Time, Talent and Treasure

Partnering with God by Partnering in Ministry.

This is my first message since Pastor Mike asked me to be the Associate Pastor. This will be my fourth time serving in the role of associate pastor. In over 40 years of ministry, I’ve done a lot of different things. I’ve worked with kids and youth. I’ve served three times as a senior pastor. Out of all of the things I’ve been involved in though, my passion has always been discipleship. I love seeing people get it. That “aha” moment where a truth finally becomes clear and personal to them. I like building discipleship programs. When Pastor Mike asked me about being the associate pastor, adult discipleship was the area he wanted me to focus on first and we’ve been at work on both the Sunday Morning and Wednesday night programs.

This is the fourth and final message in our “Plan and Prepare” series. So far Pastor Mike has taken us through why it’s important to have a plan and how to be prepared. Now we are going to look at “Performing” the plan. In other words, how do we put the plan in motion.

See if you can help me finish this statement “We don’t have members here with have Partner’s in Ministry.”

This distinction must be significant because we say this together every week. Have you ever stopped to think what it means though? From the very start the church is making it clear that we are not looking for spectators but rather coministers working cooperatively with each other to advance Jesus work. In essence we are “Partnering with God by Partnering in Ministry.”

Jesus was passionate about a lot of different types of ministry. Healing for the sick, support for the poor, care for the orphans and widows. The list goes on and on. Our church is similar. Here is a quick list of the ministries we are involved with outside and in addition of the core functions of the church which are evangelism, education and encouragement;

1. Living Bridges

2. Counseling

3. Food Pantry

4. First Option Care

5. Lawson Neel Medbank

6. Grady County Foster Parents

7. Thomas Grady Service Center / The Arc

8. Help Agency

9. Salvation Army

10. Easter Seals

11. Project Search

12. Camp Crosspoint

13. Walk to Emmaus

14. Chrysalis

15. Face to Face

16. Handmaiden House

17. Missions - Uganda Mission – Cody and Katie Fox

18. Missions - Shane Lovvorn

19. Fellowship of Christian Athletes

20. Family Connection

And I’m sure there is a lot more but you get the idea. The church is involved in the community in a big way, just like Jesus was.

Jesus tells a parable about doing ministry that gives us a lot of insight into what he expects from us. It’s one you are very familiar with. We often call it the parable of the Good Samaritan. That are a lot of truths we can glean from this parable, but I want to focus on just one small point today. Let’s read it together now;

Luke 10:30–37 LEB

And Jesus replied and said, “A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who both stripped him and beat him. After inflicting blows on him, they went away, leaving him half dead. Now by coincidence a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. And in the same way also a Levite, when he came down to the place and saw him, passed by on the opposite side. But a certain Samaritan who was traveling came up to him and, when he saw him, had compassion. And he came up and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine, and he put him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him, and whatever you spend in addition, I will repay to you when I return. Which of these three do you suppose became a neighbor of the man who fell among the robbers?” So he said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” And Jesus said to him, “You go and do likewise.”

We are commanded by Jesus to show mercy on our neighbors. He illustrates not just who our neighbor is in this parable, but how we are to demonstrate mercy by identifying three distinct acts that the Samaritan does for the injured man.

God’s resources are his people, specifically their talents, time, and treasure.

Aubrey M. Malphurs

First, he stops to see about him investing TIME.

Next, he personally ministers to his wounds investing TALENT.

Last, he pays the Inn keeper to further care for him investing his TREASURE.

Each of these represents an item of scarcity or limitation to the Samaritan. He had to give up something in each case to help the injured man. He gave of his time, his talent and his treasure to the man and that meant he had less of each that he could spend on other people, things or himself.

When considering our personal ministries for Jesus we can use the same guide. How are we investing our time, our talent and our treasure to further His kingdom.

Time

Time is scarce. We only have so much time in this world. Our life is defined by the dash between our birth and our death. That’s all we get. We all come with an expiration date, we just don’t know when it is. Every day that passes is one day closer to our last and one day further from our future. How great is the tragedy of the soul who waits too long putting off the most important things to a future day that never comes. Today is the day that we have. Today is the day that we must serve the Lord and honor him.

Whether it’s volunteering to help in one of our existing ministries, starting a new one our joining one we are already connected to, we need your help. The more partners we have doing ministry the more impact we can make.

Talent

Talent is scarce. God uses people to do his work on earth. In Genesis it shows that we were created to do the work of caring for the Earth. In the Great Commission, Jesus commands us to GO. That’s a very active word. Not everyone can do everything, nor are you supposed to. God doesn’t expect you to or call you to do what you aren’t able to do. In fact, If God does call you to do something, the evidence is in his enabling of you to do it. However, If you don’t do the thing that Jesus wants you to do, it will go undone. You have limited resources of talent and energy. If you use it all in one place you can’t use it elsewhere. Ask yourself, why did God bless you with the talents you have if not to serve Him and others with them. God needs his teachers teaching, his preachers preaching, his singers singing. Whatever talent he gave you he needs you to use it. Find your thing and do it.

The Lexham English Bible (Chapter 10)

Therefore, whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.

God doesn’t need everyone to be a preacher, a teacher or a singer. There are so many more ways to serve God. What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at? Give that to Jesus. Do it for Him and with Him. To some talented fisherman Jesus invited them to fish for men for him. What talent can you bring to Jesus?

When I was little we used to only get three to four channels on TV. There was no streaming videos, or DVD’s or anyway to watch something unless it was broadcasting on one of those channels. Holidays were magical times. They came with the holiday specials and Christmas with it’s suite of specials was my favorite. Shows like, Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas and Frosty the Snowman were anticipated by me all year and I made sure not to miss them. One of my favorites was “The Little Drummer Boy.” Each year I was enthralled by the story of the poor little orphan boy, who only had his little drum and his friend the little lamb. Each year I would cry when the lamb was ran over and died. Each year I’d rejoice when the baby Jesus touched the lamb and he sprang back to life. I’d repeat this year after year even knowing how the story would end. The little drummer boy had nothing material to give the the baby king so he gave of his talent and he played his little drum for him and Jesus honored that gift because it was sincere and from his heart.

Treasure

Treasure is scarce. We only have so much money and possessions. If you spend all of your money on this life, you will be neglecting investing in your next and eternal life. The bible encourages us not to lay up treasure on earth where moth and rust will destroy it but rather in heaven.

Are you giving God what is right, or what is left?

Anonymous

Did you know how Jesus’ ministry was financed? Luke gives us the answer in chapter

Luke 8:1–3 LEB

And it happened that afterward also he was going about from one town and village to another preaching and proclaiming the good news concerning the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him, and some women who had been healed of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (who was called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza (Herod’s household manager), and Susanna, and many others who were helping to support them from their possessions.

Women financed Jesus’ ministry. We might like to imagine Jesus performing miracle after miracle to pull money out of thin air but the truth is that God used the generosity of a group of woman to able Jesus and the disciples to do their ministry. God used people to finance his ministry then and he still does today. The church’s job isn’t to raise funds but money is necessary to enable ministry to be done. Salaries need to be paid, materials need to be purchased and bills have to be taken care of. More importantly though, the greater our financial resources the greater our opportunity to help hurting people and thereby earn the right to share the gospel with them. I love to be asked by someone we’ve helped “Why are you doing this?” I get to smile and reply, “Because of Jesus. Can I tell you about Him?”

How can you give to support the work of our church?

https://thechurchofgradycounty.churchcenter.com/giving

Why don’t we invest our time, talent an treasure then? We see the need. Jesus showed us the way. Yet the work isn’t getting done. I think there are some very basic reasons why and maybe if we say them out-loud they will lose their grip on us.

It’s not my responsibility or job.

I’m too busy. I have somewhere else to go or something else to do.

I’m too angry about what I’ve seen to do anything about it.

I thought someone else would do it.

I don’t feel good or I’m depressed.

I’m afraid I’ll get caught up in the problem or I don’t want to get involved.

I just can’t afford to.

I’m sure there are dozens of more excuses, but that’s all they are - excuses. They aren’t reasons. Jesus says in John 4:35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and the harvest comes’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.” There is so much that needs to be done, but the church suffers from a severe lacking of time, talent and treasure. That’s not something it can remedy without your help.

We need you to volunteer to work with the children and youth. Look around and see just how blessed we are with such as young congregation and with so many children and youth. Studies show us that 80% of all decisions to follow Jesus are made before the age of 18. We need you to bring your kids and youth to church.

We need you to help us with 20+ ministries we are actively engaged with.

We need your help with evangelism by inviting your neighbors, your near ones, to church.

We need your help with education by attending our adult discipleship programs Sunday morning at 9:15 and Wednesdays at 6:30.

And yes, we need your help with finances. The more we can collect the more we can do. Just like Mary Magdalene and the others empowered Jesus through their generosity we need you to empower the church through yours. If we all did our part imagine what we could accomplish for Jesus.

Won’t you join us this morning in being true partners in ministry?