Church Revitalization

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to come before you and ask for the things that we need, for the things that are burdening us. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to just sing to you in freedom and just bear our hearts before you. Lord, we love you and we thank you. It's your name that we pray. Amen. You guys can have a seat. I'd like to call up Anthony Svajda. So if you're looking at your worship guide and you're like, how do I pronounce that guy's last name? It's not Svajda-juh. It's Svajda. And so everybody, this is Anthony. Anthony is working for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention, which is kind of our state convention that we work with. And I met Anthony through just a couple of different conferences. We were really able to connect. And a lot of times, if I'm just trying to think through stuff, I'm just bouncing ideas off Anthony all the time.

And so he just finished up an interim at Grace View Baptist Church. So we got a lot of friends over at Grace View. And so I got to kind of know him that way. And so Anthony comes to us this morning. Guys, why don't you give him a big round of applause. Thanks, Pastor Drew. Yeah, that is actually how you say my name, Svajda. So the way that you remember that is you go, Svajda fly. Okay. Can you all do that with me? Svajda fly. All right. So it's not as hard as what it looks. If it's up on the screen, if you'll go to my first slide, you'll actually see how it's spelled. Actually, that is really small. So y'all may not be able to see how that is spelled. But it's S-V-A-J-D-A. It's in your bulletin. And so, yeah, so I am called to a very unique ministry right now. What I do is I work for the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. And so as you think through that, you may be going, well, what does that mean?

What does that look like for Anthony on the day today? On Monday through Friday, what I get to do is I get to kind of be like Paul did. And what I get to do is I get to bounce around churches all over the state of Texas and talk with pastors and encourage them and leadership and organization and help them build disciple-making processes within their church and get ultimately healthy for King Jesus. And so it's pretty cool. I have a pretty awesome job, I think, in my calling. I think I have a pretty awesome job. And so that's kind of what I get to do. And so if you ever need any help in that area or something like that, all you got to remember is I just got to get a hold of the SWMBA guy. And so you are welcome. You are welcome. So there you go. Well, that's enough about me this morning. Besides, I am excited to be with you guys, but let's jump into the text.

So if you got a copy of God's Word, we're going to be in Matthew, chapter 25, and we're going to be looking in verses 14 through 30. Matthew, chapter 25, verse 14 through 30. And I know it's kind of small on that screen, but we're going to do what we can do with our time we have together. So I hope you have a copy of God's Word, either on a cell phone or a tablet or in your Bible, whatever that would be. Let's go ahead to go to Matthew, chapter 25, verse 14 through 30. And that's where you're going to be. All right, once you get there, I need you to say amen for me so I know you're there, okay? Oh, man, somebody has been doing their Bible drills up here in the front. They already know already. Oh, wait, you're a pastor. You got to get there quick. You just cheated. Daniel cheated, y'all. No, I'm just playing. Okay, is everybody there? If you are, say amen. Amen.

All right. All right, here we go. We're going to read the text together, and then we're going to back up. We're going to start working through it, and we'll go from there. Okay, so it says this, Matthew, chapter 25, verse 14, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servant and entrusted to them his property. To one, he gave five talents. To another two, to another one. To each, according to his ability. According to his ability, then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also, he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying,

Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have made five talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had two talents came forward saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here I have made two talents more. And his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given. And he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into outer darkness. In that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Church, let's pray for just a moment. Father God, we come to you now. And God, we just praise you. God, we praise you for your word which instructs us and guides us. God, we thank you for your spirit which convicts us and stirs us. God, we praise you for Jesus who died on the cross for us. God, I pray that as we have read your word now, Lord, that as we have Bible opened, that you would give us open hearts and open minds to hear from you.

So God, I pray that you would speak from your word. And we are praying in faith knowing that your word does not return void and it endures forever. So God, now speak, speak for your glory and our good in the name of Jesus we pray. And the church said, amen. So as you look over this parable, this is probably a very familiar parable to you. You may have read this before. You may have heard a Sunday school lesson about it. You may have read a book about it. This is a pretty popular parable. But as we think through this, what Jesus is doing through this parable is he's building out an illustration for us when it comes to life. What we see in this parable is that there are a group of players that are at play here. First of all, we have the master who's distributing the talents and calling the servants to accord. That master is an illustration of God the Father.

He distributes to us talents, opportunities, and abilities in order to carry out his will. The other players in here are going to be the servants. And these servants are going to differentiate based upon their readiness to carry out the Father's will. And so the servants are an illustration for you and I. As we jump into this, what we see is that the master goes on a journey and he entrusts his servants to carry out his purposes in the world according to what he distributes to them. Now they use this word talent in here and that may throw a little of us off and we may not know what this talent even means. As we think through this in the Old Testament world or the New Testament world in the ancient world is what I meant to say, a talent is the equivalent of 20 years worth of wages. To put it in another way, that's just a whole lot of money. It's a whole lot of money.

The point in this is not the amount of money though. The point in this is a life well spent. The talent is not necessarily money exclusively. The talent here is going to be opportunities in the life in which God has entrusted you with in order to be used for his glory. Now as you look at this, the other thing that you're going to just kind of observe from a surface level of this parable here is that the more gifted and ready the servant is, the more the master entrusted to that servant. Now that's very, very interesting and we're going to circle back to that observation in just a little bit but we want to put a pin there. We want to understand that not all servants got the same amount of talent or opportunity or ability or in those type of things. The other observation that you want to see on the very surface of this is that the master does return to check in with the servants.

The master doesn't just give them an unbridled amount of money or opportunity or ability or anything like that. There is accountability that happens. The master actually does return to check in on these servants to see are they faithful to the work. Now as we've covered these observations and things like that, you may be at this point where you're going, why am I here? What does this have to do with me? This just seems like a fancy story and honestly there are a lot of people within our society, within our culture, within our country right now who look at the teachings of Jesus and go, man, those are just really good moral teachings and Jesus just may be a good teacher. But as you approach this text today, I have to tell you something. I believe that there is more than just good teaching in the Bible. I believe that God has a plan for you and I and he explains that completely in the Bible.

I believe that whenever we read the word of God and especially the teachings of Jesus, what Jesus is revealing to us is that he has a plan for us. He has a plan for your life. It doesn't matter who you are or how old you are or anything like that. It is absolutely applicable to you because God has a very specific plan for you. The thing is, is that many times when we go through life, we don't see God's plan. We don't step into God's plan and my premise to you this morning, I'm about to tell you what I'm going to tell you before I tell you what I'm going to tell you, is that we are not ready for God's plan. We go through life like a stick floating down a river just waiting for life to happen to us, dictated by our schedules, our budgets, our plans, our to-do lists and all the other things going on in our lives and we never lean into the plan that God has for us.

So my premise to you today is we must be ready. The question then becomes is how do we become ready? And that's where we're going to jump into this parable. How do we become ready to use with our talents? So the first point in this, and we're going to circle back through the text, but I want to give you the application point before, is this. Write this down in the margin of your Bible. Write it in your notes page. Here it is. We have to be ready for the opportunity. We have to be ready for the opportunity. And all the church said, amen. Good, good, good. We got to be ready for the opportunity. You may be going, okay preacher, where do you find this in the text? Look back in the text just in verse 14 through 18. Just in this short text, you're going to see it this way. It says, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted

to them his property. To the one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability, he went away and he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. As we zoom in on this text, what is the difference between the two servants who were faithful and the servant who was unfaithful? The two servants who were faithful were ready. They were ready. You see what they did was they responded to that opportunity. I slowed down when I read that text for you because I wanted you to see the fact that the one who had five talents, what he did is he received those five talents and he went at once. He did not wait. He wasn't hanging around.

He didn't say, oh man, hold on master, I got these other chores I got to get done. I got these other obligations I got to get done. I'll get to your deal after my appointments are done. He didn't put God on the back burner. What did he do? He went at once. He was ready for the opportunity. What you see in this text is that these two faithful servants say we're faithful to that initiative because they immediately invested that talent and they turned it on a reward. Now as we think through this, you may be going, well, what does readiness look like in my life? Well, let me tell you what readiness looks like on our lives. It looks like this is that we know that God has a plan for our lives and we believe that he is entrusting us to that plan. We look at God and say, God, I know that you want to use me. God you've given me this life. God I have these hands and feet.

I have these abilities. I have these giftings. I have these opportunities that are before me. God I am ready to use them for your glory. That's what it looks like to be ready for God. Now I want to give you a theological point. Write this down. Here's one of the things that I want you to understand about being ready for God. When God provides you with an opportunity, he expects you to respond with readiness. When God provides you an opportunity, he expects you to respond with readiness. I'm telling you this because this is so paramount, but it's so simple at the same time. I want you to realize something is that when God opens those opportunities for you, when God entrusts you with gifts and abilities, when God sets up those divine appointments in your life, he doesn't do it so that you would just go, oh man, that was really cool. He wants you to step in faith.

He wants you to take advantage of those opportunities. He wants you to use your gift and talents. He wants to use you. He has a plan for your life, remember? Now as you think about this, some of you may wonder, why didn't he give all the servants an equal amount of talents? Why didn't he just go to every servant and give them five and five and five and then he could have had them all do the same thing and multiply in that way. But here's the thing, the talents, as we look at this passage, they coincide with this. They represent our opportunities, our abilities, our giftedness. And here's the thing that you need to realize is that God, whenever he gives these, he knows what he's doing. I'm telling you this because if five talents were given to the one who squandered it and hid it in the ground, those talents would have been wasted and God's not into that.

At the same time, if the guy who got five talents only received one talent, his giftings, abilities, and opportunities, all that stuff would have been underutilized and God's not into that either. I'm telling you this because when God provides you with an opportunity, write this down, when God provides you with an opportunity, he does so knowing what you're ready for. He's giving you gifts, abilities, opportunities, knowing what you're ready for and what you can handle. He's not going to crush you under the abilities that he's given you. Now why is that so important? Here's the reason why that's so important because of this, is that some of us, what we want to do is we want to serve God beyond our abilities. I've met that guy who may be like in his teenage years and he goes, man, I've been called to ministry, great, I'm so excited. And he goes, I'm ready to preach next Sunday to 400 people.

And you're like, wait a minute, no, slow down, man. We're not going to give you that opportunity yet. God hasn't given you that opportunity. Just be faithful where you are, start in the small and allow God to build that. Don't have expectations like that type of stuff if you're looking to use your ability and be ready. At the same time, don't ever feel like, man, I got more ability or opportunity than what God has for me. Because here's the thing, is that maybe God is presenting opportunities for you that you're just not ready to walk into because you think you're too big for your britches. I like to tell preachers that this way. I tell them if you're too big to preach in a small church, you're too small to preach in a big church. As you think through this, I want you to realize, again, this is all about God. God knows what you're ready for. When he gives, when God provides you with an opportunity, he does so knowing what you're

ready for. Now as you think about this, I also want you to realize too that God has given you resources, opportunities, and abilities for a reason. Do you understand that? Church, I want you to realize something, is that God has a plan for you. Even you guys, y'all are teenagers right now. You're trying to figure out life and all that stuff. Let me just tell you something. God has a plan for you guys, even though you're young. Even though you don't have all the responsibilities of the adults in this room. God has a plan for you. He wants to use you. I'm going to tell you this. Some of you may be going, I'm too old for God to use. No, that's not the case either. Man, think of how old Moses was whenever God started using him. That dude was old, old. Or Abraham and Sarah, man, they were old, old. But yet God used them in great ways. Now why am I telling you this?

Here's the reason why I'm telling you this. Because many people, they come to a relationship with Christ, and when they come to a relationship with Christ, they think that I've got it made. And they don't realize, church, that God has a great plan for us. He has called us into his mission. He's called us to go out and reach this community. He's called us to make disciples. He's called us to go out and seek and save the lost. He's called us for more than going to church. He's called us to be the church. Amen? Amen. So let me ask you the question. Here's where the rubber hits the road. I want you to ask yourself this right now. What opportunities are before you right now to be a part of God's kingdom? What opportunities are right now in front of you to be a part of God's kingdom and do God's kingdom work? Is there a friend that you know that you look on and you go, man, that dude needs Jesus.

Anybody got that friend? Maybe God's calling you to go and share the gospel with him. Is there some kind of area in your life, maybe with a friend or a coworker or a colleague that you need to show them the love of Jesus? Is there a need in this church where they need you to step up in order that you can take on some of the kingdom work here? Or is God calling you to something else? Is God calling you to preach vocationally or maybe go to the nations as a missionary or something like that? Let me ask you the question. What opportunities are before you right now to be a part of God's kingdom? Are you ready to step into those? Let me give you the second application. Are you ready, church, if you are, say amen. Amen. Second application, they're ready for the reward. This is the other thing that takes part in this. We also have to understand that there's a reward for serving God, and that's pretty

cool. I think so anyway. I think it's going to be awesome. Look at this. You're going to find this right there in this parable. We're going to look at verses 19 through 23. Let's read through it again, and I'm going to break down the reward for you once we get done reading. It says this, now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them, and he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more. And his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, and I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also with, oh, he, sorry. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, master, you delivered me two talents. Here I have made two more.

And his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, and I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Now this is cool. So as you look at this, look back in this text, notice with me the joy and affirmation that the master has for both of these sermons. This is super, super cool. Now he does this twice. He uses the same verbiage for both of them. He first of all gives them praise. You're going to find this in verses 21 and 23. He says, well done, good and faithful servant. Man, what a good phrase that is. He praises the servant. The second thing he does is he trusts the servants even more. You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. He says it to both of these guys, the guy with five and the guy with two. And then he says this, enter into the joy of your master. He gives them praise.

He gives them trust and he gives them joy. Now how awesome is that? That is super cool. Now as you think about this, you may be going, well, what does this have to do with me, preacher? Here's what it has to do with you, is that when you serve the master well, he will reward you. Praise God. Praise God. You may be going, why in the world would you be a preacher? Or why in the world would anybody be a missionary? Or why in the world would I give up a Saturday to go and visit my neighbor and share the gospel with them? Or why in the world would I give to the church? Or why in the world would I use any of my time or opportunity to serve God? All I have to do is go to church. And I'm going to tell you this, the reason why you do this is because God rewards you. When we use our talents for God's glory, this is something you want to write down. When we use our talents for God's glory, we are rewarded with praise, trust, and joy.

When we use our talents for God's glory, we are rewarded with praise, trust, and joy. God rewards faithful service. And this assurance, what it does is when we believe this, when we understand that God wants to reward us in this way for doing his will, what we do is that we will be encouraged. We will be ready. We will be excited. We'll be enthusiastic about jumping into the mission of God. Because I know that God sees what I'm doing. And I know that God is going to reward me for these services. I know that when I serve, I can serve with joy because it brings joy to my father. Amen? Amen. You guys are quiet today. Come on, we can get a little excited in church. As you think about this, and you just even look at this statement, well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master.

Oh my gosh, church. I read that text. And I go, man, I want this. I want this. Don't you? I mean, as I look at that praise of the father, I want to go, man, that's what I want to be when I come into heaven. Don't you? Like, I want to go into heaven and I want to see Jesus and I want him to go like, dude, Anthony, you killed it. That was awesome. You didn't kill anything. You resurrected it, right? Like, that was awesome, right? Whoo, high five, boom. With Jesus, don't y'all want that? Like, oh my goodness. I want to go up there and just give Jesus a Holy Spirit fist bump, right? It'd be awesome. It'd be so awesome to do that. Well, here's the thing is that if you want that, if you want that, what is holding you back from it? What we see in this parable is we see that we can have that praise, trust, and joy in Christ, but it's found in seeking out him by being ready to step into these opportunities,

being ready for the reward that happens. If that jives you up and you get excited about that, man, here's how you get it. You jump in, you've got to be ready to jump in those opportunities and use those talents and giftings and things like that. And some of you guys are going to sit here and say, I know what you're thinking. I've been there too. You're going to say, but wait a minute, preacher. I'm no good at these things. I know Pastor Drew. Oh man, I know Pastor Drew. That dude is good looking. Nobody said amen. I was teeing up his wife right there. I was teeing up his wife right there. She's doing children's church though, isn't she? She's saying amen from over there. That dude can preach? There we go, there we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's so gifted. He's so talented. He loves people. He's even looking like Jesus while he's drinking coffee down the road. Amen. Amen, amen.

I could never be that gifted. I could never do what he does. I couldn't do that at all. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I want you to understand, God's not calling you to be Pastor Drew or any other pastors in this room. He's not calling you to be them. He's calling you to be you. And I want you to look back at this text for a minute. Those servants were given the same praise. He doesn't matter if you're teaching five in a threes and four class, or you're preaching to a stadium of 50,000. In the economy of God, he doesn't measure those differently. He just measures your faithfulness. Here's the theological point I want you to realize is that when God provides you an opportunity, he is not concerned with producing an outcome. He is concerned with you being ready for the task. Let that sit on you for a moment. God is not going to hold you accountable to the outcome.

He didn't for these guys, he didn't go to the guy with two and say, man, why didn't you produce five? Or the guy with five and say, why didn't you produce 20? He didn't do that at all. What he did was, is he entrusted them to the opportunity and task based on their abilities that he gave them with. And then when they were faithful to the task in which he had provided to them, that's when he rewarded them. He's not concerned about producing an outcome. He's concerned about you being ready for the task. So let me ask you the question, are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready for that reward? Are you ready to step into the task? No matter how small or how big? Are you ready? Or are you waiting? Are you waiting for something else? Let me give you the third point. Are you ready to go on the third point? If you are, say amen. Let's get the third point. It says this, he's ready for the master's return.

This is the third aspect that we find out of this parable. We're ready for the master's return. Now as you think about this, we're going to have to dive into the negative because there is some negative stuff going on in this parable. Look with me in verses 24 through 30 and it ends in this negative situation. The master returns to check in on what the servants have been up to. Are they being faithful? And this is the time whenever he finds the unfaithful servant, the one who hid his talent. He also, who had received one talent, came forward saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seeds. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and thoughtful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given. And he will have an abundance but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So the negative situation is this, is that the unfaithful servant, he hid his talent in the earth and instead of using his opportunities, his abilities and all that God had entrusted to him for the glory of God he buries them. Now as you think about this, I want you to just make a mental note here. This guy, he did not purposely do evil. He wasn't intentionally trying to harm God. By his own justification he is justifying his actions but yet denying God his glory,

his power and his movement. I'm telling you this because by doing nothing he committed sin by robbing God of these things. I know that there are some of us even in this room that are going to sit there and say well I just got to do nothing. I can just do nothing and if that's you I want you to realize something that is exactly what this servant did. He did nothing. As you look at this you may be sitting there going well what held this man back from being ready, grabbing a hold of what God had provided and let me point out something to you. Here's what held him back from being ready. Number one, the first thing that held him back was fear. Fear. You're going to see this absolutely in this text. You're going to see that he feared his responsibility and because of fear he refused to make a difference, make a sacrifice, doing what was called of him or even make an effort to utilize those

gifts and responsibilities and all that that God had entrusted to him. You're going to find this in Matthew chapter 25 verse 25. Look what it says here. I think it's going to be up on the screen. Verse 25, Matthew 25, 25. Oh, is it not up there? Okay we're going to look anyway. If you have your Bibles open, that's why we have our Bibles. The screens don't always do good. So here we go. Matthew 25, I want you to read this with me. So I was, what does it say church? Afraid. Afraid. Fear held him back. So I was afraid. I want you to realize something. Fear will always keep you from being ready for the mission of God. You cannot hold on to your fear and be faithful at the same time because what God calls us to do is he calls us to live lives of faith, to be ready to step into the unknown and to let go of the comfortable for the uncomfortable. Let me give you another thing.

You may sit there and go, well why did he squander his responsibility, his opportunity in this sense? Here's the second thing that held him back, self-preservation. Fear it led to self-preservation. I got to protect what I have. I got to keep what I've got. When we are afraid we will not have the faith to move, what we'll do is we'll try and build up walls and we'll sit in our holy huddles and we'll guard what we have. Think of the servant, his fear drove him to take that talent in which the master had given him and literally hide it in the ground because he didn't want anybody to take it from him. He thought he could keep it. He could protect it by hiding it in that sense and he figured honestly that at the end of it there wouldn't be any accountability. All that God would want back was what he had provided. He thought that he could just keep what he had for himself.

You're going to find this in verse 25 as well. I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. You can have back what you've given me. Self-preservation held this guy back from being ready and self-preservation will keep us from being ready in the mission of God. Again you cannot have faith and follow God into opportunities and using your gifts and to bring God glory unless you are willing to lay it all out. You can't protect yourself in the economy of God. Let me just tell you something. You're going to get hurt whenever you serve God. It happens. That's okay. If they treated Jesus that way, they can treat us that way too. Amen. As you think about this, fear leads to self-preservation. In self-preservation it does not work. I want you to realize too the results of self-preservation from this text. When the master returns, the guy's talent was taken from him and given to another person.

If you're thinking to yourself, I can just hoard my talents, my gifts, my abilities, my money, my plans, all that type of stuff. I don't have to give any of that to God. I want you to realize something. If you're not going to use it, then God will remove it and give it to somebody else. That's kind of a crazy thing. What this guy selfishly hoarded thinking he could keep to himself was actually given to another. You're going to find this in verse 29. If you look back in your text, it says this, verse 29, for everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Some of us are going to fight on this. Our self-preservation will even try and overrule God and we'll say something like this, but preacher, how can God take away this man's talents from him? Isn't it his? The answer to that is nope.

The talents, the giftings, the abilities, everything that we have is given to us by God. It's not ours. You may think that you have it, but you don't really have it. God can take it away in an instant, in a moment if he wanted to. How does he do that? Because he owns all things and he gave it to you in the first place. We own nothing. We are just managers for the Lord. We are stewards. We are servants. All the talents are the master's talents and he can do with them what he wants to. But the servant is not willing and ready to use their talents. They can be taken away from them and oftentimes that they will. Here's the short of it. What we do not use for the Lord, we are in danger of losing. Now that hits the road real quick. The rubber hits the road on that one. I want you to think about this. Think about what God is entrusted with you right now that you're not using for his glory.

As I think about this, man, I think about our talents and our abilities that go squandered all the time. Some of you guys, y'all may be gifted with people. You may be able to share the gospel with anybody. Some of you guys may be gifted in worship. Some of you guys may be gifted in hospitality. Some of you guys may be gifted in teaching. Some of you guys may be gifted in preaching and you just don't let any of that happen. You just kind of squandered in your life. Let me tell you, if you don't exercise that gift, God will take it away. At the same time, it's not just about gifts and abilities. It's also about the resources in which God has given us. Guys, you got these big high paying jobs. You're able to buy these big fancy houses and these big cars and yet you give very minimally to the house of God. What are you thinking? Do you not think God can take that away from you in a moment?

He's not giving you that so that you would build an earthly kingdom. He's giving you that so that you would steward it well and build the kingdom of God. I'm telling you this because everything good has been given from God. And what we do not use from the Lord, we are in danger of losing. I also want you to think of the third thing that I see out of this text and that is what do you think the servant felt when the master returned? When he saw what had happened, that the master did return and he saw all the other servants utilizing in readiness and faith their gifts and opportunities and abilities, what do you think this servant who buried his talent felt? I know what he felt. He felt guilt. He looked around at these other guys and he goes, oh my gosh, what have I done? And he immediately felt defensive. You see this in the text. He was defensive of his actions and he began blame shifting onto the master.

Look in verse 24. He also had received the one talent, came forward saying, master, I knew you had to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. This objection, it makes no sense. All it is is guilt and blame shifting. A hard man, you don't even know the master. He just gave you 20 years worth of wages. He gave you a talent. He gave you everything. What are you talking about? Reaping where you did not sow? It's all his in the first place. What are you talking about? Where you scattered no seed? Why do you think you're there? As you think about this, he felt so guilt. He begins blame shifting and making these excuses because he is super desperate out of his guilt. Fear and self-preservation drove him to disobedience, which then concluded in guilt and condemnation. You may be sitting there saying, pastor, that's harsh.

Yeah, I know it's harsh. The reason why I'm telling you this is because you don't need to go there, church. If that is you here today and you are being that unfaithful servant where you are squandering the opportunities, abilities, and giftings, and all the blessings that God has given you by hoarding them and keeping them to yourself, by being fearful, and by being preserving of your own self, then stop it. I love you. Stop it. I'm not telling you this to be ugly to you. I'm telling you to stop it because ultimately there will be accountability. I know some of you guys in this room are even in some kind of self-denial in all of this. I'm going to say, preacher, preacher, preacher, I would never act like this. I'm going to say, now hold up, wait a minute, y'all. Wait a minute. There are Christians all over the world right now who live their lives in this exact state

of mind. They come to church and believe it's all about them. They come to church. Why did they come to church? Oh, because they got a good kid's ministry. And they got good breakfast out in the foyer. And they come here and they sing the songs that I love. The worship leader, man, he just brings me to tears and I get the heebie-jeebies and the good and feelies all over me. And I just love it. And that pastor, he preaches in a way that he never steps on my toes and he tells funny stories and things like that. Man, it's all about me. When it comes to giving, instead of being ready and eager to give to the Lord's house, they give minimal out of self-preservation. Oh, I can't do that. I still got to pay my huge house payment and my big car payment and stuff like that. My kids have all these extracurricular activities and I got to pay for those first before I pay for the Lord.

They give very minimally because their budget is so overfilled with their own self. When it comes to serving, they would never do that. Why would I do that? Because that's why we got those committed people at church to do that. Share the gospel? No way. That's why we pay pastor to do it. Never going to do that. Christians do this all the time. Stop it. I'm telling you this because I don't want you to go there. I don't want that day to come whenever Jesus returns. And Jesus is returning you guys. Now understand this, right? Jesus is coming back for us. I don't want that day to come and you look back on your life and you go, man, I invested in a lot of garbage. A lot of stuff that means nothing. Don't go there. Be the other one. So let me ask you the question here. As you think through this, what's holding you back from following the Lord? As God has gifted you, He has a plan for you.

He gives you opportunities and abilities and divine appointments all the time. What is holding you back right now? Is it fear? Is fear holding you back? Do you think He can't do it? What's holding you back right now? Is it self-preservation? Oh, I can't do that because I got all this other stuff going on. What's holding you back from following the Lord right now? You know, as you think through this, I want to also point to something else. There's also the gospel in this. Some of us, as we came to church this morning, we may hear this type of stuff and we may have guilt in our lives already. There may be some of us who have came to church and I believe that there are probably more than a few that came to church this morning and go, man, I just don't know the Lord can use me. I know God loves me, but I think He kind of loves me at a distance. I've done so many things in my life, man, I can't even, whew, I could fill a rap sheet.

I don't even want to tell God all the things that I've done. I've been broken, I've been beat up, I know I'm dirty. I know I'm flawed. I can't get this figured out and I can't be good enough to serve God. You know, the reality is, is we look at that, none of us are good enough to serve God, not one of us. But the good news of the gospel is this, is that we don't have to be. You see, God is not interested in our perfection. He has the perfect one and that perfect one, His name was Jesus. What Jesus did for us is He came and He lived a perfect life. He performed miracle and prophecy to fulfill Scripture and show us that He was God. And ultimately, all those imperfections that you're holding between you and God right now, what Jesus did is He took all those sinful things and He nailed them to a cross, paying the penalty for those. And the reality is, is that when you call upon the name of Jesus, He can take your

sin upon Himself and then in turn what He does is He gives you His righteousness, which means that all those things that you're feeling guilty about, God washes them away. He takes them all out, He forgives them. So when God looks at you from that point forward, you don't have to feel any guilt. Why is that? Because when He looks upon you, He sees the perfection of Christ. Now the cool thing about that is this, is that not only did Jesus just teach this and show us that He died on the cross, He also validated it. And what do I mean by that? Here's what I mean, is that after Jesus died on the cross, He was buried in the tomb for three days and then on the third day, He rose again. And what that means for you is this, is that not only did Jesus say that He could conquer sin in death and hell and all those things, He proved it and He did it. Praise God. So I'm telling you this because if you're sitting there in this room and you're saying

my sin is too big for God to forgive, man, you are absolutely incorrect. There is no one outside of the reach of Jesus. There is no sin too big that Jesus is not forgiven or could not forgive. But you do have to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. As you think about this, I want to leave you with one final verse and I want you to write it maybe in the margin of your Bible by your scripture. And it's this, it's Matthew chapter 16 verse 25. Says this, for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life from my sake will find it. My question to you today is where does Jesus find you? Are you ready, church? I have a few questions that I want to put up on the screen. And I want you to do me a favor here. I want you to pull out your cell phone real quick. And I want you to take a picture of these questions.

Yes, the preacher told you you could pull out your cell phone in church. There you go. Pull out your cell phone, take a picture of these questions, and here's the reason why. Is because maybe it's not now, maybe it's sometime today. I want you to get in your quiet place and I want you to have a conversation with God. I want you to walk through these questions and say, God, where am I?

Where is your plan for my life? Who am I calling, who are you calling me to be? What does that look like for me to walk in obedience into these? So ask yourself these questions and spend some time with God. And here's what I want you to do after you do that. I want you to, if God is stirring something in you, I want you to text one of the pastors and say, this is what God has shown me in my life. This is what he's calling me to be. OK, can you do that for me, church? All right, let's do this. Let's pray and then we'll continue and worship. Father, God, we come to you now, Lord, and we just praise you. God, we thank you so much for all that you do for us. God, we thank you for the word which you've spoken to us today. And God, we just praise you for being with us here this morning. God, I pray that you would just continue to speak as you will. And Lord, I pray that your will would be done in every single one of our lives.

And you would give and give us eager and enthusiastic hearts to follow you. Do all these things in your precious name. Amen.