Dedication - The Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring

Big Idea of the Message: We have the opportunity to be faithful servants of the King.

Context

Here we find our selves in the section called Th Olivet Discourse which starts in Matthew 24:1 and ends in Matthew 25:46;

Now here in Matthew 25 Jesus uses two parables to give examples of what we, His church, should be doing;

What are parables you ask: A short, vivid fictional story that uses figurative imagery to convey principles—they have more than one meaning and are designed to teach important truths.;

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Now the The Olivet Discourse includes three parables however we will only be focusing one one of them today - the giving of the talents Matthew 25:14-30.

Departure

In the the movie Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring we find an unlikely group of people coming together around one purpose - to destroy a ring of evil;

The focus however, is on one character in particular a Hobbit named Frodo Baggins who has become the ring barrier - yet Frodo has a friend that will not depart from him in this journey, Samwise Gamgee;

Now Frodo decided that the right thing to do, for the safety of the others, would be to depart from them and complete the journey on his own;

Have you sometimes made a decision to try and complete a journey on your own - without family, friends, the church or maybe even Jesus;

However when Samwise realizes what Frodo was trying to do, depart, he ran after him, almost drowning in the process, be of his dedication to Frodo;

When Frodo saves Samwise from the water Samwise makes this comment - “I made a promise Mr. Frodo. A promise. ‘Don’t you leave him, Samwise Gamgee.’ And I do not mean to” (directed by Peter Jackson [New Line Cinema, 2001]).;

Here in these verses we see a wealthy man who was departing for all he had and in his absence he placed others in charge of all he had;

This is what Christ has done - to the disciples and the church - He has departed and left them, and us, in charge of His everything on earth.

Responsibility

Frodo had been given the responsibility to destroy the ring no matter the cost - to himself or those around him - the purpose was the mission;

Here in these verses three servants are given a responsibility, to care for the master’s wealth in the form of talents - cash;

Now how much cash are we talking about - one talent was equal to six thousand days of wages - which is approximately sixteen years of work;

This would be a great responsibility to care for one talent much less five talents which was about eighty years of work;

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 25

The talents (whose value equaled six thousand days of wages) represent the financial resources, gifts, privileges, and opportunities that Jesus entrusts to his disciples.

Christ has left us in charge of His church, specifically Life Journey Baptist Church, to be faith with and through;

He has intrusted us to be active in care of the resources and the growth of this community as He has traveled to a “far country”;

So how are we to handle this responsibility - by knowing Him better, by growing in Him through worship and word, but more importantly by going out and reproducing ourselves;

Our responsibility is to leave these walls and meet our community - how are we to do this you might ask - I don’t know.

Return

There is one thing I do know for certain - Jesus is coming back and there will be an accounting of what He left in our charge;

We, the church, are so focused on seeing Him face to face - of course after we say hi to parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, husbands, wives, the person that led us to Christ and so on) - it will be amazing to see Him our Savior;

Yet we don’t focus on what happens next, we try to avoid it, accountability;

In these verses we see the return of the master - completely unannounced - followed by accountability;

Which servant will you be during the time of accountability, the one that did much or the one that sat on the sidelines and let someone else do the work;

We have all been given a purpose - a path - a responsibility by Christ let’s look at Acts 1:8-9 to see that responsibility;

How are we doing in our serving of the Master? How are we doing in being obedient to the charge? Are we doing what we know we’re supposed to be doing or not? If not, why? Ministry Pass - God on Film;

Jesus is going to check your Sunday school attendance card, your worship service attendance card or any other way we grade service, He going to look at what we have done with what He has given us;

Now some my be thinking why are pushing so hard to move forward - let’s turn to James 1:3 for the first answer and now to Hebrews 13:17 for another reason;

Understand it’s not about me it’s about the responsibility Christ has entrusted me with;

Are we ready for His return?