Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Continuing our series today in Matthew 24 and 25, if you have not been with us the last few weeks, we are taking kind of this micro series within Matthew and we are looking at Jesus's last discourse, what's often called the Olivet discourse. Matthew is structured back and forth between these chunks of narrative and chunks of teaching or discourse kind of goes back and forth. This is the last chunk of teaching or discourse in the book of Matthew before we get to the Passion. And it's one of the weirdest ones. Be all of that discourse is Jesus's own little chunk of end times prophecy. He. He starts this section by prophesying the coming destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, which did happen in 70 AD and that confuses his followers and they ask about it. And it leads into this extended time of teaching about the end times, about what believers can expect. And we've talked about kind of this threefold method that we can use to engage apocalyptic texts in scriptures because they can be really weird, right? Like if you ever do your read the Bible in the year plan and you get to Daniel and there's weird monsters with stone legs and brass shoulders, or you get to Revelation and there's dragons with 17 horns and the horns talk to each other and you what the heck am I reading? Right? Like it's very strange. And then it's also kind of anxiety inducing because you're reading these images that you don't necessarily understand, but something in you is going, this sounds like bad. This sounds like it's going to go bad. Like things are going to be real bad. And then you watch the Left behind movies and Kirk Cameron's there and you go, it is going to be really bad.
[00:01:50] I'm sorry, Kirk, I'm sorry.
[00:01:55] What if Kirk Cameron watches this sermon someday?
[00:01:59] That would be awful. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
[00:02:02] But you get what I'm saying. These texts can be really stressful. And so I think this little interpretive lens helps us engage them in just kind of a more, a more just laid back way. And it's kind of three layers of interpretation. You start by asking, what does this text say about the immediate context in history? And so in Matthew 24:25, Jesus is talking about the coming destruction of the Temple, which happened in 70 AD, right? And then you ask questions about what are some of the eternally true things represented in this text? What are some of the things this text talks about that will always be true in the cursed and broken world until Christ returns? And then you look for those pieces or what images, what metaphors are pointing forward to Christ's return. Kind of a three fold piece. And so as we've been going through this chunk of text, the main thing we've seen is that Jesus is saying, look, I will come back and it will be wild.
[00:03:00] And no one knows when it's going to happen. No one knows, no one knows when I'm coming back.
[00:03:06] So just be ready.
[00:03:09] That seems to be kind of the main point he's getting at. Be ready, do what you need to do to be prepared for my return.
[00:03:18] And then he takes this turn in chapter 25 where it almost seems like knowing how difficult this teaching is and knowing how important his point is, he wants to drive this home with his followers. And so in 25, chapter 25, he switches from kind of a teaching sermon and he closes by giving these three parables. And these three parables almost function as Jesus is like his three application points to the sermon, right? Like he's trying to speak these to his followers in a way that will worm their way into his brain, their brains and stick with them. And so we see these three parables in a row. The parable of the ten bridesmaids, parable of the talents, and the parable of the sheep and goats. Last week we looked at the parable of the bridesmaids and we saw Jesus giving this really, really clear point, right? Like you need to take personal responsibility for your spirituality. That was really what he's driving home with the bridesmaids. You can't rest on someone else. You have to take responsibility for your own faith journey.
[00:04:25] And now in transitioning over to a little more well known chunk, the parable of the talents. If you're a churchy type person, you've probably heard this one preached before, usually right before someone asked you to serve in children's ministry, this was a little more well known.
[00:04:41] But the main point today is really simple.
[00:04:45] Today we're going to consider what it looks like to waste or to make much of the kingdom investment Jesus has made in you.
[00:04:53] And so my main point today is this.
[00:04:55] Make the most of the investment Jesus has made in you.
[00:05:01] Jesus has made an investment in you as his follower.
[00:05:05] So make the most of it.
[00:05:08] Now that can feel like a heavy proposition.
[00:05:12] We talk about the gospel as a gospel of grace, salvation and forgiveness. They're, they're given freely to us as gifts, not based on anything we do. So what am I doing? Saying that Jesus is telling us to have a stake in it, right?
[00:05:27] Like, where is the freebie? Where is the gift in that. And that's a really good question. I also think that is an anxiety introducing question.
[00:05:36] Texts like this cause us. Or maybe it's better to say texts like this cause me to kind of spiral with some doubts.
[00:05:45] Wait, I've got to have a stake in this thing.
[00:05:47] What if I mess this up? What if the stuff I do is not good enough? What if Jesus is not pleased with the investments I make? What if it doesn't work? If you have ever felt that sort of fear in your practice of faith.
[00:06:03] What if I don't add up?
[00:06:05] We're gonna meet with Jesus.
[00:06:07] I believe God has a word of peace and hope for you today.
[00:06:11] Really believe that this text is a challenge and I don't want to dull that challenge fast. But I believe God has a word of hope and a word of peace for us who maybe live more on the fear and anxious side of our faith. Pray with me and we're gonna jump into this. Jesus, we need you this morning.
[00:06:28] We need you to be our discipler. We need you to be our teacher. We need you to be our comforter. But Lord, we also need you to be the one who challenges us.
[00:06:35] God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts today what we need to hear.
[00:06:41] Challenge us, grow us, encourage us, remind us. Let us leave here today drenched in your spirit, drenched in your encouragement, but challenged to walk afresh and walk in.
[00:06:51] We love you, Lord. We pray these things in your name.
[00:06:54] Amen.
[00:06:55] So Matthew 25 is where we're at today. If you want to go ahead and turn there. If you don't have a Bible with you today, we have house Bibles around the room. You can look underneath the chairs in front of you. They are around. We really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. If you don't own a physical copy of God's Word, please take one of those home or talk to one of the pastors. We will get you a nicer one. We believe that is important. Matthew, chapter 25.
[00:07:19] We're starting in verse 14 and we read this for it is just like a man about to go on a journey. He called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one, he gave five talents, to another two talents and to another one talent, depending on each one's ability. Then he went on a journey immediately. The one who had received five talents went and put them to work and earned five. Five more. In the same way, the man who with two earns two more. But the man who had received one talent Went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Let's stop there for a second.
[00:08:01] Jesus's opening here is really quick, and it's a reminder that we're stepping into a thought midway, a thought that's already in progress, right? Like, Jesus delivered these three parables of Matthew 25 back to back to back. You can imagine the scene of this. I think it's actually helpful to put this in your head. They've been hanging out in the temple complex for days on end, and now they leaving. They've left Jerusalem. They're hanging out on the Mount of Olives, really close to the exact place that in a couple of days, Jesus is going to be betrayed by Judas, right? Like that space in the garden. They're hanging out there, just sitting in the shade of the trees, and Jesus is talking and they're taking this in. But it's a weird teaching. It's a difficult teaching. Jesus has just told them the temple, Herod's Temple, the monolith of Jerusalem, Herod's temple will be destroyed.
[00:08:57] And they're sitting in a place where that building is dominating probably a good third of their entire field of view, right?
[00:09:04] It's a weird thing they're trying to take in. And so Jesus tells them these three parables back to back to back. And when he opens this chunk of text by saying. For it is just like, imagine him saying, okay, okay. So point two, right? Like, this is him going, here's point one. All right, cool. Now point two, he's moving directly into this building off of what he just said in the parable of the bridesmaids. So what is the story Jesus sets up for us here? Well, basically, it goes like this. A man goes on a journey. Apparently he knows he'll be gone for a while, and so he takes some of his servants and entrusts them with some treasure.
[00:09:45] Now, this isn't inherently all that strange of a thing to do. The story implies that this man is a wealthy businessman. And we can see that implication because first off, he has multiple servants.
[00:09:58] And second off, the amounts of money that he entrusts to these servants is measured in talents. Now, I feel like sometimes there are certain, like, Bible words that. That we just kind of mentally translate and move on and don't really think about them. But it's important to remember talent is not a unit of measurement for money, like dollars.
[00:10:17] Talents is a measurement of weight.
[00:10:20] Weight. And in the context of money, in the first century, it usually meant silver Denaris silver coins.
[00:10:27] This dude is giving them so much money, he doesn't bother to count it. He weighs it.
[00:10:32] That's a lot of money.
[00:10:35] A ludicrous amount of money. And he divvies it up amongst these servants based on how he thinks they'll do.
[00:10:43] So he gives one guy five, he gives one guy two, and he gives one guy one. It seems like the master in this story is doing this all on purpose.
[00:10:54] This is the sort of thing a wealthy businessman might reasonably do for specific servants or stewards that he wants to test or develop. Right. He's leaving treasure with them specifically to see what they'll do with it. He's investing in these men in the hopes that they can grow in their ability to be a part of his household or his business.
[00:11:16] The text tells us that as soon as he leaves, the three men react immediately. The first two men put the money to work. We have no idea what that specifically means. We're meant to assume it's some sort of investment buying or selling or grabbing a hold of businessmen, investing in their trade routes. Whatever it is, we don't know because it's not really important. Important to the story. What's important is they immediately go out, they do the work, they invest the money and they double it.
[00:11:45] Five talents to ten, two talents to four. They do the hard work, the money doubles. The third servant, however, takes the money and buries it underground. Now, we've actually talked about this before with one of Jesus's other parables, the parable of the buried treasure, if you were here back in Matthew 13.
[00:12:04] But this practice was not unheard of in Jesus day, especially in times of political or social uprest.
[00:12:12] Burying valuables in secret places was a common enough and effective enough practice that Palestine had laws governing it. They had structures in place for what you do and don't do with buried treasure. When it's found, when it's lost, when it's put in place, as all these different things. This was the kind of thing that people would actually do.
[00:12:34] I say that to say the setup of this story would have been recognizable to anyone listening.
[00:12:41] Remember our interpretive lens for Jesus's parables? One of the things that's really helpful is to say what in the story is normal, what is the story is strange. And look for the intersection of the normal and strange. Jesus often puts meaning in his parables at that intersection. But the setup of this story, for the most part, it's just really normal, really easily understandable. So read on with me and let's see how Jesus begins to inject the strange into this story in verse 19.
[00:13:10] After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with him. The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents and said, master, you gave me five talents. See, I've earned five. Five more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master's joy.
[00:13:36] The man with two talents approached. He said, master, you gave me two talents. See, I have earned two more talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master's joy. Let's stop here for a second, because this scene is repeated and repeated scenes are meant to grab your attention.
[00:14:01] The master returns and settles his accounts with these three servants.
[00:14:06] And in this part, the first two, it's repeated almost word for word. And Jesus establishes a couple aspects of this story that seem to have some purpose, in part because they're very strange.
[00:14:20] See, we are affirmed in our understanding that this whole thing was in fact some sort of test.
[00:14:26] He wanted to see what they would do with his investment. Yes, he wants his treasure to make more treasure. But more than that, he wants to see what these three men would do with the opportunity. It's about testing their metals, seeing if they'll grow, if they'll rise to the occasion. We know that it's the case because Jesus reiterates here that this businessman is fabulously wealthy.
[00:14:53] The idea that five or two talents is a small thing to him, that's nuts that they've been faithful over small things. It shows us that this master doesn't really need the profit from this investment because that's not really what he was looking for. You see, these servants were investing their master's treasure, but really he was investing in them.
[00:15:20] It's part of what's going on here.
[00:15:22] And then we get this weird.
[00:15:24] We get this weird injected into the story. Look at this phrase the master uses.
[00:15:30] Share your master's joy.
[00:15:33] This is one of those phrases that is just Bible y enough that we can kind of auto translate it in our mind to move on. Just assume it means something like good job.
[00:15:44] But there's actually a little more loaded into this.
[00:15:49] The master here is letting these servants know that his prophet is their prophet.
[00:15:54] They get to be a part of that. Their sharing in his joy is not only the advancement or their advancement of his organization. But the master is implying that there's some Type of profit sharing. Here they are to enjoy the portion of increase that the master is enjoying. That was strange.
[00:16:16] Strange?
[00:16:17] That's not at all what businessmen would do in this day. Good stewards were paid well in salaries. Sometimes they were given special rewards and special occasions.
[00:16:28] But this profit rightly belongs to the master.
[00:16:32] No one would expect a business owner of this sort of wealth to invite his mere servants into the profits of his business.
[00:16:41] Even one's profits they directly helped create. Like that. That just wasn't really a normal thing. Their reward is their salary. Their reward is the honorable role of their success. But this master is radically generous.
[00:16:55] Radically generous. His servants share in his celebration and they share in his wealth.
[00:17:03] That's wild.
[00:17:05] And this really helps set the stage for how this story culminates. Read on with me. Verse 24.
[00:17:12] The man who had received one talent also approached and said, master, I know you. You're a harsh man, reaping where you haven't sown and gathering where you haven't scattered seed. So I was afraid and I went off and hid your talent in the ground.
[00:17:28] See, you have what is yours.
[00:17:30] His master replied to him, you evil, lazy servant. If you knew that I reap where I haven't sown and gather where I haven't scattered, then you should have deposited my money with the bankers. And I would have received my money back with interest when I returned.
[00:17:46] So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has who will be given more will have more than enough. But for the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And throw this good for nothing servant into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[00:18:06] Okay? Wow.
[00:18:08] Okay.
[00:18:09] I don't know about you. That feels like a harsh escalation of the story. That feels like we went from like 3 to 10 just like that. That was nuts.
[00:18:19] This story gets real hard real fast.
[00:18:22] When the third servant's actions with the treasure come to light, the whole person of this master seems to shift.
[00:18:29] Now, rather than radical generosity and sharing his treasure, he has radical anger.
[00:18:38] He strips the servant of all treasure and casts him away.
[00:18:42] Look at this.
[00:18:44] The third servant returns the treasure to his master unharmed.
[00:18:49] And he explains the reasoning to the master. Look what he says in verse 24. Master, I know you.
[00:18:55] This servant has been around the master long enough that he believes he knows him well.
[00:19:01] And what is his understanding and description of this master?
[00:19:06] You're harsh.
[00:19:08] You're shrewd businessman.
[00:19:11] You're always successful without getting your own hands dirty.
[00:19:14] This is a really specific way of describing the master. And it's kind of a backhanded compliment, right?
[00:19:21] You're obviously very wealthy, you're obviously very successful, but you do it through others.
[00:19:27] You're a genius at this stuff.
[00:19:30] He's saying that his master is really good at business, but he's implying that at least part of how he makes his money is, is by getting other people to do his work. He doesn't scatter, he doesn't sew, but somehow he makes money. And all of this has made the servant afraid of the master.
[00:19:48] He doesn't want to screw this up, he doesn't want to invite the Master's wrath. So he does what seems logical to him to ensure that he doesn't lose any of the Master's money.
[00:20:01] And this, I think, is the hardest part of the whole story.
[00:20:04] It works.
[00:20:06] It works.
[00:20:09] He doesn't risk any potential loss of the Master's treasure, and he preserves the treasure. None is lost.
[00:20:19] And honestly, I think that helps explain why I struggle with this text. It's a hard text for me personally, in my own faith.
[00:20:27] On our previous story with the bridesmaids, the setup by Jesus was a purposeful call upon the ancient Jewish wisdom tradition, right? It was the contrast of the wise and the foolish bridesmaids. It was really kind of getting the listener to zone in on that idea of contrasting wisdom and foolishness. But we don't get that here.
[00:20:48] The contrast in this story seems to be between the risk taker and the cautious, right?
[00:20:56] We're not told by Jesus that the two servants are wise and the third one is foolish. The setup of the story is that they took the money entrusted to them, money that wasn't theirs, right?
[00:21:07] And they risked it in investment.
[00:21:10] The third servant, rather than risk his master's money, preserved it.
[00:21:16] Now, maybe it's because I'm just hardwired to be a little more risk averse myself, right?
[00:21:22] But the setup of this story is hard for me.
[00:21:25] In our previous story, the foolish bridesmaids failed to prepare. They did something dumb, they did something careless, and they suffered the consequences.
[00:21:37] But in this story, one group risks the Master's treasure and one preserved it. I mean, maybe I'm the only one, but that's strange for me. It's difficult for me seeing the harsh response of the Master because that urge to preserve and protect the master's treasure isn't rewarded, it's rebuked and punished.
[00:22:02] Right?
[00:22:03] The Master calls this servant evil and lazy.
[00:22:08] And look for his for a second in his response to the servant.
[00:22:12] If you knew me, you should have at least done something to use the money.
[00:22:19] You could have put it in the bank and earned interest for me. Now this brings out two interesting thoughts that I think really flush out this parable for us a little bit.
[00:22:28] Because the first thing is that you have to remember, banks in the state didn't function like they do now.
[00:22:34] There was no federal bank insurance, right? Deposits in a bank were low risk investments, but they were far from zero risk investment.
[00:22:45] These ancient banks in the near east functioned kind of like how we think of, like investment brokers.
[00:22:51] They would choose investments and loans to make with your money that might not play out in your favor.
[00:22:58] Even this option was not a zero risk solution for the servant. But the Master is showing him. Yeah, but it was low risk and it was easy.
[00:23:07] And you couldn't even do that for me.
[00:23:10] You couldn't bring the Master any returning on his treasure.
[00:23:15] And second, remember that this was the point, not the return, but what he did with it.
[00:23:24] The Master obviously didn't actually need the return on his treasure because A, he left it with servants and called it a small matter, and B, he didn't leave it in the bank because he could have.
[00:23:39] He didn't have to involve them, but he did. He left it with the servants. He wanted to see what they would do with the opportunity and empowerment he gave them. This servant failed that test miserably.
[00:23:54] And the Master's response is immediate and harsh. He takes away the treasure, he gives it to the more successful servant, and this third servant is fired.
[00:24:03] He's cast away from the household. He's thrown outside in the dark.
[00:24:08] This response is so harsh and so intense that it just seems like it's outsized to the offense, right?
[00:24:17] Like it seems way too intense for what actually happened.
[00:24:21] But as is often the case with Jesus's parables, this seemingly strange response from Jesus own character in the parable, right, it's making a theological point for us and it's connected to the thread that ties all three of these parables together.
[00:24:39] There is something about wasting the Master's treasure that isn't just laziness and it isn't just a failure of nerve. There is something about wasting the Master's treasure that is an expression of a lack of relationship.
[00:24:58] See, the servant opened his defense by saying, I know you, but he doesn't really.
[00:25:07] He thinks he knows the Master, but he sees this master as harsh and unfair and shrewd to the point of manipulation.
[00:25:17] He thinks he knows his Master, and this is what drives him to waste the Master's treasure.
[00:25:25] And the Master has none of this. He calls it out, if you really knew me, if you knew me like you claim you do, you would have done something, anything.
[00:25:37] You would have tried.
[00:25:39] But you don't know me, so you didn't.
[00:25:43] So leave.
[00:25:47] That's wild.
[00:25:49] That scene of knowledge, of relationship, of connection, it ties all three of these parables together. And it leaves us unavoidably with the question, beloved, do you know Jesus?
[00:26:02] Do you know him?
[00:26:05] Do you know who he is? Because whether or not you know him will determine how you live your life in this world while we wait for his return.
[00:26:14] Really knowing him will cause you to act in certain ways.
[00:26:19] Really knowing him will cause you to prepare for him in certain ways. And Jesus repeats in these three parables, if you don't know him, then you are rejecting Him.
[00:26:35] You will be on your own when he returns.
[00:26:38] And, beloved, that is not a good place to be.
[00:26:42] There's a wretched place to find yourself most of the time. When this particular text is discussed, it's in the context of the talents God has given you in the modern sense of the word. Right?
[00:26:55] God made you good with numbers, so you should serve on our finance team and listen. That's not an inappropriate application of this text. I have preached this text from that perspective to this room.
[00:27:07] That's the thing. It's fun.
[00:27:09] It's a beautiful understanding of what's going on here.
[00:27:14] You do have talents. You should make the most of them for the kingdom. But I think Jesus is getting at something a little deeper here and a little more fundamental to our understanding of faith that we need to take a minute to experience.
[00:27:27] The Master in our parable invests in these servants and gives them an opportunity to rise above their stations.
[00:27:37] The invitation of the Master is to share in his joy.
[00:27:40] They're being invited to be included in his wealth and in his generosity.
[00:27:46] This is the real character of the Master.
[00:27:50] He is lavishing generous blessing on these servants. He is pouring out his own treasure on them. He's inviting them to join him in the joys of that treasure. They aren't carrying the actual risk.
[00:28:05] It's his treasure that he's lavished on them.
[00:28:08] And when it brings back return, he includes them in the joy and celebration and experience. They don't carry the risk, but they are invited into the rewards.
[00:28:20] Beloved, does this not draw your own heart back to the Gospel itself and your own experience, your own testimony?
[00:28:26] Sin has left us dead and stuck in the curse. But Jesus, in his radical generosity, entered into our mess.
[00:28:34] He lived a perfect life and died a sinner's death and rose from the dead by the power of the Spirit, making a way for you and I to be forgiven, to have our sin washed away, to be raised up with Christ to a perfect eternity. Jesus has given you his great treasure, a wonderful treasure. He gave it to you. It was his, but he has shared it with you. He earned it, but he invests it in you.
[00:29:04] Your life was stuck in the curse apart from Christ. Your life was headed toward death, but God in his grace, intervened for you.
[00:29:14] If you're a believer in this room today, that's your testimony. Amen.
[00:29:20] That is all of our story, that God intervened on our behalf. God gave you the treasure of his amazing gospel work.
[00:29:29] And that investment, says Jesus in our parable, should move you to live differently, should change the way you consider your life, your purpose, your actions, your story.
[00:29:46] You know, this is a real thing. Over 90% of organ transplant recipients self report dramatic change in their outlook on life.
[00:29:58] And as I say that, you're like, well, that seems kind of obvious, but there's truth to that. Because it would be really easy to look at someone and go, well, they had terrible habits and made terrible life decisions and they rotted away this part of their body. And just because they get a replacement doesn't mean they're going to change.
[00:30:15] Turns out that's not actually all that true.
[00:30:18] The vast majority of people who are recipients of organ transplants self report that it dramatically changes their outlook on life and their practice.
[00:30:27] How could they not?
[00:30:29] Your heart or your liver is giving out. Your life has become so much suffering, you can't do anything. You're staring death in the face. You need a second lease on life, the insane gift of another person.
[00:30:43] How could that not change you?
[00:30:45] Research shows it does.
[00:30:48] The majority of transplant recipients have major changes in the way they experience their lives, the way they live their lives, the goals they set for themselves.
[00:30:56] Beloved Jesus has invested this great treasure of his own life and his own work in you.
[00:31:03] He's truly given you a new lease on life.
[00:31:06] He offers to change the course of your forever, not just your here and now, you're forever.
[00:31:16] And if you really know him, if you really experience him, if you really know that truth, that your life had an eternal direction that was not good and Christ intervened and turned it.
[00:31:36] If you know that and experience that, that will change you, you will do something with that investment.
[00:31:46] You can hardly help but do something.
[00:31:49] With an investment in your life that intense, so what does that actually mean? Right, like this is a parable, it's a metaphor.
[00:31:57] What does that actually mean in your life today? How do you make the most of the life Jesus has invested in you? I have. I have a couple thoughts that I think this text draws out for us, that I think will be helpful for us to land out today.
[00:32:10] The first question I would ask for you as you think about your own life and making the most of the investment Christ made with you, is this.
[00:32:16] Do you risk?
[00:32:19] Do you risk with the investment Christ has given you? This is the major theme of our text. Are you willing to take the treasure God has put in your life and put it out there in the world in spite of the risk?
[00:32:32] Paul said it incredibly concisely in 1 Corinthians 15.
[00:32:36] If the gospel isn't true, if Jesus has not risen from the dead, then this whole thing is not just useless. We are to be pitied.
[00:32:45] And there's a reason for that, because Christians are called and commanded to a life of service and love and sacrifice.
[00:32:55] But you must know something.
[00:32:57] This is terrible, but it's true.
[00:33:00] If the gospel is not true, the claims of the gospel are false, then you should not live that way.
[00:33:09] If Jesus has not risen from the dead and the only hope you have in Christ is for this life, and you only have the 70, 80, 90, 100 years that you have, you should not invest them in other people.
[00:33:28] If this is all you have, then you should become a hedonist.
[00:33:32] And you should maximize the pleasure and comfort and meaning that you can squeeze out of these few decades you have, because it's all you have, and you should make the most of it.
[00:33:47] That is the risk you take entrusting your life to Christ.
[00:33:52] To trust your life to Christ is to say, I exist for more than these few decades on earth. In fact, these few decades on earth are nothing compared to what Christ has for me. No suffering I can experience in these 60, 70, 80 years. It's a light and momentary affliction compared to the weight of glory, the eternal weight of glory that Christ has reserved for his own.
[00:34:17] If that is true, often your life should be poured out like a drink offering.
[00:34:23] You should drag yourself over the finish line of death, pouring out every ounce of energy you have to glorify God, to love and serve others, to seek and save the lost.
[00:34:32] Come on, church.
[00:34:34] That is a major difference in how you live your life.
[00:34:39] It is a major difference.
[00:34:41] And it's one that, by the way, if you get it wrong.
[00:34:46] You've wasted your entire one and only life.
[00:34:50] That's a big risk.
[00:34:52] That's a big risk. There is a dreadful risk to a life given over the kingdom.
[00:35:00] To give Jesus your Yes, it means taking the risk of a kingdom life.
[00:35:12] To follow Jesus in this life means hardship.
[00:35:15] It means suffering brothers and sisters.
[00:35:19] It means sacrifice. It means putting others first. It means giving your time. It means radical generosity. It means broken relationships as others judge you and abandon you because of your faith means betting your life on the promise of Jesus eternity for you.
[00:35:38] Now, don't get me wrong.
[00:35:40] It's a safe bet.
[00:35:42] It's the right bet.
[00:35:44] It's the best possible life you can live.
[00:35:47] But you should ask yourself today, beloved, are you hedging your bets?
[00:35:54] Are you trying to live your life in such a way as to follow Jesus mostly, but still trying to get everything you want out of this life here in men.
[00:36:06] Are you hedging your bets, going, I do want that forever. I do want that golden ticket. But also, like, I don't know, I like this life. I want the good stuff. I want comfort.
[00:36:17] I want those things. I want my life here on earth to be happy.
[00:36:22] Do you live your life as though your only source of joy and fulfillment is right here and right now?
[00:36:31] It's an important question.
[00:36:34] We live in a culture in a moment where we can spend a lot of time straddling the fence between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.
[00:36:42] But at some point, at some point, you'll be confronted with the incompatibility of your Jesus in this world.
[00:36:51] You won't be able to live for both.
[00:36:54] You won't be able to put yourself first and Christ first at the same time. It will happen eventually.
[00:37:01] And in that moment you will have to choose.
[00:37:05] Are you willing to risk?
[00:37:08] Are you willing to risk your life for Christ?
[00:37:12] Question number two. Do you work?
[00:37:15] So the wicked servant didn't just avoid risk. The Master called him lazy, claimed he didn't want to lose some of the Master's treasure. But the Master called him out on this. Part of it was that he didn't want to do the work to live your life. For Jesus to take the investment of life or freedom he's made in you and maximize it is hard work.
[00:37:36] It means your life looks different.
[00:37:39] It means considering Jesus and his kingdom in hear this church, all of your major life decisions, all of them.
[00:37:49] It means considering Christ and his kingdom and how you structure your life, who you date, who you marry.
[00:37:56] Beloved, the kingdom speaks into this.
[00:37:59] It's hard to limit your life and to make the hard choice of seeking out a spouse and a partner who will join you in a kingdom life, how you spend your time and your money. It's hard to be a person who radically gives away 10% or more of your income, who sacrifices their time to serve the church, love and serve others.
[00:38:21] Do you go on mission? It's hard to be a person who bears witness, who shares their faith, who prays for lostness in their immediate world, who risks relationships. And they can invite children, grandchildren, co workers, buddies, to know Jesus.
[00:38:37] How you discipline yourself. It's hard to grow in faith, to partner with the Spirit, to actually kill your sin, to actually change your practices and change your disciplines, to actually be a person who reads your Bible, who engages in community, who allows themselves to be discipled, and who gives their time to disciple others.
[00:38:54] I can keep going.
[00:38:56] I think we've made the list hard enough for this context, right?
[00:39:01] See, this is the part of the text where your talents in the modern sense actually do come up.
[00:39:06] God has invested in you.
[00:39:09] He has made you the person you are. He's given you the life and the resources he's given you. Whether that's your skills, whether that's your schedule, whether that's your resources, whatever it is that makes you you, God has given it to you.
[00:39:22] And it's, at the end of the day, hard work to leverage your life and your talents for the kingdom of God.
[00:39:31] It takes time and sacrifice.
[00:39:34] But this parable gives us a striking and important lesson about kingdom investment.
[00:39:43] The reality is this, beloved, there is no preservation of our talents for the kingdom.
[00:39:52] You don't get to put your talents on ice and preserve them.
[00:39:58] When we withhold the work of pouring out our treasure for the sake of the kingdom, we lose it.
[00:40:07] There's no preserving it.
[00:40:09] You lose it.
[00:40:12] The skills you have, the life you have, the structure you have, the relationships you have, God gave them to you so that you can invest them in the kingdom. And if you try and avoid the risk of that and try and preserve them and hide them away, you will find that you have not in fact, preserved them.
[00:40:28] At some point, you will look down on what you buried and realized it's gone.
[00:40:33] It's gone.
[00:40:35] So when you think about your life, your skills, your relationships, all the treasure Christ has invested in you, you must consider that it's a hard truth, but Christ gave it to you for a reason.
[00:40:48] That he might be glorified, that his kingdom might be advanced, that people might come to know Him. There is no facet of your life so small that God didn't choose to give it to you for his glory.
[00:40:58] It's worth considering. It's worth weighing through.
[00:41:03] You guys know any. This is a weird, hard turn, but I think it. I think it makes the point.
[00:41:08] Do you guys know any sneakerheads, people who collect athletic shoes as, like, a hobby? Does anyone know anyone who does this? Yeah, it's a thing. It's a thing. It's a thing. They have conventions.
[00:41:20] It's a thing. There's limited issue shoes. They're expensive. It's a weird hobby. And listen, I'm a guy who has weird hobbies, so I'm not saying that from a place of judgment, okay? But it's a weird one. People wait in line to get up in the middle of the night to go buy shoes, and they come out, they order them online, they build walls in their houses with these airtight cases to preserve them. It's a whole thing.
[00:41:40] But as far as hobbies go, collecting shoes is a really weird one.
[00:41:46] Because when you think about collectibles, most of you guys, when you think about collectibles, it goes like this. You get the collectible, and your first job is to, like, isolate it from the environment, right? It has to be preserved for all time and ever. Cast it in resin, put it in a card sleeve, lock it away, whatever you have to do, you get that thing preserved, right?
[00:42:06] That doesn't work with sneakers.
[00:42:09] There's something about the way sneakers are designed.
[00:42:12] Ironically, if you want your valuable sneakers, your collectible sneakers to last, you actually have to continually wear them.
[00:42:21] If you lock them up and suck the air out of the room and put them in a little airtight box, they crumble into dust. Here's a picture of one that someone left in a box and didn't wear long ago.
[00:42:32] This is a real thing.
[00:42:34] If you have valuable sneakers, you have to actually wear them.
[00:42:38] There's something about the experience of them being worn that preserves them for ludicrously long compared to just putting them in a box.
[00:42:45] In the same way, beloved, if you ignore your treasures and talents, the treasure God has invested in your life, if you ignore it, be it your time, your money, your calendar, a specific skill, you need to know something.
[00:43:00] It will crumble.
[00:43:03] You won't preserve it the way you think you are.
[00:43:06] You must use it for the kingdom.
[00:43:09] Because at the end of the day, the end of the day, Ben, if you want to come back up, this fear that we have, I can't risk it. What if I'm wrong? What if I mess it up. What if it breaks this relationship? What if it's all not true?
[00:43:25] This risk of work seems really hard. I don't think I'm going to rise. I don't think I'm good enough to do it. At the end of the day, this fear of our risk, this fear of our work, it's all based on a lie.
[00:43:39] It's a lie from Satan.
[00:43:42] Because, beloved, there is no real risk in your kingdom investment.
[00:43:49] Talk to any of your brothers and sisters.
[00:43:51] Anyone who's been following Jesus for any period of time has this testimony.
[00:43:56] When you give financially to the kingdom, God provides.
[00:44:00] When you use your talent to serve and need in the church, God brings you life and joy in spite of you being tired out. When you give your time to that person who's lonely and in need, God provides for you relationally.
[00:44:12] Kingdom work is investment. And it is work. Make no mistake. It takes time, it takes resources. It will make your life look different than it would look if you were hedonistically following your own pleasure. Man. It is work that is work worth it.
[00:44:27] It's the most fulfilling life you can live.
[00:44:31] Don't believe the lied.
[00:44:34] The risk and the work are real in a sense.
[00:44:38] But to give Jesus your all in this life is a sure bet and a full life.
[00:44:44] It's what you were actually made for.
[00:44:47] So let me close with this idea as we get ready to take a minute to respond.
[00:44:52] It's the same question I've asked last week and asked earlier today. Do you know Jesus?
[00:44:57] The third servant claimed he knew the Master, but he had him all role.
[00:45:01] He saw him as harsh, he saw him as ruthless. He was scared to mess up and incur the Master's wrath. He didn't know him at all. And so in the end, he couldn't be with him.
[00:45:11] In truth, this Master was joyful, generous, and ready to invite his servants to share in his treasure. Beloved, the same is true for you today.
[00:45:21] Do you know Jesus or do you think you know him?
[00:45:26] Because I'm here to tell you the call for you to risk and to work in this life, to make the most important investment, to make the most of the investment Jesus has made in you. It is not burdensome.
[00:45:38] It will not ruin your life. You will not miss out on a good life because you spent your time pouring out for the kingdom.
[00:45:46] No, beloved, the risk of a life lived for the kingdom of God is no risk at all.
[00:45:53] Both of the faithful servants doubled their money. That's pretty wild, but the reason is theological more than it was practical.
[00:46:01] It's the Master's treasure.
[00:46:03] He brings about the game. He steps into the work and the investment with you. He's the one who does it. Your life live for Jesus. It won't be wasted because you'll get Jesus.
[00:46:13] You'll have him with you pouring out and bringing about fruit from your labor. You'll have him with you, inviting for you to share in his joy and his return. This is the invitation for you today. Beloved Christ will return.
[00:46:27] And when he returns, he'll restore all things. All sin will be destroyed. All wrong will be right. This will happen.
[00:46:35] So what will Jesus find of your life when he returns?
[00:46:40] Do you live like he's coming back? Do you make the most of invest his investment? What do you need to do today to invest the treasure Jesus has put in your life?
[00:46:51] Let's take a minute in prayer. Consider that and then we'll close out our time of communion.
