I'll remind you that there will be a special offering that will be taken up at the end of the program for the Adobe School, and our deacons will have offerings.
buckets at the doors when we exit.
Thank you very much for your scriptures and thank you for your song.
I love that island
will follow the leader.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Thank you.
Wanted to start off with a story today.
Um I remember
Uh this week I had some car problems and uh Dave Ellis uh took out his car keys and kinda tossed them to me.
And um I like it when people do that.
It brought back a special memory to me of when I was
In ninth grade, uh lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the central church there in Knoxville is up on a hillside.
And uh then there are two floors to the church and the
second floors the basement uh comes out on the first parking level and there's about fifteen spots there on that first parking level
And if you got one of those fifteen spots, then you only had to climb the stairs to get up to the sanctuary.
But should you not get one of those fifteen spots, you had to go
down and go down the hill and park in a lot that was much lower that had about a hundred parking spaces.
When I was in the ninth grade, the pastor there had a wonderful idea.
I thought it was a wonderful idea.
Some of us had just got our driving permit.
And he had the idea of us standing outside there where people would drive in the parking lot and even up above so they didn't have
to climb even up the stairs from the regular parking area.
He had us young people standing there so that we could try some valet parking.
And I thought it was great.
I loved it when somebody got out of the car and tossed me their keys.
I would catch the keys, and oh, this was great.
Now sometimes they just left the car running, put it in the park, and left the car running, and and sometimes they would even ask us, they would toss us the keys after church, and we got to go down into the lower parking lot.
lot and bring the car.
I loved it when it was a BMW.
There was one gentleman in our church that had a Porsche.
Oh, that was
That was sweet.
Uh one a friend I had there, he and I would always argue about who's going to get to drive the Porsche that day.
It was it was fun.
But twenty years later, somebody tosses me the keys to their car.
I'm like, what do you want me to do with this?
Uh are you asking me to to park it?
Are you giving me your car
Uh, do you want me to run to the store and get something for you?
Why are you giving this to me?
What am I supposed to do with it?
And even now, if someone were to do that and toss their keys to me, it was nice this week when Dave did that, but uh under other circumstances, uh
Why would a person do such?
Open your Bible to Matthew chapter 25.
Matthew chapter 25.
So where our Bible story comes from today that we are going to focus on is Matthew
Matthew chapter 25.
But remind you, the context here is Matthew chapter 24.
You remember what happened in Matthew chapter 24?
Yeah, signs of the end.
Jesus talking with the disciples.
The disciples say, When is this going to happen?
When are these the this building going to fall?
When are these stones not going to be stacked on one another?
Is that the the sign of your coming?
And Jesus begins in Matthew chapter 24.
He shares with them what these signs
The signs are mixed there, the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem, because in their mind it can only be when Jerusalem is destroyed.
That's the end of the world.
And so he kind of has it mixed up there, the signs of the end of Jerusalem and the signs of the second coming.
But he tells us there in Matthew 24, verse 14.
That the this gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.
That that that's got to happen before the end is going to come.
But then he goes on in 24, the chapter 24, the great tribulation is there.
Signs of the
The coming of the Son of Man.
And he gets to what we call Matthew 25.
He continues this sermon that he is sharing with the disciples here, and he tells them.
How to be ready for the coming of Jesus.
No one knows the day or hour, but this is what you need to be ready
And then he goes into Matthew chapter 25.
It was discussed a little bit last week in the sermon.
The ten women that had their their their lamps and the bridegroom
Quiz from last week was, how many of them slept?
All of them slept.
But when they awoke, how many were ready
Only five.
The others had to go out and they had to get that oil.
Now part of last week was, what does the oil represent?
The holy and that's the key to the the the the the story of the the parable of the the the five wise women
They had the Holy Spirit.
They had the relationship with the bridegroom.
They were prepared to enter in.
And when the bridegroom came, they got to enter in.
And the five that were not so wise, they were foolish.
When they went and got their oil, and they came to the wedding party, and they knocked.
Do you remember the words they heard?
Chapter 25
Verse 12 eleven it says afterward the virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us, and he answered and said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.
you.
Oh, you talk about terrible words.
Those are words I don't want to hear.
Those are words I don't want you to hear.
That's why we need to be pleading for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible tells us God wants to give us the Holy Spirit.
If we would just
But ask and keep asking and keep asking and keep asking.
I share that with you because
That's the context of our our story today.
Matthew chapter twenty-five, beginning with verse fourteen.
It says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants
and delivered his goods to them, and to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability.
And immediately he went on a journey.
In this parable, Jesus presents a vivid picture of the master who had entrusts his servants with his wealth while he is going out on the journey.
The five, two, and one talents, each given according, the scripture says, to what?
Their ability.
Some people say this parable is about money, and the answer is
Yes, it's about money.
In fact, when Jesus tells many of his parables, when
Jesus is talking.
He talks a significant amount of time about money.
And if you want, I mean I could probably preach a whole year just on
stories Jesus talked about money, a different story every time.
Because Jesus spends that much time talking about material things, finances.
Handling finances.
But this talon parable is not just about money.
So I'm going to save the money sermon till another time.
Now you can apply this to money, okay?
It's okay for you to apply it to money because it does
Talk about money.
But if you read Christ Object Lessons, that book by Ellen White, talking about the the the lessons that Jesus shares, the the parables that he talks about, if you read what she has to say about this chapter
This chapter is 50 pages long.
And she talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In the parable of the talents.
She talks about your many mental faculties.
You have some of those, right?
When she is writing about this parable of the talents.
Thank you.
She talks about your speech when she is writing about the talent.
She talks about your influence when
When she's writing about the talents.
She talks about your use of time.
She talks about your health.
She talks about your strength.
She talks about money.
And she talks about kindly impulses and affection.
Well, it sounds like she talks about everything, doesn't she?
This kind of applies to all those things that God gives to us.
If God has given it to us, what was it?
Mental faculties, time, health, strength, money, kindly impulses and affections, speech
Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This parable applies.
Now, based on what we've talked about the last six weeks.
You can guess how I'm going to apply it.
Right?
What have we been talking about the last six weeks, Pastor?
I don't recall
The gifts of the Holy Spirit.
God has given us.
God has given each one of us
Gifts that we are to use for his honor and glory.
How do we use them
I mean if somebody came and said, I'm going to put $1,440 in your bank account every day, what would you do?
Every day.
Boy, the math figures are going there.
How much is that a month?
Boy, that's depends on how many days I
I understand this.
But are you doing the calculation?
I mean, I would get excited if somebody told me that.
And then if they told you at the same time, but at the end of the day, that $1,440 is going to be gone.
But it's yours to use.
You can use it any way you want during that time.
Now some of you know the bank account that you get 1,440 in is what?
You don't get that?
You get that many minutes every day.
How do you use it?
God gives you 1440 minutes every day.
How do you use it?
Now some of us, some of you, you have
Have quite a schedule.
And you use it very detailed.
You know what you're going to be doing every moment of every day.
Some of us, what are you doing today
Well, I don't know.
What do you mean you don't know?
Well, I have an idea of what I would like to get done, but what I would like to get done is not always what happens.
Are you like that sometimes?
I mean, I have a plan usually every day of what I want to do, but sometimes people interrupt my plans.
Not yesterday, but a week ago Friday.
Cheryl Friday's usually a busy day.
I usually come here to the church, try and finish up my
my sermon then I I'm on Sabbath preparation duties.
You know what that entails?
Yeah, going here, going there, going
Places and Cheryl and I were in the process of doing those things and trying to get home, and I got a phone call.
And Dave Ellis told me, Hey, have you been to the market over here?
Have you ever found that place?
I said, yeah, I found it.
I know where it is.
He says, good.
He says, they got strawberries on sale.
You buy a a flat of them and you can get them for 50 cents a pound.
I don't have time to go
And Cheryl and I can't look at it.
We don't have time not to go.
And suddenly your your the things that you have to get done get rearranged, right?
Things get a higher priority.
I'm often told: if you want to get something done, ask a busy person.
Because a busy person
Knows how to schedule their lives so they get things done.
If you ask somebody that has nothing to do, guess what?
They're going to get nothing done.
And if you ask them to do something, the chances are they'll get nothing done.
What would you do if you knew all that time belonged to God?
Matthew 25, I want to come back here.
It says he gave five talents to one, two talents, and to another one, and to each according to his own ability, and immediately he went.
Into a far country.
The master gave each servant exactly what they could manage.
God does not burden us with more than we
Can bear, nor does he overlook the smallest gift.
In the chapter in Christ Object Lessons, Eleanor
White writing about this.
He says, God has given to every man his work.
He has not left the work to be done by only a few individuals.
but has committed to all apart to act in his great plan.
Your assignment is unique.
Your gift is unique.
The church family needs what you need
have to offer and should it not be included in the things that the church body is doing, we are
Inept, we come short of God's ideal
verse sixteen.
Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents, and likewise he who had received two gained two more also
What did those individuals that received the five talents and the two talents do?
It requires action.
Something that we are to do.
Something that we are to to to
Act on.
We cannot just let it lie dormant.
Excuse me.
God has a plan for us, and He gives us these things to be utilized for His church, for the ministry of the church.
Good intentions are not enough.
God calls us to act.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, Faithfulness in little things is a great thing
Faithfulness in little things is a great thing.
In this this chapter in Christ's object lessons on the the this these talents.
Ellen White makes this comment.
I I loved it when I wrote wrote it.
I mean when I read it.
If you are a mother, train your children for Christ.
This is as verily a work for God as is that of the minister
in the pulpit.
Come on, you can do better than that.
I expected a louder amens than that.
Listen to this next section.
If your next sentence, if your duty is in the kitchen, seek to be a perfect cook.
Prepare food that will be healthful, nourishing, and appetizing.
As you employ the best ingredients in preparing food, remember that you are to give your mind
And best thoughts, if it is your work to till the soil or to engage in any other trade or occupation, make a success of the present duty
I thought about that.
What does it mean to be the perfect cook?
I mean, if you think of the perfect cook, do they receive a Michelin star?
Do they just get one star or the perfect cook gets five stars?
Oh, Michelin only gets three.
Sorry.
I mean, you think about this.
When when you think of the perfect cook, you think about the the the shifts and those those fine dining establishments.
What does it mean to be the best cook?
I mean a perfect cook.
It means utilizing the gift that God has given you
To the best of your ability for his honor and glory.
Understand why you're doing what you're doing
For the honor and glory of God.
Success is not the result of change
Chance or of destiny, it is the outworking of God's own providence, the reward of faith and discretion of virtue and perseverance.
It's Christ's object lessons, page three hundred and fifty three.
Faithfulness is not measured by the size of what what the the
income that happens because of it.
Faithfulness is measured by what you do.
I mean the man that was given two talents, he only shows up with
Four talents, the two that he was given and two extra.
The man with five talents, he shows up with ten.
The man with two talents, was he a perfect man or an imperfect man?
I mean your your gift it looks like it's a little bit inadequate here.
He should have been able to turn those two into five, and then he would have been able to accomplish
What the first man did.
God doesn't think that way.
Only you and I think that way.
Well, if I can't do that, then.
I'm not doing anything.
That's what man number three did.
Verse 24 and 25
five.
Says then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed
And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground.
Look, there you have what is yours.
What did he believe about God?
That's a whole
Another sermon here.
I'm not gonna get I mean his belief about God, he he had something just a little bit askew.
He had been focusing on the wrong thing about God.
He had believed some of the lies that had been said about God.
said he was afraid.
Do you realize what fear does to us?
Fear calls us to to to bury our talent.
To bury the calling that God has given to us, to bury the gift that God has given to us, to accomplish
What God wants to accomplish.
The servant with the one talent confessed, I was afraid.
Commenting about this, Martin Luther put it this way: faith is a living, daring confidence in God.
God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times
Do we believe these stories in the Bible?
Do we believe that God can do what he says he can do?
Faith pushes us.
God asked me to step out of the boat
I'm not gonna pray that prayer.
I mean, yeah, this may be filling with water.
The storms may be everywhere, and but I'm going down with the ship.
Why would you ask God to give you faith enough to step out of the boat?
That's a foolish prayer to begin with.
Who's going to pray that prayer?
The man with faith.
The man that has a relationship with Jesus.
The man though that that wants to go up to the the the next level in his relationship with Jesus.
Faith pushes us to to ask to step out of the boat.
It pushes us to step out when the invitation is there and uncertainty arises in our
mind.
Fear is what keeps us in the shadows.
And never stepping out into the light.
I heard a pastor sharing once that he was talking about uh witnessing and how the personal ministries at his church
They they are always asking people, hey, where you're going out knocking on doors this afternoon.
Would you be willing to go and knock on doors?
And he said their their church of about two hundred.
He says, We always have
For uh twelve people.
Out of two hundred they go knock on.
We ask why don't other people want to go knock on doors and do the community
survey or or try and encourage people to to get Bible studies and the the reason is is because I'm afraid that people will not
like us and slam the door in my face.
Or I'm afraid I'll get a rude response.
Or I'm afraid that and he says, Do you want me to tell you what the real reason is they don't go knock on doors?
He says they're afraid somebody will say yes to Bible studies.
Do you know what happens if somebody says yes to Bible studies?
Oh, here we go.
Do you know how many Bible studies are in a set?
Oh man, I don't know if I can do that.
Oh, every week for half a year
that's you know it's easier just don't knock on doors.
It's easier just to don't ask my
neighbors.
It's easier to just he said the real fear is they're afraid somebody will say yes.
He says and so there are twelve of us that almost every week we go out
And we knock on doors.
And he says, every week there are people that say yes.
He said, the problem our church has right now is we don't have enough people to get Bible studies.
We don't have enough people going out and knocking on doors to get new recruits.
Because we're all filled up with giving Bible study.
Sometimes we let our our our fear bury our calling.
We need fear
Faith to push us out just a little bit more
There in the text, I want you to come down to let's see.
Come to verse 20.
Says so he who had received five talents came and brought five talents, saying, Lord, you deliver to me five talents.
Look, I have gained five more talents.
Sides.
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
Your Lord.
Isn't that beautiful?
I mean, that's what we want to hear.
We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, good and faithful servant.
Does that happen if we bury it?
Does that happen if we we don't use our time wisely?
Does that happen if we we do not seek to use the talent that he has given to us?
If we're not seeking to use it for the edification of the body of Christ, if we're not seeking to use it for the benefit of the kingdom of God, that means we're not using it for God's honor and glory.
Which side do we want to be on?
I mean, which words do we want to hear?
The Lord in verse twenty six So the Lord said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I had not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.
You ought to have at least deposited my money with I told you.
Was talking about money, didn't I?
You should have at least deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest.
So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents.
Well, that doesn't seem right.
Verse 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Which words do you want to hear?
I do not know you.
Well done.
Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.
I mean, those are the words that I want to hear.
Well done.
Those are the words that I want you to hear.
Well done.
If we want to hear those words.
We should be encouraging one another to use their spiritual gifts.
Encouraging one another to edify the body of Christ.
Encouraging one another.
To grow in the relationship with Jesus.
Again, Christ object lessons.
This time, page four hundred and two, Ellen White writes this The well done of the Master is not given because of the greatness of the work.
Did you hear that phrase?
The well done of the master is not given because of the greatness of the work, but because of the fidelity in all that has been done.
I I want to go to heaven.
I want you to go to heaven.
But let me tell you something, the greatest reward in heaven is not going to be the crown that is put upon our heads.
The greatest part about heaven is not going to be the robe that I get to wear.
The greatest part of heaven is not when I am escorted to the mansion that Jesus has prepared for me.
But it is hearing those words: Well done, good and faithful servant.
Enter into the joy of your Lord
Oh, the greatest thing about heaven is entering in to be with Jesus.
to be able to experience his joy, to be in the place of pure joy and contentment.
The parable of the talents is a call for us to to have courage.
The parable of the talents is a call for us to be diligent.
The parable of the talent is a call for us to to have trust.
Yeah, the praise team can come up at the
this time.
The parable of the talent is is what has God placed in our hands?
What has he put in in
Into your hands.
What is it that he wants for us to accomplish?
How does he want us to invest it for the kingdom of God?
Jesus is coming again.
Yeah, we did okay there.
Jesus is coming again.
May we live so that when he returns, we will hear those words.
Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.
Let's stand together and we'll sing with the praise team.
Lord, I want to be a Christian.