Dear God, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you for your promise like we just sung about, that you are coming again to take
us to heaven.
And Lord, as we live our life for you, as we go through our day, help us to find opportunities
to think about the grace that you have for us and to share that with somebody else.
In your name we pray, amen.
You may have seen the commercial on television and it's several different scenarios, but
they're very similar.
And maybe someone's hurt or been in some kind of accident or something like that.
And someone runs up to help and the question is asked, are you a doctor?
And the response is given, no.
But I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
There's a talent that's there, but it's not the talent that's needed for that particular
situation.
Have you ever been in a situation where there was some kind of, some need that was there
and you did not have the talent that was needed in that particular situation?
I think back to many, many years ago when I was still a student, a preacher, I was invited
to a very, very small church.
Like eight people were at this church.
And when I came in they asked, do you play the piano?
And I said, no, I don't play the piano.
As we were sitting through Sabbath school, I began to think to myself, you know, I took
piano lessons.
My mom was a piano teacher.
You know, I can read music.
I played the trombone.
I can read music.
I looked at the hymn.
I said, you know, I think I can at least play the right hand, you know, the melody of that
particular hymn.
So when Church Time said, I said, you know what, I think I can play this song.
And in my head, in my mind, I was going to do the right hand.
And maybe if I was really feeling it, I would do the bass note, you know, one more note.
And Jackson was here today and he can, he doesn't even need music.
He can just play whatever.
But I thought I could get through.
It wasn't a fast song.
And so I hit the first three, you know, two on the right, one on the left, the bass note.
I hit that.
By the time we got through the first measure, I was down to just two.
And by the time we got to the end of the first line, I was barely keeping up with just one
note.
So I thought maybe I had that talent in that moment, but I did not.
That was not the talent that I had.
So last time I was here about three weeks ago at the end of vacation Bible school, does
anybody remember what parable we looked at?
Becky, what parable do we look at on Sabbath?
All right, the 10 virgins in Matthew 25.
And we're going to continue in Matthew 25.
And as we looked at that story of those 10 young ladies, how many of them fell asleep
in that story?
They all fell asleep.
And we talked in that moment that that Matthew 24 focuses on the signs of the times.
What's going to be happening in the world before Jesus comes?
And the key of Matthew 24 says, watch for you do not know at what hour your Lord is
coming.
I forgot to put that piano picture up when I talked about that.
And then Matthew 25 talks about these young ladies who were waiting for the bridegroom
and they all fell asleep.
Every one of them fell asleep.
But the difference was that five of them had something.
They had some extra oil.
They had that connection, that personal connection with the Holy Spirit, personal connection
to God through the Holy Spirit.
And so Matthew 24 looks at what's going to be happening in the world before Jesus comes.
But Matthew 25 looks at what's happening in the church, in God's people before he comes.
And so in this story, everybody falls asleep, but half of them have a personal connection.
So kind of an interior thing, an inner connection with God.
But today we're going to look at the next parable.
It's called the parable of the talents.
And this is also looking at what is happening amongst God's people as we wait for Jesus
to come.
But it's more looking at not what's inside, but it's looking at our actions.
So we're going to continue this theme.
So we're going to be in Matthew 25 for most of this message today.
And the parable of the 10 virgins ended in verse 13, echoing what was said in Matthew
24.
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is
coming.
You don't know when, so we need to be ready all the time.
We need to be ready now.
And so this next parable picks up this story as it says in Matthew 25 verse 14.
It says, for the kingdom of heaven, now remember the parable of the virgins begun with that
very same line, the kingdom of heaven.
And we mentioned how there's about 20 different parables that are called the kingdom parables.
And they're describing what God's people are like.
The kingdom of heaven is like.
And so here's another one of those.
And I'm going to read several verses here and then we'll go back and we'll talk about
it.
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, and to another two, and to another one, to each according
to his own ability.
And immediately he went on a journey.
And 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.
And one more we'll look at verse 18.
That he who had received one went in the ground and hid his Lord's money.
Let's look back and see what happened in this story here.
So the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country.
So this is Matthew chapter 25.
The next chapter obviously is Matthew 26.
Now if you were to just scan over and look at Matthew 26, it talks about the Lord's Supper
or the Last Supper.
It talks about Jesus going to the Garden of Gethsemane.
That's the night before the cross.
And so this is the very ending of Jesus' time on this earth.
And so in this context, there's a man traveling to a far country.
This context is about Jesus about to depart, about to leave his disciples behind for a
bit, a long bit as we see now.
And so the context of this parable is that Jesus left and he's going to come again.
And so that's what we're looking at.
The kingdom of heaven is like a man, Jesus traveling to a far country, ascending to heaven,
who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
And then it says, and to one, he gave five talents to another two, to another one, to
each according to his own ability.
And immediately he went on a journey.
So what's going on here?
What are these talents?
What is a talent?
Now when we say talent, we think of a skill or something that we're good at, like Jackson
plays the piano.
I do not.
So he's more talented in that way.
But in this context, that word talent is actually referring to money, to finance.
So in the Greek times, in the Roman times, the Greeks had a coin called a drachma and
the Romans had a similar coin called the denarii or denarius.
And that was the equivalent of working one day.
If you went to work and work for one day, you could expect to get a denarius or a drachma.
So that was their coinage.
That was their currency that they used.
But a talent was not a coin, but a talent was a measure, a weight.
And it was a monetary weight equal to about 6,000 of these denarii.
So it was about 75 pounds of silver that this talent weighed.
So it wasn't something you could usually carry around in your pocket or something like that.
So if it was 6,000 denarii and you got one denarii for a day's work, how many days is
that?
6,000 days.
So it's not quite, but it's approaching 20 years, 15 to 20 years of labor.
So that's a lot that these gentlemen, these servants are being given.
And so the master gives one five talents.
So that's like 80 to 100 years' wages that he's giving him.
That's a lot.
That's a huge amount.
And then the other guy gets two talents.
That's like almost 40 years.
That's like your career.
Everything you make in your career is given to this guy at one time.
And then even the lesser guy gets one talent, which is still a good amount.
So in this story, these talents refer to finances, refer to money.
But I think in the context and throughout scripture, we see this idea, but it can involve
our finance, but it can also refer to other gifts that God puts into our life.
And we often refer to these as spiritual gifts.
Throughout scripture, these are referred to as spiritual gifts.
And so I want to look at some ideas, some understandings that we can gain from this
parable about these gifts that God pours out into our life.
It can be finances.
It can be piano playing.
What are the talents?
What are the skills?
What are the things that we have?
Well, we can see from this story that these gifts come from God.
These gifts come from God.
Like it says, he called his own servants, verse 14, and delivered his goods to them.
These gifts are from God.
These gifts are his prerogative.
We don't choose what our gifts are.
You might look around and you might say, well, that person is really good at something.
This person is really good at something else.
And we don't get to say, oh, I wish that I had that gift.
I wish that I could sing like the three ladies who are up here.
I wish that I could have the skill to build something or repair something or whatever
it is.
Now, we can practice and we can get a little better at things, but there's some people
that are just naturally talented, just naturally gifted.
And when they practice, they just soar and excel.
Whereas, even if I practice over and over and over, I'm not going to be able to hit
free throws like Michael Jordan or whoever.
It doesn't matter.
If I practice, I'm still not going to be as good at something as somebody else.
So these gifts come from God.
Now, we can also see in this story that everybody, all three of these servants get a gift.
And here's another place we can go.
We're going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
There's several places in scripture that talk about gifts that God pours out upon His people.
1 Corinthians 12 is one.
You may be more familiar with 1 Corinthians 13.
What is that chapter known as?
The love chapter.
You've heard that at every wedding you've ever gone to probably.
The love chapter.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
But even that is in the context of the gifts that we get from God.
So 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is where we're going to look right now.
Romans chapter 12 is another place.
And then we're going to look in Ephesians in a little bit.
But 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the very first verse, it's not on the screen, but it says,
now concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be ignorant, it says.
So this is something we're supposed to know a little bit about.
We're not supposed to be ignorant in this.
And then skipping down in verse four, it says there are diversities of gifts, but the same
spirit.
People get different things, but they're from the same God.
There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.
There are differences of, there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who
works all in all.
And it says, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one, everyone, all
of us for the profit of all.
So God is the one who gives the gifts and he gives the gifts to each one of us.
They're different gifts, but everybody has something.
Each gift is important.
Think about that.
If you were to read all of 1 Corinthians 12, it talks about the church, it talks about
the believers and it uses a phrase called the body of Christ, the body of Christ.
Who do you think is in charge of the body of Christ?
Let me give you a hint.
It is not the pastor.
That's not who's in charge of the body of Christ.
Christ, it says, is the head.
Christ is the head of the body.
And each one of us are members of the body of Christ.
And so each one of us has a gift and each gift is important.
Each gift is valuable.
I used to feel sorry for the guy that only had one thing.
He got one talent.
Poor little guy.
He only got one talent until you recognize that that's like 20 years of finances.
That's like a half a million dollars or a million dollars depending on what your career
is.
So that is a huge gift.
Every gift that we have is valuable.
Every gift from God.
So think about that for a second.
If every gift is valuable, that means your gift is valuable.
And if you have a gift from God that is valuable, that means you are valuable.
You may be going through life thinking it's just, you know, the treadmill of life, the
hamster wheel, whatever you want to call it.
Work, sleep, work, sleep.
What's it all about?
Well, guess what?
God has placed something in you that is valuable.
Something in you that nobody else in this room, that nobody else you know has.
You are better at it than somebody else.
And God has placed that in you.
That means you have value to God.
That means you have value to this body of believers.
You have something in you that is important.
It's not just about the routine of living life, but it's about the value that we have
for God.
We have something in us and each one of us has something.
Everybody has something.
But as we see, as we go on in this story, we see that using, trying, experimenting with
these gifts involves some risk.
Let's read on in the story here.
Back to Matthew 25 verse 16.
It says, then he who had received five talents went and traded with them.
Invested in something.
He did some, bought some seed, did something, traded with them and made another five talents.
So five plus five is ten.
Thank you.
And likewise, he who had received two gained two more.
Two plus two.
Four.
Very good.
Thank you.
He's in school today.
But he who had received one, what do you think he did?
He went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money.
There was a risk.
Somebody could have used those five talents.
They could have lost it.
Maybe they bought seed for the field, but there was a drought and nothing grew and it's
all gone or invested in a business and it goes bankrupt.
There's a risk when you're using your gifts and your talents for God.
There's a risk.
Maybe you're going to get accepted.
Maybe you're going to get rejected.
Maybe whatever you're trying to do is going to fail.
There's always a risk involved when we're serving God.
Think about some of the Bible characters.
You think about Abraham in the Old Testament.
God said, Abraham, I want you to leave the place that you're comfortable and I want you
to go to a place and I'm not even going to tell you where you're going.
I want you to just go.
And that's what Abraham did.
How much of a risk was that for a wealthy man?
You think of the disciples as they went and they shared the message of Jesus and many
of them were arrested and there was a risk for that.
And I see Phyllis about Phyllis.
Somebody knock on the door.
I want Phyllis to come in here for a second.
She's standing up right out there.
I want her to come in because Phyllis, she's talking to somebody.
She's going to hate this.
We had a visitor here a few weeks ago and I think I told Phyllis this.
She can stand right there.
And I contacted this visitor later in the week.
Thank you for visiting.
Thank you for being here.
And this visitor said, we want to especially say thank you to Phyllis because she welcomed
us so kindly and she made us feel greeted and she showed us where the potluck was and
she showed us where everything was.
Phyllis gets here at like eight o'clock or 830 every Sabbath morning and makes sure everything's,
the bulletins are in the right place.
Make sure everything is right where it goes.
Most of you didn't even realize that.
You're not even up when she gets to church already.
That's a gift.
That's hospitality.
That's welcoming people.
Thank you, Phyllis.
Let's give Phyllis a little hand there.
Thank you so much.
But that's a risk.
What if she said hello to people and they just walked right by?
What if she handed them a bulletin and they wadded it up and threw it in her face?
That probably would not happen.
But there's a risk when we are serving God.
Peter and Paul are placed in prison.
Stephen, as he's proclaiming the gospel, they arrest him.
They take him to prison and they throw rocks at him until he's dead.
We can read stories in our day of missionaries going across the ocean to live in difficult
places, hard places, antagonistic places, and yet they're still willing to go and make
a difference.
But we don't have to be a missionary for things to be risky, even in our daily life.
We want to tell somebody about God.
That can be risky.
If we want to volunteer for something, maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but using our
gifts and our talents for God takes a risk.
Let's continue on in the story here.
Verse 19, it says, after a long time, what was that?
A long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
How long was it?
It was a long time.
We don't know how long it was, but it echoes from the parable of the 10 virgins, because
in the parable of the 10 virgins, it says there was a delay, the bridegroom was delayed,
and all the people fell asleep.
And here it says it's a long time before the Lord comes.
We don't know when Jesus is returning.
It's been a long time.
We don't know when Jesus is returning.
We can look around and we can think it seems like it's going to be pretty soon, but we
don't know when.
But because we don't know when, that does not mean we should give up.
That doesn't mean we should turn the other direction, but it means we can still be faithful.
We can still work with the gifts and the talents that God has given to us.
And so this, after a long time, the Lord comes and it says, he settles accounts with the
people.
And we're going to read kind of two verses at the same time, because you may be able
to see that verse 20 and verse 22 are almost exactly the same.
There's a few words that are different.
So we're going to read verse 20, but notice it's also verse 22.
So he had, who had received five talents or two talents came and brought another five
or two saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.
Look, I have gained five more talents beside them.
So the guy who got two said almost exactly the same thing.
So we can learn here that these talents are not only from God, but these talents are for
God because they, they return them to God.
The Lord gave them, the master gave them, they returned them plus whatever else they
had learned.
And so we can look in Ephesians chapter four.
This is another place that talks about spiritual gifts.
Ephesians chapter four, keep your finger in Matthew because we're going to be back.
Ephesians chapter four, it says in Ephesians four, verse seven, which we don't have up
there, it says to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's
gift.
And then here talking about spiritual gifts, he himself got, Jesus himself gave some to
be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
And then it goes on and it says for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ.
We're going to come right back to that.
The verse 13 gives us a timing.
It says, tell we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son
of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ.
When is that?
When do we come to a full unity of the faith?
When do we come to a full knowledge of the son of God or become a perfect person?
When do you think that is?
When Jesus comes again, that hasn't happened yet.
That's somewhere in the future.
So that's talking about the second coming.
But I want to go back to verse 12 because it says that these gifts he gave some to be
apostles, prophets and so forth for a reason, for the equipping of the saints, for the work
of ministry, for the edifying or for the building up of the body of Christ.
So these talents are from God, but they're also for God.
God does not give you talents in your life so that you can be popular.
God does not give you talents in your life so that you can be rich, so that you can be
famous or anything like that.
You may be popular, you may be rich, but that's not why God placed those talents and those
skills into your life.
God places those talents into your life, not so that you can be known, but so that God
can be known, so that the body of Christ can be edified, can be built up for the equipping
of the saints.
That's us.
That's all of us.
We can be equipped for the work of ministry.
We can be equipped so that we can serve God so that others can know God and receive the
gift of salvation.
So that's another lesson about these gifts.
Let's go back to Matthew 25, and again, we're going to read two verses at the same time.
We're going to read verse 21 and verse 23.
There's just a couple of words that are different here.
So his Lord, this is verse 21, his Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
You were faithful over a few things.
I will make you ruler over many things.
Enter into the joy of the Lord.
You may not realize it, but using your gifts and your talents for God brings a reward.
Now that's not why we serve God.
We love God because he first loved us.
We serve him because he died for us.
We don't serve God for the reward, but in the act of serving God, there is a reward.
And we can see three things right here.
We can see a response.
Well done.
Good and faithful servant.
Think about the creator, the savior, at some point in the future saying to you, calling
you by name, Greg, well done, good and faithful servant.
Don't you like it when somebody acknowledges or recognizes if you're at work or something
and somebody says, you did a great job with that task.
Thank you so much.
Don't you appreciate it?
We don't do it for that reason, but if somebody notices something, that's to me, that's exciting.
All right.
Somebody saw what I did.
Well done.
Think of God of the universe says that to you.
What a reward that in and of itself is.
But then notice the next part.
Well done, good and faithful servant.
You were faithful over a few things.
I will make you ruler over many things.
So part of the reward is the opportunity to serve even more.
That may be like, whoa, that doesn't sound good.
I don't want to do a good job so that I get more work, but it's a different kind of thing.
Because if we're serving God, it's not a negative thing.
It's not burdensome, but it's more opportunity.
If you witness to somebody, that gives you a little excitement in your heart.
And if you have the opportunity to witness to someone again or to somebody else, it says
we have more.
You have been faithful in a few things.
I'm going to give you even more.
And then verse three, it shows me why it's not a burden because Jesus says, enter into
the joy of your Lord.
Enter into the joy of your Lord.
Now we can have joy in this life, even in challenging times.
We can have joy even when other things in our world seem to not be going in a positive
direction.
Jesus can still give us joy.
He says, peace I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you.
In Hebrews chapter 12, it says that Jesus considered the cross.
Let me read that.
Let me make sure I get that quoted right.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse two, Hebrews 12 verse two, it says, look unto Jesus, the
author and finisher for our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame.
The cross was not a pleasant place for Jesus to be, but Jesus did it for the joy of serving
God.
So we can have joy in this life, even when we have challenging things, but we can also
have joy for all eternity.
So there's a reward in serving.
But there's one other gentleman here that we see.
So we're going to carry on the story.
It says, then he had received the one talent, came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard
man reaping where you have not sown, gathering where you have not scattered seed.
I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground.
Look, there you have what is yours.
So he didn't lose the one talent.
He just buried it.
And so that reminds us that if we don't use the gift that God gives us, you will lose
the gift that God gives you.
If you don't practice the piano, you're going to lose that skill.
If you don't exercise on a continual basis, you're not going to be able to go out and
run a marathon or hike a mountain.
You've got to work at it.
You've got to continue doing something.
The gift that you have, we have to use or we get cast out.
Notice this verse 26 says, Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant,
you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.
So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers.
And at my coming, I would have at least received back my own with interest.
Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents.
For everyone who has more will be given and he will have abundance.
But from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away.
This servant did not understand, did not fully know the master.
He had a valuable gift, but he did not appreciate it.
He did not utilize it.
He had a mistaken understanding of the master.
He didn't realize that the master was the ruler of all, that the master was the giver
of gifts.
And he was forced to lose his gift because he hid it away.
And if we aren't using our gifts, perhaps we don't really know the giver.
When we know the giver, we'll want to use his gifts for God's glory.
But you know what gift you have.
Have you realized, figured out what your place is?
There's different ways to do it.
Some people use spiritual gifts, tests, you can find those online and that's one way to
do it.
But another thing is just explore the possibilities.
Think about what you're good at.
Is there something that brings you joy in life?
And then how can you use that for God?
And then I would say experiment, try something.
You know, I think this would work.
And if it doesn't work, well, okay, well, I've learned something.
That's not my gift.
That's not what I'm talented at.
But if it does work and other people are noticing and other people are saying, well done, good
job, then perhaps that is where God has gifted you.
So not only just think about what you're good at, but think about how you can use that for
God.
I want to mention an illustration, an idea.
It was a long time ago.
This will be our last story here.
I was working, it was over 20 years ago.
I was pastoring.
But one particular summer, Cahudah Springs Youth Camp, many of you know where that is.
They needed some extra help that summer.
And so the conference, my boss, you know, asked some of the young pastors, I said this
was a long time ago, so I was a young pastor back then, asked some of the young pastors
to go to volunteer at camp for a week or two and help with things like, you know, weed
eating and repairing fences and that type of thing.
And so I was over at Cahudah and something had happened.
There had been some sort of disturbance at the horse barn.
And so they needed somebody, they wanted somebody to work as like the night watchman at the
horse barn.
So I'm kind of a night owl, so I volunteered for that particular role.
Sure, I'll do that.
Then I could sleep during the day while other people are weed eating in the heat and whatnot.
So I thought that would work out.
So I was there at the horse barn at my right time.
And there was one other young man who was a camp staff and he was there as well.
And so we played Uno, we played checkers, we chatted.
And this young man, Nathan, he was going to be a student at GCA where I was working.
He was going to be a student at GCA the next year.
And in our conversation, he had mentioned that for a class, he had made a video and
he enjoyed doing video stuff.
So as we were talking, I told Nathan, I said, you know what would be cool if when we get
back to GCA, if on Friday night at our Vespers, it's kind of a big worship time, if we had
a little student made video every week or at least once a month that could be part of
that Friday night worship.
And Nathan like, yeah, that's a good idea.
I think I can do that.
And so after that week of protecting the horses and we did a great job, the horses were all
fine.
But a few weeks later, school started and Nathan had not forgotten that.
And he said, I've been thinking about it.
What if we did this?
And he was working on it.
And for that year, my friend Nathan, Kevin's friend Nathan created something called the
Gleamer was what it was called.
And it was a little video, a short little video that we showed not every week for Vespers,
but often student created.
I'm going to be honest.
Some of them were really not good quality.
Some of them were really, really poorly done.
But when it was a poorly done, we're like, hey, what could you do better the next time?
But some of them were incredible.
And some of them were deep and really touched the hearts of the students, the people that
were there.
And my friend Nathan continued to develop his film skills.
And he went and studied film at Southern.
And he was a part of a cameraman for, this was on PBS several years ago, a documentary
called the Adventists.
And he was one of the cameramen for that.
And he's continued developing those skills.
And he's got a show on the Hope Channel that he puts together.
And currently, believe it or not, he's a teacher at Southern Adventist University.
And he's teaching film.
And he's teaching young people to find what their skills and their talents are and how
they can develop those talents and use them for God.
Have you figured out what your skills are?
Have you figured out what your talents are?
Have you figured out how you can use those skills and talents for God?
Because one day, Jesus is coming again.
And it's my prayer that for me and for each one of us here, when we hear the voice of
Jesus at some point in eternity, we will hear these words, well done, good and faithful
servant.
You have been faithful over a few things.
I will make you ruler over many things.
And what about that last line?
Enter into the joy of your Lord.
What a day that will be.
You want to find what your gifts, what your talents, what your skills are now?
You want to figure out how to use them now in the church.
If you do, just raise your hand as we pray.
Dear God, thank you for giving each one of us a gift, a valuable gift.
And Lord, help us just to recognize and see what that is and how we can use it for you
to build up the body of Christ.
And Lord, forgive us for times when we've passed over and we've neglected and we've
forgotten the things that you've done for us.
But Lord, from this moment on, help us to live our life for you so that you will say,
Well done, good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of the Lord.
In your name we pray.
Amen.