I begin this morning where I left off last Sunday, with this quote from Richard Stearns:
(Slide 1) “Someone once said, “God does not call the equipped; He equips the called.” Saying that we are not clever enough, good enough, or talented enough to serve God is just making excuses. All of us have something God can use, even if it’s only a stick. (Think Moses). The question is whether or not we will offer whatever stick we have to His service.” Richard Stearns (parenthesis, mine)
Now I want to make clear that the context for Stearns’ remarks is poverty and how Christians can make a difference in important, but small, ways. But, I believe that his remarks can apply to everyday life and (Slide 2) the life of witness and service that we are all called to as Christians.
This is where our main text for this morning applies. I will read it in a moment but first we are going to hear from our three winners of the envelopes that were handed out last week. Please come to the pulpit.
As a reminder, here are what the envelopes contained.
(Slide 3) In one of them was a blank check for $5.00 with an assignment to take someone to lunch. Lucy was the winner here and so Lucy tell us what you did. (Lucy shares)
In another one, was an assignment to use 60 minutes of your time this week to do something nice for a neighbor or co-worker. Brookes was the winner here and so Brookes tell us what you did. (Brookes shares.)
In the third one, was an assignment to select either an article of clothing or something that you own, to give either to someone you know could use it or to one of our community agencies. John was the winner here and so John tells what you did. (John shares.)
Now I have a few questions for you:
Was your assignment hard or easy and why?
Did doing your assignment give you a new view on serving?
What emotions did you have as you did your assignment?
Now, as you heard their stories I want to ask for your thoughts on these questions:
(Slide 4)
What is harder for people to give these days: time, money, or possessions? Why?
What is the biggest internal barrier for people investing what they have already have for God?
What is the biggest external barrier for people investing what they have already have for God?
What is the one thing that people fear most that God will ask them to do?
With these questions in mind, let us read our main text for this morning, Matthew 25:14-30:
“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip. He called together his servants and gave them money to invest for him while he was gone. He gave five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another, and one bag of gold to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities—and then left on his trip. The servant who received the five bags of gold began immediately to invest the money and soon doubled it. The servant with two bags of gold also went right to work and doubled the money. But, the servant who received the one bag of gold dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money for safekeeping.
“After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of gold said, ‘sir, you gave me five bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.’ 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!’
“Next came the servant who had received the two bags of gold, with the report, ‘sir, you gave me two bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.’ 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!’
“Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and said, ‘sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.’
“But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You think I’m a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn’t plant and gathering crops I didn’t cultivate? Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of gold. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (NLT)
I want to note the following this morning as we consider the question (Slide 5) “What am I doing with what I have been given?”
(Slide 6) The first thing to notice is that this is an illustration of God’s kingdom. Jesus says at the very beginning of this passage, (verse 14) “the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated...”
I am reminded as I re-read that line of the opening of the 1960’s hit TV show Dragnet, “the story you are about to see is true.” What Jesus is saying is, “this is what the Kingdom of God is like.”
He is at a point just before His arrest and crucifixion, probably about two or three days away according to Matthew 26, that the Kingdom of which He has taught is like a wealthy man going on a trip. But in his leaving he invests and empowers three of his servants with a significant, if not the entire, portion of his wealth to invest while he is gone.
Can you recall a time in your life when someone left you something of value to take care of? A bit scary wasn’t it? You, hopefully, took good care of what you were asked to take care of.
What about when you were “put in charge” for the first time. Do you remember when you were left to be in charge of something? The shift? The store? The kids?
I recall a time when I was in retail management and I was left in charge of the department where I was being trained as a management trainee. I took it seriously and I acted the part.
Now I know that I acted the part because one of my co-workers, when she came back from lunch, looked at me after I indicated a list of tasks for us to do, and said, ‘Did, so and so, put you in charge?’ And I said, as a management trainee, ‘I guess.’
To which she responded, “Did so and so make you the management trainee?” To which I responded, “Yes.”
To which she responded by getting her coat and signing out. I asked her what she was doing, ‘so and so will know what I am doing.’ She quit on the spot!
And there I was all alone! (And least for a while.) But I was, in a sense at that point, in charge of a department that probably had at least 100,000 dollars worth of inventory!
These three men were in charge of a great deal of wealth. (Some scholars estimate that it would be in the millions of dollars today.)
So, the point Jesus is making is that God (who is the wealthy man) is putting something of value in the hands of His followers to do something with until He returns.
This is an important point to remember. This is not a story about a wealthy man. This is a story about what God expects of His followers of which you and I are numbered.
The next thing we need to understand is probably the most difficult concept to accept in this passage:
(Slide 6a) “He gave five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another, and one bag of gold to the last – in proportion to their abilities…”
This segment of our text points out the Kingdom of God is not a democracy of equal opportunity. It is a “spiritual monarchy” where God is the King and we are the people (though I would remind us that Jesus called the disciples at one-point “friends” instead of “servants.”)
What this segment means is, as Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12, God decides what gifts and what responsibilities to give to whom as He, God sees fit. We don’t have a choice in the matter and this has caused us, as it did back then, problems with God and with others.
Does this mean that God is not fair? If we answer ‘yes’ to this question (though we might say ‘no’ out loud) it means that we are going to wrestle with jealousy and envy and a host of other things all through life and we are not going to be satisfied and that is a dangerous place to be. Something that we will notice in a few verses.
But we need to understand that some of us have been given many responsibilities and some of us haven’t. Not because we are less human or less loved by God but because God knows our character and abilities and what we can and cannot handle. Yet, while we may start out with less, as we go through the rest of this story, we realize that what we start out with and what we may end up with, based on what we do with what we have been given, will be different.
Now the next thing we need to notice is implied in what happened between the departure of the wealthy man and his return.
(Slide 6b) This parable is about investing and increasing the Kingdom of God and not our kingdom
Two of the servants obey what they are told to do and the third does not because, as we say today, “he has issues.” He has issues with authority; he has issues with his employer; he has issues with power; he has unmet issues; he has issues with jealousy; he has issues with fear.
Now maybe the other two had some of these issues as well, especially fear. (Maybe fear was their motivation in their investments!) Yet, they invested their master’s wealth and were rewarded. The third one refused to do so.
John Ortberg has pointed out that the master plainly disciplines this servant for simply being lazy and doing nothing at all. He then goes on to say this result has unsettled many over the centuries who have tried to come up with an interpretation that he spent it on something or did something to merit his master’s displeasure, but the text plainly shows that he did not, he buried it and did nothing with it.
(Slide 7) So what is Jesus saying to His audience and us?
Simply this (verse 29)
(Slide 8) “To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.”
These are perhaps hard words to hear. Jesus is not kind right now.
I also think that we need to frame our interpreting of this verse not in material abundance but spiritual, inner, abundance. Things like the peace of God that Jesus would point out in short time as we read in John 14:27: “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
How many of you here this morning are at peace with yourself? I mean really at peace with yourself?
How many of you here this morning are at peace, really at peace with God?
Happiness is the goal of today and, while there is nothing wrong with being happy, it is a fleeting experience. Chasing it, and I have chased it, too, is a waste of time.
But, being at peace with yourself, that’s a treasured moment!
This last servant was not at peace with his master and certainly not at peace with himself. He also was not a happy man at all.
The other part of this inner abundance is the importance and affect of obedience. Jesus was to make clear in a very short time that obeying God is evidence of love for God. He would simply say as we read in John 14:15, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”
Though all three might have been afraid of their master, I think that a case can be made that the first two servants loved their master and obeyed him. The third one, by his harsh characterization, “you are a hard man,” indicates that there was no love in his heart for his master.
In giving to God what we already have so that God can use it to accomplish His purposes through us, obedience is a requirement not an option.
How well are you obeying what you already know God wants you to obey Him in?
Are you having trouble with connection with the Lord in the right way? Is communion with Him, ‘fuzzy,’ shall we say? Maybe it is because there is an obedience issue.
If we say we are Christians, the obedience to Jesus Christ, is necessary.
(Slide 9) So what do we do to invest effectively what we already have for God, if we really want to do so?
One thing we have to do is become what John Ortberg calls “Water Walkers.”
He wrote a wonderful book entitled, If You Want to Walk On the Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat based on the gospel account of Jesus and Peter on the tumultuous Sea of Galilee. In the opening pages of the book, Ortberg lists the realities and challenges “Water Walkers” face.
And germane to our thoughts of this morning and to our current question, here are some things he says that we need to think about and act on.
(Slide 10) Water Walkers discern between faith and foolishness.
To invest effectively for God what we already have, we need to become wise to “places of decision” and whether or not they are opportunities for a foolish decision or a positive leap of faith in God and His purposes.
(Slide 10a) Water Walkers expect problems.
He says, “Fear will never go away.” It is something that we constantly live and deal with throughout life. But, he also notes, water walkers learn how to ‘master failure management.’
(Slide 10b) Water Walkers see failure as an opportunity to grow.
How do you see failure? Is it a ‘one strike and you’re out’ event? (And some failures are… very, very serious) Or, is it something else? Water walkers see failure as a part of growing and living and learning.
(Slide 10c) Water Walkers learn to wait on the Lord.
There is a time for action and there is a time for waiting when it comes to invest effectively what we already have for God. It is part of the discernment process to help us determine when and if, to get out of the boat.
(Slide 10d) Water Walkers get out of the boat.
There is a time for reflection, prayer, and discernment and then we have to make a decision, i.e., to get out of the boat or stay in the boat!
The third servant never got out of his boat. He never left the security of his place. He refused to invest what he already had and he paid dearly for it.
For a while now, we have been afraid. Fear is everywhere.
And I understand why it is here – the loss of jobs and income; government plans and policies that make us feel threatened for a variety of reasons. I see and hear those fears and I acknowledge those fears this morning and do not make light of them at all.
But isn’t God bigger than your fear? Why should you be afraid?
Why do we seem to want to hold back from really getting out of the boat and giving to the Lord what we currently have so that His kingdom and His agenda are being advanced and not the Devil’s?
You may feel that you have been giving only one thing in life. But that is one thing that the Lord can use through you to accomplish something important in someone else’s life is important.
Fear cannot win! Fear cannot get the upper hand in your heart and life.
So get out of the boat, get your eyes on Jesus, and start walking! Let us give to God, no matter how big or how small; no matter how much or how little; what we already have in our hands. And, most importantly, let us give our very selves to Him as well.
Amen!
Sources:
Richard Stearns, A Hole In Our Gospel
John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on the Water, You Have Got to Get Out of the Boat
