Stewardship Part 3 - Your Time & Talents

[00:00:01] Guys, there are a few things as encouraging for a pastor as being reminded that your teaching sticks with people. You know, Craig didn't know this because we just heat this one around when we were talking about it. But so focus on missions is a ministry is actually pretty dear to me. It's run by a man named Steve Smith, who's a member of a sister church, First Baptist Arnold. And he's been running that ministry for, I think, coming up on 30 years. And it actually started as an international missions ministry to Matamoros, Mexico. So Steve built some friendship and some partnership very similar to our relationship with some churches in Colombia. He built some friendship with a couple pastors and missionaries in Matamoros, and he would mobilize these trips of high school kids and college kids and church folk to go partner with these local churches. And so, actually, Kurt and me got to go and do that trip a whole bunch of times back in the day at a different church. And at some point in this journey, I'm sharing this to give you guys a testimony of why partnership, why brotherhood and sisterhood in the church for the kingdom matters. At some point in this journey, another sister church in Lenexa, Kansas, got a wind of this ministry, and they paid for and donated a mobile eyeglasses clinic to focus on missions that they could drive in a trailer down to Matamoros, Mexico, and give people glasses. And so they would do all these eyeglasses drives all around St. Louis, and that exploded into becoming one of their primary methods of getting to preach the gospel in Mexico. And then there was another brother in Christ who ran a prison ministry here in Missouri who heard about these trips going down to Matamoros to give eyeglasses to impoverished people living in Mexico and said, hey, could we borrow your eyeglasses trailer to give eyeglasses to men in prison? And he said, I don't see why not. And so they went and they drove this same trailer down to Tennessee and spent a few days in a men's prison down there. And then that exploded into such a need that all of a sudden, Steve said, hey, I don't have enough time. This thing has to be in Mexico, and it's got to be in Tennessee and all this different stuff. And so the church in Kansas said, well, how about we just buy you two more? And so they bought him two more mobile eyeglasses clinics, and the new ones they bought were actually nicer than the original one, so that he parked the first one down in Matamoros. So the partner church down there keeps it and maintains it and still takes collections. And the two that live in trailers here in St. Louis get spread all over the country doing ministry, primarily in prisons. Where's Dave at? [00:02:42] Primarily in prisons around the country. And it's actually a brand new thing that Steve was like, hey, I live in St. Louis. We should do that here. And he started to reach out to different connections and pastors and friends and said, hey, if we were to do some of these for the community in St. Louis, would you guys potentially be involved? And so I am excited at the potential of this partnership, guys, of getting to mean, Kurt's gotten to do these before, and so you can ask him a little bit about it. But, man, okay, this is going to be cheesy, right? But stick with me on this, right? Getting to sit in some of these places where you're sitting with folk who are in their forty s, fifty s, sixty s, and they've never had a good pair of eyeglasses, and you hand them a pair of eyeglasses and all of a sudden they can read again. [00:03:28] You talk about, like, jesus healing the blind, right? [00:03:33] You're getting to share the gospel with them in a tangible way that is unique. It's a unique experience. So if you guys are able to be a part of that, I would encourage you to. It's going to be a really sweet time. And listen, there are few people in the kingdom of God as unique as Steve Smith, who runs focus on missions. And so you don't want to miss out on meeting him. [00:03:54] So today we're finishing out our series on stewardship. [00:04:00] Stewardship. Craig, sorry. [00:04:07] We entered into 2024 by considering. What does it mean? What does it mean in a practical, real way for us to render under God what belongs to God, right, which is us. We bear the image of God, just like where we're talking about Luke 20, when Jesus challenges the religious leaders and he says, hand me the coin, whose image is on it, render under caesars what is Caesar's render unto God? What is God's who bears the image of God? We do. Which means we render ourselves unto Christ. And so over the last few weeks, we've talked about what it looks like to have a life wrapped around the person and work of Jesus. We talked about what it means to set up a trajectory for the entirety of our life that is bent toward the kingdom of God. We talked about how this is weird, right? How this stands out from the way the world lives, that if you choose to live a life rendered under the kingdom, that if you actually put yourself on a trajectory toward Christ. You will be strange. You will make different decisions than your neighbors and friends and family, and you will stand out amongst a world living in sin and rebellion. Last week, we talked about how one of the most practical and immediate ways we apply this is what we do with our money, right? That how we spend our money is a practical way that we express our rendering ourselves unto the kingdom. In this whole series, we've come back to this phrase, solideogloria, which means, glory to God alone. Glory to God alone. Solo deo gloria. It is all his. [00:05:51] We are all his. We were made for a life glorifying God. So we were designed for, which means our greatest joy, our greatest fulfillment as human beings is found not in chasing after the comforts and pleasures of this world, but in chasing after our sweet Jesus. That it is actually this strange life, this weird life given over to the kingdom where we make decisions based on eternity, where we consider Christ before we consider ourselves that kind of strange, set apart life is actually the life where we find the greatest joy and fulfillment possible. [00:06:35] One of the greatest lies, we all believe, is that the fleeting pleasures and comforts of this world are enough to satisfy us. [00:06:43] But talk to Solomon for a few minutes, and you will find they are, in fact, not. [00:06:50] Nothing this world has to offer can truly satisfy the human heart, because the human heart was not made for this sinful, broken world. Right? [00:06:59] We were made for the kingdom. We were made for eternity. And so our life, our joy, is found in kingdom. Today, we're going to land out this series by zoning in on a really important aspect of stewardship, and that's this. Guys, Jesus is coming back. [00:07:17] That's one of the most powerful aspects of stewardship, is that Christ will return one day. He will return and restore all things. And we don't know when that will happen, but it will. [00:07:33] Oh, it will, guys. This is so important to stewardship because this teaches us that stewardship is not just the fact that you belong to God and should render yourself unto him. That's true, and you should. [00:07:48] But stewardship is also about the fact that Christ is returning. He will restore all things. He will judge the living and the dead. This promise is as good as accomplished. And since we don't know when it will happen, part of stewardship is living your life ready for Christ's return. [00:08:08] Part of stewarding your life unto the kingdom is living a life that is preparing for the return of Christ. And here in this, preparing others for the return of Christ. [00:08:23] But today we're going to talk about what it looks like to render your talents unto God. [00:08:29] As you see, God has given each one of us a unique life. [00:08:35] Each one of us has a unique life with unique skills, gifts, circumstances, times, schedules, good and bad. And what we'll see in our text today is that followers of Jesus make the most of this gift for the sake of the kingdom. [00:08:53] Followers of Christ look at the unique gifting that is their life, with all the unique pieces that make it up. And they say, this is for the sake of the kingdom. In fact, Jesus goes so far in our text as to say this is actually how we identify followers of Christ, by whether or not they render their life unto him, whether or not they make the most of their lives for Christ. Paul says it like this to the ephesian church. [00:09:21] He says, pay careful attention then to how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. [00:09:34] It's Ephesians, chapter five. Beloved, the days are short and the days are evil. But it will not always be this way. [00:09:43] It will not always be this way. Christ will return and hear in that beloved return much sooner than you think. [00:09:50] Christ will return. [00:09:53] So what better way to spend our life in this broken and sinful world than to leverage every opportunity for the kingdom? If the promise of Christ is as good as accomplished, if God's word is true, and he will return and he will not tarry, and he will restore all things, and he will judge every little inch of evil ever to exist, then what better way to spend your 60, 70, 80, 9100 years than to leverage every opportunity for the kingdom? Everyone all right? Too much introduction. Sorry. We're going to get into our text. We're in Matthew 25 today. If you want to open your bibles to Matthew 25, if you don't have a bible with you today, we have house bibles around the room. You can look under the rows or there in the back there. By the way, we really believe in the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. If you are here today and you do not own a physical copy of God's word, would strongly encourage you to take one of our house bibles, or even better, take one of the nicer ones on the welcome table back there. [00:11:00] They do have really tiny font also. They're just nicer. They're leather bound. [00:11:05] Okay, we're in Matthew 24 today. [00:11:10] 25, sorry, Matthew 25. [00:11:13] Matthew 25. And we're going to start in verse 14 where it says 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 man who had received five talents went and put them to work and earned five more in the same way. The man with two earned two more. But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five talents approached and presented five more talents and said, master, you gave me five talents. See, I've earned five more. The 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. Then the man with two talents also approached. He said, master, you gave me two talents. See, I've earned two more talents. The 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. [00:12:34] And the man who had received one talent also approached and said, master, I know you are a harsh man, reaping where you haven't sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid, I went off and hid your talent in the ground. See, have what is yours. [00:12:48] 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 would have received my money back with interest when I returned. [00:13:06] So then take the talent from him. Give it to the one who has ten talents. For the one who has more will be given. He will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have even what he has, will be taken away from him. And throw this good for nothing servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And this, beloved, is the word of the Lord for us today. [00:13:29] Pray with me. It's kind of a heavy landing for a text. Pray with me. Church Jesus, we thank you so much for the gift of your word. [00:13:39] Lord, we pray that today, holy spirit, you would be our discipler. [00:13:44] Illuminate your text to us, spirit, give us softness of heart, Lord, give us open eyes and open ears to hear from you today, to receive from you today. To be challenged by you today, Lord, for each of us. Lord, those of us in this room who are still contemplating exploring, deciding if we want to follow you. For those of us who've known you for years, Lord, meet us where our heart needs to be met. [00:14:12] God. For those of us who are ignoring areas of conviction, who have built calluses over our heart in areas we don't want to repent, God, we ask graciously that you would convict us afresh today. Challenge us, encourage us. Spirit, we need you to do this work. So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen. [00:14:34] Okay, so we're in a parable here. Let me set up our text a little bit before we dig into this. This is a parable that Jesus gave in the middle of a series of parables. And that series of parables is in the middle of a larger teaching that he gave on the Mount of Olives. This is actually called the Mount of Olives discourse. This was Jesus speaking to his closest followers in the middle of the passion week. This is really close to Jesus'betrayal and death. Remember, he spent that week leading up to Passover in Jerusalem. And we kind of famously look at a lot of his teaching in the temple courts when he's challenging the religious leaders. But this particular set of teaching happened when Jesus got away from the noise with just his followers outside the city on the Mount of Olives, and they just sat and talked together. And what they ended up talking about was the end of all things. [00:15:30] Christ was trying to encourage his followers to stay faithful, to keep the course knowing full well that he's about to die, that he's about to be gone from them physically, right. He was trying to help prepare them for what is to come. And they, like a lot of us, are just curious and want to know what's coming, what's it going to be like? How is this going to work? And so there's a lot of this back and forth in this discourse, where Jesus gives basically most of the prophecy that we hear in Jesus'ministry happens in this interaction near the end of his life, where he talks about the end of all things, and he gives this short series of parables in the middle of this larger teaching. And by the way, the theme of the Mount of Olives discourse is this. Here's the theme. Stay ready, stay ready, stay ready, and stay the course. [00:16:21] Don't give up. And stay ready. Stay alert, stay awake. It's ironic, by the way, that a day later, they fell asleep when he asked them to pray. But the theme of this teaching is stay the course, stay faithful, stay ready. God will do what he said he will do. In the middle of that, he gives this short series of parables. Ours is the middle of this series of parables. Right before our text is the famous parable of the ten bridesmaids, the ones that have to go and fill their lamp oil. They don't. Some of them do. Some of them don't. They run out of time. It's about being ready, being prepared. The parable right after this one is about the shepherd gathering up his flock and separating the sheep from the goats, showing that some of them are true sheep, some of them are not. These are pretty well known, kind of intense parables. Ours sits right in the middle, and it's relatively famous. Relatively well known. The parable of the talents. Right. It's this short story about this master who goes away on a long journey. He trusts his servants to invest his riches while he's gone, and he comes back and interacts with them about what they did with it. Now, before we jump too far into this text, there's something I have to point out here that I think is actually really interesting. It's just a linguistic thing. So every week in our staff meeting, we take a few minutes. We talk about the upcoming sermon, and one of the things we talked about this week is, man, it's kind of hard for us as modern readers to interpret the parable of the talents because we use the word talent to talk about our gifts, our skills, our learned skills, and our natural skills. But Jesus is using the word talent to refer to money, and we're kind of like, yeah, we got to make sure we point that out and make that separation as we're interpreting it. Well, as I got into studying it this week, I learned something that I just geeked out a little bit on, but I also think is interesting. In English, we use the word talent to refer to skills learned and natural skills because of this parable. [00:18:17] Christians have so consistently interpreted this parable as being about properly stewarding your skills, natural skills, and learned skills. We've interpreted it that way so consistently for so long that in English, we've started using the word talent to refer to skills because of this parable, which is interesting, right. And it kind of just shows the cards in terms of where we're going in, how we talk about this text. That is what we're talking about. We're talking about, God has given you a unique life. You have unique skills, the skills that are innate to you, the skills you've learned. You have a unique personality. You have unique circumstances. You have a unique calendar, unique time. All those things. And this text is challenging you to leverage those things for the kingdom, to not waste them, to not see them as incidental, but to see them as important, as strategic for the advancement of the kingdom. Our talents, it's kind of like theological equivalent of the word kleenex, right? Like, we just transferred the meaning there. Okay, so the story is basically this. [00:19:25] This master is going on a long trip, and he entrusts three of his. Our text says servants, but I think this part is actually helpful for understanding. The actual greek word here is slaves, his personal slaves. He entrusts three of them with large sums of money. Now, we don't exactly know how much money is being referred to, and that's because in the Greek, this word talent is not a unit of measurement. Referring to money. It's a unit of measurement for weight. [00:19:51] It's a weight of riches. And we don't fully know. Is he talking about gold? Is he talking about silver? Is he talking about bronze? Is talking about precious jewels? We don't fully know. And the actual talent isn't historically consistent. It's shifted a couple of times over the course of history how much a talent actually weighed. But to give us an estimate, just to get us to a talking place about this story, if you were referring to a talent of silver coins as the common currency in the roman empire in the time of Jesus, a talent of a silver of coins during the time of Jesus, two talents worth of Daenerys would be about a lifetime's wages, from coming to age until death for the average laborer. So two talents of silver coins is about every penny you would earn over the course of your lifetime. Right? And it goes up if it's gold, down a little bit if it's bronze. But the point is, we're talking about large sums of money, a really big amount of money. Now, here's the thing, guys. One of the base level interpretive questions you should always ask when you're looking at Jesus'parables is in this story. To those who had originally heard it, what would have seemed normal and what would have seemed strange? This, by the way, is just like, this is a tidbit for you in your own personal Bible study. Jesus loves using parables. Even outside of Christianity, Jesus is considered literally one of the best parable writers. He is a brilliant writer of parables. And one of the ways Jesus's parables are so memorable is he would tell these stories that are 90% very normal. People go, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. And then he would throw in one detail that in the context of the story, makes no sense. No one would ever do that. And that helps point you to the theological truth Jesus is making in the parable. So when you look at Jesus's parables, you kind of have to think about, to the original audience, what would have been normal and what would have been weird. Well, this story starts with an incredibly weird premise, because you have this wealthy landowner businessman who's going on a long trip, probably related to business, and while he's gone, he's choosing to entrust large amounts of riches and treasure to his personal slaves. This makes very little sense because there were people in this day, big surprise, who were professional investors. [00:22:24] If you were going on a really long trip and didn't have need of your riches while you were gone, you would put them with the traders. You would put money with the people who knew how to make money with money. But this master says, no, I've got these three guys. I can maybe good at this. I'm going to have them do it. And so he divvies up some riches amongst his slaves. This is a strange way for the story to start. Immediately, people would have gone, oh, this guy's a bad businessman. That's not what you do. That's not how you make good money. But the implication here, guys, is that the master sees potential in his servants. [00:23:07] He sees something in them, and so he's testing them. Jesus is telling his followers and here in this church in that, telling us that Jesus believes in you and invests in you. [00:23:21] Now, we need to sit in that for a moment, because, guys, this is not some sort of, like, self esteem pup you up emotional marshmallow. That's not what we're getting at is someday school. Oh, Jesus likes you. This is not some feel good thing, guys. You have to remember the US in this story. The followers of Jesus, they're slaves, right? [00:23:47] But unexpectedly, the master trusts us, invests in us, tests us to see if we'll rise to the occasion, given the opportunity to use the master's wealth to advance the master's kingdom. [00:24:06] Because Christ sees a potential in us that many of us don't even see in ourselves, and he invests in it. Note also as we talk about that, that the master unapologetically gives different amounts of money. [00:24:20] He sees different kinds of potential, and so he tests his slaves with different levels of risk. You see that one gets five, one gets two, one gets one. The master knows his servants well, and so he's being intentional about how much he entrusts them with this is a part of this parable that, if we're honest, many of us modern christians just kind of bristle at. But it's actually very important. God unapologetically treats each of us with individual attention. [00:24:56] He does. The wealth of the master in this parable really does, guys. It points to a myriad of aspects within our life. It points to our circumstances, where you were born, who's your family, et cetera. It points to your natural skills. It points to your learned skills. It points to your spiritual gifting. It points to your stage of life. It points to your schedule, your career, et cetera. But what you see here is that God gives each of us different portions in this life. [00:25:27] Some of us have a blessed and easy family of origin. Some of us have a traumatic and painful family of origin. [00:25:36] Some of us have many natural skills. Some of us are incredibly disciplined and have learned many more skills than others. [00:25:46] Some of us have more wealth. Some of us have families and children. Some of us do not. Your life is uniquely yours, uniquely yours. And your God does not apologize for giving each of us a unique portion of riches in the kingdom. It's an interesting thing. [00:26:03] It's not fair. [00:26:04] And many of us just kind of bristle at that. [00:26:08] But this is the way God chooses to interact with us. Part of the invitation of this parable, guys, is to trust that the master knows what riches to give to whom there is an act of submission and trust in that he knows you. [00:26:25] He knows you, and he knows me, and he knows how to set up our lives to best engage his kingdom. Now, please don't mishear me. [00:26:33] I know that many of you have experienced immense suffering over the course of your life. [00:26:40] What I'm not trying to say right now is, oh, God allowed your trauma because he knew you could handle it. That's not what I'm trying to say. And so please don't hear that. What I'm saying is we all have a different collection of blessings in our lives that God has given. [00:26:55] And that's true. It's unavoidably true. And we see in our text that God gives these blessings for kingdom investment. He does so at different rates and different amounts based on what he sees in us in our lives. [00:27:10] Getting to a place where we see that, we acknowledge that, and we don't just deal with it, but we thank him for that is a beautiful part of spiritual growth. [00:27:19] So we see the master has gone a long time. We know this because it says he's gone a long time, but also because these investments the slaves make have time to mature. Remember, guys, this isn't a day before stock markets and regulated banks, right? [00:27:33] You didn't just drop your money off with fidelity and not worry about it. Investors would have to go out and individually seek out potential business investments. Then through this is through understanding businesses and traders in the region, all these different things. Each of these investments would be made on an individual basis with individual contracts in the master's name. That takes a long while and takes a lot of work, because this is important, because this goes back to this parable is a part of Jesus's teaching on how believers to live while they await his return. There is this tension in what Jesus teaches about his own impending return, where he says, look, I'm coming back, and I'm coming back sooner than you think. [00:28:15] And we're to live with that expectancy and that tension. [00:28:20] But we're also apparently supposed to take the long view in terms of how we live and use our lives for the sake of the kingdom. [00:28:29] You have time, are you, to live as though you have time to see kingdom investments mature? [00:28:36] You're to live your life as though you have the time necessary to see kingdom investments come to their full fruition. Regardless of whether or not you do, you live like you do. [00:28:49] And then when the master returns, he settles accounts. [00:28:54] The discussion with the first two slaves is identical, but it starkly contrasts the discussion with the third slave. Right? We find these first two servants, they were bold, they were industrious with their given riches. Each of them doubled their money, which. That's pretty good, right? They did pretty well. The slave with five talents has ten. The slave with two has four. And guys, notice that the master's response is identical. [00:29:23] He has equal joy with each, even though the outcome of their investment is wildly different. Do you notice that the second servant doesn't even reach the level that the first one started with? [00:29:39] The outcome is wildly different, and yet the master's joy is equal. [00:29:45] What a joy to remember. [00:29:47] Our God desires his followers to boldly invest their lives in the kingdom. [00:29:52] He wants to see each of us make the best of what we have. [00:29:58] Not that we would all reach some standardized line of outcomes, but that we would boldly invest and give of ourselves as we are able. [00:30:11] Look what he says to them. Well done, good and faithful servant. There are two parts to the master's joy for these industrious servants. First, because of their faithfulness, they get more responsibility. Do you catch this? Even faithful is little. I will make you faithful over much. By the way, what is the say of the master's riches that he's given this cat five talents of riches and goes, that's nothing. That's nothing. You've been faithful with a little. I'm going to put you over a lot. What's a lot in that standard of measurement, right? Like we're talking about multiple lifetimes worth of wealth, and that's nothing to you. That is the riches of the father. [00:30:55] The outcome of the faithful use of the resources for the kingdom is that God provides more resources. And hear this church for the kingdom. [00:31:07] You bore your responsibility well, so your reward is you get more responsibility. [00:31:12] One of the biggest lies of the prosperity gospel, this blasphemy teaches us that when you're sacrificially generous, God provides a way for you to live in comfort and wealth. That when you are faithful and you give to that church and that pastor, God will give you more than you gave. And you can spend that all on yourself. [00:31:35] But guys, that is not how riches work in the kingdom of God. Our text shows that for the blasphemy that it is all the riches that God might provide to a believer are for the sake of kingdom investment. And if he chooses to provide you with more blessings because of your faithfulness, these new ones are not now magically for your pleasure and comfort. They are also for the kingdom. [00:32:01] But the response of the master isn't just, good job, here's more work. Look how he ends his comment to these servants, share in my joy. [00:32:15] What slave gets to share in the joy of the master? [00:32:20] That's not how that relationship works. [00:32:24] But the master says, share in my joy. Because, beloved, this is how the kingdom of God works. Hear this, beloved. God's joy is our joy. [00:32:34] We were made for this. We were made for kingdom work. And it is the most joyful and fulfilling way to live. [00:32:44] The joy of the master is our joy. Think of your own life. Think of your own life for just a moment. And I'm so serious when I say this. Think about a time in your story when you pushed through and you were bold and you gave financially to something, when money was tight to support this missionary or meet this need, or you gave of your evening. You're really busy and you really needed that time. But you know, this person was hurting, and so you sat with them. You pushed through the awkwardness and the fear, and you shared your testimony with that friend or that grandchild. You put yourself out there and you sent out the fundraising letter and you went and spent a week in another country preaching the gospel. When in your life have you put yourself out there for the kingdom? On the other end of it, been like, man, I wish I hadn't done that. That was super. Not worth it. No. [00:33:36] When we put ourselves out there for the kingdom and we see kingdom investments come to fruition, do those not bubble up joy in your heart? [00:33:46] Do those not grab a hold of something deep in your bones and go, I was made for this. [00:33:52] Yes, the joy of the master is our joy. It's what we're aiming for. But look at the third servant. [00:34:02] He took his one talent and he buried it. Now, you have to understand, guys, this is actually a relatively normal way of storing wealth in this day and age. Right? Like this is a time before regulated banks. [00:34:16] Often wealth existed in the form of literal pounds and pounds of precious metals and stones. So safe storage was a problem. Burial was a normal way of protecting saved wealth. But the problem is the safety of burial has another consequence. See, the same burial that protects the wealth from being stolen also prevents it from growing as an investment. [00:34:45] You get one or the other. You get safety and protection, or you get growth. The protection of the wealth necessitates that it be withdrawn from investment. So this servant simply returns to the master what was his, as though his task was simply safeguarding the master's riches. What we see in this is that he missed his master. [00:35:11] His master's expectation was not safeguarding. His master's expectation was investment. And this is where the text gets interesting. [00:35:22] Look at what the third slave says about the master. Oh, you are hard or shrewd. You always succeed in business. You reap where you didn't sow. You always get what you're looking for. So I was scared that I would mess up, so I just hid your wealth away. Here's what's yours. The servant sees how the master is always shrewd and creative and successful in business. So the risk of investment and falling short of the master's standard drives him to laziness, fear and apathy. He does nothing with his talent. Now, you might be inclined to think that the master's response is harsh. [00:36:03] I mean, he got back what was his right. [00:36:05] Nothing was lost. [00:36:08] But look what the master says. [00:36:11] He says, wait a minute. You know what I'm like. [00:36:15] You know what I value. [00:36:18] I value shrewd business and investment. You knew what I was looking for with these riches, but you did nothing. [00:36:28] Not only did you not do the work yourself, you didn't go out like your fellow servants and go and find business owners and do the investment. You didn't even do the easy thing. [00:36:36] You could have found a banker or broker who was willing to do it for you and made a little bit. [00:36:42] But you did nothing. [00:36:45] You did nothing with the gift of my wealth. So he takes the gift away from the lazy, fearful servant. And gives it to the one who'd been given five. And then sends the servant away from service. [00:36:57] There's a lot in this section. But a couple of truths stand out that I think are important for us. First, regardless of what drove the servant to not invest in the treasure, we can see here that he did so knowing full well what the master actually expected of him. [00:37:12] This isn't a matter of him not getting enough return to make the master happy. [00:37:16] The master would have been happy with the minimal interest brought about by a broker. No, this is about the heart of the third servant that disregards the will of the master. [00:37:29] Remember, the master is testing these servants. [00:37:33] He wanted them to be bold to invest, and this servant refused. So rather than sharing in the joy of the master, this servant is sent away. We see he is no true servant of the master. [00:37:49] And lastly, guys, consider the master's rebuke to this servant. He knew the master's character, but he was unwilling to act like the master. He knew what the master wanted, but he was unwilling. He didn't trust his ability to do the same kind of work. So he just didn't do anything. [00:38:08] There are a couple things that I think we can practically see for the church. For us, our church, Emmanuel, today. First, I think we need to reckon with this church. [00:38:18] We see that God expects his church to boldly invest the riches of blessing he bestows on them for the sake of the kingdom. [00:38:27] He expects that of us. Church, your life, beloved, is not your own. [00:38:35] You were bought with a price. [00:38:37] That means your skills, your passions, your resources, your time. These were given to you so that you could boldly invest them in the kingdom. They're not given over to you for your own purposes. They're there for eternity. [00:38:54] Second, we see that to ignore this expectation is tantamount to rejection of the kingdom. Now, that's heavy. But Jesus uses really harsh language in referring to this third servant. This is a parable, right? But the language he uses to describe this servant being fired. Is the same language he uses to describe hell. [00:39:19] Guys. [00:39:21] The lazy servant is cast away into outer darkness. [00:39:26] He was never a true servant of the master. He's no longer in that position. Think about what parable comes next. Right. Sheep and goats. [00:39:38] Third, we see that fear. The fear of this servant drew him to foolishness the character of the master should have driven the servant to work, but it drove him away from work. As believers, we must remember that our riches are not our riches, right? They are Christ's. And when Christ invests his riches, he succeeds. [00:40:06] There is a gospel declaration in this part of the text. [00:40:10] When Christ invests his riches, he succeeds. He reaps where he did not sow. So we can trust him. We can trust his ability when we invest his bretches and blessings. [00:40:24] Because it's not our own strength upon which kingdom endeavors rise and fall. [00:40:30] It's not our own ability that caused kingdom investments to succeed. It's not your amazing storytelling that gives your testimony power to break through to someone's heart that they might repent and believe in Christ. It is not your amazing budgeting skills that cause that check you write for that missionary to somehow lead to kingdom work. It's not because you're so awesome that those blessings that those investments bear fruit. It is because they belong to Christ in the first place. [00:41:00] They're his riches and Christ's investments bear fruit. [00:41:05] Christ's work succeeds. Look at the gospel. Christ himself put a lot in on the cross and the tomb. [00:41:17] Christ put a lot in to his investment on our behalf and it bore fruit. Look at the church, look at death defeated, and it's death throes. Read revelation and read about death and Hades and Satan being thrown into the fire. Ultimately death itself killed by Christ. [00:41:38] Christ's investments bear fruit. They work. [00:41:42] So when we look at his riches given to us and we think about how successful he is in all his work, rather than fear driving us to apathy, we should go, oh, this will work. This will work. It's his, and it's his work. I can joyfully, I can boldly jump into the work because it's his investment. He will cause it to bear fruit. Because what we really see is this whole text wraps back to Christ. It's about Christ. [00:42:12] I mean, read Philippians two, you can see all about what Jesus was willing to invest in our future. [00:42:20] He stepped out of heaven, he poured himself out, he gave of his time, his person, his heart to benefit you and I. Jesus invested his whole self into the advancement of the kingdom, and you and I are the beneficiaries of that investment. We are the return on that investment. [00:42:37] So we give our skills, our gifts, our time to the kingdom. And all we're really doing is we're taking the riches Jesus gave us and we're handing them back to him to do more with them. [00:42:48] So what do we do with this today? How do we land this out? I'm going to read a couple of texts that I think will get us to a landing place here. One is really practical. In romans twelve, it says this. Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is good, what is pleasing, the perfect will of God. For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly. Because as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one, now we know we have many parts in one body and all the parts do not have the same function. In the same way, we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another according to the grace given to us. We all have different gifts of prophecy. Use it according to the proportion of one's faith. If service. Use it in service if teaching and teaching and exhorting and exhortation and giving with generosity and leading with diligence and showing mercy with cheerfulness. Beloved, your life is the sacrifice. [00:43:53] Living sacrifice. Put on the altar. So put yourself on the altar. God has given each one of us riches in our lives, our skills, our passions, our schedule, our relationships, our spiritual giftings. And these can be used to glorify God and serve the church and serve the kingdom. Beloved. It's true. And it's true, by the way, that when you withhold yourself from kingdom work, not only do you miss out in participation of the kingdom work, but the church is missing a body part. We're all needed. There are no bench warmers in the kingdom. It's all hands on deck. So that Jesus may be brought to all people. Amen. [00:44:34] And while this is true, and while we can all amen, that we would be remiss today to end without considering why it is that's so easy to amen and so hard to do, right? [00:44:46] We can all sit here and go, yes, of course I believe that scripture you just read. Of course I've been given my gifts, my talents, my life for the kingdom. Of course that's how it is. But how many of us actually live that way? [00:44:59] I'm going to be real for a second. Like, think about your last seven days. [00:45:06] Now, 8 hours of each of those days, you're probably eight or so hours. You're probably sleeping, right? But of the hours that you were awake. [00:45:13] You don't have to say this out loud. Give yourself a rough percentage. [00:45:17] What percentage of those awake hours were spent on you and which ones were spent on the kingdom? [00:45:27] That's not a fun math problem. [00:45:30] And some of you are going, hey, now, I have a job, I have bills to pay. I have kids to take care of. I have stuff to do. I have a busy. I get it. Yeah, of course you do. Okay, so let's take that eight, 9 hours you spend a day working on that stuff, keeping yourself alive. So you've got seven, 8 hours left of each of those seven days. Okay. What percentage of those hours did you spend on the kingdom this last week? [00:45:58] Guys, that's still not a fun math problem. How about you take that percentage of kingdom hours. Put that next to how many of those hours did you spend on just tv over the last week? [00:46:11] Okay, now it's really not a fund problem, guys. [00:46:17] We all know this is true. We amen. A text like this because it's beautiful, because it's gospel. [00:46:25] And yet, and yet so many of us don't actually live this out. And I think a lot of us don't even super relate to this lazy and wicked servant. He considers God and consider his character and he considers how successful Christ is and he gets scared and he's oh, I'll never be able to live up to his standards, so I just won't do anything. And I'm sure that's some of us. I'm sure some of us think about the perfect standard of God and we think about how little we have to offer. And just in fear, it draws us to apathy. I know in a room this size, that's true for some of us. But let's be honest. [00:47:01] Many of us aren't burying our riches. We're spending them. We just spend them on ourselves. [00:47:09] We invest them in our own comforts and our own pleasures. We take our skills and we use them to advance our career so that we can have more money to spend on more comforts. [00:47:20] We'd never use those skills to advance our church or advance the mission. I mean, listen, I work a full week. I got to do that stuff 8 hours a day, five days a week. I leave work at work, bro. When I go to church, I want to rest. I want to be poured into. I want to be filled up. Besides, I give financially, so I don't feel like I need to do that stuff. [00:47:46] Here's the deal, friends, beloved brothers and sisters, I'm speaking this to myself. As much as I speak it to you, God gave you those riches for his kingdom, not for yourself. [00:47:59] You don't have to fear using them. You don't have to fear falling short of his standard, but you also don't get to waste them on yourself. [00:48:10] And hear me, church. Of course, use your skills to do well in your job. See your job as a mission field. Make lots of money to support all sorts of kingdom work. Love your family well. Yes, and amen to all of those things. [00:48:26] But also remember, never forget you have those skills for the sake of the kingdom. One of the seven letters of the seven churches. Jesus says this to the Church of Laodicea. It's a familiar text in revelation three. I know your works. You were neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot, but because you were lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. This isn't talking about good works or bad works. Hot and cold are both good. In this instance, what Jesus is rebuking is apathy. [00:48:54] It's lack of engagement. It's burying riches or wasting good gifts, even though you know the expectation of investment. Beloved, this is for all of us. You have riches in your life that can glorify God and advance the kingdom. [00:49:12] Do you work in the finance world? Awesome. [00:49:15] Join the finance team at church. Help a missionary fundraise. Volunteer to disciple some young people in our church with how to use their money to glorify God. Are you a baller? Stay at home parent? Awesome. Serve in children's or youth. Run a discipleship class on gospel centered parenting. Do you work in it? Awesome. Volunteer to help your church get its cybersecurity in order. Help some older folk in our church get their computers safe and up and running. Do you plan the best vacations for your family ever? Awesome. Help your church plan a retreat or a mission trip. Do you sell like a maniac? Help lead your church in evangelism testimony. Do you love making music or art in your free time? Do you have lots of life in sports or athletics? Are you a great cook? Do you have kids? Are you single? Do you have disposable income? Do you have lots of family local? Are you a gifted speaker? I could go on and on and on. But the plain fact is, beloved, your life is not your own. [00:50:12] It is not yours. Solo de Gloria. Your life is about the glory of God. Your spiritual gifts are for the glory of God. Your job is for the glory of God. Your skills are for the glory of God. Your passions are for the glory of God. Your family is for the glory of God. Your calendar is for the glory of God. All of it. [00:50:36] Every bit. [00:50:38] Sorry I yelled. [00:50:41] All of it is for God. [00:50:44] So I'm going to land us out because I've talked too long. Band, if you want to come back up, here's what we're going to do. [00:50:52] Not knowing she was doing this, and a really great example of exactly what we're talking about. [00:50:57] Joanna Busby made a gift for our church and we're going to give it out today. [00:51:01] She made some stickers that say solo de Gloria. And we have one for each of you guys. And so Adam's going to come up and pass those around. And as we get ready for our response time, I want you to take one of these, because I think it's really good to have something tangible that you can put somewhere where you can look at it and you can think about it and you can remember what we're talking about. [00:51:22] But as you get that sticker, as we take a minute to sit in prayer and reflection, I want you to take a moment to consider how you might practically invest your riches in the kingdom here at Emmanuel. Here at Emmanuel. [00:51:39] And, guys, I'm really serious when I say this. I want you to write this down. [00:51:44] If you have a pen or a notebook with you, do you need to grab a bulletin and a pen from the back? You need to pull out your phone and put it in note? I want you to write this down. Make a record right now what the Lord is telling you. [00:51:59] Some of you, some of you are kicking butt. What I'm talking about, by the way. [00:52:05] Some of you are such beautiful testimonies of what it looks like to render your life unto Christ, to give and to serve with joy. [00:52:15] But let's be honest and to say some of us aren't right. [00:52:20] Take a moment and write down, consider what it is that you might render under the kingdom, what in your life right now is the spirit pressing on you? And then take an extra step and consider who you might share that conviction with, who is a brother and sister in our church, in your GC, one of your friends, he might say, hey, I was just. I don't know. Spirit, put this on my heart. [00:52:48] You. Would you join with me in praying over that? [00:52:51] Consider who you might share that with. Obviously, any of our pastors would love to hear this, would love to be in that with you. [00:53:01] What is God challenging you to do differently in the stewardship of your life? [00:53:06] Consider it. Think about the last three weeks. Put pen to paper and then ask for help in walking in that conviction. [00:53:16] In just a second, I'm going to close this. I'm going to close this by reading a scripture from Peter. [00:53:23] And I'm going to invite you to take a few minutes in prayer consideration. [00:53:27] And then we'll do what we always do. We'll come back together, and we'll take communion. We'll sing, and we'll end out our time. [00:53:36] Let me read this to us. And then we'll go into that time of reflection. [00:53:41] The end of all things is near. [00:53:45] So therefore, be alert, be sober minded in your prayers, and above all, maintain constant love for one another. Because our love covers over a multitude of sins. So be hospitable to one another without complaining. Because just as each one of us has received a gift, we use it to serve others. We're good stewards of all the various graces of God. [00:54:07] If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God's words. If anyone serves, let it be from the strength that God provides, so that God may be glorified through Christ Jesus in everything, because to him be the glory and the power, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. [00:54:25] Beloved, Christ is returning soon, so let us live lives invested in his return. [00:54:32] Take a few minutes to talk with him, and then we'll land out our time.