What He Said Abouty Spiritual Trust Series

Series: What He Said

Title: What He Said About Our Spiritual Trust

Text: Luke 19:11-27

Thesis: We have all been entrusted with time and the ability to serve God!

Introduction

Last night I watched two episodes of Father Brown on PBS that I have previously watched. Granted I enjoyed them the first two or three times I watched them and I enjoyed watching them again. I also watched a rerun of Bob Hearts Abashola that was as sweet the second time I saw it as it was the first time I saw it.

I have to confess I waste several hours every week watching television and the pathetic thing about my wastefulness is that much of that time is spent watching reruns… I wonder how many times I have watched MASH 4077 or Seinfeld or the Big Bang Theory or Life Below Zero or Mountain Men.

Then there’s money? Have you ever wondered how much money you would have if you had actually managed your pennies? What if I had actually skipped the breakfast drive-thru? What if I had not ordered that book on Amazon that came next day on Prime that turned out to be a total waste of $9 even if it was free delivery? And do you know how many hammers I have? Over the years I’ve acquired several and it seems I acquired them when I couldn’t find the ones I had and then when I had a new one I eventually found the old ones so now I am money poor and hammer rich. What a waste!

We’ve all heard the time is money thing. What does time is money mean?

The adage “time is money” means that “time is equivalent to money”. It highlights the value of time. Time should be used in doing productive works. A person makes use of his time by working hard to earn money. On the contrary, if the time is wasted, then it is equivalent to losing money. So when we do not use our time well we are not making money so we are essentially losing money.

While I know most of us in the room manage our time pretty well, I suspect some of us waste some here and there or at least on occasion mutter, “That’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back.”

And while I know most of us in the room manage our money pretty well, I suspect some of us waste some money here or there or at least on occasion mutter, “That’s a dollar that could have been better spent else- where.”

It seems Time and Money are the two things Jesus entrusted to the three men in our story today.

Jesus told this same parable in Matthew 25:14-30 but the context was different so the emphasis in Luke takes a bit of a different twist. In Luke Jesus speaks of the man going away as a nobleman who is going away to be crowned king, so he entrusted his business concerns to ten servants to manage until his return as the newly crowned king.

Jesus is obviously looking forward to his own crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and second coming and urging his followers to remain faithful until his return.

“Before he left he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’ Luke 18:13-14

Eventually the newly crowned nobleman/king returned and called his servants in for an accounting.

“After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their profits were.” Luke 19:15

Though he had divided ten pounds of silver between ten servants, Jesus only tells us about his accounting with three of the servants who are apparently representative of the ten. I like to think of the first servant as the “Go-to Guy” Servant.

I. The “Go-To Guy” Servant

“The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount.’

‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’ Luke 19: 16-17

When I read this parable I see that all three of these servants were entrusted with the same amount of silver. All three of the servants were entrusted with the same amount of time to invest that silver. So what was the difference between the three servants?

Why was the first servant able to invest his pound of silver and get a ten-fold return on his investment? Was he lucky? Did he have a better stock broker? Did he bet on better horses? Was he one of those high-risk guys who take big chances and either win big or lose big and just happened to hit it big at the right time? Or was he simply more capable than the other servants?