Bunbury
Fri pm
Men’s D/S
“The tragedy of a profitless life”
Intro: *** There was a story about a man who died & when they were winding up his estate it was discovered that in his will he wanted his estate left to the devil! Since the estate involved a property the executors of the will were at a loss as to how they would leave real estate to the devil.
After some discussion his lawyers decided that the best way to honour their client’s request would be to simply let the property lie idle & do nothing to it. They figured that w/ the passing of time it would simply run down & fall into a state of disrepair & ruin.
This is an interesting story & it got me thinking.
If this is true of a property that is left to the devil ..... that it would degenerate to a state of utter disrepair, what would happen to a life given to the devil?
We don’t have to think too hard b/c the Bible already answers the question for us.
The writer of Proverbs allows us to see a similar scene through his own eyes when he says ....
Proverbs 24:30-34 (NKJV) I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
Here is a man that could have / should have lived a profitable life but the profit of his life was stolen simply b/c he did nothing.
T/n I want to consider w/ you ‘The tragedy of a profitless life’.
Text: Matthew 25:14-28 ( NKJV ) “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
# 1. The potential of life.
A. It’s an amazing thought when you think about the potential buried in a life.
a. At the heart of every life is a seed called potential.
i. Potential is basically the seed of possibility – the possibility of what that life might b/co / what might be achieved through it.
ii. And potential is something that is resident w/i every one of us ..... it’s not dependant upon education / upbringing / financial status.
*** In his mid 40’s Ivan Boesky was sitting on a park bench staring up into the sky wondering what the rest of his life might amount to. He had just been retrenched & although he sat there immaculately dressed in a suit there was no reason to believe that his future might have been anything but tough!
Ivan Boesky b/ca w/i in a few short years the most feared man on Wall St & was widely known by his nickname – the Bear of Wall St. By 1986 Boesky had amassed a fortune of $200 million USD. Although his life was surrounded by scandal due to an insider trading charge he nonetheless is a powerful example of the latent potential that lay ready to be triggered in each & every one of us.
b. When God looks at us what he sees is potential.
i. In the parable what we observe is that the master was intimately aware of who each of his servants were – hence the varying degrees of responsibility.
ii. But we also notice that the only thing he saw was potential!
iii. The dict defines the word potential as: The inherent capacity for coming into being / expected to b/co or be / existing in possibility.
iv. It is very closely connected to the word potency which speaks about power / force / ability to affect.
v. As works w/ us He works w/ the possibility of what we might b/co not what we already are.
Vs 15. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability;
B. Not only are our lives laden w/ potential for good – our lives have potential for evil.
a. We’re not talking about someone setting out to do damage to the kingdom ...... but something much more subtle than that.
i. When we think about those who do damage to the kingdom we conjure up images of witches / warlocks holding s̩ances / using black magic Рbut the greater enemy is w/i.
ii. The servant in our text revealed his potential for evil by what he failed to do.
iii. And this is where the real harm is done ...... God created us for so much but we end up doing so little.
** O.M.S. Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth. ... Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. .. . Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts he habitually fails to use.
iv. When the Bible speaks about our lives as Christians it talks in terms of you & I spending our/s in great endeavour for the kingdom.
Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV) ......and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
v. The visions of the believer in the kingdom incite mental pictures of victory / dominion / power but instead forging towards victory many find th/s stalled on the race track of life.
b. This servant had some obvious qualities that were admirable & built confidence in his master’s heart that he had potential for good.
i. But when the master returns, look at the charge he brings against his servant ....
Vs 26-27. ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
ii. His sin was the sin of undeveloped potential ..... & God says – that’s wicked!
iii. Here is a life given to the devil – not by what he did but by what he didn’t do!!!
c. Profits lost by the kingdom of God are profits given to the enemy.
i. If the tremendous abilities & potential God has laid down in the depth of your being aren’t mined / explored & exploited for the kingdom .... they’ll be given to the enemy.
ii. In other words – what is lost by God is gained by the devil!
iii. Think about this in regard to your own life ..... your laziness is heaven’s loss & hell’s gain!
iv. The undeveloped potential of your life that could have been used for God is instead given to the devil.
v. Heaven’s loss b/co hell’s profit! ....... that’s Tragic!!! It was created for the kingdom but given to hell!
# 2. The profitless life.
A. This parable has nothing to do w/ money – it’s about God’s investment in life.
a. The only thing that God really invests in is life!
i. And whatever God invests in He wants returns from ...... He is looking for profit from our lives.
Vs 26-27. .....you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
ii. What He is concerned about tonight is not assets / material possessions / advances made in this temporal world.
iii. He is concerned w/ eternal profits that our lives produce by developing / growing in Him.
iv. Listen to the command God gives his people in Exodus ......
Exodus 23:15 (NKJV) You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
v. God’s not interested in a few coins ...... he concerned that we would live profitable lives.
B. The master in our parable is angry b/c of profit that has been lost.
a. We need to take careful note here that the profits have not been lost b/c of inability / lack of u/s or b/c of unfortunate circ.
i. What we see here is the profits of a life being lost through the servant’s unwillingness to progress.
ii. Think about this ..... while the other two servants are busy trading / planning / strategising / thinking about ways to increase profits – what is this servant doing?
iii. Here are men who worked under the same employer in very similar situations ......
iv. Didn’t he look at his own life & see a lack of profit compared to theirs?
v. Didn’t it bother him that he was going backwards while they were going forward?
Vs 20.‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
Vs 22. ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’
b. We have been created for increase.
i. God’s command to man in the garden ....
Genesis 1:22 (NKJV) And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
ii. In the parable of the sower we read of the increase of the seed sown .....
Matthew 13:8 (NKJV) But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
iii. And when our lives fail to bring forth increase we have denied the very purpose for which we were created.
iv. And so what real value do our lives have if we fail to do what we were created for?
*** In the hit T.V. series Fawlty Towers one of the key characters is an employee at the hotel named Manuel. Spanish Manuel can’t speak very good English & Basil Fawlty has a very short fuse when he’s trying to explain things to Manuel. In the heat of frustration in one episode he picks up a soup spoon & smacks Manuel on the forehead & shouts at him “Manuel, you’re a waste of space!”
The very real danger we face is that if our lives don’t produce some eternal profit then in reality we are little more than a waste of space!!!
c. Jesus gives us another parable ...... the parable of the fig tree in the vineyard.
Luke 13:7 (NKJV) Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’
i. In essence, we only justify our existence by what our lives produce!
ii. If you were to be asked the question right now ...... what has your life produced? How would you answer that?
iii. Look at the words that the master in our text uses to describe the one talent servant...... & look at where he ends up.
Matthew 25:30 (NKJV) And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
# 3. Avoiding the tragedy.
A. The forgotten figures in this story are the two other servants – the profitable servants.
a. The sad reality is that whenever this text is preached on the focus is on the one servant who was wicked & unprofitable.
i. But our focus needs to be on the two other servants whose lives were profitable to their master.
ii. What God is saying to us is this is what I want to see happening in your life – I want to see progress / increase / gain.
b. When our lives bring forth increase not only does it please God but it changes something in us.
i. We aren’t given any info on the demeanour as these men report to there master on the profit their lives have produced but you get the sense of a victory report.
Vs 20. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
ii. God not only created you for increase – He created you for victory & you’ll only have it by living a profitable life.
B. So the challenge here is to avoid the tragedy of a profitless life – how can we do it?
a. First of all you need to establish some mileposts of progress.
i. You need to be regularly asking y/s two questions ....... where is my life going & where does God want it to be going?
ii. Are you measuring your progress as a man of God? Has there been discernable changes in the last year / 6 months / 30 days / week?
*** There’s a man I know who was telling me that his friends nicknamed him ‘Gonna’ b/c he’s always going to do this & do that. But even though his life is filled w/ every good intention he doesn’t get things done!
iii. The question is not what you’re ‘gonna’ do for God & the kingdom ....... but what have you done?
*** A man I knew a number of years ago had an arrangement the he would live in the house these people owned & in exchange he would do some improvements on the house when they came back to live in the house again. He had a couple of years to do the improvements but he didn’t noticed the months whizzing by. B/4 he knew it the owners came back to move into the house & he had done nothing!!! They were suitably unimpressed & you can guess the rest of the story.
iv. You need to u/s that the owner is coming back one day & He wants to see some improvements.
Romans 13:11 (NKJV) And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
v. That’s what needs to happen for some of us we need to wake up & realise where we are & what’s going on.
b. Secondly you need to get in the right gear.
i. The problem w/ the one talent man in our text is that he was in the wrong gear – what gear was that? Lazy gear!
Vs 26. ‘You wicked and lazy servant,.......
ii. The problem w/ many men is a simple one – they’re bone lazy!
iii. Most often the reason why men don’t get things done is not b/c of lack of u/s / ability / strength – but b/c they’re just too lazy.
Proverbs 20:4 (NKJV) The lazy man will not plow because of winter; He will beg during harvest and have nothing.
iv. The challenges God gives us to face in life are not too ...... we’re just too lazy.
*** Interesting phenomena that is occurring in this generation – the rise of the D.I.Y. house wife. I don’t think that it’s really that these women just love using the tools but that they are married to men that are committed sloths!
c. Stop making excuses & start facing challenges.
i. We’ve b/co a generation of excuse makers.
ii. The first thing we want to do when we’re faced w/ a serious challenge to grow & develop is to think about an excuse as to why we can’t.
iii. If I had ..... or didn’t have ...... if I could be .....etc.
iv. What about allowing y/s to be confronted by the truth???
v. If people keep offering you advice ...... if the same criticisms keep flowing through to your life it’s reasonable indicator you have a problem to deal w/.
vi. We are making a serious move towards b/co profitable servants when we stop making excuses & start tackling our probs.
Conclusion: Don't let the story of your life be the tragedy of a profitless life!
