Read Matthew 25:14-30
We have completed a journey of about 8
months through the Proverbs. During that
time, I have also acquired some wisdom from my life experience. Here are two things that I have learned.
I don’t remember the first one, but
the second one is that I should write things down.
We are about to begin a course through
four of Paul’s letters:
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I am bookending these
epistles with the Parable of the Talents.
Long ago, I told you that this parable had so much packed into it, that I
needed to preach it at least twice a year.
I expect to continue that trend until you run me off.
Over the years, I have given you the
same acronym that I came up with about 14 years ago. I like this acronym so you are getting it
again. It’s TURN.
T is for trusted. The master trusted these servants. They were entrusted with large sums of
money. That trust was based upon their
ability. There was not equal
distribution. They were trusted with
what their abilities could handle.
Even the third servant who only buried
his talent in the ground was trusted with one talent—perhaps $100,000 or
perhaps more.
Each servant was entrusted with money
in accordance with his ability.
The U is for urgent or
urgency. The first two servants put
their master’s money to work at once.
They acted immediately.
Notice that we are told these two
servants put their master’s money to work.
It doesn’t say they went out and got an extra job at McDonald's. They put money to work. They were the master in their relationship
with money and made the money work for them, and they did it without
hesitation.
That does not mean they did it without
deliberation. I suspect that these first
two servants had been contemplating what they would do if they were entrusted
with more than they had been so far. The
deliberation had been done in advance so they could act upon receipt of the
trust.
We are not told that the third servant
acted immediately, but I suspect that he did.
The last thing that he wanted was to put his master’s money to work. I think he buried his single talent soon
after receiving it.
R is for Return on Investment. Each of the first two servants produced a
huge return on investment. Their master
expected a return.
They had to be skilled in their
investments. They had to be focused on telling their money what to do. This was their work—to produce a return on
what their master gave them.
The third servant produced no
return. He could have put his master’s
money in a money market account and at least made a little interest, but he did
not, which brings us to the final letter in the acronym.
N is for No Fear. The third servant was governed by fear. Money became the master in this relationship
because of fear. The first two surely had to deal with fear but fear did not debilitate
them. Fear may have been a factor but
the first two servants behaved as if they had no fear.
A couple decades ago, Spencer Johnson
wrote a book called Who Moved My Cheese?
It is essentially a book on dealing with change, but in the course of the
story, the decision-makers were asked a question. What would I do if I was not afraid?
Most often, the answer to this
question was the best course of action.
How many times does God’s word remind us not to be afraid?
Over the years, I have asked you to
look at what fear does. The example of a
football team that has led the entire game but plays the last two minutes not
to lose instead of sticking to what has been working often finds themselves
upside-down on the scoreboard at the end.
The team that was behind the whole
game throws fear out the window. What
difference does it make? We’re losing
anyway. Suddenly, things start going in their
favor. They are fearless and seemingly
unstoppable.
We don’t see this as much as we used
to because coaches got wise to the dynamics of fear and stopped playing not
to lose and continued with what got them the lead in the first place.
There you have the acronym
TURN—Trusted, Urgent, Return on Investment, and No Fear. We could leave the parable there, but there is
a powerful question that was never asked by the master, but each servant
answered this question in turn.
For those of you who have heard me
preach this parable 30, 40, or 50 times, you know the question. I phrase it as if the master is asking it.
What did you do with what I gave you?
That’s the question answered in the
parable. I changed it a little so we
could apply it to ourselves.
What did I do with what God gave me?
Over the years we have examined the
answer to this question in terms of time, talents, and treasure. These are the customary categories for
stewardship. A few years ago, I added another
category for our consideration—the gospel.
What did we do with what God gave
us? What did we do with our
commission? What did we do with the
gospel?
Did we put it to work at once and
produce a return for our Master? Did we
bury it in the ground?
Did we take the good news to our next-door
neighbor or the people down the block or someone on the other side of the world
or were we afraid and we kept the gospel to ourselves?
Did fear interfere with our delivery
of the good news?
Today, I add another category for
consideration as we continue to answer this question.
What did I do with what God gave me?
That category is wisdom. What did I do with the wisdom that God gave
me? What did we do with the wisdom God gave us?
James wrote that God gives wisdom
generously to those who ask and do not doubt.
God does not disqualify our request because we have done poorly in the
past. He gives wisdom to us and he gives
it generously.
But what will we do with his wisdom?
But, I’m not going to college or
graduate school or designing space stations or nuclear power plants. Do I really need wisdom?
If you have ever wrestled with a
decision, you need wisdom. The proverb that we all know tells us to trust in
the Lord even when our own understanding tells us to do something else.
God has already figured out the
consequences and sequels of every choice and has set the best choice before
us. Wisdom says trust God over our own
understanding.
The parable teaches us to put God’s
wisdom to work and to produce a return for our Master. We trust him and do not doubt. We follow his wisdom even when it seems
crazy—crazy like building an ark when it has never
rained in the history of the planet.
Putting God’s wisdom to work requires
urgency. God’s wisdom is our first choice,
not the last resort. We do things God’s
way and we do it without second-guessing him.
We trust and do not doubt.
James reminds us that if we doubt, we are like a wave tossed
about the sea. We have no direction, no
course to stay. We are adrift.
When we trust God and put the wisdom
that he gave us to work right away, that’s our first step towards overcoming
doubt.
We don’t ask God for wisdom, then
analyze his direction for soundness when we receive it. We don’t do a cost-benefit analysis or an
estimate of supportability on what God has told us is the best choice. That
doesn’t mean that we don’t seek to understand God’s ways. It means we don’t reduce his direction to
being just one of many options.
We put his wisdom to work at once.
When we analyze God’s infallible directions to us, we give doubt and fear a
foothold.
We are blessed that we have God’s
wisdom available to us all of the time.
Most of you have at least one Bible.
Many of you have quite a collection of God’s words written on your
hearts.
We must put God’s words to work now,
without delay. We must help each other
live as wise people. We sharpen
each other.
By trusting God
and putting his words into practice, we produce a return for our Master. That return is most often manifested in love
for each other and for those whom we barely know.
And when fear tries to bring doubt
into the equation, we take every fearful thought captive and make them obedient to Christ Jesus. We live as if fear was not a factor.
Fear is always a factor, but we give
it no weight in our decisions. Fear does not have veto power over our sound minds.
The only fear that comes into play is
the fear of the Lord for it is the beginning of our godly journey towards perfect love.
There are countless applications of
God’s wisdom in our everyday decisions.
I’m not going to attempt to make a never-ending list as a
reference. We know so much of what God
desires.
Honesty
Integrity
Industry
Generosity
Harmony
Peace
We saw those in the Proverbs
time and again. We are to be known by our love. We
are to share God’s love and his invitation to live
in good relationship with him forever.
We are to put his words into practice and the parable reminds us to do it right
away, without delay.
We are to produce a return for the
Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ.
We are to trust in the Lord and kick
fear to the curb.
I leave you with the same question as you
have heard for years.
What did I go with what God gave me?
Now ask yourself the same question in
the context of wisdom.
What did I do with the wisdom God gave me?
Did I put it to work right away or did
I let fear and doubt persuade me to bury God’s wisdom in the ground?
What did I go with what God gave me?
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