Weight of Small Things
Matthew 25:14-30
Text Read- Opening comments, prayer
Story - Promisekeeper progression- Faithful with a small thing- Would have missed out on next-level experiences if I had passed up on the small things- Those things that didn’t seem important- Even insignificant-
Since that event- These words of Jesus, Jacinta read have echoed inside of me- “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful with a few things, come and share your Master’s happiness-
Most of us- Focus on the celebration part of the statement- “well done good and faithful servant”- we find inspiration and motivation in these words- heard them all my life- want to hear those words said over us-
That statement is what we hear at the end- That’s what we are striving for- To finish strong and complete our task- we want greater opportunity, greater responsibility, greater productivity- that’s the final outcome but it’s the words that follow that unlock the process - how do we finish strong and complete our tasks, how do we realize greater opportunity and greater responsibility, how do we become more productive-
This story and a parallel story in Luke gives us this answer and I want us to spend just a few short minutes unpacking it and see what God will speak to our hearts-
We are all searching for great things and greater satisfaction and greater success but we find here Jesus’s answer that says- The great things that we long for and search for are found among the small things we may ignore or even discard- The journey that ends up in success and fulfillment begins in faithfulness-
Look at the final statement that Jesus makes in this story- “Everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance”-- Isn’t that what we want- Abundance, more than enough- I talked to someone last week that said- “I’m just tired of just getting by, I want to have some left over, I want to have more than just enough- We want the ‘good life” and that’s not an unrealistic expectation because Jesus said that we could have that good life- The Greek Word is Eudainomia- “ I came that you might have life and that life to it’s fullest-
This is what we learn from this story that Jesus tells- God entrusts us with His resources and then holds us accountable for what we do with them—
Break it on down- Most of you have heard the story but maybe a few haven’t so let me make it real for you-
The boss is going out of town on a long trip and he calls his servants in and says I’m going away but before I’m gonna’ give you all some money that I want you to take care of it for me-
He gives the first servant five talents, the second one two and the last servant one- Now how much is a talent worth- How much cash did he actually leave them with- A talent is worth between 5000-6000 denari- A denari was a days wage so that would make a talent worth about 15 years wages- Now I read on the internet this week that the average American salary is just over $20,000 a year-
Means- Gave the first servant- 1.5 million dollars , he gave the second servant 600,000 and the third servant 300,000- That’s a lot of bank- That’s a lot of benjamins- A lot of cash money
Here’s what jumps out at me 1. These are servants- They don’t even make a salary and he gives them a total of 2.5 million dollars—
2. He doesn’t give them any idea of how to manage the money—Doesn’t give them Dave Ramseys phone number- Doesn’t make them go through Financial Peace University- Just dumps the cash and splits—
3. He doesn’t give the money out equally- Total of 8 talents shouldn’t he have give each one 2.7 talents- But he didn’t - “gave to each one according to his own ability”- Didn’t give them more than they were capable of managing well- each one was positioned to succeed—
The first two servants double the money they were given
First servant ends up with 3 million- Second- 1.2 million
When the master comes back—He makes the famous statement- Well done- You did a good job—
There are two rewards for you 1. I’m gonna’ give you a whole lot more than I gave you the first time 2. You get to share in my happiness—you get to start living the kind of life that I live
Over the first two he says “well done”-
Notice two things…
1. The two faithful servants are not measured in comparison too each other—they are measured by their own God-given capacity
The master gives them a test- it’s obvious that he wants to give them more opportunity and more privilege but he needed to test them to see what level or responsibility they could be entrusted with—
2. The parable assumes that people are not the same- The US Constitution says that all people are created equal and that’s right- but all of us are not created the same—people have different capacities- don’t know why it’s that way- it’s true
Some people when they draw or paint- they make things that will take your breath away-- not me
Some people can look at a mathamatecial equation and solve it easily- not me-
Some people can hang a shelf on the wall and when the’re done it’s straight—and you can put stuff on it-- not me- Jacinta/Logo-Painted- You’re gonna paint the logo- I don’t have that capacity—
It’s not very difficult to see that we are not the same—some people seem to have gotten overloaded when God was handing out talents- some of us might think that we don’t fall into this category- I want to assure you of this tonight- there is divine talent within each and every one of us— just waiting to be unleashed, -- and that unleashing is based on our faithfulness with what we are entrusted with
Look what the master says in verse 21 and 23- because you’ve been faithful and trustworthy in a very small matter- that’s what he calls 1.5 million dollars- because you have been faithful with a few things--
The bottom line is that small stuff matters- there is great weight in small things-- its’ hard for us to see it but the great things of God come out of small acts of faithfulness-- the master starts out putting them in charge of some money and ends up by giving them charge of cities-- people are more important than things, so when he found out they could be entrusted with things he gave them charge over people-- how they served exposed how they would lead—
What kind of people have the kind of wisdom necessary to lead a city- the ones who can be trusted with the smallest of matters—
We get two different words here that paints the picture of what kind of people God wants us to be- faithful and trustworthy-- when we are faithful we are trustworthy-
But what about that third servant- he did nothing with what was entrusted to him- he had a improper view of his master- he thought his master was a hard man, that he was a thief that took stuff that didn’t belong to him- he was paralyzed by fear and he hid his 300,000 in the ground- he didn’t steal the money and as soon as the master came back he returned it- the master says you are wicked and lazy—
Now lazy makes sense- he could have done something with the money- he could have at least put it in Union Planters personal savings account- pay you .05%-- at least buy a lottery ticket and support Tennessee educations right- come on man!-- he was lazy
But the master doesn’t just call him lazy- he calls him wicked—
That’s harsh- wicked is a word we reserve for really bad people- he’s definetly laze and unindustrious and passive and fearful- but he didn’t use the money to hire an assassin- he didn’t use the money to hire a prostitute- he didn’t steal the money and make a million for himself and keep the money- that would have been wicked - he didn’t do any of that--
Evidently God views things differently than we do- the master said he was wicked when “what he could have done was measured against what he did”-- I want you to know that’s now how we measure things
If we see someone not living up to their potential, we might think it’s a tragedy but we would never call it wicked-- and that is because in today’s church righteosness and even holiness has become all about the elimination of sin-- it’s all about stopping doing the things we aren’t supposed to do-- really in our view the servant didn’t do anything wrong- he just didn’t do anything—
Don’t have much time for this so I will say it and move along- this third servant gives us a view at legalism at it’s best- there is a difference between the fear of God and being afraid of God- The fear of God sets us free to live- being afraid of God reduces us to existing-- the servants view of God led him to lose his potential and the pleasure of the master
We’ve always said it and it’s still true- God does not see just who we are he sees who we can become- and we find from this story that when we don’t do what it is within our capacity to do, God sees it as wickedness-
How would our church change if we stopped measuring ourselves by how little sin we were doing and started measuring ourselves by the good that was being accomplished—
When we live a life beneath our divine capacity we dishonor God—
I am going to close by talking about unleashing divine potential—
You and I were created for more than just existing- we are meant for more than just getting by and mediocrity- now within the church mediocrity has become the norm. and most of the time we don’t expect any more than that for our lives- listen to me now- God will not stand for it- it is wickedness in his sight- he did not create us to be average, he created us to be unique-
We have dreams for a better life or for becoming better people, but most of the time our dreams are pretty puny- I want to win the PowerBall and spend the rest of my life fishing- Only God knows the person you were intended to become- only he sees us based on our full capacity-
I read recently that “Sin is what happens when we have to much time on our hands and too little purpose in our lives”-- the reason many of us live such frustrated Christian lives is that our primary concern is getting rid of sin, eliminating sin from our lives- listen to me, Jesus was never concerned with sinning or not sinning- he was concerned with life and death- when you start living life the way he intended sin is not a major issue any more- when you begin to live- I mean really live- the abundant life, life to it’s fullest, good life, kind of living, you become free from sin—
This is why when new Christians come into our body we don’t need to spend our time trying to get them to stop sinning- we need to spend our time helping them to start living- when they start living the stopping sinning will take care of itself-
How do we start living that kind of live- by faithfulness to the gifts that God has placed in our hands- it doesn’t matter if you are a one or a five or a ten talent servant, none of us are empty-handed--
I have been having a lot of meetings with people to involve them with ministry within the church- I ask people what their gifts are and a couple of times I have heard…”I don’t have any talent, I’m just a hard worker-- At first that sounds real nice and humble but it’s also incorrect- To say you don’t have any talent is to contradict God- we’ve all been given talents and on top of those things God pours His gifts into us- when we begin stewarding those gifts and become faithful stewards we begin to unleash our divine potential- divine potential is potential that is realized—divine potential is potential that is productive—
There is difference between potential and productivity- I have been hearing my whole life how much potential I have- somewhere along the way I realized that I don’t want to be a person of potential, I want to be a person of productivity- that’s divine potential- Erwin McManus writes
If you’re under 25 and someone says ‘you have so much potential”- consider it a compliment--- Potential, your untapped or unlocked capacity, the hint of greatness not yet developed- and then you’re thirty and you still have all this potential—Pressing forty and your’re still full of potential. If you’re forty five and someone looks at you and says “You have so much potential, pause, excuse yourself, step into a closet and have a good cry. What once was a statement of promise is now an assessment of lost opportunity. There is a point where you’re not supposed to be full of potential, you’re supposed to be full of talent, capacity and product. Listen…Potential is a glimpse of what could be , yet there must be a shift from were we have potential to where we are potent..
Don’t die with your potential- Squeeze every bit of it out of your life and do something with it-- I don’t want to be a person of potential I want to be a person of prodcutibity, of divine potential-- we are born with potential but we are called to live prodctive lives-
The fool squanders his potential—he is not faithful with the things that are given to him- This church needs people who will move out of potential into productivity- How?- by becoming concerned with the small things- faithful over the little things, to show that we can be trusted with the great things-
if you want to be trusted personally with thousands and millions of dollars, you have to show yourself faithful with the 5 or 10 in your wallet ---If this church will be entrusted with thousands, we have to be faithful with hundreds—
I want to be called “good and faithful”- but I realize that those words are only spoken over productive servants-- stand with me
