Title: Use it or Lose It
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
MP:
FCF:
Outline:
In the eternal scheme of things, we turn out not to be very good at assess the value of things. Fortunately, God doesn’t call us to be appraisers – he just wants us to be faithful with whatever he, who appraises us, has given us.
- Twilight Zone Episode
- Don’t believe this could happen in the real world? At the top of the Washington Monument…
- We tend to do the reverse. We’re a small church, so we think we don’t have anything to offer. This is the situation of the servant in this parable.
- Guy w/5 & Guy w2 show the Master doesn’t really care about what was made – it was just the faithfulness
- Guy w/1 reveals his lack of faith in the Master (You knew…) And yet, the Master believed that the servant had been given something
- Don’t focus on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have
- Long Branch has
o Resources – probably too many (Potomac Falls)
o Giving Heart
o Unity of Purpose
o Love for the Bible
- We’ve done 7 Loaves, Benefit Concerts, etc… Before I go, the Kazakh glasses
- We also have an amazing history: Before Wm. Broaddus came, there were just 5 men and 27 women. Within 5 years, there had been over 200 baptisms, before he went on to found Southern Seminary…
- It reqd some change of attitudes: Sunday School and Missions focus – external not internal.
- May also mean that we give up the Temple mentality. Use the resources, don’t hoard. Society teaches us to be frugal, and Jesus teaches us to be prudent. But he also reminds us that the resources aren’t ultimately ours to keep!
- Discovery of oil in the PA creeks. Nothing but an environmental catastrophe until someone realized the stuff was useful – but only if you burned it.
In the eternal scheme of things, it turns out that as a species we’re not very adept at determining the value of things. But that’s okay, because in the end, the One who made us doesn’t care what we think about the things he’s given us, just what we’ve done with them.
Many years back, there was an episode of the Twilight Zone called The Rip Van Winkle Caper that makes the point pretty well. Four thieves hatch what they think will be the ultimate getaway plan. They steal a bunch of gold from a bank, and hide it in cave way out in the desert.
But also in the cave, one of the men has developed a cryogenic chamber – basically a box where they can sleep for a hundred years and not age a day. It’s one of those staples of science fiction that your body is basically just slowed down so much that it doesn’t age.
Well, this chamber works, and so now, here they are 100 years in the future, having made a clean getaway with all their loot, the case long since forgotten. While they were sleeping, a cave-in broke one of the chambers, and so there were only three. Shortly after waking, the three remaining men begin arguing, and the muscle man takes the getaway truck and runs over one of his compatriots for his share. But, in the process, he loses control of their truck in the process and wrecks it.
Now, with just two of them – the professor and the murderer they set off to walk out of the desert, laden down with their gold. And gold, as you know, is very, very heavy. The murderer just loads up as much as he can carry. The professor wisely takes water. As they walk through the desert, the murderer now dying of thirst has to buy sips of water, first at 1 gold bar a sip, then 2, then 4. Finally, when the murderer is weak, the professor simply kills him.
Now laden down with all the gold, he makes it to the road. His water gone, he struggles on until he can go now more. Just as he is overcome with heatstroke, a futuristic car comes along with a man and his wife. Seeing the man, they stop. He begs them to help. “Gold! I’ll pay you in gold if you’ll just save me!” he cries. But before they can, he dies from the heat.
As the man gets back into his car to report Farwell’s death to the police, he quizzically remarks to his wife, "Funny. He offered me this like it was really worth something." The wife vaguely recalls that it had, indeed been valuable sometime in the distant past. The husband replies, "Sure, until they found a way to manufacture it," and tosses the gold bar away.
Oh yeah, the value of things is not something static. And if you don’t believe that happens in real life, can I direct your attention to the top of the Washington Monument? Five hundred and fifty-five feet in the air, the top “stone” of the Washington Monument isn’t stone at all but a 9” tall piece of aluminum. When it was placed, it was one of the most precious metals around, until a company called Alcoa found a means of manufacturing it so cheaply that nowadays you just use it to cover a casserole.
It’s a good thing that God is less concerned about our ability to value resources than he is concerned about our ability to use them.
In our lives, however, we tend to have the reverse problem. Oh, to be sure, sometimes we overvalue ourselves, but generally instead of overvaluing our own resources, the problem tends to be that we overlook what we actually have. It’s very easy to think that because we don’t have as much money as the guy down the street that it should really be up to him to fix it.
We think that the other guy is smarter, so he should be the one to solve the problem. We think she’s more spiritual, so we’ll let her pray about it. And since that church has more people, they’re responsible for evangelizing this part of the world.
Well, our Gospel lesson this morning has a thing or two to say about that.
Earlier, we read what is called The Parable of Talents. The Master goes away and leaves some money – actually a lot of money – with three of his servants. He gives five bags of money to one, two to another, and the poor sap at the end gets just one.
Now, if you were setting the story up for dramatic irony, the guy with only 1 talent should have been the good guy. He would have been faithful with his one little talent and put it to work. But Jesus didn’t go for dramatic irony, he went for what I think is the common case. The guy who didn’t have as much looked around and said, “I’m going to hold on to what little I’ve got.”
The guys with the five and the two talents do what they are supposed to. They get to work. They invest their money and they both get a return. And, in both cases, they get the exact same reward. You see, the Master didn’t care about the scope of the results, just that there were results. In both cases the reward is exactly the same: “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Master!”
They can live secure in the knowledge of two things:
1. Before they had touched a dime, their Master knew they were worthy of His trust.
2. And, once they were through, their Master was happy that they had been faithful with what had been given them.
The last guy, however, refused to believe that he was capable of doing anything for his Master. And, he has a reaction that is pretty typical. When he doesn’t think he’s worthy, he doesn’t think anyone around him is either. He missed out on the fact that his Master thought him worthy to have a talent at all.
Frankly, he resented his Master. Why me? Why do I have this thing for him when he didn’t give me the resources to do it! I’m sure he cried. Never you mind that even at one talent, he still has a year’s wages to play with. His attitude was that these gifts were burdens and tasks rather than resources and opportunities to revel in with joy! And so, he misses out.
The point is pretty simple actually: Don’t focus on what you do not have. That’s not important. Focus instead on what you do.
As a child of God, you have a loving Master who, from the beginning of time picked you as his special child, worthy of doing good things for him. As Ephesisans 2:10 says: He has created us in Christ Jesus to live lives filled with good works that he has prepared for us to do. I know that the One who gives us a job to do is never going to put his own child out to pasture without the resources needed to do the job.
Here at Long Branch, our job is the same as its been for the last 221 years: to share the Good News that we can be His children with everyone. And, frankly, he’s given us all we really need. He’s given us a great facility, a unity of purpose, a love for the Bible, friends that we love and that encourage us to good works. We’ve done three benefit concerts together now, helped out at Seven Loaves.
Before I leave in October, I have no doubt that you all are going to fill this box with reading glasses for people in country that I’m willing to bet some of you didn’t even know existed before the movie Borat came out. That’s because I know your hearts, and I know your love for the God of the Bible who encourages you to help others see.
This church has a lot. But, as Michael Keaton would tell you, with great power comes great responsibility.
I’ll tell you that this church has been blessed monetarily. In fact, my fear is that it has been blessed too much. Up in Sterling, I know a church that sold its building and moved just down the street into a brand new one. The money that they made from the sale was measured in millions. But you know, the pastor of that church told me later it was the death knell of that church. Within a year, membership had plummeted to a third. It wasn’t division or dissension or even dissatisfaction with the new place.
No, the pastor told me it was that the people thought they weren’t needed anymore: that the church was safe. The easiest way to kill a church is to be safe. As someone recently said: “What good is all the money if there aren’t any people.” That’s a wise, wise outlook on keeping a church truly safe.
I’m telling you that this church has a lot of resources – let me tell you one that you may not even be aware of. This church has a history, a DNA if you will, that is founded on relying on God’s providence for its growth.
You probably know that I am really excited about this pulpit. I’m excited because it was the one that William Broaddus may have used. I think you’ve heard me tell you that he is basically the guy that started what is now North Star. I may have told you that he is responsible for starting Southern Seminary in Louisville. I know I’ve told you that when Columbia Baptist – you know that church of nearly 1000 in Falls Church – came calling here – he turned them down.
What you may not know is that when he came here to Long Branch in 1827, the entire membership of the church was just 5 men and 27 women. Such an imbalance is a sign of a very desperate, nearly dead church. But within just five years, he had the privilege of baptizing over 200 people from around here.
What did it take? Well he was resource user. He focused this church on two goals – Sunday School and Missions – facing the church outward into the world it was going to serve. That was not a safe way to be back in 1827. When I told you that he started what is now North Star, what I didn’t tell you was that it cost this church membership in the Association it was in at the time. But the investment that he made then has carried this church and six others for nearly 200 years.
But no investment that is conservatively used is going to stick around forever. Investments need to be used, need to be acted upon. It’s really easy to look around and bemoan the fact that we’re small. Ok, we’re small. We’re in the middle of the country – what do you expect.
But if we are intentional about how we use the resources we have, if we are able to see past the idol that this beautiful Temple can become, we can do great things for the Kingdom. We just need to remember that ultimately it’s the Master’s resources in the Master’s time that bring the increase.
We are actually sitting on a spiritual gold mine here. It may mean that we shift our focus to non-Anglo people, but there are people here who need the Gospel, and we have it. We just need to use what we’ve got.
I want to end by just having you think about a creek up in Pennsylvania. It’s called Oil Creek, because, well, for years it was just covered in oil. To any casual observer, it was nothing but an environmental catastrophe. But then someone figured out that you could burn the stuff. First they used it for lamps, and then eventually for cars. Oozing out of the ground, slowly leaking into the water, it was worse than useless. But when they drilled the first oil well, actively using it and burning it, it literally fueled the economy.
We can sit around here all day doing assessments of what we do and do not have, silently mourning our state, or we can get out there and use it.
In the end, the results are up to the Master. He isn’t going to hold us accountable for the numbers or the money – just our faithfulness in using what he’s given us. And it’s a lot. We just need to direct it. And for that, we simply need to pray.
Would you join with me?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument#Capstone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rip_Van_Winkle_Caper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Creek_State_Park
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, June 24th, 2007
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation Psalm 42
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #104
“O Worship the King”
Welcome
Announcements
Morning Prayer
*Hymn #680
“All the way My Savior Leads Me”
Scripture Matthew 25:14-30
*Hymn #139
“Great is Thy Faithfulness”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Sermon
“Use it or lose it”
Invitation Hymn #664
“Take my life and let it be”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
SCRIPTURE LESSON (MATTHEW 25:14-30)
The Parable of the Talents
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
PRAYER LIST
Debbie Flickinger, Warren Lee, Debbie Grigsby, Corey Keely, Susan Schulz, Martha Puryear, Cindy & Thomas Lee, Irene Griffith.
