“Don’t Bury It”

Introduction

It is important for us to understand that God has given each of us gifts. Each of us have a certain spiritual gift and unique talent that has been given to us by God, but with this gift we ask ourselves: Am I serving and representing God with the gift that he has given me? Are we using our gifts and talents? The answer to that for all of us should be yes. God gives us gifts, but he does not want us to waste them, or in this case bury them, but he expects us to use our gifts and talent, and allow me to show you that by telling you about a man who did not use his talent, but he buried his talent.

Text Context

At this point, Jesus is coming to an end on his earthly ministry. In Matthew 28, Jesus will have risen from the dead and he will ascend to be at the right hand of the Father. But here in this chapter where Jesus gathers his disciples on the Mount of Olives and teaches them a private lesson about The Kingdom of Heaven. Note that Jesus teaches them about this through three parables, or three stories.

The first parable he teaches is The Parable of the Ten Virgins. Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven will be like the Ten Virgins or the Ten Bridesmaids who took their lamps to go meet the groom. Five of them were smart and the other five were not so very smart. Five of them were prepared with oil in their lamps when the groom came out and the other five were unprepared. When the not-so-smart bridesmaids tried to turn on their lamps, it did not work because it had no oil, so they asked the smart ones to give them some of their oil, but they said no. To make a long story short, the five who were not prepared were left out of the wedding feast and the door was shut in their faces, and the groom denied them entrance, saying, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” This parable speaks of being prepared for the Kingdom of Heaven and being prepared for the return of Jesus Christ, because we don’t know the exact time or date of when Christ is coming back, and because of this we have to be prepared.

The parable that we are in today is a close connection with the previous parable. The opening of verse 14 shows us that this parable is like the last one because it talks about the Kingdom of God. Jesus uses the example of The Talents. Note that this “talent” is not a talent like a gift or a special ability that Jesus is talking about. See, in biblical times a talent was a unit of money. A talent in the Bible was worth about $6,000 in Roman coins. Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man going on a journey and before he goes on the journey, he gives his wealth to his servants. The man has three servants. He gives the first servant five bags of gold, he gives the second servant two bags of gold, and he gives the third servant one bag of gold, and each of them do something with their bag. The first servant traded his bag of money or as we say flipped it and made five bags more. The second servant flipped his bag of money and made two more. You could say that both of them were in their bags..foreal. But the third servant went off, dug a hole, and hid his bag of money. After a while, the master came back from his trip and he wanted to know the update of the bags of money he gave to his servants. The first servant, I imagine, is excited and comes to the master and tells him that he had made five more bags of money. The master said “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!” The second servant came to him and told him that he had made two more bags of money. The master said the same thing. But the third servant came to the master and said that he knew that he was a harsh or difficult man who harvests crops he doesn’t plant and gathers crops he doesn’t prepare, so he said that he took the money and hid it in the earth. Angry, I imagine, the master calls the servant wicked and lazy and says that he knows that he collects crops that he doesn’t plant or prepare, then he tells him that he should’ve put the money in the bank so that he would’ve earned some interest. The master then orders for the third servant to give the bag of gold to the first servant, because he says that those who use well of what they are given will be given more, and those who don’t use what they have, it will be taken away from him. Then he orders that the third slave be thrown into outer darkness.

Message

I’m convinced that there are some of us in this room who are like this third servant, and we are burying the gift that God has given us. Maybe we are burying our gift because of embarrassment, because maybe some people have convinced us that our gift is not cool or worthless, or maybe we are like this third servant, and we are burying our gift because we are afraid, but I want to tell you that no matter what people may say, despite what you are afraid of, and despite your embarrassment, don’t bury your gift.

Body of Message

Why should you not bury your gift??

Your gift is given by God.(v. 14)

We have to understand that since we are children of God, God has given each of us things to manage. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” In this text, these men were servants of their master, but the master also wants them to be stewards. We are called to be good stewards. To steward does not mean to own, but it means to manage or look after. God has given us gifts to manage, and managing the gifts that God has given you is a demonstration of your love for Christ and your gratitude for what he has given you. Managing the gift that God has given you is to use it wisely. If you have the gift or the talent of playing football, then that means that you have to come to every practice, come to every game, know the plays, be able to help the other teammates, put the work in on your craft, and not half do it, because when you have a God-given gift, you have to manage it gift wisely. When your gift is a God-given gift, you have to understand that your gift is never too small to manage. What does that mean?? Your gift is never too small or too insignificant for you to handle it. See, this third servant had one bag of gold, meanwhile the other servants had two bags and one bag, but his talent was not too small to manage. EX: When we look at the sport, basketball, all we see is Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Jason Tatum, but do you know who we don’t see: the person who is keeping the stats on the player or the one who is just bringing them water, but even though they don’t get a whole lot of camera time or recognition, it does not make their gift or their assignment any less than the other basketball players, because if the person doesn’t keep the stats, how is team going to get better? If the water person doesn’t bring the team water, how are they going to be hydrated and ready for the game. If those people don’t play their part and use their gift, then it can prevent the team from going out on the court and being successful, but when they play their part and manage their gift, then the team can be successful. Your gift is never too small for you to manage. Manage your gift wisely, but since your gift is given to you by God, you cannot misuse it. Don’t use your gift to make yourself look good or so that you would get all of the attention, but so that God would get all of the glory.

EX: My mom is not the biggest fan of Gospel Rap. Some of it she’s fine with and some of it she’s not and the reason she’s not fine with some of it because with some songs, she has no clue of what the artist is trying to say and what the message of the song is, because all she hears is the beat. When it comes to using your God-given gift, you don’t want any distractions or anything to take away from the glory of God. You don’t want any distractions where the people would just see you and not the God that is in you, because if your using your gift so that people would see you, then people will build you up for a second, but as soon as you go left, they will drop you, but if you’re using your gift for God’s glory, then you have someone who’s with you who is bigger than people. We should not use and manage our gift so that people would approve of us and look at us as the perfect person, but so that God would get all of the glory.

We have to be good managers of our gifts because our gifts are given to us by God.

Your gift is different.(v. 15)

Before the master goes on his journey, he gives each of his servants different talents. He gives one bag to one servant, two bags to another servant, and five bags to the other. The master gives these three servants different talents because of their abilities. In the same way, God has given us gifts based on his perfect will for us. Every gift that he has given to us has its place in the body of Christ because God knows you and knows your abilities, which is why he gave you the gift that you have. Your gift is different. Can I tell you why your gift is different?? Your gift is different because God made you different. God tells Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” This means that God has made us different because the gift that he had for us was different. You are made different. You were made to live a life that was different from the world. You were made to walk differently, talk differently, act differently, think differently, because the gift that God had for you was different. God has set you apart from the world, and not to make you feel lonely, but because the gift that had for you when he was creating you was different.

Your gift is different. When your gift is different, that means that it is made for you and when your gift is made for you, it’s not for anybody else. Your gift is not anybody else’s gift, but it is your gift. Somebody else’s gift is not made for you. Playing football might not be for me, but in the same way, preaching might not be for you. Your gift is made for you! And when you gift is for you, you cannot compare yourself to others when you see their gifts, but you oughta take comfort in the fact that the gift that you have is for you.

EX: And I get it….we see others post on Instagram and we see what they are doing and how school is and how life is for them and we might get a little bit jealous and wish that we were like them and wish we had what they had. I even found myself in that position. I was scrolling on Instagram and saw a dude I know who is doing well and has good things going on, and I was just thinking of what life would be like if I was him. But with the help of my mom, I came to the realization that the gift that God has for us is uniquely made for us, and even when we may see others using their gifts, instead of comparing ourselves, we should praise God for their gifts and that they’re using them but we should also thank God that the gifts he has for us are for us.

Your gift is made for you. This third servant had one bag of gold, while the other servants had two bags of gold and five bags of gold, but his gift was still important. See, you cannot downplay your gift, because that’s what the enemy wants. The enemy wants you to downplay your gift and decrease what God has given you, and if you do do this, if you start to think that the gift that God has given you is less than what it really is, then you are letting the enemy win, but instead of this, we oughta know that our gift is important and we cannot downplay it, because our gift is different.

Your gift has a purpose.(vv. 16-30)

The first servant was given 5 bags, the second servant was given 2 bags, and the third servant was given 1 bag. Now, we don’t know what they were supposed to do with their talents, but we do know that each of their talents served a purpose. Your gift has a purpose, but with this, we ask the question: What is the purpose of my gift. Might I tell you that the purpose of your gift is to serve God and others. 1 Peter 4:10 says “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” This means that we are to serve God and others based on the spiritual gift that each of us have received. Since God has shown us grace, we oughta show others grace and use our gifts to serve others and God. Let me break this down. We should use our gift to serve God. For us as Christians and young Christians, the gift that God gives us has to be used for his purpose. To not use our gifts for God’s purpose is to not be a good manager of our gifts, but when we use our gifts for God’s purpose, we are fulfilling that purpose, and you can use you gift to serve God anywhere and everywhere. EX: In the first week of July, I was able to attend the E.K. Bailey Preaching Conference, which is a conference to help preachers with their preaching and pastoring ministry, and I got a chance to hear a man named Dr. William H. Curtis who is from Pennsylvania. He was preaching one early morning and me and my father went, and while he was preaching, he said something that stuck with me. He said “Serving the Lord is a whenever, wherever, and a “to whoever” job.””. When you have a God-given gift, you oughta use it to serve God. You can use your gift to serve God at school, at home, at your job, at the basketball game, at the football game, in the church, in the Sunday school classroom, your gift is used to serve God. It is a whenever and wherever job.

We use our gifts to serve God, but we also use our gifts to serve others. One part of Matthew 5:16 says “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds.” We use our gifts to serve others that they see us using them and see us being the example. See, you might not realize it now, but you just might be blocking someone else’s blessings by not using your gift. You don’t know whose life you could change or who’s perspective you could change, just by using your gift. You don’t who could make up in their minds to follow Jesus just because of you using your gift. And see, oftentimes, we use our gifts when we get to a certain point in our lives. When we get to this level on the Student Council, then we are going to help the students, when we get to this position on the football team, then we are going to help the team out. We think that when we get to a certain point in our lives, then we should use our gifts, but the fact of the matter is that it is not about when your ready, its about using your gift at every point in your life. God expects us, even now, to use our gifts for his glory and to serve his people, and that is the purpose of our gift.

Conclusion

Each of us has a gift. Our gift is a God-given gift, and that means that we have to manage it wisely. Our gift is different, and it is different because God made us different and the gift that God has given us is for us. But then, our gift has a purpose, and the purpose of our gift is to serve God and others. Do bury your gift, but use it fully for God’s kingdom.