Last week we began a, what was a three-part series, and we entitled the series, Stewardship of My Life, and it was one of those Sundays that I felt like I just absolutely, I have something I'm going to do with my phone, so don't think I'm just up here just don't have anything else to do.

It was one of those Sundays, I told you that I was, it was a message that was heavy on my heart, if you weren't here last Sunday, I pray that you go to our podcast, our tech team has done a good job of having that up on the, on the, on our website and everything, but I told you that I felt so strongly about it, it was like one of those Sundays, most Sundays when I finish giving you, sharing the word with you, I feel spent, I feel like I've, I've laid everything out there that God has been dealing with me,

on all week long, and I've got nothing else, and that, last Sunday was no exception, and so, um, I also told you that, um, uh, I felt so strongly about last Sunday's message that I just may give that message for the next three Sundays and cancel the other two messages, and we'll just have that, that message three times, so you'll finally get, get some of it.

And so, if you can throw the video on, we're just going to watch, uh, last Sunday's message, I'm just kidding, this, back there the tech team started going into panic mode, what?

Um, no, we're not going to watch that, watch that, uh, next, but I, I do want to share something with you, I, I had asked, um, uh, Mr. Jim, uh, if I could, uh, share, uh, an email I received, uh, Sunday afternoon just before home group.

And I pray that you're encouraged by this as well, too, as to how God's working in and through the word that's being given on Sunday mornings.

And again, this has nothing to do with me, this has everything to do with the Spirit of God moving in the hearts of the people of God.

And I just pray that you're, um, encouraged by this as well, too.

And Mr. Jim sent, sent me, sent this email to me.

He said, Hi, this is Jim Drew.

I've been coming to your church for the past few months, because, uh, as I went to your church, I was impressed that you preached from the word of God, and that's what I needed.

Um, I've been a Christian all my life, and I've been in ministry a lot of my life, and I felt God call me in different areas,

and opened up the doors for me to share His love and the gospel.

And I'm so thankful that He's used me in that way, and I've loved every minute of the ministries that I've been involved with.

When you spoke today, I realized that I had never died to myself.

I was doing those ministries for Jim, and not for the glory of Jesus.

Tears started filling up and flowing, not because of my disappointment, that I have missed the meaning of John chapter 12, verses 24 through 26, which I have read many times before.

But because Jesus loves me so much, that He didn't give up on me.

And gave you a message today that woke me up from my comfortable sleep.

I share this with you because, as I pointed out, many people don't see the fruit of their ministry.

So I wanted you to know that, that, I wanted you to know that the word from God that He gave you is fruitful.

And I will live the rest of my life for Christ, and for His glory, and not for Jim.

May God continue to bless you and your family and the ministry that God has given to you, a person living for Christ.

Love, Jim.

May God be glorified.

May God be glorified.

We are undertaking this stewardship series because it's so vitally important.

Yes, we just rolled out Vision 21, trying to just show you what our three-year ministry plan is going to look like, who we are.

If you're new, if you didn't, weren't here when we rolled out Vision 21, there's a brochure on the information table.

It's on our website as well, too.

And the invitation is to come be a part of what God's doing in the life of Ramon Community Church to reach this community and beyond.

And I said that last week, as we get into stewardship, and we talk about a series on stewardship, normally what happens is a attendant dies, because no one wants to talk about money.

And stewardship, and hopefully you understood this as of last week, stewardship has very, very little to do with money.

And everything to do with the giving of what?

Yourself.

Your life.

That's where it begins.

The surrender of a life.

The surrender of a life.

We talked about that last week.

And so many people say, well, I hate it when pastors talk about money.

They talk about money.

Well, pastors talk about money.

Matthew chapter 25. And we're going to get into, as I said, this three-part series. It's called The Stewardship of My Life. But today's message is, can we be trusted? Can we be trusted? Again, I would say that, you know, a lot of people have this mindset. It's a small mindset that they think stewardship is all about money.

And stewardship, it's not talking about money. I would suggest to you, though, that how we use our money is a manifestation of the depth and degree of commitment that we have to Jesus, though. I think that really speaks volumes of the depth and degree of commitment that we have. And last week, we began showing you that we don't a la carte parts and pieces of our lives. I'm going to give the Lord this. This is my life. And this is my spirit life.

And they run parallel. No, no, no. Jesus says, it's all mine. It's all mine. You're either all in or you're not. You're either all in or you're not. And that's where we landed last week. And so, the first thing that we do is the giving of our lives. And we place our lives as a living sacrifice into the hands of this wonderful, awesome, amazing God that we serve. And that's really where it begins.

And in Matthew 25, I want to talk about the issue of leveraging our resources. Leveraging our resources. God just doesn't want us to use our resources. He wants us to leverage our resources. And I want to challenge you with that today.

And in 1975, there was an area of California called the Silicon Valley. And there was these guys that were going to, they decided they were going to start a computer company.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniowski. And they didn't have a penny to rub to their names. But Steve Jobs had his parents' garage. So they had a place to begin.

And then they decided that they had this inspirational idea. They were going to develop a computer company.

And they were going to call it Apple. And some of you have been to see the movie and all that good stuff.

But they figured out in order for them to take the next step forward, they needed $1,350.

Doesn't sound like a lot in 1975. But they didn't have it. Okay?

They didn't have it. But what they did have, Steve Jobs decided he was going to sell his Volkswagen.

All right? And Steve Wozniowski was going to sell his HP calculator.

Now, some of you are like, calculator? Well, back in 1975, the big HP calculator, some of you can go back there with me.

They were worth a lot of money. Okay?

And so they sold those things. And they got the ball rolling.

They got their $1,350. And the rest, they say, is history.

And today, Apple is worth $1 trillion.

$1 trillion. Okay?

How much is it?

$1 trillion is $1,000 billion.

It's $1,000 billion.

Now, wrap your mind around that.

Now, how much is it? Don't ask me. Okay?

If you've got to ask me, you can't really figure out how this thing rolls.

But it's $1,000 billion. Okay?

And so you're sitting in a church here today.

You're sitting in a church here today where, I guess, you know, on a normal Sunday,

we've got, you know, around 200 folks that come here.

But five and a half, six years ago, all these spaces in here and all around the corner

where we have our mission wing and the refuge and all that, it was empty.

There was nothing.

This was all empty shopping center.

There were a few things that right down here that you still...

But everything in there was empty.

Everything.

But there were a handful of people that prayed and fasted.

And all that we had was a Sunday night Bible study.

But we prayed and we fasted.

And what few chips we had, we said, you know what?

We've got these few chips, but we're all in.

And here we are today.

And God is calling us to do something.

We're all in on this thing.

Now, some of you, you get it.

You mortgaged your house for your business, maybe,

to get things started.

You understand what it means to take that risk and you become successful.

You made sacrifices and choices.

And because there was a dream and there was a vision,

and you saw clearly, and you took what you had and you turned it over.

All right?

And these things happen.

And so when you use, when we use...

to talk about this later on, that value is relative. Value is relative. And in the kingdom

way of looking at things, what you have is not valuable unless you use it. This is going

to help somebody here this morning. Maybe it's just for me, okay? But all of this, I

think, is the backdrop of the parable that we're going to get to in Matthew chapter 25.

I'll unfold this for you. There's four words in here that I'm going to give you, okay,

one at a time. The first word that I want you to see in this parable is entrusted. Entrusted.

All right? And the first principle in this parable that we see is what God gives us is valuable.

You need to understand that this morning. Get that through your hearts. What God gives us,

whatever God has given to us, whatever it is, it's valuable. Don't minimize what

you bring to the table. Don't minimize what you have. Don't compare yourself to someone

else. No, no. What you got, you got it from God. And if you got it from God, guess what?

It's valuable. It is valuable. And the assumption is whatever you have, you know, listen closely,

whatever you have is valuable. Everything is valuable in the hand of God, okay? God took

away everything from Moses. He stripped him of all the resources and everything that he

knew in Egypt, okay? He put him in the desert staring at the backside of sheep for 40 years

and all he had was a stick in his hand. And God says, you know what? I want you to take

that stick and walk into Pharaoh and say, let my people go. That's all he had. What was

a stick, okay? I will use that stick or whatever you have or whatever he has placed in your hand.

It is valuable. It's valuable. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 14.

For it will be like, he's speaking of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven will be like

a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he

gave five talents. To another two talents. To another one. Each according to his ability.

Then he went away. So here's a picture of a very wealthy man, okay? He wanted to have his money used

in a profitable way. He wanted his resources to be used in a profitable way while he was away.

And by the way, this parable is an allusion to Jesus, all right? It's an allusion to Jesus.

To Jesus going away, okay? To what Jesus has invested in us. And so he wanted to take these

resources. He wanted these guys to take these resources and use them for a profit, okay? And so

the word talent here has been misleading, all right? I've heard it preached and taught a lot of different

ways, a number of different ways. But the word talent here is actually a measure of weight.

Weight. A measure of weight. That is applied sometimes to money, all right? And so it's not

specifically gold, though it can be gold. It's not specifically silver, though it can be applied

to silver. It's not specifically copper, but it can be applied to copper. But it is a measure of weight.

Weight. And the talent has been used in different ways, okay? But I'll pique my hand here because

down in verse 18 he identifies this talent as relating to money. So that's where we are this

morning. You don't want to talk about money? Guess what? That's what we're going to talk about this

morning because that's where we are. But I would imagine that although it's not specifically defined

here that what he gave them, what the master gave them, even to the man that he gave one

to, each of these had a significant value to them. There was significant value to these

talents, okay? And again, the larger principle here is not just about money, but it's about

using what has been placed in your hands. So he entrusted that, you know, so he has entrusted

that to these servants, okay? He, God has entrusted you with certain things.

verse 14, it assumes a level of personal accountability, and it assumes a level of personal responsibility. And you might be asking yourself, well, how can I be responsible for something that I didn't ask for? Well, welcome to God. Welcome to God, alright? You know, listen, life is not random. You just don't live your life and do whatever you want. Well, you can, but there are consequences out there if you do that.

that I'm sure that you and I don't want to pay. But the fact that we are living and we are breathing this morning says that we are accountable. We are accountable. And the fact that you have talents and you have gifts and you have abilities, and there are things that God has done for us means that we are accountable, okay?

And so, He has entrusted these things to us. God has entrusted things to you in your life.

And our passage here this morning says, to each He gave according to His ability.

This is important.

He gave them what they could handle.

Each according to their ability.

They had different capabilities.

We have different capabilities.

I don't know if you realize it or not, but we all have different capabilities here in this life, alright?

Some of us are not wired to do the things that we want to do.

And you struggle.

You struggle at times, okay?

Some of us want to do stuff that God says, no, you don't have the capability for that.

Not that we'll always stay there in that moment, but the truth of the matter is, some of us today can't handle certain things.

We're just not there.

That's not a judgment.

It's just that we can't handle it.

We need to grow to be able to handle more, okay?

And you need to accept that you are here.

This is just where you are in life.

That's why competition and jealousy and comparison are so detrimental to us.

And so, one of the most freeing things that you can come to in your life is just to be able to say, you know what?

There are certain things I can't do.

There are certain things that Rob can do that I can't do.

There are certain things that I can do that Rob can't do.

It's okay.

It is absolutely okay.

But you know what?

I know I can do this.

I know I'm gifted here and I'm able to do this.

There's nothing worse than an organization or in a church when somebody is convinced that they can do something beyond their capabilities.

And what ends up happening is they end up bottlenecking things.

And so, they, you know, they end up shutting down because on the surface they know they're C-.

C-, I'm C- at best on this thing.

But because of fear and because of insecurity, everything else gets bottlenecked.

And so, the reality is don't put yourself in a situation where you don't have the ability and you can't follow through with what you want to do.

You're not there yet.

Get over here.

Get over here where you are.

And then you might be able to come over here.

But grow first.

Does any of this make sense?

He gave them each according to their ability.

There's nothing wrong with that.

I know we tend to tell our children all the time, you need a dream and you can do whatever your heart desires and whatever your dreams say.

Listen, no, that's not true.

If your son is 5'4", 5'5", he's 18 years of age and he weighs 130 pounds soaking wet and he desires to be a linebacker in the NFL, you need to tell him now, that ain't gonna happen.

Unless you start taking some roids or something, I don't know, man.

It's not going to happen.

You know, the best thing you can do is help them understand how they are wired.

Help them understand that, what their capabilities are.

Now, you might be able to grow and might be able to develop, but, you know, the things that I deal with now in life on a regular basis, I couldn't handle when I was 22, 25 years old.

If I was given those things at that age, I would have lost it.

I would have messed up everything worse than I mess it up now.

But at least now I have some things under my belt.

I've grown.

And I've lost it.

There's got to be sober judgment. There's got to be sober judgment. There's got to be sober judgment.

So anyway, it's based upon their gifts and what they could handle. All right? So first they were in, it's in, it's entrusted to them. Now they invested. All right? Invested is the next word.

They got this commissioning. It's okay. Here are the resources. He's going away on this trip and he didn't say where to invest it or how to invest it, but he gives it to him.

And obviously the expectation is something needs to be invested in this. Verse 16.

He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them. And he who had the, and he made five talents more.

So also he who had the two talents made two talents. But the one who received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now, there's a broader principle here. Okay? What God gives us, listen, is meant to be used.

What God gives us is meant to be used. And this, this is a principle that Jesus is talking about that he gives in this parable.

And what you need to know is that diligence, diligence should always be the response to trust.

You hear that? Diligence should always be the response to trust.

To be trusted means that I am responsible. To be trusted means I am accountable. All right?

And, and, and, and so, and to, to get to, to work with what has been entrusted to you.

Okay? At least two out of the three servants, they go out and they did it.

Why? Because they realized, look, the master trusts me.

He trusts me with this.

And this is where we have to help our, our, our kids.

Sometimes raising, raising our, our children.

You know, particularly when they, when they go through their teen years.

Okay? They want the privileges of adulthood, but they don't want the responsibilities of adulthood.

Some parent in here got to say amen on that.

I don't, I don't know how many times my daughter was growing up.

I'm a grown up now. No, you're not a grown up.

You might think you're a grown up.

You just want this much of the responsibility, but all the trust.

That, that's, that's where they are in life.

And we have to help them see that.

They want to be trusted, but they don't necessarily always see the relationship between erratic and irrational behavior and the lack of trust.

Do you, do you hear that?

There, there's a relationship.

And so one of the great lessons in maturity is that trust is not an entitlement.

It's not an entitlement trust has to do.

It's based upon proven, consistent behavior.

And because you have this proven, consistent behavior, I now trust you with this.

Trust is driven by gratitude.

By gratitude.

Trust is driven by the realization that I have been privileged,

I have been privileged for someone to trust me.

It's a privilege that someone has trusted me.

Because, and because, listen, and, and you realize that because you have trusted me, I realize that, guess what that does?

That puts governors on my behavior.

When you, when you, when you are mature in that, and you realize someone is trusting me, I now have different governors on my behavior.

Do you ever, you ever had those times when you, you've had a, a, a, some, your parents or somebody has trusted, maybe your boss has trusted you with something,

and they've had to take that away from you?

Because why?

It's been a lack, the trust has been voided.

Okay?

There's been a lack of trust that's been broached now.

But the master has trusted them.

He has trusted you with things.

He's placed things in your hand.

So here we have these guys.

The master trusts me, you know.

And, and, and, um, got to get to a place where I use what he's placed in my hands.

But we also have to be very, very careful as well of letting this, uh, um, um, this unbridled, unbiblical view of grace to take.

grace doesn't eradicate those things

in a true understanding of God's grace

if you have that

that will make you more responsible

if you really understand God's grace

because you are more grateful

God the Father is trusting us

and maybe it's because where I am in my life right now

but as I look over my life

and I see all that God has done for me in my life

and the things that he's doing

what he's working in my heart and in my life

I have to say to myself

man Curtis you got a whole

you are enormously responsible brother

you are enormously responsible

when you look at all that God has trusted you with

in your life

so at least two out of the three servants

they run out the door and they get busy

they get busy doing something with this

now we get to a verse that's a little bit problematic

verse 18

but he who had received the one talent

went and dug in the ground

and hid his master's money

okay the two other dudes

they go out running

and they're out in the market place

they're trying to figure out how to leverage this stuff

okay

homeboy sees all these guys going

and what does he do?

he says where's the shovel?

I see them out in the market place

doing all

where's the shovel?

okay

no vision

no sense of responsibility

no sense of accountability

in this whatsoever

and it seems to me

he doesn't even appreciate

the fact that the master trusted him

you know

I'm not sure if he was consumed with jealousy maybe

what?

I only get one

he gets two

they get five

I don't know

we're not told

the Bible doesn't tell us that

but he takes the master's money

and he hides it

now before we get on to him

too harsh

okay

in my study

I found

I researched

showed me that

it was common practice

that if you wanted to keep and protect something

you would go

and you would bury it

in this period of time

if you wanted to keep and protect it

and this is going to help someone here this morning

I'm telling you

if you want to keep and protect it

you bury what has been given to you

but again

God never gives us anything to keep and protect

he never gives us anything to keep and protect

that's the problem with most of the churches today

and maybe a little bit of a problem that we have here this morning

at Rhema Community Church

and that is that too many people are keeping and protecting

rather than leveraging and using

too many of us are keeping and protecting

and not leveraging and using

there is nothing that God has ever given us

okay

that he doesn't want us to use it

God never said

I want to give you these things

and I want you to hoard it

I want you to tribal this thing

okay

but this guy digs a hole in the ground

okay

and the clear assessment with this money

is that it's to be used and not kept

and there was a clear assignment

that's given

I'm giving this stuff

go out here and use it

I'm giving you this stuff

go out here and use it

I'm giving you these gifts

these talents

go out and use it

what about you here this morning

what about you this morning

what's inside of you

okay

that you're keeping and protecting

you're keeping and protecting

or

or

or maybe you've been

maybe you've been offended

I got my feelings hurt

I got my feelings hurt

you know what

and

and

and you know what

I'm shutting down

I'm shutting down

and rather than

dealing with the cause of it

you decide

you're gonna

you're gonna

you're gonna

you're gonna put what you have over here

you're gonna dig a hole

and you're gonna keep it right there

and the result of that

is the church suffers

and you suffer

because you're upset

that somehow

you were

you were offended

and you got mad

okay

and so now you're just

digging down

putting it in the ground

I'm not serving

I'm not serving

I've tried that before

people don't listen to me

they don't

they don't take my idea

rather than

trying to walk

and work it out

walk through a situation

you're just gonna

you're gonna dig a hole

in the backyard

and you're gonna bury it

you're gonna try to keep

what

you're gonna try to keep

and protect

what God has given to you

so these guys

were entrusted

they invested

and now let's see

that they were rewarded

rewarded

you're gonna be равn

now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them now here's the

overriding principle I want you to see here when we use what has been given to us we will be rewarded

rewarded very simple right when we use what has been given to us we will be rewarded there are rewards now you might not see them in this life this side of glory you might not we talked about that a few weeks ago but there are rewards and I would suggest given the context here in these three big parables that we see in Matthew 25 the parable of the ten virgins the parable of the talents and the parable of the final judgment that the reward is ultimately going to be on the other side

as you look at as you look at as you look at as you look at as you look at these and if my understanding is correct and Jesus is the wealthy man here that has given that has given the talents and then when he returns with that shadowing of the second coming and and and you see that in the final last parable of the final judgment when he comes back he is going to settle the accounts

when Jesus comes back when Jesus comes back when Jesus comes back when Jesus comes back when Jesus comes back when Jesus comes back he is going to settle the account and that helps us understand what Paul is saying in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 10 when he says we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and that we will be rewarded based upon what we what we have done with what has been invested in us there will be a day of reckoning

God does not randomly God does not randomly God does not randomly give us stuff without accountability some of us are grateful for the gifts of God but we're not we don't think we're accountable for these things and we don't treat them as gifts we don't treat them as talents given to us by God there will be a day of reckoning so one day the accounts will be settled one day the boss comes in

he's told he's told he's told he's told he's told he's told he's told you for three weeks I need you to have this presentation ready and you just kind of gaffed on it and thought you had plenty of time now everybody's in the boardroom and they're looking at you and guess what the boss walks in let me hear the report that's what you got you had all this time to work on this and you thought you would just snowball it to the last minute it shows it shows

the text seems to lend itself that they didn't know when he was coming back it says he's gone away for a long time but now they're accountable now they're accountable verse 20

and he who had received the five talents came forward bringing the talent bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me

five talents and you have made five talents more

good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little I will set you over much

enter into the joy of your master

and he also

who had the two talents came forward saying master you delivered to me two talents

here I have made two talents more

his master said to him well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful

over a little I will set you over much

Enter into the joy of your master.

Now, I want you to notice there, please, what he says.

He says, well done, good and faithful.

Well done, good and faithful.

The expression, well done, it's like, that expression when he says, well done,

it's as if he's saying, bravo.

It's as if he's saying, Joshua, look at you, man.

Look at you.

That's what he's saying.

Don't you want Jesus saying that one day you stand before Jesus?

He says, Chris, man, look at you.

Man, you rocked it.

I gave you these little, look at you.

You hit it out of the park.

I can't believe, look at you.

Man, I don't know what more motivation we need than to have Jesus one day say,

look at you, David.

In the midst of all that, look at you.

You stood strong.

You were good and faithful.

Look at you.

You know, this is awesome.

You got a return on your investment.

Then he says, good and faithful.

Listen, I'm not trying to split hairs here, but I want you to understand when he first

says good, the master is applauding their character.

He's applauding their character.

Good, and the reason why he says it's good is because you acted consistent in light of what

I trusted and trusted you to do.

Your behavior was consistent in that.

You have proven yourself.

yourself.

Guys, church, hear me on that this morning. That's all we own, church. All we own. All we own is character and faithfulness. Character and faithfulness. That's all you own. What are you going to take away? Character and faithfulness. What is it going to be said about your character and your faithfulness? That's what stands in Kingdom Light right there.

That's all you own. That's all you own. Character and faithfulness right there. He doesn't bust on this other guy because he didn't make as much money as the other guy did. Okay? It wasn't the point about how much money he made. It has to do with their good intentions, their character, and their faithfulness. Their character and their faithfulness. You know, and I need to ask us this morning, you know, but can God trust us? Can God trust you?

I'm haunted by this personally all the time when I think about it. Whenever I'm pulled or tempted to do something that's not right. That's where my mind and my heart goes. Curtis, can God trust you? Can God trust you in private? You can put a show out in front of people, but can God trust you in private? Can you be trusted? Can we be trusted?

I believe that's the message that he's given. I believe that's the message that he's given. Good and faithful. I can trust you. I can trust you because their character and faithfulness to their master with the opportunity that he gave them. You know, it was because of their character and their faithfulness. That's it. Don't miss that this morning because it's not just about they made more money or this, that, and the other because of their character and faithfulness.

And because of their character and faithfulness. And because of their character and faithfulness, God gave them more opportunity. But he also gave them the gift of his pleasure. The gift of his pleasure and trust. I mean, look at that. It says, enter into the joy of your master.

Ah, God gave them his pleasure and trust. The master is saying, I'm so thankful for you. You have proven me right. I can trust you. I want to give you the gift of my joy and my pleasure.

But not only that, I want to give you more. I want to give you more. How many of you here today really, really, really, really, really, really, really know you can't out give God?

I dare you to try to out give him. I triple dog dare you to try to out give him. You can't out give him. He'll give you more, you know. Listen, if you want more in your life, here you go.

If you want more in your life, stop asking for more. And start doing more with what you got in your hands. Stop this asking God for more. And start being faithful and obedient with what God has given you in your hands.

God will take care of the rest of that stuff.

God will take care of the rest of that stuff. But I'm not going to be faithful until I got this stockpile. And when you give me this stockpile, God, then I'm going to be faithful.

If I ever win the lottery, Lord, you'll never see nobody any more faithful than me.

Now, come on, don't laugh at me. Because you've all been there. I've said it. Lord, I'll pay the whole church off.

I can't win the lottery because I ain't never played the lottery, but that's a whole other sermon in itself.

And I'm not busting anybody who's got a ticket. If you've got a ticket, you bring it up here and put it in your little church in the front here, the church in the back.

Just saying.

See, Jill, I am funny sometimes.

Jill says I'm not funny because she's heard the same things over and over.

You guys hear him like only three or four times.

And listen, by the way, let me tell you this.

Don't ever come to me with this expression because I'll shoot you down right where you stand.

Okay?

Okay, here it is.

I've paid my dues.

Just stand before the master one day and say,

I didn't do that because I paid my dues.

I gave it, man.

I gave it.

You're not, here's a hint for you.

Get it while you're young, AJ.

Okay, because if you get it while you're young,

you'll be way ahead of your mom and dad.

Okay, you're not entitled to anything.

I know the society is going to tell you differently,

but you are not entitled to anything.

You're not even entitled to the grace that God offers freely.

You're not even entitled to the blood of Jesus that washes you white.

You're not entitled to that.

But because of His grace, His love for us is just magnanimous.

Good and faithful has to be your motivation.

That's got to be your motivation.

And with good and faithful, opportunities will find you.

I promise, I promise, I promise you that.

Opportunities will find you if you are good and faithful.

But if you go around and you try to create stuff

and you ignore your character,

I'm telling you that your gifts might lead you to places

that your character ain't going to keep you.

You find yourself knee-deep in something

and you haven't been good in faith.

Your character won't allow you to continue to serve

and to be faithful in that

because you're trying to fulfill something

that God hasn't prepared you for.

So the Master rewards them.

I trust you.

Good on you.

Good on you.

Good job.

And so now he deals with the last dude

and we're going to end on a bummer here, okay?

And that word is rebuked, okay?

And this is a word here, you speak it

and the whole church breaks out in revival, right?

Okay?

But there's a principle in here though

and that is that there are consequences.

There are consequences for not leveraging

what God has given to us.

There's a price.

We will pay the consequences.

We will pay consequences.

Can't tell you what those will be for you

but there are consequences for not leveraging

for what God has placed in your hands.

All right, verse 24.

Is that where I left off?

I think so.

He also who had received the one talent

came forward saying,

Master, I knew you to be a hard man

reaping where you did not sow

and gathering where you scattered no seed.

A hard man right there,

what it's talking about there is,

I knew you to be a very,

you were a very shrewd businessman.

You were a sharp business guy, that's all.

All right, that's what that verse is saying.

So I was afraid, verse 25.

And I went and hid your talent in the ground

and here you have what is yours.

And so the excuse is that, man,

he would lose the money

and be liable for punishment.

And so he gives this shallow, flimsy excuse

for not doing anything

with the one talent that was entrusted to him.

And, you know, can't you just imagine

the master kind of staring at him?

So I went and hid it in the ground.

Are you serious?

You're kidding me, right?

Am I on candy camera?

You went and you hid it in the ground.

I didn't give this to you to go and bury.

I didn't give you this talent and this gift.

And you have the audacity

to kind of bend the truth a little bit

and even maybe lie a little bit here to me?

You get the, you know,

I don't want to engender any kind of guilt here,

but listen, what excuses this morning

are you giving to Jesus?

For not leveraging

what he has placed in your hands.

What excuses am I giving to Jesus

for not leveraging those things?

I gave you these gifts.

God says, I gave you these abilities.

I allowed you to get this education.

I allowed you to have this awesome relationship, okay?

But you made it out.

You made it all about you.

Today, that's how we bury treasure.

We end up making it all about us.

We end up killing the journey.

We end up making it all about us.

We end up making it all.

Who's better today because of what I've given you and put in your life today, what I have blessed you with? Whose lives have been changed because of what I have placed in your hands? How have you leveraged that to impact anyone around you? Anyone around you? Verse 26. But the master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant.

You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was on my own with interest. He's saying, okay, I'm a tough businessman. I keep an eye on my investments. You got me. You got me. I'm guilty of that. That's the reason I have what I have.

But the master rebukes him for being wicked and lazy. Wicked and lazy. And you might be thinking, well, how was he wicked? He was just, he was lazy, wasn't he? No, no. Notice the contrast.

The other two, the other two guys, okay, were commended for being good and faithful. But to him, he says, you're wicked, you're wicked and lazy.

These guys were good, and their character showed that they were trustworthy. They were faithful, and their diligence expressed their accountability.

Now he calls this guy wicked and lazy. Wicked has to do with his motivation. His motivation. He's saying, listen, you were disingenuous from the very beginning.

You weren't going to do anything with this. You weren't going to do anything. You were never going to use this.

So it speaks of his motivation and his character. And now, lazy is his disposition. He's slothful. He's lazy. That's it. That's your disposition.

You know, don't come up to me with all these excuses as to why you didn't want to put a little elbow grease to this thing and get to work.

Well, I was afraid of you. You were a best true businessman, so I was scared. I hit it. Here it is.

Don't give me that. Don't give me that. That lazy thing, you know, just because you didn't want to work.

I see that a lot in people. People get very jealous and very upset when somebody else is using their gifts.

Somebody else is using their abilities. And they'll even shade it with spiritual language and come up with all these different things.

There's a camouflage as to why they're jealous. You're just jealous because somebody else is operating in their giftedness.

And you're sitting over here with all these blessings in your hand, and you're not doing squat with it.

Instead of being jealous of them, why not get off your hind parts and do something for the Lord?

He has blessed you. He has equipped you.

He has given you so many. You are accountable. You are responsible.

And, you know, and so the real issue is you have all these things, and you're not doing a thing.

And listen, so maybe it's fear. We all get, we're all afraid at times.

You know, we have that little fear. The fear of failure will stop you from trying to succeed, to even trying.

And as I read this, I have, you know, maybe he was a little bit afraid.

But you should have been more afraid of the master than you were of the responsibility.

He got overwhelmed. He was fearful of the response.

What do I do with it? No, fearful of the master.

The answer to fear in the Bible is fear.

Fear. It's the redirection of your fear.

Because if you fear the Lord more than you fear people, you will always come out courageous.

I didn't say victorious in your eyes. You'll always come out courageous.

You hear me on that?

The redirection of your fear, okay?

The fear of failure will solidify your failure.

If that's all, I'm just, I'm just afraid, afraid I'm going to fail.

You've already failed.

You've already failed.

The master says you could have at least gone to the bank, okay?

And that's the reason why he calls him wicked and lazy.

And the other thing I want to point out here is that ultimately, ultimately we own

true.

And so,

and

Thank you.

the money, it doesn't give them any expectations or in terms of ranges of profit that he's looking for. So, it would seem to intimate to me, the emphasis is not so much on how much they make, but the emphasis is on their faithfulness with what they did with what they had. Take care of your business and leave the outcome to God. I could have shortened this whole sermon, huh? Take care of your business and leave the outcome to God. What you own is to be faithful and obedient with what you have, okay?

Verse 28. Let's get to the end of this. So, take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Now, read this in the context here. What he's saying is that I'm going to take what was in your hand,

and take it out of your hands, and I'm going to place it in the hands of somebody who's going to do something with it. He's not saying that they're better than you are. He's not saying that, but they're going to do something with it. I'm going to place it in someone's hands who will be good and faithful. Good and faithful. I think this happens a lot, even among Christians, where God warns Christians, I've given you this, I've given you this, I've given you this, I've given you this, I've given you this, I've given you this, I've given you

this and there's disobedience

there's disobedience there's disobedience

and there's selfishness and God says

alright I am going to take my

hand of favor and

blessing off of you and I'm

going to put you aside

I'm going

to put you over here and I think

this is what Paul had in mind when he writes

in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 27

that I have disciplined my body

and keep it under control

lest after preaching to others

I myself

be disqualified

so the master

does this with this man and then the harsh statement

in verse 30 I was just going to skip over this

but because there's a lot of Bible

scholars that have problems with this verse but

we're just going to go ahead and read it and deal with it so there you go

verse 30

and cast the worthless servant

into outer darkness in a

place there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth

what are you

telling me that just because he didn't use what was given to him

he's going to hell

now hold that tension there just for a second

alright

and read the last

verse of this chapter okay

it's a different parable but the same flavor

he's talking about

he's talking about those who have closed their heart

of compassion to the poor

and closed their heart to the

to the suffering and those who are in prison

in verse 46 he says

and these will go away

into eternal punishment

but the righteous into eternal life

and here's the point

I think what Jesus is saying is that

the failure

to use what has been

entrusted to us

may

be

an indication

that we didn't have a relationship

with the master

it's possible that that is an indication

that

the failure to be compassionate

as in the last parable there

okay

and the failure not to use what God has given us

in this parable

may be an indication

that we did not have

a primary relationship

with the Savior

that may be an indicator

now

faith without works is dead

okay

but we

we don't

come to Christ

based upon works

but our works

demonstrate

that we have come

to Christ

and our works

demonstrate

that we have a relationship

with Jesus

and where

where there is a lack

of compassion

for the poor

where there is a lack

of compassion

for the disenfranchised

the Bible

the Bible teaches us

that this might be

a clear signature

that you didn't have

a relationship

with God

because God's people

are supposed to reflect

God's heart

so

and to not serve

not serve

and to not leverage

what God has given you

could be an indication

I don't know if you know this

into outer darkness again don't build theology on parables alright so don't build theology upon parables you know what it could be teaching in here is that not not to gain praise and not to gain reward is darkness itself okay to not gain praise and reward from the Lord is dark so theologians argue this all day long so we throw out verse 30 just to tickle you and just

to really upset you but there you go okay it could be an indicator of these things so let me just close with five quick things let me lay these out for you and we'll end with this I want to just kind of challenge you and just kind of recap you the first one I'm not going to put them on here because I just want you to listen write them down if you want to but what has been placed in your hands always belongs to the master that's the first thing you need not just your spiritual gifts but your experience

your experiences too your opportunities your abilities everything everything that's in us belongs to him secondly the gift or the talent whatever whatever has been invested whatever has been invested in you that's your invitation to get in the game get involved in the kingdom work whatever God has put in you however he the very presence of God's favor in your life

is the invitation is the invitation is the very presence of God's abilities in your life is the invitation what's the game building and growing the kingdom of God that's the game okay these two servants had an urgency about them they went out and got busy right away they hit the marketplace we need to get after it we need to get after it next what we have is only valuable when we give it

give it away what you have is only valuable when you give it away and it's only valuable when it's used for its intended purpose as well if it's not if it's not used if the gift that God has given you it's not used for its intended purpose guess what it becomes hay wood stubble if it's not for kingdom work

next don't think about yourself but the but think about the interests of the master

this other guy operated from a place of fear think about the interest of the master that's that was our message last week it begins with the letting go of your life then giving yourself to the goal of life okay and that is Christ all right and

and and um I don't lead with myself I lead with the interest of the master that's what it boils down to and finally

and don't be that person that plays it safe

don't play it safe

and God's got churches all over this all over this world is filled with people who just play it safe on a daily basis

aren't you tired of that don't you want that exciting life

don't you want a life filled with the filled with the joy of the Lord

serving the Lord to the best of your ability with the gifts that he has given you

and and and the Lord giving you invitation come into the presence of my joy

there is such joy in serving the Lord there is such joy

the clock is the clock is ticking the king is coming he's coming

and so is the worship team

you

you

you

you