Sunday, October 21, 2018 - The Master Entrusted His Property!
Pastor Roger C. Marcos
October 21, 2018
TEXT: Matthew 25.14-30
Our faith to please God must be:
A WORSHIPING faith - that worships according to God's directions.
The remaining days of Jesus on earth as He ends His ministry His teaching getting much more serious... His focus begins to point to His Second Coming
Today, I will I want speak “The parable of the Talents”...which I titled “THE MASTER ENTRUSTED HIS PROPERTY!” to the three servants to manage in order to make dividend.
The very familiar narratives in which we must NOT miss the point of the CONTEXT...That being that GOD HAS CERTAIN EXPECTATIONS OF US as we await Jesus’ Coming!
I’m reading from New English Version...
For it 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, to another one, to each according to his ability.
Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five 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.’ 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.’ 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, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 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. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
What Can We Learn From This Interesting Narrative?
FIRST: THE MASTER Entrusted Much Responsibility to His Servants.
14 For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
They were each given “talents.” The Greek word talanta literally means “weights.” Back in those days, a talent or weight was valued according to the kind of metal of which the weight consisted. It could be a talent of copper, gold, or silver. The most common talent was silver.
A Gift... A Talent... A Blessing. What’s an amazing deal with the three and in his distribution of his property is fair AT ALL because it was based on according to their ability .. to manage his financial empire, His earthly kingdom.
Servants in those days owned nothing themselves. Everything they had, even their spouses and their children, were the property of the master.
Let’s face it, everything we call ours is really His. Even our own bodies are not ours. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:19,20: 19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Now before I leave this point about God entrusting great responsibility to us, we must not ignore the fact that not all of us have equal responsibility. Verse 15 of our text says, “ ‘And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability..’ ”
Not every servant was entrusted with the same number of talents. One was given five talents, another two, and the third servant was given only one. What we discover is that God makes us managers according to our “manage-ability.” Did You Notice... There is nothing about FAIRNESS OR EQUALITY in this narrative? The fact is... All mankind receives DIFFERENT...Gifts... Talents... Blessings.
The demand for EQUALITY is a product of our culture and is NOT taught in Scripture... We have different talents... Different abilities... Different Opportunities...Different Ministries.
No Doubt About It... WE’VE BEEN GIFTED DIFFERENTLY.ENTRUSTED DIFERENTLY!
Listen to Romans Chapter Twelve... Just as each of us has one body with many members... And these members do not all have the same function... We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Scripture Tells Us... WE ARE GIFTED DIFFERENTLY.
The master in this parable is not only wealthy; he is also wise. He knew that his servants did not have equal ability. Likewise, God never gives to us more than we can handle. He knows our strengths and He knows our weaknesses. As one writer has said, “God never demands from a man abilities which he has not got; but he does demand that a man should use to the full the abilities which he does possess.” Peter said it well in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Listen Church... Our attitude toward life... Especially our attitude toward our money and things will change drastically when we realize WE OWN NOTHING...
- We Are Only Stewards of God’s Possessions and Wealth.
- God Has Entrusted His Property To Us...
- We’re God’s Caretakers For A Few Years.
- We are Stewards... Not Owners.
- We’re Servants... Not Masters.--- Illustration A BOY IN SAUDI
SECONDLY: But many of us don’t make the most of what we’ve got.
The second point I want to stress, and it’s something that GOD wished to stress, is the fact that although God has entrusted something to each of us, some of us who have been entrusted with little don’t make the most of the little we’ve got.
Servant number three was given only one talent to invest. We’re told in verse 18 that upon receiving his talent, he “went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.”
Now at first glance, this doesn’t appear to be such a terrible thing to do. His master told him to look after one talent and so that’s what he did. He buried the talent for safekeeping. In those days, it was common to hide some of your money in case some invading army conquered the land and took over the banking system.
So this third servant perhaps said to himself, “I’m going to keep my master’s money safe and sound by digging a hole and burying the talent-it might get a little muddy, but at least it wouldn’t be stolen.”
But what did the master think of this servant’s logic when he returned? He was not impressed at all. We’re told at the end of the parable that not only was he fired from his job, but the master ordered that he be thrown “into the outer darkness,” a place where there would be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
It’s scary to admit this, but did you know that many of us are just like that poor one-talent servant? Many of us don’t make the most of what we’ve been given. And because we don’t make the most of what we’ve got, even the little we have will one day be taken away.
I want us to take note of the behavior and attitudes that characterized this third servant and caused him to displease his master so much.
The Fear of Failure.
Upon the master’s return to ask his servants for an accounting, the third servant tries to justify himself, saying in verse 24 of our text that he knew his master to be a “hard man.” And then in verse 25 he says that he was “afraid,” and therefore went and hid his master’s talent in the ground. So we see that the first thing that characterized this third servant and that caused his master’s displeasure was fear.
He buried his talent because he was afraid-afraid that if he took the talent and invested it, he might risk losing it all and then have nothing to return to his master. For fear of losing everything, he did nothing.
Some of you have been given a marvelous gift of communication. But because you think that you might say the wrong thing, you freeze up, you lock your lips, and you’re paralyzed because of fear.
How many of us, because we fear to step out and invest the gifts and abilities God has given us, are missing opportunities to use and develop our talents to their full potential? We leave the treasure lying buried in the dirt.
That’s the first characteristic of the third servant: He was paralyzed by the fear of failure. Now let me mention a second characteristic: laziness.
Laziness
Servant number three had one more tragic flaw. When the master returned to settle accounts, he indicated what he thought of that servant’s decision to bury his talent. In verse 26 the master called him a “wicked and lazy servant!”
So we have seen that God has entrusted us with much responsibility; yet even when this responsibility is smaller than that received by others, many of us fail to make the most of what we have been given. Like servant number three in Yeshua’s parable, we may be paralyzed by a fear of failure, or we may be lazy, or both. Now I want to make a third point: There are serious consequences for a person who doesn’t make the most of what he’s got.
Third: There are serious consequences in failing to make the most of what you’ve got.
Losing What You Have Been Given
The first consequence of fear and laziness for servant number three was the loss of even the one talent that had been entrusted to him. When his master returned and found that the servant had been negligent and had buried his talent, he was angry. He said in verse 28 that the talent should be taken from him and given to the servant who had 10 talents. Now in this parable JESUS is not justifying taking from the poor and giving to the rich (a kind of Robin Hood principle in reverse). What JESUS is doing is teaching a simple principle of life: If you don’t use it, you will lose it.
Which are you; a faithful servant or one that hides their talent and their profession of faith in Christ?
Have you buried your talents or are you using them?
God has given you gifts and talents. Use them. And God has given you the greatest gift of all-JESUS.
Don’t reject that gift.
Don’t bury JESUS. Take a step of faith and believe and follow the instruction manual. He’ll work for you too!