Note to SermonCentral readers: Please read the message on this text by Brian Bill. It helped to inspire this message. Thanks Bill!
Text: Matthew 25: 14-30
Title: “The Man who lost Everything by doing Nothing”
Introduction:
Most of you are familiar with the story of the master who went on a journey to a far country and left his money with his three servants. One received five talents, one received two talents, and the third received but one talent. The first two servants invested their lord’s money and doubled the earnings. The third servant simply buried the talent and did nothing. This unprofitable servant lost everything by doing nothing!
It is to this third man that I am directing this message. His thinking needed to be changed. He was wrong about seven things:
1. He was wrong about his view of others.
I am speculating here, but I can only imagine that envy and bitterness directed the actions of the unprofitable servant. He certainly would have been aware that the other two servants had received more talents from the master than he had received. Perhaps this left him jealous and angry.
We are not to covet. We ought to thank God for others who have and take on responsibility. “Too whom much is given, much is required!”
People may envy the rich man’s castle, but they do not want to pay the rich man’s taxes!
People may envy the CEO’s income, but they would not want to bear the brunt of the CEO’s daily hassles!
We need to think of those who are in the position of authority as our “umbrellas from the rain.” We are reminded in scripture to “Pray for those who are in authority,” not to envy them.
2. He was wrong in his view of himself.
Perhaps, the unprofitable servant felt insignificant. After all, he had only received only one little talent.
The role of the Devil is to make us feel insignificant. Let me challenge you to read Psalm 139. God knows everything there is to know about you. The question is, why would God take the time to do that? The answer is because you are important to God!
You were important enough to God that he would send his only begotten Son to the cross in order to redeem you! That is a tall price to pay for something insignificant!
3. He was wrong in his view of the gift that God had given to him.
A talent represented a great sum of money. One commentator that I read estimated the value of a single talent in today’s money to be about $300,000!
Instead of being pleased with the money that his lord has given him, the unprofitable servant viewed the money as if it were a curse. It was a hot potato that he needed to rid himself of it as quickly as possible. He buried it.
Isn’t it sad that some Christian think of Christianity only as a Cross that they have to bear? We need to rejoice in the resurrection side of the Cross. We have a living Lord to serve!
In contrast, the other two servants saw the talents given to them as their opportunity to please the master. They were given a chance to excel, and they did!
4. He was wrong in his view of his responsibility.
What ever happened to the word “servant?” We are to serve the Lord. This unprofitable servant buried his lord’s talent, and went on living his life as if the master did not exist.
Where is God in your life? Do you see yourself as a “servant of the Lord?”
Certainly one of the great shames of today’s America is: people lack of integrity! What ever happened to the word “responsibility?”
If the lord in this parable had intended to simply bury the talent, he could have done that himself. There was a reason why the servants were given the talents. The unprofitable servant could not discern what that reason was.
If God wanted only our talents to be buried, he would have left his only begotten Son in the grave! No! “Up from the grave, he arose!” God wants to do more than just to take you to a cross. He wants you to live a resurrected abundant life!
5. He was wrong in his view of God?
On the Day of Judgment, the unprofitable servant said these words, “I knew thee to be a hard man…” The truth is that the unprofitable servant did not know God.
In glad response to the other two industrious servants, the master said, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
I ask you, do those words sound to you like the words of a tyrant?
We serve a God of abundant grace.
6. He was wrong in his view of the Day of Judgment?
The unprofitable servant thought that he would be able to argue with God about why he had buried the talent. Certainly, he thought that God would understand and accept his excuses. After all, he was afraid.
He should have been more afraid of God, than of the fear of investing the talent!
In this text, the Lord saw right through this unprofitable servant. He called him “wicked” and “slothful.”
No one will be able to argue with God on the Day of Judgment. Every mouth will be stopped. No one will be able to argue their way into heaven!
7. He was wrong in his view of eternity?
When you read through the verses of this parable, most of us want to stop at verse twenty nine. In this verse, the lord takes away the talent of the unprofitable servant and gives it to the wise servant who had doubled his lord’s five talents to that of ten.
But that is not the last word on the unprofitable servant. Verse thirty goes on to say, “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Why did this servant go to Hell?
Two reasons: First of all, the unprofitable servant had rejected God’s gift. We are told that the gift of God (Salvation) is given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
To reject Christ is to seal of fate for hell.
Secondly, as mentioned before, the unprofitable servant did not know God. He thought he did, but he did not.
There are many religious people that are sure that they know God. At least, they think they do. It is the god of their imagination, a god that they think that they can argue with on the Day of Judgment, a god who will overlook their wickedness and their slothfulness. They do not know the God of the Bible.
Do you?
Don’t lose everything that you have by doing nothing!
