Parable of the Talents

Well, good morning and welcome to Cross Church Elm Mirage. My name is Tyler. If we haven't gotten a chance to connect yet, would love to meet you. I'll be outside underneath the awning after service, so feel free to swing by there. Uh if you're watching online today, thank you so much for joining us there. You're probably also inside of air conditioning, which is good as well because man, it is a zillion degrees outside. But uh good news for us today. We are in our final week of our series in the parable. So if you got a Bible, go ahead and open it up. We'll be in Matthew chapter 25. Matthew uh chapter 25. We're studying this last parable. It's the parable of the talents. Uh before we jump in there though, I do need to give you an update on Let's Go. If you joined us some time ago, about seven months ago, you'll know we kicked off this brand new campaign that we called Let's Go, which was this big campaign for us to leverage our resources for the sake of Kingdom Advance. So, we started a big kind of fundraising piece to this, but also a lot more than that. Uh and I just want to take a second to celebrate where we're at with that. Um, couple of things really exciting happening next Sunday. Uh, Pastor Lyall and his wife Heather are launching soft launching our mayor location. So, what we talked about uh almost seven months ago is happening now. We're super excited uh for that. Be in prayer for them. Yes. And you could clap for them. Um, that's kind of a big deal. So, we're excited about that. Um, the other thing I want to share with you that's a big update is this. for the first quarter from April through June, we were north of 100% over a 100% on our pledges and fulfillment of all of those pledges. And so it's been really cool to see um that we are ahead of the pace. Um what that means is those of us that have put our yes on the table are pulling on our end of the rope and as such God is doing some really cool stuff with those resources. So I just want to celebrate that with you. Big things are happening. And so with that in mind, um we're going to jump into Matthew chapter 25. Uh as we do that, I was reminded of kind of the concept for today's parable. And it's this idea that sometimes things get lost or hidden from us and they are found later. And I just got to ask you a question today. Have you ever lost something and found it later? Anybody? Anything? Um I have it happen unfortunately often in life. Whether it's keys, wallet, phone, you know, you know how it goes. Um, one of my first experiences that was powerful when Hannah and I got married, we got married young. And [snorts] one of the things that she bought me, one of our first Christmases together, married, is she bought me this nice black watch. And for a long time, I would wear it every single day. And I would wear it every day. Well, there was one day where I was going to do a project or something. I didn't want the watch to get dirty, so I took it off and I sat it in the truck. Here's what happened, though. I lost it. Now, I don't know if you're like me when you lose things, but I have too much pride to admit that I've lost something, right? I've just misplaced it. I just need to grab it. It's somewhere. I just need to look for it. Um, and so I did that whole thing for like two weeks, which turned into like two months. And it took almost six months, and I was actually getting ready to sell the truck. And I'm taking the last couple things out of the truck. I move the driver's seat back, and wouldn't you know it, I find the black watch. Now, here's what I love about this story. In this, I found the watch, which was a joy in and of itself. But what was even better is I got my watch back. So, it was like I gave myself a gift in the future. All right? So, if you're out here today and looking for a positive spin on losing something and finding it later, you're just giving yourself a gift in the future. So, just enjoy that today. And so, I was so excited when I found it. Well, today as we look at scripture, we're going to find a story about someone who hides something, finds it later, and it takes a bit of a different turn. So, let's join together in Matthew chapter 25. We'll start reading in verse 14. Here's what it says for us today. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey. He called his own servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent. depending on each's ability. Then he went on a journey. Immediately the man who had received five talents went put them to work and earned five more. In the same way the man who had two earned two more. But in verse 18, but the man who had received one talent went off dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. As we look at this story today, it's a reminder of our key thought for our time together today. It's this. Jesus used stories to shape our faith. Now, as we've talked about over these nine weeks in this series, the truth is that as we hear stories, whether it's uh podcasts that we listen to, whether it's movies that we watch, whatever it is, when we hear stories, stories are powerful. Stories can encourage us. They can make us feel joyful or sad or fearful. But stories shape us as people. And it's Jesus who used stories to shape our faith. And so he begins to tell this story here, Jesus does about the [snorts] parable of the talents. Now, before we get into what this story teaches us, I think there's a couple of things we notice and a bit of the description or the setup for the story. It's in the setup for the story that we find a few things that are interesting. It says this, "The man was going on a journey. So he took his wealth or his resources and he spread it amongst three people by ability. He says depending on each one's ability. Now this is an interesting thing for us. Uh but what we learn in this story is that this is a deep reminder to us that what God gives us is matched to our abilities. As a matter of fact, the story here is that depending on each one's ability, they were given more or less resources to manage. And then what we find in this story is that immediately the one who had received five talents shows why he received the five talents because he put them to work and he earned five more. And what we'll find today as we read this story is that the results teach us some really important principles. And so let's read together beginning in verse 19. Here's what it says. After a long time, highlight, circle, underline, important moment. After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five talents approached, presented five more talents, and said, "Master, you gave me five talents. See, I earn five more talents." His master said to him, "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. In verse 22, he continues, "The man with two talents also approached, and he said, Master, you gave me two talents. See, I earned two more talents." His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Share in your master's joy." Verse 24, 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. So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. His master replied to him, you evil lazy servant. If you knew that I reap where I haven't sown and gather where I haven't scattered, then you should have deposited my money with bankers and I would have received my money back with interest when I returned. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have more than enough, but from the one who doesn't have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And here's what he says in verse 30. And throw this good for-no servant into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Let's pray as we jump in today. God, we come before you. And God, as we wrestle with this story that teaches us a lot, but God can also have some interesting elements. We pray first God that you would give us the wisdom to understand your word here and that secondly God you would also give us the courage and conviction to take what we learn today and to begin to live it out. We pray all this in your name. Amen. Well, in this story we find so many interesting things. This story of the talents reminds us of a lot of deep spiritual principles. And so I want to begin with what this story teaches us. The first thing that this story teaches us is that we all have something. We all have something. If you're here today and you say you have nothing, uh, then you are incorrect. You have something. Uh, those of us that are followers of Christ have at the absolute bare minimum at the time of the Holy Spirit been given a spiritual gift. So for us today, understand that we all have something. It could be a spiritual gift that is your thing. It could be a talent that you have. One of the things I brag about in our church often is that if something breaks, we have someone in our church who can fix that thing. All right? It's not me, but I can call someone in our church who can fix the thing. From vehicles to generators to all the things can get fixed. And that's a blessing about our church is that our talent has been wide spread. Some of us, as you think about who you are, you have a special god-given wiring. And it is so cool to see the way in which we all have something, but sometimes it takes a little bit for us to understand. Over the last two and a half years, almost three years now that we've been working on the process of getting Cross Church Elmarrage off the ground, it's been cool to see the way that calling has played out. So many of those of us in the room here today are here because God specifically prepared all of the things in advance for us to get to this moment. times when we weren't even ready for what would happen here, God began to stir in people's hearts and prepare people for these moments right here. So understand, we all have something. I love the reality that on a Sunday morning as we gather as the church, we begin to hear stories about how God is moving. Whether it's over here as people are grabbing coffee or they're grabbing a seat, they begin to talk about what God's doing in their life. And one of the ways I'm reminded that we all have something is that we all have a testimony of how God's moving in our lives. And even the testimony of how God is moving in our lives is valuable. I asked the family in our first service today. I said, as they walked in, I said, "All right, here's the question of the day. Are we surviving or thriving?" And they looked at me with all the honesty in the world and they said, "Pastor, today we're just surviving." And if that's you today, can I just encourage you that's okay? In a room like this, we don't have to be perfect. It's even in our brokenness that we realize we have something that God is doing something in our lives. Anybody fans of the Olympics? Anybody? Okay, a few of you. I love the Olympics. All right, because I love to watch the United States win. All right, we win. That's what we do. All right, and I love watching the Olympics. In 2024, I was watching the Paris Olympics. And uh when it comes to watching Olympics, there are certain sports you like to watch and then there's others that never get televised. All right, let's just be real. All right, they're like second tier sports. All right, one of the second tier sports uh is called pistol shooting. And it's, as the name would suggest, a very basic simple sport. And in 2024, there was an interesting phenomenon that happened in Paris during the Olympics and pistol shooting. There was a guy who came on the scene who was a little bit past his prime, so they say, but he was a guy who came in and changed everything about pistol shooting. His name is Yousef, and I won't even begin to attempt to pronounce his last name, so don't judge me. Uh, but he's from Turkey. At the time of those Olympics, he was 51 years old. All right? He shows up to the pistol shooting competition. Here's what's unique about Yousef. Everyone else in the competition has specialized glasses, little things they're folding above their glasses that are have a technical name. All these different things, special sights, all these different things. Yousef shows up with his regular glasses, his everyday glasses that he uses for life and his pistol that's nothing special. And he shows up and he competes incredibly well. Actually gets a medal out of the deal. Now, here's what's incredible about Ysef's story. He had no idea his whole life that he was preparing for this moment. He has something about him that's special. It took him 51 years to fully realize what that special something was. You see all the time though from his early adulthood up to this moment. He had been a part of law enforcement. He'd been preparing for this unknowingly his entire life. And I want you to check out his quote that he lives by. He talked about this after the Olympics. He said, I live by this quote that success doesn't come with your hands in your pockets. I thought that's pretty good. That's a reality for his story is that he had to be active in finding out what his something was. But let me remind you personally today, if you are here in the room, you have something. You may have one talent, you may have 10 talents, or you may have five talents, but all of us have something that is God-given. Second [snorts] thing I want you to see that this story teaches us is that we are all responsible for the thing. Now, as we read this story, there's a couple of things that stand out is very important. They received their amount of talents based on their ability, as scripture would say here early in verse 15, depending on each one's ability. However, instantly or immediately, as scripture would say here, the man who had five talents went and put them to work. Let me remind you of this principle. When it comes to financial things, money doesn't grow on trees. All right? If it did, I would be planting trees in my backyard today. All right? But it doesn't work that way. There is a direct correlation between work and money. And so this guy who receives the five talents understood this and he instantly put them to work and he earned five more. Now one of the things I think is very important about this is the understanding that we are all responsible for the thing that God has given us. This man here was responsible for the five talents. You see he had to leverage what he had well but in taking the five talents and doubling them that doesn't happen magically. There is involved in that risk and reward. [snorts] This is a process of putting it on the line to leverage well what you have in front of you. This man had some risk involved in the process. And it reminds me of the two basic reactions that you and I often have when we're in difficult seasons or when God is calling us out of seasons that are easy or comfortable. The two typical reactions are faith, which is good, and fear. Faith and fear. And sometimes, if you're like me, in this journey called faith, as we're following God, there's seasons where we have complete faith and we know God's got it all together. And then 10 minutes later, we're wondering, God, what are you doing here? Like a little bit of fear creeps in and we're asking why now? What's this supposed to be? Why are you teaching me this now? Why patience? Whatever the case may be. Understand this clearly. Faith and fear are a part of this process. Even from the man with five talents, faith and fear were aspects to his story, but he allowed his faith to win out. The man with one talent let fear be the thing that drove him and he just buried the talent and waited. What is he called later? Wicked and lazy. Evil and lazy. You see, we are called to leverage and to be responsible for the thing that God has given us. My heart and prayer is that you and I would be a people that don't bury the thing that God has given us, but that we leverage it as well as possible. that we don't let fear drive us, but that we let faith lead us. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of a principle of Matthew chapter 14. If you uh are familiar with the story of Matthew chapter 14, it's Jesus who says this. Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side. And while Jesus dismissed the crowds, the storm comes up as the disciples are in the boat. And here's what happens in verse 26. When the disciples saw him, that is Jesus, walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, "It's a ghost." [snorts] They said, "And they cried out in fear." Immediately Jesus spoke to them, "Have courage. It is I. Don't be afraid." You see, because fear and faith run on similar timelines here. It's a competition between the two things. And here's what happens in verse 28. Lord, if it's you, Peter answered, "Command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." And climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me." Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught a hold of him and caught a hold of him and said to him, "You have little faith. Why did you doubt?" You see, check this out in this story, Peter steps out of the boat onto the winds and the waves. And what often happens is the reality that people much like you and I look back and we say, "Peter, you should have just kept walking. Like, why did you lose faith?" But you know what's funny about that? We begin to be just like the disciples who are still in the boat in the safety and security. And it is Peter who was the man in the arena who had stepped out of the boat. He was the one doing the thing. He was the one that put his faith not just to words but to actions. It's a reminder that one of the things we see play out all throughout scripture and today is that safety isn't in the easy things. Peter stepped out where there were winds and waves, where there was fear around him. He stepped out though in faith and had this incredible moment. And it reminds me of a story that a pastor shared some time ago uh at a revival service. He said, "Oftentimes as the church, we think that safety is in the chair where things are comfortable and easy and air conditioned, which is important too, but we think safety is in the chair." But he says this safety is more often in the dare where we get out of our comfort zone where God begins to stretch us where our faith begins to grow in seasons where things are difficult unsteady changing where we're unsure. And it's in those moments where God begins to stretch our faith. So let me remind you today that we are all responsible for that thing. It is the thing that God has given us that we have to manage and leverage well. And we can have plenty of excuses or reasons why we're not managing the thing well. But understand that we will be held accountable for how we manage the thing. One of the things I hear people say around the faith often as they talk about what they want their legacy to be someday is they want to be like the people who had five talents and two talents. Let me read that phrase for you again. In verse 21, it says this, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And that's what people say about their legacy. They said, "Pastor, I want to hear someday, well done, good and faithful servant." Can I tell you this? That's an awesome goal to have. That would be an incredible moment. But here is the reality of that phrase, "Well done, good and faithful servant." It says, "You were faithful over a few things, so I'll put you in charge of many things." Successful responsibility in this story leads to more responsibility. When we manage what God has given us well, it leads to us being put to manage more things. Sometimes my honest but harsh criticism for some people could be if God hasn't given you more to manage, we have to ask the question, have we managed well what God has given us? Have we been leveraging everything we have for the glory of God? He ends that phrase though by saying, I'll put you in charge of many things. Share in your master's joy. It's a reminder that we should live lives aligned with our heavenly father completely focused on the same things that God is focused on. Which reminds us of the third thing today that this story teaches us. This story teaches us that how we manage that thing writes our legacy. How we manage that thing writes our legacy. One of the things that I speak somewhat um somewhat often about is the truth that in the unfortunate moments uh of our lives where people pass away, we oftentimes in a church like this get get to host funeral services. And what I've said is this that it's actually been a blessing to me personally to host funeral services. And you would say, "Pastor, you are weird and that is a bad statement." All right, hear me out. Here's why it's a blessing to host funeral services. I constantly am asking myself, if I died today, what would my legacy be? So, it helps me to focus on what I'm living my life for and around. You've probably heard the old line that uh some people lives live lives when it comes to their faith where the pastor has to lie at their funeral to make people feel better. And my heart and prayer is that you and I are a people that live lives and write a legacy of faithfulness that impacts future generations. that we don't take the talents God has given us and bury them, but that we leverage them for the sake of the glory of God. So, here's the simple question for us today. What legacy are you writing right now? What's the legacy you're writing right now? Are you writing a legacy of fear that says, "I'm afraid." As a matter of fact, it's a realistic, honest assessment of ourselves. Here's what the man says in verse 24 that had one talent. He says, "Master, I know you. You're a harsh man." And it's this moment where he decides to not lose it. So in this man's life, the driving force became fear. And so he buried it and tried to wait the storm out because he didn't want to lose what he had already been given. But the reality is that having faith means that we leverage what we have well. that we don't always do the thing that seems safe and easy, but that we do the thing that writes the legacy of faithfulness. Are we people that live by fear? Or are we people that live by faith? As a matter of fact, here's one of the questions we can begin to ask ourselves when it comes to the way that we structure ourselves. What role does faith play in our lives Monday through Saturday? Here's the reality. It's easy for you and I to show up on Sunday and to begin to be perfect Christians on a Sunday morning. What really matters is how we live out our faith from Monday through Saturday. When things aren't easy, when we get that phone call that we've been dreading, when we show up to the workplace and we have to deal with those specific co-workers. Unless that co-orker's in the room, don't nudge them. All right? That's not good. If you work with your spouse, it's even be be careful. All right, but here's the thing. We have to understand that how we live, manage all of the things that God has given us writes our legacy beginning today. It's this incredible thing that we have to be careful of as we look at this story. I told you that verse 19 is important because here's what it tells us. In verse 19, it says this, "After a long time, the master of those sermons came and settled accounts." Now, check this out. Faithfulness and legacy are not things that are written overnight. It's not a get-richqu scheme uh that can just happen overnight and everything's fixed and solved and taken care of. What is true about a legacy of faithfulness is that it often involves a long time. It's simple daily actions that are stacked up repeatedly that make an impact over the long term. for you and I. It reminds me of places throughout scripture where I can think of people specifically who have fit the bill for this. I think of John the Baptist. He even his name John the Baptist is built on what he did that created his legacy. His legacy is he went around telling people repent and be baptized. Jesus is coming. Repent and be baptized. Jesus is coming. Even his name is a legacy. My heart and prayer is that for you and I today as we live our lives, the legacy we write on a daily basis would be one not of fear but of faith that we would leverage everything that we have for the sake of the kingdom. And so I'm going to ask you this key question for today. How does this story shape our faith? And we'll spend some time fleshing that out today. Here's this question. How does this story shape our faith? Well, the very practical thing I want to do is encourage you first to discover how God has gifted you. A very easy next step that you can take today is if you've never taken a spiritual gifts assessment, go home and take a spiritual gifts assessment. At the moment we receive the Holy Spirit, we also receive what's called a spiritual gift. And those assessments can help us to determine how God has gifted and wired us. Know your spiritual gift. Also, I would encourage you to be open to how God is calling you. I can't tell you how many times people have come to me and said, "Pastor, I feel like maybe God's doing something in my life and kind of calling me towards this thing and I'm not quite sure about it." And let me just tell you, be sensitive to how God is calling you. Discover how God has gifted you because as we talked about earlier, everyone has something. So, we need to first discover how God has gifted you. One quick thing you can add to that is if you're unsure how God has gifted you, ask the people in your life around you. They will be honest with you. Sometimes too honest. Amen. Some of you are like, "Uh-huh. I know about that." Um, but they know the best and worst of us and they can tell us things that oftenimes we miss about ourselves. So, first discover how God has gifted you. The second thing I want you to see that's really important to understanding how this story of the parable of the talents shapes our faith is that we should develop the things that we've been gifted with. We should develop the things that we've been gifted with. Understand this very clearly. Doing the things that God calls us to do causes us to be uncomfortable. Doing the things God calls us to is uncomfortable. Change isn't easy. I heard the definition the other day uh that I was reminded of of the definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Um some of us do that daily, right? Um we try to continue doing things and expect different results. Let me remind you, if we're going to develop what we've been gifted with, it might mean changing what we do in order to get a different result. The other thing I want to remind you of in this principle is that as we read this story, one of the things that is a very important principle is that this is more than just management. This is more than just sitting on what we have. It's being risky for the sake of the mission, knowing that we have lives to leverage. We have people to point to Jesus. And so we should develop the things that we have been gifted with. And the third thing that I think is equally important is that you should dedicate yourself to being faithful. Dedicate yourself to being faithful. If I could remind you of two things today, it would be this. To first leverage what you have for the glory of God. As you look at this story, the ones who are praised are those who are constantly seeking after ways that they can do more for their master. You and I have a heavenly father who has given us a mission. And for us today, we should be hungry to do as much as we possibly can to impact the world with the gospel. And that's the way that we could dedicate ourselves to being faithful. But equally important to that is the understanding that we should live a lifestyle of worship. One of the things that's been evident as I've studied scripture this week is the reality that uh it could be easy to listen to a message like this about leveraging our lifestyle for the gospel and doing all these big things and being risky, all of these incredible things, and to leave that message at church on Sunday and to go home and have opportunities to point people to Jesus and do incredible different things, but to allow those things to become missed because we let this be a Sunday only thing. Let me remind you that we should live a lifestyle of worship. That Monday to Saturday should be the fleshing out of what we wrestle with and study throughout the week here. And so what I want to ask you to do today is to enter a time of prayer with me. And so um if you'd bow your heads and close your eyes, I want to read some scripture over you as we begin to focus our hearts and begin to prepare for communion. It's a scripture that I found out of Isaiah chapter 53 this week. And I'm just going to read this over you. Goodness, you bow your heads and close your eyes. Just receive these words and focus in on what scripture says today. It says this, "Who has believed what we heard?" And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn't have impressive form or majesty that we should look at him and no appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by man. A man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from. He was despised and we didn't value him. Yet he himself bore our sickness and he carried our pains. But we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. Verse 5 says this, "But he was pierced because of our rebellion, [music] crushed because of our iniquities. The punishment for our peace was on him." [music] And at the end, it says this phrase, "We are healed by his wounds." You see, this reminder here in scripture is important because it reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross in order that we could be restored back to God. So, the first thing I want you to do as we begin to spend some time praying is to simply pray individually where you're at and thank God for sending Jesus to die on the cross for us. So, let's first spend some time in gratitude thanking God for what he's done for us. As we continue in a moment of prayer, I'm reminded of the words of 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 26 that says, "As often as you eat the bread, drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." And as we prepare in a moment to observe communion, it's a reminder that what we do in communion is focusing us on our creator. And so I just want to ask you in this moment in our second prayer prompt to spend some time praying, asking God to help us to focus that the distractions of life, the stuff of life would fall to the wayside and that particular to this moment we would be able to focus. Let's spend some time praying for focus today. Amen. As we continue in a spirit of worship, if you'll locate the communion elements near you as you locate those elements and as we prepare to observe communion, I'll read out of first Corinthians for us. It's in 1 Corinthians where Jesus is beginning the practice of the Lord's supper. And this we begin to practice this and see it in scripture for the very first time. It's the words of Jesus and the example of Jesus in verse 24 that says this. And when he that is Jesus had given thanks and broke it, [music] he said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Verse 25, it continues by saying this. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this and as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And as we spoke of, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Let's pray as we prepare to enter into worship. God, we come before you. God, we are so thankful that communion itself is a reminder of your goodness. Even when we weren't good, you sent your son to die on a cross for us because you loved us that much. So God, today we pray that you would help us to stay focused on your goodness and that our focus on your goodness would drive to us living lives leveraged for the sake of the gospel. Pray all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand as we continue in worship.