. Jesus told him, Bob, I sent 2 rescue missions your way, and you turned your back on both of them, you didn’t die because I didn’t answer your prayer… you died because you didn’t listen to My answer!
Last week you heard me preach about revival. You heard me revel in the joy and blessing of being a part of a wonderful crusade where God spoke clearly to His people. But you also heard me ask the question of you, “What do we do now?”
What do we do with what God has blessed us with? God blessed this community with a powerful and refreshing series of meetings. God blessed the individuals who submitted to His authority with a fresh new start.
God has blessed our community with the seed of revival and we must answer the question, “What do we do now?” Last week we looked at Scripture and learned that we had to humble ourselves before God. We learned that God has promised that when God’s people humble themselves He is going to listen to their prayer!
Last week we also learned that the coming of true revival can and will only come from God and that we have to seek His face and we must have a sincere and true heart for revival and reaching lost souls. In other words, we have to be about doing Kingdom work and we cannot sit on our hands and just HOPE that God is going to do something.
When we do that it is like an out of work father sitting at home on the couch waiting for that great job opportunity to just fall into his lap. It just will NOT happen that way!
Revival and the reaching of lost souls will only come about when we are actively involved in God’s plan and purpose. It will happen when we are willing to do everything God directs us to do to reach the lost... “
Paul best illustrated this attitude in 1 Cor 9 when he said -
“…to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews…” he said, “…to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak... I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some…Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you…”
So now that we KNOW what we are supposed to do, I want to ask another question, but I warn you to take care before you answer because your answer will ultimately determine how you can be used by God or if God can truly use you at all.
The question I want to ask you this morning is, “Are you ready for what is next?” OR “Are you ready and willing to submit to God’s plan and purpose?”
We have learned what we need to do – submit to His authority… but are we really ready for the next step as a church… are we ready to begin DOING what God has called us to do?
Is OZHBC ready to step up and step out on faith and follow the direction of God’s leadership? This morning I want to share with you from Matt 25:14-30… this is a story that most of us should be familiar with, but it is also a story that many of us refuse to live by… Would you stand in reverence of the reading of God’s word…
READ MATT 25:14-30
The 1st thing I want us to realize about this parable is that it is focused on God and God’s Kingdom. Jesus uses the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven is like…” so what does this phrase represent in this parable?
This was a Jewish saying that represented “The Kingdom of God” but the Jews were very strict about using the name of God in fear of profaning it or disrespecting it… so they would substitute ‘heaven’ in place of ‘God’
But Jesus uses it here as a direct reference to His kingdom – the kingdom Jesus would eventually tell Pilate about in John 18:36…
This is a kingdom that is NOT of this world… NOT political, but a spiritual domain within the hearts of His followers.
John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus by preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near…” Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven as Jesus provided a passageway thru which we could enter into the heavenly realm with God.
When we look at this parable we can also see that it is the 2nd in a series about the kingdom of heaven that Jesus was using to teach the people and expose the Pharisees.
The 1st parable is about the 10 virgins (5 wise and 5 unwise) and Jesus emphasizes in this parable that we must be ready and prepared to serve at all times…
In this parable, Jesus teaches about 3 servants and a master who entrusts his wealth to them… here Jesus focuses on being steadfast in our faithfulness to God and NOT wavering in doing what we KNOW we are to be doing…
Jesus uses the illustration of a rich man leaving for a trip and he chooses to empower 3 servants to take care of a great deal of money for him while he was gone…
We find the term ‘talent’ mentioned here, but in our society that term really has no meaning when it comes down to money. We think of talent as something we all have in one area or another, but a talent in the 1st century was a unit of money.
A talent = 6,000 denarii
A denarius = A day’s wage for the average working man…
Now let’s contemporize that just a bit so we can fully comprehend just what Jesus is teaching in this parable. According to the Census Bureau, the average or ‘mean’ salary of the individual worker is $35,500, which calculates to ~2,958/month. There usually about 22 workdays in each month (for the average man) and that comes to ~$134.50 per workday
Now let’s plug that figure into or parable so that we can understand it just a bit more clearly.
Talent = 6000 day’s wages [roughly 16.5 yrs]
Daily wage = $134.50
Talent in today’s money = 6000 x $134.50 = $807,000.00
Servant with 5 talents = $4,035,000.00
Servant with 2 talents = $1,614,000.00
Servant with 1 talent = $ 807,000.00
Total $6,456,000.00
This master placed a great deal of trust and responsibility in his servants, by leaving them this money. But I want us to understand that this master KNEW what he was doing! We can see this in v.15, “…to each according to his abilities…”
It is obvious that he knew the strengths and weaknesses of his servants… they were not chosen because they were his favorites but because he understood their abilities.
In fact, he was so confident about their abilities that he was able to entrust them with over 6 million dollars and leave on a trip! READ v.16-19 now
Now here I want us to notice of what is NOT said. The master leaves for his trip but we do not read about any instructions on what these servants were to do with the money. But even tho’ there were NO instructions given – these servants KNEW what the Master wanted them to do!
All 3 of these servants knew and understood first that this was their master’s money and it was not for their enjoyment or to build them up in anyway other than serving for their master.
As a pastor, I run into this all the time. Someone will come to me or I will overhear them saying, “I just don’t know what God wants me to do… where He wants me to serve?”
Well I believe that people who say this are NOT being honest with themselves. God is not a God of confusion or chaos, but one of order and stability.
The moment you were saved, the Holy Spirit gifted you with spiritual gifts, so that you would be able to work in the kingdom. God reveals these gifts to us, but the problem is that we simply don’t believe God!
So many believers miss out on the blessing of obedience simply because they do not believe God when He reveals to them what He wants them to do…
Things like teach a Sunday School class, or help with the youth, or lead the RA’s or GA’s… or even sit with the babies in the nursery.
Wherever God is directing your steps… that is where you need to be… regardless of what YOU think about it!
Maybe God has called you to a ministry of prayer, but you think to yourself, what good does my prayer do… I am just one person! Well Scripture tells us that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much!
The righteous man in that verse is not self-righteous but he is righteous because he has been obedient and submissive to God’s plan and purpose and God is going to listen to his prayer and much will come of that prayer life that is focused on obeying God’s call!
Wherever God directs your steps… if you are obedient in following Him, you are going to experience a joy and peace that the world cannot describe, and you are going to know that you are in the center of His will.
You may not experience worldly success all the time, but you will succeed in knowing that you have submitted to God totally and completely!
But I can also see 2 differing approaches by these servants to pleasing the master…
2 of the 3 servants exhibit an approach of no fear! This is also revealed in a total trust in the wisdom of the master. They understand that he has trusted them with this task; he believes we are able to do, so let’s go out and do it!
These servants knew and understood what the master wanted done, and they jumped right in and began to work
“…he who had rec’d the 5 talents went and traded with them, and made another 5 talents…”
“…likewise he who had rec’d 2 talents gained 2 more also…”
However, we see a different approach by the 3rd servant. His approach to service reveals an approach of fear... both, the fear of failure and the fear of the Master. This servant obviously did not trust the wisdom of the master, and did not do what he was sent to do.
We can tell by the story that fear gripped this servant’s heart… so much so that he made a choice to not do what he knew the master wanted him to do…
He knew that the master was a strict and demanding master so instead of risking any of what the master had entrusted him with… he believed that if he buried it and saved it for when the master returned at least he wouldn’t have lost anything.
Does this sound familiar? So often as a church we find both of these approaches to ministry and doing the work of the kingdom. We have many in the church who are frozen in fear…
• fear of failure itself…
• fear of change…
• fear of doing something in a different way…
• fear of doing something that fails…
• fear of misusing what God has given to them…
And it is this fear that holds them back as believers and children of God. It is this fear that keeps them from going out and doing the work of the kingdom that they KNOW should be done!
Then there are those believers who fully trust and believe God when He tells them that they can do something. He guides them in a direction and they jump onboard and begin to move as God has instructed. There is fear present, but…
Theirs is not a fear of failure, but a fear of NOT BEING obedient to God’s call! They fear God and want to please Him. It is these types of believers who are willing to go into hell with a water pistol, if God directs them to do it.
It doesn’t matter what God calls them to do, they look to see how they can accomplish it. God directs their steps and they are willing and obedient and they have no fear.
So this morning, the question you have to ask yourself is this, ‘Am I a believer who fears everything and does nothing, or am I a believer who is willing to do everything because I fear nothing?”
Now as we analyze this parable up to this point I want us to take notice of some things that jump right off the page at you…
Jesus taught by the use of parables and these stories revealed spiritual truth. When we look at a parable we can usually determine what each character or thing in the parable represents when it comes to spiritual matters.
In this particular parable we find that –
• Jesus = The master
• Talent = the gospel or the resources God has provided to share the Gospel
• Servants = today’s believers… the church… or more specifically individual churches…
Also we can see the spiritual application that Jesus desires to teach…
First, we can determine that there are always going to be differing levels of commitment by church members and congregations. There are going to be churches that have more ability to do more things, and other churches that have less ability to do things.
But what we have to realize is that God understands our abilities and places us in a position where we can succeed. God is not going to place us in a position to fail or in one we cannot handle in our walk with Him… it is His desire to see us succeed and he knows our abilities and He will place us in His kingdom where we best fit!
2nd we need to understand that there are servants within the church that are totally willing to give their all for their master and they are obedient to God’s will and command.
These servants in this parable know why the master has given them money… to increase his wealth… and they understood it was their job to do it.
Have you ever thought about, “…what if they had traded and lost all that they had been given…” and that is a legitimate thought – but I want us to remember v.15 where it tells us that the master knew his servants pretty well and he gave them money, “…each according to his own ability…”
The master KNEW these men and was comfortable in leaving them with his wealth and fully believed that they would increase his wealth!
3rd we can see that there is always going to be those believers or churches that are NOT willing to give it their all for the kingdom. When God calls on them, He calls upon a deaf ear…
This servant with the one talent had the ability and the knowledge to please his master… he knew what he was supposed to do, but he would NOTdo it. He was afraid of losing what the master had given him, so he buried it in the ground.
Like this servant, I have seen many believers sit on their hands because they were afraid to move in God’s direction… and they could come up with some pretty good rationale and fairly reasonable objections to God’s calling… or so they thought!
I want us to know that as a church we are blessed with loads of resources, human and financial and God desires that we use these resources to build His kingdom.
I also want each of your hear today to know that God has called each one of us and has directed each one of us toward the building up of His kingdom! On top of that God has blessed us with leaders to guide our steps in doing what God has called us to do, and so I say today that it is imperative we follow His leading.
In this parable we see 2 servants doing what the master called them to do, and we find one servant NOT doing what the master commanded. And we know this because there came a time when the master returned from his trip and Scripture reveals that, “…the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them…”
My brothers and sisters here today, we have to realize and understand that there is coming a day when the Lord of lords and the King of kings will split the eastern sky and reveal His glory and takes His children home with Him.
It will be on that day that He will judge the world… it will be the day when the God of heaven is going to settle all accounts with all people…
In our parable that we are looking at this morning we find that judgment does come… for 2 of the servants the judgment of their master is good and they are rewarded for their faithfulness! These servants were given resources by their master and they took those resources and enlarged his kingdom in service to him.
READ v. 20-23
They were given resources and they knew what to do and they dug right in and began to do it. They did not allow fear of failure or fear of their master’s wrath to dissuade their duty to the master. And in the end these men were blessed and rewarded for being faithful to their master’s will.
But I want us to take a look at the 3rd servant and see that his judgment was NOT what he would have desired. His judgment is harsh and brutal and we find the master punishing this man for his unfaithfulness…
READ v.24-28
Here we find that this servant comes to the master, not with joy, but with excuses and in great fear. He even shares with the master that he was afraid that he would lose the money he had entrusted him with… The Greek word here for fear means a paralyzing type of fear… a fear that freezes your legs and does not allow you to go anywhere.
This man was terrified into doing nothing with the talent that his master had given to him. One would think that the master would show some pity, but that is NOT what happens.
The master says something here that sounds harsh, but Jesus puts this here as a teaching tool. The master says, “…you wicked and lazy servant you knew what I was like and yet you still did nothing… the least you should have done was put the talent in the bank so that I would at least have drawn interest on it…”
You wicked and lazy servant… I can imagine those words hit him like a ton of bricks. But not only did the master chastise this man, but he then punishes him by taking away his talent and thereby removing him from his position.
He instructs the other servants to strip this man of his title and to throw him out of the house… he tells them to throw the loser bum out in to a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
My friends the spiritual parallel to this parable is a scary proposition from God. What Jesus is teaching here is that when we are NOT faithful, God is going to remove from our position.
I want you to understand, he is not speaking here about losing our salvation, but about being ‘demoted’ within the kingdom of heaven… about losing out on the richness of the blessings He wants to put upon us…
• We have been called by God to reach out to this community…
• We have been called by God to share His love and mercy to this community…
• We have been called by God to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this community…
• We have been called by God to humble ourselves and pray…
• We have been called by God to turn from our wicked way…
• We have been called by God to seek His face…
Brothers and Sisters God is calling us to GO TO WORK for Him today! The harvest field of souls is ripe for the picking…and those souls are not going to harvest themselves… we have to get involved!
I believe our church is at a crossroads, I truly believe we are at a place where we need to respond to God’s call, or else! Kind of like Bob sitting on his rooftop and seeing the waters rise around him…
He turns down one rescue attempt because it is getting him all icky and dirty and he is afraid to fly…
He turns down another rescue attempt because the boat was TOO crowded and he didn’t want to be around those kind of people…
Old Zion Hill, God is putting forth the hand of rescue and deliverance for our church. So that we can be what He has called us to be. Are we going to refuse His call because of petty reasons, or are we going to step out on faith and trust His leadership?
As a church we are called to submit in obedience to God’s purpose and plan for our church, and we must continue in obedience toward that call.
You may never fully understand what God is doing, or where God desires you to be, but we have to rest in His promises, the promise that if we submit to Him, He will keep us throughout all eternity.
Do you trust God? Do you trust God enough to let go and let God lead you? Do you trust God that He has placed leaders in your midst to guide the steps of this church into obedience to Him?
You know, when I look at this passage I see the tale of 2 churches…
• One is a church that seeks to do all to please their Master says and follow thru on what He desires…
We can see that this church is unselfishly with the resources placed at their disposal as they seek to please their master and increase His kingdom.
As a church that means that their focus is on spreading the Gospel message in evangelistic discipleship making, and the result of this ministry is that the church will grow in the number of people that are being reached, saved, baptized, and disciple.
• On the other hand, we can see the other church as a church that does NOT trust their master’s judgment and is unwilling to do what the master has called them to do
This church is one that has forgotten that ministry and sharing God’s Word is their priority… and even though this is a church that keeps getting more and more money in their bank account, they forget and ignore their duty to the master to increase His kingdom…
And even though their bank account looks fine, they are dead on the vine!
I am here to tell you that God doesn’t care how much money is in the bank. God only cares if his children are willing to focus on Him, to seek His face and turn from their wicked ways! God desires us to work to enlarge His kingdom.
I know that one day I will stand before God… before that great judgment throne! And when I stand in front of God on that fateful day, I want to be able to say to Him, I submitted to your authority, I was saved and lived by your grace and mercy, and thru Christ, I did all I could do for the Kingdom.
I pray that, as a church, we are not standing in front of God and saying to Him, God why didn’t you send revival to our small country church. And God would respond, “I did, you just refused to see the signs or listen to my Word.”
We cannot continue to stand around and pray prayers like, “God send us revival!” but yet NOT do anything to that would further the kingdom of God.
God is NOT going to force it down our throats… and growth in our church and in the kingdom of heaven will NOT come about unless we submit and are obedient in sharing God’s mercy, grace and salvation to those around us…
Are you ready for the next step? I know I am… I know there are several here that are ready… what I want to know… “Is OZHBC as a whole ready to move and work to enlarge the kingdom of the Master? Are we ready for what is next?
As bro Jerry comes today I call on you to confess your sin to God, call on His promise of forgiveness, ask Him to cleanse your heart and make you usable in the Kingdom. I pray that the desire of this church would be to be used of God and that the grace and mercy of Christ would flow through our hearts and minds as we serve Him in this world. Won’t you come as Bro Jerry leads us?
