September 23, 2012
Matthew 25:14-30
For the past 4-5 weeks, we’ve been talking about what it means to be a servant, to be what Christians like to say ~ to be a good steward with what God has given us. So, what does that mean to be a good steward?
Some definitions are ~ 1) a person who looks after the passengers on a ship or aircraft. 2) a person responsible for supplies of food to a college, club, etc. 3) an official who supervises arrangements at a large public event. 4) a person employed to manage a large house or estate.
None of those definitions work, but they get us into the ballpark with what they imply. In practical terms, a steward is someone who carefully and responsibly cares for what they’ve been entrusted to care for. That’s my definition and I think that gets us moving in the right direction.
You see, we’ve been given this amazing gift of life, hope, grace and power through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. But what are we doing with that gift? Have we opened it? Have we put it into practice? Or is that gift just sitting there, still all wrapped up looking really nice, but we don’t open it and use it.
Sometimes, I have to admit, I can be like that. When I get something new, I don’t always use it. I want some of those new things to stay new, not to get dirty and messed up. You know what I mean. I have some shoes that I haven’t worn, because in part, I don’t want them to get messed up, so I use up my old ones first, then I buy new shoes, and go through that cycle again.
Hopefully the shoes still fit my feet. We do that with clothes, personal belongings, appliances and we even do that with churches.
We don’t want anyone to mess up the rooms we have. We want to keep them clean and neat and orderly. Of course, we want our facilities, our homes, our businesses to look great, and we have the expectation that when someone uses something, they clean it up and leave it clean and neat. Yet, sometimes, we have that same attitude, don’t use it, that way you don’t mess it up, but that leaves us with that unopened gift. So, what do you do with what God has given to you? Our gifts and talents.
Sometimes and more than we may realize, God is calling us to take risks with the gifts and talents He has entrusted us with, but we don’t want to be viewed as failures if we don’t succeed, so we give up; and never use, nor experience the power and joy God had for us. Remember . . . failure is not trying. If you try, you will not fail. You may not success may not be as great as you would have liked, but you still didn’t fail.
I want to read you a parable from Jesus, from Matthew 25. This entire chapter is about the coming kingdom and judgement. In this chapter, Jesus told 3 stories and each one has positive and negative outcomes. He allows the listener to determine which outcome they will meet. I’ll do the same. One of the things about Jesus is that He didn’t mince His words. He didn’t sugar coat the beauty and the sorrow of embracing a relationship or not embracing a relationship with Him. He also didn’t sugar coat what it meant to choose to serve Him or not to serve Him. So, with that in mind, let’s look at what Jesus said, in what is called the Parable of Talents.
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.
15 To one he gave 5 talents of money, to another 2 talents, and to another 1 talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more.
18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the 10 talents.
29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
The moral of the story is pretty obvious. When God gives us something to care for, such as our gifts and talents, we need to use them; otherwise we end up losing. We always seem to look at the end result. That’s normal. We look at the final scores of games to determine the winners; we look at the way someone looks, not at what they are really made of on the inside.
For example, look at this picture . . . it looks like a bunch of wires connected to an electrical box. And another picture of just a bunch of wires. That’s the background, those are the guts of what you’re about to see. But these wires are what makes everything possible.
It’s like the Holy Spirit. Because when you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and lives within us. The Holy Spirit is like that electrical connection.
Then we have to connect the Holy Spirit to something, and that something is you and I. When you accept Jesus, you not only get Jesus, but you also get the Holy Spirit. You will never move through life without the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives you the Spiritual gifts and talents from God that we can use in life. So, all of this crazy wiring is kind of like the Holy Spirit coming into your life, giving you His power.
These yellow tubes represent us. The Spirit comes into our lives and wants to give us the power to live our lives with super, great abundance. But we must connect to the Holy Spirit.
And when we do, we get an explosion. We get this great power, courage, grace, love, mercy, strength, gifts and talents from God. We don’t see most of this. This is all that behind the scenes stuff, but the end result is a great display to the world of who we are in Christ.
It’s the fireworks! That’s what others hopefully see. They don’t see the hard work that it takes to grow and mature into the Christ follower we’re called to be. You see, we need to be people who are using our gifts and talents.
It’s a gift God has given to us. If we don’t open the package, we’ll never know what’s inside . . . and if we open the package, but never use it, then what God is the gift. The call from God is to open His gift to us, to examine it, to embrace it, to use it for all it’s worth, because Jesus tells us, when we use our gifts, we get more, we get rewarded. It’s those who don’t know their gifts, who don’t use their gifts, who end up terribly unhappy.
So, friends, we’ve been entrusted with amazing gifts from God. It’s time to take inventory. Inventory is never fun, but we’re called to take a good, hard look at who we are so that we can learn what gifts we’ve been given so we can apply God’s gifts in our lives.
Most of the time we don’t know what our gifts are, so I ask others, what are the good qualitites they see in you . . .
What talents (not necessarily talents) but what do they believe you have to offer the world. How has God gifted you.
You can take a Spiritual Gift inventory. You answer questions on a form, and you learn more about yourself from the way you answered the questions. It takes work, but when you open the gift and use it, you’ll be so thrilled you took action. Remember, faith is about action. It’s not sitting around and waiting for others to do what you can and should do.
We are called to be good stewards, to be faithful with what God has entrusted to us. Will we do this?
Let me close with this . . . it is called . . . I WILL DO MORE
I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And what I can do, I ought to do.
And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.
I will do more than belong … I will participate.
I will do more than care … I will help.
I will do more than believe … I will practice.
I will do more than be fair … I will be kind.
I will do more than dream … I will work.
I will do more than teach … I will inspire.
I will do more than earn … I will enrich.
I will do more than give … I will serve.
I will do more than live … I will grow.
I will do more than talk … I will act.
I will be more than good … I will be good for something.
