Parable of the Talents--Yes, Again!

 

Read Matthew 25:14-30

I have preached this parable at least twice a year to this body, and most of those twice-a-year occasions included two different messages at our services. Some years, I worked it in more.

I have preached this in other locations. It is a Go-to Parable. It is jam-packed. It is good for preaching, good for Bible study, and best when put into practice.

So, where do I go this time? I will follow my Sermon for Dummies guidelines that I keep posted by my computer.

·       Include the good news in the message.

·       Connect the good news to our current situation.

·       Repeat critical items.

I am going to focus on the third guideline: Repeat critical items. So here we go again with my acronym: TURN

T is for trusted. All of the servants were trusted with money in accordance with their ability. They had a preexisting relationship with their master before this parable began. They were trusted servants. Even the third servant was trusted with a substantial investment in his ability. We are trusted servants.

U stands for urgency. The first two servants put their talents to work at once. They were ready to be trusted more, and because of that, they could put their master’s money to work immediately. We are to act with urgency.

R is for Return on Investment (ROI). The master expected a return on the trust he placed in his servants. He didn’t have to say this. These servants knew this because of the existing relationship. We are to produce a return for our Master.

N is for No Fear. Every servant had to contend with fear, but only the third one was debilitated by fear. We all deal with fear, but we should not be afraid. Our desire to produce a return for our master should be enough to overcome whatever fear is taunting us. If you must be afraid, be afraid of not pleasing your master, but fear does not govern the trusted servants' thinking or actions. We are to live without fear interfering with our decisions.

This acronym brings us to the question of what we did with what our Master (the Lord) gave us. We must realize that we are his trusted servants, are to act with urgency, are to produce a return on our Master’s trust, and that fear does not govern our lives.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge… The key word there is beginning.

Perfect love casts out fear.

But the question remains. What did we do with what God gave us?

I have posed this as a challenge in various areas of our discipleship. Among the gifts or trusts given to us were time, talents, and treasure, the standard three.

Also, in this context of what did we do with what God gave us, we explored our salvation, wisdom, children, leadership, spiritual gifts, Sabbath rest, and even God’s generosity.

We have looked at fear and why the third servant was called wicked in addition to being easily labeled as lazy.

And we have looked at this parable in the context of fear.

So what is left?

How about victory? What did we do with the victory that God gave—I say it again, gave—us. In our belief and profession of Jesus as Lord, we receive the victory that Jesus won on the cross. We pass from death to life.

Our sin is set aside. Death has no more sting for us. Yes, we hurt when we lose a loved one. Even Jesus wept over Lazarus, knowing full well that he would see his friend momentarily. He would need a shower and some new clothes but death would not claim him for now.

Only a few, ok that few could be a few billion people, but in comparison to all who have lived since God created humans, it’s not that many, will meet Jesus the old fashioned way, through death. Most won’ get to meet him in the clouds without experiencing death.

Most of us will get to heaven the old-fashioned way. We will die in these bodies, but the death of this body is not the end for the believer.

We get that, and we discussed this when we discussed the parable and salvation, but this time, let’s look deeper into that salvation.

Let’s consider this salvation, which we know through our faith and God’s grace, in the context of victory.

Sin does not enslave us and death cannot hold us. That’s victory. No, that’s the ultimate victory.

Remember God’s answer to Paul’s prayers to remove the thorn in his side: My grace is sufficient for you.

So, what’s different from just asking what we did with our salvation?

With the words "Your grace is enough for me," we affirm that we have already won the ultimate victory. Nothing in this world can take that away from me or you.

So, should we not be the boldest people on the planet? We have already won even if we mess up everything from now until our hearts stop. We have already won.

There should be nothing that holds us back from putting our Master’s words into practice. We should be bold, we can’t lose.

Back in the mid 1990s, I went to a Chester L. Karrass negotiating seminar. It was good training, so much so that I hired the guy to train 20 of my people, who quite frankly were terrible negotiators. It was money well spent, but I’m not talking about negotiation.

The instructor began the class by asking who would bet $100 on the flip of a coin. Nobody responded.

Then he said, "What if I gave you 10 to 1 odds, and we would do this 10 times?"

I stood up right then, started pulling my wallet out of my back pocket, and said, “I’ll take that action!”

If you have a 50-50 chance of winning each time and if only won once, you would break even. Any coin flip that came up in your favor after that was gravy.

The offer was only for instructional purposes and I became good friends with the instructor, wrote a few things for him, and still consider the training he provided some of the best I have received in my life.

OBTW—for the couple of dozen negotiating strategies and tactics discuss, the instructor noted that the Karass organization only endorsed one—the Win-Win.

We have the ultimate win-win in our salvation that came by God’s mercy and grace.

We have better than 10-1 odds. We’ve already won.

That should give us peace. We should be assured of our right standing with God. We should be fully convinced in our own minds—doubt gets the boot—that we will enjoy the company of our God and Savior for eternity.

That should make us bold as disciples of Christ Jesus, bold in our witness, and send us into the world without fear of anything the world can do to us.

Yes, we will have trouble, pain, sorrow, hurt, and a bunch of stuff that if we wrote the script for our own day, would not be included. But all of that stuff is nothing compared to what is in store for us.

So we should be bold as we serve the Lord and bring glory to his name. Do not be timid. Do not hold back. We don’t do fear.

You are on a mission from God and regardless of how many times you are wounded while you go into the world with good news, you will be with God and be in right standing with him for eternity.

You win!

Now, stop holding back.

What did we do with the mercy and grace that God gave us?

I hope that we all hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” one day. And maybe our Master might add, “You were fearless as you brought glory to my name.”

Bruh, you were fearless!

That’s what we long to hear. We are told that if we deny Jesus before men, he will deny us before his Father. That’s “Depart from me I never knew you,” sort of stuff.

But it doesn’t apply to you. You will not deny Jesus. You know the truth. You will remain faithful to the end, but will you be bold?

Bold is not boisterous, bravado, or something in which you need a Type-A/High Dominance personality profile. There is no preferred Myers-Briggs Type Indicator required.

It’s going where God sends you and not worrying about the consequences.

You want to do your best, but you are not afraid to trip and fall and get back up as you learn new things and ways to practice your discipleship.

We are bold!

We have no excuse to be timid. To be timid is to bury our talents in the ground.

We will not accept burying our talents in the ground. That’s not us. Being bold might take—will take—practice.

And once again, I come to the sage of modern-day wisdom, Yogi Berra, for further guidance.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Take what God has given you and do something with it. Just do it. Make your best decision, don’t look back, and do what you know to do to bring glory to God’s name.

When you come to a fork in the road, take it. Which way? The way that God is leading you, and do it with urgency. There is no get around to it in the discipleship business.

There are some things that we do as organizations and in those cases groups of people make decisions or you need a supervisor’s approval to act.

That’s not the case with what God has given you by grace. You are free to act without worry about losing your right standing with God as you do your best to bring glory to his name.

Should you abide by the laws and regulations in place? Of course. Understand what the law prohibits, but don’t back off beyond that. The Pharisees did that by adding to the law.

You are not supposed to work on the Sabbath, so we should prohibit even picking up a shovel in case someone forgets it is the Sabbath and starts digging a ditch.

Should we not be concerned with our personal safety? In the big picture, your destination is assured even if you die in your endeavor, but don’t do stupid stuff to hasten the process.

Should I get up in people’s faces and thump them with my Bible? If that’s your approach, make sure you take a big, heavy Bible and not some little gospel the Gideons put out. And make sure your mouthwash is Listerine strength.

Seriously, we are not making people come and be disciples; we make disciples when they respond to the good news.

We deliver the good news. The receiver decides if he or she believes. We disciple those who believe and pray for those who don’t, at least haven’t yet. That’s our hope, that they will respond to the grace offered while they can.

We will be so bold to give those who refused another round at some point. As long as it is called today, we continue to share this gospel of truth.

We try to get along with everyone as much as possible, but we will not hold back on sharing what we are commissioned to share. We don’t go into the world to offend people, but if the truth offends them, they need to hear the truth and we must be bold and share it.

So, in this ongoing saga of sermons of the Parable of the Talents, what will we do with the words from God, “My grace is enough for you?”

Among all of our other responses that bring glory to God’s name, let’s add boldness to that list.

Let’s be bold in bringing glory to God by taking his love and good news to the world!

Amen.

For more on this jam-packed parable, follow the links…

 

The Parable of the Talents

Parable of the Talents – Part I

Parable of the Talents – Part II

Parable of the Talents – Part III

Parable of the Talents: You wicked, lazy servant

The Parable of the Talents: God’s Generosity

The Parable of the Talents: Leadership Lessons

The Parable of the Talents: Points & Prayers

The Parable of the Talents and our Spiritual Gifts

The Parable of the Talents & Wisdom

The Parable of the Talents & Children

The Parable of the Talents and Sabbath Rest

Take the Talent Away from Him

God wants to give you more

After a long time…

The Baseball Glove and Salvation

Christian Stewardship - Time

Christian Stewardship – Talents

Christian Stewardship – Treasure

The Parable of the Talents & Wisdom

 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?

Amen

The Parable of the Talents: Points & Prayers

Read Matthew 25:14-30

After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 

For over a decade, I have been preaching or teaching or examining this parable with you at least twice a year.  The year that we did all of the parables, I taught this 3 consecutive Sundays.  This year you can get it twice a Sunday for two Sundays in a row.  That’s 4 messages in 2 Sundays at no extra charge, but you must act now to receive this special offer.

If you know me, then you know how special this parable is to me.  It ranks right up there with lost and found in Luke 15, and has so many perspectives and dimensions. 

I always try to take a slightly different approach to the parable each time.  There is, of course, some overlap.  In the earlier service, we focused on the perspective of the master in this parable, noting his expectations and what he valued.  It was a good model for our own leadership.

Though many of the aspects of the master surely represent Jesus, we should not make the parable allegorical.   Today, I ask us to look at this unique aspect of the parable—the master was gone for a long time.

This wasn’t a typical 2-week vacation.  This wasn’t a 6-month sabbatical.  The master was gone a long time.  The servants were left to their own inclinations for a long time.

There is a short book by the title of A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard.  It was published first in 1899 and is therefore in the public domain and can easily be found on the internet.  It puts us in the age of President McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, and the Spanish American War.

In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at Perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to communicate quickly with the leader of the insurgents. García was somewhere in the mountain vastnesses of Cuba—no one knew where. No mail nor telegraph message could reach him. The President must secure his cooperation, and quickly.

What to do!

Someone said to the President, “There’s a fellow by the name of Rowan will find García for you, if anybody can.”

Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to García. How “the fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot and delivered his letter to García, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail.

The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to García; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing—“Carry a message to García!”

General García is dead now, but there are other Garcías.

The remainder of the essay is worth reading.  My own children have read it numerous times, surely mumbling bad things about me on some occasions and joyous when they needed a last minute book report.

It looks at how unique it is to find a person who will do his job, do it right, do it with excellence, and do it without someone having to look over his should every minute.  The first two servants in the parable were such people.

They took what had been entrusted to them, put it to work, produced an excellent return, and stood ready to settle accounts with their master upon his return.

I have previously used an acronym that I created for this parable.  It’s TURN.

T is for Trusted.  Each of these servants was trusted with money in accordance with their ability.  That means that there was a relationship of trust already in place.  The master knew what each servant could handle and extended his trust accordingly.

Such a trust sets up the scenario for success.  Failure is always a risk, but these trusted servants would find a way to succeed.  Trust continues even in the absence of the master, perhaps especially in the absence of the master.

At this time, I ask that we consider the trust that we have been given by our Master.  We are trusted with the gospel, being a light unto the world, these temples in which we live, the stewardship of this planet, and so many things that we may not think of on a daily basis.  So we pause briefly from the didactic form of this message to seek our Master in prayer.

Lord,

We seek you once again, coming this time thanking you that you trust us so much.  We thank you for your confidence in us, giving us the gifts and talents which we need to produce good fruit for you.  We petition you to open our eyes and ears and help us to see the many trusts given to us.

Our children and parents.

Our church family.

Those who are shut in or alone.

Those whom you have called the least of these.

The day itself for you have made it.

The gospel.

Our example.

Our tithe.

Investment of our time.

Our testimonies.

Lord, help us to see those things with which you have trusted us, so we may give a good account upon your return.

Amen.

U is for Urgency.  The first two servants went at once and put their talents to work.  Realize that these servants knew that they were the master of their master’s money.  They were also prepared to be trusted with more.  Part of the trust was the servant’s preparation to be trusted with more.

When the time came, they were ready.  There was no delay.  There was no when I get around to it attitude. They did not badger their master with a million and one questions before he departed.  They were ready and they put their master’s money to work at once.  They were ready.

Urgency without preparation is busyness and chaos.  They were ready and put their master’s money to work at once.

Let’s think on the things with which our Master has entrusted us.  Are we putting them to work at once?  Are we waiting to share the good news with our neighbor when the situation becomes more inviting?  Are we waiting to share our testimony for a time when we are more comfortable?

Comfort zones and obedience to our Master are often in conflict, at least until obedience becomes our comfort zone.  Let us pause once again amidst this homily and seek our Lord.

Lord,

We approach your throne of grace once again.  We come in confidence that this is exactly where you want us to be, seeking you with our entire being.  For this moment, we come in petition, asking you to grant us urgency in the right things.

Prompt us to preparation and readiness, so that when we receive a new trust from you, we are ready to put it to work.

Sustain us in those things with which you have entrusted to us for some time.  Let us begin each day with new enthusiasm as we pour ourselves into what you have given us.

Amen.

R is for Return on Investment.  We must always desire to produce fruit that benefits the body of Christ and that brings glory to God.  Obedience produces a return for our Master.  Doing things his way—putting his words into practice—produces a return for our Master.

Generosity produces a good return.  Love produces a good return.  Discipline and instruction produce good returns, that is, pruning increases the harvest. 

Study produces good returns.  Group study—those inclined towards the proverb as iron sharpens iron, so one sharpens another—produce good returns.

Ministries that connect people with the God of love and salvation and with each other produce good returns.  Let us approach our Heavenly Father once again as we seek to produce good fruit for him.

Lord,

Our hearts desire to produce a good return for you.  We long to produce fruit that benefits the body of Christ and brings glory to your name.

Help us hear your voice as we minister in this world.  Help us be fluent in your word—a workman approved—who produces good fruit for you.

Give us eyes to see those things that produce good fruit for you and those that do not.  Grant us wisdom and determination to seek only the things that bring glory to your name.

Amen.

The N in this acronym stands for No Fear.  Fear is real and is always a factor.  Having no fear is not really an option, but not letting fear govern us is within our grasp.  We do not have to give in to fear.  We are reminded that perfect love casts out fear.  It does not mean fear does not exist.  It simply kicks fear to the curb.

Without fear, we might never know courage, but rest assured that God desires us to live governed by courage and not fear.

All three servants knew fear.  Only the third servant was governed by it.  Choose courage over fear.  Remember that we are trusted servants.  God is not setting us up to fail.  He knows what we can handle and we should boldly use our gifts and talents.

Let us go to God once again in prayer.

Heavenly Father,

Help us to be bold.  Help us to fear only you and even then, to know with a blessed assurance that you have set aside our punishment, that Christ Jesus has paid the price for all of our sins.

Help us to be strong and courageous.  Help us to remember that you are with us wherever we go.

Help us to never dilute the gifts and talents that you have bestowed upon us with fear.

Help us to recognize fear for what it is, a tool of the enemy, and live as if we have no fear.

Amen.

We have taken on this parable today with a little different tact, but I hope that our points and prayers this morning have been a good investment on the year ahead. 

We are God’s trusted servants.  Let us act with urgency, desiring to produce fruit for our Lord, and kick fear to the curb every chance that we get.

Let us be people who know that they will hear, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

Come and share your Master’s happiness.  Let’s conclude in prayer.

Lord,

We love you.  We want our lives to please you.  We want to take what you have given us and put it to purposeful use without delay.  We want our very lives to be a living sacrifice to you, that they are a pleasant aroma to you.

We want to live unchecked by any fear generated by the enemy, this world, or our own sinful nature.

We want to bring glory to your name.

We desire to live this life as fully as we can by using all that you have given us for your glory.

Help us produce good fruit by all that we do.

In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray.

Amen.

Parable of the Talents - Part III

Read Matthew 25:14-30

Read in other translations…

Read the Parable of the Talents Part I or Part II.

We come to the Parable of the Talents, Round III.  We have looked at the first two servants and the acronym TURN.

Trusted—each of the three servants was trusted by his master.  They were entrusted with money in accordance with their ability.

Urgency—the first two servants acted at once and put their master’s money to work.  We noted that they were the master in their relationship with this money.  They put it to work and it did not get a day off.

Return on Investment (ROI)—the first two knew that their master was demanding and expected a return.  They were wise and demanding with their investments and produced a fantastic return for him.

No Fear—while fear is real and risk is real, the servants were not immobilized by fear.  Wisdom, not fear governed what they did with their master’s money.

We have looked at how fear governed the decisions of the third servant.  He tried to blame his master for his decisions, but it was very simply his fear that impacted a terrible decision to bury his master’s money in the ground.

He was a trusted servant at the beginning of the parable.  His master knew that he could manage and produce a return on one talent of money.  He was not being set up to fail, he was trusted and expected to succeed, even if success was only putting the money into a savings account. Fear governed his actions.

The end result was that two servants were deemed to be good and faithful and invited to share their master’s happiness and one was labeled wicked and lazy and given the boot.

At the heart of this parable is what I have been describing as Tom’s Tweet on the Parable of the Talents.  It is the question never asked but answered by all three servants.  It is the question always before us as disciples of Jesus Christ and a generous God who is in the gift-giving business.

What did we do with what God gave us?

If you made it through rounds I & II you know that acting with urgency and producing a return are essential.  You know that fear offers nothing good in the way of return on investment.  You understand that what we are given by God is a trust.

You also understand that love precedes trust.  We do not do our best with what God gave us to earn his love.  We already have his love.  His love for us was poured out in the blood of Jesus.  Love preceded trust.

It is now time to go fully into application mode.  So what do we do?  Most of the time, we are not handed bags of money, but we are trusted with much—very much.  What do we do?

For this third homily on the parable, I want to look at what we do with what we are given in these areas:  time, talents (or gifts), treasure, and the gospel.

Let’s start with time.  Believe it or not, we all receive the same amount of time each day.  We have 1440 minutes in each day.  Whether you count your day from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. or midnight to midnight, the math comes out the same.

Now if you are staring at the microwave for the last 45 seconds of you breakfast burrito, that single minute seems like an eternity.  If you are in the middle of doing twenty things and making good progress on all of them and look at the clock, you might think, “Where did my day go?”

We have the same amount of time but to some, time drags on and to others it is so fleeting.

Why do some people get so much accomplished and some seem to get nothing done with the time trusted to them?  Is it motivation?  Is it force of personality?  Is it heredity?  Is it our socialization?  Is it an incentive program?  What is it?

I will suggest to you that it is purpose.  It is plain and simple purpose that produces results.  It is purpose that puts our time to good use.  Much as the first two servants were the master in their relationship with their master’s money; we are master with the time given to us.

Understand we are not gridlocked by our calendar, but we budget our time to important things—things that God has purposed us to accomplish.  That means that we can say “no” to many, many other things.  We decide—wisely decide—what to do with each minute of our lives.

The psalmist declares to the Lord, “Teach us to number our days.”  This was not a request to switch to Julian dates.  It is a request for wisdom that values our time in these vessels of clay.  Every minute counts.

I spent time as a counselor in prison and can tell you that some count minutes but don’t make their minutes count.  Some count days but don’t make their days count.  I sent many an inmate client out of my office in a bewildered state because in the middle of his story, I said, “Time’s up,” and sent him on his way.

Some, after a time, learned to talk about the things that were important instead of just running their stories over and over again.  Sadly, people who just count minutes instead of making minutes count are not all in prison.

We have a world of people ignorant that our time on this earth is so fleeting.  James would say that we are but a mist, here for a moment and then gone.  But we are to be numbered among the wise.

Our time matters and we desire to use it to produce a return for our Master.  So do we pack our calendars as full as possible?  No, we live every moment with purpose.

If we jam pack every day with activities, we might miss out on some very essential things that God purposed us to do.  You might get your kids to soccer and ballet and baseball and FFA and even to the lock-in, but are you just meeting the schedule or bringing them up in the way they should go.

You made it to the gym and then paid all the bills and worked in the oil change on the car.  Put the clothes in the dryer before you left the house.  It seems like the washer and drier are always running. The truck can wait until next month for service.  You even updated your Facebook.  

Wow!  Thirty birthdays in one day seems like a lot.  You don’t even remember who most of these people are.  You’re getting a lot done but are they the things God made you to do?

Purpose is more important than scheduling.

Next, we look at talents or gifts.  These are the raw materials that God gave us and expects us to refine into skills that produce a return.  I think the first two servants were better gifted than the third with some raw ability, but they still had to put these talents or gifts to use to produce some skill.

Some gifts are intellectual.  Some are athletic.  Some are artistic.  God packed a whole lot into us and as we work out our salvation, we should discover what these gifts and talents are and put them to work.

We put these gifts and talents to work.  We put them to work.  Much as the first two servants put their master’s money to work, we put our talents to work.  Have you ever noticed that when you put your gifts to work, it’s not like we are working?

When we do the things that God hard-wired us to do, it doesn’t seem like work, like labor.  We are putting what God gave us to work.  We leverage these talents and produce a good return.

Now we might break a sweat or have some sore muscles at the end of the day or our brains might get tired if you work in an intellectually challenging environment, but if it is what God made us to do, we are very much putting our talents to work.  These gifts and talents labor for us.                                                                                                     

Not everyone has the same package of gifts and talents.  Some are better wired to work with small children.  Some can see music in a financial spreadsheet.  Others can listen to the conversations of twenty people and find and share the common thread.  Some find great joy being locked into a laboratory for weeks searching for a cure for cancer or the common cold. 

But some talents are never tapped.  They are never leveraged to produce great things.  They are safely tucked away inside of us.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. once said, “Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”

That’s a quote that hits both time and talents.

The term for what Justice Holmes described is called tragedy.  All the potential is there but is never put to work.  We are people who use what God packed inside of us to produce a good return.  We put our gifts and talents to use and our Master is pleased.

We put our gifts and talents to work at once, and quite often work doesn’t seem like work.

Let me touch briefly on Spiritual Gifts.  We who have professed Jesus as Lord and have received the Holy Spirit also received special gifts.  These gifts when put to use produce extraordinary returns.  Many of these gifts are named in the Bible, but we don’t view these lists as all inclusive.  The biblical enumerations were not meant to say “these and no others.”

Surely pastor, teacher, evangelist, and prophet fit the bill, but it is likely that God gifted some with gifts such as music or leadership or writing or even listening.  God put something in you—or called it to life—when you received the Holy Spirit.  This is a gift that goes beyond your God-give talents that were there from your human birth.  These are gifts that have be given to you are called into service since your spiritual birth.

Here’s the thing.  Whether it is a God-given talent that we were born with and honed over the years or a Spiritual Gift that manifested itself when we were baptized by the Holy Spirit, we are to put these gifts and talents to work to produce a return for our Master.  We are to put them to work at once.

Let’s talk treasure.  Not all of us are trusted with bags of gold, but most of us are.  We don’t carry it in bags but we have this thing called an income.  It might be because we work or because we invested wisely or it might be because somebody said you get paid just for breathing.

In this country, you might get paid because you have a job or you might get paid because you don’t.  Compared to the rest of the world, what income we have—wherever it comes from—is like a bag of gold.

But, I’ve got bills!  I get that.  You are probably going to have bills next month too, and very likely the month after as well.

But, you also have a trust.  You have some income and what you have is a trust.  We could talk about the tithe and how that is trusting God back with a tenth of what he is trusting you with, but that’s really all I’m going to say about that.  If you missed the money sermon last year, then read it online.

that what we have been given in money or property or stuff is a trust.  We still are called to answer the same question.  What did I do—or will I do—with what God gave me. 

Sometimes we use money to produce a monetary return.  We start a business.  We invest wisely in other businesses and industries.  We put our money into a very low risk account.  We stick our monetary necks out a little on something with a little more risk but potential for a greater payoff.

Whatever we do with our treasure should be governed by wisdom and not fear.  Not all investments of our treasure produce a monetary return.  I will be very up front with you here.  We are not going to make any money on that playground for which some of you made special offerings.

We are not going to sell day passes or season passes.  It is not going to make any money but it will pay a dividend.  

We are not going to sell lunch tickets for Chewy Tuesdays or Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter.  We spend money on food and spend time in preparation and delivery, but we don’t make one cent in profit.  We do produce a fantastic return on investment.

We take some treasure—mostly money but also some in-kind donations—and we invest it in meals for kids.  Our return on that investment is in smiles, hugs, and an affirmation that along the way something reached these children and they know God’s love by our actions.

We used our treasure to let our light shine before men so that people could see God’s love in action and in so doing, bring glory to God.  That’s paying a good dividend!

But we won’t make a cent on the whole deal.  That said, it is a fantastic investment of our treasure.

What did Jesus say about treasure?

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Don’t bury your treasure in the ground thinking it will be safe.  The only way that treasure is safe is when it is put to use in this world so our account is credited in the age to come.

That doesn’t mean that you should not have a savings account or an IRA or some cash or gold in a safe place.  It doesn’t mean that you should not have money for emergencies.  It doesn’t mean that a little buffer in your checking account is not a wise thing.

It means that you are the master of your money and you tell it where to go.  If you do this wisely, you will fare well in this world and have treasure in the age to come.  You are master over you treasure and you put it to work in accordance with the God-given purpose that you are living.

We consider the treasure that we have a trust from God and we wisely put it to use.

That covers the standard time, talents, and treasure framework that typically you will find attached to this parable or attached to a Stewardship Month or series.  It’s good to know and good to apply, and it is just part of the equation. I would say that’s the warm up part.  We are just getting warmed up.

What’s left?  Our commission and the gospel, that’s what.

Of all the things that God has trusted to us—from the macro level, that being the earth, to things such as time and talents and treasure—nothing really compares to our commission and the gospel.

Am I saying that the gospel is a greater trust than the stewardship of the earth?  That’s a pretty big trust.

Yes.  That is what I am saying.  Heaven and earth will pass away.  We are told that God will give us a new heaven and a new earth.  That’s no excuse for bad stewardship of the planet entrusted to us, but we must understand that the gospel is an invitation to eternity.

Our commission to take this gospel across the street and across the planet is bigger than 5 bags of gold.  This is the biggest trust that God has placed in us.

If one day someone comes up to you and says on behalf of the Lord, I am giving you these five big bags of gold; I want you to respond: “Thank you very much.  I will put them to work at once.  This is the second biggest trust that I have been given.”

Our commission and the gospel are the biggest trust we have been given.  Remember that a commission is not just a command.  It comes with authority.  In this case, God-given authority. 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

If we do a really good job at putting our time, talents, and treasures to use and bury our commission in the ground, what have we done?

Should we expect to hear a Well done, good and faithful servant from our Master.  Our time, talent, and treasures are sort of like practice for putting our commission into effect.

These are the few things that we have done well with and produced a good return.  The gospel is something greater that we have been trusted with to put to work—to bring to a blind and broken world.

Our commission and the gospel makes us partners with our Master.  In the parable, the master said, now come and share my happiness.  Come and be a part of what I am all about.

Jesus called his disciples friends because they would be about his Father’s business.  They were family now.  So are we.  We are on the friends and family plan.

We should be wise and produce a return for our Master with the time, talents, and treasures that he has entrusted to us.  We should produce a good return with what we have been given.  Sometimes those returns last a lifetime.

But putting the gospel to work is playing in the big leagues.  That’s where we produce returns that last for eternity.  That’s where our hearts should desire to hear, Well done good and faithful servant more than anywhere else.

We conclude where we began some time ago, with the question that is never asked in the parable but was answered by all three servants.

What did you do with what I gave you?

My rewording to make it applicable to us is, what did we do with what God gave us?  I hope that each of us is living in such a way that we will receive a well done for what we did with our time, talents, and treasures.

Most of all, I pray that we hear well done good and faithful servant with what we did with the ultimate trust given to us—the gospel.

More than all the bags of gold that we could manage, the good news that God really does love us is news that we are called to put to work at once.

When we answer the question, what did we do with what God gave us, I pray that we can say we produced a good return on the time, talents, and treasures that he gave us; and that we put everything that we had into our commission and never gave the gospel a day off.

Amen.