Weight Of Small Things

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—