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Deut. 10:
Deut
Prayer
Prayer
Introduction
Sometimes, you read a book or you hear a sermon that changes your entire outlook.
It shifts the way you think about things.
One of those books for me when I was just starting out in ministry was a small book by John Piper called Don’t Waste Your Life.
The book is not super deep or especially well written, to be honest, but it helped to shape the way I think about certain things.
This sermon is not a wholesale rip off of the book, but I am heavily indebted to it.
If you’ve never read it, let me encourage you to do so.
You can download the book for free on the internet if you are so inclined.
We will circle back later to a couple points from Piper’s book, but for now let’s start with our Scripture passage.
Scripture
1 Cor.
Our passage this morning is .
If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.
We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these Words are among the most important we can possibly hear today.
says,
“As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’
But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’
When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’
And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant!
Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’
And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief; for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.
You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’
He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant!
You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?
Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’
And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”
Thank you, you may be seated.
Sermon
Since we are all geared up for VBS, I thought it might be helpful to think about why we do things like VBS and our Fall Festival and other outreach activities.
I mean, VBS and Fall Festival and other outreach type of initiatives are lots of work.
They cost a decent amount of money.
And from a financial perspective, we will never get a good return on that investment.
They cause wear and tear on our facilities.
They interrupt the normal flow of our church life.
Do you ever think that it might all just be a waste?
I don’t.
Let’s unpack our passage and maybe it will help us to see why.
In the parable, the master goes away to receive his kingdom.
The master is going to be gone a while.
The servants do not know how long.
On top of that, the servants are serving - operating in a place where there are at least some citizens who are rebelling from the yoke of the nobleman.
They don’t want to be ruled by him.
This is not an easy time for the servants.
They have no clue how long until their master returns and they are not entirely embraced by the country where they serve.
So to make this clear, who is who in this story?
Jesus is the nobleman who has gone away to receive His kingdom.
We, Christians, are the servants.
We don’t know when Christ will return in His Kingly Glory, but we do know He will, and when he does, He will tread His enemies – those who rejected His rule – underfoot.
So here we sit.
Called to be faithful.
Given minas and told to do business with it.
Waiting.
Longing.
Hoping.
In a place where our master is not entirely beloved.
In this parable, the master gives his servants money to “engage in business with.”
Although there were 10 servants, we are told of how 3 of them did.
Those three are representative of the 10.
We don’t need to see what all 10 did to get the gist of the story.
The first two servants did what was commanded of them.
They engaged in business and actually made money for their master.
They were faithful and obedient.
But the third servant, the wicked servant was not.
The wicked servant had a false view of his master.
Nowhere in the parable are we led to believe that the master is actually a severe, unjust man who swindles people out of their land and money – that’s basically what the servant accuses the master of.
The master uses the wicked servant’s own logic against him.
If I’m so severe, then why didn’t you at minimum put the money in the bank and let it accrue interest.
Notice what the servant is condemned for.
It is not actually for failing to make money.
He is condemned for not doing what he was commanded to do.
He was commanded to engage in business, and he failed to do that.
The servant was not faithful with what had been given to him.
He tried to protect his gift instead of utilizing it in kingdom work.
Good stewardship, then is not protecting what God has given us.
It isn’t actually even in good returns on our investments or positive outcomes.
Most English translations of this passage tend to make it sound like the nobleman was interested in gain of the money, but that really isn’t the emphasis.
The emphasis is faithfulness to the task given – to engaging in business.
Good stewardship is not protecting, or even necessarily gaining.
Good stewardship is faithfully engaging in kingdom business.
During the introduction, I mentioned the book, “Don’t Waste Your Life”.
I didn’t do that just to tell you about a great resource.
I did it because one of the major themes of the book applies, I think, to stewardship.
In the book, Piper tells two stories to illustrate his point on what is and what is not a wasted life.
I’m going to quote a large section here because these two stories are so helpful.
Piper writes,
In April 2000, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon, West Africa.
Ruby was over eighty.
Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick.
Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon.
The brakes failed, the car went over a cliff, and they were both killed instantly.
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