The master in the parable settled accounts with his managers upon his return. Two of them were rewarded for their investments. "Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master." These words were spoken to each one who made an increase. That's the kind of God we serve. He rewards faithful service. If you are serving Him now you can expect a reward for your efforts. Your labor is not in vain.

Introduction

J.B. Phillips tells a parable about some field mice that settled in a certain farmer's cornfield. It was a great place to live. Everything they needed was there. Food was abundant. Water was plentiful (it came right down the rows). They enjoyed living. They seemed not to have a care in the world. Then one day the farmer who owned the field came to reap the harvest. Of course this spelled disaster for the mice. Their world that had seemed so snug and secure came crashing down around them - all because it never occurred to them that the field wasn't theirs.

Psalm 24:1 says,

"The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it."

Much like those field mice, many today do not realize that the place where they live, the water and food they consume, indeed, even the bodies they live in, all belong to another. They belong to God and ignorance of that fact could spell disaster.

This concept of God's ownership is a key point behind the parable we're going to consider this morning.

(Read Matthew 25:14-30)

We are not the owners of what we possess. According to this parable we are stewards or caretakers or managers (use whichever word you prefer) of that which belongs to another. In the parable the one who entrusted the talents to His servants is God. The servants or slaves represent us. The things entrusted to us (here called "talents") belong to God. While a talent was a unit of money in that day, it refers to more than money as it applies to us. It refers to all we have, our money, our possessions, our time, talents, and abilities.

The servants in the parable were expected to do more than just keep and use their talents for themselves. They were expected to invest them or, as the text says, "trade with them," in an effort to increase them. Accordingly, the five talent manager made five more. The two-talent steward likewise doubled his allotment. But the one-talent caretaker made no investment at all. To his credit it would seem, He didn't use his allotment for himself. He didn't go out and blow it. He simply buried it. Yet at the end he was cast out. That is, perhaps, the most surprising aspect of this parable of Jesus.

This morning I would like for us to review our spiritual investments. You and I may or may not have an investment portfolio for earthly property, but it is very important that we have one for spiritual things. God wants us to utilize the talents He has given to gain a return for the good of His kingdom. We'll focus on three important truths about such investing that come from this parable.

1. Where God Blesses, He Requires.

God's blessings in the parable came in the form of "talents." Verse 15 says,

"And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey."

Everyone received something from God in this story. There is no zero-talent servant in the parable. To my knowledge, neither is there any zero-talent servant mentioned elsewhere in scripture. We are all given something that God expects us to increase.

Evident also in this parable is the truth that in life we are not all equally endowed. Yes, in God's eyes we are all important but we are not all equal in ability or resources. One person may be able to draw plans for a building. Another can build it. Yet another can build a road to the building and still another can decorate it or keep it clean. Yet another can nurture those who will one day be the builders.

Our abilities differ, as does our responsibility. Notice that the work of the two-talent servant was acceptable even though he didn't make even half the return of the five-talent servant. Apparently it isn't the amount we gain compared to someone else that is the issue. Rather, it's the return commensurate with the talent we have.

God doesn't expect us to do what He has not gifted us to do. He doesn't expect you to preach, for instance, if you are not gifted to do that. But He does expect all of us to figure out what our gifts are and put them to work to bring a return for His kingdom.

As God reviews our contribution, what is expected will be based upon what has been given. If more is given, more is expected. If less is given, less is expected.

Comparisons among us then, are out. The five-talent person should not gloat because he or she accomplished more than the two-talent person did. Since more has been given, more will be expected. The two-talent or one-talent person should not feel like a failure because he or she does not make a return like the five-talent person. God expects a return based on His gifts to us, not others.

We do need to realize though, is that God expects something from each of us. And that is my point: Where God blesses, he requires. The things I posses are not just mine to use entirely as I please. I am expected to use them for the good of the kingdom. In the story, the one-talent servant who gained no return lost what he had and was cast out.

2. When We Increase, God Rewards.

3. When We Neglect, God Removes.

When you don't use it, you lose it. That seems to be one of life's most reliable principles. Yet people always are surprised when it happens to them.

Making no effort was the problem of the one-talent man in this parable and his story is a sad one. He earned the wrath of his master for hiding his talent in the ground. I wonder what his problem was? Why didn't he do like the other two?

There is a hint of some resentment in the parable. Maybe that's the reason for his inaction. In verse 24 we read, "And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.'" Sounds to me like he didn't hold his master in very high regard.

A lot of people go through life bemoaning their circumstances and the way God has made them. They feel like they've been dealt a poor hand in life, so why should they be concerned about trying? If God doesn't get anything from them, well, that's His fault. This one-talent guy sounds bitter to me. Bitter people tend to feel justified in their bitterness. In fact, I don't think I've ever met a bitter person who didn't express justification for his or her bitterness. "Well, if you had a life like mine, you'd understand why I'm the way I am." Perhaps so, but I don't see an ounce of justification for this man's feelings in this parable. In the end, he was still the loser because he didn't invest what God had given him.

There are two schools of thought about such bitterness. One says that life's circumstances make the bitter person bitter. He or she is simply a hapless victim of circumstances beyond control. The other says that life's circumstances simply reveal the character flaws already present that lead to bitterness. I don't know which view you take, but I don't allow myself to believe the first one. I hope I never do. I don't subscribe to the idea that we are victims of our circumstances and that God leaves us in dead-end places with no outlet. The man in our parable had a choice. He could have put the money in the bank. In the end and he was held responsible for not making that choice.

This parable could have been so different had the one-talent man done as the others did. He could have gone to the Master and said, "Master, you entrusted one talent to me; see, I have gained one more talent." All would have been well. He would have heard those same words of blessing. But that's not the way it went.

Bitterness may have been the cause of this man's lack of action. Another possibility is fear. Verse 25 says, "And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours."

There is always risk involved when we extend ourselves beyond our comfort zones in serving God. Fear can be a real inhibitor. "I was afraid," said the one-talent man. But it didn't fly with God. Apparently, fear, though it is very real, is not justification with God. Listen to God's reckoning of the matter in verse 26:

"But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave…"

God called his bitterness and fear laziness.

"…you knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I scattered no seed. 'Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest."

You see, there is always a way. There is always something we can do to get a return for what God entrusts to us. This man should have done something.

When a certain slow moving clerk in a small store wasn't around one morning, a customer asked the owner's young son,

"Where's Eddie? Is he sick?"

"Nope, he ain't workin' here no more," was the reply.

"Do you have anyone in mind to fill the vacancy?" inquired the customer?

"Nope. Eddie didn't leave no vacancy!"

It's sad, but when some people leave the community of believers, they've been so weak and colorless in their service that their absence is scarcely noticed.

One writer put it this way: "The unused ability of the church is the exultation of hell, the surprise of heaven, the loss of man, and the grief of God."

"Awe, but what difference could my little investment make to the big picture? Surely it isn't that important. It's the star players who really put the points on the board. My contribution is meaningless."

That's the wrong way to think.

The first attempt to dig the Panama Canal across the width of Panama was made by a French company. Men and machinery tackled to mountains and jungles. The project was abandoned, however, not because of the mountains but because of the mosquitoes. The tiny insects carried yellow fever and it killed thousands. American doctors finally found ways of protecting people against these biting insects and when the mosquitoes were taken care of the mountains soon succumbed.

There is a great difference between the size of mountains and mosquitoes, yet the small mosquitoes held things up more than the mountains. Issues that seem small and unimportant may actually be more important than the things that look big and important to us.

I have preached in several churches where volunteers did the custodial work. But I've never been in a congregation where that method was continued. Ultimately, a soon as it could be afforded, someone was hired to do the work. Why? Perhaps because it is hard for people to think of cleaning up messes made by others as important. Yet imagine a service of the church where the building hasn't been cleaned in 6 weeks. Things would come to a complete halt. No one would want to come. The "mosquito" issue would stop the progress of the "mountains."

The point of all this is that the work of the one-talent person is every bit as important to the Master as that of the two and five-talent person.

Look at how seriously God takes the burying of our talents, even if we have only one. Verse 28 says,

"Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."

The person who does not use his or her talents for God will ultimately have them taken away.

Conclusion

Truit Gannon, a minister from Georgia, tells of an incident in his boyhood that I hope will serve to tie together the things I've been saying. A man named Hugh, who worked for his father, owned a beautiful Harley Davidson motorcycle. It was a burgundy colored machine with the hydroglide fork on the front wheel. As I understand it, that hydroglide fork was an engineering marvel in motorcycling in its day. Anyway, Truit says it was his greatest thrill as a teenager to ride that motorcycle. One day he asked, "Hugh, can I ride your bike again today?" Hugh's words have stuck with him ever since. "You can ride it anytime you want to, anywhere you want to, and as often as you want to. Just remember to ride it like it's mine and not yours."

That's what we need to remember. The Master has given us the freedom to use our talents anywhere, anytime, and as often as we want to. What He asks, though, is that we use them like they are His and not ours.

Are you making spiritual investments with the talents God has given you?

 

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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