Introduction:
A. The story is told of a man from the east coast who had always dreamed of owning a cattle ranch and had finally saved enough money to buy his dream spread in Wyoming.
1. His best friend flew out to visit and asked, “So, what’s the name of your ranch?”
2. His buddy told him that he and his wife had had a really hard time coming up with a name that they liked.
3. Since he and his wife couldn’t agree on what to call the ranch they settled on this name, “The Double R Lazy L Triple Horseshoe Bar-7 Lucky Diamond Ranch.”
4. His friend was really impressed and then asked, “So where are all the cows?”
5. The new rancher replied, “We had quite a few…but none of them survived the branding!”
B. Sometimes when it comes to faithfully serving God, we make it far more complicated than it has to be.
1. It’s possible to get so caught up in trying to identify our gifts that we never get around to using them.
2. As we will see in today’s lesson, when it comes to serving God, it is far better to do something, than to do nothing.
C. As we have been saying in this series, God is faithful and we can trust in Him and His promises.
2. Because God is faithful, he calls us to be faithful.
3. Last week we discussed our need to be faithful in attendance and I encouraged us all to make a couple of commitments.
a. First, a commitment to be present when the church gathers.
b. Second, a commitment to contact those who are missing from our gatherings.
4. May God bless us as we keep those commitments.
D. Today I want us to work toward being more faithful in service.
1. I’ve chosen for our text what is commonly referred to as the Parable of the Talents.
2. Before we jump into the text, let’s set the context.
3. This parable comes in the section of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus is giving an answer to the disciples’ question about His Second Coming in Matthew 24:3: “…When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4. Jesus warns them to be on guard so that no one will deceive them and he helps them understand that once He leaves, He will come again.
5. He challenges them in Matthew 24:44 to be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when He is least expected.
6. In chapter 25, Jesus compares His coming to the eastern custom of a bridegroom arriving in the middle of the night. (from the Parable of 10 virgins)
7. He concludes by saying in 25:13: “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
8. Chapter 25 ends with parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats in an end of time judgment scene.
9. Sandwiched in-between is the parable of the talents.
I. The Parable
A. I’m sure what we have here is a scenario that was common in Jesus’ day.
1. Wealthy individuals often had numerous servants, and wealthy individuals often took extended trips.
2. Given the uncertainties of transportation in those days, the time of return for even a well-planned trip was often open-ended.
3. And so, before the man left on this trip, he called together three of his servants and entrusted them with some of his wealth.
B. Jesus used the term “talent” as he talked about how much was entrusted to each of them.
1. A denari was a day’s wage which was worth about 18 cents.
2. A talent was the equivalent of 6000 denari. (6000 day’s wages)
3. And so a talent was worth about $1100, which was a huge sum of money in those days.
4. Today, a person making $20,000 dollars a year, makes about $75 dollars a day.
5. So, 6000 day’s wages, or one talent, in today’s money would be about $500,000.
6. The first servant was given 5 talents or $2.5 Million.
7. The second servant was given 2 talents or $1 Million.
8. And the third servant was given only 1 talent or only $½ Million ($500,000).
C. Aren’t you amazed by all this?
1. Keep in mind that these folks are servants. They likely don’t even draw a salary and don’t have much if any money of their own.
2. I’m also amazed that the master doesn’t give them any instructions about how to manage or protect the money.
3. If all that isn’t alarming enough, the master doesn’t distribute the money equally.
4. Fairness says that he should have distributed the 8 talents by giving each of them 2.66 talents.
5. But the master didn’t do it that way. Jesus says they were distributed according to their ability.
6. We will come back to that point in a few minutes.
D. In the master’s absence, the first two servants went to work immediately and doubled what had been entrusted to them.
1. In contrast the servant with only one talent, took it and hid it in the ground.
2. In those days, digging a whole and burying treasures was a safe way to protect them as long as you remembered where you buried them, and made sure that no one else found out about it.
E. After a period of time, which appears to have been a long period, the master returned and settled accounts with the three servants.
1. The master was very pleased by the actions of the first two, who had doubled his wealth entrusted to them.
2. But the master was not pleased with the actions of the one talent man who had hidden the talent in the ground.
3. So, the master rewarded the first two servants, but had the third servant punished.
II. The Point
A. So, what’s the point? Let’s gather some lessons that we can apply to being faithful in service.
B. First, It will help us to keep in mind that what we have is not ours.
1. There was no doubt in the minds of these servants that the property and money still belonged to the master, even though it had been entrusted to them.
2. They were the possessors, but not the owners.
3. Their job was to manage what they were given.
4. Likewise, we must remember that everything we have has been given to us and is not really ours anyway.
5. Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
6. Haggai 2:8 adds, “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the LORD Almighty.”
7. God has the rights, and we have the responsibility. He is the Master and we are the managers.
8. He is the sovereign, and we are just the servants.
9. How much have you allowed this basic principle to permeate your thinking and life?
10. You and I don’t really own anything. Everything belongs to the Lord.
11. Until we recognize this truth, we will not be the best managers of what has been entrusted to us.
12. Our days are in His hands. Our gifts and abilities are on loan from Him.
13. Our houses, cars, clothes, and all our possessions don’t really belong to us; they have simply been entrusted to us.
14. Being faithful in service means using all that God has entrusted to us to his glory.
15. We must not selfishly hoard or in any way bury these things.
16. Here at Wetzel Road we have many excellent examples of people who really get this point. They are hospitable, generous and willing to share.
C. A second lesson we learn is that we are only given what we can handle.
1. We notice from the parable that Jesus didn’t give each of the servants the same amount of talent.
2. If the master had given 1 talent to the 5 talent man, then it would not have been good use of his abilities.
3. If He had given 5 talents to the 1 talent man, then he would have overwhelmed him and set him up for failure.
4. But because the master knew his servants, he gave each one what he knew that one could handle.
5. Our opportunities and responsibilities are tied to our abilities.
6. Probably very few of us are privileged to be five talent servants of the Lord.
7. A larger number of us may be two talent servants.
8. But the servant with the one talent more likely describes the vast majority of us.
9. We must be careful never to bemoan the smallness of God’s gifts to us.
10. One of the true arts of life is to accept the limitations God gives us and to not struggle against them or grumble about them.
11. No matter who we are or what we have, there are always those who have more or less.
12. Ultimately, the issue is not how much we have, but how well we use what we have.
13. If we will serve the Lord faithfully with whatever little or much he has given us, then honor and reward will be ours.
D. A third lesson we learn is that we must invest or put into use the things we have been given.
1. The first two servants quickly got to work investing the talents the master had given them, and both of them were successful.
2. The third servant was immobilized by fear, and did nothing with his talent.
3. Fear has a way of keeping us from trying a lot of things in life (Roller coasters, new jobs).
4. Even though the Bible says that we should have a healthy fear of the Lord, that respect of God should not cause us to fear putting the talents he has given us into action.
5. Let’s ask a hypothetical question: What do you think would have happened if the 1 talent man had invested his talent and lost it (What if he had bought Enron stock?)?
6. How would the master’s reaction to him have been different? Would he have praised him?
7. Do you think the master would have given him another talent and another opportunity? I think so.
8. The master was angry because the servant had not made any effort at all.
9. We don’t and won’t lose our talents by investing them. We will only lose them by burying them.
10. When we use our talents for the glory of God, He will always honor the investment.
E. The final lesson I want us to notice today is that there will be a day of accountability.
1. None of us want to be audited by the IRS, but we will all be audited by the Almighty.
2. Someday we will have to give an account for how we’ve used what we have been given.
3. In the parable Jesus told, there was quite a reckoning when the master returned.
4. The first and second servants proudly related their success in trading, and gave their master back his own with double interest.
5. Both of them were rewarded in exactly the same way: “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” (Matt 25:21-23).
6. These two servants were not alike in the talents received, but were alike in obedience, diligence and faithfulness, and so received a like reward.
7. In contrast, what a solemn judgment fell upon the servant who buried his talent.
8. At the judgment seat of Christ many will be commended, but others will be condemned.
9. Unfortunately, wickedness, laziness and fear will partner together and keep some people from full surrender and service to God.
10. God will not be pleased with them.
11. But many others will hear the wonderful words that we are all hoping to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant…come and share in your master’s happiness.”
Conclusion:
A. I want to assure each of us here today that there is divine talent and giftedness in each and every one of us.
1. Our talents are just waiting to be employed and unleashed.
2. All that God is looking for from us is the faithful engagement of the things he has entrusted to us.
3. It doesn’t matter if you are a 1 or a 5 or a 10 talent servant, none of us are empty-handed.
4. What does matter is that we get going and get involved in serving in Jesus name.
5. In the long run what God commends and rewards is not genius, brilliancy, perfection or popularity, it is faithfulness.
B. I would like to invite all of us to examine ourselves to see if we are really being faithful to serve the Lord with all that has been entrusted to us.
1. I pray that as those who claim to be the servants of the Lord, may we be found serving Him to the limit of our ability and capacity, so that when He returns, His reward will be ours.
2. Lord, teach us to be faithful in service.
