Dont Stop At The Water

Matthew 25:14–18 NKJV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.

Introduction

I am the second of four boys, and I grew up in a home where we were taught to go above and beyond in everything that we do. The reason for that is becuase my Dad has worked in Quality Control for just about all of his career. When your father is good at what he does, and passionate about what he does, it comes home with him.

So growing up, getting the job done meant passing my father’s inspection. Again, he was an inspector for a living.

If we mowed the lawns, there needed to be proportionate lawnmower lines on the grass in order to pass the inspection.

If we vacuumed the house, there needed to be proportionate vacuum lines on the carpet in order to pass the inspection.

If we were given a chore to do around the house, it meant that we needed to pass the inspection of our father.

Now, this stayed with me when I first entered into the work place. I still remember the first day of my first job, shout out to Cinnabon! At the end of the shift we were doing our clean up. The shift manager asked me to clean the dough proofer and so I went to town on this dough proofer. When she came back she looked over my shoulder and said, “James is going to like you.”

That pumped me up!

In my head it was like the voice of Bane telling Batman, “you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it...”

You know what I am saying?

I was taught at a young age not to settle, even if it’s good enough.

The Abundant Life

One of my favorite verses that I believe highlights this is found in John 10.

John 10:10 NKJV

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Within this well known text is this idea that you can have life, and you can an abundant life.

I think that many people read this passage of scripture and think that the abundant life is a forgone conclusion. Let me be the bearer of bad news and tell you that unfortunately, that’s not the case.

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, when you turn away from a lifestyle of sin and make a decision to follow Jesus, you will inherit everlasting life. I believe that. You were dead in your sins, and now you are alive in Christ. I believe that.

What I do not believe is that the decision to follow Jesus will bring you into abundant living.

Author and Pastor Rich Villodas said this, “The sad irony of our day is we can be deeply committed to being a Christian but not be deeply formed by Christ.”

Spiritual formation is in the acts of presence with God, and service unto others.

Walking It Out...

Now getting back into our text, Jesus is teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven. He uses this story to make this illustration as a man gives talents to his servants.

Now we read in verse 15 that every person received talents based on their ability.

God does not entrust us with the same.

I know you don’t want to hear that, but I don’t find anywhere in the Bible where God dealt with people equally. Yes, we are all offered the free gift of salvation, but the call that God has on your life is not the call that God has on my life.

Ephesians 4:7 NKJV

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Paul informs the church in Ephesus that the degree to which God’s grace will be extended on your life is according to the measure of Christ found in you.

Before Uncle Ben could tell Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility, Paul was telling the church that the grace on their life was based on the measure of Christ in them.

Said differently, the grace on their life was commensurate with the deep spiritual formation that was happening in their life.

God will entrust us with what he trusts us with.

Now the second implication of what we read in verse 15 is that this… God will give you what he knows you can handle.

Pastor Sam talked about this last week… many of us are hoping to one cay win the lotto, and THEN we’d do something great for the Kingdom of God. But what if God was just waiting for you to do something with what was in your hands before he gave you more?

Let me make this statement that I hope provokes a Godly response our of you:

Everything that you have is exactly what God trusts you with.

Who Did What

I’m going to summarize the rest of the story for you all in the interest of time…

To the servants he gave five talents to and to the servant he gave two talents to, they doubled it. They took what they received from their Master and they put it into use.

When the Master returned from his long journey he judged them both and found them to be “good and faithful”.

And do you want to know what their reward was for being good and faithful? He increased their influence.

Let me add Pastor Josh’s commentary into the story. When the Master left on his journey and he gave away the talents to the servants, I think he knew in advance what he was going to do for the ones who were found faithful. I don’t think that the Master decided in that moment what he was going to do, but he had a plan. He was seeing his servants. He had observed their behavior. They were doing so well when he was present. In order for him to really know if they could handle more he needed to test them.

Likewise, I believe that many of you want a reward for a test you haven’t passed yet.

What if your reward was on the other side of your faithfulness?

What if your increase was on the other side of your faithfulness?

What if the influence that God was going to increase in your life was on the other side of your faithfulness?

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NKJV)

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

All The Remains is a call for the church to be found faithful so that we can see the God show himself strong on our behalf. He’s looking to do it! He’s not playing hide and seek, he wants to show up in your life. He wants to work on your behalf.

The One With None

And then… we get to the one with nothing to show for what God had given him.

We read in the text that he comes back to his Master and reminds him that he didn’t lose anything. He came back with exactly what he had been given.

But here is what this man did that frustrated his Master. He buried it. He took his gift, and he buried it.

I think, and this is Pastor Josh’s commentary here, the only reason his Master was mad at him was because he buried it. I think had he tried to use his talent and failed, the Master would have said, “I know you tried. It’s all good. I’m not mad at you.” But the biggest frustration the Master had with him was that he buried what he had been given!

I wrestled with this passage of scripture years ago and I prayerfully came to this conclusion...

Don’t bury in the church the gift God has called you to share with others.

If the formation of God in our life is the act of being in His presence and serving others, to bury the gift is to completely ignore the work God wants to do through you in your service to others.

The gifts that God has given you are to be used in service to others.

Conclusion

I want to close by reminding some of you, and teaching others of you, that only what you do for Christ will last.

There are two judgments that are to come - the first is the white throne judgment, where those who do not believe in Jesus will be judged. When you have repented of your sins and accepted Christ you will not face this judgment. This is salvation.

But there is a second judgment, which is the Judgment Seat of Christ, where now every believer will be judged according to their work.

Listen, we don’t work to get saved. That’s not this. We are saved by grace through faith.

But too many times this second judgment is not talked about.

1 Corinthians 3:13–15 KJV 1900

Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Our work will be judged. We’ve been saved unto good works. We are not saved by good works. We’ve been saved unto good works.

All That Remains is what we have done for Christ. The work that we did that we said was for Christ, but was really us seeking our own ambitions will be consumed by fire. Yes, you are saved. You did what you needed to do. But you stopped at the water. You stopped at salvation. But there is another life that we are being called to step into. It is the abundant life. It is the life where our formation is not only what we do in God’s presence, but it is also what we do for others. It is how we use the talent that God has given us.

Are we burying the gift of God in the church? Are we hiding the gift of God from those who need it?

Let’s step into and live an abundant life.