Use It Well

October 11 |Use It Well| Matthew 25:14-30 

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Open your Bible, if you have one, to Matthew 25:14-30 

If you were to take your last breath today, what would you wish you had done differently? Maybe you would wish you had stepped out in faith and pursued that dream God gave you? Maybe you would wish you had treated the people you love better than you did? This is a question that we have all heard before. It’s a question that compels us to evaluate how we are living and consider if we are doing the things that are most important to us. There’s nothing wrong with that question but what if there is a better question to ask. What if in addition to asking that question, we also ask this question: if you were to take your final breath and come face to face with Jesus, what would he say about what you did with everything that he gave you? What did you do with his possessions that he allowed you to hold while you lived your life on this earth?

In our parable for today, Jesus teaches that there is an expectation from God that everyone who belongs to his kingdom will be faithful in the things the King gives to them.

The parable opens up with these words in verse 14, “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey. He called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent, depending on each one’s ability. Then he went on a journey." 

The master in this parable is a picture of God and the servants are a picture of those who profess to belong to him.  

The master gives varying amount of talents to his servants. Talents here do not refer to gifts and abilities. Talent is a large sum of money used in the time of Jesus. One Talent was worth about 20 years of income for an ordinary worker. So, the master is leaving behind substantial money to his servants to use productively. He's trusting his servants to use faithfully what belongs to him.  

One of the sad stories in life is the stories of people who trusted some financial expert with their life savings only for the so called expert to be exposed as a fraud, to be exposed as unfaithful in managing their money. Countless people have had to start over when they thought they were done working. 

The silent question posed by this parable is: will the master come back from his journey to find that his servants were faithful with what he gave to them or not?  

And this parable speaks to us by asking us the same question: will God come back to find us faithful with what he has given us or not? 

The parable continues, "Immediately 16 the man who had received five talents went, put them to work, and earned five more. 17 In the same way the man with two earned two more. 18 But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money." 

Two of the three servants put what belonged to the master to use. They were productive. They were faithful. They went to work. The third servant didn't. He dug a hole in the ground and kept it there. Putting things in the ground was a common practice of keeping them safe. That might appear as a commendable action, but the master expected more than simply keeping the money safe. He gave them the money to use, he gave it to them to invest, he gave it to them to be productive, he gave it to them to be faithful with it. If safety was what he was after, he could have done that himself.  

Listen, just as the master left his money to his servants, God has left what belongs to him to each one of us and God did not give you all that you have to simply do nothing with it. The master entrusted his servants with money, but for us, God has entrusted us with more than his money. Everything that you have is from God. The very breath you breathe is from God. Your time is from God. Your possessions are from God. Your abilities are from God. And so are the people he has placed in your life—your spouse, your children, your siblings, your church. What do you have that is not from God? How are you using the resources God has given you? How are you loving and caring for the people God has entrusted to your care? Are you honoring God in those responsibilities, or are you only focused on yourself? 

After a long time, we don’t know how long, but it was a long time, the master returned and called his servants to give him a report of what they did with what he gave them. Verse 20 says, "The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents, and said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I’ve earned five more talents.’" The servant with two talents came and said the same thing, "Master, you gave me two talents. See, I’ve earned two more talents." 

They came before the master and said, “here's what you gave us and here's how we used it; here's what you gave us, and here's how we were faithful with it.”  

Listen church, when Jesus returns, what report will you give about how you used what he entrusted to you—your time, your abilities, your resources? What will you say about how you loved and cared for the people he placed in your life? 

Would you say here’s your time see how I used it for your glory? Would you say here are your resources, see how I used it for the advancement of your kingdom? Would you say here’s the wife you gave me, see how much I loved her and encouraged her with your word? Would you say I honored you with all that I had from you? 

Here’s what’s special about the response of the master to the two servants: they both heard the same thing, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy." 

The one with two talents doesn’t have to produce five to hear, “Well done.” He was commended simply for being faithful with what he was given. The master was so excited he gives the servants more of what belongs to him. Their faithfulness leads to a greater trust.  

Jesus said at the end of this parable that to those who have, more will be given because they were faithful with what they had.  

But here's what happened with the third servant, “The man who had received one talent also approached and said, ‘Master, I know you. You’re a harsh man, reaping where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’" 

The third servant was not faithful with what he was given because of fear. He was not faithful with what he was given because he was focused on protecting himself. He wanted to make sure his future was protected even at the expense of being unfaithful to his master. 

I want you to catch every detail of his response. He said, I know you're a harsh man, reaping where you haven't sown, gathering where you haven't scattered, and so I was afraid.  

Why was he afraid? He was afraid because he didn't want to fail and face the wrath of the master. He knew the master expected a profit, and perhaps he was afraid he would lose what he had been given, so he chose to do nothing, instead he gave the master back what the master had given him. It’s as though the master’s instructions when he left meant nothing to him. Rather than obedience to his master, he had excuses for why he wasn’t. The master said in verse 26, "‘You evil, lazy servant! If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown and gather where I haven’t scattered, 27 then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and I would have received my money back with interest when I returned."  

The servant had no love for the master. He cared about himself more than being faithful with what he was given.  

And I think we can easily become this third servant. Where we say one thing with our mouth about belonging to God’s kingdom but our actions say something else; our actions say we are concerned more about self preservation than faithfulness to God in the things he has given us.  

Jesus ended by saying "throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

Rather than be welcomed into the joy of his master, he received the judgment he was trying to avoid. He received the judgement because he let his fear become an excuse for unfaithfulness. But church, we don’t have to let the fear of failure keep us from obeying Jesus. We can pursue faithfulness even with the fear of failure because our acceptance isn’t dependent on our success or failure but on the Savior who gave his life for us. The master who expects faithfulness is the master who covers our failures.  

Music Team 

As we wrap up, there is great danger when we don't see everything we have as a gift from God that he expects us to use faithfully. That’s what makes Christians different. We willingly acknowledge that nothing we have belongs to us. It all belongs to God. We’re just stewarding it for him.  

God isn’t asking you for an extraordinary return, he just wants you to be faithful with what you have.  

How can you be faithful, church, with what God has given you? Maybe you can start by taking inventory of what God has given you and ask yourself how am I being faithful in that area. Am I using it well in a way that shows I belong to God’s kingdom? What is the one step of faithfulness you might need to take this week? 

The reason we can pursue faithfulness is because we have a savior who helps us. You and I are not left alone to figure it out. We have the spirit of God who is at work in us to convict us of sin when we’re going off-course, and to supply us with the power to stay on course.  

And we have this great promise that the one who started a good work in you will surely bring it to completion. So, that on that day we can lay all that he gave us at his feet and say here you go, we added more. And we will hear him say “well done, my good and faithful servant.” 

Let us pray.