Sunday Morning, June 2, 2019 AM Part 3

Let's pray together. Father, we come before you this morning and we have together confessed the worthiness of Christ.

Ascension Sunday, we together confess

Christ above, Christ alone, Christ always.

Father, I ask that you would lead us by your spirit, through your word, that we would be conformed to the image of Christ and glorify him in this world.

We pray these things for his sake. Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29. We'll be reading verses 1 -14 again.

Jeremiah 29, verses 1 -14. This morning we're going to be taking an extended application of verses 5 -7 as we think about long -term obedience.

This is an important aspect of our following Christ as much of what he calls us to do requires some long -term perspective.

This is what is going on with the Jews in exile here in Jeremiah 29.

Catastrophe has struck. Nebuchadnezzar has defeated Jerusalem in a pivotal moment.

He has raided the temple. Sacred articles are gone. The king, Jeconiah, is gone. The queen mother, the royal court, all the craftsmen, all the metalsmiths, the nobility, the main soldiers, the generals, they're all gone.

They're all in Babylon, in exile. What now?

Some people are saying, well, in two years it's all going to be over. We're all going to be back here in Jerusalem, business as usual.

The truth of the matter is they're going to be there a long time. Over 70 years they're going to be there.

And they need to know how to live long -term, faithfully and obedient to God.

Catastrophe strikes. Now what's the plan? What's the plan? It's a good question that we need to be continually asking ourselves and answering through the scriptures so that we do not get off track.

And so, again, we're going to look at Jeremiah 29, 1 through 14. I invite you to stand. I'm going to read the text for us.

These are the words of the Lord. These are the words of our ascended Lord and Savior, our reigning sovereign

Jesus Christ. May we hear his word well. Now these are the words of the letter which

Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom

Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the

Queen Mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.

The letter was sent by the hand of Elisha, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the

Lord on his behalf for in its welfare you will have welfare. For thus says the

Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you and do not listen to the dreams which they dream for they prophesy falsely to you in my name.

I have not sent them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place.

For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the

Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile. This is the word of the

Lord. You may be seated. So what's the plan?

Something happens. What actually happened? How do we know? Make a proper assessment according to the word of God.

And then after we know what really happened, we have to translate our understanding into action, like the sons of Issachar who understood the times, who knew what to do.

We not be hearers of the word only, but also doers. We need to make a proper assessment and then engage in long -term obedience.

Whatever happens, stick to the plan. We're talking about long -term obedience right now. Long -term obedience.

What's the plan? In high school, I played basketball for a tiny

Christian school that my dad administered, and I can only remember winning two games in four years. Two games in four years.

It's a lot of losing. It was in the following year, it was much to my chagrin that they did very well after I left.

I was invited for some odd reason to go back to my previous school and give a talk at their sports banquet.

And so the title of my talk was Small Losses, Great Gains. I sure learned a lot through that process, and the losses weren't really the point of it.

But we only won two games in four years, and we lost so often, we lost so often that we really didn't even know how to win.

Even the wins that we had felt like losses, because that's all we ever did was lose.

And so I remember we went to this other really tiny Christian school, and they were in worse condition than we were.

Our shortest guy was the size of their center, so the result was almost inevitable.

I think they were all in junior high, we were high schoolers. And we played terrible.

We were just awful. We were arguing on the court, throwing the ball away, missing defensive assignments.

That little team just about beat us. And we won, feeling like we lost.

We were all upset and grumbling on the way home. Our coach was disgusted with us. First time we ever won, and we treated it like that.

You know, it gets us to thinking, do we know as the church how to win anymore?

Do we as the church know how to win anymore? So focused on the losses all the time.

Lost here, lost there. What's the plan? The plan is to win. That's the plan.

The plan is to win. Church is on the ropes, knees buckling, down on the count, bases loaded.

Once upon a time, we had a handful of Bible translations. And now we're to the point where 1 .5

billion people need a full Bible. Out of the 7 billion. 800 million people still await the full

New Testament. And only 180 million people on the face of this planet lack the

Scripture in some translation of their original language. We're on the ropes.

Knees buckling. Seems hopeless. What of your interpretation of the latest statistics and the latest news?

We're left with a very clear plan by our risen Savior and our reigning sovereign, Jesus Christ.

Today is Ascension Sunday. Thursday marked Ascension Day. Forty days after, He rose from the dead.

He ascended to heaven. And He was seated at the right hand of the Father. And He was given a name which is above every name.

He's given authority over all things. Not only in this age, but also the age to come. Ephesians 1.

And His plan, as the one who has won, is winning and will win. His plan is for us to win in Him.

How many times do we read about those who overcome in the book of Revelation? And there are always those who overcome in Christ.

So, Jesus has told us to win. And whoever is in our ear, telling us to throw the fight, give up, is hopeless.

That's not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not the Lord Jesus Christ. So, long -term obedience is what we need.

Long -term obedience not only was commanded of the Jews in exile, and we see the wisdom of that. Long -term obedience was not only commanded of all humanity through Genesis, which we talked about the image of God and the cultural mandate last week.

But also, long -term obedience is necessary for the Great Commission.

Listen to Matthew 28, 18 -20. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.

That's a lot. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And that's a lot. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Now, this is the word of Jesus Christ. This is the marching orders for all those who follow

Jesus Christ, the risen Savior and the reigning Sovereign. He has ascended to heaven, to the right hand of God.

And there he has been enthroned, as Revelation 1 -5 says, as the ruler of the kings of the earth. The ruler of the kings of the earth.

And his plan is to win. Let's think about that a little bit. How do we win?

So often we focus on the losing, the losses, the difficulties, the pushback from the world.

That we forget how it is that we're winning. How is it that we win? Let's start with the individual level.

How do we win on an individual level? Well, first of all, through discipleship. By making disciples.

By teaching others how to follow Christ. How to keep his commandments. How to know who he is and follow him.

That's how we win. That's winning. That's what winning looks like when we do discipleship. It's commanded of the individual and it begins with you.

Repent and believe. That's the beginning of it, right? Mark chapter 1. I want you to hear this,

Mark 1 verses 14 and 15. Now, after John had been taken into custody,

Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. Now listen to how he preaches it. And saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel. Turn away from whatever you're trusting in. Turn away from however you're sinning against God.

Repent and believe. Turn away from all of this. Make a pile of all of your good deeds. Make a pile of all your bad deeds.

Flee them both for Christ and Christ alone. Repent and believe in the gospel. For Jesus Christ is the risen savior, the reigning sovereign.

The only righteousness that we can claim before God. So it begins there. Repent and believe.

And then, it's commanded of you, yes you, to gospelize. To gospelize.

Not only did Jesus go forth sowing seed and saying, repent and believe. But that's what we're supposed to do as well. We're supposed to gospelize.

We are supposed to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. That Jesus is Lord. That he came to die for sinners and rose again for our salvation.

We should be proclaiming the gospel to others. Now, you might not be like Paul. Who debated with the philosophers in Athens about monotheism and the resurrection.

But, you probably can help your friend or your granddaughter or your son.

To understand a verse of scripture better. Can't you? That's winning. That's winning.

You may not be able to preach a Pentecost sermon in the open air market like Peter. And see thousands saved.

But you can invite your neighbors to a Christ honoring meal in your home. That's winning.

If you can't take the gospel to Spain like was the ambition of Paul. You might place a copy of God's word into the hands of a co -worker.

And that's winning. That's exactly what the marching orders left for us by Christ. He said, this is what you do.

This is what you be about. And that's how we win. Sowing seed takes time. It is a lifestyle of speaking

Christ. Not just a lifestyle. But it's a lifestyle of speaking Christ. And bringing others along toward Christ.

If you can envision Christ from your perspective. Let's say towards the right.

And if you can picture him reigning as a king on a throne. And as we heard from Revelation 5. Seeing all the different people from all the different languages of all the parts of the world.

Surrounding him. Now imagine him over on the right. And then everybody else in all of humanity stretched out from that point to your left.

And some people are on the left side of the cross. They haven't come to faith in Christ.

And some people are on the right side of the cross. And they're moving towards Christ in throne. Now here's the question.

What can you do to help the people you know take one step that way towards Christ?

What can you do? You can share the scripture with them. You can pray with them. You can do something compassionate for them in the name of Christ.

That's winning. That's winning. That's exactly what we're called to do. And to make disciples.

To make learners. To help people learn Christ and follow him. That takes time.

That takes time. It's more than converting sinners. It's more than getting people to agree to a set of facts.

To pray a prayer and get baptized. I believe people should believe the facts about Christ. I believe people should pray to Christ to ask him to save them.

I believe that they should be baptized in the name of the triune God. Yes. Making converts is good.

But we are called to make disciples. And conversion begins by preaching the gospel.

But then we need to disciple them. To train them. To show them how to keep God's commandments. And Jesus says how to observe my commandments means how to keep my commandments.

How to do what Christ has commanded all of humanity to do. For all authority has been given to him in heaven and earth.

So we are commanded to win in this way. Now I think we have been losing for so long.

Perhaps in our generation and the previous one. We've just forgotten how to win. What does winning feel like?

I don't know. Even when we win and something good happens. We squabble about it. Whether it was a win or not.

I only see how positive that is because of these factors over here. We just don't know how to win.

1 Corinthians 16, 8 -9. I love this passage from Paul. Paul says I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost.

He's got a long term plan. What's his long term plan? For a wide door of effective services open to me.

Don't you just love that? God give me an open door. I need an open door.

Listen to Paul's wide open door. A wide door for effective services open to me.

And there are many adversaries. Target rich environment.

How can you lose? Look at all these people who are opposing the gospel. Wow! They make themselves so obvious.

Great! Now I can preach the gospel to them in very clear and decisive ways. He's got a long term plan.

And his open door means lots of adversaries. He knew how to win.

1 John 4, 3 -4. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the

Antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming. And now it is already in the world.

Hide your children. Right? Spirit of Antichrist is in the world.

It's seeping into everything. You are from God little children. And have overcome them.

Overcome who? Those promoting the spirit of Antichrist.

Because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. Now these are passages that remind us that we are supposed to be focusing on the win.

This is not to say there are no problems. Like Paul says. Paul says this is a wide open door for effective service.

Look at all the opposition. Go together. John says spirit of Antichrist is going everywhere.

You have overcome them. Christ is in you. So it's not turning a blind eye to the problems and the genuine defeats.

And the genuine retreats of those who are turning against Christ. It's not that. It's saying we are here to win.

That's God's plan. That's Christ's plan for us. It's commanded of the individual. And every time we help make disciples.

And help people follow Christ. We are winning. And secondly it's also commanded of the family. I'm going to focus on the family.

That's not the radio show. I'm focusing on the family because the text does. Now notice.

God's long term plan seems kind of mundane. Shopping list. Grab the eggs. Grab the orange juice. It seems a little mundane.

It seems a little too simple. Think about the problems that the Jews are facing.

They are in exile. They lost their city. They lost their temple. The temple had been raided with all the sacred artifacts anyway. It can't even be like Jonah and the belly of the fish.

At least when he turned to the temple and the belly of the fish. He knew the altar was still there.

And the ark of the covenant was still there. And the priesthood was still there. And he could pray towards that temple.

These Jews in exile can't even have that. The temple was raided. It was plundered. And they are in exile living in this foreign land.

They've got all these problems. So really, with all these complications, they need a real complicated problem -busting solution.

Don't they? God says, build houses. Live in them. Seems a little too normal.

Get married. Have kids. Now, keep that order. Get married. Have kids.

In the right order. Right? And then marry off your children.

They can have kids. That's normative. It's not always the case, but that's the norm.

And it's good. And you aim at it. That's what God says. How can that be the solution?

Well, they've got 70 plus years to wait around in Babylon. But they shouldn't be just waiting around. They should be actively obeying what

God has called them to be as those made in His image and those called to cultivate the earth. They are to obey

His commandments and live in the image of God and make an impact in the place that they are. Even praying for the welfare of the city of Babylon.

You want to know one of the answers? One of the answers to their prayers?

Do you remember a guy by the name of Darius?

No? It was Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar ate grass. Seven years. Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar at some point looked out of his city the hanging gardens of Babylon all this, the beauty the city had flourished it was thriving it was wealthy it was strong there were no security risks it was amazing and he stood up there and said,

Man, look at everything I did. And God made him eat grass like a cow for seven years. Teach him who's boss.

Well, God answered the Jews' prayers. Babylon flourished. The Jews were praying for Babylon to flourish.

It flourished so much that Nebuchadnezzar got so haughty and so prideful that he got humbled for seven years and came out saying there was no

God in this universe except the one true God and he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants.

How's that for winning? So they were to live together as families.

It is it is chic and fashionable among some evangelicals to lament the idolatrous attitude toward the family these days.

The idolatrous, because everyone's so pro -family, it's idolatry. By that they mean we should not make too big a deal about family when

Jesus, who was a single man, had a lot of negative things to say about families getting in the way of his kingdom. And singleness should be as celebrated and as honored and uplifted as traditional marriage.

Traditional marriage. And the undercurrent of that narrative, however, is not really about those who are called to live single for the glory of God.

It's really about them carving out new areas for homosexuality. And you can come to my class in summer session and learn more about that.

Jesus did say a lot about family. He honored family. He made sure his mother was taken care of by his disciple and good friend,

John. He rightly defined marriage, according to the scriptures. He called for faithful children. He showed tenderness towards parents who brought the children to him to be blessed.

He did state several times that loyalty to him would, many times, bring division in the nuclear family, husband, wife, children.

That loyalty to Christ, many times, would bring division into that family structure. And it did, as the gospel came first to the

Jews and then to the Gentiles, as families were split on who to worship and who to serve.

It did, many, many times. And it still does today. When Christ invades a family, when the gospel impacts a family, many times there are heart -breaking splits in the family.

As this person desires to follow Christ and serve Christ, and this person desires to serve self and live for self.

And that's true. That that happens. However, for Christian parents raising children to know and fear

God, division is not the key word. Blessing is the key word. These kinds of families provide the greatest benefits to churches serving

Christ. Now, think about this a little bit. All these instructions that we have about the family in the

Scriptures are about long -term patterns of obedience. First of all, we are to gospelize our family.

We know sisters in Christ whose husbands need to be saved. Don't we?

And 1 Peter 3, 1 -6 tells us how to win them to Christ. Not the exclusive passage, but there are many passages.

We know brothers whose wives need to be saved. And they're called to set

Christ before a saved husband is called to set Christ before his lost wife lovingly, patiently, and daily.

Parents were called to model faith and repentance for our children, teaching them how to pray, to love reading

Scripture. Thank you, Holly, for that. To confess the truths of the Bible, teaching them, teaching them.

Gospelizing the family. Husbands and wives, love and honor each other. Love and honor your spouse.

It matters for gospel celebration. It matters for gospel clarity.

It matters for gospel fruit. How often when we see the instructions about who gets appointed as elders and deacons, that one of the first things, one of the first qualifications for an elder or a deacon is what's their marriage like?

That is so important for the church. What if we don't have healthy marriages? Then we don't have a healthy church.

We need healthy leadership with good marriages if there's going to be a good church.

Deacons, same requirements for the children. Same requirements for their children, same requirements for their families.

Elders and deacons, their marriages and how they raise their kids, that matters. Because Christ wants those who are in the leadership of a church to have healthy families.

And that's not being idolatrous, that's Him being consistent. And we should raise our kids right.

1 Timothy 5, 14 -15 it says, raise your kids right so the gospel is not profaned. Children, honor your parents.

Children who do not honor their parents, leave the church. Give up.

And root the family in the church. You know there's a difference between Christian families and non -Christian families, right?

There is a real difference, right? And despite, and I think these are, and of course there are three kinds of lies and one of them are statistics.

But a lot of the statistics about, well there's no real difference in morality between Christian families and non -Christian families.

Hmm. That's false. It's patently demonstrably false.

When a husband and a wife love each other in Christ and raise their children in Christ, that family,

I'm speaking along the general lines of Proverbs, just light years better than the lost family just trying to serve self and trying to get through.

There are a thousand differences between a

Christian family and a non -Christian family. And I'm not saying one of those differences is perfection, I'm just saying that there are differences and those blessings are real and we can see them not only in scriptures but in real life.

We need to root the family in the church because the righteous patterns in the family reinforce the healthy patterns in the church.

And the healthy patterns in the church reinforce the righteous patterns in the family. We need both. Paul sometimes talks about himself as a compassionate and nursing mother.

Sometimes he talks about himself as a righteous and challenging father. When Jesus talked about his disciples, he said, behold my mother and my brothers and sisters.

When we use familial language about the church, we're being biblical, we talk about the church as a family and we use the language of brother and sister and Paul talks about him being a father in the faith to Timothy, his son in the faith, and all these different bits of familial language that we use in the church, that's good, that's proper, but it is not a replacement of the family.

We need good Christian, righteous families and good, healthy, righteous churches.

And these things complement one another and they go together. How do we know what a loving, compassionate mother looks like, as Paul uses that language of himself?

How do we know what a righteous, challenging, exhorting father looks like in the church unless we know what it looks like in the family?

And some families, well I don't know how to be a good mom, I don't know how to be a good husband, and so on and so forth.

Well you know what, that's what the church is there for, look at the scriptures, here's how we do this, here's what God calls us to. So we have to have the family and the church and we do worship in the family and we do family stuff as a church.

It blends together, but they are separate things, but they are both necessary things together.

Now I bring this up because families are important to the Great Commission.

Because families are important to the church. And the church is accomplishing and carrying out the

Great Commission. Think about some long -term ideas. For instance, Titus 2, reading about the older women and instructing the younger women how to raise their children and how to love their husbands and to be productive.

That's a long -term thing. It's not a 30 -minute course. Those are long -term relationships.

So it's commanded of the family and it's commanded of the church. Long -term obedience is commanded of the church.

We win by making long -term plans for obedience in the church. Some of you say, well

I don't know about long -term, I mean I only have a decade left or two. I'm ready to go home.

I'm ready to go to heaven. Some of you are thinking that way and I understand. I'm not envious of you about getting to heaven before me.

That's the Lord's plan. My goal as your elder, as your pastor, I want to make sure to shepherd you all the way through.

I want to be great heart on the banks of the river making sure you safely get across to the celestial city.

That's one of the things I'm here for. But even the old folks need to help the young folks make long -term plans for the church to be obedient to Christ.

We need your help. When we say this and we ought to mean it, should the

Lord tarry and then we make plans. I understand. When we make long -term plans we are honoring

Christ. We're not disbelieving the imminency of his return. If you hold to the imminency of his return you should honor him by making long -term plans.

That would be a good thing to do. I'll explain why in a moment. He called us to make disciples of all the nations teaching them all

Christ has commanded. We must proclaim Christ from all the scripture until his spirit renews all God's people into his image.

That's kind of the mission statement for our church. We must proclaim Christ from all the scripture until his spirit renews all

God's people into his image. When we do great commission things, when we're trying to do what

Christ has called us to do and win the long -term obedience we weren't told that we're going to be 70 plus years in exile and then

God will come visit us and take us back to Jerusalem. He said that to the exiles in Judah. But he did say, he did give us marching orders here and now, what we're supposed to be doing.

And it's a long -term investment. Listen to 2 Timothy 2, 1 through 2. This is what Paul said to Timothy.

Therefore, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me, the things which you have heard from me, and the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

That is long -term planning. Paul says,

Timothy, this is what you go do. And he equipped him to do it. So Paul taught

Timothy in such a way and equipped Timothy in such a way that he would be able to teach men who could teach other men who could teach other men.

That's how Paul instructed Timothy. For long -term obedience. For long -term obedience.

And look, we have a variety of views on eschatology here in this building. But, even the folks who are ready for Christ to come back at any second without any warning whatsoever, the men who built

Dallas Theological Seminary and built Liberty University under the heading of the imminent rapture of Christ at any second still built

Dallas Theological Seminary and Liberty University with endowments and long -term plans.

Okay? Even if we don't agree on the eschatology of just exactly how it's all going to come out, we're all supposed to be invested in long -term plans for the success of Christ's kingdom.

Okay? And that's where we need to find our agreement. And to hone our attention to that,

I want to go straight to Matthew 25. Matthew 25. And we'll begin in verse 14.

Verse 14. This is in a description of the kingdom of heaven.

Verse 25. Verse 1 of chapter 25. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like.

So this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Okay. Verse 14. Jesus says.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 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.

What kind of journey was it? Well, apparently some bit of a long journey.

Immediately, the one. But immediately, right? So there's a long journey. The master's going to be gone for a while.

Who knows how long? But immediately, look at the vigor with which the person acts.

The one who had received the five talents went and traded with him and gained five more talents. Now that doesn't happen overnight. The idea is that there's a long progression here.

And in fact, in verse 19, it says, now after a long time, the master came back.

So it was over a long period of time, the guy with the five talents, a lot of money, went out and made an equal amount.

Immediately, the one who had, in the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more, but he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

Now after a long time, and in the Greek, if you studied the Greek, it means a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with him.

The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I've gained five more.

His master said to him, 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.

Also, the one who had received the two talents came up and said, Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I've gained two more talents.

His master said to him, 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. So the first and the second slave had an unequal distribution of resources, which apparently is not evil.

And the one with the two was not bitter at the one that had five, but they both went out and they won. Master said,

I entrust this to you, go do well, and they went and did well, and they entered the joy of their master. Now let's look at the one who only had one.

And the one who had also 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, and I was afraid, and I went away and hid your talent in the ground.

See, you have what is yours. In other words, this guy said, what's the point? It's all gonna hash out the same way anyway, so who cares?

I didn't steal from you. I went and put it in the ground. I didn't steal. Here's what is yours.

His whole attitude was, it doesn't matter, it won't do any good. That was his point.

That was his whole point. The servant was talking back to his master, he said, it wouldn't do any good if I did anything anyway. It's all a wash.

But his master answered and said to him, you wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did scatter 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. Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.

Again, in the redistribution of the wealth, Christ gave it to the one who had the most.

And again, Christ did no evil. For everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw the worthless slave, throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The master went away on a long journey. He gave resources and instructions to the slaves.

He's gone a long time. Who knows when he's going to get back? Two of them worked diligently, immediately getting to work, being vibrant in what they were called to do, and one of them says, it won't matter.

And Christ says, the master looks at the last one as a worthless slave, and he says, this is like the kingdom of heaven.

Christ owns everything, he's king of everything. I don't want us to be like that unfaithful servant who was damned for having a won't -do -any -good attitude.

We need to make long -term plans for obedience. What does that mean?

What does that look like? How does it shake out? Well again, why are we still here in this location? Why do we gather from all corners of the

Oklahoma City metro area to this particular place, albeit important as it is for our history and the forging of CHA and so on, but why are we gathering here in this place?

Well, why are we investing in the property? Why do we keep doing this?

Why not do it someplace else? Because we're making long -term investments, long -term plans to be here, gathering here, doing ministry here with long -term objectives so that the gospel will go to those who have not heard it, and there are people who have not heard the gospel in this area, and they live in government housing, most of them.

So we want to get the gospel to the people who need to hear it, and that's why we're helping Gospel Project again this year.

They're using the missionary house that we invest money in and try to keep it going, they're using our fellowship hall, and we're trying to do what we can to help them.

Okay, so that's one thing. We're here, we're trying to invest in this area for long -term purposes.

Now, some of you are doing ministry and helping out in particular ways, and you're not going to be able to do that forever, so find someone and encourage them and disciple them how to help do what you're doing.

We need to think long -term. How is it that we stay faithful over the generations as a church?

And we need to think about that in terms of winning. The last thing we need to think about in terms of long -term obedience is that it glorifies

God through wisdom. When you think about what Jeremiah says, what

God says to the people, seek the welfare of the city, verse 7, where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on his behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare.

Duh. That's wisdom, though, that's common sense. Matthew Henry says, you know, every passenger is concerned for the safety of the ship.

That's wisdom, and if you fear the Lord, if you fear God, then you will be concerned about the good around you.

Use wisdom. Now, I want to say a word about this idea of long -term. Sometimes we are a bit suspicious of making long -term plans.

After all, did not James, James 4, 13 through 16, tell us that we ought not make long -term plans?

Isn't that what he said? Don't make any long -term plans that are bad? What did he say?

James 4, 13 through 16, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while then vanishes away.

Give up. No, he continues on. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.

But as it is, you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil, like Nebuchadnezzar. Instead, you ought to say, if the

Lord wills. That is not some sort of superstitious, magical phrase that we are required to tag on to everything that we say when we're planning.

That is literally saying, as I make my plans, I desire to make those plans in agreement with the will of God Almighty.

And if we don't, I don't know what God, yes you do. His plan is to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded them. That's his plan.

Perhaps you can hear his plan from Isaiah 45, 22 through 23.

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to me every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance.

So his plan is pretty clear. His plan is to win. And when we say, I'm gonna go do this and go do that, we're saying, if the

Lord wills, we're saying, I'm trying to bring my long -term planning in my life and in the life of the church into agreement with God's long -term plan because I want to be about his business in his way as a good servant.

The Lord of hosts has planned and who can frustrate it as for his stretched out hand who can turn it back, Isaiah asks.

So James is not saying don't make long -term plans, he's saying don't be arrogant. One more passage to clear it up because I know someone's going to be thinking about Matthew 6, right?

You're thinking about Matthew 6 and there's all this worrying about what we're going to wear, what we're going to eat, and there's this, you know, do not worry about tomorrow.

Verse 34, Matthew 6, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Isn't Jesus saying there, don't make long -term plans? No, he's saying don't worry.

Planning and worrying are not the same thing. He's saying don't be anxious, don't be afraid, and in verse 33 he clarifies it for us.

Verse 33 says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

In fact, so if you're looking for some kind of a long -term investment, if you're looking to be planning long -term according to some kind of agenda, you would do well to consider the kingdom.

Nothing more long -term than that. So to conclude, when

Jesus is giving us our marching orders, it's to win and he wants us to fear

God in making our long -term plans and prove his wisdom true.

Let's be savvy about how to promote the church and promote the gospel beyond tomorrow, beyond next month, beyond the next year.

Let's think about how we can project the success of the church and the success of the gospel for decades to come, for centuries to come.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? There's no longer good for anything but except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in your word. I pray that this extended application of the instructions that you gave to Israel in exile, that we would take this seriously, that we would think about what is the long -term agenda that you have for us to be about.

I pray that you would help us to be like those faithful servants who eagerly and immediately did what we could with what you have given us to your glory, to advance your will, to advance your agenda, your kingdom, and we pray these things for Christ's sake.