Responsibility-What God Expects
Luke 19:11-27
INTRODUCTION
A. Show entitled “Millionaire” that was once on.
1. Each week a wealthy man looked for someone to give one million dollars to.
2. Some recipients were wise and frugal and some were foolish and wasteful.
B. Regis’ show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”
1. What would you do with a million dollars if you won?
2. We might imagine that some would pay off debts, quit work, travel, keep working, or give to charity.
C. Aunt Bee on Andy Griffith show winning prizes on a television show.
1. Came back to Mayberry and showed them off to her friends who in turn got jealous.
2. Found out she would have to pay taxes on them.
3. Before Andy could tell her, Aunt Bee decided to sell them to pay the taxes and return things to normal.
D. People who spend money for a chance to win the lottery.
1. My experience at IGA in Graceville, Florida, during my last year in college when there was a large jackpot at stake.
2. People stood in line for hours and kept coming all day long from opening to closing.
3. All of them had some idea of what they would do with that money.
E. How responsible are we with what we have now?
1. Do we pay our debts and on time?
2. Do we charge more than we should on credit cards-more than we can pay off the next month?
3. Do we knowingly write checks when we don’t have funds in the bank to cover them?
4. Do we buy more things than we need?
5. Are we using our money and other resources to meet our family’s needs?
F. God also has expectations for us.
1. He gives us abilities, gifts and talents.
2. He expects us to be responsible with what he entrusts to us, and Jesus’ parable speaks to this matter.
3. How responsible am I in my Bible reading, prayer life, witnessing, serving, faithfulness in church attendance, supporting the activities of the church?
4. If my example was the example other Christians looked at, how responsible would they be spiritually?
G. Those in the parable faced the same question.
1. Their master was going on a long journey where he would be crowned king and then he was to return.
2. Before leaving, he entrusts ten pounds of silver to ten of his servants for them to invest while he was gone.
3. When he returns and called them to account, he finds that some of them have been responsible and some have not.
GOD EXPECTS US TO BE RESPONSIBLE WITH WHAT HE GIVES
A. Look at the elements of the story.
1. A certain nobleman was called to a distant empire to be crowned king.
2. Before leaving he calls ten of his servants and gives them ten pounds of silver to invest.
3. The nobleman’s people hated him and sent a delegation after him to tell who he was going to be crowned by that they did not want him as a king.
4. After returning, the new king calls in his servants to whom he had given money.
5. The first servant had gained ten times (a 1000% profit) as much as he was given, and the king commended him and gave him ten cities to govern.
6. The second servant gained five times (a 500% profit) as much and was also commended and given five cities to govern.
7. The third servant brought back only the original amount he was given.
8. The king rebuked him for not putting the money in the bank where it would have at least drawn interest.
9. His money was given to the one who had been the most responsible.
10. The others objected: “Yes, the king replied, but to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away.”
B. The elements explained.
1. Jesus’ listeners could relate to the story.
C. Herod the Great ruled until his death in 4 B.C. It was prescribed that the kingdom would be divided into three parts and given to his three sons. Archelaus was given Judea, which included Jerusalem and Jericho.
D. When his father died, he took the rule. Wanting to establish his power and elevate the fear of the people, he slaughtered three thousand Jews at the first Passover. He was not trying to endear himself but rather terrify the people. As a result, the people hated him.
E. The time came for him to go to Rome to receive the official imprimatur of Caesar on his right to rule. The people detested him so greatly that they sent a delegation of representatives following him all the way to Rome. And while he was appealing for Caesar to give him the right to be the king, they were appealing to Caesar saying, "We do not want this man to reign over us."
F. What happens after the king returns.
1. He calls in his servants to see if they have made him any profits.
2. He expected profits, or he would not have told them to invest.
3. The first and second reported major profits while the third did nothing with his.
4. Those who made profits were rewarded while the one who did nothing was punished.
G. The elements explained.
1. Christ is the king who has gone away.
2. He has accomplished the work the Father sent him to do, and we now await the day when he will be crowned Lord of lords and King of kings.
3. When he left, he left gifts and talents for us to use in his kingdom’s work.
4. “Notice that it says, ‘he ascended.’ This means that Christ first came down to the lowly world in which we live. The same one who came down is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that his rule might fill the entire universe. He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers (and the Bible lists more than this). Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:9)
5. We have this responsibility, and one day Christ will return for us to give an account of our responsibility.
H. What are we doing with the responsibility God has given us?
1. We can take it lightly as the third servant did.
2. We can totally neglect the responsibility we have been given.
3. We can be like the ones who invested and do our best.
4. We can do our best, our worst or a mediocre job.
I. What God expects is obvious from his Word, but how we respond can be a different story.
1. God must trust us immensely to give us such responsibility.
2. We determine whether or not his kingdom advances.
3. It’s not that he is not in control, but we are the medium he has chosen to use in advancing his work.
4. He could have given the job to angels or taken it on personally, but he chose us.
J. Parent who gives a child responsibilities.
1. Many of you can remember coming home from school and going straight to the field and to other farm chores.
2. It was expected of you, and you better do it.
3. Our children have chores and things they are expected to do when they get home from school.
4. When they don’t live up to their responsibilities, restriction results.
5. I was known to add chores for not being responsible for doing the chores they have. That always made the obedient one very happy.
BEING RESPONSIBLE IN GOD’S WORK MEANS HAVING COURAGE AND TAKING RISKS
A. The servants had to do this to please and obey their master.
1. The first two were willing but the third wasn’t.
2. The first two took the plunge and reaped a handsome profit, but the third was lazy and afraid he might mess up so he did nothing.
3. The first two were rewarded for their courage and risk taking while the third was rebuked and punished.
B. Does God’s work take courage and involve risk?
1. It takes courage to live out God’s love consistently and to take it to all people.
2. We risk being ridiculed, losing friends and even family members.
3. I once heard a preacher give his testimony of how he almost lost his wife when he got saved. Only by God’s grace was their marriage saved and his wife also.
4. We risk failure, but God always gives second chances.
C. Many take risk in the stock market and in bonds.
1. Most all of us who have retirement funds, which are invested in stocks and bonds, are taking risks.
2. Those who risk money in the stock market over the long haul are not usually disappointed. There will be times of loss, but over the long haul one usually makes money.
3. Many of us are risking the fact that Social Security will still be around when we retire.
D. Life itself is a risk.
1. We risk our lives any time we get in our car, on a bus or plane.
2. We risk our lives by going to the store or to work.
3. If we are willing to take risks in all other areas of life, why not in God’s work too?
GOD EXPECTS US TO GIVE ACCOUNT OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY
A. The servants had to do this.
1. All the servants were called in when the king returned.
2. The faithful were rewarded and the unfaithful was punished.
B. The Bible says we will all one day give an account of our lives to Christ.
1. We too will be rewarded or not rewarded based on our work for him and how responsible we were.
2. Our salvation doesn’t depend on our works, but our rewards do.
C. Parents and their children.
1. We love our children no matter how good or bad they act.
2. Bad actions merit punishment but doesn’t diminish the love.
3. God works the same way.
CONCLUSION
A. God expects us to use faithfully the gifts he gives, he expects us to have courage and take risks, and he expects us to remember we will have to give an account to him.
B. Poem
Lord, you placed me in this world of time and space and missiles hurled,
With eyes I’ve seen the ghetto gloom,
With ears I’ve heard the sonic boom,
And man cry out for breathing room,
I cannot wait, I cannot wait!
Here is my life, I want to live it,
Here is my life, I want to give it serving my fellowman,
Doing the will of God;
Here is my life, here is my life, here is my life.
